Rookie Camp 2007

This past weekend I had the opportunity to serve at Rookie Camp, which is another camp put on by the Chicago Central District Church of the Nazarene (of which EC Camp is a part). Sara gave me a call earlier last week and asked if I would be willing to volunteer since they didn’t have enough counselors. I quickly verified I could get a half day on Friday and agreed to do it.

Rookie Camp is a 24 hour camp. It started on Friday at 2 and was done at 2 on Saturday. It’s for 1st and 2nd graders and allows them to experience what Church camp is all about with a limited time commitment. Once they get to Kids Camp (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade) they get a whole week. They get to do fun things, like water games, night games, crafts, chapel, snack shack, and an obstacle course. It’s pretty cool.

Anyways, I was given 4 boys from Kankakee First Church, since that’s where they were from. I was supposed to have 5, but one of the boys was sick, so he didn’t come. It was a blast. I had a really great time. Six and seven year olds are just plain fun. Sometimes they have problems listening to you, but other than that they’re great. At first it was a little weird because I didn’t know anyone, but the kids quickly grew accustomed to me and I to them. By the end of camp I really didn’t want to leave. I almost wish it had been a week long camp so I could hang out with those kids some more.

Chapel was pretty amazing as well. The had two chapel services, one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning. Pastor Jill (who taught) did an amazing job of preaching the gospel to these kids and teaching them to respect themselves and each other. I really liked the songs too. The had motions and everything.

Probably the coolest part of rookie camp was right before camp ended, when we played counselor hide and seek. The counselors were told to hide and that the kids would get points when they found us. I went and hid behind the chapel for about 15 minutes, when Tatum (one of the kids in my cabin) found me and to my surprise had a water balloon ready to throw at me! :) I let him throw it at me, but it bounced off and popped on the ground. He almost cried. I tried to let him hit me, I really did. After that I made my way back to the middle of the campground (since it would be more fun to let people find me). Pretty soon I had 10 or 15 kids chasing me with water balloons. A few got me, but most missed. They then proceeded to grab a 5 gallon water cooler that was half filled with water and ice and tried to get me wet with that. I don’t think they would have gotten that idea if they hadn’t seen one of the other counselors grab one of the two water coolers. Anyways, they got me wet with that and then proceeded to put the ice down my shirt and shorts. It was hard to fend off when there were 10 or more of them. I got some revenge on some of the kids as I put ice down their shirts and doused them with the hose. They got me way better than I got them. I got really wet, but it was a blast.

As I usually do I took some pictures, a few of which are below. You can see my entire rookie camp 2007 gallery here.

Caleb (one of my kids) and I.

Six and seven year olds praising Jesus. It doesn’t get any better that that. :)

New Bibles

I bought a new Bible earlier tonight. Actually I bought two. I purchased a new NIV (the translation I grew up with) and a copy of The Message. I had been meaning to do this for awhile, but just hadn’t gotten around to it. I have several Bible in my room, and even more strewn around my house. My dad had serveral back in the day so I’m sure there are several in boxes I don’t know about. But I just wanted a new one, something that was mine and that I could really use as my Bible.

I’ve been using my dad’s old Bible since he passed away. It was one of those ways to remember him. He made some notes and highlighted pieces of scripture, and it was cool to see what he felt was important. However, it’s beginning to fall apart and I can’t really write in it because I don’t want to add to what my dad already put in there, so I opted to get a new Bible. Now I can highlight and write to my heart’s content, and actually come back to stuff I’ve learned in previous study. It’s gonna be awesome.

I also purchased a copy of The Message because I’ve heard lots of good things about it. Several of my friends use it in supplemental Bible Study, and I really like how it phrases a lot of things. It makes stuff really easy to understand sometimes, putting it in such plain English that I can’t ignore it. I won’t use it as a primary Bible, but I will use it as another source to look at. I’m pondering getting an NASB translation and maybe an ESV too. It’s always good to have different perspectives, and recently I’ve found myself really getting into God’s word, getting a lot out of it, and really enjoying it. God can do some amazing things if you just pick up His Word. So we’ll see where this takes me. :)

Fearing God

In my last post I briefly mentioned that we talked about fearing God during our Journey meeting last Friday. It was a rather lively discussion, with the occasional “God can snuff you out on a whim” comment. I learned a lot, but something struck me during our meeting that I felt I wanted to share. I just haven’t gotten around to it, and Joshua has threatened to “Put the fear of God in me” if I don’t post something soon, so here it is.

I can’t remember who said it or why, or in what context, but someone brought up that we should feel bad when we sin against God. God hates sin and really desires for us not to do it. He wants us to be holy people who are constantly seeking righteousness in our lives. I thought about my reaction when I hurt someone. I can’t think of a good example right now, but as many of you know when I wrong someone or hurt someone or just do something that offends someone I’m just heartbroken. I can’t eat because my stomach is in knots. I get very detached. I want to do anything to make it better. I will go to great lengths to fix a broken relationship because it pains me so greatly.

Not so with God. I sin against God all the time, and I don’t feel bad. I’m a rebel. I say no to God and what he wants for me on a daily basis. Why doesn’t that make me feel bad? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because I’m not as close to Him as I should be. Maybe it’s because I don’t respect or love Him enough. Maybe it’s because I want to do what I want to do, and nothing is going to stop me. Whatever the reason, it’s wrong. I sin against God and I should feel terrible. Yes, I’m covered by grace and Jesus’ blood, but that doesn’t give me the right to do whatever I want. Sin is a very serious thing, something that we don’t take seriously enough.

So what do we do about this? I’m not sure, but I do know that I need to radically change how I think about Jesus as my PERSONAL Savior. If I was worried about how he’d PERSONALLY take it I probably wouldn’t do it anymore.

Why Danny Believes in God

I received this in an email forward from my mom today. I thought it was too cute not to share, and since I don’t like proliferating email forwards, I opted to just post it here. It was supposedly written by an 8 year old from California named Danny. Whether that’s true or not is besides the point as I thought it was great.

EXPLANATION OF GOD:
“One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn’t have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.”

“God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.”

“God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have.”

“Atheists are people who don’t believe in God. I don’t think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren’t any who come to our church.”

“Jesus is God’s Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn’t want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn’t know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.”

“His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn’t have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.”

“You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.”

“You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it’s God!

Don’t skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway.”

“If you don’t believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can’t go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He’s around you when you’re scared, in the dark or when you can’t swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.”

“But…you shouldn’t just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.

And…that’s why I believe in God.”

This totally reminds me of Matthew 18:3…

“And he said: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Productofun Weekend

Yes, I realize that isn’t a real word. But I needed to come up with something to express that my weekend was both productive and fun. It was a long weekend, since it started on thursday night when I flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina. I was heading out there for my cousin Jay’s wedding.

So here’s the recap of my weekend. Thursday afternoon I arrived at the airport at roughly 4:15 PM. My flight wasn’t until 5:40, so that gave me plenty of time to check in and get through security. I arrived at my gate by 5:00, so I was there in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the plane we were going to fly on didn’t arrive at our gate until 7:00 PM. Such is life I guess. So I ended up working on the quizzing website, which allowed me to finish up some more stuff in regards to the registration of teams for district quizzes. The plane finally arrived, and after a short delay on the runway we ended up taking off around 7:40, a full 2 hours after we were supposed to.

It was about 10:15 PM (eastern time) when we arrived, and because my mom ended up getting lost on the way from the airport to the hotel, I ended up hanging out on a bench outside the airport for almost an hour. It was cool though, because I did some more thinking about the quizzing website, and I was able to finish memorizing a few more verses of Romans Chapter 1. My mom arrived at about 11:15 PM, and by 11:30 PM we were back at the hotel. After some putzing around with installing some packages in linux I gave up and went to bed.

Friday started off with us having breakfast. I would have preferred to sleep in, but my mom had other plans. She got us up at 9:00 AM so we could make it to breakfast before 10:00 AM. We made it with 25 minutes to spare, and then ended up meeting up with one of my cousins when she came in for breakfast half way through. We had a nice chat and were able to catch up a little bit. MOstly it was her and I catching up since my mom and sister had hung out with her the night before at dinner.

We didn’t do a whole lot until lunch, when we went and ate with Jay, the rest of the family, and everyone in his wedding party at the rehearsal luncheon. We didn’t goto the rehearsal, but we were invited to the luncheon, which was really nice. The food was really good, and I got to catch up with some family. The person I talked to the most was John (Jay’s wife’s dad). He was a doctor from the Charlotte area. He was super smart and the chat we had was quite fun.

The good doctor and I…

There was a cocktail party planned for Friday night, but we hadn’t planned on going. Cocktail party just seemed too high class for us, so we had made that decision a few weeks ago. Everyone at lunch had differing ideas. They finally convinced us to come, so we went back to the hotel, relaxed for a little bit (by which I mean I took a nap), and then headed to the cocktail party. The cocktail party was a little crazy. It was at this warehouse type place on the 4th floor. It had a really good view of the city, which would have been awesome if it hadn’t been raining so bad. There was an open bar and probably 250 people. It was quite the showing. Jay and his new wife Paige are both in film in some way or the other (se’s an editor and she owns a casting company), so most of the people that were there were related to that biz in some way. The only way I can describe it is that everyone seemed very high class, whether they were or not. Regardless I felt a little out of place, partly because of age (everyone was older), but also because I don’t think I fit into that crowd at all. Anyways, the party was fun, but I mostly hung out with my cousins and my mom and sister.

It’s a party!

Saturday we went shopping for a little bit at a mall in a suburb of Charlotte, and then we headed to the wedding. They had actually hired a limo for the various people being picked up, which included us, so we got to ride in a stretch limo to the event. That was pretty cool. The wedding itself had the same feel as the cocktail party, but it was very beautiful. They actually had an open bar all night (including before the wedding :0), so I can’t even imagine how much the entire wedding cost, especially since they invited 200-300 people. It was crazy. Anyways, the night was filled with toasting, dancing, hanging out, alcohol, food, etc. God wasn’t mentioned much, even in the ceremony (the only mention was “Lord, keep the one who wears this ring in thy peace.” when the priest/pastor prayed for each wedding ring.), so that was kind of depressing. I was also berated several times that I was going to be the next wedding (wait? did I get a girl when I wasn’t looking?), so that was a little awkward/funny. We left just a little bit before the party ended (since we had to take the limo back), and then we just hung out with the extended family for awhile longer at the hotel.

The newlyweds Paige and Jay…

Sunday we just got up and came home, though our flight was delayed for several hours on the runway, so the trip felt like it took forever. Plus the fact that I couldn’t watch the Bears game since it started at noon and I was stuck in an airport. Oh the horror… :)

All in all, the weekend was great. I had a lot of fun and I was able to accomplish a lot of things. I finished the registration stuff for the quizzing website, finished memorizing Romans Chapter 1 (only 13 more chapters to go!), upgraded lots of packages on my computer, and got some work done. The wedding was a ton of fun, though awkward at times, and seeing family I hadn’t seen in 15 years was a definite plus. I’m hoping to keep in touch with some of them more in the future, so I’m glad the weekend allowed us to reconnect.

The full gallery of the weekend can be found here.

ATM for Jesus?

So how wrong is the statement “ATM for Jesus?” I came across an article in the Chicago Tribune at lunch the other day and I’ve been meaning to post about it here. The article talks about a Pastor in Georgia who has created an ATM for giving tithes at Churches. I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong I think this is and for so many reasons.

First of all, tithing is supposed to be about worship. It should not be something that should be entered into lightly. I’m not a big fan of putting your donation on a credit card and just having it auto deduct. It is still a donation and you are still supporting the Kingdom of God, but you forget that you even did it after awhile. It gets sucked into the same realm as a bill you have to pay every month. I just don’t think God meant for tithing to be such a throw away concept. It’s supposed to be meaningful. To me using an ATM to tithe just cheapens the entire concept. If you’re going to tithe make it an act of worship because thats what it is.

Secondly, if you read the whole article it talks about the pastor starting a company which is actually making money off of support of these ATMs as well as the fact that the company doing the electronic transfer of funds is getting a percentage of what you tithe. This seems to remind me a of a piece of scripture…

>Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’ ”

>Matthew 21:12,13

I guess I just have a hard time with the whole concept. It doesn’t seem to fit with what Scripture says, and in my mind it cheapens the act of tithing. It may give the Church more income, because it makes it easy for people, but I don’t remember anywhere in the Bible where it says tithing should be easy.

Here’s the link to the same article in the LA Times.