Sneaking through the Summer

What a crazy week. This past week was Summer Sneak 2009 and what a crazy week it was. The week started Monday morning at 7:00 when we met at church and loaded up the caravan of vehicles. Shortly after 8:00 we were finally ready to go and we loaded up and began the 4 1/2 hour drive to Cape Henelopen, Deleware. Roughly halfway there I realized the first mistake, the books that Brian had spent many hours putting together and I had bound for the week were sitting at the church in my office. Oops. Thankfully we were able to work it all out and two of our leaders for the week met Mark halfway between where we were and Chambersburg. We finally made it to Cape Henelopen in the early afternoon. The weather was great and while the rest of the group took a walk to the beach I went to the grocery store to buy food for the week. For those keeping score at home I have only been living on my own for just over 2 weeks at this point. This fact translates into me only have 2 weeks of experience grocery shopping for 1 person. And here I am shopping for a weeks with of food for 40 people! I hope you are finding the humor in this situation, because there is no way that this is going to turn out well. Long story short I became very familiar with how to get to and from the grocery store last week.

And with that the week began. We got to meet our speaker, Phil, as well as playing some games to get to know everyone on the trip. Tuesday morning started with our first Holy Ground time. This was a time where we went somewhere around our campground area and created our only place to meet God. Just like moses we had to remove our shoes. It was a really cool experience to be able to sit and just look at the creation around me. We spent the rest of the day at the beach (oh darn) and despite the wind that made it a little cold, it was still a great day. I got some sun so I am not quite as pasty as I was before. haha. We ended the day with a campfire, worship, and a talk from Phil.

Wednesday started early, at 5:00 AM to be exact. We made the walk out to the beach and sat and watched the sun come up. Despite the wind and the cold, it was a beautiful thing to see. I got some awesome pictures and will try to find a way to share some of them with you all. Around 9 we loaded up and drove to Ocean City, Maryland. I must have been tired because I found time to fall asleep twice in the few hours that we had that morning. We spend the majority of the day in Ocean City. Unfortunately it was cloudy, windy, cold, and for the last part, drizzly. While it wasn't a great day in terms of the weather, we still managed to have a good time. We left at about 6:30 and once again a fell asleep (that made for three naps in one day, go me!) When we got back we spent some time worshiping together followed by more words from Phil (who by the way was a GREAT guy. He had a huge heart and really loves to get to know people and have conversations with them.) After that Luke, the other intern for the summer, and I got ready to make yet another grocery store run. After some discussion over what the next few meal groups needed to make food for us Luke and I finally left for the store a little after 11. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones in that store other than the lady at the register, the two guys stocking shelves, and the guys cleaning the floors. After shopping, driving home, and unloading my car we finally got to bed at about 1. It was a long day.

Thursday was another day at the beach... or at least it was supposed to be. We woke up to a friendly reminder that sometimes God has other things planned for us. In other words, it was pouring. After a morning of devotion time we loaded up and drove into town. After taking some time to eat lunch, we all went to the movies. The choices were Night at the Museum 2 or Up. I had seen Night at the Museum the week before so I chose to go see Up in 3D, which while I didn't think it was the best Pixar movie, was still a good, enjoyable movie. Sadly, when we came out of the theater the weather was beautiful, perfect beach weather. But because it had been crummy earlier there was no time for the beach. Some of us took a walk to the beach that night and it was a beautiful thing to see. That night Phil gave the students a chance to talk about how they had seen God during the week. It was awesome to hear how God was working in the lives of our students. Many of them have been dealing with a lot and it was awesome to see how God has been helping them through that. As I sat and listened I couldn't help but think that this is why I want to do youth ministry. To be used by God to help students who are hurting, it was a cool thing to see.

Friday came and it was time to leave. It was a long drive home after a long week, but we made it and it felt good to be home. I spent most of the weekend laying on the couch relaxing. That is what I have been up to. Busy weeks lead to long posts. If you made it this far thanks for reading. I'll make sure to keep you all posted on what's going on here.

Things to pray for:

-The ministry at King Street. This week has given me the opportunity to build friendships with our students which is opening doors for me to invest in students here. Pray for opportunities and that I will have the wisdom and the foresight to do so.

-The students. Too often we all fall into the trap of thinking that High Schoolers have it easy and little responsibilities. The truth is, our fallen world is constantly dumping on them and they deal with more crap than we could even begin to imagine. Pray for students not just here, but everywhere. They can do great things.

Thanks for reading! God Bless!