Holes, Snack time, and the opposite of enough sleep

So I apologize for the long wait. As I said in my last post, last week was another week away and I am just now getting around to writing about what happened. The week began at 4 on Sunday when I headed over to one of the local middle schools and began to meet people from our group there. That night I got the chance to meet the group of students that I would be leading for the week. Part of the goal of Chambersburg Project is to create relationships within the larger church community of the area. Students are mixed up and put into groups with students from other churches, not just their own. Lights out came at 11 and by 1 my air mattress was flat (not a great way to start the week.)

Morning came quick and at about 6 AM the lights came on and it was time to get moving. We ate breakfast, packed lunches, loaded up the cars and set off to our work sites. My team's first job of the week was to tear down an old deck and rebuild a new one in it's place. Tear down went much easier than we had anticipated, partly because the deck was sitting on the ground and not secured at all. After removing the old deck we began the construction process. We marked out where our holes needed to be dug (we were actually going to secure the posts on the deck we built.) After some issues with this part of the process (we dug one of the holes 6 times before finally getting it right) we finally got the posts in the right place and began building the frame. When the work day finally ended I was beat. Thankfully we had extended free time that night and I was able to relax with a few friends before wrapping up the night with, what would become a highlight of my day, snack time, and devotions with the guys.

The next morning started much like the first. Although this time I had a good mattress to sleep on. Two of our Jr. High guys volunteered to share one larger air mattress and let me use the other that they had. Good guys those two, haha. We headed off to the work site and after about half an hour of work were halted by more problems. The teeth on the saw blade were bent and creating massive problems for us. Despite several set backs we were able to get most of the deck finished. That night there was a concert with the week's band, SevenGlory. It was good, but I was so tired I had a hard time enjoying it completely.

Wednesday was our last day at this particular work site. We spent the beginning of the day finishing the deck. We built the railing and put the finishing touches on the deck. This was a half day and at about lunch time we headed back to the school. That afternoon we walked over to the Municipal park and spent the afternoon at the pool. It was a good day for it and after a few hours there we walked over to the pavilion at the park and ate dinner. After listening to one of the local church's youth bands lead us in worship and listening to our speaker, we headed back to the school for some "Capture the flag." I didn't play so I can't explain the rules, but I can say that it wasn't like any capture the flag I have ever seen. I was able to scavenge enough glow sticks (they were from part of the game) to create myself a pretty neat pair of glowing Wolverine claws.

Thursday we started a new job site. We spent most of the day working on building a new wheelchair ramp for an older lady. She was very friendly and spent much of the day talking to us either through the screen door or sitting outside with us. She even bought us pizza for lunch. The other task for the day was beginning to replace the shed doors. We weren't able to get it all finished but it was still a productive day. That night there was a movie during free time. It was called "Forever Strong." Imagine Remember the Titans meets rugby. It was pretty good. It made me want to play some rugby and feel more like a man, haha.

Friday began just like the rest, way too early. We got things ready and headed back out to our site. Since we had the time, we decided to replace a few panels on the back of the shed that were rotting, replace a few shingles on the roof of the shed that were missing, repaint the shed and tear out the carpet in her basement that was damaged when it flooded. While the other guys tore out the carpet I climbed up on the roof of the shed and replaced the shingles and then began to tear off the rotten paneling. We got what we needed and while the rest of our crew began to paint the shed, I replaced the panels. The wonderful lady whose house we were at bought us lunch a second time and as we finished lunch it began to rain. This obviously made painting hard, but we were able to finishing the doors and put them back on the shed before calling it a day early. That evening we had our final evening program before saying goodbye and heading home. It was a long, tiring week, but I am really glad that I had the opportunity to go. I had many opportunities to get to know students better and really grow in my own leadership.

Things to pray for:

-Continued growth and openness to grow on my part.

-PRIME students as we all continue this journey.

Thanks for reading. God Bless!

-John

An uphill climb, a day in the sun, and a military coup...

So it has been 2 weeks since I last updated this blog. I apologize for that. Last week got away from me and I never got around to writing something. So here I go, 2 weeks of updates for you (luckily there isn’t a lot to inform you about.)

The week after the Sneak appeared to be a nice relaxing week. Notice I said, “appeared.” Brian told me to go ahead and take that Monday off because of the previous week so I had a nice relaxing day. Tuesday began 3 days of busyness. That afternoon Brian and I took a small group of students on a prayer hike. We drove out to Caledonia State Park, which is about 20 minutes east of Chambersburg. It was here that our hike took place. Now, I have hiked back home, most of my experience being up in Wisconsin. Hiking here is a little bit different. The terrain is a little rougher than I am used to. There was more than one time that I found myself out of breath. When we reached a “waterfall” (I use that term very loosely, it was more of a 4 foot ledge which the stream we followed went over, but it helps to paint a visual picture so I will call it a “waterfall”) three of us who had never made this hike before were initiated, simply put, we stuck our heads in the “waterfall” for 10 seconds. Given my body temperature at that point this was a good way to cool off. But reaching the top of the trail was worthwhile. We were able to see for miles with mountains and valleys. Just another reminder of the beauty that God has created around us, something I seem to have forgotten living back in suburbia with the lack of beauty that man has created. The downside to this trek was that I didn’t move much that night. I basically confined myself to the couch and my body thanked me.

Wednesday, although spent in the office, was still a crazy day as Luke, the other youth ministry intern this summer, and I planned that night’s youth group meeting. Our topic for the night was prayer and we focused on why we should pray. It was a good night and thankfully we were able to get something together that day.

Thursday was another earlier day as we met at church around 7 for a day trip to Creation Fest Northeast. Creation is a Christian music festival that starts Wednesday night and goes till Saturday night. It is held about an hour from Chambersburg so we were able to drive up there and catch most of the day’s happenings. It was a warm, sunny day and I spent the entire thing outside, luckily everyone else did too so I don’t think anyone noticed if I smelled as bad as I think I must have. Despite the warmth and the sweat it was a good day filled with good music and challenging speakers. The speaker that night, Joyce Meyer, talked about everything we as Americans have and how little a large portion of the rest of the World doesn’t. One of her main points was “you can’t do everything, but you must do something.” I found myself experiencing an interesting mixture of agreement and annoyance at what I was hearing. I agreed with everything that Joyce was saying, we are an incredibly wealthy nation and a significant portion of our country does nothing to help the rest of the world. Our pastor at King Street, Dr. Beukema, preached on a similar subject this weekend. As middle class Americans we do not see ourselves as rich. Instead we see the things that we don’t have. But the reality is, there is a large number of people around the world who survive on less than $2 a day. But back to what Joyce was saying. We can’t do everything, but we have to do something. I agreed, and still do, with her wholeheartedly. But as I listened to her and I heard thousands of people who were also listening to her that where clapping and cheering in agreement. Which, don’t get me wrong, is great. I’m glad that people agree with her message and want to do something. But I couldn’t help but hear the hypocrisy. Why were we clapping for the message “you can’t do everything, but you MUST do something” when a majority of the people clapping would go home and act the exact same and do nothing. I’m sure that there were people there who were already doing something or who were challenged to a point that they are now doing something. It was something that made me think, and continues to make me think, about how I can become less of a spoiled, selfish American and help those around the world. Despite my cynical rant, it really was great and was ended with Chris Tomlin sharing with us how people all around the world are worshiping the same God that we were. God is good.

Unlike the previous two weeks, last week was very mellow. Luke and I had plenty of time to plan for Wednesday. Our topic last week was… (drum roll please)… Greed and materialism. God’s been hitting that topic a lot lately. First Joyce, then us last week, and Dr. Beukema this weekend. That occupied our time for a few days, but the big focus for our youth ministry here was a change in mission trip plans. We had three teams going to three different locations. Mark and I are leading a team next week to join with other area churches working with the Chambersburg Project. Its basically a week long work camp helping people in C-burg and the surrounding communities. Brian and Luke are leading a similar team to Boston to work with the Boston Project. They will be doing similar things as we will here in C-burg. Our third team was going to be going to Honduras to do work down there. Notice I said was. If you have been watching your international news you will probably know that last Sunday the government of Honduras sent in the military to oust the President (who was trying to become a democratically elected dictator like our other Latin friend, Hugo Chavez). This does not make for a good environment to be sending a missions team to. So unfortunately we had to pull the plug on that trip. We were able to plug a majority of that team into the two other group so they will still be able to serve somewhere.

This weekend I had the pleasure of playing acoustic guitar as part of the worship team at our 9:45 service. It was a great time with some great musicians. Which basically catches you up on the last two weeks. I kept busy in case you hadn’t noticed. Thanks for making it this far. It will probably be another two weeks till I update again due to next week being Chambersburg project. No time for blogging while chase down junior high boys!

So, things to pray for:

-Energy. Next week is going to combine outdoor physical labor and a large number of junior high students. I am going to need lots of energy.

-That I would continue to be challenged and grow here.

-The people of Honduras as they deal with the chaos down there right now. Things got worse in the last 24 hours and I read that a protestor died.

-And last (but certainly not least) for our students. Pray that they continue to be open and seek a relationship with Jesus Christ.