Because the next couple of weeks are super crazy and won’t allow me any down time, I decided to make yesterday, my day off, a TRUE day off. My idea of a true day off doesn’t include crazy family plans like packing the car up for a two hour drive to the mountains for a picnic and then a hike followed by trying to feed live bears. Those types of outings only serve to leave me more tired than when we began. My idea of a true day off consists of doing a bunch of random, primarily lazy things. Thus, yesterday was a really good day off! My day:

- Slept in until about 9:00 and then laid in bed until about 10:30 watching television.

- Volunteered to drive my daughter to her friends house.

- Came home and laid in bed with Rachel and Cole until about noon.

- Drove Through McDonald’s to get something for Cole and then took that to Charro Chicken.

- Walked around a used furniture consignement store.

- Went home and spent two hours cleaning nasty dog hair out of the used car we just bought.

- Hung out with the family until about 7:00.

- Went to see Miami Vice with some friends (I liked it….for what it was).

- Came home and spent some alone time with God.

- Fell asleep.

- Had a dream in which I had ‘Taylor Hicks’ hair.

Attendance: Above Average
Lesson Topic: Week Five of ‘In Motion’ (KINDNESS)
‘Fun Factor’: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Above Average
Music: Average
Lesson Quality: Above Average
Length of Lesson: 18 minutes
Student Response: Above Average

A really fun summer weekend! We thinned the program down to music, a couple games and a lesson. No video, no high tech stuff…just old fashioned JH ministry and it was great. The lesson topic of kindness is a very junior high friendly topic. So much of the ‘fruit of the spirit’ is hard for students to really get their hands around, but kindness is a topic they deal with every day. We had a few of our regular volunteers who have been out much of the Summer make a return which added to the quality of the weekend. One, in particular, is the king of relational ministry and we have felt his abscence this summer so it was great to have him back around.

The following is probably more therapeutic for me than it is of interest to you.

- I’ve got a project due for grad school by August 1st. Failure to turn it in will result in failing the class. Yes, I’ve procrastinated. Yes, I brought this on myself.

- I worked late last night frantically trying to finish two junior high lessons that won’t be taught for a few weeks but since I’m speaking in adult services next weekend and then going to camp, I had to try to work ahead (a strategy I should have employed with school project!).

- Speaking in the adult services is a week away, but I’m already feeling the pressure. Pressure that I put on myself much more than others put on me.

- Camp is coming! I don’t do a whole lot for it, but taking a bunch of kids to camp always carries a few surprises.

- I bought my wife a car today. She’s always wanted a Toyota Sequoia, but there’s no way we can afford a vehicle like that. That is until a friend gave us the deal of a lifetime on his 2001 that is totally loaded. My wife has her dream car and I managed to stay out of debt.

- It’s my mother-in-laws birthday. We’re having dinner with them tonight. She’s an incredible lady and I feel blessed that in my seasons of stress, a night with my in-laws is actually something I look forward to.

This book was mailed to me a couple of days ago and I was drawn to it instantly. I picked it up and couldn’t put it down until I was finished with it. I found the exchange between the author (a Christian professor) and the musician (front man for the punk group Bad Religion) to be fascinating. Read it quickly the first time and then dive into it later to unwrap and digest the content.

I don’t know much about the Church of God denomination. I don’t have friends in it, have never been to a Church of God church and couldn’t tell you the location of the nearest one. However, this morning I spoke at the Anaheim Convention Center to over 1,200 Church of God youth workers at a massive Church of God youth convention. Every-other year, they host the ‘International Youth Convention’ that attracts about 6,000 Church of God students. To encourage youth workers, they run a small convention within a convention geared just for the adults. I was asked to speak in the general session this morning. Let me tell you…God is alive and well within the Church of God (good thing since it bears his name!). The room was packed with adults, some paid but most volunteer, who are making a huge impact in their ministries.

I love the fact that the body of Christ is a big, diverse, unique and complex entity. God’s spirit is at work in places and through people all over the globe. It’s so easy to get caught up in our ‘little bubble’ of ministry and 1) assume that not much is happening that we don’t know about or 2) assume that everybody views their faith through lenses similar to our own.

Today I was reminded that both are poor assumptions.

I just ordered this book. I’ve been told it’s a ‘must read’. For some reason I tend to question the legitimacy of books like this, so I hope the letters are the real deal.

While surfing the net, I stumbled across this short list of fictional books written for the junior high audience. I haven’t read them and I’m not endorsing them…just passing them along.

Attendance: Above Average
Lesson Topic: Week Five of ‘In Motion’ (PATIENCE)
‘Fun Factor’: Average
Volunteer Involvement: Below Average
Music: Above Average
Lesson Quality: Above Average
Length of Lesson: 19 minutes
Student Response: Average

Overall, a pretty good weekend. One of our interns, Stephen, spoke and did a fantastic job. He has built such good relationships with the kids that when he gets a chance to speak, students automatically respond. The big problem this weekend was a horrid stench at the entrance to our tent caused by three gallons of rotten milk. We have a beach-like sand area just outside our tent and somebody decided to dispose of milk left over from our beach camp by dumping it into the sand. Old milk mixed with 105 degree temperatures didn’t mix. We spent about 20 minutes spreading out the sand, dousing it with disinfectant and hosing it down…none of which helped much.

I’m speaking tonight at a big Brethren youth convention at Biola University just up the freeway. I was asked to speak to the youth pastors, parents, and youth workers about youth culture. Since I recently referred to Myspace as ‘Myplace’ in front of a bunch of students, I’m feeling a little inadequate in my ability to help others navigate youth culture. I’m going to throw them a little bit of a curve ball by speaking on grace instead. The truth is that youth culture moves so quickly it’s easy to get left behind in our efforts to keep up with it all (Ie: Myplace)! But what never changes is the fact that teenagers are hurting and need an atmosphere of grace in order to best experience the grace of the Father. Plus, when you’re speaking on grace it makes it pretty tough for the organizers of the event to get too ticked off if you miss the mark!

In the hurry to get packed for camp (not sure why there was so much hurry because I only took a backpack with a pair of board shorts and three t-shirts) I forgot to grab my laptop and thus, had no ability to connect and post while away. Our first ever ‘Beach Camp’ was really fun. Here are a few things that stuck out.

- Every student we took was TOTALLY into it. Nobody gave us grief, complained about stuff or otherwise made the trip miserable. We drove here and there for meals, loaded and unloaded tons of beach gear every day and had a super flexible schedule. Every single student had an amazing attitude. It was actually kinda weird!

- Warm water. The water was about 72-73 degrees which is probably the warmest So. Cal water I’ve ever felt.

- Lots and lots of surfing by everybody. I think every kid at camp stood up on a surf board. We had several adult leaders who spent the vast majority of their time pushing kids into waves, helping them paddle back out, and then pushing them into another wave. Very fun.

- Our guest speaker. We asked Josh Treece, a former intern and current middle school pastor in San Diego, to speak two times. He was really, really good. He walked our students through the first half of Genesis and managed to hold their attention and give them really good insight into God’s original plan, the fall etc. We couldn’t have asked for a better speaker for our chapel times.

- A really nasty rash. Probably because I only packed board shorts. No need to elaborate.

- Generosity. We had a raffle at the end of the week at which time we gave away a $50 gift certificate to a surf shop and a new soft-top surf board worth about $200 from the same shop. Grace, an 8th grade girl, won the surfboard while an 8th grade boy won the gift certificate. Ahsley comes from a surfer family and has a garage full of boards and fully understands the value of the surfboard she won. However, she decided to see if the boy would want to trade her new board for the gift certificate. It was awesome. She could have returned the board to the shop and received $200 bucks in store credit, but she wanted to give the board away in return for the $50 certificate. Not often do you see a junior high student trade $200 for $50 just so somebody else can benefit. Pretty fun to watch…No wonder her name is Grace.

- The Junior High RV. That’s right, somebody donated a 1988 RV to our ministry about a day before the trip so we took it along with us. It made staying in a caravan super easy. “Just stay behind the slow moving, tan and beige RV and you won’t get lost…..”