Two Weeks: VIII

Tuesday, May 5

Work again, gave Magan some okra, which seemingly brightened her day. :)

Wednesday, May 6

Grabbed a sushi lunch with Robin & Abby, debriefed the week at Princeton and the three of us got really pumped about making our youth ministry more relational. Work again, then had dinner at ABC with Meg and Dan.

Thursday, May 7

Ill in the morning (I hope not because of the fish & chips?) It may be "swine flu", which apparently began its existence while I was out of town. Strange! So I just napped all day, ate crackers & broth, etc. Also watched Grey's Anatomy - oh my!!

Friday, May 8

House cleaning to prepare for Bridget hosting prom dinner. Stopped by work to bid Meg farewell, with a six-pack of glass-bottled Cokes. Weather improving - hopefully Central PA air quality will improve as well!

Two Weeks: VI

Friday, May 1

Helped Greg clean up & move out of his apartment, killed a bird with my car, drove to Abington to hang out with grandma for her 82nd birthday. Got home to Greg's parents' house, ate, hung out, relaxed, unloaded the truck & such.

Saturday, May 2

Greg & I went to the Fine Furnishings show in Baltimore. I am so good at reading maps, but apparently my PA map cuts off at a certain point on Route 1 South. Well, we got there, saw some sweet woodworking. Greg especially liked one guy Dave's work - lots of slabs, totally natural look & process. He doesn't do too much to the wood - and finishes it with linseed oil, rather than synthetic toxic crap. If we're ever in southern Illinois, I'm sure we'll visit Dave's shop.

Next, we drove up to York County (the "heart" of PA wine country, apparently) & tried to find Sarah's aunt&uncle's place: Moon Dancer Winery. There are more than 2 yards on that road with grapes growing in them. Found the party, hung out with KU people; Greg & I agreed that we aren't "winos" at all... drove back to Harrisburg & relaxed the rest of the evening while planning Sunday school stuff.

Two Weeks: V

Thursday, April 30th

Final day of great lectures & fellowship with everyone. Went to a great session, "Lifecasting: Teens Fishing for Intimacy in a Sea of Technology" about how adolescents grew up completely with technology, how they use it, how they change it, and how we can deepen relationships face-to-face, which is what they're really searching for. Great stuff! Picnic lunch with Donna, Jorge, and Susan from Wisconsin, followed by session 2 with Tom Stephen. Adrienne came this time too. :-)

Final small group meeting was a fun trip together to the Bent Spoon (I ate chocolate habanero ice cream - yowza!) filled with laughter, stories, and sharing contact information (just like the last day at camp). Another great lecture from Andy Root - great content, although his rhetoric is a little scripted. The Banquet that night was great - met Will from Clark's Summit, and enjoyed more good food served on actual dinnerware this time - coffee in fancy teacups, too! They gave out awards & certificates to folks and then we gathered for powerful final worship to send us out back into the world.

Sad goodbyes preceded my drive back to Kutztown, although Wallace called me and filled me in about how the invisible children rescue was still going on and they were petitioning Oprah in Chicago to help them end the civil war in Uganda & save the kids there. Arrived in Kutztown for a relaxing evening with Greg.

Summary: if you're a successful pastor/theologian, write a book!!

Two Weeks: IV

Wednesday, April 29th

Day started with a long lecture, Southern-Baptist style. Rainy & cooler today. Grabbed some coffee at Small World (recommended by Robin) - lovely! Afternoon was free time, so grabbed a cheesesteak downtown with Dan, Jim & Amanda, followed by Canada v. US floor hockey!! Flippin' awesome! Canadians are so hardcore - pastor Blair was wicked fast; saw some seriously intense moves from all of them. Andy Root definitely the most solid U.S. player - saw some quick moves of the stick from him!!

Afterwards, Amanda & I wandered Princeton U. campus until we found the art museum, spent 20 minutes there 'til closing time. I looked at some Renaissance & medieval paintings (Albrecht Durer, yea!) as well as a few quick peeks at some Impressionists/Modernists (Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cezanne - all the good guys). Amanda had been exploring far more ancient Chinese art downstairs.

Then we wandered around town, Palmer Square esp. - checked out a ceramic/glass shop, popped into the Bent Spoon for a few tastes, visited Jake's on Nassau (I usually like a lot of the Life is Good stuff, but theirs was clearly meant for the affluent population of Princeton - "Life is Good... when I'm golfing"). Later we met up with Jim & Jorge at Triumph for dinner - and saw a great big crowd of Forum on Youth Ministry leadership (administrative folks, lecturers, pastors) come into their reserved party room right behind us. Jorge said, "Well, it's good for the leadership folks to get away from us and hang out for a bit." I replied, "Yea, it's grown-ups only night out!" It felt great to bond with folks 30-40 years old and not feel like a "kid" amongst them. :-) Well, this was the day Amanda & I had gotten a ride to campus with Donna, so we were waiting in the cold for the hotel shuttle to get us. Oh man. Did a midnight swim before bedtime - very refreshing!

Two Weeks: III

Tuesday, April 28th

Opening worship starts the day, then went to a different Extended Seminar with Amanda (all about conflict resolution - good stuff), went to a lecture on missional hermeneutics (very bookish - made it seem like going to seminary is a bit boring) but has some good small group discussion.

Picnic lunch with Adrienne, Gerald, Amanda & Martin followed by small group & more lectures. Went to the "soul-tending" session with Tom Stephen, who reckoned one's spiritual life to the 12-bar blues.

Later, Keynote speaker: Andy Root - said some great stuff about being real with the youth in your group, not elevating yourself to "youth leader" status, but just fostering person-to-person ministry. Another delicious meal to end the day (I'm thinking on-campus catering gets way improved for guests, haha) followed by good conversation at the Yankee Doodle (old-skool Princeton U. watering hole). I really enjoyed the wall of portraits of Princeton U. graduates - all a bunch of rich, white dudes until the most recent portrait: Michelle Obama. Oh, patriarchal society... Anyway, hung with Becky, Karen, Amanda, Jim, Martin, and met Donna from Long Island and Jorge from Michigan. Great folks!

Two Weeks: II

Monday, April 27th

Said goodbye to Julie, met up with Greg who took me to Uptown Cafe for breakfast. Um, so chocolate pecan pie is flippin' amaaazing! Fueled up with good coffee for the road. Hadn't previously realized I-78 had such deeply rolling hills past Allentown/Bethlehem.

Made it into Jersey, almost broke down when I got stuck going 'round & 'round in a traffic circle. Saw Trenton & some Jersey countryside before I made it back to Princeton (yay detour). Figured out that PTS has some pretty horrible parking on the east side of campus; eventually found the lot behind the library. Wandered around a bit, met up with Amanda, tried to park on east campus but some administrative lady threatened us with a tire boot, found a spot (geez, this shouldn't be so hard...)

Then we went in for registration & opening worship, where I met pastors Mark D. & Tom S. after a sweet pro-real-community sermon. Small group time was refreshing in the shade on the grass. Jason Santos is a fun guy, chill, glad he was our "facilitator" (although we pretty much talked without him having to ask a lot of questions). Bonded with Karen from Eastern Shore Virginia, Dan from Alberta (yes, Canada!), Kareem from Newark, & Jim from the D.C. area. Great group!

Had our first Extended Seminar (mine was just ok), then another lecture (Mark DeVries on student leadership - solid stuff!) then sat down to dinner with Amanda, Adrienne & Martin. After dinner, Amanda and I each drove all over Route 1, being misled by those nasty jughandles until finally we made it to the hotel. Checked in, then met up with some Forum folks at Triumph on Nassau street. Met Becky from Wisconsin & Karen & Jim were there too for some great conversation.

Two Weeks: I

The past short chunk of time has been pretty crazy for me - thus, a de-brief blog will help me to collect my thoughts & decompress...

Saturday, April 25th

A full day at work, 10:00 am to 6:30 pm (as a part-timer, the first looong day for me). A hot day: ate lunch outside, which overheated me slightly until the end of the day. Felt good taking off my shoes after work. Drove to Kutztown, hung out with Julie, Greg, Josh, Jake, & Abrams at Basin Street, then stayed at Julie's apartment, talking until 3:00 am.

Sunday, April 26th

An early rise to walk across town to meet at the middle school for Cornerstone Church. A quick service - senior recognition, baby dedication, quick explanation of baptism, followed by baptism of my "freshman" friends (those who arrived at my senior year) Ben, Britt, and Adam, as well as Alex "SP" Smith. Gotta love watching the dunkings. Church picnic location change from Kutztown Park to Raudenbush Farm - spring allergies arrive on this hot & windy day, so Greg takes me back to his house to sleep while he goes into the studio to work all afternoon.

Went to the Library, hung out with Sylvia for a while, whilst figuring out the best way to get from Kutztown PA to Princeton NJ. Popped into the wood shop to see Greg, still working hard, then went to Ebling to help Julie procrastinate from studying for finals and to hang out with Jake, who showed me the mouse he beat to death. We explored various recipe websites to help him expand his cooking repertoire from microwaved egg & hot dog dishes (ew), and I taught him the basics of playing harmonics on guitar (we watched Susan's video, since she is actually good at it) Greg took me to Camillo's to eat an e-nor-mous calzone. Tried a Blue Moon for the first time - lovely! Stayed with Julie again, further assisting her procrastination on studying.

Sting

and the Police are playing in concert on our television.

Scrapple gurgles around in my stomach after having felt the uncomfortable gaze of a group of girls whom I value and appreciate. They told me how much they'd love to get together for overnights, retreats, hanging out here and in the woods... and then explained that they never are free to do so.

Sting says "yo" a lot in his lyrics.

Of course, I'm re-reading Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts and am really wishing it was summer immediately. December has been so stinkin' mild, it feels like spring should come bursting through the trees at any moment. The idea of two and a half months of ice and dry air discourages me and makes me feel as though I should really appreciate this season more anyway.

The working world sort of compells me to wish for a career as a farmer or cattle herder or something else more natural and basic and necessary. My current job is to convince upper middle class ladies that they need spend more money on frivolous items for their homes. Something more necessary and helpful to people might be more satisfying as a vocation. Especially if it were something that involved spending hours outdoors. I miss that aspect of my summer job. I wonder what I'll do this summer. National Park work sounds more and more delicious every day I think about it.

Well now I'm going to get in the car, spend money on gas, spend free money on coffee, and drive down unknown winding state routes to West Chester and my love.

Not even at a crossroads

Hello friends of the internet,

Now that NaNoWriMo is over (as well as No-Shave November, which I haven't personally concluded) I can do other things with the time I don't spend at work or with people. I ended at 50,062-something words, although my novel isn't near finished. I had kind of mapped out a plot in my mind, and would skip ahead to write different parts, bouncing back and forth so I wouldn't tire of a particular part of the story. Maybe I'll complete the story during next November.

Recently I read the first half of The Secret Life of Bees, recommended to me by Christine Barlow two summers back. Last night I began reading The Lord of the Rings, because this weekend a TV channel aired all three movies of the "trilogy" and I felt my brain could use some stimulation from Tolkien's adventures in language. (Writing my own wimpy book, I could see how awfully limited my own vocabulary is right now - which I attribute to only having been required to write about art during the past four years of my life)

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. It's much more difficult to discern the call of God when I don't spend time listening. I read Brennan Manning's The Signature of Jesus, in which he described how to do a "centering prayer". It's meditative, and you do it for about twenty minutes at a time, before breakfast or dinner so your soul can connect with the hunger of your body. My problem is that I need a clean, peaceful space to do it, and my room is not in that condition at the moment. I miss the Christopher House in a time like this, because it had the chapel - small, intimate, quiet. Lined with a few chairs, stocked with diverse musical instruments for worship, and with candles always lit, it really felt like a sacred space where we as individuals or the whole fellowship could come for quiet (or loud!) time with the Lord, because that space was created specifically to meet with Him there.

Soon I'll be starting a youth ministry internship at my church, which I'm pretty ecstatic about. It makes me very glad that God doesn't call the qualified, but qualifies the called. I'll make curriculums for pre-school through senior high, teach, lead events, work on communications (don't I wish I took some graphic design courses?), and learn how to administrate. My pastor and the elder in charge of youth will be mentoring me through the process, so I'm going to ask that they also keep me accountable for my own spiritual growth, challenging me through this season (ooo, Christian vocab word).

Unpaid internships usually need to be paired with part-time jobs, so that's the thing I worry about. Working at Pier 1 has been a lot of fun, I actually enjoy it a lot, but I'm unure how long employment lasts after the buy-stuff-in-December season ends. (don't you hate having to associate Jesus' birthday with giving gifts to everyone but Him?) The career-building/resume-sending/connect-with-employers websites are okay. Without a degree in nursing or engineering, there aren't many jobs available. There are a few positions as postal workers or typists for the state, so perhaps something like that will hold me over. I feel like I just need a short-term job where I can earn some money to save up for a car; and once I have that, I'll have mobility and I'll be independent and I'll have peace about that.

Saturday was a really cool day because I got to hang out with a bunch of people I graduated high school with, whom I hadn't seen in maybe two or three years. It was hard not to feel discouraged, though, because they're all doing real things, having graduated with real majors that led to real jobs. More (?) importantly, they've all got their own places and aren't living with their parents. Of course, some of them received cars from their parents; something I don't have the luxury of, and also something that keeps me immobilized, tied down.

I know I need this transition period, this internship, because I didn't go to school for what I'm called to do - stupid - so I am hoping to put a lot of energy and effort into mentoring and loving on the kids in my church, and learning as much as I can from this experience so I can go do it, serve where I'm called to serve on my own. I'm still on the road toward the point of decision making, and that intersection seems so far off right now.

Fighting a battle against time is stupid. However, I seem to subconciously enjoy doing that. I feel tied down, like I want to start the great adventure of my life, but I have to save up some money before doing that. I have so many friends who are serving in different ministries around the country, around the world, because they had opportunities to jump out into the unknown in faith, following God with reckless abandon. I want that. I'm crushed under the waiting for it. Hopefully I can bear this all for as long as it takes...