Bringing the Drama

on Saturday i went into NOLA with some youth group people to participate in some mission work. it was me, one other adult, and three kids from our church. we were meeting up with people from other youth groups to do some stuff in the 9th ward. they broke us up into different groups to go do 4 different projects and mixed up the groups so different people from different youth groups would meet each other. i led three other guys to go move mattresses in preparation for a giveaway next week. basically we showed up at a flooded out gym at a church, and moved mattresses and box springs inside to stack up against the wall. the mattresses were donated from a hotel in Dallas and are going to be given away to people in the neighborhood in the next week. initially we started with an 18 wheeler full, so it was a daunting task at first to see what looked like an endless trailer full. in addition, there were supposed to be 10 people to do the job, but we only had four due to the small number of people helping today. we got it done though, even though we were undermanned, and had some fun along the way.

however, it wasn’t all total awesome fun time. we’re a united methodist youth group because we’re at a UM church. i get that. we got shirts today with a GIANT UM logo. at lunch we had to read these devotionals that were like a page and a half long. then when we got back to the church we originated from, they had a whole worship service, complete with communion. it just seemed too complicated to me. the shirts, i can deal with a logo on the shirt, but a huge logo? the devotional at lunch, reading that sheet of paper, just seemed a little much. when we finally got to the prayer, the kid that said it said a great one. why couldn’t we just have gone with that? then after, the worship service, we had been out all day doing work, we were tired, and yet i felt like i was sitting through a service that was for the leaders to make themselves feel good at leading worship. the first song had lyrics like “I am free indeed” and yet i was sitting there thinking i was trapped and not free! there was also this part of the service where the different groups got up to the front to talk about their project, so i went up there when my group did. the leading pastor asked us a trick question almost. we’re up there and all talked about our day and how hard we worked, and the guy asks us if any of the people there at the old gym were members of the church we were at. we had no idea, but we didn’t think so, which we responded with, but then he says “well, there was one lady who was a member of the church.” dude, what was that for? i should have asked him that. we finally were able to leave at 4:30.

the main thing though was going out there helping people. i was proud of the guys i worked with, and of all the other kids who showed up. i just wish the adults involved wouldn’t have made the rest of the day so jampacked with irrelevant stuff.

so yesterday one of my readers from the DC metro area sent me this picture of the aforementioned Seth from 1994. observe him as he plays the guitar on the right side of the picture. the man in the white tshirt was our old associate pastor from the mid 90s, while the rest of the band members remain unidentified. obviously you can see how Seth has changed over the years.

in other news, i went to a show last night with Paramore, Phantom Planet, Paper Route, and Jack’s Mannequin with a few people last night. i got home around 12:15 and didn’t set an alarm. the result is that i woke up at 8:49 am and arrived at work at 10:25 am. as comparison, i usually wake up about 5:30 am and get to work by 6:45 am. oh well, guess i won’t be leaving early today, but hopefully i’ll get home in time to clean up in case people come over to watch the saints game tonight.

(the show was pretty fantastic btw, and i’ll post about it later.)

this past weekend i went on my first excursion as a youth counselor. it was a back to school retreat in panama city beach, FL, to a place that the junior high group goes to every year, noah’s ark. i didn’t really get involved until high school, so i had never been. it’s basically a retreat center on the beach, which operates year round i think. my sister had been in 1994, and she had a blast. it was her first youth group trip, so of course those are always the BEST TRIPS EVER!

anyway, i rode over there after work with one of the other adults and a couple of the kids, and we made it there around 10:30 on friday night. we stayed up playing rock band since my friend brett had brought his 360. i got to sing ‘Gimme Shelter’, which apparently was foreign to every kid there. i used to really dig rock band and think it was impossible to say something bad about, but then when you’re trying to go to sleep at 3:00 am and all you can hear is the tap tap of someone playing the drums, you realize how annoying it can be. EVERY song sounded the same, and it was like water dripping into a faucet. (tap tap, tap tap, tap tap). the dorm we were staying in wasn’t that great, but that’s what youth retreats are all about. the thermostat in the guys’ room was up around 78 apparently the first night, so it was ridiculously hot. i fixed that for saturday night by turning it down to 70. the beds were rusty old bunk beds, but thankfully no one fell off of any and no top bunk came crashing down to the bottom. everyone got ‘enough’ sleep, which is really all you can ask for.

saturDAY a couple of the other ‘counselors’ and i went and rented motorbikes. i didn’t bring any shoes, and i didn’t really want to wear a helmet, so i got a moped. plus i kind of saved $30. the other two got motorcycles, but they didn’t go much faster than my moped, in fact, i passed brett on the beach road on my moped. we had fun riding those around, and i actually went faster saturday then i had when i rode a moped for the first time in Fairview, TN. i had it up to 42, and it kind of started shaking, so i slowed down. i about crashed into a parked truck, and almost hit a car that was stopping at a light, but hey, it was fun. i did get to ride one of the motorcycles, and it was really hard to shift with flip flops on, but i did get the hang of it.

saturday night there was a reunion concert for all of the old praise band members at noah’s ark. they have college kids come every summer to play in the band for all the youth kids that come, so there were a lot of people from various years there. mostly the 1981 band played, which was interesting. a couple of the guys who led the 1991 band kind of MC’d the event, and a band from the mid-90’s played too. the mid-90’s band sounded great, very full and loud. i texted my sister to find out if there was anyone she wanted me to get a picture with, and she suggested two people, Seth and Karen. so i patiently waited until one of them was announced to be playing on stage. finally i heard Seth’s name, and figured out he was playing bass. after the show was over, i went over and told him he was my sister’s favorite and got a picture with him. funny how one guy playing for only one summer at a retreat center can be remembered years later, and he said me telling him that made his night. awesome. don’t mind the hair, it was after a day of riding on a moped, wearing a helmet, and general beach effect.

Sunday we got up and threw the frisbee around on the beach. there was no swimming because of the strong current, but the frisbee was good enough. it was the first time i had been to the beach in a while. it was gorgeous to be out there. we drove back to the church and then i was able to hitch a ride home. i didn’t meet all the kids this weekend, and i’m terrible with names, but i did get a couple of facebook friend requests as a result, so i figure i’m making strides.

so yesterday i went to early church at 8:15 am and was again subjected to another boring sermon. i’ve been pretty frustrated with my home church, but have tried other local churches to no success. so i have started going to my home church since i am also helping out with the youth group. it’s not only that the sermons are boring, but most of the subject matter is low hanging fruit type stuff, and i expect more. also, it’d be nice if the pastors didn’t read all of their prayers instead of just speaking from the heart. more on this later….

i got home and made french toast again, and took Adriene’s suggestion for the strawberries ON the french toast. i didn’t exactly do that, but i did buy powdered sugar to use on half the french toast, and the other regular syrup. the strawberries were placed on the plate as a sort of Maginot Line between the two. if there was an Iron Chef French Toast, this would be one of my five dishes.

i went to youth group, and part of the evening was spent playing charades. not only charades, blind folded drawing charades. when coming up with the topics for the other team to draw, i used movie and tv show titles, like Field of Dreams (which one of the dad’s COULD NOT DRAW) and Reading Rainbow (which the other team got right). however, other suggestions were harder for the kids including Rocky Balboa. i heard more than one kid go “who is that?” WHO IS THAT? WHO DOESN’T KNOW WHO ROCKY IS? oh, that’s right, they were born AFTER the original four movies came out. ouch.

while at church, i was invited to the newly formed young adult group. i’ve been in young adult groups at the church before, even tried leading them. we never got support from church leadership, and the last time i tried to lead one 3 years ago, nobody came. so i had kind of given up, but apparently a new group has formed, and they have a similar opinion of the current pastoral leadership. i’m going to see about it, but i’m not going to get my hopes up.

i came home to a roast in the crock pot, which was the first time i had used my crock pot ever…..even though my mom had given it to me at least a year ago. the roast came out fabulous, and the folks who ate it enjoyed it. success! (sorry, no pictures)

in other news, i’m going to get new glasses (!!!)…..story about that tomorrow.

so today was awesome….and not because i was able to relax, watch a movie, and do laundry during the day. tonight at youth group, we played kickball. after shaking off a botched defensive play where the ball hit me in the face, i was able to make a couple of good plays and drive in a few runs. though, the all time umpire guy made some questionable calls and we lost. after a pretty good dinner, we made tie dyed shirts. i have no idea how mine will come out, but it has purple, green, and gold, and tomorrow after i hose it off and wash it with some salt, i will be able to see the finished product. i think i’m getting the hang of this counselor thing.

i got home to see Clemson was down something like 51-35 to Maryland. it only got worse, because i watched normally good shooters not even drawing iron. yuck. then they were down 20. TWENTY POINTS! what the hell? slowly, they started to chip away. a turnover there, a 3 pointer from deep there. all of a sudden after another turnover and dunk, it was tied with 45 seconds to go! a good defensive stop and they got the last shot….give it to the freshman Oglesby with a guy in his face….BOOM! Clemson wins 73-70! harkening back to how upset i was when unc did a similar thing to Clemson at home, i can feel for the Maryland fans. but wow, what a great feeling to win like that!

so tonight i finally went to start down the road to being a youth group counselor. the current youth leader at my ‘home’ church, was a counselor back when i was going to youth group, so i had talked to her before just showing up. i was kind of nervous before i went. i changed shirts twice before going. i have no idea why i was worried about dressing to impress the kids, but i ended up going with the david crowder shirt over ryan adams because i figured someone would know DC. when i got there, i was faced with a room full of youth not knowing anyone but my old leader. most of the other ‘counselors’ were parents, which resulted in me having an awkward conversation with one of the fathers. it’s tough to come up with topics as the person is shredding his plastic cup. in his defense, tonight was also his first time trying to be a counselor. the guy working the sound booth is a guy who led in the dismissal of the last pastor at the church, which led to me going less and less often. i really liked our last pastor because he actually talked about Jesus and salvation and didn’t bow down to the church politics. unfortunately there are people at the church who would rather ‘yes’ people and will stoop low enough to get people transferred unwillingly. it took a lot for me not to say something like “so when’s the next coup d’etat going down?” i was also shifted from a committee that mattered to the one that worries about what kind of trees to put next to buildings because of that guy. to think he’s a normal part of the youth group now kind of makes me a bit ill. anyway, i talked with a few of the actual kids which was kind of cool. i remember being in their place, but without the nintendo DS. the meeting itself felt different….there was an actual bible lesson and worship time with a band. i don’t remember any of that happening very often when i was in youth group. i don’t remember much of how the old meetings went. i remember making advent wreaths and scavenger hunts and outrageous olympics, but none of the regular week to week meetings. one of the parents asked me how much the meetings had changed, and i really couldn’t say much other than tonight’s meeting was a big change and improvement. at the end of the meeting, my old leader introduced me so now i’m known just by my first name….kind of like madonna.

i was able to successfully avoid hearing about the clemson game until i got home to watch a recording of it. i was able to watch the entire game including the first OT and then the fox sports feed switched right before clemson was to inbound the ball with 1 second on the shot clock and 3.3 seconds to go in the first OT. THANKS YOU BUNCH OF JERKS for switching me to some kind of UFC match. i had to call my friend Bill to get a recap. what happened was what i thought would happen, after it was forced to go to OT. they just fell apart at the end of regulation with stupid plays. at least this time i was kind of preparing myself for a loss. i was not going to believe the miracle would happen until it actually did, so i was not near as upset as the last time. one day the streak will end, i know it!