My manager has made me pitch in Wii Sports baseball two nights in a row. I’ve thrown two no-hitters in a row, but I have a slightly pulled groin muscle from pitching. I’ve heard rumor that some people can pitch sitting down, but where is the fun in that?

On a rating scale where 1000 is pro, I’m a 322. If I keep going, I might make The Show in another 10 games or so.

I am a spendthrift. I never see why I should save a penny when I could spend it. Every time I try to save money, it either backfires and makes me mad, or the fates conspire to make me spend more money.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I was working outside cleaning up sticks and branches. Mer had a chance to go to a musical with Aunt Mary (Thoroughly Modern Millie, I think), so I decided I was going to paint the porch railing.

Almost two years ago, I noticed the porch was peeling. I had two painters out to do some work on our library, so I asked them to paint the porch. They primed it, but did not finish it (because I did not have the paint). Anyway, for the best part of two years our porch was white primer and greenish-blue paint. I decided the time had come to change that.

I got in my car and tooled off to Hartville Hardware to get some paint. Hartville is about 20 minutes away, but it was a nice day, so I did not mind the drive. I looked over the color samples in the store, and found the color that the porch was. I had them mix up a gallon of it. I smiled to myself at the sign behind the counter that read “No husband is allowed to buy custom color paint without a note from his wife.” Pretty funny, I thought.

While I was waiting, I looked around at paint supplies. I asked about compressor attachments so I could spray the paint on, but found out my compressor would not work – it was too small. The store recommended an “airless” sprayer – an electric pump paint sprayer. I looked at two models. There was the $85 version that looked okay, but the sales guy did not know much about it, and the $180 version that everyone raved about. I thought long and hard about it, and I decided I could paint the porch with a paintbrush, and Mer would be proud of me for saving money (something I do not do much). I passed on the sprayers; I got my paint brush, and my gallon of paint, and I went home.

When I got home, I put the paint can and brush on the porch. I went and got the CD player and a Dougie Maclean CD to listen to. Then I went to get a ladder so I could reach the top of the railing. I discovered I did not need a full ladder, so I went to get a step stool. That would work fine. Then, I realized I would have to open the can of paint, so I went to get a screw driver. I opened the paint, and decided I needed a small container to put the paint in so I would not spill the whole gallon. I went and got a 16-oz. plastic cup. That was fine, but I could not get paint in it easily, so I went in and got a small plastic cup to scoop paint out with. Well and good. Then I needed some cardboard to keep the paint off the porch and walls as I was painting. That was not working too well, so I had to go and get rags. Finally, I was ready to paint. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my paint was a little, well, greener than our old paint. Who knew? (Mer did – she mentioned something later about “teal.”) Okay. No problem. Our house would be festive Christmas colors now. I continued to paint. Dougie kept singing. I painted. I looked at my paint job. It was not coming out as nice as I had hoped – the paint was streaking, the brush strokes were obvious, and the job was going to need a second coat. Sigh. Okay. I kept painting. Dougie kept singing. After about 20 minutes, I had done about 3/4 of one post. I realized it was going to take days to paint the porch at this rate. I had a “Eureka!” moment that sounded strangely like “screw this!” and off to Hartville I went.

There was no messing around this time – I bought the good $185 paint sprayer. I drove back home and got things set up. I found an old foam “board” (about 4 by 8) to lean against the back side of the railings as I painted them so that the paint would not go everywhere. I pulled the trigger on the ***caution-it-will-cut-your-fingers-off—3900-psi*** paint sprayer. I discovered that if you do not move your hand quickly, the paint will pile up and look like someone sneezed green paint on your railing. No problem. I fixed that with my brush. I soon got the hang of the sprayer, and all was great. The porch was sailing along. I finished the front railing in about 20 minutes, and it looked great. I went around the corner, and was looking to be done in another 20 minutes. That’s when I ran out of paint. Sigh.

I get back in the car. I drive the 20 minutes to the hardware store. No messing around this time. I had them mix up two gallons of premium $30/gallon paint. I was not going to run out this time. I drove home and kept painting. The paint kept flowing, and everything looked great. I finished the front of the rails, and then went along and did the backs and sides of the rails. Everything was great. I finished up. With 1/4 gallon of paint in the sprayer. And one unopened and unreturnable gallon of “hunter green” paint. Sigh.

I cleaned everything up (it takes about an hour to clean the sprayer out). During that time, Mer came home and was shocked and happy that I had done the porch. And not gotten her phone message that Aunt Mary had an extra ticket to the musical.

Feliz Navidad from the Christmas House.

Every spring that I have been at CVCA (6 years now), the school has put on a musical. My school in Maine did not have a musical; to my knowledge, we did not have a theater program (if we did, I do not remember it). So, I did not expect much when I went to see CVCA’s musical, State Fair, seven years ago when I was interviewing for my job. Imagine my happy surprise to discover that the musical was very good. Not just good for a high school – it was really good. I have been pleased with all of the productions I have seen.

Last Friday, Mer and I went to opening night of The Music Man. Somehow, I got it in my head that the musical started at 7:30, so it was good that I like to get to these things early; it started at 7:00! I took my seat just as the overture was playing (Mer and Aunt Mary were already sitting – I had one small tech thing to do for the musical, that I literally ran to take care of). What a fun musical – The Music Man has one of my favorite musical rhymes – it manages to rhyme “carrion” with “Marian” and “librarian.”

CVCA managed to field over 40 actors on stage. All in all, there were over 100 students involved in acting, the orchestra, the set crew, makeup, the tech crew, etc. That is better than 1 in 8 students involved for the entire school. They work really hard – rehearsals run about 3 months, and the late rehearsals can run until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. The students and advisers do all of this work for five performances (probably about 3,000 people). I admire that kind of dedication.

Anyway, The Music Man was great. It is fun to see students that you know in these roles (it kind of feels like being an insider). The two leads were well cast – when Harold Hill and Marian sing to each other on the bridge at the end of the play (hear a Broadway clip here) it is beautiful. Their version was better than the clip I have linked to. I found myself wondering how they could sing like that (I can’t!). The kids did a really great job.

A funny story about the guy playing Harold Hill. He is a handsome young man, and can really sing. A couple of years ago, Mer and I went to a fall concert featuring all of CVCA’s musical groups, including a group made up of mostly junior high girls and ninth graders. We sat next to them, and they were very chatty for most of the evening, but when “Harold” got up to sing a solo, you could have heard a pin drop. I thought that was pretty amusing.

Nice job on the musical, CVCA!

I have been out of the video game world for many years. I grew up when home games were just coming out. I did have the 8-game Radio Shack controller that played “tennis” and “Target practice.” Later, the Atari system was popular, and cool kids had an Intellivision or a ColecoVision. My brother and I had the Odyssey2 game system, which we got probably about 1982 or so. It was cool to us because it had a keyboard, and you could use that to extend the video game to a pseudo-board game by using an overlay on the keyboard. Granted, there was only one other kid in town who had one, so our game swapping was limited, but we liked it. It would turn out to be the last game system I would own for 18+ years.

Fast forward to college (circa 1990). One kid on the hall had a NES system, and we spent many hours playing baseball. Yes – the same baseball the grandson is playing at the opening of the movie The Princess Bride. I was amazed at the sound and graphics. Very impressive.

Once I got out of college, I more or less forgot about game systems. I was vaguely aware that my younger brother went through several systems (Sega and XBox for sure, maybe a Nintendo 64 in there somewhere). Out of curiosity, I would check them out when I was home. I was impressed with the graphics, but I was turned off by the multiple buttons and joystick pads. It seemed like it was too much work just to learn to play a game, so I never bothered.

Fast forward to January of 2007. I kept hearing about the Wii video game system. I had read about it out of curiosity, and I liked the sound of the motion-controlled system. Sometime in January, I decided it would be time to try a Wii, so I went to buy one. Imagine my surprise when I could not find one that day. Or the next day. Or the next week. Or the next month. Apparently, lots of folks liked the idea of simple and intuitive game play.

I was out running errands about a week ago – we had the day off for Good Friday, and our VCR had stopped working after 15 years. I went out to get another one, and while I was out, I stopped in at a GameStop store. Much to my surprise, there were two people in the store buying Wiis. I got in line, and I got the last one. They had sold out of all nine units in one hour in the middle of the day. Amazing.

Anyway, I am pleased to report that the Wii really is easy to use, and it is really fun. My shoulder tends to hurt the next day after I play, but that is okay. It turns out that Meredith is quite good at tennis – she has beaten me many times, and I have only beaten her once (and that was on a four-person team play, after four or five games). I hope to use the Wii to be social – I have four controllers, and most of the sports games can be played with four people. I have already had my friends Ron and Ken and Janet over to play, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I have resolved (and stuck to it) that I am not allowed to use the Wii unless I have practiced my dobro or have practiced Italian. So far, so good.

I have been pretty good about practicing my shiny new dobro. I converted Mer’s old guitar into a practice dobro for use at school (on days where I am waiting for Mer to be ready to go home), in addition to my real dobro that I have at home. I have mostly been spending my time on exercises for the right hand – picking patterns and the like. I did get a little antsy at just exercises, so I have been working some on one or two melodies. Here is one. Sonotmu will be impressed. I apologize for the recording – I recorded it using a headset microphone.

Ever since late December, I have been spending several mornings a week with another woman. Most wives would be very upset, but Meredith approved of Jane, so all was well. Unfortunately, all things come to an end, and right after my run this morning, Jane had the last word, and the last word was finis. She broke it off!

During the winter months, I try to run for 25 minutes on my treadmill, several times a week. This is not the most mentally stimulating thing to do, so I have been listening to books on iPod. Since last December, I have been immersed in Jane Eyre. It is about 18 hours long, and with Christmas break and spring break, it took me over 3 months to complete the novel.

I recommend it. It is very well written. The prose is fluid, and the vocabulary is large and varied. My only word of caution is that you have to slog through 12 chapters of when Jane was a child. These are still well written, but are very melodramatic by today’s standards. For all I know, Bronte may have invented the type of the suffering orphan, and so it may have been fresh and original at the time. Now, it is necessary background for the rest of the novel. The pace picks up quite a bit once we get to Jane as a young adult. I had more than one morning’s run motivated by the need to see what happened to Jane next. There are still moments of melodrama, but I did not mind them as much with the adult Jane – for one thing, they are spread further apart, and so can be taken in the spirit of the novel.

If you are an avid reader, and/or have much time to read or listen, I recommend the book very much.

Last Monday, I went for a follow-up MRI on my brain. It has been about five months since my last one (for headaches), and if nothing has changed, all is well.

I offer, at long last, proof that I have a brain! (Shown in actual size):

Good profile shot!

I like this one on the right – you can see the optic nerves connecting to the brain, and you can see the blood vessels in the nose. How cool is that?

This one has a good view of my teeth.

Should I be concerned that the middle of my brain seems to be missing in the profile shots?

We ate very well on this trip. Since last year was good eatin’ too, I’m going to pronounce it a trend.

Lunch was roughly the same all week long. It was eaten on the job site, so it had to be portable. You could get one sandwich that was ham and cheese, or turkey and cheese, or you could get a pb and j sandwich. If you wanted a second sandwich, you could get one, but it had to be pb and j. You could get crunchy or smooth peanut butter, and strawberry or grape jelly. These lunches were fleshed out at the site with fruit and something sweet (candy bars or oatmeal cream cookies (dubbed “lard cakes” by the team) or nutty bars, and so on). The basic lunch was always the same, all through the week – I stuck with one ham and cheese, which I supplemented with whatever sweet was on hand. Breakfast and lunch varied:

Sunday: We had grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup (which was very good, and I am not a big soup fan).
Monday: Breakfast was “cold” – cereal and bagels and muffins. Supper was burgers.
Tuesday: Breakfast was eggs and donuts (and cereal was always available). Supper was beef and chicken gyros (yes, I know it has to be lamb to be a real gyro) and very good seasoned fries. I’m afraid I was selfish this night – I usually tried to let students go first and have seconds, but this night I was hungry, and I was third in line and first in second helpings. Not much of a servant that night.
Wednesday: Breakfast was pancakes. Supper was Mexican night – hard or soft tacos and very good enchiladas.
Thursday: Breakfast was “cold” again – cereal and bagels. Supper was white lasagna, pasta, and garlic bread. We also celebrated Craig’s birthday this night (even though his real birthday was Friday).
Friday: Breakfast was French toast. Supper was mac ‘n’ cheese and shepherd’s pie.
Saturday: Breakfast was “cold.”

We ate very well on the trip. Many many many thanks to Rachel who made all the meals, and thanks to the Thomases who were in charge of the nightly lunch crew.

It was not all work on the Diakonos trip – every night most of us had some free time (while the lunch crew made lunch for the next day), followed by a more or less organized entertaining activity.

The Habitat headquarters where we were staying had an older (1980ish?) pinball game (called “Truckin'” or “Haulin'” or some such) that was a surprising hit among the Sega/Nintendo/X-Box generation. For extra fun, the pinball machine was missing the left-hand ball rail, so if the ball went down either ball-lane on the left-hand side, you lost the ball. It is fair for everyone playing, but I could never remember that the railing was missing – I’d make a mini-ramp out of the left flipper so that I could “trap” the ball against the railing and control it. It never ceased to surprise me as I watched the ball roll down my flipper and into the void. Habitat also had foosball, but that was a slightly rickety game, and so was not played much.

Free time was spent by most people just hanging out in one form or another. You could write notes of encouragement or of thanks to people, and every evening some people took advantage of the pre-made paper cards to do just that. Other people just talked, or they played games. You had to be careful not to get so involved in a game that you would miss your shower slot.

Here is the day-to-day breakdown of entertainment:

Sunday: As we were waiting for supper, the students got a group together and played a large game of Catch Phrase. I chatted with a couple of the chaperons. After supper, I was introduced to my first experience with pogs. Pogs, for those over 30, are small discs with pictures on them, about the size of a milk cap. You pile some pogs in a stack (with other people’s pogs), and you take turns throwing a heavy disk on the pile. All the pogs that land face up you keep. All the others go back in the pile for the next player. To add interest, each of us received a bag of about 20 pogs, one of which had our picture on it (taken off of the internet – mine was the Dr.-Who-wearing picture from my blog entry on “White and Nerdy”). It is not a game of great intellectual demands, but it was fun to try it.

Monday: I used free time to introduce Ami and Craig to the wonderful world of Fluxx. Fluxx is a card game where the rules and goals change based on the cards that are played. This game created quite a bit of curiosity, and it turned out to be immensely popular among the students. After the first game or two, most Fluxx games were played with six people, with more wanting to play. Oh, on Monday, Craig won.

After supper, the kids played a HUGE game of Mafia. I think the townspeople won by a sight margin.  I used that time to talk to Mer on the phone.

Tuesday:
When we got back to Habitat HQ, I walked the .75 miles down the street to take pictures of the outside of Cereal City, a shameless self-promotion for Kellogg’s cereal. Still, since Mer is a big cereal fan, and it was a nice day, it was worth the walk to take a few photos.

The official entertaiment of the evening was to be game night. We had Fluxx, but I decided I needed to go out and get another game that Sonotmu introduced me to, Blokus. I told Craig I was headed to Target to look for it, and he requested the game Pit as well. Target was only about 15 minutes away, and it took me almost that long just to get the lock off of the Habitat gate (Ami had 3000 keys on her key ring, and they all looked the same in the semi-dark). I was sad when I got to Target that they did not have Blokus or Pit, but I picked up SkipBo in honor of Mer’s grandparents; I figured I could introduce some people to team SkipBo if all else failed. There was a mall across the street from Target, so I took a chance that Barnes and Noble might have Blokus, which they did. So, after a mere 45 minutes or so, I returned with Blokus and SkipBo. SkipBo never did get played, but I introduced Craig and two students to the game. We played a couple of times, and I did not win. Blokus became another popular game for the rest of the week. I know there were other games going on, but I am not sure which ones they were, because I was not playing them. I know Catch Phrase was being played because of the shouted clues.

Wednesday: I tried vainly for about 20 minutes to get Craig’s laptop to hook up to the local wireless base station. The laptop could see the signal, but could not connect. I’m assuming we did not have the correct encryption and/or the correct password, because I could not get it to work.

I spent some time looking at the pictures a student was taking of the trip (about 1000 at that point), which was fun. Seeing the pictures other people took of the trip is a good thing.

The exciting entertainment of the evening for most people was going to a local department store called Meiers or something like that. I say most went, because Craig, nine students, and I stayed behind to practice our murder mystery, Murder at Dunmore Lodge. We were going to “perform” it on Thursday, so we had to practice. I was coordinating the onstage action (as well as getting to be the guy who figures things out), and Craig was going to coordinate the crowd. Anyway, we had to run through it, especially where one or two had not even had a chance to read the script. The run-through was much fun, and went okay. We were not going to win any awards for production value (especially where we needed to have our scripts on stage with us), but it looked like it would work for entertainment.

The rest of the group got back from the store, with Nate and a student sporting new hats. They also brought us a dart gun as a prop for the mystery, but they had not been able to find handcuffs that we had wanted. Craig said we might find them on the job site.

Thursday: Craig was right – we actually DID find a pair of toy handcuffs on the job site on Thursday during the day. That was bizarre. Back at Habitat HQ, I played a (losing) game of Fluxx, and then a (winning) game of Blokus. After supper and lunch crew, we had the big murder mystery. I don’t have any pictures since I was actually in the play. It was fun. The audience seemed into it. Craig divided the room into groups of four or five, and we took time between each scene to let the teams discuss what they thought was going on. The teams were pretty sharp. They picked up on things I thought they would never catch. No one completely guessed what was going on, but everyone picked up on some of the things, and one or two teams were very very close. The students I was with on stage did a great job. We had a few actors in the group, but mostly we were just game souls. I was particularly impressed with the chambermaid yelling at me about “he had a KNIFE IN HIS CHEST!” and the supermodel screaming off stage (that made several people in the audience jump).

Friday: Friday was the seventh-annual Diakonos talent contest. We had something like eleven acts in it this year. These included:

The five-minute Music Man performed by the cast of the Music Man.

A short round sung about not putting garbage in my back yard.

A demonstration of Judo, with the help of a very game volunteer.

A new twist on fusion dance, where one student was the upper half of the dancer, and one student was the lower half. This resulted in the occational kicking of the upper dancer in the face.

   
A joke told about a lawn mower, with a willing volunteer.

A student and I danced part of a ceili (Irish socal) dance. Sorry, no pictures – I was dancing.

A funny folk song about “Railroad Bill” and the power a songwriter has over a subject.

A student-led small teaching session on belly dancing. Many kudos to the four students who were learning it as they went!

The dance group “Two Daisies in an Autumn Mist” performed their interpretive dance to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This.”

We had two students do a duet rap of “Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.”

We finished the night with Nate doing his second annual reading of a carefully edited romance novel. Nate would read the novel, and two students would act out the drama. Another student was on stage to play all the props. My favorite prop moment was when Nate read something like “She woke up and the basket was gone”; the prop ran out of the room because he was, well, gone. Brilliant. Nice way to end the evening. I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

Every evening on the trip, we sang several hymns or songs, and then Craig gave a short message from the Bible. Craig is very good at this – I like what he has to say. Here is how the (explicit) spiritual life of the trip went:

Sunday night: Even on the first night, Craig was ready. Way to go, fearless leader! We sang a few songs, but I was fighting one of my classic I-did-not-drink-enough-today headaches, so I don’t remember what they were. I’m not even sure if I sang (I think I did). The songs were simple arrangements all week – either solo guitar (except for Friday night when we had one duet) or a capella. It was nice.

Craig taught out of Isaiah chapter 1. This is a chapter where God rebukes the people for bringing sacrifices to him without knowing him or heeding him. God points out that even animals know their masters, but Israel does no know God. From these verses, Craig pointed out that you can be doing religious things that are right and good, but if your heart is not right with God, then God rejects them. Religious activity with a wrong heart is worthless.

Monday night: We sang three songs. I was feeling much better this night! Craig started his talk by explaining the concept of mythos – (related to myth) – mythos is the collection of stories that we see the world through. We all have a mythos. In America, it can be the mythos of rugged individualism, or consumerism, etc. Craig shifted gears and locations to Narnia for a minute. He explained that in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children have to flee London because of the war. The war is a large part of their mythos. When the children go through the wardrobe into Narnia, Narnia becomes their mythos. The war fades almost entirely away, but Narnia is very real. When the children get back to their world, the Narnia mythos does not fade – most of the children remember and are influenced by Narnia their whole lives. The Narnia mythos is more real than the London/war mythos – it spans worlds.

Craig then brought it back to us here in America. He asked if the American mythos is portable. It is to a certain extent – I can eat at a Burger King in Singapore if I want to. I do not have to engage the local mythos at all. The next question to ask: is the American mythos global? It is, in that we have influence around the world, but it tends to be self-centered.

Scripture is portable (it crosses culture), and it is global in a real sense. It shifts “me” to “we” or “you,” and it shifts the mythos from “me” to God. The entire worldwide church is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. When one member of the church suffers, it should affect all of us. Our mythos needs to be rooted in the real mythos of God’s perspective.

Jonathan Edwards said something to the effect of “Until you see something of the holiness of God, you cannot love God.” This tied back to Sunday’s teaching – you can not be devoted to God until you see something of his holiness. If God is one of many things you are devoted to (like one flavor of ice cream out of several you like), then you will not be devoted to God.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah receives his call. He sees a vision of God, and he realizes “…I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King…” God then does something extraordinary – he cleanses Isaiah with a coal from the altar. This is not how things normally work in Isaiah’s time – there is normally no cleansing of sin without sacrifice. It is a moment where God shows his authority and sovereignty over sin.

From a mythos point of view, Isaiah realizes he is a part of his people – he is not isolated (the “people of unclean lips”). The mythos of God is more real, though – God cleanses Isaiah, and commissions him to speak to the people. Isaiah’s life is far from easy from that point, but his mythos is real. The tumultuous political situation of Isaiah’s day was less real than the mythos of God – the only successful king of Isaiah is Hezekiah, who trusts in God and all of Judah is saved as a result. The other kings who trusted in Egypt or other political alliances were put to shame.

When we can worship God or worship ourselves, we should worship God. We are not good at playing God, and nothing takes the place of seeing God.

Tuesday evening: Craig gave the group an opportunity to share what was going on. Some things that came up:
– college decisions were becoming clearer
– students felt accepted by the larger group on this trip, even if they were not close friends at school
– we were encouraged to continue to be kind to Dave, a volunteer on the job site, and to pray for him and share the good news if possible
– it is a tough thing to give over your future to God
– one student expressed interest in a life of service
– it was noted that some people were coming out of their shells
– the trip was hard, but with the group it was easier to get through
– we were applauded for being positive and encouraging

Craig talked about how Isaiah talks a lot about God’s messenger. Many of those verses are understood to talk about Jesus, but Craig says that does not let us off the hook. Since we are to imitate Jesus, we need to be messengers too. The basic message is that God has come and is coming again.

We looked at Isaiah 34 and 35. Chapter 34 shows the world under God’s judgment – wherever God is not is desert. Chapter 35 looks ahead to God’s way – the way that rises above the desert, and is smooth and straight.

Our message is about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. We should live in hope (for the smooth way of God). Are we being transformed by the life God gives? By our hope?

Wednesday night: We sang a few songs and then took a few requests for hymns. Craig read this:
Psa 127:1 Unless Jehovah builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless Jehovah keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.

It was late, and Craig said it would ironic to read about God giving rest and then keep us up with a long message, so he let us go to sleep.

Thursday evening: We sang four songs, and then had a share time again.
– encouraged to show love to Dave
– devotions can be hard, but the student could not sleep the previous night and spent the time praying, and it was good
– one student said that her close freinds were not on the trip, but that things had gone well – we can all get along as fellow Christians
– it is good to get to know people on the trip
– one of the chaperons shared how proud she was of the kids; it was echoed by two other chaperons
– we were commended for being easy to work with and for being encouraging
– a student described herself as critical, but this trip was helping with that
– when you come to the end of youself (as early as day one), you turn to God
– it is easy to “go back into yourself” – old habits
– we are called to greater things – must rely on God
– trips break up routine and schedules – makes faith come alive again
– the chaperons were applauded for being good examples of servants
– the adults can be talked to and really care
– encouraged to share the good news with Dave if an opportunity came up
– we choose to get along and to serve God (it is a choice)
– we are probably fulfilling what the CVCA founders had hoped for – living in community and looking to serve
– why wait until the end of senior year to build community?
– this week looks like the early church – all things held in common and helping each other
– looking ahead to “real life” can shortchange high school relationships

Craig reminded us about mythos and devotion. The trip was not about CVCA or Battle Creek; it was not about demolition; it is about the heart. Life is where the Lord is; otherwise, there is desert. We share and walk together. God has come and is coming.

We looked at Isaiah 61. We were reminded to imitate Jesus, and to give beauty for ashes, and to change mourning to joy. The ashes point was well taken in that we were dealing with ashes and dust all week in demolition.

Friday evening: We sang five songs and shared again.
– I shared how I was impressed at how hard the kids worked
– a student that struggles with negative thoughts had been positive and peaceful all week
– one student shared how her grandfather had died the night before the trip began, and the trip was helping her to deal with that
– this trip was a chance to implement spiritual change; God is God, and we are not
– it was shared that Dave was saved three months ago
– it was shared that some out of our team got to meat Juan and his two daughters; they were putting in “sweat equity” in working toward a Habitat home

Craig shared that in Isaiah 54 and 55, we see the world as it really is (God’s mythos). We have hope – God is married to us. We would not cheat on our spouse, so why do we cheat on God? Why are we not more devoted?

God cares for his people. We have a heritage (as messengers). God owns us and values us. We are unconditionally loved. Isaiah gives us a vision of the desert blooming – of briars giving way to juniper.

In addition to these evening times, we had brief messages from the students at breakfast. I did not have my notebook at breakfast, so I cannot relate the details.

Many thanks to all who gave time and talent to helping the group worship, and many thanks to those who shared.