Why I stay at this job...

Tonight, I watched a woman in her 80's, fighting cancer, get on the Zipline in Sherwood Forest and ride it. Janice and her team loved Mrs. Greene as they prepared her for this short but significant ride. Shelby fitted her into a harness with quiet conversation and a lot of respect. I could see it in the way that she touched her.

There wasn't a lot of drama, yet there was a story being told to all of us standing there watching her as she steadily climbed the 25 foot ladder. Tiffany clipped her in and then in a few meditated moments Christina Greene step off the platform and zipped down the line. Applause and tears broke out. We all held the community smile. It is why they come to Family Camp.

It wasn't about an older woman riding a zipline. It was someone battling for life... and winning.

Narnia visits Calvin Crest...

1. The Professor
2. The White Witch's henchmen and a Bat
3. The Lamp Post and Mr. Tumnus
4. The White Witch
5. Me and the White Witch. I ate some of the Turkish Delight (Real Turkish Delight by Josh Haas!)

Just because...

We are in the midst of thunderstorms and high humidity and my fuse is short. Today I yelled at someone, the wrong someone. I hate it when I do that. I hate it...

What will happen today...

The title can be a question or a declaration. Many days I wake up with a declaration but by 10:00a it is a question...

Yesterday I had a discussion with a couple of the staff about someone we were going to put in leadership over some child care workers (that made them sound like they ought to have a union), and they said that they had concerned about this young woman. Apparently, last year the woman, as a counselor, broke open a "Glow Stick" and put it in her mouth and told the kids, "it's fun, you should try it." The kids then convinced her, (let me say that again) the kids then convinced her to go to the infirmary and see the nurse.

Some day I am going to write a book about all this...

A couple of other shots of Outpost/CYM...

In the will of the Creator...

I get to watch wonderful things happening all the time. I watch children playing. Friends developing. Correction and love taking place. But it is always a joy, probably my greatest joy is watching when people are in the will of the Creator. This is a picture of Lily Nichols, who is the coordinator of our Outpost program. This last week she and her team of Haas, Tyson, Jessica, and Phillip, had a group of children come up from a ministry in Reedley, California called Christian Youth Ministry. This ministry is under the direction of Sheri Weidenhoefer who is one of my favorite people (there are many - but Sheri is radical and continually stretches me into the shape of Jesus).

I got to watch the children present a card to Lily and give her many hugs, but then they stayed and just hung around her. That is the sign of love, respect, and safety. And the look on Lily's face (you can see it in the photograph) is the look of when you know you are in the will of the Creator. This is what Lily was designed to do.

Wondering...

Is there a word, a single word, for when you have such diverse and opposite feelings at the same time? The feeling of having one foot in freezing water and the other foot in hot water. It is the feeling you get in your middle "area."

That is where I am today. Much frustration and much satisfaction.

Maybe it is called JOY...

Let me be a dad for just a second...

I am very proud of my kids, Simon, Hillary, and Taylor








Hillary sang a Coldplay song, "The Scientist"

My, how they grow up fast...

Congratulations, Hillary. It seems like just yesterday you were getting on a bus to go to your first day of school. We are proud of you!

On the show today is Aretha...

In 1970, I was a sophomore in high school, Sanger High School, the Apaches, it was the last year I was in the marching band. Which meant that I was not able to get a date to the after football game dance because I had band hat hair and I couldn't sit with my date at the football game. And if you weren't a band chick NOBODY thought the band was cool. I wanted to be a rock n roller. But I played trombone and the Rolling Stones didn't have a trombone part in their band. But I was starting playing a guitar that I bought from Sears and Roebuck (I wonder what happened to Roebuck) and singing in the talent shows. I weighted in at about 95 pounds so I looked a lot like Mick Jagger. I still had a metabolism even though I was daily hanging out at the Dari-Delight, ordering a chili burger or a double cheese burger and chocolate milkshake (that was when they still used ice cream). But they kick me out because I drove in the parking lot once and drove out without stopping. But you see I realized I didn't have my wallet and needed to rush back to the Mr. People's yearbook room to get it. Where I was a photographer and a writer, well not really a writer more of an opinion columnist which I wrote one attacking the military industrial complex and Clovis Unified's dress code.

Two years later I would graduate at the top of my class, well maybe not the top of the class, well actually I freakin' passed by grace or maybe her name was Shirley... yeah that's it, Shirley Slusher, the woman who taught me something and gave me some self confidence, unlike a certain Spanish teacher named Augie ____. Okay, it is my responsibility to learn and not just be a hippie and work for George McGovern and protest the war in Viet Nam...

Sorry. I've got some issues I need to deal with...

Anyway, I sure loved Aretha.

It may not be Cair Paravel...

Here is a shot of my "conference room"

I love my job!

Summer staff...

Each summer we bring up about 85 people who have just graduated high school, in college, just graduated from college, or are college age but didn't go to college because they decided to work instead, etc. (I could go into details but I will let them do that on their blog...)

Each year I spend the months of January and February (and sometimes March through Memorial Day) on the road with my trusty little Garmin eMap GPS device driving to college campuses and churches recruiting people to spend their summer in ministry with me. I sit in cafeterias, lawns, classrooms, Starbucks, libraries, taco shops, In & Outs, pizza parlors, Thai restaurants, and maybe a pub or two, trying to get them to come be on staff.

The hard part for me is when we have people decide if they are coming back or not and the heart break of them saying they are not or the heart break of us telling them they are not. Either way there is hurt.

Rejection... Some feel rejected by us when they don't get hired and I feel it when they decide not to come back. But then I hear of the stories of what the person is doing, I know that we are still in ministry together only on a broader scale. Some decide to work for a project in the heart of San Francisco or Los Angeles, many in South and Central America, Europe, India, China and the Middle East. Some intern at their churches, while others study and take classes. Some begin their careers or get married and spend the summer walking through the threshold of the next season of life. Some even go into camping and are program directors in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon.

But I miss them. It is not the same. It is not that it is bad, I just miss them. I get to know so many people and they become a part of my life. I miss listening to them playing their violins, guitars, pianos, trombones, congas and flutes. I miss them in the infirmary or craft condo for a little chat and I marveled at their care and creativity. I miss the times of sitting at lunch and discussing theology (usually how messed up mine is), watching them mow the lawn and being impressed by what I see not only in the lawn but the love they have for the AIMers, going off in their old cars for an afternoon chat on where they feel the Lord's leading and call. Watching them fall in love and stay up too late at night "watching for bears" and getting to be a part of their weddings.

I just miss them...

I am a fortunate man by getting to know so many during these 10 week "seasons". I fall in love with them (non-eros) and pine for them when they leave. I don't know how many have come through here but since 1992 I have had to say good-bye to a lot of dear friends.

So this season, a new group of strangers will become friends, some will stay for a ten-week season and some will stay for the next five years. I am thankful to those in the first few years who loved me and gave me a place in their lives. Some I don't visit enough, some have become my best friends, this group will never take your place. I just have to keep getting bigger to allow more people in my life and heart.

What a job!

Time to pray...

Our dear friends, Rich and Susan Seiling, just had a baby, Asher, who has been having some episodes where he stops breathing.

Their blogsite will keep us up to date on the condition.

Our hearts and prayers are with you, Rich and Susan...

Orientated!...

We went through Orientation Week with grace and a lot of humor. I am enjoying myself again...

Just a word...

There is a wonderful Maria Montessori, the Italian educator, quote that I hope one day will be on my tombstone or the soup can that holds my ashes,
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."”

And it begins again...

Well, I find myself again (14 times) with the summer staff's arrival tomorrow. I have been meeting with the summer leadership since Wednesday and we have been having some great discussions.

We feel like things need to change from last summer and call people to walk worthy, without walking in legalism. We are called not to a community but we are a community, and it will be interesting to see what kind of community we become. Will it be about us, again, or will we be a community where others are brought in to be a part of the love of Jesus Christ?

One of the complaints about us, is that the feelings from the guests is that it is more about us than about them. Number one priority will be to address this and watch for this. I pray that the breath of God would fill us with love, strength, endurance, peace, and discernment as we enter into a new season of service...