Sunday, June 29, 2008

What a week


Sunday June 22-Drove to Church (half hour) and spent 9:30-3 there. At 3 I drove with Randy to Wheaton (just outside of Chicago). It took us 6.5 hours, $14.75 in tolls, and about all the energy and enthusiasm I had left. Gained an hour, used it to sleep.


Monday/Tuesday -Attended the Alpha Conference where Tim Hughes led worship and Alpha training took place by Nickey Gumbel, Dan Kimball, et. al. We learned a great deal, forgot 80% of it and then departed at the close of the conference around 6:30 p.m. On the way home, I stopped for gas. I got distracted by baby ducks crossing the street and turned into the semi fueling. Had to drive up the "Do not Enter" direction to get to the rest of the gas station. I pulled the keys slightly out of the ignition, as I normally do, (this prevents the dinging when the door is ajar and the keys are in the ignition.) I began fueling. Randy got out of the passenger seat and went to get some coffee. I used the john, came back out and realized the doors were locked. I informed Randy and we quickly flagged down a state highway patrolman to help us. A nice guy asked if we had onstar. I didn't know, but then Randy said he did but that they didn't subscribe. Not sure if it works that they can do a one time charge or not, but we began trying to guess what Onstar's number was. My first attempt, 1800onstar1 (I think), ended up being an adult phone hotline. (No worries, I confessed to Shaina and to a guys group I'm a part of.) Finally, while we're trying to figure out the Onstar deal, the patrolman broke in with his vehicle-breaker-inner (That's the technical term). We got back on the road...all in all it was a 15 minute ordeal. Pressed on and arrived in the Wad at 2:15. Got in my vehicle and went the last half hour and hit the bed shortly before 3a.m.


Wednesday-woke up around 10, pulled myself together and went back to the church (30 minutes). We had pizza and a staff meeting. I throughout a couple of ideas that Randy and I said "If the church staff does not embrace these things, then we will not run alpha." They totally embraced these things and we're running alpha as a main course launch in September. I believe people will encounter Christ. Drove half hour home. Had quasi-date time with my wife. Drove 15 minutes to Wooster. Ahh the romance of Quizno's new five dollar footlongs! Drove 15 minutes to pick up a friends tent and camping equipment. Drove 15 more minutes home. Went and ran the Wednesday night basketball open gym...lost most every game (Jesus said the last will be first in the Kingdom of Heaven...Why don't you take him at his word?) Got back from bball about 11..showered..crashed.


Thursday-went to my mom's loaded up wood for the weekend. Drove to wadsworth (half hour) to meet new friend, Rachel at Applebees for lunch. Drove home (half hour). Worked on Wild at Heart material. Shaina came home at 5:15 and we left for Wadsworth by 6:30 (half hour). Loaded up vehicles for the Whitewater rafting trip from 7:30-8:00. Had "Real Men of Genius" Edge Men's Time from 8-9:30 and then went back to the Keeners until 10:30. Went home (half hour.) **The entire day was also spent texting people trying to find a 14th voyager for our trip. I paid for 14 then we had a couple people unable to go and needed one more replacement. (Way to go Ben Sulka!)


Friday-Got up at 7, showered, prayed, loaded car, printed off important materials for the weekend (Including this Rafting Waiver which made me second guess if I should really be going.Ran to Wooster to get oil change/tire rotation/gas up. (drove 15 minutes) Came home (drove 15 minutes). Picked Shaina up, along with Shadow and went to my mom's and dropped Shadow off for her weekend getaway to Grandma's house. Drove to Wadsworth (half hour). Literally ate on the way and then arrived at the Keeners at 11 to load up the food/coolers/soft top. Drove to the church, made last minute adminstrative copies, gathered the group, prayed with the group and then we took off. Shaina drove so I could rest and also work on the weekend's talks. We left at 12:15 and arrived at the camp about 4:45...(4.5 hours of driving). We set up camp, ate some dinner and began developing a new frisbee game that was so "evan" that I can't even describe it. Around 9 the rest of the group arrived and we ate some banana boats courtesy of Jay and then had some worship with the acoustic and then a pretty lively discussion about the core question of a man and of a woman. Went to bed around midnight...Found out Ben Sulka snored haha. Couldn't sleep, partially because of the snoring and partially because I was feeling torn about where God wanted the Saturday night talk to go. Got out of the tent at three and manned the fire. Did a good job, then it rained and I had to put all our chairs away. Went in the car and slept for an hour then got up and got ready for a big campfire breakfast.


Saturday-rode a bus (half hour) to the river departure site. Went white water rafting (perhaps more on that in another post later). Had a fantabulous time. Didn't die. I even jumped off a 30 foot cliff. Returned from rafting on bus (half hour trip). Got back changed clothes, played beach volleyball, watch the highlight video of our rafting trip and then returned to campsite to restart fire. Had pizzas and then had a really good worship time with the acoustic...finished that time and all of a sudden the wind picked up and a storm was on us, we scurried to clean up our site before it came and then we crammed into the boys tent. 14 folks, majority of whom had not showered...or perhaps even deodorized all weekend in one tent, which had to stay pretty much sealed because it was storming out. Had a quick talk (10-15 minutes?) I'm not sure how it went.

Afterwards, played mafia...a good holy church game that is solely based on lies and deceit. Went to bed in the car around 2:30. Got up at 6:30, found out a critter had gotten into our trash and emptied it all over our site. (I hope it was a raccoon and not a bear.) I got breakfast out for everyone, we woke up, tore down and departed at 9:30. I drove the 4.5 hours back to Wadsworth, we unloaded, transferred, and swapped materials and then I drove the last half hour back home. We picked up Shadow, unloaded and then showered and crashed on the couch. I then played basketball from 8-9 and now am wrapping up this blog.


I hate the car. In one week's time I spent a bare minimum of 29.75 hours in a vehicle (not counting the raft). It's been a good week, often times stress filled, but good nonetheless. I need a second shower for the day then I'm going to bed for the long haul. Thinkin' I'll take my honey out tomorrow night. Peace!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got your phone message, but I was on a mission trip in West Virginia with my parents' church until Saturday afternoon. I'm glad you found someone to go along on the rafting/camping trip. Yes, take the lovely Shaina out on a date already! Later!

father michael said...

Wow. Sounds awesome.