Camp camp and more camp!

Hey everyone! I just finished my first week of camp this past week and I'm getting ready to go out for another one today!

In case you don't know or perhaps forgot, I am doing this thing through school where I am on a team of 4 that goes out to different church camps and tells people about the school and am there to provide a helping hand.

This past week we were at an elementary week, which was interesting to say the least. First off, we were only supposed to have jr. high and high school kids since our job is promoting the school, but somehow this camp tricked us. Sneaky little buggers.

I was the worship leader for the week, which wasn't that big of a deal because I have been leading worship for the elementary kids at my church for about a year now, but what was interesting was trying to do it alone with no one to teach the choreography. So I would tell them how the song went, then I would try to remember the choreography the best I could, then we would play the song. Anyone ever heard the song Romans 16:19? Well that happened to be the kids favorite song and they begged for it every day. I played twice a day every day and there was only one session that I managed not to play that song. It's not that it's a bad song or anything, but twice a day for a whole week is a little much. :)

We had many interesting experiences with the campers, but for the most part they were good kids. This part might make you southerners smile: the camp was in southern Kentucky and by the second day my whole team was starting to say little words in a southern accent, it was so bad that at one point when I woke up from a nap I was hearing my thoughts in a southern accent! Don't worry though, for the most part I have kicked it, but it was scary, I wasn't sure how long it was going to last!

I was planning on showing you all pictures, but we just didn't take very many, so this week we will take a lot of pictures and I will be able to show you my team and everything. You can also see them on my facebook if you want to see, and sorry for the creepy profile picture!

On the bright side we have high schoolers this week!

An end and a beginning

School is out and, to steal a McDonald's slogan, I'm lovin it! I have not been doing too much with my time off, but that is what you are supposed to do with a break from what I hear.

Since I have been off I have gone to visit some friends, ate out with my parents, visited some other friends, taken some prom pictures for some friends, gone to church, led a jr. high youth group, worked a day and had dinner with my grandparents! I've only been out since Thursday too. I don't know how so much is able to fit into such a short time, but it did.

Hopefully I will get some of the prom pictures to put up and show everyone, but I don't have them. I co-took the pictures with Jenn, so they were on her cameras and she has all of the pictures.

I am starting my camp team extravaganza tomorrow. Well, training is tomorrow, then we get a week off then the big adventure starts! I will be touring the country and doing what I do best... I actually don't know what I do best, but I will basically be doing whatever I am told to do by the camp. I could be doing everything from leading a small group to leading worship to preaching, who knows what I'll be doing! I will hopefully be blogging a lot though so all ye faithful followers will know what I am up to!

Before tomorrow comes I have a lot to do, sort of. I brought home a lot of my stuff from school and all the farther it made it was to my room, not put away, just in there. So my mission for the day is to clean all of the mess up asap and get packed and ready for our 3 day mock week training thing. Well I hope to hear from everyone. Have a great week and a great summer.

Again?!?! No Way!

Yes that is right ladies and gentlemen, I am writing twice in one week! 

Finals are coming up this next week, so the late nights have begun, along with Saturday study times... ugh. I would like everyone to know that I have successfully only had one Saturday that I can recall where I did homework or studied on a Saturday, but today will be the second day.

One nice thing that has come from  late night studying was last night my friend Matt and I rented a couple movies to have on while we were working. We rented "Marley and Me" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." We were going to go to the Reds game last night, but it was raining pretty hard the whole time, so we just rented movies. I decided that I would watch Marley and Me and then would start on my homework during Benny Button. Well I will just say that I wish I had something to distract me from the first one, Marley and Me made my eyes wet. I never cry during a movie, but this one really got me teary-eyed. The film was beautifully done and I really felt like I was a part of the family. At the end of the movie as I was getting teary-eyed I was trying not to let Matt see me, but then at one point I hear him say, "Stupid dog has me cryin all over the place, dangit." I look over and he had tears flowing down his face, then I didn't feel so bad for getting a little teary-eyed. It had to have been a funny scene to watch if you would have walked into the room: a couple of guys on a Friday night, in a little guys dorm room, watching Marley and Me, and sobbing. We felt pathetic!

So for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button we called our friend Taylor and went up and watched that one in our "Student Life" area, that way we didn't feel so pathetic and I did homework during that one to keep me distracted if it got too emotional. It was a good movie, but it was extremely long (2 hrs. 40 min. long)! It was interesting though to see how the cycles of life are sort of similar whether we go from young to old or old to young. You still have to learn to walk, bend over and be able to tie your own shoes, feed yourself, and eventually you grow muscles. At the end of life you basically unlearn everything you have learned if you live long enough. I just thought this was an interesting observation. It just goes to show that you have a certain period of time when you are very capable of a lot of things and should take full advantage of it. All of us are in that stage right now, not dependent on anyone and able to get along just fine and remember everyone we come in contact with. There really isn't any reason to complain about what we have right now.

Other than my sob stories there isn't much going on. I was thinking, since I go to a Christian College, maybe I could just pray for a good grade on my exams? Just kidding, I will just be grateful that I have a capable mind to try and comprehend the glory of God. I hope all of you have a marvelous Mother's day too, do something special for your mother, and for those mothers that are reading this, have a great day and know that you can really have an impact on your child, more than what you think you have probably. 

I love you all.

Slow Poke!

That would be me! I know that I apologize every time I write an entry, but I really am sorry I want to keep my followers informed about my life, but I just forget sometimes.

Not a ton has been happening in my life lately. I was at a jr. high retreat two weekends ago and led a class about not living in the past but learning from it and looking forward. I didn't expect much response from it, but the kids really did seem to get something out of the class, I know that wasn't my doing. The retreat in general was pretty cool, it was called A Letting Go and they were talking about letting go of the things that hold us back from a relationship with GOD. It was pretty interesting. I forgot how easy it is to get jr. high kids to do the stupidest things for the smallest reward. We were playing this game where the students received rocks as a reward and at my game I made a rule that if someone would go off a rope swing that went out over a creek and landed face first in the mud that they would receive 20 additional rocks! I couldn't believe how many kids would do this for something as simple as a few rocks. It was so funny.

Last weekend I was a part of a 30 hour famine and I was asked to lead worship for it. So, I asked the best pianist I know, Dave Searle, and a very talented vocalist, Kara Clutter, to assist me in this. We ended up with an amazing worship time, we had the amount of songs to go for about a half hour, but ended up with close to an hour of worship. Needless to say it was awesome! 

I don't really know what else to talk about. One thing that I have been noticing more and more is the continual need for service, especially in the church. That is mostly what we talked about during the famine and then we talked about it tonight in our dorm devotions. The main passage we looked at was Isaiah 58, which talks about true fasting, and then tonight the song we listened to was The Tears of the Saints. If you want to hear a great song look it up, it is by the band called Leeland, you won't regret it if you have to buy it. I just thought I would like to share a little something that has been on my mind and in my heart lately. I hope you all do something with it and I will try to keep up a little more on my blogging, but as usual, no promises. Take care everyone.

Homemade Pizza, Laughing and Preaching!

Well I would just like to start off saying that I am having a great day today. I don't really know why, but I have just felt really good about life today! It's a great feeling and I love it!

For those of you that remember I was a preacher this weekend, Billy Gram if you will:) I was told that on a scale of 1-10, 1 being Benny Hen and 10 being Jesus, that I was a 4.5. I consider this pretty good because I wouldn't give anyone higher than a 7 if Jesus is 10, and I know it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't terrible either, so I am satisfied with that score. Anyway, the youth group I talked to had just lost their youth minister so that is why I was asked to preach, so I preached about vision in unclear times. I compared their situation to that of the first church in Acts 1 and 2.

Other than that my weekend was pretty good. On Saturday my friend Matt and I went to see our girls volley ball team play in a tournament at Ceadarville University because it was fairly close to my dad's house and that was where we were going afterwards. After the tournament a couple of the girls from the team along with Matt came over to the house for a little homemade pizza and some fun games with friends! It was a night filled with fun and a lot of laughter, and when I say a lot of laughter I mean a LOT of laughter:)

After an exhausting weekend, however, I was worn out, so yesterday (Monday) I skipped my first class so I could sleep in until 10:45, then got up for my second class, went to lunch, then went back and took a nap around 1:30 until dinner at 5 o'clock! It was a great day to catch up on some sleep and I did just that! This could have something to do with why I feel great today, but who knows!

In case anyone is looking for a good CD or something to listen to, I am currently listening to David Crowders' latest CD called Remedy. One song in particular that I'm listening to is called, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. It's a very good song and has been stuck in my head for a while, so I thought I would share that with all ye faithful readers! Hope everyone has a great week and I hope to talk to you soon.

I have truly dropped the ball...

I just want to take a brief minute to apologize to my fellow devoted followers of my life. I really do want to keep you updated, but I have really dropped the ball lately. I could go on and make excuses for myself, but you don't want to hear about all of that. So instead I will just give you a brief update of my life...

I have recently enjoyed my spring break by taking a trip to Peru, Indiana to visit a few friends from school. I really enjoyed that, although, I didn't do a whole lot, but that might have been why I enjoyed it so much, it was a nice relaxing times with the ones I am usually doing a lot of not-so-fun stuff with (i.e. schoolwork). We did take a picture, but it wasn't very creative because the Circus Museum was closed, but we did take some pictures, most of which you can see if you go to my Facebook.

Not this weekend, but the next, I have been asked to preach at my roommates church because their youth minister has taken a new job, so they will be out of a youth minister for a short time and they are asking all of our roommates to take turns preaching. I have quite a task on my hands since I am going first, I am the one that has to set the bar! I'm sure it will be fine though.

My roommates and I, along with a few others from school are going to be helping at a Jr. High retreat toward the end of April. I have helped at this retreat for several years now, but this year my friends will be there helping as well! I will basically be doing whatever they ask me to do, but the college students that I am taking are leading several breakout sessions throughout the weekend. We will each be showing a different "Nooma" video, by Rob Bell, and then engaging in about a 15 to 20 minute conversation going deeper into the meaning of the video.

Other than that school is going really well, I am really enjoying my classes this semester. They are for the most part very interesting and rather helpful. I have been both very encouraged and affirmed that I am doing the right thing and on the right track in my quest to lead others closer and deeper with/to Christ. I am excited to see what the next year has in store for me and those around me as well as the longer distant future.

One other thing that is coming up, which I am excited about, is that I am doing camp teams this summer through our school. That means that this summer I will be traveling with 3 other people around to different camps and doing whatever it is that they need, whether it is leading worship or a small group or whatever, but I will also be telling people about the school. For those of you who are wondering whether you will be able to see me or not this summer, rest assured that I believe I get about 3 or 4 weeks off over the course of the summer. If you would like to see me, let me know and I will do my best to let you know if I can work you into my summer schedule.

Other than that, if you have read this far then you must really like me!! but really I hope you all are doing well and I will be letting everyone know how the upcoming events go.

Spring is near and so is the Break that comes with it!

Nothing too exciting has been happening this week, but I just wanted to update my devoted followers of my life.

The exciting news is, next week is spring break! I am really excited about that! One of my roommates, Dave, and I are going to drive out to Indiana to see a few of our other friends for a few days. It's not the typical, "warm weather spring break" location, but nonetheless it will be fun to get away and see people outside of school.

We have a picture contest for our school where we have to take a picture of us in our spring break location with CCU apparel on. There are rewards for people who went the farthest and for the most creative. So, if there are any suggestions of what we can do to be the most creative let me know asap. We were thinking, make a human pyramid and then photoshop it into a picture of the pyramids of Egypt, but I think we can get a little more creative than that. To give you a little help, the place we are going is the Circus Capital of the Nation! So if that helps you think of something crazy that we can do let me know.

Well I hope everyone's life is going well. I can't wait to hear your ideas!