LIFT Camp
Everybody is safe so far and it appears everyone is having a good time. Aaron has been a great speaker and the kids are definitely get a lot out of the services. Our group has good unity so far and are doing a lot together. Keep praying the heat is getting to the kids and leaders. I’ll report more tomorrow.
lIFe change
Life change can happen at camp or church but I believe it is IF we are willing to let it happen. I believe God can and does whatever He wants whenever He wants. I also believe that it is up to us to be willing to allow it to happen.
Sometimes our stubbornness or our pride keeps life change from happening. IF it is to happen we need to make a conscious choice to step out of our comfort zone pick up our “mat” and see what God has in store for us on this journey.
With camp coming the expectation is always the same. For the teenagers they go to have fun. For the leaders they go to connect with the kids and see the kids experience life change. For the parents it is seeing their kids hopefully get this idea of spiritual growth. Yes they want them to have fun or they won’t want to go back but they want their kids to grow spiritualy and see them connect long term to the church and God.
I have been to camps since I was in high school and one thing is almost certain, students will come back moved. Whether or not they come back changed is determined IF they are open to see areas of improvement in their life and IF they are willing to open up and accept and be accepted by others.
Parents, church and leaders be praying that our teens buy into that “IF” factor and open up like they never have before. My prayer is that our kids come back changed not just moved. (I also want them to have fun so they will want to go back next year)
Gridiron
Just watched the movie the Gridiron Gang and a couple things stuck out to me.
- Our kids are no different than the kids in the movie. Yes they are from the hood and are in jail but at the core they are kids who are hurting and have a lot of junk in their lives. Our kids are hurting and have a lot of junk in their lives. Being a teenager is tough and it doesn’t really get any easier as you get older we just get better at masking the pain and making excuses.
- At the end of the movie they walked away as winners. How did they get that way? Somebody believed in them. Somebody showed them acceptance and love. Somebody coached them through their junk and celebrated with them through their victories. Somebody set the bar high and encouraged them along the way. I feel we don’t set the bar high enough sometimes. We would rather have winners who attained a low set goal that required little to no effort than people who developed character giving it their best but at the end of the day missed the mark. I guarantee those who missed the mark learned a lot more about themselves and the situation than those who hit it every time. I have learned more from my mistakes and shortcomings in life than through my victories and successes.
- I have learned in life not everyone is a winner and you don’t always get a trophy. I fear we are creating a generation of young people who don’t know how to lose and who don’t know how to really fight for the things in life that are really worth fighting for.
John talked today in staff meeting about our new sidewalk and how nobody notices it. Nobody notices it because it looks like how it’s supposed to. I wonder if we miss opportunities with our teenagers and others because until something is wrong and needs to be fixed we don’t notice them.
I wonder what it would be like to walk with our students and coworkers and celebrate their victories and coach their junk, but do it becuase we love and accept them, not out of reaction to an issue that occured.
Initiator Or Responder?
Taken from a post of Perry Noble
Are you an initiator or a responder?
- An initiator spends their time trying to think big and extinguish the fires of hell…a responder spends their time trying to figure out how to keep people happy and tries to extinguish the fires of small minded people.
- An initiator spends their time asking God to lead them to take huge risks…a responder spends their time asking God to keep them safe.
- An initiator takes God led risks…a responder will call a business meeting.
- An initiator spends all of their time trying to please God…a responder spends all of their time trying to please people.
- An initiator will preach what he feels that God has told him to preach and not fear the consequences…a responder will preach what makes people happy so he can receive a paycheck.
- An initiator spends all of their time trying to figure out what’s next…and a responder spends all their time trying to figure out how to guard the past and the present.
- An initiator prays huge prayers and asks God for impossible things…a responder doesn’t really think God is in the miracle business anymore & will pray prayers that doesn’t require God’s help to accomplish so that “God doesn’t look bad!”
- An initiator will surround himself with leaders who will speak their minds…a responder want people around him who will say, “Your poop doesn’t stink!”
- An initiator wants to meet with people who do not think like him…a responder is threatened by people who aren’t just like him.
I find myself growing from being a responder to an initiator. I feel that this is a life long process. It is so easy to get involved in a situation and naturally take the responder stance.
What steps are you taking to become an initiator?
Doers vs. Leaders
Got this from Tim Stevens blog.In an organization with 100 people:
- 20 people are doers.
- With a leader.
- 80 are hanging around watching, experimenting, consuming, or complaining.
- When the 20 expand to 40, chances are there’s 200 now in the organization (or will be).
- The 20 tend to get frustrated with the 80 for not doing anything and at times will tell them. (They should avoid that.)
- The 80 will ride the coattails of the 20 and feel like they did it and even take credit for it.
- This sometimes frustrates the 20. They should not be frustrated. They should just do.
- Great leaders pour vision into the 20 while casting the net out to the 100.
- Frustrated leaders spend a lot of time trying to get the 80 be part of the 20.
- Of the 80, some will become doers as the organization grows.
- The doers that simply do will some day realize there are people following them.
- Some of the 80 will become part of the 20 with a simple personal invite.
- A leader will be turned down 4 times for every yes. This does not bother great leaders. It frustrates others.
- Frustrated leaders have the opportunity to be great leaders.
Mandela
Not sure who I got this from but it was an article on Nelson Mandela and his leadership principles.
- COURAGE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF FEAR – IT’S INSPIRING OTHERS TO MOVE BEYOND IT.
- LEAD FROM THE FRONT – BUT DON’T LEAVE YOUR BASE BEHIND.
- LEAD FROM THE BACK – AND LET OTHERS BELIEVE THEY ARE IN FRONT.
- KNOW YOUR ENEMY – AND LEARN ABOUT HIS FAVORITE SPORT.
- KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE – AND YOUR RIVALS EVEN CLOSER.
- APPEARANCES MATTER – AND REMEMBER TO SMILE.
- NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE.
- QUITTING IS LEADING TOO.
Anniversary
Yesterday Jess and I celebrated 8 years together. We have known each other for 10 years and it has been amazing. I still to this day cannot figure out why she married me. Either way I am blessed to have her as my wife. She is an amazing wife to me and mother to our two boys.
When we first met as she pulled up, I played rock, scissors, paper with my roommate to ask her out for a date. I won and the rest is history. Now that I write this, maybe she played with her roommate and lost? We dated and were engaged for 2 years. During those 2 years I was a horrible boyfriend/fiance. I am still a work in progress but I am thankful that as I am working on all the junk in my life she stays beside me.
I look forward to the next 8 years and beyond with Jess and can’t wait to see how far God will bring us.
Spontaneous
On Sunday I got spontaneous which means I didn’t plan out for a week or get maps, charts or graphs. Yes I have that type of personality. I took Jess and the boys to Wildwood, NJ to stay overnight. Never had we done this before so it was fun for all of us. The boys were going crazy in the room with excitment. They did actually try to convince Jess and I that it would be safer for them to sleep in the king bed in the back rather than on the pull out sofa in the front room. It was a great idea that almost worked. I took Matthew to the back and gave Tyler Jess in the front room.
It was fun taking the boys to the boardwalk and watching them on the games. Matthew wants everything that goes in circles and ups and downs. Tyler liked the boat that barely moved and stayed flat. They are so alike and yet they are so different.
The beach was great although Tyler doesn’t like water only sand…and we can’t get Matthew out of the water. I used to love all that but now I’m not a huge fan of the beach. I like it with big groups but I get bored easily when I am sitting around.
What are you doing to live spontaneously?
Gas
There is actually a term that ties in with using less fuel it is called i.e Hypermiling. Did you know there is a ton of information online about this idea? Remember when brown was the new black? Well now, less is the new more! These are some strategies that I found for visiting the pumps less often.
1. Mellow Music. You’ll notice that you’ll drive faster to Rock music and that listening to something mellower (or even a story CD) means you’ll travel at a more civilised pace. Although you may find yourself wanting to crash the car out of boredom.
2. Regular oil and air filter change. More efficient burn and less friction.
3. Move less weight. Losing random junk from the car means less work for the engine to do. I know people who live in their car.
4. Use the FIRST available car parking space. Arriving in a car park or town, ditch the car at the first opportunity as low speed manouvering and waiting wastes fuel.
5. Where possible, drive at the optimum time. I’m fortunate with my job as i live on the campus. But you still need to take opportunities to miss rush hour or miss getting stuck behind a bus where not only are you wasting gas, kids are pointing at you and laughing making you feel even more insecure than you already do.
6. 55mph is GREAT, above 3000 rpm is BAD. Nuff said, watch the dials
7. Leave space. The more space between you and the car ahead the less you have to do sudden braking and hence costly re-acceleration. Or the more space between you and the car ahead allows for more opportunities for others to cut in and more expletives to pop into your mind.
8. Think way ahead. More chance to keep the car moving.
9. Dodge the wind. If it’s a windy day or if there are lots of trucks coming the other way (they move A LOT of air towards you), hug the inside lane.
10. Tyres. Keep them well inflated.
11. Avoid Stopping if possible. It really sucks gas to move over a ton of metal from a stand still.
12. Accelarate evenly and find 5th fast.
13. Switch off. If you’re not moving then the engine doesn’t need to be turning.
14. See the journey in a different light. If you see the journey as something that must be endured before you can get on with X then you’ll speed. See the journey as part of the activity of the day and you can be more chilled.
These are just some ideas and it doesn’t mean that I do them or will try to do them but they may help us out when we are getting 6 miles to the gallon.
Live Different-Serve
Isn’t the idea of a missions trip so we can go and make a difference and change people’s lives? So why is it that I feel that I was the one changed more than them? When you go on a trip like this and build playgrounds for orphans it sounds so prideful to say, What did you do this week? I built playgrounds for orphans. Maybe that is some people’s attitude to trips like these. It may have been my attitude last year. Not this year. This year it was the idea, the hope of bringing a smile to kids face. To create a place of safety. To create a place where they could simply go to be a kid.
We are so spoiled here in America and most of the time either don’t realize it or don’t care. After all we deserve what we have right? As I watched the kids in the Smolensk work project jump in and help without us asking. As I watched them SERVE without expecting anything in return, I was humbled. How is it that it is so easy to serve in another country but so difficult to serve the ones I love? To serve those who are around us on a regular basis. To serve our communities we live in, work in and play in. The theme of this year at our church is to Live Different. That was also the theme of our missions trip. As I try to download this past 10 days I realize that we did not only go to help provide opportunities for them to live different, but we went to challenge each other to live different?
How are you living different where you are today?
