Stories from this Summer (some with photographic evidence even)

Dear Everybody,

The other day I started writing haiku. It's been pleasurable.

Some of them are about things that have happened this summer. I like these specific haiku, maybe even more than some of the other ones.

But I like the other ones too.

So, I've decided to post several of them over here so you all can enjoy them and hear what kind of stuff has been going on down here. Kind of.

And since they're only like seventeen to seventeen-and-a-half syllables each, they will not bore you to death either.

Haiku 1 (Wed 8/1/07)

$85
More than a week's worth of work
Parking tickets suck

Being parked in the El Segundo Beach lot after dusk: $50
Being parked on Virginia St between 8 & 10 am Wednesdays: $35
Being a part of funding the largest metropolitan network of roads in the world: Priceless.

OK, so I don't know if it is the largest metropolitan network of roads, but LA's pretty freakin' huge.

Haiku 3 (Fri 8/3/07) my foot is on fire quickly now right foot go down crap am i a dumb

So, beach night was Thursday...and I thought I could do the whole walking across coals thing again. But I hit a wet spot, so this is what my foot looks like now:


The bottom side is definitely worse, but my camera only occasionally works, so this is the shot I got; as you can see, my foot sank into the coals and it burned all the way around. A little light second-degree and quite a bit of strong first-degree means I'm having a blast everywhere I go.

Haiku 6 (Fri 8/3/07)

working in baja
we ate the orphans' last rice
then we came back home

That story is straight up true, y'all. I'll have to tell it sometime in person...the blog thing is cool and all, but it's just going to miss the mark on this one.

Haiku 8 (Sat 8/5/07) my beard looks awesome without it i look fifteen; die, facial hair code!

That first line's true...the senior pastor at my church said so this morning. So I mean, you can disagree, you're just disagreeing with God. ;) Here's a pic of me laying the law down on some troubled youth at beach night. (or something along those lines...)


Peace, love,
and joy to
you all.

State of Emergency

OK, so, this blog is kinda turning into me just talking about what I'm doing in youth ministry, but that is basically all I do out here, so that's all y'all get. And since a bunch of you are already involved in youth ministry, and a bunch more of y'all should be, maybe these kinds of posts will give you some good ideas about where to go or what to do. Or, you can also shout things back at me in the comments like "that sucks!" or more constructive things like "i think it would be cool to do that same thing with shards of pottery and glass" or whatever.

I think it'll be fun.

So tonight was my last official regular old Uturn of the summer, which is crazy how fast this summer has gone by. Anywho, Jon (the youth pastor) set it up long ago that I would be speaking tonight, so I prepared a whole lesson based around the life of Joseph (Old Testament). I mainly talked about how God uses the parts of our lives that we don't like or don't make sense to us to bring us to the place where he wants us. I called it "State of Emergency" because Joseph rose to power just in time to save the world in that huge famine. But mainly because I listened to this Bjork song "Joga" and that's where the whole idea for the teaching came from. I think the speaking portion was better last time I spoke. Also, I definitely heard from a bunch of people afterwards that I pace like mad. There was one freshman girl who said she felt like she was watching a tennis match. Note taken.

The cool thing, though, about tonight was that we put together this awesome mosaic. I told a story from my life that a lot of y'all probably remember from a few Christmases ago, and just talked about how in that situation, and in a lot of situations, I just don't understand why God has certain things happen. So I asked the kids to write down a situation similar to that in their lives on these little sheets of paper. The sheets were covered in dots of random colors and sizes which everyone just kind of wrote over.

While I was talking about the life and times of Joseph, the students on the student-leaders team at Uturn arranged the dotted images into the mosaic which they were each a part of. Anywho, this has been kind of confusing to write, so I took some pictures so that you could see it in action.

This is the full image. I talked about trees at the end. I don't know how well that part stuck. But I think this image came out perfect.

I also took a couple of close-ups:

How amazing are these students?

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

An Update ~or~ A News Report, a Girl, and a Poem

I'm tired. I've been working hard and staying very busy all summer. It's been pretty awesome.

But really, I'm still the same me. I don't really watch TV, cause I don't have the time. And I haven't touched a guitar since May, cause I didn't bring one out here. Other than that, I'm still basically the same me.

Oh, except for I kinda fell in love with this girl. At first, I didn't know what to think of her, but the more time I spend listening to her, the more I like what I hear. The problem is that her hair is shorter than mine, and mine's pretty freaking short. Oh, and she's like twice my age.

I am, of course, talking about none other than Sinead O'Connor, who's newish album "Theology" has been playing over and over in my head for the past couple of days now. I recommend it with the caveat that it's not a systematic theology textbook, so if you are going to take issue with her riffs on the Old Testament, then just let it be. But, until somebody else writes awesome music about Job, Jesus, and Psalm 91, I'll be listening to this.

Lastly is a poem. That I didn't write. But I like it. The only way I came across it was through one of the blogs I read to try to stretch the boundaries of how I define ministry. The blog is jonnybaker but the poem is by kester. Enjoy!

If we could all
just stop throwing stones,
and stoop, knees bent
and write in the dust,

we'd see that the dust
was once stone -
grand, and hard, and proud, and tough -
now ground and dissolved
in grace and tears.

So... how much better
to be a grain of dirt
on that kind prophet’s hands
than a stone
in the cold, accusing Temple
of the pure.

an avant-ish page from my notebook

Today was cloudy.
It was sunny once. Lunch. Fun.
But then it was cloudy. I don't
remember when or how. But it was
cloudy.
It was cloudy when I went to
dinner. I brought a hoodie to be safe
in my backpack when I grabbed
my iPod.
There's a feather next to me blowing
all about in the wind. It hasn't left
yet but it's so small and the breeze
is strong
I listened to Jay Bakker during
my walk and my meal. The hash
browns were very good.
The message was about God having
forgotten our sin. It's on iTunes.
I started walking toward the water.
Jay made some jokes about Brad Pitt,
Ty Pennington and Brennan Manning. I
laughed out loud.
He ran out of words at Grand & Main.
I tried to listen the songs I
put on my iPod today. They didn't
work until I hit Evolution.
The Cinematic Orchestra makes my
life seem like art.
It sounded like it was skipping or something.
THE STARS
LIGHT UP MY LIFE
And I thought of Jay Bakker and Phil2 and
DC Talk and shining like stars.
EVERLASTING
THE SUN (SON?)
LIGHT UP (OF?) MY LIFE
I was struck.
WHAT I MEAN
THE SON
IN DAWN (?)
YOUR LOVE
YOUR LIFE
SO BRIGHT
EVERLASTING
I hit the crest of the hill. I saw
the water. The clouds broke.
EVOLUTION
A change.

The Pleasure Cruise of the Disciples

So, youth ministry has always been a big thing for me, right? A bunch of times you'll see it show up in my posts or whatever.

It's always weird to me, though, because it's such a huge part of my life but most all of my friends and even family members have never really seen me doing youth ministry stuff.

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to speak to Uturn (which is the youth ministry here at El Segundo Foursquare Church). I talked about trusting God and facing your fears, which have kinda been the things that I'd been working through with this whole internship experience.


Anyway, the message got recorded, so I thought it might be fun to post a little bit from right at the end, kinda as proof to you guys who haven't really ever seen or heard me do youth ministry that I actually do it. Oh, and to give everyone the opportunity to make fun of the fact that I don't seem to fully understand the concept of a microphone, or that it's pretty obvious that my speaking style is more influenced by dane cook and nick swardson than billy graham or some other preachery guy.

Anywho, here's a little ten minute chunk I like to call the tennis story.

019987

The number above is a code. It means that I'm still alive.

I'm just crazy busy.

But I'm working on a post. It's not yet done.


But I made a sample.

Cause I thought it was funny. Particularly upon reading it.

Friday afternoon was reserved for prayer and fasting for the Mission staff, so we planned a pool day.

Keep watch.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

Updating the Liturgy

So, if you paraphrase The Message, what exactly is it at that point?

I believe I will call it the super-illegal-bootlegged-Margheimish-Message by Eugene Peterson Version (SIBMMEPV).

Isaiah 43.2ish (SIBMMEPV)

"Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you.
I've called your name. You're mine.
When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you.
When you're in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you're between a rock and a hard place,
it won't be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Rescuer."



Ok, so I only changed one word. But that's my new Christian trend-setting crusade.

Anywho, this verse popped up in the ESV Bible RSS Feed just now, and I liked it.

Peace, love and joy to you all