RIP, concert shirt

Today marked the end of a concert shirt from my high school days. It was my "Upward Staff" shirt that I had received as a basketball referee long ago for Lakeland. I chose it to wear to the dozens (if not hundreds) of concerts that I went to in my high school days, because it was signable. Forget bringing posters or cds that could be lost/broken/torn amongst the crowd at the concert, just bring a Sharpie, and you're golden!

And I had several names on my back, four which meant a lot to me: Nathan, Chris, Thom, and Owen. But that was a long time ago. Much has changed.

The food fight was amazing. Thirteen students came, which even though small, is still so much more controllable than 14 junior high students or more. We had an all out war at the end, and I was covered head-to-toe in honey, ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, egg yolk, etc. I did not smell good, that's for sure. When I went to take my shower after the event, I looked at the shirt and realized it was over.

In fact, I haven't been to many concerts lately, especially in comparison to high school life. I don't know for sure whether I miss that or not. Part of me loved feeling closer to the band than just hearing them from my car stereo. Part of me feels like maybe it's too much show, and for the pride of saying, "Oh yeah, I've seen them. They were all right." I also think about how many concerts I've been to that were actually quality when it comes to musical talent (I suppose the Fall Out Boy concert wouldn't count? :P).

Any way, that was just a musing. Youth ministry is way better than concerts. Cheaper too.

Review of history

I had lunch with a student today at Chick Fil A. On the way back we were talking about pets, and she mentioned that she used to have a mutt of a dog that they called Teddy. She said that she missed that dog tremendously, but they've gotten another one to make up for the absence.

"It's why we've named our most recent dog Ellie. Like Eleanor Roosevelt."

I paused, second guessing myself. Wasn't Eleanor married to Franklin? I asked her that.

"Oh. wait.. really?" she asked. "Maybe our family needs to research a little before we just name a dog. Kind of takes the meaning out of it, huh?"

Upon returning to the office, I searched wikipedia for more info on the woman, remembering some of the strange rumors I've heard about her. Yeah...

How cool are you? How high is the sky?*

The following is something one of the students who came to CHIC wrote about on her facebook page (for all to see). She titled it "Life is Great."

Ben and I were reflecting on our experience a few minutes before. I told him, "I don't feel anything, good or bad. I feel depersonalized, like I'm watching myself live my life without any control over anything. I don't think there is a god."

The exact moment when I said the last part a monarch butterfly landed on my hand. I stayed still and felt it tickle my hand. I waved at a boy who walked past me and it still stayed there.

It stayed on my hand for 5 minutes, and then I decided I needed lunch. I moved my hand and the butterfly didn't move. I moved it onto my piece of paper and it didn't leave. Finally it flapped its wings and flew, but instead of flying away it followed us.

I thought about that the whole day and came to the conclusion that God was telling me that he was there and he cared.

In that one moment I was over my depression and I was over my first love. And God is great.

------

*This refers to a moment when Kala and I were in Nevada. It is quite random, but it involved puppets, so it's kind've cool too.

CHIC 2009

CHIC brought a lot of firsts for me.

My first time to see Erwin McManus.
My first time to be a part of some major discipline for students.
My first time to justify that many naps during a conference. :P
My first time to write a letter to a senator.

So much of CHIC was spent figuring out what we were doing, as all but one of the leaders have never been to CHIC before. We were often tired and spent, but still had some really great moments with the students.

I also feel like we grew closer as leaders, having many moments of laughing together---

I forgot my deodorant and so I just used a little bar of soap to scrub my arm pits every now and then (is this too much information?) that was provided for us in our dorm (we were given several). I told one of the leaders later that day to make sure to avoid using the soap on the far left.

"Why?" she asked. "I used that to wash my face this morning."

---and several moments of crying together for the sake of these students. I don't even know if I've ever wept that much, thinking about how deep the hurts of our students run.

Admittedly too, I struggled this week with justifying the camp experience. So much of my heart wishes that these experiences with God and each other were more regular, and didn't require a week away to come to this point. I want to think more on this topic, and maybe even write something about it.

Overall though, CHIC was a lot of fun. Lord willing, I'll get to go again.

Merq

This is a picture from one of our dates. We saw the movie "Up" and enjoyed the luxuries of a limo. If by limo you mean 12 passenger van :P.

We had a lot of good conversation times, and a lot of family time as well. As it is traditional for the Molitors to eat together for dinner, one night, we couldn't get all together until midnight!We got some juggling time in, and John taught me quite a few new tricks. I actually plan on taking my juggling balls (not just spider killers ;) to CHIC next week to keep practicing!

There is simply too much to say about the week. I'll just say that we are learning a lot, and have a lot more to learn (not just in terms of juggling--although metaphorically, maybe).