Staten Island Here I Come: In The Words Of My Favorite Little Human~ It Was UH-MAZING!!!

Hey Ya'll!

I feel like it's been way more than four days since I last posted, even though the last post was more like a blurb than an actual post. I am in Boston now (Saugus) and I have some free time here, so I figured now is as good a time to bring you all up to speed as any! I took off from Staten Island, NY after dropping Aaron and Dave off about 3:30pm yesterday and got in here about 8:30pm last night. Ray's house was an unpleasant 49* when I woke up yesterday morning INSIDE as there was NO power, and Aaron and Dave ended up crashing there Sunday night instead of going home like planned because Ray was exhausted and his trucks were all out plowing. He might have power back tomorrow. My intention was to be here in Boston by noon yesterday, but the storm caused a hitch in the get along, so I had to just roll with it.

First, a shout out to Mr. Charlie Ek...Happy Birthday yesterday! I didn't forget you, I even called while I was driving through Brooklyn and Queens, New York in rush hour traffic :) To the rest of you at home, give him a bad time for me, will ya? Thanks!

Now for the good stuff, the retreat was an absolute blast! We got about 8-10" of snow, depending on where you were standing, in less than 12 hours, but we kept our power. But more than the snow, the kids heard from God, and the Staten Island boys~ Dave and Aaron~ got their hearts touched by God in a real way, and there were some awesome conversations that I got to have with them, and some awesome conversations I heard about from the guy adult leaders they were in connection with at camp. God is so good and so faithful! It amazes me, though it shouldn't, how He moves in the lives and hearts of those who WANT to hear from him and who are called according to his will and purpose, ya know?! MMMM!!! GOOD STUFF. The theme of the weekend was: WORSHIP: Eat, sleep and Hail Mary (football). Worship is a way of life, not just 20 minutes as part of a church service or a genre of music. It's everything we do and are, and even the unsaved worship. If you disagree, think about a Michael Jackson concert, or the Superbowl. See? We all worship something or someone. We talked about things like "who is God" and how you explain who he is in tangible ways. For example, he is living water, he is the bread of life, and he is sweeter than honey. It's easy to say God is holy, awesome, perfect, light, etc, but how would you explain that to a deaf guy from Zimbabwe? You could explain to him that God is living water, bread of life and sweeter than honey a little easier, and still communicate all the other things too. Made me think out side of my "western mind" :)

Then we talked about the condition of our hearts, the Hebrew word is Kavanah. The parable used was the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The parables were told so the students could respond, not just so they could hear another story. So, the point of this parable is not to pick who you want to be, ie, the pharisee or the tax collector, but about understanding the condition of one's heart. After this session, the small groups shared communion together, then we had a ton of free time. Some played paintball in the snow, some played on the ginormous inflatable bouncy structures in the gym (this is what I did, and this was not your average ball pit!) IT WAS AWESOME. Then, Saturday night, Ryan (youth pastor) and Dave (music/worship pastor) gathered all the adult leaders together in the dark gym and said something to the affect of, "tonight might feel really normal to some of you, and tonight might feel really charismatic to some of you. Get over it and let God lead tonight! We are going to talk about postures in worship with the kids, and then we are going to all come down here tonight and see what God does with that. We are going to pray with them, we are going to sing with them, we are going to read Scripture out loud with them, allow them to read out loud or speak out loud what is on their hearts. We are setting the table for God, and then we are going to let him do what he wants with us and through us." Then we went upstairs and had a teaching time with the kids and talked about what the postures of worship were, and then came down and did just what Ryan and Dave said.

We prayed with the kids, and we watched walls crumble. At one point I walked past Aaron and Dave sitting with one of their cabin mates and an adult leader praying and all of them were crying openly. I don't know what was going on other than the adult leader was praying with them. I found out later that a couple of the adult leaders had walked up to Aaron and Dave and called out the men in them, told them they were sons of God and that God was proud to call them sons. That's all it took to break their hearts open. I prayed with a number of the young ladies. Three of the teens their were siblings and their dad had left their family for another woman, and these kids were hurting and angry. I got the chance to pray for all of them, two girls and a young man. The oldest is a young woman who is trying so hard to hold the family together, and as I started to pray for her, she just broke out into tears and sobs. After I finished praying, she said it was so freeing to just open up and let it all go. I was on this retreat for a very specific reason, and by the time we left on Sunday, I felt like I had been part of this church doing ministry with these adult leaders and with these kids for years. I felt like family. Obviously, they aren't my South Clackamas family, but I felt connected with these people, and if I end up in New Jersey, this church is certainly a place I can call home. It was good to feel that! The Sunday morning session and wrap up concluded with a prayer walk in the small groups and we all ended up by the lake you see in the pictures. On the way down, each kid and leader picked up a rock and wrote our names on it. Ryan concluded the time by talking about how Jesus is the Chief corner stone, and about how Peter's name means "Rock", and how Jesus is our rock, foundation, etc, and as his followers, we are living stones. So, you have to look closely, but on the cross by the lake, you can see the stones up on the cross. They are the stones with the names on them. We are living stones, and these are standing stones! Ask Mike what standing stones are :) Or just go read Joshua again!

At one point, Aaron came up to me and told me he hadn't felt this good or this happy in years (his mom passed away about three years ago), and that he was so glad he came and that I had asked him to come. He said he couldn't have dreamed of connecting with these people. He said he never imagined getting together with people his age and hearing that people can have problems like him AND still love Jesus and follow him with all they've got. It was enough to make me cry later. I didn't want to make him feel odd, so I was able to keep it together until I was talking to another adult leader later on about the conversation. It was just so stinkin' cool. I can't tell you guys how thankful I am for you giving to make it possible for Aaron and Dave to go. Both your finances and your prayers made this possible. God moved through you! thank you THANK YOU!

After Saturday night's session, all of the adult leaders had kind of a debriefing, and they said they had prayed for God to move in the kids the way he moved that night for years, and that night was the first time they had seen ANYTHING like what they had witnessed. They were stoked, and I got to be a part of it too. Then, on the way home Sunday, the kids said that the retreat was by far the best retreat they had ever been on. Some of these kids have been going on these retreats since they were in 6th or 7th grade and are now seniors in high school. So, God really did something great for and through these kids and leaders. I'm so humbled to have gotten a chance to be involved in it.

So, there are pictures here too, and I'll post some from my Boston adventure. I'll blog some while I'm here, although this is a fun time visit with my friends. For those of you that know Paul, my work partner/mentor, I'm with his kids and grand kids in Boston this week. I go back to New Jersey either Sunday night or Monday next week. It will all depend on how tired I am Sunday :) So, the blogging from here will be the fun things the kids say and the pictures of Boston in the fall, oh and the stinkin' cute kids I get to hang with. Thanks for praying! I love and miss you guys!