Corn Maze

Our "LIFE" Group from church went to a corn maze yesterday.  This was my first corn maze and didn't know what to expect.  Part of me was waiting for some scary kids to emerge from the corn all around us, but thankfully none did.

Over all we had a great time with some highlights being getting totally lost in this massive maze, seeing a pig race, watching my friends ride tricycles, and doing some line dancing with a 60+ year old instructor who loved to shake his butt!  Awkward but totally hilarious.

Here's some pics.

Notice the goat on the bridge.  They could walk over to a fenced in area on the roof of the barn!

Some of the guys racing around on Tricycles!

Some good ol' dancing - the guy with the hat was our instructor.

They call this corn.  I think you can eat it?

What you saw when you looked up.

Our GPS System

The view from a bridge in the middle of the field

Pearl and a random pot belly pig in the maze - yes random!

Gangsta Josh

Da farm

Why do we feel so compelled to stick our heads in these things?

Crap!  Which way do we go? wait haven't we been here before?

We've got some great friends!

Belonging...

This weekend I had the honor of teaching at a fall retreat for a group of High School students. I had partnered with their Youth Pastor and worked from teaching templates that he created. The central theme for the weekend was that of “belonging,” and each gathering centered around different aspects of belonging; us not needing anything to belong, not having to meet unspoken expectations, belonging no matter what we’ve done, and the support found in belonging.

The weekend overall was a great but the moment that struck me the hardest was on Saturday night as we talked about belonging no matter what you had done. We had taken some time to look the lives of the disciples, their failures, what it meant to be a disciple in that day and in general how they just did not measure up. We then had the students gather around a table and moved into taking communion together.

But here’s the kicker for me.

Communion for me is now seen in a different light. For years communion was seen as a reminder of how God came to “clean up” our sorry excuse for a pathetic life, serving as a reminder of how God had to bail us out of our helpless state of “screwed-up-ness.” But that night as we sat around a table, candle light flickering in the room, and retold the story of the disciples, and what they might have experienced that evening a new truth hit me.

In essence Jesus was saying to the disciples, I know the mistakes you’ve made, I know the ones you’re going to make, I even know what you’re going to do within the next 24 hours, but the next time you eat some bread and drink some wine I want you to remember that what’s about to happen to my body and blood was done so that you might belong. That you can belong not only around this table now, but also belong in my Kingdom, in my plans for this world, and as my disciples. I believe in you guys and I believe you can really be my disciples, following in my footsteps. That you can know what I know and do what I’ve done (except for the whole God part), I believe in you guys. I don’t see you by your brokenness but by your potential.

I recently had a friend tell me that the we doesn’t need to hear what’s wrong with us as much as we need to hear that we are loved and accepted. And that night as the candles flickered, I was reminded that for whatever reason I was accepted, that God loved me, even with all my crap, brokenness and screw-ups, I was loved, I was deeply loved, and I belonged.

So may I remember this acceptance when the candles are no longer flickering. May I live as one who belongs and not as the one with the “loser” sticker on his back, and may I remember to tell people of their worth, value, and acceptance rather then pointing out yet again their failure and mistakes.

So the next time we eat bread or drink some juice may we remember just how deeply we belong.


Here's some pics from the weekend:

Dan had us playing some crazy games

Dan explaining another crazy game

A game that was a mix of dodge ball + hockey + four square + couple of other things = a whole lot of fun

Some notes to each other

The woods were amazing, Fall is finally here!

A retreat is not complete without some campfire time

The Gang!

2 videos

here's two video's I came across this morning as I checked my blogs and twitters, so if you follow the same people I do, sorry for repeating what you've already seen. But if you've not noticed these, for some reason or another I enjoyed them both.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.
Pray for Pearl and I, we will be helping with a youth retreat this weekend, I'll post pics next week.

bus stop excitement!

I am yet again sitting at a startbucks, with my laptop, and a nice hot cup of “pike place” coffee.It seems like right now my life is in one of a few places, starbucks, Apple store, Home, or School work. I would say that variety is what marks my life right now. But with bus rides like I just had makes my days feel pretty “on wild.”

Here’s the story…
I needed to be at the Queen st bus station by 1:55 to catch my the route 19 bus out towards Manhiem. I needed to make it to the starbucks where Pearl, Josh and I all connect to head out to philly together.

I made it to the station, about a mile walk, with a little time to spare, so I purchased a 10 trip ticket and made my way to my loading zone. As I approached a saw the bus waiting with a couple of guys at the door. But the odd thing was that the door was shut, and the driver was totally ignoring us.

So the three of us where standing there waiting.
There was:
- myself
- a young African America kid who just graduated high school and was heading out to see “his girl”
and last but not least
- our entertainment or also known as one extremely drunk 40 year old man.

As I approached this gentleman was very aggravated and aggressive towards the driver, yelling and expressing his rather small vocabulary of profanity which consisted mainly of 3 words, which we would hear a lot, and I mean a lot.

I would go on to learn that this gentleman was on the bus, got off the bus to use the bathroom, and then was locked off the bus and not allowed back on it.

He smelt like the bottom of a beer keg and as the minutes rolled by grew in his expression and volume.

The driver was in “shut down mode” until some authorities could arrive to escort this man away.

Here’s the fun part, when this man realized that the driver was not going to open the door for him he decided he would show him who’s boss and climb on the front of the bus and entangled himself in the bike rack. Swearing he would hold on until the doors where open.

Me, seeing a good opportunity, pulled out my camera and started taking his picture, he smiled and waved back. Others joined in on taking pictures, and this attention only fueled his public display. Authorities finally arrived as the man was removed from the front of the bus.

I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.

Here he is posing for his press picture

Here is the Driver ignoring this man as he shows his protest
Here is a little glimpse of his protest!

2 Lessons learned:
1 - the bus is a whole lot of fun
2- never try to reason with a drunk man, just take his picture