Dunes

This weekend was our middle school retreat at Dunes Bible Camp on the coast in Long Beach, WA (unfortunately, not Long Beach, CA).  Dunes is THE retreat that everyone at this church looks forward to for... years now.  God always does cool things here.  One of our adult leaders, Mike, has been going to this camp for at least 25 years now (both as a student and as a leader). He said this camp always brings back memories because this was the place that he gave his life over to Christ. Pretty cool stuff...

This weekend was particularly special for me. It was the first retreat that I was the worship leader for... something I've always wanted to do. I have to be honest... it went nothing like I had expected and pictured in my mind. Lots of things came up and changed last minute. Some of the songs were not as tight and together as I was hoping. My guitar tone didn't sound quite how I wanted it to. My voice was quickly fading (not that there is much voice to begin with!).  But on a plus note, my friend Nathan Arnold,  who was playing lead guitar, told me that my voice sounded like Neil Diamond. and... I dont think that is a bad thing... is it? (strangely, I now have the desire to go learn some Neil Diamond songs).

All this to say... there were parts of the weekend that I was actually disappointed with. And I tend to beat myself up, probably because I set high expectations for myself.  Thankfully, God did not disappoint. The students still engaged, God's presence was still felt, and decisions were still made.

Lesson learned (or... lesson that I'm reminded of again): God takes my short-comings and uses them. Actually, I'm sure God still would have done what He did this weekend without me as part of it. I just feel lucky/blessed/humbled to have been a part of it. It was definitely a learning experience... and an experience I hope I get another chance at in the future.

Other things learned (reminded) from Dunes: Our identity is in Christ. That's where our value comes from. Every person has hard things they are dealing with... which gives us even more of a reason to love on people. (that one was actually pointed out by a 6th grade student). Another student gave his life to Christ at 1:30am! Cool story.

Song(s) of the Day: It's a U2 kind of day. So... "Beautiful Day" "Pride" "New Years Day" "Where the Streets Have No Name" etc...

"Aha" moment: Spending time with Jon Dickson. My freshman year of college, I was a youth intern at North Hills Church in Phoenix, AZ.  Jon was one of my first students there. Whenever you see a former student do ministry stuff, it's an "aha" moment. But, to get to do ministry with Jon is something even greater! He was pretty cool to be around as a high school teenager. He's even more awesome as an adult. You dont always get to see progress when you are in ministry... but to see how solid a 14 year old turns out 7 years later, and being a part of that (I think?) is amazing.  Props to Larry Schmidt and Jerrod Nunn on pouring into this young man's life.

EVERYONE: You should be mentoring/teaching/encouraging/spending time with and loving someone who is younger than them... that is not a family member. (family too! just someone else as well). Not only do young people need that - but the results are often fulfilling as well. DO IT! NOW! seriously.

Shnoozewering.

I'd like to introduce you to an idea called "Shnoozewering." It is something I used to do pretty much every morning through high school, but it was lost during college (due to the use of shared showers). I kind of forgot about it, but it recently has come back to my mind, and I just realized how clever and proficient it really is. If you are anything like me and not a morning person, then here ya go...

Shnoozewering is the idea of snoozing while you shower.  In a culture that is so fast pace, efficiency is a must. Shnoozewering is combining 2 of my favorite things into 1... killing 2 birds with 1 stone in the morning routine.  It's like sleeping under a nice, warm, water blanket, while getting clean and ready for the day. I remember I used to wake up, take my phone into the bathroom with me, and set an alarm for about 10 minutes later.

These days, I set 2 alarms each morning, and I hit snooze on both of them... often times leaving no time to shower. (I guess I have become more of a night showerer).  But a morning shower is so great because not only does it make you clean, but it awakens you for the day. To me, it also kind of makes me feel like every day is a fresh start.  But really, to snooze, then shower... what a waste of time!

There are 4 different ways to shnoozewer.

1) The Standing Shnoozewer.  This is when you are standing up, and just simply lean agains the wall while the water hits you. This is nice, but, you can't enter in to a good snooze because you're body cannot fully relax. Also, whichever side of your body is not facing the water gets cold quickly.

2) The Soap Seat Shnoozewer. This can only be done if your shower has a little seat that is meant for the place where you put all of your soaps/shampoos. (really, for me it was only soap/shampoo. But now that I am married, there are a lot more bottles of stuff there. Maybe one day I will read what they are.) This is my current Shnoozewering method. And my shower happens to have 2 of those seats.  (JACKPOT). This is much better than the Standing Shnooze... but still not as good as the next 2.

3) The Reclined Shnoozewer. I'd only suggest this if you have a bath-tub type of shower. But, really, you can shnoozewer however you wantewer... err... want.  This is a really nice method, as you can pretty much lay down in the tub while the hot water blankets you. The back of your body stays warm too as the tub heats up and there is no cool air exposed to anything but your face. Don't be surprised to fall fully back to sleep!

4) The Shath Shnoozewer.  Ok, now we get to the best method of shnoozewering. This is basically the same as the Reclined Shnoozewer, but instead of it just being a shower, its a Shath. (Shower/Bath). Get in the tub, blast the hot water, plug the drain, and enter pure bliss. You are reclined, able to relax and sleep. You have water blasting down on you from the shower head. And you have hot water filling up the tub to surround you. This method also works great because when the tub begins to get full, you can usually feel it and it'll wake you up. **

So there you have it. Mornings can be made nice again. You are welcome.  Now, if I can just figure out a way to eat breakfast while shnoozewering...

Song of the Day: "The Revelation Song" - Kari Jobe

"Aha" moment: We had a stellar youth even this weekend. We put on a "Spa Day" for the girls. Free manicures, pedicures, facials, hair-styles, massages, etc. Our girls bought into the idea that this would be a great outreach event... and we had a 1:3 ratio of our own students to there friends. Plus, the girls who were beautician(?) students happened to all be high schoolers. So we had 32 high school girls with a good chunk of them hearing a message from one of the ladies in our church. Awesome.  Oh, and this was put on be are female adult leaders only. I didn't do anything... I got them money, and helped set up the day before. and thats it. They all chipped in, but I am really proud of my wife who went to town on this thing. She really organized everything well, made it super classy, and thought of a bunch of things that no one else did.  She's awesome. I love her.

**i would not suggest the Shath Shnoozewer if you are a heavy sleeper