Yooth Kamp

Well, I guess it's time to write about Youth Camp. It's always daunting to commence journaling such a long and eventful time, which is why I haven't yet.

This Youth Camp was fundamentally different from every other one I've been to. YC has always been a *magical* time, with seemingly endless days filled with nonstop interaction with special people, crazy activities, fun food and mindset-shifting spiritual input and application. This YC showed the toll of my increasing age and familiarity with extrapittsburghian friends as the whole thing seemed a bit more ordinary and the days slipped by quickly. It was seriously no more special to hang out with Craig than with Justin, and I felt like I hardly had any time to hang out anyway. Plus there is a teeming crowd of newcomers to the youth scene who I don't know. Last year I was somewhat of a celebrity during youth camp, bombing people with skittles from the cherrypicker bucket, putting together the Star Wars parody intro for the whole roasted pig Thursday night, playing on the worship team, writing a big letter to Captain Midnight that won our cabin the award for cleanest on Friday, and knowing most of the folks around. Plus I literally was taken from despairing spiritual dryness to glowing experience of God and joy. Pretty much impossible to top that :-)

So, given that there wasn't pixy dust, what was there? How do I want to remember this youth camp in the years to come? What were those days like?

Well, it started off by tossing some frisbees outside a pavilion in South Park as youth and parents arrived and pizza and pop awaited us on the tables. We ate and talked, and then left promptly at 12:30, obeying Mr. Pierson's firm orders. I rode with Mom, Katie Caldwell and Gabrielle Martin, and our van took a long time getting there. It was about 3:00 when we arrived. I wandered around saying hi and trying to find Joe Ryer, the head of YC, to find out what he wanted me to do. Direction didn't really come until the parents meeting at 4, when we got the low-down from Joe and got to sign up to help with games. I picked Belly Bumper Basket Ball (yay, Belly Bumpers were back!) Thursday and Noodle Sockey (best game ever!) Friday. Then the confusion trying to find out when worship practice was, who was going, who I could ride with, and how I could get in now and set up my electric guitar stuff. All those questions were answered, all those tasks accomplished, and so a few hours later I jumped to the front of the dinner line, grabbed a burger, ate with a few folks, and then headed over to Penn Run (the big gym-type place where the main meetings were held and all the guys slept) for practice. Though I was joyously honored to play guitar on the youth camp worship team (pretty much the funnest time you'll ever have in a worship band), I realized by the end that it did take a toll on my time with people. That and refereeing. I ate my lunches and dinners quick and early and was out practicing with the band or preparing for games while everybody else was eating, getting cabin inspection reports, and talking. By no means an unequal tradeoff, but a tradeoff nonetheless.

Worship was great, though I found out afterwards that the EQ was crummy on my guitar so nobody could really hear it. Oh well. People kept saying how great of a time it looked like I was having up there, and those that I asked said it helped them worship, so that's cool. It was a great time. The theme of YC was basically refreshing the gospel and such for kids who have grown up Christian, as probably 95% of YC'ers have. The messages really didn't have a bit impact on me, though they were certainly refreshing to hear. In fact, on Thursday night I couldn't stand it anymore, as the glorious truths of the Gospel being spoken by Stephen just bounced off my ears, and seemed to be bouncing off everybody's ears. I went back into the dark kitchen and prayed for the last half of the sermon, just crying out to God to open our hearts to these amazing truths that we've gotten so accustomed to hearing. That was the spiritual highlight of YC. That and David's message about the battle against sin and Mr. Altrogge's message about needing to use the riches God's given us. Those were sweet messages. The Altrogges are a ridiculously sweet family :-)

SO. Wednesday night, playing, message, then playing basketball and such and eventually setting up my bedding by Daniel, Craig, Nick and others, brushing my teeth in the men's room, and sleeping fitfully on the unyeilding concrete floor.

Thursday and Friday were similar: up, dress, pack up stuff, ride to the camp, go to prayer meeting a little late (highly populated this year), breakfast (as in, verb), chill briefly, then hit the morning session in the main room at New Horizons. There were team devotions after the session, in which I participated on Thursday. Friday I got Noodle Sockey ready. Then lunch (first in line, first to leave) and reffing games all afternoon. As I stood by the field and made calls and watched people play hard I felt the lack of getting hot and sweaty and tired with the teams doing the games. Ah, to be a team leader! Anyway, I was happy to help out. On Friday it rained substantially, and we kept right on playing, and that was sweet even though I got rather chilly. Yay for getting soaked and not caring! That afternoon I killed 3 Dr.Peppers as I stood by the goal and made calls and entertained the goalies. Mmm, that was some of the best Dr.P I've ever had.

After the afternoon (afterafternoon?) it was time for a shower. However, you see, I did not know that my first day, so I brought no additional clothing. Augh, I still cringe at the memory of besmirching my newfound cleanliness with the soiled clothes of the sweaty afternoon. *Jibbly*. But Friday I was one day older and one day wiser, so I brought a second set of clothes. Yay! Then dinner, then practice, then session, then sleep. So passed Thursday and Friday. Oh yeah - Friday morning I got up real early but missed the car Justin and some others rode in, so I sat at a picnic table in the pavilion outside Penn Run and read the Bible and prayed--a rather strange but pretty nice time of devotions. Ah, if only I did stuff like that in normal life. Ah yes, and Friday night we had skits! The theme was "youth camp games that didn't make the cut" (best theme ever!), and they had to include an adult. Steve claimed me for Code Red, so I had fun planning it out with them and practicing it. It ended up going really well, and was the best skit of the evening, as judged by the...judges. Yeah. Skits were sweet, and they always bring teams together in cool ways. Ah yes, and Mr. Altrogge danced a bunch in his skit, in addition to the amazing air guitar he performed before his sermon. Like I said--Altrogges...ridiculously sweet :-)

Saturday we got to sleep in a bit more, and there was no session after breakfast. Rather, we had the lengthy awards ceremony/thanking people who put this together. Code Red won, baby! I felt like they were my team, so I was happy to hand out the big chocolate bars that constituted the immortal prize won by their supremacy. Then it was clean-up time, which I pretty much didn't participate in because it was all pretty much done by the time I got out the building (ooh, droppin' dat gangsta speak on y'all!). 'S cool--there was lots of help and lots of time. I loaded up on half-price snack trailer snacks, gave big Nate a Dr.P before he headed out, signed a few people's books, and then we congregated to feed upon lunch vittles. Mm mm, more processed, white, high-carb, low-vitamin American food! Then the good-byes, more book-writing, though I didn't sign very many, and then heading out. Mom and Dad had come up Friday morning, so we rode in the van with them and Mike Q. All Pittsburghers stopped at THE MEADOWS, an ice-cream place that you simply cannot not stop at when your around Indiana, *tsk*, which was cool. The ice-cream really was good, too--a great balance of creaminess and iceiness. Then we split up and headed home, and I drifted in and out of sleep as the others talked about YC. I apparently slept solid for awhile, and the awakening occured hazily and gradually, so I was rather weirded out when we were heading up the hill to the house. But it was all good, the sleep was sweet, and it was really nice to have Mike along for the drive. He's a good egg. And he reads this blog, so that makes him a double good egg. Yeah Mike, you double-egg goody! ?? oy.

Anyway, I think this YC post is done. I'll probably read it over in awhile and add more stuff that I forgot, but for now it's out there, and dat's coo', and i'ma check out Daniel's pictures from our crazy night out on the town (another post for another day). It's freakin' 4:15am man!!

Good night. YC was fun, and I need to remember the sermons and not let them fade. I've been given amazing riches in my life, my upbringing, my salvation, and my situation. Do I view them as belonging to Someone else? Am I just twiddling them away? What should I do with them? Such should be my serious considerations. Lord, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven, I pray.

--Clear Ambassador (That's actually just me, John)