Xtreme Weekend

In an effort to get to bed before 10:30pm I'm just going to comment on some pictures for the weekend.  We'll see how long that lasts before I end up writing a book.

 

So this is me at my "Xtreme Obstacle Course" on Saturday morning.  I've always wanted to run a race like this because it would engage my brain more than just plodding through a 5k.  There was a variety of interesting and fun obstacles that made me feel like an American Gladiator. 

 

 

My time was a 25:54 which I feel comfortable with because of the obstacles.  I think I could have gone even faster if I knew how to warm up my lungs properly before these type of races.  Well I ended up in 4th place overall, and 1st in my age group (a couple competitive runners beat me and a lady with a sweet time).  Oh, and there are summary videos online that I'll probably try to link on my Facebook wall (or timeline, or whatever they want me to call it now).

I have no pictures of the wedding I went to because I'm foolish.  It's not like I'm going to go dance or whatever, so I should have just snagged the camera.  But that's ok.  Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moments.  And that's what I did.  My highlight was catching up with some of the camp guys that I hadn't seen for a while.

The wedding was followed by staying the night with the Calhoun's.  Emily let me invite myself, Hannah and Adela over to catch up for a minute before leaving for home Sunday morning.

This is South Haven.  Possibly for the last time this year?  Probably not.  Or not the last of Lake Michigan at least.  In this picture we have 3 great reasons to adopt!

I always like the sunsets (just one more reason West is best).  This night was interesting because the sun seemed to be obscured by a light haze.  Made the pictures turn out in a much darker hue than I'm used to.

This is the last picture I took on the way off the beach.  Hopefully I'll get the rest of the nice pictures onto Facebook soon.

This was the last Youth Group trip of the year.  I had the privilege of driving the Cleland girls to and from the beach.  Caleb is shown here after he basically challenged us to try and bury him while he was standing up.  We did our best and he did his part while we shoved sand over at him for a half hour. 

So that's it I guess.  Adoption seems to be the theme.  On a random trip to the beach we had a little over 20 people there and yet 8 of them were adopted.  The truth is that we all have the opportunity to be adopted into God's family.  And the trick isn't to act like the good kid or to suck up to God, but to just admit that we struggle and offer ourselves to the only one that can help.

I'm happy to call myself adopted right with the rest of the group!

Life as I know it

Driving.  The driving never seems to stop.  Well this weekend I was at it again.  And doubly so.  But first, more about the preceding week. 

My sports are pretty much finished for the Summer.  I might find some others to work on, but for now my nights are free and I'm loving it.  More time to ride bikes and get stuff done in my messy portions of the house.  Not that anything is getting done, but there is still time for that.

All my bike rides lately lead right to the Riegel's.  Last week was Brenton's last week of school, so I jumped in the festivities.

The kids each made a sweet poster.  Ella included new house rules.

During all of this they've been expecting their newest addition, Violet.  She came along and now I've been able to visit with her a couple times since then.  It's a busy house with all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in there.  Even today I was there and we took 4 laps around the neighborhood on the bikes. 

Then all the driving came from a weekend at camp.  I arrived with Adela and Hannah just in time to spend some time with the counselors before everyone went to sleep.  Saturday was the driving day.


This is my bus!  Most of the campers were in the rest stop at this point.

We rolled out with the buses at 12:30pm and after 3 rest stops, 2 drop offs, and 392 miles we made it back at about 10:30pm.   One of the scares for HIS Week campers is that we might have some bathroom emergencies, but the Bus Attendants were on top of things and the only emergency we had resulted in a quick stop at Dairy Queen with one camper getting off and on quickly.

One of the Engineers was juggling and riding his unicycle to the delight of the watching campers.

My old camper Jasen!  Ethan did a great job helping him out at the stops.

 

Last sighting of the buses in the wild for this season.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to help camp out on occasions.  I felt like this Summer was going to get up there and back, but I made it for most of a week around the 4th of July and then again this Sunday.  I now have an ambitious plan to join in the work (and some of the play) over 3-4 times this Fall. 

On the way home we stopped to visit Adela's family.  We jumped in the pool and then had some burger tacos.  That rounded out a busy, fun filled weekend.

And that's how it'll be for me for a while here.  More driving and driving and driving.  But that's ok.  I like staying busy and this will keep me that way.

Colombia and Etc

There is a lot to be said about the trip to Colombia, but I'm hoping it'll be best said by the video that will someday come out about it.  For now I'll throw down some highlights with a couple pictures:

 



 

We left on Friday, which gave us the weekend to settle in and get used to Colombia.  I enjoyed a chance to remember the language and see some of the sites.  On Saturday we went to Guadavita (pictured above) and then ate dinner in the country. 

On Sunday we went to what we consider our sister church in Colombia and I enjoyed the challenge of a service in Spanish.  I did well with the songs, then I kept missing more and more of the sermon until it turned to communion where the context let me understand more of the words.  (I should also probably mention that I accidently grabbed a huge chunk of bread.  Which turned out good because I was super hungry.  It was difficult to hide in the meantime though, so I kind of crushed it in my hand to hide it.)

Later that afternoon we took 4 of the kids from church and went downtown.  We all took "blessing bags" (bags with toothpaste, toothbrush, snacks, and a couple other items) and handed them out as we happened by the people.  Every single individual expressed gratitude for the bags, and some people even ran to get their friends and tell them about it.  (I was impressed by this.  It would be so easy to ask for more to bring to friends, then keep it.  But many of the people immediately thought of others they wanted to get in on it). 

Just for a little context, the streets of Bogota are much like Chicago.  Similarities include the homeless, entertainers, dense amount of people, and both fade from downtown to general suburbs in a similar way.  Some differences include the press of traffic in most places, yet Bogota has limits to traffic in many of the downtown areas (for safety and for space).  On most streets that have cars there are 3 lanes and they tend to be filled with motorcycles, entertainers and vendors.  They drive very aggressively (many consider it dangerous), yet they are generally safe.  While there are any close calls (I've seen contact every visit), I've always felt safe in Colombian taxis.  They are definitely more skilled and friendly in a much more stressful press of traffic than most North American drivers experience.

This year I didn't get nearly the same amount of pictures because someone was assigned as the photographer/videographer.  I decided to leave my camera behind most of the time and enjoy the moments instead of letting them slip by while I tried to capture them.  I did make sure to get a fresh picture of Bogota.  It's hard to describe, and the picture doesn't do it justice.  It's a city that goes on forever (or further than we can see), yet it's captured by mountains that basically encircle the city. 

These pictures capture the 4 children (Caren, Juan, Laurena, and Camila) that we spent time with along with their parents (in the second picture on the right) and a missionary that reaches out to their community.  (It also gets all the team except myself and Jay). 

Our experience at CRAN (which I have no pictures of) was challenging, and yet good.  All of Colombia kind of acts on their own set of time rules and CRAN had several scheduling changes.  This can be frustrating if you have a plan that is setup for the whole morning, but if you roll with it you can get all of the important stuff (Bible lessons) in.  This was likely caused in part by Bogota's 475th birthday, which is a major holiday for them and landed right in the middle of our week. 

Man, I need to keep going so I can go to sleep yet tonight.

I was happy that Adela was able to come along!  This girl helps me in so many ways.  She helps me keep a good attitude in trying situations and her love for the helpless is a living example of James 1:27- "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." She has a passion for those in need that I can't even comprehend fully.

I'll wrap this up with a couple final subjects that I believe are tightly linked. 

"Soy especial in los ojos de Dios" (I am special in the eyes of God).  You can see it taped to my hoodie (rather sloppily, yet it held up all week).  We gave this card to each child twice (once on a picture frame with their picture in it and another time in a little keepsake bag).  I tried to make sure that any kid I played with tried to read it, then I'd help if needed.  And afterwards I'd tell the they are too.  Many of them would kind of blush and squeeze in for a hug.  It's not in my comfort zone to tell people things I consider are commonly known facts, yet for these kids it was clearly special for them to hear those words. 

As the week unfolded I caught many people leaning in to read those words (you can tell if people are staring at Gringos and if they are trying to read).  One kid in a market asked me if I was a Christian and told me he was as well.  Another woman on the Transmilenio told me she liked the card (after a lengthy discussion about her experience growing up in both New York City and Colombia). 

This tied in with our last day that included a trip to visit a special needs orphanage.  After a sketchy taxi ride (quite a story I'd be happy to share with anyone, and it's important to note I never felt threatened) we landed at this House of Light and Life.  They have all ages of disabled people with a lot of Cerebral Palsy along with Down's Syndrome and other ailments.  These people live in chairs, most of them strapped in for their safety and the safety of those around them.  It's as dependent of a life as you can have, yet every single one of them was special.  Our group tried to show them this in a limited time by not only talking to them, but touching and hugging them. 

It made me think of a man that understands the humanity of a disabled person (physically or cognitively).  His name is Lee Brown and many of you that follow this know him.  He's been ministering to disabled campers for what has to be over 30 years during HIS week at Camp Barakel.   I couldn't help but think of him knowing that HIS week is starting tomorrow (Tuesday). 

I've written far more than I meant and yet it doesn't cover a tenth of our activities and the work that God did over the last week.  I'm very thankful to God for the opportunity, for Adela being at my side through it, and for a mission team made up of Godly people that are willing to give up themselves for the work of the Kingdome of Heaven.

Here are two final thoughts:

1)  I'm thinking about HIS Week at Camp Barakel and the many campers that will get an exciting break fro their normal routines.  I'm praying that God will work in their lives along with the parents (and workers) that get a much needed rest during this week of camp.

2)  I'm also thinking of Ferley, an almost 12 year old boy at CRAN who needs a home.  He's special in God's eyes, and I'm not just saying that, I know it.  I've seen him stop bullying on the rough playgrounds of an orphanage, I've seen his athletic stride as he sprints up and down the hills (elevation 8000 ft), and I've seen him sit and listen to the word of God spoken through our team. 

There is not a doubt in my mind that someone who reads this blog knows someone that could adopt a 12 year old boy that they would bless, and then they in turn would be blessed by him.  I wouldn't say that any adoption is easy, yet I've seen so many adoptions come through to the point where the family has more benefit from the adoption than the child. 

Please consider sharing about Ferley.  It's an opportunity to REALLY advocate for a REAL person instead of just talking about it all the time.  Help find him a Christian home and Bethany Services (along with Project Hope) will help every step along the way. 

http://project-hope-ministries.org/contact/