Colonial Heroes and Villains

Sorry, about not posting in forever. Facebook has become the new form of communication, and school has become life. But as I am doing my history, I have come to find heroes and people that I really loathe. Let's start with the people I like.

• Francis Drake: The guy is Elisabeth's cousin, and a privateer. He pretty much got paid to be a pirate and he whomped the Spanish Armada. And if that wasn't enough after successfully circumnavigating the globe, he made a 4600% profit for England. To say he was cool, doesn't begin to describe him. He was majorly epic!
  
• Captain John Smith: Not the guy who married Pocahontas, but another Captain with a huge beard. He did what had to be done in Jamestown, by rationing food. The section of time where times were hard was called "the starving time". He cracked down on these unruly bums from England, and pretty much saved the colony. Everyone pretty much hated him for it, but in the end he was a hero.
  
• Ben Franklin: Mostly for his writing of Poor Richard's Almanac. He wrote sayings like: "Well done is better than well said." and "Lost time is never found again." and "Haste makes waste." and "Glass, China, and Reputation are easily crack'd , and never well mended." and "Three can keep a secret if one of them is dead." Pretty good stuff.
  
• The Laughing Club: Need I say more…
  

Now onto the people I really loathe:

• Cortes: That guy can't follow orders. Anakin Skywalker can't follow orders either, but he's still likeable. Cortes however, is also greedy. After Montezuma being the good king that he is gives them gifts that would have been worth a lot back home, Cortes gets the idea to go get more loot, disobeying the governor's orders to just explore. Cortes destroys the Aztecs and gets super rich. Fat lot of good it did him when he died. I could keep complaining, but he's dead, and so complaining isn't going to help.
  
• Anne Hutchinson: I'm so glad for Puritans. This lady's group started out by talking about the pastor's sermons on Monday Morning. But eventually she started saying that she had messages from God that superseded what was said in the Bible, and that you didn't need to be obedient to have a right relationship with God(a belief called Antinomianism). The Puritans kicked her out of the Mass. Bay Colony(this is why I really like Puritans) and she started her own colony which turned into Rhode Island. Needless to say I really despise her.
  
• Peter Stuyvesant: The Governor of New Netherland(AKA New York) dared to say that he didn't give two rips about "the opinions of a few ignorant settlers"(that is a quote). He had a peg leg and a pot belly and was as mean as the day is long. And when the English come to take New Netherland over, he's surprised when no one fires a single shot. Yeah, they hated him as much as I do.
  
• Tatooba: This West Indian Voodoo witch was the start of the Salem Witch Trials. In case you didn't know she was responsible for the seizures of three young girls and the death of dozens of innocent people. It's a good thing that she got killed too otherwise I would go nuts.

Camp Lamoka Summer Highlights

Wow! These last three weeks have gone by really really fast! When I first started working at Camp it seemed like the days were super long and the weeks were like an eternity. But now the days are here and gone before I even know it. So here are some of the highlights of my Camp Lamoka 2010 experience...

• So pretty much in January I was all sort of "I guess I want to work at camp." But as Camp got closer and closer I got more and more excited. And when I got to Camp the first day, I fell back into the turtle routine.(For those of you who don't know me/my personality around new people/ what "turtle routine" means let me explain. I'm a Lower Right(if I'm correct that means I'm task oriented and a follower), which means I'm introverted around people I don't know. August 08 I started to come out of my shell(in turtle terms), but when I moved to Ithaca I kinda went back in. When I got to Camp I was tempted to do the same thing. But then I thought to myself that if didn't come out of my shell, I wasn't going to make friends. So very slowly this summer I've come out of my shell and I've made a lot of good friends.
• This summer I've helped out Greg Howard, who does Greg's Games. We've played so many amazing games this summer its hard to cover them all. Some of my favorites are Zombie Island, Ring Of Death, and Pool Noodle Field Hockey.
• What started out as a snapping turtle Family week 1 has exploded into an entire nature center up in the chapel. We have had the turtle(which is still there), 3 praying mantids(plural of mantis), 3-4 small fish, at least a dozen Monarch caterpillars which have turned into butterflies, a swallow tail butterfly, 2 Luna Moths, 2 grasshoppers, and a few toads. It has been amazing.
• These last two weeks Greg and I have done a star ship type activity in/outside the chapel. We made helmets and made up names and totally had a blast. We used this program called Stargazer, which pretty much lets you go anywhere you want in the universe. It was totally epic!
• This summer I have filled an estimated 6000 balloons! I would consider myself semipro at this point.
• Thursday night several of the staffers, including Johnathon Wood, put Chip's golf cart in the gaga ball pit. It was a ton of fun!
• Last night Seth Blanchard,Mike Delio, some of the family camper teens, and I were out til 1 AM wrestling and arm wrestling. It was one of the most fun times I've had this summer.
• So far I've talked about a lot of stupid/ retarded stuff. Let me tell you something that really matters. This summer God has shown me his control. Whether it is controlling what king is in the throne or controlling which campers get saved, God's got it in the bag(a reoccurring phrase that I've used all summer). God has also taught me patience through other staffers. And through my reading in 2 Kings about Elisha, God has shown me that I don't need to be the best staffer, I only need to be following God and leaving the rest up to him. Its not about me! Its about God doing what he needs to do though me! That's what I've learned this summer! And I will never forget it. I might remember stupid stuff we did at Camp in 2010, but I will also remember that at Camp Lamoka God rocked my thinking and changed my mind and heart.

So that's what I've learned. It has been an amazing summer, and there's still one week left. I hope to keep growing even in the final stretch. Until then, Scott out.

Sr. High, Jr. High 1 and 2

Hey everybody! So these last 3 weeks have been a wild ride. Here are the highlights...

• Sr. High I could immediately tell that it was going to be interesting. My camper's names(or nicknames) were as follows: Peanuts, Trail Mix(or Tray for short), Bubbles, KJ, Marshmallow. They were all super rowdy and all came from pretty rough families. (Pretty much the opposite of me.) But there were two things that I will remember from that week for the rest of my life.
• Jordan's Chip:Jordan Wood was staying in our cabin that week. And Tuesday night he and KJ were talking, when Jordan pulled out a chip(a Dorito to be exact). He set it on the picnic table and smashed it. And slowly Jordan took away a piece of the broken chip naming it,("This is your Dad", "These are your friends", etc.), until finally there was only one piece of chip left. "This is God", said Jordan, "Even when it seems like you've got nothing and God has left you, He's right there." After that KJ and Jordan prayed beneath the cross on Chapel Hill. A Dorito changed KJ's life. He was so excited about it, that he did Wednesday night devos and shared the same example with the rest of the cabin. I shared about how God quote on quote "wrecked my life" by moving me away from my friends, my town, my church and sending to a town that was messed up. I shared how I had pretty much been a brat about it and how God changed my heart and gave those material things back to me. It felt really great.
• Marshmallow: Marshmallow and I got along great that week. The only thing we didn't agree on was the Bible. Marshmallow though that God didn't exist and thought that God, if he did exist couldn't save him from his past of drugs and Satanism. I talked with him for several hours and his main question was this: Why would God create people if he knew they were going to screw up? We basically used this illustration for most of our conversation: God is the Father who bought a batch of puppies. These puppies, he knew beforehand, were going to wreck his house and bite and be a pain in the neck. But he loved the puppies so much that when the big, bad, bus driver Satan, tried to get rid of the puppies, God's son Jesus sacrificed himself to save the puppies. It was a conversation that I will never forget.
• The Weekend: That weekend I spent at the McGinnis' house and hung out with Jordan and got to see people(Tyler Wolcott, Rogows, Mr. Johnson, Jenny Case,Conners) that I haven't seen/hung out with in a while.
• Jr. High week 1: That week I had a group of five guys(no burgers or fries): Chris(who does stand up comedy), Brad(who tried to convince everyone that his name was Joe), Tom (from Depue, NY), Nick(Camper of the week from Sr. High), and Austin(who was pretty normal). I think that God gave me well-behaved campers that week so I could listen to the messages. The speaker was Uncle Buddy Robinson from AIG he talked about the five questions. Here they are... #1:What do you mean by what you're saying?(What do you mean?); #2:How do you know that what you're saying is true?(How do you know?); #3: What difference does what you're saying make in your life?(So what?); #4: What would you accept as evidence?
• Stats: Uncle Buddy gave a statistic that really hit home with me and a lot of the kids. School time:900 hours; TV time(not including video games, movies, etc.) Church time:100-200 hours
• Jr. High 2: I got to be in a cabin with five other guys with names as follows: Daniel, Andrew, Alex, Alan and Nathan. Pretty much everyone was annoyed with Alan and Alan didn't care. This last week I learned a lot of patience.
• Water balloons: In the past 3 weeks I've filled over 1200 water balloons. So I decided that I should make a Biblical metaphor involving water balloons. Pretty much this is what I got: Water balloons are like people. They reject God, pop under worldly pressure, or live for him and retain the water. Pretty cool!
• Random Stuff: Michael and Tony(2 campers from Sr. High week) came three weeks in a row. I got to hang out with Katy Depue pretty much all of Jr. High 1. My team won Jr. High 2 and got to stay up til like midnight.
• Team names and cheers: Sr. High: My team was Team Dihydrogen Monoxide. Cheer was as follows: Dihydrogen monoxide: we're really only water/ We hope that when we take you down it won't be such a slaugter/ When things heat up we'll just go with the flow/ And by the end of the week we'll be #1, you know. (YO! For show!(Tray does worm.) Cheers and applause.) Jr. High 1: My team that week was The Flaming Unicorns of Fury: (Spidey reads Job 39:9-12) Tim Woudenberg:(Spoken/shouted) Its a bird! No! It's a plane! No! Its the flaming unicorns of fury!(Cheering) Robbie Lindmark:(Spoken)Alright everybody! Please mount your unicorns! We got a new song for the generations! And it goes like this...(Singing begins)Trot to the left! Trot to the right! Trot to the left! Trot to the right! Everybody clippyclop! Clippycloppy!(4x) Cross horns!(2x) One clop this time(2x) Two clops this time(2x) Everybody clippyclop! Clippycloppy(4x) (Cheering. Everyone falls down.) Jr. High 2: (Veggietales theme)If you like to swim with the bubbles/ If you don't like crocodiles/ If you like to run into trouble/ Up and down the English Channel... Have we got a team for you... 1,2,3,4! Jellyfish! Jellyfish! etc.

And that was what was going on with me for the last 3 weeks! Hopefully it won't take as long for me to blog next time. For now TTFN!

Family Camp 1

So I've been meaning to post again, and it turned out that again was now. So CIT was pretty cool, but this was the actual first week of Camp at Lamoka Baptist Camp which is where I've going to be doing tasks(We don't jobs, just tasks.) all summer long till August 21. So this is what happened my first week at camp.

• So here's who I've been hanging out with: Zachary Clouse(from Phillie who is on maintainance), John((can't remember his last name) who lives over near Kingston(Catskills/NYC area and is on maintainance), Zachary Waters(who lives in Bradford, just up the road and is on maintainance(Do you sense a pattern?)), Shae Maloy(who is in charge of Maintainance/Paintball), Greg Howard(who is basically who I'm going to be helping out all summer(I'll explain about that later), Mary Blanchard(Seth Blanchard's younger sister and a nut), Blake(I'll explain about him later too), Eathan( I'll explain),and all the rest of the staff.
• The first morning I woke up at 7 and scurried to be ready to head out by 8. But I screwed up and was an hour late to the staff meeting because it started at 8 and I got there at 9. The rest of the morning was spent filling water balloons and stuff like that for an afterenoon game. I requested to be a dish fish, but the letter I received said that I was on maintainance. But when CIT rolled around I was told I was Greg's assistant(AKA the program director's assistant), but since Greg didn't have anything for me to do CIT week, I helped out the maintainance crew for the week. (That's how I know all the maintainance people.) But this week, Family Camp 1, I helped out Greg. So when the game rolled around, we got in a few tosses of the waterballoons before it started into rain. Very depressing. But on the bright side, I was able to babysit kids all evening during chapel time and get some "kid time" that way.
• Day two I got to listen to Pastor Brent Carl speak for the first time. It was awesome! (I know only God is awesome, but isn't stuff God does awesome too?) Brent Carl was talking about when he went to Kenya and about how he got hooked up with International Youth Ministry. He talked about a group there called "Be the Change". It really inspired me to be the change where I am; to be a doer and not a hearer only. The stuff I did in that day was pretty normal(setting up games, playing them, helping out wherever, etc.).
• Day three was pretty normal as well, but Wednesday was the day that I started refereeing paintball. It was very cool! Wednesday's message was also cool, because Pastor Carl told about this youth group in Malaysia called "Frontliners". Their slogan was "Famous in heaven, feared in hell." It was way cool! Wednesday evening was also spent babysitting and playing a Staff vs. Campers Volleyball game, in which we all had way cool numbers on our backs. Tons of fun! (This was also the night we found out how nuts Mary really was.)
• Thursday is when my strength started to stop flowing as easily. That day was also the day I helped fill almost 500 water balloons. (Yes, I did say 500.) That day Erik Lutz showed up as well and we had tons of fun, talking, singing, and catching up. The Gaga Ball Tournament was also Thursday, and so I got to ref that as well. And Marshall the champ from last year won again. It was a pretty amazing day!
• Friday I refed the paintball tournament, and helped with paintball target practice. I also got to hang out with this kid named Blake for pretty much the whole day. Blake's great-grandma had internal bleeding, and his great-grandpa had gone to the hospital with his wife, so Blake was pretty much on his own. So he and I even though we had spent some time before together, pretty much spent the whole day with eachother. Blake I slowly realized just wanted someone to love on him. Even though he seemed like a tough guy who liked kicking me in the shins, liked to wrestle people to the ground, and liked jumping on staffer's backs when they weren't looking, Blake just liked being around me. It taught me a lot of patience, and a lot about compassion. After Blake left early, I hung around with Eathan Carl(Brent Carl's son) and ran around with him for the rest of the afternoon. It was honestly a really great day. But in the evening the day just kept on getting better. Pastor Carl's message showed me what a great set of parents I have, and the bonfire was incredible. Not only was it huge, but Pastor Depue(like he had been doing the rest of the week) led the campers and staff in a myriad of choruses and hymns, around it. After that we had a staff debreif that really was great. (I'm kinda running out of adjectives that mean"extremely good".) We all hit the hay at 11:30 and slept in till like 7 the next morning.
• So here are two things that happened over the course of this week, that didn't really happen on one day. The first is that I was dubbed the "walking clock" since I was the only guy staffer with a watch. Like half of my conversations with people were them asking what time it was. The second thing which is way more important, is that I'm really struggling with what God wants me to do with my life. Two years ago I thought God wanted me to be a missionary. I saw signs everywhere. Then the signs sort of stopped. I thought it was God just testing me to see if I was willing(which I was). But listening to Pastor Carl talk about all the different places he had been and the people he had helped, made me want to go and do the same thing. I'm really confused right now. and I've no clue where God wants me or what I'm supposed to do. If you could pray for me that would be great.
• Saturday I finished my task area, and left camp with my "love gift"(we don't get salaries), and went to a family get together at other end of the lake with my cousins, aunt, and uncles. (I'd also like prayer for my Unlce Thad, my cousin James, my cousin Maddie, and my cousin Eathan. It was about this time of year, last year, that my Aunt Crystal was killed in a car crash. Most of them have turned their backs on God, and its really going to be tough on them this next week.) I hung out with them for a couple hours and went on a few boat rides, before we headed back home. And now I'm here righting this.

So that was my week; hopefully I'll write about next week at Camp Lamoka, but for now I'm headed to bed. Adios and God bless!

California Video

These are two videos I put together from what I filmed while in California. The one on the left is the trip's highlights, and the one on the right is Jack touching the shark at Ocean World.
Enjoy!

California

Last Wednesday we got back from California and it has taken me this long to write about it. So here we go...

• Day one: Plane trip from Ithaca to Detroit. Saw tons of people movers and a cool fountain. Plane trip from Detroit to San Fransisco. Rented a car from Enterprise(not the USS). Saw tons of cool sights from afar including, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Candlestick Park, as we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. (The cool part was that, the Amazing Race had taken place there on the season finale, which we had watched the Sunday before leaving. Pretty cool to see what where all the coolness had taken place.) Drove to Santa Rosa, and went to bed 9:30 CA time(which is 12:30 NY time).
• Day two: California and Oregon have some of the curviest roads in America! I usually don't get car sick, but I was feeling so queasy I had to take motion sickness meds. After we finally got to Fort Bragg(town, not place) we got onto a train called the Skunk Train. The name is a misnomer, which means it was entirely the wrong name. A) It wasn't a train, it was a car that ran on diesel fuel with its own restrooms. B) It didn't smell a bit, but aparently back in the day(late 1800's) it smelled so bad the locals swore they could smell it before they saw it. But anyhow we rode on the non-smelling car for three hours and learned a lot about history and the redwoods via our conductor(who did a super job). At one point in time the trip could be made in 45 minutes, but that was if you went 40 mph and we were only topping out at 15 mph. Anyway we went all the way to a place called Northspur, ate lunch, and turned around and came back. The night was spent at Fort Bragg in a hotel, with our close companion, Mythbusters.
• Day three: Driving north to Crescent City, we saw the Avenue of the Giants. We also saw like 3 bigfoot statues that day alone(5 total for the whole trip), so I kept my eyes peeled. Nothing. After we got to our house that we would be staying in for the next week, we ate at pizza hut and went to bed at 8:30 CA time(although it doesn't much matter, because at this point we had pretty much adjusted).
• Day four: We went to the lighthouse that we could see from our house and toured that for about two hours. It was pretty coool, but after that we didn't really do much else, except hanging around the house.
• Day five: More winding roads, and a trip to Oregon Caves. We saw stactites, stalagmites, columns, soda straws, drapery, cave kisses( and believe me I got kissed more by that cave than by my mother), and other stuff. After we got out of the 44 degree cave, we took a hike through the mountains, which was like 20 degrees warmer that the cave.
• Day six: We went to church at Smith River Baptist, and went place called Indian Sands with mountain lions, fun dunes, and a killer hike.
• Day seven: Trip to Ocean World, which was located in Crescent City. Saw and petted a shark, and watched seals and a sea lion do cool tricks. Also got a cool ball cap, and played Monopoly.
• Day eight: More Monopoly(which ended up being about the only game we played at the house other than two games of Scrabble) and a hike in Jedadiah Smith Redwoods National and State Parks.(P.S. Jedediah Smith was an awesome guy on the Oregon Trail that lead settlers west! Definitely worth reading about some time!) Saw tons of ginormous trees and itty bitty bananna slugs. Then after that, on the way home we stopped at a beach and played the "Driftwood Retrival Sprint Game" and got totally wet and sandy. We then went home, showered and ate dinner at Pizza Hut, and went to bed.
• Day nine: More Monopoly, cool pelicans and movie shoot at the beach. (The movie ended up being kinda lame, because on the desert island there are a few houses and phone poles in the background.)
• Day ten: Left the house and travelled to Sacramento, the state capital of CA.
• Day eleven: Went to Old Sacramento and saw trains at the train museum. We also got free candy samples and took a carriage ride on the cobblestone streets. After that we took off to go minigolfing and had dinner at Golden Corral(which has been discribed by my brother as quote "a museum of food... and you get to eat it!" end quote.
• Day twelve:Most of the day is spent driving to Yosemite, and when we get there it rains. Major downer. But we did get to see Bridal veil falls(which got us soaked since May is peak flow), El Capitan, and Swinging Bridge(which doesn't swing).
• Day thirteen:Devo with Dad and then more Yosemite. We took this killer hike to Inspiration point, which didn't inspire me a bit when we got there, but took us two hours of sweat and pain. But God did a really neat thing. Instead of letting us get caught in a freak snow storm and damaging the rental van, God put the idea of this hike into Mom and Dad's heads, so we would be safe. Pretty neat how God can use something that seems like a waste of time to protect us. Unfortunately though, there was one tunnel to the other half of Yosemite, and it was blocked off, because of the snow storm. So we saw like only half of what we wanted to see there.
• Day fourteen: This was the day we hung out in San Fransisco. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and saw this really cool guy jamming out on his synthesizer. We also went on a bay cruise and saw the Golden Gate Bridge up close, Alcatraz up close, and Coit Tower from a short distance. After that we went to Chinatown and had dinner and saw cool swords and stuff like that.
• Day fifteen: My Dad was telling me that this was the longest trip he had ever taken, and that it was longer that his honeymoon. Of course when you have a honeymoon car accident and neighbors that want to come over and play Skipbo you have a tendancy to want to get home. Anyhow, this day was the day that I had the second worst expirience of my life(the first worst expirience was my tubing trip down the Muskegon River, which is a story in and of itself). This bad experience was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. "Let's walk to the middle arch," he said. Normally I would be all for this, but today it was foggy, rainy, windy, and miserable. Picture this: Me with my favorite hat on, trying not to lose it in the wind, soaked to the undergarments, walking at a slow steady pace so I don't slip on the slick metal manholes, trying not to blubber. At first this might look rather humorous, but if you put yourself in my soggy shoes, I think you'd be just as, if not more, miserable. To make a long story short, we didn't make it to the middle arch and we were all wet. After that we went to the mall and just chilled for the rest of the day. But when evening rolled around, we went to the airport and got checked in. After sitting in the airport till eleven pm CA time, we got onto the plane.
• Day sixteen: This is where our story goes on to day sixteen, because after the five hour plane trip it was the next day. After we landed in Chicago at like five in the morning IL time, we boarded another plane that was going to Philadelphia. After we landed there at like nine thirty am, we got on another plane going to Ithaca. And after we got off that plane, we got home and that is where our trip ends.

So now you now what I did with myself. Hopefully I'll have videos to show off soon. For now I'll just say "Adios!"

Why I'm Not Here

So I'm probably not going to be posting for a while, I've got a ton of stuff to do between a 3-5 page report and a play. But hopefully when I go on vacation to California, I'll get time to write and stuff. But until further notice I will not be blogging for a while. Scott out.
*SCHHHHHHHHHHHH(sound of static)*

Face of Jesus

So there has been a whole lot of talk about the face of Jesus. According to scientists they have discovered using the Shroud of Turin, which supposedly was wrapped around Jesus' face when he was in the tomb. This makes me ask some questions...
1. Why should I care what Jesus looks like?
2. Does the face of Jesus change my beliefs in him?
3. What do I do with this info?
One lady said exactly what I was thinking as I watched the TV interview on Yahoo! Just minutes ago. She said(and I quote) "It doesn't matter what Jesus looks like. It's what he did that counts." BOOM! Exactly! That lady, Christian or not, hit the preverial nail on the head. So to answer the questions above. It doesn't matter what he looks like. Number 2: No way! His face could be ugly and deformed,but he still would be my Savior. In answer to number three, just keep in mind that this is a big topic right now, and your friends might ask what you think about it. Who knows? God might use you and this topic to lead someone to Himself.

Mission #2

Hey! So if you didn't know I got a video camera last fall, and I've been using it to make movies. This is one such movie that was filmed over the weekend here on location in Ithaca NY in our basement. The title of this movie is called "Mission #2: The Infiltration". But you say, "Scott, where's mission #1?" If you want an elaborate lie, I sold it to the governor of Indiana who watched it with the King of Liechtenstein and his 3rd cousin, Marie Gorbanzo. If you want the truth, I lost it. So without further ado, Mission #2: The Infiltration...

Hey all! This video is still loading so I thought that I would take the time to tell you what is going on with me. Let me see in the last two weeks I have run into a window(don't ask) and shut my head in a closet(PLEASE don't ask). Also I've been doing school(no surprise there). Um, that is about it. And hey! The video is done loading! OK, going now! Hopefully I'll post again soon!

Snow Camp (And my life since then)

Hey so Snow Camp, for those of you who don't know what it is, is a place where you go and spend two days in the frigid landscape of Sinclairville, NY(Southwestern NY) and do nothing,but sled, eat, have fun, and hopefully (if they do thier job right) grow spiritually. Most of you have Facebook so you've probably seen pics and such,but others of you who don't (like me) probably haven't. So to the Facebook outcast/procrastinators, I'm sorry I don't have cool pics to show you. Sorry.

• Hey! On to my week at Snow camp. First, I drove 2 and 1/2 hours to Wyoming, my old stomping grounds. Then, I take a long one hour drive with crazy girls, semi-crazy leaders, and others who are more intreverted (like myself), in a large 15 passenger van. Which by the way was driven by a racecar driver. Very crazy ride!
• And now we move onto the part about Bethany Baptist Camp and all the people I arrived with. Ladies first: Lisa, Mattie, Brooke, Stephanie, Heather(my sister), Katie, Bethany,Mrs. Wolcott, and my mother. And for the guys we have: Me(the most important and good-looking, naturally), Sean, Jordan, John, Blake, Gabe, Tyler, Austin, Sam, Mr. Johnson(the aforementioned racecar person),Mr. Wolcott, and Mr. Baker. If you lost count(and I did), that's a lot of people.
• So first, we got set up in a nice warm cabin. Then, we went out in the frigid, icy, cold, snow. And went into the warm, people-filled dining hall. After a good dinner, we had chapel, which included games like "Let's make a deal", "The need for Speed" and other pointless fun.
• After an hour of fun, we got down to the serious stuff. The speaker's name was Tim George. His first message was on Elijah and his "downer" after Mt. Carmel. Pretty much the point was this: Don't think that God can't do something, and don't focus on yourself.
• Then, after chapel, there was several hours of sledding on this ginormous hill. I did that for while, and when I got bored with that, I got into warm clothes and played Apples to Apples with Lisa, Bethany, Mr. Baker and Sean. And after that I went to bed.
• Lessons learned before breakfast: (1) Mr. Baker snores like a chainsaw! (2) Follow and don't turn aside(Check out 2 Samuel 2:18-23)!
• As for breakfast, I learned a lesson there too. DON'T EAT A PANCAKE WITH MAPLE SYRUP, WHIPPED CREAM, CHOCLATE CHIPS, AND POWDERED SUGAR. You will be extremely ill!
• There a little joys in life. Take for example petting a happy dog or opening a new comic book. These acomplish nothing, except a doggish smile and a renewed sense of hilarity. Racing snow buggies is a little joy, that acomplishs nothing except injury or snow on the face. Our snow buggy this year, made completely out of cardboard and ducktape according to Bethany regulations, was the only snow buggy there. Even without the competition, we had a good time, racing our indestructible sled in the shape of the most joyous object on earth: a coffin.
• After snowbuggying we had chapel again, and Mr. George talked out moving to make a difference. He took this lesson from the spot where Johnathan and his armorbearer take on the Philistines alone. Cool story! And then all of our group went upstairs, and "debriefed"(This is a confusing event that would take too long to explain on one single post.)
• Snakes are ugly, thin, reptilian reptiles that bring little to no joy to anyone. But this snake is not ugly(though certain unnamed parties that rode upon it were). This snake is not reptilian(in fact it is made of a conveyor belt). But it is however thin; Thin and extremely fast. This snake is 21 feet long and can hold at least 30 people at a time. Injuries are usually extreme, but we have fun anyway. The snake is undoubtedly the best part of the snow-mayhem.
• After the snake we packed up and rode home. This time on the way home I rode with Mr. Baker in his large DairyTek truck. We covered just about everything from Twiterpation to hell being quote "...a bit warmer". Interesting stuff!
• When, we reached Wyoming I hung around for a few minutes, and then BOOM! we headed for Ithaca.

Hey! So as to what has happened since then, I have been involved with props dept. at LEAH, I have been sick, and I have watched a Miss Marple(That lady is so snoopy!). And that is what is up with me. If you read my blog email me or post a comment. I'm not sure if I'm posting for nothing or not.

ESF Spring Conference 2010

So the Empire State(Empire State meaning NY(NY meaning New York)) Fellowship(Affectionately known as ESF) has these things called conferences that are tons of fun to go to and that are great places to grow. So what made me want to go is the guys that were speaking. The first of which was Uncle Jim( who is actually my great grandpa on my Dad's side), and the second of which was Pastor Butler(from Yorkshire, who most of you know). Here's what went on...

• The name of the Conference was "James by men named James", so James Moore had the first session. The basic jist of his sermon was that everyone in the Bible had trials and that trails are things we can be happy about, because they strengthen our faith.
• The next session was by Past James Reed, who was a substitute for Pastor Mott(whose first name was also James). The skinny of Pastor Reed's sermon on James 5:13 was that during good and bad times we need to pray to God for help and praise him. In the words of a Shiloh Eagles player, "Guys, Coach is right. We praised God when we won; now we're gonna praise him when we lose."
• Guess who we met up with? Here's a hint: Their name starts with a W and rymes with Honer. That's right, the Whoners! So we had a good visit with them before dinner, and then during dinner we met up with Pastor Fraser, whose name was James who was speaking at the last session. Nothings better than food, a table, some chairs, and people to talk with.
• We found out that two churches are going to be with out pastors. Not cool stuff! The churches really need prayer. Switching pastors is no fun!
• After a great dinner, we came back for another session. The session was on James 3: 1-13 and it was on partiality and favoritism. And let me say that Pastor Murphy hit the preverbial nail smack dab on the head! Great session!
• The next morning after sleeping in the Howard Johnson motel(which wasn't too bad for the $45 bucks we paid for it), we went to hear Pastor Butler speak. His sermon was on how to identify an alive faith. He quoted John Calvin, who had a pretty interesting statement. Calvin said "It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies can never be alone." Unfortunately, I didn't hear the tail end of the sermon,because I sprung a bloody nose near the end. Hate those things!
• Pastor Balson(first name is...you guessed it...James) talked about the proclivity and the inconsistency of the tongue from James 3:1-12. Good message!
• Uncle Jim(pastor of Henrietta Baptist Church) preached a good militaristic message about how to submit to God and resist the devil. He also talked about how churches need to have a more offensive and less of a defensive strategy. Good stuff! Hoorah!
• During the final session Pastor Fraser talked about wealth and how it corrupt people and how to have the right balance. Good way to wrap up!

And that's where I was these past few days!

2 Kings 7:1-11

I just finished reading this story in the Bible and I found it to be (in a word) AWESOME! God pulls through again! Here's the summary of the passage:

• Donkeys cost a pretty penny.
• Ladies are eating their sons.
• The king wants to kill Elisha.
• Elisha says that there will be food tomorrow and that it'll be dirt cheap.
• One officer doesn't think so.
• Elisha says that that guy will see the food, but won't eat any of it.
• God makes the Arameans, who are attacking the Samarians, see and hear things.
• The Arameans flip out and think that the Egyptian and Hittites are coming, and they run.
• Lepers decide to surrender to the Arameans.
• The lepers discover that the camp is empty and then they have a feast.
• Then they decide to tell everyone in the city about it.
• All around celebration and eating.
• Happy ending.

So here's what I found interesting.

These guys are lepers. Dirt poor, starving(like everyone else), and sick with a disease that eats away at your skin(kinda gross). No one is going to come near these guys. They figure that they are going to die( a reasonable assumption,because of their disease) and so their best bet is give up and surrender themseves to the Arameans. For a minute, replace the word 'leper' with the word 'Christian'. These lepers have no where else to go. Sometimes when people go to God they are at thier lowest point. The lepers surrendered, just like Christians have to do over and over again. (Trust me I know from personal experience.)Now they go to the camp no one is there. They eat up and drink. Now this could be compared to God blessing us after we surrender and follow him. But the lepers don't keep this to themselves they go in the middle of the night and spread the word. Just like we do or need to do with our faith. Cool how it lines up!

The Medieval Reality

So I just finished up a chapter in World History about the medieval period. And I quickly realised that the reality is that the 'Dark Ages' (Appropriately named) were not as they are protrayed in movies and books(unless you watch and read documentaries and History books). Geeks like science and Nerds like Math. I however like history so I guess that makes me a buff or a dweeb, I'm not sure which. But anyhow, before I started this chapter I really admired the knight's, kings, and heroic peasants.
But now, I'm not so sure. The knights errant (errant meaning they had no where to go) usually resorted to banditry and being highwaymen because during peace time there was no form of work. The kings were power-hungry maniacs that didn't have too much power,because all the nobles sort of were in control. And the peasants were dirty, farming, poor, and all around not very pleasant.
So of all the people I ran into in history these are the ones I admire.

• Harold: This guy was from England, Duke of Wessex actually. He was crowned King of England and then this jerk, named William who didn't even live in England,but was king of France. And so because, Eddy the Confessor died, and Willie was allegedly promised the throne, Willie decided he should be king. And so after a few battles, and letting Harold beat up the other dudes who wanted the throne, Willie comes in at the last second and fights Harold's tired out smaller army.
• Henry the V(which by the way means he was number 5, which looks nothing like a V. The English language is goofy that way.): Henry V beat up the French with an army half the size of the French army at Agincourt. Unfortunately, he killed a bishop named Thomas a Becket. But I still think he was pretty cool.
• Richard the Lion-Hearted:No he didn't have an animal organ transplant. This guy went on the Crusades and kicked rear and took name. He was the hero of the people,but he only ruled in England for 6 months. A little while later, he brother John took over.
• John the First(and only): Yes, this is the same guy that was trying to kill Robin Hood. This is the dude that everybody hated. However, history says that John was a great guy. He was a good administrator and even though he wasn't as good a fighter as his brother. He was an awesome, misunderstood leader.
• Fransis of Assisi: This guy gave us the three wisemen and live nativities. He gets an A for effort, even though he gave our society the totally wrong idea about the manger.
• The knights: They aren't armor clad heroes, sure,but they had a lot of other responsibilities no one ever thinks about. These guys had a hard life filled with guts and blood, chivalry, and sometimes boring lives,but I still think that all in all they are still good guys.
• Urban the II: Without him there would be no Crusades and the freeing of Jerusalem for a period of time.

These are the various people I really loathe:

• The Popes(namely Innocent the 3rd): These guys sometimes could be a pain in the neck("Don't do this!", "You can't tax us!" "We are in charge", "Bow to me or I'll excommunicate you!"). But sometimes they were right on("No,man, you can't divorce your wife." or "Hey man! That's my land, and I was here first!"). But all in all they were really hypocritical.
• The Crusdaers: These guys were really cool to begin with,but during the 4th Crusade or the "Diverted Crusade" they were responsible for the destruction of Zama and Constantinople. They really failed in the end because of their greed. Bummer, I really like the Crusaders for a while.
• Phillip II: He was a loser French king who couldn't fight worth beans, and wanted to get England for himself. Not only that he divorced wife number 1, for wife number 2. Pope Innocent the 3rd for once makes the right call, and says, "That is not right, dude!". When P2(Phillip the 2nd) doesn't repent, PI3(Pope Innocent the 3rd) excommunicates P2 and puts France under interdiction. P2 "repents" divorces wife 2 and remarries wife 1. So in the end the bad guy wins,because either way he divorced some lady. Oy, some people, drive me up the wall!

So that is what I've been learning about lately!

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 14:21-31

So I decided to try to read 1 Samuel- 2 Chronicles, and make an application from what I read. It is actually not as easy as it sounds. But anyhow, I was reading 1 Kings 14:21- 31 and I noticed a few things. For your convenience I have put the verses below...

21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. 25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the palace. He took everything, including all the golden shields Solomon had made. 27 So king Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard of duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom. 29 As for the other events of Rehoboam's reign are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 30 There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 31 And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the Citry of David. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.
Whew! After typing all that I feel sorry for the monks who copied the whole Bible. Anyhow, one of the things I noticed was a repeat of the phrase "mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite" in both verses 21 and 31. I'm not sure what signifigance that phrase has,but if it is in there twice it must be imporant. Another thing I noticed was that in verse 27, Rehoboam replaced the gold(high quality stuff) shields with bronze (cheap stuff) shields. Also in verse 28, it says that the guards only used them when the king went to the temple. This makes me think that because of both the cheap stuff he used for the shields, and only using them on temple occasions, that Rehoboam's heart wasn't in serving God. If he had really treasured the shields, he would have made them of a better metal, and used the shields more. This is kinda what we do with our Bibles. Sure, we take them out on Sunday, and maybe even open them,but after that, they end up on our dressers or on the coffee table or on top of the toilet in the bathroom until next Sunday. Instead of bronze disused Bibles, we should strive to have golden Bibles, that don't stay in one place long enough to get dust!
That's what I took away from that passage. If you saw any other applications, I'd love to hear about them.

What happened...

So what happened to me?

• Christmas(which was good)
• Stay at the McGinnis house(Sorry, if I didn't get to talk to you while I was there in the area!)
• Christmas vaccation

And in the near future I'll be having cousins at my house, and running sound board at church on Sunday. That's it for now! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!