grass, fire, golf... how much better could a day get?

So today, here's the order which I did things...

Slept for 12 hours and woke up at 9.30.
Had Garrett on me when he started excreting gas and other such wonderful things into his diaper.
Started my laundry.
Mowed Nana's Lawn.
Returned home to discover that my laundry almost set the house on fire.
Also found out that I had 5 minutes to get ready to leave to golf.
Showered, ate, changed clothes, got clothes ready to go to grandmas to finish drying, and prepared golf clubs in those five minutes.
Golfed 18 holes at Black Creek Golf Course in Oil Springs
Saw Joshua Seller's father and brother golfing and had a chat with them because they knew 4-6 / of 7 golfers in our grouping.
Ate a barbeque at my grandparents house... well not the bbq itself, but what was made by the bbq... mmmm... hamburgers.

And now I have to pack... Cya next weekend.

four for five... why didn't I apply for core?

So I just got back from yet another week at camp. I lifeguarded, which meant for me that I could rest a lot more, and it was a good week for that because I had a number of headaches scattered throughout the week. So there was lots of sleep intersperced with lots of fun times.

Relating back to the post I made about wierd dreams a while back, this week I had some interested sleep habits that normally don't happen. One person told me that when they came in around 1:30ish in the morning, I said in a clear voice, "Yep! I'm ready" and continued on sleeping. Another night I was asleep, and supposedly stood up and had a half conversation with someone who came in around midnight, and then went back to sleep, and then mumbled something at the next guy who came in around an hour later... it was a wierd week.

I also learned a few things about myself that might come in handy for future use. I'm an introvert. It may not seem like it, but I was born an introvert. However, I forced myself to become an extrovert. But it doesn't work that well. I never have the one liners, and I'm a very poor story teller, and I stutter at trying to tell stories, and I like being by myself sometimes. This really sucks for me, but I guess it's ok... it's who I am, and I don't think it needs to be changed.

woah-ship (part deux)

so I led worship on Sunday morning.  Despite me being the youngest there and having everyone else be at least 30 years older than me, it went well, I think.  People understood me and my mini-messages between songs went over well and I even got a few "amen"s.

Now i have to plan for the next time I get to do this, which will be in... 4-5 weeks I think.  August 22nd.  Mark it down on your calandars and be there this time because I'm giving you advance notice.  If no one's there I'll hunt all of you down and give you the shaming of your life.  Then I'll apologize because it doesn't matter if I have support from people or not because all that matters is God.  So Ha.

reflection

I was reading in Psalms this week and stumbled across this small section.

"Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:
'the Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from the heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.'
So the name of the Lord will be declred in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms assmeble to worship the Lord."  Psalm 102:18-22

Praise the Lord.

wierd dreams

Ok, most of those who read this know that I'm prone to wierd dreams that make no sense.  But for a while I had a huge lull and was getting worried that they were gone for good.  So, I prayed that maybe they'd come back the other day just because they're part of who I am.  And then they did.  So this is two nights in a row that I've had strange dreams. 
 
Dream the First.  The whole basis of this dream was two people I know from camp were taking me on a safari in their jeep.  It was wierd.
 
Dream the Second.  This one kinda got me because I think there's a hidden message in it.  I'm not sure the context behind this dream, but here's what I remember.  I learned that there were some kids being held captive by a bad guy and all they needed was the opportunity to escape to a life of not being trapped in a cage.  So I took quite a few people with me and we went to this bad guy's place and started searching for those who were captive.  The party keeps getting sidetracked, but I keep going straight.  I find the kids locked in a cage and break into it only to realize that there is an easy way out of captivity.  It was a gate that was easy to open, but they were too scared to do it because of the uncertainty of what was on the other side.
 
Correlation to Salvation?  Maybe I'm just whacked.

worship block overcome

I have the order of my service for tomorrow.
 
I'm going to start by playing Blessed Be Your Name as the troops rally.  Then go into Come, Now is the Time to Worship.  After that, I'll do Amazing Grace, Times of Refreshing, Holy, Holy, Holy, You are my All in All, One Pure and Holy Passion, and then wrap it up with Create in me a Clean heart.
 
If you're free Sunday morning at 11:00, you can come for support perhaps... and then you may even get saved! (inside joke... ask for more details)

camp mail

So if anyone wants to e-mail me at camp, I don't know why, but it'd be for the fun of it.  I don't have to sing for my mail anymore.  They've changed that practice since the camp grew from 96 campers to 180.  But it'd still be nice to hear from the very few of you who read this and want to talk to me.
 
Anyways, e-mail campmail@fccamp.org with the subject line "Hi Paco" or something including my grade 10 Spanish name.  Ah well.  If you have a job that I can get, be sure to let me know.  It'll be fun.
.. Or something.

florist cliff

So I'm going back to FCC next week Counselling after a phone call yesterday morning.  It's ok, like I was going to find a job anyways, even if I put my heart, soul, and strength into it.  Something's different this summer.  God's closing a tonne of doors that may not have been closed in years past. 
 
Well, I guess volunteering does go along the lines of relying on God for money.  I'd rather be doing this than sitting on my bum worrying about my fingers slipping after 11:00 pm on the tv.  I've gotten better with that.  I started chucking the remote across the room when I find something I watch (usually on TLC) and by that time of night, I'm too tired to get up and get it.  It's a good preventative tool to avoid the (adult) films that I've stumbled across in the past.  That verse in Romans that I posted a few weeks back describes the internal struggle that goes on.  I'm not the only one who does stupid things like that.  It happened 2000 years ago and still happens today, but I still did wrong and take it as a learning experience. 
 
Anyways, back to the counselling thing.  I'm not sure which cabin I'll have.  I didn't get a choice this time, but whatever one it is I'm sure it'll be a good week.  I've started praying for the kids again and that they may ask the questions that they have related to the topic.  You can pray for that too.  There's going to be 180 kids at camp this week and a large percentage of them may have never heard the Gospel before.  It's going to be a good week.
 
Here's a little passage of scripture that I've been focussing on a lot lately.  This comes from the New Living Translation, so it's a bit different for you NIV users and quite different for you *shudder* KJV users.
 
"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord almighty.  I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.  With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.  Even the sparrow finds a home there, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young - at a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God!  How happy are those who can live in your house, always singing your praises." Psalm 84:1-4 NLT

worship block

I'm having a little block on where I should go with my music on Sunday morning. I had a few songs picked out, but they have nothing to do with each other and every time I play them they sound less appealing... Yarg.

Here's the songs I wanted to do originally:

"Come, Now is the Time to Worship"
"Blessed Be Your Name"
"I, the Lord of Sea and Sky"
"One Pure and Holy Passion"
"In Christ Alone"
"I Surrender All"
"My Jesus, I Love Thee"

but I think I scratched over half of those songs... arg.

frustrations

I posted this yesterday temporarily somewhere else, so if you've already read this, I'm sorry in advance for the repetition.

--

Seriously, I think God must have a huge sense of humour and a whole tonne of patience to put up with people like me. He tells me to do something, and what do I do? The exact opposite because my nature is to do what I think's best. It came to a point today where I just laughed. I saw a job posted online, so I went and did a few preparatory things, and when I went back to get the information a few hours later, it was gone. That's right. Still no job for timmy. le sigh. Who's going to hire me now that I'm leaving in 1.5 months with no intentions of working for them again next summer?

I think I just need to be content with where I am and know that the time for it is coming in the future, just not now... le sigh.

woah-sheep

To quote Toyosi, "Let us join together in woah-ship". I'm at a blocking point right now. I've been asked to lead worship on Sunday morning at my church, and I've come to the point where the songs all need to relate so that a message can be set forth. On Cornerstone, we managed to make everything fall together, and people were ministered to.

But I'm at an impass right now. I want to make everything flow together, but that also requires looking for strong theology behind the songs. As well as wanting to appease the critics who feed and house me. Because of these, it means no Pharoah Pharoah (camp song), and no "All Who Are Thirsty" (and I quote the critic, "unbiblical"), but I can't bring much new stuff to the table either because of the lack of people to support in learning it.

So here's where I stand.

I had a few ideas for themes, such as:

my life over the past 6 months
based on a pericope from scripture
the majesty of the Lord
the Mission of the Lord
the Mandate of the Lord
... ugh, I feel like i'm writing a Biblical studies paper right now...

Maybe I should stop before I start with the footnotes.

faith (not the person)

So I was having a conversation with Katie about my situation this summer with the whole relying on God thing, and we started talking about faith. It's interesting to think that this is the whole idea that Christianity revolves around, yet so many people are lacking in it. Well, not completely faithless, but half heartedly faithless.

Well, let me explain. God told me to rely on him, so half of me is quite ok with doing that. But the other half of me worries about all the things that I worry about, such as money, and time, and employment, etc... But it's all counteracted amongst the other half, so I'm left in one mass bundle of confusion.

And so I pray: Lord, give me faith not that I may understand the reasons, but that I may continue on with confidence that you know best.

discouraged

I'm very discouraged about a post I read in another journal. I was chatting with this person beforehand about camp, and they made a rude comment (supposedly as a joke), and I didn't take it as a joke and replied with the serious answer... Unfortunately, they went ahead and called me some bad mustard in their journal.

I'm not angry, just discouraged that this happens.

The joys of being alive.

harry potter and the chamber of chickens

So I just got back from a week of lifeguarding at Forest Cliff Camp. I had a blast. So much so, that I'm going back and COUNSELLING next week. I'm quite excited for it. I'll probably be in one of the older cabins, but that's really cool.

What'd I do this week? I was in a boat in the lake that had to race a storm to shore. I saw a kid that looked exactly like Harry Potter. I learned how to back up with a trailer to put the boat in and out of the water. And I had a lot of good discussions of spiritual significance in depth, which is something I've been missing out on a lot since school finished. I think this week was the first time that I've actually taken the book of James and put some deep thought into it for discussion. I've done parts, but not the thing as a whole. It was really cool to see what I could learn and apply from it.

And I drove in the FCC Canada Day parade. It was a red Tempo or something like that, but still.. quite fun. The whole parade was a horse, a bike, a golf cart, a mustang, a tempo, a gator, a riding lawnmower with trailer, a kabota with trailer, and a farmall tractor. It wasn't much, but it was the most fun I've had in a while. The joys.

And I was really impressed by the quality of the waterfront staff this summer. Not that I haven't been impressed by the quality in previous years, but I got a good chance to know them on a bit deeper level and had a great respect for all of them this week. There's been past years where I had no respect for them at all... partially because of bitterness, and partially because of my pigheadishness. But this week was fun.

Anyways, you can pray for the week that it goes well. I've been praying that God would prepare the hearts of the campers for the message of His salvation and His love, and that I'd be able to communicate the Gospel in a real way that effectively reaches the hearts.

TTYL.