Wedding Time

Well this weekend I took a quick trip off of the Rock (Malibu) to be in wedding. Two of my great friends from college were getting married to each other and so I left for the weekend to attend the festivities. My weekend looked something like this:

Friday
7:00 am - Leave Malibu Club
2:00 pm - Meet Nick Graves in Bellingham to carpool down to Vancouver, WA for the Wedding
8:30 pm - Arrive in Vancouver, WA to hit the very end of the rehearsal dinner
1:30 am - Went to bed

Saturday
8:30 am - Meet my parents for breakfast
10:00 am - Begin set up for reception
2:00 pm - Dress down in Tuxes and take too many pictures
4:00 pm - Wedding (may have cried a little)
6:00 pm - Reception (gave a toast,  teared up again, got my dance on)
9:30 pm - Depart Vancouver, WA
2:30 am - Arrive in Bellingham and sleep

Sunday
7:00 am - Wake up and get on the road
1:30 pm - Arrive in Egmont
3:30 pm - Boat back to Malibu

This has been a crazy weekend of travel but a weekend full of amazing memories. This wedding is very unique to me because of the relationship I have with both groom and bride. I consider them both very close friends and the groom one of my best friends. Andrew and I have lived together for 3.5 years and have shared out lives together the whole way through and yesterday was a time for me to see him start a new chapter in his life living with a new person.

Weddings seem to always bring me to get watered eyes. This one especially as I watched two people commit to this amazing covenant that God has established. I think I get so emotional because I think of what God has in store and the meaning of marriage. Allison and Andrew are going to represent an amazing picture of God's love and grace. Weddings are very spiritual moments for me and hopefully for everyone.

Well I gave a toast at a friends wedding... I had nothing prepared coming into the toast except that I wanted to mention the verse 1 Corinthians 13:7 which says: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." I ended up talking about Andrew and Allison's failed first attempt at dating which stirred the crowd up a bit. But the reason why I brought that up was that through them being apart and working on their own individual relationships with Jesus they were able to learn how to be loved and to love others through their relationships with Christ. Once God had them ready then He lead them back together so that they could love each other the right way. The toast had some funny moments and some real Godly moments. When I was talking it just flowed out... The only reason behind it would be the Holy Spirit leading me. Thank God for that!

One last comment about the weekend would be the groomsmen gifts that Andrew gave. He told us he wanted to give us something that was eternal rather than temporary so he gave us Fallin' Whistles. I won't totally explain what they are but I will give you the link. The whistle truly is a gift that brings awareness to all and isn't for our selfish gain. Here is the link: www.fallingwhistles.com

Peace

The summer continues to fly by and I still feel like I just arrived. I guess time flies when you are having fun. First session is about to come to an end and it is tough to think about a new group arriving to work with you for another session of the summer. Even after being here for 3 summers you would think that I would know how to handle the transition of new workers but it is sooooo tough. As a property we put as much time and energy in building these amazing friendship/relationships and then we watch them leave as a brand new group arrives. Not only is it a new group but it is a group that we as a property need to build the same kind of relationships with them.

Right now we have a unique transition camp in here for 5 days. It is the Mars Hill Church based in Ballard, WA. They rented out Malibu for the 5 days we had available to put on a outreach camp for kids in the Puget Sound area. It has been interesting. Different feel then a Young Life camp but a lot of the same events throughout the week. It has ended up being a light week of work for me which is great to prepare myself a little for the new session coming in.

About 4 times a week the guest services team has a devotional that is put on by the interns. This has been a great opportunity for me to share with the work staff what is on my heart. I want to share with you what I shared the first day I presented a devotional.


⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9

I knew going in to this devotional that my main focus was going to be on the verses 6-7 but I allowed the devotional to go wherever it went. The first things I asked the work staff was what caused them anxiety or worry. I made everyone share something of some sort so that everyone would get an opportunity even those who usually don't share. I thought it would warm up the space so that people would feel more comfortable sharing what they thought.


I then had them read out this passage of scripture so that they could hear what Jesus had to say about worry. From this we went to talk about ways to pray and how as human beings, especially Americans we are taught to ask for things and be selfish. We are constantly asking, dreaming about what God can give us rather then what we could do for Him. This isn't how the Lord intended prayer to be. He intended it to be a relationship. The word peace is used in verse 7 and I think it is very significant for when it comes to prayer. I think the Lord wants to give His peace. 


I encouraged the work staff to focus on releasing the things that cause them to worry. I referred back to verse 5 which reads that "The Lord is near." I believe that the Lord is always near but I think for some Malibu is a place where they really feel the Lord being near. I told them I believe that there is a reason for all of us to be here at Malibu and I think it is an opportunity to release these worries and FINALLY receive the Peace of God. 


While I have been here I have really tried to focus on the Holy Spirit's Peace. I want this peace to be so evident in my soul that is resonates onto others around me. May the peace of God be with you.

Summer has started

Wow! The summer is flying by. The whirlwind of a schedule leading up to the start of summer camp has lead me to be extremely busy moving from one project to the next getting camp prepped for a fresh beginning. The last big weekend camp before the summer started was discipleship camp which was over Memorial weekend. We had probably the biggest camp we will have the entire summer 350 kids! With a total of 550 people on the property. It was insane. The first club had so much energy and even without the kids jumping the club room still felt like it was shaking.

The speaker that weekend allowed God to do some incredible things through her. She really challenged those high schoolers to take their relationships with Christ further. It was awesome to watch. Some of the quotes from that weekend were:

• He died thinking of us, in hopes that we would live thinking about Him
• Royalty is made by blood... we are made royalty because of the blood of Jesus.
• Jesus doesn't deny us anything, but we deny Him all the time.

Since the discipleship weekend, full fledged camp has started!! Our summer staff and work crew came into camp and all of sudden our camp of 16 property staff/interns turned into a solid 100 people constantly in camp. 

With the new sound tech job I was still in the dark when it came to how much work and prep it was going to take to cater to the program team, speaker, musician and just about anyone who needs sound. This first week is almost over and I am seeing how the first week, especially the first 4 days of every session will consist of a lot of work and prep in order to make the rest of the session run smoothly. So far this session I have really established a great relationship with the program team and so far most things have gone pretty well. 

The first club was kind of a nightmare. Leading up to club there were about 3 straight little events that involved sound of some capacity which lead to the sound techs not being fully ready for our first club. The program team decided that they were ready and so we started club early. Once we started we realized we didn't have the kid's names for the games in the presenter program. Also during the beginning of club our video tech came in with the video that I needed to somehow present during club that day. This all combined to make confusion with the order of club. We ended up giving the names to the program guys just to read which worked but wasn't ideal. Then to top everything off... A mic didn't work for one of the program guys which was especially needed since the program character was wearing a box on his head. Overall it was super stressful but we learned a lot as a sound tech duo and since then club and everything has been pretty flawless. 

As a guest services team we are going through the book "Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller which is about the Lost Son story in the Gospel of Luke. It takes an in-depth look into the parable showing how the real title of the parable could possibly called the parable of the Two Lost Sons. We just started it but it is definitely something I will be looking forward to. In our first meeting/discussion about the book we talked about which son we identify with more. To me it felt like I have been the second son more often then the first. 

One instance which God was definitely working in was when I was walking to the meeting for the book discussion. As I was walking there I saw a leader praying with his fellow cabin leader. Now this was God showing me how I act like the older son. Throughout this week I saw this leader and judged on if he was truly a good influence on his guys. When I saw him and coleader praying before they went into their cabin time I saw that they in it for real. They were praying for the Holy Spirit to be with them so they could answer the questions and love on their guys the best they could. It was  humbling moment for me. Very powerful.

I'm Baaaaaack

Well my time in Pullman at WSU is finished for now and my year of adventure has begun. The first 3 months of this year of adventure will take place in one of my favorite places in the world Malibu Club in Canada. Malibu is where I have been interning the past two summers and I am extremely excited to be back. I know that Malibu is exactly the place where God wants me to be. He has given me a new role and view on camp this summer that I know will teach me a ton of stuff that could help in equipping me.

This summer I will take on the role as Sound Tech at Malibu. This is an area that I have no experience at all. It is a scary but exciting new job. I know because of this new role and lack of experience I will have to totally depend on the Holy Spirit and His guidance to serve to my best ability. I have only been here for 6 days and people continue to rally around me to help me in learning and fitting into my role.

I have really tried to take a step back and look at the amazing blessings that the Lord has given me while I have been here at Malibu. Any moment I get to look upon the glorious mountains that God created I just take a deep breath and think about how amazing it is to be here and thankful I am for being able to call this my summer job the past 3 summers.

With being a sound tech I will have the opportunity to listen to every speaker that comes through and so hopefully I will be able to leave you with some thoughts that I have received or have myself. Here is one from the sin talk that was just given at the Men's weekend...

Ash the main speaker read through the beginning of Genesis and the birth of sin and death. He focussed on the verse in Genesis 3:4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman.




Ash then related this verse to the sin in all of our lives. For instance, the moment a man begins to take that second look at a woman the voice of the serpent whispers "You will not certainly die". Or when a man is about to click on pornography the serpent whispers "You will not certainly die". Or when a person has the drink on their lips to begin to make them drunk the serpent whispers "You will not certainly die". The serpent's whisper convinces us to commit sin which ultimately leads to this shame.. The same shame that Adam and Eve felt in the garden when the realized that they were naked is the same shame that we feel after we commit our sins today. This is a reminder to me that ALL sin is the same. We must all be on guard for the deceptive voice of the serpent and fight it with the Word of God. We must also repent and realize that Jesus died on the cross and has forgiven us for our darkness.

It is a love story.

My summmmmmmmmer

Storm

Just stupid busy the last couple days. But something that my mentor Gary told me the last time I met with him came to the surface of my memories. That memory was that even in the midst of the craziness of life you have to be obedient to the Lord. I felt like life was moving way too fast the last couple days and then I sat down and started reading and just prayed about my worries and anxiety. I had a huge first exam in one of my classes and a lot of people asked why I was so calm? I can't really give them an answer other than I was just trusting in God that what I knew was enough and that I was going to depend on Him for the strength and wisdom I needed to pass this thing.

I felt so good when I finished my test. A lot better than I thought. If we cast our worry on God and really think about what matters I think He will help put in perspective what really matters. Right before the test I thought... How much does this grade on this exam really mean to me? Sure it looks great but when it comes down to it, I really have a lot of other real cares and thoughts that matter for eternity rather than temporary.

Life is like a storm sometimes. You can see the Chaos. And just in case you were wondering chaos refers to a state lacking order or predictability. Kind of funny how a lot of us might describe this as life. But within the chaos and craziness there is a beauty in it all. There is a sense of control. A control that only comes from the God above. No one can control a storm... no one can control life... only God has a handle in this all.

One Sentence or a couple

I had a great conversation with a brother in Christ the other night. The depth of the conversation was awesome but two sentences stuck out the most that really made me think and in fact still has me thinking...

"People are always asking why God is letting all these people die. Maybe the question is why is letting you live?"

It is one of the questions/statements that you have take a step back. I remember when he said this to me. All I could do was say wow. Wait. I need to repeat that. This is one of those statements that really make you reevaluate life and how you look at it. God is so much more powerful than we can ever imagine. Yes our God is the most passionate being that you can't even imagine but He does as He pleases. Even when life doesn't make sense. When people die, when people suffer and when tragedy hits. It is all for a reason. God is always in control. The last line which says why is he letting you live really is thought provoking. God will remove us from this Earth when He wants. So... what will we do with the time we have? I want to be the most intentional voices of God I can be. I want to be used up. When I was back at Malibu, that is something that Gil, my boss, would always say. That when he was done here he wanted to be used up. That is the way I want to feel. When God calls me home I want Him to look at me and say, "This is my son, to whom I am well pleased."


Sometimes we just have to follow where the Lord leads us. "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." Proverbs 16:3.