Home and back again

So two week have gone by and a lot has went on..

I went home for about 6 days to enjoy a time with family and friends. It was strange leaving Malibu so suddenly. It was great being home though. When I come home from being away for so long my parents basically welcome me back like the protocol son. Feast after feast. While at home I was able to watch my brother play in the Washington State All-star game for football. I love football and enjoy watching my brother play. I also got to go boating, go to a movie, and went golfing. It was a solid time at home.

Once I got to Malibu I tracked the amount of miles a drove within this one week and I had driven over 1000 miles, this is not including the ferry or boat rides.

While away at home the rest of the interns had Christmas in June where they exchanged white elephant gifts and had a fancy dinner. It was a bummer missing it but I did get to leave behind a gift for the exchange, so that I could receive a gift in return. I decided to leave a free 15 minute back massage from yours truly in return I ended up getting the best gift there. I ended up getting a private plane ride with Bob Goff around the inlet. Bob is a neighbor of Malibu's and owns his own plane and multiple lodges. It was a great coming back gift.

When I got back to Malibu it was whole new group of personnel. When I had left Malibu the first session assignment team, summer staff and work crew all left as well. It was just strange coming into camp with things already running with all new people who I didn't know. It made me miss the first session instantly. I think it was because I connected with so many of the summer staffers and assignment team that I just felt really comfortable.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:9-12

These verses have so much to it. My favorite verse of this group is definitely verse 12. It makes so much sense in my mind. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is exactly how I see Christ daily. I see Him in others. While at Malibu everyone is sacrificing themselves for others and you can see Christ through them. But it isn't just through these actions that Christ is evident. It is through their simple smiles and joy. I personally believe that a smile brightens someones face. Just as when Moses' face was glowing when he saw God I also believe that smiles show Christ to me, because like it says in 12, God lives in us.

In verse 12 it also says how God love is made complete in us.. God's love is made complete in us!? How crazy is that?! We have the opportunity to be a part of a perfect love that God provides.. a perfect, complete, and unconditional love. Let God live in you.. be in love with our creator. Show the love that Christ showed you to those around you, to those who don't know Him. This love that you show them is God living in us, and it will shine through you.

Come and go

I watched the movie Invictus today. I thought it was a solid movie. It contained so much Truth. The way Nelson Madella acted as president during that movie had so many Biblical truths behind it. All I have to say is that you have to see it to know what I mean. There are too many things on here for me to even get started. It's funny though. God himself is in everything. In a movie such as this that really had nothing to do with Christ in my mind had everything to do with Him. There are plenty of quotes, songs, movies and just people who have nothing to do with Christ but to me the meaning behind what they represent is Christ in my eyes.
It is hard to see people come and go. This last week here with first session really makes me sad. They are a great group of people that I will miss tremendously. It is hard to believe that I will most likely never see a lot of them again. They will be only memories to me. And then before I know it there will be a new group, new faces and all with a unique new story of Jesus impacting their lives.

This week my hometown area was here with kids. There are 350 campers this week which is over capacity for Malibu so you can imagine the controlled chaos here at the BU. Tonight is the dance party and I am excited to see what goes down.

Say-so is time where I remember why I do what I do. When I see that group of kids stand up.. It almost brings me to tears. I see it as that moment they are rescued. That is a very powerful word in my book lately.. Rescued. Those kids were rescued from a life that no one will ever know about.. they are rescued to come and live in eternity. There is a celebration in Heaven for these kids.

You just got served

then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death
even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:2-8

If you don't understand what being humble is about after you read this then you probably will never understand. Making yourself less then the person next to you knowing you have power over them. Knowing that you could easily do without them yet you serve them. When do we ever consider ourselves nothing? Jesus made himself nothing when He had all the power in the world. It's something that is hard to grasp. Take on the nature of a servant today.. think of the person next you first not yours.. It is tough but it would be what Christ would do.. How cliche this sounds but "What would Jesus do?"

The goal is to be aware of the unseen things even as you live out your life in the visible world.

The first official week is over here and I love it. I really connect with them summer staff here. It definitely helps having 3 of them from school as well as Gary and Judy as the summer staff coordinators. Earlier this year I heard a sermon on what a blessing meant and what it is. Because of it I asked Gary if he would give me one. It then came to my mind that I hadn't been baptized yet and what a wonderful and unforgettable place it would be if I got to do it at Malibu. So hopefully before the session is over I will be able to get baptized.

It is strange but I already feel the sadness of the summer staff and work crew leaving. It will be a strange deal trying to connect with these groups and then see them basically walk away for who knows how long. But no matter what we are still connected. No matter how long the time in between seeing each other we don't forget one another. We are united in Christ and we can't be divided because of Him. It is that common love. The love that we all get to share for eternity. We are eternity bound.. get excited.

Amazing love,
How can it be
That you my God
Would die for me

Amazing Grace
How sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

Amazing Peace
No more to fear
My god my help
is evernear

Amazing grace
How the sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

Amazing sight
No longer blind
You touched my eyes
New hope I find

Amazing grace
how sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

Amazing life
Forget the grave
Jesus had died
My soul to save

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

Amazing help
No more alone
New family
New heavenly home

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

Amazing love
How can it be
That you my God
Would die for me

Amazing grace
how sweet the sound
I come and lay my burdens down

By Ryan Long

This song has been money for me to listen to with a couple of other songs that have been great to worship the Lord with.

Slower

Well the Summer Staff and Work Crew as well as our first camp and I really feel like I have something going on at all times. I feel like I have no time for the internet except to check it briefly between things. I love it though. Our ODC(outdoor crew) guys are great. I don't get to interact with them as much as I want but the time I have been with them, I love it. There attitudes to serve inspires to want to serve even more. It brings me back to when I was on work crew. Since the campies showed up as well things have become so much slower. Each day seems to be longer which opens up opportunities for more interactions with others.

God is changing me into a man. I strive to be a man after His own heart. This summer so far I feel like He is forming my character as well as my skills to be a man. A man to lead, a man to take care of his family, and a man chasing after Christ. There have been a couple times where I felt like I had crossed the line when poking fun at others and usually I just brush it off thinking that they could handle it because they knew I was joking but something inside me has pushed me into apologizing. Sitting down with the person and saying, "Hey, I know you knew I was joking but I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." It is like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. It is like I can't go on with my day unless I tell that person how I feel.

So I finished Crazy Love. What a great book. I recommend it to anyone who is looking into a challenging and convicting book. One of my favorite quotes from it is "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." I love this. It seems more common here then most places, especially for summer staff and work crew. You tell people that you are going to go and work your butt off for a month for no pay. You think they understand what serving means to you? Sure, I do get an honorarium for serving but does that change why I am here? In my mind it doesn't. I would do this for free in a second.

Crazy Love used this picture that I love to think about. You are swimming in a river against a current... if you don't swim against it you will never gain ground, but flow down the river and fall farther away. This is a picture of our relationship of Christ. WE have to chase after Christ with all of our hearts. If we don't.. if we stay complacent.. we fall slowly away from Him and the relationship He intended for us.

I am thinking of reading another book.. I haven't read any of C.S. Lewis so I might read Mere Christianity, but I am open for suggestions.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

This is a verse that I am trying to live out at the moment. Serving everyone.. that is my goal.

Do Something

I love vanilla chi tea.. had it the other night and it looks like I finally found an alternative to hot chocolate when everyone else is having coffee. There is a lot of stuff going down here at camp. We just had discipleship weekend with over 300 campers which is the largest it has ever been. It was a great preview of what camp will be like once the sessions start up. This summer at Malibu we will pushing capacity so everyone here on the property is excited and amped up for what God has in store. The assignment team for first session arrives this week.. CRAZY

Reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan has been great. It is a faith challenging book and already has me wanting to make myself more like Christ. One thing that I really wanted to share with you about Crazy Love was in Chapter 5 called Serving Leftovers to a Holy God. The chapter was essentially about how Christ wants all of you.. He doesn't want only parts. Look at it from His perspective.. He has made everything that you have or will ever want but you will only give part of yourself? It just doesn't make sense. Think of it this way, when you get a token "Thank you" or compliment you but you know the person doesn't truly mean it. I mean wouldn't you rather just have that person not say anything at all? God is that way. He doesn't want a courtesy prayer or for Him to be something on the check list. He wants to be the entire check list, He wants to be everything to you.

One of the things Francis Chan has you do is take the scripture from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which says

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. it does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all thing, hopes all things, endures all things..."

Now take this passage and replace the word Love with your name because God calls us to represent love to the world.

Brad is patient and kind; Brad does not envy or boast; he is not arrogant or rude. he does not insist on his own way; he is not irritable or resentful; he does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices with the truth. Brad bears all things, believes all thing, hopes all things, endures all things...

I don't know I thought it was really cool and thought you guys would enjoy doing this exercise as I did. I know I haven't lived up to this yet but I know that I can... Love each other because that's what is all about. Serve one another. Your love for Christ will show.

Twice this week I have heard someone say that the poor are better off with Christ then we are. I was in the doctors office thing here at camp and he told us that Africa will be the center of Christianity by 2020 because they don't have anything so all they can do is focus on God and read his word. By living without the safety net we have to depend on God to get us through those tough times and if we don't suffer those times do we truly know the power or love of Christ?

Here at camp we consider our staff one big team. One team with one goal and that is to serve kids and prepare a camp to help show the love of Christ. We were each chosen because we were the cream of the crop. We were chosen for our abilities. I came across a verse today which I thought represented exactly what us interns are here for.

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

Call me wayne

So this last week has been great. A lot of thinking and a lot of alone time with Christ. We didn't have a camp here at all so all of us here on the property just did random tasks and projects to help prepare for first session to arrive. This past week I have basically done everything there is to do at camp as far as jobs. For landscape/maintenance I did the usual fix-it stuff, watered flowers, dug a ditch, and mowed some grass. I helped out in the kitchen with helping with food preparation but also doing the pits every night for cleaning up for the day. In the house keeping department I went through and helped clean up Kenata(brand new assignment team housing) for the Pastor's camp that just arrived yesterday. I would also say I was a little a part of the harbor team as I learned how to drive the lifetimer boats and the HURRICANE! Let's just say I am a natural. Emily one of my fellow interns told me I was the best driver she has ever taught so that was super cool.

These thoughts are gonna be random order and just things that have been going on this week and such...

-bioluminescence in the water here at Malibu is so cool. So when it is night the water literally sparkles from this algae that is somehow reacts creating almost like a lightening bugs in the water.

-Sitting on docks and just sitting there at night is what it is all about.. nuff said

-Started reading Crazy Love(a book).. so far it is really interesting

-Psalm 19:1-4

-So here at Malibu it is tradition that every week the interns/property staff take on the summer staff in hockey. Lately we have been able to play a little. The first week I played goalie and surprised everyone including me, my guess is that is was mostly from being a catcher in baseball. Yesterday when we played i decided that i wanted to run around and play, and apparently I am Wayne Gretzky. I had a hat trick(3 goals) and an assist. Lets just say I am looking forward to hockey this summer.

-Geese are the devil.. they poop on our yards and won't go away.. Campers please come soon so the geese will perish. I was on poop patrol with colton and pip yesterday

-All the guy interns here are great.. we seriously feed off of each others humor and we just laugh and have a good time every night

-Climbed up inspiration point twice this week. It is a view point of the whole camp and it is beautiful.

God has called me to this place. I know that I am supposed to be here rather than anywhere else. It is weird how God works and the way he works through others. The bonds that I have gained already through this experience are ones that will be hard to break. I was sitting on the dock with Colton just having a chat about life when I realized that him and I are so close yet I barely know a thing about his life. It doesn't take much for two people to bond when the only commonality that you know is your love for Christ.

To fear God.. this is something that I don't think I have thought of that seriously. I have always thought of God as a buddy.. something safe when the realization is that He is everything but safe. He is gonna make you risk some things. He is going to challenge you. He might make you go where you would never want to go. What does it mean to fear? God is big.. TOO BIG for us to even think about comprehending. He has created things more massive and beyond us, yet he cares and loves us more than anything else. His POWER is unlimited. Why fear him? Because he is POWER. Let this fear drive you.

Looking at these mountains and the creation that God has blessed me with brings me back to something my friend Zac Slay once said. He said look at those mountains.. wow aren't they beautiful? Whats more beautiful then those mountains? And really at this point you really don't know how to answer it but the answer is you. Jesus didn't come down from heaven to die for those mountains.. He came for you.. because He loves you. You could wake up tomorrow.. lose your belief, curse God, run away and commit unspeakable crimes but guess what God still loves you. You could wake up everyday seeking God's face by prayer and getting into the word and doing "good" things but it doesnt matter because Christ loves you the same. His love is constant.. limitless.. and patient. It is all up to you to realize the love He has for you because whether you believe it or not, it has been there all along, it just took you some time to find it.

Just remember you are LOVED

NEWS: From Malibu

Hey guys!
So after all I won't be able to update my blog near as much as I had hoped. It turns out that the Malibu internet isnt near as accessible as I had anticipated. So hopefully I will be able to update y'all weekly on my day off. Another bummer is they won't allow us to upload any pictures or videos so these blogs will seem pretty plain but I hope you all can still enjoy it. So let me catch you up on what is going on in my neck of the woods...

So the travel there was quite the process after all... Addie(another intern) and I traveled from Kennewick to Seattle on Sunday(5/9).. We ended up getting to Seattle much later than I had hoped and by the time I had dropped Addie off at her friends I was looking at arriving at Lauren Lavergne's house at 11 pm.. When arriving Lauren's family welcomed me with open arms.. they are the nicest people. Her father David then tried helping me figure out traveling details for the following day to get to Malibu. He helped tremendously.

The next morning I met up with Addie and we left Seattle around 7 am.. We got stopped at the border and had to get out of the car and get interviewed by the border patrol.. they probably asked us 30 times if we were getting paid this summer which we had to kind of lie and say that we weren't. Realistically we are getting gifted the money for our hard work.. we don't have wages so I would say we were just bending the truth a little.

Once we got across the border we ended up meeting up with some of the fellow interns at the first ferry. That is where I met Pip, Stephfan, and well I already knew Shawn. As we boarded the ferry, we sat around chatting with each other briefly about who we were and where we came from. As we got off the ferry we realized that we were gonna be pressed with time in arriving at Egmont, I instantly turned into a rally car driver. On the way there Addie and I listened to "Outsiders" by Needtobreathe probably around 6 times. We were rocking out! I was so excited.

At the Egmont landing I met other property staff such as Harold the main man in charge and of course another intern who i consider to pretty much to be on staff there and that is David Wood. David turns out to be a guy that both Noah and Kevin got to work with last summer and he is awesome. He is 27 but the age difference really isn't that bad.

When I arrive at Malibu I see my boss.. the man himself Gil! He is a bearded man kind of larger but with a kind of lighter voice that I recognized from my phone interview. I move into my room and Pip and I decided to share a room together. At our first meal I look around and realize that I am 1 of 15 total people at Malibu.. It was crazy.. But I LOVED it.

The first morning I wake up and watch as Pip a larger fellow tries to get off the top bunk.. He explains to me that it has always been tough for him to get off top bunks because he has bad ankles.. at this point we hear wood cracking and with a slight boom the bunk bed collapses.. Thank the Lord I wasn't under there.

I can't really describe my job totally to you yet because I am still trying to figure it out still. The first day I planted a bunch of flowers and watered, but since then I will go ahead and let you know everything I have learned:

• How to turn on the Hydro(powerhouse which runs camp), and how to turn on the emergency generators
• How to burn garbage with the incinerators
• Replaced a sink tap
• Replaced a bunch of light bulbs
• Worked on some showers
• Replaced a toilet
  
• And much more...

As you can see the learning curve is quite steep but I am a fast learner and I am excited for what the Lord has in store. This last weekend we had Men's weekend and I was able to see Rich Ward as well as Gary Hopkins. I was able to sit down with both and chat with them about my experiences so far. It was nice to have them up here for a bit.

After the mens camp left I was able to to just rest up a little bit and bond with the other interns. Last night we had a get together at one of the property staff guys house named Matt Sear. His family is darling and I love hanging with his kids. But anways, all of us interns got together and watched a movie and then had a super sick jam session. Colton the sound tech intern who came in with the the mens camp just jams on the guitar. I watched as he picked up and figured out how to play a bunch of songs including some needtobreathe. Colton and I have really started to bond a bunch already. We get along really well and laugh together.

Today on my day off I had a quiet time at the dock and just sat and took in the beauty that is here. This place never gets old to look at. I really believe that is a taste of heaven. I love it. After my quiet I saw with Colton and we just talked about life.. most specifically marriage and stuff it was cool. I am really excited for that the summer has in store. Praise the Lord for this opportunity. Well until I have time to write again.. Keep me in your prayers!