The ShugaBowl: Y'all ready to go?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Y'all ready to go?

I would like to start off by stating that there is no possible way to briefly describe a Children's Institute. There's no way to fit into a bloggable space a week long encounter with Christ. Even if I were to tell you the highlights, there would be so much left out, that I would never feel I had done justice to the time I have just spent in Lancaster.

Monday morning, Mom and Dad drove us out to Lancaster Bible College where we would not only be teaching the children, but we would also be staying on campus. It took us a while to figure out just exactly where everyone was. Spotting a very conspicuous young lady attired in the ever popular navy and white, we inquired as to where we should meet with the folks in charge of the CI. She sent us to the gym. It was so nice to see a familiar face come out the front door just as we walked up to it. Brad Dettwyler had worked the CI in Baltimore last year. I knew him right off, however, I had to reintroduce myself as he couldn't remember my name. Since they didn't really have room assignments worked out, we stowed our gear (including sheets, towels and blankets) in a couple of empty rooms in the dorm across from the gym. Teacher training started in about ten minutes so we said goodbye, changed our clothes, (can you believe I even had time to iron mine?) and headed back to the gym. At teacher training, I started right in learning things I had heard a million times before. But I'm kind of thick headed sometimes and it takes a million and one times to get through with some things.

God is so wise.

He is so wise to what I need, that it simply blows me away. If I had to keep track of what I needed, I would have enough on my hands. But God, He knows what I need, what my brother needs, what my team assistants need, what each single child on my team needs, what each member of the CI team needs, and not only that. He knows not only what I need to have accomplished in my life. He knows the best way to do it too.

I often wonder about the concept of God, who knows everything, having a "plan B". I don't think "plan B's" exist as far as He is concerned. I think that what we see as "plan B", God sees as the next step of "plan A". I believe that every single thing that comes into our lives is part of His plan, part of His ultimate purpose.

There are many things that I have learned this week. Not just things like the IBLP definition of obedience. Not just how to present the stronghold diagram to a group of eight children between the ages of six and eleven. Not just how to respond when two girls and one boy insist on a trip to the bathroom at the same time that two other girls suddenly become thirsty.

I learned more than that. More even than I expected to learn. I knew God had some things to teach me. I knew He had been preparing me for an unforgettable week. (CI's are always unforgettable.) But what I didn't know was how I was going to respond. Of all the things that I ought to know, this should have been one of them. But even I cannot predict my own reactions. Psalm 139 says "Search me, O God, and know my thoughts. Try me and know my ways." I know how it works. I remember from the past what it is like when God is preparing me to encounter Himself.

Sometimes, I feel like a "turtle on a fencepost", as Sarah Perkins put it. However, she interpreted it with a somewhat more enlightened viewpoint. When she asked if anyone had ever felt like that, I immediately raised my hand.

"Yes!" I cried. "You're moving all over the place, but you still can't get anywhere."

This evoked a very interesting facial expression. She had obviously not thought of it that way. "No," she said. "If you see a turtle on a fencepost, how do you suppose it got there? Someone had to put it there. Someone bigger, and more powerful than the turtle put him on top of that fencepost."

Now this may seem obvious to some, but it took me a while to realize that if God put me on a fencepost, I shouldn't want to go anywhere. (Did I mention that I am thick headed at times?) I should be content to remain on that fencepost until He decides to move me off. It shouldn't matter that He is picking up all the other turtles and moving them along. It's not going to do me any good to flail my arms and legs around because He's still not going to change His plan to suit me. It's not only a waste of energy, but you look kind of silly too.

That was lesson one. And my week had only just begun.

I met my teammates at the end of teacher training. I was made a leader and my assistants were Timothy Beiler and Bethany Heath. We had eight children on our team. Most of them knew each other because, living in the same area, they played softball together at school. Some of them lived in Pittsburg, so they took a while to get to know the other children. We taught them about the principle of design and watched a skit about the prodigal son. We learned how he showed humility by returning to his father's house and asking forgiveness.

After the kids left and we cleaned up our station and put away the extra things, I obtained a key to room 15 from Amos Glick, who was sort of in charge of room assignments. I was told that another girl would be rooming with me, so I went to the dorm and unpacked. I put everything in a place that would be accessible later in the week. I hung up my clothes. I set up my video camera to charge overnight. I took a shower. I tried to stay warm in an unusually cold room. When I finally decided that my room mate wasn't going to arrive any time soon, I shut off the light and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I assumed that there had been a definite misunderstanding somewhere. The other bed remained empty. Huh. That's weird. Maybe I didn't hear right? Maybe Amos didn't hear right? Either way, I was without a room mate all week. So I hung around the dorm till nine or so, then decided that since that was kind of boring, I'd head over to the gym and decorate the team station. I wrote tonight's definition on the white board. I hung up a picture of the globe to represent Monday's lesson on design. Then I hung up a wheel to represent the lesson for tonight. You know that wheel on a ship that you steer with? I can't think of what it's called but that's what it looked like. Then I made little pockets for the kids to put their crafts in. Then I made the "keys of obedience" that no one ever remembers. BTW, there are now five keys instead of three.

Around ten the guys from the dorm started to come over and play basketball. That was distracting. Every time I looked down at what I was reading, a ball would hit close by and I'd have to turn my attention in that direction. I called my mom to find out what the name Caleb means. (I know it means "dog" but I really didn't think that the boy on my team would appreciate such a literal translation. We settled on "courageous.")

At teacher training, we learned how to make sailor hats out of paper. We also read the passage of scripture where God calls Moses to go to Egypt. Let's look at Exodus chapter four.

And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hands? And he said, A rod.
And He said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
Amd the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand."

You might look at this passage and think, "So what? Of course God is able to change things into snakes if He wants to." You might wonder why this particular section is so important to me instead of the verses later on that speak of God's power replacing our weaknesses. (vs. 11 & 12) You might overlook the awesome point God made to me in these few somewhat obscure verses.

Then again, you just might see it yourself.

Now, quite frankly, I am terrified of snakes. I don't know about you, but if anyone at my house even mentions that they saw a snake, I don't go near the area for a month without a big brother escort. And even James carries a big heavy staff. And I'm am sure that if even if I were to summon up the courage to pick up James's big stick and brave it alone, I would nearly jump out of my skin if I set it down and it turned into a snake. And then I think I would probably run from it. I certainly would not pick it up, no matter how much urging and prodding anyone gave me.

But a command from God? That takes on a whole new level of consequence. When God tells you to do something, and you know it's God that's telling you, you do it. Right? You'd better. Especially when God is speaking to you in His own very audible voice. You'd really jump to do it then, right? I hope so. But what if what He tells you to do is something that you not only hesitate to do, but it terrifies you? If God tells me to pick up a snake by the tail, I hesitate most of the time. I sit and listen to the enemy ask me questions like "What if it's poisonous?" and "What if it tries to bite me?", instead of listening to the truth that God is trying to get through to me. He's not going to hurt me. As soon as I obey, He's going to remove that fear and turn the snake back into a big stick. It just takes a leap of faith.

That was lesson two.

That night was lots of fun. (I can't believe I've only made it to Tuesday already!) All the kids made sailor hats and wore them to large group. We watched a skit about a selfish sailor and how followed a map he made himself. He ran into all kinds of problems from sharks and storms to the natives of Pleasure Island taking away his boat. Then we learned about authority and learned how, when God sent frogs to Egypt, they jumped to obey. (Corny joke alert!!) We made little foamie frogs that jumped on a string. You'd have to see them for yourself. No amount of description could paint the proper picture for you. Then we returned to large group and watched the story of Moses and Aaron coming before Pharaoh and telling them to "Let'em go!" That one was unforgettable.

Wednesday morning dawned. I slept in. But I woke in time to meet everyone else for a trip to Park City Center, which is an enormous mall. There had to be 250 stores. No, I don't count the little stands in the middle as stores. At first, I wanted to follow James around. I hadn't hardly seen him all week. But he wanted to follow Micah, who wanted to go with his brother Daniel, who wanted to go with Brad Dettwyler. That would have been awkward, being the only girl, but most of you know that I'm attached to James at the hip practically. Anyway, another girl, Leah, wanted to come with me, and her roommate Carol wanted to be with her. So we started off, one big group. It didn't take the guys long to realize that they had a following. They walked down the south wing, past all the stores we girls wanted to stop and see. Then they reached Boscov's, decided *gasp* not to go in, and turned around. The three of us girls had a quick commitee meeting and they voted me spokesperson. I called Brad's attention and told him "We're leaving you," and went our merry way.

We met up with them again an hour and a half later, after hitting every ladies' clothing store on the south and west wings. We spotted them in the middle concourse thing and ran to catch up because we hadn't yet found the food court and we knew that's where they were headed. Leah and I ordered fried chicken from one of the booths and sat down at a group of tables that had been shoved together for the purpose. The biggest entertainment during the meal was watching a fellow in the arcade next to us jump up and down in time to music on a colored pad. He apparently had to match his footwork to the pattern on the screen. It was hilarious. Especially because the guy had longish curly hair that bounced up and down as often as he did. It was too funny to watch after a while. The guys just had to join in! They entered the arcade and spied a basketball game at the back. (Oh, brother! I was soon to learn just how much Brad, Daniel and Micah loved a good game.)

Back at the ranch, we all piled out of the van, changed our clothes and met for teacher training again.

I learned (again) about the stronghold diagram. But this time, I learned it differently. Let me put it this way. Our enemy looks at us and sees either easy prey or an extreme challenge. If he sees us as a challenge in one area, he will purposely look for the areas where we become vulnerable. (Like I've never heard that before. Did I mention how stubborn and thick headed I can be?) But he doesn't use this tactic to invade only our minds. He uses it to invade our hearts as well. It's a terrible thing to realize that you have welcomed the devil into your heart with open arms. Of course, he doesn't look evil when he comes in. He looks quite good. The things he wants to give us look really great. And it's not until someone points it out to me that I realize what I've done.

But believe me, when someone points it out, I'm not usually one to debate with myself over whether or not I want to be under the control of God or the devil. Get him outta there. It's no wonder my devotions have been so hard to get to lately. It's no wonder I felt like God wasn't hearing my prayers. If I've given parts of my heart to the enemy under the pretences of either my plans, my friends, my thoughts or otherwise, how could there be any room left for God to move around and work?

That was lesson three. I was starting to feel overwhelmed.

On Thursday I slept in a little. I knew that the guys had told us to meet over at the gym by ten for volleyball and such like, but I sat on my bed enjoying the sounds of the Moonlight Sonata being formed by the soft playing of a guitar. Nope, no one had brought their guitar. It was coming from my headphones. (I wish someone had brought a guitar.) But I was listening and reading over my curriculum for later, when I heard a faint ringing noise. It sounded more like beeping. I took off my headphones and heard someone whack an alarm clock. I looked at my watch. Nine forty-five!! I was shocked that Brad and Amos would sleep in until fifteen minutes before they had to us to meet them. Well, I was not really surprised. It was kinda funny.

We played speed volleyball all morning. It was great fun. By the third or fourth game, my team really had a unity worked out. I played back left every game. Sometimes they would switch Daniel and Liz so that one didn't have to serve every game, but we all had our positions worked out so we knew where we needed to be as soon as we hit the court. There were five on each team. Amos, Lauren and I constituted the rest of team three. We lost every game, but it wasn't for lack of heart. I sacrificed my knees for the "good of the team" as M.S. would put it. I hadn't skinned my knees since, oh I don't even remember when. I couldn't kneel at the team station for the rest of the week. I had to sit cross legged.

Teacher training on Thursday consisted of part one, which covered Saturday's seminar, and part two, which covered that evening. They gave us a break in between, wherein I called my mom to let her know that Brad was planning an outing to Philly the next day. I wanted to see if Mom and Dad would like to meet us there. I didn't have any major revelations on Thursday, at least, not like I'd had all week. But Amos led devotions that morning instead of Brad. He had some interesting things to say. He shared with us a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. It's a book for men, but it still seemed to have plenty to say that applied to us ladies as well. One quote that he read, I tried to write down, but it was such a long quote, and I didn't catch it all before he stopped reading. So I borrowed his book to copy it down. It's way to awesome not to share.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt

It's a long thought. But it's intense and extreme and insightful. I would hate to be one who never knew the triumph of victory. I would even hate to never learn from my defeats. Even God Himself went through defeat to reach for victory.

That night we taught the children about patience and suffering. The story was about Joseph. Rather loosely adapted for a CI atmosphere, but still getting the point across that even though it seems like we're going through an awful lot of bad things, God still has a purpose for us. (The turtle on the fencepost comes to mind again.)

On Friday, the dorm folks went to visit Amos's family. (Philly was cancelled as the plans got too complicated to add to the already present stress of a CI.) They live quite local to the seminar. Amos took us around his farm. We even played in the little wooden airplane in his backyard. Then he took us to his cousin's farm. His cousin is Amish, so we got to see a glimpse of how their farms work. I was able to feed the work horses, from my hands. Yuck! It tickled!! Then we went to the barn where the cows were milked. There weren't many cows there at the time because they were all out in the fields. We looked inside the silo. We petted the horses. We saw the baby calves. We saw Amos get his hand all slimy from the calves licking it. (Gross!) We saw the view from the hayloft. And we went back to the Glick's farm.

We had lunch there and Mrs. Glick showed us around their house. The original house was over two hundred years old, but you wouldn't know it the way they have it decorated. I assume by the posters and stuff on the walls that Mr. Glick and Amos volunteer at the local fire department. And Mrs. Glick must definitely like to sew. She has a whole room set up that adjoins their office, with a big cabinet that covers the whole wall. It looks just like the kitchen only instead of a sink and stove, there's an iron and sewing machine. Cool!

After lunch and ice cream, (thanks to Amos for those awesome sandwiches!) we went back to the gym. More volleyball and basketball. I was not up for more sports, so I asked to have the piano turned on and did some practicing. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought any music, so all I could practice were the songs I already knew by heart. Everyone playing speed volley thought it was really funny when I started to play the Spinning Song, because they all seemed to move faster. Who says real life doesn't have background music?

I watched as the fellas played basketball. I think I know how to play now. If I could just get the ball through the hoop. They played and played and played. Brad and Amos teamed up against all comers. They must play together a lot because even the teams of brothers couldn't beat them. They finally matched up against Daniel Cavanaugh (no, not the same one you're thinking of) and Seth Johnson. They went on for a good long while before Seth and Daniel won. Poor Seth! He was playing hard and had to stop after almost every basket to get water and once he was hit by someone in the mouth and started to bleed. Everyone watching the game told him to stop and end the game, but he insisted on finishing it out. Go Seth!

We were all quite tired out by the end of the day, but Daniel had things to do, and Micah wanted to play Knockout and no one was about to leave for the dorm until the appointed time. Micah, after all that basketball he had played and all that volleyball, still wasn't tired, so he played Knockout against four tired girls and me. (I hadn't been playing all day so I wasn't really tired.) Needless to say, he won every game. Even though I wasn't tired, I still couldn't get the ball through the hoop.

Well, Saturday was a long day. We played games with the kids. We sang songs. We watched a skit about a little boy who never remembered his mom's birthday. That one was cool. The story followed him growing up, and every year he remembered his mom's brithday the day before, rushed out to get a gift and ended up somehow messing everything up. Either he gave her a toy sword in the hopes that she wouldn't like it and would give it back, or he bought a really expensive china plate, hoping to impress everyone from the store clerk to his mom, or he didn't want to spend much money on her present. Each year, his mom was disappointed. But finally, an adult by this time, he bought her a rose bush and picked the best one for her. The skit was on genuine love.

At the end of the day, everyone on our team rushed everywhere in the building trying to get autographs from Sarah Perkins, Brad, Amos, Daniel and Alicia. One little girl on my team had been too shy and nervous all week long to even say "hi" to Brad when he came by our team, which he had to do quite often as I could not always handle the boys' energetic spirits. So she blushed clear up to her hair when he took her book from me, signed it, gave it back and said how great it was to have her here this week.

The seminar was over by six o'clock. All the teachers took a group picture, signed books, exchanged addresses and said goodbye. Mom and Dad took us to BK for dinner. They had already eaten and had thought that we would've too. We spent the night at a hotel, had breakfast at CrackerBarrel and rode home Sunday afternoon.

I spent most of Monday taping the skits and stories onto a VHS for someone. I still have three to go. I did spend some of the day outdoors in the garden. I thought leaving for a few days was bad! I came home and there are little trees growing all over my clover patch. And we obviously didn't get much rain either because most of the leaves on my clover were all yellow colored and my rosebush was wilting. I had some definite weeding and watering to do. I also finally found where my clematis plants had disappeared to. I've been looking for them for a while now. Mom found them in the garage. So I planted those also.

Mom and I shopped online for that book Amos Glick told me about, Wild at Heart. I found that Mr. Eldredge and his wife wrote a sort of counterpart to that book for women, called Captivating. I'll let you know how it is, because I'm definitely finding these books. I just hope I can obtain them before I run out of interest in them. I hate that. If I can't get a book when I want it, sometimes I lose all enthusiasm for it.

So, like I said, there is no possible way to briefly describe a Children's Institute, but if you've read all the way through this, you know that I'm not brief anyway. I tried, but it was a whole week after all.

posted by cori 8/02/2005 10:04:00 AM

4 Comments:

At 8/02/2005 6:42 PM, Anonymous said…

Les,

What a wonderful post! Well worth the wait. :)

Thanks for all the encouragement and insightful glimpses into what God has been teaching you. I look forward to hearing even more about your week when I see you.

Would I be too much of a pest if I put a request in for some pictures?

Oh, thought you might like to read a book review on "Captivating" I read awhile back. Actually, it's a sort of a review of Debi Pearl's book and "Captivating" at the same time. I don't remember a whole lot of what the reviewer had to say, but here's the link if you want to check out her thoughts: http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/article_2031.shtml

So glad you had a good time, my dear.
At 8/03/2005 7:26 AM, Anonymous said…

Cara,
Thanks for posting that link. I think we have a tendency to hear of something new and run with it. I appreciated the insights given on the link.
Mrs. T
At 8/03/2005 5:22 PM, Anonymous said…

You forgot the part where I "fixed" the sound system friday night.
At 8/03/2005 6:38 PM, cori said…

That will have to be reserved for your own version of the week. Get yourself a blog, boy!