OSLCYouth's Xanga

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:36:59 GMT

2009.09.27 Kickoff and Work Party

A big thank-you to everyone who made it for the 2009 Kickoff at 11am this past Sunday, and an even bigger thank-you to everyone who stuck around for the work-party! It was a nice start to the 2009 School Year and I am looking forward to everything that God has for us this coming year.

Here are some of the photos from Sunday (there are more in the Photos Section) and the video from 2009-2009! Enjoy everyone!

--Rob

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:30:35 GMT

2009.08.09 Back Home

Well, after our Chicago-Boston flight was repeatedly delayed because of a faulty flight computer, we finally switched gates and planes and touched down at Logan at around 2:30am (mad props to the Reales and Matthew Beish as our late-late-late-night drivers).

We are all back, safe and sound. Thank you so much for the prayers. We look forward to sharing the experience with you even more, but in the meantime, I have just posted over 150 photos, in albums by day, which you can see in the Photos section. The easiest way is sometimes to go over to the right and click "See All Albums", then you can browse the photos by day or, if you rather, then just click away at anything that looks interesting.

God bless!

- Rob (Skippy)

Safely in Chicago

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:50:38 GMT

Once again, the only Internet access is on Ethan's iPhone, but we are safe and sound in the Windy City, delayed by about half an hour and looking forward to being home soon.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:37:32 GMT

2009.08.08 Day Seven

4:26 PM

We had to say good-bye to our campers yesterday. We were able to say personal good-byes to most of them and it was clear that our time with them was really meaningful. It was hard to see them go, we had grown so close to them in the short (but intense) time we had shared together. In our closing Bible study, our group was able to share about how our perceptions changed, how our interactions changed, and how our group changed over the course of the week. To sum up: at the beginning we were nervous, scared, and didn’t want to do certain things that seemed difficult or gross to us. By the end, we were seeing each camper as a unique individual and as people we were having fun with. We were able to build relationships and enhance both of our experiences. We also enjoyed the beauty of the Colorado Rockies yesterday and helped clean up the camp this morning. For all you parents, I saw your kids clean bathrooms for 2.5 hours today. I mean we cleaned. We have pictures to prove it in case you don’t believe us. So it really is true that this week has helped us all to see people and situations a little differently and hopefully with more of a servant’s heart. We can’t wait to see you all soon and share with you more of what we’ve done.

- Rebecca (Jorgie)

4:19 pm

We left LVR today and its been really tough since for me and Taylor we spent the whole ride crying from LVR to the airport. this was such an awesome experience and although I’m excited to go home I’m sad to leave everyone. Yesterday was a good last full day with everyone, we got to go climbing repelling, and we took a sunset hike up Cedar Mountain. I’m hoping that we can go back and do this again next year!

-Monica (Cash/Haterade)

4:13 pm

Today I am sitting in the Colorado Springs airport. Today was a really tough day for two reasons. 1: We had to clean the bathrooms all morning and 2: we had to leave LVR. Monica and I cried for a while on the way to the airport because we will miss everybody so much. Despite today’s sad mood, yesterday was really fun. At night we went on a sunset hike up Cedar Mountain and the view was really beautiful, I took a lot of great pictures. Our plane is about to board in 15 minutes so I have to get ready to leave. I really am going to miss Colorado and LVR!

- Taylor (Ice-Tay/Super Tay)

4:06 pm

Yesterday the Bethesda campers left after breakfast and then we spent the rest of the morning cleaning up and taking down the beds. Then yesterday night we went on a hike up Cedar Mountain to watch the sunset. The views were beautiful and we got lots of good pictures. This morning we cleaned up the bathrooms and then said goodbye to some of the staff. I’m sitting at our terminal right now and even though I had a really good time this week, I can’t wait to get home. I won’t have to worry about drinking tons of water and going to the bathroom a lot.

- Dylan (Downtown Dylan Brown/Snake Eyes)

4:00 pm

We are on our way back home now, what a long week it has been. We finished up this morning by cleaning the two big bathrooms at the camp, and then spent 2 hours in a car ride to the airport. We said good bye to all the staff at the camp today as they all prepared to leave themselves, because the camp is closing up after this weekend. Now it’s time to spend 5+ hours on plane rides back home… I’m definitely ready to get back, it’s been fun but after awhile you just want to go back home and relax again. I can’t wait to get back, and I’m hoping for safe flights back!

- Ethan (Easy-E/Easy Street)

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:51:15 GMT

2009.08.07 Day Six

10:30pm

Tomorrow, I am going to use my morning time (when I normally blog and have devotions over a steaming cup of camp coffee) to have a nice long, quiet devotional at a spot they call the Amphitheater, with 180-degree views of the sunrise over the Rockies. Thus, I am catching you all up to speed right now, even though it will be posted tomorrow. [editor's note: I actually overslept and didn't go up to the Amphitheater. Oh, well.]

We just completed an incredible hike up the peak nearest to the camp, a peak called Cedar Mountain. It was breathtaking. I was glad that everyone had the bouldering and climbing skills from our earlier activities, as the trail involved a small amount of semi-climbing (the LVR staff spotted us anywhere it could have been dangerous). I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, I’ve hiked Mt. Washington, I’ve gone on some of the gorge bridges near Denver, but I have to tell you, for just sheer, jaw-dropping beauty, I don’t know if you can beat watching the sun set with Pike’s Peak just behind you and, in every direction, peaks and ridges and reservoirs with a winding dirt road wandering through the pines, some burnt out from a fire seven years ago. The wind was really blowing and just the power and grandeur of God’s incredible design was stunning. Thank you, God, and thank you, OSLC and friends, for making this trip possible.

We had a really powerful closing devotion time this afternoon (before climbing and rappelling) with the Servant Event Coordinator, “Scribble”, and our counselor, “Thin Mint” (whom you’ve just met below – a 19-year-old theology student who wants to be a youth and worship leader). Everyone shared and opened up with how the week had stretched us, how God had provided all we needed, and how to take a servant’s heart back to the North Shore: homes, schools, and daily lives. It was a very memorable and blessed time.

The camp here has done a wonderful job. The staff is fun and skilled, the team-building activities were well-planned, the group quiet times were meaningful and effective, and the group activities have been awesome! I truly hope that we can build a longer-term relationship with LVR, as well as with the Bethesda people, as they were similarly skilled, enthusiastic, and fun to work with. I can honestly say that, having done children’s missions, urban missions, construction missions, and even foreign missions, no mission work that I have ever done has stretched me as much and rewarded me as much as missions to people with disabilities. I hope and pray that we at OSLC will find a way to partner with some ministry or service on the North Shore so that more of us can experience the heights and depths of Christ’s love through the lens of ministering to some of His most challenged but most precious children.

And if it has to happen in the Rocky Mountains, I’m cool with that.

God bless and see you soon!

Rob

6:45pm

Dear Diary,

It’s the end of the summer, and though it’s tough to leave camp and head home, I take solace in the fact that this group has been one of my favorites of the summer. The growth that I saw this week in these youngsters has been so dramatic that it makes me wish that I had had this type of experience when I was their age. We’ve had some great times this week, including all the wonderful reminisces about all things New England. It’s been a while since I have had a chance to do that. It was wicked sweet, but it sure has made me miss Bugaboo Creek! Even though the campers were nervous at the beginning of the week to deal with the clients with special needs, God used them in such a way so that they not only grew personally, but they also made genuine relationships. They handled every situation thrown at them with tremendous grace, and I am proud to call this group my group. I will miss this group and all the good times that we shared. Thanks for being my best friend, diary.

- “Thin Mint”

Today was a good and bad day. It was good because we got to go rock climbing and rappelling, but it was bad because we had to say good bye to the Bethesda campers and we have to go home tomorrow (not that I’m not missing my family!). Yesterday I went fishing and did some more arts and crafts with the campers. We also did a thing called Shine Time when each cabin did a skit. For our skit, half of us had to stand in front, and the other half would be our arms, then we went through a whole day as a Servant Event camper. It got really messy because we used real toothpaste and real water, but it was really fun. Right now I am about to go on a sunset hike, so I have to say goodbye!

- Taylor

7am

Good morning to everyone at home! The campers depart today after breakfast at which point we will begin our clean-up an break-down duties. In the afternoon and evening we will be able to do some of the activities with just our group. It hasn’t quite been settled yet, but there will definitely be hiking, horseback riding, top rope climbing and rapelling and/or zip line.

Yesterday was a full day. We had our last two activity session with the Bethesda campers (we rotated through arts and crafts, fishing, horseback riding, archery, and building “rockets”). An impressive thunderstorm nixed our cookout, but this gave us an amazing opportunity to serve as waiters and waitresses and serve all the Bethesda campers and staff. The day before in our Bible study time, Dylan shared with us the passage that he read – the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Thanks, God, for the lesson! In the evening we participated in “Shine Time” with the rocket campers which is sort of like our Not Ready for Prime Time talent show with skits by all the cabin groups.

All the campers are so cool and special in their own way. Getting to know them has allowed us to really see past their special needs to see their unique personalities and gifts. One camper has especially blessed my heart – Michael. He is blind and has limited mobility and very little speech. But he LOVES music! You should have seen him at karaoke! Out at fishing (we didn’t catch a single fish), we had plenty of time to hang out and we just sung songs for a while. He gets this huge toothless grin and starts clapping and tapping his feet. This is one example of how we all have been able to connect to the campers this week.

Even though this has been great, we still miss you can can’t wait to see you soon! Thanks for your continued prayers fro health and endurance.

- Rebecca

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:31:46 GMT

2009.08.06 Day Five

4:34pm

Today was our last full day with the campers. It’s been a really good experience and I’ve had a lot of fun. Last night we did karaoke and it was really great watching how much fun they all had when they were up there singing. I’m really going to miss all the campers but I’m so glad I got this experience because it was so amazing. Watching how willing all of the campers were to try new things and just enjoy themselves - this is definitely an experience I will never forget.

-Monica

4:25pm

So we have finished working with the campers and, boy, has it been the experience of a lifetime! It started out really hard, and I honestly had some doubts sometimes on whether or not I would be able to make it, but it got much better as the week went on. I got to know a lot of the campers really well, and it got much easier to work with the group as a whole once we started getting comfortable with them. The Bethesda staff did a great job of showing us the ropes and telling us all about the people we would be working with. From fishing, to karaoke, to horseback riding, to everything else we did with the group it was really cool to see these challenged people having fun and just being themselves. This experience has been so incredible, and I know I won’t forget this week anytime soon.

- Ethan

7:20am

Just a quick update from me to let all of you know that we are doing very well. Healthy and happy. We had a karaoke night last night with the LVR staff and all the Good Shepherd folks.

Are you sitting down while you read this? Everyone in our group sang. Everyone. Twice. All of our group sang “Build Me Up Buttercup”, a little later the boys brought the house down with “Sweet Caroline”, and near the end, the girls did their thing with “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls.

It was great to see the servants (that’s us: here for the Servant Event), staff, and campers all laughing and cheering and singing together. Now, honestly: of all the things that you thought your campers would do this week, did you ever think they would sing in public?

Thanks for the prayers and support. We are all well and look forward to our last full day with the campers. Tonight, we’ll have a cookout with the campers. Tomorrow, we’ll do all our cleanup and then have a lot of free time for climbing, hiking, or whatever.

God bless and we love you!

Rob

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:36:06 GMT

2009.08.05 Day Four

4:20pm

Last night we all went bouldering a little ways from the camp with 2 of the LVR staff. We all got to climb something and we watched the sunset from the ridge. Today we helped the campers ride horses and I got to ride one myself. After lunch, we helped them shoot bows and arrows. One of them that was even blind got a hit on the bulls eye. But during the end, some of the Bethesda campers were getting tired and almost falling asleep. I hope we can go top roping or something else exciting tonight.

- Dylan

2:45pm

Hanging out with the campers has been great. They’re all so nice and fun. We took them horseback riding today and its so awesome to see how happy they get when they get to do things like that and how proud they get when they catch a fish or do a craft. I think they’re incredible because people like me who can walk, talk, see, hear, and learn perfectly fine are always complaining, but all these campers always stay happy and positive and look on the bright side of everything. They are so thankful for all that they have and I think we could learn a lot from their positive attitudes.

- Monica

7:05am

Good morning, East Coast! As you hopefully saw from yesterday’s blog posts, the Bethesda campers arrived yesterday, along with their staff, two handicap-accessible buses, and a few vans. All in all, to create a camp experience for 19 people with varying levels of ability, it is probably taking about 35 people total – six of us, about 10 LVR staff, and nearly 20 staff from Bethesda/Good Shepherd (Note: for the rest of the week, you may hear us use the terms “Good Shepherd” and “Bethesda” interchangeably – they are two similar Lutheran ministries to people with disabilities, Bethesda centered in the Midwest, Good Shepherd centered on the West Coast, which are currently merging into one ministry, thus the terminology challenge).

I wanted to paint a little fuller picture of what our experience here is like. Aside from ourselves and the newly-arrived Bethesda/Good Shepherd folks, there are about forty campers from 6-13 who are here for “Rocket Camp”: a typical summer camp experience (songs, games, activities) which culminates in building and launching rockets. These campers are divided into cabins, each of which has at least one LVR staff counselor. The counselors all use camp nicknames, resulting in grown people calling one another “Daffy”, “Scribble”, and “Thin Mint”, to name a few. LVR also has a few of their staff counselors assigned to kitchen duty this week, a few to horse-wrangling, a few to caring for us, and a few to doing maintenance-type jobs around camp. Then, there is a summer cook, a medic, and a camp director. In the absence of the camp director (whose cousin passed away right before we came and who will be joining us tomorrow), “Scribble”, the Servant Event coordinator, is acting director.

So, we have a schedule of events with meals, camp opening in the morning and campfire at night – both of which include worship songs and a devotional message, group quiet times in the afternoon, a bit of free time before dinner, and then a morning, afternoon, and evening activity time (these last are subject to the schedule flexibility needed in working with the Good Shepherd campers). Last night, we used our activity time to go bouldering – climbing boulders with no ropes or equipment, and never going higher than ten feet, never without a mat or a spotter – and then watch the sunset over the mountains. From the campsite itself, there is little view, but just a bit of climbing/hiking yields a breathtaking panorama of the Rockies in Pike National Forest where literally four buildings are visible as far as you can see – all of them part of LVR: literally miles of undeveloped mountains in 360 degrees. Not a bad deal.

We are all healthy and team spirits and unity are growing with every shared experience. We love you all back home, but have formed a kind of family dynamic of our own out here which has been a blessing to me and, I think, to all the others. We look forward to coming home but in the meantime, we are honored to represent you all in working with these severely disabled, yet fully-loved and beautiful creations of God.

- Rob

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:52:11 GMT

http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">

2009.08.04 Day Three

4:35pm

Today we met the campers! I was a little bit nervous at the beginning because I was around all of these adults with disabilities, but then after about an hour, I got way more comfortable around them because I realized that they just wanted a friend. After we met the campers, we had lunch and then split into smaller groups. In our small group we do a different activity every day (fishing, horse-back riding, arts and crafts, or archery). Today we did arts and crafts and I helped a camper named Laura, who really didn’t need my help at all. Afterwards, we had bible study and talked about praying, but now it is free time so I decided to blog. Today was a very interesting day and I can’t wait to get to know the campers more tomorrow!

-Taylor

4:30pm

Well, today has been the most interesting day I have had so far this week, and it is one of the more memorable experiences in awhile. We met the Bethesda campers at around lunch time, and boy, was that a humbling experience! I thought it would be easy interacting with these people, but it started out much more difficult than I thought it would. For me it was just awkward. I don’t know why; I guess I was just at a loss as to what I should do. But then as we went along, it got a lot better. I got to know a few of the guys really well, and as we went fishing with a smaller group I got more comfortable being around everybody, and it turned out to be a really great time. My buddy Raymond and I both caught fish and it was a lot of fun just having conversations with all of them, and getting to know the adults that take care of them was cool, too. It certainly got off to a rocky start, but I think this week is only gonna get better as we go and so far, it’s been going great!

-Ethan

Monday, August 03, 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:54:48 GMT

http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">

2009.08.03 - Day Two

4:25pm

I think tonight is when we get to meet the campers! I’m excited to see what they’re like but also a little nervous. We’ve been having a good time up here keeping busy with all the games and challenges we’ve had. Yesterday we were blindfolded and brought to a maze that we had to find a way out of with our blindfolds still on. We couldn’t go over or under the rope, rip it, cut it, etc. and if we needed help we had to raise our hand. After about 30 seconds we realized it was just a circle but we still hadn’t figured out a way out. One by one everyone was disappearing from the maze till it was just me and Taylor and after a good 20 minutes in the maze I took off my blindfold and stepped out and found everyone sitting right outside the maze staring at me. Taylor spent a another 5 minutes in there before we had to stop. Turns out the way to get out was just by raising your hand and someone would guide you out. We learned that asking for help is better than trying everything on your own or giving up, because you cant do everything yourself. Sometimes you need God’s help to get you through tough situations. Today we got down and dirty doing work by the pond setting up a dock. But now there’s a good game of pinecone homerun derby going on, so got to go!

- Monica

We have had a full day of work and team activities. One really cool thing was during our team building session, we did trust activities including falls and lifts. Monica didn’t want to be lifted really high or thrown in the air (don’t worry, we had training on how to do this safely!). However, later when we were working on a low-ropes element in which all the team members had to go through a rope spider web without touching the edges, we lifted her and passed her through the web – and she didn’t make a peep! It’s great to see the team growing and learning to trust each other more. This came in handy when I had to climb under the dock to place supports while the others held it up. There have definitely been challenges, but God has given us the strength to meet each one with a positive attitude. It also helps that the staff here refer to us as the servant group! I even saw all the youth doing dishes and cleaning bathrooms. No guarantee this will continue at home…

- Rebecca

Monday, August 03, 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:44:43 GMT

http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">

2009.08.03 - Day Two

7:24am (all times Mountain Time)

Hello everyone!

We are safely here at Lutheran Valley Retreat in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Everyone did a wonderful job with all the travel. We’d already been traveling for twelve hours when we stopped for lunch – one hour from the camp. Thanks for the prayers for safety and health! We had a short nap when we first got here and then everybody was ready to go.

Yesterday afternoon and evening, we had a short orientation time with the staff of LVR, then after dinner, we did some team-building activities – a few games, then an interesting blindfolded maze that led right into a great devotional on Matthew 11:28, Psalm 46:10, and Jeremiah 29:11. Hopefully, someone will blog about that later.

And speaking of the blog. We have wireless here, but the phone and internet connections are a satellite connection that is pretty spotty. So, we will continue to regularly write the updates and try to post them every afternoon. Photos are probably not going to be possible, but we’ll try as best we can. Just know that unless you’ve heard otherwise, we are doing fine and we love you all and we can’t wait to see you all.

Today will be spent with some more team building and then preparing the camp for the arrival of the Bethesda campers tomorrow – handicap ramps, a fishing dock, etc. Everyone seems to be looking forward to the work – the group activities are fun, but it seems everyone is ready to pitch in somehow.

I gotta go wake up those boys, but we’ll be in touch.

God bless,

- Rob