Six hours until I have to be up and getting ready for church, and I have so much on my mind. My sincerest apologies on how I have been slacking with this whole blog thing. I have felt like I haven't been able to breathe deep or even think too hard for a while now. I've just been so exhausted, yet super alive. Haha. Bear with me now, as I try to update you.
This entire week was devoted to VBS at the church. Such an insane time, with roughly 300 child folk running around with their heads chopped off.... oh, wait... that was me! Yeah, pretty much. The theme was a rock concert titled, Backstage With The BIBLE. Lots of glitter, dancing, and singing, it was definitely one heck of a week-long party. My roomie Sarah has a girl in her fan club named Sarah also, who decided to receive Christ's love and give her life to God. How incredible!
Check out this fun video on Youtube -- VBS '10
Now, the week before this week full of VBS was Master's Camp for River City's youth (both jr. and sr. high). It was entitled "Engage". Similar with very little to no sleep, this was an incredible week. We had about 70 youth from both campuses through River City, and then there were around 200-300 total campers including several other local (and not-so-local) youth groups. The speaker for the week was Jeff Mangum, one of several teaching pastors at a church in Austin, Texas, where Chris Tomlin leads worship when he's around. Let me tell you, he brought the truth. For those of you who have been listening to the Radical series by David Platt along with me, or have heard of him elsewhere, Jeff has a similar teaching syle. It is captivating. Truth is captivating. The musical worship leaders were Chris and Conrad, two guys who passionately sought out the Spirit of our Lord with us throughout the entire week -- praising His holiness and seeking His face.
I was able to connect with a girl named Ali, who is going to be entering the seventh grade. My heart breaks for her, and she blew me away. There was one night in our River City time, where it was just a time of worship and all the leaders were spread apart in the back. She and a friend of hers came over to me and just clung to me. After a few moments, I said, "What's up?" And she just looked at me and said, "I just wanted to come by you, because you make me feel comfortable." Wow, that rocked my world.
The last morning that we were there, Joe remembered something that a speaker at Bethel over this past year did with everyone first semester. So, we gave it a try. First, all the guys (including the leaders), circled around all the girls. Then vice versa. It was a time of prayer, apology, encouragement, honesty, and pouring out our hearts. Powerful to say the least.
Such a jam-packed and wonderful week. And oh, I walked away from with with a nice shiner. A black eye. You see, it was Thursday morning. Around 7am. I was getting ready to go to breakfast. I felt rather dizzy and just all-around nautious, so I sat down on a bench in the community shower area. The next thing I knew was another leader, Lisa, was rubbing my back on the concrete floor. I had blacked out and hit my face. They called another volunteer with our youth, Jon Shepherd, a trauma nurse. He came over and sat me up. I blacked out a second time. I remember feeling miserable. Him and another guy carried me out and laid me onto a mattress out in the lobby area. He gave me an IV on the spot and called 911. He stuck me three times before a vein was good enough.... ugh! Once the hospital dudes got there, they took me to the ER in an ambulance with a neck brace. I think it probably seemed a bit more dramatic than it needed to, but I guess I did lose consciousness. The hospital was a good 45 minutes away, but they did tell me that they normally helicopter people to the San Antonio hospital, since we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I am actually thankful that wasn't the case for me. It's kind of embarrassing to think about it. I found out that they would have had to stick something up my butt. It's common procedure. Noooo! So, I'm still counting my blessings! Once I was there, they just stuck more needles in me and made me pee in a cup after giving me two liters of fluids through my IV. I was so thankful Jon was there with me, because they were trying to make me sign my life away with the around $4,000 bill. You see, I have no insurance. This is bad. But the camp I was at has a policy that anything that happens to anyone on their grounds is covered completely. Wow. So, if this had to happen, I am glad it happened while at camp.
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