Youth Mission Trip

My sister Becky and I led a group of six teenagers from our church on a mission trip last week. We stayed at the Calvin Center, a camp/conference center that is part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) just south of Atlanta.

We all met at the church on Monday morning, were seen off by the associate pastor Rev. Heather Shortlidge (who had just returned from Iona), and piled into Samantha Mierau and Lisa Allison's cars for the trip to the airport. I have to say the group and I were slightly disappointed when the hardware in my leg didn't set off the metal detector, but it sure made the security checkpoint simpler than I thought it was going to be. Once in Georgia it took a bit of time to get our rental van and drive to the Calvin Center, so when we got there we started our Global Village experience right away. Our leader for the Global Village, Godsway (his actual name), was from Ghana. Our dinner was specifically designed to teach us that the world is full of haves and have-nots. Godsway randomly passed out our plates which had portions of varying sizes of noodles and veggies. A few plates had a small piece of chicken as well, but not all of them. We put our bags in the lodge where we would be staying when we returned and grabbed just a few items to take with us. Pretty much we just took sunscreen, sleeping bags and pillows. We were driven to the Global Village which was in the woods a good ways away from the lodges and modern facilities. We stayed in the Haiti section. There was also a ghetto, a refugee camp, and a Palestinian area. We were "hired" for some chores - fetching clean water (about a half hour walk round trip), cleaning the kitchen and dishes, gathering fire wood, weeding the field and watering the crops. Once they were completed we were given money to spend at the market (another staff member, Robin, showed up with items to sell to us for our breakfast and lunch). We had 4 or 5 kerosene lanterns and a camp fire once the sun went down for light. The buildings were exact replicas of actual houses, separate kitchen area, outdoor shower and out houses that the staff saw in Haiti. Godsway said that they were similar to the conditions in which he grew up in Africa too. We each got a mosquito net (some of which had holes or rips) and set them up on our bunks. All six girls slept in one room, Matt and I slept in the other. Each room was half of our "house" and was just big enough to fit three bunk beds, a small table and two chairs. Robin and Godsway lead us in a short worship service around the campfire and then left us on our own for a hot and a not-so-restful night's sleep.
We woke at 7am, ate some of the fruit that we had purchased for breakfast and a few of us made some cowboy coffee and ended up with a lot of grounds in our teeth. Godsway arrived and "hired" us to work in the village field. We created rows in the soil with hoes and rakes, pulled weeds and planted a couple rows of corn. Heat index that day was 103 and Sara got a little bit overheated which caused all of us a bit of concern. We had the nurse come check on her. She was OK after a while in the shade and a good bit of water. Our lunch took quite a while to prepare. We cooked rice and beans over charcoal and it took forever to get the water to boil. Darian sauteed a bunch of veggies and Godsway cut up a mango, papaya, sugar cane and coconut for us to have as well. We spent the afternoon making bricks with a really cool machine which you can see here. It is not motorized. It works entirely with levers and brute force. (Godsway took lots of pictures and I will be getting a disc in the mail soon, so I will post pictures as soon as I have them.)

Many groups spend time in Global Village in order to simulate and prepare for oversees mission trips so that they don't experience such culture shock. We were there for just under 24 hours and I think all of us gained a new appreciation for what we have as well as a better understanding of how many people in the world live.

We spent Wednesday at Six Flags Over Georgia and had an absolute ball. I found that my leg was only an issue on a few of the rides that I wanted to ride. Everyone in our group was a major roller coaster enthusiast. Here are some pictures.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we spent participating in the Mission Work Camp. We worked on a very nice lady's house in an old mill town. Unfortunately all the textile industry has moved overseas and the town is suffering as a result. Mrs. Hamm and her husband worked for over 35 years in the mill. She was widowed about 10 years ago and very little has been done on the house since then. We spent most of the first morning clearing debris from her yard. We filled a trailer with an old fence that had fallen over, rusted old chairs that were on the edge of her property and lots of odds and ends. We power washed and scraped peeling paint off of her foundation, front and back steps and helped her sort through a workshop/shed/storage room and carport. We also painted her living room. There was quite a list of items that the Calvin Center plans on doing to her house, but we were the first group to work on this house. There were three job sites within a few blocks of each other and a much larger group from Greensboro NC was working on the other two. One of the houses was at the end of the list of repairs after six months of groups working on it. Here are pictures of us working on Mrs. Hamm's house.

Interesting coincidence --the Greensboro group is the church in which Katie Cashwell grew up. Katie will be interning on our staff at FPC Annapolis for a year starting in August. It also turns out that this is the same church where Rich and Grier, who I met at Princeton Youth Forum (Sara Ferguson's very good friends), were youth leaders before moving to New Jersey. I love the interconnectedness and how small a community the Presbyterian Church can be.

The Calvin Center is a really great place to take a group. The staff was wonderful, the facilities were really nice and they had so many things to do. They lead devotions each morning before we went to work and we had a really nice worship service outdoors each evening. They had recreation activities for our group to choose from for the afternoons (canoeing, rock wall, ropes course, etc.). For worship, a concert and bonfire on Thursday, a pool party on Saturday, and a movie one night we joined with all of the other campers and staff.

Our group worked so hard and I am extremely proud of them. They really bonded and enjoyed spending time together too, which was great to witness and be a part of. This was not the trip that we had originally planned, but I don't think I would change anything about how it turned out. Here are some pictures of our gang just having fun

Our trip home was not as smooth as our trip down, but we all arrived safely back to our families yesterday afternoon. After boarding the plane yesterday we sat at the gate for about two hours while they fixed a broken fuel gauge on one of the wings. So we took off about the time that we were supposed to be landing in Baltimore.

My parents have been on a cruise, brother-in-law Jesko was on a business trip, Becky and I were in Georgia and my nieces were with Jesko's parents, so it was great to get home and have dinner with the whole family last night.

Highlights of my week

Wow, I've had a pretty busy week. Highlights included -

• Took care of the dogs on my own for the first full week in over a year.
• Youth group Sweat Equity last Saturday morning. So nice to wear dirty clothes, smell saw dust, and be around all the work happening on campus again.
  
• A couple of meetings at church.
• Reconnected through Facebook with my USNA roommate Dan. Talked on the phone for a while. Turns out he now lives in Towson and we are going to get together when I get home from the youth trip.
• Had sushi lunch with Brandon
• Got a package in the mail with lots of goodies from Sara F.
  
• PT twice
• Hung out with Dan, August, Sara W., and Tammy.
• Saw UP in 3-D
• Talked to Megan and Becca in Texas with Skype. Very cool!
  
• Saw Doug play at Pusser's (He's there every Friday night out on the deck 5-9pm all Summer)
• Tied up loose ends for the youth mission trip with a lot of help from Becky.
• Ran into my college girlfriend, Krissy. Met her husband and three sons.
• Helped Danielle with her homework (long story)
• No Internet connection at home for the last 2 days - major Facebook and blog withdrawal symptoms. Trying to get my fill today before I'm away from the PC for 6 days while chaperoning the youth trip with my sister.
• Attended a full immersion baptism today. First one I've ever seen and the first for our church as far as we are aware. Great day for it. The sun broke through the clouds and there were osprey overhead during the service which was in Bay Ridge. Gundel Bowen and I couldn't help but sing "Down to the river" (song most know from the Allison Krauss version in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?)
• Missed seeing my dad on Father's Day, but am glad he, mom, John and Pat are having a great time.
• Laundry, packing and pre-trip jitters.
  

Tomorrow Becky and I are taking 6 teens from the youth group to the Calvin Center south of Atlanta. I will get to go through airport security for the first time since getting my new hardware and am anxious to see how that goes.

While we are there we will be participating in the Global Villages

A place to be confronted with the never ending conditions that millions live in around the world. It brings people together to live and experience for a pre-determined period of time to understand what and how day to day life occurs in many developing countries.

and their Mission Work Camp.

Through an established connection with Meals on Wheels, elderly home owners are identified that need help with home renovations. Typical projects consist of painting, simple carpentry, yard work, and cleaning.

We're also going to spend a day at Six Flags. I'm sure we'll have lots to share when we return and hopefully will have some good pictures to post as well. I'd better get to bed since I've got to get up early to drop the dogs at the kennel. I hope everyone has a great week! Keep our group in your thoughts and prayers.

A New Phase on the Workman's Comp Front

Thursday I had two rather important appointments and have now officially entered a new phase in the Workman's Compensation process.

First I met with the Vocational Counselor that was assigned to me by the insurance company adjuster. We went over the results of the Career Assessment Inventory test that I took and he showed me the plan that he has drawn up for what they will do to get me off of disability and back to work once the doctor OKs it. No real surprises on either. They do not plan on any training for me and propose that I find a job that isn't physically demanding which shouldn't be too much of a stretch considering my degree and resume. Seminary is too far down the road for that to fit into my vocational plan (as far as the insurance company is concerned), so I will need to find something to do that won't be a long term career move, but will pay the bills while I apply to schools and figure out where I'm going, when I'm going and how I'm going to pay for school. The plan won't be finalized until the doctor says its time for me to be finished with treatment and they also need to list any restrictions in the plan.

When I finished with that meeting I was off to Baltimore to see Dr. Brumback. As always I got an x-ray as soon as I arrived and happily he didn't say anything like this cartoon to the left. He was pleased that things appear unchanged and I have had no symptoms indicating that the infection has returned. We talked about the worker's compensation process and he declared me to be MMI (Maximum Medical Improvement) which officially ends the treatment phase of my case. I'm still doing physical therapy on my own twice a week at the gym and he said there could still be slight improvements and changes for the next several months, but for all intents and purposes this is as good as I'm going to get as far as the medical professionals are concerned. My knee bends somewhere in the 50-60 degree range and I can walk/ stand without my cane for short distances/times. It's been 16 months since my accident, but every once in a while it hits me that I am permanently partially disabled. This was one of those days. Intellectually I've known this for some time now, but there has been and continues to be a small bit of hope inside me that still believes that I will bend my knee again. Hearing the doctor say MMI didn't completely erase that hope, but it sure shrunk it quite a bit.
The MMI declaration filled one of the holes in the vocational plan, but they still need to list my physical restrictions. The doctor will not/can not state these so at the request of my nurse case manager he has ordered a FCE (Functional Capabilities Evaluation) for me. I will go to a facility that will put me through a course of tests so that they can come up with a list of parameters for me. It will be an independent report that says things like - "should not lift more than X lbs. should not be required to stand for more than X minutes/hours. should primarily be in a desk job that does not require a lot of walking." or something along those lines. I imagine that this will not be a very enjoyable day of testing. I may be wrong, but envision them testing the boundaries of my capabilities in order to determine what I can and can't do. So being pushed to the point of failure repeatedly should be a nice swift kick to the old ego.

So now I'm waiting for the FCE to be scheduled. Once that is done then the Vocational Rehabilitation Plan will be completed. Then the insurance company, the counselor, and I all have to agree and sign it to put the plan into effect. The plan basically says that they will keep paying me disability checks while I look for a new job that fits my new physical limitations. They have made a few suggestions based on my college degree, mortgage background, and management experience and will provide me with leads, but I'm pretty much on my own to find a job, so if you know of any openings in the Annapolis area by all means let me know. Thanks!

Outnumbered

My friend Jenn posted these two clips from the British sitcom Outnumbered on Facebook and I am hooked. I especially like this one of the poor vicar sitting with the children at a wedding getting grilled with some particularly difficult theological questions. "Why didn't the baby Jesus just zap King Herod?" "Why didn't Jesus shape-shift into a Roman?" "What would Jesus do if he was attacked by a polar bear?"

This little girl apparently steals the show on a regular basis and after you see her funeral for a mouse that was caught in a trap set by her parents you can see why.

FOX is apparently working on an American version of this show, so we'll see how it turns out. In the mean time there are quite a few more clips like these on YouTube

Relay for Life

Tonight is going to be my family's fifth Relay for Life, which is the American Cancer Society's signature fund raising event. They are a lot of fun, inspirational and for a great cause. This will be a first for us though because our luck finally ran out with the weather and we are being forced indoors for the first time. Typically the event is held in the stadium of a local high school. Teams set up campsites on the field and folks walk around the track from 6pm on Friday until 7am on Saturday. The idea is that each team always has someone on the track walking the entire night for one big relay, since cancer never sleeps.

This year we will be moved into the school gym, so it should be interesting. No tents are allowed, so set up and preparation should be more simple than in years past, but I'm not sure anyone from our team plans to stay all night.

Our team, The J-Walkers, formed after my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2005. My sister is the team captain, does a fantastic job and we have raised quite a bit of money over the years.

If you'd like to make a donation in support of the American Cancer Society and all the great work that they do please visit my donation page.

Craig Ferguson's Pre-Monologue Openings

Craig Ferguson has been doing these openings every so often with lip sync versions of songs. The lead in immediately after Letterman ends, which is short and meant to hook you before they run a set of commercials or even the opening credits is perhaps my favorite 3 minutes on TV every day. Sometimes he just comes out and talks, sometimes he just makes funny faces and says nothing, often he goofs with someone in the audience, but a handful of times he's been doing these musical numbers with puppets. On a few occasions you never saw him at all, just puppets and for a few days in a row it was only a tennis ball on the end of a stick. The musical numbers are by far my favorite though. I'm including two in this post, but you can watch several of them on YouTube or the CBS Website for the show.
The yodeling song -

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (not Constantinople)
This is what he opened with on Wednesday night (I guess technically it was Thursday morning since he starts at 12:37am.)

CPM Interview

Last night I had my interview with the Committee on Preparation for Ministry (CPM) at the Baltimore Presbytery offices. I arrived on time, but the committee was running a little behind so I had the opportunity to relax and center myself before they invited me in. I appreciated this since I had cut it closer than I had planned to and was a bit stressed when I finally got in the building and found the correct room for the meeting. As I expected it was more intimidating than meeting with the Session at my home church who know me personally, know my story, know my family and have seen me on the job for the past few years. Last night I only knew one person in the room and all but one member of the committee was a minister, so I felt that there was more pressure to present myself to them than there was at last week's interview. Both were intimidating experiences and the questions were no cake walk, but last night had a little extra something.

I was given the opportunity to make an opening statement and then questioned for about half an hour. The questions were mainly about my sense of call and what lead me to this point in my journey, but did temporarily divert to my exploration of Zen and some theological questions that stemmed from a particular statement that I made in my application. I wasn't expecting that, but apparently I handled it well enough because after being excused for twenty to twenty five minutes I was brought back in and told that the committee would take me under their care. Technically it won't be official until the Presbytery Meeting later this month when the committee presents it to the whole body for approval, but I am now an Inquirer.

Since it will be a little more than a year before I intend to start school my liaison (one of the ministers on the committee) is going to give me some books to read and we will meet periodically to discuss them, as well as my school search and my growth.

Heather, the associate pastor at my church, is a member of the committee and was the familiar face in the room. She didn't ask any questions while I was before the committee, but she did pop out of the meeting as I was leaving to tell me that I had done a fine job and to congratulate me. It was a little harder to get a read on the folks in the room since I didn't know them, so her gesture and compliment meant a lot.

Since last night was committee night at the Presbytery my friends on the Youth Committee were at the offices too. Jenn, Brandon, Vinny and Lauren waited over an hour after their meeting was over for me to be finished and took me out to celebrate at a local Ruby Tuesdays.

I am excited, nervous, humbled and ready to enter into this process.