So I have fallen a bit behind on the blogs, and there is a lot to fill you in on. So instead of writing one really long blog that no one reads all the way through I am going to post multiple updates this week.
So update #1: Auschwitz.
Over Memorial day weekend we went on a trip to Poland to see the concentration camp Auschwitz. It was a gerat weekend. There were times it was a lot of fun, there were other times it was very sobering and educational. The fun times were hanging out w/ the stuednts and families who came along. It was a lot of quality time w/ some great people. Each night we would do discussion time and debriefing from the day. After that we would hang out and play games.
Auschwitz is an enormous camp, w/ two main sections. There are a lot of parts to it, but the best known are Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. We went to Auschwitz 1 one day and had a guided tour, and then to Birkenau the next day and went on our own. A lot of people will do both in the same day and do a three hour tour total. I would not recommend that. It took us three hours to see Auschwitz 1. It is also a lot to digest and is very overwhelming, so splitting it up worked really well. At Auschwitz 1 we talked a lot about Father Maximilian Kolbe, who is known as the saint of Auschwitz. He was a priest put into the camp for speaking out against the Nazis. One day a prisoner was to be executed and he stepped forward to ask if he could take the mans place. The SS agreed and put him in a room to starve him to death w/ other prisoners. Throughout the next two weeks Father Kolbe led prayer and singing while slowly starving to death. After two weeks he was still alive, and needing the room to punish other prisoners, they gave him a lethal injection. To be at a place, see where he stood, where he was punished and died for such a selfless act, to learn about something so amazing in such a horrendous place was awe inspiring. In the midst of one of the most evil events in the history of the world God used someone to inspire and give hope.
It was an experience I will not ever forget. It was also great to be able to share it with students, to be able to discuss it with them and see how they reacted to things we were learning.
Ok, enough for now. In the next few days I will post about end of the school year, leading a pep assembly at the middle school, and what is coming up in the near future.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Finishing up, sort of
School is beginning to get into the finishing up stages for the year and we are in Club as well, but this in no way means we are slowing down. We only have two weeks left of Club for the semester. Next weeks clubs are big end of the year ones, where we are having a big bbq for the high schoolers and inviting all families to attend, and then a "moving up" club for middle schoolers, as the 8th graders are heading off to high school.
As the weather has turned nice, we have started doing a lot of games outside. The weather has been amazing here for much of the spring. I love after a cold winter the beauty of spring that comes, and in my opinion it can only be truly appreciated after a cold winter.
One exciting development here is the middle school has asked us to run games at the end of the year pep rally. Aretta will be gone on that day, so it is my show to run. I must admit that I am a little nervous about this. I have led a lot of games in a lot of settings, but never for over 500 students. At first when I was asked, my mind went straight to the "I am not ready to do something like that, that is too big a step for me. I have never done something like that and I do not know if I can handle it." Then, not so coincidentally, I did a club talk on Gideon for the middle schoolers, and as I was teaching them it was not by our might or ability, and not about how "good" we are or how capable we are, but in how great God is that we can do anything with his help, I was definitely humbled and was reminded I need to be practicing what I am teaching. So this is another example of where I need to rely on God. It is a great opportunity to be able to do this. We have a really good relationship with our schools, but that is not always the case. So to be able to help out and serve the school really helps put Club Beyond in a good light for the teachers and administrators. It is also a chance to get seen by lots of students, which is always a plus.
We are not into PCS season here. In the next next month, we will lose well over a third of our students from Club. This is something I am used to growing up a military brat, but to be honest it never really gets that much easier. You learn how to deal with it, but good byes are always difficult, and we are saying good bye to some amazing students. I will really miss them. But then at the same time in the next couple months we will get hundreds more new students here on post and have an opportunity to build new relationships. So that is exciting.
Ok, I am off to Poland with some high school students to go and see Auschwitz. We are doing a study on a Priest who was held at the concentration camp. I am definitely looking forward to this. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes. God bless.
As the weather has turned nice, we have started doing a lot of games outside. The weather has been amazing here for much of the spring. I love after a cold winter the beauty of spring that comes, and in my opinion it can only be truly appreciated after a cold winter.
One exciting development here is the middle school has asked us to run games at the end of the year pep rally. Aretta will be gone on that day, so it is my show to run. I must admit that I am a little nervous about this. I have led a lot of games in a lot of settings, but never for over 500 students. At first when I was asked, my mind went straight to the "I am not ready to do something like that, that is too big a step for me. I have never done something like that and I do not know if I can handle it." Then, not so coincidentally, I did a club talk on Gideon for the middle schoolers, and as I was teaching them it was not by our might or ability, and not about how "good" we are or how capable we are, but in how great God is that we can do anything with his help, I was definitely humbled and was reminded I need to be practicing what I am teaching. So this is another example of where I need to rely on God. It is a great opportunity to be able to do this. We have a really good relationship with our schools, but that is not always the case. So to be able to help out and serve the school really helps put Club Beyond in a good light for the teachers and administrators. It is also a chance to get seen by lots of students, which is always a plus.
We are not into PCS season here. In the next next month, we will lose well over a third of our students from Club. This is something I am used to growing up a military brat, but to be honest it never really gets that much easier. You learn how to deal with it, but good byes are always difficult, and we are saying good bye to some amazing students. I will really miss them. But then at the same time in the next couple months we will get hundreds more new students here on post and have an opportunity to build new relationships. So that is exciting.
Ok, I am off to Poland with some high school students to go and see Auschwitz. We are doing a study on a Priest who was held at the concentration camp. I am definitely looking forward to this. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes. God bless.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Staff conference and training, w/ some sights along the way.
Hello all. I am back in Graf after 10 days in Italy. It feels like everytime I write to you it is right after I have returned from somewhere. I was at a Club Beyond staff conference and training with all of the club beyond staff in Europe. It was a really good trip. I feel like I learned quite a bit during the trainings, from topics such as the differences of high school and middle school ministry, leading small groups, time management, running weekend retreats and more. My favorite thing about the trip was time spent w/ my peers. It was great hanging out w/ them, talking about how we run clubs, getting new ideas, bouncing ideas off of each other, but also just spending time together w/ people who go through the same things as me. I have grown really close to some of them and I really appreciate the time I get with them. It was especially nice doing so without students around. When I see other staff from different communities on trips, I don't get to really talk with them because my priority is spending times w/ my students. So it was nice just being able to hang out as friends.
We stayed just outside of Pisa. I went one morning and saw the leaning tower. I have always been amused by how people make such a big deal out of it. To me it seems like a celebration of workers incompetence. They failed at building a tower that stands upright. But it was cool to see. I do not feel the need to see it again though. Where we stayed was right on the beach, so I got some good beach time in inbetween the trainings. I really miss being by the water. There was a town nearby, Marina di Pisa, which was gorgeous. White rocky beach, rocks that you could walk out on, beautiful water, it was great to spend an afternoon there. We also took a day to go to Cinque Terre, which means the five lands. There are 5 towns connected by paths, and it is amazingly beautiful. I went hiking there between some of the towns. My favorite part was cliff diving. Cliff might be too grand a word. It was really a big rock, 40 or 50 feet up maybe. A few of us went and jumped off for about an hour. We got a failry big crowd watching us and people taking pictures. A restaurant from overhead threw down a few Coke's for us since we were serving as entertainment for their customers. It was fun.
We also went to a vineyard, who's owners are big in Youth for Christ in Italy. They were an amzing family. We got a tour of the vineyard while Giovanni (the Dad) gave a great talk about the vine and the branches and really helped bring what Jesus talked abot to life for us. They also made us an amazing lunch. If you think about Tuscany, and eating in Italy and idealize it, that is exactly what that experience was. But more than food or location, it was a day of talking about what God has done for us and what he is doing in us right now. People in youth ministry get burnt out very easily, and having a day like that was extremely refreshing.
On the way back to Germany a few of us went to Florence for a day. No biggie. Saw Michelangelo's David statue (which is amazing) went and some other works of amazing art at the Uffizi, the big art gallery there, and just enjoyed the city.
No new news about ministry here in Graf since I have been gone for a week and a half. As soon as there is new news, I will let you know. As I look back at some of my posts, it seems like all I do is travel. One of the many great things about my job is that I get to do so much travel as work and with students. In the coming blog posts, I will be sure to include more daily things from here in Graf, so you have that to look forward to.
We stayed just outside of Pisa. I went one morning and saw the leaning tower. I have always been amused by how people make such a big deal out of it. To me it seems like a celebration of workers incompetence. They failed at building a tower that stands upright. But it was cool to see. I do not feel the need to see it again though. Where we stayed was right on the beach, so I got some good beach time in inbetween the trainings. I really miss being by the water. There was a town nearby, Marina di Pisa, which was gorgeous. White rocky beach, rocks that you could walk out on, beautiful water, it was great to spend an afternoon there. We also took a day to go to Cinque Terre, which means the five lands. There are 5 towns connected by paths, and it is amazingly beautiful. I went hiking there between some of the towns. My favorite part was cliff diving. Cliff might be too grand a word. It was really a big rock, 40 or 50 feet up maybe. A few of us went and jumped off for about an hour. We got a failry big crowd watching us and people taking pictures. A restaurant from overhead threw down a few Coke's for us since we were serving as entertainment for their customers. It was fun.
We also went to a vineyard, who's owners are big in Youth for Christ in Italy. They were an amzing family. We got a tour of the vineyard while Giovanni (the Dad) gave a great talk about the vine and the branches and really helped bring what Jesus talked abot to life for us. They also made us an amazing lunch. If you think about Tuscany, and eating in Italy and idealize it, that is exactly what that experience was. But more than food or location, it was a day of talking about what God has done for us and what he is doing in us right now. People in youth ministry get burnt out very easily, and having a day like that was extremely refreshing.
On the way back to Germany a few of us went to Florence for a day. No biggie. Saw Michelangelo's David statue (which is amazing) went and some other works of amazing art at the Uffizi, the big art gallery there, and just enjoyed the city.
No new news about ministry here in Graf since I have been gone for a week and a half. As soon as there is new news, I will let you know. As I look back at some of my posts, it seems like all I do is travel. One of the many great things about my job is that I get to do so much travel as work and with students. In the coming blog posts, I will be sure to include more daily things from here in Graf, so you have that to look forward to.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Adventure Camp and staff conference
So last wednesday, well technically thursday morning, we returned from Adventure Camp. It was amazing. 5 days of running around, doing activities like rock climbing, caving, biking, go karting, lazer tag, high ropes courses, and crawling around through tunnels, and spending time w/ some really cool middle schoolers and taking the opportunity to share w/ them Jesus love is my idea of a great time. Exhausting, but definitely worth it. My favorite events we did were rock climbing and the high ropes course. Seeing students scared out of their mind, but pushing through fears and conquering them is such a cool thing to be a part of. Talking them through rock climbing, letting them know what is coming up and good foot and hand holds, encouraging them, hearing them repeat "I can't do it" dozens of times and then watching them do it, is so much fun.
During the day we would do 2 of these activities, then at night we would have club. We had a band from England come and lead us in music and a speaker who is a professor from Purdue. We talked a little trash about that, as I was wearing a michigan state sweatshirt the first day. She walked the students through the gospel, and then afterwards we had small group time and were able to delve deeper with the students. We had some really good conversations in our teepee (we stayed in teepees, it was fun, but the beds were not near long enough, it stopped at my shin).
One major highlight from the week was playing the "big brother" card. As often happens when you get a couple hundred teens together, there was some flirting and interest from members of the opposite gender in each other. I was keeping a close eye on things and decided to have some fun with it. i let the young gentlemen callers know that i was very protective of the girls from grafenwoehr, and that I was way bigger than they were and that I see everything. I would go and sit in between students if I thought they were sitting too close. For the most part, my girls really appreciated it. I even received requests to scare off guys they thought were getting too friendly. It was fun to keep sharp on my intimidate guys skills, since I am not near my sisters anymore and have to do my intimidation from a distance (although sometimes this is even more effective).
Tomorrow I am headed down to Italy. We have a staff conference and training for the next week and a half. I am really looking forward to it. It is a great opportunity to learn more, and also to spend time w/ my peers, whom I have become very good friends with. I will be getting back on the 7th of May. I will let you know how it went upon my return.
During the day we would do 2 of these activities, then at night we would have club. We had a band from England come and lead us in music and a speaker who is a professor from Purdue. We talked a little trash about that, as I was wearing a michigan state sweatshirt the first day. She walked the students through the gospel, and then afterwards we had small group time and were able to delve deeper with the students. We had some really good conversations in our teepee (we stayed in teepees, it was fun, but the beds were not near long enough, it stopped at my shin).
One major highlight from the week was playing the "big brother" card. As often happens when you get a couple hundred teens together, there was some flirting and interest from members of the opposite gender in each other. I was keeping a close eye on things and decided to have some fun with it. i let the young gentlemen callers know that i was very protective of the girls from grafenwoehr, and that I was way bigger than they were and that I see everything. I would go and sit in between students if I thought they were sitting too close. For the most part, my girls really appreciated it. I even received requests to scare off guys they thought were getting too friendly. It was fun to keep sharp on my intimidate guys skills, since I am not near my sisters anymore and have to do my intimidation from a distance (although sometimes this is even more effective).
Tomorrow I am headed down to Italy. We have a staff conference and training for the next week and a half. I am really looking forward to it. It is a great opportunity to learn more, and also to spend time w/ my peers, whom I have become very good friends with. I will be getting back on the 7th of May. I will let you know how it went upon my return.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Italy, movies and Belgium
Gross Gott. Hope you are all doing well. Italy was awesome two weekends ago. It was really nice to do some relaxing and sight seeing. I went w/ some fellow Club Beyond staffers :Storey from Hohenfels in Germany, Elizabeth from Menwith Hill in England and Laura from Vicenza in Italy. Storey and I drove down on Thursday to Vicenza, where there is an Army base and Club Beyond is there, and met up w/ Laura and Elizabeth who flew in that day. We spent Friday seeing the sights in the area, going to a castle, and just relaxing. On Saturday we went to Venice for the day. Venice is a beautiful city, very different from most place w/ all the canals. I really enjoyed it. Pictures are up on facebook. Then Sunday we slept in, hung out for a bit, and then made the drive back up to Germany. Gotta love living in Europe where you can take a weekend trip to other countries.
Life here in Graf is going well. The main new thing to post about is small groups. We have started two new small groups for the high schoolers. One i am doing w/ our freshman guys. We are meeting on Sunday evening and will be going through the book The Invisible War. It is on spiritual warfare. The guys really wanted to study Revelations, but I feel this is more pertinent to their every day lives. Our other small group is a movie ministry. We will be getting together to watch a movie, not religious movies but watching them through a religious perspective. This last friday we watched the film 127 Hours. We discussed how the story mirrors peoples spiritual lives, how things might have been different had he relied on others for help, and made some good observations about Jesus offering us living water. If you haven't seen the movie, none of that probably makes any sense to you, so I recommend you watch it. Be warned, it is very graphic at parts. One of our students, Jobee, is leading the group. It was her idea, Aretta and I will be there to offer help w/ planning/organizing, and to throw in my two cents in discussion times, but she leads it. This is something that is really cool to see, a student be passionate enough about her faith to get a group like this going. She is the type of student you love to have a few of at Club, someone who actively recruits others to attend and is willing to share her faith, and also to question things about it. Sadly she will be heading out of here this summer, but such is military life.
Now to look ahead. Next Saturday we are heading out w/ 24 middle schoolers from here and going to Belgium for a week. Well, 5 days. It is spring break and we are headed to adventure camp, along w/ the other military communities in Europe. We will be doing activities such as mihntain biking, rock climbing, water rafting, laser tagging, and more. At night we will have club and a speaker and then go into small groups. Please pray that the Spirit moves during the week, and that lives are changed. This is thetype of week that has the opportunity to make a lasting impact on these teens lives, so prayers are needed. With the chance to do so much good in the spiritual lives of these teens, that also means an increased risk of spiritual warfare, which I must admit we are seeing here and in other communities. Thankfully, we serve a God greater and more amazing than anything in the world. I will send out an update probably right before we head out, and then for sure after we get back and let you know how God worked during the week.
God bless.
Life here in Graf is going well. The main new thing to post about is small groups. We have started two new small groups for the high schoolers. One i am doing w/ our freshman guys. We are meeting on Sunday evening and will be going through the book The Invisible War. It is on spiritual warfare. The guys really wanted to study Revelations, but I feel this is more pertinent to their every day lives. Our other small group is a movie ministry. We will be getting together to watch a movie, not religious movies but watching them through a religious perspective. This last friday we watched the film 127 Hours. We discussed how the story mirrors peoples spiritual lives, how things might have been different had he relied on others for help, and made some good observations about Jesus offering us living water. If you haven't seen the movie, none of that probably makes any sense to you, so I recommend you watch it. Be warned, it is very graphic at parts. One of our students, Jobee, is leading the group. It was her idea, Aretta and I will be there to offer help w/ planning/organizing, and to throw in my two cents in discussion times, but she leads it. This is something that is really cool to see, a student be passionate enough about her faith to get a group like this going. She is the type of student you love to have a few of at Club, someone who actively recruits others to attend and is willing to share her faith, and also to question things about it. Sadly she will be heading out of here this summer, but such is military life.
Now to look ahead. Next Saturday we are heading out w/ 24 middle schoolers from here and going to Belgium for a week. Well, 5 days. It is spring break and we are headed to adventure camp, along w/ the other military communities in Europe. We will be doing activities such as mihntain biking, rock climbing, water rafting, laser tagging, and more. At night we will have club and a speaker and then go into small groups. Please pray that the Spirit moves during the week, and that lives are changed. This is thetype of week that has the opportunity to make a lasting impact on these teens lives, so prayers are needed. With the chance to do so much good in the spiritual lives of these teens, that also means an increased risk of spiritual warfare, which I must admit we are seeing here and in other communities. Thankfully, we serve a God greater and more amazing than anything in the world. I will send out an update probably right before we head out, and then for sure after we get back and let you know how God worked during the week.
God bless.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Hello
Hello all. Hope life is going well wherever in the world you are. Things in Germany are going really well. Spring appears to be upon us, as the last few days have been in the high 50's and may even have reached 60, with lots of sunshine. It feels good to go outside not bundled up. The last couple weeks here have been good. Nothing too out of the ordinary. We had a lead training, which means our student leaders and us got together and did trainings, watched a movie, and had an overnighter. It was a lot of fun. Only got 45 minutes of sleep before getting up for church, but it was well worth it. Had some fantastic conversations.
Last weekend was filled primarily with basketball watching. I love the ncaa tournament. It is tough here though, because so many of the games come on so late, or rather earlyin the morning. I stayed up until 530 in the morning to watch Michigan State lose. It was unfortunate. What was fun though was I was on skype w/ my sister, Cristina and Bethany, who are in Washington d.c. and Grand Rapids, and we were all watching the game "together". What was really funny, slash annoying, was that my video was 30 seconds behind theirs, so I would hear their reactions, and hen be waiting to see what the reactions were too. Mostly funny, sometimes annoying, but I really enjoyed being able to do that with them.
This weekend I have decided to take a quick little trip. I am heading out in a couple hours to dive down to Vicenza, in Italy, with some club beyond staff people from other bases, and then we are going to go to Venice. Just a relaxing trip spending time with friends. I am really looking forward to it.
On the way down I think I am going to listen to Rob Bell's nw book. Even out here in Germany I have heard all about it. I want to hear it for myself before making any judgements.
I will write again after I return and let you know about the very exciting next couple of months coming up, which are going to be crazy busy and challenging but should be amazing.
Last weekend was filled primarily with basketball watching. I love the ncaa tournament. It is tough here though, because so many of the games come on so late, or rather earlyin the morning. I stayed up until 530 in the morning to watch Michigan State lose. It was unfortunate. What was fun though was I was on skype w/ my sister, Cristina and Bethany, who are in Washington d.c. and Grand Rapids, and we were all watching the game "together". What was really funny, slash annoying, was that my video was 30 seconds behind theirs, so I would hear their reactions, and hen be waiting to see what the reactions were too. Mostly funny, sometimes annoying, but I really enjoyed being able to do that with them.
This weekend I have decided to take a quick little trip. I am heading out in a couple hours to dive down to Vicenza, in Italy, with some club beyond staff people from other bases, and then we are going to go to Venice. Just a relaxing trip spending time with friends. I am really looking forward to it.
On the way down I think I am going to listen to Rob Bell's nw book. Even out here in Germany I have heard all about it. I want to hear it for myself before making any judgements.
I will write again after I return and let you know about the very exciting next couple of months coming up, which are going to be crazy busy and challenging but should be amazing.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Training for Afghanistan
This last Thursday I spent the day in Afghanistan. Well, not really, but let me explain. I spent the day helping a group of chaplains train for deploying to Afghanistan. They will be leaving in the next few months to head out for roughly a year. They were doing training for conducting field services (preaching out in the field to soldiers) and in meeting w/ religious and community leaders. We went down to Hohenfels, which is a post that is technically a part of USAG Grafenwoehr, about an hour away. They have a big training area, where they have built up small villages that look as they do in Iraq and Afghanistan. The training area is known as the box, which always makes me think of something like a sandbox and playing. But these are big kids, and instead of playing with toys, they play with things that go boom for real, guns and bombs. And instead of a cowboys and indians thing, it is for going to actual war. They do a fair amount of role playing in the box, with people "playing" the role of terrorist who are hidden in towns and surrounding areas and they train how to go in and find them and what to do when they do find them.
I was not playing the role of terrorist. Hopefully the chaplains won't get too close to any terrorists. I was playing the role of a contractor (not hard to get into character since that is what I am to the Army) who was out in the field with soldiers, who had suffered KIA and WIA in the last few weeks (killed and wounded in action). A group of soldiers were voluntold to help out as well and play the role of soldiers down range. After the service (I listened to 4 different ones), I stayed back w/ the chaplain, chaplains assistant, and the chaplain in charge of training, and went over an AAR, after action report, and gave feedback to the chaplain and chaplain's assistant on what I thought went well and what could have been done differently. The chaplain who was in charge of all the training had called me a few days before asking if I would come help out. Growing up the son of a chaplain, I have heard my fair share of messages from chaplains, and being in ministry myself now he thought I might be able to give some good feedback to the training chaplains.
It was definitely a different and unique experience. I enjoyed being able to help out, and to go to the box, where civilians are usually not allowed. before we entered the box, we were being given instructions, and told a number of times in no uncertain terms that we must follow the direct path to the town to remain safe. The other towns were being used for NATO training purposes (well, that is what I gathered from different soldiers I saw), and there would be serious issues if we were to randomly show up in one of their towns. So different, and a good experience overall.
I was not playing the role of terrorist. Hopefully the chaplains won't get too close to any terrorists. I was playing the role of a contractor (not hard to get into character since that is what I am to the Army) who was out in the field with soldiers, who had suffered KIA and WIA in the last few weeks (killed and wounded in action). A group of soldiers were voluntold to help out as well and play the role of soldiers down range. After the service (I listened to 4 different ones), I stayed back w/ the chaplain, chaplains assistant, and the chaplain in charge of training, and went over an AAR, after action report, and gave feedback to the chaplain and chaplain's assistant on what I thought went well and what could have been done differently. The chaplain who was in charge of all the training had called me a few days before asking if I would come help out. Growing up the son of a chaplain, I have heard my fair share of messages from chaplains, and being in ministry myself now he thought I might be able to give some good feedback to the training chaplains.
It was definitely a different and unique experience. I enjoyed being able to help out, and to go to the box, where civilians are usually not allowed. before we entered the box, we were being given instructions, and told a number of times in no uncertain terms that we must follow the direct path to the town to remain safe. The other towns were being used for NATO training purposes (well, that is what I gathered from different soldiers I saw), and there would be serious issues if we were to randomly show up in one of their towns. So different, and a good experience overall.
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