How Do I Summit All Up?

This past weekend+ (Sat - Tues) I was at a Campus Life Summit, and then a Youth For Christ Conference, which were back to back at the same place.

It was a neat time, where I definitely got a chance to connect with leaders from other parts of the area, like Erie, Long Island, Scranton, etc. I feel like I made more friends this year than I did last year, although I recognized some of the leaders from last year.

It amazes me how the summit was full of ministers, yet there was not much time left for personal devotion or Bible study. It seems like those things are both put on hold or rushed by a most staff, sacrificed in order to spend more time building relationships and having fun with new friends and people you hardly see. I guess it's somewhat understandable, but it seems very common of trips in general, whether student, leader, or student leader. It's kind of like devotions get pushed to the side so that we can hear about God from other people, or just have a good time. I was really trying to give a good amount of time to God in my devotions this weekend. I'm really striving to make it a priority to study and pray for a couple hours everyday.

Another thing I noticed, was that there are some very cool, godly, intelligent, good looking girls in this ministry. This give me hope that maybe I can someday find a girl for me who is all of the above. The thing about that is, all the ones at this conference were married. This makes me wonder if there will be any awesome chicks left for me when it's all said and done. I try not to dwell on this too much though.

The summit and conference were in the Poconos by Scranton, PA. Most of the Scranton people are all about The Office, but one guy really didn't like it at all (so he says). It's amazing how the leaves are all changing up there already, while Pittsburgh remains very green. I guess when you're "The Poconos" you can afford to be awesome before everyone else.

During some of our free time, the Metro-Pitt crew (to which I belong) decided to take a hike. About 5 minutes into it I remembered that I hurt my ankle not so long ago, and this whole hike was probably a bad idea, but I continued. We climbed up rocks, searched for crayfish in the streams, watched the water fall at the waterfall. At one point I discovered a branch full of bugs that were like nothing I had ever seen. They kind of looked like tiny spiders, although they had six legs, with a big furry butt. Seriously they had a bunch of long white silky hair, that looked kind of like Don King, coming out of their butt. And what they did with these abnormally hairy butts is wave them around, back and forth, so it looked like they were dancing at a rave party or something. It was just really strange. And there were probably thousands of them on one branch, but nowhere else. Hardly moving anywhere, just dancing. If it was a mating dance, it worked... for me.

We kept hiking until we reached a clearing, filled with crushed rocks and dead trees. It looked like a scene out of Lord of the Rings. Dave found a plant that tasted like root beer, so we all chewed on the stems for a while, and then got drunk on the beer aspect of the root. We spent a while just standing around talking. We shared different games we had made up, and played a few of them. After a while we continued on a little further, to an overlook. There was a big rock hanging over the ledge, to a drop off, with another part of the path below. We hung out on the rock, throwing little rocks at trees like we were the high school kids we minister too. That was largely the theme at of our hike at this point... being immature.

At one point Dave decided he wanted to throw a big rock over the ledge. He found one that probably weighed a good 300lbs, and wanted us to help him throw it over. Luckily Chris, our executive director, was at least a little bit of an adult and assured us it was not a good idea. Dave found a smaller rock, about the size of human head, and was carrying toward the overlook in one hand above his head. As he's walking he slips and goes down faster than I thought gravity pulled. We're all laughing, including Dave, and as his hand begins to emerge from the fall, we see it covered in blood. Yet we still laugh, but now feel guilty for our laughter.

Luckily we had just discovered a bucket hanging from a tree, which was a trauma kit. So we went to the kit, and bandaged up his finger, which was sliced pretty good. Basically when Dave fell the rock came out of his hand, and then landed on his hands. One was pretty bruised and the other cut open. He ended up having to go to the hospital, after we walked the 2-3 miles back to camp, and got stitches. It was an adventure, and Dave learned a valuable lesson. Don't get hurt anymore.

I also heard a really funny story while I was there. This is a true story from about a week or two ago. A middle-aged guy is taking his mother to the mall. And while driving runs over a cat by accident. He keeps driving and his mom, is yelling at him to go back and get it. He says "Why should I go get it?" His mom wants him to bury it. So eventually she convinces him to turn around, and he puts the cat in a Macy's bag that he found in his car, and takes it with them.
They still go to the mall, but take the bag with the dead cat out, and stick it under the car while they shop, so it doesn't stink up the inside of his car. After shopping they're getting some food, and can see the car from the window where they are eating. A lady walks up to the car. Sees the bag underneath it, and keeps looking around. Then all the sudden she grabs the bag and bolts away from the car. The guy chuckles at the thought of her stealing a dead cat, thinking it was a coat or something from Macy's. Then a few minutes later, an ambulance arrives. The man goes to see what's going on. The lady who had stolen the bag had passed out, and lay unconscious on the ground. She must have looked in the bag and fainted when she saw a dead cat. The EMT's put her on a gurney and bring her into the ambulance. One of them grabs the Macy's bag, puts is on her chest as she lay unconscious, and they close the doors to the Ambulance and drive away.

Doesn't that sound like something from a movie or TV show. Pretty funny... and REAL!

Alright, I'm done, I haven't left the house yet, so I'm off to enslave the world.