Wrapping Things Up

Well I feel as though it is about that time to write another blog entry. This may well be the last blog entry I write while in Idaho. Strange, isn't it? A journey that physically started just a few months ago is now coming to a close, however the effects of it will last a life time.

Questions still abound, as to why exactly did I feel called to this church in Idaho? Did it have to be Idaho, or could it have been somewhere in Ohio? What exactly is God doing through this? How is God moving in my life? What will I take from this experience within this next year, the next five, ten, twenty, rest of my life? What did I learn about ministry, the Church (Mennonite and church in general), myself? What kind of impact did I have on First Mennonite Aberdeen? Will I see these people again?

I still struggle with what is church supposed to look like. Are we doing church right? This whole one hour thing on Sunday morning where it is just a pastor talking about the Bible. Important? Yes. But by no means is that what the church is, or what church should be, yet this is what we see church as. How do we get out of this mold? Church is community, relationships between people, where we share our lives, share our struggles, our hurts, where we break bread together. However, this is not what people see from the outside. They see people going to church one hour a week where they are taught a certain doctrine and where there isn't really genuine sharing because most people put up a facade that things are perfect in their lives or at least going well. It's no wonder that churches are dying all around our country. We as a church are so far removed from what the early church looked like and did? How do we get back to those roots?

One quick thing as I try to think this out and leave it to others to ponder. There is something that I just don't get right now. Everyone talks about how much they loved their college life, not the schooling but the social aspect. But what makes the social aspect so special? People. Community. In college you live with your best friend, or right down the hall from them or at worst across campus. You eat with seven of your closest friends at meals, you go to class together, practices together, you do fun activities together. There is such strong community, and that is what people love about college. So why do we totally abandon this when we leave college? Why is it basically unheard of for college friends to go live together after college either in community housing or in the same apartment complex? Why do are the ideas and goals of making money and getting ahead in the world and doing what the culture does so important? Why aren't the people we love and care about who we surround ourselves with? Why don't we try to live in community with them and continue on what we love about college? Especially if community is such an important part of church (at least in my opinion). Why must we be so individualistic and only think of ourselves? What happened to loving our neighbor as ourselves? How are we being the church, and followers of Christ if we just do what everyone else does?

For a person who knows that they want to a pastor in church there are so many uncertainties in life. Supposedly we are supposed to know what we want to do with our lives when we graduate from college, and I know what I want to do, but there is still so much more. Life is so much more than a job, and a job is really not what makes a person even though that is what culture tells us is important. We are who we are no matter what we do. Yes it is a part of us, but what is truly important is how we interact with our friends, family, the stranger in the coffee shop. That is who we are.

I'm sorry if this post is either way off the wall or not something you resonate with? But this is one of the few things I am thinking about. I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense either, it's late and I got to rambling. But what if my calling is to be a pastor of a church but not the type of church that we think about when we hear the word church? Or if it is to those churches to stretch, challenge and push them. What if the church as we know it dies off? What then? Christ called us to a radical walk with him, not something that was easy or how mainstream culture does things. Yet we are so happy to just get comfortable and settle in and do what the people around us do. There has got to be something more to being a Christian, to being the church to being the body of Christ. May we find what those things are, and live fully into what Jesus is calling us to.

Again, I am sorry. In other news my family will be leaving in about 12ish hours to come pick me up and see what Aberdeen, Idaho is like. I am excited. I am also excited for the road trip back as well. Please pray for safety in our travels and that we can all stand being in a car that much. I look forward to coming home and seeing all my family in Holmes County (those by blood and love) as well as my family in Bluffton and all the people who make that place home as well. Thank you all for your support.

Shalom,
Matt

Camp Round 2

Well, I realize this is another later entry but I have been behind the eight ball recently trying to get ready for the camp that starts in just over an hour. I am speaking at this camp and actually just finished up my last little talk. I feel like I'm in college right now where I just had three papers due right at the end of the semester and I thought college didn't start for another month. Anyway, now I just need to make sure I have everything packed that needs to go to camp with me.

Not too much has actually happened though since the last blog entry other than getting ready for camp. I went water skiing on Sunday, and I think I am finally done being sore because of that although I did actually receive a bruise on my leg (realize that other than spraining my ankles I haven't had a bruise in close to a decade probably) and I also had a nice gash out of my chin to match the one I received while ice skating on the Stutzman pond however many winters ago that was.

The young adult Bible study group painted a shed last night for a service project, fun because of who we were with but not because of what we were painting. The wood just soaked up the paint. I was lucky if I got two inches of a four inch wide board painted with every dip of the brush.

Hope things are going well in Ohio, and where ever else you are reading this from. I will be leaving in a little over a week. And my parents and Nate will be on the road in less than that to come get me. So please be praying for them and for us as we travel the next couple of weeks.

Shout Out Today: Goes to my Dad who is having another birthday, I've almost lost track he has had so many. I'm just kidding, I know exactly how old you are. But he has been great and I am thankful for all that he has taught me over the years.

Shalom,
Matt

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Camp number one is over with and I am still trying to recover. Getting 4ish hours of sleep a night combined with three sick campers throughout the week, 20 plus miles of hiking, as well as going to bed with your cabin around 80 degrees and then waking up with it somewhere in the 40s equals a not so healthy Matt. So the sinuses and I are battling it out again this summer. However, camp was a blast!!


This is a picture of Upper Lake near the camp grounds. It was absolutely beautiful. The remarkable thing about Upper Lake is that it is a 7 mile hike from where the bus was parked and all the campers made it to Upper Lake. Which also means they had 7 miles to go to get back to the bus. Now some absolutely amazing things about that. One girl cried for six hours straight on this hike, but still made it. Meanwhile another girl managed to talk the whole entire time during the hike. How either of them had enough oxygen to make the hike, I will never know. Another thing about Upper Lake, it is cold. Which is why we do our Polar Bear Club there, where about 75% of the campers joined this club. I was also a part of the club.

Now you would think that after a 14 mile hike my campers would want to sleep at night, well then you would be wrong. I had one of the loudest cabins in the camp ground and they did not appreciate the fact people need sleep to go on long hikes like this.

We played a game called "The Moose is Ready" on Saturday night and seemed to be a fan favorite. A quick synopsis of the game is that the moose is at the top of the food chain and would call on another animal by doing it "motion." That animal would then respond with its own motion and another animals. The whole point was to become the moose. My favorite motion had to have been the Bald Eagle. Animals ranged from a lion to bear to penguin to frog to cat to worm to egg and at least 30 other creatures.

However, my favorite part of camp had to have been Tiger. Tiger, a.k.a Thalia, and I really connected over camp. She for some reason called me Mr. Hobo (because I was walking in the wilderness, which means I was walking on the main trail by the bathrooms), however the reasons why I was Mr. Hobo kept getting better and better throughout camp.

Tiger and I can't you tell she is so happy :)

Quite possibly the best time at camp came during an impromptu water fight, perhaps water massacre would be a better description. You see a water fight between four adults with five gallon buckets and a bunch of kids with water bottles wasn't really much of a fight. The best part of this was when the campers would come up saying truce or peace and then proceed to squirt you with a water bottle and counselors in turn dumping five gallons of water on them. It was nice to show the kids that we can have fun too.

So now it is back to the daily grind. I have multiple practices and meetings in the evenings this week and also need to prepare for my three talks at the next camp (I am one of the Bible Teachers for the high school camp). Meanwhile I am trying not to sneeze over everything.

It has been strange realizing I have less than three weeks left with these people and that two weeks from tomorrow my parents will leave to come pick me up. It was tough leaving camp when campers were talking about how they can't wait to see me at camp next year knowing I couldn't tell them I would necessarily be back.

Hope all things are going well and I look forward to talking with you when I get back.

Shalom,
Matt

Cards, Cards and more Cards

Hello all, I am writing this in a bit of a hurry as I still need to pack before leaving for camp this afternoon. However, that is also why I am writing now because I will be out of contact for the next week and I just knew my faithful following would not be able to survive without something to read until I got back :)

Things are going well here. I have really enjoyed getting all the birthday cards, I think the last ones came in on Saturday but I don't know. I have never received this many cards before for my birthday. Now I am wondering why? Is it because you all miss me that much? Or is it because you want me to stay out here and are glad I am gone and cards were the least you could do? Or because you really just enjoy sending birthday cards for Gutnis' sake (that one is for you Conrad and Jane). I don't know why but I appreciated getting them all.

Anyway camp starts tomorrow, I am leaving today to acclimate myself with the campgrounds. There should be more than 30 4-7th graders, which is more than they were originally expecting. We hope there are enough cabins for everyone. I am really looking forward to this ministry. It has been what I have been the most excited for all summer. Some prayer requests for camp would be for the campers and that they are open to how God will be working this week. For the counselors that we are also open to how God is working and that we find enough energy to make it through the week. For the behind the scenes people who do their jobs day in and day out may they do it cheerfully knowing they are serving the Lord. You can add to the list.

Again it is hard to believe but once camp is done I will have three weeks left out here. This has been a great experience so far and I continue to pray that it will be the rest of the time and that I don't mentally, physically, spiritually or emotionally check out before then. Thanks for all of your support this summer it means a lot knowing there are friends and family back home thinking and praying.

The Shout Out this week goes to Lindsey. Lindsey is my little cousin who made by far the best birthday card I received. It was original, creative and from the heart and my favorite one hands down. So thank you Lindsey!

I love you all,
Shalom,

Matt