Sending kids off to over-night church camp for first time

Yesterday I sent my twins, 11, off to junior high church camp with Rolling Hills Community Church. They are incoming 6th graders and this is the first over night church camp they have gone to. I so wanted to be there as a leader but I am speaking at a writers conference this week, and I was a bit nervous sending them off for some reason. My boys are outgoing and make friends easily but I was still apprehensive. Will they feel a sense of belonging, will they make new friends, will they find friends they can pal around with, will they grow closer to God, will they feel comfortable, will they like it?

The leaders of the junior high are all so nice and they really have been encouraging about having my boys go and I am so happy about that. The twins got involved in the junior high program right away this summer going to the weekly Sunday night Bible study Roots and the movie nights and Guts, the outreach.

And, they really wanted to go to camp, so much so that they began earning money to go. All summer, doing chores for me. That excitement was really sweet to watch. Everyday, Wesley would say how much money I owed him for the chores he did the day before and he'd ask, what can I do today to earn money and he set up a canning jar in his bedroom, the quart wide mouthed kind and he put his money in there and he counted it every day and it was so cute and so innocent.

Maybe that is why it was so hard to let them go, I wanted to be a part of it, to see them participate. I am the kind of mom that likes to be a part of every part of my children's lives and I hate to miss anything, but with a family of 7 it is hard to do it all, plus I work from home. The church set up a blog for parents to check out how things are going and I saw that blog today-what fun! it helped me feel connected and a part of the camp, though miles away.

Here is the website:
http://678live.wordpress.com

Trying to be more like Mary

When Janice Seitzinger is in the middle of her weekly commitment organizing volunteers for Mondays at Transitional Youth, sometimes she catches herself being Martha.
“When I am doing the kitchen I can forget why I am there, but then I realize that I need to be the Mary not the Martha. It was Mauro Cettina who said that. When you hear a Scripture, it just hits us.
“I think we are all trying to be Marys but then we are always wanting to make sure everything is going well. I have a tendency to forget who is in control. I have to literally step back and remember it is not about me. It is about the kids. You are there to love them, not fix them.”
She stepped into the role of coordinating volunteers for Rolling Hills’ Monday night Transitional Youth commitment a few months ago. Janice arrives at the First Baptist Church where Transitional Youth is held every Monday at 4 O’Clock and stays until about 9 O’Clock. For her role, she makes sure everything will be in place each week. She calls or e-mails the volunteers who are committed to make sure they are coming. She goes to the Food Bank on some days to purchase items for meals. When a group of volunteers cannot make their commitment, it is Janice who finds replacements.
“I am what you would call in charge of the kitchen. I am the one that makes sure the food is on time and that the volunteers are ready and that there is enough food. And if there is not enough we have a backup plan. We always have hotdogs and chili available in the back room.”
But it is not the phone calls and e-mails and visits to the Food Bank that Janice considers the most important part of preparing for her weekly Mondays at Transitional Youth.
It’s praying.
“We just found that when you pray, you find God’s peace. Some nights kids come in edgy and anxious and we don’t know what happened at their shelters and we don’t know why they are anxious and edgy. We pray that we can be God’s hands and feet. We pray, ‘Let us hear with Your ears and speak with Your words.’”
She has learned to go with the flow and trust that all will be fine in the end.
“I go in and make sure things are on time and going, and then if we run out of food I don’t worry, and if food is not there on time, I just start to realize that it will work out. We just talk to the kids. I try to let the groups that come in do their own thing. I am there to make sure they have all they need, to direct them and be there if they have any questions.
And most importantly while there, she tries to be more like Mary.
“I just try to banter with the kids while they are getting their food. If kids feel that we are just there to feed them and love them they will begin to trust us.”

Reach Transitional Youth at http://www.transitionalyouth.org/

A Chef's Gift to Transitional Youth

It is a warm, blue sky, sunshiny Thursday about 1 p.m., and Mauro Cettina is driving back from the Grocery Outlet in King City with 10 dozen eggs, a bunch of carrots and celery and other items for the potato salad he will be preparing for tonight’s Transitional Youth meal. He plans on cooking for about 100 youth, but the numbers vary each time.
“Tony Slyter, the Grocery Outlet owner, donated these items,” Mauro shares.
Mauro decided to make potato salad for dinner for the kids because potatoes are what he had the most of.
“I was walking around downstairs in the church and I saw the 100 pounds of potatoes that Tony had donated a while back,” Mauro explains. “I thought I’d make potato salad and serve it with hot dogs. It’s a nice picnic kind of summery food for the day.”
“I try to make homemade stuff. This isn’t Sisco potato salad. It has pickles, celery, eggs,” Mauro, the church’s facilities manager, a former professional chef, explains. “I am always getting the word out to every ministry in the church that I need food for Transitional Youth nights. Like if we have a ton of ham left over from an event, I will freeze it and use if for another event, but you cannot keep ham that long, and I will ask the ministry if I can use it for Transitional Youth. It is a great way to not waste food. I can pretty much make something nice out of anything.”
Recently, after the high school ministry’s All-Church Old-Fashioned Spaghetti Feed for Missions that I organized, Mauro used the left over sauce that he had made for that event for a Transitional Youth meal night.
“Tony had donated stew meat and I braised it with onions, chicken broth, garlic and simmered it for a while, then added it to the spaghetti sauce and put it over pasta. The kids just loved it.”
Mauro has been using his culinary gift on Mondays and Thursdays for Transitional Youth for about six months. Sometimes he is just there while another group has prepared the meal.
He loves getting to know the youth.
“You focus on the kids that you have a little bit of rapport with. The thing that I have to remember is it is not about me. Sometimes I don’t get any response, not even a thank you, but that’s okay. You’re not doing it for that. It is easy to compare with our kids, how we’ve taught them to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ for everything. But at Transitional Youth, sometimes it’s just, ‘Where’s the mayonnaise, where’s the mustard?’”
At 3:30 that Thursday, the potato salad is completed. A 100 to 110 pound potato salad.
“Linda Saxton and I cleaned them and pealed them yesterday, and today we sliced them and put together the salad. I have a lot of people helping me,” Mauro notes.
He has to be at the First Baptist Church in downtown Portland, where Transitional Youth now meets, by 4:30 to start the set up for the youth who will start arriving between 5:30 and 6 p.m.
“It’s neat knowing that the kids get a home-cooked meal. And just seeing the volunteers who feel called to serve the kids. The humility behind that. No one says thank you. We don’t expect it. I love to see the community of servants gathered.”

Is it a Christian novel? . . . Then, it's boring. . . Ouch

I was at the church library to get some books for my husband to read to our 6-year-old. My husband had asked for some new books as he was getting tired of the same old same old.
As I looked around, I also thought of our 11 year old twin sons who love a good story.
I ended up with two books in a series of young teen novels for the boys.
When I picked up the twins from their church musical practice after finding the church library books, I told the boys that I had some new novels for them to read.
“Are they Christian books?” one of my twin 5th grade sons asks me.
“Yes, they are from the church library,” I answered.
“Then, I don’t want to read them. Christian novels are boring,” he answered.
Ouch.
“Why do you say that?” I probed.
“Because there is no plot and there is no mystery. The always give all the answers,” he replied like a literary critic.
It did get me thinking about Christian literature and sometimes the moralizing that takes place within those books. Or has in the past.
I have not, I confess, gotten into Christian adult literature for some time as I just have not found the story line in them. Not since I was into Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and that series. . . I know I have not tried as hard, but to have my 11 year old son say it so honestly made me think about Christian literature and the importance of creating quality art for kids and adults. I know it is getting better and better and I am excited to meet Christian writers and their excitement. I just hate to hear my twins say that they think Christian lit is boring.

I think sometime about the market and how maybe I need to be the one to create quality literature with good morals without the story being moralizing -- and boring.

And keep looking for those who already are.

Thoughts on Big Church and kids leaving the church

I have heard of a statistic that notes how a large majority of kids are leaving the faith as they get beyond high school and move on to collegiate life.

I think of church life sometimes and have to wonder:
So much of our church is segregated times.

The grade schoolers are in one section, the junior high in another, the high schoolers in still another area.

There have been times when I am in big church and I think, I wish my high schooler was in here. Or my grade schoolers.

A couple of weeks ago, our pastor was giving an important talk and we kept our grade schoolers with us for the first church service instead of sending them to their fifth grade Sunday School class. I love their teacher Mr. Tate and I like a lot of the things they do in the class, but I also like my children with me to hear the service. With us.

And when it came to the second service, which I was staying for as well, I had told my high school son, who attends the high school service during the second hour, that I wanted him in “big church” with me, but he had said he wanted to go to his own high school class. I had thought about going to his youth leader and saying I think the high schoolers need to be in “big church” this week, but then I did not do it.

Soon,I found out that the high school class was canceled so the teens could be in with the “big church” as the youth leader also saw it as an important service. I was so happy that my son would be hearing the things going on in big church.

Maybe if we would incorporate the high schoolers and other students into the “big church” more often, they would not leave church as they move into college. Because they will have already found a place in big church while still in high school and earlier.

We do a combined service every few months which sort of does this. I hope we do more of these. Bringing everyone together. Into one body. One church. Big church.

Playing Jesus. . . for real

Jim Caviezel who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie, The Passion of the Christ – wow, what an amazing man Jim is. And that his initials are JC and he was 33 years old when Mel asked him to play the part.
He spoke at Rolling Hills Community Church last weekend and was so passionate about Life and sticking up for Christ no matter what. Counting the cost. That was the message I took away from it. Pastor Dale from Rolling Hills interviewed him during the service.
Dale asked Jim what it was like playing Jesus. Jim was actually on the physical cross for the filming of the movie. He was up there for hours. He actually almost died of hypothermia. His shoulder was dislocated. He notes that he could not have played the part without his heart being there. With his head alone, he would not have had the strength. With God’s strength.
Playing the part of Jesus in a film had such an impact on his life that he is careful how he lives his real life. People come up to him and say, “There’s Jesus,” and that is a hard act to follow in real life, but he takes it seriously. And again, he says, not in his own power.
He and his wife adopted two children over the past few years. The children both had brain tumors and would have not been adopted very easily by others. His passion for life and the unborn and standing up for doing the right thing is refreshing.
His current project is the release of CD of the entire New Testament Bible being spoken and narrated by various actors.
Not surprisingly, JC plays JC.

Writers Connection Meeting Monday May 18

We are having our next Writing & Culture Connection meeting this coming
Monday May 18, at 6:30 pm - at Rolling Hills Community Church, in Tualatin, located at 3550 SW Borland Road. The meeting will be in the conference room- all writers are invited to share inspiration, what they are working on,
publishing opportunities, current projects, dream projects, upcoming writing
conferences, poetry.

I have a fun writing prompt we will do.

The meeting is a great connection time of encouragement-We will gather for about an hour

The link on the church's website:

http :// www . rollinghills .org/writing-and-culture-connection-meeting

It's Like Holy Ground

My most recent Community service story for Rolling Hills is now posted - title

Crystal Peaks-It's like holy ground-

Jenni is scurrying about like a mother hen, checking in on the 52 other volunteers helping ready Crystal Peaks for the spring and summer. She wants to make sure everyone knows where they need to be.

Some of the helpers on this one-day mission trip are planting purple and yellow and blue and white pansies into planters that line the drive into the ranch. Others are spreading large bark chips on the dusty ground. Another group is digging into a corral area placing wooden beams along the border. Still others are staining the wooden fences where horses roam.

The Snowcapped mountain range beams in the distance.

Jenni stops to talk to Kim Meeder, founder with her husband in 1995 of Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch which rescues horses and children. Jenni and Kim are like old friends. They met through Jenni’s mother about 15 years ago.

Says Jenni, “My mom and Kim’s husband signed up for a ski conditioning class taught by Kim who was a personal trainer, and my mom called after the first class and said, ‘I met a girl just like you. She’s got long hair, she’s really athletic, she likes horses, and she’s into that Jesus thing.’ And I thought, ‘How does a girl share Christ in 45 minutes in an athletic class in a natural way and not be offensive’? I wanted to meet Kim right away.”

Jenni worked out with Kim several times and watched Kim interact with her mom. “And I would ask Mom, ‘What’s going on with Troy and Kim?’ and Kim would ask Mom, ‘What’s going on with Jenni and Mark?’ At the time, we were adopting all these kids.”

But not till Jenni’s mom passed away did the friendship with Kim really blossom. About that time, Mark, Jenni’s husband, was looking for short term mission projects for the church to participate in, and Jenni told Mark to look into helping at Crystal Peaks.

“And he said ‘You do it.’"

And she did. The first trip -- and the start of an ongoing partnership with the ranch -- was on May 1, 2004.

“I asked four women to go with me on that day. We drove the church van the night before, staying at my in-laws place at Black Butte, and we worked the entire next day at the ranch.”

The next work day that Rolling Hills would participate in drew 30 volunteers. Then 70. It was so popular they realized they had to do quieter teams for a while.

Jenni helped bring Kim Meeder to women’s ministry events at Rolling Hills, including as keynote speaker at the women’s retreat in 2008.

Over the past five years, Jenni has helped lead 14 volunteer trips to the ranch, with the most recent one in April of 2009 where 53 people left at 6 AM on a lazy Saturday morning to drive three hours to work on the ranch. And eat the most amazing barbecued ribs and steak for lunch.

Jenni says that over 1000 people have been touched by the ranch; either by reading Kim’s books or by hearing her speak at women’s ministry events. “We’ve taken over 200 people on 14 trips and many of those people are repeats.”

Jenni knows why people come back. “It is like heaven on earth. There is a line in the video about Crystal Peaks that says the ranch is like a greenhouse; things come broken and they just grow here. Kids, people, horses, men, women, children.”

“It’s like holy ground. . . the mountains, the aspen trees that make beautiful noises when they move. . . you are just in the presence of God when you are there.”

For more information on Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch, visit http://www.crystalpeaksyouthranch.org/

For rolling hills stories visit: http://rhcc-compassion.blogspot.com/2009/04/crystal-peaks-its-like-holy-ground.html

Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch - A Day of Volunteering

TODAY, my son Ryan, 17, my son Mickaeljosef and I went with our church to Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch outside of Sisters Oregon for a one day mission trip helping to get the ranch ready for children.
Kim Meeder and her husband started the ranch in 1995 as a way to rescue horses and use it to help children, and Jenni Reiling from our church wanted to get church members involved in helping. Rolling Hills has come 14 times over the past five years.
It was a wonderful day planting flowers, getting flower beds looking nice, spreading bark chips, building a wall and so much more. A fabulous lunch of ribs and steak and salad was shared by all midway through the day.
I love sharing outreach times with my children. My husband had gone with our oldest two children and our church four years ago to Crystal Peaks and today was my turn. It is a neat activity to be outdoors with the kids, reaching out to help others.
I enjoyed hanging with the others, talking and sharing hearts and our journeys.
We had to get back a bit early as Ryan has Bible study and before we watch a movie with the kids, I just had to download the photographs . . .
It was a great way to spend part of Easter weekend. . . –thankfully I do not have to make the meal!

Out of Lake Oswego and Into Real Life

There was a boy who did not live with his dad, but he was able to call his dad, and he put his hope in being able to meet his dad, and his dad would say he would meet his son at a certain time and spot, but his dad never showed up.

The boy would just say, “Oh, it’s fine.”

“He kept blowing it off as unimportant. They learn to let it go,” says Linda Parker, who served once a month on Fridays for two years at Transitional Youth with the community group that her family is a part of, until Friday nights became unavailable. “They are just kids. They are out there all by themselves. Well, they have their street family. I think for us, this was a real need. The program is trying to do something impactful, just being there for them.”

She thinks about Roger.

“He would hang out with us and he would stay until the end and he would say the closing prayer. And then he stopped staying around at the end. He’s struggling right now. Many of these kids—no one cares about them and just us being there, communicates a lot.”

Kids asked Linda’s group, “Why are you doing this? Why do you come every month?” They are aware that someone is putting an effort out for them.

“We tried to make it clear we were there because they are worth caring about and worth serving. For the most part, they just want someone to sympathize. They are not looking for you to solve their problems. They really just want someone to listen.”

During the time that Linda’s group was helping at Transitional Youth, they were going through some transitions of their own. Some of the kids in their community group were graduating from high school and took off for college or to Torchbearers. Others were moving on to their last year of middle school.

But all grew in some way because of serving.

“The view of the world we received was much larger than that of West Linn and Lake Oswego. It wasn't that we were naive and didn't know what existed outside of our comfortable communities, at least for the adults, but we didn't rub up against it in our day-to-day lives so it was easy to dismiss.”

They kept going because they had made a commitment and they believed they were having an impact.

“We honestly believed God wanted us there and we felt the ministry was important. We see Transitional Youth as a viable opportunity for youth to get off living on the streets of Portland.”

They saw real life.

There was a young girl and young man pushing a baby stroller, with a baby only a few weeks old. They did not have a place to stay for the night. The mother of the young parents had kicked them out and the brother of the young parents would not let them stay at his place.

“As they left the building, it was still a question mark as to where the couple and this little baby would spend the night. The girl was meeting her case worker the next day, but having dad in the picture might alter what kind of help they qualified for. The image of that little baby, so innocent and helpless, with parents that were children themselves, stayed with me. I still think about it. There is so much hurt and hopelessness out there and only God can provide peace. If in any way we reinforced God's love to the kids of Transitional Youth, it was worth all the effort we made over the two years.”

Youth come to Transitional Youth for a warm meal and for friendship and camaraderie and support. And to find a listening ear.
“Through our interaction with them, we looked to plant some hope, and that's what Transitional Youth offers.”
---


This story was first published on the Rolling Hills community service page at:
www.rhcc-compassion.blogspot.com/2009/03/out-of-lake-oswego-and-into-real-life.com

The Power of Narrative- Christian Scholars Conference info

As I mentioned at last night's Rolling Hills Writers Connection meeting, here is additional info about the upcoming Power of Narrative-Christian Scholars writers' conference in Tennessee that I plan on attending-the first part of this is simply cut and pasted from http://csc.lipscomb.edu/ -

Christian Scholars’ Conference 2009
The Power of Narrative
June 25-27, 2009

Lipscomb University is pleased to host the 29th annual Christian Scholars’ Conference, June 25-27, 2009, under the theme, “The Power of Narrative.” Plenary speakers Billy Collins (US Poet Laureate, 2001-2003), Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer Prize Winner, 2005), Hubert G. Locke, and Barbara Brown Taylor will stimulate dialogue on the intersection of faith, academics, and narrative's captivating quality. Paper and Panel sessions highlight the conference, bringing together fellow academics for collaboration and dialogue. We invite you to participate!


I love Marilynne' Robinson's novels Gilead and Home as well as Billy Collins' poetry and I recently began reading Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Leaving Church. All very literary work which reflect their Christian values, but not in a cliche-type of way.

As a writer, I want to be challenged and stretched and going to conferences with excellent writers and speakers is so inspiring.

Rolling Hills Writers' Connection Monday March 9 at 6:30 pm

The next Rolling Hills Writers Connection is Monday March 9 at 6:30 pm at Rolling Hills Community Church in the future bookstore. The every-other month meeting is for encouragement, inspiration, connection and ideas. Bring a short piece to read if desired.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Cornelia