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Blog 10-5

I have been slacking off on my blog lately. I apologize to my blog-reading public. I have been working to try to finish my book proposal and so I don’t always feel like doing more writing after that. But now the proposal is done and I am going to print it and send it off when I am home. I have no idea what sort of response I will get but it would be amazing if this whole writing thing works out. Writing as a career has become increasingly more appealing to me. We’ll see.

On Sunday I went to church with my church group. My friend Gena attends there too. She has been going there for a while so she knows a lot of the people. The pastor was not there and the second service only had about 20 people, 1/3 of who were YWAMers. The church is thinking about going back to one service. The youth pastor preached for what seemed like an eternity. The sermon was over an hour and a bit rambling. Near the end, I looked at my students and none of them were looking at the pastor and they were all squirming in their seats. I could see that they felt the same as me.

On Sunday night, I was going to go play basketball but instead I went to dinner with friends. Corey and Carrie (former YWAMers) were house-sitting and invited me, Sherry and Gena for dinner. It was a lot of fun. The house they were at was really sweet. It was a duplex-type place and their part was the top floor. It had high ceilings, wood floors and several porches. The decorations were nice as well. It was a big contrast between our ghetto YWAM housing.

On Monday we had our staff fellowship. This is just a fancy phrase to describe a staff meeting with snacks at the end. This meeting was different because our base director and his wife came to share why they were stepping down from leadership. Vince was very vulnerable and honest in telling us that his pride had gotten out of hand. After 18 years of ministry and trying to please everyone, he came to the realization that he had been severely neglecting his family, especially his wife. He is going to counseling and will be trying to get a regular job on the island to support his family. It is sad to see Vince go because he is a great leader but I am glad he is doing what he has to do. I read a book by a guy named Vince McClung and he talked about how in full-time ministry he found that his priorities had to be as follows: God, then family, then ministry. You are not supposed to forsake your family for the good of your ministry. I think this is definitely true.

On Tuesday we inspected houses for cleanliness. The DTS boys had the cleanest house, which is very impressive. My friend, Wayne made a vast improvement from the week before. Last week he had drawers opened with clothes falling out, an unmade bed and a plate with the remnants of last night’s dinner on his fan. This week there was no old food, clothes were folded and his bed was made. It was a nice surprise.

Last night Brittany and I went down to the beach to play basketball. As usual, we ended up playing with some of the random guys down there. The games were fun until we played HORSE. This old guy, Moses, likes to do stupid trick shots all the time where you have to bounce the ball off your head or hook it in mid-air. I think this stuff is dumb since you can’t really do it in a game. I had to go after him and of course, I got out quickly because I can’t put my toes on the baseline, jump backwards and shoot the ball all while in mid-air. He got to follow some crazy guy we saw snort cocaine before he asked to join. This does not seem very fair to me. I try to have a good attitude with sports but this was very frustrating.

On a sad note, Sarah, one of our DTS students, went home. Her mom had open heart surgery and they found calcium deposits in her heart. Then she had a reaction to the medication and her lungs filled with fluid. She is in very critical condition and Sarah flew home to be with her. Pray for the family.