King's Kamp 2007

We returned from King's Kamp today.  What a blast.  Michelle and I taught a class of 45 7th-graders.  We had a good-sized group of kids from Pepperdine, Conejo, University CoC and several other local SoCal churches.  It was so fun.  A few observations about King's Kamp...

• King's Kamp gives me hope for the future of the Church.  We had a group of wonderfully bright, good-hearted kids who were full of energy and joy in their passion for God. 
• King's Kamp is an encouraging movement forward for Churches of Christ.  The camp was focused on Christ-not dogma, was ecumenical for campers, staff & counselors, well-blended with a cappella and instrumental worship, more gender-inclusive than we have historically been, and fun for people from all backgrounds.
• King's Kamp is an amazing bit of coordination among volunteers from multiple Christian traditions, local churches, and dozens of volunteers.  It amazes me that so many volunteers can come together with so little formal structure to accomplish something so amazing.  I don't think my slideshow includes any photos of the amazing sets created for King's Kamp, but it was one of the most impressive volunteer productions I have ever seen.
• The community of volunteers at King's Kamp was most impressive.  Many of the men and women who run this camp have volunteered for more than ten years of their lives to selflessly serve each summer for a week of hard labor, not to mention months of planning and coordination to produce an amazing experience for hundreds of kids they barely know.  Their service made a powerful impression on Michelle and me.

All together, we had a terrific time but are completely exhausted.  We returned home this afternoon physically exhausted but spiritually rejuvenated. 

PNFR XI

2007-Q3-PNFR11

The last few days I've been at PNFR on Lake Tenkiller in Eastern OK while Michelle and the kids were  with the Crisps in Abilene.  PNFR is an annual Prayer and Fasting Retreat that several of us have been taking for the past decade.  It's always a wonderful time of sharing, worship, and reflection.  This year was no different.  Here are some photos.  The big highlight of the year was PAV nearly cracking his head wide open as he tried to navigate his way into a float over a slippery dock.  Fortunately, he didn't actually get hurt too bad.  But it was sure funny! 

The key insight for me this year was how much I have to be grateful for in my life.

You know you're from SoCal when...

• You have such a moderate temperature comfort-zone that anything cooler than 60 or hotter than 85 and everyone complains about the "miserable weather!"
• Your children who have largely grown-up in SoCal are terrified of "evil-blood-sucking-bugs"...things like mosquitos scare the pedudy (pe-doo'-dee) out of one of our children in particular.
• You are essentially urbanized to such an extent that things like natural stream-water are perceived as disgusting and unnatural (as compared to say, Dasani).

Day Five - Rocky Mountain National Park

I think this was our favorite day so far.  We drove up to RMNP and spent the day hiking, playing in the meadows, and driving across the tundra.  It was truly amazing.

The highlight was spending a few hours splashing and dam building in the Colorado River.  We've been following the Colorado River since near Las Vegas a few days ago.  It flows through or beside Zion, Bryce, and Arches NP.  We'll see it again in a couple of weeks at the Grand Canyon and, of course, it is the border between CA and AZ.

What a perfect day. 

Highlights from Day Two

From 2007-Q3-Zion ...

We started the morning with a drive to Zion from St. George. Along the way we saw this terrific old ghost town playland (photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/m5williams/865604776/). Then on to Zion. We rode the Zion Shuttle for about two hours taking in all the beautiful scenery. The kids took hundreds of photos of the Canyon (check the flickr site, or my Picasaweb site for them).

Zion was so beautiful! It's like the Grand Canyon on a small scale with easier access. Bryce was AMAZING! The Hoodoo were so incredible. Unfortunately, we only spent about one hour there because it was raining. Also, the temperature lowered dramatically! It was 114 degrees in St. George, UT and 58 at Bryce Canyon (about 2.5 hours away).

One of the highlights for everyone was the rain. We haven't seen a real rainstorm in a couple of years (we've had about three inches of rain in LA in the past 13 months).

After Bryce it was a long drive to Moab. We slept in today and are en route Arches National Park and to Winter Park, CO tonight then on to Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow.

Highlights of Day One

Lots of memories today. We crossed through four states (CA, NV, AZ, UT) and are in St. George, Utah at the Holiday Inn tonight. We spent a few hours in Vegas and walked through the Venetian and Ceasar's Palace and drove down the strip to see NY, NY, the Luxor, and Excalibur. Lots of fun for all of us. I think the highlights would be...

• Matthew - 2.5 hours of DS without interruption
• Madison - swimming at the hotel pool
• Marcus - The living statue at Ceasar's Palace
• Michelle - Dinner at Cracker Barrel (they don't exist in LA)
• Me - Nothing going wrong all day!

From now on, I'll just post up-to-the-minute photos at Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/m5williams/) rather than here. You can see best shots there throughout the day or here at night if I have time.

This sign says we're in Utah.

Entering arizona.

Feels like we're really in Venice (Italy that is, not Venice Beach. It's never 114 degrees at Venice Beach!)

With the greatest of all time.

My egyptian princess at the Luxor.

We are in Nevada.

Zyzx road exit in mojave desert.

Must be a fan of Dr. Seuss.

The San Bernadino Mts on the way out of LA.

Finally we are leaving!

damage from fender bender..jpg
Originally uploaded by M_M_M_M_M_W

The second thing we did on our vacation was head to Target to get last-minute stuff. Unfortunately, we were rear-ended! Here's a photo of our rental car (that we had for only an hour!). The other driver didn't see us, nor did she hear us honking to get her attention.

Vacation begins at in-n-out.

Our Last taste of California cousine for three weeks...

I'm back...

You'll have to visit with me in person to get a long review of my trip to Prague last week. Suffice to say, it is a beautiful city with amazing architecture and an interesting history. I'm simply incapable of typing long blog entries, so buy me a Mocha Latte at Starbucks if you really want to hear about it. I will have photos up soon though.

A few recent events of note...

• In reading my friend Chris's blog today, I discovered another of my good friends from NCJC/ACU is blogging down at ACU. I must give these guys credit...they really put a lot of time into their blogs. I wonder if they get research credit for these things? It's amazing the amount of time that goes into a good blog (I'm only guessing, I don't know from experience).
• Props to JA for making me look like I was standing still all day on the court yesterday. Gheesh! He scored at will...over me, around me, through me. Was there any way to the hole that was NOT clear for his outstretched right hand? At least he missed a good 30% of his 15 footers.
  
• I submitted grades 10 days ago? I'm officially out of the classroom until the end of August.
  
• I have the honor of introducing one of my favorite college professors at the Pepperdine Lectures this year...David Keller (formerly of NCJC and OVU, now at RC).
• Did I mention...late August?