this is no longer my blog

I was under the false impression that when I got closer to the end of my internship that things would start to slow down. I thought I'd be much less busy and I'd get to kind of coast the last few weeks, and be able to focus on saying good goodbyes before I leave.

It's beginning to not look that way.

First, we have the upcoming Water Ski Camp. Basically, there's an older gentleman who loves to water ski. He has instilled that love in his children who have instilled it in their children, as well. One of his sons moved up to Wisconsin and was able to get the church he joined up there excited about the idea of a water ski ministry in the summer. Lots of youth participated, lots of parents were excited about it, and it has just gotten bigger from there. So, the older gentleman thinks that if his son can do it up at the church in Wisconsin, there is no reason why he shouldn't be able to do it here. And he's been trying for the past seven years. The first year or two got a lot of regular involvement. It met every Wednesday at 10 until about 2, and the youth who were in high school really enjoyed it. However, in the past seven years, excitement about and participation in the program has greatly decreased. Some of the youth mentioned that the gentleman in charge would yell at them if they couldn't get up on the skis as easily as he thought they should, and that he showed favoritism for the youth that already had water ski talent and would take them out in the boat more often than the inexperienced youth. Also, a few years ago our church had a youth drown in the river where the water ski ministry is held, granted it wasn't with the water ski ministry and there were drugs and alcohol rumored to be involved, but now parents are extremely wary about letting their youth use the river. Also, this man only wants to drive the boat. He thinks everyone else should be in charge of everything else. Someone else should provide the food, someone else should do the Bible study, someone else should plan the logistics. He'll just drive the boat. Granted, he's not a favorite among the youth ministry committee. Anyway, after he bugged and bugged the committee to do this water ski ministry, we decided to do a three day water ski day camp from 10 until 2, Monday-Wednesday of this week. We offered to take care of the logistics, food and Bible study. He agreed. Well, several weeks ago he started calling youth from the church to get them to come out to the weekly water skiing, bugging some of the church staff (i.e. ME) to lead Bible study every Wednesday (to which I said NO) and using permission slips with the church's name on it. There has been some brouhaha about that, and I think things are finally worked out, but I still have to lead Bible study for all three days of the day camp this week. When it came to that part of planning the camp, all eyes turned to me. There were no other options. But I guess that's what I get for going into this line of work.

We also have our last softball game this Tuesday, a church council meeting on Wednesday, and I preach this weekend.

Then, after church on Sunday I head out for the week to go take part in a youth leadership event. Early on in my internship I e-mailed the planning committee for this event, asking for information for my youth, but after offering a friendly introduction, of course. I got an e-mail response which directed me to their webpage, as well as a note that said they might ask me to be a staff member for the week. Well, sure enough, they did. And Supervising said that if I got about three youth to go, then I could serve on staff. I only got two, but Supervising said that was enough.

Thankfully, I don't preach the weekend after the leadership event, although I have four committee meetings in the span of three days, plus a youth service to help plan, and a council retreat.

I'm not sure what next month will look like, although Supervising is on vacation from Aug 1 until Aug 10, and my last day is Aug 14 (of course I preach that day!). Although I already know that those weeks will be consumed with packing and cleaning.

So yeah... So much for coasting to the finish. Although I suppose it's good to keep busy. Then I won't dwell so much on the fact that I'm leaving and eventually will have to say good bye. That part is gonna suck.

And, of course, I didn't give myself time to rest afterwards, either. Because less than a week after I move back to the Mother Ship, I'm going with a small group of classmates up to Northern Minnesota to the Boundary Waters to go canoeing. Then, as soon as I get back from that, I'm packing up and going to visit my parents, and also to preach at my home church. I have a long list of friends from back home that are feeling neglected and forgotten, so I need to make sure to go and visit EVERY SINGLE ONE of them, mainly because I want to, but also because if word got back to them that I was in the area and didn't stop to see them they'd be storming my house with torches. Then, I get back to the Mother Ship with two days rest before classes start. Ugh.

It's non-stop from here on out, folks. It should be exciting.