Velocity - Day 2

Last night's big, opening session rocked. Our high school speaker Noel got in a car accident on his way down, so our Junior High Speaker, Jason Raitz, filled in for him and kicked it off. The theme this year is "Too Much". We're looking at how we tend to take things that aren't in and of themselves bad to the extremes, and overload our life with them: TV, Music, Sex, etc. We're looking at how to live life in such a way that you can do things in moderation, in a way that God can reign.

I got to bed around 1, got up around 7. I walked outside to a beautiful, foggy morning

I went to Jason's session this morning where he talked about where to begin with dealing with "Too Much" and how following Jesus fits into it.

Two of the junior high guys have locked themselves out of the room four times already. What makes it even better is that the doors can't actually lock without having a key, so I have no idea how they've been able to do it.

After lunch, we hit the giant slip and slide. It's basically a giant sheet of visquine covered with soap and hosed down with water non-stop. The kids get flying individually or in groups at the top and don't stop until they hit the giant pool of muddy soap at the bottom. Everyone had fun at this and suprisingly, no one got hurt.

After the slip-and-slide, we headed over the the athletic facility to hit the lift weights and then play basketball. Three of the leaders, Matt, Zach and I, don't play basketball at all, so instead of using finesse, we used sheer force to do the job. The basketball ring happened to be in a hockey ring, so there were no out of bounds and lots of checking into the boards.

We were hot and sweaty, so we loaded up into the van and headed out to find a speedway for some $.79 goodness. We ended up settling unstatisfied, settling for $1.29 ICEEs. Guess that's life.

We had our afternoon breakout session at 4:30. These are about 10 different options, taught by leaders of different churches that all revolve around the theme "too much". Too Much MySpace, Too Much Religion, Too Much Me in Christianity, etc. These are about and hour long, and give the kids something to chew on throughout the week.

One of the best parts of camp is getting to hang with the group of leaders here. It's an amazing collection of Youth Pastors, speakers and band members. We all love each other and get along in a way that blows my mind.

We had our Youth Group time tonight after dinner, and then had our evening session. I heard Noel's message tonight to the high schoolers, where he talked about Judah, part of Jesus's lineage and what redemption looked like for him. How often do you hear a message about onanism, seed, prostitution, and God striking people dead all at once?

After the session, myself and a couple guys went and checked out the prayer labyrinth. It's a very cool, but pretty unknown concept to a lot of people. It was held in chapel here at Kenyon, which is a very cool, very old, ornate building. You begin with a CD player and headphones. It's a guided prayer meditation that takes you to 10 different stations as you go through the ten tracks on the CD. The CD has a narrator that guides you through things to think about, journal on, reflect on and pray about at each station. One station, for instance, has a mirror and talks about how beautifully and wonderfully God has made each of us. It then asks you to look in the mirror and reflect on how your view of yourself lines up with God's, and how your view of others lines up with His. Great, powerful stuff.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the day here.