"debrief"  the word echoes in the mess hall as the militia quiet down.

You are then welcomed, introduced to simulation, given your code words to follow and told to praise—ok not praise—but notice the "pretty orange vest"(I honestly was thinking he was going to burst out into a chorus of "I feel pretty.." you know what im talking about)  The militia, for all intents and purposes are now in control of the camp.  The judge, who sits outside the game, just watches and(at the times he deems necessary) shows his bias towards his rulings….

The code word to start the simulation is given, and you return back to the scene that you left for those brief few seconds while the rules were explained.  Still divided, the men on one side of the room the women on the other, you start to hear the insults, jests, and cruelty in voice come out through the hall.  The small hall seems to amplify the words around you, meshing together to create a large shouting voice able to drown out your own mind.  They are trying to rattle you, to make you break down..and they are willing to do anything to do it.  They want to make you nervous..to get under your skin just a little is their goal.  The group next to you is the ones who are the current point of amusement for the militia.  One comes by and gives them and their group one order.  A few seconds later, another comes round and gives the group a completely different order. Both times the group complies, and just as they finish complying with the seconds soldiers demands, the first one comes back and yells at them for not following his orders. Anything to break you down.

A few at a time, you are told to take your possessions over to a table on one side of the building.  You head over there with everything you have.  Your bible is taken away from you, and placed in a bag.  You are then numbered, a piece of duct tape attached to you with a number.  You loose the number….your just told you don’t want to know what happens when you loose your number.  Your moved to another area of the hall where you are instructed to sit down, face facing the floor.  Once in a while, they will find something, so they will instruct everyone to look at them while they try to figure out who it belongs to.  All the while all of this is going on, there are still people on the other side being told to stand, sit, face the fall, and whatever else the militia feels to do at that time.  This entire time, they are pacing around giving you orders, asking questions, and making statements.  Shouting at the top of their lungs, the make sure that you hear statements such as "Christianity is simple.  Your weak" and you can guess the drill from there.  As they number your peers, they find names for them.  You laugh, your a joker.  You are therefore named Joker.  You have a honeybun, and guess what your named…..

This continues for an extended period of time.  As you sit there on the floor you realize that even though this is a simulation, it should be and will be taken at face value.  And then it happens.  From one side you hear the resistance of one person refusing to give up their Bible.  They are carried over to the other side, and shot.  Now one person from the group is dead.  Reality starts to sink in.  You can’t just go through this simulation knowing that it will end.  You go through it knowing that you have to think every second of it.  Keep your mind, and your heart, sharp.  Re-enforcing your faith by depending on God.  You will be challenged, you won’t leave the weekend the same person that stepped foot onto that white snowy ground.  How much maturing can happen in only a few days.  The next few days will show you just how much you can do just that.

The sounds continue to surround you for a few seconds and then you hear some yelling.  More challenges to your faith are thrown at you.  And then, it happens.  Lights out are being ordered.  You are instructed that you have a half hour until the lights in your cabin are to be out. Your lights are on, and your will be paying the price.  Standing outside in the cold, while it seems like small punishment, could easily be made worse by the militia.  With this last warning of standing outside in the cold, you are dismissed to your cabin to prepare for bed and be in bed by the time the militia makes their rounds.

Going to the cabins, its kind of a somber mood.  There is still a joy and happiness, but there is also this thought of "What has become of snow camp".  No one said it, but you could see it and feel it.  A half hour seems like a long time to get ready, but when everyone is competing for the same facilities, it could easily become a game of tug and war.  Instead, one of the most beautiful things occurred.  Even though things were, to be honest, looking not the best for everyone at the time.  They shared.  They respected one another, and everyone was able to get the resources and facilities that they needed.  Even in the cabins, you witness as those who have more blankets or other items share with those who have less.  The idea that they were in this together and had to rely on one another more was already spreading through the camp. As the lights go out, the militia patrols the camp.  They are looking for someone to break their rules to make an example of.  As you peak out the window nervously, you see that not one cabin is giving them reason for recourse.  They are complying.  As you sink back down to go to bed, knowing that no one else, at least for the night is going to be shot you hear the militia start to yell.  Its late at night, but night has just begun…..

Now for someone who knew all of this was coming, it didn’t bother me.  But for those who were surprised by the sudden turn of events.  I can’t help but wonder what they were feeling, or thinking as they started to process all of this….

Continued….within the next few days

Categories: General, Thoughts, Youth Group
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This past weekend I had the privilege of playing bass and joining in the activities of Racine Fellowship’s youth group snow camp.  When most people think of snow camp, they get warm fuzzies inside thinking about tubing, games, teaching times, and most important of all—staying up late and gouging themselves on food.

Well snow camp for Fellowship this past year was anything but that.

With that in mind, come with me to a nice February Friday night.  Locate yourself in the mess hall of a camp.  Not a run down camp, but a fairly nice and well kept mess hall.  Good.  Got that image in your mind?  Your sitting in a chair, you know, the ones that churches across America keep in their basement.  They are cushioned at least.  There are many rows, all filled with students.  Up front is a stage.  There is a drum set, electric guitar, keyboard, and bass guitar as well as a sound system, and a laptop computer.   The speaker for the weekend has just finished speaking when all of a sudden from behind you there is the noise of airhornes, whistles and yelling as masked men storm the building.  They turn off the lights(or maybe they were just dimmed well–can’t remember exactly) and continue to yell for everyone to go to the floor.  You then hear the pastor of camp asking them under what authority they have come on camp grounds.  All the while, your laying on cold concrete, your face staring at cement.  Your heart beating a mile a minute, not knowing what is going to happen next.  You hear some more words exchanged between these new men and the camp pastor when you are told to go face the walls.  Men on one side, women on the other.  As you stand there, you hear the pastor being dragged, all the while yelling at you to stay strong.  You hear him yelling this to those around, encouraging them, even as he’s being dragged away.  As he does this, you then here a gun go off, and his voice fall silent.  That is when it hits you, this is no game.  And that is when you hear the word “debrief”

That is how snow camp for Fellowship Baptist Church in Racine, Wisconsin started this year.  Don’t worry, those weren’t real people there to perform real harm, they were all there for one purpose, to play out a simulation for the teens to live through and work through and to learn from.

Keep in mind the following as I recount the weekend.  The people who were used and were participating in this exercise are all Christians and there desire is to help those kids that were there(and that they were yelling at) to grow and get a small glimpse into the reality that thousands across the world face on a daily basis. Also keep in mind, that this is also written from the point of view of a leader of the group who knew what was going to happen and was actually kinda excited to see how it would play out trying to think like a student who is encountering this for the first time without knowing the plan. With all of that being said, the weekend played out in a very interesting way.  I’ll recount some of the more interesting points, and along the way pause and put in a (#) which indicates a future point that I will expound upon later.  Basically any (#) are thoughts/rants that I already have stored up in my mind/heart but this weekend has just prompted the rapid release of them to the general public to hear/read.

This will be continued…tomorrow…

Categories: Thoughts, Youth Group
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I was eating lunch today(some very delicious cod cooked up by the company chefs) and I thought of something. God has a sense of humor. How do I know this. Think about this.

I used to live in Michigan and work at Cornerstone.

At VCPI I work at Michigan Street and am encouraged to live via the Cornerstone of the company. I can’t escape those two things, no matter how much I try!

Categories: General
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Its the start of week three at work. So far, I have gone home with a headache due to the amount of stuff I’m trying to cram into my brain about half the time. The other half the time I am driving home for that nice hour between Milwaukee and Racine(due to snow) thinking about the stupid things I had done during the day and how I could rectify the situation the next day/make sure that didn’t happen again.

Nothing brings your confidence up more than feeling like a total noob at your job. Its going to take me a while to learn all the ins and outs of all the systems and what goes where and to who and in what format with what information and with this and or that depending on client a,b,c,d,e,of f. I guess I should pause and say that tech wise(the actual knowldege of technology) is not that bad. Its actually pretty easy. Its the application of that tech knowledge with the way things are done at VCPI that somtimes confuses the heck out of me.

But im up to the challenge

You know you live in a cubile land when you see the following

1. A whole thread in the email about people who love Micahel Jackson and Bubbles and the various variations on each one….and this all started because someone forgot to lock their computer and walked away for a second
2. A giant paper airplane made out of the month of January from someone’s wall calendar laying in your cubile
3. Paper footballs that magically appear on your desk when returning from lunch. Either my cube neighbors are having fun or I can make paper footballs with my mind while at lunch and not even thinking about paper footballs.
4. A four way conference/conversation with each person in their own cubicle and able to see each and every person they are talkign to(thanks to two panels in the cubicle being taken out of the cubile wall to create a “window”–somtimes the only pretty things you get to see are other human faces…)

While I was on break yesterday(something which I don't do becuase I (for lack of better phrase) have a heck of a lot to do) I looked at the soda vending machine(the one our floor was out of water and my water bottle had a funny smell to it). There was a sticker on there. It was about trying to steal from the machine, it was esentially a warning. You know, like the warning that you see on a tazar that says "Warning, will shock people" or on a pot of coffee that says "may contain hot material". This one said "Stealing is an arrestable offense" and what was funnier was that it was brought to us by the Soft Drink Association. Now since when did Pepse and Coke get along and produce the soft drink association. You can't tell me that Caprison and Coke made it--of course Caprison is probably owned by one of the two. Give it time. Eventually you'll be telling your significant other to pick you up a case of Coca-Peps. I cringe at that thought.

Categories: General
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