"Hey you, get off of my back."

"Summer time and the living's..." (gunshot, as a lone assassin forever ends Sublime's reign of terror by shooting the radio, freeing us from lyrical lies. The peasants rejoice...)

Ahh, summer. The time to relax, unwind and put your thoughts in order for the coming year… Please.

We kicked off the summer with the 14th annual Dallas Metro Summer Camp. It was amazing. We took over 300 kids and 100 staff for a fun filled… Wait. That’s the E-Newsletter. If you would like to read the official report, please visit http://www.dallasmetro.net/.
I was the boys dean, which means that if any of the kids got in trouble, I was the one that would come and talk to (ominous music). I also yelled a lot to keep things moving. It was a good weekend. I took 46 kids from Lakewest (my site) which I was pretty excited about. I only had 4 no shows, which is only 10%. In contrast, last year I had a 30% no show rate. Booya. I think LW did pretty darn well. I loaded them all up in my awesome 1979 International bus, and headed to Maypearl. It was hot, but good.

Jump forward a couple weeks. We had our first ever, “Taking it to the streets” at the end of June. Each morning, a group from Corrigan, TX (look it up) did a VBS for the kids at the Larry Johnson center. It was fantastic. They really did a good job. Each night, a group from Grand Prairie (which, from here on out will be known as GP) did services in four of our neighborhoods. That was special. I won’t go into detail here, but if you would like, you can e-mail me, and I still won’t go into detail. Let me just say this. Please don’t berate me about our sound systems. I know they suck, but they are all we have, and we make do. They are old, and they are in trucks. What do you want? We do our best. As D-Rhagg says, “We do our best, and God does the rest.”

I digress.

What really impressed me about this group was that even though they were from the capitol of the middle of nowhere, they worked with these messy little inner-city kids as though they were their own. As I watched the events through the week, I was reminded of my own VBS experience with Metro. Well, not quite. Ours wasn’t this good, these kids had to neither eat at the LJ Center every day, nor did they have to sand a bus. (Shout out if you were on that trip! Crustables and wet sandpaper FOREVER!!!) It was a long week for sure, but it was rewarding to all involved. I hope this group comes back. I can assure you that I don’t always hope that.

Two weeks later, I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I got to be the camp speaker at HCC’s Camp 56. I loved it. I loved the shaving cream, I loved the kids, I loved being able to share my passion for God, I loved everything. It was really cool to see that seven of the kids were in my four-year old class. Mind you, they are in 5th and 6th grade now. Jeena laughed at me. (By the way, if you need or would like to know who all these people in the stories I tell are, just ask me. I will clarify. The identity of the soon to be famed D-Rhagg will remain a mystery) I believe she said, “Haha. It’s [feeling old] happening to you!” For those of you that don’t know, HCC (Harvest Christian Center) is my home church, and Jeena Lee and Beverly Spillman were my children’s pastors growing up. They are awesome. It was a great experience, and I hope that the kids remember what I spoke about.

It has been a good summer. Many other events transpired, but aren’t they already documented in the books of the kings of Judah?

A stab in the dark

I was reading someone's blog today, and I felt inspired to create one, so here we are. Some might say, "You have a MySpace, and you didn't often update your blog, what will be different?" Well, I can't honestly tell you. Who the heck cares, I'm going to try.

This whole blog will just be my random thoughts. Christianity, friends, cars, annoyances, cats or whatever comes to my mind.

For example, today my legs hurt. Why? Becasue I walked about a million miles the other day. That would be hyperbole, but it was alot of podiatric strain. Crissy and I went to Austin becasue she had never been. We went to the Capitol, the State History Museum, and UT. Let me just state that UT is flipping huge. FWI, all the fountains are off. Sucks for you. She really enjoyed it, as did I, but we were really tired at the end of the day. We went to Magnolia Cafe, the Hula Hut and Amy's Ice Cream. It was a day of delicious historicity.

Yesterday, we moved Clay and Barbara. Holy cow, I have never walked up and down stairs more in one day than yesterday.

Needless to say, my legs are not the happiest with me.

I am not going to make them any happier by going to the Rangers game tonight. More on that later.

Today's informative thought? "When you move, use boxes."