That Was The Summer That Was -- Summer 2004

It seems like I was just blogging about how I couldn't believe it was Memorial Day and here it is already Labor Day. The trees are more aware of the calendar than I am -- as we drove home late last night from my mom's house we noticed that fallen leaves were already swirling around the streets of Warren. If that's not enough to convince you that summer is over, today we're driving back to my mom's house to help her take down the swimming pool.

The summer began with me acting in an official capacity for the church. I participated in the parade and Memorial Day ceremonies for Jamestown, NY. Sometimes I think I'm the most untraditional pastor in the whole city, so it was kind of surreal to find myself sitting in a classic car waving at the people lining the streets.

Lamont and I had one of our busiest weekends ever in June. Our denomination does a huge youth retreat every summer and we took a big group of teens from our church. It was a really positive weekend for the kids, and Lamont and I were very proud of the fact that we were able to not just convince "church kids" to participate, but also some young people that we became acquainted with via some social work.

We had no sooner said our amens at the Sunday morning meeting when we had to saddle up our rapidly-dying Neon and drive over a hundred miles to our graduation from Empire State College. We barely made it because we missed a turn and got ourselves lost. I'm not big on ceremony -- as any of my parishioners will readily attest -- and a busy weekend chaperoning youth seemed like as good an excuse as any to miss graduation. But in the end I was so glad I went. Even though I had already received my diploma in the mail, I didn't really have a sense of closure until I put on the robe and walked across the stage.

Our afternoon with Empire State College was only the first of many graduations that we marked in the month of June. We had two celebrations for the price of one during our week spent in New Jersey. One of parishioners graduated from a school of youth ministry, another was ordained as a pastor. Although things have been quite crazy as of late, Lamont and I consoled ourselves that our church must be doing something right, because neither of the graduates grew up in church or came from families that were particularly religious.

The end of the month saw four members of our church graduate from high school. It just doesn't seem possible -- it seems like yesterday that they were all timid little kids tiptoeing around the "big kids" in youth group. Now they're adults.

In between carting kids back and forth to camping sessions, we were able to sneak in a week of vacation together. It was nice -- sometimes you don't realize how much you need a break until you stop. Highlights included Old Fort Niagara, The Castellani Art Museum, and Genesee County Village and Museum.

Mr. X finally returned from his four-year stint with Wings Over the World. It was great to hang out together for most of July and August before he moved away to college, a whole hour away!!!

The end of July found Lamont and I at the retirement party for our beloved college mentor. P-- was an amazing instructor in a college known for its excellence in teaching, and we can't imagine what our education would have been like without her. Our prayers go with her as she goes on to write the Great American Novel.

The highlight of August was Teen Camp in Penn Yan, NY. Gathering a group of 90 teens in the middle of nowhere for five days without cable TV sounds like a recipe for disaster, but God made it so much more than that. People always say that the teenage years are the best years of a person's life, but I will contend to my dying day that young people are some of the busiest, most stressed-out people on the planet. Think about it:

• They have to maintain good performance in school
  
• They work
  
• They volunteer
  
• They participate in extracurricular activities
  
• They maintain an active social life
  
• They are at a point where they have to make big decisions (school, dating, etc.) that will have a huge impact on who they will become

It's not so much that the Experiment House crew were these spiritual giants that broke through to the young people as much as the five days of camp allowed them to stop and catch their collective breaths for a few days! The older I get the more convinced I am that God sneaks in while we're exhaling! I'm happy to be a small part of the camp's success.

Oh yeah, we finally replaced the Neon with a Toyata Matrix. Talk about trading up.

Summer 2004. That was the summer that was. Here's to fall!