Funniest conversation of the day...

Talking about reasons why Jon can't be batman

Kid: He wears glasses

Jon: I can't be Batman because I'm Asian

Kid: You're not Asian

Jon: Yes I am...just like you

Kid: I'm not Asian

Jon: What are you then?

Kid: I'm chinese!

Told you it was funny!

Man...I just read through the personal goals I posted (June 28th) for my summer 2008 and I have not worked at some of them at all! I have totally allowed the schedules and the chaos and the insecurities get in the way. 

It's a good thing I still have some time left to change things around...

To be continued.

Well I'm happy again tonight...flip it's the weekend, of course I'm happy!! And @ Camp Peace Remix today we worked @ M.O.B.Y Community Garden and it was awesome! Peeps walking past would stop and watch and talk to the kids and the leaders. It was so encouraging to see how something which is so fun and close-by for the kids to do can impact the community. Each of those people walking past today saw Camp Peace getting down and dirty to help their community out. 

Nice work kids!

An UrbanPromise summer is the only place in my lifetime where I have been able to be so happy one day with my job and so pissed about it the next. I love the kids in my program and appreciate that my job is relatively simple but Camp Peace Remix is overshadowed and compromised throughtout the summer constantly and as its leader, there are times when I feel completely patronised and under-estimated. Just sometimes, like tonight.

But those feelings are worth it to spend another 8weeks with my kids. And it's stupid because I know that Urbs Prom peeps care alot about me. 

(Random thought for this evening....what vibes am I giving off to people by my actions and the things I say?)

So this weekend we hit up Squamish and Whistler for an overnight stay that turned into what peeps refer to as a gong show here in Canada. Basically, anything that could go wrong went wrong. We didn't arrive until 3pm because of "traffic", the campsite was full and there was a ban on fires and bbqs because of the dry season. 

So we had nowhere to sleep and no way to eat our hotdogs. 

We brainstormed a little....using hot water in the public washrooms to warm the weiners, knocking on doors asking to borrow a grill despite it being illegal and offering beer to a couple of rednecks in return for the use of their firepit. Go figure, we settled on the latter and it worked. Larry and Glen kindly allowed all 13 of us to raid their firepit and portable potty. We then proceeded to drive 30mins off the highway in the dark until we found a clearing to set up camp, using the light from our van headlights. Turns out their were some crazy rocks under our tent but luckily I wasn't stuck with them (what's a few rocks between friends Blair?!). 

Good times HA! So good we're planning another camping trip for next weekend...

I told y'all week 3 would be better than week 2. It's still hard at times but my bro is for sure coming to visit 7th August and peeps seem to have lightened up a little bit for now. Here's hoping that I can manage to balance my time right and spend quality time with everybody I would like to before I have to fly home. You guys know who you are. 

I was surfing through some friends blogs just now and found an entry about one of my very own bible lessons so if any of you is interested to know a little about my teaching style, check this out. 

It's hard to evaluate your life as much when you're running summer camp, it's all about survival of the fittest but I am trying to rebel less and be joyful. Today I taught my kids about Jeremiah and faithfulness, what it means and how we practice it. I talked about obeying and trusting God in the face of everything, like Jeremiah and being faithful through strength, perseverance, courage and prayer. The kids seemed to get it and I think I did too.

 

Sunday. 1/3 way through the summer mark. Feels like this has been my lifestyle for 6months, not 2weeks. After Schools Program feels like a dream. Week 2 was worse than week 1, which makes me feel stressed and cranky and utterly discourged. I can't even exactly pinpoint the problem right now. I think it is a mixture of super long days, paranoia, insecurities and feeding off other people's stress. But today, on this beautiful Sunday, I am choosing to take some time to myself to catch up on life and recuperate. Week 3 will be better than week 2....

I was reading Psalm 51 last night and 3 things stood out for me, so I think I'll look more into them.

"For I recognise my rebellion, it haunts me day and night."

"Restore to me the JOY of your salvation"

"The sacrafice you desire is a broken spirit"

Yesterday, after a rough night, I took some time to chill out with my brother Ryan, and a few things came up in conversation that I consider so blog worthy that I am taking time out on my relaxing Sunday morning to type it up.

We contemplated starting an organisation which would be known as "Join the Taliban and receive a free cell phone". I believe this originated from a television commercial if that is any justification for those who feel slightly offended. Jess then thought it would be hilarious if we could poke people on facebook and have it appear as "You were just poked by the taliban". We reckon if we took it far enough, we could at least make the local news.

As if this wasn't enough fun in a day, we then discovered that we could play MarioKart with the rest of the world from the comfort of the UrbanPromise house. We were playing against my peeps in Europe, Brazil, Middle Eastern and a hardcore gamer (from America, obviously) called Cam. He swept us both under the table though, because he has no life and plays rainbow road contantly. 

Then there was poker in the evening. It was fun but there was too much excitement in my day prior for me to fully concentrate. 

First day of Summer Camp. First sesh @ Remix, just chilling in the park.

Lets run races across the field and pack.

Nicholas: Why don't you make me lick the toilet instead?