Pastor Ron's Deep Thoughts and Shallow Entries: KingdomBound 2009

Hello again. It's Tuesday morning. The evening was noisy again with the neighbours serenading us with singing for about 20 minutes and then heading off to bed. Several trains could be heard in the distance, and the volunteer fire department siren went off twice at 4:00 and 5:00 am. I’m a light sleeper, so I heard everything. The others seemed to sleep through it all. We awoke a 9 am and when I walked out of the trailer, Graham was sitting at the picnic table eating breakfast out of a VERY large bowl. : )

Cereal and OJ was on the menu for this morning. As everyone ate breakfast they began planning out their day. We’ve had great weather so far. Sunny and warm but not humid. A nice change from the July rains we’ve been having in Ottawa. It is sunny again this morning, but we are supposed to get some rain tonight. Then Wed and Thurs are supposed to be GREAT! : )

With the weather being so nice, everyone decided that water would be the theme of the day. The park opens at 10:30 am each day, but the water park opens at 11 am, so they were going to hit water rides from 10:30 – 11 and then the water park for several hours. That was something that Graham wanted to do. It was nice to see him have his fun too.

After that they would return to the campsite, grab a shower, and relax until the Hawk Nelson concert. I decided that water was not in my psyche today, so I stayed back and went into town to get some more juice, ice, and water. As I travelled into town, I noticed a house that was pretty damaged, as well as a large greenhouse beside it was more or less flattened. There was a barn being reconstructed next to that house. I looked to the other side of the road and noticed felled trees and as I looked further down, I saw a cut of felled trees that went on for at least ½ mile. Then I realized that a small tornado must have passed through this place not too long ago leaving a swath of damaged property and trees. That didn’t make me feel too comfortable.

I'm Back at the campsite now, I made a call to Joycegina, Sarah and Katrina, who went to see her dad and mom, but no one was home. On the way back from the phone booth I was asked by three young people if I wanted to take a survey on behalf of Kingdombound. As we went through the questions I could see the end result was to see if I understood the way to get to heaven. Seems like I answered the question correctly : ). I give these young people credit. They volunteered to do this for the duration of KB2009 and are simply walking around the campsites asking anyone who’s willing if they’d take the survey. If someone doesn’t know Jesus, they are prepared to talk to them about how they can get to know Him. Cool stuff!

I made it back to camp and am now going through the hundreds of pictures Chris has taken, to get some for the Blog. I expect the group will be back here by about 1 pm ish and regale me with their antics of the morning. Pictures more than likely to follow. : )

The group did comeback at 1:30 pm. They’d had enough of the water park and wanted to have a snack and take a shower. I always find it fun watching young people trying to survive an experience like KB. Everyone handles their lives differently. Take Michael for instance. His eating habits consist of junk food, and that’s pretty much it. Then there is Kyle, who attempted to hang another close line rope for towels. Seems he didn’t pass his knot tying course in Cadets…..and Chris wasn’t much more help for him. They sure make me chuckle at times.

Most are back in the park now doing the rides before supper. The weather is turning a bit windier and the dark clouds are beginning to move in. It always rains at least once while here…let’s just hope it’s while we are sleeping tonight, and that would be about it.

Till this evening……

It’s evening now. Supper consisted of sharing hotdogs, cream style corn and juice. We’ll all eat Mary Jane’s pork chops and chicken tomorrow……After supper the boys went to hear Bob Lenz speak (I think he gave the same talk that I heard) and then they heard the band Family Force 5. I understand they thought that band was pretty hokey, and from the pictures they got, I’d have to agree. Hawk Nelson was liked by all and Zack, Chris and Kyle all got T-Shirts (see pictures below).

I wasn’t sure what was going to be happening at the Compassion tent tonight. I didn’t recognize any of the acts, but decided to go anyway. It was good I did. DecemberRadio played for a sparse crowd, but they were good. Hard Rock from the deep South. Definitely toe tapping and more.

Then David Nasser spoke about reliving the crucifixion and he told the story in a very compelling way. After a 30 minute wait, and the seats filling up a bit more, it was time for Israel Houghton and his worship band. I’d never heard him before but they were very good. He and his group had a natural way of worshipping God and even though some of the songs went on for 15 minutes, you didn’t notice at all. There were times of peaceful sitting down, and times you couldn’t help but be on your feet and clapping and dancing. I’d listen to them again.

At the end he gave a short talk that really stuck with me. The power of one was his theme. It was born out of his mothers experience in becoming a Christian just before Israel was born. His mom was on the streets with no where to turn, when a lady just crossed the street and said she felt God telling her to talk to Israel’s mom. It so took her back, she became a Christian right there. His closing words were, “You don’t have to go across the world to change the world. You don’t even have to go across your country, or your city….sometimes all you have to do is cross the street….” So true, yet it seems so hard to do.

I left at 10 pm and walked quietly back to the campsite. Everyone was there and once I got there the rain began. We had a pretty good thunder storm with some pretty hard rain for about 30 minutes. Everyone scurried for cover and the campfires around us slowly died out. If that’s the only rain we get (and I think it will be), we’ll have done VERY well. Pictures are below of the day…enjoy…

Here's Graham with his VERY large bowl of cereal.

Every morning Chris had to wet his hair....with VERY cold water.

Cereal was the breakfast for this morning.

Shawn getting ready to do dishes. Each site had water so we'd boil some for hot water and add cold water to get the temperature just right.

Zack and Shawn putting on sunscreen before heading into the water park. I just wanted your parents to know you actually put sun screen on. : )

It seems we had a bit of a feud going on while at KB. Seems that Chris and Kyle are Toronto Maple Leafs fans, and the rest are Sen's fans. Here are Shawn and Michael showing off their Sen's stuff.

Here's Chris finishing up after Kyle attempted to tie a knot. Neither seemed to succeed here. : )

Now this little bump proved to be very interesting. We laid down this turf under my trailer awning, and this rock was right in the middle. EVERYONE seemed to find it with their bare feet, but NO ONE seemed to want to get rid of it. : )