May 10-15, 2009 Chapter Focus Week

Mini SLT Reunion (now renamed IVLI)

It seems every summer camp I go to isn't really "summer" this was mid afternoon.


There were a LOT of bugs at Narnia.

Chapter Focus Week is kind of hard to describe it is not camp... but it kind of is. How it works is everyone from the chapter that can goes up to Cedar Campus on the U.P of Michigan the week following finals as well as other schools from across the Upper Midwest. There are lots of different tracks that you can pick from. From taking a week to focus and explore Mark 1, or learning about evangelism, or how trainging to lead a large group or a small group. I was apart of the Leadership track. This group was 2 incoming sophomores 1 junior and 1 senior (me) I know, Scary that I am a Senior!!! but back to business. The leadership team plans and dreams about what our chapter will look like next year. Activities wise, spiritual goals, etc. It was a great week of bonding we took up 9 girls and 1 guy. It was a great group of people and I can't wait to see what is going to happen next year.

Narnia. Cedar Campus has a hiking trail that apparently looks like Narnia from C.S Lewis. I have no idea because I have never read the books or seen the movie but everyone else was pretty excited about it.

May 10, 2009 – Chapter Focus Week or Bust

WCF started out by everyone meeting at Hider House at 7:45 am so we could get on the road early because we needed to be at Cedar Campus by 6pm and it was 9 hours. We got the cars loaded and I was actually able to use the rearview mirror which was not expected and we hit the road. I lead and Kelly followed and it was a fun drive. The hours flew by and it seemed like in no time we were crossing the Mackinac Island Bridge (A couple miles long) I really wanted the people in my car to experience the magic of Michigan so I rolled down all of the windows and turned the tunes up. Sadly, the rest of the car did not enjoy that as much as I did. I looked back and Brian (the lone guy on the trip) just looked in pain because of the wind and he was cold. So we rolled up the windows for the comfort of the passengers. Annie told me it was the weirdest mood she had ever seen me in. It was a good time. I was so giddy to be going to camp.

May 9, 2009 - Goodbye Junior Year

I can’t believe Junior year has come to a close. It did not feel like it was time to close the Hider House door for the last time. Claire was the first to leave her car battery died because it had been open for so long while we/her dad loaded, but trusty ole Abe (a play off of the fact Brett drives a Lincoln) came to the rescue and jumped them so they could be on their way. Then it was more packing up for me It was quite the stressful day. I don’t have pictures but this is the last photo of my room before I took it all down. I spent the entire day packing and then I loaded up Abe and took it out to the Wilson’s house to drop it off. Of course when I was loading it had to pour down drain. I then went with Paul and Alicia to his house to drop of my bags that I was going to fly home with because we all planned to spend the night at his parents house when we got back from CFW + he let me borrow his car to drive Wooster Christian Fellowship the 9 hours up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for Chapter Focus Week.

May 8, 2009 -Bat Catchers

Shane came down from the third floor asking for some help… he needed friends to help him catch a bat that had flown in. Mikey had left his window open and with no screen it was just an invitation to the bat. Since we have lived in Hider House for 9 months and have experienced several bat visitors we have come up with a bat catching system. The first time it was hanging in the stairwell so the boys threw books at it trying to get it to fly away. Then I suggested obviously it didn’t want to move so they should unhook the bar it was hanging on and stick it out the window. Goodbye bat #1 the second time it was hanging from a ceiling tile thus they used a cereal bag and closed around it and caught it and put it outside. Goodbye bat #2 The only issue with this bat is that it was exicted and did not want to just hang it was flying back and forth between the rooms.

Trying to catch a flying bat is much more interesting and not for me. I left my video camera running and headed to a safe zone. The video is HILARIOUS! These are our 3 ‘brave’ bat catchers though when listening to the video it doesn’t seem like any of them were to confident in their own skills. However they accomplished their task. Goodbye Bat # 3.

April 2,2009 Ben's 19th Birthday

For Ben's Birthday we headed to Acres of Fun. A local game/amusement/skateland/lazer tag place. We are a little limited in our evening options in Wooster, Ohio. But it was a good time. Even if it does take a group of 10 a really long time to play an 18 hole game of put put. We may not have been to good at put put.. some of us a little to strong some of us had to get balls that were stuck under the little bridge.

I accidently sent my green ball down a drain pipe. But Paul found it.

Traditional Birthday ice cream in the back of the Danger Ranger

We went to Cold Stone because it was the only Ice Cream place open. I had candles but no lighter so I tried to use the Cigarette lighter from the truck and light a piece of paper then transfer the flame... but sadly I couldn't get it to go. I am a little skittish with crazy birthday candles and cakes because the last cake (A tower of Little debbies with lots of candles and having to wait several minutes once they were lit was not the best idea) didn't turn out well.

But the evening was SUPER FUN!

April 28, 2009 - Amish Country

For InterVarsity this year I was on the Stewardship Team and it was a great group to work with. Not only to do ministry together but we just enjoy hanging out with eachother. Thus to end our year out of our team of 5. Two are graduating and going on staff with IV and our staffworker is moving elsewhere to serve God elsewhere. So we decided to celebrate by going to Amish Country. We are about 30 minutes from Amish country yet we do not make the most of it. One of the highlights of Amish Country is Heini's Cheese Factory. They do free samples of there over 30 different kinds of cheese. I could not handle 30 different flavors but Paul and Zack definetly had every flavor. It is kind of a badge of honor. We then spent the afteroon browsing 90% off christian book stores, Amish quilt shops and cheesy tourist shops.

The team
Kelly and I will be the ones remaining next year to carry on.
They carried all kinds of bulk seasonings that were a much better price and quality then you could find at Wooster's only other grocery option... Walmart.

A "Picture" of cultural insensitivity
On the way back to Wooster we stopped by OARDC. It is the Ohio State Agricultural research and Development Center. (I think but that is the gist)

Annie has been waiting for the trees to bloom and they had. She then presented us with special gifts I received a wonderful tea set that will be a great story one day of my good friend Annie Michaels.

April 19, 2009 Camptastic

My friends pointed out that this is the second weekend in a row that I have given an extravagent name to. I think I am just getting myself ready for Student Ministries...
I have been to so many friends houses all over the world so I have started taking photos of them with their houses because the styles are so different.

Sadly, it was confirmed this weekend that I am not a dog person... I really wish I was but I just don't like dogs... Pete here was especially a nuisance he ate the capri suns and the ketchup and mustard while we slept and at 5 am peed on our tent.
Brett our resident Eagle Scout

This was a pretty intense scratch from a sticker bush. It has been two weeks and I still have quite the intense scratch. Everyone asked how it happened so my answer was that a groundhog attacked me! (Which I saw my first ever ground hog this weekend)
Fording the river to our campsite. It was about knee deep in this area. Well knee deep for me. Everyone kept mentioning how they felt like they were on the Ore-Gone trail because they say Oregon wrong.
At the end of our little hike back to the house we had to take Pete back to Ben's moms house.

So this weekend 8 of my friends and I went camping in Bucyrus, Ohio. Where is Bucyrus you say? Well I don't really know... It is somewhere south of Wooster where my friends family owns several hundred acres of timber land.

We had the day off for the Senior Independent Study Showcase... but we aren't seniors so we went camping. We spent the afternoon setting up camp, and skipping rocks in the river it was beautiful and wonderful! We had a campfire, played ultimate frisbee and I taught some of my friends how to survive in the wilderness. AKA relieve themselves in the woods.

It was a great way to spend a friday and saturday

We are definetly going to make this an annual event.