Goodbye to 2010

2010 has been an amazing year. Between college classes, panels, Compass, and more, I have met so many amazing people, learned so many great things, etc.
So here's to a great year for everyone, full of God's blessings, in 2011.
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is technically a secular holiday with pagan roots, as was acknowledged by both groups during the panel at college. However, it was given a Christian meaning by the old Catholic proselytizers, and it is this meaning that my family celebrates every year on the 24th and 25th of December.

Excerpt from Luke 2.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Why do they even do this?

There was quite an appalling discussion over the radio that I heard while on the shuttle this morning. Apparently one of the stations had a discussion question that people could call in and give their opinions and all that. One of those things. And the question was, "Do you think that Jesus was a wine-guzzling vagrant?" And the main speaker on the radio was under the opinion that the answer was certainly yes.
Why do people have these things out there? Even if they have no respect for Jesus Himself, have they no respect for the people who do and who are definitely offended by this? Truly?
One of the people who called in pointed out something very true that is hardly ever noticed, or if it is, brought up. "Yeah, you feel free to insult and knock around Christian stuff, but when it comes to Muhammad and Muslims and stuff, you're all PC and nice..." This is certainly true. There is an obvious bias in the world of PC leftists that swerves against what I have been told is mainstream! Obviously, then, to be mainstream is to have the politically correct and public opinion turned against you.

Family black sheep, or, Why I am not a sports fan.

My entire family are Red Sox fans, and my immediate younger brother is a sports fanatic. I am not a sports fan at all, and in fact the whole thing is just kind of annoying. This blew the mind of my friend Glove Love, and we had several discussions about this while riding the train in Mexico. He avidly follows all his sports teams, and his rationale was, it would be great family bonding time watching sports, sports brings people together, etc.
Sports brings people together all right. Sports brings people together against other people. At least, in this neck of the world. (Glove Love lives quite far away from us. Maybe he just doesn't understand Massachusetts culture. Although, you'd think after we warned Enrique NOT to yell "I love the Yankees!" just to see what happened or he'd get lynched, he'd have gotten the picture.)
I have some quotes here from my dad: "Yeah, the Yankee fans won't be happy, but that just adds to the pleasure for everyone else..." (About the Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies.) On the same topic: "Therefore, the signing of Lee with the Phillies makes both Yankee and Mets fans miserable! Ah... It just doesn't get any better than this!" There is a corrosive dislike (I hate to say "hatred") against New York and New Yorkers here. I have multiple friends who live in New York, and they're great. Red Sox fanatics, especially my younger brother, don't seem to get this whole "It's just a game, don't vilify people" thing.
Any system that creates happiness or pleasure by bringing others misery is clearly flawed. Any system that creates this type of preposterous pointless prejudice is distressingly flawed. Period. No, scratch that. Exclamation mark!

An open letter to academia:

Dear college,

Finals are the least pleasant part of what otherwise would be a very enjoyable season. Are you out to try and destroy the holly-jolly feeling of this time of year, or merely to promote the concept of prayer in school? The latter at least is certainly working.
All my point is, is that you are inconvenient.
Then, there's something I want to say to the ridiculously overpriced cafeteria and cafe on campus: Something you don't seem to understand is that WE ARE COLLEGE STUDENTS. WE HAVE NO MONEY. So when I'm sitting around campus at seven-thirty PM with a few more hours to go and I have sixty-seven cents in my pocket, you are absolutely no help in the slightest.
However, I do have something else to say. You've challenged me, given me a lot of opportunities, and treated me like an adult. I really appreciate that. Plus it means less time and money spent at a four-year school later on down the road. Great times, lots of work, and more. Plus, I enjoy people's faces when telling them that I'm a college student.
Community college, I love you. Have a merry finals season and a happy winter break.

Most sincerely,
Elisabeth

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

My family, with another family from church, went to go see the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie. If you have not seen it but plan to, don't read this. It contains spoilers. If you have not read the book, this spoiler will be vastly more spoil-some than it would be otherwise. Just a warning.
Speaking from a critical perspective: It was the first time I've seen a movie with things added that weren't in the book and been this fond of the change.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I can explain.
In the book, Lucy Pevensie almost says a spell that she thinks will make her as beautiful as her sister Susan, but Aslan's face appears in the pages and she quickly turns away. In the movie, Lucy tears the page out of the book and sticks it in her pocket. That night she has a dream about what would happen if she uses it. She becomes Susan, and Lucy completely disappears. Among other issues, she and her siblings never discover Narnia.
She then sees herself standing in front of the mirror, and Aslan stands next to her and explains that she has value as herself, and that she should not try to change herself to become more like someone else.

I really enjoyed this scene. It stays true to C.S. Lewis's vision, and it was extremely easy to fit it to a theological Christian worldview. From this viewpoint, it's clear what is going on, God telling the girl that He loves her the way she is, and that she should become more herself, not try to be other people.
This is something I feel that a lot of people forget. Indeed, commercials prey on this forgetfulness. When something is all the rage, people feel that they need to be just like everyone else, dress and look like everyone else, etc. This especially targets women and girls.

Going back to the critical perspective, the movie was good. It was true to the feeling of the book, had some great scenes of seafaring, excellent casting of Eustace and interesting development of his relationship with Reepicheep the talking mouse, and more. It was very enjoyable.

It's those moments, anytime, anywhere

At theater yesterday, I was with a friend of mine rehearsing our single scene for next month. We're doing the individual scene Romeo and Juliet Act Three Scene Two. This is the most emotional scene in the entire play, by some reckonings, and I unsuspectingly volunteered to play Juliet.
A mistake, you might say.
In the first part of the scene, I'm acting the lovestruck person. As the scenework director says, "You are radiant with joy. And you're acting like an idiot." Then I think the nurse says that Romeo is dead, then that Romeo and Tybalt are BOTH dead, then I hear that Romeo killed Tybalt and have a moment of relief and shock at the same time (Wow, Romeo has some BAD characteristics?!). Finally there's the moment of "ROMEO IS BANISHED, THIS IS AWFUL!" We have extrapolated from some of Juliet's lines at the end of the scene that she is feeling suicidal by then. Quite a change from the beginning of the less than ten minutes long scene.

The interesting part came with some of the questions the scenework director asked. "Wouldn't it be great to know someone so perfect you would give up everything for him? Imagine that." and "What makes you the most joyful, the most thrilled, you're so happy and so excited?"
I do know someone that perfect. His name is Jesus, and He is the only one who will always always be there for me, and can even be perfect. And He's the one that gives us joy. True joy.

On the other hand, I need to act like an idot for the scene. The scenework director did some demonstration and some explanation. "You would swing around a pole if there was one...bounce around, big doofy smile..." Act nutsy, forget any concepts of dignity. This should be fun, if it's possible to pull it off.

THIS I like

We're going to have a final exam party in Intro to Teaching! The way my professor put it, "The final will be really easy, and you'll know what's on it, and it's pretty much a restatement of what we already answered in class. There will be Christmas music playing, and food..."
I thought the matching exam promised in Geography would be nice. This is even better. Maybe it's even better than the final that I didn't have to take last semester.

And it speeds up...

Happy (late) Thanksgiving.

We've reached the home stretch of the year. And yet, the home stretch is crazy enough.

• About a month left to get our individual scenes ready for performing, and we need to be off-book (not need the scripts) by Wednesday
• Auditioning at fife-and-drum for the Senior Corps
• Holiday prep
• Final papers, exams, projects, etc.
• The Christian Club panel (one week to go)
• Packing my older brother, getting him ready to go to Basic

A few things I noticed about the things my older brother's first weekend with the Guard. He told us that the army uses the buddy system. So nice to know that the things taught in Girl Scouts when I was about nine still apply. Then there were the things that we were told about how they attempt to create a group. They have many techniques, such as making them responsible for each other. (One person left his manual inside by accident, and my brother's whole platoon was disciplined for not telling him to bring it.)
The main thing, I noticed, was the focus. The focus was on building the group as a group, with little or no focus on individuals as individuals. Even though I know that there is pretty much no similarity here and that the comparison is ridiculous, I couldn't help thinking of the group-forming techniques of Compass, where we were encouraged to share, not to leave anyone behind, etc. We cared about each other for each other, not merely as members of the same group. However, this is implausible and pointless to do with the army. The members are highly transferrable, etc. and they need to be shown that they have to have responsibility for each other regardless of who it is, not just out of decency and the like, but out of necessity. They're building a specialized team, not a family.
The other thing that caught my attention, simply for its irrelevence and yet its unexpectedness, is that the army food is really good, and that candy sometimes winds up in the box lunches.

The Proceedings of the Court

Yesterday at theater we worked on the huge court scene in The Merchant of Venice. This is one of the most famous/infamous scenes in Shakespearean literature. We had a lot of fun with it, of course. Who should be on the stage? Pretty much everyone. What should we be doing? Siding with Antonio, for everyone but Antonio and Shylock. I enjoyed looking concerned, scared, upset, fascinated, and wickedly gleeful while watching my younger brother (Antonio) and his best friend (Shylock) perform.

Then the casts switched, and I was still on stage. Just not as a named character. The Shylock and Antonio were different, and while all are good actors, there is something the young man playing Shylock did better. When everything has just been taken from him, he manages to convey the look on his face that everything has, indeed, been taken away. And the rest of us all have to look on evilly and have no pity for him. Of course, all feelings of "This character stinks" vanished when I glanced at the door through which the young man departed. Through the window he was making funny faces at us, trying to make us laugh on stage. But I have to keep telling myself DON'T TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! How do career method actors live?

There's one question I have about this scene. It's been established that Antonio is a jerk and that we only like him because he's rich and he only likes us because we're nobles. So if Antonio is totally broke, why on earth are we still on his side? Antonio has no value to us anymore. Are we just for him because we're against poor Shylock? Truly? I understand why, as the director tells us, we're more darkly fascinated (Oh my gosh, will Shylock actually kill him? Oooooo, he's raising the knife -) than grieved and upset. We're glad Shylock loses, probably, more than we are glad Antonio lives.

There are no good characters in this play. Even Portia is prejudiced, and my youngest brother's character, Gratiano (he's perfect for this totally off-the-wall character) is the biggest jerk ever. Even his friend Bassanio says, "Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in Venice." (Somewhere in Act One Scene One.) There are no good characters. But there are fun characters, and that's what will keep us happy with this play. Hey, aren't good characters boring anyway?

A Question of Identity

Human beings are big on categorizing. What would you call yourself? What would you define yourself? And I don't mean the high school extreme (you must be one of the geeks, one of the jocks, one of the cheerleaders, etc.). You could have several dozen different identifying labels. Are you an artist? How about an athlete? A "politics junkie?" (My geography professor calls himself that.) There are classic titles for different types of beliefs and identities. Are you a Jew or an atheist? A Democrat or a Republican? Each of the labels we choose to stick on ourselves build up, and up, and up, so that we are in a large way made up of the choices we make and the interests we pursue.
One of the things we discussed yesterday at the Christian Club meeting was "What are you?" We had visitors from the Secular Club, to try and sort out who we are, what is our purpose in having this event, what to discuss, etc. We went around the circle (there was quite a large group from the Secular Club) and introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Jane/John Doe, I have been going to Anonymous College for __ semesters, and I am a _______." They asked for our denominations, but it turned out to be "If Applicable," because one of us is trying to decide to switch from Catholicism to Protestantism, our adviser is nondenominational, etc. They identified themselves mostly as "Agnostic Atheists" while one was an "Agnostic Atheist Antitheist." (He said the latter term means he totally disagrees with religion, thinks the world would be a better place without it, that sort of thing.)
It was kind of interesting, because I do not agree with a lot of my church's theology. It's Calvinist/Reformed, and I...am not, in many ways. I have no trouble getting along with people with certain levels of different doctrine, as long as Jesus Christ is the focus, so I also would be nondenominational. The labels were really hard to get at, though.
We have a date for our panel: December the 6th. One of the advisers is going to coach the three of us who are on the panel, and my church's youth pastor was awesome and emailed me all the powerpoints used for the youth apologetics class this semester. YouTube debate videos, C.S. Lewis books (and one by Francis Collins), and more are being used as our materials to get ready for this event. The most important thing, though, is that God be with us and help us to do well.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry run by Samaritan's Purse, an organization headed by Franklin Graham, and its mission is to send gifts to children in devastated, third-world or poverty-stricken communities across the world. The way it works (at least at my church) is that people donate things like toys, toiletries, candy, school supplies, etc. and other people (this is a wonderful family activity) assemble the boxes so that they have toys, candy, and toiletries and school supplies. We did that today. My family and some other families we know ran it for the morning session. Room One: Fill out a brief "About Me" form to put in the box. Room Two: Watch a short video about Operation Christmas Child and pick up a box. Room Three: Toiletries, such as toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap and washcloths. Rooms Four and Five: Toys, Miscellaneous, School supplies. Room Six: Prayer for your box. Room Seven: Drop-off.
My brothers and I were assigned to different rooms to help with this. I was in room six, which meant that when families and/or groups came in, the other three volunteers in the room and I would pray with them for the boxes and for the children who would be assigning them. Then we would give them Operation Christmas Child bookmarks with a weekly prayer guide on the back to remind them to pray for their boxes. This meant that when talking to one of my friends this morning afterward, I told her, "I spent all morning praying for shoeboxes." She said, "Nice. Wait. WHAT?!" "I spent all morning praying for shoeboxes. Operation Christmas Child." Her response: "I knew some part of that sentence didn't sound right."

Randomness

At the beginning of the school year my youth group attended a back-to-school rally thing, and different people would get up and sing, punctuated by different people from different churches getting up to pray for different things. There were a few hundred high schoolers at this rally. Part of the way through, I feel a tap on my shoulder, look around and my youth pastor whispers, "Hey Lisa, want to pray on the stage?" Regardless of the fact that I said yes, I have this thing with praying aloud, it feels...kind of awkward...this is just me, I think.
So last night, at the 6:45 prayer meeting before youth group, our youth pastor said, "Hey, it just popped into my mind. Tonight's missions night and we're talking about summer trips. Do you want to talk about Compass?" So I wound up talking about Compass to the entire youth group. One of my friends now wants to go, and we're going to talk about this more.
Ah, last minute decisions.

This morning at church was a specific day of service, and people from youth group who wanted to participate could spend the night at church. Meaning, losing to our youth pastor at basketball and hockey for a couple hours and a midnight 7/11 run. Then, a couple of my friends and I wound up in the youth room by ourselves, with Ben and Jerry's ice cream in our bloodstream, and we talked and drew on each other with green Sharpies until 2:30 in the morning.

Two things to say right now:

Happy Veterans Day! (Thank a veteran, or a soldier...)

Happy 11:11 on 11/11! (Just think how much fun we'll have NEXT year...)

Culture shock

I looked around at society as a whole differently that usual a few weeks ago, when my youth group pointed out the hole made by rejection of God. I started actually paying attention, and now it's everywhere. People are attempting to fill the hole with romance (marital or otherwise), money (which often equals success for many), education, or "higher causes" such as environmentalism, etc. Fame is in there, change is in there, etc. etc.
And I thought, "Wow. I have even more problems with and separation from this society than I already knew."
It's seriously weird to have culture shock about a culture I've lived in my whole life, but hey, that's the way it works.

Frankly, that was unexpected...

A new club just launched itself at college. It's called "Humanists, Skeptics and Freethinkers," otherwise known as the Secular Club, with the mission of exploring and promoting secular beliefs and values. All very well and good, perhaps, giving people the ability to look at that side of the spectrum, etc. That's fine.
Their first move was to invite the Christian Club to a debate.
They swiftly toned it down to a less confrontational panel. It would be moderated by the Contemporary Affairs Club, the largest group on campus. The way this event would work is, the moderator would pose questions about beliefs and values, etc., and each group would answer. The moderation of the Contemporary Affairs Club would mean that we (the SC and the CC) would get to steal their audience, which is good, because as the president of the new Secular Club said, "Their group is bigger than both of ours put together."
And, of course, the Christian Club wants to make a panel that will do the best as possible. So their first decision on who to be on the panel was the member with the most experience doing apologetics for them. Three guesses who that was.
This is probably going to be the biggest event I've ever done for the Christian Club. At the panel we did last March, there were only interested independents coming, and we still had a full house. At this event, there will in all likelihood be people affiliated with the Contemporary Affairs Club (a very large group), people affiliated with or supportive of the Secular or Christian Clubs, AND interested independents.
This is incredible. How many sixteen-year-olds get to do this sort of stuff? It's amazing that God can even use a minor on a college campus, among other things. Now, the question is, how is this going to work, and when?

Time pressure

The report I've been working on for geography now suddenly has more pressure, as it is due in December. That was way off in the future at the beginning of the semester. Now it's next month.

Shakespearean Scene Night, with my scene as Juliet :P with a couple huge soliloquys, is in January, suddenly less than two months away.

And with that, the departure of my older brother, the most amazing brother EVER, for boot camp, is also in January. January 10th, to be precise. (Which kinda makes 2010 seem like the end of the world.) That's five days before his 18th birthday. We don't even get to see him come of age.

2010 feels like it's getting old. So much happened and is happening this year - my brother's enlisting, my stint as club president and panel presenter, Compass, 16th birthday, Drummers Call, learning to play the guitar, etc. I'm such an idiot that I actually get attached to years. (Go ahead, call me a fail.)

On a more irritating, less dopey, societally failing topic, Santa Claus has begun to appear in malls. Already. I mean, seriously, they couldn't wait for Thanksgiving to be over? That used to be the cutoff... It's so commercialized! I'm almost jealous of the Jews and Muslims, because their celebrations haven't been jumped on and commercialized beyond recognition by secular society. Yom Kippur and Ramadan, among numerous others, have retained their original meaning, while Christmas (which is probably nowhere near the time when Christ was actually born) is known for Santa Claus (the only time of the year, I've heard, when people sit around a dead tree and eat out of their socks) and Easter is known for the happy bunny who gives away egg-shaped pieces of chocolate (how the HECK did eggs and bunnies get connected? I mean, come on!).

It's a seasonal annoyance. Ah, the season of goodwill, football, frantic shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas presents, and romanticized commercialism.

And the holiday season is underway...

Halloween is over. Next up we have Thanksgiving, then children of many belief systems and worldviews are going to start waiting for Christmas - not as Christ's birthday (which probably wasn't in December anyway) but as Santa Claus Day, with gifts and toys and candy.
It's a specific "holiday" right now, however. November second. Not a religious, pseudo-religious or ethnic holiday, but...election day. (Some of my very lucky friends have Election Day off from school.) My friends who are 18+, my parents and people across the country have marched off to vote (except for The Friz, whose application apparently didn't go through). My geography professor, a self-proclaimed politics junkie, is having a contest to see who can guess that party makeup of the House and Senate after the election. Everyone is getting excited about California Proposition 19, even people on the East Coast.
And someone attends an anti-Tea Party rally on the thirtieth of Oct. and brings a sign that says "Obama = Keynsian?" A Keynsian is someone who follows the policies of 20th century British economist John Maynard Keynes. NOT a Kenyan. The stimulus bill was a classic example of Keynsian economics. And this person also brought a video camera.



I especially enjoyed the woman getting all worked up about these insidious liars who would dare suggest such a thing.

Midterm

One of the questions on my psychology midterm today:

"The rise in ice cream consumption has corresponded with a rise in aggravated assault. A politician argues that ice cream should be banned to reduce the number of aggravated assaults. Besides needing to be voted out of office, this politician needs to understand _____________."

Craziness:

Things that have happened or I have learned lately that have been ever so slightly surprising/off-putting/disorienting:

• My older brother is no longer a civilian
• Mexico has been officially kicked out of North America for having too few similarities to the U.S. and Canada
• Yard sales are illegal
• Haggis tastes good
• My church is "Reformed" or Calvinist (which means I disagree with a lot of the theology)
• I can no longer say that I have never fired a gun
• William Diamond did not sound the alarm on the April 19th, 1775
  

Mostly just little itty bitty stuff that changes nothing, but it is still kind of...wow.

Compass Today

The Compass 2010 community still exists. In fact, there's a huge reunion happening this weekend. Believe it or not, it's our third since the RMI. No one really far off has been able to come, but we're thrilled that "Joyce" and another girl from about halfway across the country from us are coming this weekend, and most of us will be seeing them for the first time since the RMI. Enrique, Glove Love, The Joker, Samwise, Sparky and "Calvin" will not be there. In fact, there are a lot of us who will not be there. But we will have more than half. We're going to spend the weekend together (we're thinking group worship, Mexican food, listen to Compass-reminiscent music, maybe visit the prayer chapel if we find adults to drive, etc.). It will be the first time that I will see The Friz since the first reunion, ten days after the RMI.
We have the Compass Smile Card tradition (give the Smile Card to someone who makes them smile, and they will then pass it to someone else) continuing via snail mail. Facebook, Skype, email, texting and phones (and occasionally snail mail) are connecting us very thoroughly. Not many weeks go by when I don't sit down and spend time talking to The Friz or Sweet n' Spazzy over the phone. It's nowhere near the same or similar, but...it's still good, and we use what we have. Facebook can't replace real friendships, etc., but it can let us keep in touch.

Compass: The End

Yep. Finally.

The last two days of Compass had a few high points. One of them was the only time on Compass when I willfully broke the rules. But hey, it wasn't like we did anything wrong, and the leaders were cool with it. What happened was, we were told by Kaleo group's leader that he was going to the place where we always had group worship and anyone who wanted could turn up. When I got there, there were four guys there, worshiping without inhibition. I joined in. After a while, most of Compass was there, singing, praying, being ourselves, completely open in front of each other and before God. It was so wonderful, feeling free to kneel, to pray aloud, to "stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all." To do all this and not be judged. The Holy Spirit was totally there and we didn't want to go anywhere. But there came a point when the leader (his nickname is Rappa) said softly, "It's past your bedtime. We've given you grace tonight, so can you please head back to the dorm..." Silently we left. But Sparky said to me and to four others, "I want to go to the prayer chapel. We have grace tonight, let's go..."
The prayer chapel is my favorite place on that campus. More so than the tree The Friz and I climbed, or the little cafe where Compass opened and closed, more so than the quad where we spent so much time playing Frisbee together...
You're probably asking why there's all the paper and stuff on the walls. There is graffiti all over the chapel, completely prayer requests, petitions, praises, stories of how God spoke to people, found them, changed them, saved them... It's an amazing place. There's a basket on the floor with colored pencils and pens for people to write on the wall, and in one panel it read, "Pray for Compass RMI 2009." It listed there the names of all the participants. The panel beneath it was empty.
I took a colored pencil and wrote on the panel beneath the 2009 RMI one, "Pray for Compass RMI 2010." Then, with the help of the other five there, I listed the names of all of us, students and leaders.
After a little while, we headed back to the dorm. The leaders weren't upset at where we had gone, and it had been beyond a wonderful evening.

The other thing was the last night. We had our talent show, and as has already been mentioned, this was totally a community of artists. We heard that night a song written by The Joker during Compass about his LaVida experience, a song written by my seatmate/skitmate "Joyce" a good while ago, a song written by a guy in the Kaleo group and a girl in the TBC group, a song on the violin written by another girl from the TBC group, a medley compiled by Glove Love and a guy from TBC, and so much more. One guy rapped, and Enrique, confessing that he was being bribed, did an interpretive dance to a Michael Jackson song, etc. And I shared a short "Dramatic Reading" (according to our MCs) that I had written the previous day. It was a present-tense, first-person allegory based off of personal experience, a host of testimonies I had heard that month, and (as you might guess) the Lifehouse Everything Skit.
Having never felt comfortable sharing my writing before, I had never gotten to see it through others' eyes. Therefore, I was astonished when the people I talked with afterward, and all the girls (at girl talk) demanded that I share my writing more, send them a copy, write a book, etc.
That night, after man-hunt (it was past our bedtime, but getting to bed at eleven on the last night was so not happening) we had girl talk. Yes. (We were supposed, due to a revision, to go to bed at twelve, but the lady leaders said they didn't care as long as we didn't keep them up and the lights were off.) We piled into Sweet n' Spazzy's and "Joyce's" bedroom and talked about real stuff, relevant stuff, questions of theology, school, faith, relationships, etc. until the wee hours of the night (3:15 AM, more than an hour after we had gotten up the day we left for Mexico).
The next morning we packed, did Compass Time, worshiped together one more time (our parents were there by then) and then I watched Glove Love, "Calvin," and more get into a van to go to the airport. I watched until the van was out of sight, and then these brothers were gone. I still don't know if or when I will ever see them again. In the same way, we left. I was not the last one gone. The Friz insisted on giving me a piggy-back ride to the car (much to the amusement of my mother) and we said goodbye as late as possible. It occurred to me later that among the people I never got to say a real goodbye to were The Joker (we had a team group hug but that was it), "Joyce," and more.

I'm never going to forget any of them, and now that they have instituted the annual reunion (or "shindig") I hope and pray that they can come back, and that we can all be together again.



The end...
or is it?

Compass story 7: Back to the States

The day after Excursion Day was a Sunday, and we sang and did the Everything Skit in the church service. Enrique shared his testimony, The Bush and I shared about the week, most of us did the skit and The Joker played music. Afterward, the church thanked us for helping and serving them that week, and we gave them our "hospitality gifts" and said goodbye. The pastor's sons said goodbye especially reluctantly to the guys in my group, especially The Joker and Samwise, who had jammed with them so many times that week. We had played a lot of foosball, and had fun hanging out with them, regardless of Spanish/English dilemmas. But of course, the guys had bonded with them the most.
That day Sweet n' Spazzy achieved her goal for the week (holding a Mexican baby), we packed up, cleaned the church one more time, said goodbye and left for the hotel we were staying at. After debrief and a really excellent Table Talk, which we kept going even after it was over, hanging out and talking about relevant issues until past our bedtime.
Incidentally, Sweet n' Spazzy had been given clarity on her testimony, finally, and shared it with the group, including what Compass had done for her already.
The next day we said a very difficult goodbye to our wonderful new big sister, Pixel, and got her information and she got ours, so we could keep in touch. Then we got on the plane and flew back to the States. When we got back onto United States soil, "Calvin" stopped walking. "What are you doing?" we asked. He got down on his knees and kissed the ground. It was so funny, and I knew what he meant. I for one hadn't wanted to leave Mexico, not the church we'd come to love, or the vibrant area, or the palm trees, but I was so glad to be home. And judging by the fact I almost greeted the customs officer with "Hola." it was about time.
By the time we got back to the airport near the college, it was extremely late. Near midnight, in fact. We were searching for a place to have dinner, and we found a McDonald's with the lights on and people inside, but the doors were locked. The main leader, who we called "Papa James," got off the bus and ran around the building and knocked on the drive-through window, and explained to the people that there were a bunch of hungry teenagers who had been traveling all day. They let us in.
There was another thing that I knew, that not everyone on that bus knew, that kept me bouncing. The next day - only a few minutes away by the time we got back on the bus - was Sparky's birthday. I was sitting next to another girl, the one who had done the same role with me in the big everything skit, and kept poking her and asking, what time is it, what time is it, what time is it, because she had a watch. Finally she turned and nodded. "It's time."
I stood up and yelled really loudly, "CAN I HAVE THE WHOLE BUS'S ATTENTION?"
"ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ANOTHER JOKE?" one of the guys called from the back. The monk joke was infamous.
"No! [My seatmate's] watch just hit midnight! It is [Sparky's] sixteenth birthday!" Cheers erupted, and Sparky looked totally stunned. We sang happy birthday, and settled down again. It was about midnight-thirty (I love that phrase) when we got back to the dorm, where we were given instructions. We called our parents (who had been anxiously waiting by the phone to make sure we hadn't died in Mexico) and got ready for bed.

Compass story #6: Excursion Day

There isn't much to say about the day we had the excursion. We went on a boat ride, which was fun. There were all sorts of boats coming up alongside like vendors, and we also got to hear a stereotypically dressed and musically-styled Mexican band, wearing those big sombreros that people from the States tend to expect. "Calvin" (again we were back with the other groups) told the following joke: "There are two polar bears, and they're sitting in a hot tub, and one of them says 'Please pass the soap.' And the other one says, 'What do I look like, a radio?'" He and pretty much everyone cracked up, but I, the literalist, had no idea what they were talking about, and kept looking for word patterns, puns, etc. It wasn't until the next day that Samwise, The Joker and Glove Love told me, "It's funny because IT MAKES NO SENSE! It HAS NO POINT!" "That's stupid." I said. "You're not one to talk, Miss Monk Joke!!!" they responded. (I had told everyone the monk joke on the way to La Vida.)
After the boat ride and lunch, we went to the program's big anniversary party. When we got there, the big screen that had on it what was going on read, "Buenevidos! Welcome!" so we assumed that the celebration would be bilingual. It wasn't. Three straight hours of Spanish, not understanding what the heck was going on. The singing was good (some of the songs we knew in English), etc., so it wasn't that bad. Around the end, the big Compass group performed the Everything Skit.

Compass story #5: Evangelical Presentation

My youth pastor can't give me pause with our stupid videos anymore. I like to say that after performing the lead of the Everything Skit (yes, I did the lead) in a public park farther away from home than I had ever been before in a country which has a language I don't know, with people I hadn't known a month previously, there's pretty much nothing really embarrassing anymore. Of course, the people didn't come into it really, because we knew each other so well by then, and really cared about each other, that we had no embarrassment inhibitions from the presence of each other.
We packed up the Jesus costume (which was short on Skyscraper, the big group Jesus, and long on Samwise, our small group Jesus) and the toy gun for the person doing that part, The Joker's guitar and everything else we needed, and walked to the park. At this point Sweet n' Spazzy was seriously stressed out about sharing her testimony during the presentation. In fact, as we walked around telling people, she seemed extremely distracted, and The Joker decided that it would be funny to do the following exchange.
Sweet n' Spazzy: NO, I'm not going to try asking anyone in Spanish, I can't do it...
The rest of us: Please?
Sweet n' Spazzy: NO. Please stop nagging me...
The Joker: Who's nagging you? We've been talking about sponges for the last five minutes, where have you been?
Sweet n' Spazzy looked around in total disorientation, and the rest of us stared at The Joker.
She didn't wind up doing her testimony because the pastor of the church we were working with didn't want the thing to go too long, because it would lose people's attention.

So after these trials and tribulations, we were finally all set. We sang some songs in Spanish, such as "Desde Mi Interior" (you can find it in English as "From the Inside Out," and Spanish and English are both Hillsong United) and "Danzo Como David." Then we performed the skit, and I think it was a smashing performance. (In more ways than one; that pavement was hard!) Then the pastor of the church gave a message about the church and its mission, and that was that.
Later we learned that that was the first time the church had done an evangelical event like that, and we were very humbled and glad that the church had let us be a part of that.

I think that was the night we learned something amazing. There had been a woman coming by, and she a) was thinking about Christianity and b) she had cancer. Among other things, she had seen us, my group, praying together, and talked with the pastor, and then decided to become a Christian. She had a test scheduled, and they ran the test and they showed no cancer. So that day, previously, she went in for a previously arranged surgery, and when they looked, there was no cancer.

Shakespearean Drama and the "Everything" Dilemma

I mentioned a few posts ago how plainly irritating it was to perform the Lifehouse Everything Skit.
The theater troupe I'm with starting this year is performing this year Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." This is one of Shakespeare's most infamous works, right up there with "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Othello." When you think "The Merchant of Venice," you probably think of Shylock the Jew (this year played by my brother's best friend) and his notorious grudge against Antonia (this year played by my brother). (This shall be very entertaining to watch.)
And this year I am playing Salerino, a suck-up merchant friend of Antonio's, Bassanio's, Lorenzo's, Gratiano's (played by another brother of mine), Salanio's, etc. Meaning, I say things cruelly to Shylock, while referring to Antonio with "A kinder man treads not the earth."
We had a discussion today, answering the questions "Who's scummier, Antonio or Shylock?" "Is Shylock a villain?" and "Why is Antonio so sad?" This led to lots of debate. There are so many reasons that Antonio is so sad. It's going to wind up coming down to what the actors think, but the main, albeit general, reason is that he's totally materialistic, while money is never enough. Then, "Is Shylock a villain?" Certainly. He tries to murder Antonio. Period.
Finally, "Who's scummier, Antonio or Shylock?" The general consensus, with which I concur: Antonio. At the end of the court scene (Act IV Scene 1) he pulls an evil-genius, stunningly brilliant double play with his sentence on Shylock: He orders that Shylock convert to Christianity and that everything he makes will be left in his will to the two people he hates most, his runaway thief daughter and her husband who stole her. In this sentence, he succeeds in totally destroying Shylock while making himself look amazingly merciful.
There's no way that Shylock will ever believe Christianity. He's remaining a Jew inside. (For that matter, I don't believe that Antonio is a real Christian either. No wonder he's so sad.) So a) He's being forced to violate his religion, which he does believe, which is probably driving him madder than ever. And b) He's being cut off from his social group while he will never be welcomed to a new one, because everyone hates him. So he has been socially ostracized. As for the second rule, it guarantees that Shylock will never find the same satisfaction in making money, which was basically his life.

With that established, my job now on stage is...to make Salarino, a moderate role, into a "real person." And to support Antonio in it to the fullest while despising Shylock. Right. Say things that I would never say otherwise and certainly could never believe. And say them with passion.
This is the "Everything" dilemma all over again.
So my first job is that of establishing Salarino as an identity utterly separate from myself and then enjoying it, the acting and the role, the outlet and the creativity. Establishing the character's backstory, the history that the audience never sees, to color and fuel every facial expression, every gesture, every word.

Sesame Street vs. Advertising Corporations

At this point, pretty much everyone has seen the extremely popular Old Spice commercial that, I hear, raised Old Spice sales by 300%. (This is just hearsay, not researched statistics.) However, pretty much everyone I know knows and loves this commercial. It's funny in an interesting kind of way, the special effects are cool, etc. It seems to have taken people by storm in a way people normally would not expect from a cheesy deodorant commercial.
On a related topic, when was the last time you watched Sesame Street? This is one of the most famous kids' shows ever, and its Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie and Bert, Grover, etc. at this point are cultural icons. If someone asked you "Who's Elmo?" would you not stare at them in total disbelief?
Something Sesame Street likes to do is spoof. So, presenting: The Old Spice and Smell Like a Monster commercials.

Is that not just one of the most adorable things ever?

Compass story #4: Street cleaning day, or, How Glove Love got his nickname

So it was street-cleaning day, and we were (obviously) cleaning the street. I was working with The Joker - he had a broom and I had a dustpan and garbage bag. Glove Love (he was not yet called that) came up, and he was (you guessed it) wearing a pair of gloves. So he started speaking in third person about himself, saying that he was the superhero "Glove Love" with the superpower of service. (Actually a spiritual gift, but he was calling it a superpower.) The Joker and I thought that was totally random, not to mention hilarious. And we started making fun of him. (All in good fun, of course.)

The Joker: "Why does Glove Love talk about himself in third person?"
Me: "I think Glove-Love-is-an-automaton-robot and doesn't know how to talk normally..."
Glove Love: "Glove Love has no weaknesses."
The Joker: "Dude, you're not God!"
Glove Love: "Glove Love knows no higher power, only justice."
At this point, The Joker and I were laughing our heads off.
The Joker: "You know what, I'm sorry, just go away..."
Glove Love: "Glove Love accepts no apology, for Glove Love knows no grudge."
The Joker and I yelled, "GET OUT OF HERE!" as best as we could for laughing.

Later in the day we handed out fliers about the church, held evangelistic signs (in Spanish!) on street corners, etc. The community was really impressed that we had cleaned their street and were doing all this, and it did create a very good impression of the church. In fact, one couple invited the us and the pastor's family out to dinner and wanted to get a picture. We had a great time, enjoying being with the community and communicating as best as possible. When we got out of the vehicle we were in at the place we were eating, one little girl just started holding my hand, and then reached over and started holding Sweet n' Spazzy's hand...it was so adorable!
(By the way, Sweet n' Spazzy laughed herself silly upon hearing this alias for herself...)
Ever since that day, we still call Glove Love exactly that sometimes, and "Glove Love has no weaknesses," "Glove Love knows no higher power, only justice" and "Glove Love accepts no apology, for Glove Love knows no grudge." have become catchphrases well known even to my brothers, who have never met him.
It was a wonderful day.

Cheat Link

If you have a facebook, try this out.
http://facebook.com/profile.php?=73322363

Compass story #3: Large group day

So I realized that my expectations were totally unrealistic and there's NO way I'm going to be able to finish in a day. So, sit back and enjoy some more really long anecdotes.
The day actually began really really early in the morning with most of the group violently ill. There were three of us who weren't ill from the food. One of them was Samwise, and due to his allergies he wasn't eating the food. So that doesn't count. The other two were The Joker and me, and as I hear, The Joker got sick re-acclimating to American food once we were back in the States. Go figure. (Skyscraper later referred to this situation as my revenge for having the most trouble with LaVida.)
So we got up and did some work at the church, and later set out for KFC. Yes, Mexican Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was pretty interesting. Which is pretty much the nicest thing that can be said about it, because the other two Compass groups began experiencing much the same struggles as mine. About halfway though the meal, one of the girls came from the bathroom, and whispered to me, "Hey Lisa, there's some violent illness going on...I'd like to stay and comfort them but I can't handle it...would you..." So I headed to the girls' bathroom, patted some backs, and then attempted to control my own nausea at the situation. Mostly successfully.
Then those of us who were part of the group doing the large Everything Skit left early, and rehearsed at the place where we were having the large group meeting. Then, the big meeting began. It consisted of Spearhead, which included Ignite, which included Compass, which included the Green Machine, my group. We were part of a greater whole, part of a greater whole, and again, and again.
We worshiped in English and Spanish both, heard speakers (one spoke in Spanish with a translator), and the big group performed the Everything Skit. Note here about the Everything Skit: This skit was very painful for some of us. For some, the temptation/villain the person was playing was connected to their past in a very painful way, and for others, it just...rankled. I was in the latter category. But if hiking was the nightmarish hardest part of La Vida, the Lifehouse Everything Skit was the nightmarish hardest struggle of Mexico City for me, far more than I and most of the others felt it should have been.
After a very advertisement-like message from the president of LAM, the meeting ended and a Compass meeting began. Each group shared what they had been doing - handing out tracts on public transit, working with children in an orphanage, or in our case, a huge number of short-term evangelical tasks. After sharing what we were learning in small groups of three - one person from each group, we headed back to our service sites, where my group practiced our songs, Sweet n' Spazzy worked on her testimony to share, and we worked on our group Everything Skit for our evangelical park presentation coming up on Friday.

Sorry

I'm really sorry to have been so lax with this, but I've been really busy with high school, college, fife and drum, kindergarten, church/youth group, the college Christian Club, and a theater group I just joined (auditions for parts are tomorrow). So, yeah. I hope to be able to finish Compass tomorrow (probably glossing over a few parts, but I really really REALLY want to tell you how Glove Love got his nickname, it's so funny) and to go back to just...life.
Again, I apologize.

ANOTHER one of my favorite songs

AMAZING song. This kicked off the Revolve Tour last December...

OK, why...?

We sang this song at youth group last night and I was wicked confused. Why? What's the point? Seriously?
Good song, though.

Compass story #2: Day two at service sites

Day two at my group's service site was church-cleaning day. This meant painting, scrubbing the chairs, etc. The Friz, Sweet n' Spazzy and I washed all the church's chairs. Afterward I counted. It was something like one hundred and two. We also painted white walls...white. Admittedly they weren't the cleanest walls ever and looked better when the painters were done...

These jobs took all morning. After lunch we went out and did more prayer walking. Another job was to invite people to karaoke night that night. I was with Sparky, The Joker and Pixel. Pixel being the only one in the group to speak fluent Spanish, she coached us on the proper phrases and we took turns inviting people. (And we found a banana tree growing on the sidewalk. This was another discovery that really excited me.)

When we got back we discovered that Glove Love had actually put his training to good use and greeted the woman who worked at a little restaurant thingy across the street from the church we were working for with a kiss - and the restaurant had given us a whole lot of free juice. So, over bottles of tasty Mexican orange juice stuff, we reviewed what we'd seen, etc. But something was nagging. So when we were finished I crawled up into the corner of the donated Burger King playplace (remember, this was also a party salon) with my journal and pencil, and wrote a song.

It occurred to me, "Hm. For once in my life, I'm actually around people who write music." So I went and asked The Joker, who is some sort of musical genius, to put music to it. (He did. I got to hear the song to music a couple days later.)

Then we had karaoke night. At first it was just us, but finally a bunch of Mexican teen guys came in. One of them knew the whole dance to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and danced while Enrique and Glove Love sang. It was so funny. And they spoke some English, and that, with our limited Spanish, was enough to let us get to know each other some and to invite them to the soccer outreach at the park the next day.

After karaoke night, and presentation/skit practice, we had Table Talk and called it a day.

ahem.

Here's a line from the Geography research paper requirements. This is a college course, bear in mind. Boldface emphasis is mine.

Bibliography - cite your sources! This should be the last page in your report, and must include at least three different sources. Internet sources, including Wikipedia, are acceptable, as well as your textbook.

It's just...it's completely...this is...wow. Just...wow.
Wikipedia?
Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

NEVER USE WIKIPEDIA FOR A RESEARCH PAPER. That's what they told us in English Composition 101. NEVER EVER USE WIKIPEDIA OR CITE IT!
Why is it that they teach us this stuff, and then expect us to throw it away?

Wow.

Day one of kindergarten

Yesterday was the first day of kindergarten. There was this one little girl who was crying all morning. Not explosive temper-tantrum type crying; she was just being quiet and there were tears running down her cheeks.... You couldn't get impatient with her either, she was just so cute.... When she sat next to one of her new classmates, a little boy, he patted her on the back and told her, "It's OK...let it out...it's all right..." and kept doing it. It was just the most adorable thing. He was being so sweet.
At another point, I was sitting there hugging her and telling her that at two o'clock her daddy would be back to get her. Behind us, a lady asked Mrs. F who I was. "Oh, she's a high-schooler who's working with us on Mondays and Fridays this year."

"Oh. I just didn't know whether she was maybe her mother or something."

Compass story #2: Day one at the service site

Yeah, I know it's been a while getting this up. It's been hectic. REALLY hectic. My insane schedule for this semester includes five high school courses, three college courses, fife and drum, theater, kindergarten volunteer work, college Christian Club work (they want me to do some more writing for the paper), and of course church and youth group. I'm also teaching myself guitar and doing creative writing. (And of course sleep has to be in there somewhere...)
But here goes.

That morning, after some more training, we took taxis to our service sites. My group went to a little storefront new church plant, which operated as a party salon during the week. That was where we'd be staying. We met the pastor of the church, along with his wife and two boys. Some things that happened immediately: The Joker started jamming with the pastor's sons (hey, guitar chords have the same names in English and Spanish), we divvied up mealtime cleanup into five teams of two (I was with the Friz) and set up for lunch.
We used this time to get to know the pastor and his family. Here I was at a disadvantage. Most of the others had taken some Spanish, or closely related French, as their high school foreign language. BUT my language was...modern Hebrew. Yep. No help at all.
After lunch we played some Foosball (remember, this was a party salon) with the pastor's sons. The Joker, Samwise and Glove Love were especially keen on the game, although the rest of us enjoyed it a lot too. It was amazing to watch the language barrier disappear, say, while Samwise and The Joker were jamming with the pastor's sons "Robby" and "Danny," and while we were playing Foosball.
That day our main occupation was prayer walking. Then we had a Mexican culture class and talked about some of our activities for the next week. It was pretty tame. I took another Mexican siesta...

Remember

Today is 9/11. Nine years ago this morning, planes hit the twin towers in New York City, another plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane, a Boeing 767, went down in Pennsylvania. The current position on this crash is that it was hijacked by yet another terrorist(s) and that the passengers hijacked it from them and crashed it, choosing to die saving others' lives instead of as victims of a successful terror attack. Many also believe that the intended destination was the Capitol building in D.C.
The Capitol building was the building that my family was in that day, on our first (and pretty much last) family vacation. I was seven years old. The building was evacuated with mass hysteria, and the sky was filled with smoke from the Pentagon.

Today two of my brothers and I performed at a fife and drum event. I saw no half-staff flags all day. In fact, from the behavior of others, it looked like any other day. And I was shocked, appalled and offended by the forgetfulness I saw today.

STUNNING Ground Zero mosque news, I'm sure...

Fox News reports:

A key financial backer of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero once contributed to a U.S.-designated terror group, MyFox New York reports.

Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who made what is described as a "significant investment" in the Ground Zero mosque project,contributed more than $6,000 in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF, tax records show.

Compass story #1: The day we left for Mexico

We got up so early that the leaders had previously refused to tell us at exactly what time we were getting up. So, because I have a big mouth, the first thing I asked when bouncing into the common room on reserve energy supply was "Hey guys, what time is it? I need to know." One of the other girls checked her watch. It was two in the morning. We ate boxed breakfasts and climbed onto the big yellow school bus with our luggage, and left for the airport.
There was already singing going on in the bus. I looked at Friz and asked, "What's up?" because there was a funny expression on her face.
"I'm just so happy." she said calmly, and tackled me with a bear hug. (Yes, my roommate was a head taller than me.)
At about four we boarded a plane. The good news: we were seated in a certain order each time, so I always had the window seat. The bad news: the only time I got a traveling buddy was the fourth plane ride we took.
One of the guys, from another group, had taken sick that night. We'd made sure he got rest and prayed for him and everything, but he was too sick to travel with us that day. So we left without him, hoping he would join us later in the week.
We traveled until a bit past twelve - Mexico time. It was an hour back, so by our time it was a bit past one. We got picked up and taken to the hotel that culture training and stuff would take place at, and having been up by that time for about twelve hours and having the rest of the day to go, we had lunch and the director/main leader mercifully gave us two hours "to experience your first Mexican siesta." (The first of many.)
We had group worship and then training with the program we were working with that week, including two awkward and hilarious moments. In Mexican culture, a) "Draw your bubble of personal space...good...OK, now - pop it." and b) Guys hug guys and kiss girls, and girls kiss guys and girls, and you need to greet everyone in the room if you know the group well. So we were told, "You have one minute to kiss as many people as possible. Ready, set, go!"
Each group met its facilitator, and my group got a cheerful, spunky, hilarious young woman who I shall henceforth refer to as Pixel, because of her love of her digital camera (which was out literally about every other ten minutes at least). She's Japanese, so Spanish is her second language and English her third. But we got on OK.

Time for a session break.

Or, time to switch gears again. Yeah, I know, there isn't much for academic week. There will mostly be short anecdotes for Mexico missions, too. But, there will be more of them.
(One of my Compass friends managed to give academic week as much time on his blog as the other two sections. Then again, a) he's huge on theology, so academic week was maybe his favorite part of Compass, and b) he managed to blow through Compass in six posts anyway.)
Mexico missions was huge for us. My group stayed at a small storefront church called Iglesia Cristo Promesa Fiel, or Christ of the Faithful Promise Church. We participated in the church's first ever public evangelical outreach presentation, and did a whole lot more besides. However, there were some funny anecdotes and all that which go at least as far to define our experiences.

Compass story #5: City Day

On our last weekday on campus, we went into a local city and visited different church sites. I went with a group that visited and had lunch with a family from a low-income section's church. The lady we visited was AMAZING. She was so loving and enthusiastic and open and joyful, even when sharing her own life story and testimony (which wasn't pretty). She's suffered a lot of losses and stuff, but she's still full of the joy of the Lord. She told us, "The doctor wanted me to go on meds for depression again, but I told him, 'No, I don't need to, because I know Jesus!' I haven't suffered from depression since."
And she was so enthusiastic to pray! After we'd talked and a few of us (including myself) had shared our testimonies, and for the last hour of the visit, she was all, "Let's pray now, let's pray now..." When we prayed before leaving and it was her turn, she prayed for about twenty minutes. Her joyfulness and enthusiasm and love were totally infectious and wonderful to see!
We shared our experiences with different groups that night with the others, and I think it was incredible how these people were connected to God.

Compass story #4: Last day in class

We discussed general theology, the nature of God, more about the Trinitarian Triangle, etc. It turned out that the professor we had that day had been a Bible smuggler in his youth (into a country that is now no longer illegal to bring Bibles into). It wowed me big time when he described this as God's working in spite of him, when he was running this huge risk. He also recounted the following story:
He and his partner arrived with the hope that the person he needed to deliver the Bibles to would be there, but he wasn't. However, there was a note on the door in English that read, "Friends, Don't leave, will be back soon." He and his partner waited, and after a while the person they were smuggling the Bibles to arrived and explained, "I felt that God was telling me that there were Americans coming to make the delivery."
During a break, I went up, explained my interest in missions and we launched into conversation. He gave me a lot of good advice, referred me to one of his colleagues and told his colleague about me over lunch. So now I have a contact for any point in the future at which I might be ready to prepare for missions using seminary stuff.
During Mexico Prep that day, we discovered that the entire Compass group, consisting of people from all three teams, was putting together a team to perform the "everything" skit. My curiosity was piqued, and I stayed to watch the YouTube video and volunteer - to perform this with the big group and then again with my own small group. Having never seen the skit before, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. Here's the Lifehouse Everything Skit. (Warning: not for 12-and-under year olds.

There are all sorts of ways to perform this skit. In both the big group and small group we removed cutting, in the big group there were two girls for alcohol and in my small group there was one guy, in the big group there were two more girls for cigarettes and in my small group we omitted that part, etc. However, the general gist was the same, with some of the same features - boyfriend, money, alcohol, model, evil dude. I was a different role in each group, and I will not say which parts I played, only that after practicing with the big group, when teaching the small group, I asked them please not to make me do the same role.
Then we were ready to go.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Official HD

Here's the trailer for the seventh Harry Potter movies. (Yes, seventh movies.)

Compass story #4: Academic week day three

On academic week day three we discussed church history in light of doctrine (no we did not cover persecution on either end, nor did we discuss the Crusades) and things like the Apostles' Creed, the Council of Nicene and the Nicene Creed, etc. We talked about the Trinitarian Triangle, and all that cool stuff. There were so many questions afterward that they cut down Mexico Prep class by half an hour so we could have any free time at all.
We prepared for Mexico City in our small group, and started preparing things like songs (in Spanish), skits and games and stuff. We put together a list of materials we'd need (a soccer ball, a bedsheet the purpose of which shall shortly be explained and so forth. They were talking about a certain skit called the "everything" skit, and I had no idea what they were talking about, so Glove Love tried to summarize it to me over supper. I had no idea how intimately familiar with this skit I would shortly become.
The rest of the day proceeded as usual.

Compass story #3: Day Two

On day two of seminary classes we talked about Old Testament history, and learned an acronym dividing the Old Testament into six distinct periods. The Old Testament is not written in chronological order (obviously) so going through and seeing it laid out chronologically was wicked cool. The acronym is CASKET, which stands for "Creation, Abraham, Sinai, Kings, Exile, Temple." The people who came out with that are working on a New Testament version, EMPTY, so that all together it will say CASKET EMPTY, a reference to the empty tomb and the resurrection.
Day two was the day I walked in on a meeting of the United States of Ninja Assassins. Ninjas were a huge thing for us all month, and we loved to play the game Ninja all the time. So some of the guys went and sequestered themselves in a classroom. I wondered where they were, and some of the girls and I went and found them. We walked in to find them in their meeting, and a young man whom I shall henceforth refer to as "Improviser" because of his talent with improv stood up and announced, "This meeting is adjourned due to female presence." The Joker suggested that they keep me "for her karate skills" (the fact that I'm a black belt was well-known) but Improviser refused. Guys and their "guy things" are well known to me, given that I have three brothers, so this was completely unsurprising to me.
We rolled down hills, joked around and dodged Mountain Dew from a water gun The Joker got in a care package from his youth group, and generally had a good time that afternoon. The subject material was fascinating and enjoyable.
We continued discussing "mission vs. missions" that day, and that night during group worship the main leader, who went by many nicknames (such as Jack Bauer and J. Bizzle) told us, "Tomorrow Compass will be half over. Let's use this time as reflective time. If there are any breaches between you and any other students, talk it out now. Reflect on what you're learning, pray, etc." I used the time to thank my teammates for what they did and who they were, and at one point Sweet n' Spazzy told me about one time on La Vida where God had used me to comfort and encourage her. Something about I reached out and patted her on the knee during Table Talk for no reason that I was aware of. At this point, overcome by the atmosphere of worship, love and fellowship, I just...started crying.
That night we were allowed to stay at group worship for as long as possible. One of the leaders played on his guitar, and I was just praying. When I finally looked up to leave a long time later, I was the only youth in the room. When I got back the the dorm, Sweet n' Spazzy and The Friz came into Friz's and my room and said, "We've talked about prayer requests and shared and stuff. Do you have any prayer requests?" We shared together and prayed together.
It was a Compass tradition to hold hands while we prayed (more than five times a day, generally), and this tradition was started by us, not the leaders. The three of us followed that tradition then.
It was one of the most wonderful nights of Compass.

Compass story #2: Some things we learned on day one of classes

Glove Love put a dollar bill into the vending machine during a break and it didn't work. Basically it ate the dollar. But the next day we went in to see whether anything had changed, and it credited the dollar so he could get something out of it after all. (A day late.)
The Friz introduced me to the joys of rolling down a hill on seminary campus, and I realized anew the strength of gravity's pull when unresisted. (Not that resisting it to climb that mountain was easy...)
I was so happy to discover that I had mail during lunch that day. I put down my lunch tray to go get a drink, and when I came back I discovered an envelope on my tray. It was from my Compass mentor, a youth leader from church.
We began studying missions in general and specifically our missions in Mexico City. That included watching the awesome, mind-blowing missions video I posted a while ago. "Aim lower, think smaller..." It makes sense after all! The bad news: Mexico Prep Class felt like school. Just as much as theology class did. Si. In fact, we did a writing assignment, and whispers swept the classroom. "I feel like I'm taking a test." "Someone pass the answer key." etc, etc.
That night was our first Table Talk (group nightly discussion) that actually used a table since before La Vida.
We began inductive Bible study that night, and learned a few things about what would happen during these Bible study sessions, including: Ask obvious questions, not profound ones for now; the Bible study leader had a habit of kissing on the forehead people who specially pleased him; don't pay too much attention to headings and verse and chapter numbers, because they weren't added until later, etc. etc.
And we had more group worship time. It was AWESOME.

Compass story #1: First day back

The first day back was a Sunday, the fourth of July. Basically we got up late, had breakfast late, did Compass Time and had some group worship, and that was all we did that morning. It was relaxed and nice, and we enjoyed being clean and not overly active. Group worship was amazing as ever. The point to make about group worship, not just then but throughout Compass, was that everyone participated. Any way they wanted. Sit, stand, kneel, throw your hands in the air. You would NOT BE JUDGED. There was such presence of the Holy Spirit and such openness, it was amazing. Group worship was possibly my favorite thing about Compass.
That morning we sang this song:

It was so appropriate, and so perfect, and every word meant exactly what it was.

That afternoon after lunch, we went into a local city for church. It happened to be my home church. I was so happy to be there, and it was amazing taking communion with the others there, the others who I'd gotten to know so well. From there, we walked through the city to a bridge, where we had an amazing Table Talk and waited for it to get dark. By the time the fireworks ended, it was really late, and we took the subway back to the vans. By the time we got to the dorm, it was past midnight. But it had been a wonderful day.

Compass stories season 2: Academic week

Yes, it's time to begin the blogging flood again. This season's theme: Academic week. The week we spent taking seminary classes. We spent this time living in a dorm with a general daily schedule:

7:30 Get up
7:45-8:15 Breakfast
8:15-9:15 Compass Time (devotional time)
9:30 Load vans
10:00-3:00 Class
3:15/3:30-4:00 Free Time
4:00 Mexico prep
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Table Talk
7:30 Large Group Bible study/worship
Somewhere between 9:30 to 10:00 we would usually get back to the dorm
11:00 Lights out

And in the morning do it all again. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of what I will be saying will be anecdotes about such things as the United States of Ninja Assassins, a water gun filled with Mountain Dew, a cranky and irritable vending machine, and soaking-wet volleyball.
There will also be some context in here that will be important for understanding our experiences in Mexico.

Time for a ten-minute packs-off...

Meaning, break time. That was La Vida, which was only 33.333333...% of Compass. So we're going to take a break now...

Compass story #11: 8.6 Mile Str - I mean "run" ;) and the bus ride

The next day was our last La Vida challenge, the 8.6 mile run. Of course, I'm not sure exactly how many people actually ran the whole way. I know of maybe two for sure. I ran as far as I could at first and then walked a ways before setting a new goal. I took the whole way with Sweet n' Spazzy, and we talked about life at home and stuff. Once in a while one of us would say, "See that street sign all the way up there?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna run there?"

"Sure." So we'd run up and drop back into the walk to get our breath back before doing it again. Not the most incredible athletics, but we covered the whole distance on foot, ran the last stretch, and had some good conversations in the meantime. It was astonishing how much shorter 8.6 miles is than I had anticipated, after killing myself to go 4-7 miles a day on trail.
We weren't even the last ones back.
Upon arriving back, we returned the last of our group gear, filled out program eval forms and stuffed the stuff we brought in the back of the bus. Then we climbed in ourselves for the 7-hour (it wound up longer than that) bus ride back to campus.
Stop. Close your eyes (once you have finished reading this paragraph) and imagine. A school bus, yes, a yellow school bus filled with more than thirty people, mostly teenagers, who have been exercising strenuously nonstop for the past nine days, with absolutely no showers and maybe two changes of clothes. For about eight hours.
We opened almost every single window(literally, I counted two that we didn't open) and rode off. We stopped three times; once at Pizza Hut for lunch, once to get gas in the bus and snacks for us and once at Chick-fil-a for dinner. I don't want to know what the people at the restaurants thought when we came in! After the snack break, the leaders would walk down the bus billing themselves as "snack checkers." Hey, they need their perks after all they did that month. They deserve them.
I was singing a song to myself at one point in the bus, and was surprised when the guy behind me, whom I shall call "Calvin" because he was the group's only and most devoted Calvinist, leaned over and told me, "Lisa, it's so good to hear you singing that, because it's old-school ('90s) and it's got good theology." I was so happy to be with a group that cared about theology. It was the third of July, and there were fireworks out the window a few minutes after we left Chick-fil-a. The entire bus screamed the national anthem, cheered and laughed. It was amazing and so much fun!
We got back to the dorm around 11 PM, and were given instructions: Do your laundry, take a shower, call your parents (we were so happy to have an hour of cell phones allowed) and please go to bed!
I found a care package of a few dozen cookies my little brother baked for me had been left at the dorm, we called home and did all that, and it was bliss to have a mattress, and pajamas, and a shower, again for the first time in more than a week. I was so happy to be off La Vida (to be quite honest, it was a very very very painful week), and still be with the rest of the group, and we all slept soundly that night.

Compass story #10b: CELEBRATION DAY!!! part 2

Our last task before dinner was to put together a skit for the big-group celebration that night, a skit that would encompass our experiences of the week. Our skit was a group of snapshots of highlights of the week: Glove Love and The Bush getting soaked our first night on the trail, Enrique crying on his birthday, the "all will be destroyed haiku," the triumph of the hiker who had the most trouble hiking (namely me) reaching the top of the mountain, Skyscraper's and Samwise's "Jump on it" dance and our group countoff.
There's a bit of a story to that last one. When making sure everyone was there on the bus and all that, each team had counted off, starting with the leader. Each one of us had a number. My team, the Green Machine, had proven itself to be the worst at counting off because at any given moment someone would always not be paying attention, or would think they were the wrong number, or something. So we determined to practice and show off at the celebration. When we did our skit, we went up and down instead of just up. Pathetic that we had to practice that, but hey, we were stubborn.
Then it was time for dinner, and after concrete-like oatmeal, freako butter and nutella for the time on the trail, we were thrilled to have burgers, hot dogs, salad, chips, lemonade, and - joy of joys! - ice cream! We talked with the other Compass groups, as every group had returned that day, and enjoyed ourselves.
Finally it was time for the big-group celebration, and the Green Machine went first. The whole La Vida group consisted of we three Compass groups, a group of younger kids, and a few adult groups. Altogether we were maybe a hundred people. The whole audience sang happy birthday to Enrique with us in that part of the skit, laughed at the haiku, and cheered at the part about reaching the summit. Then we relaxed and watched the rest of the groups do their skits about their La Vida experiences, including the younger kids describing how obnoxious they were to their sherpa at the beginning of the trip and hearing an adult group sing, "On the first day of La Vida, our sherpas gave to us..." to the tune of "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me."
Then we sang a few songs, like "Over the Mountains and the Sea" and "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and went into the reflective part of the celebration. Anyone who wanted could get up and share about a powerful part of their trip. And after a few people went, The Joker got up and shared about his solo. Suffice it to say, it had been more than incredible in ways none of us could have imagined, listening to God speaking to him. He started crying near the end of talking about it, and so did I, watching and listening.
More than half of La Vida shared their trip stories that night, or so it felt like. It went on for a long time, and it was amazing hearing these truly incredible stories (most of which were about solo, incidentally). Then the meeting ended after a few more songs, and I saw something else amazing. A young woman from another group went up to The Joker and said, "I know you don't know me, but could I pray for you?" They learned each others' names, prayed together, and after a big hug went their separate ways.
That night we were set up under the stars, and I chatted with Glove Love before going to sleep about the ukulele, but also about our faith and really profound stuff. And I could see the stars. (Again, I'm an inner-city kid, so that was a big deal.) It was a powerful night, and I felt so blessed, so at home, so loving and loved, so at peace that night, under the stars in the mountains.

Compass story #10a: CELEBRATION DAY!!! part 1

We arrived back at camp and stood together in a circle around the fire and stoves, still in silence. When everyone had arrived back at camp The Bush read a Bible verse Enrique had selected, and the solo was over. The first words spoken: "Hey guys, what's up?" Glove Love, of course.
We had "sherpa stew" (vegetable stew) and chocolate pie for breakfast and shared our ACEs, and BK and Lynn gave us "commitment cord" bracelets. Basically these are cords that they cut to fit our wrists and fastened by melting with a lighter and melding the melted ends. Thus, these bracelets aren't coming off unless we cut them off.
Then we packed up the camp we'd set up two days ago, before the solo, and set out. It was a truly short hike, maybe half an hour, to reach the bus that would take us back to La Vida base camp. I was so happy to see the bus after everything we'd been through on the trail that I legit(imately) gave it a big huge hug. No joke. We tossed our packs in and enjoyed our hour and a half in a van tightly packed together with other people who hadn't showered or used deodorant in several days. Si.
On the way we each shared the stories of how our solo days had gone, and at this point I have to admit something. The pseudonyms I chose for my teammates, in the case of those without nicknames, were based on their usual behavior, not on the more important stuff. The Joker had an incredible story to share for his solo, and it will also come in later.
Upon arriving back at base camp, there were a few things that we had to do. We hosed down the group tarp and solo tarps and hung them over a clothesline, put our leftover group food and stuff back in the cabin where it belonged, and all that. We also had to find a place to sleep. Somehow the sherpas checked the weather and as chances were that it was not going to rain under any circumstances, we set up our sleeping bags out in the field, under the open sky. No group tarp or tents that night. Just us and the sky. For a little while we sat out there and watched wispy cirrus clouds and read and talked about the Bible and chillaxed, enjoying the weather and each others' company.

Compass story #9: Solo Day

Here's the scoop on solo day: Twenty-four hours alone in the woods under a solo tarp, fasting, generally held in silence.

I discovered around the beginning of La Vida that the idea of the solo gave some of my teammates the willies: "We'll be so hungry..." "Alone in the woods all night?" etc. etc. Or something bigger, feeling that God was going to use the time to tell him/her something important and potentially devastating.

For me, Solo Day was peaceful and relaxing. The sherpas led us out to our spots first thing in the morning, I set up my solo tarp and sleeping bag and settled down with my Bible, and that day read the first five books of the Bible, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and some of the Gospels. Hey, I had a lot of sunlit time to fill.

It was amazing not to have to worry about "what time is it?" There was no time to think about, no lunchtime or break time or anything. Just "it's too dark to read now, go to bed" time. The woods were so peaceful and beautiful, and I had all that time to devote to God. For me, as a high-school-and-college-student, that was incredible.
I also did our special assignment called "ACEs," an acronym for Appreciation, Challenge, Exhortation. For every person in the group we had to go through and say something we appreciated about that person and something that we challenged them to try or something that we exhorted them to continue with more vigor. Each of us did ACEs for everyone, including The Bush, Lynn and BK.

There was a bit of hallucinating, when you're so tired you start to dream and you see people and then you realize they can't possibly be there and wake yourself up. There was one other incident:

I was sitting there reading and heard a twig snap. I looked up and saw a huge dark shape moving towards me. What was it? It got closer and closer, dangerous-looking and menacing. It rounded the bend and -

It was The Bush. I hadn't realized I'd parked right next to the trail. It was just him, bringing us our backup water bottles.

It was even easier than I had expected to sleep alone in the woods under just a tarp. When the sun was vanishing behind a mountain, I just crawled into my sleeping bag, closed my eyes and conked off, and didn't wake up until The Bush roused me and told me to pack up and return to camp in silence to end Solo Time and break our fast. (Hence the term "breakfast.") I did so, and Solo Day was over.

Compass story #8b: Day of the Stalkers part 2

When we finally stopped for lunch, I found myself in the remarkable position of not actually physically needing to stop. This was new and exhilarating, and I almost hoped we would keep walking, because I was in the zone. So we stopped by a stream at a rocky area and settled down. A couple minutes later the adult leaders arrived, and The Bush silently held up all the messages he had collected.

He had not found the haiku.

The hilarity that reigned in the group was incredible, because we all realized that some random hikers who wouldn't know who left it would find the message. "All will be destroyed." It was so funny! We were alone for most of lunch, but the adult leaders came back for The Friz's and Skyscraper's life stories. Thus, lunch took a good hour or so, because we enjoyed the break and took as long as we wanted with the life stories and stuff. Then the adult leaders ditched us again and we set out.

There were fascinating discussions on the trail, about things like churches and homosexuality, and there were two songs that I had stuck in my head and kept singing constantly ("Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Over the Mountains and the Sea," both somewhat appropriate to the La Vida situation). It was a long hike, but not that hard. We continued on a gentle downward slope, enough to make the hike easy but not enough to make it hard. As we approached our campsite, Enrique called, "Lisa, how are you doing?" "Great!" I responded happily, and he asked, "Really?" in total surprise.

We arrived at another amazing campsite and set up. The group tarp gave some trouble, but they got it up at last. Glove Love had a row with our Coleman camping stoves, but we got water boiling eventually. Samwise and Skyscraper did their classic "Jump on it" dance ("Dah, duh duh duh, duh, Massachusetts, jump on it, jump on it!") and I pumped more water. There was then a little free time, I played Mau with The Friz and we tried to teach Sparky, but he quit quickly. When dinner was ready, The Bush, BK and Lynn arrived. Their first act was to make us change the group tarp, and then we had dinner and Table Talk.

This Table Talk, we heard Enrique's and Glove Love's life stories, and had some wonderful discussion and bonding time. Then the sherpas gave us the information on Solo Day, which was the next day.

Compass story #8a: Day of the Stalkers part 1

Sounds like a horror movie, right?

Enrique, Glove Love and Samwise woke us up the next morning and told us that the sherpas and The Bush were gone for the day. Those three, as LODs, were in charge, and we were legit(imately) going to be stalked that day. Meaning if we had an emergency, the adult leaders would be there, but otherwise, we wouldn't see them until after we had finished cooking dinner. Everything - breaking down and setting up camp, cooking, pumping water, etc., was all in our hands.

After breakfast, we went into Compass Time (which ended with Glove Love calling "The noise!") and then broke down camp and set out. I was still kind of sore, but it wasn't really that bad. We travelled single file for a while, with Glove Love at the front of the line calling things back like, "OK, everyone, starting at the back of the line and moving up, tell how do you like your eggs!" or "If all of you could be a superhero, who would you be?" We sang "Sweet Caroline" on the trail, and just generally had a good time. Furthermore, it wasn't long until we reached an intersection from which we could hear motorcycles. At first the six of us (the LODs were over consulting the map by themselves) thought they were helicopters (not a good sound to hear in the mountains) but realized the true meaning of the sound shortly afterward. Our guess was confirmed when the LODs returned and we moved on, and reached a parking lot and a road!

We crossed the street (holding hands just for the heck of it), the LODs decided we were in the wrong place and we crossed the street again, and realized that they had made another mistake, so we crossed the street again, and headed up the road a bit to the start of our climb. We stopped for a couple minutes and I thought, "I know, I'll distract myself by counting as high as I can in Hebrew!" (That's pretty high, by the way.) So when we stood up, I started counting out loud, having warned no one, and Sweet n' Spazzy and The Friz turned and stared at me in astonishment, looking as if they feared for my sanity.

I broke off and said, "What?"

"You just started spouting gibberish, we thought you had lost your mind!"

"It's Hebrew!" We all cracked up and I then taught the brilliant and knowledge-hungry Friz how to count to 10 in Hebrew. Then we played free association games ("Start at 'elbows' and get to 'school'") and stuff like that. Overall, it was the easiest day of hiking, because we were pretty much used to it by then. We played tricks on the adult leaders by leaving messages for them on birch bark on the trail, because they were a ways behind us. Mostly they were just stuff like "We are watching you" and creepy pictures of eyes, but Glove Love wrote a haiku that we left for them, that goes as follows (I have it committed to memory):

the clouds are moving

mothers embrace their children

all will be destroyed

We left it on a stick in the middle of the road for them to find.