Ballgame Number 7 - Florida Marlins vs LA Dodgers

Last night, Abbey, Matt and I went the Marlins-Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium in LA. All week I have been hearing from Chris Duncan, Matt, all the Matt Bayless band about how bad of an idea it was to go to a Dodgers game on Saturday night. They all swore up an down to make sure we wore blue, to not sit in the bleachers, to follow the crowd and not stray from the pack, and one even suggested I bring a gun. Anyways, I did not think my safety was that much in danger (maybe because I was wearing blue) but it definitely was a new experience.

• I think this was the oldest ballpark I have been in all year. It was cool to come to Dodger Stadium, but it was a pretty boring park.
• The Dodger dogs are all they're cracked up to be. They were good. The garlic fries were not.
  
• The Dodger fans are the most passionate fans I have seen all year. The place would erupt if a Dodger even stole a base.
• We did buy tickets from a scalper, which turned out to be a good decision. We sat in the second bowl for half the price of a box office ticket.
  
• The place was 80% full, probably the most fans at a game I have seen all year with maybe the exception of the Rangers-Yankees.
• The Marlins hit three home runs, all of which the ball landed back on the field after a fan threw the ball back. On the second home run, it was all in one motion - the fan catching it. winding up and throwing it back - with it almost reaching the infield.
• I will agree about not sitting in the bleachers. Those guys were crazy. I felt bad for the security guard constantly trying to get the beach balls.
  
• Derek Lowe still pitched well, but was not as good as two weeks ago when we say him in Tampa Bay.
• Hanley Ramirez, the Marlins lead-off batter, is stinkin' fast.
  
• Although he bats sixth and has an average of .273, Nomar Garciaparra is the the fan favorite.
  

Ballgame Number 6 - LA Dodgers at Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Abbey and I were down in Florida about two weeks ago visiting my parents and while we were there we all went to the Devil Rays game. Anybody who know anything about baseball knows the Devil Rays are horrible (always have been) and could be considered a minor league team. Anyways, we had a blast and if I lived anywhere near Tampa Bay I would be the biggest Devil Rays fan there is. Here are my observations from the game:

• This was the most fan friendly interactive stadium I think I have ever been to. On the lower level out in the outfield they have numerous exhibits/stations for free that you could go to whether it was looking at an actual locker room, batting cages, or the Ted Williams museum.
• Though the Devil Rays are bad, they are doing some awesome things to attract fans to the stadium. Parking for the first 7,500 cars is free! This just blew my mind. Also, everyone who came received a free program, a free small Devil Rays cooler, and a Dale Earnhardt lanyard.
  
• I like the dome. It was built in 1990 designed specifically for baseball. But the nice fact is no matter if it is raining outside or if the temperate is 100 (which it gets to in central Florida) baseball can still be played.
• If the Devil Rays could play defense the could win some more ballgames. Numerous times did I see a catchable ball that was simply missed.
• First time in my life I have seen back-to-back triples.
  
• Nomar Garciparra did not play, but that did not stop the fans from holding up a blanket in the upper deck reading, "NO MAR ROIDS" My wife got a laugh out the sign. Maybe if Nomar had kept taking steroids when he was with the Cubs he wouldn't have been injured for the whole time he was in Chicago.
• Derek Lowe is a great sinker ball pitcher.
  
• If I lived around Tampa Bay I would have season tickets.
  

Day 7 - Friday - Influence

Friday wrapped up an incredible week at CIY Summer Conference at Chapman University.

Friday morning, Doug Aldridge's sermon was right on. One of the quotes/examples he used was from the life of Jim Elliot. There was a prayer that Jim Elliot prayed, which was to not be a mile marker on the road of other people's lives, but to be a fork in the road where people have to make a choice after encountering him.

The dodgeball tournament was the first dodgeball tournament played on field turf. The tennis courts were being used, so everyone played in the end zone of the football field. The tournament was almost won by the same group of guys who won the basketball tournament. The crazy thing about that is they are from a smaller church (their group size was 27) and almost beat all the team from CCV, which brought 400. My favorite team name was "B&E" which stood for absolutely nothing. You ask them what it means and they rattle off 6 different names (ie. bacon and eggs, breaking and entering).

Like I have said before, this was one of the most stress-free weeks I have been apart of the last 6 years at CIY, with only one minor discipline issue involving play dough and pool table. But even that I don't think was any CIY kids. To top off the week, the semi-truck door was shut at 11.25pm, and nothing but praise for Matt Foreman for leading the team and getting it done.

Day 6 - Thursday - Isolation

It is always exciting to see who you will reconnect with at CIY Summer Conference. Last night I was able to talk to Nathan Alcorn, one of interns from last summer, for about 30 minutes about his current internship at CCV and about what he is going to do after he graduates after this year. Nathan has a great heart and him and I are similar in many ways.

Abbey sat and talked tonight to the youth minister of Central Christian Church in Portales, NM, Josh McVey for long time after dinner. They had gone to Ozark Christian College at the same time and are actually friends on MySpace, but had no idea they would be here at conference. The first encounter was kinda like, " I know you," "Yeah, I know you too - Josh?".

Also, one of the other leaders of Christ's Church of the Valley, Luke Wright, was a bible college camp team member when Abbey and I were interns at Summer Conference 4 years ago. It just makes you think of who you meet today and the relationships you form, who knows when you will reconnect in the future.

Today during free time every church bolted for the beach, and so did our staff. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and Matt, Ben, Travis and I rode our bikes to beach from Chapman University. There is a great trail/mini road that runs for about 12 miles and dumps directly into Huntington Beach.

At the beach, CCV baptized a large number of kids and while this was going on, an amazing thing happened. A guy was walking by, he just graduated high school and was at the beach on vacation, he saw what was going on and ran out to the group and wanted to be baptized also. He has accepted Jesus into his heart, and for the last couple of months he knew he needed to be baptized, but did not know a pastor to do it. After the youth ministers talked to him, he was also baptized. What an amazing story.

During the night session, Dusty Frizzell delivered the sermon and it was a powerful site to see the students praying and erasing their own hurts and the hurts of others off the isolation booth walls.

Day 5 - Wednesday - Injured

The theme of day 5 CIY Summer Conference is Injured. In the morning session, Doug Aldridge, a professor at Ozark Christian College gave a great message. He talked about David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel, but one the interesting things he showed us was - if you look at the chapter titles before and after David's sin in 2 Samuel 11, you can see there was a turning point. The first half of the book is about the rise and the second half (until the last two chapters) is on the downward slope. When Doug began, he showed us that "one day" and one sin or bad decision can leave us injured and down the wrong path. He concluded by showing us that "one day" and one decision can turn us back along the right path. When we are injured, healing does not start with the person that injured you, but instead it starts with you and often starts with you saying the words "I'm sorry."

Today was also the day of the Compassion/AIDS in Africa session. What a powerful session and the impact it is leaving on students. Abbey, my wife, talked to a young girl after who has had someone close to her (I think it was a family member) die because of the AIDS virus.

Today during free time, Ben, Travis and I made our way to another local bike shop and then back to REI. At REI, we were walking out, and I decided to ride my bike back to campus. It was about 8-10 miles, but I had no idea where I was going. I knew I need to go north, but the parts of LA you are suppose to drive through with your doors locked - I rode my bike through them not having a clue what I was doing. 45 minutes later I was back at the dorm. I did feel a little like Michael Bluth off Arrested Development riding his bike all over Orange County.

In the night session, students are asked to go and write their injuries on large plexiglass. After the night was over, Kevin had all the staff stay in the auditorium and pray for the hurts. We then got back together and discussed the injuries that stood out to each of us the most. To me the most reoccurring theme and hurt was abandonment and betrayal. There were many about relationships with their parents, and the one that got a hold of me was, "My mother and knowing that I was a mistake." This stood out to me because of someone I used to work with who has an amazing testimony about how he was supposed to be aborted and he was a "mistake."

Day 4 - Tuesday - Identity

Day 4 of CIY Summer Conference at California One. The staff is obsessed with Jamba Juice. This cult following is led by our production manager Matt Foreman, who had Jamba Juice 3 separate times today. A few of the guys woke up and left at 6:30 am to go get Jamba. I am also guilty, I have had it twice today. It also didn't help we had an unlimited number of buy one get one free coupons.

Score one for the underdogs! Today we held our 3-on-3 basketball tournament which had about 20 different teams. This week there is a church of 400 and another of 100 from Arizona. For two days all we heard was how this team or that team from the large churches was going to win. The team that won the tournament was from a group of 27 that took a 15 hour train ride to get here.

The staff did beat the band in basketball and I did take another trip to REI, this time for Ben Platt to buy some additions to his bike.

The theme today was Identity, which seems to be very powerful and very clear. Doug Aldridge spoke in the morning and Chris Duncan spoke at night, both delivering great sermons. My highlight of the day was during Chris's sermon looking over and there are two security guard from the college listening to every word.

Day 3 - Monday

Day 3 of CIY Summer Conference California 1 was unlike any other Monday of Conference I have been apart of in the last 6 years. Because there are 4 churches attending the week, and two of those churches are already on campus, registration consisted of the leader of each group calling me when they arrived and then I would take care of giving them all the information they needed. No large set-up, and the staff did not have to be at registration all day. The staff was able to relax and it definitely put everyone in a "stress free" mode.

Flagstaff and CCV, the two churches that arrived early, both went to Huntington Beach for the day. The other two churches arrived around noon. Central Christian Church from Portales, NM did something I don't think I had ever heard of before. From New Mexico, they took a 15 hour train ride to Los Angeles and then took the city buses to Chapman University. Josh, their leader, said the train was not too bad, the crazy part was the pubic bus system in Los Angeles. I can only imagine the experience that must have been. Christ Church of the Valley from Prescott, AZ left at 6am and arrived shortly after lunch.

The rest of the day consisted of an REI trip, where I bought some new toys for my bike and making sure everything was ready to go for 1st session. Matt Bayless and his band did an incredible job. Kevin did a great job with the sermon that night. He talked about how God is always pursuing us. God is always speaking into our lives, but do we ever stop to listen? Romans 5:8, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" was the scripture reference Kevin used to tie together the night. No matter what we have done, Christ gave his life to save us. God is pursing you.

Day 2 - Sunday

Day 2 of CIY Summer Conference California 1 for our staff consisted of setting up, more setting up, and finally finishing setting up. We have such a hard working team (interns and tech staff) and everyone knows their jobs, so everything gets done quickly.

Two of the churches arrived early for conference which officially begins on Monday. Christ's Church of Flagstaff arrived Sat night and spent Sunday at Knott's Berry Farm, America's 1st Theme Park. Supposedly this place is cooler that Disneyland. Probably because I have never lived out west, when I hear "Knott's Berry Farm" I think you will go and spend a day picking blueberries off bushes and then at the end you get some good jam/jelly. The other church, Christ's Church of the Valley, arrived shortly after lunch and played a game called "Campus Commando". This is a game designed to get the students familiar with the campus. They primarily are dressed in black, camo, and a few of them wear ski masks. Great idea, but when the same church played this game last year, they forgot to let the campus security know they were doing it, and you can just imagine the mess they created.

Our staff enjoyed In-n-out again and also went to The Block later that night.

That night for church, Kevin Greer, the director of the week, began by asking everyone the questions of "What is one thing you love? Who do you love? Who is one person in your life that has help you grow spiritually?" He talked about getting deeper with your walk and also said a quote from A.W. Tozer that went something like, "No matter whether you are spiritually deep or spiritually shallow, neither will stay hidden for very long." One of the things Kevin has asked our staff to do, is during every encounter time, that our staff would also take their personal quiet time also every morning. The meetings and our tasks can all happen after that. This is one of the first times our staff has been asked by the director to take the quiet time at the same time as the students. Kevin is an amazing teacher and truly cares about making disciples.

Day 1 of California 1

We began our travel for CA1 Summer Conference of CIY today. Day 1 was an extremely long day . For Kevin Greer, the director of the week, his day started by waking up before 3.30 am Central Time. Kevin, Abbey and I flew out of Tulsa at 8.00 so he had an extremely early morning. Abbey and I were fortunate to drive down to Tulsa the night before and stay with her parents.

We made it into Orange County about 11.00 am West Coast time and one piece of advice I learned yesterday - renting a car the weekend before July 4 can be an annoying, long process. Although we already had a reservation, everyone was disorganized and had no idea what they were doing.

Anyways, then we got some In-N-Out for lunch, meeting in the afternoon, quick nap, and then some stinkin good BBQ. We ate at Lucille's BBQ, located only out west and it was some of the best BBQ I have had in a long time. A Jamba Juice run, and then all of our interns arrived about 9pm and then the semi truck arrived about midnight. Load in at 8am in the morning.

The good new is that one of the churches has already arrived, and another church is arriving on Sunday. Both churches account for almost 95% of the people coming, so it will be nice for them and for us for them to receive all of materials they need before Monday.

Sunday will be a long day of set-up, but Matt Foreman, our production manager, will be in charge meaning there is nothing to worry about.