jimmy appleseed

When I lived in Modesto I was mentored by a man named Jim. He was one of the groomsman at my wedding – and he and I spent many,many hours together riding together to our seminary classes out of town. He was an intern when I was an intern; and he always had me under his wing. and he is a huge U2 fan just like me.

A few years ago, he planted a church in Modesto that has grown to a pretty good size. A couple months ago, he asked me if I would speak at his winter camp for his middle school and high school students. He asked if I had any material on how to share your faith, and I told him about my Johnny Appleseed series.

When the time came for the camp to come around I invited a couple young men who were interested in learning about ministry- one of them was Stevan and the other was JD. Jim asked if I could bring a lady along because you were short on female counselors and I asked my friend Arielle to come as well.

The camp was in Twain hart and I knew the area well because that's where we go for our elevation camps. We left extra early so we could do some exploring in that area. We had lunch in Modesto, and spent some time exploring one of my favorite used bookstores, yesterday's books. We also got to go to Jimtown Frosty for ice cream and we checked out Columbia, Jamestown, and knight's ferry.

 

 

 

 

The van I rented had a DVD player in it and we spend a lot of time watching Star Wars in the van and talking about our favorite scenes and characters.

The camp itself was a pretty cool spot – although it was raining all weekend so I didn't get to explore that much.

 

 

 

The chapel looked like it used to be an old one-room-schoolhouse that had been furnished with some old pews.

 

 

 

when I first walked into the chapel to set up my stuff, Jim had some classic U2 tracks blaring out of the speakers- and it was then that I knew that something divine was about to happen.

 

It was really cool to talk to kids who are from Modesto, because a lot of my illustrations and stories come from my years growing up in Modesto. I was able to say things like "does anyone here go to Davis high? "And people actually knew what Davis I was – or the Baskin-Robbins that I used to work at –or the junior high that I used to go to when I was a student. I told a story of how a high school teacher encouraged me in my faith- and students actually knew who she was! I got to talk about my old youth group that I became a Christian in, and there were all kinds of people who knew exactly what I was talking about. One student came up to me and said, "do you remember a girl in your old youth group name Laura? "I said yes. And then he said "yeah, that's my mom!" what?! one of jim's volunteers was a really popular kid in my youth group when I was in high school. it was cool to talk with him about the old days and to see him as a dad. for other kids, I was able to say, "I know your dad- tell him I said hello!"

 

it was fun to tell my stories to a crowd who could relate to what I was talking about- and to share my messages that I had become so passionate about in a new environment. It was good to work with my friend again-

 

 

but most of all- it was so great to hang out with JD and Stevan and Arielle- and to explore those places that I knew as a kid, and to get to know each other better in a new environment. Stevan will be taking a role as a pastor soon, JD will be off to school, and Arielle is moving to a new role in the summer- so it was good to get some time with them while I could. it was great to talk ministry- and to compare and contrast what we do at the church with what they were doing at this camp. and it was fun to talk about star wars and eat lots of junk food in an environment where there were no scales, and no treadmills!

 

what a blessing on so many levels.

God is love.

-rev-rob