I’m kind of in limbo.

On the one hand I don’t have a lot to do between the end of our rafting trip and the beginning of my “real vacation.” But at the same time it would be inappropriate for me to just not show up to work.

I am dog tired.

In the last two days we drove from Romeo to the middle of no where West Virginia (is there a somewhere in WV?) and back. Sandwiched between there was a day of rafting, good eating and a great, great sunset. The rafting itself was pretty good. It was relaxation mixed with trepedation. My boatmates were very fearful but we all made it through ok. The kids paniced and the moms mothered. A good time was had by all. I completely enjoyed the wipe out of Lisa R. and Patti K. I think that made the whole trip for me. Not that I enjoyed seeing them suffer, but I did enjoy them getting into the action. I had a big fear that they would kind of just be disconnected from the whole thing… but that really dragged them into the experience.

It was obvious that I didn’t take my normal crew of adults. It only emphasized how much my team likes to be together and how much difference a team makes.

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June 30, 2004

Va. teen dies as raft flips on New River

By Dave Gustafson

Staff writer

A Virginia teen died Tuesday after her raft flipped during a commercial rafting outing on a New River rapid nicknamed “The Meat Grinder,” after rescuers tried a perilous technique to pull her from the river.

Morgan Funk, 15, of Staunton, Va., drowned in the accident, WSAZ-TV reported. She had been on her first whitewater trip with her father when the accident occurred, the station reported.

The young woman was in a raft with at least six other people in the section known as Keeney’s Rapids on the lower New River near Winona when it overturned about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, spilling everyone out, said Lizzie Watts, a park ranger for the New River Gorge National River.

With the teen trapped downstream between rocks, rescue workers attempted to lift her out of the water by her lifejacket with a rope tied to both sides of the river, Watts said.

“It’s a very difficult technique, and it didn’t work in this case,” Watts said. “She didn’t seem to hear when the emergency workers were giving their commands.’’

The first raft on the trip, which was organized by Lansing-based outfitter The Rivermen, went through the rapids without incident, but another raft overturned while entering the second set of rapids, known as the Middle Keeney’s, Watts said.

Keeney’s Rapids are Class Five, the second most powerful on the river, she said. Raft guides generally refer to the Middle Keeney’s as “The Meat Grinder,” a guide with another rafting firm said.

Some of those in the water were pulled into boats. The victim was trapped against a rock downriver from the accident, Watts said. The other guide said the rocks above the Lower Keeney’s Rapids, where the teen was trapped, are one of the most difficult places on the river where a rescue could be set up.

Rivermen staff, other commercial boaters, as well as private boaters and video boaters, who document trips and provide safety support, began the rescue effort immediately following the spill. The Park Service was notified and got assistance from four fire departments, the state Division of Natural Resources, along with Fayette County deputies and emergency rescue workers, Watts said.

The girl’s body was recovered a couple of hours later and taken to the Fayette County coroner, Watts said.

The victim was wearing a lifejacket and helmet, and had attended a river safety course before the trip, Watts said. A guide with more than 70 trips’ experience was in charge of the boat in the accident.

The New River was at a good level for general rafting Tuesday, Watts said. Officials from DNR and the Park Service are still investigating the matter.

A phone number for The Rivermen did not accept messages Tuesday night.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

To contact staff writer Dave Gustafson, use e-mail or call 348-5113.

As a kid growing up I had the pleasure of walking to school. This isn’t one of those “I walked 15 miles uphill both ways” type of stories, but truthfully it was about a mile for me to walk to school. For the most part, I have happy and uneventful memories of walking to school. A lot of games, mischief, throwing things into the St. Joseph River and avoiding the supposed bullies. I doubt anyone was ever bullied seriously, but we all feared it and kept our heads on swivels looking for them.

One day, I went to school when I probably shouldn’t have. My mom was a real stickler for going to school no matter what. In all reality, being a single mother and having a sick kid often meant that she would have to take a day off. That kind of thing was not appreciated by her employer, so we were basically forced to go to school unless we were deathly ill. All day long I had made it through school, head pounding and snotty nose, all with the hopes that I’d be able to uneventfully go home and sleep.

Well, during the day we collected quite a bit of snow. For northern Indiana that isn’t all that unusual for the time of year. When this happens and they need to clear the streets quickly, the street department would often stack the snow up to huge piles on side streets and sometime later they’d come back and load the snow into dump trucks to be taken somewhere else. As a kid, you loved to see these “mountains” of snow… Especially on the way home from school.

But today, this was not a welcome sight. Between the joy of everyone else and the cold that was clamping me down, I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. When we reached the big mountain of snow on the corner of Madison and Michigan, all of my friends quickly scurried to the top to play king of the hill and throw chunks of snow at each other. My main interest was to get home, so I started to bypass the malay and cross the street. Just as the crossing guard allowed us all to cross the road I felt a huge chunk of slushy snow land on top of my head. I looked back and heard my old buddy Steve giggling away and high fiving Corey, another walking mate. I yelled at him, “I don’t feel good, leave me alone!” And started pouting across the street and walking even faster. The truth is, I was embarrassed that I had gotten thumped so good when I wasn’t paying attention. That embarrassment welled up with the frustration of the day and a seed of anger overcame me. Combine that with not feeling well and I did what any 4th grade boy would do… I started to cry.

I got about a half a block before Steve and Corey caught up to me. Corey said, “Hey, what’s the matter?” And I shrugged him off and kept walking. Steve said “Come on, I was only messing around!” As soon as he touched me I turned toward him and let him have it. Wham! I blasted him right to the eye and he fell down. It wasn’t much of a fight since he didn’t know one was coming. On top of that, since I hit him so suddenly and knocked him over, I was on top of him before he could really do anything about it. I’m sure that there were blows thrown on both sides but in my mind I only remember the horror of hitting my friend in the face with my thick winter gloves still in place.

Aboiut this time, Corey starts jumping around like a hyena and shouting, “Adam! Adam, it’s Steve’s dad! Adam!” That was the end of the fight. As soon as Steve’s dad was on the scene, we all kind of scattered out of shame. Steve and Corey got to ride home in Steve’s car, and I got to walk the rest of the way home all by myself. All night long I was at home dreading what would happen when my mom found out. I figured I was going to get in big trouble and it was only a matter of time before Steve’s parents called and talked to my mom… who would certainly smite me for life! So, each time the phone rang that night I wondered if that would be the call I had dreaded. It never happened. They never called.

The next day, it seemed like everyone knew what had happened. By the time I got to school a bunch of people had told me that I was going to get in trouble and that Steve’s dad would beat me up. I never got in trouble, nor did Steve’s dad beat me up as promised. But I was scared.

Towards the end of the day as I was at my locker, Steve walked up to me. It was one of those moments you see on a TV show. As he walked up to me the whole hallway got quiet. No one knew if there was going to be another fight or if something else was going to happen. My heart was about to leap right out from my shirt! He looked at me and said, “Umm… Adam, my dad wants to know if you’d like to go see Rocky IV with us this weekend?” I just looked at him, not really understanding what he had said. I said “Um, OK.” Then Steve told me that his dad would call my mom later that day to arrange everything.

This was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. I don’t think that Steve’s family had ever really been nice to me before. Sure they had invited me insie like all the rest of the neighborhood kids, but this was something completely unexpected. I didn’t understand why they wanted their son to be around the kid who had given him a tremendous shiner. But I do remember this as being a huge lesson in forgiveness and grace. I deserved to be treated like a villain by that family, but instead they reached out to me and invited me in.

Now that I am feeling better, my schedule is again coming back to full swing. Today is busy with preparations for the weekend services and a final premarital session with a couple that is getting married next week.

Friday morning, I will be helping out at the Romeo Junior Open. This is a junior golf event that should attract most of the best 11-18 year old golfers in Macomb county. That will be a lot of fun. Of course, next week we take off for West Virginia and our first LF rafting trip. When I get back on Wednesday night, it is a mad dash until Saturday. Thursday is actually pretty normal, but Friday there is the rehearsal for the wedding and Saturday of course is the ceremony. As soon as I can clear out of here Saturday I am on vacation! Yippee! We cannot wait to get past 7/3 and on the road to the cottage and Traverse City. We need a vacation now more than ever. All of us do.

Now that I am feeling better, my schedule is again coming back to full swing. Today is busy with preparations for the weekend services and a final premarital session with a couple that is getting married next week.

Friday morning, I will be helping out at the Romeo Junior Open. This is a junior golf event that should attract most of the best 11-18 year old golfers in Macomb county. That will be a lot of fun. Of course, next week we take off for West Virginia and our first LF rafting trip. When I get back on Wednesday night, it is a mad dash until Saturday. Thursday is actually pretty normal, but Friday there is the rehearsal for the wedding and Saturday of course is the ceremony. As soon as I can clear out of here Saturday I am on vacation! Yippee! We cannot wait to get past 7/3 and on the road to the cottage and Traverse City. We need a vacation now more than ever. All of us do.

Matthew 5:16

There’s a lot about a person in a name.

My dad used to say “at the end of the day, the only thing someone can’t take away from you, is your name. Sometimes it’s all you’ve got.”

You can lose your pride, but not pride in your name. You can lose your money, but you can’t sell your name. You can lose your health, but the name goes with you forever. When you lie, your name means liar. When you work hard, your name means hard worker. When you are honest, your name means honesty. Your name ca reflect you, and sometimes the other way around.

If I were to say “New York Yankees.” That name would mean something to you. If I were to say Detroit Tigers, that might mean something else to you. When I think of the Chicago Cubs, I certainly think about more than just the baseball club. I think of going to Wrigley with my dad as a kid. I think of WGN and Harry Carey. I think of the bleacher bums and Johnny Woo. I think of hot afternoons in the sun with Kristen, and I think of almost getting to the World Series in 84 and 03.

Have you ever heard a couple debate names for their baby? Each name means something and carries a negative or positive connotation.

So this summer, we’re starting off by talking about our name. We’ll be spending the whole summer looking at who we are and where we are going. Tonight we are taking a close look at our name, Light Force means something and it helps us see what we want to be doing as a group in now and in the future. As we look at it deeper I hope that you will not just see that name as a clever logo but as something that you will want to be a part of.

Pretty early on in Jesus’ ministry, sometime in the first year after Jesus turned water into wine; Jesus had finished calling his group of closest disciples and was starting to attract quite a following.

He had healed some people along the way in Galilee. He had driven out some demons and cured some diseases. With that, all kinds of people had a strong desire to be near him when he did this. Either they were bringing people to be healed or exorcized or they wanted to simply watch.

Along with that type of person, there was a large group of men and women who just followed him wherever he went. This was somewhere between 50-75 people who are his disciples. These aren’t The Twelve, but they are a group who is closely following him and learning from him regularly.

Anyway, Jesus goes up on a hill, and we can imagine that there would have been several hundred people… maybe more. And he begins to teach them.

We read about it in Matthew 5. He starts speaking to them, and we’ll pick it up in verse 14.

– You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

o We are at a complete disadvantage with this analogy here.

o We live in a very technological time where we are surrounded by safety and electricity. Whenever we want light, it is there. There is nothing to fear in a dark night or even in a dark room.

o So, we can only imagine what it means to contrast dark and light… like when we go camping.

o When Jesus says “a city on a hill” we are also without comparison. [See picture] Where we live is very flat.

o We can imagine that we are in a city, and the city on the hill provides us with something to look at.

? It sticks out at night.

? It’s noticeable; you don’t have to think about it… it’s just there.

? It’s a reference point in navigation

? If you’re a shepherd, you look up the hill at it and daydream

? If you’re a foreigner approaching it, you wonder about it.

o Darkness isn’t just sin… it’s a world of fear and danger. If you’re in the dark, sometimes you find your way and things are as they seem, but sometimes they aren’t.

o If you are in darkness, you are lost and desperate and in danger.

o Some people say they like to be in the dark… but you can only enjoy the darkness when you know you have power to be in the light.

o When camping, you are drawn to the light… people are magnets for other people in the light or if they don’t have a flashlight, they want to be by and be near the person with the flashlight.

o Humans have very poor night vision, it leaves us completely vulnerable.

o But Jesus says we are light! He says we are light in the darkness.

? We are the reference point.

? We are noticeable

? We are safety

? We are not in danger… we are light.

o When Jesus calls us light

? The light he refers to is our relationship with Jesus.

? This “light” is the measure by which the world measures is “right and wrong.”

? Outsiders look towards us naturally, they don’t know what it is but they are sensing the Holy Spirit in us.

? They can’t help but ask “What is it about you?”

o “It” is the light.

o “It” is what Jesus says we should “let shine.”

o We can hide it, we can pretend we aren’t lights…. Like a flashlight we can just chose to not be light

o But Jesus tells us, Let it shine! IN THE DARKNESS of LIFE, LET IT SHINE!

So the first part of our name is directly from Jesus. We are light.

The second part is pretty simple.

We are a force to be reckoned with.

Let’s look at all the definitions for this word “force” and I’ll let you figure out which one applies to us.

1. The capacity to do work or cause damage.

2. The use of physical power or violence to compel or restrain.

3. Intellectual power or vigor, especially as conveyed in writing or speech.

4. A body of persons or other resources organized or available for a certain purpose.

5. Military strength.

– While there is a military sound to our name, Light Force, our name implies that we have strength and power and resolve and purpose.

– So, therefore we are a body of people organized under God and this church for a certain purpose….

– What’s the purpose?

o Light Force desires to Love God and Love Others by intentionally modeling a life devoted to becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.

– This is why we exist. This is who we are. This is the reason we are a force… we are united towards that vision.

– And in the coming weeks we’ll be taking a closer look at that statement, taking it apart and putting it back together to see further how we [you!] can be a part of this Light Force.

– This shedding of light in the darkness

– And being a force here in Romeo.

PRAY

this is our chicago team with some children from ICI at Lincoln Park Zoo. 

There are times for retreating and there are times for advancing. (If you’re in the military then you’ve heard that there are also times for waiting.) Well, these next few days are for advancing. I’ve got lots of work to do and it’s a pleasure to feel good enough to get back to work full swing. Tonight’s LF should be fun and exciting… so long as it doesn’t rain!

Tonight’s topic: What is Light Force? Part of our summer series about our vision for 2004-2005.

For the last few days I haven’t felt like bogging. Not because I wasn’t full of self-worth or didn’t have ample amounts of worthless self-talk worth writing down, but mostly because I just got “in the funk.”

Avoidance is a thing I really wrestle with. If there’s something I don’t particularly want to do, even if it’s something I really like doing, I’ll sometimes just get in a funk of not wanting to do that thing. In the last week or so it has been blogging.

Another thing I’ve been avoiding is paying bills. Not in a “don’t have the money” kind of way, more likely it’s been all about just not wanting to sit down and do it. Generally speaking, I love to go every day and synch MS Money with the bank and reconcile all the spending and keep track of each penny and where it went and what bills are upcoming, etc. But lately, I’ve just been avoiding it. I clumped all the June bills together and waited until the last minute to send them off. I hate doing that. Some of them were even a day or two late. My estimated taxes were among the things just sent in the knick of time. I would hate for poor Uncle Sam to have to wait for his few dollars from the McLane’s. I’m sure he was worried that he wasn’t going to be able to pay his employees or if he was even going to keep the lights on the Statue of Liberty. But alas, it was post-marked before the 15th of June.

This avoidance thing is really just a mental game. I’ll be super consistent and “faithful” to something for a really long time, then I’ll just get into the game and not take care of something simple. Another one. Our license plates for the car. They expire at the end of the month and I will likely wait until the last possible day to take care of it. It’s irritating and fun at the same time. Oh, the games we play in our minds.

Well, that’s enough self-absorption for now.