Random thoughts, musings, and things I find funny.

BLOGS, JOURNALS, AND DIARIES.

my xanga
AACF blog
Ben
Anna
Carise
Victor
Thomas
Cman
Amily
My old blogpage
DropDeadFred Stories
Andrew O.
Jocelyn
Tiffany
Branny
Megan
Andrew W.
Vir

COOL SITES

Orisinal
CMCentral
CCM Magazine
His2Own (h2o)
DropDeadFred World

SCHOOL SITES

Berkeley
Bearlink
Psych 2
Math 54
Math 55
Political Science 118AC
History 5
Legal Studies 103

 
back from ltc. it was okay.



HAHA. just kidding. dude, it was so AWESOME. so drained ... this post will probably be updated a few times later ... but here's a quick post hilighting some of the cool stuff.

stolen from chris ... who was in the small group i lead at norcal retreat ... and also on my team during the first night's icebreaker games. =]]]


i went into ltc thinking it would be very retreat-like ... but i was slightly wrong. haha. it was pretty intense ... lots of messages, workshops, team-building, vision casting ... the works. still, it was so TOTALLY AMAZING. i was there with brothers and sisters from campuses across california (and the university of washington. =P) ... brothers and sisters who could identify with the hopes and fears i was feeling about serving on leadership next year at aacf ... so one of the hugest blessings i've received from ltc would just be the awesome talks i had with so many people. plus, the times of worship were totally awesome, the messages were great, ANNNNNNNND i loved the workshops i attended. dude, i didn't realize how much i want to say ... but even now as i type this up, my fingers are fumbling around the keyboard ... typos galore 'cuz i'm so out of it. so yeah. this will be updated as the week goes on.

some really awesome parts of ltc:

...spending a whole week with berkeley's servant team...
i love the people on leadership next year so much ... they're totally awesome people. we had so much fun getting to know each other better and sharing our vision for our aacf next year. it was great spending time with our totally awesome staffers too ... dave and angel are huge blessings.

...vision casting...
vision casting was soooooooo intense. i think our campus spent more time in the vision casting campus than any other campus ... we often went past midnight talking about our vision ... but the whole process was totally awesome. it's cool because through the process, we each got a sense of what mattered to the other members of the servant team. zeeho always stressed outreach ... vicky's suggestions were more in-reachy ... albert, laurie, and jo offered broader, more all-inclusive comments ... my focus was more on spiritual growth for the body ... so yeah. i'm really excited about our vision. we realized that at the heart of each of our individual visions for aacf was the need for worship. and by worship, we don't mean just singing ... but more living lives of worship. the romans 12:1-2 kind of worship. we realized that the only people God says he desires are true worshippers ... people that will worship Him in spirit and in truth. and once we develop true worshippers, everything else falls into place. we agreed that if aacf was a body of true worshippers, it would have a heart like His. we would want to evangelize. we would want to disciple. we would want to welcome. so although we don't have the final wording of our vision, i'm so excited because it's a vision that i agree with and a vision i can identify with ... and also a vision that i can see affecting my ministry as well. (fyi, our actual vision statement is something like this. it's not totally complete, but it will be similar. our desire is to create true worshippers through exploring the character of God. our thoughts behind that is that by studying the different attributes of God, we'll be inspired to live lives of worship ... and it's also true for seekers. hopefully they'll be drawn to God through Christians expressing authentic worship to God, causing them to see how awesome our God is.)

...MOI time...
moi stands for moment of impact. moi time was an hour after dinner everyday. the intent of moi time is to intentionally get together with people to talk ... whether it be about ministry, spiritual growth ... stuff like that. this time was really cool. i got to talk with so many people ... the first moi time i got to talk to will from davis ... it was awesome 'cuz he's the men's small group coordinator ... so we just got to talk with each other about some ideas for next year ... and we had the opportunity to pray for each other. the best moi time, though, (and also one of my favorite memories from the whole week of ltc) was tuesday's moi time. our campus got together to continue talking about our vision. we were all a little stressed because our vision casting was going so slowly ... and not really heading anywhere. we knew we wanted to develop true worshippers, but we couldn't figure out and agree on what else we wanted to be included in the vision. we started the moi time intending to talk out different ideas ... but God must've had different things in mind. we ended up just worshipping God ... there on the grass. and lemme tell you ... it was sooooooooooo amazing. we were outside ... it was cold and windy ... we didn't have guitars or anything. but someone would start singing a song, and we'd all sing along. sometimes someone would just start praying ... or reading a Bible verse ... or sharing what God's been revealing to them. it was a great reminder that worship isn't just confined to music ... and it was an awesome reminder that above all else, God calls us to worship Him. it was great to step back from our vision casting and just ourselves practice our vision of being true worshippers. it was an hour i'll never forget.

...being a baby...
so i was the second oldest person at ltc from berkeley (not including our staffers. =P) ... but my whole campus treats me like the baby of the family. haha ... they're always telling me to eat more ... finishing my food when i can't ... telling me to put on sunblock ... roughing me up ... and everyone seems to be looking out for me. they make sure i'm doing okay, give me their backpacks to hold (a personality quirk of mine. when i'm sitting, i usually need to be holding something ... usually a big backpack or sometimes a pillow. =P) even the young'uns, jeff & janette, were always like "are you sleeping okay? you look tired. are you okay?" ^_^ haha. so yeah ... i like being the baby of the group. =P so much love. =D it's weird though ... 'cuz i've always been the "older brother, mom-like" type ... doing stuff for the younger ones ... making food for people ... checking up ... but tim, alex, jo ... they've always treated me like a little brother since the beginning of the school year. shrug. works for me. =P

...near-death experience =P...
i was sitting on the bench when all of a sudden i hear a rustle and a ginormous, spiky pinecone drops just a foot from my head. i end up getting sap in my hair. the pin cone was HUGE! they dented a bunch of people's cars ... i'm pretty sure i would have been knocked unconscious if i got knocked in the head by one of those things. haha. but praise God for keeping me safe. =P i blame the sqirrels ... later in the week i saw a squirrel knock one of those ginormous spike balls out of a tree. =/

dude, i'm so tired. but remind me to post more. here were more cool parts of ltc that i'll try to post about later.

...'how to lead a Bible study' workshop...

...'crisis management' elective...

...volleyball and ultimate frisbee in the sprinklers...

...communion and cliff's drama presentation...

...awesome talks with people from different campuses...

...team-building exercises...

...seeing a tangible expression of God's love after communion...

...the messages...

...what God taught me this week...

...extended quiet time...

...jamming and listening to others jam...

...bridge. =P...

...kiddies!...

...some cool people: wayne, nate, nicole, kim, kristen, the bunny (aka ruth), lucas, and more...

...analogies and symbols (pitchers, ants, rice balls, grass, sun, shade, and more)...

...stars...

...crazy stuff...
okay, i'll just say something quick about this one. we were outside the chapel at around midnight ... we were all drained from vision casting, and yet we were so close to agreeing on the wording of our vision that we were tempted to continue. we went outside to pray ... we were asking for wisdom about whether or not God wanted us to go get some rest or continue working on our vision. literally five seconds after we finished praying, all the power inside the chapel went out. it was pitch black. although the power came back on a few minutes later, it was nonetheless kinda weird. =]

...trying out body worship...

...lauging uncontrollably with jeff...

k, tired. hopefully i'll get around to posting on all those topics and more. =] i thank God for this week.

as deep cries out to deep
-bj
posted by Bryan at 9:55 PM

 
k bye. =]

in a land called harmony
-bj
posted by Bryan at 6:47 AM