Dodge Ball Forever

The sport of choice amongst the Junior Highers of FSM is definitely dodge ball. During the recent trip to Kansas City to do some work with the homeless, I found out the power of the dodge ball. Everyday we would wake up, eat some breakfast, and head to the City Union Mission to work. After work, the onslaught of one question would come. “Hey Murray, can we go and play dodge ball?” Wow, I must have heard it a million times.

I can’t blame them though, when I was in Elementary School and Junior High, dodge ball was always my favorite PE activity. I guess there is something very exciting about lining up on either side of a gym, waiting for the whistle to begin the match, and staring into the eyes of the opponent longing to blast them with a red playground ball.

It speaks to the man/boy in me. It is visceral. It is war. I have never fancied being in the army or going to war, but there is something deep in me that desires the simplicity of the dodge ball kill. From the long bomb kill, to the close range laser-beam kill, to the “oops…dangit!!” he caught my ball and now I’m out, it is a game that never seems to get old.

That was the problem in KC. It never got old for the students, so we played it over and over.

I made the mistake of thinking that the students might be getting a little bored of the same old basic rules of dodge ball so I came up with a couple of alternative ways to play. What gave me the idea was watching one of our students who was incredible at not getting out. He was so good that he would be the last one standing on his team facing an onslaught from 10 to 15 students on the opposing team. He could dodge 6 and 7 balls thrown simultaneously. It was incredible. It inspired me to come up with a new version of Dodge ball called “Onslaught”. The rules are simple. Everyone except for one player lines up on one side leaving the single player to face the “Onslaught”. The object of the game is to simply stay alive as long as possible. To play it you need a lot of dodge balls and a stopwatch. It sounded fun to me, but the students soon rebelled and cried out for the old standard…what do they know. Whatever.

After that, I just let the game go. Why mess with a classic? Chalk it up to a lesson learned. Dodge Ball Forever!

Back From KC

I don’t have the energy to post a full blog about everything that happened in KC with the Junior Highers right now, but be looking for it in the future… though I don’t really promise anything. I may get distracted and start writing about other things. But, it was great. I am really happy with everything that happened. I think it went smoother than last year in spite of the fact that I was the only staff member there. I had great help from my leaders. And, our students did a great job.

Overall it was pretty easy. I spent my time wandering around from team to team to see what they were doing. I also handled any emergencies as they came up. It seemed to work pretty well. I only had to get heavy on some students once. They were doing some silly stuff that they knew better than doing. Listen to me, I sound like a bona fide adult. That’s sick. But someone has to be the adult. That is what Fellowship was paying me to do while I was there.

More later maybe. When my brain gets a little rest, I will write more.

A Tool I Love

Google Toolbar

Even though I am into Mozilla Firefox and this tool doesn’t work with it, I love the Google toolbar. (Firefox has a lot of the tools from the Google Toolbar integrated into it already.) If you are an Internet Explorer person, and you want the ease and usefulness of Google right at your fingertips at all times then this tool is for you. I use it all the time. Also, if you use Blogger like me… then the Google toolbar adds a button that allows you to pop open a Blogger window whenever you feel the creative juices flowing. In fact, this is the first time I have ever used the Blogger feature. (I am using it right now to write this little article.) It’s pretty cool, and it is a built in reminder to keep your blog up to date. If you are looking for a tool that brings real value to your browsing… check out Google Toolbar.

Getting Ready to Leave

We are making our final preparations for our trip to Kansas City. I have spent this past week at work trying to peer into the future and trying to figure out all the things I will need on the trip. I love going places, but I always have that nagging feeling that I have forgotten something. And, whether or not I forget something seems to have no correlation to how much planning I do. There are times that I just throw stuff together and I have everything I need and other times I meticulously plan every aspect and I leave something crucial behind. It makes no sense.

But, Like I said, we are going to Kansas City on a Mission trip. I will be with a group of Junior Highers, and we will be helping a ministry that ministers to homeless men and families that are in trouble. We will be doing that in the mornings. We will then eat lunch, pile on a bus, and head back to the camp where we are staying and do some more work. This is the first time that we will be doing a split-location work trip. I will let you know how it goes.

Cleaning the Durango

I spent this morning cleaning out our Dodge Durango. Having two children who are 3 years old or younger is really hard on a vehicle. It is amazing how dirty they can make our truck. So, it is nice to spend some quality time on it and get it cleaned up. It is about this time each year that I do a real ’spring cleaning’ on the vehicle.

I moved all the seats and vacuumed everywhere and cleaned up every bit of filth I could find. I also did some detailing on the dash. It looks really good. But, the piece de resistance is how I cleaned our cup holders. The cup holders in our Durango are in the console in between the driver and passenger seats. They are permanent, and let me tell you after having the car for around 2 years; they have collected some serious funk! The cup holders have a rubber lining. I removed them, brought them into the house, and took them to the sink and gave them a real scrubbing. Upon removal of the liners I discovered a repository of pure disgustitude. Coke and other mystery liquids had found their way under the liners where they coalesced into some sticky, funky residue. It was brown and gooey… really “nice”! After a generous dousing of Windex and nearly half a roll of paper towels, our Durango is back as good as new.

After I finish crafting this blog, I will have to get all my clothes together and finish getting ready. I hate packing and unpacking. I like trips, but the logistics involved leave me a little cold. If I were a rich man, I would have my valet do it.

“James, go and clean the car and pack me for Kansas City.”

“Yes sir, right away sir.”

Wouldn’t that be nice? Oh well, back to the reality of clean socks and underwear… Peace out!

How Incredibly Dope

This is the first blog that is uploading directly to my personal website. How incredibly cool is this. Now, no matter where I am, if I have access to the Internet, I can update part of my website. I know, I know, I could just update my site in the old fashioned way, but, I can do it with www.blogger.com and that is cool. This also allows me to just to type what is on my mind without having to think about layout at all. If you have any experience with web publishing, you can appreciate that.

I am really excited. I may be able to keep this up to date when I am out and about. Who knows… maybe this will be a flash in the pan, and I will get tired of it and just forget about it. It is a mystery. Stay tuned!

Kansas City Mission Trip

This is the last week before we pack up for our Mission Trip to Kansas City. I am going with 57 Junior High Students to work with the homeless for a week. I am actually looking forward to it. It is neat to see a group of Junior Highers who really want to help out.

Last Year we went to Kansas City for the first time. And like all firsts you find yourself in, I was a little scared. I didn’t know what to expect. I mean we were taking a group of 13 and 14 year olds into the heart of the inner city. I am from a moderately small town in the south, and I have had very limited access to inner city environments.

Since I am the leader of the group, I didn’t want to seem scared, because my feelings would be echoed in the group, but there was no denying it, I was a little scared. We went to go and work at the City Union Mission. I hadn’t met anyone there and I was interested to see what I would find. As is normal, most of the time the people I meet places are pretty cool, and thankfully, this time they were cool.

By the end of the week, we had made a new set of friends and we were looking forward the next year.

The Bad News

This year, we just found out that there is a new person that we will be working with. Now the rules have changed again. Last year, we were able to work all day, which in the case of a mission trip is a good thing. We really don’t have anything for the students to do while we are there, so the less down time the better. If we have too much the students get bored, and 57 bored Junior High students can be very dangerous.

Knowing that, we just found out that the City Union Mission will only have work for us until 1 in the afternoon. That leaves a ton of extra time. Also, that means that we are going to have to find something else to do. So, this year we are splitting up where we are working. In the morning, we will be working at the Mission, and in the afternoon we will be working at the camp we are staying at.

We also have good relationships with the people at the camp so it is exciting to get the opportunity to serve them. Fun Times.

–BTW–

It is nice to have a place to write where I don’t feel the compulsion to edit myself. If I make mistakes, well that is just part of the deal. I don’t want to have to re-read my stuff…it just takes too long.

We have some cupcakes here in the house, and my kids are obsessed. The cupcakes just sit there on the counter calling out to them. Come and eat me. All that to say…I have said the word “no” about 12 million times today.