Sunday, April 9, 2006

First Time

The other day I was doing a favor for a friend of mine. He is a mid-high youth minister and is taking his 6th grade students on a retreat this weekend. I went with him to pick up the vans so that he could get them back to the church. After dropping off the vans he turns to me and says, "Kevin I need one more favor out of you. I need somebody to fill in for me on Sunday morning back here at the church."

Oh wow!

Basically after the early morning service I have to take the 7th and 8th grade students, whom I have never met before, and conduct youth group for them. Now the good thing is I was given a topic. I am going to be using this Nooma video (if you have never seen these, they are 15 minute topical vignettes and are really cool and well produced) and then build a discussion and lesson about forgiveness.

I have often thought about one day doing youth ministry in some capacity but with graduate school, I have never had the time to even volunteer. So here I am getting ready to lead youth group for the very first time with 35-70 kids that I have never met before. I typically don't have a problem with public speaking but I am nervous as all get out.

Saturday, April 8, 2006

Future Plans

In December of 2006 I will be graduating with my MA in Counseling. People have told me over and over again the biggest regret that they have had was that they never did anything big when they were done with school so I have been thinking about doing something. I am still young, healthy and currently not in a a relationship. What will I do? Probably nothing. I will work on getting a job and moving to wherever, becoming another person with regrets.
However some ideas that I have been kicking around (all have certain conditions):

Idea number 1:
This is the big one. I have been thinking about doing it for at least two months. The conditions are that I need the money, my shoulders need to be healthy, and I need a TON of planning.
I would like to hike from Charlotte to Seattle. Why Seattle? Well my best friend Mike lives out there for one so it is a place to go. I would depart Charlotte and hike. No hitch-hiking, no highways, all backroads, and no hotels (unless it is an emergency). I would hike as far as I could each day and when I was getting tired I would stop at someones house and ask if I could pitch a tent on their property and re-charge my phone in their house. I would also be filming a documentary so I would have a video camera and interview each person that let me stay. It would be a great view across America. I would get some quality time with God and always have a story.

Idea number 2:
Conditions would be purely financial and would help if someone would go with me. Go visit another country and tour around for a little bit or even live in another country for a little while. Not sure exactly where. Definatly not England because I have relatives there and have been there enough. Maybe India, I really like the stuff I have seen about that country and am often intrigued by the culture. It seems like a really neat place.

Idea number 3:
Go on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. I really like college ministry. However not growing up in a Christian home did not leave me with an extended list of people that I could comfortably go to and ask for support. Plus I am terrible about asking other people for money. I always feel bad about doing it. I don't even ask my parents for money.

Idea number 4:
Conditions are acceptance and money. I would go and get my doctorate in Psychology or Counseling. If I could go to Stanford or University of Washington and get my PhD under Irvin Yalom or John Gottman I would do it in a heartbeat. Both are very liberal schools but I think I could choke it down to learn under them. Both are in cool cities and I could have my PhD before the age of 29.

I would love any feedback. More ideas may come but I told Mike today that on a scale of 1-10 with 1 = joking, and 10 = 100% doing it, I am currently about a 6-7 doing idea number one. If all three of the earlier mentioned conditions were met, weather permitting, I would leave on the morning of Jan 1, 2007