You've been sleeping for a looooooooong time....

I think it was when I was in 6th grade, on a church youth choir tour to San Antonio, Texas, the really cool high school guys (when you're a pathetic little 6th grader, all high school guys are super cool and you want to be just like the super cool high school girls), we'd have these really long bus rides on our travel days. Of course, some people would like to sleep on such a long journey (not me...i've never been able to sleep in a moving vehicle, i'm sure it has to do with the absence of my bed and pillow). These particular high school guys would target a poor sleeping soul, crowd around them and say with their loudest most obnoxious voice "You've been sleeeeeping for a looooooong time, 'bout time you woke up. LOVE CONNECTION!" and while saying "LOVE CONNECTION" they would clap their hands really fast. The sleeping soul would start, mumble something inappropriate, and then try to hide the fact that they really were feeling pretty special that they were singled out for this embarrassment. That was the same trip that Jessica and Nathan were dating (Jessica is now married to Manolo and they are about to have their first baby, and Nathan I believe is also married, but I haven't seen him in a very long time), and Denae and Chris were dating and breaking up (both of whom are now married to different people who we didn't even know back then!)

It's really neat to look back on stuff like that. Because those two super cool high school guys that did that... are both married to super ladies, have two beautiful little kids, and one of them is even the preacher of a church (and so is his brother)! Crazy! And of those two specific super cool high school girls that we tried to emulate, one I haven't seen in a very long time, and one passed away just last week. She died at the age of 28 after a long battle with lupus. It's good to remember these silly little stories, because they are silly little stories in someone else's memory too. On some philosophical level, i'm sure I could expound on the fact that memories are an element to live that binds certain people on a level far deeper than today's reality because it delves deep into the reality that once was. A reality in the past that somehow seems more innocent and beautiful because we were children and didn't know so much of the world's cruelties. And out of that innocense it seems somehow more real because that's the reality we'd choose to live in if we could.

Here's to memories! Cheers!

Stem Cells

I recently was in a conversation about stem cell research and the morality or appropriateness of it. I remember studying stem cells at UNM, but I didn't remember a whole lot. So I went on a hunt online to educate myself further. I found: http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/. My conclusion may be somewhat shocking, but I really find nothing wrong with it. If we can study and understand the way the body works and turn it to our advantage to cure and help and fix disease and ailments, then we should. People forget that alot of this research is done on adult stem cells, cells that each of us have in our bodies that can be induced to become any other type of cell in the body (developmental biology is the most fascinating subject I've studied). The debate of whether it's right to use embryonic stem cells adds of course a complication, but they use "embryos" pre-implanted (means they haven't attached to the uterus wall yet) and are in vitro (means it's not even in a woman's body, but in a dish somewhere in the lab)...and they are in the blastocyst stage which just means that they are clumps of stem cells about 150 cells total that haven't even begun to form body parts or anything yet. The only situation I can think of that would cause me to be against this would be if they aborted embryos within a mother that were healthy and going to go on to grow into beautiful little humans. Which doesn't seem to be the case. And of course the world is not all daisies and sunshine the way I see it most of the time, so there are most likely labs that actually do that sort of thing (shame on them). But do we put a halt on such a promising means of medicine just because there "might" be "some people" who do it in an unacceptable way? Enter the government to put those types of restrictions. Which I'm sure might be what's happening. Perhaps my next online hunt for education should be to see what the government's current response is. My shameful confession is that I don't pay enough attention to current events, modern day politics or goings on in the world or the USA because alot of the time it's too complicated or it involves issues that really don't effect me, therefore I really don't care. Which is awful, I know. Another one of my problems is that I can see multiple sides of an issue, so it's hard for me to process rightness vs. wrongness in these current issues. War on terrorism, stem cell research, abortion, homosexual marriage, immigration, poverty/welfare, mideastern violence, I can see all the sides. I understand why women want abortions and I understand why it's wrong. I believe homosexuality is wrong, but shouldn't people have the right to choose for themselves without the government telling them what they can or can't do? Terrorists are bad, but do we really need to go invade countries and hunt them down? The world is too complicated for me. I'm little. My mind is merely human. and I refuse to close my mind and have tunnel vision regarding certain issues and their impact on society. Seriously, can't we all just get along? And in the meantime, I'm reminded of a lyric from a song I recently sang...Good news, Chariots are comin'. There will be a day in the near future when the King will come and save us from this monstrosity called earth. This beautiful and wondrous, yet complicated and horrible place we have our temporary residence. All these issues and problems and fightings and unacceptablenesses will be dealt with and we will be freed by the truth that we find.

Lock in madness

Last night, the youth group at church had a lock in. For those of you who don't know what a lock in is, it's where a bunch of mid and high schoolers hang out at the church building all night long and play games and watch movies and eat food until the morning comes. It's a blast! Last night I got there about a quarter to 8. There was madness and pandemonium in the building. About 40 kids came. Girls had to bring $10 and a 2-liter of soda, and boys had to bring $10 and a snack/dessert/cookies/whatever. By the way, they did an incredible job and there was the best selection of cookies and brownies anyone could ask for. It was like the cookie aisle at walmart brought right to FCC. So after everyone got there, we piled into the vans and cars and went over to the bowling alley to start our night. I didn't bowl that great, but I had fun bowling with Esther and Caitlyn and PD and Ben. A strike warranted a little dance, and Shenequa played the second game with us. When we got back to the church 10:30, they immediately set up the volleyball net, with sheets over it to limit viewing...turned off all the lights, plugged in a couple of strobes, and voila!!! Strobe light volleyball. FREAKY!!! It's like the ball could be coming right at you, but since you only see it every other half second, you can't really track it's movement and you could be chasing it along the ground and have really no clue how far away from it you were. It was the good music that made the game fun. hehehe. Then we settled down, got some volunteers and did a little nasty food challenge 11:30. 2 boys and 2 girls got to sit in front of everyone and eat vienna sausages, sardines in mustard sauce, a spoonful of mayonnaise, and a pig's foot. Only a little bit of heaving and gagging came with it, but i was highly impressed. it took a while for the smell of the pig's feet to leave the building. Ick. Then of course, naturally, we followed that with ordering pizza. 12:00 Domino's pizza at midnight it a nice little snack. After we got our little tummies full of energy, we started a rousing game of sardines. 1:00am Sardines is like backward hide and seek. One person hides and everyone seeks, and if you find the person, you hide with them! I'm really bad at that game, I don't know why. I never seem to find them. Me and a couple other people were diligently searching until we realized that it got really quiet and we assumed that everyone was hiding and it was only us three left. Then we realized that not only was that true, but that the game had actually ended and before we knew it they were on to another game. sheesh. The new game was Jailbreak. Similar to hide and seek as well, except when they find you, you go to jail! 1:45 and a free person can help those in jail escape. it's tons of fun. I didn't play, but I got to walk around and see where people were hiding and help the seekers. tricky, i know. After that game got old and people were tired, they set up the GLADIATION PIT! 2:45 Seriously probably one of the best games in youth ministry. Probably made up by none other than the Ben Headley. The only thing I'll say to describe this goodness, is that when you're in control of the ball, you look like a monkey hunched over swinging your large monkey arms around. Hi-larious. We followed that up with a...um...nice little game of "pull apart". 3:15 I think this game was actually invented by people to tire out kids who have too much energy. The guys all get in a big huddle holding on to each other, and the girls have to try to pull them apart and separate them. At 3am in a room where the air conditioning isn't keeping up, this turned in to a huge mass of hot sweaty man. it was disgusting. The girls prevailed and got them all pulled apart. It was a rough fight, one for the books of history, but i was beat. 4:00 Then we served italian sodas and put in the movie Encino Man. I didn't watch...I knew that if I sat down for more than five minutes I'd fall asleep. So I hung out in the kitchen and chatted with the ben cross. good times. A little nap, 5:30 rude awakening, a short devotion and a clean up later 6:00, it was time to go home 7:00. the night flew by, but it was so much fun that the fact that all my muscles hurt and i'm tired is actualy a small price to pay. If anyone is interested, the next time we have one, you can come with me!!!!!!!