down the dusty road

This is my 100th post on this blog. Congratulations to me, and thanks to all of you for reading.

Well, I have just finished packing up all my stuff and am ready tomorrow to return to the Bible Institute for summer ministry. All I have to do tomorrow is clean the place where I and the other students working have been living. It will actually be a group effort, starting from our rooms and moving outward. The cool thing is we get paid for it.

I am grateful for this time to have worked, but am glad to be moving on. Tonight, after I post this, I will go and relax and watch a few movies.

I find myself in a contemplative mood. I just read a thought provoking blog entry by Andrew Ferris (JesusWasOnly34). He talks about faith and not being able to move mountains. You see, we want the stop-the-sun-in-the-sky defeat-giants call-down-fire-from-heaven type of faith acts, but don’t want to spend quiet time with God. Real faith, Andrew believes and I agree, comes from sitting down and having time with God. Though He will give us the strength and stamina to do it, the doing is actually ours to perform. He will sustain, but we must act. Once we get into the habit of seeking His face, “All these things will be added unto you,” as Matthew says. So I must ponder this, and get into the habit of quiet time with God. Cause He knows that there is no other way that I will make it through a summer of counseling without it.

In other news, I was able to have a phone conversation with my parents and sister. Always good to hear their voices. I couldn’t think of much to say, but it was nice to talk about the little things. I sure do miss them.

Pray for me, I start soon into the long, crazy ride of summer camp. I jump off the ledge with only God, and fall into the fray of battle, fun, lives that need God, and my own personal demons.

It will be wild and life changing.

I will try as hard as possible on my day off every week to write a little something and let you all know how I am getting along. If I can’t, don’t worry, I am still alive, probably just sleeping.

Farewell for now, I am gathering my wits and am about to leap into the fray…

~the StormRider~

Hello there,

My time here at the Inn is winding down, and then my summer work starts. This was supposed to be a vacation, but it still feels like I need one. So pray for me. Not much to report, except that the fun has yet to begin….

the StormRider

Just hangin.

I am at the “Business Office” here at the Inn; the only place I can get internet. Yesterday I drove with some friends back down to the Bible Institute and used the library computers.

Not much is new, back at work and all that jazz.

I miss you all, and wish I could spend quality time with more than just a few of you. Enjoy your summers and cherish every moment, they will never come again.

Love to ya’ll.

~the StormRider~

Hey Ya’ll,

 School ended on Friday, and now I am at the WOL Inn working. Students reconvene for summer ministry on the 13th of June. Until then I am working and hanging out.

Update on the burned-out church, the police are offering a $5k reward for info leading to an arrest.

Update on the WOL Island damage, over 100 trees were knocked down by an almost tornado (it didn’t actually touch down), and all the power lines are down. I was over there last Thursday to help with cleanup and it looks like a regular war zone. The whole place is a mess and there are about 3 buildings that don’t have some sort of damage. Pray for the volunteer teams that are working on cleanup. Pray for good weather, too.

Mike Willard, who was in PNG to work on an airstrip last year, showed up to volunteer for a few days. Was neat to see him. (Papa, he says Hi and that he loves you and misses you guys.)

Other than that not much has happened. Today is my one day off out of 11 work days, with 7 ahead of me. Will be crazy. Two hours of maintenance in the morning, then wait staff for lunch and dinner. At least the money is decent.

Oh, I worked a wedding again last Saturday. Always fun, always crazy. Even a little more fun than being in a wedding, at least the one I was in, cause I didn’t do much. Oh well.

Take care everybody. Love you, miss you.

Peace and grace.

I posted about Dr. Pritchard several days ago, and this morning received an email from him, which I will post here.

I had no idea that he would read my blog, or even comment. What makes it even better is that he had something nice to say.

Here’s the email:

StormRider, Thanks for your kind comments on your weblog about my messages at the Founders Conference last week. You did a wonderful job of summarizing all the things I said in a very concise and helpful manner. I thoroughly enjoyed myself last weekend and felt that there was an excellent spirit in all the services. God bless you as you finish this final week and as you minister this summer at WOL. Cordially, Ray Pritchard

Thanks, Pastor Ray.

for now,

the StormRider

In town last night an Episcopalian church burned to the ground. It had been receiving threats for some time that this would happen, and the caller said that it was because of the preaching of heresy and the false doctrine of the church.

Obviously, one would check out religious fanatics for something like this, and where else could you find a large group of religious fanatics than at a Bible college?

So the cops are here interviewing random students about the incident.

I know a few students who would be dumb enough to want to do something like that, but fortunately they are not stupid enough to actually do it (I hope).

And, due to all the damage at the Island they are forcibly recruiting all of us with nothing else (HA!) to do tomorrow afternoon to go work at cleaning up. I am so not looking foward to it, but there is little I can do about it.

Anyway, that’s the latest from WOLBI.

Yesterday there was an awesome display of God’s power. A storm blew up across the lake and we had a tremendous show. Standing on our two story balcony we watched lightning crash and thunder roll. A loud cracking and popping preluded a tree that came crashing down. It was awesome to see, this mighty tree suddenly craaack and fall to the ground!

Limbs blew down in amazing numbers and a PNG like monsoon rainstorm swept up.

We at the BI were lucky. Nine miles up the road, in the middle of Schroon Lake sits the island. Three buildings there were completely demolished in the storm, and power lines are down everywhere. The island is quarantined except for work crews, and it is dangerous for them.

Even more disturbing is the ominous rumbles I hear now. I just talked with Nate who is up at the Inn, which sits across from the island. Another storm is brewing.

God help us.

the StormRider