After I showered after I got back from all-night prayer I now attest to the love of prayer that I have. Last year I managed somehow to go everyday to morning prayer. With my schedule this semester and commitment load, it simply isn’t possible. But tonight I remember why those times were so cherished. Prayer isn’t always fun. It isn’t always easy to do. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to fall asleep while we pray. But when people come together to bring praises, requests, thanksgiving, and honour to God, He listens and He answers. Just for the record, for Campus Crusade for Christ’s upcoming event, we prayed for:

4000 people to attend the main event.
10,000 surveys to be returned - unique people.
The remainder of a huge sum of necessary money (to promote and support the events) to be raised by Wednesday.
At least 90% of the students at the main event will stay to hear the spiritual part at the end.
War Memorial Hall to be packed by Christians for the Christian-focused tag-on event.
Lives will be changed. Lots of follow-up afterwards.

We’ll keep praying, no doubt. But here’s the fun part: seeing God work in mighty ways.

Today I totally got to sleep in a little bit (9:30!) after last night’s post-Crusade meal at East Side’s. This past week I haven’t had much sleep at all since I was studying for midterms late at night and doing stuff for a posters and a website as well. Much needed sleep.

Got up for hockey, for the first time this semester. It’s amazing how much I appreciate that time. This is why I never go home for the weekend, hockey keeps me sane. A good 2.5 hours of playing in net (losing effort, but still valuable) and playing centre position (2 games of winning effort). I really like where I play… I know I’m strong right in front of the net, and cherry-picking goals from huge transitions and turnovers. I really don’t have the ball control of a good defenseman or the stamina to be a winger.

Also went to Black’s after that. Totally dropped off thirty-two (that’s right 32) sets of negatives to get reprints done. It took the guy over 30 minutes to get those processed and put into the envelopes. Fortunately I pre-sorted the pictures last Thursday night in Zavitz, choosing the ones I needed to print that I lost, and also ones I wanted to make 5×7’s of that were nice. I figured that I would do all my printing in one huge slew in order to save time and money. Now to just wait for Thursday, when they all come back. I’ll need to find a truck to drive over to Black’s to pick up all my prints… just kidding.

Watched a movie on CityTV in the afternoon called “The Pallbearer” with David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow, kind of a weird movie with unusual twists. Schwimmer really uses pretty much the same facial emotions like he did on “Friends”. He’s not that great of an actor. Then I took a 4-hour nap. More sleep. I guess I’ve really been needing to catch up.

The last few weeks have obviously taken its toll on me mentally, since my apparent apprehension is showing up in my dreams. Physically, I think I’m not that tired anymore, having had a good two weeks to recover from Summit, but my mind still hasn’t.

For instance, I remember that sometime in the last week I dreamed that Mark liked eating rats and disposed of the bones in the green organic waste bag, but since it stayed in there for almost a week, it started to smell. He was amused when I told him the story.

The night before last I dreamed that Meredith actually stole my Calgary photo album from me and we never actually lost it on the way back from Haliburton and the Summit Retreat. She held onto it for over a week and even offered to help me find it the whole time, and then gave it back to me. In the dream I was very relieved, glad that I hadn’t lost it, that it was a sort of test to show how much it meant to me to get it back. But in reality, Mere wouldn’t have been able to look me straight in the eyes and pretend for that long, nor would she have put me through such agony. Unfortunately, in this case, real life is the bad dream and dreams are just dreams.

I called the MTO road maintenance people and they said they’d be on the lookout for it, but I don’t really have any expectations. After some asking around for options, it’s pretty much going to be making reprints at Black’s, making sure I know which photos I want to pay for. It’s nice in a way, since I wanted to make reprints anyways, and blow some up to give away. Black’s also has an offer right now until the 23rd of October for free upgrade to 5×7″ prints from 4×6″, something I’ll definitely take advantage of.

Some stuff I’ve been learning more and more is selflessness. How can I think of other people, my friends, my family, before I think about myself? Even if it means not getting anything back in return. This is a tough thing to deal with, since sometimes the people closest to me I have the greatest expectations of receiving love, selflessness, and servitude from. But real love doesn’t expect anything, it just gives and gives, even to the point where it hurts — because it’s against our natures to give without receiving.

Today at around noon, the CSA was supposed to host someone named Serena Ryder for its Noon Hour Concert in the UC Courtyard. But since for over fifteen minutes no one showed up, and there was a free microphone and PA system hooked up on-stage, I decided I would do something. I contemplated for so long, but ended up just walking up to the mic and beat-boxing. Oh my it was so fun! No one was expecting it, but I broke the silence and started doing a standard break beat. Kirsten, Jenn, and John Yao were watching on stage, and apparently Beth showed up in the middle of my “performance” and caught it on video. Talk about doing something totally out of my comfort zone.

Wow, this past weekend was Summit, and it was a total blast. It was totally different from other Summits I’ve been to in the past (2 in total, this was my third). But I still managed to have a lot of fun, learn a lot, and be revved up for this semester.

I was responsible for the booking, set-up, monitoring, and tear-down of sound equipment for the Pinetages Main Hall. So there was a little bit of stress earlier in the week when I was booking equipment, finding out whether or not we had to skimp down and re-book from another company, and such. But it worked out. Had to leave at around 11am on Friday to go with Kelly and MC to pick up the Guelph sound equipment and the rental equipment from Audio Access in Downtown Guelph. For future reference, it sometimes takes about 45 minutes to an hour to load a full van of sound equipment. And then I hopped into Graham’s truck for the ride up north to Haliburton and Camp White Pine.

Actually, I had never connected up a rack of amps and EQ’s in my life. Whenever I’d done sound in the past, they were set up for me. But I learned quickly, and by 6-7pm we had the stuff set up for the band, who was setting their instruments and stuff.

During one sound check when Terra Leavens wasn’t present, I sang into her mic a bit to check the monitor levels and stuff. Steve, the worship leader, then asked me to sing with them since they needed a male vocal harmony to back him up! So what ended up happening is I sang harmony with the worship team all weekend! That was an experience. I knew Darren would take care of the sound mix, so I wasn’t worried. But quickly I learned that if you’re going to sing for a whole weekend, you have to take care of your body and your voice, otherwise you aren’t going to make it for the whole time. My voice is actually a bit coarse after the weekend, since I was screaming “Guelph, Guelph!” at the dining hall with the 87 other Guelph students at some points, and the second reason is that I sang my voice out on Saturday night. At some notes, my voice crackles and I can’t maintain pitch.

What was also very interesting and funny was during the Saturday night set, Steve broke a guitar string. And so I ended up playing roadie for about half the time, changing his string, tuning it, and handing it back to him when his other guitar started going out of tune. I think we went through 4 or 5 interchanges of guitars during that set. The same thing happened Sunday morning and we didn’t even blink an eye. Now I know what it really means to serve others and God through something that doesn’t have any visible effect. No doubt, Steve was grateful, and I’m glad I was there to help them out and keep them going.

One of the sessions was “Your Identity in Christ”. That was the one I went to, and it was lead by Steve Strongitharm. Well organized, complete with a handout and comprehensive notes, we went through the time finding out what it means to really find our identities only in Christ. I can’t remember all that was said, and that’s why I’m glad I have the handout, but it really impacted me. So many times I find my value in what I do, or who I know, or how people respond to me. However, the only thing that can keep a Christian from living a life of horrendous ups and downs is to find meaning, purpose, and value in Jesus Christ. Because, as it is shown in the Bible, I mean so much to Jesus that he gave up his life for me. He took on sin for me when he was blameless.

This made my weekend the experience that it was. I spent a lot of time alone since I wasn’t actually part of the band, nor did I feel like a huge part of the Guelph bunch since I didn’t go up with them on the bus and learn all the cheers. I woke up earlier than most to do sound and practice, and spent most of the Saturday afternoon kayaking on the lake in solitude. I needed time to think out things, especially who I was, what I was doing, and why I was doing those things.

Aside from all that, it was wonderful to meet up with project people from Queen’s, Mac, and Toronto area again. To see their faces, to show them my pictures, to laugh out loud at the same personalities and jokes that filled my summer in Calgary. The video on the transformation of a bike into a flying machine also paid off. It was a long video, and a long video in the making, so I’m glad the response was so good. I’ll be putting it online sometime, I hope.

Now, back to Earth. It’ll be a rough transition back to real life, where I need to catch up on sleep, finish up a few assignments that I neglected for all the stuff I mentioned above, and keep my voice silent for a few days to let my vocal chords repair itself. But I know I’m not alone, since I’ve got a great power behind me, with God’s grace, my parents’ prayers, Guelph’s support, the guys’ accountability, my Fort’s superiority, and a bit more passion to get me through.

PS. If someone has my photo album of all my film pictures from Calgary… could you please return it?

North Campus in Guelph. [first try at Hello! from Picasa with BloggerBot]