Maybe it was lack of sleep. Or too much sun exposure. Or the result of a sugar rush caused by chocolate milk consumption. Any way ya look at it---I was downright SILLY as we travelled home from the beach. Silly enough to elicit scared looks and "Naomi, you are interesting" remarks from The Trinidadian. (although that's perfectly normal---even complimentary, since he usually calls people 'retarded.')

Back to my silliness. There was uncontrollable giggling, reading text messages over someone's shoulder, making funny remarks and ultimately telling this joke;

"A man goes to the doctor, complaining that he can't talk.
The doctor picks up a hammer and pounds the man's thumb.
'AAAAAAH!' the man yells.
'Great,' says the doctor, 'Come back tomorrow and we'll work on 'B'."

* laughs and laughs*

Abruptly, my personal calm reappears.
"(The City Guy), do you have gospel? Give me some soul!" -Me
And with a little rockin' worship music, I wiggled my way into a tight spot on the floor of the van.. and fell asleep.... woke up 2 hours later as we pulled into the church parking lot. :)

ANCF - All Nations Christian Fellowship = a.k.a. The Young AdultsOnly 55 hours away from home. Yet every moment was filled with laughter, intense conversation, relaxation, shopping, spiritual revelation, fellowship with the family of God. I have been so blessed by brothers & sisters in the Lord. I look around at the young adults group and just sigh. Because I'm happy to be apart of this family... Several months ago, we planned a young adults trip to Ventnor Beach, New Jersey. I've always mocked New Jersey. For its gas pumping rules (don't you think I'm capable enough to push the button myself?), its ban on left-turns, its general all-the-New-York-rejects-live-here attitude and liberal bent. Oh yeah, and that line from Madagascar 2, "This looks like a dump. Are you sure we're not in New Jersey?" Which I still laugh about. :) However, after such a pleasant weekend, I can't honestly continue to hate on New Jersey...
Saturday at the beach... Being thrashed by the ocean, watching The Little Bro attempt to surf, reading---always reading, re-applying sunscreen, making sandwiches, napping in the hot sun..

Group cooking, sunset on a windy pier, then acoustic worship, Bible study & prayer in a pavilion by the beach, swingin on the porch swing, walking across the island for ice cream at Custard's Last Stand.... haha. I love puns! :)

Sunday. Up early for church. It was a great commute---walk down porch steps, to the next building and voila! We are in church! :) (we were staying with the pastor & his wife, who happened to live in the parsonage next door). How convenient. To the beach AGAIN. There were many people in serious redness and sunburn pain. I liked watching everyone hide under blankets, towels and beach umbrellas... We LOVE the sun! Oh wait, we hate the sun!... Confused. :) For the record, I was not sunburnt. Since this was the first *real* time I spent out in the bright summer rays, I was extra careful. SPF 85, baby! :) Back to the beach house. Slow porch swinging and lovely conversation with The Little Bro. Regaining my calloused guitar fingers with slow & meditative worship songs. Pack up and we're off!

Ocean City, NJ. We really wanted to eat seafood. I don't know how hot it was when we exited the van, but there was sweat dripping and smiles drooping.. dreadfully. As soon as we experienced A/C and the prospect of food again, it was amazing how quickly things changed! :) And because I love, love, love seafood, this will make you hungry... The Little Bro's clam chowder. Good, but the lobster bisque was AHHHmazing. So much better. But I'm prejudiced. :)

I love hole-in-the-wall restaurants. :) We passed this one initially because it didn't look like there was indoor seating... but whaddya know? There was! And they even made a table for nine just for us! Also love eating with "family" who let me try their food. Variety is the spice of life!... crab cakes (my entree!), clam chowder, swordfish, lobster bisque and those funny things above that I cannot remember the name of... hmmm. Yummy though.


My constant photography focus didn't escape the group's notice.. and the comments were...
"Everything is a photo shoot to you, Naomi, isn't it?"
"I don't bring my camera because I figure Naomi's gonna take lots of pictures and post them on facebook anyway."
The truth comes out. :)


Onward to walking the boardwalk, touristy shopping (cheap jewelry makes me happy!), ice cream again and then absolute nuttiness on the drive home. A thoroughly wonderful time.

I went to Dallas, Texas for a youth camp/conference/encounter with the Lord…. expecting that my youth group would be touched by the Lord. I even expected that I would be encouraged. But I just didn’t expect the depth of the words that God spoke to my heart…

He convicted me of hidden sin.
He challenged my faith.
He changed my vision.
He gave me eyes to see like He sees.
He restored my first love.
He gave me right perspective, “Ministry is hard when you pick up things that God never told you to pick up.”
He called me to Himself.
He crucified my flesh.
He humbled my wretched pride.
He broke me… reduced me to tears..
He convinced me of my utter dependence on Him, and my certain failure without Him.
He spoke words in gentle truth in my ear—that I could speak to the youth.
He reminded me that other people love Him, too.
He caused my heart to cry out in worship.
He satisfied my soul’s longing.
He left me in total awe of the Spirit’s power.
He confirmed His Word to me… through the words of youth.
He turned all focus to Himself—where it rightfully belongs!

And if this is all that God did in my heart… what has He done in the hearts of the youth? Time will tell. For almost four hours on the last day, we had a meeting in the van. Worshipped, prayed and mostly talked about what God is speaking to the youth group as a whole and what we need to practically change. And then just spontaneous exhortation and encouragement. There was zeal and passion and fire in their eyes… and a huge smile on my face! This is what I LOVE. Seeing youth passionate for Jesus… wow. It just thrills my soul. Already (after 4 days back), I have witnessed practical changes in their lives. May God give grace to each of us! That we may live for His glory! And accurately reflect the character of God in this world.

“Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of Your name!…”
Psalm 79:9

“Darn it! I forgot my chopsticks” –The Joker

“I’ll beat the fool outta him” – Adam McCain, director of CFNI.

“It was like that Indian trail.” –The Joker refers to playing games outside in 105 degree Texas heat.
“The Trail of Tears?” –Me
“Yeah, that’s it! It was like the Trail of Tears!” –The Joker

“And when he said, ‘Gig,’ I almost body-slammed him.” –Adam McCain about people treating ministry like a job.

“AAH! Your foot touched me again. Don’t touch me!” –Family Friend

*sings* “Mind your own business.. mind your own business and stay out of miiiiine!” *singing to the tune of Feliz Navidad*

“What do YOU think the giraffe’s name should be? Frederick or Jack?” –The Crazy Kid
“Jack!” –Me (Naming the giraffe statue at Dallas Zoo)
“Oh, come ON!” –The Crazy Kid
We eventually named the giraffe, Sebastian Jack Walter Merl Melman... err something like that.

“While you were sleeping, we saw a town called ‘St. Elmo’ for your list!” –The Pastor’s Wife… because I was making a list of weird town names.
Including London, Palestine, Friendship, Jericho, Paris, Pocahontas and Brazil. :)

“Stop trying to get to the inner place of anointing and take time to die in the outer court.” –Banning Liebscher, guest preacher.

“Just sayin’.” –Mike Bond, assistant YFN director… this oft-repeated phrase is only powerful if it follows something painfully blunt and accompanied by shrugging shoulders and a look of innocence. :)

“I will CUT you!” –I don’t even know who first said this little ghetto phrase. You must say it with attitude and a little finger-wagging and head-shaking… :) HA-larious!

“I feel the wind of the Spirit… oh no, that’s the air conditioning!” –Me

10 Youth + 3 Leaders + 25 & 25 hours of driving + 5 days of crazy Youth Camp = My Week

One of the glories of being a youth leader is called, "delegation." I'm not very good at that, but I was smart enough to delegate the task of driving a big white van + UHAUL trailer from central Pennsylvania to Dallas, TX. For some reason, I am usually relegated to driving that van only when it's dark and raining... which is enough to freak me out. So for the safety of all involved, I enlisted the help of two wonderful other leader/drivers and I just "supervised." Supervised the youth---not the drivers! And since the youth slept for the majority of the trip down & back... so did I!

I know you are thinking... well then, why is sleep overrated? Because for days before our trip to Texas commenced, I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep per night and the night before our trip... it was more like 2 hours. As I like to say, "El stupido!" (murdering another language besides English is always fun). I was one MESSED-UP and sleepless individual.

So we depart from State College, PA at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning. At 6:00 AM, I am rudely awakened by some idiot honking and waving at us... The youth painted up the windows with cool stuff like our youth group name, Scripture references and one long window of "TEXAS OR BUST!" I'm thinking that the weird honking guy was expressing joy at the sight of our colorful and original window art. But just to be safe, the driver pulls over to the side of the road and does a walk around the van + trailer. She comes back totally alarmed---the back door of the luggage trailer was open!! I'm having visions of a week of wearing the same clothes every. single. day. Ahh! So we drag all the youth out to confirm that their luggage was still intact.... In the end, the only thing we lost was a cooler with a watermelon. God's mercy is great! We had prayed for our protection---but sadly neglected to pray over the watermelon. Oh well. I'm sure somebody got a kick out of seeing a watermelon rolling down the highway! :)

Anyway, our halfway point was at our family friends' house in Ste. Genevieve, MO. They were COOL enough to welcome a group of teenagers who ate tons of pizza, climbed into a little kids' treehouse, spent hours straightening each others' hair (the girls), playing Skippo, listening to music and generally laughing ALOT. Remember that I wasn't driving? This is an important fact. We arrived in MO about 7 pm. Ate dinner, had a youth group meeting--talked about the Word and had some time in prayer, and then just chilled out. The other leaders went to bed.... 10 PM rolls around, it's the youth+me+two very cool Missouri friends... Midnight rolls around... we decide that sleep is pointless. Because we are leaving at 3 AM. It was a night of laughter, playing music, silly songs, worship songs, jokes, meeting a new friend, serious conversation, more hair straightening and then finally saying goodbye.

Our time in Texas didn't yield much sleeping time, either... Crazy schedule, stupid (bright) city lights, loud ghetto noises, wide-awake because of what God was doing, etc... One night I found myself twirling a stuffed bear in the air at 2 am and rambling endlessly. (The bear is another story). But it was a fruitful time of ministry and besides, we could always catch up on sleep during the drive home, right??

More stories to come.... :)

To sum up my weekend in two words, it would be "water" and "fire." (and maybe some pretty summer clouds, too, but that can be a bonus!).