Youth Group Work Camp Savannah 2007 Hits the Road

The Theme of the Savannah Group Work Camp 2007 was RENOVATE … to renovate both homes for those in need and renovate souls, the souls of young servants in search of the meaning of servanthood. I know I set out to witness God in action and God was ever present throughout this trip.

The very first day, the bus ride saw two movies. One was Hitch. In it, Will Smith has a most memorable line:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take … it’s by the number of moments that take your breath away.”

Our lives are really a sum of the most memorable moments, the ones that must flash in front of one’s eyes when time is something whose measure one is becoming particularly aware of. To have a number of such moments in a single week, I had previously thought, would be remarkable. This was one such journey.

Friday, June 15, 2007

The 2007 Work Camp crew departed from Mt. Zion early in the day en route to Savannah, GA. What struck me was what a mature group of young adults these disciples are already becoming. Some of us spent the day getting to know others we had not known well before. Perhaps there are better ways to do this, but an ultra-competitive contest of “The Game of Knowledge will “clear the air” AND give people a roundabout estimate of your actual date of birth. Two 6-person teams chosen largely at random led me to believe there is nothing random about how young adults choose up sides.

The final score was:
Team 1 (The Spirit Busters) 70

Team 2 (The Sonic Shuttlers) 63

Tod The Busdriver 4

Movies Watched: The Matrix, Hitch

We logged roughly 600 miles on the bus to Tennessee with a mere 1% further on foot to Sonic Burger in Kentucky. It was awesome!!!

God Sightings: After a 40 block walk to Sonic Burger, exactly upon arriving, the speakers are playing the song, Day-O, which the work campers hope to be parodying at the evening program on Wednesday.

190 gallons of diesel fuel $400
Thrifty Inn Lodging for 21 $200
Sonic Burger Run $120
Devotion-Size Candy Bars $10

Game of Knowledge with Mike “Cuththroat” Naumann Priceless

Life requires food, gas, and lodging (& I-pods??)

For everything else, there’s The Spirit

Elizabeth Boos led evening devotions (sans FULL size candy bars), setting the tone for the week ahead. All were pretty tired and lights out was followed by a quiet, restful night.

And … I figure the casual reader and Work Camp novice (of which I am one) will need at least a few entries read from the Work Camp Glossary …

Red Shirts: Any of a number of dedicated Group Work Camp Staffers that move from site-to-site to oversee work, bring needed supplies and cold liquid relief, and/or Krispy Kreme chasers.

God Sightings: Any of a number of improbable happenings that a person of faith recognizes as God intervening in the world to help the universe conspire to allow his creatures to be His Living Word for one another.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Another 600 miles or so to Savannah. Another, much less competitive Game of Knowledge pitted guys against girls, but no score was “officially” kept. Unofficially, the women gave the guys a run for their knowledge. You don’t want Mickie O’Brien on “the other side” when you’re trying to name the four oceans north of the 38th parallel. But you also don’t want Mike Naumann challenging your “degree of difficulty” when the sun’s position is questioned when only “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun”. Hours later, everyone was happy and excited to arrive! First things first and in the hotel pool for a quick cooling off. Then a quick and quiet ride to the River Walk in Savannah. Jeff and Drew Cockerham flew down after attending Drew’s graduation. We picked them up at the airport and proceeded to dinner. Jeff Cockerham shared stories about the slave trade ship landings at the riverfront and some of the rich history of the Savannah water front and port.

Today, along the river are a bevy of restaurants and shops. We took a few tables in Spanky’s Pizza on karaoke night. Pizza’s kept the bellies happy while Mickie, Jackie and Allie took to the microphone with their joint rendition of STOP In the Name of Love ( … Before you break my heart!).

All were tired, but took in devotions back at the hotel. We shared the blog and travel stories from Day 1 and hit the hay again tired, but excited “to be here at last”.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The week’s theme is Renovate – Jesus Makes New

Colossians 3:9b-11
“Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there are no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

We started Sunday bright and early with service at The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Savannah. The pastors and members greeted us and made us feel extremely welcome. The Church dates back to the 1740’s with a beautiful marble altar depicting The Last Supper. The Sermon on the Self-Righteous Pharisee was moving and evocative. Pastor Roen was extremely friendly and made the service memorable for all.

After a tour along the river walk and port of Savannah, everyone enjoyed a quick stop in River Street Sweets, purchasing everything from famous pralines to taffy & everything you can possibly make with enough sugar.

God Sighting: Mt Zion Youth take their picture with a statue commemorating the port of arrival for the slave trade inscribed with words from Maya Angelou:

“We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others’ excrement and urine together, sometimes died together and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together. Today, we are standing up together with faith and even some joy."

The Sunday evening program introduced us all to our work crews. As often apparently happens, people are genuinely excited to share and seem to click in mysterious ways. I will divulge a deep and dark secret that I have wanted to own a Jeep Wrangler for most of my adult life. A silly, ridiculous thing you hold onto. Two young adults in my crew share the same materialistic wanting and the other adult in our crew owns one so we talked Jeeps and then got down to business and picked crew role assignments. Sixty four of the sixty eight work assignments are painting so many power tools have been safely tucked away.

The overriding theme for the week is RENOVATE, both homes … with paint and nails and sweat, and lives … with Jesus , the Word, and the power of fellowship and witnessing.