Early Morning

The early morning offers protection, a shield from others. Cloaked in darkness and quietness and with the knowledge that most people are a sleep offers to hide what you do.

So slip off into the woods, say a prayer, speak out loud to the God above. Knowing it’s just you, and God. Read your Bible, make a cup of tea, or a pot of Joe to accompany yourself.

The early morning is the one time of day when most everyone is sleeping. The night owls have drunk themselves to sleep, or exhausted have passed out on their beds. 

But now, the world is offered a new start. Another chance to do good, make right what was wrong. To do the best to your ability. 

But who will take God up on this offer? Who will sacrifice a few hours of sleep to be one of the first to experience the morning. One of the first to see the light of day creep across the horizon. Will you take this opportunity to be alone and experience God?

This, my friend, is the early morning. The early morning is a quiet, thoughtful time of meditation and prayer. A time to recoup and clear your head. A time to plan the day ahead. To get a ‘head start’ to your day. A time to enjoy the sound of birdsong and the breeze whisper through the trees. To see the doe at the edge of the forest and the shadows creep back into their nooks and crannies.
A time to enjoy the creation and God without distraction and busyness of the day time. Without the noise and clamor. A quiet time filled with peace and tranquility. 

So when you hear me say “I’m a morning person” this is what I’m really saying. This is what I really mean.

English Vintner

Starbucks

I sat down at the table at Starbucks, plugged in my computer and listened to music as I read a couple of paragraphs of The Unsettling of America. A couple came to the table and asked if they could plug in their computer and sit down. I happily complied as I’m always looking for ways to interact and talk with people. I’m not always that good with starting, but if someone else initiates, I’m all in. 

She sat down and asked me a few questions, I said I was up here working at the Boardwalk Chapel. We told stuff about ourselves. They go to a more charismatic church in between Lancaster and Philadelphia. We got to talking about churches a little bit, and that went into adoption and missions. Several of her grandchildren are adopted and we talked about that for a while, I told her my parents were looking at adopting. I told her about my possible mission internship to Uganda and that I was going to Honduras in November. We had connections all over the place, people we knew going to Honduras, and just had that cool connection that Christians have when they interact. We talked for a good 15-20 minutes. I told her where I was in life, not really interested in school, more into agriculture and missions. At the end she asked me about the book I was reading and we talked about Monsanto and all the stuff about it. We agreed on how evil we believe Monsanto to be and how Godless they treat their customers. 

She let me get back to reading, which I complied to, but obviously was happy to talk with her. After she had checked stuff on her computer she gave me a hug and $20 and said how good it was to meet me. How Christians are everywhere and how encouraging it was to meet me and talk with me. She said she had a good feeling about me, and how God’s hand was upon me when she sat down. 

It was so cool to see God’s hand at work. I love interacting with people, meeting random people, especially Christians, and just talking about life and Jesus, and what he’s doing in our lives. It was definitely a great experience and I am overjoyed with how God put that in my life!

English Vintner

The Finish Line

Doug Clark was an amazing man. I didn’t have the privilege to get to know him very well, I just saw his interaction with others, and listened in on conversations. I still am having a hard time believing I won’t see his grinning face when I go back to my church. He ministered so well to many of the families in our church that were going through very hard times. It was so cool to see an elder with views so similar to my families on so many levels. He knew his doctrine, but he loved people. He loved people. You could see it in his face, in the way he interacted with everyone. One of those very comforting people to be around, a great laugh. He had three children who were all going to his church, all of them married, and with quite a few grandchildren running around. He could see leadership in someone and put people in places to make them grow. He was the elder who would often read the hard things that had come upon the congregation and also was moderator for many circumstances. He was so good at dealing with hard situations that would come up. 

He will be missed. There are many tears being shed for him around the world of people who know him. His family will miss him, his wife will miss him. But he’s found ultimate joy, peace, satisfaction. He’s already finished the race, we still have yet to run, but he’s been taken home. His medal of honor has been awarded to him. One day we to will fellowship again with him. For we live in a world without hope, except for that of Christ Jesus. When we put our trust and hope in Jesus we have a life worth living, and death is our reward. There is no fear in death, for Jesus will hold your hand, and hug you on the other side. So, weep, weep tears of grief, allow the sorrow to be, but know that on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. After the darkness there is light. Weep now, but remember that joy comes in the morning. It is right to cry, to be sad, but do not stay there forever. We serve a God who lives, and His love never fails. Christ is Risen! 

English Vintner

He will be missed

When the reality hits you so hard you don’t know what to do

it’s gut wrenching; it’s hard to do anything, let alone breathe,

breathe, it’s hard to do that

hot, wet tears flow down my cheeks as I write,

stumbling, trying my best to capture my emotions in the words,

I’m not sure how to think, or what to think

There’s a purpose, but why? for What?

There’s hope, but there was no good bye

These words ringing through my ears over and over:

Higher than the mountains that I face

Stronger than the power of the grave

Constant through the trial and the change

One thing remains

One thing remains

Your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me 

On and on and on and on it goes

It overwhelms and satisfies my soul

And I never ever have to be afraid

One thing remains

In death and in life I'm confident and covered by the power of your great love

My debt is paid there's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love

“I will not say do not weep; for not all tears are an evil” 

And it’s true, through your tears you show your love for someone,

“Jesus wept.”

English Vintner

life here

I never feel adequate for the situation, not really.

I find myself in leadership positions, and I never feel like I actually should be here, but here I am, and I end up doing a good job of it. I find myself in evangelism teams, with people who are more quiet than I am, not as much energy, and I'm forced to be the leader in those situations, and so I end up being the leader. But, I don't crave that persa, I wouldn't automatically choose to be the leader of the group, because I like to see someone else do it, see how they do things, learn from them.

Jesus is showing me how to be interactive, how to strike up a conversation, and turn it to tough questions, asking things like "Where would you find yourself if you died, and why?". It's been fun to see myself grow in these areas, prolong conversations with people, connect with people, sit down, pray with people I met 3 minutes ago. God is doing amazing things in my life and I hope to continue them when I'm done serving here for the summer.

I'm already thinking of new opportunities to serve, and serve better in the ways I was already serving. I want to be more focussed on evangelism, reaching the ones that are lost. I want to be able to just go up and start talking with someone, make friends with strangers. I want to care less about myself and let my fear of man be lost. To not care what someone else things about what I'm doing, but to think about their eternal salvation. Someone has said before, the only thing we can't do in heaven is proclaim the Gospel to the lost, and so that's what his goal here on earth was; to reach the lost. And I think that's a pretty good perspective to live by. I want to throw my life at the feet of Jesus. I want to mirror God's love for me to the people around me. I want to be ready, spontaineous. When Jesus calls me to be a 'fisher of me' I want to follow. Not my will, but Your will be done.

I'm trying to learn more musical stuff here too. I'm learning to play the drums much better, and I'm trying to learn the guitar and ukelele, and maybe some piano. I want to make the most of the environment I'm surrounded by.


English Vintner

Children

I sit in silence from the world, surrounded by music from my ear buds. Watching a girl of 5 years old dance around in Starbucks without a second thought. From one tile to the next, without a care of who's watching or what they think. Innocence; bliss. What is the real world, is it the cage that we live in, surrounded by social norms, expected to act a certain way? To be a child again, to not know the things you know, the dangers, the cares of the world. To be a carefree child, with no curb to the creativity or the feelings inside.

English Vintner

July 4th

July fourth dawned, like any other day around here. I was asleep when the sun rose, which is typical, since I don’t go to bed until one o'clock most nights. My alarm was set for 8:30am, but after seven hours of sleep I figured I could hit the snooze for a few minutes. I got up at 8:50am, grabbed some clothes, keys, and headed to the car. I jumped in it, which by now was already simmering hot from the sun’s rays. I was driving to Wal-Mart, which I’d been to once before, I knew how to get there, but didn’t have directions, which I thought I might need. I ended up going past my first turn and getting a little bit lost, but ended up not losing much time. I got to Wal-Mart, stood inline at the return counter for about 15 minutes, which is when I realized that today was a holiday, July fourth. I felt bad for all the people working and tried to be as nice as possible to everyone. I got my item returned and weeded my way through the crowds. By now Wal-Mart was starting to get packed, tons of people showing up for last minute shopping. I got the items I needed and headed to the check-out. I greeted the cashier and payed for my items. I made it back to the house a few minutes late for prayer meeting, which ended up not happening, or I missed it all together, I’m still not sure. 

At 10:30am, after I grabbed a sip of joe we headed to our first party of the day. We arrived at the their house, a family who go the Calvary OPC where we attend on Sundays. I already knew the two youngest kids, Marissa who was 13, and Caleb who was a little older. We hung out for a while, chilling. Some people went in the pool, others played bad mitten. Around noon we came into the air conditioned house (an anomaly around here) and ate lunch.

We ate lunch outside, under the shade of outdoor umbrellas. After we finished eating we played a  round of mafia. It was surprisingly fun for the amount of people we had, almost a dozen; but we learned some fun new things to add to the game. It was a good time of bonding with everyone.

We came inside for a little while, Seth and Caleb jammed a little with the guitar and ukulele. Marissa got a group of us together to go play volley ball and later bad mitten. Both were quite fun. Around 4pm we headed back to the Dunn house to quickly change and get ready for the next party. We left to go to the Adleighs for dinner. We arrived at a somewhat run-down looking house, surrounded by several acres of woods, some turned into garden and other fenced into horse lot. It reminded me of my cousin’s house, which is down in the woods, but very country, projects kind of lying around, waiting to be finished. We hung out in a big oak tree, and for supper had hotdogs and hamburgers. Around 7:15pm some of us headed back to the Dunn house to quickly change and head to the evening program, totally put on by the Youth Group from Warrenton VA. The Youth Group did a wonderful job and it was so nice to sit back and enjoy the whole program without being in it. They were very thankful for our support. Afterwards we walked out on the Boardwalk to see the fireworks. There were so many people on the Boardwalk, more than I’ve ever seen. It was hard just to walk through. The fireworks display was good and lasted 20 minutes. Afterwards we went out to the beach and dabbled in the sea water, singing hymns. We came back to the chapel and hung out, talking with people who came by, and hanging out with the YG, singing hymns and talking.

When it was almost midnight we headed back to the house to get some sleep. That was my fourth of July, here at the Boardwalk Chapel.

English Vintner

Here

So, I'm here. It's been a good week here at the Boardwalk Chapel. This week I learned what it is like to be on staff here. It's been so much fun getting to know the Pilgrim Youth Group that just left this morning. We had fun playing soccer and ultimate frisbee with the first day, and go out evangelizing with them several of the nights. They were such a blessing to have around, doing several songs in the program each night and just having them around.

Life is certainly busy here. I'm still trying to figure out a personal schedule for devotions and quiet time. I've got our room kind of decked out, but I still don't like it. Maybe because it's so much like a dorm room, and I can't really stand dorm rooms. The lighting is not very good, and the air is always so damp. I'm working on a dehumidifier using rock salt and two containers, one to hold the salt and direct water into the other container. The salt draws moisture from the air and deposits it in the water below.

Right now the schedule kind of looks like this: Wake up between 8-10am, eat breakfast, have a time of prayer with everyone, chill out for a little bit. Go to the chapel at 12pm for an hour of skit practice and drama stuff. Come back at 1pm for lunch, head back to the chapel at 2:30pm. Work on music until 4:45pm, come back and eat supper. Head back to the chapel at 6:30pm to run through the program until 8pm when it starts. Run the program until 9:15-30pm when it ends. Listen to JZ give a lecture/sermon on evangilizem. Head out to evangelize at 11pm and come back a little before 12pm. Clean up, grab our stuff and drive back to the Dunn house where we're staying. Talk about our experiences with evangelizing and eat a little bit, maybe pray if we're not too tired. Talk. And head to bed between 12:30am and 1:30am.

So, it's a busy schedule. I haven't really gone anywhere much, and that's bugging me a little bit....I feel too closed in, too tightly sealed. Like a dorm room. I miss the 'homeyness' of a real house, the fact that you can come into a living room and sit on a couch and have conversation around the living room. We don't have that here. We have a front porch, and we have a kitchen table that we eat at.

Life is good though. Getting to know the people on the staff, singing each night, doing skits. I can't believe I'm here at times, than I remember the awesome people I met and think, oh yes! God has a purpose and I'm glad I'm here! I certainly miss some things from home, but that's to be expected when you have a garden, and landscape that you've been putting work into for the last 3 months. I miss the projects I started. But it makes it all worth it when you see the joy on someones face when you present the Gospel and see that person's face light up. God is awesome!




English Vintner

Connect and Relate

I am realizing more the reason behind some of the things I do and I am doing. The drive is, connection and relatability. I want to relate to people. I want to make connections. I want to relate to people. 

For this reason I do listen to rap. I dress the way I do. I listen to the pop music on the radio. I am obsessed with the things I’m obsessed with. I do the things I do. I want to be able to connect. I want to relate. And not just to any body, but especially those who are ‘outcast’ of the circles I’m in. Ones that people would judge in my circles. I want to be able to connect and have something to talk about. I want to have a point to start out. And so I started this life style of going out into the world in a sense. I am getting down into the dirt. I am getting a little dirt on myself for the sake or relationship. For this reason I do these things. 

Like Paul says, I become as one under the law to those under the law. Paul relates to the greeks in ways, but also being a Jew relates to the Jews and calls them brothers. Paul goes to great lengths to connect and relate to people to bring people to Jesus. This was an inspiration to me, and I seek to do this. Jesus ate with the tax collectors and prostitutes, and ate among sinners. We surround ourselves with godly people to be edified, but must go to the ungodly to edify them. We need strength so that we have strength to give to others.

English Vintner

Thoughts from a Coffee Drinker

Like every other morning he reached for the grinder and pushed the  on button, spooning in several tablespoons of beans into the hopper, the grinding sound of the burrs chopping the beans was something he was used to. After a minute he scooped the grounds into a cloth filter and reached for the hot water, carefully pouring the hot liquid over the grounds. The two are married and what happens next is the most magical thing that can happen in any coffee house, the brown liquid we call ‘coffee’ is produced. From these two simple ingredients, coffee, and water. Who would have thought that such a good taste could come from so few ingredients? He takes a sip as usual, the steaming liquid swirling just a little as he brings it to his lips. He tastes it, takes a drink, and swallows. 

But something happened. It started when the coffee was roasted a little too dark. No, it wasn’t charcoal, but Starbucks would have been happy to brew the coffee I’d roasted. Sure, it was coffee, it was fresh, but it was missing what makes good coffee rounded and full. Instead of 3D it was 2D at best. Just two dimensions instead of the three which I was used to in a well roasted coffee. I drank it for several reasons, I’d brewed it and didn’t want to waste it, and I knew that given enough time I would have a headache knocking on my skull asking me why I hadn’t drunk any caffeine earlier. I didn’t enjoy it though, not like I enjoy good coffee. I was also solo drinking it, which never helps anything, as much as I’m not a social drinker (I will not drink at my church ‘cause they use Maxswill) social gatherings, usually involving extended family entices one to drink. So when I do drink it alone it has to be good, I mean really good, like me looking forward to it when I get out of bed, imagining the smell of the coffee as I open my ceramic jar, and then as I grind my beans, and then as I brew them and drink the wonderful beverage. I have to enjoy it. The following morning I had some other beans I’d roasted, which were lighter, but it didn’t taste all that great, everything but the brewed liquid was good. This happened the following day as well and I was beginning to think it was the coffee not me.

So what happened? I don’t know. I do know that I went off it for two days, switching my usual caffeine from coffee to yerba mate. Breaks are essential I think, at some point, even if you drink it everyday, three times a day, at some point you need a break. It’s human to have to take a break and just stop for a little while, even if it’s just a day or two. Next, instead of the electric grinder, this time I used my hand crank grinder, which resulted in a small arm workout, and a little extra time from whole bean to pouring water over the grounds. But it involved more of me and my time, making it mean more to me. Just like when you grow your own food, grind your own wheat, when you are more involved you enjoy it more, or you should. Instead of the typical cloth filters, which are reusable I used a paper filter, which resulted in a cleaner cup. The cloth filters add more body because they hold the coffee for just a little bit longer in contact with the grounds. Thirdly I roasted lighter. Just like if I have a weak cup of coffee it makes me want a strong cup, so having a dark roasted coffee a lot makes me want a lighter roast. 

What have I learned? Learn to take breaks, even if it’s not a break from caffeine, take a break from the same liquid. It helps you appreciate it that much more, like a three day fast from food, the food tastes better. Grind by hand if I have the extra minute on my side. Change up your roasting style, go for acidic every once in a while because that makes you appreciate the better roasts even more. And of course, use a good method for brewing, paper is my preferred method if I’m brewing into a carafe for more than 6 people, but otherwise I often use a filter. But I’ve learned to even change up that, I have about 5 brewing methods to choose from, and varying them helps keep things fresh. 

English Vintner