Thurs, Jul. 25
... Not the words I want to hear from you
I miss
being at SEMP this year. I really do... that's
an experience that always, in some way or another, defines so much of my summer, and in a lot of ways, the rest of my year.
Katelyn, Nadine, and I went to the SEMP Celebration tonight. Talk about memories... it was so amazing just to be there, although so many things were different. Being in Celebration brings back so many ghosts for me... memories with Brian, moments with Norm and the rest of the group who was there when I was in high school, times with friends, meeting new friends, amazing times with God--it's all wrapped up so much in my Celebrations. I can't wait till the youth group goes again next year.
It's so different from when I was there as a student, in the ways that everything becomes different. There are different faces; different band; different leaders; different styles of doing things... So many of the people I "grew up" going to SEMP with aren't there anymore. Most of us have graduated, and the Calgary SEMP split in half this year (in a good way) when the Vancouver SEMP started up, so there are even more faces that I'd recognize that aren't there anymore.
That doesn't make it bad, though. It's not just about the faces, although those are a big part of it every year. It's about meeting God and having lives changed, and regardless of who is or isn't there, that's something I'm excited to be a part of every year.
Tonight was just so... refreshing. Familiar, in an oddly challenging sort of way. It's the kind of thing that's always kind of familiar, but always new and fresh.
It was the letter commissioning service--the last Celebration of SEMP 2002--tonight. It was such a privilege to be a part of that in a different way than I ever have been before. It was cool to get to pray over the letters that were going out, and to know some of what the students are going through, because I've written those letters so many times myself. It was a very humbling experience, and a very cool one. I'm so glad I went.
Norm's the keynote speaker at SEMP Vancouver next week, and Dennis was telling me tonight that he (Norm) spoke at SEMP Calgary on Tuesday night. Too bad we missed it... it would have been very cool to have been able to hear Norm speak. That's okay, though; I got the mini-version of his talk when I was visiting him just before I left for the trip. It's funny, because Norm always gets so excited for his sermons and for what God's teaching him through them, that if you go in to talk to him about it (especially if he knows you're not going to hear the "real thing"), you'll get a mini-version of his sermon, preached just for you! :o) I can't even count the number of his sermons I've heard that way.
Anyways... there's always next year to look forward to. Going with "my kids," and being able to be there with them and for them while God teaches them so much. Learning so much of my own during that same time. I can't wait. But until then, there's always more to learn. Always. :o)
infinite || abyss
posted at 11:42 p.m.
