You Have Prepared A Cross For Your Savior

O my people, O my church,
what more could I have done for you? Answer me.

I came to you in the least of your brothers and sisters
a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me,

but I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirty and you give me no drink
sick in prison and you did not visit me.

and you have prepared a cross for your Savior. 

We Call This Friday Good

We are here. We have arrived to the day we call Good Friday. Yet, what is Good Friday:

Palm Sunday and Maudy Thursday

Where are we on our Holy Week journey? This video from SparkHouse's curricula Holy Moly does a great job sharing: 

As a ridiculous sensory adult, these videos are just one of the ways I am looking to experience Holy Week with newness this year. 

We Rode On An Airplane

On Sunday, I listened to stories of elementary age student's recent travels. Some students have just returned from family vacation, while others are still waiting in anticipation of what spring break, that still seems like an infinity away, will be like.

Two siblings joined us in our haphazard circle. The older shared they went to Washington D.C. this past week. The younger of the two, exclaimed with sheer joy, 'We rode on an airplane.' Her arms shot out during her exclamation to make the wings of the plane. And off they went, complementing each other's stories of the trip, mostly surrounding the snacks their dad packed, Twizzler's to keep their ears from popping while landing, and how the houses looked like 'average-sized legos' from the sky. Others chimed in saying things like, 'I've been on an airplane before' or 'I ride them all the time.' After listening to more of this sibling pair's story, it became apparent this had been their first time on a plane, and maybe even the highlight of their trip to D.C.

I use to have that same excitement every time I rode an airplane. As soon as I was situated in my seat, I would make a mental list of every time I had taken a plane, including my first time, a family trip during Spring Break to Disneyland when I was in the first grade. Now, riding an airplane is no big deal. It serves as my main mode of transportation to see family, and most often the only way to partake in celebrations with friends from high school and college. I take airplanes to conferences and to explore new places. I take airplanes a lot.

I'm not sure the exact moment that airplanes became routine for me. That excitement I once had was gone. That mystery of whether my stomach would flip when we landed, now seems silly. I am even so use to airplanes that I have the ability to fall asleep before take off and not wake-up until I am tapped by the person next to me saying that we have landed.

So many places in my life, which I expect for many of you, have lost their mystery or have become too routine. One of those places for me is Holy Week. I know the moment that the altar will be stripped, and I know what to expect in the sanctuary when I enter Easter morning. I know the words, I know the stories, and I know what happens next. This year, I do not want Holy Week to be routine. I do not want to know what comes next. I want to be present in the experience. I want to reclaim the mystery.

I began the journey through Holy Week with the people of Calvary Lutheran in South Minneapolis this past Sunday. As we paraded through the neighborhood singing and waving our palm branches, I wondered what Jesus' processional experience was like. I was in that moment, not thinking of what comes next. And as we left the sanctuary, I did so knowing something else is to come, but I did not need to know what. I was content knowing that this was just the beginning of a week that has transformed us.

This Holy Week, I am removing all which I have previously placed as a norm for these days. I am removing the routine. I am removing the knowing. As the journey continues, I want to be present in the emotions, the stories, and the mystery. Maybe, I will again be filled with my memories surrounding this week, but maybe, just maybe, I will leave Easter Vigil with the same excitement to share the story as those two young children did to share their first ride on an airplane.

The Camp Counselor vs The Intern

The Camp Counselor vs The Intern by Dan Fleshler 

My last summer on staff at camp in Key West 

"What I do there matters," she insisted. In several conversations, she told us about helping a camper cope with her mother's debilitating depression and comforting others whose parents were fighting or separating, about aiding 11 - and 12 -year-olds who were coming to terms with their sexuality, battling anorexia, confronting body fear. She talked about the many hours devoted to water-skiing lessons, about instilling the confidence needed by awkward, gawky, painfully self conscious 8- and 9-year-olds to stay prone in the water, hold on to the rope, then rise up and stay on their feet as the boat pulled away. "What's more important than that?" she asked."

 This article has been taking another round through social media. And it seems to be shared this time to more or less validate the decisions of my friends and their parents to spend another summer at camp. 

Following college graduation, I spent one last summer working at camp. I had been convinced by one of my best friends, and I knew that this would be the last time for an experience like this. I did learn a lot that summed. I continued to foster great friendships and started some new ones. I got one last summer before entering the real world. And at that time, I was still looking for validation of my call to youth and family ministry. 

Yet, I wonder, can camp be a place that also teaches young people the skills that we believe are traditionally learned through an internship. And can both serve as places for self-growth, networking and relationship building, and conversations surrounding vocation?

I see some of this already happening. And I hope to continue to be part of those conversations, because whether camp, internship or a summer working retail, we want these experiences to be experiences of growth, challenge and exploration. 

What If the Kids Don't Want Our Church?

What If the Kids Don't Want Our Church? by Derek Penwell

"But what happens when a generation comes along that doesn't care about the game you've spent so much time buying equipment for, has little invested in the durable nature of the stuff you value? What happens when your kids say, "Don't give me all that stuff. I'll just have a yard sale, and call Goodwill to haul away what's left over"?"

How would you answer the question that is asked in the title of this article? I almost want to scream, 'good.' Maybe this generation that is concerned with adventure and experience is ready to challenge the church to be less concerned with buildings, infrastructures and all that other stuff that has locked us into meetings instead of being the church in the world. 

More than Fun and Games

Check-out this article from Faith and Leadership from Duke Divinity: Youth ministry that's more than fun and games.

The article reflects on a different way to be doing youth ministry in the church, a way that we should all approach Christian community with both youth and adults.

 “Authentic Christian communities do not isolate or ghettoize youth in a hodgepodge of lock-ins and pool parties. Instead they welcome youth into their very center as they seek to embody faithful life and worship before God. The same graceful means that have sustained God’s people historically -- worship, sacrament, serious study of scripture and theology, prayer, service with the poor, hospitality, self-denial, spiritual direction and accountability -- are what youth hunger for today.”

- Vision and Theology of Duke Youth Academy

Progressive Lock-in

Friday night through Saturday morning sacred space was created with eighteen young people and a bunch of other adults who were in and out throughout our time together at the Innagural, maybe annual, Progressive Lock-in.

Many have wondered what a Progressive Lock-in is. We used progressive because our time together would not be spent in one place, we moved between the three churches of the collaborative during the event. Some of the reasoning was to break down territorial issues, but we also wanted the young people and adults to become familiar with these three unique buildings.

To set our time together as something special, we 'lit' a candle at our first location that would travel with us throughout the night. We identified times in our lives that we light candles: birthdays, celebrations, anniversaries, in remembrance, baptisms. These are all special times. We wanted our time together to be special as we began to establish community with one another.

As a youth worker, you have these moments. One of my moments came when I walked into the sanctuary around 6:30 am on Saturday morning. A majority of the students had circled around the altar to tell stories earlier that morning. When I walked in this time, most of them had fallen asleep. But a few sat surrounding the candle we first 'lit' at the beginning of the event. The space I hoped to create was being established by these young people. The community we are dreamed for within this collaborative was beginning to form. And we created sacred space together through being present, through prayer, through conversation, through the stories we told and through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Wealth Inequality in the US

The world we live in is very frustrating. Although, as I watch this video, I am not shocked with the data. Maybe I should be? But this is the reality and like others, maybe I have become too comfortable with this reality.

I now wonder what will change look like? And what will it take to get people to think differently? How can I, someone who may have become comfortable in this reality, be so disturbed that I am going to be part of a solution? These are the hard questions we face. And until we are ready to face them, we will continue to live in a society with inequality.

Tracking Adventures

I think many of us have the goal of traveling to all fifty states in our lifetime. I know I do, even though I have a short, very short, list of states that I could have done without visiting. The other day, when my brain needed a mundane task, I discovered that I could save my travels into an interactive Google map.

Here is the best I could do without thinking too hard or consulting my mother:

View Sandy K.'s travels in a larger map

The only issue is now I am wondering where I should go next, even though I just got back from Seattle.

Continuous Photo: New Year's Eve Edition

It is possible that in three months I will be embarrassed by this post and it will be deleted, but today it needs to be shared. I am currently looking through my archives for some photos to be added to a presentation I am giving and realized that my pictures from my road trip to Roanoke for New Years have been neglected.

In college we did this thing called continuous photo. One person was in-charge of the camera and called out commands, such as 'your long lost dog named Fido just returned from being missing for months.' You then made your pose and emotion match the command. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, and it is absolutely ridiculous. Most times I am missing after six or so frames. I usually lost interest and went to find some other trouble to get into. Well, tonight I laughed at these two sets of continuous photos from New Years. The people I spent New Year's Eve with are good people. They are the people that have taught me what embrace is. And they are the people who continue to push me to figure out what that means outside of the place that proudly bore us. Today I find myself extremely grateful for the laughter, conversation and ridiculousness that occurs when you are a part of community.

Learning Types

One of the things I have become more aware of as I am working on my second master's degree is my learning style. For most of my undergraduate career, I  assumed that there was one way to learn. And that one way of learning, that was not necessarily the best option for me, was the only way.

Today, I continue to be gratefully that researchers are constantly finding more support for the different ways we learn. My need to learn differently has had a huge impact on how I think about faith exploration with children and youth. That one way is not going to work nor should it work for everyone. We must continue to be creative and imagination as we think about the ways we share the Story.

Seattle #adventureTBA

I took an adventure to Seattle for my birthday. I traveled with my DSLR, three lens, a few filters, a point and shoot camera, my iPhone and a three page google document of restaurants, neighborhoods, attractions, coffee shops and bars curated by John. 

You'd think I would return with hundreds of pictures, unfortunately there were 32 total. I'm not too concerned though. The company, the tea, the cocktails, the beer, the french toast and the experiences were incredible.

Moral of the story, I am taking less to Africa. My best picture was taken of the incredible french toast at Portage Bay Cafe. There was a toppings bar.Oh, another important detail. Our hotel had carts you could borrow for free. They had a kids cart that came with Crayola crayons and other art supplies and board games. There were other carts for grown-ups, but I found them less appealing.

The rest of my pictures include: awful attempts of selfy's and pictures of John tying his shoes every few blocks.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.

"My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz. It's the letter I use to spell yuzz a ma tuzz. You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond Z and start poking around." -- On Beyond Zebra!

Today we celebrate Dr. Seuss. An individual that entered into the lives of children to play, to hear and to share. A man that created characters and stories to challenge both children and adults, to proclaim the injustice in our society and campaign for change. 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.

To continue to keep alive the creativity and imagination of Dr. Seuss, check out this link asking: What if the Shema were written by Dr. Seuss? 

P.S. I think it is a beautiful coincidence that I will be spending Dr. Seuss' birthday at Godly Play Training. Dr. Seuss understand the importance of wondering -- “Think and wonder, wonder and think.”