Surprise!

So, sorry that it seems like its been forever. This summer has been fairly busy and I’ve been just trying to keep up with everything. I finished the semester here at HVA, cleaned the dorms, and spent a fun day with Omar and Matt (two guys I work with here at the academy). I then went straight to Camp Au Sable to start my 5th summer working at summer camp. I drove boats most of the summer and had some cool experiences with the kids. So I’m going to share one or two experiences and what I learned as I go through everything that’s been happening since I last posted on here.

So one rainy day this summer during camp I was in the athletic building with the a bunch of campers because we couldn’t be out on the boat. Anyways! We are playing games in the gym and all of a sudden I see one of the boys literally take out a smaller kid and shove him on the gym floor. I ran after the little guy and made sure he was alright, then went back inside to find the bully. As I pulled the bully aside I had the full intention of coming down hard on him and showing him that bullying is wrong. As I’m starting in on him, telling him how wrong it is to be mean to others, this kid starts screaming in my face, like a crazy, psycho little man. I quickly realized that something else is going on. This kid needed more than to get yelled at for his misbehavior. He needed to be reasoned with. So I listened to him. I listened to him yell about how nobody loved him, how he was a sinner and was obviously going to hell no matter what, how God didn’t care about him, and how he just wanted us to kick him out of camp. After he calmed down from his crazy rant, I started to talk to him, and reminded him about the night plays and how God loves everyone and is always waiting for us to come to Him. I told him that even if he hated me (which he said multiple times), that I was going to be his friend and that I cared. By the end of the conversation he apologized to the other kid. And! The rest of the week he always said hi to me and listened to me when I told him to do things. He became attached to me and even when his counselors struggled with him, he would listen to me. It ended up being a really good experience. I was reminded of something very important. I don’t have God’s eyes. I want to! I pray to! And I try to see the world how He see it, but sometimes I get lost. I realized in the middle of this kid yelling in my face, that God had a different plan for how the conversation would go. Instead of being scared of this almost demonic sounding kid yelling in my face, I prayed that God would show His love through me. I changed plans real quick from coming down hard, to showing this kid love, talking to him, and showing him I cared. And I realized that I need God’s eyes more; that my plans are not always God’s plans; and that I need to think more before I jump into crazy situations, and pray that God will guide me and give me the words to say.

Anyways! From camp we moved into family camp. Rod Metcalf, one of my friends that I met about 5 years ago at family camp, came back for his family's reunion they always have at family camp. If you’ve kept up with my blog, I bumped into Rod in Belize when I went a day early for my flight and stayed over at a friends mission post near the airport. Rod had come down with his son's high school senior class. We went together to the orphanage I worked at 4 years before, when I decided God was calling me to missions. Anyways! When we went to the orphanage, Rod got really attached to an orphan girl there and told his wife that he felt that God was calling him to adopt her. So anyways! We bump into each other this summer and he tells me that he is finishing up the paperwork to adopt this girl! It was just so awesome to see how God places people in such weird places, even has us bump into each other in different countries. He took Rod down to Belize to meet a girl that he has planned for them. I also just got so excited because of all the orphans I’ve worked with. It was so cool to hear him tell about how God has made this whole adoption happen, and I can't wait to see them next year at Camp Au Sable with his little adopted girl and family.

Then we had pastor's retreat and my parents and grandparent came up. It was fun hanging out on the boat with them, and cool to see my parents get out on the skis. Then I prepped everything for Oshkosh and we took off shortly after.

A bunch of camp staff all went out to Oshkosh a week early to help set up and get everything ready, as part of our contract. It’s a cool experience because people from a bunch of other camps also come out to help and it's cool getting to meet new people. I tried out to be one of Saul's soldiers and made it into the play 4 of the 5 nights as Saul's personal guard, and a regular Israelite soldier. Also, part of being an Israelite soldier is standing at the gates for about an hour as the Pathfinders walk in and find their seats for the evening meetings. It was a really awesome experience. Since I was in the play, I had some crazy work hours before and during Oshkosh. We would do play practice from 9 in the morning till 1. Then I would run out to the boats and drive boats as an off campus activity for the afternoon, then blitz backstage again afterward for dinner, gate duty, and the play. After the play we would have to stay for reshooting (if something went wrong, so they would have a good DVD to sell) and/or play practice for the next day. So I basically worked from 9 am to midnight or 1 am every day, which was very tiring. As soon as Oshkosh was over I helped tear down, and then Sunday morning I left at 10:30 for a 14 hour drive back to Maryland so I could be here Monday when the kids started school. It was pretty crazy!

Just a quick little bit about the play. We practiced for hours and hours! But being a part of this play, seeing how people acted it out and everything, it brought a new view to parts of David’s live that I hadn’t thought of before. I figured I’d share them.

I always thought of David as being this huge man of faith, and he was. However, a lot of times we skip over how strong Jonathan was in his faith. The play really brought out David and Jonathan's relationship as mutually uplifting. When David was scared of Saul chasing him, Jonathan strengthened him. When Jonathan didn’t see how Goliath could be taken down, David stepped up. They were such good friends because they balanced each other and were a strong person to lean on when the other was weak. And I never thought much about that before Oshkosh.

Another thing was that Goliath goes on a rant in the play about how the only way to defeat the Israelites was to take them one on one, hoping they would fight without their God. While it’s debatable whether Goliath was actually that smart. I know the Philistines remembered about how Israel came into Canaan, and they knew about the strength of our God. They were right to realize that the only way to take Israel down would be one on one, hoping that they wouldn’t be brave enough, and wouldn’t rely on God. In the play, David, when he says he will fight Goliath, says that he is fighting in the name of the Lord God of Israel. Then you see the look on Goliath’s face get really scared because he realizes that he isn’t facing any young boy now, but that he is facing the God of Israel. While once again it’s debatable as to whether Goliath was that intelligent, I do think that the Philistines as a whole understood how strong the Israelite God is and when David said that, I imagine it must have put some fear into their hearts as they watched the fight. Anyways! Those are just two things that stuck out to me as we went over the story of David at Oshkosh.

So! I got back to Highland View Academy in Maryland, where I will be working as the assistant dean, and assistant athletic director this year. I also have applied for a job at the YMCA as a lifeguard so I can save more money for school next year. And the pastor at Highland View Church mentioned that he wants me to do Bible work in a nearby town, but has to talk to the board about it first. That is super exciting to me because its been a while since I’ve done Bible studies, but it's something I enjoy doing. So, I might end up with 3 or 4 jobs here for the year. All trying to raise money for school next year.

This year has been so much different in the dorm. There are only 7 students right now in the boys dorm, which is a very small number. All of the troublemakers from last year didn’t return, so we have a very new, very young batch of guys here. It’s cool because they are much more involved and our worships are more interactive. I have a better relationship with them and they are much more respectful. I feel like this year I have many more opportunities to share my faith and how God has lead in my life. I’ve been getting more involved in the school, leading out in morning worship with my ukulele, driving the girls' volleyball team to their meets, and finding more creative activities for the boys dorm (we took them to a driving range yesterday). It’s just so cool to see how everything falls into place when you are where God wants you to be.

OK! Now for the big news. So, as you know if you have been following my blog, I have been trying for almost two years now to get my medical certification from the FAA so that I can continue my flight training and finish getting my pilots license. It’s been a while since I had heard anything from them, which is weird because they normally are always telling me I have 60 days to respond or they will close my account. But for some reason it had been a few months since I had heard from them. It didn’t bother me much because I was so busy with everything else that I kinda just let it go. Anyways, I got around to calling them a few weeks ago. I was really discouraged, and had basically given up, fully expecting that they were going to tell me I was deferred again or that I have finally been denied. When I called and asked the lady, she put me on hold to read my file. When she finally got back she told me that my medical certification had been sent out that very morning and should be at my parents house in the next 4-5 days. I’m going to be honest and say I teared up a little bit. I was just so shocked, happy, relieved, maybe even a little startled. It was just so awesome! So I quickly called my parents and grandparents to share the joy, but didn’t want to share it with anyone else just in case the lady was wrong and the certification never showed. Well, about a week or so ago it finally showed up and my parents forwarded it on to me. So! It’s official! I can keep flying, finish my pilots license, and hopefully be a mission pilot! But that’s not the whole story.

This summer I started thinking about my situation. I was excited to come back to HVA and was even at peace, feeling that it was God’s plan for me to return. But, I didn’t have any other plans for after this year. I still wanted to go to SMAT (School of Missionary Aviation Technology), but didn’t know if it was my calling, especially if I wouldn't be able to fly. I’ve been going back and forth with the FAA about this for almost two years. And I started getting discouraged. I was thinking about going back to college, but have no clue what I would major in. I thought about going and trying to learn more construction... But I had no real direction. I’ve always wanted to join the Coast Guard as a rescue diver because I always thought it would be a cool job, and I’ll be honest, I thought about just doing that. I figured if I joined and served for a while, I would get some sweet benefits. They might even pay for me to go back to college, and other benefits for serving after I left. It started to become more and more of an idea, and by the end of the summer I decided if nothing cleared up with the FAA by December (two full years since this started), that I was going to talk to a recruiter and see what it was all about. I guess this would be a low part in my faith, but I really just didn’t know what to do... anyways. As soon as I got that certification it was like a slap on the wrist from God saying, “nah Jonathan, that’s not My plan for you.”

Seeing God open this door for me to finish flight is so exciting. It even made me feel more sure that God wanted me here at HVA because He waited till I was back here to show me my next step. So! There you have it! That’s been my summer.

I’m going to reapply for the program at SMAT starting this next August. Meanwhile I hope to save up money this year so I can pay for schooling and not have to lean on my family. It’s just so cool to see how God works, and how He continues to be patient with me as I continue to follow His plans.

Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been praying for this FAA situation since day 1. I know that some people reading this have been praying probably even more fervently then I, and I just want to say thank you so much for your continued support! It means a lot to me to know that other people are in prayer with me always. I’ll try to keep some posts going, even though I’m just working right now. Maybe I’ll share some devotional thoughts or things that I’ve been studying in the Bible. I don’t have as much going on in my personal life right now. God bless, and hope that these blogs help boost your faith as much as it does for me when I reflect and write them.