Monday, April 30, 2007

New York...is it what you think it is?

This past weekend I flew to New York to speak at the Metro District Jr. High retreat. I landed in Newark, NJ and picked up my rental car and headed to the 2 hour drive ahead of me. I got 3 1/2 hours of sleep that night and didn't sleep much on the plane. Once I got on the way, followed the mapquest directions. I stopped and got a philly cheesesteak and then got into the middle of nowhere.

When I tell people I spent much of my growing up years in New York I almost always get asked if I have ever been mugged. People don't understand that the greatest amount of New York is beautiful tree land. I had hundreds of acres of apple orchards and corn fields around where I lived.

So I turned off the main road to some back roads. 4 plus miles later there were signs that the road was closed to thru traffic. I figured I would just drive around it. Turns out that the road was washed out. There was no road. I turned around and there was a dear standing in the road. Not what most people would picture. I took another turn and it was a dead end. I saw 3 more deer. Then just another 1/4 mile up the road I saw 10 more deer! Crazy!



I finally arrived at the camp. www.lakechampion.org What a weekend! There were 325 Jr. High students there that weekend. They were awesome! The worship team for the weekend was a band called The Least of These. (www.leastofthesemusic.com and www.myspace.com/leastofthesemusic) They were AWEsome too! They are very talented and a fun group of guys. We went for a "hike" around the lake. Haha. I laughed a lot on that little journey.

We played Amazing Race in the afternoon. My team came in 2nd place. They did a great job setting up that game.

The sessions were sooo good. The students really responded well to God. Saturday night about 50 students stood up to make begin a relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time. AMAZING!!!

I had such a great weekend; met some amazing people; had a lot of fun; slept very little!

I love New York. But I'm glad to be home!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was there at the lake champion retreat this past weekend. i just want to say that you are such a great speaker and that i was deeply touched by your sermons.

i doubt you remember me, but i guess if you remember asking if there were any 9th graders in the room, i was the one that screamed reeeeeally loudly if you have a slight recollection of that lol =)

i understand you dont have a lot of free time because you're out serving God, but i would love it if you could reply to this by emailing me at sharOnnnx3@yahoo.com

either way, thank you so much for speaking at LC. i had an amazing time and you're just one of those speakers i won't forget=] thank you again, God bless.

Anonymous said...

hullo there pastor erik with a k,
like sharon i was at LC jr. high weekend.

you have taught me so much with your words, i cannot say how much i want to thank you. well you really spoke to me through everything. most of what you said i could relate to.

a great phrase that you used that taught me something was "be imitators of our father God." &that He will love us endlessly no matter what because He made us in the image of Him.

well again i'd like to thank you for speaking at this retreat, which i will not forget. i pray that you continue to impact peoples' lives with God's words.

thank you again.
with love in christ,
brettany tu:)

you can email me at brettanyx3@yahoo.com

may God be with you.<3 thanks again, skunkboy>8] lols

Anonymous said...

hey erik with a k its bobby from the amazing race the kid with the shirt off in the picture thank you so much it was awsome

you can e-mail me at mtcreek102@aol.com

Josh Mann said...

hey erik, it's me josh, from camp! i was the kid who snuck into your room at night and watched you sleep. i just wanted to say that was really special and i'll never forget you...because i took pictures of you...sleeping...and blew them up...and put them on my ceiling above my bed...
i don't remember anything from your talks, i just remember the time we spent together..in your room..while you were sleeping...

you can email me at eriklvr1038@hotmail.com!

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