A new birth!

I just completed my first guitar where I made the body completely from scratch. It is a hollow mahogany body with a makore (a.k.a. African Cherry) top. Here she is.




Here's a shot of the body showing the figure in the makore. This is just clear lacquer over the top - that is the actual color of the makore. It is beautiful. I had several options for the top, and this is the one Lauren chose. I think she chose well.




The back I made a DARK reddish brown, like an old Les Paul.



The neck is a Warmoth Fatback of birdseye and rosewood. I'm in the process of making my first neck from scratch, but it isn't ready yet. I had this neck and just couldn't resist putting them together. So far it sounds really good, though I haven't really gotten to take it for a spin yet. She has some inexpensive pickups from GFS, and a P-style Megaswitch, so it has the same 5 pickup options as a PRS, but in a Telecaster shape. I just love Teles!

I already have the next one in the works (also a Telecaster shape - but this one will be a deep set neck, not a bolt-on). It is SO much fun playing a guitar I made!

Social networking

So I've taken my first step into "social networking." Not sure what I think about it yet. It is interesting. I keep getting "friends" - most of them via PBC connections. That part is cool. I don't have a sense for what it will develop into as of yet - just an experiment at this point.

Primarily, I'm doing this as a test to see if it is something we want to open up to the kids. I know I keep saying this, but - I don't know...

God's Big Backyard

"Hey-yo, it's a big backyard."

It's VBS week! We're having fun (and working hard) showing kids how to serve - family, neighbors, and in the process, Jesus. We're showing skits, puppets, and songs, making crafts, sharing food and fun. All 4 of us are involved - but only one of us as a student!

I've seen this VBS program advertised in other places. It does seem to be put together well. We have picked and chosen from the program, we are not implementing all of it. However, I think we've chosen well. It does make for some rather late nights - and I'm having a hard time going to sleep afterwards, which is odd given the level of exertion during the sessions. One more and we're basically done - Wednesday night we're just having a "Backyard Bash" (watermelon and ice cream social).

This is our Children's Minister's first "big" project. It is going very well, and I'm proud to be working with her.

"Hey-yo, a really BIG backyard!"

Some responses and further thought

Danny - Being director is sometimes mutually exclusive to direct worship participation - or "anything else" participation, for that matter. Your job is to facilitate the spiritual experience of others. If you get some spiritual experiences along the way, BONUS! Your "food is to do the will of Him who sent you." Know what I mean?

Becky - Yeah, some of the songs might have been unfamiliar, but over the course of the week I did not see the participation level change much. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but I think we need to expect more of the campers. Mike was an excellent worship leader. I was very proud of him. I think he learned a lot, too.

My younger daughter was crying a few days ago, just because she missed camp. I love it.

It was a Super Week

We had a fantastic week at PBC SuperWeek. It is the first week that I can remember where we had no rain. There was a threat of rain once..... ONCE. It may have sprinkled for 3 minutes. Otherwise it was just hot, especially early in the week. By Thursday the weather was more normal for June in the upstate, with highs in the low 90s and lows in the high 60s.

It was, I will admit, every bit as weird for me as I thought it would be. I participated in BlastOff, I organized the Talent Show, I participated in a lot of skits, I cleaned the Bath House, I played ball, I helped teach the youngest class. Though it sounds like I was very busy, and I was, it felt different somehow. I'm sure that part of this feeling was simply not knowing the program well and not having a lot of up-front understanding. A lot of it was also not being the Worship Director this year. I did get to lead some, but it was just taste. I missed it - a lot. More than I expected to.

I did enjoy spending more time with Natalie this year. I enjoyed the Talent Show a lot - except for it being the same day as Game Day. I give the "dinner theater" thing a B-. It was "interesting" to do dinner in the ark. It was a real hassle doing the talent show while folks were eating. I don't think it made the talent show better. At best it just made it different. Beyond that, the "dinner" setup was still in effect for chapel, and there was too much talking going on during chapel.

While on the subject of chapel - there was another difference that I noted. Too many of the campers (in my opinion) were not singing or otherwise engaged in the worship. To be blunt, there were several staff who were also not engaged in the worship. I don't get this. How can any staff person expect the kids to engage when they won't lead the kids there? I do not think any of this is a reflection of this year's Worship Director. I don't have an explanation. I will continue to say, though, that we really lost something in the singing/worship when the acoustic treatment was done to the ark. It's so weird. Skits are easier to hear. The speaker is easier to hear during chapel. But, try as we may, we cannot "raise the roof" with our singing like we used to. Frustrating. And confusing. And disappointing.

One other opinion - I think EVERY speaker for every assembly should be from within the staff. Some of the non-staff speakers were good, some not so much. But none of them did any better than our staff could have done, and none of them were helped by not being a part of the staff. The relational connection from the staff to the campers lends weight to the speaker's message. External folks just don't have that, so they have to be that much better just to "break even." None of the external folks were "that much better" so it was a net loss, in my humble opinion. I understand why we employed some of those external folks (strategic/political involvement), but I think that this does not serve the week as well as we would hope. Again, this is just my opinion.

I told Danny that I thought it was the best debut for a director I've ever seen. Of course, this is due in large part to the way this transition was planned and executed over the past few years. I look forward to how SuperWeek will grow and move forward.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about the week - maybe I'll even post some of them.

SuperWeek bound!

It is time again for SuperWeek. As I have stated before, it will be an odd year, methinks. I hope it is fun also. But it will be different not being in such an up-front role as I have been. I will admit that I was surprised to not be asked to do SOME of the things I have done before, but it's okay. I wonder if some of the changes this year are simply for change's sake. I dunno. It's cool, though. Anything can (should) be questioned from time to time.

Please pray that everyone will travel safely and stay healthy during the week. Please pray that we will be a blessing to God and to the campers.

And PLEASE pray for good weather!!!