West Cocoa Chat

By this time tomorrow yours truly along with about 25 other teens and about 12 chaperones will be headed up to Ohio Valley University to attend the Mid-Ohio Valley Work Camp. I told our youth guy (Chad) that he has been “born again” because usually are schedule consists of leaving around midnight and driving straight through to Parkerburg, WV which ends up (depending on fuel, potty, flat tires, and food stops) being anything from 15 to 17 hours worth of driving. This year we are leaving on Saturday at 7:30am and, and, and, (drum roll please / Christmas Vacation Movie style) dare I say it, STOPPING on the way up! This will hopefully prevent the phenomenon of starting the week out exhausted and going downhill from there.

The Work Camp starts on Sunday evening. All of the 500 teens are broken up into “Workcrews.” You then meet with your “WC” to introduce yourselves, talk about your home, delegate the (who will be doing the devos, getting the water, ladders, primer, paint, and O2 for the old geezer guy running this WC) duties, and to start to bond with them. Last year when I had my first “Area” (consists of about 15 homes being painted in the general vicinity of each other) Meeting, my “Area Guy” asked, “Which one of you is Cecil?” When I answered “Me” he said, “You’re in luck. You have the worse house in the Area so it will really look good when you get it done.”

Oyvey! Getting it (as in the Southern phrase, “Git r done”) done means you have 4 days to scrape, prime, and paint the outside of your home. In all of the homes I’ve painted we’ve usually done some landscaping and general cleaning of the grounds.

The blessing of this experience is getting to know your home owner of whom most are retired, disabled, or unable to have their home painted. For them its paramount to hitting (not that I play that sort of thing) the Lottery. It is also a great way for teens to get outside themselves and actually serve someone less fortunate.

The evenings are held back at OVU. After dinner there’s time for Chapel and devos. Our brother Pat Pugh will be speaking the last 2 days of the Work Camp! Now that is serendipity. In fact, that serendipity is still paying dividends. My son informed me that he and another one of the teens are leading the first devotional on Saturday night at the hotel. He informed me that his would be a teen only devo, no chaperones.

I am so proud of how some of our young guys are stepping up and trying to grow closer to God and being spiritual leaders of our youth group.

My blogging may be non-existent next week. I’m not sure I’ll have internet access at OVU. God bless all of you and keep us in your prayers.