Loaded 2008 - Medford, OR and Miscellaneous updates

Medford was great. Whoever missed out, shame on you. Shame! It took place February 14-17th. Anton, Syr, Natalia and myself headed out from Fresno around noonish on Thursday. We arrived in Medford around 8 or 9pm. We were apparently supposed to lead a music set on Thursday night, but were not informed until about 2 hours before it started, and we were still on the road.

What was it about?
The name of the conference was "Loaded". It dealt with the reality of being loaded with something. We are either loaded by God, or we take on our own load (values, responsibilities, etc). When God loads us with something it is a blessing. That blessing is something we should be willing to give to others. I see this as obedience to the greatest commandment.

What did it look like?
There were a lot less people this year. I see a few factors coming into play here. First, the focus of the conference itself is shifting from kids camps ministry to youth ministry and church ministry in general. Second, the flu bug has been going around, so a lot of people were/are sick. Third, some churches did not allow for their youths or any of their members to attend. Fourth, Johannes Reimer was not at the conference this year. He has fell ill and has been on strict doctors orders not to do any traveling. It's a serious circumstance. Reimer is typically the main attraction at this conference because he's such a dynamic speaker - one you could listen to for hours upon hours. And lastly, I believe this year's conference was very poorly advertised. So far most of the people I've asked said they didn't hear about any conference until I mentioned it to them (which was obviously after the conference was long over).
The conference is geared more towards equipping church workers in their ministries. So there were many speakers and lectures going on simultaneously. Most of the speakers were from out-of-country - Russia, Germany, Canada, etc.
The weather was merciful to us. Sunny and mild. There was a different crowd that attended this year - a large group of youth from the ukrainian church in sacramento came, as well as a chunk from Tacoma, WA.

What did I think?
I enjoyed my time at the conference. The effort was evident on the part of the conference organizers, especially in the amount of creative elements in the conference. Postmodern approaches to ministry, worship, and "doing church". What I enjoyed the most was the relationship that I formed and the relationships that were made stronger throughout the conference. I spoke with two fellow band members on separate occasions... good talks. I'm so glad that both of them felt comfortable enough to open up to me. I met a pastor from Moscow who has a passion for youth ministry and is a psychologist. By the end of the conference, we were hugging and wishing we had more time. He really encouraged me.
I learned the importance of the development of leaders in ministry. I know that I need to be taught leadership skills. I know that I need outside sources to give advice, tips, mentor, and critique my "work" as a leader. I know I need a lot of things. It just doesn't seem to be happening... Sorry, I don't mean to sound depressing or anything.

I don't have pictures of the conference, which is one thing you'll notice about this blog... no pictures. I don't have a camera :(

I've started painting randomly. I used to do it in high school, now I have discovered a set of brushes and paints. So far I'm just painting for fun. Nothing that's taking me more than 1 hour to complete. I've grown a strong desire to learn the accordion and perhaps even purchase one, but man they are so expensive. A used, old one will cost around 400 dollars. The new ones range in price from brand name to size and quality. I've been slacking lately. Sleeping in, not showing up to a few classes, etc. The weather isn't helping either. It's been rainy and cloudy and cold recently. Hopefully this is just a stage.
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Heres some of the music I recorded over my Zen from the conference. I played on the electric guitar and the accordion, also some backup vocals (atleast in these recordings). Just click on any one of the files and it should play. Enjoy.

Medford Conference tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow at 10am I meet up with Anton, Sanya Ivanov (Syr), and Natalia to load up the sound equipment from church and then at 11am, drive up to Medford, Oregon for 4 fun-filled days conference-ing it up. It should be fun. We have a good music team gathered (of which I am a part). I will be "leading worship" for Friday, but other than that, I will be playing the electric guitar (right alongside one of the guitar greats, Stiopa Chesnokov) and occasionally the accordion. FYI: you should check out a myspace band, of which I am also a part, at www.myspace.com/slaviklubband . I play accordion in one of the songs there and sing/guitar in others. It's a slavic worship team that was created to perform at our University's College Hour (kinda like chapel/devotional time)...

Pray for us. Call us. Encourage us. Send us chocolates. And by "us" I mean, the music team that is participating in the conference.

Busy Tuesday turns sweet

Typically my Tuesdays are swamped. I wake up around 6:50ish in order to make it to my first class at 7:45am. Then my next class right away at 9:30am. Then work at 11:15 till 1:15. Then class at 2:00 till 3:15. Then more work from 3:15 till 5:15. But today I was also asked to teach a course, whose material I have learned in the past, for the internship I am doing. So I thought the class started at 7pm and that I had to be there at 6 (one hour earlier). I come to the place, Yosemite Middle School, out in the rundown, mad ghetto part of Fresno. Nobody is there. I walk around the dark school grounds and it looks like the school janitor is closing up for the day. After asking around, I found out that the lesson already took place from 4-6pm. Unfortunately, I was in work at the time. So its 7pm, dark, lonely, and I'm walking around poverty-stricken Fresno.

I decided to go to church because my supervisor for my internship called and said that we have been warned by the city to take down our signs advertising our lessons (it's basically a class that teaches communication/reinforcing Marriage skills. very good thing). And I remembered I put some signs up by our church.

So I drive up to the church (another poor part of town) to take them down. When I got there, I felt the strong urge to take a walk... which I did. It's funny the things one notices when one walks. It reminded me a lot of Ukraine. Not only the walking part, but also the poverty, tight quarters, smells of kitchen preparations, dogs barking, etc. It really reminded me of Ukraine. When I got back to my car, I realized that this is what the church needs to do. Atleast our church. I know I have experience in repairing roofs. I know a lot of roofs need reparations in that part of town. Should I do that? Can that be my ministry? Maybe have the owners pay for materials, and I work for free? I wonder what that would look like. The more I walked, the more I realized that we as people (human race) are similar than dissimilar. Hispanics remind me a lot of Slavics. Community, family, food... I just wonder how much would change if our church just decided to talk a walk around the neighborhood for one of their sunday services... instead of listening to a sermon, watching it take place. No words. No music. No sounds. Just life. I wonder how much more that would speak to the people.

As I got back to my car, I turned on "Came to the Rescue" by Hillsong United. The chorus in the song says, "I called. You answered. And You came to my rescue and I want to be where You are." I wonder how much would change if we sang, "You called. I answered. And I came to the rescue and You want to be where we are"... maybe it's time for Christians to not ask for rescue, but rather be the rescue everyone is looking for.

The reason...

Well here I am. So many thoughts going through my head. I wish I did a blog a long time ago... to track my experiences in far off lands (ie. my year spent studying in Ukraine, my summers in Rhode Island, my tourist experience in Germany), and also to keep track of my daily life here in Fresno (ie. college, church, friends, work, etc). So busy - so many things going on in my life. Sometimes I wonder if my expectations of studying in fresno in the past are the realities of living here today. Looking back, I never thought I would be doing so much in my future (currently present) in Fresno. There's lots of blessings as well as many areas in my life I realize could use improvement. The purpose of this blog is to really keep track of where my life is going, my thoughts along the way, the things happening in my life, and the reflections of my past. Sounds pretty boring, I know. I wont have as many pictures as other people do on their blogs, but I will try to be good about making my posts interesting.

To give you an idea of what my life looks like here:
- I am a full-time students (taking 18 units) - 3 major courses and 3 G.E. courses
- I am working part-time (10 hours) at FPU's Admissions Office as an Transfer Student Counselor
- I am involved at an internship (part-time) with the Healthy Marriage Coalition of Fresno County.
- I am volunteering in church ministry (Director of Worship Ministries, which basically means I now attend committee meetings, etc)

I've noticed Tuesdays I am SUPER busy - 7am to 11pm non-stop. no joke.
Fridays are perhaps the most relaxed. Every Saturday I've had to wake up at 7-8am for various obligations (internship, work, class requirements, etc). Actually tomorrow I have to wake up at 7am to be at VORP training (Victim Offender Reconciliation Program).

Quick note: about the meaning behind my sn xkerchx. Kerch is the city I was from in Ukraine. And the two "x"s at the ends of the name signify a movement which I considered myself to agree with called Straight Edge. The idea came from an 80's punk band, Minor Threat's, song "Straight Edge" which basically rebelled against the rock n' roll slogan of "sex, drugs, and rock n roll". Straight Edge teaches to stray away from smoking, drinking, drug use, and adultery.