2007...Power In Purity

You're probably thinking, "Are these memoirs over yet?' Yeah...try writing, let alone living, it. So remember how I said 2006 was it? Well I came back, voluntarily actually. I put in my application to be a counselor and planned to use my vacation time from my new post-college, full-time job complete with health care and benefits to work the Texas sessions. For once, EFY didn't pay as well as my day job. I know, it's so charitable of me. However, after being cooped up in a cubicle, believe me, EFY sounds soooo appealing. Then again, I could actually use my vacation time for, well, vacation. What?…that’s crazy.

So Jeff Nicholas called me up and asked me why I was listed as a counselor. As I mentioned I truthfully didn't enjoy being a BC the summer before...not at all. I've always viewed the Especially for Youth program to be about, well, the youth. And that's who I wanted to be around. While I liked the counselors, I never found them as cool or fun as the youth. I mean I would live for those 10-14 boys I got each week, and the fact that they, who were so awesome, thought that I, who was and am so dorky, was awesome was pretty awesome. Remember, I did admit to doing EFY for selfish reasons. I make no illusions about that. Anyway, Jeff finally talked me into being a BC, as long as I got at least one counselor week like summer 2006.

For some reason, Jeff and Margie couldn't find someone to fill in for me my last week (something about me not being replaceable, I'm sure), so Jeff proposed I stay on the BC team and have my own boys. I was fine with that…I mean best of both worlds, right? The camaraderie of the BC team as well as having a group of youth, what more could I ask for? I'm going to admit to something I've never told anyone...I pretty much got to hand pick my group. I wanted to be in a triple combo so that I could be sure not to leave my co-counselor high and dry, I wanted 16 yr olds, I wanted the company name Intreat Me Not, I wanted Derek Howard (one of my boys in 2005) in my company, I wanted Allan Anderson as my co-counselor, and Jeff thought it would be totally fun to include his fiancé, Karris to finish out the group. Basically the ingredients for the EFY equivalent of the dream team. So after many adjustments, room changes, and switches, Intreat Me Not became a reality. I didn't even look over Karris' girls to see who was in her group, until I saw Katie-Jean Speight (the who, the year before, went for several days thinking her company name was Thou Art All Over instead of Thou Art Oliver and little sister to Erin Jo, one of my favorite people) run up to me and give me a big hug. This was going to be an out-of-this-world week! Dream Team indeed.

And yes it was. Pulling double BC/counselor duty was tough; really, really tough. Whenever I was with the BC team having fun, I always felt like I should be with my kids and whenever I was with my kids I felt like I should be doing my BC work. I was constantly being pulled and never really feeling totally fulfilled. And then there was the guilt of relying on others to pick up the slack whether that was with my group or the my BC peers. However, a form of fulfillment was coming up on that fateful Wednesday night, July 4th, 2007. We went up to the top level of the parking garage for the cheer-off finals as well as fireworks (which never really happened cause of the weather). It was also decided that we would just have all the pizza delivered there and we would pick it up on the way back to the dorms. Yeah...I do believe Sandi was in charge of pizza night that week and I think she still might have a little nugget of enmity towards Jeff Nicholas for putting us up there. If that’s the case, Sandi, please let go and…uh…let God.

Anyway, forget about the pizza problems, it's time for the Main Event!

Enter Intreat Me Not and Katie-Jean to perform her masterpiece of a cheer in front of the entire session. It had all the elements, HSM references, minor sucking up to the judges, and borderline freak dancing. Let Us had an incredible cheer, and any other session they would've won hands down, but Katie was able to come up with a performance that not only was exhilarating and captivating, but it used the ENTIRE company. I mean, you can tell that she takes ownership and command of the cheer, but everyone was involved in it's spirit and excitement. I was beaming with pride that night.

Following that, it was announced we were to do devotionals there on top of the parking garage (mind you there was a little bit of a roof party going on just a couple hundred feet from us). Allan and I combined our boys and we team taught the devotional. Without any correlation or preparation, we just taught an amazing, spirit-filled devotional. It was like we were missionary companions, having taught with each other for months. We just bounced off each others teaching, picking up where the other left off, and leading it right to where the next one knew where to take it

Ironically, it was about the Spirit. I say ironic, because again, we were all on the roof of a parking garage and as companions we had some party-goers with their music, alcohol, loose/loud tongues, etc etc. So you actually couldn't ask for a better object lesson for a devotional about how we have to tune the world out (like unto the party goers we were watching) and the importance of being internally 'still' in a crazy, mixed up world. Truly, truly magical and without a doubt one of the greatest teaching experiences of my EFY career.

This was also the week Sandi spent hours learning We're All in This Together from HSM and spent even more hours teaching it to the rest of the BC. The result? A nugget of pure joy and happiness to be enjoyed by EFY generations to come.



Four years down, won the cheer off in both the younger and older age group, fulfilled my life's ambition of publicly dancing to HSM, and I was done.

And I was done.