BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD

If there's one thing I love, it's Covenant Pines Bible Camp. April and I just spent a week up there volunteering for Senior High 1. It was a really great experience, mostly because I had a great cabin of guys. They were really good about not excluding each other, and spent a large portion of their time playing ultimate frisbee.

April and I were a little nervous when we first arrived at camp, because we didn't know as many staff members as we had in years past. By the time we had to leave, however, we were sad to go, because we had made about thirty new friends. It was a great week of playing games and going on the blob, and it rekindled my sense of responsibility toward high schoolers. It seemed like a bunch of these guys were really yearning for some strong male role models, to show them how to be a strong Christian man and how to love others. So many of them seemed to go out of their way to meet me, hang out with me; it made me realize that some of them actually look up to me.
Sometimes I forget things like that in my daily life, while I wonder about what's next or how to pay the bills. There's more than just me. I grew up with these strong christian role models at camp, showing me how to love God, love others, and how to have fun, and that was a big factor in how I turned out. I think it's important to pass those lessons on to these kids by example. And I love it.

Buck Buck, Anyone?

I actually spent a whole day in the middle of my week at camp without speaking. I decided to listen instead. I talk all the time, so I took a day off. (My throat was also sore) It was funny how the people around me reacted. Some were intrigued, and ventured to understand not only what I was trying to communicate through gestures, but my reasons for remaining silent. Others were completely disoriented and uncomfortable in a world where Wilder doesn't speak. It was a fun game with my co-counselor Nate, who began interpreting my motions and translating my meaning to others.

April didn't like it, and was visibly frustrated by not hearing my voice. But it was a great experience, because the huge expanse of silence I left was filled by voice that might otherwise be silent, or unnoticed. My campers came out of their shells and I heard them joke with each other, converse among themselves, and play blues piano. I got the chance to hear and observe those who might have been quiet if I had been talking. I learned a lot about the gift of silence, and how different people deal with it. After a week of fun in the sun up north, We came back to the Twin Cities refreshed, and ready for April's first day of work.

A JOB!

I got a job! After we had been back in Minnesota for about a week or so I e-mailed my friend Melissa that we were back so that we could get together for lunch sometime. She e-mailed back to inform me that Carlson Companies, where her husband works, was looking for accountants and wanted to know if I was interested. I let her know that of course I was interested and applied online and sent my resume. I had and interview within a few days and an offer two days after that. I took the weekend to "think" about it and let them know on Monday morning that I would accept. I'm very excited about it!

Mr. and Mrs. Awkward

So a day after we got back to the big TC, Team Freed hit the road again, this time for Denver CO, and our Friend Ben's wedding. Now one thing about Ben and Dana is that they live in a state of awkwardness.
Ben is an awkward kid who finds awkward things funny. It's great; atleast he doesn't take himself too seriously :) So we went to the wedding, which was a little bit awkward, but then, it was perfect. Speaking of awkward, we were going to get Ben a box with a hole cut in it for a wedding present, but ended up getting him a musical card instead. Yay for Mr. and Mrs. Ben "awkward" Ewing. We love you guys.

THE MOVE! pt. 2

Saturday was the day of the move. We set our alarms to go off at 3:30 Eastern time with the hopes of leaving by 4am. We were close to that time at least. We were on the road leaving Atlanta for for home at about 4:20am. An early morning to say the least. Remember that we were heading for the Midwest which meant we would be in the Central zone and that we actually woke up at 2:30 in that time zone. We were very excited at the beginning of the day. A new adventure lay in front of us and we had to drive to chase it down. The biggest disappointment of the morning was that we were hoping to have one last Chick-Fil-A breakfast along the way and did not see one on a highway sign as we drove.
Luckily we had walkie-talkies with us so we each came up with a call name (Wilder-Loud Mouth and April-Hurricane) so we could communicate throughout the trip. We also called a lot of people on our cell phones to help keep us awake since we were in different cars. It was a fun trip but a long trip; something I would not want to do again by myself.
About seventeen hours later and about six states we arrived in Des Moines for the night to stay with April's brother and his family. It was so fun to get to see family again and to know that we will be close to most of them now. We played with our nieces and nephew for a while and then had to go to bed for the night. It was great to go to bed in the Midwest again!

THE MOVE! pt. 1

What a long week! We've been preparing mentally to move back to Minnesota for months but it still seemed to sneek up on us. I think as we longed to be back home with our family and friends we slowly started to make friends in Atlanta and it began feeling a little bit like home (although it would never fully be home to us). We spent the few weeks prior to the move trying to fit in everything that we hadn't done in the year and a half that we had lived in ATL. Unfortunatally we put that off too much and missed out on a lot of things. I guess we'll just have to go back for a visit.
The pods that we were using to move were dropped off on Wednesday and we started loading them that night. Matt and Janey came over to help us, which was huge, and we got most of our furniture and a lot of boxes done before trivia night started at 8pm. Thursday was my last day of work! They let me leave early. That night Dan and Jen came to help us finish up packing the pods. We had pretty much everything loaded by about 8 again. It was so great to have the help so that the packing wasn't too prolonged. Thursday was also the day that the battery on the Accord died. Not really was we needed as were in the process of moving but at least it gave us Friday to get a new one. Friday was a long day. It felt like a summer day in Atlanta even though it was only the middle of May. Hot and Humid. We had to get a new battery for the Accord get the trailer from U-Haul and finish packing everything into the trailer that we would need for the next few months. It took pretty much the whole day to finish packing and then get the entire apartment cleaned and ready for us to leave the next day. We were so excited to be done with everything including having our air mattress set up for us so sleep on that night by about 5 or 6. Then we went out for dessert with TJ and Melissa our fellow midwesterners. After that it was tiem for an early night in bed so we could leave in the morning.
We are going to miss everyone so much.

Winning one

This past weekend I played with my third handball team this season. After playing in the UNC Invitational with the Atlanta Metro Condors, and then playing in the USOC National Tournament with the New York Athletic Club aka Garden City aka the Evil Empire, I played this past weekend in the Falcon Cup at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, For the Condor's crosstown rival, Atlanta Team Handball. ATH and the Condors are big rivals, but practice together often at the Georgia State rec center, so I knew all the guys on the team, and am friends with some. I think rivalries are great for clubs to get excited, and a fantastic part of sports in general, but I'm willing to play for ATH and Garden City because more than anything else, I just love to play.
So down to the Springs we went to represent the ATL, and came away champions. I actually really enjoyed playing for ATH because I understood our basic gameplan, and enjoyed carrying some of the scoring load. I think every tourney I play in I learn something, and get better at handball. If I can just cut back on dribbling and bonehead moves, I might be half decent someday. One thing in particular about playing for different teams, is experiencing different coaching styles. While Darrick Heath is reasonably quiet during games, Chris Cappelman (ATH) is, to understate, quite vocal on the bench. I knew just what I was doing wrong right as I was doing it, and I could hear Cap everywhere on the court. While this would probably be tough for a younger athlete to bear, I appreciate his willingness not to sugarcoat things, and say exactly what he thinks. Garden City is like a whole team of coaches, because most of them have been playing since I was in middle school. Their strategy is no turnovers, period. And since the other team gets the ball after missed shots, you're not allowed to miss. Which is a pretty tall order, but when you're a team of past Olympians and National players, I guess you can have ambitious expectations.
At any rate, this was the first tournament I've ever won, and it feels good. It's nice to win one, finally.

Easter in Newark

This past weekend, which happened to be Easter weekend, I travelled to Newark, Delaware for the National Championships of Team Handball. My Atlanta Club, the Condors, didn't make the trip, because A) it was pricey and B) many of our better players and our coach were in Chile with the National team, competing for the last slot in the Pan Am Games. I was elected as an alternate for the Chile trip, which means I would fill a void if another player had to drop out before the trip. No one did. The coaches wanted me to play in the national championships to add to my experience, and Coach Cappelman set me up to play with the two time defending national champion NYAC team, aka Garden City, aka The Evil Empire.

On the court, Garden City has the reputation of being the meanest team in the nation, measured largely by penalty minutes and red cards received. They are also a very veteran team, anchored by a number of former olympians, and the only team to my knowledge, with a full blown sponsor. The New York Athletic Club sponsors the team, and gives them a budget for tournaments. This allowed them to pay for my travel costs and for team hotel and entry fees. That was a great blessing, because airplane tickets can be expensive.
We got to the semi finals, and found ourselves down three goals with four minutes left when I got into the game against New York City, a largely foreign-born team, and in three minutes I managed to score three consecutive goals to tie the game. We ended up losing by one in the closing seconds, but it felt good to make an impact for a veteran team. We ended up taking fourth place overall, referred to as "the wood" as opposed to Gold, Silver or Bronze, but it was a fun tournament.

I spent some time alone Sunday in reflection. I don't really enjoy missing Easter with my wife. Ultimately, it is most important that we are aware of the great gift given to us all, a gift that is worth more than anything we could attain ourselves. It is moments like this, during opportunities to live fully and richly, to play a game I love, that I'm so thankful for all the blessings in my life, and for my Lord, who died for me.

Dead last is a good thing.

So the other day my buddy Matt McNair, a friend of mine from church, called me up to see if I wanted to go golfing. Does anyone ever really NOT want to go golfing? Because if I ever decide not to go golfing, it's not because I don't want to, but rather, because something else has precluded my opportunity. In this particular case, Matt wanted me to go golfing during a shift of mine at Starbucks, and I wasn't sure whether I could get it covered. Then he told me we'd be golfing for free. I've never gotten a shift covered so quickly in my life.

What Matty didn't tell me was that we were playing in a charity golf tournament at St. Ives Country Club, one of the nicer golf courses I've ever seen. Matt and some of the other church musicians had been given a foursome entry by someone at Perimeter who wanted to support the cause, WellSpring, a program that helps women who are victims of abuse. The ticket price: $1200 per group of four. Safe to say, this was a rare opportunity.

When we got to St. Ives that morning I noticed that everyone else on the driving range was much better at golf than we were. They were driving out of sight and I was still getting used to having free range balls.



We had a blast golfing, and I think I did pretty well for me, considering I was the only person at St. Ives who forgot their putter. I was lucky we were playing a variation of best ball where you get to play from the best drive, because I'm confident that I hit more houses than fairways (Houses 3, Fairways 2). I'm not sure why they live so close to the golf course anyway; just asking for trouble. House hunting has a whole new meaning at St. Ives.

So after our round we went into the clubhouse for lunch and the awards ceremony. They posted the scores for the 30 different foursomes, and we noticed ours was the only one in black, the rest listed in red. I soon discovered this was because our score was the only one over par. They also announced the awards for closest to the pin and longest drive holes. Apparently you can't win closest to the pin from a sand bunker, and when they say longest drive, they're not talking about the amount of time in the golf cart looking for your ball. I should've gotten an award for most balls donated to the local habitat...

So the Winners of the golf tournament got new Golf Bags, which looked amazing, and second and third place also received some amazing prizes, and then they decided to call up to the front the group that got dead last. I figured they had a right to have a chuckle at our expense, which they did in good fun, and then came the greatest part of all: Last place got a prize! To encourage us to improve our game, so as not to come in next year with such abysmal scores, we each got 6 free golf lessons!
I've never had a lesson, so I'm really excited to learn about all the things I'm doing wrong. I think it's safe to say this is the first time I've ever enjoyed being dead last.