Pensacola, waterslides, and lessons in patience and flexibility

You know those really awkward senior pictures by trees and lakes and fences and stuff? Well this was our attempt at reliving the glory days.

Sorry if these white sandy beaches make anyone jealous... perks of ministry work I guess? =)

As I mentioned in my last post, the interns and I were given the opportunity at the beginning of our week off to head to Florida for a few days to relax on the white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast. This brief excursion was filled with multiple new experiences. Unfortunately Mikey wasn’t able to partake in them due to his spider bite, and therefore I was forced to endure 8 hours in the car (4 there and 4 back) listening primarily to loud rap music as we made the trek through Mississippi and Alabama. Along the way, there were a couple of interesting sights worth noting that confirmed we were now in the Deep South. First, right after we crossed the Alabama state line on our way there, I looked out my window to see a full-grown cow eating the grass on the side of the Interstate about 30 yards from the far right lane with nothing to prevent it from meandering its way into 4 lanes of traffic. Then, about a half an hour later I saw a 5 by 10 foot Confederate flag flying 50 feet in the air about 40 yards off of the highway for every car to see. This was my first encounter with such blatant bigotry and it left me thinking about what a horrible first impression that creates for anyone who happens to stop in that town and meet its residents. Finally, I knew we were in the Bible Belt when we came across a 7 by 10 foot sign that said “Heaven” on top with a picture of blue sky and fluffy white clouds and “Hell” on bottom with a picture of flames and dark smoke, and a caption in the middle which read “It’s Your Choice.” Needless to say, this isn’t my favorite approach to evangelism.

We arrived in Pensacola on Friday night around 7:30pm and enjoyed the last hour of daylight on the beach where we ate a healthy dinner off of the Burger King Value Menu. We headed to Gulf Breeze Presbyterian after sunset where we waited for the pastor to let us into the Youth Room which turned out to be well-furnished with couches for beds. We watched part of a movie on their TV and then crashed. In the morning we got to the beach around 10am and spent most of the day lying out. The girls of course loved this, but I on the other hand am not much of a passive vacationer and found myself needing to do something after about half an hour. There was a volleyball net set up a couple hundred yards down the beach so I decided to check it out. The group there was playing men’s and coed doubles and I considered asking if I could get a game in but decided otherwise after realizing that they already had 4 teams of 2 that were rotating games. I watched for about an hour and then rejoined the girls.

We tanned (or so I thought until I got back to the church that night and realized how red I was… apparently putting on 50 spf twice wasn’t enough) and body surfed in the warm waves all afternoon. The only other exciting (or treacherous) event worth writing about was when I got viciously attacked by a jelly fish! I was gracefully body surfing in the warm waves minding my own business when all of a sudden my left elbow began to sting and I felt as if I had just received ten red fire ant bites all in the same golf ball sized area on my arm. It began mildly swelling and when I told the girls, Candace offered to pee on it. This obviously wouldn’t have been appropriate and so I kindly declined the offer and decided to lay down for awhile to rest. After about half an hour I was restless once again and since I was still feeling the sting, I decided to go for a walk along the shore to get my mind off of it. I walked down the coast about 20 minutes as the waves gently crashed against my feet before turning around and heading back. I was only about 5 minutes into my return journey when I came across a group of three ambulance EMT’s from Alabama who were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes together at the waters edge. As I was walking by, they struck up a conversation with me by asking me my name, where I was from, what I was doing in Florida, etc. I explained how I was an intern at a church in New Orleans and a student at Seattle Pacific and that I was just in Pensacola for the weekend. They asked me how I liked the beach and I said I liked it besides the jellyfish sting I had suffered about an hour earlier. That was when one of the EMT’s stood up with his beer in his hand and said “Here. Pour some beer on it. It will make the stinging go away.” I hesitated for a second unsure if he was joking or not, but instead of asking I remained silent and held out my arm. He poured a generous amount of Budweiser on my elbow and within seconds the stinging sensation went away! From there I sat down and talked with them, told them of Louisiana and Seattle, and listened to some of their scariest ambulance emergency stories. During our conversation they offered me a beer and a cigarette (true Southern hospitability no doubt) which I declined, and after about 20 minutes I headed back to Candace and Anna who of course were still sunbathing where I had left them. Who knew that relief from a jelly fish sting would come in the form of beer from three random Alabamans? What a creative and merciful God we serve. =)

A final story I’d like to tell about Florida was our interesting experience at the church service on Sunday morning. Since we were only there for a day and a half, we would have liked to have simply skipped church altogether, gone to the beach, and podcasted a sermon or something on the way home, but the pastor had invited us to go to their “contemporary service” at 8:30am and we had agreed to attend. This turned out being one of the most interesting church services I’ve ever been to. Let me explain. The entire church service from the music to the sermon was about American freedom. Now I understand that the 4^th of July was yesterday, but this service was quite over the top. The pastor, who also happened to be the head of the worship team, led the congregation of about 60 in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which happens to be an American Civil War song, and some other silly song about American independence and freedom. He then gave a 15 minute sermon where he read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 and in my opinion (and Candace and Anna’s) took the passage completely out of context to preach a politically charged sermon about the freedom we have in America and the fact that our country was founded by God-fearing men and now God is disappearing from our government and schools systems and how we need to do something about it. He read a quote from Jay Leno and about 5 quotes from various former US Presidents and political figures during the early years of our country and then pulled out the banjo to lead us in “This Land is Your Land” (yes I just said that) in celebration of how God has blessed America. Now obviously there is a place for humbly thanking God for our country’s freedom and how we have been financially and materially blessed, but I think the pastor missed the whole point of the 2^nd Corinthians passage. The point, as Candace, Anna, and I agreed on is that we have freedom in Christ and that freedom allows us by the Spirit to become more and more like Jesus as we are being sanctified! Ahh the Bible Belt – what will we ever to with you? Anyways, I could probably rant forever (especially about how ridiculous it was to sing “This Land is Your Land” in church) but this blog post is already too long.

The rest of my week off was quite relaxing and low key. Movies are $4.75 in theatres any time Monday-Thursday so we saw Wal e and Hancock. We also got to go to Blue Bayou – Baton Rouge’s equivalent of the Wild Wave’s water park in Federal Way. Let me tell you, there is nothing like walking through warm, slimy puddles of water that have been invaded by the foot fungi, sweat, and sunscreen of the hundreds of people who venture through them on their way around the park. Thank God for gallons of chlorine. Anyways, the park ended up having some pretty awesome slides and the best part about it was that Whitney Alexander, the Youth Director from 1^st Presbyterian Baton Rouge, bought the $35 tickets for us as a way of saying thank you for an awesome week of serving together with his middle schoolers the week before. The 4^th of July wasn’t anything too special. We were too late getting down to the Mississippi River to see the entire fireworks show, but we saw some of it from the car as we drove around the French Quarter (downtown New Orleans) looking for parking.

I also just wanted to comment on how I’ve been learning patience and flexibility with everything down here. First of all, everything is simply slower than life in Seattle and being a business major who values efficiency, this can be a bit irritating. However, I’m learning to “go with the flow” and enjoy a slower pace of life. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to have a car during most of high school and two out of my three years at SPU at my disposal to go where I wanted when I wanted. Down here, I am completely at the mercy of Mikey and Candace and three or four other friends (with cars) I’ve made from church to get anywhere. This can at times get frustrating when I really want to go somewhere or desire to leave a place earlier or later than my ride. Yet, it has also humbled me and made me grateful of both my friends who are willing to give me rides and the car I get to drive in Seattle.

Finally, last night we got a team of 24 in from Southport, Indiana. Half of them will be running a basketball camp for 8-12 year olds from 9am-12pm this week and working in the afternoon, and the other half will be putting up drywall at a house with the contractor that they brought with them all day. Anna and I will be in charge of coordinating the basketball camp. Hopefully I can remember how to ball! I’ll update more at the end of the week. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for enduring yet another lengthy blog… I love and miss you all!

Kyle

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