This last weekend was [url=http://www.mygroundzero.com/]Ground Zero[/url]: Below Zero at [url=http://shamineau.org/CampShamineau/Main.html]Camp Shamineau[/url], near Motley, MN. We left last Friday and drove the 2.5 hours to camp in a 2 coach-style buses (one for the girls and one for the guys). We watched Shrek and it was pretty uneventful, except that the bus driver said that the boys bus was the cleanest he has ever seen it after a trip of this kind.
After we arrived, we got pointed in the direction of our cabins (which were more like a motel with rooms that have 4 or more bunk beds). I was in room 8 with 3 campers and another leader. It was really nice having a small number of campers because we actually got to bed at a decent time.
After we put our sleeping bags and gear down on our claim (bed), we made our way to the chapel area to meet the speaker for the weekend and to hear his first session. The speaker’s name was Brandon and he was from Des Moines, Iowa. He also drives a Jeep Wrangler! We are kindred spirits, Brandon and I… It made me miss my old CJ-7.
Brandon’s sessions all dealt with ways of living Christ-centered lives. They were really geared towards the kids, but I did come away with one thing that hit me. In one of his talks, Brandon said that we are to “love mercy”, which means that we should not want someone to get what they deserve.
This hits me because of a few things. The smaller things are like when you drive past someone that flew past you a few miles back and is now pulled over and you sometimes say to yourself “Oooh, I hope they get thrown in jail” or something similar. I don’t see myself doing that all that often, but I know that I do it.
The biggest thing that I need to change my attitude about is the justice system. 5 Years ago on December 16th, my then girlfriend’s brother was murdered. During the trial of the guy that killed him, even though Hayley and I were not together anymore, I was still very angry at the guy. The verdict came back as 1st degree murder and he got sentenced to life in prison. I was glad that he got what was coming to him.
A couple months ago, Hayley called me and told me that he got a retrial and it was scheduled to be sometime before Christmas. Evidently, he was given the retrial because the Minnesota Supreme Court made a ruling about how some trials were done incorrectly, by not giving the jury all of the options or something like that. Michael Dahlin’s trial was one of them. Well, a few weeks ago, Hayley called me and told me that the verdict came back as 2nd degree murder, which means that he did not pre-meditate. That is absolutely not true because of a number of things; he went to buy ammunition for his gun, he got ski masks, and he bought some gas cans to fill up so he could light the house on fire after he killed Dustin. This all happened some time before they actually drove more than an hour to Dustin and Angie’s house.
I was angry about this until this weekend. I think he deserves to have life in prison, but now, since it was declared 2nd degree, he could get out in 5 years. What hit me this weekend is that we all deserve to die in hell and God’s mercy in giving Jesus to die in our place should be the same mercy that we show everyone else on earth. I have always been one that tries not to judge other people and I think I do a pretty good job at it. I just have to work on the mercy aspect more.
Anyway, the rest of the weekend was very much a blur that consisted of floor hockey, dodge ball, relay races, the band playing, capture the flag, wall climbing, and food. The food was surprisingly good. I played goalie (what else?) in floor hockey and I started to get a reputation. The kids that were able to score on me were treated with a sort of honor. It was kinda wierd and interesting to see. I made it up the second hardest wall climb. The hardest was an overhang and I was tired out by the first climb, so I didn’t get very far. All-in-all, it was a very good time. I would strongly suggest to anyone thinking about helping out at EBC, to look at GZ as an option.
Unfortunately, the mercy revelation was not the only thing that I came back with. I am home sick today chugging Dayquill. So much fun!