My History w/The Lord: The New Life Chronicles (continued)

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In the 2^nd ½ of the 90’s, New Life was in full “Revival” swing.  We had lots of guest speakers, protracted worship & prayer times, extended week-long meetings. We were at the church buildings a lot.  We also had a lot of manifestations; falling-out, laughing, trembling, crying, running around.  There was a lot of joy.

I also was digging deeper with the Lord and was attempting to surrender to the Holy Spirit in all things.  I didn’t want to be a “naysayer” or “doubter.”  Being open and accepting what was around me was good for my heart and the Holy Spirit was moving in me.

There were those at New Life who were very skeptical. When the ‘extreme” wackiness started, some people left, some people questioned, some people stood on the side and lobbed verbal pot-shots.  A group of “concerned” New Lifers had gotten the ear of one of the more sympathetic Elders.  He also had questions and concerns (Heck. I had questions and concerns.)  So there was going to be a meeting; a meeting for those who wanted to share their concerns to come together in an open forum. It was going to be held at the church building.  On one particular Sunday morning service, the Elder was going to come to the pulpit at the greeting time (after the first song) and announce the meeting for that evening.

Only some of the floor in the auditorium was carpeted. A majority of it was painted concrete. From my vantage point, I could see the Elder standing in the back of the auditorium. As we were wrapping up the first song I could see him make his way around the back of the congregation and down the far house-right side.  As we were singing the last chorus of that first song, the Elder’s foot touched the carpet.  Immediately he pitched forward and hit the floor.  He lay there, motionless.  The worship leader looked at the preacher in the front row. He shrugged his shoulders and we launched into the rest of our set.

No announcements.

No meeting.

Sometimes God doesn’t want a meeting.

chris

Raised by wolves?

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*(Meagan Prendergast inferred some of my February bogs sucked...and she was right.  So I tried on this one.)

We thought, perhaps, Angie had been raised by wolves.

Remember those stories from India in the 50’s where anthropologists would occasionally find kids who had been abandoned in the jungle and a pack of wolves would (instead of eating them) adopt them into their pack and raise them and then the kids would get found later walking around on all fours, howling, naked, and acting like a wolf?   That kind of described Angie.

She was non-verbal other than to growl and grunt.  She was, at times very loving and affectionate.  But often she would attempt (and succeed) to bite and scratch you.  She would eat her clothing and her own hair and of course, get naked.  She was on a variety of medications some of which made her gain fat and, unfortunately, make her boobs big (I really didn’t know how else to write that.)

Angie lived at a separate group home from KDS, so a van would come pick her up at the end of the day.

On this particular day Angie was having a bad time all day.  She had been in the time-out room multiple times, she had been restrained, she had hit and kicked and pinched and scratched and bit and thrown things and had grunted and growled throughout the day.  We had multiple staff that dealt with her and I took my turn near the end of the school day.  We had learned (actually Angie had trained us) to stay near her during these episodes or she would strip naked.  So we kept her clothed all day.

At three o’clock her van came.  Another van had taken the other day-students and a separate van came for her. There was a driver and an attendant. I “escorted” Angie to her van and “assisted” her into the seat with the attendant next to her.  I waved goodbye as they whisked out of the parking lot.  I then went to my office.

No sooner had I got there when the front secretary buzzed me, “You better get up here. The van came back.”

I look out and Angie’s van had pulled back in the parking lot near the sidewalk.  I saw the two van-staff looking on the ground with their hands up in the air like “This is a stick-up!”  I walk to them and there, lying on the pavement, between two of our parked vans was Angie, writhing, grunting, and growling, completely naked.  She had even kicked off her shoes and socks.

One of the secretaries and one of the workshop employees (all women) came out with me.  To the secretary I said, “Go into one of the residences and get an old quilt.”  Then I moved closer to Angie and tried to diffuse the situation as much as I could.

ME: Come on Angie. We know you are a good girl and you want to go home.  Let’s get your clothes back on and get you in the van.

ANGIE: HuuuuRrrrrruuuuuufGrrrrrrrrUhhhhhhhhhhhGrunnnnnttt.

ME: Angie you can have a snack at home but you can’t lie here in the parking lot.

ANGIE: Grrrrrrrrrrrrhowwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllrrrrrrrrrrngrgrgrgrgrgrgr…. (with lots of…flipping and flopping…as it were)

Just as the bedspread got to us, the workshop-woman whispers, “Pedestrian!”

A city sidewalk ran through the middle of our campus and often some of the older residents in the neighborhood would walk to “Fred’s” to get groceries then take them home.  We saw (to our dismay) a beautiful fine Southern elderly woman sauntering towards us with her pull-behind two-wheeled wire cart full of milk. 

Instantly, two of the women nonchalantly leaned against the vans as if they were having a conversation.  The other one leaned over to me and started quietly chatting.  Even Angie lay perfectly still as the elderly lady shuffled by, oblivious of what was happening two feet from her.

As soon as the lady had passed, as if on cue:

            ANGIE: MufflllllllPufffffffGrunnnnntSnnnnnooortGrowwwwlllll…etc.

            ME: Angie, you need to get in the van…(blahblahblah)

Finally I gingerly rolled her up in the bedspread (very much like a human burrito) and placed her (perhaps tossed her) into the van and yelled, “Go Starsky!”  I then stood at the entrance of our parking lot to make sure they did not turn back around and (again) deposit a nude wolf-child onto our premises.

Good times…

chris

To read about other people raised by animals:

Nine children who were raised by animals

Smash

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Amy and I just watched the NBC show "SMASH."

We liked it.

That's my blog.

chris

Smash

How to identify an aggressive bear...

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I got someone with this joke today who happened to be talking about seeing bears in the wild:

• ME: You know you should take pepper spray with you on the trail just in case you see a bear.

• HER: Really?

• ME: Yes. And they recommend wearing little bells on your clothes to you can alert the bear you       are coming and they'll walk off.

• HER: Hummmmmmm.....

• ME: You can tell the size and temperament of the bear by it's "scat", you know...poop.

• HER: Really?

• ME: Sure. You can tell a big bear if it's a big pile of "scat." If it's a small bear it'll be a small pile.  If it's an aggressive bear, the "scat" will have bells in it and smell like pepper spray...

chris

I'm Lazy

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I'm lazy,

and a little blue,

and I missed my workout,

so here's a stoopid top 10 list.

Top 10 Foreign McDonalds Menu Items

chris

10 Hour Drive

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10 hour drive.

Good Night Now!

cg

Spring Awakening

(Nathaniel, Alison & Eric MT15)

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Up until now I've mostly stayed away from the Broadway Musical, "Spring Awakening."  It has been a hot commodity and much like "Rent" in the mid 90's it introduced a group of young fans to theater who normally wouldn't have had an interest.  You could say that "Glee" was an unforeseen byproduct of "Spring Awakening."

"Spring Awakening" has all the things conservative Christians loath; pre-marital sex, youthful rebellion, homosexuality, a general blaming of adult society and the church for the persecution of the young, an indictment against the rote educational system of the day.  All those things are on full display (F-bombs, masturbation, suicide, abortion, partial nudity, villainous adults, dudes making-out with dudes) in SA.

So when CCM announced they were doing SA for one of their winter shows I had a sinking feeling.  Eric was the right age, the right look, and the right  energy for this show.  We talked a lot about it and about shows in general with "R-rated" content.  Luckily for me, he didn't have to have sex with anyone or kiss a dude.

Frank Wedekind wrote the play "The Spring Awakening: A Children's Tragedy in 3Three Acts" between 1890 and 1891."  It accurately described the tone of intellectual German society at that time.  It was based on real-ish events (although stringing them together in a play across a limited number of characters did condense the misery.)  Wedekind constructed a majority of the dialogue to come from children 13 to 15 years old, from their perspective.  When the play (and musical) were performed the actors were adults, losing some of the "naivete'".

There is a lot of gross stuff in the show, but not inaccurate stuff.  However. just because something is "true" doesn't mean I want to watch it.  I've been pretty immersed in stories of child abuse, drug abuse, crime, pain, heartache, suicide, and other yuck from real people I know and have worked with for the past 25 years. I don't necessarily want to go see a show about it. (And "No." I have no desire to see the movie "Precious")

So last night there we were (Amy, Jaron and I) in the Corbett Family Theater @CCM watching Spring Awakening.  And  must say, this particular production passed the only criteria I have for Art; It moved my heart.  The show didn't just lay out a bunch of yuck and bad behavior. Everything had a consequence and there was a type of truth in it.  It was moving.

I was talking to Collin Kessler's dad after the show (Collin had a key role that he played brilliantly) and Mr. Kessler put things pretty succinctly. He said, "This show perfectly describes Roman 6. 'The wages of sin is death.'"

The main characters do move throughout the show. Melchior discovers that his big ideas, big words, and big mouth have real, life-changing weight.  Moritz's father comes to regret his words too late. Wendla's mother sees what avoiding the truth can lead to.

It's not a feel-good story, but it's moving. It actually reminds me of some of those awful stories of King David's family in the Old Testament. You know, the ones about incest and rape and siblings getting murdered and rebellion, the ones that never get read out-loud at church on Sundays.

Anyway, I'm proud of Eric and Collin and the rest of the VERY young cast of CCM's "Spring Awakening."