Book Review – “Gates of Fire”

Well, I just finished reading through Gates of Fire for the second time, and I love it. My mom bought it for me over the summer, to give me inspiration. You see, it’s about the Battle of Thermopylae, 300 Spartans against countless foes. (To be fair there were several thousand other Greeks fighting with the Spartans, but the point is, few versus many.) It was given to help me in a time when I was outnumbered. Hundreds of kids were due in the second half of the summer, and we had but a handful of counselors.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The descriptions painted a picture for me to visualize. The characters I met seemed both full of humanity and personality. I found myself celebrating their victories, grieving their losses, and laughing at their wit.

The story revolves around an injured warrior on the brink of death. He is cared for at the Persian king’s command, so that he can give his account of the battle to their conquerors. His story jumps around, from his humble beginnings to his finals days. As a boy, he was orphaned at a young age, and with no parents or city to call his own, he made his way to Sparta to become a part of their culture of war. He works as a servant until his courage, loyalty, and stubborn idiocy prove him to be worthy of aiding a Spartan in battle.

He chronicles the preparation for and the glories of battle. He speaks of courage and fear, honor and death. Eventually, he tells of the furious days of combat with the Persians. Though the army eventually falls to the Persian onslaught, their sacrifice give heart to Greece.

The language the Spartans use is quite crude, and often they swear, either to get a point across or just for the fun of it. (Apparently, manners were not quite as developed in Sparta.) But in spite of that, it was a very enjoyable read. I would recommend the book to those who enjoy a bit of historical fiction or are just looking for a gripping book to read.

Along these lines, I’ve been preparing for Halloween since early September. I’m going to attempt to outdo last year’s imitation of King Leonidas of Sparta. After nearly a month of not shaving, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities. My costume is sure to be a hit by late October. I’ll do my best to upload a few pictures of it.

Old Recruiting Video

Since I’ve had lots of quite serious posts as of late, I dug out an old video I made a few years back. It was shown at AFC Wednesday Night class. The purpose of it was not only to get a laugh from the students, but to get the idea in their mind that Weekend Trips were very important. And whenever one trip sticks out in someone’s mind, it’s more likely to be the trip they pick. Hope you enjoy getting a closer look at the lengths I go to for recruiting!

New Job

As of 8:13 P.M. on Saturday, September 20th, 2008, I was named the new Camp of the Hills Camp Director. I couldn’t be happier about it.

Friday Update

Tomorrow is arguably one of the most important days of my life. Tomorrow, probably in the early afternoon hours, I’ll get a call from Mel Bowman, Executive Director of Camp of the Hills. He’s going to tell me how the Board Meeting went. I’m in the running for Camp Director for next summer, and the decision will probably be made at that meeting. In about twenty-four hours, I will have a much better idea of what my future looks like in the coming months and years.

I’m nervous and excited. I’ve been having trouble sleeping, sometimes just sitting in bed, eyes wide, wondering about what’s going to happen. When I do sleep, my dreams have been focussing on Camp. (Except for that one where I was being chased by the velociraptors from Jurassic Park. They still scare me.)

I think the reason this whole thing has consumed my thoughts so much is because of the amount of time and energy I’ve poured into Camp over the years. For the last seven summers, Camp has been my life. Campers, counselors, swimming, Crucifixion, devotionals, dodgeball, hiking, basketball, Bible studies… It spills over into every facet of my life. My closest friends are mostly people I’ve worked with at Camp and many of my mentors and heros are the people I looked up to there. My plans for the future involve Camp. I can’t remember what it feels like not to be tied intrinsically to what’s going on by the banks of that little camp by Lake Travis.

I hope that whatever happens, God continues to allow me to be a part of the ministry that goes on at Camp of the Hills.

Daily Bible Email

Okay, while searching through the archives of my old blog, I saw something cool that I’d almost forgotten about. It seems that there was a time when I found a little website that specialized in breaking the Bible down into 365 easy to read chunks, then emailing it out to people on a daily basis. I thought it was a great idea, because I’m so bad about remembering to pick up my Bible, but I’m quite diligent at reading through my inbox.

Unfortunately, the program never seemed to work with my old email address. I don’t know if it just hated Hotmail, or if I incorrectly entered my information, but I never did receive the emails I was hoping for. But after reading through my old posts, I decided to give it another try, this time with my Gmail account (coth.guy@gmail.com). Lo and behold, every morning a little after midnight, passages of the Bible arrive in my inbox.

I’ve been getting them for almost a week now, and I’m excited about how easy and simple it is to read. They break the Bible into three sections to pull from: Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms & Proverbs. This is a nice feature, because I would probably get bogged down if the entire reading for the day was a long genealogy or laws from Leviticus.

I’m hoping that by this time next year, I’ll have read the entire Bible. Probably a good idea for a guy who’s planning to study Christian Ministry, go into the Mission field full-time, then work at Christian camp… But I would like to encourage my readers that if they struggle to sit down and read the Bible, try this out. With all the junk mail, ridiculous forwards, and other useless email I get, it’s nice to know I’ll recieve one message every day that is full of good stuff.

Throwback Post #3

A few years back, a good friend and mentor to the AFC guys named Mike Perkins challenged the Men’s Bible Study group to write their own Psalm. Here’s my entry, dated December 12th, 2005.

Drew’s Psalms 1

My heart leaps with joy,

You rejoice with me.

My soul cries out in anguish,

You are my only comfort.

Surrounded by the best of friends,

But none compare with Your love.

Standing alone, without another soul for miles,

You are there, my All, my Everything.

When I wake in the morning,

Your glory astounds my unworthy heart.

When I lie down at night,

Your grace washes over my tired body.

Though I am weak, tired, and hurting,

You still chose to make me important to you.

Though I have been ravaged by the pain of sin,

You give me sweet mercy to heal my wounds.

When I smile until my cheeks hurt,

You are my joy.

When I cry until I have no tears left,

You wrap me up in Your tender embrace.

When my plans all implode,

I know that You work for my good in all things.

When everything goes smoothly,

I will praise Your infinite goodness.

Because I was lost, dismayed, and frightened,

But You rescued me from the Pit.

I was caught in more sin then I could handle,

But you broke me free.

Even though I betrayed Your gift of love,

You kept offering the love I needed.

You gave me chances upon chances,

When I never deserved one.

And so I will praise you,

With every breath I inhale.

I will proclaim Your greatness,

From now until I die.

But my praise will not end in my death,

For You promise to raise me up.

And then I will praise Your glorious name,

For ever and ever. Amen.

P.S. Happy birthday to Robert Borden. He’s a really cool friend of my mom and dad, and has been really supportive of me through the years.

Throwback Post #2 and Recruiting Update

This second post from bygone days is from my birthday, April 4th, 2006. I vividly remember the story I recount in it, and boy, oh boy… It was a crazy day for sure.

The number one rule of life is as follows: Never, EVER, under any circumstances, should you handle a Sugar Glider if you can’t take hilarious laughter, screaming like a junior high girl, or having a marsupial jump into your hair.

What does a Sugar Glider look like? A little something like this…

Aww… Isn’t that cute? Yes, yes it is. Until it flies at your face!

It climbed all over me and Ross, hissed at us and Dustin, refused to glide like it’s name would suggest, peed on Ross’ shirt, pooped on my bare back, got frightened by Dustin and fled to the sanctuary of the back of my head, where it proceeded to bite my ear, Mike Tyson style.

In other news, my hours of diligence on the recruiting trails have already started to pay dividends. Four counselors from last year are wanting to return for another summer at Camp of the Hills, and our first new applicant turned in her paperwork September 1st, a full nine months before Camp starts. Am I excited? You better believe it.

One more quick note before I sign off… I just noticed that this blog has been viewed more than five thousand times in less than a year. It makes me smile to know that people are that interested in what is going on in my life. (Even if half of the views are probably from Mom and Dad…)