Everybody Perfect

Brett Matthew Figgins is a cool dude, as can be plainly seen in the video above. We were at the Grand Canyon on the same day that Michael Jackson died. I love this video. The juxtaposition of a God made natural wonder man and a God made natural wonder. Grand Brett and the Grand Canyon.

Nick Palermo had arranged to bring the entire camp of 400+ people from Lost Canyon to the Grand Canyon. It was such a great and profound illustration of God's power, and allowed us to point to the Canyon and to the campers as perfect examples of the power and love that God put into his Creation. It was a gift.

Some people say that the people of Capernaum, that is people with disabilities, do not get it. I sometimes wonder what "it" is that they think we should get. We may not get everything, especially some things that require lots of brain power or things that are theological in nature. Translated to mean complicated and difficult.

But God's Creation is not difficult to get and his love for us was never meant to be complicated but simple in the very best sense of the word. Brett expresses the simplicity of God's creation and why he did what he did: for our sake as well as His.

I would put Brett up on the same level as the finest theologian. God said to go out and make disciple of all nations, all people, everywhere. So why not Brett? He helps me believe in a loving God and that God made us all, each and every one of us, part of His creation. For his sake and for ours.

Tiffany

Tiffany is a Rock Star. Truth is that ALL God's people are rock stars, but few of us actually believe it. When I met Tiffany she hoped she could be a rock star but she did not believe it. Yet she knew she had talent. So naturally she signed up for Capernaum Idol.

This video was shot on Day 2, during Field Games. I love this because it shows Tiffany busting out some of her amazing moves, but also because of the Buddy who passes by. Watch her.

Tiffany is dancing completely on her own in front of the program sound cart, looking up at Sugar Shane and Spicey Momma, hoping for some recognition. As she turns to her right, a Buddy appears on the left and dances in perfect rhythm with Tiffany, in tandem, on the same team.

Tiffany is not even aware of her, doesn't even know she's been there. To me this was just a magical moment at Camp. There is something so profound here and I'm not really sure I can accurately voice it. That beautiful Buddy became one with Tiffany, even though she was not invited or even noticed by her. This says that we all can join another at whatever they are doing whenever they are doing it as a way to say, "you matter."

By matching Tiffany in her dance moves this Buddy showed the entire field of people that Tiffany is awesome and is such a great dancer she can't stop herself from dancing with her. I don't know what she was thinking, but I think the Holy Spirit inspired her.

We tend to think that the Holy Spirit will only get involved in our lives in huge and important ways, but I say no. I say the spirit of God is ALWAYS with us, always nudging us, always pushing us to be led by that spirit, the inner part of us that was made by God himself.

This video shows God's Holy Spirit busting out a move. Pretty cool if you ask me.

____________

Tiffany did go on to win Capernaum Idol. But after the first round she was walking away down the sidewalk by herself. I called her a Rock Star and the campers with me agreed. She turned around and said, "Do you really mean it?" We said we really did. She said, "Thanks for telling me that, because I felt so bad I was going to go back to my room and cry."

God takes people like Tiffany who feel they don't deserve an award and crowns them with his love and talents and gifts. Tiffany is a Rock Star. God's Rock Star!

Foo Man Choo

Foo is a cool dude, so I called him Foo Man Choo, after the super cool TV hero who was named after some Asian bloke from a long time ago. Bloke is a cool word that means dude, which means homie which means guy which means hombre which means man. Foo is a man who happens to have Cerebral Palsy.

But no cripple pity please for Mr. Foo Man Choo, oh no. This dude is for real. This video was shot during Water Olympics of Lost Canyon Capernaum Discipleship Camp. Those are a lot of words which basically means Heaven, since Jesus did say the Kingdom of Heaven was "at hand."

Only deal is that Foo can't use his hands, so he gets his friends to help do the things his hands won't do for him. Like get out of a rubber inner tube out and out of the pool. Watch the magic lift. One guy on his feet and legs, the other on his back and a third up top ready to receive the package sent Special Delivery by God himself a few years back when the sky opened and a star named Foo fell to earth to bless us all.

Then a fourth friend steps in to help Foo on the other side, an overabundance of friends. But seriously, is it really possible to have too many friends? Foo Man Choo would say no, heck no.

Watch the look on his face when I close in on him. He knows he's on. He knows I've been filming him. He knows this is his star moment and he does not disappoint. He cannot speak to us in words so he speaks with his face and his expressions. His look is defiant. His look is I am Foo and I am the man. Look what I just did. Look at my muscle. Look at the muscle of Mr. Foo Man Choo, who rode the inner tube beyond all hope.

Foo rode the pool inner tube across Heaven and had a blast, while his friends hung on for dear life and shared in the beauty of his life.

Lost Canyon Beautiful People

This video was taken at the start of the Field Games on Day 2 at Lost Canyon Young Life Camp near Flagstaff, Arizona. Being the normal caring and quiet fellow that I am, I naturally shouted to wake everyone up and get them "ready" for the video. Not that they needed me to do that, mind you. They were plenty ready. They just didn't know quite what was going on.

The games were still being organized and they.... well they were standing around looking swank in their various team outfits. We're talking coolness manifesto or even worse. Or better if you want to go that way. Maximo Swanko Importanto, which translates as, "Most Awesome."

This particular group was from Phoenix, under the spell of Mr. David Thames. Thus their rather outlandish outfits and whacky attitude. The Toucan hats, the leis, grass skirts all were quite nice. But it was their ATTITUDE that heaped on the final helping of excellence and Swank. Soon as I called them out watch the dudes pose and flash, then bust out a few moves right there on the grass in their.... grass skirts.

Now lot of guys would have trouble looking sway in grass skirts but these dudes owned them. Then when the rest realized I was videotaping they came in to do closeup posing. These dudes can pose better than most posers. They know how.

Note the finger hanging over the edge of my iPhone. Accident? Posed of course.

First the guys busting it out front then through the web to the rear where the girls quietly waited for the right time to bust THEIR moves and if not, to watch the boys do their silly things. Oh those crazy boys they say but they love the boys and can't take their eyes off of them. Who can blame them? A big hand wave and we're done. Just a touch of Lost Canyon...

Danny & Ben

(L-R): Danny O'Rourke, Ben Daulton (wearing his Best Camper medal) and Wendy O'Rourke share a moment at the 2009 Capernaum Week at Rockbridge camp.


by John Koehler

Tara Criste knew she had to get Ben and Tommy Daulton to camp, no matter what. Tara is the Associate Area Director of Young Life Capernaum in Hampton Roads. She worked on Ben and Tommy's dad, Dave, and finally it all came together; they both came to camp. This fact in and of itself is no big deal. Plenty of kids come to camp with Capernaum. What was a big deal was that both boys were potential behavioral problems, especially away from their Dad.

When I realized that Dave was not coming I said to Tara, "Well you've done it now. We have two boys who may cause big problems and no way of knowing exactly what will happen." Or something equally corporate and whiny. I think Tara answered me with,"Don't worry, God will provide." I waved that off as just another Christian cliche.

But God did provide, and his name was Danny.

Turns out that Tommy was not really a problem, but on Day One, when the campers and Buddies and Leaders were all getting their camp legs and figuring out what was what and missing home, Ben was melting down. Ornery and upset, not wanting to go along with his cabin mates. Starved for love and attention, he acted out.

Danny was just a 13-year-old middle school kid signed up as a Buddy because his parents and sister were coming. Danny's dad Marty is the pastor at Church of the Messiah, home of our Chesapeake Club. His sister Molly is an old hand with Capernaum and served as a club buddy and had been to camp several times already. Wendy is the mom and also well versed with the people of Capernaum.

But Danny had never really done much with Capernaum, and wasn't really sure what the whole deal was. I remember seeing him on his bunk on Day One while the cabin was in an uproar. His look was pure "deer in the headlights." I let him be.

The next day we had a talk about stepping up and serving the kids and treating them like little brothers. This could be pretty hard to take for a young man half the size of some of our campers, and less than half the size of a big dude like Ben. I'm not sure if Danny got assigned to Ben, if he picked him or Ben picked him. Either way I'm pretty sure God set the whole thing up.

Ben lumbers. He's a big dude and when he walks he lumbers along at a pace befitting a barge or something else equally large. You don't hurry with Ben. You wait for Ben and you ease along with Ben. Danny is speedy and wiry and coordinated. Ben is awkward and uncoordinated. Danny speaks clearly and with intelligence. Ben is hard to understand and his intelligence of the brain is limited. But he's plenty smart where it counts: in his heart.

How good is God to bring these two together? Polar opposites, yet so much in common according to God. I remember seeing them together on Day Two, holding hands, walking along happy as well.... happy as campers! I had trouble with the image because it was so incongruous, so odd, so strange and out of place. This little boy/man with the world as his oyster (pearls included) together with the huge man/boy who could never get past the ugly oyster shell.

But there they were just happier than jaybirds, jabbering away. Danny's fear was gone and so was Ben's need to act out, because here was a friend who loved him from top to bottom, inside out with a cherry on top. Which took away his fear of loss and the pain of losing his dad, even for a day much less a week. Because Ben had Danny, his replacement dad, the man child who loved him like the dad back home who was temporarily forgotten until the bus brought them back together.

There is nothing that God can't do and everything he will do in a pinch or even when you don't believe it is possible. Because God does not do based on our unbelief, but on the depth and width and size of his love for us. And that is almost unbelievable. Which gives me hope and makes me believe that there is a chance for us all.

At a Young Life camp up in the mountains of Virginia near the little town of Goshen, God showed me his mercy and grace and glory and love love love like a river flowing down through the woods while the deer bend their heads to nibble the grass and brook trout explode up to capture the fies. Ahhh, I do thank God for Danny and Ben, for doing the impossible in a way that God makes possible in us all.

If we just try to love another and treat each other like family then God will do the rest. Because when we love one another by way of agape we are loving on the creation and the creator, the living being that made it and us all.

In August of 2009 I saw God walking among us at a place called Rockbridge, and he looked exactly like two men I know named Ben and Danny. They're friends of mine and so is God.

Love,

John

PS- Marty just reminded me of something that happened at Camp, and which may be part of the reason why Ben took to Danny so well. Seems that Ben had a brother named Danny who died when he was very young. When Ben met the living Danny he remembered his dead Danny and knew God had brought his brother back. God brought Danny back for Ben's sake. Maybe a piece of the old Danny is in him, but for sure a piece of God were and are in them both. Either way, Ben and his new brother Danny get a good deal! How good is God?

Ryan The Hurricane Hunter

by Cletus Cowpie


Well siree and mamiree and all you fine folk reading this here letter, we had us a plum fine time at the 2009 Capernaum Discipleship Camp at Rockbridge.

Just take a look at that there photo and you can maybe get a taste of the beautiful people that were there. Over 400 able and disabled God-made folks all together in one place, with enough love to bout fill up the Good Year Blimp and one a them aircraft carriers bigger'n a small city. They was all just finer than Caroliner and better lookin' than movie stars and rock stars as play up in front of folks just to make them happier than pigs in a mud hole.

By the end of the week our speakers, Mr. Chris Buda (he ain't that happy fat Chinese feller you heard about though he is pretty happy and well he might be a big feller too) and Mr. Ty Saltzgiver (he ain't nearly as big as the Buda cept maybe fer his heart and I have no idea why he likes to give away salt), why they had everyone convinced that we was all God's favorite. One at a time. No matter how messed up or caught up or how good lookin or ugly we was or if we could walk or not or talk or not or really when you come right on down to it God don't care what we can or can't do cause he's the one who canned us, if you follow my meaning.

Now how exactly do you suppose God can make each and every one of us his most very favorite child? Sounds pretty complicated but I reckon old God can handle it just fine. Shoot, last I checked he INVENTED complicated, which makes it pretty simple for him, right?

So there we was on Tuesday night, Day Four and a whole lot more. We was all outside havin' fun on the basketball court whilst them leaders was inside not havin' so much fun doin all that big brain stuff while we got to do the big heart stuff outside. Dear Lord, thankee kindly fer makin' me smart with my heart and a tad slow with my head. Cause that way I gets to be outside with my Capernaum friends.

We had us a regular three ring circus that night, we did. Ben and Kirk and my cousin John was all there standing high in the sky on that pagoda contraption, jabberin' away like jay birds on moonshine. To their left was basketball and slam dunk contests. To their right was wheelchair soccer or really more like Wheelchair Rugby on account them pretty people was usin' their hands and heads and wheelchairs in addition to their legs and feet. Cheatin' is all part of Capernaum games, which really just means everythin' is fair, long as you don't hurt no one.

And then there was Smack Down 2009. Oh howdy doo and Lord save us, please pass the chair!

Smack Down is basically wrestlin' fer boys and girls. They all wear helmets and are shown how to do it proper so they can't hurt themselves...... much. Now you take an average able-bodied kid and let him wrestle and it ain't all that. But you take a kid with disabilities and it sure IS all that and a whole lot more, I'm here to tell you. Many had never been allowed to do it their entire lives, especially the ones with physical disabilities. For them Smack Down was just something for others, never for them. Just a dream that would never come true.

But lucky for them, that ain't the way Young Life Capernaum rolls. Capernaum is all about makin' dreams come true.

After quite a few matches, with bodies flyin' every which a way, one young feller came up and said, "I'd like to wrestle that Hurricane! I'll tear him up!" Now Hurricane was a kinda dried up wrestler that kept threatening to take over Gary's Show during Club, and all the Capernaum fellas did not like that idea and a bunch of 'em wanted to bust that boy upside the head or maybe even worst. And that's why that boy wanted to wrestle Mr. Hurricane outside in front of the entire camp so as he could teach old Hurricane a lesson about why you don't mess with our friends Gary and Kenny.

So Ben and Kirk and John said, "Hmmm, that there is a fine idea, it is." So they called up Hurricane himself on the radio and asked if he would come on down and wrestle and he said, "Oh yes I will," along with some insults and such that I can't rightly share in this here story. That boy got some issues.

So by and by Hurricane came storming on over, makin' insults and such. And some of them boys right near about attacked that boy and here's the thing. That there Hurricane was right scared a some of them boys, and if I'm lyin' I'm dyin.' He looked scared when our boys chest bumped him and shouted insults at HIM. But then he got his composure screwed back on and broke through the crowd and set to hollerin' and carryin' on in the ring and we 'bout had us a riot. It was Panda Modium, or Grizzly Modium or one a them modiums, cause Hurricane bout got himself kilt. And he ain't even Scottish.

Then John announced that Hurricane was gonna have to wrestle Mr. Ryan the Redeemer and the place went kinda crazy. Cause Ryan is the dude in the wheelchair you can see with the circle round him. He ain't all that to look at, kinda got scrawny little legs that don't do him much good and not too much go power in his engine. But here's the thing, that boy can swing his arms and he's got the gumption and get up and go of a man twice Hurricane's size. His heart's got enough go power to out power any Hurricane and he knew it, did young Mr. Ryan. Soon as he was called out to wrestle the 'Cane, Ryan started waving and pumping his bean pole arms and the rest is history for the books.

Course to be fair, Hurricane didn't know his doom right then and just laughed as Ben Hourigan and Ben Mortensen lifted Ryan up out of his chair and over to the ring. Fact is Hurricane kept on slingin' garbage about how he was gonna tear old Ryan down to size and send him back to his Momma, put him back in his wheelchair and stuff like that. Poor old Hurricane did not know what old God had in store for him, to teach him a lesson and bring him down to size.

Pretty soon the bell rang and Hurricane went down in a wrestler's crouch. But not Ryan, oh no. He had his pretty boys, the two Bens, carry him right over and he WHACKED the tar out of Hurricane just as sure as a logger fells a tree. That boy ripped Hurricane's mustache and helmet right off his punkin' head and he fell backwards in a faint. Then Ryan finished him off with a flyin' body slam and before you could say, "Skip to my Lou my darlin'," the Hurricane was pinned and he was the one in pain.

He limped off the court pretty fast as we took the WWE championship belt made of gold and put it on Ryan's skinny little body and his two boys held him up and spun him around like God's favorite whilst the crowd about died and went to heaven and maybe it WAS heaven come right down to earth, cause didn't Jesus say, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand?". If only you'd been there you'd a seen it fer yourself, just as plain as day and honest injun true, cause everybody knows them Native Americans is right honest people, now ain't they?

So Ryan from Baltimore got to wear the golden belt and Hurricane, well sir. We ain't positive what happened to that boy. Last I heard he was gonna take up cat herding up in Wyoming. And we wish him luck too. As for Ryan, good on ya boy! Ya done tamed a Hurricane, and that ain't easy, son.

This is Cletus Cowpie sayin' so long. Snip snap snout, this tale's told out!