Packing Up: Nine Days – Ninety Names

 Packing Up: Nine Days – Ninety Names

With only nine days before we head to New Jersey, I’ve got packing lists and piles of stuff accumulating in a number of locations: my home, Evangel Heights UMC, the storage facility.  I sure hope it all fits on the bus!

I always say that I can’t travel (to LOG events) lightly.  I tend to want to take everything that we might possibly need – – thank God for Bryce’s trailer!

And even so, there always seems to be the inevitable trip to pick up something I forgot.  Not this time – it’ll be a 1380 mile round-trip!

This morning, I was going through all our placemats to be sure I have one for each of our Team members.  In doing so, I began to set aside the placemats of those LOGgers that have graduated out this past June.

There are 90 of them!

As I sorted through the pile, I was moved by the names:  some as familiar as family (one is family) and some that I remember, although barely, because I haven’t seen them since their participant weekend.  They go back as far as L.O.G. #34 (three-fo’).

I remembered shining faces, wonderful harmonies, deep conversations and great hugs.  I remembered moments of prayer after the death of a loved one; because of difficult situations or relationships and in thankful realization of the deep joy and love we share.

Ninety names!  Faithful friends. Servant leaders.  Young people growing in the love of God and their love for God.

Soon - their placemats will hang with those of the over 1000 others who have shared this experience called L.O.G.

I entrust them to God’s care.

I miss them already!

The History of the Love Of God Program

The History of the Love Of God Program

L.O.G. is one of many adaptations of the Roman Catholic Cursillo (pronounced cur-SEE-o) Movement which originated in Spain in 1949.  Cursillo de Christiandad means "little course in Christianity."

Cursillo crossed the ocean to American Catholics in the 1950's and since that time, many different expressions of the program have been established in Protestant churches around the country.  These programs include Walk to Emmaus and Chrysalis (Methodist); Great Banquet and Awakening (Presbyterian) and many more.  Visit www.3dayol.org for more information.

In the mid 1980's, the senior high youth group of Novato Presbyterian Church in Novato, California attended a "Search" retreat sponsored by a Cursillo community in the Reno, Nevada area.  They returned home with the intention of starting a similar program only to find that a local Catholic church was already using "Search" as the name for one of their programs.  The Novato group decided to call their new program "Love Of God."

In 1988, while I was serving as associate pastor of the Goleta Presbyterian Church in Goleta, California, we were invited to send a team of four youth and an adult leader to experience the Novato group's L.O.G. #5.  The following spring, Novato sent a team to give the gift of L.O.G. to the Goleta church.

Since 1989, L.O.G. communities have been planted in Carpinteria, CA; Bellevue, WA; Los Gatos, CA.  The Novato L.O.G. is now based in St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, CA and they planted a L.O.G. in a church in Gig Harbor, WA in 2010.

In 1997, the Goleta Church planted L.O.G. at First Presbyterian Church in South Bend where I was serving as associate pastor. For the first eight years, we had two L.O.G. weekends each year.

Michiana Youth Ministries was formed in 2005 and immediately began sponsoring two L.O.G. weekends each fall and two more in the spring.  That has now increased to three weekends in the fall and spring with one or two more weekends in the summer.  

Over 1000 youth have participated in L.O.G. weekends here in Michiana.

From annoying to "pied piper" ...

From annoying to "pied piper" ...

In 1985, while I was serving in my first associate pastorate in California, there was one teenager who played the recorder.  All. The. Time.  Or so it seemed to me.  At any free moment, when not talking to boys, she could be found entertaining herself (and others??) by tootling out some notes.  I don't know if anyone else listened to her, but I did.

Not that I really wanted to, mind you.  The recorder has always been up there on my list of annoying sounds - right along with the whine of a mosquito while I'm trying to sleep and fingers-on-the-chalkboard.

But the recorder seemed to reflect the spirit of this girl who, when not tootling, was usually singing or laughing.  Only many years later would I learn those sounds were really masking much deeper groans of confusion and pain.

She eventually graduated out of the youth group and took her recorder with her.  In the years that followed, her life had many twists and turns - eventually bringing her back to the church just as I was finishing up my tenure there.  She became an advocate within the church for the importance of ministering to youth as she had been ministered to.  And after a few more years, she, herself, became the youth leader at that church.  I hope she had to listen to someone else play the recorder - or harmonica or kazoo.

Now, Katie Mulligan is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and leading a collaborative youth ministry program in a number of churches near Trenton, NJ.  She attended L.O.G. #1 in Goleta, CA and soon will begin L.O.G. #1 in Lawrenceville, NJ.

I'm not sure if she ever plays her recorder anymore, but she's learning to play the guitar so she can lead youth in singing their praise to and love of God - - a holy pied piper if there ever was one.

Follow us to L.O.G. #1 New Jersey!

Follow us to L.O.G. #1 New Jersey!

On August 7, 2012, thirty-eight youth and six adults will leave South Bend in route to "plant" L.O.G. at Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceville, (near Trenton) New Jersey.

Between now and the time we leave, I will set the stage for our mission and then once we are on the road, one of our Team members will update the blog each day to keep families and friends updated on what we're doing and how it's going.

Please hold us all (Team and first-time participants) in your heart and prayers  as we complete our final preparations and then head east to share the love of God in New Jersey.