John McCain

John McCain watches me when I eat, John McCain watches me when I sleep, John McCain makes me have to change my pants multiple times a day, John McCain is not a-o-k

Praying for you

Grandma Rosie, Grandpa T.G., Uncle Bob, Geoff Haskell, John Melson, Evan Appleman, Jenna Colacino, Chris Shoepp, Katy O'Brian, Christina Miller, my friends in Michigan/ Chile/ Colorado/ North Carolina (Christian and Garry), Ashley Geise (and family), Eric Meginnis, Morgan Dragoo, Jordan Inman, Vince Newsom, Steven Cobb, Tiffany Taylor, Mom, Dad, Matt and Libby Doublestein, John Doublestein, missionaries, troops, President Obama, country  

It was a good day today

Hello world, 

Today was probably my favorite work day at Summit because we got to go to the Summit ranch and do some manual labor in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Ben Honken is a lucky man to be able to live in such an amazing place, I mean, you've gotta see the view from the dining room window!  Well anyways we spent the day painting windows, digging ditches for pipes, and raking pine needles, and while it doesn't sound like fun it really was nice getting into open pastures, riding in the back of a pick-up truck, and yes, even listening to country music :)  After the work was done we headed back to the Summit hotel and I did my first real chalk drawing.  It turned out quite nice and it was fun to finally see the reaction of some friends to my artwork.  

Until next time,

-Will

Ghetto Falls

Today a group of us headed out to Ghetto Falls close to the Summit ranch.  It was awesome seeing all the tags and I even got to see my first two spray-paint vandalists (not artists in this case :).  The waterfall was huge, deafening, and extremely cold, but I mustered up the courage to walk under it and feel the power of the rushing water.  It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to get out there again.  

3 views atop Red Mountain at night

Murder in the Night!

Imagine 30 people in a pitch dark 120 year old hotel, all of whom are potential murderers trying to slit your throat! With the rain pouring down and lightning all around you sit behind a chair and watch as your close friend is jammed against the door to the balcony, the murderer running away before you can see their face. Then you yell "Murder in the Night!" and reality is restored. All suspects and victims return to the lobby for a vote to determine who was the murderer, but a vote does nothing but convict the innocent when no-one was able to get a glips of the murderer's face. So there I was, round after round, surviving in a hotel full of blood thirsty staffers. To pass the time I scared dozens, hidding in the corners and then screaming, slamming doors, or laughing eerily. But in the end I too was taken prey by the murderer, not through death itself but through the vote. I was convicted by the few remaining peers who had not had their throats slit, and while I had seen and nominated another to be convicted I took the fatal vote. To this I place all vengence, for it was Jen Honken who was in fact the murderer, and whilst I declared the truth I was utterly ignored. So for you Jen Honken, beware. The rath of my furry is upon your head, and I will not be satisfied until my pain has been successfully overwritten by the gift of cookies or some other peace offering of equal valor. For you my friend, the end may be near. The ball is in your court now Jen Honken, make your next move wisely.

Hello

At long last it seems I am starting to beat this bronchitis I've been fighting for the past three days. It all started after I took a nap and woke up wishing I could go back to bed.  Since then I have been coughing like the roughly-sketched cartoon in the anti-tobacco commercials of my youth.  Today though things have gotten a lot better and just in time because tomorrow is back to work.  For the next week we'll be scrubbing down the hotel and preparing for Session 2.  So the moral kids is that whenever you take a nap and feel that you ought not wake up... don't.  Bye!   

Sad Day

Last night we got the news that Session 1 at Summit would be cancelled immediately.  I can't give any details as to why but it's really all that we could do.  Still, it was one of the most dissapointing things that has happened to me in a very long time, especially since this was Eric and Ashley's session.  The good thing is that we had an  amazing first week and all grew a ton. We learned about the reliability of the Scriptures, leadership, marxism/lenenism,  secular humanism, keeping a Biblical worldview, and quite a bit more.  We had an amazing time hikeing Red Mountain and even got to see three beautiful.... um... err... deer-like animals... actually I' ve never seen these things before... maybe they were antelopes.  Anyways, it was awesome!  So I'm super glad that we made it this far but am bummed to see Eric and Ashley go.  Everything has a reason and I believe that God knew about this before it even happened.  It's time to make the most of it and in  the words of my grandpa I feel that we must proceed with courage. 

I will also miss my small group guys, Ben York, Michael Cole, Corbin Jones, Isaac Woodward, and Harrison Rakes.  We had a great time getting to know each other  and I'm sorry that we had to cut things short.  Stay in Christ guys and keep it rockin.  

Until next time.

Garden of the Gods

Worship

Philosophy on Worship through Music

by William C. Doublestein

 

 

·         Psalm 86: 8-10

^“Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.  All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord: they will bring glory to your name.  For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.”

 

·         I believe that God created us to worship Him.  Worship can mean anything that brings Him praise, including following his Spirit, helping other people, singing, playing instruments, abiding to his commands, painting, talking to people, or anything else that brings praise to His name and his purpose.

 

·         Because there are so many different ways to worship and each person is unique, it is important that individuals recognize which ways work best for them.  The goal of worship is to praise God, and it is important to realize that worship through music is not always the best way a person can bring praise to Him.  However, music is universal in that every person has music inside of them, and music is a very common way of reaching the most people possible.  Because of the limitation of time and the importance of community, it is important that a group of Christians be able to unite under a common method of worship, and because music works well for most people it makes sense that churches and Christian camps incorporate music into their services and activities.  Still, believers who can best praise God in ways other than music should be encouraged. 

 

·         Having said all this, it is also important that a music leader be able to worship in the way that best brings praise to God.  A huge dispute in Christian circles today is how much musical talent should be portrayed in front of other people.  Basically the question is, “Should a music leader play/sing to the best to his or her ability, or should he or she play/sing only the critical to not add any distractions?” 

 

·         After thinking about this a lot, my answer lies in Psalm 115:1 which says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”  Therefore, nothing a music leader does should be with the intention of bringing the spotlight towards them.  However…

 

·         Everyone deserves to worship God in whichever way best bring praise to His name.  For musicians, this may very well be through making music to the best of their abilities.  Psalm 100:1 says “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.”  Psalm 150 says “Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.” 

 

·         Some Christians believe that their music should be downplayed or sugar-coated in order to prevent the congregation from being distracted towards the musician and away from God.  They feel that basic chords, patterns, arrangements and instrumentation should all be limited and that all the emphasis should be on the people they are leading.  I understand this thinking but mainly disagree.  Looking to the example of David upon the return of the Ark of the Covenant, he danced to the point of disrobement, and answered his critics saying “I will celebrate before the LORD.  I will become even more undignified than this… (2 Samuel 6:21-22).”  David put everything he had into his worship because this was the best way he knew how to praise God.  As it relates to worship through music, I believe that whatever God has given us as far as talents or skills should be used to bring praise to Him. 

 

·         In conclusion, worship is personal, individual, and for a music leader, tough to find the balance between giving everything he or she has and making sure that all the glory goes to Christ.  

Friends

Hey everyone,

Ashley and Eric made it to Summit and seem to be likeing it pretty well so far. This makes me a happy person, just so you know. I got to see Dr. Noebel again and have decided he is a personal hero. Oh, and I'm officially cleaning dishes for Summit, but more on that later. Gotta get to bed before Night Watch beats we with a flashlight.

-Will

Stop salivating, I already ate all the steaks :)  Well, after four days of training and preparation we are all ready to go.  Tomorrow morning students will start arriving, including my good friends Eric and Ashley.  I have to say that every day I respect Summit Ministries a little more for what they are doing and have done in the past, and I believe that the training they have given their staff has been exactly on the right track.  Tomorrow morning I will be going to an Alliance Missionary church which I am excited about very much especially since I go to an alliance church back home.  gottarunnowbye

Red Mountain

Funny story.  Last night a staffer at Summit decided to tell us a bedtime story before we went to bed.  He needed a subject so I suggested he tell us a scary story about a bus driver.  The story turned out hilarious instead of scary and he even played some guitar to add dramatic effect. Well here's the funny part, a little while after we all went to bed I woke myself up fearing for my life!  Apparently that funny story about a bus driver turned into a bad dream and out of nowhere I was saying "no No NO" because this demonic bus driver was trying to kidnap me!  Well I know that it doesn't sound like it was scary... but just trust me... it was...  

 

After waking up I started my day in about the coolest way possible, hiking Red Mountain.  Five others joined me as we started the trail about 6:40 am and we had a quick prayer and scripture reading at the peak.  It was gorgeous, and above are some pics that I got.  The first one shows Pikes Peak in the background which I hope to hike once the snow melts in June.  

 

In other news we are pretty much all ready for students to start arriving at the hotel on Sunday. I'm super excited because my friends Ashley and Eric will be coming for the first session here :) Everything is coming together but I'm not exactly sure what my specific job will be during the sessions.  I'll probably be in the kitchen, on security, or on maintenance and I think that I'll find out on Sunday.  I will be leading or co-leading a small group and it looks like I will also be leading worship every-other day hopefully by the end of this month.  It's all very exciting and I can't wait for camp to start for the students.  Thatsallfornow.

 

-Will   

Thought

No time for anything detailed tonight, but Chuck Edwards said something today that I wanted to share.  

"Non-Christians don't read the Bible, they read Christians.  Will non-Christians want to become Christians after reading you?"

Great thing to think about.  Night world.  

I'm here!

After waking up at 4am this morning I took a flight from Indianapolis to Denver and then took a shuttle van from Denver to Colorado Springs.  The flight went great even through a thunderstorm but we ended up getting delayed a bit and I nearly missed my shuttle.  Thankfully I was the only passenger in the van, so the driver had no problem waiting a few more seconds for me to arrive.  He was a real nice guy and we ended up talking the whole hour and a half about all kinds of stuff.  He did tell me something significant after I shared my story, telling me that my friends in Indy are the most important mission in my life.  I would certainly agree, and while I have left home to serve at a Christian camp I think that my true mission is my friends back home, and everything I do, Summit included, is preparing me to better help them.    

Lobsters in a Bucket

My mom asked me today what the title of my blog means: "Don't be a lobster, friends are best."  I figure that most of you are probably in the dark on this one as well, so I guess I should explain.  This is a verse from the Aquabat's (seriously the best band in the world) song "Lobster Bucket" and it holds a gem of wisdom under the facade of a biterly complex metaphore :)  See when you think about it, lobsters are just like people, only with claws.  Well, if you've ever stumbled upon a bucket full of lobsters you'll notice that they are just plain mean because in their efforts to get out they pull all the other lobsters down.  In the words of the M.C. Bat Commander,

"Friends help each other
Any way they can
When you're up at bat
They'll be your biggest fan
When you're in a pit
they'll pull you out of it
It ain't wrong to write a song
For all your friends to sing along.

People too like me and you
Can also be like lobsters in bucket
It's all just one big mess
Please don't be a lobster
Friends are best"

 

Hope this helps.  -Will  

Address

The past couple of days have been spent doing about a trillion little things to get ready to leave.  So far so good though, and everthing seems to be falling into place.  Tomorrow should be filled with more packing, Hardees Thickburgers with my dad :), hanging out with friends, and general vandalism/violence.  Just in case you are wanting my address in Colorado (I don't know, maybe to send me cookies or something) here it is:

William C. Doublestein

Summit Ministries

Box 207 or 935 Osage Ave.

Manitou Springs, CO 80829  

Well goodnight then.

-Will

Here we go!

Hi everybody,

Welcome to my blog.  In just a couple days I will be heading to Manitou Springs, Colorado to work at a Christian worldview camp called Summit Ministries.  Because I'll be away from home for a few months and because I will soon have friends around the country I figure that this'll be a good way tokeep in touch.  You can find out more info at summit.org.  

In other news, I finally got a real phone today and quit with the whole prepaid nonsense.  I'm pleased especially since it only costs me $2 extra per month and now I get free nights, weekends, and ATT mobile to mobile.  

While I'm at Summit, I'm hoping to get into a routine of weekly video-chats with friends and family back home.  If you are interested and are able to do this through gmail or skype let me know.  kthanksforreadingloveyoubye