Fairfax, VA will be my new home in August.  I’ll be making the transition from a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2100 sq foot house in podunk Philipsburg to a 1 bedroom (plus den) apartment in Suburban Washington DC.  All of the foreseeable difficulties of that adjustment aside, I have a much bigger problem that I need to think about.

Should I become a Redskins fan, or not?

Here’s the thing . . .

I haven’t ever lived in a city where I had a “hometown” NFL team.  Allentown and Reading are “close” to Philly . . . but not close enough to make me feel like the Eagles were ever “my” team.  Syracuse is kind of in-between Buffalo and NYC . . . but the Bills broke my heart in the 90′s, and I could NEVER cheer for a team from NYC.  I don’t have the stomach for it.  State College is in the Center of PA, and riddled with Steelers AND Eagles fans who drink . . . A LOT.  I thought it best to remain neutral.

So finally . . . the opportunity is here.  The ‘Skins (as we NOVA-ites call them) are not very good, so I can become a fan without being accused of jumping on any bandwagons.  They just signed a QB that I respect (the Irish guy) . . . and a former Penn State running back (527, what?) . . .

Maybe this is my chance.

We’ll see how hard it is to get tickets . . .

-MH

A few years ago, I introduced the staff at my church to “the nose game.”  I did it because I knew the rules, and they didn’t . . . so I easily won.  The rules are simple.  Someone throws out an idea, and needs someone to volunteer to do something, or take charge of something.  I immediately touch my nose and say “nose game.”  The last one at the table to touch their own nose is then designated as the volunteer.  It’s simple, it’s beautiful, and there can be no arguments, because as in the old Highlander series . . . there can be only one. (person who touches his/her nose last)

Of course, I don’t claim to have invented the nose game, or it’s variation– “thumbs up for saying grace”.  But I’m usually darn good at it.  Usually.

Today, I failed to observe the first tenent of successful nose game play.  I didn’t pay attention.  So by the time the nose game had begun–started by one of those staff members who had learned the game from me– it was too late.  I was (gulp) last. 

Et tu, Grasshopper?

It is finished.  I now have to write the cover article for this month’s church newsletter.  Deadline is noon tomorrow.  Lovely.  That doesn’t leave me a whole lot of procrastination time.  Just enough to complain here.

-MH

Nose game gone terribly wrong

I ended up confiding in the leaders for the trip, after deciding that if they didn’t know where we were going, it could make for a difficult caravan if we got split up.  When all of the kids arrived at our meeting location on Friday, I confiscated all of their cell phones, made them climb into a couple of vehicles, then took the parents and leaders about 60 yards away to let them in on the secret.  (I gave them a Parental Briefing Memo).

Anyway . . . I reserved a bunch of rooms at the Four Points by Sheraton, located in Downtown Washington DC, on 12th and K St. NW . . . right next to Franklin Square.  It was a great location, and I got the rooms for a great price by booking through this site:  www.hotelplanner.com.  They specialize in hotel rooms for groups. (especially youth groups and sports teams)

On Saturday morning, we met Mark, our contact from Watson Adventures, who sent us off on a scavenger hunt all over the Downtown DC area.  Each team had a set of 10 questions to answer based on the clues given, as well as 10 trivia questions to answer along the way.  (either by asking around, or whatever other resource we could find . . . I LOVE my blackberry, btw.)

My team won.

After the Scavenger Hunt, we had a bunch of free time in the city.  Some of us went to check out the monuments (I had never seen the WWII Memorial before) and the rest went to the Zoo.  We met for dinner at Ashleigh’s place, near Friendship Heights, where we ordered some pizza and did our closing Bible Study, which included a small mission project . . .

After the bible study, we had the kids each make a brown bag meal (sandwich, apple, pretzels).  Then we set out on the red line, heading towards our hotel.  We got off at Dupont Circle, and headed for the park, looking for some homeless people to give our meals to.  At first, since it was kind of a rainy night, we had some difficulty finding people to give our food to.  It was like another scavenger hunt.  Eventually we were able to give away all of the meals, but we had to make stops in a couple of other parks on the way back to the hotel.

One of the highlights of the evening was when one of the kids sent a text message to Mark, our MC for the Scavenger Hunt, inviting him to come join us for dinner.  I think he was a little surprised at the invitation, but was willing to come hang out if it was ok with me.  I said sure, and he showed up . . . and even stuck around for part of our Bible Study.

Sunday Morning, we packed up and headed over to Foundry UMC  for church.  They were very hospitable . . . and they even validate parking for first time visitors.  Score.

On the way home, we stopped at a shopping center in Frederick, MD for lunch, then got back on the road.

I think everyone had a good time, despite the rainy weather.  It was a pretty relaxed weekend, and it was a nice sized group for the activities we had planned.  At first, I was a little dissappointed that we didn’t have a whole lot of kids sign up to go . . . but I realized that as long as I’ve been working at St. Paul’s, I’ve always said that “numbers don’t matter”.  You can’t let the attendance decide the quality of the program.  I know those 9 students and 8 adults came away from the weekend with some great stories, and strengthened relationships, and we had some good discussion over the bible texts we studied. 

So yeah . . . I’d do it again.

But not the same thing . . . I like to keep things mysterious.

On Tuesday night, we met with the whole Teen Challenge staff, and learned a bit about what they do.  This organization is incredibly broad, and I think we could learn a lot from how they operate.  Their services cover everything from Prevetion classes in high schools, to street cleanup, to providing meals, to counseling, to medical testing, to detox, to rehabilitation, to job placement, to re-entry into society through a halfway house.  All included in ONE umbrella organization with an annual budget of about $500,000 USD.  I asked where they got the money to pay for all of these services and all of these staff people, and Rev. Gustav said “It’s MY business.”  Apparently it’s his job to lobby the local government, American Churches, and rich benefactors to come up with the needed funds.  And apparently he’s quite good at it.  Sometimes, he’ll start a project without the money to do it, and just divert funds from other program areas until the money comes in . . . but it’s always worked out in the past.  He’s a pursuasive man.

Wednesday was our day in Prague . . . we got up and drove to a mall just outside the city, parked and bought metro passes, then rode the train the rest of the way in to town.  We came out of the train station onto a busy street, where we jumped on a trolly that took us to the Charles Castle, at the top of the hill overlooking the city.  We got there just in time to see the changing of the guard at the back door.  They’re serious about the ceremonies.

After the castle tour, we walked down through the town, across the Charles Bridge (see comments in my 2007 posts about Prague), into Old Town, where we did some shopping.  On the way there, we stopped to grab some lunch, and I managed to find a Subway.  And a Starbucks.  After all of this Czech food, it was good to have a little taste of home.

Today, we got out to Holy Hill and split up into new work teams.  The girls stayed inside to finish painting the hallway, and the guys headed out for a morning of manual labor.  We finished filling a drainage ditch with stones, leveling off the stones, laying down a special “agro cloth” and filling in dirt and grass seed on top.

Then we had to go get some rocks.

We were marched off into the woods with a couple of wheelbarrows and the confidance that comes from knowing you’re not the only one that’s gonna have to do this.

About a 1/2 mile from the house, there is a hillside that is covered with shale boulders.  Our job was to go halfway up the hill, and toss some rocks down to the bottom, so we could load them into the wheelbarrows and cart them back to the house.  They’re going to become a retaining wall someday.

We need to learn the Czech translation for “look out below”.

I had visions of that scene in “The Patriot” where cannon balls were rolling through fields of Revolutionary War soldiers, knocking legs off at the knee caps.  I know . . . a bit dramatic.

But you should have seen the rocks coming down the hill.

OK, I’ve monopolized the computer for long enough . . . I have to get back to work soon.  Actually, every day we eat lunch in shifts, and the second shift is eating right now.  When they’re done, we will have “sharing time,” where we sit in a circle, sing a song, and some of the guys talk about their lives, and share their testimony.

Then we’ll hopefully play some more leg ball.  Some of us are getting good at it.

Later.

-MH

I’ve been having some issues connecting my laptop to our hotels’ wifi signal.  Apparently it has something to do with Windows automatically looking for a DNS server in the US, and only finding a Czech DNS server . . . it’s all greek to me, but Josh Beben figured it out, so Josh gets points today.

Speaking of Josh . . . we’re both somewhat sick right now.  Cough/cold symptoms.  I loaded up on meds before leaving State College, thanks to Erin, but it’s been tough fending off the cough, and our supplies were running low . . . so Josh, Erin and I went looking for a drug store.  We found a grocery store, then a store that looked like a drug store, but only sold hygiene products, then we finally found a pharmacy.  Apparently in Europe, there’s no such thing as one stop shopping.

Finding a Pharmacy was clutch (Erin found it) . . . but the ladies working behind the counter didn’t so much speak English . . . so we had to kind of act out our symptoms, and hope they understood.  We settled on a product called “Stoptussin” thinking it was close enough to Robitussin that it had to do the same thing.

Anyway, Josh and I got back to the hotel with our new found meds after walking Erin down to meet up with the rest of our crew who had gone to dinner.  A little nervous about taking the meds that we couldn’t really read the instructions for, we decided that we’d take it at the same time.  It just seemed like the right thing to do.  When we opened the package, we discovered that the measuring device for this cough syrup was a syringe.

The following is a transcript of our conversation:

Josh– “We don’t have to inject this stuff do we!?!?!?”

Matt– “I hope not.  Oh wait . . . there’s no needle.  I think it’s just for measuring.”

Josh–  ”How much are we supposed to take?”

Matt– “I don’t know . . . how many kilograms do you think I weigh?”

Josh– “I don’t know, like 70-90?”

We decided to find a Czech person to translate the instructions for us. 

So, about our project:

We’re working at a place called “Holy Hill” which is a residential rehabilitation group home for young men dealing with addictions as varied as heroin, meth-amphetamines, alcohol, and even gambling.  It’s a part of an organization called Teen Challenge, based here in Plzen (www.teenchallengeplzen.cz), which is also linked to Maranatha UMC, here in town.

We went to church there Sunday morning, and had a guy named Mirek sit behind us for the service, translating everything.  At one point in the service, I heard my name . . . and noticed that everyone was looking at me.  Apparently they wanted me to come up and say something.  So I went up to the microphone, jet-lagged  and lacking any strength in my voice.  I managed to mutter a few sentences for the translator, but it felt like I was speaking broken English.  ”Hi Everyone.  Thank you for welcoming us to your church, we’re very glad to be in worship with you today.”  That was it.  I know. . . . I know.  

Like I said, jet lagged and sick, and put on the spot.

So today, we got over to Holy Hill, got the grand tour, and got to work painting.  The facility is an old 15th century farmstead that’s been renovated into a group home.  Not much of the construction has changed though.  I’ll get some pics posted soon, and I’ll post a link here when I can.

The last thing we did today was play a game called “leg ball” . . . there’s a Czech name for it, but I don’t know it.  Anyway, it’s basically a cross between volleyball, tennis, and soccer . . . you play with 2 or 3 people to a side, on a court that looks like a volleyball court, but has a net like a tennis court.  You can’t use your hands at all, and you get three “hits” to a side, just like volleyball.  It took us a while to get the hang of it, but once we got it . . . we loved it.  Erin shot a short video clip of us playing with a couple of the Czech guys from the house . . . I’ll see if I can post it.

Ok, that’s it for now . . . I’ll try to get more posted when I can get back on again . . . 

Later.

-MH

We’re departing from Harrisburg on Friday afternoon, and will land in Prague, by way of Atlanta at around 9:30am Saturday, local time.  We’ll be 6 hours ahead of everyone back here (those on the East Coast, anyway).

I’m going to try to post daily updates here . . . I’ll have computer access, and my phone will work . . . so if you need to call, you can.

We’ll spend the week working with the people of the Czech Republic who are working year-round to maintain facilities that are still being rebuilt from the communist occupation, when they were allowed to deteriorate.  While communism is gone, the effects of that occupation are still felt deeply there.  A country once rich with faith in God is now 90% atheist, and the United Methodist Church is there, working to turn those numbers around.  We will only be there for a short period of time, but we’ll be able to provide much needed support to those who are working full time in this mission field.  In addition to the physical restoration to the facilities, we will also have the opportunity to share our stories of faith, as an encouragement to those young men at the rehabilitation center.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the trip . . . keep me, and the rest of the team, in your prayers as we travel. 

Later.

-MH

I went to Green Bay for Christmas this year.  It was cold.  I’d better start from the beginning, though.

Erin and I flew out of Harrisburg on Christmas Eve morning, where it was chilly, and a little icy . . . but certainly not dangerous weather.  It took the ground crew about an hour (while we sat on the tarmack) to get the “de-icing” truck over to coat our plane with that pink goo they use to make sure your wings don’t freeze up while you’re 30,000 feet in the air.  Once we were properly coated and airborne, it came to our attention that the 60 minute delay in departure time could possibly make it difficult for us to make our connecting flight from Minneapolis to Appleton, WI.  We asked the flight attendant: 1) if we should be concerned, and 2) if there was anything she could do to help us make that connection.  Her words to us:  “Don’t fret . . . we’ll make it in time.”

Needless to say, we didn’t.

So we’re at the NWA gate agent counter, checking on the next available flight . . . and the guy says oh, don’t worry . . . it automatically booked you on the next flight to Appleton . . . TOMORROW AFTERNOON.  Excellent.  I was dreaming of a Christmas Eve in the Minneapolis Airport, and now all of our wishes were about to come true!

After explaining to the man that this would not be an acceptable option, he offered us an alternative.  They had chartered a coach bus to take some people and luggage to Green Bay, and it was about to leave.  So we got on the bus, and rode the 5 hours across the state of Wisconsin.  It all pretty much looks alike.  Very similar to Ohio.  Not much to look at.

Anyway . . . we made it to Green Bay in time for Erin to sing in church that night, and we had a delicious Filet Mingion wrapped in bacon for dinner.  It turned out to be a good night.

Christmas was fun . . . we all went and served a turkey dinner at a homeless shelter in Green Bay on Christmas Day, then opened presents . . . good times. 

I got to go on the Lambeau Field tour, and got to see the Packers play the Detroit Lions.  I also got to eat fried cheese curds.  They’re amazing, but there’s no way they can be good for you.

After the Christmas trip, I headed out to the Rose Bowl to work as a Tour Escort for Centre for Travel . . . we had about 900 clients that I was helping to “take care of” . . . making sure their luggage got to the right place, making sure they got on the right tour busses, etc. . .  it was a lot of work, but I got a free Rose Bowl trip out of the deal, so I can’t complain.

I’m only teaching 11th grade health now, and no phys ed . . . which is interesting.  The second time through is definitely easier though . . . this time I have some idea what to do, and I don’t have to make it all up again . . .

Anyway . . . that brings us to today, kind of. 

In about 3 weeks I’ll be heading back to the Czech Republic for another mission project.  I’ll try to post from there each night, as I’ve done in the past, and I’m working on an easy way to post pics . . . besides facebook.

Later.

-MH

I think I’m up to like 80 “happy birthday” wall-posts on facebook.  Is it bad that this fact makes me happy?

The best present I could have gotten* was a decisive victory over Mount Nittany Middle School last night.  We won 28-13 in a hard fought battle.  The defense played pretty well . . . didn’t give up a lot of big plays, and really only let down on the first drive.  I ran a whole lot of b-gap blitzes, because they seemed to love to run 44 read to the tight end side . . . other than that, we sat in loose stack, with a three deep zone coverage all night, and didn’t give up too much.  We still need to work on our pass coverage, but I really think that’s just something that 8th graders will always struggle with.  They’re so afraid of hitting the guy early and getting a penalty that half the time they just let him catch the ball, then make the tackle . . . we’ll keep working on it.

Some friends are taking me out for a steak dinner tonight.  See? Birthdays are good for something.

-MH

*Actually . . . my lovely gf got me a pair of tickets to see the Packers play in Green Bay on Dec. 28th.  THAT was the best present so far . . .

I’m pumped about Youth Fellowship this year.  We’ve got a great team of Youth Leaders on Sunday nights, We’re doing small groups every other week, and the kids seem to be into it, the middle school group has seen explosive growth in the first month, and we took 30 excited kids to a middle school retreat at Lake Champion last weekend.  Things are going well.

I’m not sure what sparked the excitement in the middle school group . . . maybe just moving it to later in the evening made it easier for kids to come out.  Whatever it was, I’m glad that we managed to pull in 6 new Sunday Night leaders to help.  We needed them, and they’re great!

Now we just need someone to lead a praise band . . . know anyone?

-MH

At around 2pm, we called it quits for the day, having run out of stuff to install.  We headed back to the camp, and I turned around and shuttled a vanload of girls to the beach . . . where I napped by the van while most of them frolicked in the gulf.

At 5:30, Gail and Harv picked me up, and I got the local’s tour of the area . . . that’s the kind of tour I like.  We saw the submariner’s memorial, then went to Biloxi and drove past the casinos, and saw the remains of what used to be amazing beach front homes.  We then drove up to Moss Point, where I’ve been working all week, which is also the area where Gail grew up.  Dinner at a local place called Big R’s (much better than a touristy spot), then more of the local sights.  It was fun to catch up with them, see where they live and hear about their lives down here in the Gulf Coast area.

We’re leaving at 7am tomorrow, so I’m gonna head to bed.  I’ll be driving for most of the day.  We’re heading to Knoxville, and crashing at the same church that hosted us last weekend.  I’ll post some pics to the family sight when I get home . . . www.hoffertfamily.org.

-MH