BUCKIT Week—Sunday, July 22

Monday, July 23, 2007 [writing about Sunday, July 22]

Yesterday Rachel and Daniel K., Arielle H., Jessica S., Nathanael P., his friend Bethany W., and I drove down here to Hagerstown, Maryland for BUCKIT Week. BUCKIT stands for Bible University Christian Knowledge Intensive Training. We left directly from church on a 330 mile trip that took five and a half hours.

Arielle, Bethany, Rachel, Me, Nathanael, Jessica, Daniel

Everyone ate packed lunches while I drove the first section—from Newtown, Connecticut to I-78 in New Jersey. Then Rachel took over so I could eat. We swapped again when we were just past Harrisburg.

We arrived at the hotel about 6:45. The weather was absolutely beautiful—warm, not too humid, pink and blue clouds, and a light, warm breeze. Inside the lobby we met Craig Shakarji. I was glad Nathanael had met him before, or I wouldn’t have been sure who he was! He checked us in with his system and gave us the key cards to our rooms. Daniel, Nathanael, and I are all together; Rachel, Arielle, and Jessica are together; I’m not sure with whom Bethany is—she was assigned to a different room. We decided we’d check out our rooms, dump our luggage and meet back in a half hour to decide what to do for supper. Bethany and I bought some Quiznos salads, while everyone else ate some more food they brought.

We had an orientation session about 8:30 in the conference room. There were 40 to 50 people there. Craig went over some details of the week, and Mike Flester gave a quick, insightful encouragement about presenting the gospel to people.

About 9:30, that was over, and I got to talking with one of the young men here, Josiah M., who’s nineteen. I had left my toiletries at home, so I had to avail myself of the 24-hour Walmart Supercenter just north of us by an exit. I mentioned to Josiah that I was going there, and He expressed that he and some others also were headed over there. I offered the use of “my” van (really my family’s van) to go over there. He was grateful, and I ended up taking Josiah, his brother Jeremiah, a fellow named Shane, from California, and Rachel and Anna H. We were there until 11:00 and I didn’t get to bed until 11:30, but we had a great time talking in the car to and from Walmart. Christian fellowship is so amazing!