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As a youth pastor, summer is a crazy time. We offer a number of great things for our students to do during the summer which is why I am soo excited about it. However, the down side is that I end up going on all of the trips we offer so my life gets really busy. I know that it is going to happen but every year it sneaks up on me. I am looking at my schedule realizing that I am out of town for the next two weeks. The first week I am the assistant dean of the middle school cabin camp out at Camp LRCA. Suncrest has a number of our youth leaders working this week as counselors; Dan Schuler, Chris Hall, Courtney Hoyle, Kayla Wierzbicki, and Emily Watson. It is going to be a great week! The second week is MOVE, formerly known as CIY, and we are going down to Tennessee. It is by far the best event that we offer every year. I remember the impact it had on my friends and me when I was a high school student. Then I get to be home for a couple of weeks before we have a mission trip down to Dallas, TX. Please pray for God to transform the lives of the students that will be on these trips.
This picture is from the Great America trip last week
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Hi my name is Dan Schuler, and I am the new Student Life Intern at Suncrest Christian Church. Jared asked me to put a little bio together for the blog, so hopefully this comes out semi-coherent for the three and a half people that actually manage to read this thing. I was born and raised in rural Northeast Ohio where I spent much of my childhood climbing trees, catching spiders, tossing the football, running through sprinklers, burning ants with a magnifying glass, and doing all the other stereotypical things boys are supposed to do. I did all of them with my older brother. I could never admit it then, and I struggle to admit it now, but he always has been and always be my big brother. He was and is a tall and handsome, smart and athletic, charismatic and charming young man. I grew up in a big shadow (literally and figuratively seeing as he is 6’3”). He was valedictorian, lay-leader of the youth group, a member of prom court, voted for best smile, and a varsity letter winner in three sports. The list continues, but this blog entry is supposed to be about me so I will try to stay on task.
I say all these things about my brother to give you, (the reader) that knows nothing about me, a little perspective that my brother is a big deal. He is a big deal to many people, but I think it’s a bigger deal that he is such a big deal to me. Few people have the luxury of a good brother or sister. I have one that I care about more than I care about myself and I pray that he feels the same about his annoying cry about everything to mom; little brother. I love you Rich, thank you, for everything, I know it’s not much being that you are my only brother, but you are the best brother I have ever had.
Fewer still have an entire family they genuinely view as a big deal. My dad is a hero, and my mom is my guardian. They swoop down to save the day for me, even when I don’t ask them to, sometimes when I don’t want them to. Regardless the apparent reason, and regardless the often imperfect outcome I don’t really care how or why I just care that they care. As you may see by now family is a big part of everything that I am. Makes sense when you see the family tree; over 150 people from my grandparents on down. That a lot of names to remember, and truth be told I don’t. I could give special mention to many of them, but I only have room for one, my cousin Katie who taught me the meaning of unconditional love. So many years I thought I was protecting her, and all along she has been protecting me.
This is a pretty heavy blog post; I realize this now as I re-read the paragraphs above. I’m not entirely sure how to transition from that, but I guess this sentence will just have to do. My college years were spent in east Tennessee at Johnson Bible College. (Which is actually in Knoxville not in Johnson City I have been asked this very question more than you can imagine.) It was a great experience, and I cannot say enough good things about the development that happened as I was there. Friendships were forged, books were studied, campouts were executed, classes were attended, odd food combination were eaten, papers were written, campus buildings were repelled from, and rules were created by the dean of students to ban the future repelling from campus buildings. All in all Johnson was a worthwhile endeavor.
Which brings me to today. The current Student Life Intern at Suncrest Christian Church. I don’t really know how to end this post other than noting a few fun facts and listing a few disclaimers. I like vanilla ice cream better than chocolate, and wish I had more opportunities to cook (not clean up). I think cats are equally as valuable as dogs, but a pc is not equally valuable to a mac. Jared’s wife Amy (who is my real boss) trained her two year old son to call the last person with my position “intern” rather than ever use his real name. This makes me laugh… and scared, which I have been informed is the proper response to Amy. I do not need you to find me a future wife, I know how tempting it is to try to fix up the new kid on staff, but trust me I am just fine. There is this girl I know she makes me smile, and that is all you need to know for now. I have already written too much, it’s a consistent problem, more often with talking than writing, but I hope you enjoyed this experience.
