I’m a leader on the Presbytery Youth Council of Coastal Carolina, and I usually do graphic design work for the group’s events. Here are the latest two designs for your viewing and commenting pleasure:

This is a logo I created for the council’s 2010-2011 theme, “Larger than Life.” All of the other themes of events will somehow relate back to this theme. With this design, I was looking to do something simple, and after a bit of web inspiration, came up with this. I was able to get a high-res image of the PCUSA’s logo, and after playing around with the opacity, got it looking just right.

The next image is a promo for the first PYC event of the year, the kickoff event. I was going for a festive, bubbly-type of thing with this. I used some “fireworks” brushes I found on deviantart and other than having to angle each letter individually, it wasn’t really that time-consuming.

As always, comments are appreciated. You can click on each image for a larger version.

I’m writing this from the lobby of Assembly Inn in beautiful Montreat, NC. Just had to tell you about what happened last night. About 11pm, I was making rounds to make sure everyone was in bed, and subsequently locked my room key in my room. I called the main office for another, but they told me that I’d have to walk across the Montreat campus to get it.

One of our high school guys accompanied me on the journey. After hiking up and down there and back, I got up to our floor only to realize that the lights in the hall were off. I figured everyone was asleep. Then, the lights came on and our entire group was out in the hallway with tins of balloons, streamers, etc, with gifts and cards for my birthday.

I was extremely surprised! I was a bit bummed that I wouldn’t be able to spend my birthday at home with the family this year, but this was the next best thing. Apparently, my wife was in on it, as there were gifts from here as well.

I’m very blessed to have such an amazing group of people that surround me. Last night was great – and it wasn’t even my birthday yet!

This past weekend, I took a group of teens and preteens to Montreat, NC for our Fall Retreat. The theme of this trip was “Transformed.” During our Saturday morning program, we talked about where our “center” is – that is, what the rest of us revolves around. To use a somewhat silly but somewhat common example, sometimes the center of a person lies in a sport. Everything they do revolves around a sport – making a team, staying on that team, and hopefully getting to a better team in the future. Sometimes everything revolves around a person – a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, child, etc.

I could use more examples here, but the point I’m trying to make is that in every situation but one, the nucleus of a person is tied to something that directly effects that person. If your world revolves around a sport, it’s not for the sake of the sport, it’s for your own sake. If it’s a person at your center, it’s tied to your relationship with that person. All of these things can be related to self.

I struggle with this. It’s really hard for me to take myself out of the focus. As I went through this past weekend, it was significantly easier to keep Jesus in the middle of everything. I mean, that’s what we were there for! But how do I (or we) do that on a daily basis, through the mundane tasks of everyday life?

I don’t have a concrete answer for this right now. But what I do know are three things that have helped keep me from putting total focus on things that make me happy.

1. The hierarchy: Jesus first, others second, me last.
2. The motto: Live with Christ in your heart, and His love as your motivation.
3. The prayer. I’ve been using this prayer every morning this week, and it’s helped my days get off to a “right” start:

Lord, please rid me of my own self today and help me to remember that I should be serving you and you alone. Keep my eyes and my heart focused on the cross, and help me to be motivated by your love and not my own vain desires. Amen.

When you pray this week, I’d invite you to pray this same prayer. I’ve noticed that my motivations have been altered, and feel as though I’ve really furthered the Kingdom this week as a result.

Have a great, Christ-centered week!

Although we’ve been back from FITS for a couple of days now, I realized that I forgot to give a recap of our final day of the retreat. So here goes…

I got up a bit earlier than usual in order to take in that last Jekyll Island sunrise. Unfortunately, the sun had already risen, but no problem. I had some great “quiet time” and then met with James and Katie to head down to the last counselor meeting. We went in and got a great closing devotion on suffering and how to deal with it.

Our morning program brought the final act/talk by Brock Gill, which was based on the story of the woman at the well, and ended with a climactic “never thirst again” routine. I literally had goosebumps for the final 5 minutes or so.

At the beginning of our morning program, we got to see the video of our impromptu wakeup. It was not pretty, though not quite as bad as the guys who convulsed out of their bed with the sounding of the air horn.

After lunch, we had a relaxing free afternoon, during which time I got yelled at by an elderly woman for attempting to pick up a sand dollar, which I was sure wasn’t alive. We went to dinner at Blackbeard’s Seafood Resturaunt, and celebrated Hannah’s birthday as well as my own. As a side note, someone (who shall remain nameless) thought getting trick candles would be a good idea, but we ended up with a resturaunt full of smoke. No problem, though. All in good fun.

After a g reat dinner, we went to our final small group. Our group was absolutely great. We agreed to exchange Facebook info with one another, and I think it was a great experience for everyone involved. Really challenged us to get outside of our comfort zones.

Our last big meeting was highlighted by two things: Treb’s final talk, and the presentation of our sports trophy! Treb’s final talk was absolutely brilliant and hit all of us right where we were. It’s amazing how someone who talks about something specific can hit people on a number of different levels. If you ever get a chance to hear this guy, take it. My favorite FITS speaker of all time, hands down.

Our closing dance party was next, which was a pretty cool sight to behold – 900 kids dancing outside the convention center. We then headed back, exhausted, to our hotel, semi-packed, and after a bit of free time, said goodnight for the final time.

We were gone from Jekyll by 8:00am on Friday. It was an incredible week. I wonder now how much of it will stay with all of us. It would be a truly awesome thing to take the same fire with which we were filled and spread it to everyone we encountered. That, my friends, would be truly EPIC.