The Following Things May Be Hazardous to Your Health

These are the top seven most dangerous things we came across this week:

The Refrigerator
Yes, the fridge. Here's the story: It was Monday afternoon; Kelley, Phil and I were prepping for our stir fry dinner. I was in the back room of the kitchen that is our pantry, dish washing place, and has a fridge and a freezer. Our fridge is a bit old-school, one of the ones with the cooling elements exposed on the inside top of the fridge compartment. I had just washed off some dishes and my hands were wet as I reached into the fridge. I was stretching past a pile of leftover grilled cheese sandwiches and got stuck to the cooling element! Yes, my left index, middle, and ring fingers all were stuck to the inside of the fridge. All I could think of (past the mounds of pain I was experiencing) was the scene from A Christmas Story when the kid was sticking his tongue to the frozen telephone pole...I yelled to Kelley and Phil, Phil thought I was joking so he didn't do anything. Kelley came in, took a look, grabbed the spray bottle with bleach water in it, and sprayed me free! My index finger is almost completely free of any burn, but my middle and ring fingers look like I grilled them. I'll take a picture and post it later. I got a blood blister and anther normal blister and some nasty scabs/soon to be scars. The moral of the story is: look out for your cooling elements next time you reach into the fridge.

Small Town 4th of July Celebrations
In all of the McDermitt, NV, 4th of July weekend festivities, there is a rodeo on Saturday followed by a round of carnival games for the kiddies and later by a dance/block party for the adults. We walked the fifth of a mile to the Say When Casino to get dinner and were stopped by some of the locals who were sitting on the outside deck of the bar in town. They promptly informed us that it didn't really matter what age we were and that we were all welcome to join the jello shot competition when it came time. We are pretty sure that all but one or two of the people out there were quite snookered, as they made some inappropriate comments towards us ladies. We politely excuse ourselves to dinner, and enjoy a meal. We decide to walk back to our school afterwards, hang out for an hour, then go to the dance. Cowboys, country music, broken bottles, and booze. They had it all! The same drunk local kept hitting on us, and unfortunately he had been one of the ones at the bar earlier. He was asking all the girls in the group for their "dance cards," especially "the one with the glasses." Unfortunately, I am the only one who wears the glasses. Quickly I sat down on the curb with Mallory and mumbled some lame excuse. After about the twelfth time getting rejected, he finally left me alone. Moral of the story: Stay with friends and come up with a lame excuse when drunk men hit on you.

The Water in McDermitt, NV
Oh, the water. We got a notice from the school secretary Wednesday night at 7.30 that the water in the McDermitt watershed had been tested and found with traces of ecoli bacteria. SAY WHAT?!? It was a "suggested boil order," saying that all water that was to be used for cooking, drinking, and washing dishes needed to be boiled for a minute before use. What a stress! We took all the camper's cups and shoved them in our dish sanitizer as fast as we could without them seeing it. We told their leaders as soon as we got into the staff/counselor meeting at nine, plan in hand. We told them everything we knew, but refrained telling the campers that it was specifically ecoli. We had a somewhat melodramatic and hypochondriac group this week, so we felt that just telling them that it was a bacteria would be enough information. Their counselors were sent home with notices to inform the parents exactly what it was, what we did, etc., so I guess they will find out sooner or later! This is what we did: our tribal contact had given us the key to the senior center on the reservation, and they are for one reason or another in a different watershed than we are. We took one of the trucks and filled it with all our water jugs to be filled up there. We were boiling water for people to brush their teeth with, as well as running all the dishes a second time through our sanitizer. Kelley and I were going to go to Winnemucca the next day on our grocery run, so they gave us $100 to buy bottled water. 25 flats of water later, we still haven't found out any updates on the water situation other than the fact they sent in a second sample and results will be in by Monday. So far nobody has gotten sick, but we still have four days left in the gestation period. Moral of the story: Don't drink the water...but do because we don't want you to get heat stroke.

Second Helpings at Meals
This week the campers were ferocious when it comes to eating seconds. We run it so that every camper and counselor has to go through the line. Then the staff team (that is me and my new friends) gets to grab their plates of food, and two stay behind to serve seconds. As the staff who aren't serving again walk to the tables, we all yell "SECONDS!" at the top of our voices. Every day this week we had people (including adult counselors) who would run to get to the food! Once I had to get out of the way of someone who was booking it back to the table. At our water day, we had people hanging in a pack, ready to rush/fight their way to get to the small amount of leftover potato salad and burgers. We were slightly frightened and asked them to stand a little further away. Yes, they ran when we yelled. Moral of the story: Maybe Kelley and I should stop making such good food. Then nobody will want first servings, much less seconds.

Leeches
At water day we encountered a few leeches in our swimming hole. The girls screamed, the boys just laughed and slapped them off. It wasn't all that many, only four, but still dramatic enough for some people to not get back in. When we got back to camp, we checked Wikipedia to see what exactly happens when you are bitten by a leech, only to find that it is basically harmless. They just suck enough blood (a teaspoon at most) to satisfy them, then fall off. The only thing you should not do when coming in contact with a leech is to try to "burn" it off. When a leech comes into contact with abnormal heat, it vomits the blood back into its victim along with some other nasty stuff and can create a mean infection. Moral of the story: Just let the leech do it's thing. All will be fine.

Sleep Deprivation
This is quite a normal occurrence at SSP, especially for the chefs. A bedtime for staff any earlier than eleven thirty is a luck thing indeed. Three times a week we get to wake up at 5.30 to start cooking breakfast. The other days we get to sleep in until 6.45, but we still need naps. Sometimes even a two hour nap barely holds me over until the sun slips down behind the horizon. Yesterday we had pancakes, overslept half an hour (woke up at 6 on accident), didn't get done with breakfast and dishes until nine. Then Phil and I made roughly 90 enchiladas for dinner and finished around 12. Ate lunch, then went to each of the camper's work sites and handed out the traditional Friday Otter Pops. Got back around 3, cleaned up the mess we made trying to roll the enchiladas. 3.45 rolls around, and I asked Mallory if I could sleep until 4.15, fifteen minutes into free time when we were to be hanging out with campers. She said it would be fine. I laid down, and napped...until 5.30 when Kelley woke me up because dinner was supposed to be on the table in 15 minutes. Thankfully she got the memo that the enchiladas were just sitting in the ovens and were ready to be cooked-they still turned out great. Moral of the story: sleep whenever you can and for as long as you can. It will soon be a commodity.

Three Times the Normal Amount of Asthma Medication*
*Don't worry Mom, this wasn't me. It was one of our hypochondriac campers.
We had one of the biggest hypochondriacs this week. She had a whole host of things that were wrong. She had Type 1 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and moderate asthma. On top of these things, she came from a very loving-deprived home, and desperately sought attention for any reason possible. Dale, her youth leader, told the staff that she pretends to be sick for attention, and she herself told one of our supply coordinators, Jennifer, that she loves being in the center of attention. Overreacting + attention deprived = bad combination. Either way, she was having a small bought of asthma and took her medication. When it did not work immediately, she decided to take another dose of her inhaler. When this one did not work, she took another. Three times her daily amount needed in less than an hour and a half. Her blood pressure and heart rate both skyrocketed and she had a small panic attack. We called the EMTs, but they were an hour away in Winnemucca. So Dale decided that it would be best to meet them halfway, transfer her into the ambulance, and have her other leader Ashley follow in the car. Ashely told us later that the ambulance driver told her to keep up. "Keeping up" meant 95 MPH! Well, she made it to the ambulance, to the hospital, calmed her down, got her heart rate and blood pressure down, and sent her on her merry way. Moral of the story: Don't overdose on your medication.

Tomorrow we are welcoming our last week of campers for the summer! Hopefully this group won't have a need for our friendly neighborhood EMTs like the last two.

Theme Days, Invisible Co-Chefs, and Miracle Food

So our first week is almost officially over. Its both a good and a sad thing. We all are definitely ready for a break and lots of time to catch up on lost sleep, but these campers have been so good we just don't want them to leave!

So what is with the title? Let me tell you! We've decided that in order to spice things up, we will have "theme days." We are still throwing around a few ideas for some of them, so if you have suggestions, feel free to comment! We have Musical Mondays, where campers have to get into their work (site specific) groups and report on what happened during the day-in the form of a musical. This is performed after dinner during our night time program. Tuesdays we haven't quite figured out yet. Wednesdays are "Would You Rather" days, where you ask things like "Would you rather have the arms of an ape or have a unicorn horn sticking out of your forehead?" Thursdays are knock-knock jokes, and then Fridays are traditionally where staffers (and those campers who know or remember) wear a yellow shirt. But this summer our staff has come up with not-joke Fridays. This is somewhat sarcastic but can be quite funny. So someone can say to me, "Tamsen, I though dinner was lame tonight...NOT!" Don't be disappointed, it is much better live than when it is read.

Something else that we have discovered is that many people don't realize that my co-chef Kelley exists! She has been forgotten or called Katie many times this week, both in smaller groups and in the larger group as a whole! So we were joking around that I actually steal all the glory and put her to work doing the dishes in the back room. Then we decided that for the next group of campers who come in, she will wear a shirt that says, "I'm Kelley, NOT Katie." We may or may not actually make her one, but it would be quite funny.

Miracle food, you ask? Some say it is. One afternoon while prepping dinner in the kitchen, one of the campers Eric came in to talk to Kelley and I. We were in there with our site director Mallory, and he poked his head inside to see if we both were there. He said, "The food has been so good this week. Its so healthy that it cured my acne!" Too bad the kid had perfect skin to start off with! His counselor told us yesterday that he also told her that it has had another pro: its made his bowel movements more regular. I guess that isn't necessarily something that we planned on, but if it keeps the customer satisfied, I think we are doing our job.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy!

This is an inside view of our kitchen: Katie on the left (she's our musician for the week), and Kelley on the right.

Some of our campers and staff on water day!


Scenery around the creek we swam in.

Shelley and Tracy-the leaders from Reno. Tracy is a real life-cowboy, boots, accent, ranch, and all!

So we did have a pop-up tent at water day-but it blew off the cliff and into the water! It didn't hurt anyone, but was very close to hitting Amy, Kelley and myself off the 20 foot ledge into the water! It flew right over our heads.

A picture from our after dinner hike. It was beautiful!

Elvis Has Entered the Building!

Okay, maybe Elvis hasn't re-joined us from the aliens yet. But the campers came last night and we didn't run away!
This week is our smallest so far, there are only 41 campers and counselors. Things have been going pretty smoothly so far. We have five vegetarians, one severe dairy allergy, and one vegan. We have been getting somewhat creative with their food, trying different egg substitutes and soy instead of real or powdered milk. They are out on chocolate chip cookies too, so we made the dough without the chips and added a hunk of peanut butter. Hopefully they aren't allergic to those too!
The campers have enjoyed our meals (which is always a blessing), but I think they might be dreading peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the time they leave. It is the only option for lunch. Last night we had grilled cheese with tomato and chicken noodle soups, salad, bananas, and the SSP classic, Love! We have a team from LA and they asked me what was for dinner before we had started cooking. I told them that it was going to be "hecka good," and all four of them gasped and took a step back in fear. NO JOKE! They later told me that they were talking in the car ride up about all the NorCal stereotypes they were about to encounter. Glad I could be the first one to fulfill them!

McNowhere, Nevada

My father fondly re-named McDermitt, Nevada, to McNowhere, Nevada. This is where I'm spending the next month of my life with Sierra Service Project. It is a Methodist based non-profit that sets up service projects for youth to do home repair on mainly Indian reservations, but is currently branching out to Mexico and Honduras.

So here I am as a chef with 7 other people on staff. We have two chefs, myself and Kelley. Then there is our construction team of Martin (our only permanent boy for the summer), Jennifer, and Lisa. Amy is our spiritual life coordinator and in charge of doing the Jesus part of the camp. And of course, there is our fearless leader Mallory who keeps us sane.

We also are going to have a girl coming in next week to shadow all the jobs and lead worship for us. She leaves on Saturday morning, and we are getting our friend Phil Saturday afternoon to come play guitar for us for the next two weeks. He'll probably be our free-floating do-it-all guy too, since he won't want to sit around and do nothing. We are staying in a town with a population of roughly 350 people, two casinos, a gas station, a market, and a motel. And a small library. We are hanging out at the K-12 school, Home of the Bulldogs.

So as a chef, it is our job to make menus for the week, have a snack a day, and feed the kids fresh and healthy (and of course delicious) food. All 50 of them. Our last week we will be feeding over 70 campers. YIKES! I will be ready for almost any size dinner party whenever I get back.

Kelley and I made the perilous trip to Winnemucca (the closest city of any size) an hour away to buy groceries. Six hours and $1,700 later, we finally were on the road again, armed with enough food to stock a convenience store. We certainly got a number of looks when we pulled up to the cash register with 50 loaves of bread and 11 carts full of food! It took an hour to check out, and about half an hour to get all of it out of the store and into our cargo van. We were all quite impressed.

So far things haven't been too busy other than that, we are just setting up until Sunday afternoon when the first wave of campers come in to play. Today Kelley and I will be making enough granola for the rest of this week and hopefully the next, as well as cutting about half of our lettuce up to have ready-made salads on hand.

Here are some pictures for your fun and enjoyment!

Lisa, myself, and James on the way to Wendy's during training (James is in AZ for the summer).

This is our stack of First Aid Kits before they got loaded into all the vans.

This is the playground of our school with the awesome view of the mountains.

=Standing on the corner in McDermitt. This is the main drag. Quite exciting.

That's right, we walked to the Oregon border. Too bad its only 400 yards north! From left: Jennifer, Amy, Kelley, Martin, Mallory, and me. Lisa is taking the picture.

A large boulder of no importance that I thought my family would enjoy. Truckee, anyone?

We get to see sunsets like this every night. Beautiful!

We found a forklift outside the market with keys in it. So Kelley thought she would try it out!

We also walked to the Nevada sign. We think the border is somewhere between the two, but its about 100 feet of no-man's-land. We decided that we would claim it for our own and succeed from the Union sometime in the near (or distant) future.

The McDermitt Bread Basket. Lots and lots of bread.

Kelley hiding behind all of our baskets. I think we scared a few people with the amount of food we were buying.

The end product! Those kids better be hungry.

Some Good Advice

Twice within the past month I've been given the best advice I'll probably ever receive. It is in no way complex or fancy, quite simple and profound at the same time. Even though it isn't hard to conceptualize it doesn't mean that it is easy in practice. It actually is something I will be trying to do my entire life, struggling the entire time.
Both Phil and James said it in the same exact way, heartfelt and kind. It was in reference to campers I will be working with all summer, but what would happen if I applied it to my everyday life? "Let them know that they are loved by God." Isn't this supposed to be what I do every day?
Once I told my roommate freshmen year that the best gift that anyone can give is the love for the other. I'd now like to revise this statement. Certainly love from person to person can be beautiful, but it is nothing without the love of God. The best gift anyone can give to another is the love of the Father.
How do you put into words the all expansive, all forgiving, redemptive love of God? Even my own mind cannot fully comprehend why he loves me so; all I know is that I am whole because of it. If I knew not the Father, I know not the gift. Love without the knowledge of the Holy is worthless indeed. For what else can bring sight to the blind and healing to the brokenhearted? What else can show me my true self and love me in spite of it?
This is the LORD: slow to anger, rich in love, good to all. It is this love that we are to generously pour upon the world. This is what the world so desperately needs.

My Top 5

Things Under $5 I Couldn't Live Without

Q-Tips
Funky cheap earrings
Sunscreen
Bobby Pins
Soap

Favorite Movies

Sense and Sensability
Singing in the Rain
Roman Holiday
Enchanted
Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Songs to Put on Repeat

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
Breakable by Ingrid Michaelson
Break Bread by Josh Garrels
God of Wrath by The David Crowder Band

Influential People

Michelle Silvashy
My sister Kate
My Roommates (it's the five for one deal)
Marty Kucharek
The Prays

Things Always in My Purse (or Backpack/Bag)
(I don't normally carry a purse unless I'm going on campus, then its a vivid green belum from PNG)

Whatever book I'm reading at the moment
Sunglasses case with glasses
Wallet/Keys/Phone
Papers I need to grade
Homework I've procrastinated on doing

Moments that Changed My Life Forever

My Jesus Moment!
When I decided to go to SSU
When I finally got accepted to SSU
My baptism
When I said "yes" to live with my roommates

Obsessions I Currently Have

Cleaning my ears
Keeping the coffee table clean
Ignoring the mess on my desk
Hand washing dishes
Wearing my hair very large

Organizations I'm Glad Exist

Blood:Water Missions
International Justice Mission (IJM)
InterVarsity
Students International
Costco

Favorite Accessories

Crazy earrings
My Crocs or any other shoe
Aviators
A watch
My ferociously green belum

Favorite Books

Duh, the Bible written by God
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Modern Inventions

Bicycles
The Internet
The washing machine
Window Fans
Cameras

Classes

California Ethnic Literature with Bob Coleman
Geology of Natural Disasters with Karner
Survey of Late British Literature with Thaine Stearns
Ancient Art History with Susan McKillop
Environmental Studies with Erv Peterson

Foods I Never Tire Of

Barbecue Chicken Pizza (made by Ashley, of course)
Ice Cream of almost any flavor
Lemon Chicken
Beans and Rice
Bagels

Countries I Want to Visit

Germany
Luxembourg
Antarctica
Chile
Russia

Places I Think Would Be Fun to Live For One Year (or more)

Denver
New York
A small mountain town in the Sierra Nevadas
Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas
Costa Rica

I Ain't No Holla-Back Girl

Yes, you did read that title correctly. I've decided that I don't like being hollered at.
For the past semester I've been hanging out on campus at Charlie Brown Cafe all morning/early afternoon on Fridays. I wake up, bring by backpack full of books and homework and enjoy a (sometimes) quiet time in the cafe. I have my small group discipleship group there, then a prayer meeting, then I hand out until my roommate Ashley gets off at 1.30. We then proceed to stroll back home.
The walk back home is normally, well, pretty normal. Talk about how work was (even though I am there almost her whole shift making faces at her and asking for discounted drinks), how discipleship was, etc. But for the past two weeks we have been hollered at by guys in cars! Now if I were talking to my dad, he would just tell me, "Tamsen, they are just guys having fun bird-doggin' some girls." My mother would say, "You should tell them to take a picture. It lasts longer!" Both of these responses force me to roll my eyes as the little feminist inside rears her ugly head.
I'm not big on feminism. The only feminist writing that I've read and actually liked was Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Certainly not very radical compared to what we have today, but back when she wrote it, it was hugely taboo. For those of you who haven't read it, its basically an educated woman saying that women 1) have souls; 2) have brains and emotions; and 3) should be allowed to do things other than knit and cook and have babies. Sounds good to me. I admit I sometimes like gender roles. I like it when guys are gentlemen who treat me and other women well. But whenever I get hollered, most of the time I just get disgusted. And half the time when I'm hit on, I don't really understand what is going on. I just get creeped out by the guys who are doing it.
I had a conversation with a male friend last week (who will remain nameless) about commenting on the opposite sex's appearance. I think he was playing devil's advocate but couldn't really tell. He was saying that he think that when a person looks on another person of the opposite gender and comments on how attractive they are, they could be committing adultery. He uses Jesus's words from Matthew 5:27-31 when He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. " I'm not sure if commenting on someone's attractiveness is considered adultery. I think it would depend on the heart motives behind the comment. But then again, I guess the same could be said for the holler-ers.

The Tambourine Man

(No Matt, this post is not about the Bob Dylan song.)

It is about, however, the man who came to church with a tambourine.
Yes, you read that correctly, the man who brought his own tambourine to church.
Picture this: Wednesday night service at Calvary Chapel Sebastopol. It is the mid-week service, so the crowd is smaller and more intimate. I am sitting at my normal spot, the second row from the front on the left. We are all welcomed in and asked to stand up to read one of the psalms, the traditional "call to worship" that we do. We read it together, then are ushered into the music time.
Lo and behold, a man who is sitting across the isle whips a tambourine out of his bag! Say what?!? I didn't realize that my jaw had dropped until after I had started to smile. He gave it a few shakes gingerly, as if not knowing if he would get in trouble.
Seconds later, our associate pastor swoops in. He gently puts his hand on the mans shoulder and whispers something to him. The tambourine man nods his head and places his instrument down on the ground.
As I sit and think about this, it makes me wonder what music in church would be like if we all brought our instruments of choice and played them. Trumpets galore, guitars, perhaps the occasional bassoon or nose flute. We certainly would not have the London Symphony on our hands, but would it be any less pleasing to God? The Psamls say to clap our hands and shout to the Lord with cries of joy (Ps 47.1), but we don't necessarily do that in worship either.
I dont' know what I would have done. I personally kind of wanted the tambourine man to do his thing. I think it might have been a way for him to engage in musical worship. Perhaps it would be more welcome in a church that was clappy. Churches are generally divided into two categories: Those who like Niel Diamond, and those who don't (for those of you who didn't get it, its a "What About Bob?" quote). Actually, I've heard that they can be classified as "clappers" or "non-clappers." But in reality, does it really matter? Does clapping and shouting and singing and tambourining (or the lack thereof) enhance the joy that it brings to the LORD?
I donno. Its just something to think about.

Perspectives

My story is not a new one.
But I'm convinced that life is rarely as boring as I pretend it to be, especially my life.
I was having a conversation with my friend Phil a couple of months ago. He kept on asking me what was new. I ran out of things to say after one or two answers, but he kept persisting! The next time he asked me this, I told him that I had nothing else new in my life. And he said to me, "Tamsen, you are a child of God. I doubt that your life is boring."
So maybe I'm not boring after all. Maybe my life is exciting. I am a child of the Most High God. He did save me from my sins. He has redeemed me. I live each day in the knowledge of his Holiness and Love. Isn't that in itself exciting? His mercies are new every morning. That is what is new, but at the same time its not. Its new because I start off each day with a clean slate, but I also start off each day with the same age-old promise of unfailing love and redemption.
The Lord does new and good things to us each day. Like today seemed pretty average. I woke up, got ready, and went out to Charlie Brown Cafe on campus to do some reading and homework. There I ran into one of my favorite professors and he said hello. As I stopped at the counter to say hello to one of my roommates, she told me that one of our friends/her co-worker had just recently given her life to the Lord. Hallelujah! Is that boring? Nope. Yet again the Spirit is moving hearts and calling them to the Lord.
I was grading papers for the English 101 class I am a TA for, and my friend James sits down next to me. Fabulous! He's one of my favorite people because he's quite chipper and always brings a smile to my face. He plays the cello quite well. We both applied to a summer job through and organization called Sierra Service Project. We were discussing when our second interviews were (both on April 18th) and getting slightly giddy at the idea of working together for the summer and laughing at the possibility of us hating each other at the end of it all.
Then at 11.00 I had my third official discipleship meeting. I get to disciple two freshman girls for the rest of the year, and hopefully the rest of my time at Sonoma. We currently are going through Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, and had a great discussion that could have lasted another good hour if it were not for prior engagements.
I came home to eat some lunch, spent time with two of my other roommates. Then rode my bike to work (don't worry, its only a mile and a half away) only to ride it back 15 minutes later. The young man whom I tutor did not have any homework to do! The syllabus is incorrect for the rest of the semester because the professor changes her mind more often than not. I think she is the SRJC version of Velma (if you have any idea who Velma is, you know what I mean). I realized that I really like riding my bike. Good exercise and a good opportunity to be outside. I especially like it when the wind is pushing against you and making your legs work harder to move forward.
When I came home, I was greeted by a small black chihuahua named Cloe. We are watching her for our campus minsters for a couple of days. They have a wedding in Lodi to attend, so we get to be "aunties" for the weekend. Its nice to have a dog, even if it is small enough to step on.
So back to what I was talking about: I'm convinced that my life is not boring. I just have to look past what seems normal and mundane and find joy in being in the right hand of God. Now that is exciting.

Prayers, Promises, and Hopes

So I know that its over two months past Christmas, but I just cannot get over the power of this song! My favorite version is by Bethany Dillon. It is slow and mournful. I played it for two musician friends of mine, Dave and James. Dave plays the classical guitar, James the cello. James hated it. He said it was too sad. But Dave said that it was how the song was supposed to be-it is a cry from God's Chosen People.

Here it is:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, O come, great Lord of might
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe

O come, desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease
And be Thyself our King of Peace

Oh He shall come, O He shall come
Shall come to thee, O Israel
Has come to thee, O Israel

Just like Dave said, the song is a plea! The ti­tle comes from Isai­ah 7:14: “Be­hold, a vir­gin shall con­ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Im­man­u­el.” Im­man­u­el itself means "God be with us" in the original Hebrew. The Hebrews are asking the LORD to be with them, to come and rescue them. They will be lonely exiles wherever they go "Until the Son of God appears." They were strangers in the land of Egypt, and will remain as such until they receive the Promised Land.
Rejoice Israel! There is the everlasting promise of the Messiah. He has come! The LORD has given the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, appearing in a cloud that awed all who saw it. The people are pleading God to bind mankind's heart and together with its broken self, to bring about the everlasting Peace that only He can bring.
The LORD has come. And the LORD will come. It is a prayer. It is a promise. It is a hope.