Weekend of Giants Games

This weekend was a blast! Got to take Ciera and Noah to thier first Giants games ever! Wish they could have won! Man that was terrible. But being at the game with my fam, few things are better than that.

Sooooo much to blog about...but here are the highlights and here's a link to the best of the photos.




~First game with Ciera and Noah. We had nosebleed seats. but a season ticket holder let us have his tix 17 rows above the Giants' dugout. Best seats I've ever had!

~Our whole family going to Sunday's game, all decked out in Giants' gear. Lots more Giants' fans at the game than I expected.

~Getting to wear the jersey I bought with fantasy baseball winnings finally. I intentionally bought it to small as motivation to lose weight. I'm still too big but it worked out okay. And the nods from other Giants' fans and comments from Royals' fans made it so worthwhile.




~Seeing Lincecum, the Giants' phenom, warm up and pitch on Sunday. Can't believe the Giant's blew a 7 run lead. no. I do belive it. I got some sweet action shots of his wind up.





~Teaching Ciera how to score a baseball game. She did awesome! she kept it going through 6 innings! The game, btw, lasted more than 4 hours. We were still in the 6th inning after 3 hours. I have so many memories of going to Giants' games with my dad and he ALWAYS kept score and he taught me how to as well. Very meaningful.




~My buddy Jesse told me the Royal's had a new scoreboard. I had no idea how amazing it was. blew me away. totally hi def. This pic looks like it's a video game. the screen was crystal clear and the images were HUGE. There are more pics of the scoreboard via the link above.

~Texting Jeff, Jesse, and Bill during the game while they were watching it back home. So fun. Man, I miss hanging out.

Iowa Flooding

So a buddy of mine asked me last week how my in-laws are doing with the Iowa floods. The above picture was sent from my father in law, Ron. This is across the river facing thier house. This is after the flood has begun receding. It's still at 6 feet when normal is 2.

Jen's parents live in Waverly, iowa, one of the first towns flooded by the Cedar River. But, because the news in Wichita only really reported on Cedar Rapids (an hour or so away) and Des Moines (2 1/2 hours away) we never really thought of them being in danger.

Of course, the fact that the Cedar River runs THROUGH thier back yard (literally, thier back yard) I should have been clued in.

The section of river that runs through thier back yard is almost entirely shallow. 3/4 of it is between 9 inches and 2 feet. The other 1/4 is no deeper than 6 feet.

Well, at it's height, it was over 30 feet! dang!

Here is a picture of thier house after the flood. You can see that it is a two story home and they've done so much work to it! The basement/or bottom level has a retaining wall around it for when it does flood.





Mom and Dad knew it was coming so dad built on as high as he could to the retaining wall. It didn't work. They were able to get almost everything upstairs except for a couple couches they just tied to the rafters. The water came up 3/4 of the way...what is that...like 6 feet of water into the bottom level. And it destroyed the two couches.

Also, in the middle of the picture you can see a set of four french doors. this is my parent's new bedroom doors. The ones to the left are white and the ones to the right look greyish/blue for some reason.

Here's is how high the water became:

















This is looking back at the other porch to the left.



















this is the top of my dad's hangar where he keeps his tractor and ultralight. It's DOWNHILL from the house. Mom said that he was able to lay a sandbag on top of the hangar roof from the jet ski when the water was at or near it's highest.


















they are doing good. They are an official disaster area which inlcudes showering at the red cross and eating fema food. Thanks for your prayers for them!

Weekend Plans

So last Saturday I’m running to the hardware store and I’m listening to the Royals game and I hear them advertising for the upcoming series with the Giants….

Uh……excuse me….what?

As soon as I get home I jump on the royals website…IT’S TRUE!   The Giants are coming this weekend for their second series with the Royals ever.  I missed the first series.  I’m not missing this one!

I told Jen and she was pumped for me.  I told the kids and they were ECSTATIC!  This will be their first giants’ game ever!

I have to work Friday night (DANG IT!).  The kids have some make up games to play on Saturday morning, so after the games, we’re gonna drive up to KC.  I’m gonna drop Jen and Charis off at our friend’s house and I’ll take Ciera and Noah to the game Saturday night.

Then I’m taking a vacation day on Sunday and we are going to the afternoon game! 

I’m so pumped!  The kids both have replica jerseys to wear to the games.  And last night I FINALLY tried on my Mike Matheny/Will Clark home jersey…knowing that I’ve taken the last month off of exercise and eating well (that means eating a bunch of crap and not exercising), I was a little afraid that the jersey wouldn’t fit.  But I tried it anyways!

AH YEAH!  It’s a little snug if I button it, but if I leave it unbuttoned, I’m golden.  I’ve waited YEARS to wear this jersey!   And now, my first time, will be with Ciera and Noah at their first Giants game.

I can’t wait!   All 5 of us will go to Sunday’s game (Charis’ second Giants’ game).  The other cool thing is that we paid $15 bucks each for Ciera and Noah to be in the Royals “Blue Crew” and in this cool kit came a back pack, a watch, a cool VIP pass, a cool Royal’s hat, and tix to the KC zoo and two vouchers for $17 tickets.  For some reason, each kid got TWO packs each.  So we have 8 free tix which is all we need for Sat and Sunday.

I’ll make sure to post some pics on the blog.  What an awesome weekend!

(photo credit:  Ben Margot/AP)

 

Father's day came one day early for me!

On Saturday Noah had his first hit in machine pitch! Machine pitch is the next step up from T-ball. He had 3 games before where he got up only a few times and each time he struck out. And he was swinging really weird. He was pretty bummed. Didn’t want to go outside and practice or anything. I talked him into playing soft toss on Thursday before a game and he nearly got a hit at the game that night.

So he had a game Sat, and we went outside and played soft toss and I could feel he was really close, watching the ball better, better swings, etc.

So Noah get’s up in the 2^nd inning….whiff on three straight pitches. But they were good swings…nice and level…his timing was just a bit off.

Top of the 5^th inning…Noah’s team, the Blue Dragons, haven’t scored and are down by two runs.

Noah’s up to the plate.

The pitch…

The swing…

WHACK!

Line drive that bounces right between the 3^rd baseman and SS. Noah runs to 2^nd base and the LF overthrows the 2^nd baseman, so Noah, after over running 2^nd and stopping, runs to third. He rounds the base and heads home for his first hit, and his first home run! Sure, in the mind of every adult, it was a double and an error. But in his head…and for all intensive purposes as this level, he hit a dinger.

SO AMAZINGLY FUN! Jen JUMPED out of her chair, “RUN, NOAH, RUN!!!!!”

After Noah got back in the dug out, I went over to tell him how proud I was of him (which I was doing even when he was whiffing like his old man) I asked him, “Noah, how did that feel?”

In the funnest, sweetest, and coolest voice ever, with eyes full of joy, he replied, “Awesome!”

“Yeah, it was awesome, Noah. Good job!”

“Dad, I hit the 2^nd home run of the season!” (another kid had hit a home run a couple games ago)

I thought it was awesome to just play catch with my kids…Like it was an emotional thing because I didn’t have a dad to play catch with when I was a kid. And I totally meant to blog about how cool it was.

it is so fun to watch them play and enjoy the game. I hope that I never push them away from the game.

It was a fun day to be a dad.

Rite of Passage

What a fun night tonight! Our church had thier annual youth choir final concert and we met with most of our 8th graders afterwards for one last hurrah together. This Sunday, they move into the high school group. and for this group, they are my first complete class, as I came to First Church three years ago. So I've had these guys during thier whole middle school years. Pretty cool.

Nevertheless, it's a very bittersweet thing to move them up into high school. So a couple of our youth coaches and myself got together and invited the students out for a late night movie and ice cream.

But first...we had a tornado warning. Nice! We had the concert and then huddled in the basement waiting for the Tornado warning to end.

after that, we raced to the movies and watched Prince Caspian. (I had expected the movie to stink as it got a bad review on sfgate.com. But I thought it was really good! I love it when my expectations are so low!)

After the movie we went to McDonald's and got some ice cream.

You know, there is just something about middle schoolers that we, our team of adult volunteers, we just love. and it's fun to listen to them joke around and have fun. I love that our team of adults thinks these middle schoolers are actually funny! They are! Our kids are so great. And they are fun. And we are going to really miss them.

So while we are prepared for the new group of 6th graders to come in this Sunday, we will miss our 8th graders. I did encourage them all to continue growing in thier faiths and invited them to come back in a couple or three years and lead our small groups.

That has been one of my most favorite things in ministry...to have my old middle schoolers lead thier own small groups of middle schools students.

so much to say...I just absolutely love my job and am honored to play a small role in the spiritual development of these kids.

Enough of THAT already

Alright! Man, that was a long time. I am so out of sorts! So many things to blog about. I definitely need to get back in the practice of regular blogging.

We are doing a last "hurrah" event with our 8th graders tonight so I'll try to blog late night tonight after we do that!

Thanks for stopping by! you rock!

Some fun news

Well...it's time I finally blogged about this since we've already been outed by Sean and Kirk.

Jen and I have four books being published by Youth Specialties! It's a really fun story that I'll have to blog about some time.

Jen’s books are called “Becoming a Young Woman of God” and “Living as a Young Woman of God.” Mine are called “Becoming a Young Man of God” and “Living as a Young Man of God.” All four books are set up as 8 weeks of Bible Studies for middle school guys and girls.

The official release date isn't until May 8th, but I’ve already had a couple of you call me to say you saw them at your local Christian Book Retailer and also at Willow Creek’s SHIFT conference. They are also available online at YouthSpecialties.com, Amazon.com, BN.com, and ChristianBook.com.

Jen and I would love to get these books into the hands of as many youth workers as possible and we need your help!

Send me an email to "keniselvis" at "hotmail.com" and I'll send you the first chapter of each book and a humble request to blog about them or write a review on amazon.com.

Thanks for your encouragement, prayers, and support!

Stuck in the Middle Video

We have such an awesome tech team here at First Church. Last year and this year we took loads of photos and video in hopes of making our own little highlight video. We had a great video last year and we have a new guy, Jeremy, doing it this year.

I didn't know what he'd end up doing and when he showed it to me, I was blown away. Man, it was so much more than I expected!

I hope you enjoy it as much as our students have. Stuck in the Middle is a great event!

Easily the funniest SNL skit I've seen in a looooooong time

YS Loser UPDATE: Marko takes the lead

Well, so much for that competition...eh eh eh.

I am now in 5th place, a change from 6th, after losing 4.6 lbs (I only reported losing 4). Jen is still in third.

Marko has now taken first place and the dude, who was so untouchable, is now in third. The dude who was in first for soooooo long had been fasting through lent, is my guess. I read somewhere that he was fasting. Now that lent is over....I"m guessing he's gaining back his water weight.

My friend Rob lost 50 lbs by going on a 40 day fast. He also gained it ALL back within a couple months. Some of the first things he did was polish off bags of candy. I wrote Steve, the guy who lost his place, and just enouraged him to not lose his mindset or his momentum over gaining water back.

Ciera and MENSA

Jen and I had a meeting with Ciera’s school counselor, teacher, and principle today. She had tested to see if qualified for the gifted program. Pretty weird deal, because you want your kids to have the best education possible. But if your kid doesn’t make it for the gifted program, how is that not deflating for them on some level, even if you as a parent aren’t that concerned about the results?

Anyway, long story short, Ciera did qualify which is pretty cool She will now have an IEP, Individualized Education Program. Only the top 3% of kids are included in the gifted program, that will take her all the way through high school. Evidently it’s a much bigger deal that I fully understand because we now have the power to call a meeting with the principle, teacher, and counselor at any time if we feel there are educational issues. We had to sign three documents and it’s registered with the state and everything. Really weird.

Ciera scored a 128 on a standardized IQ test which put her in the 97^th percentile. If she was tested again, numerous times, she would most likely fall in the 121-133 range, according to the school counselor who administered the test. Jen sent me some links about IQ test scores and such and I found out that MENSA is for anyone in the 98^th percentile! All you have to do is submit a 98% on an approved MENSA test and you are in for life. How crazy is that?

To top it off, Noah is way ahead of where Ciera was in first grade, but they really don’t do any gifted testing till the end of the 2^nd grade or in third grade.

Pretty wild. I’m glad that we can now insure that everything is going to be done to help Ciera learn and grow. That’s a pretty cool deal.

Easter Monday

Some 19 year old kid in Oklahoma City got into an accident on an ATV and was pronounced "BRAIN DEAD."

His uncle, while paying his last respects, runs a pocket knife blade along the kids' foot and the kid jerks his leg back.

You can read and watch the story here from the Today Show.

Long story short, the kid beats death, comes back alive, is resurrected. Or...what probably did happen, is that he was misprounounced dead. Of course the doctors would say that the tests show that he was brain dead. No blood or brain activity. Allegedly it was the fault of bad equipment.

I wonder how often this happens? How many other people are pronounced brain dead only to have thier organs harvested? How many people would come out of it if given more time. How many funeral's could have been avoided? Kind of scary to think about. and it probably doesn't happen......very much, at least.

The fact that it's happenned once is amazing.

I hope this will propel them to make other tests for the prounouncement of brain death. If my kids or wife are ever brain dead, you better believe I'll be holding out as long as I can thinking of this story.

YS Biggest Loser Update: Jen moves to third place!

My sweet wife is working so stinking hard to lose weight! She has never been huge but because of all the fun medicine she has been experimenting with to ease her migraines she gained some weight and I twisted her arm to join this YS competition.

She works so hard! And she pushes me! If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't get in all these workouts. she amazes me! She is now in third place with the ladies.

I moved up one spot to sixth. the guys in front of me are really rockin! Marko lost 4 lbs (2nd place), and Riddle must have busted it hard cause he jumped from sixth and took back third place. What a cool competition!

great job Jen!!!!

Raining McCain

Saw this clip on Riddle's blog. So funny.




My favorite line: "I'm gonna go out, and get myself, absolutely John McCain'd."

ht to Diane. I got it to work! I pasted it in Word, then did it back in blogger. it's like I'm a real blogger now! woo hoo!

A sweet word from my boy Noah

Sunday was another day when, because of poor time management, I had to work all day and didn't get to be home with my kids at all. I definitely could have done better during the week to get stuff put out of the way.

so the short story I'm going to share is both very sweet and very scary. Sweet, because it was from my little 7 year old Noah. and scary, because I don't want this to be the theme of my life.

Here is the conversation that took place between my sweet boy Noah and my sweet wife Jen:

Noah: Mom, how old are middle schoolers?

Jen: Like 12 and 13.

N: I can't wait till I'm 12!!!!

J: Why's that, Noah?

N: Cause then I'll get to spend all day Sundays with Dad!


(For 10 weeks during the start of every year, we do Confirmation. This year the timing has been horrible. Church in the morning. Confirmation from 2:30-4 pm. Another worship service from 6-8 pm. yuck! For a while there I was slipping in some swimming with the kids at the Y between church and confirmation. I need to get back to that. I really miss being home on Sundays.)

Are you a bigger loser than Marko Update

Amazingly, I'm still in 7th place with only a pound lost.

I'm only one place away from Riddle...eh eh eh. Marko is still in 2nd place. And my sweet wife is still holding on to 6th place with the ladies.

It must have been a super slow week considering that Marko only lost 3 lbs, Mark Riddle only lost 1 and I only lost 1. hmmmmm.....

I'm so hoping for a GREAT week this week.

Stuck In The Middle 08

Another great year for our students at Stuck In The Middle, a conference for middle school students put on by my buddy Sean Meade.

Here's our recap along with a couple pics! We have a sweet video that our tech crew at First church did and I'll throw that up here as soon as I can.

On March 7, 13 middle school students and 2 adults pioneered two vans to Kansas City for Stuck in the Middle, a 3 day conference designed to help middle schoolers experience Christ.

Eight of the thirteen students made personal decisions regarding their faith, seven of them being to rededicate their lives and one to follow Christ for the very first time.

It was an amazing weekend that began with entering into the auditorium into a scene out of the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia” complete with “snow” on the ground, light posts, pillars, and sculptures of Aslan. “Snow” bubbles fell from above, which threw our students into a compulsion to stick their tongues out and catch the snow, like kids seeing snow fall for the first time.

Beginning with a video montage of famous scenes from movies like Star Wars, Napoleon Dynamite, Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Superman Returns, the stage was set to help students understand the idea that God wants them to be a part of an amazing story.

Next, Joe Castillo, the Sand Artist, told the creation story through is amazing sand art performance that had our students absolutely captivated.

After some comedy, a testimony of a man being completely healed of cancer, and worship, the speaker for the first two sessions took the stage. Jason Raitz, a Junior High Pastor from Willow Creek, opened the night and shared two thoughts about Christ:

1. Your story is amazing! No matter who you are, or what has happened to you, you are not an accident. You were created by God and your story (your life is incredibly valuable).
2. God wants you to be part of His Story. His story is amazing and you have a starring role in it.

For 8th grader Emily Henning, what stuck out to her was that, “How even if you wake up in the morning and you feel irrelevant, you are still important.”

After meeting with our individual youth groups to debrief the main session, students took part in lat night activities that consisted of inflatables, a scavenger hunt, video games, pool, karaoke, ping pong, bull riding, and hanging out.

On Saturday, Jason Raitz spoke about Crisis and how every story has crisis. Jason emphasized how our sin causes crisis.

One of the great things about “Stuck” is that they give an hour after each session for youth groups to debrief. We were able to also explain that sometime’s other people’s sin causes crisis in our lives. And that some crisis happens that isn’t our fault. And when our story has crisis, we can lean into God and listen for his voice.

The afternoon began with a powerful message about the Holy Spirit from fellow United Methodist Steve Jacobs, the Chief Scientist for the Discover Channel, that included Grant Apsley, Cody Guinn, Aubrey Maxwell, Alex Cox, and Jason Cox all on stage in front of everyone!

Next, our students took part in two sets of workshops.

One of our students, Jonathan Buster, went to the workshop led by a great Chicago based youth pastor named Andy Jack who gave our students a lesson in Lectio Divina, otherwise known as Divine Liturgy.

With candle’s set and music playing, Andy read from John 13 when Jesus washed the Disciple’s feet.

“The world that we live in is pretty loud. And God tends to speak in a whisper” said 8th grader Jonathan Buster. “And we really need to turn the volume down and listen.”

“When he read the Scripture about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet, I felt like God was saying to me, ‘You were dirty and now you are clean.’ That’s really the first time I’ve felt like God has talked to me. I think that tops all three years [I’ve been] at ‘Stuck.’”

The main session on Saturday night began with a dramatic skit about a popular boy asking a disabled girl for the last dance at school. Many of our students really connected with this idea about the difficulty of being a Christian and doing the right thing.

Sean Meade, the President of Stuck in the Middle spoke Saturday night about Christ and how he will never abandon us. His message was brought home when he shared a video testimony from Gracia Burnham about how she felt abandoned but saw God’s care after her release from Philippine terrorists.

After scurrying to get packed and eat breakfast on Sunday morning, we left the hotel and headed back to Stuck for the closing session. Sean shared about the need for community and how we cannot do this journey alone. He challenged our students to look for ways even on the van ride home to love and serve each other. And before we knew it, Stuck was over and we were on our way home.

Stuck in the Middle is a great weekend that helps our students grow in their faith. For 8th grader Sydney Potvin, it’s a weekend she will not easily forget.

“ ‘Stuck’ opened a new door to Christ and how God works” shared Potvin. “It was about being able to listen and being open to what Christ is saying and just taking time to listen [to God] and saying, ‘This is what I will live by.’”

“And for me, I committed that I would begin to follow His footsteps and begin to live as a Christian and it’s topped everything I’ve ever done.”

Pre-YS Biggest loser update

after only losing 3 lbs last week, I lost 6 lbs this week. That is a HUGE loss for how long I have been losing. I now weigh only 245 lbs (ha! only! I still have 50+ pounds to go!).

I can't wait for the standings to come out! I guarantee I'll be back in the top 10 after being out of it last week. That and, I actually weigh 244.4 lbs, so that gives me a .6 jumpstart on this week! eh eh eh

sidebar: I can't even remember when I weighed 245 lbs! That, AND I'm only 15 lbs away from my Play It Again Sport's Biggest Loser competition goal! And I still have more than 3 weeks to go with that!!!!

Porcupine vs. Pit Bull

OUCH!!!

YS Biggest Loser Update

As expected I dropped from 9th place. I'm out of the top 10. I mean, I only lost 3 lbs last week and Marko lost 10 lbs and shot up to 6th!

So where am I ranking? I'm 11th! eh eh eh. I'm going to have a big week next week so that'll be fun to see my name up there again!

Freaking Giants...they suck too

And I'm a giants fan...the San Francisco Giants. But they are terrible too!

We overpaid for Barry Zito...and he had a terrible outing last week. Lowery stunk it up yesterday.

Matt Cain, on the other hand, was amazing!

And we have no power in our line up. The Giants are hoping to woo Joe Crede, but that won't happen either.

I am really hoping for a good season!

49ers get Isaac Bruce...and will still suck

I'm a HUGE 49ers fan, even though I hate them. It's a love/hate relationship. I grew up in the bay area during the 80's when the 49ers were absolutely unbeatable. of course now, they are very beatable.

Yesterday, they signed former 49er killer isaac bruce, who used to be a great wide receiver, signed a two year contract with the 49ers.

We'll see...I have very little faith in their ability to win or manage, for that matter. But I love 'em.

YS Biggest Loser Update

I debuted in on #9 in the standings for men this week! My sweet wife is still #5 for the ladies!

Marko has dropped to #16. Riddle is still amazing.

Pretty sweet seeing my name up there. Of course, I could just be #9 because other people didn't get thier weights in on time....DANG! I didn't think about that! Well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts!

Church urges hanky panky among members

In an article posted today "Relevent Church" encouraged thier congregants to have a 30 day "Sex Challenge."

Some quick thoughts:

~I'm not an expert on church names but if you have to name your church "the relevent church" I'm guessing that you really aren't.

~I wonder how many men struggling with sexual addiction will now have a better reason to force thier wives to have sex. "But honey, the pastor told us to!" In a very real way, for men struggling with porn, 30 days of sex is the LAST thing they need.

~That being said, if you are in healthy relationship it could make Lent a little more fun.

~Is this what you really want your church or your pastor to be known for? I suppose some would see it as being cutting edge or provoctive. I see it as gimmicky and shallow.

~I do think it's funnyt that the 30 day sex challenge is only for married folks.

~They should have added 10 more days and published a book, "40 days of purposeful Sex."

150 visitors!

Ah, I've finally made it! On Sunday I went from having 8 regular visitors to 150!

too bad they were all searching for pictures of teen boys....hmmmm........

Moving on up...

Well, the standings are out...I started out at 19th place last week and now I'm two places up...17th!!! woo hoo!

My friend Dan, who I grew up with, is 11th! and the dude isn't even fat!!!! I'm so jealous!!!

Then there is Mark Riddle who is going to be an American Gladiator doing exercises like this. He will easily win this thing.

The only thing I got going for me is momentum...I'm 6 weeks in and have a rythm. We'll see how everyone keeps it going...but it isn't looking pretty...

Great blog post by Marko

Marko has a great blog post about two videos for the upcoming election. and I guess I've been living under a rock because I didn't know about this one. Simply motivating.


And then there is this hilarious one that is not only a parody but a rip on McCain.

A challenge by a middle schooler

Since I work at a United Methodist Church one of my jobs is to lead confirmation. I really enjoy this because I went to a really great Christian College that I feel really prepared me with a good base to teach with, even though I still am learning a lot about this tradition of Christianity.

I think I do a pretty good job with it as we focus on the most important issues for students with regard of what the UMC believes and how other traditions believe, etc.

My sweet wife is one of the mentors for a girl who is a really great student, a pretty solid kid. So Jen asked her what she is learning. And this student rattled off some stuff and then said something like, "It's good information...but it doesn't relate to my life."

Of course I'm thinking, "We've talked about the Bible and why you can trust it, the Trinity, God's amazing love, the life of Christ and grace, and today we talked about the role of the Holy Spirit!"

But really, for a middle schooler and all they deal with, what does any of that matter? I mean, I know it matters...but how can I relate to a student about why it really does matter to them NOW.

And if I'm honest, I have to question how well I'm teaching. How can I make teaching about these issues really matter to students today? How can I give them a reason for listening or wanting to know? and next week is church history!!!!! yikes!

I think I did a good job on the intro to the series...but I think I've been relying on my knowledge of the subject instead of on how to make it come alive to them.

maybe I need to focus more on introduction and set up and give them a reason why it does matter to them, in the midst of thier sports, in the midst of thier relationship problems, in the midst of thier parent's problems, in the midst of thier acne, I've got work to make these issues relevent to them.

McCain seals his fate

In an article posted tonight on sfgate.com McCain vows that during his administration he will not increase taxes. And with that...he has sealed the deal that I'll be voting for Obama.

With our economy in this poor of shape and with Bush giving out BILLIONS of dollars, how can ANYONE vow that they will not raise taxes. You know what, that ploy was used before by Bush Sr. and it came back to bite him.

I still feel unsettled. Huckabee wants to get rid of the IRS, McCain does as well, but also won't raise taxes and he will go to the gates of hell to get Osama. I simply do not trust Hillary even though she CLEARLY has the experience. And Obama...well, it is hard to not get behind him. If he only had more experience...

Who do your students think would best represent them?

We are in the middle of creating an identity, or brand, for our middle school ministry. Last Sunday we gave a survey to our students with nine great questions about the middle school ministry. One of the questions that I found really interesting was, "If you could ask a teen celebrity to be the celebrity host or MC of the First Church middle school program, who would you choose and why?"

Because I only work with middle school students, it's interesting to see who they picked. (This question was really hard for some of my guys) The boys each had a different guy. The girls, other than one person, were very united on who they think best represents them. You can guess who she is.

Here's who they picked and thier explanation (if they had one).

Ryan Sheckler

Cole Sprouse

Jesse McCartney

Toby Mac. He’s modern.

Zach Efron (idk)

Hannah Montana, because she is about our age and had not gotten into trouble.

I think I would pick Miley Cyrus because she is a great role model.

Hannah Montana; cause she doesn’t get in trouble and she’s not a bad influence

Of course, it wouldn't be a complete middle school survey without having these answers:

Spongebob because he’s awesome and he’s square

Lindsay Lohan

I am so humbled...

Every once in a while you get one of these glimpses into God doing something through you that you had nothing to do with.

I was on facebook and saw a student that was not one of my middle schoolers, but was a kid in high school at the first church I had a full time gig at. He was the son of the children's minister and was a totally solid kid. Again, I didn't know him really well or anything. But, I remembered him so I "friended" him on facebook.

Today, I look at my messages and I see this from this former HS student:


I have been telling this story for almost a decade now about you and now I have your name. I am always asked when did you really start following God since you came to Christ early in life? I say it was this intern during my freshman year that just said one thing to me. I really didn't know him that well but he asked why did you miss church camp this summer and I said I was in sports camps and working. I really thought it was weird for him to ask me since I really didn't know him. The way you said it made me realize that I have more important things to do in the summer like God. I just want to say thank you for saying those few words which changed my life.

Talk about humbling...

The Writer's Guild Strike

While I don't watch a lot of TV, I have learned a lot about this whole writer's strike going on. I'm amazed at how much writing really goes on to make talking heads look so good and funny.

Which really got me thinking, "Why don't we write sermons and lessons like this?" I mean, why don't we have staff memebers who are good writers, writing for a talking head, at a church?

I'm sure this is already going on. I remember going to Southeast Christian Church in Louisville and learning that Bob Russel had a team of guys, including his son, who put messages together. And Bob helped, but it was a communal effort, and I'm pretty sure it's worked for him.

At the time, I guess I felt like Bob was cheating the system. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it, to me, it simply seemed at it's best to be insincere or at it's worst, to be fraud.

Of course, that was 10 years ago....

Nevertheless, wouldn't all of our messages be better if we could write them with two or three people that we loved and respected and could take their life experiences and wisdom and put messages/lessons together?! How fun would that be!

Ah....the power of writing...

The Really Big Game

As this weekend draws nearer (Let's go Giants!) there will surely be church's advertising about having a "Super Bowl" party. Because the phrase "Super Bowl" is actually a registered trademark, it is actually illegal to use that phrase to advertise an event. Thus, our church is advertising a "Really Big Game" Party.

My friend Kirk has a great post about Fellowship church captilizing on the Superbowl last year. I wonder how other churches are utilizing this event to reach those seeking. TechnoPraxis™: Super Results

Speaking of the "Super Bowl" do any churches still do these parties for thier students? I had less and less students coming to it, to the point of 5 years ago, not hosting one.

The Biggest Loser....Youth Ministry Style

Marko announced through email and then on his blog the start of a new Biggest Loser contest! Marko has gained some pounds (I believe truly in honor of the late great Mike Yacconelli) and he's tired of it.

And I hear it! So Marko and the kind folks at YS are putting together a Biggest Loser Competition (the details of which you can find on Marko's blog) along with loads of prizes. The other cool thing is that Matthew McNutt (super great guy and youth worker) from Biggest Loser Season 3 fame, is going to help with it. McNutt is the man and has a great blog full of tips for losing weight.

Since I'm doing the local competition here, this will help me continue the hard work a little longer. My buddy Sean is doing it as well, and he could easily win it! Although I told him that if there's a tie between himself, Andy (a great youth pastor in Illinois), and Marko, then I think they should all wrestle for it, and I volunteer to film it.

I've been trying to lose weight for, it seems like, the longest time. But this time it's different. And it's pretty exciting, for me. I've been keeping a separate blog about my journey and I think it has some good tips too. Check it out and good luck!

Religion in the US

This map is nearly out of date. I do wonder how they come up with these numbers and what constitutes a "Christian Church."

I'd like to see the map with Jews and Muslims included too.

I remember the first time I saw this and was amazed at all the catholics. Pretty interesting.

Orange Leaders

Got an email from a youth pastor here in town that I really respect. He's headed to Orange.

Not having a clue what Orange is, I scoured the web for info. I found thier website and a blog from another middle school pastor, Judy Gregory, who is a part of Marko's Summit group.

Hmmm...I'm definitley interested in going.

If I'm honest....I probably need to take that time to pray and listen to God more than needing another conference to go to. can I do both....hmmm.....

It takes Teen Manie to bring out of my blogging silence

It's been a while since i've blogged. Lots of stuff going on. Lots of stuff going on inside my head to blog on.

Nevertheless, let's begin here.

I'm not a big teen mania fan. No offense. I understand what they are doing. It is simply easiest to say that we disagree theologically and theopraxily (if that makes any sense).

I have never appreciated being called by thier call center technicians to plug thier ATF conferences, but understand the marketing idea.

But now this?

Now they've sent me a message on facebook and they want to be my friend?!

Uh....I don't think so.

YS day 3

I have a man crush on Doug Fields.

Slept in and got great seats to hear from Doug on ministry envy. Great message. I do deal with envy on a number of different levels. Not in the typical ways that I used to, i.e. guys in ministry, other churches, people speaking, etc. But in other ways that are just as deadly. I had big expectations for Doug's message and he delivered.

I left my seminar to update the blog. Now I'm caught up but truly dissappointed in the lack of creativity in my updating.

YS day 2

Started the day with a seminar about powerpoint which was so helpful. My buddy Phil knows my hisory of graphic design and when we were in Nashvile he gained so much from the workshop so that I didn't want to miss it and wasnt' dissappointed.

The next general session was with Phyllis Tickle (sp) and she was great. No wonder my SP really loves her stuff. I hope I'm still with it at 74 years old. I was scraping the bottom of the barrell (it seemed like) to keep up with her. Really really good stuff. A lot of emergent stuff and history.

Went to see Les and he talked me into staying for his seminar on creativity.

The last general session was Louie Giglio and I was so tired that I had a hard time really paying attention. His message was about how we can trust God even when things are hitting the fan. It was a good word and an intriguing story, I was just way zapped.

Bob, Nicole, Jen and I had a lot of laughs at the late night comedy.

and so ended a long day 2

Rest of Friday at YS

Went to Chap Clark's seminar about middle school ministry. Really good stuff. Also a good reminder of some basic things that I have been neglecting and really need to put into practice.

I was really looking forward to the second main session because of this guy who Nicole is crazy about Shane Clairborne (I think that's his name, I'm so dumb.)

Anyway, he took the stage, spat fire, did a back flip, and then said he was honored to share with us the greatest sermon ever.

Then he proceeded to read the Sermon on the Mount and closed by saying a prayer that God would give us the strength to really live it. And that was it.

I was really looking forward to hearing from him. I figured he'd tell some wild stories and I'd want to read his book. then he started reading. And I figured he'd either read it and be done or he'd read it and use it to jump off of for his talk. I figured the latter. but he did the former.

A lot could be said about this. However, I loved it. I thought it was the perfect compliment to Andy Stanley's message earlier in the day where he said, "What do you do when you know you are the most important person in the room? You need to leverage your power to serve others."

So what does this Shane guy do when he realizes he is the most important person in the room, when he could totally just say whatever he wants, use the platform to espouse politica ideas or to sell his book?

No. He humbles himself and lets the Word of God speak. Total humility. I thought it was beautiful!

After the main session I had three things I wanted to do. This is typical of YS. I can't do it all. I wanted to meet Jay Howver, I wanted to say Hi to Andy from Wheaton, and I am a sucker for magic tricks.

Between trips to all three I saw a few lame card tricks from the magicians, met Andy Jack in the elevator and he remembered me from Nashville when Kurt Johnston bought us all dinner, and got to meet Jay finally.

I also got to meet Len Evans, a guy I think a lot of, and totally made an ass of myself. Totally frustrating. I was exhausted and as what often happens, I speak without thinking. So Jay and Len probably think I'm an idiot, which is true sometimes. Hopefully I can make it up to both of them.

So glad to be at YS.

NYWC update

Evidently I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to get the internet working in my room at the holiday inn, so I'm finally at the digital lounge for my update.

 

YS is such a great place for me to come to be refocused on the little things that are so basic that I'm missing.  In a lot of ways it's been really rewarding and affiming of what we are doing in ministry.  In other ways I'm reminded of how far we have to go.  But i really love and appreciate YS and am so glad to be here, with my sweet wife no less, and two of our youth coaches.

 

I'll make this short:

 

Friday opening session:

~the sand guy was good.  Had huge expectations based on Marko's blog and Sean's.  but it was still really good.

~Andy Stanley lead the first session and Marko made a big deal about Andy's last talk and how he was never going to speak at YS again, but all got resolved.  Jen and I had been here for the last talk and we couldn't remember for the life of us what all the hubbub was.

~Andy talked about being humble...and it was great, especially later in the day.  I ALWAYS appreciate guys/youthworkers/speakers who are humble. 

~it was so fun to watch Bob and Nicole enjoy YS and all that it offers.  It's a blast to be here with all of them.

 

 

I'll update the rest later!  promise!

My kids will get a kick out of this!

I'm sure I may get some grief about this and I have more stuff I need to update, but when I saw this on Sean's blog, I knew I had to have it.

Click HERE to see it full screen and make one yourself!

Off to Oklahoma City

Dove is doing a really interesting campaign to help teen girls.  Here’s an article about it here and their website.

 

Dove is teaming up with another organization called Step Up Women’s Network and they are doing nationwide events to help teen girls.

 

So I’m taking Jen down there to today’s event to check out what they are doing.  It should be really interesting and provide good article fodder for Jen’s books coming out in the Spring.  Are organizations really doing something to help teen girls, or are they using it to hawk more stuff?  Are they really addressing the issues of identity? 

 

And it may give Jen some good contacts on a nationwide level.

 

When it rains...

Actually, rain has nothing to do with the trials of the last few weeks. It began with me wrecking my truck. Then Jen got hit. Now this...





About five hours ago I decided to fill up our water "jug" that goes in the fridge. while it was filling up I'd go and tuck Jen in. while I was laying in bed, I fell asleep.





Fast forward 45 minutes...the smoke alarm is going off. I wake up, notice there isn't any smoke, and take the smoke alarm outside to make it quieter and let the smoke dissipate...remember, I just woke up...





I go in the kitchen and there is water all over the kitchen cabinet where the jug has overfilled and spilled on the ground. Only, not a lot of water is on the ground.





Jen goes downstairs and calls me down, where water is dripping through the ceiling. I'm imagining who many gallons are being held up there on the drywall.





We decide to punch some holes in the ceiling to let the water drain...and drain...and drain. Two hours later and we're just letting it drip out.





Don't know what to do now. I can fix the wholes...but I don't think I can do a whole ceiling! Hopefully it's just a few sheets. It could have been a lot worse. Everyone is safe...everyone except my pride.





good times....The smile is fake but the water seeping down from the ceiling is as real as it gets.

Hanging out in Grand Rapids, Michigan

I was warned before I left that Chicago O'Hare is terrible. How they mangaged to miss my one bag during a 2 hour stop in Chicago on my way to Grand Rapids, is hard to understand. Nevertheless, my stuff isnt' here. So I can have them "deliver" it to me 90 minutes away or I can just wait it out.

So I decide to hang out for a couple of hours and go check out Zondervan's headquarters.

The place is HUGE! It was so cool. I went in there and was so dumb. The lady asked if she could help me...so I say, "Yeah, my wife is one of your author's and I was in town and I just wanted to see the place where her books are going to be made." (They don't make them there. But they do store them and distribute them.)

The receptionist was so nice. She called down a lady named Joyce from the Author Care division and she gave me a tour of the whole place!

I got to see the warehouse where they have just tons and tons of books and got to see them wrapping up some books and putting tons of cases of them into a UPS truck. They had these huge conveyer sytem and everything. It was really cool.

Because Jen's books and my books are being done with YouthSpecialties, no one in Grand Rapids actually messes with our books. Everyone with YS is in San Diego or Colorado.

Got to see the offices including the history of Zondervan. Also got to see the big head honcho room, the board

room where every new release is showcased for a couple weeks for all the big wigs to see them.

Joyce said that if she knows an author is coming she makes sure to put thier stuff out there too.

Probably the coolest part was when Joyce took me to meet the contact with YS. And while he isn't working on the team yet with our books, he had seen the prospective covers and he said that everyone is really pumped about how cool they look.

It was so cool. It really is a dream come true for me to be published with YS and it is all to Jen's credit so it was fun to have her be the high light.

At the end, Joyce took me by her office and hooked me up with some free pens and paper as a thank you for Jen being in the Zondervan family.

Good times.

Now, I'm off to pick up my stupid dufflebag...

More Karaoke

Ah, I couldn't resist. Here was tonights "Set"


I think we're alone now, by Belinda Carlisle
We're not gonna take it, by Twisted Sister
The Greatest Love, by Whitney Houston
Mickey...I don't remember who it's by.

The kids have so much fun. My voice is so bad! Lots of fun.

Jen's surprise gift today

So Jen called me earlier in the day and told me that she picked me up a surprise! And after totalling my truck, I could use a pick me up. (pun not intended)

Enter: "Tunes From the 80's" 32 songs from House Party Karaoke.

I finish brushing the teeth and run down to my daughter's room and toss disk one in her karaoke machine.

I start out with "Take on Me" by A-HA.

Ciera and Noah come down and they are just cracking up!

Jen comes down and we perform Dionne Warwick's "That's what Friends are for."

We can't stop so we do the Go-go's "We got the beat."

And our kids are getting pretty wild, I'm sweating like Jack Black in School of Rock, so we decide to slow it down a bit with a religious song...How about "Faith" by George Michael.

I remember the fun organ start and then it goes into a cool pop sound. Jen and I barely got the first line out, "Oh, I thought it would be nice..." before we both made a mad dash for the stop button. I didn't recall the next line, nor did I want to start the conversation at bed time that begain with, "So dad, what does it mean when they sing, 'I thought it would be nice, if I could touch your body?'"

We ended with "Alone" by Heart which isn't much better, or quieter...especially when I'm rocking out.

The kids had fun and i forgot about the truck. so that was nice.

Tomorrow night: Twisted Sister's, "We're not gonna take it" NO!!!

I can't believe this is the city I live in...

Here's a link to the front page of the web page for the city we just moved to: Ark Valley News.

In case it gets moved...here's how the article opens...

If all you saw was the color of his skin, you may have never discovered that Jay Grayson was a cheerleading coach. That he played football in high school and college. That he was a guest instructor at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center. That his father was a decorated Marine.

If that’s all you saw, you may have never known Jay Grayson.Though his skin color represents a milestone in the history of the Valley Center Police Department, Grayson is more than the department’s first-ever black officer.

Dude, where the heck do I live?! When I moved out to the midwest from California, I was amazed at how white everywhere was and how much it was like stepping back in time. How, in this day and age. are people still being judged by the color of thier skin?!

Of course, my brother spent a night in jail last week where he was "encouraged" to sit where the "rest of his kind" was sitting in the holding cell. So it goes both ways...I suppose...

I didn't read anymore of the newspaper for fear of finding an announcement of a lynching or a Klansman Anonymous meeting...

R.I.P. Jesse Duke

Long story short, my brother-in-law Jay owned his own auto shop where he often acquires vehicles. He asked me one time if there was a car I was looking for. I told him a sweet truck, but not too big, not like Jesse Duke's truck, a big white ford or something.


So he calls me up and tells me he has acquired a truck for me. He drives it out in the dead of winter from California to Kansas and gives it to me. A 1977 Ford F-150 with a 460 HUGE engine in it. The truck is great! Only it gets like 5 miles to the gallon...ah, the days when gas was only $2....and my sister made sure that it had a custom toy licensce plate in the back window that read "Jesse Duke."


After consuming a ton of gas and repairing the radiator and some other stuff, I sold the giant truck. My buddy Pat was upgrading from a 1991 Nissan that he actually drove off the factory. It was truly his baby. And he gave me a GREAT price of what I paid for the other truck.


Anyway it was a great truck!!!


And today, it lies in my driveway, with a twisted metal hood.


I got into my first real accident. I've had a few fender benders before but nothing like this.


It was surreal.


Here's what happenned:


In this pic you'll see on the right side a big white building...Walgreens. There is a driveway in and out of the Walgreens parking lot.


Directly south of that driveway is another driveway for a strip mall.

I'm trying to exit from the Walgreens parking lot. I'm going to turn left and proceed south on the street.

I look left...it's clear for a while.

I look right...two vehicles...the first one is White truck. Both vehicles are heading southbound, the same direction I'm trying to go.

I look left again...still clear.

I accelerate...and hit the white truck.

I didn't see a blinker, but the white truck moved from the left lane (Five lanes with a turning lane) to the turning lane and was turning left into the driveway just south of me.

I didn't even see it. And it was all so surreal. It all happenned and I didn't even hit the brakes. I just hit him. As you can see...very little damage.

Cop gets there and reads both of our reports. He says that in his opinion it's a clear case of in attentive driving.

He asked me lots of questions about whether I was trying to dart out between cars. He didn't understand how I could cause so much damage with my little nissan just by pulling out.

I didn't have an answer at the time, but I did tell him later that I didn't even hit the brakes. It was all happening so slowly...so quickly...the only thought was that I was going to really hit this truck, this is my first real accident, I can't believe it's happening, I should hit the brakes, CRASH!

The police officer was SO great. Again, he said that I was at fault but that he wasn't going to charge me with inattentive driving because it's a $160 fine that really doesn't do anything but make the county richer. So he wrote me up for not having my proof of insurance with me!

DANG! That is so sweet.

Now I need to find another vehicle...I'm going to try to get an estimate on getting it fixed. With the vehicle dripping oil...i'm pretty hesitant.

Do I pay a couple grand to fix it up or pay a couple grand for another used truck...

Irregardless...R.I.P. Jesse Duke...