Ice Skating and Amputation: Don't forget that release form!

Introducing one of our brand new 6th graders. His name is Drake and he's an amazing kid. We took our students out for our annual Lock Out, which included ice skating!

Drake had never been ice skating before and was having a blast. When all of the sudden, he fell and some kid wasn't paying attention and didn't see him. He tried to jump over him but ended up landing on his calf. And he made a MAJOR gash in Drake's leg.

My sweet wife saw the WHOLE thing and was haunted by it all night long. They carried him off the ice, scrubbed his blood off the ice, and called 911. The paramedics came and what did they want?

a release form! Man, am I so glad I had those ready and, more importantly, WITH me. We called mom and dad and they came down and took him to the hospital. The cut took 18 stitches and it was GORY. Like, crazy gory!

Drake's only concern? "So, when I'm done at the hospital, can I meet back up with you guys?"

eh eh eh. Of course. which he did. What a crazy night! Definitely a first for me.

So the next time you are gearing up for your big event, DON'T FORGET THOSE RELEASE FORMS!!!

Jesus is like a Mounty...

This is CLASSIC! I can't stop playing it!

Jesus is my friend. I have a friend in Jesus. ROCK IT!

Priceless Middle School Camp Memory #49

2 fast food meals: $11

1 tank of gas: $75

1 week at YouthFront Camp: $330

Seeing one of my middle school boys shoot snot out of his nose into the lake to watch the fish eat it: Priceless

I just paid a guy $15 for typing 44 words

It all began when Jen's battery on the van went dead. I jumped it and the van was running. I grabbed the kids and got ready to head out and Jen's driver-side door wouldn't close.

the door was locked. but the door was open. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to open up the latch. Nothing worked.

I poured over the internet for answers. Nothing.

I found what might have been an answer on a website called http://www.justanswer.com/. But I didn't want to pay the $3 to read the answer to a question that wasn't exactly the right question.

So I went outside and fiddled some more. still nothing.

I broke down. they give you three options to pay: $9 for the tight budget, $15 for the regular, and some other option I wasn't going to pay. I was thinking that each question would cost me $3 and I was hoping to get a refund if the question got answered quicker.

Yeah, that's not how it works. But I don't care.

I posted my question:


My driver-side car door is locked. the only problem is that the door is open. i have a 2003 Honda Odyssey. the power door locks work, up and down. However, the white latch will not release. I used wd-40...I tried gently pressing in with a screw driver...I tried the key in the door lock. help! thanks.

Optional Information: 2003 Honda Odyssey v6 Already Tried: I tried locking and unlocking manually. I tried using the switch on the door. I tried turing the key. I tried spraying wd 40 and doing the aforementioned items. I tried prying it gently with a screw driver. I unscrewed the three phillps screws that hold the white latch mechanism in place, but I was a afraid it would fall down in the door.


In two minutes and 23 seconds later I get this:

Hello I think you are saying the latch is closed and the door is open if so try pushing it open with something while holding the door handle in the opening position let me know if you need more help or have any questions


I go outside....BOOM. First try.

I'm not too pumped about it costing me $15, but I'm pretty excited to not have to devote 30 minutes driving to the dealership, 90 minutes to wait till they come out and charge me $100 for doing what I just did. and that's if they didn't find 10 other things wrong with the vehicle.

pretty slick. Here's our exchange: http://honda.justanswer.com/questions/1e55j-driver-side-car-door-locked

99 Thoughts about Guys

My friend Kurt has a GREAT post about a book idea he has for girls about guys. It's a book written for girls about guys. He gives an example:

When a guy says he loves you, he really doesn't understand what he's saying!He may really, really like you, but he probably doesn't really, truly love you. Mainly because he's still trying to figure out what real love is all about. Plus, sometimes guys say things they think they are supposed to say.

A number of people have already left comments and some of them are pretty good. Check it out and leave a comment! Click here.

Whirlwind Weekend

Wow! am I sick of driving!

On Friday I had a full day of work including having middle schoolers over our house till 11 pm. Then on Saturday (yesterday) we left our house at 8 am and drove our kids up to Waverly, IA for "Camp Cuz" a camp that Jen's parent's put on for all the grand kids. It's a ton of fun.

We got there at 5 pm yesterday, only to leave this morning at 8:15 am. And of course, Charis barely slept last night, so the fact that we made it all home safely is a grace of God.

We did get home in time to catch Hellboy 2.

Such a fun movie. There is a HILARIOUS scene where Hellboy and the fish guy end up singing a love song...I was laughing so loud. I really liked the first Hellboy and this one didn't disappoint.

We went to dinner at Cheddar's and headed home and now I'm packing for a week of Middle School Camp at YouthFront in KC! We leave at 9 am and we're taking a couple van loads of students. It's gonna be a GREAT week!

Way to get fired from Youth Ministry #427

needless to say, I'm guessing that the youth pastor paid a bunch of taxes on this one!


Indoor Motorcycle Wheelie Goes Bad - Watch more free videos

Why I do what I do

This doesn't happen nearly as much as we all need it. But every once in a while it does. and when it happens...it's so nice.

I got a wall post from a former middle schooler of mine at Riverlawn. This kid...

he's now a young man (18)...(and don't i feel old saying that)...

nevertheless, this guy's name is Blake and he has some amazing parents. He was such a great kid. One of those kids that you know is going to be successful in everything he does.

and he posted the following on my facebook. So cool. What an encouragement.

Hey man whats up. I was in the Word the other day and i was looking at paul and timothy's relationship. i as i read about them, your name poped into my head and i all i want to say is thank you. paul reached out to a young, curiose, and somewhat naieve timothy. That is what you did for me seven years ago and now i have started a basketball outreach at my church and forty inner city kids are hearing gods purpose for their lives. I am also part of a mentoring program where leaders are being made on the jh level. I am not telling you this to brag but to say i would not be where i am today if it wasnt for you. you invested and now god's kingdom is reaping the benefits. God bless and there is crown waiting for you in heaven. I dont know why god laid this on my heart but let it be a blessing to you.BlAKe

My dad and the Wii

My mom and dad spent part of a week with us last week and what an awesome time it was.  So great to see them and spend time together and for my kids to get to know them.  We don’t get to see them nearly enough.  Although we’ll be heading down to their place in Rio Rancho, NM for thanksgiving.  Should be really cool.

 

One thing that blew me away was how much my dad LOVED the Wii!  He played a couple nights till 2 a.m.!  It was a fun way for Noah to connect with him and fun for all of us to do together. 

 

Man, when you have 75 year old people playing 4 hours a day, bowling, tennis, golf, and baseball…you have got some kind of amazing product!

 

The end of the rainbow...it's in my backyard!

Last week it was raining and I happened to step outside to see something I’ve NEVER seen before in my life:  The end of a rainbow!  I don’t mean a prism or some man made rainbow.  I mean the real deal!  And while I always thought it was a pot of gold, leprechauns, or at least Lucky Charms cereal to be found at the end of a rainbow, I was kind of depressed to see it is actually my neighbors crappy house. 

 

Just what is he keeping in there?!

 

I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it, but you can see that the rainbow is actually in FRONT of the trees.  So cool.  What a promise.

 

Eucharist

In college, I remember doing a report about communion and the origins and practices thereof. In talking about the Eucharist, I remember one scholar explaining the meaning behind the word as, "Whenever the early Christians got together to celebrate the Lord's Supper it was always in an attitude of thanksgiving."

At NEXT a couple weeks ago we began our time of worship by writing down things we were thankful for as a prelude to worship. We wrote each idea on a post it note and then put it on the wall.

Some of the things people wrote were funny...some sad...and some just absolutely moving.

Here are a couple of them:

YS Product Review: TRIGGER

One of the reasons I absolutely LOVE YS is that they are ALWAYS hooking up the youth worker! A couple months ago I particiapted in Marko's Biggest Loser competition, and YS ended up sending out 4 FREE resources to everyone that finished! so cool.

One of the resources was a DVD called, "TRIGGER."

What a cool dvd. I really enjoyed it. Since I only work with middle schoolers, my review is going to be shaded that way.

On the DVD there are 5 vignettes to get conversation going. They are all REALLY well done. Very engaging. Unfortunately...for middle school...I think only a couple of them are usable, namely "1000 Things Went Right Today" and "Plugged In."

In "1000" they take a look at a wall of post it notes that students and faculty posted in an office in Colorado. It is a REALLY cool idea that I actually did with the emergent group that meets in our church a couple weeks ago. I can't wait to do it with the middle school.

In "Plugged In" it makes a GREAT parrallel between television and the power of God. REALLY good. I think it'll take some prodding to get the MS to get it, but it's very powerful, no pun intended.

The other three are really good too. I think they would be AWESOME for high school and especially young adults.

Call and Response: More on Childhood Slavery

My high school friend Sarah Garcia pointed me to a new movie coming out called, "Call and Response." Even though the start of thier trailer is predictable, the point is made and it's great to bring this issue to the spotlight. Here's a link to thier blog.

Her husband, Daniel is the College/Outreach guy at Hillside Church in San Jose, CA. (Back in the day we did a GREAT video scavenger hunt there, back when it was just called "Hillside EV Free" with an awesome youth pastor named Fritz).

Anyway, the movie has a number of Hollywood stars in it and it should be thought provoking. I've had this in my inbox for a while but with the Nightline story, I thought it'd be good to blog about it.

Another reason why I love middle school ministry

I got an email from one of the grandmother's at our church regarding her grand daughter that is going to live with her for a while.

She had this to say about our church's youth ministry:

"The main reason I would like her to come to First is that I am impressed by some of the things that are happening there. I was really pleased that the kids wanted to have a prayer ministry at the block party. It is wonderful to have them actually in ministry. Ministry has been my passion almost all my life, and it gives more joy than anything else. It would be wonderful for her to learn this early in her life."


She's actually talking about our MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! I've been meaning to blog about this for a couple months so I'll try to get on it soon.

Abolition and Pentacostalism: Nightline

The last two nights have been really cool on Nightline.

Last night it was "How to buy a child in 10 days" and they weren't talking about adoption. They took a guy to Haite where they followed two young girls in the sex slave industry.

Tonight they talked about Todd Bentley, a tattooed "faith healer" leading a (cough...cough) "revival" in Lakeland, Fl.

This is a time when I really envy high school pastors. If I were one, I'd take both these episodes and show them to my students and debrief them, one at a time. You could have so much good conversation and real issues surround both subjects.

With middle schoolers, they'd be interested in seeing some tattooed dude yelling "BAM" and having people fall down and be healed...but mostly for the awkwardness of it. Most of them would see it as comedy.

I do think that I'll show them the "buying a child" one. Although, it looks a bit edgy. I didn't get to see it, but I'm gonna order a transcript. It'd be a great launching point to give out Zach Hunter's books again and remind them that he was in junior high when he started his movement.

The Number One Position: Love and Logic Day 3: Afternoon Session

Jen switched seminars for the afternoon and got a hold of a GREAT one called "The Number One Position: Solutions That Go Beyond Classroom Management." This was by two incredible teachers from Kearney, Nebraska (Exactly..."where?"). Thier names are Sam Stecher and Mark Johnson, and thier web page does not have enough on there!

These guys were SO good, I'm thinking of driving up there on my own this summer to meet with these guys. It's only 5 hours away and they gave Jen some stuff I had never considered but could be dynamic. I'd like to know more about it though, before I jump in.

Here's a couple things I thought were really cool and could translate amazingly into middle school ministry:

1. Every day they started thier classrooms with a cheer that they made up. (Maybe I'm still living in Softball Coach land, but I really like that idea, especially coupled with the Brain stuff from ealier).

2. Nicknames: Only special kids get nicknames. Think about it. Only the kids that really connect get a nick name. By fault, kids who don't get a nick name, feel, to some extent, less well-liked. (I thought this was a bunch of garbage until Jen went through a couple nick names of students we've had, and now I kind of feel bad for the kids that didn't have them!)

So you can either not give any kids nicknames...or do what they did. They gave EVERYONE a nick name. So much so, that at parent conferences, sometimes he couldn't remember the kids real name!

One teacher gave each kid a nickname. The other one had the kids pick them out. The bottom line was that EVERY kid felt special because every kid had a nick name.

In a lot of ways I think this would be so cool. I think students would LOVE to feel that way. And it could really build community. We are taking our kids to the Lake next week and it's be a cool time to introduce that idea.

I could also see it turning very inward too...very self focused...exclusive. The dream would be for it to be totally inclusive and that kids would feel so special they'd want to bring thier friends too.

Rules for nicknames:
1. The kid has to like it.
2. It has to be approved by the adult.
3. A kid can change/drop the nickname anytime for any reason.

Teens and the Brain: Love and Logic Day 3: Morning Session

So much great stuff that Jen got today out of the Love and Logic course from the session she did this morning called Teaching and Learning in a Brain Friendly Classroom, by Larry Miller.

Larry said a lot of great stuff but one thing in particulair was this:

Kids retain the first 10 minutes of class and the last 5 minutes. All the rest is a blur.

So...knowing that...how does that effect our Sunday Morning times as well as small groups?

A couple thoughts:

1. Put a lot of time, effort, intention, and fun, in the first 10 minutes. It is going to set the precedence for what a kid remembers.

2. Put a lot more work into what I leave kids with, a challenge, and a reminder of God's wild love for us.

3. One of the ways of recapturing the "middle ground" is to divide up your class into "acts" like a play. Use creative disturbances to keep the attention span (about 12-13 minutes for middle schoolers) and they'll remember the first 3 minutes of each "act" and the last 2.

We do a lot of this anyway with middle schoolers, but I appreciated the reminder to mix things up. I probably fail at this more than I admit.


Here are a couple other freebies from the class that Jen passed on to me:

~our brians are actually light pink, not gray. They are seen as gray after death because all the blood has left it.

~Our brains dehydrate first.

~Blueberries are the absolute best brain food. Lots of antioxidents (sp)

Love and Logic Recap

Wow.

What a HUGE help in parenting and a great reminder of core student ministry values.

There is so much to say...went to 2 of the 5 days of the Love and Logic conference.

Here are some key student ministry reminders:

1. Discipline is meaningless without relationships.

2. Instead of taking bad bahavior personally, be empathetic to the student's anger/frustration/dissappointment.

3. Give appropriate discipline...for example: instead of calling out a kid in front of everyone, embarrassing/shaming them (unitentionally or not), and then kicking them out of the room, go up to them while teaching, quietly ask them to stop _____________, for you. If they don't, quietly ask them to leave the room and come back when they are ready to act appropriately.

Really, I'm butchering the process. There is SO much more: http://www.loveandlogic.com/


The other tips/tricks are in regard to parenting...and let me just say, what a huge help this has already been. Instead of reacting, or in my case "Over-reacting", to bad behavior, they encourage an empathetic response and delayed consequences.

For example, tonight, one of angelic children did something and before I quite possibly would have freaked out and given them some rediculous punitive consequence. Tonight I said, in a very nice and empathetic response, "oooooooh, that stinks. I'm gonna have to do something about that. But we'll talk about it later. Try not to worry about it."

this angelic child came upstairs and said to me, "I'm really sorry for overreacting earlier. It's just that, ever since you and mom started going to this parenting conference, you are acting really different and I don't like it."

eh eh eh....cha ching!

Love and Logic

This week Jen and I are spending time at the Love and Logic Conference that has been held in Wichita for the last 20 years. Evidently it's been around since 1977, but Jen and I only recently heard about it from one of our youth coaches, Nicole, who wento to a similar conference and wondered if we knew anything about it since it was so similar to how we parent.

Since then, Jen bought some of the books and has read them, and today we went to the first day of the conference for educators.

it is SO interesting! what a huge help! It is a little difficult as we are there primarily to relate it to middle school ministry. The whole conference is for teachers, but we are taking the principles and trying to apply them in the ministry setting.

Bringing "Serving" back

I'm gonna have to start Sunday School with this THIS week!

Charis' first swim

"The Bug" as we affectionally call Charis took her first swim today! Of course, being three, she's been swimming and playing in pools all her brief life. But she doesn't go ANYWHERE close to the pool without her trust Spider-Man life jacket.

I've gotten her to try to do some swimming without the jacket, trying my best to immitate the YMCA instructions that both Ciera and Noah have gotten.

Today, Charis swam, by herself, without the aid of anything, for the first time. it was so cool.

(The video is supposed to be 16:9 but I haven't figured out how to transfer stuff over correctly, obviously.)

The MPG test...results after the first fill up

Last week I blogged about changing my driving habits in hope of saving some cash.

So here are the results of last week:

Drove 287.2 miles.

Filled up with 9.448 gallons.

Avg MPG: 30.39!

The Geo Prizm usually get's over 27 but not quite 38 so I basically got another 3 miles out of each gallon, which comes up to about 30 more miles or a free gallon of gas.

Is that worth being passed up by what seems like EVERYONE on the way to work? Do I really enjoy the peace of mind of knowing I'm not going to get a speeding ticket?

so far...yes and yes. And I'll take the extra $4...which equals close to $200 a year.

Sword Swallowing and Jesus

I don't know Dan Meyer or his "story." All I know about Dan, I found out this morning as I recieved some marketing about how I can "Reach my city" by inviting Mr. Meyer to do his sword swallowing act and share his testimony and breath some fire.

Now, if God can use bmxers, skaters, bands, magicians, and roided out old jocks who can bust out of handcuffs and tear phone books in half, I'm sure God can use a sword swallowing fire breather dude, regardless of my own critical attitude.

What I do know about Mr. Meyer, is that his marketing company should consider a better clip to show his talent than the one they sent in the email.

However, here is the jist of the dialog from the clip:

Piers Morgan: (While showing clips of Mr. Meyer) This year we have the most talented guy we've ever seen. You'll see him at the end of the show, but we just think he is absolutely amazing! I was talking to Simon Cowell, and we both think that this guy is going to be America's next big talent!

Matt Lauer: Is this the guy? (refering to Meyer)

Piers Morgan: oh no. It's not him. It's not the guy with the swords.


Here's where you can watch the clip for yourself. The dialog happens at about 1:05.





Here's a better clip that they should have used:



Pretty cool that he was a missionary in India! I'm guessing from the look of his sweet "Nature Boy" Rick Flair bleached blonde mullet, that he must have watched a lot of Superstaion TBS while over there. I wonder if he suplexes the devil as part of his gospel presentation?

I am such a geek

This is a pic of me and Drake W., one of our new 6th graders at the Lake Daze sneak preview last week.

I love video games...but I just don't have time to play them.

We have, however, picked up a wii. Noah loves playing it whenver he can which is just usually during an hour of Jen's piano lessons. Ciera could care less. and Charis watches it. I play after the kids go to bed...maybe once a week.

My friend Jeremy reminded me that the wii has wireless internet on it. So now, I can totally be a bigger geek and play my friends on Mario Kart! I totally stink...but it'll still be lots of fun.

I play so seldom that I bought Mario Galaxy the first week it came out...but since I haven't beaten Super paper mario yet, it is still in its shrink wrap. I think that's a full year almost!

The end of another season of Giants' baseball....er, I mean softball

Monday night was the end of Ciera's softball season. What a fun night! Ciera played great at her positions, she had a great first at bat that resulted in a walk.

Her second AB went like this:

Ciera, a right handed hitter steps into the plate...the count is 2 balls and one strike...fireworks can be seen in the outfield...the pitch...she swings...it's a pop up that sails to right side of the diamond...it's just out of the reach of the pitchers mitt!

Teh second baseman picks up the grounder and fires to first but it's too late as Ciera has already passed first base.

It is very hard to not feel like I've let down the girls and parents in delivering to them a 2-12 season. I will be making some significant changes next year that I'll blog about in a few days.

But for now, it was so fun all season long to watch Ciera grow and develop as a player and to see her get a good solid hit to end the season with. What a joy it is to have kids!

Noah's got one more game tomorrow night. Should be fun!

The MPG test begins

Alright, just got done changing the oil and filling up the tires on the ol' mini van and Geo Prizm. Now it's time for the test.

My personal driving habits are less than economical. That's the nicest way to put it. so after reading about how to get better mileage, I'm putting it to the test.

I just changed the oil.
Tires are at the correct pressure.
I'm accelerating slowly.
I'm pretty much coasting to a stop.
I'm driving the speed limit.
I'm driving conservatively.

My car averages a little better than 27 mpg but not quite 28. so I'm interested to see what a difference these changes will make!

Lake Daze Sneak Preview

In just a few hours we leave to take our brand new 6th graders on an overnight trip to a lake where we’ll do some tubing, fishing, swimming, and hanging out. This is our first time doing this and we are excited to see how it helps them form as a group. We have over 2/3rds of our new students coming so we’re pumped.



After wearing them down on the lake we are going to play some games, get to know them, and then give them some tips and tricks on how to make it through middle school by using the model of 10 middle schoolers you don’t want to be.



Then we are closing our time with a great verse from Paul in 1 Cor. 13 where he talks about “When I was a child, I acted like a child.” And encouraging our kids to move from the children’s ministry mentality into a an attitude ready to grow in their faith. Should be a good time!



10 Middle Schoolers you Don’t Want to Be Like



AKA: 10 tips to make the most out of your time in MS





Wild Willy: Out of Control


Super Christian Christy: Pseudo Spiritual


Smelly Sam: Wear deodorant!


Super Cool Kevin: No one cooler than this guy.


Clique Carey: Sticks to one group


Super Talker Tina: Won’t stop talking


Catty Catherine: Putting people down


Ninja Natalie: Always practicing her ninja moves


Selfish Steve: Only caring about himself


ANYONE OTHER THAN YOU!

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.