Here We Go

I have been reading blogs for a long time now but most of the ones I read are from guys that have been in youth ministry a long time or tech geek blogs, you know, guys or girls that actually have something to say.  I never really thought it would be something I would want to do some day, but I came across a friend of mine’s blog and thought it was interesting.  It was honest and insightful, and it was genuinely fun to read and seemed like a good way to communicate ideas and thoughts as well as a whole host of additional info so I decided to give it a try.  So if you are reading this, thanks!  My grammar may not always be great and my sentence structure may be crazy at times but I hope to have something unique to say about things from family, to ministry, to current topics and anything else that comes into my head (which is not all that much at times).  God Bless and I’ll talk to you soon…

Easter Tradition

Happy Easter, Jesus love you and so do I!!

What is your favorite Easter tradition? I can honestly say that mine is going to church. I know what you are thinking, “You are supposed to say that you are a minister”, or “going to church isn’t a tradition.” Well for a lot of people, on Easter, it is. There are more people in church on an Easter Sunday morning than any other Sunday out of the year. Even if they never consider going any other time of the year they still go during Easter. What that tells me is that in spite of all the marketing to make Easter more about bunnies and eggs than Jesus, deep down people still yearn for more than what they are getting out of life. Deep within each of us there is still this unquenchable craving for that void left by a broken relationship with the Father to be filled. This Easter our church will be full of individuals in desperate need for Jesus. You will know them when you see them. They are the ones who have a smile on their faces but if you look closer you will see a sadness in their eyes that is undeniable. It is that same sadness that all of us had before our lives were gloriously and miraculously transformed by the grace and power of Jesus Christ. When you see them here is what you do, walk up to them and smile back, open your arms and give them a big hug and say, “Happy Easter, I am so glad to see you, Jesus loves you and so do I.” Then invite them to sit with you and your family. It is pretty easy but the results can be profound. Don’t be surprised if that void gets filled before they leave, and when it does lets celebrate.

Oh, and in case I forgot to tell you…Happy Easter…Jesus loves you and so do I!

A “Rash” of Sickness

I started this post a couple of weeks ago but never finished it.  We have had a lot of sickness in the last few months and a big scare at the beginning of January with a rash that David got from an antibiotic here is a link to the pictures.  Things are calming down now though both kids are currently on an antibiotic for ear infections.  I recently told Amanda I am tired of being an adult.  I’m really not, but there are times when it is very tiring.  If you have kids, or bills, or a job or any kind of responsibility at all then you know what I am talking about.  Anyway… I have been working out pretty much every morning for a month now. Sometimes I miss a morning and I will try to make it up in the afternoon. Amanda has been amazingly supportive and encouraging. I have the best wife in the world by the way.

Things are going pretty good at the church. We do not have as many kids coming on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings as I would like. I think part of the problem is a certain lack of Identity. Not just in our youth and children’s ministry but in our church as a whole. I talked the our pastor about this yesterday and he agreed. In fact he said he had already planned on our discussing that in detail at our staff retreat next weekend. This will be our first staff retreat. In fact I don’t think they have ever had a staff retreat. A few weeks ago I suggested that we take one instead of going to our states evangelism conference. Don’t get me wrong, I love the evangelism conference, but it was going to be the same people and it was not at all a good time for any of us to leave. So we decided to go on a staff retreat. I chased a rabbit…

Back to a lack of identity. Even though I feel like we are heading in a particular direction I am not sure I have communicated that direction effectively to our students, parents, or the church as a whole. At a Children’s ministry conference I went to this weekend we talked about identity and walked through a process for evaluating your ministry that was unique from anything I had done before. It was so practical, simple, enlightening, and condemning all at the same time. The conference was not about programs or a quick fix, but about developing a foundation for your ministry that focuses on your unique situation and allows you to develop the things you believe will make the biggest impact for your individual church and ministry. I loved it, and I am going to be able to use it in both our youth and children’s ministries. In fact we are likely to use it to evaluate our church as a whole and help us develop our focused identity and purpose. I will let you know what comes out of it…

Christmas Decorations

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving break.  We drove to Durant Oklahoma to see Amanda’s family and then we went to Allen, TX to see mine.  All in all we had good visits.  There was only a couple of times when one or both of us wanted to pack up and go home so I would call the time a success.  Last night we decided we were going to put up our Christmas decorations.

I love Christmas time and I always look forward to getting the decorations out, but I was a little worried about this year.  Our daughter is two now and our son is nine months old and is crawling everywhere.  I anticipated a night of fun, but a night of a lot of no’s and stop that’s and get out of there’s.  I was right, there was a lot of all that, but we still had tons of fun.  We got our tree up and most of the decorations out and placed around the house.  It was a blast actually.  We got several picturs of our daughter helping decorate and some of our son by the tree.  I think this Christmas is going to be amazing.  Like I said I love Christmas.  It is a great time to tell people about who Christ is and what he has done for us, it is also a great time for being with family and passing on to our kids why we celebrate Christmas and the traditions that go along with that.  I am going to have to be completly honest too and say that I like to get stuff.  I do, I like to get gifts and we get gifts at Christmas time, but I REALLY like to give gifts too.  I love to see that look on my wifes face when I have truly surprised her with something she wanted but was not expecting to get and now I cant wait to see my kids faces beam with delight.  We will make sure that gifts are never the focus and that Christ is always lifted up, and at the same time I will still delight in evertyhing else that comes with the Christmas season.

Our Children

I thought it was important to show pictures of our kids.  I really am crazy about them.  I love to be at home or out doing things with them.  Our kids are wonderful.  Sometimes they cry too much and sometimes I want to run screaming out of the house, but most of the time they are wonderful.  We have another son named John that we lost the day before Amanda was due in April of 2004.  That is a whole long story but what God has blessed us with is truly amazing and has been life changing.  A side note… We have a boy and we have a girl to look after and we are DONE!