Getting Away

This past weekend the youth group took a camping trip on some land owned by someone in our church. We had a great time hanging out together and had a great time of worship on Friday night. I love opportunities like this to get away from all the noise of life and spend time with students. What a great weekend!

Piper Book Sale

If you like John Piper, all his books will be on sale tomorrow and Thursday on the Desiring God site for $5 a piece. I suggest "Don't Waste Your Life" (quick read) and "Desiring God" (a longer, but great, book).

Small Town Ministry

One of the biggest challenges of doing ministry in a small town is making decisions about taking trips. I was looking at our church associations youth conference for next summer and trying to decide if I should try to take students or not. Most events, even in our district, are far away from us, and it is hard to justify canceling a week of time with lots of students to hang out with 2 or 3. I grew up in a large youth group and it was always a given that trips would happen if they were announced. Here, we announce trips and then wait to see if we can actually make it happen with the numbers that sign up. It is a weird thing to get used to and to plan around. But, I have a year to pray for and promote Challenge, and it is only 6 hours away. Sounds good to me!

Graduation

This is a little belated, but here it goes anyway. Right before we left for Kansas our church celebrated the graduation of our seniors during our morning service. It was a special time to pray for them and to share some Bible verses with them that I had been praying for them. It made me think back to my days as a high school senior almost 10 years ago. My youth pastor shared verses for me and prayed with me. He even prayed that God would lead me to full-time ministry (I thought he was crazy, God didn't). Now a few years later, getting to pray with some seniors in my youth group, I just wanted to say thank you to Fritz for listening to the voice of God and sharing some of what you heard with me. I hope I do the same for the students I share life with.
If you're interested, my life verses from Fritz were Psalm 27:14, Jeremiah 33:3, and 2 Timothy 1:7.

Vacation

Shiloh, the kids, and I just got back from a two week vacation in the paradise known as Wichita, KS. We had a great time seeing grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and friends. Shiloh and I even got to take a little two day vacation to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Here's a few thoughts from our trip:

1. I wish Shiloh and I could take time away more often. I love my wife and spending time with her!!!
2. Taking a part vacation/part write an ordination paper trip turns into mostly ordination paper writing.
3. Kansas is humid. And I don't really like that at all.
4. Our parents and siblings are awesome grandparents and aunts and uncles. Our kids had a blast playing with all of them.
5. I still don't miss the mall.
6. I still really miss some of my friends and had some great opportunities to reconnect.
7. My kids hate long car rides. Driving through the night so they sleep, even though I can't, was way better than listening to them cry and ask to get out.
8. I love the Word of God and enjoyed long extended times of study in it. It was exactly what my heart needed. Thanks Jesus.

Here's some pics from our vacation:




Uncle Ryan letting his nephew feed him something.












Aunt Brit and Kennedy looking cool












Shiloh and I on top of the Castle Inn in Wichita














Grandpa and a cell phone, what else could a girl need?
















My aunt and cousin












and a peacock!

Ump Goes Crazy

I guess if you get thrown out, it may as well be with a bang...

Ump Gets Tossed, Goes Crazy