I'm Sorry

Let's start here.......I had lots of time over the weekend to think. Mostly because I was sick a bit. And because of travel time. So I have some things bubbling in my head. I may be posting snippets of thoughts or may save them for one post.

I need to say I'm sorry to everyone who read my last post and thought I was talking about them. Several friends either e-mailed me or referenced me in their blogs because they felt I was calling them out. By saying that "when I got check other blogs and they haven't changed in two weeks it's bothersome.", I did not mean that as a pointed statement. I was only trying to apologize for my lack of posting. Thank you to everyone who reads this. Even if you check in once a month or once a year. That's cool. I'm sorry if anyone took that line wrong. It's your blog, do what you like.

Now onward. I want to say I'm sorry.

A week or so ago I was sorting through a box in "my office" in our basement, that in all honesty is really just a storage space for boxes of junk that I've accumulated in 31 years. I was trying to get rid of stuff and consolidate. In the box were a bundle of pictures from gradeschool on. As I combed through them I began remember what was going on in my life at that point, who my friends were and what I was doing. A lot of good memories. A lot of smiles. A lot of laughter at how goofy I looked when I distinctly remembering thinking I looked smooth.

The more I thought about this the more I began thinking about people that I've run into in my life. Honestly, I've been a jerk to a lot of people. I've been selfish, cocky, stubborn, rude, petty, needy, egotistical.............and the list goes on. I've been pretty foolish in a lot of key moments in my life. There are these times when you are called on to make wise decisions and I have failed misserably.

I'm sorry.

If you have taken the brunt of any of my stupidity. I'm sorry. If you remember when I said something that is hurtful to you, please accept my appology. If I did something that angered you.....my bad.

The worst of it is, that since God is still working on me......I'm still doing dumb things. I'd like to believe that I've grown up quite a bit in the last 5 years, in the last 10 years, in the last 15 years etc. but I'm sure I still have a road to travel.

I just wanted to take a minute and humble myself before everyone and say I'm sorry.

Thinking

I know that there are only a couple people checking this regularly so it's no big deal if I don't post regularly....but when I got check other blogs and they haven't changed in two weeks it's bothersome....so here.

The reason for not posting (and honestly this isn't a real post either) is that I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately.....and I haven't completed any of the thoughts......so I don't have a ton to post.

I ordered a new R key for my laptop....and it came.....and it doesn't fit. So my R key is still broken. GREAT! I'm going to take up a collection to get a new key.

I can't plug this enough. God's blogs is a really really good book. If you get something you don't want for Christmas, return it and go get this book. Seriously. I really like it.

We're off to my parents this weekend. It looks as if my brother and his family will be joining us there at least for a day. I'm kind of stoked because he has yet to see Corban....AND he and his wife just had a new baby boy...like two weeks ago....Mason Paul Reinard. I'm stoked to see them. I don't get to see my brother enough. (so if you're reading this....I don't get to see you enough!)

Ok I'm done for now. I'll do something later. Merry Christmas to you all. May you take time to listen in this season where everyone else is running.

I'm a bad Pirate

What? A bad Pirate? Well yes. I have a new problem. I just broke the RRRRRRRRRRRRRR key on my laptop. One of the tiny tabs broke. So depending on how I hit the key depends on if it works or if it falls off. Ugh.

Good weekend. Went to a ballet that some of my students were in Sat. night. It was actually good. All Sat. was just chill time with the fam.

Sunday was work. Taught Sr. High Sunday School in N. Warren, which I dreaded when they asked me to co-teach the class back in Aug. I dreaded it just because it would be one more thing I have to teach in the week. I have been pleasantly surprised though. I'm thoroughly enjoying the class and I believe so are the students. After Sunday School in NW, we jumped in the car to make it to worship at PCC across town. Two churches just across town and two totally different personalities of churches. Very interesting. Home to take naps and then I was off to NWPC. Triumphant swing band was playing their Christmas show there. Good Christian Swing/Big Band. They played for 2 hours....and then I had youth group. Youth group was one just one of those nights........the kind that make you wonder why you bother. The kids didn't want to do anything.....including listen. Home to Mari and a movie!

I found this thing called LINERUNNER on a youth website, I've messed around with it but I'm pretty bad. I can't keep my lines nice and straight......however here's a video by David Crowder that is freaking amazing. Good luck wasting away your day with this!

So you have a blog too?

Two Dads and Ministry

Just catching up on some blog reading today.

My good friend and local pastor Bill talked about his daughter and communion. So perfect in her understanding of something that a lot of adults don't get.

At PURE CHURCH the pastor and his wife had a son. He writes about his experience seeing his son for the first time. Awesome.

internet monk had an interesting article on ministry. an article that is well timed in my reading of it.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

It's been a rollercoaster of a week. Enough said about that.

Today was the beginning of Advent but Christmas non-sense has been going on for awhile.
Everyone keeps asking what we're getting Corban or are we so excited this Christmas......and honestly, we're not. We're excited that our son is with us this Christmas, but he has no idea what all the hype is about. My guess is that come Christmas Eve (when my family traditionally opens gifts) he will see lots of fancy paper, but not get it.........so we're not getting a tree this year.......we just don't have room now that half our house has toys in it. We have three very small fake trees that we decorated with a few ornaments.....Mari put lights around some doorways.....we have ribbons too..........we put up our nativity set and read the story with him........we have decorations.....but we're not going overboard this year. And I'm pretty cool with that.

My good friend Brandon and I have been having some great conversations on AIM lately. Actually he just asks me a lot of questions about how to run a youth ministry and I make stuff up and he thinks I'm smart.......and I keep telling him I'm going to charge him a consulting fee. ANYWAY.....he's a pretty smart guy and must read a lot because he keeps sending me links to really good articles. So I finally got around to reading a good article he sent me last week. You should read it too.....particularly if you live in a city or a suburb...it's about Gentrification....you have to read it to find out what that is.

Cool thing happened this past week. I posted on my one youth group blog about a book that is really good. The book is called God's Blogs. It's written from the idea that God is going to write a blog to us. I know it's a weird premise but the book is really good. So I wrote about it on my youth blog and said that if the youth didn't know what to ask for for Christmas, they should get this book. Well I was checking the comments on that blog one morning and guess who logged a comment? The author of the book Lanny Donoho! He was searching the net and bumbled across my little youth group blog site that mentioned him and his book. So he posted to thank me for plugging the book and that he never thought it would reach anyone, but hoped the kids would like it. How cool is that? Not that he's super famous, but of all the web hits he could've got, he found my little church's youth blog?

I thought I was going to die this week. Literally. Die. More than that, I was afraid I was going to take Corban with me. So here's the story. Friday it rained like mad in the morning. A new geocache pops up not far from us. I check weather.com.....storms have passed. It's sunny. Dress Corban up and away we go. We drive out to this area called Hearts Content. It's virgin timber. REALLY BIG TREES. I can't get my arms around most of these tree and they are extremely tall. So we get there and the wind is blowing a little bit, but nothing bad. I grab C-rock and away we go down this trail. The close we get to the cache the wind starts picking up. By the time we find it and i'm signing my name it's blowing.........HARD. All of a sudden BOOM. I'm talking a loud explosion. A tree a couple hundred feet up the trail falls over. Remember these aren't like the trees lining your city streets.......then I hear another one go down....then another.........I picked up the 30 lb. little boy and began running for all I was worth the just under half mile back to the car. The problem is that as I'm running I'm realizing that there are trees that could fall on either side of the trail.....and if they go......I'm done for.............and the whole time I'm crying out to God.........and I mean I was talking/yelling/crying out loud to Him. Since you're reading this.....I obviously made it. I've been thinking back over my life and I'm not sure I can think of a time when I was more scared though. When I reached my car, my heart was going so fast and I couldn't catch my breath (most of that had to do with running that distance with and extra 30 lbs.). Had I known that was going to be the adventure I would've stayed in.

If you need something to waste time with.....I have two things for you.
1. Doodlecube......it's pretty self-explanatory.....a little hard to control, but fun.
2. Word Shoot.......just type the word underneath the guy or tank and your guy will shoot it....it never ends so you just keep typing.

It's a Holiday

It's Saint bucks Day! What? You haven't heard of it? Well where I live it's like a national holiday. It's the first day of buck hunting season. No school. Lots of business shut down....mainly because they know that if they didn't most of their employees would call off work anyway. I've never been a hunter myself, so this has always been a silly day to me. However the last couple years I've had St. Bucks Game Day for the teens in N. Warren. We basically hook up a gazillion game systems and play most of the day. Atari to the Wii this year. Lots of noise and headaches. I'm horrible at new game systems......but I kick some serious teenage butt at the Atari. Good old 2D animation.

We spent Thanksgiving in Canada. A really great trip. Corban was excellent in the car. The trip there....he just sat quietly in the back seat most of the trip then he went to sleep. On the ride home he cried when we put him in his seat and within 3 minutes he was asleep and slept most of the ride. I'm always nervous at the border. No reason. I just am. More so since there are now 3 nationalities represented in the car. Coming home the border guy asked where we were from...."um American, Canadian and Ethiopian".......he looked through the passports and greencards.......he said "we don't get to see too many of these up here (referring to Corban's passport) Then he opened his door and yelled to the gard at the next booth "hey I have an Ethiopian passport over here, you wanna see it?" funny stuff.

Brandon showed me a cool blogish site. Every day they have some sort of electronic/techie kind of product for super sale. Check it out here.

This is pretty rad too. I found it yesterday. Basically it's travel for those who want to go cheap and not stay at the Hilton. Kind of cool to read logs of people's trips. It's called WorldNomads. If I was single again, I would be all over this!........well I'd like to believe I'd be anyway.

It brings to mind a book I read.....which I may have already wrote about here.........either way.....it's called "Honeymoon with my Brother". I know the title is a little weird. HOWEVER....the book is really cool. Long and short of it is as follows.....guy's fiance breaks off the wedding with only a week to go. People have already bought ticket sform around the world to come. So they have a big party anyway. His brother who he hasn't really spoken too much comes down to console him. He realizes the honeymoon to Costa Rica is already paid for, so they take the trip and explore. After that week, they had so much fun, they decide to keep going. They both go home, quit their jobs and travel around the world for a year. It's pretty amazing.


Tomorrow night will decide a lot.

New Pastors

So we're finally home. I figured I should post one last time and finish my thoughts on the NYWC.

I didn't see too many people I knew. The people I did know........were much younger than me. It seems that all my friends who used to be in youth ministry.........aren't anymore.......some are senior pastors, some are in seminary, some are just done. Marjorie made an interesting observation based off of what one of the main speakers said.........youth ministry is kind of an "outside the box" thinking group of people (for the most part)......if youth pastors are becoming senior pastors..........perhaps these new senior pastors might change the look of the church.

As I've already said, this was a very different convention for me. I didn't come home with all these new ideas and cool games that I need to try out. I came home knowing that I'm doing what I'm suppose to be doing. I came home knowing that my job isn't about facilitating a fun teen club on Sunday night. My job is to present the Gospel to teenagers.

I was pretty successful in not coming home loaded down with flyers and junk I'll never use. Before I left I cleaned out my bag from last year. It was almost all thrown into the garbage. I got some books and a t-shirt this year......all of which are practical.......but other than that I came away without "junk mail".......which isn't easy to do with all the vendors wanting you to check them out.

There's lots more that is still rolling through my head.....and i'm going to have to chew on some things for awhile, but that's it for now. Back to normal life for two days........then it's off to Canadia for THANKSGIVING.........and if that makes sense I wish someone would explain it to me!

Sunday at NYWC

So it's 8:40am Sunday morning and I'm sitting at the back of a seminar. I figured out that there's wireless at the convention center. HA

In my last post I joked about speaking here at the convention someday. That was a joke, for those of you not knowing..........HOWEVER.......I'm about ready to leave this seminar (as soon as I'm done surfing the web).

The speaker (who I won't name) is a BIG NAME. (If I told you who it was you would know (even those of you who aren't familiar with youth ministry in the US) I came to this seminar because the topic seemed very relivant. The speaker however has spent the last 40 minutes telling stories and jokes about his life and his travels and has yet to really tackle the subject that I woke up early to hear. I may not be a big name. I may not have credentials or the "right connectiongs", and I've not written a trendy book yet.........but usually when I speak on a subject......I actually speak on it......

Late last night I went to a "Veteran Youth Worker" mini seminars........it was really just 22 youth workers sitting in a circle just chatting. The guy "leading" just kind of moderated our chat session. Wow was that good. I think I was the only youth pastor there that was pastoring small churches though......one of the guys (who didn't seem much older than me) is the MAIN youth pastor and has numerous other paid youth pastors working under him. HA that's funny. I'm technically a veteran. I've been doing this 11 years. I apparently haven't been working for the "right" churches. I'm not "marketable". My youth groups are small. I know every kids name, I know most of their parents, I know what they like and don't like. I don't have 300 showing up Sunday night or Wed. night........I would be stoked if 30 showed up. But I'll tell you what I love my kids!

Real upside to last night was that we got to chat about church tensions that we have. That was therapeutic! I've got tensions, and these people have been there.

Today's going to be long. I'm meeting with my dad's new youth guy for lunch....I need to stop by 30 Hour Famine headquarters for my free t-shirt and to show them pictures of my son. I love World Vision people. Concert tonight.......toby mac and family force 5!

Ok I gotta get outta here, this ain't cool anymore.

YS NYWC Report thus far

So we're at Youth Specialties National Youth Worker Convention in Cincinnati. I would've already been on, but internet is a bigger issue than I had planned. Our hotel is charging 10 bucks for 24 hours of internet......I pay 15 bucks for a month of internet at home....so i'm having a hard time justifying it.

Basically the convention is like this. God keeps confirming a series of messages and ideas that he started planting in my brain a couple weeks ago.

I'm waiting for YS to call me and ask me to speak at one of these conventions some year. Yep waiting patiently by the phone.

I was really looking forward to hearing Donald Miller speak.....and he didn't really blow me away.

I wasn't really looking forward to hear a lady named Brenda Salter McNeil....and she ROCKED! Wow.

Usually I get to see lots of old friends at these conventions.....friends from Geneva....or that I've networked with over the last 11 years.........they're not really hear anymore. Most of them are out of youth ministry now. Some are senior pastors, some have moved on to seminar, others just aren't here.

I'm not suppose to be a senior pastor....at least not yet. I like youth ministry...........no I don't..... I LOVE YOUTH MINISTRY!!!! I'm doing what God has asked me to do. That's not to say that 5 years from now He won't ask me to do something differently......but I know how to communicate with teenagers. I have an vague idea what's going on inside their heads. This is what I do. I'm OK with that. I like the fact that only youth workers can tell youth worker jokes and laugh at our own silly teenagers that are waiting for us at home. I like that you can talk to a complete stranger here and they "get it".

It's only Sat. afternoon.....so we'll see what happens later.......

Challenge

I defy you to watch this and not laugh!

Long time

long time no post

not too much has really been going on around here.....but i've been busy....and honestly my family is going to take precident over this place every time.

Last weekend I attended a youth convention called The Cry in Jamestown NY. I plugged this event to one of my youth groups, and I really wanted them to go, but honestly I just didn't want to go. It was all night friday and ALL day Saturday. I love my students. I know that they would benefit from this conference.....but I just personally didn't want to go. I wanted to lay on the couch and read a good book and tickle my son until he ran away from me.....then track him down and tickle him again.

HOWEVER....I'm so glad I went. On Saturday afternoon they had some break-out workshops.....they had a series just for youthworkers. Wow did I need that. Really refocused what it is that I do. I've been doing youth ministry for 11 years now....and honestly when I sat down at the workshop I was thinking "great another youth worker workshop where they tell me how to do youth ministry the "right" way." That wasn't it at all. Man my brain has been hurting since last weekend just trying to process things.

That being said, next week Mari and I are traveling to Cincinnati to the National Youth Worker Convention put on by Youth Specialties. Now I like going to the NYWC.....but I have other reasons to be excited this year. Mainly, my parents have offered to watch Corban for the long weekend! So that means my wife and I have 3 1/2 days to ourselves. I will be updating you on the Convention next week.
I also am hoping to connect up with Brandon Zangus at some point. Brandon was a jr. high guy in my cabin my very first youth ministry experience ever at summer camp. Brandon just became a full-time youth pastor in NJ. I'm stoked to chat with him.
My friend Nancy from St. Louis will also meeting us there for the weekend. Nancy was one of the youth leaders that went with me and World Vision to Brazil a couple years ago. It's always good to see friends you don't get to see often.

I had to reign in my "Wild Horses" youth group this past week. They are so used to just doing whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. Some of them are learning that when it's time to study Aaron wants to study.

ANYWAY.....that's it for now.

Perfect

He Knows My Name

by Tommy Walker

I  have a Maker
He formed my heart
Be fore even time began
My life was in his hands

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
and He hears me when I call

I have a Father
He calls me His own
He'll never leave me
No matter where I go

We came in contact with this worship song a couple years ago as we began the process of adopting Corban. At that point I felt a little weird praying for my son who I knew almost definately wasn't born yet....and might not even have been a thought in his mommy and daddy's mind.....yet we were praying for him that he would come to us somehow. We knew his name would be Corban....."a gift devoted to God".

Tommy Walker tells the story of being in Africa with a missions ministry he's involved in. An orphan boy named Jerry kept coming up to him and would ask Tommy, "What's my name?". Tommy would tell him that his name was Jerry. The boy kept doing this time after time. Tommy realized that Jerry just wanted to be known....no won cared about Jerry....he was abandon.....he wanted one person to know who he was.

Corban knows the word Momma and Daddy and says them often. He points to pictures of us and calls us by name....but he hasn't said his own name. He will say Mamma, Daddy....and then he points to himself.....he wants us to say his name. He does this OFTEN. It seems to me that he wants to be "named". We have a mini scrap book that someone gave us and we've put pictures in it of him and our family. The front page has his name Corban Meki Philip Reinard. When you say his name. He knows it's him and he points to himself.

Tommy goes on to talk about how we serve a God who loves the unknown, the unloved, the abandoned, the outcast (my words not his). God knew before time began who Corban would be. Even though some ladies in Ethiopia started calling him Meki, God knew that His name was Corban. Within days of his arrival, he would answer to Corban......Corban was written on his heart.

I won't apologize for writing once again about my son.

Public Service Announcement

If you're like me you need some extra reminders here and there.

If you live on the East Coast, don't forget to change your clocks back tonight and get some EXTRA SLEEP!!! Enjoy.

In the midst of running

It seems that it was just Sunday and now it's nearly Saturday. Where did this week go? I'm not ready for next week yet.

This past week it snowed over night. It was the first time Corban has seen real snow on the ground. He was really confused. We have a video and pictures over at the Family site.

Mari's work has been challenging lately. As you may know she is a social worker at a nursing home. The home where she works is now quarentined with a "suspicious rash that they are treating as if it is scabies" (which is just gross). [that is the official press release from the home] So basically all the staff and residents have to be treated and everything cleaned thoroughly. It's a big process. The past couple days she's been helping clean rooms of residents. She comes home tired. Not fun.

I found an old blog which referenced an article off of someone else's old blog, which lead me to this article from January 2005. It's from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. I found the article interesting and question where the church fits in there.....or maybe why it doesn't fit in there better.....or maybe how can it....or can it at all?

Halloween is around the corner. I know lots of churches and Christians are very against Halloween, but I like it. I think it's just plain good fun. I know there are those that use it negativily, but I was raised that it's all good fun. God is bigger than a 4th grader dressed up as a witch. That being said, we have the coolest outfit for Corban (you're going to have to wait for a later post for that though). I tell you that to say, that Trick-or-Treating with him will be pointless really. He doesn't know what candy is. We've never given him candy so he doesn't know what he's missing. Today we stopped by the local coffee shop and while I was waiting for my beverage, we were hanging out........he's super obsessed with pumpkins right now so he pointed to the coffee table there and there was a bowl that was a pumpkin. He wanted to hear me say the word pumpkin.....but the bowl was piled high with candy....and he didn't even look at it...didn't ask what it was....or if he could have some......so what's the point of Trick-or-Treating?

Speaking of pumpkins. The other day while ambling through online sites, I found this picture and laughed, so here you go.

I know that I already mentioned this in a previous post, but I am just obsessed with these guys. it's like dayt ime drama for me or something. I keep wondering where they're going next. I contemplate how they're going to hitch a ride to Hawaii.......Alaska I can kind of understand at least you could go through Canada....I'm struggling with Hawaii. I get excited when they do a couple capitols in one day, which will give them more time for a drive through Canada or a hitch to Hawaii. I think that I envy them a little to because they can just do a cool trip like this. I miss the days of the roadtrip. Anyone interested in taking a roadtrip? I'm not talking about planning much out. Let's just go.

You may not know this but I am facinated with WWII. I am constantly reading books about the war and the politics of it from both sides. So today I was reading a book when I came across a great quote to motivate teenagers..........except that Goebbels said it.....which makes it quite a bit tainted.

I know there was something else I wanted to put here....but now that i'm typing I don't know what it is and will promptly kick myself after I hit "Publish". Blessings!

First Snow

Corban's first snow. he was very confused.

HELL HOUSE

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone praying for me this past weekend. It was a great weekend. Some amazing things happened. God rocked some adult males lives. There are going to be some really cool things that will come out of this weekend.

OK onward.

I had thought that these things were passe. Apparently I was wrong. There's this new church that moved into town last year. They do things a little different.

Well it's Halloween time. I saw the signs last week and I just couldn't believe it. "Hell House: It'll scare the Hell out of you!" I had to do a double take. ......and then I just shook my head.

Here's the premise, if you're unfamiliar with these things. They turn the heat up in the church, they have all these scary people who have done sinful things in their lives and they are paying for it. The idea is to scare people into heaven.

I had a youth on instant messanger last night who went to this thing since we didn't have youth group. She was really confused. She said, "they had this room that was suppose to be heaven and this guy comes in and he's been a good guy, but he lied once so God sent him to hell......isn't God forgiving?"

What is it that we want to teach? Do we want to teach the hell is bad and you should be so afraid of going there that you have to believe in God....or do we want to teach the God loved us so much that he died for us, that God is full of grace and mercy, that God is compassionate and forgiving. I just think things like this Hell House go about it the wrong way. Yes lying is a sin. However, it confused my student because it was depicted that no matter how or when you lie you're going to hell. There didn't seem to be the idea that if you've already accepted Christ and asked for his forgiveness aspect.

I know that something like this attracts a lot of kids.....which for a new church is what they were going after....but long-term those students will fall away, because I don't believe that fear of something is as attractive as love for something.

I'm just frustrated because instead of using this opportunity for teaching, they have confused a lot of kids who were on the fence.

ANIMAL SOUNDS

This is a video of my son doing animal sounds. Notice that for pig he breaths through his nose fast.....that's the closest he can get to oinking.

1 crazy story, 1headache, lots of links

So yesterday morning I went out to do our 1099 and 1100 geocache. These were beasts. I intentionally picked really really hard ones. Looking back on it now, these may have been the hardest hikes I've been on while geocaching thus far. The only way I was able to do it without killing myself was with the use of some topo maps. The area it was located was some game land or something that had some insane rock faces and very steap hill/mountains. Fun time. Great long hike up really steep inclines. I had a ball. So homeward bound I go. I stopped off in a town along the way to do another couple caches quickly. So I park my car just past a "no parking" sign...but well off the road, and run down this short trail and log this cache. I get back to my car to find that I've lost my keys. I went up and down that trail 15 times.....NOTHING. All the leaves have fallen and it's a sea of oranges, reds and yellows. So I had to call a friend to come pick me up and take me half way home where my wife could come get me after work. It was ridiculous. Then today I had to have another friend drive way out there (hour away) with me to pick up the car. UGH!

I woke up today with what I call a "hockey hangover". I played hockey late last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Playing hockey late at night is something that I do often because the ice is cheaper. However there are several problems with it. Since the rink is 1/2 hour from my house, I get home later than most of the guys who live 5 minutes from the rink. I also choose to shower before I drive home because I can't stand my own smell after almost two hours of hockey.....that means I leave even later. Compound this with the fact that it take my mind a little while to unwind and relax....so when I get home I can't go to sleep right away. Add to that the fact that I was in an auto accident 5 years ago and have a weird neck...while playing hockey my neck is tense....after hockey I begin to relax and then lay down in one position where it tenses back up again. Throw in getting up 5 times with a little boy who for some reason refuses to sleep.......and the end result is hockey hangover. You wake up with the worst head and neck ache imaginable. Every noise sets you off. You feel like you're just stumbling around. It's just bad all over. This morning through since I was without keys I had to take my wife and son to work and daycare respectively. So with a hockey hangover I had to drive. When I got home I went back to bed and slept for half hour. Then I got up took to Ibuprofen and made coffee. I ate a Tim Hortons Donut (the major perk of hockey is that I can go to Tim Hortons on my way home.) while the coffee was brewing and then life began to get good!

The other day I posted about these two guys who are trying to hitchike to every state capitol in under 50 days. I also opened my mouth before looking into it, about them having crazy technology. Yeah it is crazy technology, but it's not that crazy. There's this cool website called Mologogo. Basically you can have you Gps-enabled cell phone to be tracked through a google hack. It's pretty cool. You can also check out a map of the world with all the people who are currently using this site. Downsides I see is that someone can very very easily stalk you down. That's just what I want....strangers hunting me down because my cell phone is on.

It's true. I waste too much of my time on YouTube these days.

This guy took a picture of himself every day for 6 years.......well that's all that's on the video but you can go to his website here and see his latest photos he's still going. A pretty cool video.

This is just funny. For those Star Wars buffs out there.

I'm off for a weekend mens retreat. I'm speaking once for about 2o minutes of the course of the weekend so no major stress on me....but there are lots of elements that go into the weekend. If you could just pray for me and those on the team, that all would go smoothly. THANKS

end of a long week

So I last wrote that Marjorie was sick, but I had thought she turned the corner..........yeah I was wrong. I wrote that Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon she came home and it got worse. She was miserable. Stayed home Wed. Back to work by Thursday but not 100%. She's good to go now. HOWEVER.....I definately have the bug that she had. I'm fighting it hardcore with some meds, but I feel like the movie ALIEN where a little guy is going to poke out through my stomach at any second.

The new youth group went pretty well Wed. though some of the "rough" kids weren't there for various reasons.

I have been co-teaching a Sunday School class for senior high. What I've been doing as my part is going through the Bible and telling "Sunday School Stories" but reading them from the Bible so that none of the details are glossed over. Like when you're a little kid, they tell you about David and Goliath, but they don't tell you that after Goaliath falls, David goes over and hacks his head off! There are details to stories that we miss and some of them are important. So I've been going through classic stories. I tell you that to tell you this....
Corban has been saying "Moma, Daddy...." then he pauses and we have to fill in his name....he hasn't said it yet. So at one point I said, "Corban, that means a gift devoted to God." And then it hit me what that meant. So I read through I Samuel 1 where Hanah's "womb is closed" and she's praying so hard that Eli thinks she's drunk. She finally has Samuel and then as soon as he is weaned (I had to explain what weaned was to senior high schoolers) she takes him back to Eli and devotes his entire life to God. She gives up her son. Now we waited a long dang time for Corban to get here. I'm pretty sure that Marjorie wouldn't be very cool with me taking Corban to our pastor and handing him over to be raised by him! I think that I was just blown away by the amazing devotion by her though. God was gracious to her and her response was to give back to Him. So that's what I taught in Sunday school...........well that and then the part where Samuel here's God calling him and thinks it's Eli 3 times.....then the part where Eli is old and fat and he falls over and cracks his neck and dies. They liked that part.

I'm very excited. It has been a long process, but I've finally convinced Marjorie that I need high speed internet at home. Within days I won't have to tie up our phone, I won't have my connection randomly just not work, I won't have to wait 10 minutes for a picture to load! YEAH! I'll let you know how it goes.

I stumbled onto this and I thought it was a really cool thing. These two guys are trying to hitchike to all 50 state capitals in 50 days or less. They must be super tech savy....they have to have a GPS constantly on, to make the mapping work or something......plus they're blogging all the time from weird places. Hitch50

Found another cool blogish site, called All Africa. It has news from Africa....headlines, but there's also a setting for Religion news out of Africa. It's updated daily, which is pretty nice. You

And finally....another YouTube link. Did Babe Ruth get into heaven? I know he drank a lot, but he was nice to kids.

the catchup

it's been awhile. no excuses, i just haven't blogged.

This Wednesday I do my first youth group at the new church PCC. I'll be honest. I'm nervous. Not that I don't know what I'm doing or anything. It's just a big undertaking starting up a new group. Privately I call these kids my "wild horses". They've kind of been able to run things. They talk whenever they want, they do what they want........much like a wild horse, they need "broken in" to be functional. I have to go in and lay down my rules for youth group....which will be fine, it's just that I have to do it. Prayers appreciated.

Everyone's been sick in our house. Corban had an upper respetory infection so he was on antibiotics......I'm home with him 3 days a week, so not only was I wiping up his snot, but he was coughing and sneezing on me. I was sick toward the end of last week. And our rock, our strong point, Mari got sick yesterday. She actually had to take the day off work. All is well now though....looks like we're getting over it.

Last saturday there was a geomeet near here. What's that? Well it's a bunch of geocachers, getting together to chat and eat etc. Well this one was for a group of us who have hit 1000 caches. Honestly, events like this to me are usually lame. I geocache for exercise, for the thrill of the hunt, and to get away from people. Because of what I do I'm around people all the time, so geocaching gets me away from people. This event was actually pretty cool. We were given a bunch of cool stuff. I told you all that to tell you about one cool thing we got......and led flashlight. I was a little sceptical. HOLY COW....this thing is amazingly cool. I totally love it. I pulled it out the other night to go night caching......and boom the entire area lit up instantly. WOW! You gotta get one of these bad boys!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that hockey season has started. NHL, not my hockey season. We don't have TV. I mean we own a TV, but it's only for movies. The only thing I really miss is watching sports......and maybe reruns of MASH.....HOWEVER I found a really sweet thing. If you have decent internet connection you can take advantage of it. COMCAST puts select games on the internet LIVE. You just can't beat that......if you're a follower of a particular team, you're out of luck because they just pick random teams, but if you're like me and just love hockey this is a great deal.

I leave you with another YouTube clip. If you haven't seen FREE HUGS campaign yet, this is cool. Check this clip out

Just cool

I'm not into ouija boards, or mysticism. I don't read horoscopes or tea leaves. I'm not supersiticious. I don't knock on wood. I don't throw salt over my shoulder. I don't buy into anything along those lines. Now that I've stated that disclaimer. .......I just thought this was cool.

MAGIC 8 BALL DISMANTLING

Caffeine

I believe that I've established that I have ADD for everyone right?

Ok this morning sitting in church before I was actually suppose to be paying attention......no seriously......this quote I heard last year pops into my mind out of nowhere.

"Caffeine is the crack cocaine of Christians" -KJ-52

If you think about it, while he was being funny, he's not too far from the mark.

String of thoughts

First, there are new pics up on the Reinard blog space. So you probably want to bop on over there to see the cuteness.

You've probably already heard, but I"m going to tell you anyway. Derek Webb is giving away his latest album free online. Just go to freederekweb.com and you can get it. He's making it free because it's not very mainstream Christianese. He's pretty honest with his thoughts.

I just downloaded it this afternoon even though I've known about it for awhile. I'm a little slow. That being said, I haven't listened to it all yet.

So when you get done downloading the album...it says something like, "You just saved yourself 10 dollars. You should donate that money to one of these places. Then there are links to three charitable organizations. Actually they're more than just charitable. They all deal with Africa. So I started thinking once again about Africa. As you might imagine I have some pretty strong feelings and longings in my heart for the continent.

My mind instantly went to World Vision. We are big fans of World Vision. I went with them to Brazil two summers ago and we sponsor two kids. So I instantly bopped over to their site right away to check it out for the millionth time. The first thing I read was "HIV/AIDS orphans more than 6,000 children every day. ". That made me feel pretty good about myself (that's called cynicism kids).

I then started thinking about the 30 Hour Famine which my youth group has done for the last 4 or 5 years. So I headed over there. They have a new website up with their promo video for 2007. Of course I had to watch it. I easily get choked up at stuff like this these days. Mari and I don't have TV so visual things are much more emotional than they used to be.

I then thought about my lovely son who was coming home soon from daycare. I give him a little longer hug than normal.

Letter

I just wrote the following for this months newsletter for NWPC. I had Marjorie read it and she insisted I post it here. I'm not one to argue with my wife for no great cause.......so here it is.


Having your dad as your pastor can be embarrassing at times. Not so much when I was younger, but when I reached my youth years, I couldn’t understand why my father continued to use my brother and I as sermon illustrations. I get it now.
The father/son relationship is an amazing thing. God has opened my eyes to so many truths about Himself......through my son.
The idea that God would send His one and only Son to die for me, is much more powerful now to me than it ever has been.....and it was pretty powerful before Corban arrived.
There are just a lot of innocent blindness moments that children have, that adults or parents help them with. Let me give you an example:
This afternoon I took Corban for a wagon ride. The wagon is a new thing to him and he really likes it. So away we go and we went a good ways....and then he decides he doesn’t just want to ride, he wants to pull the wagon too. That was fine, we didn’t have anywhere to be, so why not. Being a little boy with a will of his own, he had no desire for daddy to help him pull the wagon, he needed to do it on his own....fine.
So away we go, him pulling the wagon and me walking beside him. We hadn’t gone more than 10 feet and he started pulling the wagon up someone’s driveway, so I steered him back to the sidewalk. Another 10 ft. and he was going down the hill toward the road....another course correction by dad. A couple more steps and he had dropped the handle to the wagon altogether so he could bend down and get a pebble to throw.
As I was going back for the wagon, I just smiled. It’s not that God is a meany always telling us how to do everything. Quite the contrary. But he does give us a conscience, and for those of us who choose to be followers of Him, we begin to be able to know when we’ve gone off track.
I didn’t have to leave the sidewalk to get Corban. I just had to tell him which way to go. God assures us the He is unchanging. We can listen to His voice when we have strayed from the path a bit.
I must now apologize to my son for using him as an example to make a simple point. I will not promise to never use him again. In fact, because I see God moments through our relationship, I guarantee to embarrass him well into his adult years. That is what you have to look forward to son. Sorry.

Wide array of things

Strap yourselves in, this is going to be long.

I need to be honest with my friends here. I've been afraid of posting. Basically I'm insecure. It's true. I surf the net and read all these cool blogs where everyone has smart thoughts, or witty comments or criticisms of life and church and whatever. Most of my days are about making sure a little boy doesn't break stuff. It's hard to have awe inspired thoughts when you're wiping snot and poop up. So I've felt slightly inadequat at times. ALSO....I listen to some sports talk radio while driving in the car WGR55o out of Buffalo. The other day I was listening to the mid-morning national guy Colin Cowherd. He was ranting on and on about "the system" and people and teams going against the system. His poist was that "the system" is what works, it's where the money is at, and you can go against it if you want, but you won't succeed. Part of his rant though was about bloggers. Basically he said that no one really cares about what you're blogging about. Everyone wants to believe that they're important and people read their blog, but in reality there about 3 people reading your blog....and most of the time they don't even care. I know that he's only a sports guy and what do I care what he thinks anyway.....but it got me thinking. Why do I type here? What's the point? So to be honest, I've been a little insecure and I think I'm mostly over it and here we go again......

I spent today away from my family. Not intentionally.....it was just one of those days in ministry that I knew I would be gone from 8am-8pm. I was teaching Sunday School for Senior High. We re-read the Noah account and got into details of the account that sometimes the cute Sunday School version leaves out (like Noah getting drunk and naked after coming off the ark). Then we had morning worship, then I spent 2 hours writing a speech that I had to give this afternoon for a retreat that's at the end of the month. Then I drove the meeting to give the speech.....and had to be there for 4 hours, then I drove back to town. I drove immediately to a youth rally in the park, where I broke 3 guitar strings during only 5 songs! UGH. So by the time I got home tonight my little boy really wanted some daddy time.

This talk that I had to give....it's for a retreat like I said. They make you write out every word you're going to say, then give the talk word for word so they can then critique you. I talk all the tiem to youth. I never write out every word. I write out main points, or scripture or whatever....and then I hit those points and fill in the blanks. This is so foreign to me. I just stood behind this podium and put my hands in my pockets. It wasn't me and they knew that. So they gave me free reign to do a sort of outline so that I can move and be more natural.

What did Noah do with termites on the ark?

I need a haircut. I'm so shaggy. I haven't had a haircut since before Corban got here. I used to have long hair, now it's annoying.

Mari and I went on our first real date last night since Corban's arrival in July. We've been out before by ourselves, but only because one set of our parents was here to watch Corban. Last night we got some girls from my youth group to watch him and we went out. It was great. We didn't do anything much, dinner, coffeeshop to read, and a trip to the "mall", but it was good to be away. He had fun too. AND I got a much needed winter coat at the mall!

Today after church the Pleasant Church officially voted on me. Pastor Mike e-mailed me to tell me the decision. To quote him directly, "Just to let you know it was nearly a unanimous vote today to hire you (50-1)." I really don't want to know who voted against hiring me. I find it a little unnerving actually. I pretty positive that this is going to be a good place to work. I know most of the kids already. I get along well with the pastor. The church voted unanimously to hire someone on to work with you......but one person voted against that person being me. Funny.

I was reading a blog that linked me to another blog that linked me to this post by I guy I don't know. I just kind of liked the way he approached the article. He layed out what he was saying in pretty clear wording.

Chrissy Koerber tagged me awhile back to blog about books. I know that I need to get to that sometime.....I'm just not real motivated right now.....and I don't like to follow silly rules or chain letters anyway.....so I'll do it in my own style and time!

And finally, the beginning of the NHL season is quickly coming upon us. October 4th marks the second year of games since the strike. I'm pretty excited about hockey this year. I am resolving publically to find time and money to go to at least one NHL game this year......probably Buffalo or Pittsburgh.......but I WILL GO!!!!!

An array of stuff

I've been pretty busy this past week, so I haven't had a ton of time to be web logging (that's the long version of blogging for those not in the know). Here is a bunch of links, and a brief catch-up on what's going down.

1. As noted previously I spoke at a retreat for WCCS this week. GREAT TIME. Very challenging, but very good. I learned some new ways to study for a bigger session like this. Great time. Thursday afternoon Mari and Corban came down to be with me. How fun. It's fun to hear 30+ teenage girls see Corban and go "AWWWWWWWWWWWW".

2. Through my friend Bill's church blog I found this funny site. CrummyChurchSigns. I didn't think it would be that great....but his humor really makes it. Take some time and poke around, if you've spent any time around churches, you'll laugh.

3. Along those same lines I found an interesting site called CHURCH MARKETING SUCKS. I guess this one resonated with me because for a number of years I have been appalled at how church and para-church organizations use the same horrible tactics to "sell"themselves. I can't tell you how many church tele-marketers I've talked to who are just downright annoying in their pursuit of "the sale".

4. Apparently if you are a regular church attender, you're going to get fat. The Chicago Sun Times reports about a study linking church functions to obesity. They say that since drinking and smoking and often dancing are vices of most churches, then we turn to food as an outlet. SO WHAT! Mr. Ben and Mr. Jerry can help you through many a difficult time.

5. I'm not sure how I found this, last week....but I'm definitely going to get some. Chances are that I'm getting some for Wheeze for Christmas (don't tell her....and if you're reading this....you'll forget anyway!) Oh, I remember how I found it! This guy is a geocacher and he did something so I saw his bio.

6. What blog post would be complete without a YouTube link or two? A student in my drumline told me that his brother (who graduated from our drumline two years ago) posted our band's performance two years ago. It's not great quality....andthe drumline didn't do that great of a job on the drum feature but it's not horrible. Since I was there and poking around, I searched for drumline stuff........I found this video that is freaking AMAZING!!!!

7. This morning we attended morning worship at the church that I will begin working for at the beginning of next month. Small church, significantly older in age than N. Warren, but I think that they think younger. That probably doesn't make sense. They vote on me next week.

8. With 9-11 passing, everyone was asked where were you when you heard the Trade Center was hit. Well my memory includes a nasty car that I loved. I think I bought this car from my senior pastor for like 100 bucks or something. It was rusty when I got it and it only went downhill from there. As the car got worse...in every aspect imaginable, I bought some bull horns during a mission trip for the front. I was at the post office sitting in this car when I heard it. That day will forever be linked to my junky car.

Sweet Sweet Love

I would be remiss if I let today pass without posting.

Six years ago today I made the first decision of my life that I knew could absolutely not go wrong. The most beautiful girl in the world walked down the aisle and said "I do". I'm still mistified at the fact that she agreed to marry me, but it's too late for her now!

I know 6 years isn't 66 years like my grandparents in Arizona or even 56 like my grandparents in Uniontown PA, but in this day and age where couples don't last the week....

I can't imagine trying to go it without Marjorie. Who else would let the youth group dress them up? I love you!

DOTS

There's a cool little map thing on my right toolbar that I found somehow. It's called ClusterMap. Basically every time someone visits your website you get a little dot. I put it on here, just for fun. I'm a little weirded out now though.

I'm not exactly sure who in South America is checking my blog....or the Carribean for that matter.

HEY! Who are you? How'd you find this?

It was a pretty good day

So it's Tuesday, which makes me two days late posting this.

Corban sleeps through the night without waking up! Yeah!
We get up as a family and have some breakfast. We get all cleaned up. I left around 9 to go to the church to do a sound check for the song I was singing during church. I got home just before Oma and Opa (Dutch for Grandma and Grandpa which is Marjorie's parents) come over from the hotel. They helped Marjorie get ready for lunch.

10:30 we pack all the food and our little squirmy boy into the cars and head to church. Upon getting to church we realize we can't find our camera. So I frantically start checking all the bags....nothing. So I jump back in the car and run home. I run through our house looking for the camera.....NOTHING. UGH! So back to church I go, another sweep of the bags, nothing.....oh well.

I chose to sing a song while they were taking up the offering. The song was "We've Been Waiting for You" by Carolyn Arends. I changed the words slightly to fit the situation a little and I re-arranged it for guitar instead of playing the piano. It was hard to make it through without crying.

When that was over it was time to Baptize the little miester. During a baptism in the Presbyterian church you have to have someone who has been ordained in the church either currently or formerly read the questions to the congregation. We asked a couple that has been super-supportive and encouraging from day one of our adoption process to serve in that capacity. My father was co-officiating. My father got to hold Corban in his arms and do the actual baptism of his grandson. VERY VERY COOL.

After church, all of our family and close friends were invited to a light lunch. We had so much food it was sick. Corban was pretty cranky by now. I think he was stressed from being the center of so much attention. So as he's eating, he just falls asleep. He napped for quite awhile. Then my parents, Mari's parents, my aunt and uncle, Marjorie's sister, brotherinlaw and their 5 kids all come over to the house for some coffee, tea, snacks and mayheim. It was great.

After the crowds start to fade away, off I go to get ready for youth group. NowI've been doing youth ministry full-time in N. Warren for 6 years. Before that I "interned" under Kent and Jason for 4-5 years. I don't know if it was something in the water, or the wind was blowing the right way or what.......but I had one of the best honest discussions at youth group! It was crazy. EVERYONE participated. They were into it. They were honest. They weren't giving me canned "Christianese" answers. We could've talked on and on and on. I had to actually cut the night short! It was awesome.

So as soon as youth group is over I jump in the car and drive 25 minutes north to Jamestown NY. One of my problems is that I can't say no. I had agreed to sub as a goalie in the local ice hockey league. See here's the catch. I haven't been able to actually play in the league up here. The league games are Sunday nights. I have youth group Sunday nights. So the only games I could ever play are the real early games or the late games. They won't schedule one team that way, and no team wants a goalie that can only play 1/5 of all the games.....so I can only sub. Well this year they're really short on goalies. Like REALLY short. It looks as if I'm going to be able to play almost every week....and not be on a team.

So the team I was playing for isn't very good. On top of that, they didn't have many guys show up. Before the game started I knew I was going to face a lot of shots.....and I did! We lost 3-1. To me that was a great game. I played really well. I stopped a TON of shots. As poorly as my defence was it was a wonder they only got 3!

It was a pretty good day. Oh we found the camera. It was in the trunk of the car. So we don't have pictures right now of the baptism.....but my uncle took some.....but it was with a regular camera so we have to wait to have those developed and then I"ll put them up here.

Cute

There are some clear cool advantages to being home 3 days a week with my son.

Just a couple minutes ago...Corban was sitting in his highchair. I got a cup of coffee and out Tim Horton's donuts. Well since we got him in July he's always liked to drink from his sippy cup the same time that I drink a swig of coffee. Well this morning he took it to the next level. His chair was kind of sideways to the table so it was facing me rather than sideways. After the first drink of coffee and sippy cup he watched me put my cup down on the table. He reached across and set his sippy down there too instead of on his tray. He wanted to be just like dad! So here are eating donuts drinking our brews and enjoying a new morning.

He's watching me. That's a scary huge responsibility.

Tired and Stressed....and other stuff

This may come off as a rant...but I'm tired and stressed.

Corban has been getting up several times a night because he's congested and can't breath right.....and since Marjorie is back to work full-time, I'm getting up with him more often than not. That's just to say that I haven't been sleeping well.

Every year the Warren County Christian School secondary grades have a fall retreat. They have a local youth pastor come speak for three days at the Castle in Franklin. Well guess who hasn't done it yet? Yep me. Here's the weird thing....in 11 years of youth ministry not once have I been the speaker at a weekend retreat or summer camp. I've always done the music and someone else has been the speaker. This isn't to say that I've never spoken to youth....I do it all the time....but I have to have 5 messages....that are suppose to be somewhat connected to one another......AND COHERENT. Are you kidding me?

To top this off....this Sunday Corban is being baptized. (by the way...if you are reading this and able to get to Warren PA this Sunday at 11pm, you are invited to the baptism. We'd love to have you!!! Light lunch following church to all who travel!) While that'll be awesome, it also means that both of our extended families are converging on our little town....some of whom are staying in our back yard....while that is also awesome....it doesn't allow me to finish 5 messages due next Wed. morning.

I had all day today to work...and I have little to show for it. Not that I didn't try, it's just that there aren't enough hours in the day to get done what I need to get done it would seem.

The big news around here is a moron named Ralph Phillips who has escaped from prison near Buffalo and shot 3 cops now. He's on America's Most Wanted and all that. He was just named to Federal Marshalls top 15 list. People are advised to stay out of th woods because he is big into the outdoors etc. Which is fine, except it's slowing down my geocaching.

This is a short but good article.

I'm going to bed.

Penguins sign Malkin

FINALLY!!!! After a month or so of drama the Penguins finally were able to sign Evgeni Malkin today. There is much anticipation for the skills this kid brings to Pittsburgh. Now granted, Pittsburgh is still going to be in the toilet this year....but in like 2 years...they should be at least decent!!!!

Undignified

Crowder and Napoleon...a perfect combo? I think so.

It's an ADD Day post

My ADD has been kicking full-tilt today, so the following post may or may not be connected in any way shape or form.

I have been chastised by several individuals for not posting enough pictures of Corban. The best explaination I can give is as follows. We have crappy dial-up internet at home (a situation I am negotiating with Marjorie). Because we have a cool camera and the resolution is high, they won't load right or in less than 15 minutes.....so I have to go to the church to load them up. Problem is that when I get there, I'm usually doing real work. (insert joke here) All that to say, I loaded a few new pictures on the Family page. Even more to be added soon.

If you haven't played with YouTube yet, where have you been? That said, this week while adding a comment to keith's blog and had to update him on my scooter situation. The situation is that I have to Vespa's in my basement one of which I have owned for about 5 years and neither is running. This got me thinking about my scooters (or very large paperweights if you will). So I found this, and it got me excited again.

Over the past year I've been thinking a lot about "comfort and the church". Without going into too much detail in this post here are some rough generalizations and thoughts. The church isn't in the business of reaching the unsaved....we're in the business of keeping people comfortable. How many churches are really saying, "boy, I hope a whole bunch of new people who looking and act nothing like us start coming to our fellowship!" For the most part the people in our churches look like us and act like us. Today I found a link to this post about multi-ethnicity through another blog I was reading. It got some synapses firing in my brain.

That blog entry is also relivant considering where we live. If you've never been to Warren PA, then you may not know that it is a fairly white community. In fact it appears that we are 98.2% White Non-Hispanic. Tonight we went to the "mall". Now the "mall" appears to be a regular mall from the outside, but when you get inside you realize that most of the stores are empty. ANYWAY....we went into the shoe store to check out new kicks for the fall back to school sale. There was a little girl not too much older than Corban in there who instantly came closer to us to check him out (all the ladies check him out!). So she waves to him, then she turns to her mother and says, "Mommy, he's grey!" Her mother kind of chuckled, as did we and told her daughter that he definately wasn't grey. Then she looked at us and said, "not too much culture around here." It wasn't racial. It was the innocence of a little girl. It just became real for a moment that we are raising a little boy who is a bit of a different shade than 98.2% of the surrounding population.

Bounds

Ok this might be silly. But if you're reading this and have met me, it's self explanatory. And if you don't know me and are reading this...then just roll with the punches.

Last night at our youth Rec. night a student threw the frisbee out of bounds while playing ultimate frisbee. All of a sudden this stupid thought hit me. We use the phrases "out of Bounds" and "in Bounds". Where is Bounds?

If you want to be a literalist, I'm well aware that bounds means boundaries of the playing field. But as I shared this silly thought with the students, they began suggesting idea. If Bounds were a city where would it be? Spain? France? I asked a French teacher at the local high school today if she had ever heard of Bounds, France. She hadn't. She suggested it might be in Germany.

Ok kids here's your assignment. If you read this post, you need to add a comment. If Bounds were a city where would it be? You must explain why it would be in that country and if you wish you may also refute why it would not be in another country. Post a comment is easy as pie. You click the comments button at the bottom then type what you want in the box, then click other and type in your name so I know who posted what. Simple.

Where is Bounds?

Links and cool stuff in an evening

I haven't been online very much in the past couple days. When I got home from our youth Rec. program tonight, Corban was already asleep and Marjorie was busy watching Anne of Green Gables....so i spent some time looking around the internet and poking my nose in things a bit. Here are some of the cool things I found....

1. Matt from Spain posted a really cool link you need to check out! Put in your annual salary and see where you rank on a scale of world wealth. It's really cool. If you don't stop and think for a minute or two you're dead or something.

2. A guy I knew from college Keith Martel has a blog that he didn't update since like May or something....so I didn't check it often. During the summer he has decided that every day for a year he would post something. Pretty cool idea. I would love to say that i would do this.....but let's face it....a year is a long time...and I'm a slacker.

3. Last night we took Corban to a farm. The chaplin at the nursing home Mari works at owns the farm. He and his wife are just the coolest people. They took us to feed their pigs, goats, sheep and walk in their orchard. It was just really cool. Corban was amazed. They have a great philosophy of farming. Check them out here. Cindy gave us a SUPER COOL present of a handmade teddy bear made from their sheeps wool.

4. There's a scooter shop in Pittsburgh? What the heck? They charge a bit much though for what I need done.

5. My car is leaking anti-freeze

Sleep

When I was in college I ran on very limited sleep for long periods of time. I remember sleeping for two hours a night for a couple days running when I was writing a big paper once.

When did I become old? I'm a pansy when it comes to not getting sleep now. I'm only 31. Sheesh.

Catching my breath

I have a couple minutes to catch my breath and write. Sorry for the hiatus.

With school starting soon, that means that fall sports are starting up. With fall football, comes fall marching band. I have been the percussion instructor at a local high school for the past 6 years. Each year is a new adventure. You never know what you're going to have coming in to the first day. However this year is cool. I have some great kids who work hard and actually have rhythm....which helps. Marching band is taking up most of the day.

On the job front....It's 95% official that I will be working part-time at Pleasant Community Church. (Even though their website is still advertising a full-time youth position). I'm pretty excited about this. The most often asked question about this move is "How will you be able to work part-time for two seperate churches?" Ok let me be honest and frank. I don't know. Here's what I fell though. God is doing some amazing things in the lives of teenagers in this area. God is moving in ways I haven't seen before in youth. Through a variety of circumstance over the last couple years, I feel that God is calling me more to the youth of this area, than he is to one church. By working for two churches, I am able to spend time with more youth, to talk to them, to minister to them. How will I work my hours? We're working that out. Honestly I think that youth ministry for any church should be full-time. I'm kind of looking at it like I'm doing full-time youth ministry, I now have more kids and they're a little more spread out.....which if you know Warren isn't saying much.

Corban is doing great. He has pretty much adjusted to everything thus far. His sleep patern is still a little screwy but it's getting better. He eats EVERYTHING we feed him. Seriously. He's getting much better at dealing with new people and new situations. Yesterday we took him for some shots. He was a champ. He cried more at the fact that he had to lay down on the table, than he did about the shots. They stuck him with 3 needles at the same time, and as soon as I picked him up he quit crying. What a trooper. I posted a couple pics HERE. I'll post more soon.

The goal is do some redesign of this baby real soon. I haven't updated my book reading or listening stuff since before Corban arrived....mostly because he sucks up a lot of time.

Blessings.

while you're waiting....

While you're waiting for me to get off my duff and get to posting again.......here's an article I ran across on one of the blogs I've been reading. I found it relivant mainly because I live in Warren County the place of 60+ churches and every year we lose population. Take a read.

UGH

I'm really behind in things I need to post here. In my head I'm trying hard to catch up...hopefully I'll actually be able to post what I need by mid-week. Sorry for the lag. Here's the skinny real quick....i will elaborate more later.

1. We went to Canada last weekend to see the in-law family.

2. It looks as if the part-time job interview I had last week went well enough. I got a call this morning that they would like to hire me on. I'm meeting with the pastor on Friday to talk about job descriptions and money etc.

3. My parents are here right now for two days.

4. Marching band starts this week. I am the percussion instructor....and as such must write numerous pieces of music in the next couple days.....and I haven't done much of it yet.

Blessings.

Possible new job

This will take the shape of general life information and prayer request. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I'm meeting with a Christian Ed. Committee for a local church who is considering hiring me as a part-time youth pastor.

While I'm excited at the prospect of working for this church because I think they're doing some really cool things.....it also raises a lot of questions. How do I divide my time between two churches? How will two different youth groups look like? Where do I go to church on Sunday morning?

And all that being said, I'm a firm believer that youth ministry is a full-time job, not part-time. I have expressed this to both churches. However neither are in a position (or choose to be in a position) to keep me full-time....at least for now. So how do "put all myself" into my ministry, when I can really only put part of myself into it.

If you could please pray that as we make these decisions. Also, I'm trying hard to take some Bible classes online, however Geneva is not being cooperative with my past classes there. Please pray that we can work this out soon, or I will lose my continuing ed. money by the end of the year. UGH.

Going bald

I think that I'm going bald. Not on the top of my head. On my chin. Currently I have between 8 and 9 inches of goatee going on. Since the arrival of Corban however, I have been losing chin hairs constantly.

Part of the problem is that he's pulling some out. The others just seem to be falling out. I believe that my chin is rubbing on his head....and they're coming out. But it could also be some stress issues.

Either way.......it's pretty much official, my chin is going bald. (picture is not me)

Cache #1000

You may or may not know that I have been obsessed with Geocaching for a little more than two years now. If you don't know what geocaching is....basically it's like modern day treasure hunting.....except more often than not, you find it. All you need is a GPS and access to the internet. Someone hides a container somewhere and puts the coordinates on the internet. You put the coords in your GPS and go find it. Then you sign the log and put it back for other people to find.

ANYWAY....For the first year and a half of my geocaching I was pretty focused on going geocaching any chance I had. I would go on day long caching trips while Mari was at work. We also did a lot of hikes together on days off. It was my stress relief. I've done as many as 32 in a day before. Well back in April I did my 950th geocache. The problem is that every 50th cache I've tried hard to make it something really cool to remember. Well with #1000 looming, I wanted to make it extra special......but how?

I decided that #1000 would be with Corban. It would be his first geocache and our 1000 all at the same time. There is a Kids Cache very near our house that I've intentionally not done for two years believing that someday I would take some kids with me to do it. Well I did.....my kid! But when was he coming? How long would I have to wait? I've done 50 in a week before....how would I spread 50 out until Corban arrived? It was HARD!

My stress relief, geocaching, couldn't be my stress relief. So while I was stressed out waiting for my son to arrive, I was doubley stressed because I couldn't geocache much. But that was all remidied this week.

A kid in my youth group who is also a geocacher tagged along for the outing and made it pretty special in his own way. This was a blast. You can read the log and view more of the pictures HERE.

Corban gibbering

For those of you who aren't satisfied with just pictures....here's a short video clip of Corban gibbering nonsense. We play back and forth with this.

Happy boy.

Make Me Christianity

Mari had me read this article in the last Christianity Today. She's always asking me to read stuff, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. This one was great. A good challenge to Western Christianity. I was challenged on the youth level. In youth ministry there's such an emphasis on mission trips. And so many of them are based on the "go fix it" mentality. "Us smart Americans are going to fix your country for you because we're so wealthy." I loved the part where he talked about instead of being "fix it" Christians, we become "Lord make me" Christians. WOW I've been passing this article on to a lot of friends in ministry.....now I'm passing it on to you.

The Story

Well here goes nothing. Hopefully this won't be a novel.

TUESDAY JULY 11th Marjorie and I drove to my parents house after work. This would allow us to see my parents a little bit, since we haven't really seen them since Easter. The idea was also that we would relax a bit before "the hurricane" hit.

WEDNESDAY JULY 12TH We flew out of the Pittsbugh airport at 5:30 pm after some delays because of weather. We flew to Washington DC on a little tiny prop plane. The plane was packed, but we were one step closer to our son. We arrived in DC....found the shuttle for our hotel, and away we went. After checking into the hotel, we figured out that there was a Thai restaurant not far from the hotel. Our last meal. So we got a cab and had some of the BEST Thai food, I've had outside of my trip to Thailand. Maybe I was just really hungry though. Back to the hotel so Marjorie could swim a bit and early to bed. BIG DAY TOMORROW

THURSDAY JULY 14TH We woke up at 6:45 am. Corban's flight was suppose to land at 8:10. Grabed a shower and for some reason I felt I needed to post quickly. That made us late. There are shuttles from the hotel and the top and bottom of every hour. We missed the 7:30 one because of me so we had to wait until 8. We get to the airport and found where Customs was. Then we located a screen with his flight information (see top line of picture). Once again our son was LATE! He can't be on time for anything!

After some time his plane finally was on the ground and he was in Customs. The only thing between us and him was a couple walls. After about an hour, out walks 4 girls 2escorts and one CORBAN! (actually he was carried out) At first he wanted nothing to do with us. He would only go to Mohammed (the escort). But after two hours Marjorie forced the issue and Mohammed left. After some crying he calmed down a bit and was good for her. Then we were off to get ticketed again. We had some time to kill before our flight. The weird part was that it seemed all the employees of the airport seemed to know we had just got him. They smiled and talked real nice etc. One hour plane trip home and Grandma and Grandpa met us at the airport. He slept the entire plane ride back to Pittsburgh and the car ride to my parents house.

FINALLY HE's in our arms. Without boring you with all the details of the last couple days I'll hit some key points. He knows Marjorie and I and is very comfortable around us. Everyone else, he's not too keen on. He gets real shy and doesn't respond to anything. It took my parents two days before he got close to them at all....and even then he didn't want long hungs or held by them.

His sleep paterns are messed up still. Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead as witnessed by the clocks at the right. So 3am is 7am to him. We're slowly working on it though. He eats everything. he's not a picky eater at all. He doesn't put things in his mouth. What I mean is, unless it's food, he doesn't put it in his mouth. If he's not sure it's food he won't put it in his mouth. He had to watch me eat a blueberry before he had one. He likes to make noise, he likes placing toys either away in containers or on counter tops. He has an amazing laugh. He's learned to give kisses. He likes being flipped upside down. He LOVES his stroller and his sandals. Right now he's sitting in his stroller sleeping. He won't get out. He also doesn't want his sandals off either.

BOTTOM LINE: I won't say that this was worth the wait. The waiting sucked and there's no denying that. HOWEVER.....he is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. As we are faithful to God, He was faithful to us and we now have a cute little boy running around our house. Thank you for praying for us over the last couple years. Please continue to pray for us and Corban as he is still adjusting to a lot of new things.....basically everything. Also, be warned that there's a good chance that I'll be posting a bundle of pictures here of him over the next 18+ years!

Real Quick

It's just after 10pm and I can't remember when the last time I was this tired was. This is going to be quick. I'll write more later when I have a minute to catch my breath.

Corban is in our arms. He's the most beautiful thing either of us has ever seen. He's still very jumpy and taking a long time to get used to us. He made major progress today. He's super shy around new people. We're working on getting his clock in line. We kept him up tonight so maybe he'll sleep a little longer.

Ok i really gotta get some sleep. i'll fill everyone in more later. please don't stop praying for us now!!!!!!