Where I Live: 4 by 4 Part 2

I've wondered this before: I want people to come visit us. No one ever does. Is that because I post this section? Possibly. OH well.

So I'd like to remind you of the original 4 by 4 post in the Where I Live section. It was a pick-up that had some great camouflage accents.

I can top that. Just have some of your vehicle so that animals and people can't see it, isn't good enough. We need the whole dang thing done.

My friend Katie

So in my last post I once again mentioned my friend Katie. She has now appeared a few times here. You'll remember that Katie did a cool photoshop of Tobiah at Christmas time. You'll also remember that in a post of a cool art video, I mentioned that Katie had written a book and it's wicked funny and you should buy it.

Well Katie's at it again.

She designed the logo for Opening Day T-shirts for the Altoona Curve minor league baseball team! So if that's not cool enough....by winning she gets to throw out the first pitch on Opening DAY!!!!! How rad is that? Check out the logo and info here.

So Katie's been training. I mean who wants to bounce one across the plate? So while looking for something else, I found a blog from one of Katie's friends who's been helping her train. Check it out!

I was going to try get down to Altoona for the opening pitch, but it's Maundy Thursday and my job kind of requires me to be in Warren. Good luck Katie! So stoked for you!!!

Black and White

By now unless you're living under a rock or just never listen to the news or read, you've heard about the shooting of Trayvon Martin 17. At this point there is lots of speculation about what really happened, but I'm going to just outline what we definitely know.

Trayvon was walking home with a bag of Skittles from the store. Trayvon was African American. He was shot by a white community watch leader because he looked "suspicious". Apparently there had been some break-ins in the area.

I wasn't there. I don't know the situation. I don't want to judge......I really don't. I'm struggling here.

What was so suspicious about Trayvon? He was wearing a hoodie? I"m sitting at Tim Horton's right now wearing a hoodie. Granted I'm regularly suspicious. Was it the way he was holding his Skittles? He could seriously do some damage with that rainbow of fruit flavor.

Honestly this whole story isn't about any of that for me. What it's really about is my boys growing up in a white world and preparing them.

Right now Corban and Tobiah are cuties and well behaved. Pretty much everywhere we go they are recognized by how cute or handsome they are. But they're going to grow up.

How do I teach my boys to "not look suspicious". Why should I have to? I have to teach them to keep your hands where they can be seen. I have to teach them to not run with a hoodie on at night even if you're a runner training for a race.

My friend Katie (who I've regularly plugged on my blog) sent me a link to another blog article written by a mom of two adopted boys from Haiti. In the post she talks about how she feels she needs to dress her boys "up". She says that if she takes them out grubby, even though white kids can get away with it as fashionable, they are looked down on or pitied. I wouldn't say that I've experienced that....but we usually dress our boys rather nicely anyway. And honestly, our boys like to dress up (there new thing is bow ties....they both love bow ties.....if you have a lead on cheap bow ties, let us know). But as they grow up, and I have less and less say on what they're wearing....why should I have to teach them that certain clothes say "suspicious"?

Literally as I'm typing this, CNN is playing on a TV over my head. The news flash that the "New Black Panthers" have a bounty on Trayvon's shooter. COME ON! Do I want to see justice done? Yes I do. Do I think that another shooting is going to bring that? NO I DON'T! Is race still an big deal? You better believe it. Would Trayvon been shot or looked suspicious if he was white? I don't know. I wasn't there. I have a gut feeling that it would've gone another way.

Where do you come out on this? What are you teaching your children?

EDIT: My wife just posted this link on Facebook to another blog post by a mom to Trayvon's mom. Very well done.

ADD and A.C.T.S. prayer

Hi my name is Aaron and I have ADD.

You don't have to read my blog long or spend much time with me to know that. I've been taught to live with it. Sometimes I'm organized and focused.....other times....not so much. I actually believe there are time that my ADD helps me. There are times where the way my brain works allows me to picture things, or multi-task differently. It's cool. I always talk about working at the taxi office and dispatching. We had a board, just a blank board, with little sticky notes on them that showed all the cars by number, and then all the calls. When other dispatchers saw a board with information, my brain saw a map of the area that we serviced. I could see visually where each call was picking up and dropping off. I moved cars around so that there was the least amount of dead driving. My boss who ran the company couldn't understand why I would line calls up that way and would make $.25 bets with me that I couldn't clear the board. He never won.

All that said, I've always struggled with "quiet time" with Jesus. My brain just bounces around. I'm good if I'm reading but just sitting still or just being in prayer is always problematic. I used to really beat myself up about it. There I was attempting to be in God's presence and I was thinking about doing the laundry or getting the oil changed. On some level I came to the peace that God's word says that he knows me intimately. If that's true then he knows my ADD brain too. I almost saw God chuckling when we were hanging out and I got distracted....like, "Well there goes Aaron again."

A couple months ago a pastor friend of mine posted something about hoping God didn't get frustrated with his ADD brain. His former youth pastor (and a Geneva alum) who I casually knew posted this great link. It's about praying through the ACTS prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) when you have ADD. The long and short of the article is that, I can't give up and throw in the towel....but rather re-structure this prayer for my ADD brain so that it makes sense.

Before I drop the link on you, I want to say this: 1. I don't feel that I need to use the ACTS model regularly, but the articles principles go beyond this. 2. For me the article was freeing in a lot of ways. It got me thinking about how to spend quality time with Jesus in ways that will work better for me. It's partially about Jesus knowing my ADD brain, but it's also about me knowing my ADD brain and setting myself up for success rather than distraction.

Here's the link. Even if you don't have ADD it's a really good read. Help a friend with ADD!

Footprints in the Sand

This was a video one of the Simply Youth guys used during the convention. I know you will laugh.

Footprints from HSM on Vimeo.

SYMC: Derwin Gray

The convention is over and I'm home. I started getting sick toward the end of the convention and have been down and out since home. I'm gonna try to catch up and be done with this in the next couple days.
Derwin Gray brought it strong. Clearly a dynamic speaker and pastor. Derwin just brought 8 guidelines that he uses in his life and ministry and asked us to contemplate their use in our lives. Here they are.

1. I was not born to be a student ministry leader. I was born to worship and adore Jesus.
-I am infected with Grace and the symptoms are getting worse!

2. I find my identity in being a beloved child of God
-Is my ministry and idol?
lies I"m being told...."I'm not doing enough" "you're not trying hard enough" "if you did more, your numbers would be bigger"

3. My wife and children are a priority over my church. I am called to love and date my wife. I am called to care for my children and raise them to be men of God.

4. Try to have a high view of people.
Love them =to see God's story in them.
our job is shepherding them into the future and be the transformation

5. Have wise people speak into your life?
-Who is speaking into my life? Who knows me and loves Jesus and thus can speak wisdom to me?

6. Be learners.
-Read. Learn. Learn outside of your field of study.

7. Keep short accounts
-forgive the way Jesus forgave us
-small memory
-we need to forgive ourselves too. We regularly can't release ourselves from our own sin and screw ups.
-when we don't forgive ourselves we're calling Jesus a liar....that he didn't do what he said he did.

8.Exercise, eat healthy, rest
-our care is more than just for our soul, but our body needs to be cared for as well.

To close Derwin asked some hard questions and made some tough statements:

-Do I love Jesus more than I love my ministry?
-Is my heart a garden of grace or a field of weeds?
-We can get good at ministry without Jesus.....and be miserable.

SYMC: Chan and Accuf

I'm going to attempt to catch up by combing last night's opening general session with tonight's general session. Both were awesome and rocked my socks. Here are just some general things I grabbed.

Francis Chan: He really encouraged us to let go of our youth ministry. To stop being the focal point. He said "If God's not going to do something awesome without you being there, it's gonna fail anyway". He challenged us about what we were thinking about being way. Are you stressed that youth group won't run right? You don't need to be there! God can do what God's going to do without you being there.

Can I just say how stoked I am to get home and here how awesome a job Eric did teaching tomorrow night! I know he's gonna knock it out of the park!

One thing I liked that he said, "There's nothing I can do to MAKE someone fall in love w/ Jesus. I'll be honest and say that I've fallen into that pit. I've thought that if I just work harder and do better at connecting, and have the best games, or message I'll get kids to love Jesus. I can't MAKE them love Jesus, I can only lead them there.


Tonight was awesome. I personally think that tonight was better than last night. SYMC has these times where real youth workers who are in the trenches speak to everyone. They've been OK. Tonight's though were AWESOME. They just kicked my butt. A guy named Darren Sutton reminded us that we are suppose to run the race hard (sorry Jim Baker) and if we throw in the towel and give up what will we wipe our faces with from running hard. LOVED IT. Darren's wife then spoke about, as leaders caring for our spouses not because they can help us in our ministry, but because they are our ministry. HARD stuff.

John Acuff is funny. You might know him from his blog Stuff Christians Like. I like his stuff. I didn't know if he was going to be a good speaker. HOLY SMOKES. Personally I think he kicked Francis Chan's butt.

John talked about how he sees there being two voices that we hear.

The first voice is the external voices. He said that he has something called Critics Math. Critics Math goes like this: 1 insult + 1000 compliments = 1 insult. We can't drink that poison fast enough.

The second voice is the Internal Voice. Voices of doubt. Not good enough.

-God is not surprised or disappointed w/ your youth ministry.
-The Creator of the Universe knows my name...you don't get more famous than that. I need to quit attempting to be famous and remember who I am.
-Never compare your beginning with someone elses middle. When I'm just learning how to do something I can't compare myself to someone else who's better at it because they've been doing it for a long time.

SO DANG GOOD.

Oh and I had some great Pad Thai tonight.

SYMC Day 2: Hurting Kids and a Tornado

I'm splitting my day into two halves because that's how it was.

The conference itself didn't technically start until tonight at 6:45 with the first general session. But I sure didn't want to drive 8 hours and still hope my brain worked for the first session. So I drove yesterday. BUT since I was already here I took one of the intensive Pre-Conference tracks.

I chose a workshop called Helping Hurting Kids. It's the one area of ministry where I don't always feel super equipped. I don't know that everything I heard today was immediately applicable, but I feel much more ready.

The pre-conference workshops are super intensive. Basically 6 hours of information. It was intense. My brain became fried. I couldn't take any more. I literally couldn't handle more.

While all the information was good....the things I grabbed most were about me, my general ministry, my calling and my own walk with Jesus. I was reminded that I am not only called, but I am anointed. That I am a disciple maker. Then when I'm talking with students I'm on holy ground. I am talking with people who God created in his image. Heavy stuff.

During our afternoon session something awesome happened. A little bell dinged and a guy came over the PA system and told us we had to leave because there was a tornado warning. So we all left our class and went downstairs....to find chaos. No one knew what was going on. So we walked down to the underground parking garage....to find no one there. We went back upstairs, milled around, talked to the security guard (who knew nothing). Then I got to witness the guy making the announcement that a tornado watch was in effect (and I took our picture!)

Finally able to go back to class. Crazy that such a big facility has no plan for something like this.

Simple Youth Ministry Convention Day 1: The Drive

Let me tell you day yesterday short and sweet

-Picked up rental car. Got upgraded. Nice.
-Saw ENT for throat issue.
-Picked car.
-Tim Horton's
-Drive
-Stop at Chipotle south of Cleveland....texting Pastor Mike until he chastises me for texting and driving even though I wasn't! HA
-Drive
-Gas
-Get stuck in crappy Columbus OH traffic
-Get stuck in crappy Cincinnatti traffic
-Gas
-Drive
-Arrive. I"m not staying in the convention hotel. I'm saving hundreds of dollars by staying 5 minutes across the river in Indiana. I come to my hotel and I'm literally THE ONLY car there.
-Went into Louisville and met Nancy my friend form St. Louis and got a pizza and chatted.
-Bed