Dream

This is my dream. 

A dude who works for the Sabres, got a one day contract to be the back up goalie because they traded their goalie (Ryan Miller) away and didn't have time to call anyone up from their AHL team.  So a guy who works in an office (plays rec league hockey) gets to suit up for the Sabres.  I know it's corny but I got all emotional watching this video.

UGH

I am sick.  I am stressed and going a million miles a minute.  Things are piling up.  The blog gets put on the shelf.  But who's reading this anymore anyway?

3/17 Monday Update

the weekend that was:
-My parents came to our house Friday afternoon.  Which was great as I've been stuck at home with E and T for the past two weeks with T being sick.  The boys had a great time with Grandma and PaPa. 
-I was pretty tired Friday night.  But it was good to talk to Mom and Dad.
-Saturday was E's 3rd birthday.  Fun was had.  He's such a cutie.
-Mom and dad left mid-day.  They're on their way to Florida this week.  It must be nice to be retired.
-Saturday night the boys played Mario Party on the N64.  Mari and I watched Captain Philips. 
-Sunday was Sunday. 
-Mari and I watched "Safety Not Guaranteed."
-Weekend over

where i am at the moment: Tim Horton's.  I have two hours without boys....for the first time in two weeks. 

on my to-do list this week:  Lots of contacting people.  E-mails, texts, facebook, phone calls.

procrastinating about: DENTIST

book I'm in the midst of: Nothing.  I know that that's not a good thing.  I need to get on something.

media that seemed to catch my attention this past week: See yesterday's post if you haven't already.

grand revelations this past week:  As a pastor sometimes I get so wrapped up in teaching students simple truths about God that I don't take the time to recognize those simple truths in my own life.  I know them as true, but don't let them sink into my heart.

how i’m feeling about this week:  I'm stoked about this coming weekend!

Cake and Electrodes

I don't usually say "THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER".  I might say....this is pretty funny.  But I'm here to tell you that this is FUNNY.  This video is 8 minutes long and I literally laughed the entire way through it.  Actually, I had to stop it a couple times because I was laughing so hard my head hurt and I was coughing uncontrollably.

Basically these two dudes hooked electrodes to their arms and baked a cake.  Then a friend joins them to eat it.  Simple premise.  Hilarious in practice.




EDIT:  Upon a second watch....I didn't laugh quite as hard.....but it's still funny.    So I still probably wouldn't say one of the funniest things EVER....but still really funny.

SYMC: Saturday

It's now 11:38pm Saturday night.  We lose an hour tonight....so really it's 12:38.  It's been a long day.

So let me just say that today wasn't the greatest day ever.

Some of the best parts of today weren't workshops or general sessions....but conversations with friends who are in youth ministry.  Laughing and sharing and listening to each other is amazing.

Breakfast went long with some friends.  Lunch was long with friends.   Dinner was long with friends.  Each was quality.  And therapeutic.

The morning general session was pretty bad.  The music was great.  The speaker they had was horrible.  I mean HORRIBLE.  I'm constantly self-evaluating.  I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at.  I'm more than willing to tell you the things I'm good and bad at.  I don't feel like I"m that good at too many things.  When I can say, "I could've done that better", you know you've done a bad job.  I could've done that better.  Dude was BAD.

Bad how?  He literally said nothing.  He self-promoted his program in LA.  He told us that burning out isn't a real thing.  Kind of a bummer.

The afternoon session I picked was about new technology.  It was OK.  I knew a lot of what he was presenting.  I did come away with some new ideas and resources to check out moving forward.  My friend Jim could've probably presented the workshop.

Tonight's session was awesome.  Great worship with Justin Howerton Band.  Then the Skit Guys.  Then Gungor rocked out.  The speaker tonight was Gary Haugen who works for International Justice Mission.  He reminded us that part of God's character is Justice.  That we are to be about seeking justice too.  GOOD STUFF.

Tonight we went to the Skit Guys late night option and laughed for 2 hours.  I needed that.  And at the end they reminded me that I love my students.


I think I'll be looking for a better day tomorrow.  However today was refreshing. 

SYMC: Friday

Today was long.

Basically this.....T has been sick all week.  Last night I had decided I wasn't going to make SYMC.  This morning he wakes up and was great all morning.  Made some last minute plans and packing and away I went.

I met my buddy Chuck in Grove City and we drove together from there.  Great conversation the whole way out.

So we pull in to the hotel with about an hour to spare.  We get out of the truck and who is walking down the street toward us.....Jim and Sarah.   Jim is the youth pastor at the church my dad pastored until he retired.  So cool.  Not only that.....their room is across the hall from ours.  WILD.

So we start walking to the convention center and we get to the front of the Hyatt (where the convention is) and one of the valet's points to me and says, "that's my country".  I was wearing my Ethiopia soccer jersey.  So after I got off the phone I greeted him as Ethiopian's do and we chatted awhile about ET.  So fun.

So tonight's opening session was good.  The main speaker was Jo Saxton.  Jo didn't say anything that i didn't know.....but she said it out loud and my ears heard it as if it was fresh.

She talked about Discipleship. 
She reminded me that I am a Child of God.
She reminded me that I need people in my life looking after my well-being.
She reminded me that I need to be bold enough to ask for help sometimes.

The one phrase she used that I liked was that the ceiling of my life will be the floor of my students and my children's lives.  The idea being that I desire them to succeed so much more than me.  That I want them to dream bigger than me.

A great beginning.  Probably one of the best first nights I've been to.  Quality.

SYMC: It's coming!!!!!

This coming Friday, I'm headed to Columbus Ohio for Simply Youth Ministry's youth convention.  I'm pretty darn excited.  Basically this is a couple days with a couple thousand people much like myself. 

On the whole this is intended to be a great time of learning.  And I know that I will learn some new things.  However, I've been in youth ministry for somewhere around 18 years now.  I can't see that I'm going to drastically re-design how I do youth ministry.  I use these opportunities to refresh.  To hear things that I KNOW are true, but need someone to tell me them.  To reconnect with some old friends.

To be honest when I was going to big youth conventions like this years ago, I was seeing person after person that i went to college with.  These days most of the people that started youth ministry with me, are now doing something else.  Most are still in ministry, but are senior pastors, or associates, or worship leaders, or children's pastors.  So there's a little less "catching up" as there use to be.  But I'm hanging out with a good buddy, and will be meeting up with some other friends while there.

So my goal is to blog throughout the convention like I did two years ago.  That means that this weekend there should be several posts up about where I'm at and what I'm doing.

VERY good chance that there will be numerous tweets as well.  If you're not following me there, I'm @biggoalie31

I'm also now on Instagram.  Not sure what I'm doing with that....but I'm working on it.  If you wanna follow there it's also   biggoalie31

3/3 Monday Update

the weekend that was:
-My weekend was pretty all inclusive.  I left Friday for a retreat with teenagers.  The ride out was actually pretty cool. One of the other chaperone's Josh was with me in my van.  Great conversation about Jesus and the Bible. 
-Really good weekend with students.  Fun was had, but the kids were great.  We didn't have to be annoying old people and get on anyone's case.
-My van was dead when I went to leave Sunday.  Fun.
-Stopped at Chipotle on the way home....seriously fun.
-Nap at home and then Connections
-Then after a weekend away, I had a late night hockey game......a playoff game no less.  I played a great game.  No regrets.  We lost 2-1.  That'll be my last game this season.  Always a bit sad.

where i am at the moment: Home

on my to-do list this week:  I'm headed to a youth conference this Friday, so I only have a few days to get it all done.  Stuff keeps getting backed up.

procrastinating about: DENTIST

book I'm in the midst of: Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo.  I actually haven't read anything in a week.

media that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Nothing new really.

grand revelations this past week:  I know I've said this before....but I'm getting old.  Spending a weekend with teenagers isn't what it used to be.  I used to get excited about it....yeah staying up late and doing silly things.  Now it's like, "ugh, lack of sleep".

how i’m feeling about this week:  I'm stoked about this coming weekend!