NYWC

This past weekend I went to the National Youth Worker's Convention in Nashville, TN. I flew out of Lynchburg and met up with Matt in Charlotte. We chilled in the airport for a few minutes and ate Burger King, then went to board the plane for our 1:20 flight. It was 1:15 and we were there to board, staring out the window at our plane, but they wouldn't let us board b/c they had already closed the doors. We had to wait till the next flight to Nashville at 4. We finally arrived in Nashville around 5:30 and met up with Greg.

This was my first time really hanging with Greg, and I am really glad I got to know him on this trip. He is a cool guy, really chill, reflective on things, funny. We all went out to Taco Bell, then to the convention center to register, check out all the stuff going on. We played Rock Band, jumped on the trampolene where it is attached to bungee cords and u can do flips, check out lots of display tables, and lots more. Then we went back to the hotel and hung out.


Friday we hit the convention in time for the general session. We were staying at the Millenium Maxwell house, which has free shuttle to and from the airport, and also to and from the convention center. I love free, but as we realized the shuttle has some slight drawbacks. In the morning it was always pretty easy to catch, but at night we would wait for almost 20 minutes and then crowd in with others in order to ride back. At one point 7 of us crowded together in the back area where they put the luggage! The biggest drawback was that we could never stay for the late night events, unless we wanted to pay for a taxi, b/c the shuttle ended at 11pm. Anyway, back to Friday...

On Friday we made designated that I would be the JOD of the day. JOD is Jerk on Duty, and basically is the decision maker regarding where we are going to eat, etc. Greg took Saturday as JOD and Matt took Sunday. I went to the art room and made a house out of paper, and while there met two cool girls from I believe the Caaman Islands. The house was supposed to represent you and then u put it on a table with lots of other houses made by other people, to show community. Good idea...

The main session that morning was probably my favorite of the entire event. It consisted of worship by Mercy Me, speaker Francis Chan, and then a concert by David Crowder Band. This was my first time hearing Francis Chan, and I was blown away. He had interesting insights into things about Jesus not trying for huge crowds, but being skeptical when they came, and speaking in parables not so that they get it, but so that they wouldn't get it...Wow. Look at the story of the parable of the sower. Then about how large crowds that aren't getting it aren't good for anything but saying look at my large crowd. He used salt to show this, how if salt loses it's flavor it isn't good for anything but to be thrown out, but u could have a big pile of worthless salt and say, look how big my pile is. He also talked about rethinking how church is done, do we really need huge buildings? He pointed out that the church in the Bible is so much different, out church today almost shouldn't even be called church. It is like calling people in an ice skating rink playing with hampsters soccer. U see it and go, that isn't soccer, where do I begin? The early church in Acts is an unstoppable force, and beatings and jail and martyrs do nothing to stop it. Our church today gets stopped pretty easy, just by ourself. the music isn't awesome, or there is dinner to eat, or someone changed the service time, and people get stopped. It is like the idea that we are in a spiritual battle is totally lost on a lot of the US church today, and we just think we show up Sunday morning we are awesome! Forget prayer, or giving, or dedication, or really trying to live like Jesus. We are fallen from the model set. It is a lot to think about, and so I bought the CD of his talk to chew on it some more.

Dave Crowder is lots of fun to watch in concert. He has a really good stage presence in getting the crowd involved with talking and joking with them, where a lot of musicians u wish they would just be quiet and go on to the next song. He has fun with it, and it is infectious. He played one song on a keytar, and one song on a converted Guitar Hero guitar, where the buttons have been configured to play actual guitar chords. Oh, and the start button is the sound of Mario hitting a brick and getting a coin, which his guitarist demonstrated with a running jump fist in the air.

We ended up going to a pizza place for dinner and getting meat pizza, and then we met up with KJ for the evening session. It was good to see my old roommate again. He is the same in some ways, and in some ways has changed for the better (family man, minister), and changed for the unique (hunts elk in Colorado, huge beard and dreds, does yoga). We listened to Shane Claiborne talk, in his surprising huge East TN accent. He started by singing a song about being proudly un-patriotic if it means supporting some of the sketchy things our government does and how our government is similar in ways to the Roman Empire. Interesting perspective, but I don't agree with it all. I think u can be patriotic and still love God, u just love God more than country. I do agree that we shouldn't wholeheartedly support all that our government does, especially if it goes against Christ. And there is a lot that does. Then he talked about living with the homeless, a lot I had read with Irresistable Revolution. He closed by showing a cool clip of a guy that had been inspired by him, won two cars on the Price is Right, sold both back to the dealerships, and used the money to go to Rwanda and help at an orphanage there for 6 months. Definately inspiring.

A fellow named Andrew Marin came up and spoke about reaching out to Gay and Lesbians. His story was that he had 3 best friends in HS, and they all turned out to be gay, and so he decided to live in the gay and lesbian community and be "the gayest striaght person" to undertand their community and how to reach them. Among his points were don't call them homosexuals, just gay or lesbian. Love them, reach out where they are. Don't tell them it is a sin, they already know. I agree with a lot of his points, but not the never confront their sin part. If it were any other sin the church wouldn't see it this way, we would be trying to show love for the person while encouraging them to turn away from their sin, whatever it may be. Vince Antonucci and his church at Forefront have done it this way. To me just showing love and not stating homosexuality is a sin opens the door for those in denominations that feel now that it isn't a sin and that openly gay and practicing individuals become leaders of the church. I know every church leader has a sin they struggle with, but the key is that they struggle with it, they don't just say it is okay and pretend it isn't a sin in the name of love. Still, I agree with him that more love could be shown to the gay and lesbian community by the church.

Next up was Tony Campolo pushing that America is like Babylon in Revelation. The greatest on Babylon on earth, but Babylon nonetheless. And it is falling. And this causes the people to panic in the Bible, but it causes the angels to rejoice. And it is during this time that Jesus' sermon on the mount starts to make the most sense. Not from a capitolistic perspective, but from a godly perspective. And that now is the time to realize that storing up treasures on earth when there are so many needs around us is probably not what God meant when he said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust (and falling 401k's) destroy...but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matt. 6:19-21 Instead as our economy struggles and job will be lost, let us now look at how to better serve those in the congregation that might be losing jobs, need help paying the bills, etc, and then look at helping those in the community do the same.

After the sessions we went back to the hotel, and KJ hung with us and we talked about different approaches to ministry. KJ's church is a megachurch, but they are trying to grow out of their building and instead do mostly housechurches, and let the building be a Boys and Girls club or whatever. He is taking pay cuts every year and having people in the congregation support him with the rest of the bills. Interesting perspective, I don't think it would work at Edgewood, but the idea is moving from the west (Francis Chan spoke of doing the same thing). Still in the Bible belt that would be very unlikely now. 20 years from now, we'll see if it begins to catch on here.

Saturday I checked out the prayer room. It was great, with lots of different prayer stations, including a place to trace your handprint, write a request in it, and then put your hand on someone else's print and pray for them, a art table to draw/sculpt a prayer, a prayer wall, a rest area, a lily to stop and literally consider the lily, and a circular station in the middle to rest, read the Bible, etc. It was a great time of spiritual refreshing, and I would love to do something like that at my church.

I check out 2 Seminars while there. One was Barry Shafer's "Developing a Hunger for God's Word in Students" and the other was Les Christie's "dealing with rude, obnoxious, and apathetic kids." Both were good, but I won't go into much detail here since I have the notes. If u are actually reading this and interested in what they said just leave me a message and I'll let u know.

Mark Yaconelli spoke on the Soul. He spoke about what it is: The place where u are deeply yourself, where God dwells (that makes u a temple). It remians alive, awake, a place of knowing truth. It is where u encounter the true God. what it is like: 1) it is in constant wonder, it is attentive to the 10000 wonders we see daily. It doesn't like to hurry, it likes us to stop and recover wonder. 2) it grieves for the grief of others. when we grow numb to news of death from war, our soul still grieves. (an early Christian practice was to pray to cry, for your heart to break, for u to feel your soul again. that idea kind of makes me uncomfortable, which makes me think I need to do it. but i don't know if i actually will, because again I amuncomfortable with the idea. I just don't like crying.) 3) it waits for joy. Yaconelli shared how God can use different things to bring joy to a hurting soul, like disco music to a 13 year old boy, and then he danced for us. It was a trip.

Somewhere the night before I got conficted to really give to the poor, and so I put it into practice Saturday. I went to the different booths and got lots of free stuff, loaded up a bag, and then went to give it away to homeless people in Nashville. I talked with one homeless guy in particular, who called himself Shredder b/c of the way he played the guitar, and told him the lyrics to the 3rd verse of Amazing Grace, which he wanted to sing on the street for money since all of these Christians were around. I gave away lots of candy, a starbucks giftcard, shirts, a hat, a red bull, books, and money. And it felt great! It truly is better to give than receive.

That night we went to Spaghetti Factory for dinner, and talked about RBC a lot. Then we went to the evening session, which included Lincoln Brewster worship and a talk by Francis Collins. He is a Christian geneticist who did work on the human genome project, and believes that their has to be a God b/c of the evidence he sees in genome patterns. However, he also believes in evolution. He pointed to evidence including the fact humans need vitamin C b/c our GULO seems to be defective. He said he reconciles this with the Bible saying that God created the earth 13.7 billion yrs ago, but he is outside of time, and that Genesis is about God's nature as a creator, not scientific, and thus doesn't have to be read literally. If u know me u know I don't agree with this, I'm not going to get into the reasons here, but I do respect the man for following the evidence where it leads him and for genuinely being concerned that this issue would cause division among our body of believers. It is not an issue of salvation, and he had an interesting quote from St. Augustine that said something to the effect of "In matters far beyond our vision...don't develop a position that if it falls you fall in it."

Sunday we listened to Shane and Shane, who were great live, I had never listened to them before, and Matt and Greg said they wouldn't normally pop in their CD to listen to, but they were fabulous live. They led us in some of the most powerful worship of the weekend. the Skit guys were hilarious, they were their Sunday morning, evening, and Monday morning. they were by far my favorite entertainment. There were some corny illusionists called living illusions. The lady did great tricks, but her husband wasn't that good. And they both had really corny staged talking to the crowd, including a guys vs girls shouting match. I heard Kendall Payne for the first time, she sang just her in front of a piano playing, and she nailed it. Beautiful voice, and a interesting love song where she talked about how she and her husband would fail each other time and time again b/c they aren't perfect, but their love would remain, and they would remain together and strong.

The General session main speaker on Sunday was Mike Pilavachi. He is from England and talked about how Jesus trained the disciples for ministry by having them help with bits of it (like distributing the bread and fish at the feeding of the 5000 and moving the stone when he raised Lazarus, and giving them a test run on going out to cast out demons) and how we need to train students the same way. have them help with ministry. And it won't always be great, they aren't pros, but they will learn. And as u do this show them and tell them u love them, and that they are important to u and to God.

I skipped the Sunday evening gen session to go to the Prayer labyrith. It was totally worth it. It had 11 stations and u just go through and pray at each one, slowly, focusing. There are different things set up at some stations to help u concentrate, like a journal, a compass that is off north because of magnets, TVs, mirrors, communion, candles, and sand for footprints. I came back really spiritually refreshed and the guys told me I hadn't missed anything the main speaker was horrible. We watched Jars of Clay perform in concert, their singer gets really into it, constantly running or jumping, or lying on stage while singing. I got to hear them do Carry Me, but missed their older stuff, but it was totally worth it.

Monday morning Greg and Matt left, and I went solo to the final session. Mark Oestreicher, YM pres, spoke, and talked about how he had struggled before with the "stuff" ministry philosophy, and thought he reached the pinnacle of youth ministry when he rented out Universal studios and a water park for a back to school bash. But he talked with kids later and realized that those things were not what made the difference in their lives. They missed the circling up and sitting, talking about life, God, relationships, etc. It was communion (like community, but on a deeper level). His point was that the intersection of mission and communion is small (big is a western value), it is simple (not a huge complex program), it is fluid (not a 40 day packaged resource). It is about a person, not an idea. All about Jesus, and all these resources, etc are great but they can be distracting (said the president of YS, and the irony was not lost on him). We have all we need to reach teens. We are the equipment. Well said.

I spent the afternoon at the Frist (I got in for free with a text message) checking out famous photos and Rodin sculpture. Then it was back to the hotel and off to the airport. I got back to Roanoke around 1am (Tyler picked me up from the airport in Lynchburg), and stayed at the Workman's (the Wynne's were at our house). I'm really glad I was able to go this year, and we'll see about next year when it comes.

Palin, Halloween, RBC, and Barack

I've been meaning to post for a few days now. I went to see Sarah Palin in Salem Monday Oct. 27th. We stood outside at the football stadium, and waited for hours. We arrived at 3pm, and got on the field around 3:30pm. There was tons of funny buttons and signs (see the pictures). After listening to a few bands and 5 of six speakers Palin finally came out (she arrived just minutes before she came out). She walked out to the song 9 to 5 and gave a great speech, really putting into simple language the points of the Republican party. The economy was obviously the biggest issue, she talked about trying to bring real change through a spending freeze except on essentials, and pointed out that Democrats wanted to raise taxes on small buisnesses, which would hurt the economy. It was a cool experience even though she didn't end up becoming the VP. I think she'll be a big force in future Republican politics.

On Friday, Halloween, Sarah and I dressed up the kids. Isaiah was a bat and Lily was a butterfly. We went to Salem Church and took the Edgewood van, filled it with candy and gave it out for the Trunk or Treat. Then we went out with Sarah's parents to Zaxby's and ate. Afterwards we went home, Isaiah was so tired we laid him down asleep in his bat costume.

Sunday at youth group we did our second prayer walk. Going through the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication and just having the kids be still and know that he is God. We had a great turn out (22 kids from Salem and Edgewood, including lots of visitors) and God really used that time to get closer to a lot of those students. Some even thanked me for that when we left, and it rare that happens. I totally understand though, the stopping to pray for more than a minute is so unique for us, and it really does help us grow closer to God. So nothing to do with me, especially in that lesson. As usual, to God be the glory.

I took 3 students to Roanoke Bible College on Monday. We stopped at Five Guys along the way, ate their scrumpcous burgers and fries. We arrived Monday evening, talked with Jason and Ryan Dent, and watched some the Redskins getting beaten by the Steelers. BTW, have you heard the stat that when the Redskins play before the presidential election if they win the incumbent party wins, if the Redskins lose the incumbent party loses. It is always true, and it proved true yesterday, as the Redskins lost on Monday and the Republican party lost Tuesday. One of those interesting things you can't explain.

We also hung out playing pingpong, pool, foosball, etc that night. The next day we sat in on a public speaking class taught by Chris McCarthy, the kids couldn't believe he was older than me, he looks so young. He taught a great class, and then we went to chapel, only to be stopped by the smoke coming out of the chapel. Apparently the smoke machines had set off a fire alarm, and the fire department had to come, and chapel was canceled. We used the break to run to Starbucks and get a free coffee with my "I Voted" sticker that I saved from over a week ago when I absentee voted. We then sat in on Biblical Backgrounds, ate lunch in the cafeteria, hung out in the Student Development office and filled out surveys in the Coke or Pepsi book, and then went on a tour with Jason Woolard around campus. It was a great tour.

I got home and watched the presidential results, and saw that Barack Obama won the presidency. I have a few thoughts on this.
1 - I am not a hardcore Republican. I do normally vote that way because I am conservative and I tend to vote on moral issues like being pro-saving babies and not pro-killing babies legally (aka pro-life and not pro-abortion).
2 - My thoughts on Barack Obama are as follows. I think he is a great speaker, a person with tremendous charisma and an ability to appeal to a broad range of people. His lack of experience is a little disconcerting, but I think he will overcome it. My biggest thing is that he is SO liberal. Easily the most liberal member of the senate in the short time he was there.
3 - I was very happy for black America. I have grown up around black people most of my life, and I know they celebrated this election as a time of the fulfillment of MLK's I Have a Dream, as a time to show that the country has without a doubt forever changed.
4- I am supportive of Barack as he is the current president, and as a Christian will submit to the leader of my country unless his leading goes against the will of God. This is what we are instructed to do in the Bible and what I would do no matter which leader came into power.
We should be united as a nation.

5- Ultimately my faith does not lie in any president to change my life. Israel was supposed to follow God and be set apart, but they wanted a king like other nations. God relented and gave them what they wanted, though he told them it would not go well for them. He was their leader, not a king. In the same way, ultimately Jesus is my commander in chief.

Milligan Homecoming

This past weekend Sarah and I went to Milligan for our first Homecoming since we were students. It was our first time seeing the new Fine Arts center, which is very impressive. It is very large, great darkroom facilities, dressing rooms, a prop making room, green room, etc. We saw Alice Anthony and chatted some, then toured the campus to check out new stuff and changes we hadn't seen (dining room layout, communications building with new Macs in lab, Sub 7 changes, etc.) and try to see more professors. We also bought a new gray Milligan hoodie at the bookstore and saw Jon Toler. We hung out with Heather and Jess Friday evening, and ate at Fuddruckers (we also ate at Cheddar's for lunch. I suggested both places, and told Sarah it was "eat where she wants weekend.") We stayed in the Holiday Inn, which was our first time staying in a hotel with both kids. We brought two pack and plays and had Isaiah sleep in one in the bathroom, that way when Lily woke up in the middle of the night crying it wouldn't wake him up.

The next morning we went to the Fine Arts center for a faculty alumni reunion, and got to see Mrs. Shields, Dr. Knowles, and the Magness' (Magni). Everyone loved Isaiah and Lily. Mrs. Shields thought Lily looked very smart and was going to be "a good one." We hung out with Heather some more, then went to the mall to eat and kill time before the class of 2003 reunion at 2:30. The mall at Johnson City is alot better now, lots of new stores, including Dicks. We bought the kids some clothes at Sears, then went to the reunion. It was great catching up with old friends. I saw Jason, John, Fudge, Jen, Heather, Tony, and lots of others. Then I caught up with Sarah and the kids outside by the kids blow up games. I took Isaiah on a blow up obstacle course with a wall climb and a fast slide, and then we talked with Kristin Colson, who is doing art therapy. After we hit the road we stopped in Wytheville and ate, then went to Old Navy and took advantage of amazing sales. We got a Halloween costume for Lily for $5 , tons of other clothes cheap for the kids, and I got shirts for $2 each! We got home exhausted, but happy we went. It was neat to see a place from the past (like when we were dating) in the present (married over 6 years and with 2 kids). I look forward to going again sometime.

IMPACT 2008

This weekend was the SMOV Impact 2008, the first one held in VA Beach and the first one since I've been at Edgewood. It was a memorable trip. The speaker was Mark Christian, he did a really good job with the Simple theme in getting across that we need to control our lusts , that we are valuable to Jesus, and that it is really pretty simple, who are you going to follow. The tshirts are probably the best I've seen by SMOV, and they offered them in 3 colors (I got light blue)
We brought 3 students, and had a great time. Highlights of the trip include:
1) The praise band The Post, featuring lead singer Daniel Dabney, who I went to Milligan with.
2) Seeing friends from Olivet like the Lane's (parents and kids), Jaimie Sigmon, the Robinsons (including Chris, who is a senior now!), Kevin Crowder, and Phillip Dunn.
3) The Sunrise service on the beach, singing and praying to God through song by myself.
4) Playing Kemps for the first time (quoting Bible verses as a signal)
5) Eating at California Dough Boy Pizza (a steak, chicken, ham, and bacon pizza). Dude lost our ticket for a while, so we got a discount too.
6) Kevin and Mike playing football on the beach while Zack and I played Cornhole.
7) The RBC pizza party
8) The pools and hot tub in the Holiday Inn
9) Lots of fast food, including Arbys, Burger King, Chick Fil A, Taco Bell, and KFC, and multiple times to 7 Eleven.
10) The van breaking down on Saturday night, getting it towed to Beach Ford at 2am.
11) Looking for a ride Sunday morning, and finding New Castle Christian Church thanks to Sherrie. New Castle was awesome! They not only gave us a ride but gave us food and drinks on the bus, and also paid for us to go to the VA Beach aquarium.
12) The aquarium, including the IMAX movie, the sharks, the sting rays
13) The loud laughing ladies of New Castle.

Revival

Tonight is the second night of our revival, being preached by one of Edgewood's very own "Timothy's" Jason Cole. He is a pretty cool guy, and I enjoyed hearing him preach yesterday. I just wanted to note verbatim how he ended his message last night.

"In keeping with the political theme popular these days, my name is Jason Cole, and I approve this message."
hilarious!
Edgewood does this cool thing where the preacher, youth minister, and revival guest speaker all go out with their families during the revival. Multiple times. Last night, after the revival, we all went to Famous Anthony's. Tonight, it is Shakers. YES! I'm off to eat.

The Edgewood Student Ministries Logo (see the hands)

Thanks a Million Books A Million!

My parents came to visist Wednesday night and stayed through Saturday. It was good to see them, it had been over a month since they had seen us, so Lily has really grown a lot since then. They came in time for church Wednesday night. On Thursday we went to the Transportation museum, which has lots of model trains running through little cities, including a replica of old Roanoke. They also have lots of old classic cars, and trains you can walk on. It is a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours in Roanoke.
We went out to eat with them twice, to the Harbor Inn (my first time there, good seafood) and to Shakers. We mostly just hung around the house Friday since it rained so much.
They left Saturday morning to go to a wedding in Salem. We went to the park where they were having a high school reunion picnic for Sarah's 10 year reunion. It was a small thing, Sarah didn't want to go to the night party. It was cool and rainy, and so hardly anyone showed up. Sarah talked to an old friend from high school named Veronica, then we left and went to her friend Mandy's house. Isaiah played with her son, who is six, and had a great time. He was shy at first, but warmed up.
Saturday night we went to the Workman's for dinner, had some chicken, and watched VT beat Nebraska 35-30. It was a lot of fun. Tyler and Shannon came, and Sarah's g-ma was there. And Tyler finally brought that metal mystery carving back to me, all polished up! It is in my office now, displayed proudly. Tyler and I went to Taco Bell during halftime and got the new Volcano Tacos to try them out. They are good.
Sunday we went to church, and after church to eat at...Taco Bell (can't get enough of that place.) I then went back to church and worked on the youth group room, trying to get it finished with the painting and stuff. Kevin and Margee came and gave a lot of help. We were able to finish painting the room, and put the stuff back in and reset up the room, and put up new posters. It looks really cool. Kevin or Margee, if you read this, THANK YOU! (check out the pics of the new room) Salem came over again for youth group, and after youth group we went to the Workman's. David had DVR'd the Redskins-Cowboys game, and so we watched that. It was a good game, a close game, and in the end Washington prevailed 26-24. GO SKINS!!
Today I came to church and helped the guys move a bunch of old tables downstairs. Then I took a lot of NIV Exhaustive Concordance's and went around to different bookstores to see if they would accept a trade in. We had 10, and didn't need near that many. I kept a couple, and took 8 with me. I tried Lifeway first, but they wouldn't do an exchange without a receipt. Walmart scanned them, and they didn't come up in their system, so that was a no go. Then Barnes and Noble, who doesn't take anything without a receipt, and then they only take it up to 14 days after the date of purchase (real strict). By this point I was starting to give up hope, but I tried Books A Million. They were awesome. They took them all and gave me store credit, which came up to be over $300! I then went on a major Church library shopping spree, and bought a ton of new books in all different categories. (check out the pic of the 24 new books!) To make it better, the guy ringing me up gave me thing for churches, it is 20% off everything you purchase, and because it was for a church it was tax exempt! I had to sign up for the 20% off program, and while the manager did that over the phone for me in the back he gave me a free 20oz Coke! It was better than I could have hoped for. God was really looking out for me/Edgewood. Even the guy ringing me up commented when I brought all my books up and they came up to $296, "The discount, and getting to buy all the books you picked out with credit, someone upstairs is looking out for you." Indeed.

A Date!

Yeah, so me and the Mrs. got to go on a date night on Friday. Her parents graciously agreed to watch the kids for the whole night, and so the night was ours! No kids, the possibilities were endless. We started with dinner out at Olive Garden, followed by a tour of Grand furniture next door, where we made use of their free cokes and massage chairs. We were thinking of going out to the movies, but nothing really caught our eye, so we rented a couple movies and got snacks instead. The next morning we slept in (OH YEAH!) then went to pick up the kids for a few hours. Then we all went back to the Workman's to watch VT beat NC in a thriller (NC was actually projected to win that one, when was the last time that happened?)

Sarah and Lily were under the weather today so I took Isaiah to church. We had a good time, and then went to Sam's for some samples and some groceries. By the time we got home it was almost two. I put on my Mexican chicken con queso and noodles dish I bought from Sam's to cook, and settled in to watch football. The Skins beat the Cardinals. That puts them at 2-1, good enough for a tie for last place in the ever so tough NFC East. Next week come the real test, the Cowboys. Youth group went well tonight, the Salem C o C youth group came to worship with us. We finished up Bumper Sticker theology talking about the Ichthus fish, Jesus Loves You, and the Darwin fish.

I came home and Sarah was on the phone. Isaiah was asleep (early, only 8pm, he is normally more a 9-9:30pm kid) so I took care of Lily for a while. We watched http://www.sphereofhiphoptv.com on the computer and I bounced her up and down to the beats. Baby loves hip-hop. Then we watched some Veronica Mars (just finished up season 2). And that is the weekend report. I'm mystery, signing off.

that huge egg on Isaiah's head

So today I was in the kitchen when I heard Isaiah come running from the living room. He hit his white semi-truck and fell, and I heard a thump on the wall. Not good. I went to pick the him up and try to calm him down from crying, and I saw him get up and actually stumble over again. Not a good sign, but sometimes two year olds are clumsy, so I didn't think much of it. Sarah got him some fruit snacks (Veggie Tales of course) and I sat him on the couch and tried to get him to stop crying. I asked him "what hurt? arm? leg?" He said through his tears, "head", and then I saw it... underneath his hair, on his forehead on the right, a large bruise, already purple, over an inch, shaped like an egg and puffing out. Ouch! I got him some ice and put it on their as much as he would let me, and he eventually calmed down. It was sad. I wish there was some way I could take the pain for him. Guess that is part of loving your kids.
He is asleep for a nap now, and Lily just went out too, which is quite cool. I have been mowing the grass, and I did the dishes too. Gotta love the days off.

So quick recap on highlights of what has been going on this week. I've been working on painting the church classroom downstairs with Rodney. Currently we have three walls painted. The maroon, the yellow, and the lime green. the other will be blue. I have drawn the Edgewood Student Ministries logo on the wall, and I still need to paint that. The room should look really cool when we are done. We'll probably need to move stuff back into the classroom this Sunday, so that the other classroom can be emptied out for the floors to be done.

On Tuesday night I led the small group over at the Greer's for the first time. It went well. It is a Zondervan DVD series looking at the landscape of where a lot of Bible events took place. This one was about the Masada. Masada is a city, it is mountainous, the word literally means fortress. David hid in those mountains when he was fleeing from Saul and calling God his rock and fortress in Psalm 18. Later Herod built a three level hanging palace there, and after he died, the Zealots took it over as a place of refuge from the Roman government. They actually killed themselves there rather than be made slaves of Rome. I don't find their suicide noble. It is one thing to not deny your allegience to your God and BE killed, it is another altogether to take your own life instead of becoming a prisoner. One is the death of a martyr, the other of a misplaced honor at best and cowardice at worst. Anyway, the small group went well, and I enjoyed teaching it. The downside of it was that Sarah was there with the kids and had to take care of them the whole time, so she missed out. She was frustrated leaving there, understandibly. Hopefully in the future we can have babysitting for them from her parents, if not, she'll just stay home and watch them.

Last night I had my Wednesday night class and we talked about Mary's obedience to God and how she didn't ask a lot of questions when she found out she was pregnant, but just trusted God and actually sang a song of praise to him. Amazing faith. Oh, and I floated the idea of going down to Roanoke Bible College so they could visit, sit in on classes, and they were all about that. Hopefully that can happen, I'll bring it up at the next board meeting.

I'm off to get a shower now (I'm still wearing what I mowed in) and then Sarah and Lily are going with her Mom and Grandma, and I'm taking Isaiah to CiCi's Pizza. Guys night out, oh yeah. Buffalo chicken pizza here I come.

Church, football, and Zaxby's

We had a cool thing at church today. Desi joined the church today. She has been thinking about it for a while, so at the end of the service she came up and joined. I went up with her and told about talking to her and her mom, and then took her confession of faith, and then we shook everyone's hands as they left and welcomed her. I'm so happy she joined.

Sarah and I have had a football filled weekend. Yesterday we dropped off the kids at the Workman's, and they generously babysat for us and gave us tickets to the VT game. They played Georgia Tech. It was my third straight Saturday of going to a VT game. David, Tyler, and I went opening weekend to Charlotte (where they played in the Carolina Panthers stadium and lost to the ECU Pirates), and last weekend Sarah, me, and David went to the home opener against Furman...which we won, but was closer than it should have been. So yesterday we played Georgia Tech, and it was a big test. Sarah and I tailgated with Fred and Vicki and their friend's Leon and Derinda. We used the new grill for the first time and had hotdogs and hamburgers. It was Orange Effect day, so Sarah and I got the 2008 Orange Effect and Maroon Effect t-shirts (cheaper if you buy them together). Then we watched VT pull out a close win against GT (20-17). Good game, Tyrod Taylor QB'ed the whole game (they appear to have finally given up on Sean Glennon). We came back, ate subs at the ice cream parlor, and then picked up the kids. We met the Salem children's ministry candidate Kristen, she spent the weekend with the Workman's while she visisted.

Today after church we watched the Redskins play the Saints in Washington's home opener. It too was a close one, but the Redskins improved as the game went on and ending up winning 29-24. Campbell, Portis, and Moss all had great games.

This evening I taught for the second time at Salem C of C with the combined youth groups. I did lesson three on Bumper Sticker theology, with Coexist, etc. Afterwards we played football on the church front lawn.

During youth group Margee babysat the kids at the church (Sarah was at a play with her parents). Lily was asleep, and Isaiah and I were hungry, so we went over to Zaxby's. The first couple times I've been there we had really slow service just waiting for our food. Tonight they totally made up for it. I came in with Isaiah and Lily, and they got me a high chair, pumped ketchup for me, brought the food to us, and even hooked Isaiah and I up with some free chocolate chip cookies. Good times.

I mastered the challenge!

So here is the update on the Taco Bell challenge. Me and 4 other guys took it, all of us finished it except one guy. That's right. I ate ten tacos! And honestly I wasn't all tore up like I thought I'd be, so that was cool. Props to Kevin, Eric, and Jessie for finishing as well. Zac...well he tried. I really think if Taco Bell promoted this it could be a great thing for them, like those burger places that take your picture when you eat the whole thing.

On a totally different subject a cool guy named Blake helped us out with our electric today. He changed our 2 prong outlets in the living room and den to 3 prong outlets and added an outlet in the basement. A cool dude around our age with two kids around our age. It feels good to finally be able to plug in our computer and all the stuff that goes with it, and to quit plugging all our TV, DVD, video game stuff into a surge protector that I cut the third prong off of.

Kent and Rachel came today, and we hung out, had dinner and played some games. Good times, they are a nice couple.

Well I need to get back to devoting my full attention to Veronica Mars. We bought seasons 1 and 2 one sale at Target a few weeks ago, and have been rewatching them since then. We have finished season 1 and are about 3 episodes into season 2. Watching an episode or two has become our nightly routine lately. We put Isaiah down for the night and then watch some while we try to get Lily to sleep (and then back to sleep). Good times.

From the Past

So I'm starting this blog cause the one I was using before with Yahoo 360 kept messing up (I'd hit compose blog and it'd go to the blog set-up page, etc.)
So I'll start by copying and pasting over my few entries from there.

Entry for September 10, 2008
Tonight I am taking the taco bell challenge. This is a cool thing I heard of from my friend Matt. You go to Taco Bell and order the Grande meal #10, which is 10 tacos (hard, soft, or mix) and a drink. The challenge? Eat it all in one sitting. Me and some brave members of the youth group are participating, I am pysched. We'll see how I did/how I feel tomorrow.

Entry for August 26, 2008
The days go by so quickly. This past week Tyler came home from CA, and he, Shannon, the Workmans, and us all went out to Outback to eat and celebrate. De-licious, as Isaiah would say! I had the no rules pasta, which is basically fettichini with chicken and shrimp. Tyler took my metal mystery sign and says he'll polish it, so we'll see (we're at about 9 months of him saying that now, though for the last 3 months he has been in CA). The next day he came up again with some friends of his (Shannon couldn't come) and we went to a huge car show across from Fallon Park, over 300 cars. The show was a fundraiser to support officer Brian Lawerence, who became paralyzed on the job in Roanoke. My favorite car was this hot-rod that had been purposefully pieced together with junk. It had feed bags for the inside door covering, a tractor front with a dead bird caught in it, gutters for exhaust pipes, old beer cans holding pipes together, and tons of other funny things about it.
I went to my first mens fellowship in Roanoke recently. It went well. Johnny Tickle spoke about not being silent during a moment of silence, but actually crying out to God like it says to in the Bible. Met some good people, ate some good food (except the chicken, which no joke, was raw...yikes...). Found out Murray from out church won a Smart Car by entering a contest at Grand Furniture. He just filled out a slip of paper, and he won the grand prize! Pretty cool.
We had Singspiration this past Sunday night. It went well. Three little kids did a great job singing El Shaddai. I played the piano and sang Heaven Came Down. All the men in the church got up to sing a song to Larry since it was his birthday (and I had never even heard the song before). Then at the end we surprised him with a party complete with cake and ice cream. Good times.
Well, I got to go finish putting together a church library.

Entry for August 17, 2008
Camp Rudolph
I went to work at Camp Rudolph this past week. It is a Christian camp in Yale, VA. This week was the Junior week, for 5th and 6th graders. I grew up going to Camp Rudolph, and I always love going back to work at the place for a week, but since I recently moved to Roanoke this is the last week I can see myself doing Camp Rudolph for the forseeable future. Next year I'll probably try to work with Blue Ridge Christian Camp near Roanoke. I only worked Camp Rudolph this week because I had commited to work that week before I ever moved. It was co-deaned by Preacher Dave from Reedswood, where I used to be the youth minister, and I wanted to help out.
It was great seeing lots of the Reedswood people. We drove to Newport News Saturday evening, after I had finished giving a talk for a youth rally at a small Roanoke church. We stayed with my parents, and worshipped with Reedswood in the morning, then went out to eat at the County Grill with my parents that afternoon after church. We also saw my niece Brooke, she got to see Lily for the first time at lunch. Tammy had to work, but she saw Lily for the first time that morning.
After lunch Sarah dropped me off at Camp Rudolph, then headed down to Edenton, NC for the week. She saw her Dad and Betty and her Dad's side of the family (they hadn't seen Lily yet either). Isaiah went to the beach for the first time while she was there, and loved it. She also saw our friends Matt and Pam who recently moved down there, and our friends Jordan and Becky.
I had a good week at camp. It was a Wild West theme, and it was a lot of fun. I met some good people, including Eddie from West Park, Robert, Nick Carter, and Abbey (children's minister at New Venture (relaxed church) in richmond. I also got to work with lots of old friends from Reedswood. And O'Neil was there from Jamaica. It was a great week.
I had a really good group of kids on my team, we called ourselves the Desparados. they had thrity memory verses to memorize, and 3 of them memorized all thirty! 8 of them memorized 20 scriptures or more! They were a really good group of kids.
I got back Friday evening around 9 (we had to stop a few times to eat, and feed Lily, and because Isaiah threw up), and we unloaded the vehicle and just got the kids to bed, then chilled. Yesterday I worked on my sermon on Forgiveness, and I preached this morning. It went ok, considering the little time I had to really prep. David came to listen today. Sandy is coming back from CA with Tyler. Tomorrow David is taking Sarah and I out to eat at Abuelo's. I'm looking forward to it. Tomorrow I'm also going to be working on putting my office back in order (we took everything out so they could replace the floor). I had twelve kids at youth group, and like four said they'd try to come help tomorrow, we are starting at 7. We'll see who makes it.

Hillsboro Family Camp
Wow, so again Hillsboro is this cool Christian family camp in Ohio. Myself, a female sponsor named Rachel, and 7 teens took our church van up there on July 26th, and stayed for the week. It should be about a 6 hour 10 min. drive according to Mapquest, but taking an old 15 passenger church van and dragging a Uhaul trailer made us slow down considerably, especially in the mountains. We ending up making it in about 8 hours. On Saturday evening we got the tents set up, and went out to Walmart. That Sunday morning we went to the morning worship and heard Ed Bousman preach. He is an elderly gentleman, and amazing. He quoted the entire text he was preaching from (John 8:1-11) from memory. I heard from a couple of people later through the week that he has, at least at one time, had the entire New Testament memorized. Wow! I was impressed, inspired. That afternoon we went to a nearby lake and hung for a few hours, then we went back there the next day.
The camp officially kicked off Monday evening. Lots of cool speakers, incuding Jack Cottrell (Cinn. professor). I didn't get to hear many though, cause I took the teens to the youth barn, which was quite cool, and really well done. Every morning and night were great sessions for the teens that included cool games (many gross), a great praise band, and good speakers. the focus this year was on the Kingdom, based off of Matthew 5 and 6.
Kids in my youth group participated in the talent show, and two of the boys were part of the preacher boy competition on Thursday afternoon (props to Kevin and Zac). They worked on short devos/sermons (like 5 minutes each) and then spoke. Oh, and Kristen rapped the song Baby Got Book by whiteboyDJ/ southpaw. If you've never heard the song, it is a hilarious play off of baby got back by SirMixaLot.
Highlights of the trip include:
playing basketball for afternoons, eric dying his hair with a huge pink cross, Bob Evans (twice), Big Boys (this was my first time going to either of those ever), meeting the ever so nice Steiner extended family as they treated us to Sunday lunch, seeing Cutter, the "Hey now, hey now" song and dancing 'the lawn mower', 'flush flush it doesn't work', and others, the showers with the chains you have to keep pulling for water, Desi giggling like a crazy person late at night, star tipping (stare at a point straight in the sky, spin around in circles fast for like twenty seconds, stop and have someone shine a light in your face and you fall over, you can't help it!), and the infamous port a john incident (that I can not legally go into at the moment).
Can't wait till next year!

Entry for July 24, 2008
Had a good day off today. Lily slept through the night last night, it was great! 8 straight hours of sleeping, and she is only 3 weeks old! Isaiah was a great sleeper when an infant, and we were worried the next baby would be rough, but Lily is making it easy. I got up around 9am (love sleeping late on days off, and it is odd because I was just thinking this morning that before kids I could sleep so much later than 9am...now 9 is late to me). Sarah and I went out to the Pawn Shop in Vinton and got some more DVD's (15 more). We are replacing all the DVD's that got stolen from us. Well, not all, but the ones we really liked and want to replace. Then we ran some errands to WalMart, the bank, and ate lunch at Taco Bell.
We back to our house after lunch and laid Isaiah down for a nap. While he slept we worked on the house. I hung the curtains in the den and dining room (lots of drilling to install the curtain rods in those super hard wood window frames). Sarah got the DVD player set up and the new DVD's put into a new DVD notebook we got, then went to get her hair cut.
She got it cut short before Lily was born, this was a touch up. It is shorter than before, just a little, and Gig (is that a hair stylist name or what?) straightened it out. I like her hair better curly, so we'll see what it looks like tomorrow when it is natural again. We worked a little more on our house then left. We went back to her parent's and Isaiah and I ate leftovers. Then Sandy and Sarah went to a food tasting party. Isaiah, David, and I have been hanging here since, that is what we are doing now.
Oh, one more thing. I want to say how much I love the library. Yeah, I'm a nerd. But seriously, so much cool stuff is available for free there. Yeah, of course great books, but also lots of great CD's to check out (and download onto my ipod), and lots of great DVD's to check out for free. And not just educational stuff, tons of movies I would want to pay to rent otherwise. Our library has Vantage Point, and is getting 21 this week. I just checked out CD's from Arrested Development, Metallica (the black album with Enter Sandman for all those Hokie fans), and Matisyahu. They also do lots of cool events. A couple of weeks ago they had a band playing inside the library downtown, and it was being catered by an awesome Mexican restuarant for free! So if you haven't checked out your local library recently, check it out! (No, I'm not being paid by the Roanoke Public Library System, I am just a fan. And a nerd, but we've already established that.)