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.)