Ryan Goode

:)

2011-09-06T22:54:00.002-04:00

We still have not resolved our internet issue... here are a few pictures from us... sorry we don't have more frequent posts or promise of more frequent posts at this point. Asa is getting so big!

People I'm Praying For

2010-09-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

Psalm 4 - A Psalm of Prasie

2010-01-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Psalm 4 - A Psalm of Praise

God leads His people

He delivers them from trouble.

He is patient

He is full of mercy

He gives life

He protects

He is unfair - he doesn't treat us as we deserve!

Praise the Lord!

He guides us in the paths we should go,

When I am afraid he overwhelms me with his presence

When I lose my way hes is patient and directs me

When darkness overwhelms me,

When danger surrounds me,

You rule still and you are near.

Praise the Lord! He gives breath.

Praise the Lord! He gives food.

Praise the Lord! He loves forever!

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 3

2010-01-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Psalm 3 -

O God You are great like the tiger.

You made all the trees and nuts and berries.

You are worthy of praise.

You made giraffe's necks so long

because you wanted them to eat tall leaves

because you love everything equally.

Thank you for being everywhere, especially during thunderstorms.

And for that we thank you!

Thank you for colors to brighten our day.

You made our family to guide us down the sea of life.

Thank you for the bible and also for bananas in fruit salad.

We love you.

Psalm 2

2010-01-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Psalm 2 - Psalm of Blessing

God is our everything.

By His blessings, he shows us Love to the fullest.

By His blessings, he gives us strength to love others.

By His blessings we are offered new life,

through his mercy and grace.

By His blessings we are offered breath and guidance for each day.

By His blessings we are formed by our talents and abilities.

His blessings are never ending.

Psalms

2010-01-19T10:29:00.002-05:00

I was cleaning my office this week and came across some old messages I shared with the Youth Group in North Vernon. In the middle of some lessons on prayer and the book of Psalms I found some interesting writings.

In one of the lessons I had the teens write out their own Psalms. Each day this week I will be posting a Psalm from the teens in North Vernon. I hope you are encouraged by their prayer and psalms!

Psalm 1 -

God, You're so good!

You made the world and all that's in it

The trees and animals bring us beauty and help us live

You're like an artist that paints the skies

Just so I can marvel and smile :)

You surround us with people that love us

You provided us with houses and TV's and warm beds to sleep in

And more than anything - ya listen!

You hear my prayers and answer them.

You get me through my struggles,

And you help me to grow and find joy in the middle of it

God, You're so good and we praise you!

New Year - New Plan

2009-12-31T12:31:00.005-05:00

I don't know of a single New Year's resolution that I have ever kept,

and yet I have decided to make one for this new year!

I printed out a Bible reading plan for 2010 today.

I've never really used a structured bible reading plan before. My plan usually consists of picking a book of the bible to read through or I use a lectionary type guide (Old Testament reading, New Testament reading, Epistle reading, and a Psalm). I'm looking forward to this reading plan though.

The plan is set up to read from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.

In the past I was never a big fan of the whole bible in a year thing. I would argue that it becomes more about saying, "I did it!" than about engaging God's word. I would also argue that a person might...actually I don't really know why I was against it! I probably was lazy and just didn't want to commit to a structured plan! But now that I'm married I'm not struggling with that whole commitment thing as much!

I've also felt motivated to form a more structure and disciplined time of prayer and reading of scripture. I've had this longing to know God in deeper ways, to engage the mystery of Him more, to get closer to his heart. The things we plan and prepare are the things we get done. So I'm planning and preparing for these times in the new year. I have no idea what this next year will bring, the last one sure brought me some surprises both good and bad!

If your looking for a plan of your own click here and browse through some of their 20+ reading plans.

Pray for me as I enter into this time of reading. Especially February 2-12 as I read through the book of Leviticus!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T23:08:00.007-05:00

Merry Christmas, from the Goode's!

Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity

2009-12-22T16:52:00.002-05:00

I received an advance copy of Primal a few weeks ago in the mail to review as part of the Primal Blog Tour. I have read both of Mark Batterson's previous books,In a Pit with a Lion on a snowy day, and Wild Goose Chase, and was looking forward to receiving Primal. Batterson's previous books were engaging, thoughtful and fresh and I was expecting Primal to be the same.

Primal did not disappoint!

In the book Batterson explores what he calls the "Primal Commandment," Mark 12:30 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The book then examines the heart, soul, mind and strength of Christianity. Batterson tries to strip away many of the things that hinder us from the pursuit of God and the clunky rigidity of religion and free us to pursue the Primal call to love God with all that we are.

The book is a pretty quick read at around 175 pages but it will spur you into hours of conversation and reflection. After every chapter I felt challenged to examine and evaluate what matters most in my relationship with God. The challenges and thoughts of Chapter 2 A Drop in the Bucket are alone worth the cost of the book.

I also think this would be a great book if you are searching for a book to use with a small group this year. The challenges from each chapter naturally lead to discussion. In my home my wife Kara and I have been discussing several ideas and discoveries from this book.

I don't know that the book was "burning bush" in my life but it has caused me to evaluate several areas in my life. I would challenge you to make Primal one of the first books you read this year. You can pick it up by visiting RandomHouse.com clicking HERE or wherever you buy books.

Let me know what you think once you pick up your copy!

Rejoicing in the Presence of the Angels of God

2009-12-14T12:20:00.007-05:00

"I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10

Christmas is Coming! The Advent of the Messiah is being celebrated and anticipated each Sunday and week at Canton First Church of the Nazarene. I am so excited about the way in which God is working this Advent season.

We have been reflecting the past few weeks on the coming of Christ as a baby in Bethlehem but also his return at the second Advent.

On the first Sunday of Advent we looked at the idea of Waiting and how it can sometimes be extremely difficult.

The second Sunday of Advent we looked at the hope of God entering into the world. We said that Advent is a time when we realize that God has not given up on the world.

Yesterday we explored the joy of Christmas and made commitments to make this Advent season a time of Joy. We are actively seeking was to remove stress from this season, and also ways to bless others so that this Advent can actually be a time of Joyous Celebration.

God has been working in some powerful ways. Two weeks ago we had several people respond to our message about hope. People gathered around our altars and prayed that God would work through the pain, disappointment and fear in their lives.

This past week I received a phone call from a guy in our church, his name is Tim. Tim and I met a few weeks ago at my house. Kara and I had ordered some new furniture and a guy, Jay, from our church helped me to pick it up and bring it to our house. When we arrived back at the house Jay had his nephew Tim come over to help us unload our new couches and bed.

As we were bringing the bed into the house Tim told me that he and his wife also just moved into a new house the week before. We formed an instant bond - he too shared in the pain of moving!

As Jay and Tim were getting ready to leave I asked them if they knew of anything we could do with our old bed. Tim got excited and said, "You're really wanting to get rid of it?"

I said, "Yeah, do you want it? I could load it on the trailer now. We have a love seat we need to get rid of too. Do you want that?"

He said, "Yeah!!! We just rented some furniture for $130 a week. I'll go cancel that and we will just use this for a while!"

Our friendship just got a little more solid - He was going to save $520 a month!

As we were loading the couch and mattress onto the trailer Tim told me that he and his wife were going to come to our church the next Sunday and were looking forward to possibly getting more involved.

The showed up that Sunday. I said hi to them in the hall way and they asked if we wanted our remote back. Apparently the remote to our DVD player that had been missing was discovered in the couch we gave them!

Two days after the service, last Tuesday, I received a call from Tim. We kept missing each other and leaving voicemails, but we finally got in touch with each other on Wednesday night. Tim told me, "I've been trying to get ahold of you all week. My wife and I have been talking about Sunday a lot. We loved the church. Everyone was so nice and welcoming to us. And your message about hope has had us talking too. We've been talking and we want to set up an appointment with you in your office and ask God into our lives. We want to do it right!"

I set up a time for them to come in on Thursday and we hung out at my office for a while and shared our stories of how God was working. Then Tim and his wife and daughter all prayed and received the forgiveness and new life that Jesus offers. It was a pretty powerful time here in my office. The three of them will all be baptized here on Sunday morning as part of our Christmas celebrations!

After the service yesterday Tim and Melissa waited around to talk with Kara and I. The gave us this cross as a gift,

and told us, "Thanks for helping us start our new life together."

We are so blessed to play a part in the life of this couple. I can not tell you how excited I am to baptize them on Sunday morning. God has done a great thing in their lives and we are going to celebrate!

Yesterday we added some new flowers to the 30 poinsettias that were already decorating our sanctuary.

I have a close friend in Indiana who shared with me a tradition that his church has in celebrating new lives in Christ Jesus. Every Sunday there is a vase on the altar in the front of the church. Each week they put a white rose in the vase for every person that accepts Christ into their lives. Every Sunday I usually get a text message from my friend with how many white roses they had that morning. I was thrilled to place our three white roses on the altar yesterday!

We are praying for more roses! We are praying for more changed lives. We are praying that God would continue to do great and amazing things!

Christmas Party

2009-12-14T11:37:00.007-05:00

We had and awesome weekend with our church family!

This being our first Christmas in Canton, Kara and I wanted to have a special time of celebration with our church board. We hosted a party on Saturday night for our church board and Sunday School Ministries board in our church fellowship hall. Kara made some awesome invitations,

that also informed our guests that we would be awarding a prize to the person with the best Christmas outfit. I went to Goodwill and bought the most disgusting jacket I could find. But I was not match for some of the couples. Most actually thought my jacket was serious (even though I look like a used car salesmen!) Here are a few of them:

But the winning costume from the Island of Misfit Toy's was:

How awesome are those costumes!

The party also included a white elephant gift exchange that was extremely entertaining. Kara left with some old school cookie cutters, that remind me of ones my Mom had when I was younger. And I opened the only box that was for a woman! I came away with some sweet Avon candle sticks, a book about hugs, some coaster, and "Country Home Decorations" book. I was overjoyed to say the least.

Kara did an awesome job preparing for the party with decorations and feeding all of the people. One person said after eating the Greek salad she had made, "I paid $10 for a Greek salad once, and it was half as good as this one!" She also made over 100 gingerbread men for the party. I have an amazing wife! Here is a shot of her in the kitchen:

And here is a shot of me in my used car sales men jacket that actually doesn't look to awful in this picture, our children ministries worker Brian is next to me:

We had a great time celebrating together with our new friends and feel so blessed to be a part of this church. Kara and I are confident of God's call on our lives to Canton First Church. He is doing great things and we are looking forward to the future here together!

Alabama

2009-12-08T16:09:00.007-05:00

After the stress and work of planning our wedding we returned from our honeymoon and unloaded our moving truck and then decided we needed another break! Kara and I loaded up our new car and drove to Montgomery Alabama to visit my brother and his wife and daughter for a few days. They had recently moved into a new house and we wanted to see it and spend some time with them.

We ended up going to an Auburn Football game on Saturday afternoon. It was their homecoming game and they won by a landslide. We had a great time at the tiger walk and hanging out in Auburn after the game. Below are some pictures of us at the game.

My Brother Brad and his daughter Caroline enjoying the game!

Kara and I at the Auburn Game

This is the last photo to be taken on my camera. Soon after my brother took this picture the camera fell to the floor. I hope to get it fixed or get a new one soon! Its a pretty nice shot for the last one. Two of the cutest girls I know!

Thanks Brad and Rachel for a great time of relaxation before we started at our new church.

The Move...

2009-12-08T15:22:00.009-05:00

Home Sweet Home

After an incredible 6 1/2 years of service at the North Vernon Church of the Nazarene God has opened the door to a new church and new ministry for me. About three days after we returned from our honeymoon Kara and I loaded up our house and moved to Canton Illinois. I accepted a call from Canton First Church of the Nazarene to be their Senior Pastor.

We both had a difficult time leaving a town, church and friends that have such a special place in our lives. But we are looking forward to our new ministry in Canton. The church has been such a blessing to Kara and I already. Our new home is beautiful, the people are loving, encouraging, and kind. We are really looking forward to ministry here.

Below are some pictures of our new church and home. If you are ever in Canton Illinois we would love to have you stop by! Or you could even plan a special visit, we like those too.

Thank you to everyone that helped us with the move! We would have had a tough time without you!

David Sharp doing some heavy lifting!

Bill Beville and his family were a huge help to us my entire 6 years in North Vernon and the continued with our wedding and our move. There are so many things they helped with along the way. They watched our dog (no easy task! and for 2 weeks straight!) stored some of our boxes at their home, provided a listening ear and so much encouragement! We are blessed to have friends like the Beville's in our lives.

Sheila was a big help on moving day too! I miss our office chats and having a person to solve the worlds problems with!

One Last hug before we lock the door behind us in our sort of (2 days) first home together!

We arrived at our new home to a crew of 20-30 people ready to haul boxes. We unloaded the entire truck in around an hour! We were so blessed to have such a loving church family welcome us into our new home!

The new house! It has three bedrooms (plenty of room if you want to come visit!) a huge living room and a newly remodeled kitchen with all new appliances and floors and a newly redone master bathroom. We love it! It also has a nice backyard surrounded by cornfields which Claxton loves. We have plans and help already lined up to put in a garden this spring.

Here is a shot of us eating our first breakfast together in the new place. Kara made us waffles on a new waffle iron we received as a wedding gift. We also got to use our new plates for the first time!

This is our new church. Inside it has a beautiful newly remodeled sanctuary with plenty of room for a large worship service.

Thank you again to everyone that helped us move. We appreciate so much the love and support we received as we began our new life together. If your ever in or near Canton stop by!

Honeymoon

2009-12-08T13:44:00.006-05:00

Kara and I had an amazing honeymoon in the Dominican Republic!

We didn' want a big fancy hotel and we didn't want to go the all inclusive route so we opted to rent a house off of homeaway.com. We were a little nervous because we would have to rent a car and drive 2 hours to our home once we landed and we would be on our own for food and figuring out our way around and other things.

I was really nervous and stressed when we rented our car and I first hit the road to our house! I quickly relaxed and we had a great time. The roads were rough and had some pretty big pot holes at times and you had to always be on the look out for scooters and people in the road!

The home was beautiful and the view from our porch was breath taking. It was the perfect place to spend our first week of marriage together! We could not have dreamed of a better trip. We hope you enjoy the pictures below.

The side view of our house when we pulled in the drive way. We didn't have any neighbors! Although we did have a security guard at night and a grounds keeper during the day!

A view of our house looking to the right. Notice our amazing pool and the incredible view!

Our awesome car for the week! It had so many dent's and scratches on it. And every time you tried to stop the front wheels would scream! The front bumper would sometimes fall off too. And yes we paid a couple hundred dollars for the privilege of driving that thing all week. It was pretty fun though!

A view from the inside. At the foot of our bed are french doors that lead out to our porch. And of course the amazing view of the ocean.

A picture of us on the beach!

My Grandma suggested we take this picture. We took it at a beach name "Playa Grande." There were restaurants on the beach where they would cook your meal and serve it to you at a table on the beach. That was pretty nice.

We had a great time! Hope you enjoy our pictures!

2 Weeks to go...

2009-10-10T13:22:00.002-04:00

Kara and I get married in just 2 weeks! We are so excited but still have so much to do. So today after lunch we took a break to relieve some wedding stress. Hope you like our little video!
And for the record Kara was terrified of Claxton 3 months ago! Aren't they so cute together!She's still a little afraid when he barks!

Unlovable

2009-09-09T13:43:00.003-04:00

Who do you love that is unlovable? Do you have someone in your life that God has given you a burden for? Someone who others look at and say why are you spending time with them?

I saw this video today and it made me think a lot about the comfort level of my life. Does my relationship with Jesus make such a difference in my life that it even changes the lives of the people around me?

You might not know this about me but I've completed all of the courses to be licensed as a foster parent in the state of Indiana. I'm not licensed because I withdrew my name right before my last home visit check. I removed my name because I wasn't in a healthy enough place in life to take on this responsibility just yet. But during the process I learned so much about the foster system and the struggle these kids face. Are you living a life of love? A life that is making a difference?

Check out this video. Maybe God's calling you to love on some kids that no one else wants to love.

Foster Care Video from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

If you are bored...

2009-08-15T22:02:00.002-04:00

I Just came across this article. Thought some of you might enjoy reading it. It made me laugh.

The article is about the Mayor of Kiev, Ukraine. He seems a little crazy, as illustrated by this quote - “My voters are ordinary people, and I speak to them in one language, the language of ordinary people, even though, of course, I am not an ordinary person.”

or maybe this one - “Who sings better than me?” he asked. “Nobody does, besides God.”

And if you read the article you will be able to sound smart in a conversation today. Just think what people will think when they hear you say, "I was reading an article today in the New York Times about Leonid Chernovetsky the Mayor of Kiev and..."

You can find the article here.

Wedding Stress

2009-08-05T10:08:00.002-04:00

Planning a wedding is a pretty stressful thing at times! There are so many decisions to make, so many peoples lives to work around to make sure everyone can celebrate with us! Do we serve a meal or just eat cake? Do we have camels at our wedding or maybe just the rehearsal? What caterer do you choose? What do you do when every hotel in the area is booked? How do you pay for all of it? These are just a few of the questions Kara and I have been wrestling with in the past few days.

I'm also having a lot of fun! I know that in 81 days I get to take the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world to be my wife! If you had a few hours I could type away about how beautiful of a person Kara is. She has such a big heart, so much joy, an intense passion to follow Jesus and one of the most amazing smiles you will ever see!

I hope all of our friends and family will be able to celebrate this amazing day with us. Invitations will be out sometime soon! (We still have to set the time...did I mention planning a wedding could be stressful?) If you haven't yet, check out our wedding website you can find it here

And to lighten the mood a little I thought I would share this video with you. We are tossing around an idea like this for our wedding. I think our parents and grandparents would love it! What do you think?

No One Kicks A Dead Dog...

2009-05-19T09:18:00.004-04:00

I've had a pretty difficult few weeks learning to deal with criticism. Criticism is not something that I've really had to deal with to much in my life. But as situations and circumstances have changed for me I'm now available for all to critique and examine and sometimes people can be pretty cruel.

Last night I was thinking some things over and trying to figure out how to respond or not respond to several different criticisms that have come to light recently. For some reason I picked up a Dale Carnegie book that I had laying on the floor in my office and began to flip through it. He had a section on dealing with criticism and I turned immediately to it.

Now I know that criticism can be a good thing. Many times in the past I have had to deal with criticism that was justified. I messed something up, I did something wrong, I was lazy, I was uninformed; I learned from those situations and they helped to make me a better person. I've never had to deal with unjust criticism before. It's a little different, it doesn't benefit me, it doesn't encourage me. Then I read this:

"An event occurred in 1929 that created a national sensation in educational circles. Learned men from all over America rushed to Chicago to witness the affair. A few years earlier, a young man by the name of Robert Hutchins had worked his way through Yale, acting as a waiter, a lumberjack, a tutor, and a clothesline salesman. Now, only eight years later, he was being inaugurated as president of the fourth richest university in America, the University of Chicago. His age? Thirty. Incredible! The older educators shook their heads. Criticism came roaring down upon this "boy wonder" like a rock slide. He was this and he was that - too young, inexperienced - his educational ideas were cockeyed. Even the newspapers joined in the attack.

The day he was inaugurated, a friend said to the father of Robert Maynard Hutchings: "I was shocked this morning to read that newspaper editorial denouncing your son."

"Yes," the elder Hutchins replied, "it was severe, but remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog."

Yes, and the more important a dog is, the more satisfactions people get in kicking him..."

The next time you feel unjustly criticised, first consider if the criticism is true and see if you can benefit from it. But if you are criticised and it is unjust, if it is meant to simply tear you down remember, No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog! You must be doing something right!

Engaged!

2009-05-05T19:42:00.003-04:00

Just thought I would let all of you know that I am no longer in Hong Kong and I'm engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world!!! Here we are,

Hong Kong!

2009-01-23T20:58:00.002-05:00

I'm in Hong Kong right now!

Who would have ever thought I would end up in this city! Its so amazing! The city is massive and the people are so cool. We flew business class last night out of Tokyo. (which was amazing! My seat turned into a bed!)

We are staying in a pretty shady Hostel. The hostel isn't too shady, its just the area outside of it that is.

We only have one day here. We fly out tomorrow morning around 10. My schedule is pretty hectic. On my original ticket I had a lay over in Tokyo so I thought I could just skip the flight from Seoul and get on my connecting flight out of Detroit. Boy was I wrong! It would have cost $500 to change.

So here is my flight schedule for tomorrow and Sunday:

I fly out of Hong Kong to Tokyo in the morning. I have to go through immigration in Japan to pick up my bags, I paid to store at the airport. Then I go through customs again to leave the county.

I will then board a plane to Seoul. Go through immigration and customs in Korea. Check in for my flight. Then go through customs again to board the plane.

Then I fly back to Tokyo. Wait 4 hours then board a plane for Detroit. So I have 4 flights in one day! And two of the flights are to the same city!

Pray for me!

I need to run. I can't wait to be home in 3 days!

See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dragon Mountain

2009-01-21T23:29:00.003-05:00

This past week has been pretty amazing! On Sunday Kendall and I got lost in some tiny town for three hours in the middle of no where. It was pretty cool. I don't have any pictures from it but I will try to tell the story on here some other time.

Two weeks ago I went into town on a Sunday and the sea was full of ships coming in or leaving the port. I told Kendall I thought we should go to this big cliff we passed and watch the sun rise over the sea with all of the ships out there. It never really worked out.

Well last Sunday I talked a few people into going for a bike ride to watch the Sunrise. The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 6:15 A.M. and ride for 30 minutes to a place called "Dragon Mountain." We woke up on Sunday Morning an it was raining! We all went back to bed.

On Monday morning we didn't start work until 11:00 A.M. so we decided to try it again. This time only one other person wanted to join us. We set are alarms and forced ourselves out of bed at 6:00 A.M. Kendall, Ian and I meet in the lobby and decided we were really going to do this. The biggest problem was that none of us had bikes. But we were told that we could just "borrow" some bikes from the bike rack in front of our building. So at 6:15 we were test-riding what bikes we would steal! We found the correct bikes and headed out for "Dragon Mountain." The first section of the trail is about 25 minutes through a rice patty! It was amazing. It was pitch black outside and we are on a tiny trail in the middle of a field. We had no clue where we were going only that we wewre heading for Dragon Mountain!

We left the field and ended up on a small road leading into a town. When we reached the town the sea appeared on our right. We rode for the remainder of the trip all along the cost! It was beautiful. We rode, and rode, and rode for a while. After about 1 and a half hours we were exhausted and decided to just stop. We had obviously missed Dragon Mountain. But we did find one of the most beautiful places I've been to in Korea. We were on top of a large hill and decide to climb down to the sea coast.

When we reached the bottom the sun was just starting to rise above the water and the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful. The colors were vived and bright! The location we watched from was covered in massive rocks. We spent time jumping around on the rocks out to the sea!

After the sunrise we left the beach to head home. The ride back was even more beautiful with the sun actuly in the sky. We could see where we were going and the beautiful coast.

We also had our eyes open for Dragon Mountain. By chance we stopped at a bridge looked to the right and saw this temple on the side of a mountain! It was Dragon Mountain. We approaced the Mountain and discovered that there was indeed a giant dragon on the side of this mountain. It was a large tunnel that went up the side of this mountain and ended on the ground in a giant dragon head! We were examining things when out of no where a Buddhist monk appeared and told us to go inside the dragon. We followed him and were greated by this sight:

It was amazing! The monk left us and we were inside of the dragon alone. We followed the tunnel all the way to the top. All of the walls were lined with pictures and statues and at the end there was a large statue of Buddah with a prayer mat. We spent some time there and left.

As we were getting on our bikes another monk appeared and motioned to us to follow him. He took us into a private building and offered us coffe. He couldn't speak any English! We figured out he was the dish washer for the monks! We spent a little time with him and then went to leave. He bowed and told us good bye. As we were getting on our bikes he again called ups back and this time invited us into a different buiilding. This time he gave us each a calander!

We finally got on our bikes and finished the rest of the ride back to school!

Well I need to run. I'm leaving for china in about 2 hours! I'll be in Hong Kong Tomorrow! I miss everyone back home! See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Temple:

Relaxing...

2009-01-17T09:00:00.010-05:00

Coffee! My favorite way to relax no matter where in the world I am! This is a shot of my Latte at the Illy Cafe. I rode the bus into town on Monday by myself to read, write and spend some time alone. I had a really good time and I was able to get some good reading done! I'm just about to finish F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise."

Camp ended on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and I have had some time to explore and relax. The next camp doesn't start until Monday morning at 11:00 A.M. so we have plenty of time to do whatever we like.

Last night we went to a karaoke house as a group. It was amazing. We all paid 1,000 Won ($1) to get in and then they took our group to our own private Karaoke room. There were about 15 of us crammed in the room with a flat screen T.V. two wireless microphones, and about 6 tambourines. We all took turns singing our favorite songs for about 2 hours it was a great time! Its a pretty cool way to Karaoke!

Here is a video of our group rocking out to a Korean pop song:

Today we went to a place called Jukdo Market in the city of Pohang. It was amazing. There is no way I could ever describe the feeling, the sounds, and the smells that fill the place! Its a very large market with lots for sale. There are live fish everywhere, socks, fruit, vegetables, candy, blankets, and anything else you might need! People would be shouting and yelling and pushing and buying. I tried dried octopus, puffed rice, tofu chips, and dried squid legs!

Here is a picture of the entrance to the market:

Kendal, Lisa and Asha Looking for a good deal:

Squid for sale:

Fish for sale:

Fish Drying:

Tomorrow morning we are going for a bike ride really early to hike up a mountain named Dragon mountain to watch the sun rise over the water. Should be cool! Hope all is well! Love, Joy & Peace!

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My Class!

2009-01-17T08:42:00.004-05:00

Our first camp is over and we are enjoying a long weekend break! We got off work on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and are off until Monday morning at 8:30 A.M. So I've been relaxing and seeing some sights! I'll have another post after this one with some pictures of my time off.

During the camp I had a homeroom class that I was responsible for each day. They would start everyday in my classroom for a time called "Mission to the World." In that class we were assigned a Missionary from Cairo Illinois of all places! Each day we would discuss missions and our Missionary and the United States. Each homeroom was assigned a city and country to learn about during the camp. My class was the city of Chicago! These were the only kids I had in class everyday. So you get closer to these kids than the others.

Here are some pictures of my kids and my class.

My Classroom:

My Class:

My Boys

Our class project! We built our own version of the Chicago Skyline. They spent 3 days building this and our American Flag. Check out all of the little details:

My Boys proud of their city:

Boys and Girls with massive American Flag. Allice the girl in the back cut out every star on the flag!:

Pictures

2009-01-11T09:28:00.007-05:00

Hello Everyone! Things have been pretty busy around here and I haven't had to much time to post on my blog. I usually have time to send Kara an e-mail and that's about it! But its Sunday night here and I have a little time before bed so I just thought I would put up some pictures really quick and you can see what I've been up to!

There are some hiking trails behind the dorm that I am living in. My roommate Kendall and I decided to go take a hike on Saturday afternoon. It as amazing. We stumbled upon a rice patty where there were shacks built for rice workers! They were pretty cool, but a little creepy too. They seemed like someone might jump out of one at any time!

We saw the sunset from the top of a really big hill. It set behind this large row of mountains it was amazing! Then we walked home under the light of a huge full moon!

So here are some pictures from that Hike:

Kendall and I checking out the Mountains in the distance:

In The Middle of a random rice patty!

Today we went to this old Korean folk village it was supposed to be around 600 years old! We walked through the village and along the river and then ate a traditional Korean dinner. The food was amazing! We all sat on the floor and ate from one big bowl in the middle. Here are some pictures of the village and our meal.

A Cool Building in the Village:

Kendall and I by the River:

A Beautiful Shot! Tea dried up with the Mountains in the background:

A cool mask that is worn for traditional dances. The mask was inside a mask museum we went to:

A group shot (minus me) after our dinner!

Kendall with his meal (he had a separate meatless meal from the rest of us):

Our Meal just before we devoured it!

The Remains of our Meal:

This is pretty amazing! It's a Korean version of the see-saw...except you launch the other person into the air!

Here is a video of some Koreans showing us how it's done! It's pretty Scary!

And Finally a video from class on Saturday. My kids were playing a game where you had to try to get the student to guess the word or phrase written on the board behind them. This kid is trying to guess "Anything is Possible for God." I thought you might enjoy seeing my kids in action!

I hope things are great for you and that all is well! Have a great week!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Sledding! Korean style

2009-01-08T09:24:00.004-05:00

All week long the staff from outside of Korea has really been looking forward to today. We had been told that we were going sledding with the students this afternoon.

We later found out that Koreans don't exactly sled like they do in America. Actually they don't even go sledding in the snow.

We drove 50 minutes up this huge mountain range. It was beautiful! But when I looked out my window I was terrified, it dropped down further than I could see and I was on a big tour bus with about 60 kids. We arrived at this rice patty unloaded the kids. They were each handed a wooden sled made out of shipping pallet with something like ice-skate blades on the bottom and two sticks each with a large nail at the bottom. Then we walked around a building and they had a rice patty that they had filled with water and it was frozen. The kids would sit on their sleds and scoot around with the wooden handled nail things. It was AMAZING!

After we were done sledding we went to another area where old men had been cooking potatoes for us! They had these huge open grills filled with rocks, with a big fire beneath them. They rolled up regular potato's and sweet potato's in foil and threw them in the rocks to cook for about an hour. They tasted amazing! (I ate a sweet potato so Aunt Gina you owe me a $1 at Thanksgiving! Sorry Mom!) All the kids would stand around and fight to get one when they threw it out of the grill! Here are a few videos from today's festivities!

The first one is of Kendall introducing you to Korean sledding, and the second is my friend Ann Brill (a teacher here) falling down! She had never seen snow before and was very excited for the little that was there. Hope all is well for you! Love, Joy & Peace!

Who wants a Lobster?

2009-01-07T08:00:00.003-05:00

I went into town last night to buy some rice for class. We ran out of rice for our shakers. While we were waiting for the bus one of my friends said you have to see this! We walked around a street corner and found this machine...I'll let the video speak for itself.

Love, Joy & Peace!

A day in Korea

2009-01-05T02:18:00.008-05:00

When I’m not sick and in bed sleeping I have a pretty busy schedule. The whole month that I am here is one big camp that kids from all over Korea have paid nearly $3000 to attend. The purpose of the camp is to help improve the English skills of the children in a Christian environment. So the structure is a lot like a camp in the U.S. would be. They have a pretty set schedule that they follow every day.

What is hard for me and probably many Americans to imagine is that the age of the campers is from 7 or 8 years old to about 16. Could you imagine being sent away to a camp to learn English for 3 weeks by yourself when you were 8 years old? It’s pretty crazy! For the most part the kids are pretty good with being away from home.

So here is what I do all day!

I usually wake up around 7:30 A.M. and get ready in my dorm room. We have bathrooms and showers on our floor just like a college dorm in the states. I finish up any last minute lesson plans, check my e-mail and rush out the door for breakfast and staff meeting at 8:30. At our staff meeting we discuss the day and any other specific things that need to be addressed.

Foyer - Outside of Dorm rooms and Staff Lounge -

Staff Lounge - In Dorm

Dorm Room Hallway -

At 9:00 A.M. I have a homeroom class. Every teacher has a homeroom class. This is the only class that I get to see every day. Each homeroom is named after a different city around the world and is assigned a missionary from that area to learn about during camp. My homeroom city is pretty easy for me…it’s Chicago! Our class missionary lives in Cairo Illinois. So every homeroom period we have a game and a lesson about missions, Chicago, or our missionary. They are a pretty fun class. Here is a picture of my homeroom class.

At 10:00 A.M. I have my first class followed by another class at 11:00 A.M. I am teaching bible and was assigned a text book to teach from so my lesson prep is fairly easy. I usually begin the class with a game (the kids love hangman!) and then I have the students go around the room and read one paragraph at a time from the book. I then write some vocabulary words on the chalk board and have the students write them on a sheet of paper. Then I will have the students pronounce each word and I then define it for them. After we define all of the words I read the story out loud to the class. I will stop every few sentences to explain what is going on or act scenes out.

My Class Hard at work -

Its really neat to teach bible to these kids. Korea is a pretty Christian country but some of these kids are still shocked by the stories! My first lesson was on the birth of Jesus and in several different classes it was amazing to see the shock on some of the students faces when I told them that God’s Son was born in a stable! I hope that I always have that sense of wonder and awe about Jesus!

After my 11:00 A.M. class I have to take my students to lunch in the cafeteria. It is about a 5 minute walk from my class room but it is very cold out! I will eat lunch with whatever class I happen to have that day and after lunch I will walk the class back to the dorm room. I then have a break from Lunch until 2:00 P.M. (I’m usually online around then which is about 11:00 P.M. in Indiana if you want to try and catch me on msn or facebook!)

After my break I have a 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 P.M. class. At 5:00 I am responsible for leading a club. Each teacher is required to lead a club every afternoon. Some of the clubs offered are soccer, beadwork, film, African dance and card games. I am co-leading the Music club with my friend Kendall Ludwig. Students go to their club with their homeroom class and get to go to a different club every week. Last week I posted a video of our kids playing shakers that they made in our club to a song that I said Kendall wrote. I know that Kendall didn’t write “River of Life” I just uploaded the wrong video! So here is a new video of our kids shaking their shakers to Kendall’s song.

After our club Kendall and I take our 20 kids to dinner. We eat with them, walk them back to the dorm and then we are done for the evening. It’s a pretty full day. Once I get feeling better I will have some pictures up from around town and some different buildings on campus and things.

Hope all is well!

Love, Joy & Peace!

M.A.S.H.

2009-01-05T02:17:00.001-05:00

If you have been following my updates on facebook, or have happened to catch me on MSN or facebook chat you probably know that I have been pretty sick these past few days. Well apparently I’ve been really sick! I’ve been in bed for the past 2 days with the Asian flu! I know…real exotic!

The staff here actually made me go to the ER yesterday afternoon. I had to walk downstairs and then a driver drove me about 20 minutes to the city of Pohong to go to the hospital. I was a little afraid to go to a hospital ER in Korea (maybe to many episodes of M.A.S.H.?) but then I began to think about how many doctors I know from the states that are Korean. My fears subsided a little…until we walked into the ER. My translator Cu said to me “You might see something interesting in here,” right before we walked in.

It was crazy! The ER was like a trauma center and there were people on cots all over the room! Their were no dividers between beds and you could see everyone. Some were rolling around their beds in pain, some had blood over them and some weren’t really moving at all.

We talked to the man at the front desk and he told us that it would cost $100 USD to see a doctor today (Sunday) but if I waited until tomorrow I could see one for only $10 USD. So we went to the grocery store and bought some fruit instead! I didn't go back today. I'm feeling a lot better!

The camp nurse gave me a bunch of pills to take so I have been taking those. I have been drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, and I even found some mint tea (my favorite!) at the grocery store. I’m starting to feeling better but my voice is still a little rough and I’m pretty congested still. It’s much better than cold chills and sweating all night with a high fever! So please keep praying for me that I continue to improve. I had to have someone teach my class today which means I don’t get paid for being here today!

Hope all is well for you!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dancing in Korea

2009-01-01T08:18:00.004-05:00

School has been going great!

Things are a little different than I expected but its been very fun and interesting. I wish I had more time to sit back and write out all of the funny things that these kids have said and done! They are so much fun. I'm off on Sunday so maybe I will be able to share some stories then!

I am teaching 5 classes a day. Some classes are pretty advanced and some have a hard time understanding the word "wave."

I am also responsible for a "Club" each day after class. I am co-teaching Music club with my friend Kendall. Our plan was to sing and learn some new songs. That didn't work well. Apparently Korean kids don't like to sing. But as you can see from the video below they love to shake! We made the shakers yesterday in class and today we had them shake along to some of our songs! It was really fun!

I'm off to bed. I'll try to put some funny stories together for the week end! Enjoy the videos. Love, Joy & Peace!

This last video is of me walking my kids back to our dorm after dinner! They had a bit of energy and I wanted them to say hello to you!

Korea

2008-12-28T08:00:00.002-05:00

So...I'm in Korea.

It only took me 30 hours to get here! I flew out of Detroit on the 26th at 1:45 P.M. and the adventure began. When I left my moms house in Michigan the roads were covered in ice. I had to drive 20 MPH for 1 1/2 hours! I arrived at the airport and had to wait in line for two hours to check in. I boarded my plane and flew to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I immediately boarded another plane to fly to Seoul, Korea. Once I was on the plane we sat for an hour. After an hours wait we were told that we needed to get off the airplane. They had just replaced the brakes on the plane and needed to simulate a landing before we could take off. Everyone exited the plane and then 20 minutes later we had to board again. Once on board we had to wait 2 more hours before we took off. It was great...not really. We arrived in Seoul 3 hours late and then we had a 4 1/2 hour drive. We didn't arrive at the school until 7:15 A.M. our first meeting began at 9:30. I have been going all day on an hour of sleep. So if some of this doesn't make sense I'll blame it on that.

The camp has been really fun so far. We spent all day today in orientation. We went over rules, where my classroom is, discipline, philosophy, cultural understanding and where to go to eat. The food is very spice but is really good. Lots of rice and noodles and soup with every meal.

Most of the other teachers are from South Africa and it has been fun to get to know them. I have been spending some time with a guy named Nate who is from Birmingham Alabama. He is a great guy and this is his first time at the camp as well.

I'm sharing a room with my good friend Kendal Ludwig. His luggage got lost so we've been sharing a lot!

Our room is on the 5th floor of a college dorm. Once you reach the top of the stairs for our floor you take off your shoes and put on slippers or walk around in your socks! I love it. Plus, the floors in our room are heated. It feels really nice when you roll out of bed in the morning.

I'm really tired and need some sleep. I'll try to have some pictures up in the next day or so. Keep reading and I'll keep telling you whats going on.

Love, Joy & Peace!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-02T12:52:00.002-05:00

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I had a great time! Kara came to North Vernon on Wednesday night and went to Jubilee (our church youth group) with me. After church we loaded up the van and headed to Michigan. We pulled in the drive way at my moms' house around 1:30 A.M. it was a long drive!

On Thanksgiving day we all had a wonderful breakfast of bagels together and then Brad Gallup took Kara and I off for a photo shoot. This is my favorite picture of the shoot! It was really cold out, the wind was blowing hard and there were birds everywhere (which is a big problem for Kara!).

That night Renee and Don and the Girls girl's joined us for dinner along with my parents neighbors Marty, Mandy, Macie, and Mason! We had turkey and ham and all of that other delicious Thanksgiving stuff. I always enjoy eating anything my Mom makes. After dinner we hung out in the living room while everyone took turns playing the Wii.

On Black Friday we all slept in and Kara and I left at around noon for her parents house in Lima Ohio. We stopped to pick up her Grandma in Fort Wayne along the way and we had a really good time with her for about an hour as we traveled.

Kara's Mom had a huge meal prepared for us for dinner that night! There were 13 of us around 2 tables enjoying the feast. Kara's Grandma even cooked oysters for the occasions! Nothing says Thanksgiving like fried oysters! That night we went and look at Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols in the living room and watched Home Alone 3!

On Saturday morning after being woken up by Caleb and Tyler (Kara's 16 year old brother and his friend) we all enjoyed biscuits and gravy for breakfast!

Kara's brother Jonathan left around 2:00 in the afternoon to drive back to Olivet. He had been gone for about 20 minutes when the phone rang at the house. Jonathan was calling to tell his Dad that while he was pumping gas a couple in the car next to him could not get their car started. Jonathan tried to help but they couldn't find out the problem. So he called and asked his Dad to come and help.

So Kara's Dad got up and traveled to the gas station while we all made plans to put up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. About an hour later as we were moving furniture and boxes into the living room Kara's Dad walked into the house with two strangers behind him. The strangers came in and sat down in the living room. They were introduced to us as Stan and Lucy. They were both seem to be around their 50's. They were from Toronto Canada and their car had broken down at the gas station.

They figured the problem was with the starter so Jon and Stan purchased a new one and were on their way to install it. They asked Lucy if she wanted to stay at the house instead of waiting in the cold while they worked on the car. Lucy agreed.

So here we were with a perfect stranger in the living room as we were about to put up the Christmas tree. We talked with Lucy a few minutes and then asked her if she would like to help with the tree. She smiled and said yes! Lucy jumped right in and even started vacuuming the living room at one point! After the tree was up we talked a little more with her. We learned that Stan and Lucy moved to Toronto in the 70's from Krakow Poland, the home town of Pope John Paul II. When they were children they were confirmed by Pope John Paul II while he was still Bishop in Krakow. I was so impressed with how comfortable she seemed given the situation. Kara's Mom then made hot chocolate and coffee and had us all gather in the living room as Lucy shared how they celebrate Christmas in Poland.

Kara and I had to leave at 6:00 and Lucy was still at the house when we left. We figured that her Dad would fix the car and they would be on their way. That night we called to see how things went and we were told that they couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan were going to spend the night at their house!

On Sunday morning they still couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan needed to get home that day. They decided to get a ride to Detroit and take a train into Toronto and then ride the subway to their home. Their son-in-law drove up from Cincinnati to drive them the 1 ½ hours to Detroit. But before they left Stan walked into the house and told John that he would have a hard time having the car towed into Canada and that it would be difficult to get back to fix the car, so he pulled out the title and the keys and gave them to Kara's Dad and said, "You can have the car!" They hopped in their son-in-laws car and drove of to Detroit!

The whole thing sounds like it should be in a movie! It was great. We have their address and phone number and I'm hoping to meet up with them this spring while I'm in Toronto!

I had an amazing weekend. It was so much fun to be with family, to relax, to eat some good food, and it was really good to be with Kara for 5 days in a row.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I'll be posting soon about my upcoming trip to Korea, so check back soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

The Beast in Me

2008-10-31T17:33:00.001-04:00

So I found this video today too. I like it. I hope you do to. Seriously what could be better than Johnny Cash, an old man and a dog?

Johnny Cash |MTV Music

Mc Skat Cat

2008-10-31T16:48:00.002-04:00

So I discovered a web site www.mtvmusic.com the other day and it is great. The site has just about every music video ever created. I thought this video was amazing! Enjoy!

Paula Abdul |MTV Music

Momma T

2008-10-29T10:09:00.002-04:00

So I'm a few weeks late on my post! But to my defense it seems as if no one cared about my game! Oh well. I had several people make guesses in person and my favorite guess was from Seth who thought that the quote on the last post was from Marilyn Manson. Actually the quote from my last post was from none other than Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa? Really?

The quote is from a book titled "Come Be My Light" by Brian Kolodiejchuk. The book includes some of the private writings of Mother Teresa. Although the writings are not the typical hope inspiring snippets you often find in other books. This book deals with the very personal struggles of faith and love and nearness of God.

A quote from Mother Teresa listed on the back of book exemplifies the tone of the book she says, "If I ever become a Saint - I will surely be one of "darkness." I will continually be absent from Heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth."

What I love about her struggle is that although she tried to keep it from the public, it was a very real struggle that she had. Her story is that early in her life she felt a strong call from God to minister to the people of Calcutta and after that point she rarely felt his presence. Could I suffer what she suffered, experience what she experienced and see what she saw and still be faithful to God's calling even though God seemed distant and far away? I hope so.

This book also gives me hope that sometimes the doubts and fears and insecurities of faith that I have are not something that only I deal with. This woman, who for many people exemplifies the word Saint, struggled too, she had doubts too! I believe there is strength from our honesty with one another.

So if you struggle, if you doubt, if you have emptiness or misery and yet are following the calling and direction of Christ seek him all the more. Long for him more. Desire him more. I also urge you to share your true feelings and thoughts with a mature Christian as well.

I love how she ends this section of writing with this, "...here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I smile at Your Hidden Face - always."

May we also be able to say, "Here I am Lord." Even when He feels distant. Even when He feels hidden.

I love this C.S. Lewis quote from the book "The Screwtape Letters,"

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

Who Said It?

2008-10-09T14:24:00.002-04:00

So I haven't blogged in a while. I'm sure if many of you are even reading still. A lot has happened in the past few months that I would love to tell you about in some future blogs but for now I want to play a game with you. I want you to read the following quote and post a comment guessing who wrote it. Next Thursday I will tell you who said it and add some comment to it. But for now read it and post a comment on who you think it is. Love, Joy & Peace

"Lord, my GOd, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love - and now become as the most hated one - the one You have thrown away as unwanted - unloved. I call, I cling, I want - and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no,No One. Alone. The darkness is so dark - and I am alone. Unwanted, Forsaken. The loneliness of the heart that wants love is unbearable. Where is my faith? - Even deep down, right in, there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. My God how painful is this unknown pain. It pains without ceasing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart and make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me I am afraid to uncover them becasue of the blasphemy - If there be God, please forgive me. Trust that all will end in Heaven with Jesus. When I try to raise my thought to Heaven there is such a convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love the word it brings nothing. I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Before the work started there was so much union, love, faith, trust, prayer, sacrifice...I don't feel not even a single simple thought or temptation enteres my heart to claim anything in the work.

The whole time smiling...people pass such remarks. They think my faith, trust, and love ar filling my very being and that the intimacy with God and union to His will must be absorbing my heart. Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery.

In spite of all - this darkness and emptiness is not as painful as the longing for God. The contradiction I fear will unbalanc e me. What are You doing My God to one so small? When you asked to imprint Your Passion on my heart - is this the answer?

If this brings You glory, if You get a drop of joy from this - if souls ar brought to You if my suffering satiates Your Thirst here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I will smile at Your Hidden Face - always."

Who do you think said it?

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

2008-08-16T15:50:00.001-04:00

I found this video on accident today and as I watched it I began to cry in my office. This God I worship, I serve, I (as Paul said) am a slave to, puts broken pieces together, heals, restores, makes new! It's pretty powerful I think. Watch it to the end!

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

Love, Joy & Peace!

Test Your Awareness

2008-07-16T15:28:00.002-04:00

I saw this video a long time ago (probably 10 years ago!) on the news one night. I thought it was pretty amazing. I just saw it again today and thought I would share it with you!

It does raise a few questions for me though:

- For those of us who claim we never see God working could it have something to do with what we are looking at or for?

- What are some things that distract me from seeing what Jesus is doing?

- How can I focus more on Jesus and what he wants me to become or do?

Mission to the Gulf: Pascagoula Mississippi

2008-07-14T19:03:00.002-04:00

For the past week I have been working hard in the state of Mississippi with 94 adults and teenagers from the Indianapolis District Church of the Nazarene NYI. All 94 of us traveled by bus and five 15 passenger vans to the town of Pascagoula Mississippi.

We partnered with Mission Encounter a missions ministry group out of Nashville Tennessee to pull of this trip.

Our team spent the week working on 8 different homes throughout the Pascagoula area. We did removal of old dry wall, installation of new, painting, bathroom remodels, brush removal, concrete work, and a list of other work. It was amazing to get the work done and see the progress that can be made by 94 teens and adults in just a few days of work.

I worked on and off throughout the week with teens from our church. When I was not working with them I traveled with our Mission Encounter director to every job site. I had an opportunity to see all of the work that was being done, talk with most of the home owners, and see students grow in their love for God and their neighbor!

There is so much work that still needs to be done in the Gulf coast region. I talked with directors from several different mission groups that shared with me that they may have to shut down their rebuilding efforts in Mississippi if more groups don't start signing on. In fact, this was the last weekend for one ministry group down there.

There is still so much work that needs to be done in this area. As you drive around the towns you still see people everywhere living in FEMA trailers provided to them by the government. One home we worked on still had wet carpet in it from the hurricane. The hurricane happened three years ago!

Check out our blog at to see some video of the work we did this week.

It was amazing to hear the stories we heard from different people about the Hurricane. I will end this blog with a few stories about people I met this week.

. I talked with one family that had major flooding in their home as Katrina hit. There home was so damaged and help was so slow they had to spend three months living in tents in their front yard. All of their meals were cooked on a grill they had. This month they may be able to finally move back into their home!

. One woman I met was able this week to use a bathroom in her home for the first time since Katrina. I asked here if she was happy with the work our teens were doing and she responded, "I couldn't be more happy! I was just able to pee in my own house for the first time in 3 years!"

. One woman shared with me how after the storm they had no water or food in their home. They had to go to a central point in town and wait for hours in line just to receive some water and some MRE's which are military food pouches. She told me she never travels anywhere without water now!

If you or someone you know is responsible for planning a missions trip in the next year I strongly encourage you to look into traveling the Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf coast area.

I was amazed to see how God used 94 people to make such a huge difference. Someone commented that they thought it was great that what the richest most powerful government in the world has been unable to do in three years a group off teens from Indiana compelled by the love of Christ pulled off in just 4 days!

Bus Barn Part 2

2008-07-02T17:10:00.005-04:00

So i've been working on this building for the past um...2 years now! And we are finally about done. We are converting an old 3 sided barn into a youth center. If you scroll down you will see some pictures that show where we were about 2 months ago. These pictures show how things look as of today! We've finished painting, installed ceiling fans and lights. We will have the floor painted in 3 weeks. Brad will appreciate the color of our back wall! Let me know what you think!

My Fun Week!

2008-06-23T16:34:00.005-04:00

This past week has been full of excitement!

I started last Sunday driving our church van pulling a wagon full of Kids in a parade! Honestly, what's more fun than a parade?

Once the parade was over I traveled to camp camby our district camp group for Junior and Senior High Camps. Three other people from my church went with me. We had an awesome time. One student responded to God during an evening service and told me, "I don't want to tell you what I was praying about. But I will tell you I plan on coming to church a lot more!" So that's always good!

Then Friday morning I woke up and traveled to Ottawa Illinois the town I went to High School in. I married a couple at Starved Rock Lodge. We had rehearsal on Friday and the Wedding was on Saturday night. The wedding went perfect.

While I was in town I was able to spend a ton of time with most of my Family. I slept at my Aunt and Uncle's home for two nights. They have three little Kids Drew (7) Kate (5) and Drake (2). They are about the best looking kids you will ever see!They also have as much energy as I have ever seen. (Although their parents claim that its only when I'm around!) We had a ton of fun.

They woke me up at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. I heard them all walk slowly into my room trying to giggle quietly. I peaked at them from under my pillow and I heard one say, "Who's going to wake him up?" then Drake the youngest said, "I will!" And then he screamed in my ear "WAKE UP!!!" I faked like I was scared and then they all jumped on me in bed while Drake began to sing, "Drop it like its hot!"

I really can't think of a much better way to get woken up in the morning!

My friend Jake Heaton who is interning in Sterling Illinois drove down and hung out with me on Saturday. He drove down and we went to Marseilles (my home town) for an event called the freedom ride. They expected over 30,000 motorcycles to show up for a war memorial event they have in town. It's a pretty big event! The town only has 4,000 people living in it! It was pretty crazy! I might have some pictures of that day up soon. We hung out with my Grandma, Mom and Step-Dad. It was really good to see all of them!

Jake and I left the freedom ride and went to starved rock. We went to St. Louis Canyon and climbed to the top of Starved rock. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him and enjoy creation together. I love that kid!

I attended Ottawa First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday with all of my family. My mom and Step-dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Gina and Andy, Roger & Cortney and their 3 kids. It was really cool to worship with all of my family!

I'm sitting in Jeremiah Joe's a coffee shop in Ottawa about to leave for Bourbonnais to eat dinner with a good friend! I'll just say I hope it goes well!

So it's been a great week a few other things I did: Dinner at Sam's Pizza, dinner at Uptown Bar and Grill (the restaurant I learned to be a gentleman in! :) ), six hours of hiking, farmers market, meeting Henry the Hobo, lunch a Betty's, sitting by the river, being with family!

I hope you have a great week!

How to stop a fight

2008-04-17T12:32:00.004-04:00

Not a week goes by that I don't hear about a fight between students at our local high school or middle school. I often have students run up to me on Wednesday night before our youth service to tell me about a fight they saw, a friend that was hurt, or how they were attacked by someone at school. I really get sick of students thinking that fighting is the only way to solve problems!

Whenever I have students that talk about wanting to fight someone I always tell them, "God didn't make you for that!" I always half joke when they tell me that they saw a fight at school by asking, "Why didn't you run into the middle and yell "God didn't make you for this!" to get them to stop fighting?" They usually laugh me off. Usually...

Last night as students were coming in for our service one girl came running up to me her name is Alison. She ran up and said, "Ryan, you will never guess what happened yesterday!"

She said she was walking down a hallway at school and saw a very large crowd of students in the middle. She looked a little closer and saw two boys facing each other walking around in a circle getting ready to fight. So Alison took off running through the crowd, jumped in between the two boys, stuck her hands out and yell, "STOP! God didn't create you for this!" Everyone looked at her funny and the boys and the crowd all walked away. She stopped the fight!

She then said, "But they ended up fighting today! And it was really bad!" I told her how amazing I thought it was that she was willing to step up and speak truth in a crazy situation and not give in to the crowd and animalistic behavior around her.

I read somewhere (I think it was something from Shane Claiborne) the "Violence is for those that have lost their imagination." I challenged my students to use their imagination against violance. What else can you do to help show the beauty and sacredness in each person? What can you do to help call into question the idea that violence is the answer to every problem. What can you do to be a peacemaker?

This Jesus that I worship calls us blessed and children of God if we are peacemakers! May you be blessed today! May you be called a child of God.

"Nothing is so characteristically Christian as being a peacemaker."
– St Basil the Great

The day I met Bill

2008-04-02T14:55:00.004-04:00

Today was a pretty exciting day around Southern Indiana. Bill Clinton made a stop in Columbus and in Seymour to campaign for Hillary and share some of her plans for the economy.

I arrived about an hour before he was scheduled to speak and waited in line for about 30 minutes before they allowed us to enter a practice gym at Seymour high school. There were a few seats that were mainly used by some older folks while the rest of the crowd of about 800 stood on the floor around the stage.

The Seymour High School band was playing while we all waited for President Clinton to arrive. While we waited the band entertained us with such numbers as Cheeseburger in paradise, love potion number 9, and Holiday by Greenday! Exactly the music you would expect for the arrival of the one time leader of the "free world."

President Clinton finally showed up 2 hours late! My feet were tired, people were sitting on the floor, people were leaving! It was a bit frustrating. He talked for a while about the economy, jobs, schools and health care. He claimed that if Hillary were elected we would have access to cars that get 100MPG. Sounds good. He also claimed that there are already 50 of these vehicles on the road today. He also mentioned that the United States is not in a recession, because the definition of a recession is 6 straight months of economic decline. This is not the case for the U.S. but he says it is true for many Americans on a personal level.

After the speech he went around shaking hands and hugging babies. I managed to make my way to the front and was able to stretch my hand out far enough for him to shake it!

I didn't have my camera so the only pictures you get are small ones off my cell phone!

I still don't know who I'm going to vote for...I sure wish Edwards was still running!

More barn pictures

2008-03-20T18:26:00.005-04:00

Working on the Barn

2008-03-20T18:02:00.008-04:00

For the past two years our youth group has been working on turning a barn into a youth center! I know they both have a lot in common. We have raised most of the money and done most of the work on our own. Here are a few pictures of the work we have done and where we are today. We will be finished by April 5. At least I hope, we have a band scheduled for that weekend! Enjoy...

Celebrate Life

2008-02-29T14:40:00.001-05:00

I am packed and ready to head out to our district camp grounds in Indianapolis. Tonight starts our weekend Celebrate Life retreat. This is the first time we have done celebrate life as a weekend retreat and I'm pretty excited about it!

I am the speaker for tonight's service and I'm pretty pumped up for it! It is always exciting talking to a group of teenagers and sharing what God has placed in your heart. I'm talking about Jacob and Esau tonight. I'll be sharing how Esau traded all that God had created to be for a momentary craving for soup! I think we all have many moments just about every day where we can sell out the person God has created us to be for a momentary craving that never fulfills and leaves us hungry for more.

I have a quote on the wall in my office that says, "I have created you for so much more! Why do settle?"

It's my prayer that I refuse to buy into lies and momentary cravings and instead pursue passionately the life and the person that God has created me to be.

Love, Joy & Peace!

President Obama Hama

2008-02-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

I met a woman today who volunteers at a local elementary school. She works with kindergartners and 2nd grade students and she told me a story about a 5 year old boy that she was helping. The little boy asked her,

“Have you heard of President Obama Hama?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Have you heard of President Hilary?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Did you know they don’t like each other? I heard them say that on the news last night.”

She said, “That’s not very nice! You can say I don’t like something you do, or I don’t like something you said but you should never say “I don’t like you.”

The boy said, “I know! I can’t watch the news anymore. I get too depressed.”

The wisdom of a 5 year old!

I agree with him. When I see the news, when I see how things really are, when I see how much evil is in the world I tend to get rather depressed. I tend to feel a little hopeless.

But I am convinced that we have great reason to hope. I am convinced that Jesus Christ is the solution for the world. That the way of forgiveness, love and peace will ultimately triumph over the world of evil, hate and violence. I am convinced that the way of Jesus is the best way to live.

Pics & Vids

2008-02-22T18:41:00.016-05:00

Pictures Are Here!

I've been home for about 20 hours now and I can finaly upload some pictures and Videos for you today.

I had hoped to have a few more posts while I was gone but I hope you enjoyed what I was able to post!

I'm in a bit of a return culture shock now that I'm home. It was a little odd going to wal-mart and the grocery store, I think about 12 villages could fit inside of one!

We arrived home on Thursday night at about 9:30 p.m. it was a long trip. I think we spent about 23 hours traveling. I was pretty tired! When we were in Detroit the flight was overbooked so that asked for 7 volunteers to spend the night and fly out in the morning. I was volunteer number 6 and for my sacrifice I was offered a free nights hotel, free dinner and a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere in the US including Alaska!

So I was pretty fired up about the free flight and a good nights sleep at the Hilton. I said goodbye to our team and waited for my ride to the hotel...when suddenly I heard my name paged over the intercom. I went to the counter and they informed me that there were two empty seats on the plane and I had to board! So I lost it all!

But anyway, here are some video's and pictures, I'll post some more tomorrow too!

Worship On Sunday Morning at the Church in Kitchumboora:

The Church of the Nazarene at Kitchumboora:

My Boy, I don't know his name. This is the kid I hung out with all week:

Hanging out with Dennis and his family at their home:

Some of the kid's at church on Sunday: Daniel:

The Nile River

2008-02-17T13:34:00.004-05:00

Today began the relaxing part of our trip!

We were unable to attend a local church this morning because of confusion of service times, so we had church together in the front yard of the hotel. We sang a song together, Don preached, and John Kraft prayed. It was interesting that we came to build a building for a church that was worshiping under a tree and today we were the ones worshiping under a tree!

After Church we loaded up our vehicles and headed to Murchison Falls Park. It is a large game reserve on the Nile river. It is the largest game reserve in Uganda. It took us two hours to drive on the bumpy dirt roads roads! But once we arrived they greeted us in the lobby with cold towls to wash the dust from the roads off of our faces, and a cold glass of passion fruit juice!

The hotel is amazing! The name of the hotel is the Paraa Safari Lodge. If you google it they have a web site. Apparently The Queen stayed here before as well as Ernest Hemingway. All of the wood in our room is Mahogany. The whole place has an Africa explorer feel to it. We have a balcony in our room that overlooks the Nile river. I just had tea on the roof and you can hear the hippopotoms in the river below! It is amazing! There are more stars in the sky than I have ever seen before.

We took a 3 hour boat ride up the Nile today to Murchison Falls. It is a 100 foot waterfall near the start of the Nile. We traveled along the shore the whole way up and encountered all sorts of animals. We saw hippos everywhere! We also saw several Elephants and their babies, Crocs, warthogs, a Giant King Fish and some gazzel and plenaty of baboons! I couldn't describe to you how amazing it is to be that close to a giant animal like an Elephant or Hippo.

We could not get very close to the falls but even at the distance we were at you could feel the power of them! The entire Nile river has to pass through a very tiny gap and it comes crashing down!

Tomorrow we have brekafast at 6:30 and then we will head out into the park for a Safari of our own! I will be riding on the top of one of our vans for most of the day!

As I wrap up tonight I want to put a few sections from a journal I have been keeping.

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this so if you are post some comments!

Love, Joy & Peace

"I had a lot of fun with the kids today. None of them could speak English but we still communicated and we still had lots of fun! I taught the kids some very cool things today, like how to make glasses with their hands and that thing where you twist your hands around your middle fingers. They couldn't do the finger thing but they had the glasses down. A whole village of kids was walking around with their hands flipped on their faces like glasses!"

"There is one boy I played with most of the day but I don't know his name. He has a huge smile and is really cute. He wears the same shirt everyday and it has all sorts of different animals. We can't talk to eachother so we just hang out together and smile and laugh!"

"The women went to the Pastors house today to see his wifes garden. While they were there several of the woman asked about me. They wanted to know how many wives I had!"

"Kathy and I went and walked all around the town of Masindi toady. It was amazing! As we walked past all of the shops we dodged cars, trucks, bikes, and motorcycles all while walking on the left sid of the road with people laughing and point everywhere! Everywhere we went little kids would get very excited and yell "Wazungu!" which is a white person. We must have been a site to see, two white Americans in a sea of Ugandans."

Thats all for now! I'm off to sit by the river Nile. It hard work serving Jesus!

Uganda Part 2

2008-02-16T08:50:00.002-05:00

Hello again everyone!

I found time and a ride back into town to post again. We just finished the construction of the church today. In the past 6 days we built all of the trusses, hung them, and hung the metal sheets for the roof. It has been hot, especially hanging on the roof of a metal building.

Today while some of the guys were finishing up their work I was able to go with a teenage boy I met here to visit his home. We walked about 1/4 mile up the road and turned down a long lane leading to his mud hut. Once we arrive there about 20 members of his family came running out to greet us. His mom was mad that he didn't tell here he was bringing friends over! (Not to different from home!) The had goats, chickens, ducks, and a couple of pigs running around. It was awesome! They gave me two pineapple and a papaya.

We then walked back to the church in time for the dedication of the new building. We presented a soccer ball to the youth of the church and they were very excited about it! They all agreed that in the front of the church they would build a soccer field for God! IT was great! Then the pastor of the church thanked us for coming and for giving our time. Then pastor Don prayed a prayer of dedication for the building. Many people were crying as they knew this would be the last time that we would see each other. After the dedication prayer we all sang the doxology together.

We passed out candy and beanie babies to all of the kids as they left the church. They were pretty fired up about receiving one. (See there is still a use for all of those beanie babies you have laying around!) We said goodbye to our friends and drove home. They gave us so much today. We had a box full of pineapple, papaya, jackfruit, sugar cane, banana's and passion fruit!

Tomorrow we leave Masindi for the game park. We will take a boat cruise down the Nile!

One more quick story and I need to Run.

Those of you who know my grandfather have probably heard his story about a cat drinking gas. Well yesterday I had to lead devotions at the church and I was looking for a story to tell and I told Grandpa's cat story. The people fell off their benches laughing! I thought grandpa would appreciate that! Maybe he has a future as a comedian in Uganda?

I need to run! I hope you are still reading! Thanks for praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace,

Uganda

2008-02-14T11:28:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to write anything in the past few days. I'm in Masindi Uganda at an Internet Cafe. I don't have much time so I'll be quick.

These past few days have been amazing.

We are working on a church here. IN the past 3 days we have built all of the rafters, hung them, and tomorrow we will begin hanging the metal for the roof. I'm the youngest on the trip so everytime something has to be done high up I get sent up. So it's been fun trying to balance on the tip of the rafters in the hot sun of the Equator. I'm impressed with all the work everyone was able to do in just a few short days.

Our hotel is very nice, the food is good, and we almost always have hot water and electricity! Today in the middle of his shower the water just shut off on Don!

We worshiped here on Sunday morning and it was one of the most amazing worship services I have been a part of. The Ugandans shared testimonies and songs, and so did we. There was such passion and intensity in their worship. .

God has been so good to us! The people are amazing. I love to hear them laugh, and sing. I told one team member you kind of just want to hold the kids down and tickle them all! She said the would probably be really afraid of the crazy white man holding them down!
I have had a fun time playing with the kids and teenagers here. Today I had a group of about 15 kids following me around everywhere I went. They were cracking up laughing because I was afraid of a lizard!

ON Saturday I am going to visit the house of one of the teenagers named Dennis. I have to walk a 1/2 mile to get there! We have talke alot the past few days. I have a video of him singing a song that I will have to post when I get back.

Well I'm running out of time so I need to run. I should be able to post again tomorrow or Monday! Keep Praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace

Amsterdam

2008-02-08T03:57:00.000-05:00

We're sitting in Amsterdam now. The time at home is 3:30 A.M. and its 9:30 A.M. here.

Everyone is having a great time so far and we haven't had any problems at all. I have never traveled so quickly through security at an airport! Things are going great.

A lot of our group is getting pretty tired...ok all of our group! and it's really starting to show on their faces! But I still think they are all beautiful!

Our entire team if finally together here. Kathy and the Shorbes met us in Detroit and the other couple (I don't know their names!) just now met us here in Amsterdam at our gate.

The flight to Amsterdam went faster than expected we had a strong tail wind and ended up arriving an hour earloy. The phrase "hurry up and wait" keeps coming to my mind along with the lyrics to a Jerry Garcia song "Sitting here in Limbo".

I've really enjoyed the mix of people here. On the plane today the man in front of me had his new born son and 5 year old daughter and they were traveling to Kuwait to see his mom. Behind me was an Indian family, and next to me was a woman from Laos and in front of her a man from Kenya. I really enjoy being around such a diverse group of people. There were some interesting smells as well!

We will be waiting here for about 3 hours and then we head off to Entebbe, which is another 8 hour flight! We will spend the night at our hotel in Entebbe and then we are off to Masindi in the morning, which I think is about a 5-6 hour drive.

This is all still a bit surreal. When we landed here it was a fun realization that 7 years ago I was in the exact same place and I never really thought that I would ever be here again. It's crazy where life takes you. I was telling someone the other day how increadible my life has been. I have had such a blessed and privelaged life to go to all the places I have been to and to see all the things I have seen. Before I left I said that this was about it on my list of places I would like to see but now after browsing airling magazines I'm thinking about Kuwait, Greece, and Korea! And I'm not even in Africa yet!

On the plane I watched the movie "The assination of Jessie James: by the Coward Robert Ford" it was pretty much amazing and I can't wait to watch it on a normal t.v. when I get home. You should check it out. It's really long...

Well I'm off to wait in line at security to board our plane to Entebbe. I'm really excited to touch down and finally be in Africa. I can't wait! I'm really excited and looking forward to having my whole world changed these next 2 weeks. I'm anticipating what God is going to do in my life here. I don't have a clue what it is but it is my hope that when I return home I will be a different person!

A friend of mine in North Vernon has been telling me the past few week, "I can't wait for you to come back your are going to be so different!" I hope so!

Keep praying for us! I only have a few minutes left so I need to post this! Hopefully you will here some more from me tomorrow!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Off to Uganda

2008-02-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

So I'm leaving for Uganda in about 47 hours and wanted to get some information on here for everybody to follow along with me on my journey. I don't know how often I will be able to post on here while I am in Ugand but I know we will have a few days throughout the two weeks where I will be able to throw something on here real quick.

In the next two days I'm going to put up some thoughts out of my journal that I've been keeping as I prepair for this trip. But for now here are some quick details about what will be happening:

We leave Thursday February 7 out of Cincinnatie to Detroit. We have a 2 hour layover in Detriot then we have a long flight to Amsterdam. After a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam we fly off to Entebbe Uganda. We arive in Entebbe at 9:00 P.M. their time. We will have to get thorugh Immigration and then spend the night in our hotel in Entebbe.

The next morning we have a 5 hour ride to Masindi Uganda. Misindi is the town we will be working in. Our goal is to build a church for the people of Masindi. We have 6 days to do the whole building!

Here is a link to the hotel we will be staying in at Masindi http://www.hotelvictorybijja.com/

Some time during the trip we will be visiting Murchison Falls National Park for a three day safari. You can check that out at: http://www.uwa.or.ug/murchison.html

Here is a rough map of where Masindi is located: (the bottom left)

I hope you read along the next few weeks!

God's Strength

2007-10-24T16:16:00.000-04:00

I have these days where it seems like I try and try to do the right thing, to make a difference, to bring some sort of order to the chaos of the world and things just seem to get worse! Or if not worse it just seems like nothing really changes. I get discouraged easily, I'm quick to doubt, I sometimes just want to throw up my hands and walk away.

It is in those moments when I begin to realize that my desire should not be to change the world, my desire should not be to make a difference. My desire, my purpose is to serve God. I'm quick to forget how big and powerful God is. I'm quick to depend on my own strength and not his.

I forget that this God that I worship and serve is the one who gives sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and good news to the poor.

"The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." Psalm 145:14

It's been a while...

2007-03-01T21:39:00.000-05:00

So I just remembered I had this blog and I just realized I have almost gone one year without posting anything! Tonight I have children on my mind, not my children but other peoples children!

For the past 3 weeks it seems as if my life has been invaded by kids with bum parents! I've encountered several kids who have dads that have completely abandoned them, kids whose moms are addicted to drugs, kids who don't know where they are going to be living tomorrow, kids who were hit by their moms just last night, kids who are afraid to go home because of what might happen. Kids who are hurting and afraid, and honestly I'm really sick of it!

As a pastor and more importantly as a follower of Jesus I wonder what the local church is doing to address this issue. Do we just sit by the side and hope that the government will take care of them? Do we ignore it and just pray the things get better? Or do we roll up our sleeves knowing that we're going to get dirty and dive into a world of confusion, fear, red tape, pain and uncertainty? What if men steeped up and said, "it is entirely unacceptable for a kid in my church/community to grow up without a father figure in his life." What if we decided that it was critical for the future of our boys that men steeped up and began to father children that no one is fathering.

I really like the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child." That phrase indicates that all of us play a role in the raising and supporting of the children around us. A close friend of mine who lived in South Africa for 27 years shared with me the mindset of the South African children. He told me when he arrived in Africa he was constantly frustrated when he would ask a child who his/her mother was, because the child would point to the woman closes to him/her. The child's understanding was that every woman around her was a mother figure. If you want to know who the child's birth mother is you have to ask, "Who's womb did you come from?"

I guess I'm just tired of seeing kids who get tossed aside with no one to love them. I get tired of seeing kids who are so bright and intelligent loosing out on a promising future because no one will take an interest in them and encourage them. I guess I'm tired of seeing kids who are hopeless, kids with bruises, kids who are terrified of what tomorrow may hold.

So what do we do about it? Are we willing to do the hard work? Are we willing to allow a child or a teenager a place in our lives? It really is pretty simple, provide an ear that is willing to listen, a look that shows you care, an afternoon when you really weren't going to do anything anyway! Alone we can't do much but together we can change the world. And I really believe that! I really believe that it is possible for us to change the world.

It's been a while...

2006-01-19T10:32:00.000-05:00

So I haven't posted much lately, it's mainly because I haven't had much to post. I preached last Sunday night about the need for Christians to do "Works". That didn't go over to well, which is odd because its all over scripture. I am preaching again this Sunday morning so we shall see how that goes. If I have any deep thoughts anytime soon i'll post them.

Black and White, and Gray

2006-01-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

I had to attend a thing in North Vernon last night called "5th Quarter". There was a big basketball game at the High School. Jennings County Played Bedford North Lawrence. Apparently their coach is someone important. He helped win a state championship for BNL in the early 90's and played for IU. His name is Damon Bailey I think. Maybe you know him. Anyway, after that game I had to attend this 5th quarter thing. I was kind of ticked off because it was supposed to have been put on by all of the youth pastors in town and...no one told me about it until Friday morning. I showed up anyway. None of my teens were there but I knew a lot of the kids anyway.

When I got there I talked to a few of the youth pastors that were there and they all had some interesting things to say. The first guy I was talking to stopped one of his teens and asked him to show me his shirt which said "Turn or Burn." The youth pastor told me how cool it was and how he wished that he could get away with wearing that shirt. Too bad.

I talked with another youth pastor who attended the same youth specialty conference that I attended. We were supposed to have lunch together at the conference but we never meet up. He asked me what I did for lunch, and I told him I spent it hanging out with some homeless people and eating lunch or talking with them. To which he responded "Did you get any of them saved?" I responded "No" and slowly walked away.

The moments I had with those homeless people in Nashville were honestly some of the best parts of my trip to Nashville. I walked through downtown for 2 hours with one man as he poured out his life to me. We got to the library he was walking to and I asked him if he wanted to go eat with me but he turned me down because he just ate at the shelter. As I went to walk away he yelled "Hey!" I turned around and he grabbed me and hugged me tight and with tears in his eyes he said, "Thanks for listening to me, no one ever listens to me." He let me go turned around and walked inside. Maybe you disagree or you had to be there at the time, but to have said to that man after the hug and emotion "Ok sir that's nice and all but you need to turn or burn." Would have cheapened the moment and made the whole 2 miles we spent together seem like nothing but warming up to him so that he would convert at the end of our walk. Everywhere the man turns he is being preached at. The way a lot of the shelters are set up in Nashville you have to listen to a sermon before you can eat, or get a bed. These men and women are preached at constantly. Maybe we would do better if we just listened more.

I digress...

So after talking to these youth pastors it comes time for stupid games, (that's what they called them, not me) and then one of the youth pastors began to give a short devotional. It was pretty good. He talked about how we are all valuable to God, and no matter what people at school may say to us, or how our parents treat us it doesn't matter because even though everyone treats us like crap we are valuable to God.

All of that sounds good, makes sense and is true...Unless your the kid being picked on, whose parents are a mess, who no one will listen to. I think that if I was in that position as a teenager I would think "Big deal. What does that do for me Monday morning at school when people start making fun of me again? What does that do for me Monday when I am ignored, pushed around and degraded by everyone at school? Do I just put on a happy face and say, Gee this sure sucks but at least God loves me." It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw the other day it said, "Smile Jesus Loves You." and then bellow it in smaller type it said, "Then again, he loves everybody."

I don't say all this to make fun of the youth pastor or say I have it right and he has it wrong. Or I'm better than him because I can see it this way, because really I don't have an answer to my own questions. Should it be enough for that kid to just sit back and say, "Its ok when I'm beat up and picked on because Jesus loves me."

I have a lot of questions. And sometimes it scares me to death.

I read Rob Bells book Velvet Elvis a few months ago and what I remember more than anything is his chapter on Questions. He said something like, "Many people are afraid to ask questions. But what really scares me is when people don't have any questions at all."

Sometimes I think that life would be better and ministry a whole lot easier if everything were black and white. If I could say "Turn or Burn" and We need to save all the homeless people (I just realized his assumption that since they were homeless they obviously weren't "Saved") and here are twelve simple steps to guide you in living your life, and tonight when you get home and you want to accept Jesus into your heart than say this exact prayer. For me things are a lot more gray. Which scares me some. I tend to see a lot of "if's" and "but's". I don't really feel that "if's" and "but's" are too welcome in the church.

I think about where I will be in the future when I leave North Vernon. How do questions fit into a typical Nazarene Church? How do gray areas fit into a typical Nazarene church? These questions make teaching and preaching a lot more difficult too. I have a hard time standing in front of a group of people and proclaiming this is exactly what you need to do and this is exactly how you should do it. I'm a mess!

I was reading 1 & 2 Timothy yesterday and I read this in 2 Timothy 2:8 "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel..." I can agree with that.
Where does everything else fit I'm not exactly sure. I'll keep journeying though...

Claxton

2005-12-20T16:55:00.000-05:00

Today is the day! I have promised for about 2 weeks now to post pictures of my new dog. The wait is over. Here he is, Claxton.

Oil, Kids, and more kids

2005-12-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

Today hasn't been much of an exciting day, its been busy but not very exciting. I started my day off by arguing with a woman at a car dealership about an oil change. I had to get the church van's oil changed. My secretary was supposed to arrange everything and I was supposed to take the van's. Well I show up and the lady hands me a bill for $30. I told her it was supposed to be charged to the church and that should have been arrange by the secretary who made the appointment. She storms off, comes back huffing and puffing, then hands me a receipt and no thank you or anything and says a bill will be sent.

Then it was off to the Melting Pot. I talked with a woman there for about an hour. I see her at the coffee shop a lot but she would never talk to me. She had plenty to say today. She is a foster parent and I asked her what it was like to have them and what a person has to do to have foster kids. Its all really sad. She has been a foster parent for 9 months and has already had 19 different children live at her house. For the most part they stay for a couple days or weeks and then return to their homes but right now she has 2 girls that have been living with her for four months.

The sad part is some of these kids if they come from a home where the parents use Meth show up at her doorstep with nothing on but a hospital gown. Due to the chemicals used to make meth the kids are not allowed to take anything with them when they leave their house, they have to go to the hospital to be sterilized and then dropped of at the foster parents house. This lady told me on several occasions she had to go to wal-mart at 10 o'clock at night with a kid wearing only a long t-shirt. That's it, no shoes, no underwear, no socks, just a big t-shirt. Then the foster parent has to pay out of their own pocket for the clothes the kid needs. Most of the time they do not get reimbused and if they do it takes around 3 months to receive a check from the government.

I though it would be cool if the church did a gift card drive to wal-mart, or k-mart, or target so that if a foster parent gets a call in the middle of the night and a kid shows up in a hospital gown they could call the church and receive a $25 or $50 gift card for clothes. I'm not sure how to get it done but I'll be talking to some people around here and maybe get something going.

I also ended up at the elementary school in town today. A man in my church who is a conservation officer did a presentation on hurricane relief work that he was a part of to all the 6th graders at the school. I had a wonderful conversation with a group of kids after the presentation about how a person would go about hunting an alligator. One kid concluded, "I'd just get my grandpa's shotgun and blow his head off!" as all the other kids cracked up laughing.

I'm pretty sure he was serious though.

Pictures of my dog will be up hopefully tomorrow, sorry for the delay.

My New Dog...

2005-12-01T14:11:00.001-05:00

I got a dog last night, and to be honest I'm terrified!!! He is about the cutest dog I have ever seen but I have a feeling he might stress me out. The lady I got him from found him running through a field at her house took him in and then shipped him off to my house. He is a black lab mixed with something else (I'm not sure what that something else is) he is all black except all four of his paws are white, he has a white spot on his nose, and some white on his chest. He is only three months old, so he is still pretty small. His name is Claxton.

I named him Claxton because that is what I wanted to name my first born son but I decided that any respectable woman would never let me name her first born son Claxton...So I named my dog that instead. There is a bluegrass bar in Nashville that I used to go to occasionally and on the wall they had a pencil etching of Roy Acuff's head stone. It turns out that Roy's middle name was Claxton, I liked the name and had been in search of something to name after him since that day. If you didn't know Roy Acuff is a famous bluegrass fiddler. (After a quick google search I discovered that there is a town in Georgia named Claxton and also a law firm somewhere named Claxton & Claxton I bet they are cool guys).

I have been reading up on how to train a puppy and discovered that most people recommend buying a training crate to keep your puppy in at night so he doesn't run all over, and apparently its easier to house train him that way. So I went out and bought one last night and Claxton was pretty calm when I put him in it so I went to bed. I thought it was odd that he didn't make a noise all night. I had a nightmare that I didn't close his crate and he broke out, destroyed my house, went to the bath room everywhere and then came in my room to kill me. Well when I woke up I discovered that my nightmare turned out to be true (except for the killing and destruction part)! He broke out of his cage somehow and when I looked for him I found him sleeping on the couch.

I'll post a picture of him soon. I have a feeling that my mother and my brother are not going to be to happy about my new addition. Oh well! I'm also extremely concerned about having to take care of him for a long time. I told Jennifer that this is my test to see if I should ever have children. I hope I pass.

My thoughts on Christmas

2005-11-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

I have a friend that has been encouraging me to start a blog so I decided today would be the day. This is all a little weird to me but I guess I'll get over it. To start things off I'll post some thoughts I wrote out last night as I was researching and reading on Christmas. I have been reading The Liberation of Christmas by Richard Horsley. You should all [which is probably only one of you] go out and buy this book tonight. So here are my thoughts...

Christmas was once something beautiful, something real, something connected to the core of what it is to be human, what it means to hope, what it means to wait. Christmas was once a holiday for the forsaken, the oppressed, the despised, the peasant. Recently Christmas has been made into an event for the rich. The day after thanksgiving has almost become its own holiday of debt and injustice. The original story of Christmas was one of hope, liberation, release from domination, and one of revolution. The poet Thomas John Carlisle wrote about the song of Mary found in Luke,

At our eternal peril
we choose to ignore
the thunder and the tenor
of her song,
its revolutionary beat.

Revolution. There is now hardly any revolution associated with Christmas. We have turned Christmas into a new type of hope and liberation. The hope and liberation is now only real for places such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Starbucks and the rest. They are liberated from debt, low summer sales, and "the Red". I read recently that 40% of all retail sales in the United States take place between the day after Thanksgiving and December 25. Christmas is no longer a story about revolution and liberation it has become a holiday of oppression. We are oppressed by credit card bills, expensive gifts, unhappy boyfriends & girlfriends and spoiled children. What was once a beautiful story of liberation and hope we have turned into a time of domination and oppression. Make it beautiful again. What can you do this Christmas season to make the story of hope and liberation real?