Day 5 of video week!
Every week our youth group does something we call Infusion. We go to some local apartments and share the love of Jesus. This past Wednesday we gave away about 200 book bags full of school supplies that had been donated by the church family at Grace Fellowship. Most of the bookbags were also graciously donated by Boosterthon. It was really fun giving the kids their supplies for the year and they really had a great time. Here is a 2 minute video of it all:
Archive - July, 2010
Infusion School Supply Giveaway
Missions Sunday
Today is day number 3 of video week. This video is the sermon I taught on Sunday for TrueNorth, our High School Ministry. I taught on the mission God has called us too and our choice in playing a role in His mission. I was a little short on time, so there were some details I wish I could have embellished on, but overall I thought God really gave me some good things to say to the students. I’m don’t think I am the best speaker in the world, but I hope you enjoy it.
Sunday’s Foundation
This is the second “resource video” I have made for the Empower Conference. In it, Drew McClure talks about the foundation for Sunday mornings at Grace. Every week, our students open their Bibles and follow along with the teacher. We even have Bible carts that are full of Bibles for students who have forgotten their own Bibles or do not actually have one.
The Importance of Student Missions
On August 28, we will be hosting a ministry training conference at Grace for student leaders, volunteers, and pastors from other churches called Empower. I have been working on a collection of videos that we will have available to them and will hopefully be helpful as well. Here is the first one, done very well by Erin Burchik as she speaks on the importance of students doing missions.
I will continue posting these over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!
Cruising Observations
All last week I was on a cruise to the Western Caribbean with my awesome wife Morgan and her family. We had an amazing time hanging out together with lots of great weather and saw some really cool things (such as the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich and the Coral Reefs at Tabyana Beach). I noticed a few things while on this cruise, however, that are worth noting.
Standing on our first pyramid
1) There is an inverse relation to the number of days the cruise has lasted and the number of people in the fitness room: On the first day at sea, you could barely move without bumping into someone and there was no escaping the B.O. smell. By the final day of the cruise, everyone was so loaded down with endless buffets that the workout room was entirely neglected. Not necessarily by choice, but simply because once someone sat down, they were incapable of standing again.
2) People go crazy over beads: One night they had a party on the pool deck and the staff was throwing out beads for more than an hour. People were jumping up and down screaming for beads the entire time. Just to be clear, these beads were plastic and not special in any way, but something about beads demands our attention.
3) People are addicted to the internet. It is an epidemic. On the last day of our cruise, the internet cafe (called the Fun Hub) was packed with people checking facebook. The internet cost $20 for 1 hour, and they couldn’t even make it one more day! I myself refused to even touch it (thus the lack of a blog post in almost 2 weeks), but part of the reason may be the lack of $20.
Morgan and I displayed our dancing skills to the crowd
4) Speaking of $20, I have decided that all-inclusive does not describe cruises. The food is included, the lemonade is included, and the cool towel animals are included, but other than that you need to have your wallet ready. They constantly push shopping (lots of great deals!), they “conveniently” took $140 to tip everyone out of my account, and they charge out the wazoo for excursions. Of course, you know all this at the beginning of the trip, but I am cheap!
5) The Karaoke gatherings are worse than American Idol auditions: People on cruises tend to think that karaoke is the place for them to display their long hidden talent to the world. Unfortunately, they must have hid their talent so well that they themselves lost it. I myself sang Ain’t no Mountain High Enough with Morgan, but at least we knew we were terrible singers. We don’t have a lot of talent, but we’ve got a lot of heart baby!
There is video of this event, but I have been forbidden from ever letting it see daylight
6) It is so good to relax: We live in a constantly moving culture filled with noise. It was so nice to just sit on top of the boat at night and listen to the wind and the waves or hang out on a beach with no particular goals. I am not very good at relaxing, but it is definitely a valuable and important thing to recharge and I was able to have a great time taking it easy with Morgan, her family, and the Lord.
Things you can’t do when you’re not in college
I graduated college more than a year ago now and have learned a thing or two since. For instance, there are certain things you can get away with in college, things that are even glorified on a University Campus, that would simply be a terrible idea now.
Skipping Class: During my sophomore year, I skipped two classes for over 3 straight months and only attended their labs. I studied outside of class and managed to get one A and one B. If I tried to skip work now I could maybe get away with it for a day or two (although it would require lying), but after that I would simply be going on permanent vacation.
I really liked college.
All-Nighters: Staying up all night in college is one of the most popular things to do. Many students choose to stay up all night to finish studying or writing a paper. Some of the more refined students choose to stay up all night for Lord of the Rings marathons. The beauty of College is you can go an entire night without sleep and somehow manage to get to class the next day. If I tried to pull an all-nighter now I wouldn’t last 12 seconds at work, and that is supposing I even made it there awake.
Dress like its the Eighties: This was a pretty popular date night in college. If I asked Morgan on a date and walked into the living room dressed like one of these goobers, she would call me crazy and would not walk out the door. I speak from similar experiences.
We Love the Eighties!
Asking My Parents for Money: I was not a huge moocher in college. Most of the money I spent on “fun” was from summer jobs. My awesome parents did take care of rent and food for me, which was huge and therefore I never wanted to ask them for more than that. Occasionally, however, I needed gas to get back to school and it was not a humungous deal when I asked. If I told them I did not have gas money now they would either think I am financially incompetent or that I decided to try and skip 3 straight months of work and it backfired.
Eat Trash: My freshmen year of college I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and I think I lost weight. While I still have trouble gaining weight (good thing that will go away shortly too) if I eat trash my stomach will feel like a tornado’s aftermath for days.
Dress like trash: I wore a dress shirt once a week in college: when I went to church. I started dating Morgan and this number increased in direct relation to the number of “nice” dates we went on. One day after dinner at a dining hall, my roommate dubbed me the garbage man because my shirt was stained, my shorts had holes in them, and I was wearing flip flops with socks. I just thought it was comfortable, but apparently it looked like I crawled out of a garbage can. If I dressed for comfort today I would be frowned upon because of a lack of “professionalism.”
I refuse to ever let this dream die
You people are all smarter than me, so does anyone else have some good things you could do in college, but would be a bad idea now?
Enhancing my Vocabulary
A while back I mentioned AW Tozer’s book God’s Pursuit of Man and how God convicted me about the importance of foundational truths. You can read it here if you missed it. Anyway, I read the quote that really God used in my life the other day and was very impressed by the word use in it. The quote is actually by a guy named Coleridge whom Tozer was quoting (we all have our heros).
Here’s the quote: “Truths, of all others most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.”
Using my current ability and effort with words, my version of the same quote would probably be something like: “Things that are true and important can sometimes feel so true that we begin to ignore them or think they are bogus.”
Now you tell me, which one of the above makes you think more? Which statement cuts deeper? And which one is bereft of engrossing language?
It is for this reason that I am pledging to increase my vocabulary and think more deeply about which words I choose. In order to increase my vocab, I am signing up for a daily vocabulary word e-mail and will attempt to use that word in a conversation everyday. Today’s word is “plutocracy,” and it means “government by the wealthy.” I guess I will have to start a political debate or something. In order to think more deeply about my words, I suppose I will just have to spend more time thinking.
Looks like I'll be pouring over one of these
Anyone have good suggestions for vocab words? Anyone else want to subscribe to daily vocab words so we can have conversations and feel smarter than we really are? After all, the plutocracy is filled with intelligible people…
VIP Batting Practice with the Braves
Today was a great day for me. I checked off an item on the Old Bucket List. I am a huge Braves fan, and I always have been. They now sell tickets to go onto the field for batting practice where you stand behind home plate and watch the players hit. Normally it’s about $50-$60, but thanks to a ticket package I bought Morgan and I got to go for free.
Morgan and I on the field!
I must admit, it was fairly awkward standing around watching the players practice. A group of us stood there taking pictures of men working. It made me wonder what it would be like for a group of people to stand and take pictures of me while I video edit or some fans to watch Morgan teach from the back of the classroom. But, despite the awkwardness, I still thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
David Ross, one of the catchers, was probably the nicest guy there
Now, even though we were on the field, we were restricted from being on the grass. But that didn’t stop me from checking another item off the bucket list: touching the grass at Turner Field!
The Security Guard didn't yell at me, but he did look at me like I was the biggest dummy in the stadium. Which may be true...
I also got a few autographs which was cool, my favorite was Martin Prado. All in all it was a very fun day with my lovely wife. Not only did I get to be on Turner Field, but the Braves won the game and I had great company the whole time. We had great weather too, which was amazing considering it was July.
My friend Martin and I
Go Braves!
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