Back from Mexico!

Okay, so I never blogged to say that I'd left for Mexico...sorry :)

Ali and I, along with our youth group, spent an amazing 12 days in Mexico with missionaries Tim & Kathy Johnston. We participated in building a house, building a dorm type building for the missionaries, church ministry, a VBS, clothing and food distribution, house visitation and much more!

It was an exciting time in our lives for ministry but to also watch students gain a greater compassion for the poor and understand God's heart for them.

I'll share more soon, but I wanted to let you see the pictures and video. Hope you enjoy!

Check out the pictures here.

My next 10 songs

I have been tagged by Brian to list the next 10 songs that come up on my iPod (or iTunes) on shuffle. Here is what came up:

• Lonestar – Norah Jones
• In the bleak midwinter – Justin Ubel
• Buddy Holly – Weezer
• Ebay – Weird Al
• Amsterdam – Coldplay
• Prepare the way – Charlie Hall
• Sing for absolution – Muse
• Broken – Jack Johnson
• Clarity – John Mayer
• Kick-off – Relient K

If you're reading...I'm going to tag Justin, Jessica, Dennis, Jon, AJ & Chris.

What came up on your list?

High School Pastor (and some other things as well)

Blogging is great. I love blogging...which is odd for someone who never got above a 'C' in High School English. Maybe I like it because I can write about what I want to write about. (And if I feel like ending a sentence with a preposition, I don't get marked down!)

But sometimes life is just too short for blogging. This past month and change has been a whirlwind for me. From graduating college (yes, the diploma finally came in the mail) to exciting changes in my role at church. But the one thing I haven't blogged about much (if ever) are my parents. The last few weeks have been especially hard as my mom's fight with cancer takes its toll. Though today, you would think that she had the energy of what she had months ago! Praise God! My dad has been a wonderful husband and a great example to me as he's taken much time off of work, even missing Father's day at church to be with his wife.

I guess all that to say, life's been busy...but good.

Now to what the title of my blog suggests:

For the last nine years, I've been serving with the high school group at my church. First as a volunteer, then as an intern and latest as a pastoral assistant to the youth pastor Brian Eberly. After two years of leading the high school group under the guidance and direction of Brian, our church is on the move!

We've been looking for a children's ministry director for a year now and the solution is finally here! Brian will still be the middle school pastor but also shift part of his time to overseeing the entire development of family ministry (birth - 18yrs.). We hired two wonderful women (Keli and Luanne) to direct the younger kids (birth - 5th grade) and I was voted in yesterday as Pastor to High School students.

It is exciting in so many ways.

I believe it was about ten years ago that I first felt the passion and desire to serve in this role. After a few missteps and a lot of guidance and perseverance, that day has arrived. (Although I've been doing what I want to do for years now without the title! :) )

I can't believe that I get to have this role in the church in which I was raised!

I am grateful to Brian for his decision to follow the expanding responsibilities laid in front of him. Had he said no...I'm not sure what my blog would read today. He is a great friend and cares deeply about the students.

In many ways, my job will not change though I will have more responsibility in setting the vision, direction and tone of the ministry and I know that there are many new responsibilities I won't even find out about for a while.

But I am very excited. I work with a great church staff. I serve alongside a great youth staff, and the students I serve are growing and serving in ways I wouldn't have in my own youth.

Want to check out our youth group? Just click here: www.180students.com. And if you'd like, feel free to pray for me. I could use it!

Last of the vacation

So its a couple of weeks after the vacation is over, but it has been quite busy, including a bit of a Summer cold. Back to Missoula, during the wedding reception, I walked outside and saw this wonderful sunset. I couldn't believe the lighting!

Here are Ali and I at the wedding. She looked wonderful. :) The reception featured a wonderful dinner and then hours of dancing lasting until midnight.

Finally, after three days in Montana, it was time to head home. Being our second anniversary, we didn't want to spend the day driving eight-and-a-half hours home. So we decided to drive the three hours back to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and spend the night there. It's a small resort town on a beautiful lake just a half-hour outside of Spokane. It was a cloudy day, but we didn't mind. After walking through town and down by the lake, we decided to spend some needed time for rest in the hotel room. They had a CSI and Law & Order marathon on cable, so we enjoyed episodes and naps.

The next day was sunny and beautiful. We ran into Stacey—the bride—and then went on our way back home. Thanks to Alison, I think we've finally cleaned up from our trip and the house is just about back in order.

I am very happy to have been married to Ali for two years, and I know that we've got many more years together. Happy Anniversary hon.

Check out all of our trip pictures here

Missoula

Big Sky - Day 2, The "M"

Yesterday I hiked the "M." The M is about 670 ft. or half way up Mt. Sentinel, and sits right above the University of Montana. What a nice hike. The trail zig-zags back and forth until you reach the giant concrete "M." From up top, you get to look out at all the beautiful mountains and the valley below.

This photo here was taken from atop the "M." You can see the football team showing off their new members down below as I-90 stretches away in the right.

After spending much of the day on my own hiking, hunting for the local Starbucks and reading, Ali and I went to the rehearsal dinner. After what I thought was a very quick rehearsal—mine seemed long—We headed for a very nice restaurant next to a golf course up on another hill overlooking Missoula. Besides the great views, dinner was amazing; I had the prime rib and Ali had the seared Ahi tuna. Yum! Here we are eating with some bridesmaids and other guests.

Pictured here are DeeDee, Alison, Jill (sister of the bride), Stacey (the bride), and Cameron (not her baby). Ali, DeeDee, Stacey and Cameron were college roommates and great friends.

Ah, Sunset. After the dinner ended, many of us, including both sets of parents, met up at a local pub for more celebration. It was a great day and if you have the chance to see the landscape of Big Sky country, you really must. Well, I've got a couple of hours and then I need to get ready for the wedding myself. I'm off for some more reading.

Big Sky - Day 1

Greetings! I am writing you from my hotel room in Missoula, Montana...Big Sky Country! That picture was just some of what takes up space in the big sky.

After 4 states and about 9 hours, Ali and I arrived in Missoula for a wedding in which she is a bridesmaid. The wedding is on Sunday so we'll be here for a few days. Since our 2 year anniversary is on Monday, we're taking a slower journey home and stopping in Couer d'Alene, Idaho for a night.

So far it has been a great trip. The Colombia Gorge is as always wonderful. Eastern Washington reminded me of driving down I-5 in California—brown empty fields for miles. Idaho and Montana are green and mountainous and I can't wait to get back to the lake at Couer d'Alene. One of the best parts is driving 80 and only going 5 over the limit! :)

The iPod Mystique

I love my iPod. It is a great thing not to have to carry around my CD Library but just a small little device. It helps me block out distractions while I am studying, I can listen to sermons from my favorite preachers (Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Tony Campolo) on the road, and I can even get just the right play list ready for a youth retreat. Yes, the iPod is quite a nifty device.

But my friend Brian and I were talking about the iPod as a prize. You see, I filled out a survey for my school's Student Ministry department and by doing so have the chance to win one of two iPods. I helped lead some music at another youth group's all-nighter where they raffled off an iPod. At the Youth Specialties conference two years ago, every other booth was giving away a free iPod (probably 50 or more total). Thousands of online adds claim that you can win a free iPod.

Brian mused that no other product in history has ever been used to get us to come to events, fill out surveys, click on a link, and give our address and phone number to strangers more than the iPod has. And all of this in just the last few years! Way to go Apple.

It is done

Yes, your eyes did not deceive you. Your RSS reader accurately said that I posted again.

The past few months have been a rough go for my blogging. No, I haven't lost the itch to write. In fact, it's growing. Life has been busy and I spent time doing many other things, some of which I will get to in future posts, some, probably not.

But I write this post now to say that I had a strange experience today—A once-in-a-lifetime experience. I walked off the Multnomah Bible College campus today for the last time as an undergraduate student.

That's right, I took my last final, handed in my mail box key, grabbed my cap and gown and said goodbye. Sadly, my tassel says '07. That is only sad because my high school cap tassel says '97 and I am not a doctor.

Nevertheless, the day has arrived. I will not walk across the floor of a stage to receive my diploma, rather I will walk onto a stage in Salem to help lead worship for hundreds of middle school kids. Now that's exciting!

I'll have more to write later. Really! Thanks to all of those who put time, effort, trust and encouragement into this milestone in my life.

Free tour of the Holy Land

Okay, sorry I haven't posted in a while.

Want to take a tour of the Holy land, or all the places mentioned in the Bible? Want to do it for free? Well, Openbible.info offers a KMZ file for Google Earth that lets you look at all the discernible locations in the Bible. They even have a KMZ file that sorts out the locations by chapter! To download this file, go to http://www.openbible.info/geo/ and start your free tour.

HT to the Google Earth Blog.

Real Life

I had the great privilage in participating in our group's 30 Hour Famine this past weekend. We spent 30 hours fasting with 45 students to raise money for the poorest of the poor in our world who don't know when their next meal will be.

As part of the weekend, we took the students to the Real. Life. exhibit presented by Medical Teams International (formerly Northwest Medical Teams). MTI responds to disaster areas within 72 hours to provide basic needs and medical attention.Throughout the Real. Life. exhibit, you experience what real life is for much of our world. From man-made disasters, natural disasters, famines, and extreme poverty, pictures drawn by kids and scripture, you get an overwhelming sense of God's heart for those in need. You stand underneath a 25ft. tsunami wall with a sign telling you that in some places the tsunami waves were 75-90ft. tall.

 

You also walk through a Mexico dump where whole generations live, scavenge for food scraps and plastic or metal to sell. You learn of child abduction in Africa where children are taken and forced to become soldiers. It goes on and on.

While there is much tragedy, the exhibit also presents the hope of what is being done, and what you can do to help. You get a sense of where God is moving, and you want to join in.

As a church, about 150 of us went through the exhibit that day, so on Sunday we had a debrief instead of a message. One of my favorite lines that I learned from a 6th grader is that we won the birth lotto. Did I choose to be born here in such great wealth? No. I sure am glad I was, but to whom much is given, much is required. If you want to hear our debrief and the rest of the service, Right Click here and select 'save as' to hear the mp3.

It's exciting being part of a church and group of students who are seeking out the heart of God, seeing needs asking how can we meet them.

If you live in the Portland area, please go to the exhibit. It's well worth your time.