Thanx Lake Champion

I had an absolute blast with you guys this weekend! Thanx so much for letting me into your lives for a few days! It was a blast to play games with y'all and sit down and have good heart to heart conversations with you and share God's Word with you. You made this weekend!!!
don't forget to "remain" in Jesus. All you need to do is love Jesus and love others. It's the greatest calling on our lives.

Also, 1 person you are going to serve in some way this week and one person you will have a conversation with about Jesus.

New York - Lake Champion

This weekend I am speaking at a high school camp in New York. Many of you may think I am in a big city, but it is as far from that as you can get. This is in the middle of nowhere and it is awesome. I landed in Albany on Friday to 5 inches of snow, had lunch with my brother at the high school he works at and then headed down here for camp.

The theme of the weekend is Identity. So my messages have been based on 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" We have been looking at how we can find our identity in Christ and not all the things that "we are" (ie. father, brother, athlete, musician, etc.). Friday night we found that if we have a relationship with Jesus then we are a "New Creation." Saturday morning we looked at the idea that we are "accepted" just as we are and then tonight we looked at being "secure" in a god who is secure. With all the things we try to put our trust in that we think are secure and then fail us (popularity, friends, family, money, school, abilities, etc.) there is Jesus whom we can trust in!

I read a portion of The Shack by William P. Young (AMAZING READ, but more on that later) and there was clapping and cheering at the end of it. It was an incredible section. At the end there were about 10 students who stood up and prayed to Jesus a prayer of confession for their sins and inviting Him to be part of their life for the first time!!! It was AWEsome! that never gets old to me. I love to see when the light goes on for someone like that.

Tomorrow we will look at how we are "significant" to God. there will be a challenge to be used by God and a reading from Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Suess.

Well, I need to go to bed, but wanted to share what God is doing. All of the cool things this weekend are all about God. He gets the glory!

Some Random Stories (end of Guitar Hero pay phones and a guy?)

* A guy wakes up after being declared dead and getting ready to have his organs donated.
"Something about Zack’s appearance made them think that he wasn’t as dead as the doctors said. On a hunch, Dan pulled out his bone-handled pocket knife and ran the blade up the sole of one of Zack’s feet.

‘Our son is still alive!’
The foot yanked away, but the other nurse said it was a reflex action. So Dan Coffin then dug a fingernail under one of Zack’s nails. Zack yanked his arm away and across his body, and that, the other nurse agreed, wasn’t a reflex action. It was a sign of life. "

Read the full story here.

* London is Getting Rid of their Pay phones!
This has been a staple in London and is hanging the look of the city.
Read the story here.
I tried using one when I was in Paris last, but you need a special phone card there and I didn't have that. So it was useless, even tough I needed it.

* the end of Guitar Hero?
Read about it here.

A different perspective

Want another perspective on my trip to Roseburg? Meesh's Blog.

Breakdown

Friday evening my parents had jut come in and we were just chatting over dinner when a phone call came in from my friend Kevbo. I didn't answer. I try not to answer the phone during meals. Jeanne-Ann said it might be an emergency. So I called back and sure enough it was. He was headed down to Mexico with our high school group for a missions trip. For some reason, that is wayyyyyy beyond me, they take the bus down and not a plane.

Well, the bus broke down. (surprise, surprise). I mean, seriously. Has any youth ministry ever taken a bus on a long trip and it not broken down? I don't believe there is evidence anywhere documented to this fact. Again I ask why, but who am I? The fuel line busted and gas went everywhere. Ouch.

So we put together a team to take vans down. They were only 2 1/2 hours away. Then we got another call saying someone was on the way and that they had a part to replace it and we would not need to go. they were 100% sure about not needing us. We thought we shouldn't take a chance. We even thought about going and calling to see how the progress was coming. We decided Steve and Michelle would come over and put their kids down here while we hung out and waited for a phone call (not very trusting you say? we thought it was just better to be safe than sorry. Plus, if we didn't get a call we would get to hang out with our friends. BONUS!

As the kids were finally put to bed, the phone call came. haha. So we geared up and the four of us headed down. My parents are here so they stayed with the kids. We loaded up with Starbucks, energy drinks, our ipods and snacks and began thetrek down there.

We brought walkie-talkies (genius) and chatted the hole way down. It started with "Are we almost there yet?" and "I have to pee." statements and then It became a free concert, put on by yours truly. I had my 80s hit playlist set up and I allowed the other 3 to be blessed by my vocal artistry. From Vanilla Ice to Bon Jovi to Mr. Big to Kriss Kross. Ahhh...it was beautiful.

We slowed down once as there was a guy who fell asleep at the wheel (help was already there) and then finally got there. We gassed up the vans for them and got to see the whole group. They were doing surprisingly well. Now there were way more drivers needed than when it was just the bus.

They made it safely there and are rolling into their ministry opportunities.

We got home just before 3AM! yawn...

Rents are in town

My parents flew in from the east coast today. Incredibly they have their spring break at the same time as we do. That means 4 or 5 things.

1) Project time. My dad is great with handyman type of stuff. (why didn't he pass that on to me?!
2) Lots of games to be played! (Board games, card games, Wii, etc.)
3) Visiting. Waterfalls, parks, the beach, etc.
4) Laughter! We laugh a lot! I love that. I love my parents (my mom reads my blog every day, so...) Love you. ;)

(the pic is from when my dad lost the world series bet last year...ahhh...sooo good! He's a skankees fan)

Sleeping in a Basket?

Yesterday the kids had friends over. I walked into Karston's room and they had built a "fort." Well he asked if he could sleep in the fort when I put him to bed. Of course I said yes. thought you might enjoy the shot of him there.

And he is wearing his two favorite sports teams. Ducks and the World Champion RED SOX!!!

Wunderland and Mr. Biggs and Kid Dates

This past weekend I took my daughter on a father/daughter date. She wanted to go to Wunderland. So we headed over to Fred Meyer and made our own sandwiches and hit the Wunderland world. It is a place where you pay a small cover charge and then play nickel video games, etc. It is pretty fun. We spent most of our time on skeeball, so we got lots of tickets, which she turned in for prizes.

My son and I went to hit baseballs together. They both decided what they wanted to do. We had a blast pitching and hitting to each other. Karston did most of the hitting. Four of his hits were directly at me. OUCH!!! 2 to the chest and 2 to the arm. The chest shots hurt the most. But he sure did laugh and that made me laugh. then it was off to a pirate themed birthday party. Arrrrrrgggg.

I also went out with a bunch of friends to a place called Mr. Biggs. It's kind of like Chuck E. Cheese for grown ups. The pizza was TERRIBLE, but the games were a blast! We had 2 hours to play lazer tag, indoor go karts and pods. The pods were amazing. Basically you get inside a pod and you are a robot out to shoot other robots. Every time you destroy a robot you get points and they reappear in a different spot. We played 10 at a time. I was in first place for our first 2 games. :) We also played a ton of lazer tag! There were hardly any other people there. Several times the "guy" wasn't there so we just hit reset ourselves and kept playing. Josh, the mischievous one, climbed up on top of a structure and kept tagging people almost completely unnoticed. Then we had bowling all to ourselves. Total blast! Let me know which bowling pic you like the best.

Moses Lake - Live the Call

Tonight is the kick off to the Moses Lake Alliance missions conference. Trace Bundy is doing a free concert. He is an AMAZING guitarist. You can click on his name and you can also link to him on my links on the right hand side of this page.

After I get to talk about Living the Call. If you came tonight I wanted to give you some links to look further into Living this Call.

Moses Lake Alliance Church
Alliance Youth Missions
Alliance Adult Missions - click on passport
Roots

I hope these links are useful to you and will encourage you!
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share God's Word with you.
Below are the passages of Scripture we looked at tonight.
Read them.
Study them.
Apply them to your life.

Joshua 1
Matthew 28:18-20
Acts 1:8
Matthew 25:31-46

I pray you are blessed and your life is radically changed as a result of looking into God's Word!

Use Your Gift Cards Quick...before they are worthless

I have never been a big fan of giving gift cards to loved ones. I always have felt them to be a bit impersonal. I understand that it gives the receiver freedom to get what they want. That being said, I like going to find that perfect gift for someone, even if it is something they have already asked for.

Some gift cards have to be used within a certain amount of time. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE! You spend the money for the gift card, why would anyone say it is invalid after a certain amount of time? My $100 bill does not lose its value after a year. Maybe I should give out cash if I am giving out gift cards. Then there really is no limitation other than the amount. They can shop wherever they want.

Then there are the gift cards that charge a percentage or an "upkeep fee." Ridiculous.

Here is the other big problem. If a company goes bankrupt, your gift card is WORTHLESS! Take a look at this article and how you can no longer use your sharper image gift cards. Sharper Image Gift Cards Useless

Speaking of Toothfairy...

This weekend we had quite the family time. It was awesome!
Saturday started with a trip to Home Depot with our Condello friends to make a Tony Stewart NASCAR at the kids clinic. They give the kids a home depot apron and a car to build. When they are done they get a cool pin. This is on the first Saturday of every month. We just found ourselves a new tradition!

Then it was off to Tae Kwon Do. Karston is almost done with his 2 month "trial." This has been a really cool thing for him and I love watching him do it. It is really one of the cutest things in the world.

An hour later we went back for a free self defense class for kids and parents. That was a blast. The kids loved it and I had fun being their "sparring" partner. They got to practice all their moves on me. Thankfully they gave us some pads for protection. We learned some VERY valuable stuff. they gave out a child safety packet that includes all sorts of info on your child in case anything were to ever happen.

It was home and then just a fun family time. friends over for dinner. Ahhh...I love those times!

The kids were eating their ice cream and all of a sudden Karston says, "I lost my tooth!" He lost it biting into his ice cream. Very funny and fun moment.