Preaching

When we preach we put into words the deep silence of God. The best preachers are those who venture deeply into God's silence and try fervently to verbalize the great silence that creates, sustains, saves, and redeems. 

Pray that I am able to do that on wednesday. 

Grand Prairie

This last week was rewarding but very tiring. Our mission trip to grand Prairie went well. The VBS we helped Sunrise with grew from about 30 kids to 95 by wednesday, our last night. The theme was Bee Jesus, and we showed clips from the Bee Movie every night during our bible lesson. Originally our T-shirts featured a Bee and font that "borrowed heavily" from the actual movie. This upset a few of Dreamwork's lawyers who gave us a cease and desist warrant the friday before we left. We scrambled to get the shirts changed and finally came up with something that looked pretty good. This was the beginning of a busy week. I got to stay with my parents this week in Irving which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I got to be home and see my family for a little bit each day, I have missed them this summer. The downside to this was since we stayed in Irving and all of our work took place in Grand Prairie we didn't have any where to go in the afternoons while everyone else was resting at their host families homes. This made for a tiring week of waking up at 7 or so, doing our morning activity (passing out flyers, playing at a waterpark, helping Pat Everroad with her house), eating lunch, doing our afternoon activity (going to the mall), trying to find something to do with the rest of the afternoon (7-11 double gulps and hotdogs, Snacking at Sam's, upgrading phone plans at AT&T, hanging out at Target), VBS, then a late dinner. We'd get home about 10 each night and fall asleep shortly after a few rounds of NHL Hitz on the x-box. The trip was very rewarding, I enjoyed seeing the youth serve and use their gifts on this mission trip. I also enjoyed getting to spend time with Jason, Micah, Scott Haile, and Ryan Binkley. All of these guys came out of Southmac and are now doing what I plan to be doing in a few years, it was a blessing to spend time with them and learn. 

I'm Fired

I've noticed that my blogs have gotten increasingly less in depth. I apologize to my readers (all 3 of you) but I have felt less of a need to record and evaluate my time here. I have been content to just experience it. 

Good news: Jason and I annihilated Dusty and Lindsey in our basketball game!

Bad news: My thigh also annihilated Dusty's finger. Dusty was guarding me and as I passed the ball to Jason he apparently jammed his finger into my thigh and dislocated it. I was fired a few hours later after he returned from the emergency room. 

This upcoming week is our trip to Grand Prairie. I am kind of apathetic about it right now, although I am excited about getting to go home and getting to know the kids a lot better. There is nothing like a mission trip for creating deep roots with people. I am little nervous about the actual vbs though, I am not sure what to expect. I trust that God will be there though. 

I am very sad that I'll have to be leaving Conway in two weeks. In many ways I feel like I am home here. I look forward so much to going into the office to work with Jason and Dusty everyday, I am learning so much from them yet I feel like I am making lifelong friendships as well, I feel as if we all speak the same language. 

Long time, No post

Man it has been a long time since I posted! Things have been going well but I have been busy. I think I have pretty much recovered from my surgery and I am feeling good! This week coming up will be a busy one, we have to prepare for our Grand Prairie VBS trip, participate in the VBS here in Conway, and I need to write a sermon for the wednesday after I get back from our trip. I have a feeling this will be a long week. 

My parents came up to visit me this weekend. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them and showing them around Conway. They did my laundry for me and payed for all my meals, it's great having parents in town! We also got to eat a couple of meals with Jason which was good because my parents have not spent very much time with him at all and they need to get to know my future brother-in-law. They also got to meet Noah which I think they both enjoyed, I think Noah really liked being around the "old lady." 

It is less than a month till Kristen and I get married. I continue to get more and more excited!

How Can I Keep From Singing?

This was a good friday. I had to wake up a bit earlier than usual to do some "homework" for Jason. He asked us to read a section from the book we are working on and I had not done it yet. Work went very fast this morning. We talked about what we had read, planned for our time at the apartment next tuesday (Laura, Dusty, and I will be going), spent some time talking about the lesson I'll teach on Sunday (we will talk about Peter's confession: "You are the Christ"), and spent some time praying for the trek trip. After a busy but productive morning Jason, Laura, Lindsey and I went to Zaxby's for lunch. Then I needed to take care of my car so I went to McKinney tire to replace my badly damaged right front tire. After Dad and I figured out payment everything went smoothly. I had been worried about my steering in my car because since I had the rack and pinion replaced there has a been a lot of movement and vibration in my steering wheel. That all went away once I got the new tires on so I am relieved it wasn't something more serious. After I got the car taken care of I  went home and started writing a couple of letters for the two teens that Jason chose as "crew leaders" for trek. Jason chooses younger members of the youth group so that they can be in a leadership role and hopefully continue as a leader once they get back from the trip. I know how meaningful words of encouragement were for me when I was learning to lead in high school so I wanted to give a blessing to the two very special young men who Jason chose. I am very proud of who they are and I am excited to see how God uses them. I spent some time praying and talking with Jason after I finished the letters. Jason had some difficulty with his computer and had to call tech support, the way he talked to them reminded me of Kristen, it made me laugh (He said they got it from Bruce). After leaving the church I went to Scott's house and ate dinner with his family and several others who also came over. After dinner the parents all sang through a Zoe worship book and I got to join in. I enjoy so much singing with groups like that. I don't get to do it enough at ACU, maybe I can try to be more involved in worship leading when I get back, I would enjoy it very much. I wish I had been given the gift of song writing, there is much in me I wish I could express in that way. I am very appreciative for the time of worship I shared with the group tonight. After leaving Scotts I came back and have been relaxing with Scott and Amy watching some TV. 

North Korea destroyed a nuke plant today! This reminds me of the vision many people have shared of a time when we would all give up our weapons and live in peace. I hope this is a taste of things to come, what a ray of hope in a violent world! 

Day Off

Today I had a nice long day off! Jason is going on trek with the youth on saturday and Shannon works on friday so he wanted to have the day off to spend time with her and so he gave me and Lindsey the day off as well. The plan was to sleep as long as possible but I got a wake-up call at around 9:40 from another person who had the day off today (she was way more productive than I was today). I got to talk to Kristen a lot today which was nice, I don't usually talk to her more than once or twice a day but I enjoyed spending the day with her over the phone. I went and ate lunch (grilled hotdogs and mac and cheese) with scott today at his house. After his dad got home and it became clear that scott needed to be working around the house I left and went to hastings. I spent some time browsing and ended up buying two books: 1) Same Kind of Different as Me, a true story about two men who will be coming to ACU to speak this september, and 2) Jesus for President, a challenging book by Shane Claiborne that challenges christians to think about where our allegiances lie. I have actually already read the Claiborne book, I bought it as a gift to a friend here who is in the military and who will be shipped out to Iraq soon after training. I hope this book both renews his hope and faith but also challenges him to think about his allegiance to God in new ways. After that the rest of the afternoon was spent mostly talking to Kristen online and reading. This was a relaxing day that I needed after a long and trying week. 

Appendix A

Well, my worst childhood fears came true this last weekend. After a whole day of pain in my stomach and an all-nighter in the ER, I had my appendix removed saturday morning. I started feeling a sick on friday afternoon but didn't think anything of it. We got back from Splashdown (a church trip out to a water park) around 1 in the morning and by that time I was feeling pretty terrible. I tried to take a hot bath and relax so I could sleep but it was not working for me. I ended up waking the Westjohn's around 2:30 and asked them to take me to hospital shortly after that when I started feeling like I was going to pass out. Jason showed up at the hospital a little while after and he stayed with me the whole night. I am really thankful for him, he did so much for me this weekend. I felt bad for him because I was in another world with the pain medicine they were giving me and he just had to sit there all night in that uncomfortable seat. After I was feeling better with the pain drugs and anti-nausea medicine I drank Barium Sulfate for the CT scan. Luckily for me they just upgraded to vanilla shake flavor so it wasn't too bad getting that stuff down. I waited a couple of hours to let that settle into all the important spots and then they wheeled me down for a photo-shoot. It wasn't too long after that when the doctor came in and told me that I had appendicitis and that I would have surgery in a few hours. I remember waiting in the recovery room for surgery for a long time. I kept falling asleep and every time I woke up I hoped that someone would tell me that the surgery was already over with. I went in to surgery close to 10 and woke up about an hour later. I left the hospital soon after that and went to Jason's house to recuperate. Soon after that Kristen showed up at Jason's house and seeing her made me feel much better. After being away from each other for about 4 or 5 weeks and having had surgery it was wonderful to get to see her. I think it made me miss her even more after she left though. The following days have been mostly taken up with rest and relaxation. Keep me in your prayers as I regain my strength.