life's pleasures

I seem to have gotten a nice little cold. Not fun! Caden and Katie were nice enough to pick up some Simply Orange Juice from the store for me. They even left me a message to tell me they got it so I could feel better soon. I must admit, this is the greatest OJ ever! If you ever feel the need to fill my refrig with Simply Orange, feel free!

preaching on Sunday

Its been a busy week. Sometimes vacations are more work than rest. Sure it was nice to be away in the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota (Brad, you got the shovel working again?) but getting back to quickly prepare for youth group on Wednesday, drop kids off at Crown, and now get ready to preach on Sunday make for a busy couple days.
I'm excited for Sunday. I'm doing a first person narrative, which is way out of my comfort zone but I think its going to be fun. I've written it, now I just got to finish memorizing the 8 pages of transcript. Should be fun though.
I'm excited to take a 30 minute break and watch the office tonight. Gotta love that the show is back! Speaking of the office, its about that time. Gotta run!

chipolte....yum!

Just got done with a great weekend with or adult leaders. It was great to get away and spend time hanging out. We got to eat at Famous Dave's (3 feasts) and lunch at Chipolte. Gotta love both places. I was very excited about Chipolte until April informed me that one burrito is nearly 2000 calaries. Normally that wouldn't faze me, but I on the home stretch for this "biggest loser" deal. It wasn't enough to stop me from eating about half though! Tasty stuff!

In all it was a very productive weekend. We built some great memories and friendships, talked about what we are/aren't doing well, and made some big decisions about who we are and where we are going as a ministry. I have a great group of adults who do an awesome job! Now we just need to find a few more for next year.

I am really excited about what the summer is going to bring! Big Sandy Camp, Valleyfair, Beach Parties and the 5 dollar mystery night are going to be amazing! Should be good times!

Wanna join the team?

Caption This...

My son is running a little contest over at his blog. He's seeing who can come up with the best caption to this Easter photo of he and his cousin. Why not click over there and join in the fun. :)

NOTICE: Stop talking about my bald head or else!

Will Penner, a popular youth speaker reminded me of a very important passage of Scripture this week. I love it! Read it, internalize it, memorize it and REMEMBER it next time you make a comment about my bald head! I've now been to the school of Elisha and am ready to unleash the power of the she-bears! The Bible is a fun book to read, I hope you don't just see it as boring words that were recorded way too many years ago. Give it a chance, not only is it a fun book to read, its life changing if you allow it to be!

2 Kings 2:23-24
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Good stuff!

We have NO LIFE

So, thanks to our friend Josh Mann, Katie and I spent my day off sitting on the couch trying to type faster than eachother. Currently, as you can see below, I am the speed typer in this family. Although compared to Josh's 98, I got nothing. Go ahead, try it, and let us know what your best time is. A good way to spend a day off (yeah not really, Josh find something better for us to do for next Monday please!)

70 words

Speed test

Fun weekend!

Looking forward to a fun weekend! Kate and Caden are finally feeling better, so it will be good to get out of the house and have some fun!
Tonight were going to The King and I Thai resturaunt. It should be amazing! Now lets just see if I can stay within my diet there :( I've been good, so tonight, I'll enjoy some good food!

This weekend some friends from back home will be here! We're excited to grill Salmon, hang out and have them join us at church. It's always good to catch up with them.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Deal or No Deal

My friend Aaron (From Stand Your Ground) is a finalist for being on Deal or No Deal. he has gone through a great amount of work to get onto the show. TRUST ME he is one you want to see on the show! He has done everything required to be on the show, but now he is putting together a survey to send in to Deal or No Deal.
All you need to do is CLICK ON THIS LINK and fill out the quick survey. We are talking only 30 seconds max. You don't even need to give your social security number! :)

Click on the link and lets watch Aaron on Deal or No Deal!

So bad, SO SAD

Great News, the writers strike is over! Bad news, 24 will not return until January of 2009. Can you believe it? Oh well, guess we will have to find something else to fill our Monday evenings from 8-9pm.

On another note, Happy Late birthday to my Brother and Brother-in-law! I really didn't forget about either one of you, but didn't have a chance to call you guys. Sorry. Hope you had a great day!

All for now,

off for a few days!

We're off for a few days away at the pastor's and wives retreat in central Wisconsin. Should be nice to be away for a few days with just Katie. Kate's Mom has come to stay with Caden, so it will be a nice break away for just the two of us.

I'll see if I can find time to blog while were there, but we'll see.

Big Day!

This is a big day! I was in our local Wal-Mart today and saw what may be the greatest deal in Wal-Mart history! 2008 Calendar by with motivational pictures from "The Office." Gotta love it! To make it better it is a 16 month calendar. It sounds like a good deal, but really it isn't. They just put the last 4 months of 2007 on one page. Oh well, still great pictures! ALL FOR 2.50! Great deal! Thanks Wal-Mart!

The Power of Google

I think that there are seriously people who think that I can do this on my computer. I know, I am on my computer a lot, but come on. This isn't possible...yet :)

Stuck in the women's department with nowhere to go!

So last night, Caden, Katie and I went on a nice little "buy a carseat date." I have to admit, it was a ton of fun! We went to the Macaroni Grill (with a gift certificate!), shopped at Babies R Us, Target, and Herbergers. It was a great night with the fam! (We even discovered a Jimmy Johns in Forest Lake, though we didn't eat there)

Herbergers however, offered some challenging situations for me. I found a great sweater (75.00 marked down to 19.99) so I thought it was only fair to see if there was anything for Katie. We make our way to the women's department and find a cool pair of pants for her. But apparently women's cloths are different that men's clothes. So she tried on a couple different pair. This left me and Caden's car seat and diaper bag in the middle of the women's section alone!
At first I didn't see this as too big of a problem. That is, until I started noticing all the ladies looking at me strange. Its not like you can just look through the clothing, that is even MORE strange. I didn't know what I could do. Here I am a fat guy, hat on backwards, smack dab in the middle of "no man's land."
So, I did what any good man would do. I positioned myself by the ugliest sweaters I could find, and stood there. There was NO WAY anyone could think I was trying to hit on anyone in this section! These were not your ordinary sweaters! (sorry for any of you who may own one of these). They were so ugly, I pulled out my camera and took a picture! See below.



Unfortunately, I didn't think about the fact that taking a camera out of your pocket and taking a picture made me look even more strange and suspicious. Thankfully Katie and Caden returned from the dressing room soon after and I was saved.
All in all, it was a great night with Katie and Caden, but please, and we not return to the women's department for a while? At least at smaller stores I could have moved to a different section. THE WHOLE FLOOR was women's!

Is Church Condemning?

In preparation Wednesday night, I was reading a book, What's so amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey. I like his stuff! he uses stories and can really keep the readers attention. However, I was disturbed by one of the stories he shares to start off the book. It's a quote from a friend of his from Chicago:

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick unable to buy food for her two year old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter--two years old!-- to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habbit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable - I'm required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this women.
At last I asked her if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. they would just make me feel worse."

How sad. Are all churches really condemning? As a pastor, our church or student ministry to be a condemning place. I want church to be a place that people flock to for help. Yancy reminded his readers that in the Bible, prostitutes and criminals flocked toward Jesus and took refuge in him. Is the church of America too busy with ministry that we forget about those who need Jesus? Are we too worried about what others might think of us to welcome in those who need Jesus? Are we too comfortable with who we have now, that we don't seek to open our doors to others?
My prayer is that the church would be a refuge for people; all people. Each of us are on in a different place in our relationship with Christ. The church exists to help people continue to make steps toward Jesus. It sounds so easy here, but its not. I want to help people become Children of God, and experience what that means.

One word of clarification. Being a refuge for all people does not mean that the church should accept the sin that one is living in. I don't believe Jesus accepted the sin, but He did love the sinner unconditionally. He also spoke truth to them and challenged them to change.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this. no matter where you are in life, I'd like to hear how you feel when you walk into a church, if you do. How can the church be more of the refuge that Jesus was, while still challenging people to take their next step with Christ?

Santana, we'll miss you

Am I sad Santana is gone? YES... Will my life continue, most likely.

All I can say, is they better be some amazing prospects!

At least he will be in the NL where he can hit. (and we don't have to watch him pitch against us!)

My brother is CRAZY

All the props in the world to my older brother Brad for running in the Brrrrrmidji Polar 5K race in Bemidji this morning. Currently, the weather in Bemidji is -21 with a windchill of -34! That is not the weather I would like to be running in (oh wait, I wouldn't WANT to be running in any weather!)

Good luck Brad, you're nuts!

Wild Game

Had a great night at the Wild game with one of my students, LT. His grandpa supplied the sweet Club Level seats! SWEET!

The Wild didn't do so hot. Only one fight. Down 3-0 in the second period the Wild scored 2 goals in 7 seconds! It was the most exciting 7 seconds of the day for sure, but they just couldn't get anything going. 2 shots clanked the post later in the 3rd period. Oh well, still a great night!

Even more exciting was trying to remember where we parked our car! Hey, at least we were in the right parking ramp!

Quote of the night: "Oh lets just follow these guys, they look like they know where they are going." There were 15 of us in an elevator... ALL of us said the same thing! NOBODY knew where we were going!

Thanks LT (and grandpa!) Great seats... Great game... Great times!

One reason I am NOT a packer fan...

THEY ARE CRAZY! Just saw an article talking about a dad who tied up his young son because he would not wear a Packers Jersey during last weekend's game against the Seahawks. Come on! This just might be taking your team loyalties a bit too far. It just goes to again prove that PACKER FANS ARE CRAZY!

You can read the entire story here.

The big Pooper!

Just saw this post on Caden's blog that he finally did it! He hadn't pooped in a couple days. Its funny to hear his (I mean Katie's) take on what happened! All I can say is that I am proud of him for doing it on his mom's watch! THANK YOU! Go and check it out!

I guess I am not a cool youth pastor

I guess I am not a cool youth pastor. Broadie, a youth pastor friend from our network put his black belt on display at our new year party. Its a good thing I consider him a friend and not a foe. Great Job Braodie and crew. It was a fun new year.
First Baptist may have a youth pastor who can break bricks, but we brought home 4 of the 5 tournament trophies! take that brick breaker!