It’s Monday Morning…I wish it was Friday already. I know I shouldn’t wish my life away but I am ready for the 23rd to be here. I am looking forward to seeing FAMILY!!! It seems like it has been forever since we’ve been home…and it has. It has been well over a year since we were home last time. Becky and I are looking forward to seeing all of you!!! Until then, let me tell you what is going on in Colby…
Randy and Jeanie Walker were here last Thursday and Friday Morning…if you don’t know who they are…they were my first Youth Pastor and wife from Wisconsin, and adopted Parents. They were going to be in Manhattan for a Family gathering and decided to drive over and see us!! We had visitors!! We showed them around town, both blocks and we went shopping at Wal-Mart. Randy also found out that you should never walk away from your cart, not even for a minute, or you will find it…well actually you won’t find it, it will be gone. That’s what happens when a store in Colby Kansas hires way to many people to stand around. Sorry Randy.
In other news…we are busy getting ready for the Christmas program, it’s this Sunday. We have been practicing our play for a whole week as of yesterday. It is going to be interesting to see if my kids actually get all or their lines memorized. The funny thing is…Christmas always reminds me of how busy teenagers can be. Have you ever tried to get 12 teens to be at the same place at the same time…ha, you should try it, it’s like trying to get a circus clown to not wear makeup to his performance.That’s it for now…Love Ya
Monday, December 11, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
December….ah like a breath of fresh air!!!
So we are busy…like that’s new. It seems like yesterday was Turkey Day and now we are getting ready for Santa to come visit. Our Church’s Christmas program is on the 17th. It’s not like at Whiteford, here everything is done on one morning. It includes a bunch of Special music, 3 programs, and various other things. This year though, it will be interesting because last Sunday was our first play practice, let’s hope it goes good.
So I’m kind of sad… because it’s almost over. College football is almost gone for another year, it’s always a great excuse to call someone…Joel, James, Jamie, Andrew Doyle…by the way my friend Andrew was at the Notre Dame game when they actually won in their green jerseys!!! Next year I am going to try to go to a Nebraska game with my friend Brock.
As far as Colby goes…we babysat last weekend. A high school student. A third grader, a second grader, and a baby…what a long weekend. It was fun…sometimes. I guess all I can say is I applaud you Jamie and Heather!!!!
Randy Walker called me the other day, they are going to be visiting Manhattan and will be coming to Colby to spend the day Thursday. We are looking forward to seeing them and showing them the big town of Colby, Kansas!!!
Things are starting to come together for the New Year’s Eve Event…WE STILL NEED HELP. ANY TAKERS? It will be a good night, please be praying for God to do an awesome thing in Colby!! The Epp’s have a lot on their plate right now and I am praying that God will just surround them!!!!!
I don’t have much to say about it right now…Just pray for Alexis Epp if you get a chance….Love Ya………
So I’m kind of sad… because it’s almost over. College football is almost gone for another year, it’s always a great excuse to call someone…Joel, James, Jamie, Andrew Doyle…by the way my friend Andrew was at the Notre Dame game when they actually won in their green jerseys!!! Next year I am going to try to go to a Nebraska game with my friend Brock.
As far as Colby goes…we babysat last weekend. A high school student. A third grader, a second grader, and a baby…what a long weekend. It was fun…sometimes. I guess all I can say is I applaud you Jamie and Heather!!!!
Randy Walker called me the other day, they are going to be visiting Manhattan and will be coming to Colby to spend the day Thursday. We are looking forward to seeing them and showing them the big town of Colby, Kansas!!!
Things are starting to come together for the New Year’s Eve Event…WE STILL NEED HELP. ANY TAKERS? It will be a good night, please be praying for God to do an awesome thing in Colby!! The Epp’s have a lot on their plate right now and I am praying that God will just surround them!!!!!
I don’t have much to say about it right now…Just pray for Alexis Epp if you get a chance….Love Ya………
Friday, November 17, 2006
Free Hugs!!!
So...I thought I would give you an update on what is going on in Colby....well some days it's cold 18 degrees and some days it's warm like today 60's??? Ok...OK...my brain can not think if anything to say hold on...........................................
Ok...I got it. Today is Friday, and tomorrow is the football game that I have been waiting for since the team from up North kicked Notre Dame’s butts. So tomorrow morning we are going to an auction, apparently they are a big deal around town. We are going because the “stuff” of this auction was the “stuff” of a former church member. We also helped move some of the “stuff” out of the house. So if anyone gets this update before tomorrow morning I can get you a good deal on 4 buckets of rocks. They collected rocks wherever they went on their trips. Ok…some of them are pretty cool looking, and yes there is some valuable “stuff.” I think the two coolest things are the banjo and the 1954 Monopoly game.
Alright enough about that.
We bought our plane tickets to come home for Christmas…we will be home on Saturday Dec. 24th and will leave on the 30th. We have to be back for New Year’s Eve…which by the way is shaping up to be a really awesome night!! We are even going to be playing our own version of Deal or No Deal. I am picking case number 3 for the Lucky Case Game.
We have 12 game systems, no PS3s unless any of you want to donate one. We will also have 4 inflatable games this year…Twister, Bungee Run, The Bull Riding and an Obstacle course.
Anyways back to the game…I don’t think I care who wins…I just hope it’s a close one!!! My questions is will USC beat the winner for the National Championship??? Or who will be in the game with them?????
I am preaching next Sunday…if anybody has ideas about what to preach about let me know….Okay, I’m kidding…I don’t really preach I tell stories, and I am talking about Turkey Day memories, and yes mom the food fight will be one of the stories.
I guess I should also tell you that we are making more new friends our own age. We had a couple of the young adults over this week. We just sat around and talked, can you believe there is another one of me??? We also had 8 people over Monday night for dinner…Becky made Cracker Chicken, thank you Heather, it was awesome. My mouth is watering thinking about it…maybe we’ll make it again this weekend…
One thing of seriousness...I labeled this blog Free Hugs for a reason check out this site... it's an awesome video... let your mind ponder it for a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4 Let me know what you think.
Well…I am running out of dots, so I’ll say have a Happy Bird Day and we miss you all! Until Next time…
Love Ya…
Ok...I got it. Today is Friday, and tomorrow is the football game that I have been waiting for since the team from up North kicked Notre Dame’s butts. So tomorrow morning we are going to an auction, apparently they are a big deal around town. We are going because the “stuff” of this auction was the “stuff” of a former church member. We also helped move some of the “stuff” out of the house. So if anyone gets this update before tomorrow morning I can get you a good deal on 4 buckets of rocks. They collected rocks wherever they went on their trips. Ok…some of them are pretty cool looking, and yes there is some valuable “stuff.” I think the two coolest things are the banjo and the 1954 Monopoly game.
Alright enough about that.
We bought our plane tickets to come home for Christmas…we will be home on Saturday Dec. 24th and will leave on the 30th. We have to be back for New Year’s Eve…which by the way is shaping up to be a really awesome night!! We are even going to be playing our own version of Deal or No Deal. I am picking case number 3 for the Lucky Case Game.
We have 12 game systems, no PS3s unless any of you want to donate one. We will also have 4 inflatable games this year…Twister, Bungee Run, The Bull Riding and an Obstacle course.
Anyways back to the game…I don’t think I care who wins…I just hope it’s a close one!!! My questions is will USC beat the winner for the National Championship??? Or who will be in the game with them?????
I am preaching next Sunday…if anybody has ideas about what to preach about let me know….Okay, I’m kidding…I don’t really preach I tell stories, and I am talking about Turkey Day memories, and yes mom the food fight will be one of the stories.
I guess I should also tell you that we are making more new friends our own age. We had a couple of the young adults over this week. We just sat around and talked, can you believe there is another one of me??? We also had 8 people over Monday night for dinner…Becky made Cracker Chicken, thank you Heather, it was awesome. My mouth is watering thinking about it…maybe we’ll make it again this weekend…
One thing of seriousness...I labeled this blog Free Hugs for a reason check out this site... it's an awesome video... let your mind ponder it for a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4 Let me know what you think.
Well…I am running out of dots, so I’ll say have a Happy Bird Day and we miss you all! Until Next time…
Love Ya…
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Happy November Day!!!
Happy November Day!!!
It’s November first and it is starting to get cold…ok maybe it already is cold. Last night Becky and I participated in Trunk or Treat at Heartland, the Christian school here in town. It was a lot of fun, I went as a frozen person, well actually I didn’t dress up but that’s what I became after a while.
We took our truck and used the decorations from VBS this year and made the lodge. We took the fire pit that was given to the Youth Group as a beautiful decoration, and we had our camping chairs on it. Well, we actually lit the fire, it kept my friend Kody and I warm most of the night until we started packing up. It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to have a fire on your truck bed right above the gas tank surrounded by cardboard and a bunch of people, but hey it was fun!! Actually mom, it wasn’t a big fire and we were safe the whole time.
After that we came home for 2 minutes and went to Bible study, well ok young adult hangout. We were all tired so we didn’t really do anything. I got a phone call to tell me to go look at the front of the house. We had plastic wrap around our trees and forks and knives lying on the sidewalk, evidently it was to cold or frozen to stick the forks in the ground. I left it up, I thought it was somewhat creative so our neighbors should at least get to see it.
As for our trip we had a great time…once we left the airport. We arrived in KCI to blinking lights and buzzing, the fire alarm had be set off. Just believe me when I say it got worse from there. But the conference was awesome, I learned a lot and we connected with some of the youth pastors from Kansas. Plus I got to see some old friends from IWU. Becky and I were blessed to be spoiled by Sharon (Becky’s Mom) and Uncle Dan & Aunt Carol. I enjoyed eating real food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEXAS ROADHOUSE
We also got to pick on our cousins, who I will not name for their own sake…but they will never see Olive Garden the same again, I hope you two had fun!!
We also got to share some pretzels with James and Rebekah, we went shopping and oh yeah James, I don’t like where the pants hit me and I hope everything comes out ok, call me if you need to talk about it!! We also got the privilege of getting spanked in bowling by James…surprise, surprise. We went to IWU and got a tour from Ezra, James could you make one of those games we played in the lodge? I really want one of those to play with my teens.
I spoke in Introduction to Youth Ministry…those kids don’t have a clue what they are getting into…Well I think that’s good for know…I hope everyone is doing well…we are also trying to get home for Christmas…we’ll let you know…
Love Ya..
It’s November first and it is starting to get cold…ok maybe it already is cold. Last night Becky and I participated in Trunk or Treat at Heartland, the Christian school here in town. It was a lot of fun, I went as a frozen person, well actually I didn’t dress up but that’s what I became after a while.
We took our truck and used the decorations from VBS this year and made the lodge. We took the fire pit that was given to the Youth Group as a beautiful decoration, and we had our camping chairs on it. Well, we actually lit the fire, it kept my friend Kody and I warm most of the night until we started packing up. It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to have a fire on your truck bed right above the gas tank surrounded by cardboard and a bunch of people, but hey it was fun!! Actually mom, it wasn’t a big fire and we were safe the whole time.
After that we came home for 2 minutes and went to Bible study, well ok young adult hangout. We were all tired so we didn’t really do anything. I got a phone call to tell me to go look at the front of the house. We had plastic wrap around our trees and forks and knives lying on the sidewalk, evidently it was to cold or frozen to stick the forks in the ground. I left it up, I thought it was somewhat creative so our neighbors should at least get to see it.
As for our trip we had a great time…once we left the airport. We arrived in KCI to blinking lights and buzzing, the fire alarm had be set off. Just believe me when I say it got worse from there. But the conference was awesome, I learned a lot and we connected with some of the youth pastors from Kansas. Plus I got to see some old friends from IWU. Becky and I were blessed to be spoiled by Sharon (Becky’s Mom) and Uncle Dan & Aunt Carol. I enjoyed eating real food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEXAS ROADHOUSE
We also got to pick on our cousins, who I will not name for their own sake…but they will never see Olive Garden the same again, I hope you two had fun!!
We also got to share some pretzels with James and Rebekah, we went shopping and oh yeah James, I don’t like where the pants hit me and I hope everything comes out ok, call me if you need to talk about it!! We also got the privilege of getting spanked in bowling by James…surprise, surprise. We went to IWU and got a tour from Ezra, James could you make one of those games we played in the lodge? I really want one of those to play with my teens.
I spoke in Introduction to Youth Ministry…those kids don’t have a clue what they are getting into…Well I think that’s good for know…I hope everyone is doing well…we are also trying to get home for Christmas…we’ll let you know…
Love Ya..
Friday, October 06, 2006
Hays Trip
So it’s Friday once again!!! There is no school today so Becky is at home this morning doing all kinds of house work and she was even up before 9 this morning wanting to mow. So I am at the office…just watching the hours, ok minutes and seconds tick by.
We are really excited for these next couple of weeks to fly by fast, were excited about our trip to Indy. Becky’s parents are coming down for the weekend, it will be good to see family. We’re not going to come all the way home, we are planning on being home for Christmas!!!
Becky and I are also excited about seeing IWU once again, although we have decided that we are definitely glad that we are done there. I have been reading Coach D’s blog about IWU, he has an update for former students, http://www.iwishiwereayoda.blogspot.com/ Jamie& Heather and Josh & Brooke if you read this one check it out, you will be amazed with the pictures and the new Student Center will blow your mind, let me just say that IWU now has a their own beauty salon/barbershop.
As for us, we went to Hays yesterday for a Doctor’s appointment for Becky. We didn’t really learn anything new, except that in the near future we will take a trip to Wichita (4 ½ hours away) to see the best neurologist in the country.
So all in all we drove an 1 ½ hours both ways for an amazing 15 minutes with the Doctor. But since we were there we decided to make the most of it and spoil ourselves with Applebee’s, it was a good steak but not like TEXAS ROADHOUSE. We also decided to walk around the mall, ok we really only went to JCPenny. I want those of you who live in a city to know how spoiled you are.
Um, oh yeah, on the way to Kansas City we will be stopping in Topeka for my DBMD meeting, I think this time I will find out if I am going to be getting ordained this year or not. Please pray that I answer their questions correctly!!I think that’s it for now…Love Ya
We are really excited for these next couple of weeks to fly by fast, were excited about our trip to Indy. Becky’s parents are coming down for the weekend, it will be good to see family. We’re not going to come all the way home, we are planning on being home for Christmas!!!
Becky and I are also excited about seeing IWU once again, although we have decided that we are definitely glad that we are done there. I have been reading Coach D’s blog about IWU, he has an update for former students, http://www.iwishiwereayoda.blogspot.com/ Jamie& Heather and Josh & Brooke if you read this one check it out, you will be amazed with the pictures and the new Student Center will blow your mind, let me just say that IWU now has a their own beauty salon/barbershop.
As for us, we went to Hays yesterday for a Doctor’s appointment for Becky. We didn’t really learn anything new, except that in the near future we will take a trip to Wichita (4 ½ hours away) to see the best neurologist in the country.
So all in all we drove an 1 ½ hours both ways for an amazing 15 minutes with the Doctor. But since we were there we decided to make the most of it and spoil ourselves with Applebee’s, it was a good steak but not like TEXAS ROADHOUSE. We also decided to walk around the mall, ok we really only went to JCPenny. I want those of you who live in a city to know how spoiled you are.
Um, oh yeah, on the way to Kansas City we will be stopping in Topeka for my DBMD meeting, I think this time I will find out if I am going to be getting ordained this year or not. Please pray that I answer their questions correctly!!I think that’s it for now…Love Ya
Friday, September 15, 2006
Friday...
It’s Friday and here comes another blog…two in one week. So I really don’t have anything to say…except…no I really don’t so let me think of something…………Oh I got it. It is Friday and it’s Orange day in Colby, if you ask Becky when you see her next, she can show you the sign language symbol for oranges. Anyways, it’s homecoming this weekend…it’s a really big deal here, even though our team isn’t that good. All of the businesses have their windows painted, today the high school gets out early and there is a parade at 2:30. So today I am going to go downtown and watch the parade…it’s not like a parade for the fair at home…then again neither was our fair parade here this year either.
So tonight we will have a 5th Quarter, amazing food, and a bonfire!
I read more about IWU and how it is expanding today on Coach D’s (Keith Dury) website. He said College Church is finally building their new facility. They are building a new Sports Complex, just for the teams to practice. They are building yet another dorm where the tennis courts use to be. They are also building a new administration building next to the science hall/cm buildings…good bye parking lot (where Josh’s car sat for some many days before Uncle Jim came and fixed it). So I’ve said all of this to say that I am looking forward to seeing IWU, my profs, and my friend Ezra!! Oh yeah…one more thing…4West, my unit won the Resident Life Week Challenge!!! Four West 4 Life!!!
Well, Love Ya
So tonight we will have a 5th Quarter, amazing food, and a bonfire!
I read more about IWU and how it is expanding today on Coach D’s (Keith Dury) website. He said College Church is finally building their new facility. They are building a new Sports Complex, just for the teams to practice. They are building yet another dorm where the tennis courts use to be. They are also building a new administration building next to the science hall/cm buildings…good bye parking lot (where Josh’s car sat for some many days before Uncle Jim came and fixed it). So I’ve said all of this to say that I am looking forward to seeing IWU, my profs, and my friend Ezra!! Oh yeah…one more thing…4West, my unit won the Resident Life Week Challenge!!! Four West 4 Life!!!
Well, Love Ya
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
State Fair
OK…OK So I have been busy…It’s like I have nothing else to do…just kidding.
What have we been up to? Well, since school has started life has gotten busier for both Becky and I. She is working at the elementary school, working with 4th and 5th graders, she mainly has two kids she works with, but there can be up to twelve some days.
I have been busy with many things at work, can you believe that a Youth Pastor actually does more than play video games? I have been working really hard getting ready for my Wednesday Night Youth Groups. We had 26 teens for or Wiffle, Waffle, Worshiping, Witnessing Wednesday. It was an awesome time of just playing games and having fun, the highlight to me was hearing two of my Seniors give their testimonies. Tonight we are starting our Armor of God Series, not just yeah, yeah, this is your belt blah, blah. I am going to show them where it fit into the Bible times and how important armor was to them in battle. Did you know that their sandals had at least a one inch spike at the bottom of them?
Along with my activities at the church, I am also helping with as much stuff as I can for New Year’s Eve. We are co-chairs, for the second annual Rappin & Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Party. This year we are having two bands, John Reuben and Three Cord Wonder. We know for sure that we will once again be playing dodge ball, going bowling, having a battle of the bands. We are trying to get inflatables, hopefully a really fun obstacle course. We might be doing Fear Factor again, but we are not sure. I have also put together a blog on myspace.com for the New Years Eve party. It has the music from Three Cord Wonder and 2 John Reuben videos, you can also see pictures from last year but you have to be a myspace member to see them. www.myspace.com/rockinnewyears
The last weekend in August I went to Promise Keepers in Colorado Springs. It was a fun time, I rode with my friend Joey and a couple of the teens. We ad a great time talking on the way home, and I got to know 2 of the teens better. While I was gone Becky was busy also. She had put together a Princess Party for the girls in our youth group. They stayed up most of the night talking and watching movies, Becky also had them do some crafts. From what I heard about it, everyone there had fun.
What else…of we have plenty to do on the weekends, we have girls in tennis and guys in football. This week is homecoming, it’s our third game of the season, but they only have 2 home games left. We have 5th Quarter parties after every home game. In case anyone wants to come this Friday we are having Mexican, and will be having a bond fire. Also this weekend we are doing Community Service Projects on Saturday. Oh yeah, and Sunday Dr. Piper from Oklahoma Wesleyan University will be here speaking and having lunch with the teens. Let me just say that for a College President, Dr. Piper is a real awesome guy. He loves God, his school and he loves his kids!! I wish that at our school our President would have interacted with us.
We are looking forward to October…we are coming to Indy for a Youth Pastor’s conference on October 19-20. We will also be visiting Marion to see how big IWU has gotten. I was told the other day that Center Elementary is now classroom space for IWU. We are also looking forward to seeing some of you!!!Ok…that’s it for now…Love Ya!
What have we been up to? Well, since school has started life has gotten busier for both Becky and I. She is working at the elementary school, working with 4th and 5th graders, she mainly has two kids she works with, but there can be up to twelve some days.
I have been busy with many things at work, can you believe that a Youth Pastor actually does more than play video games? I have been working really hard getting ready for my Wednesday Night Youth Groups. We had 26 teens for or Wiffle, Waffle, Worshiping, Witnessing Wednesday. It was an awesome time of just playing games and having fun, the highlight to me was hearing two of my Seniors give their testimonies. Tonight we are starting our Armor of God Series, not just yeah, yeah, this is your belt blah, blah. I am going to show them where it fit into the Bible times and how important armor was to them in battle. Did you know that their sandals had at least a one inch spike at the bottom of them?
Along with my activities at the church, I am also helping with as much stuff as I can for New Year’s Eve. We are co-chairs, for the second annual Rappin & Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Party. This year we are having two bands, John Reuben and Three Cord Wonder. We know for sure that we will once again be playing dodge ball, going bowling, having a battle of the bands. We are trying to get inflatables, hopefully a really fun obstacle course. We might be doing Fear Factor again, but we are not sure. I have also put together a blog on myspace.com for the New Years Eve party. It has the music from Three Cord Wonder and 2 John Reuben videos, you can also see pictures from last year but you have to be a myspace member to see them. www.myspace.com/rockinnewyears
The last weekend in August I went to Promise Keepers in Colorado Springs. It was a fun time, I rode with my friend Joey and a couple of the teens. We ad a great time talking on the way home, and I got to know 2 of the teens better. While I was gone Becky was busy also. She had put together a Princess Party for the girls in our youth group. They stayed up most of the night talking and watching movies, Becky also had them do some crafts. From what I heard about it, everyone there had fun.
What else…of we have plenty to do on the weekends, we have girls in tennis and guys in football. This week is homecoming, it’s our third game of the season, but they only have 2 home games left. We have 5th Quarter parties after every home game. In case anyone wants to come this Friday we are having Mexican, and will be having a bond fire. Also this weekend we are doing Community Service Projects on Saturday. Oh yeah, and Sunday Dr. Piper from Oklahoma Wesleyan University will be here speaking and having lunch with the teens. Let me just say that for a College President, Dr. Piper is a real awesome guy. He loves God, his school and he loves his kids!! I wish that at our school our President would have interacted with us.
We are looking forward to October…we are coming to Indy for a Youth Pastor’s conference on October 19-20. We will also be visiting Marion to see how big IWU has gotten. I was told the other day that Center Elementary is now classroom space for IWU. We are also looking forward to seeing some of you!!!Ok…that’s it for now…Love Ya!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
???????
So it’s a day…Happy day…
We are doing our VBS this week, the Artic Edge. I taught the Bible Story yesterday. It was a lot of fun, until the preschoolers showed up. There were only 7 of them, but…wow. I don’t know how anyone could spend a whole day with them. They did great for about 5 minutes and then the rest of the time was down hill from there.
Becky got the job at the elementary school! She knows that she will be working with 4th and 5th graders. She also knows that the first day of school is August 24th. For right now that is about all we know.
I’ll write more later.
We are doing our VBS this week, the Artic Edge. I taught the Bible Story yesterday. It was a lot of fun, until the preschoolers showed up. There were only 7 of them, but…wow. I don’t know how anyone could spend a whole day with them. They did great for about 5 minutes and then the rest of the time was down hill from there.
Becky got the job at the elementary school! She knows that she will be working with 4th and 5th graders. She also knows that the first day of school is August 24th. For right now that is about all we know.
I’ll write more later.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Happy August
Hey…Welcome back, it seems like we are always going somewhere…
So we are home after spending Sunday through Wednesday in Salina, it’s 3 hours away, at Praise Gathering. It’s an attempt to have a camp, I guess. It’s really sad and kind of weird coming from East Michigan where everyone went to camp, to now we had 2 couples go with us and P.G this year. I guess there will be a lot more people there next year when I get ordained.
Speaking of being ordained, I wish I could tell you what the dates are for next year but, I don’t have a clue. The church where we have had Praise Gathering for the last 3 years has said that they didn’t want us back next year, so it probably won’t be in Salina. I will let you know when and where when I know.
Becky had an interview at the Grade School yesterday, she has applied to be a Para Professional, I will let you know in a couple of days what happened with that opportunity.
Oh yeah, Jamie and anyone else who wanted to know, Six Flags was an awesome but tiring day. We left here at 7:30 A.M. and got home about 1:00. It was definitely a long day, and a lot of driving, but worth it. On the way there the kids in our Suburban got bored quickly so we had serious discussions about relationships and boundaries, and also what does call us to do and be as a “Christian.” It was a great time. I did learn something though, the kids today face so much more than I did when I was in school. There are some things that I know our kids deal with at 14 and 15 that I didn’t know were even a big deal until the end of High School. For example, we talked about boundaries, and I flat out asked one of the girls where her boundaries started and you would definitely say it was about half way down the hill already. I flat out said to the kids, “I am your Youth Pastor and I don’t understand you.”
Which leads me to my next point, I think that the church is going to send me to Indy in October for a Youth Pastors conference at Head Quarters. The dates for the conference are 19-21, I will let you know what’s up for sure in a couple of weeks. I am hoping that since we are that close to family that we’ll get a couple days in Ohio and Michigan, but we’ll let you know.
I will end with this information and question… school starts here on August 24th, our kickoff for the M.O.B. is August 30th. We are having wiffle and waffle night as our kick off, if you have any great ideas for waffles let us know. Love Ya!!
So we are home after spending Sunday through Wednesday in Salina, it’s 3 hours away, at Praise Gathering. It’s an attempt to have a camp, I guess. It’s really sad and kind of weird coming from East Michigan where everyone went to camp, to now we had 2 couples go with us and P.G this year. I guess there will be a lot more people there next year when I get ordained.
Speaking of being ordained, I wish I could tell you what the dates are for next year but, I don’t have a clue. The church where we have had Praise Gathering for the last 3 years has said that they didn’t want us back next year, so it probably won’t be in Salina. I will let you know when and where when I know.
Becky had an interview at the Grade School yesterday, she has applied to be a Para Professional, I will let you know in a couple of days what happened with that opportunity.
Oh yeah, Jamie and anyone else who wanted to know, Six Flags was an awesome but tiring day. We left here at 7:30 A.M. and got home about 1:00. It was definitely a long day, and a lot of driving, but worth it. On the way there the kids in our Suburban got bored quickly so we had serious discussions about relationships and boundaries, and also what does call us to do and be as a “Christian.” It was a great time. I did learn something though, the kids today face so much more than I did when I was in school. There are some things that I know our kids deal with at 14 and 15 that I didn’t know were even a big deal until the end of High School. For example, we talked about boundaries, and I flat out asked one of the girls where her boundaries started and you would definitely say it was about half way down the hill already. I flat out said to the kids, “I am your Youth Pastor and I don’t understand you.”
Which leads me to my next point, I think that the church is going to send me to Indy in October for a Youth Pastors conference at Head Quarters. The dates for the conference are 19-21, I will let you know what’s up for sure in a couple of weeks. I am hoping that since we are that close to family that we’ll get a couple days in Ohio and Michigan, but we’ll let you know.
I will end with this information and question… school starts here on August 24th, our kickoff for the M.O.B. is August 30th. We are having wiffle and waffle night as our kick off, if you have any great ideas for waffles let us know. Love Ya!!
Sunday, July 23, 2006
What's Up???
Ok..Ok…so does anyone even look at this blog? Maybe Heather, is she the only one? I’m just wondering because no one has complained about me not writing anything…
So, not that I got that out of my system…I’ll update you on a few things that are going on in Colby. We went to Youth Camp a week ago, it was a great bonding and learning experience with our teens. The M.O.B. is starting its transition time with our group, we have a lot of kids who are either going into 6th or 7th grade this year. Instead of the huge gap in ages, the kids all hung out and got to know each other!!
This year the theme was, Under The Surface. The speaker, Ryan Brinson, challenged the teens to realize that Salvation isn’t just a free ticket to heaven, but more of a life changing event that starts on the inside. God was really moving and many things have stuck in the kids minds.
Tomorrow, or rather today is Youth Sunday…it should be a really good service, and I don’t even have to preach. We have two teens who went on missions trips, one to Peru and one to Chicago who are talking. Nine teens sharing about youth camp, and their decisions they made. We have three skits, one that was written by one of the teens, it’s titled Mission Possible (that’s our theme for this year.) One playing the piano and one playing the violin. Also, we are leading worship with just a guitar!!
Now us…Becky is officially done with Subway…I think?!?!?!?! She has applied for a Para job at the grade school, and we are praying that this will happen for her. We just keep remembering that God is in control and that He will take care of us!!!
She has two doctor appointments back to back in August on the 7th and 8th, on here and on in Hays.
We go to Praise Gathering in Salina next Sunday, at least we can go and hang out with other Youth pastors!! It would be nice if I was getting ordained but hey, maybe next year.
As for me, I am actually surprising a few people. You see, I am kind of a procrastinator…Who knew?? Well anyways, with the help of Becky and our friends Joey and Jill, I have my Wednesday night Youth Group lesson planned through June!! Yeah, that’s not a typo it says June as in 2007. Last thought for tonight, how cool is it to get paid to take teens to an amusement park…that’s what we are doing Tuesday…Six Flags Denver!!!
So, not that I got that out of my system…I’ll update you on a few things that are going on in Colby. We went to Youth Camp a week ago, it was a great bonding and learning experience with our teens. The M.O.B. is starting its transition time with our group, we have a lot of kids who are either going into 6th or 7th grade this year. Instead of the huge gap in ages, the kids all hung out and got to know each other!!
This year the theme was, Under The Surface. The speaker, Ryan Brinson, challenged the teens to realize that Salvation isn’t just a free ticket to heaven, but more of a life changing event that starts on the inside. God was really moving and many things have stuck in the kids minds.
Tomorrow, or rather today is Youth Sunday…it should be a really good service, and I don’t even have to preach. We have two teens who went on missions trips, one to Peru and one to Chicago who are talking. Nine teens sharing about youth camp, and their decisions they made. We have three skits, one that was written by one of the teens, it’s titled Mission Possible (that’s our theme for this year.) One playing the piano and one playing the violin. Also, we are leading worship with just a guitar!!
Now us…Becky is officially done with Subway…I think?!?!?!?! She has applied for a Para job at the grade school, and we are praying that this will happen for her. We just keep remembering that God is in control and that He will take care of us!!!
She has two doctor appointments back to back in August on the 7th and 8th, on here and on in Hays.
We go to Praise Gathering in Salina next Sunday, at least we can go and hang out with other Youth pastors!! It would be nice if I was getting ordained but hey, maybe next year.
As for me, I am actually surprising a few people. You see, I am kind of a procrastinator…Who knew?? Well anyways, with the help of Becky and our friends Joey and Jill, I have my Wednesday night Youth Group lesson planned through June!! Yeah, that’s not a typo it says June as in 2007. Last thought for tonight, how cool is it to get paid to take teens to an amusement park…that’s what we are doing Tuesday…Six Flags Denver!!!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Becky's Day Off...
So Becky finally had a real day off, a whole day off for the first time in probably 2 and a half weeks. So we used it to our advantage to get away from Colby for the day. But where do you go when you live in Colby??? The answer is anywhere. Actually we decided to head to Colorado Springs. It’s a beautiful place to spend a week or even just a day.
So we got a room on Priceline, you get what you pay for sometimes, enough said about that. We got up early Tuesday morning and head for Colorado, by the way, Colorado is only 53 miles from Colby.
We enjoyed the beautiful drive, it was a nice day but evidently cloudy because I couldn’t see Pikes Peak from Limon, 66 miles away.
When we got into the Springs we decided to go to Focus on the Family, as our first stop. Well truthfully we stopped at Chick-fil-a first. We shopped at the bookstore for a little while, of course having to by a Bible, amazingly not for me this time. After shopping we decided that we would have some ice cream at Whit’s End….Side Note..If you have never listened to Adventures in Odyssey, you’re missing a lot. I grew up on AIO, and the kid in me definitely comes out when we are at Focus on the Family. There was definitely a crowd there so I didn’t play but I am looking for an excuse to go there and play…
When we left we went to Wal-Mart for a few minutes then went and checked into our hotel. We took our stuff to our room and decided that we would go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We stopped and asked a guy for directions and made it just in time for last admission to the zoo.
Most zoos are a lot of walking, I get that, but must zoos are not built on a mountain. It was an amazing zoo, we paid $12 a piece but it was worth it!! The first exhibit you see is the giraffes, meaning not just one or two, but a bunch. You can feed the giraffes crackers. It was pretty cool, I never realized how big a giraffes tongue can be. I also petted one, they are not fans of that though.
Since the zoo is on a mountain, you have to walk up and up and up. It was a lot of walking but a lot of fun. The other really awesome thing about the zoo was they had a Wallaby Walkabout. They had 2 Kangaroos and 5 or 6 Wallabies, well actually there were more than that but you couldn’t see them because they were in the pouches.
We left the zoo, and decided to go out for dinner. We went to Olive Garden, a definite step up from Montana Mikes…Thanks Sharon!!!
Becky and I went shopping at a mall and Target, we had a great time and enjoyed our day away. I will try to put some pictures on the blog tonight or tomorrow.
Love Ya
So we got a room on Priceline, you get what you pay for sometimes, enough said about that. We got up early Tuesday morning and head for Colorado, by the way, Colorado is only 53 miles from Colby.
We enjoyed the beautiful drive, it was a nice day but evidently cloudy because I couldn’t see Pikes Peak from Limon, 66 miles away.
When we got into the Springs we decided to go to Focus on the Family, as our first stop. Well truthfully we stopped at Chick-fil-a first. We shopped at the bookstore for a little while, of course having to by a Bible, amazingly not for me this time. After shopping we decided that we would have some ice cream at Whit’s End….Side Note..If you have never listened to Adventures in Odyssey, you’re missing a lot. I grew up on AIO, and the kid in me definitely comes out when we are at Focus on the Family. There was definitely a crowd there so I didn’t play but I am looking for an excuse to go there and play…
When we left we went to Wal-Mart for a few minutes then went and checked into our hotel. We took our stuff to our room and decided that we would go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We stopped and asked a guy for directions and made it just in time for last admission to the zoo.
Most zoos are a lot of walking, I get that, but must zoos are not built on a mountain. It was an amazing zoo, we paid $12 a piece but it was worth it!! The first exhibit you see is the giraffes, meaning not just one or two, but a bunch. You can feed the giraffes crackers. It was pretty cool, I never realized how big a giraffes tongue can be. I also petted one, they are not fans of that though.
Since the zoo is on a mountain, you have to walk up and up and up. It was a lot of walking but a lot of fun. The other really awesome thing about the zoo was they had a Wallaby Walkabout. They had 2 Kangaroos and 5 or 6 Wallabies, well actually there were more than that but you couldn’t see them because they were in the pouches.
We left the zoo, and decided to go out for dinner. We went to Olive Garden, a definite step up from Montana Mikes…Thanks Sharon!!!
Becky and I went shopping at a mall and Target, we had a great time and enjoyed our day away. I will try to put some pictures on the blog tonight or tomorrow.
Love Ya
Monday, June 26, 2006
Where Have You Been?
Ok, so we are back home, you know that…but life seems to keep going at full speed. I have tried to sit down and write this blog time and time again and I think I am finally going to get it done.
This morning as I am typing this I am sitting in the church office because I am playing the role of Youth Pastor, Senior Pastor and secretary for a few days. Does anybody want to come to Colby, Kansas to help me out this week?
So, let me tell you a little bit of what has been going on in Colby, yes grandpa this is for you. We enjoyed most of our Missions Trip to LUC Ranch in Lampe, MO. Yes, I did say most. We had long days and short night…and it was rough dealing with a couple of teens on a couple of occasions.
I will stop right here and tell you that if you want to see some pictures they are posted on our church/yg website. Click on this to see them http://www.visitcolby.com/WesleyanChurch/MOB.htm Once you get there scroll down on the left side of the page there are links you can click to see pictures of the trip and also Spring Break retreat. I also will through in a shameless plug to say that if you have never seen the beautiful Rocky Mountains, the winter is the best time to see them with the snow. Call your local Colby Travel agent at the Morehart residency to reserve your spot to see beautiful Colorado and some of Kansas. Don’t wait time slots are filling up quickly. Call Today!!!
Now we interrupt this infomercial to tell you a little bit about the trip. We arrived on Sunday Night just in time for dinner, we met the people and saw the farm and basically went to our cabins and went to bed. We went early Monday Morning to the ranch and were given our list to do, the girls were painting boards, a deck, and working in the kitchen. Mike, Pookie and I were told we could work on the fence or the tractor barn. Ok, so were going to WORK, on the tractor barn, we get up to it and well, what he meant to say was we were going to BUILD a tractor barn!!! If you look at the pictures, there is one of me walking and you see many leaning posts in the background, that’s is what we started with on Monday. By Thursday we had the trusses up and the side walls started, we parked a tractor in it, that picture is there also.
It wasn’t all fun and games though, when we woke up Tuesday Morning, we got a phone call from one of the parents. If you look at the picture of us eating breakfast, the boy in the blue shirt is Kale, we found out his grandpa had passed away early that morning. So our day started out rough, we just sat and cried, and talked, and cried…we also had to figure out how to get him back home, we were still 11 hours away at least. Rich and Judy Epp had a daughter who was in KC for the weekend because her husband was called up to active duty in the ARMY, we were able to get a hold of her and met up with her in KC before they left.
We worked a little, the difference between Western Kansas and MO, or even home is, it is hot here in Colby, but its not humid. So when it was 85-95 degrees out in MO, the Westerners weren’t use to sweating buckets…it made for tired and sometimes whiny days.
As you can see, we also played a lot. We paid $150 for the trip, that included our transportation, whatever we did on Friday fun day, and the meals Friday. We went swimming twice at Table Rock Lake, actually it was more like Bluff jumping, there are pictures of this too. The ranch had tickets to shows in Branson donated so we could go into Branson and see some things. Thursday night, we saw The Chinese Acrobats, this was a weird, strange, some fun, show. This will sound odd but some of those girls could stretch or flex their body that they could kiss their own butts. One of the acts had 17 girls on a bicycle.
Friday we went back into Branson and saw an IMAX movie in the morning, went shopping at an outlet mall, then we then went to a buffet. In the afternoon we went to see the Brashler’s they were better than I expected. That evening we went to Celebration City, a fun little amusement park based on the 50’s and 60’s. They had the best laser and light show that I have ever seen. This is for mom, Rich Epp is kind of crazy and funny like my dad was. Before the show, they had Barney Fife up front leading the crowd in some dances and fun stuff. Rich Epp went up front and helped him energize the crowd. They were two dancing fools running all around, it was better than I can describe because most of people there had to of thought that Rich worked at the park, It was a blast.
Why we were there, Rich and I decided to have fun. We sat down on a bench and would wait for people to walk by, then we would start yelling at each other like we were going to get into a fight…I love making a scene!! Anyways we had people starring one guy almost came over to break us apart when I walked away because I was going to laugh…It was funny! Also, Mike Johnson is the guy at the top of the pictures in blue shirt, Rich is in the yellow. Rich and I walked around the crowd at the show yelling for Mike Johnson, we were walking up to people and asking if they had seen Mike Johnson, it was great. Rich asked this 350 plus dark colored guy if he was Mike Johnson, and the guy had to think about it. Ok, one more thing, I know it’s wrong but you know how I like to entertain…as we were leaving the park that night I walked and acted like I was mental, something I had done all week with Rich to make the group laugh. I was talking loud and calling Rich my daddy. I said, “Daddy, I really liked that place, I think my favorite ride was the one that went around in circles. You remember? And it had the horses with the pretty hair. What did you like daddy? I thinked I just pooped my pants. And I went to Judy, mommy I think I pooped.” She says, “tell your dad.” I said immediately, “I think he pooooooped too.” Then Rich yells, “Johnny, get in the car.” I finished by saying, “Don’t hit me daddy.” Just so you know, there was at least one lady who was folded in half in the parking lot laughing at us. You may not have enjoyed this last part of the blog but it was a great time.
We had a little bit of interaction with the boys at the ranch but most of them were out doing chores or had day jobs that they had to do. It was a learning experience, a bonding experience and we had fun.
Thanks to all of you who prayed for and supported us and the tractor…we didn’t have enough but the guy took about half out it for it so God came through once again!!!
This morning as I am typing this I am sitting in the church office because I am playing the role of Youth Pastor, Senior Pastor and secretary for a few days. Does anybody want to come to Colby, Kansas to help me out this week?
So, let me tell you a little bit of what has been going on in Colby, yes grandpa this is for you. We enjoyed most of our Missions Trip to LUC Ranch in Lampe, MO. Yes, I did say most. We had long days and short night…and it was rough dealing with a couple of teens on a couple of occasions.
I will stop right here and tell you that if you want to see some pictures they are posted on our church/yg website. Click on this to see them http://www.visitcolby.com/WesleyanChurch/MOB.htm Once you get there scroll down on the left side of the page there are links you can click to see pictures of the trip and also Spring Break retreat. I also will through in a shameless plug to say that if you have never seen the beautiful Rocky Mountains, the winter is the best time to see them with the snow. Call your local Colby Travel agent at the Morehart residency to reserve your spot to see beautiful Colorado and some of Kansas. Don’t wait time slots are filling up quickly. Call Today!!!
Now we interrupt this infomercial to tell you a little bit about the trip. We arrived on Sunday Night just in time for dinner, we met the people and saw the farm and basically went to our cabins and went to bed. We went early Monday Morning to the ranch and were given our list to do, the girls were painting boards, a deck, and working in the kitchen. Mike, Pookie and I were told we could work on the fence or the tractor barn. Ok, so were going to WORK, on the tractor barn, we get up to it and well, what he meant to say was we were going to BUILD a tractor barn!!! If you look at the pictures, there is one of me walking and you see many leaning posts in the background, that’s is what we started with on Monday. By Thursday we had the trusses up and the side walls started, we parked a tractor in it, that picture is there also.
It wasn’t all fun and games though, when we woke up Tuesday Morning, we got a phone call from one of the parents. If you look at the picture of us eating breakfast, the boy in the blue shirt is Kale, we found out his grandpa had passed away early that morning. So our day started out rough, we just sat and cried, and talked, and cried…we also had to figure out how to get him back home, we were still 11 hours away at least. Rich and Judy Epp had a daughter who was in KC for the weekend because her husband was called up to active duty in the ARMY, we were able to get a hold of her and met up with her in KC before they left.
We worked a little, the difference between Western Kansas and MO, or even home is, it is hot here in Colby, but its not humid. So when it was 85-95 degrees out in MO, the Westerners weren’t use to sweating buckets…it made for tired and sometimes whiny days.
As you can see, we also played a lot. We paid $150 for the trip, that included our transportation, whatever we did on Friday fun day, and the meals Friday. We went swimming twice at Table Rock Lake, actually it was more like Bluff jumping, there are pictures of this too. The ranch had tickets to shows in Branson donated so we could go into Branson and see some things. Thursday night, we saw The Chinese Acrobats, this was a weird, strange, some fun, show. This will sound odd but some of those girls could stretch or flex their body that they could kiss their own butts. One of the acts had 17 girls on a bicycle.
Friday we went back into Branson and saw an IMAX movie in the morning, went shopping at an outlet mall, then we then went to a buffet. In the afternoon we went to see the Brashler’s they were better than I expected. That evening we went to Celebration City, a fun little amusement park based on the 50’s and 60’s. They had the best laser and light show that I have ever seen. This is for mom, Rich Epp is kind of crazy and funny like my dad was. Before the show, they had Barney Fife up front leading the crowd in some dances and fun stuff. Rich Epp went up front and helped him energize the crowd. They were two dancing fools running all around, it was better than I can describe because most of people there had to of thought that Rich worked at the park, It was a blast.
Why we were there, Rich and I decided to have fun. We sat down on a bench and would wait for people to walk by, then we would start yelling at each other like we were going to get into a fight…I love making a scene!! Anyways we had people starring one guy almost came over to break us apart when I walked away because I was going to laugh…It was funny! Also, Mike Johnson is the guy at the top of the pictures in blue shirt, Rich is in the yellow. Rich and I walked around the crowd at the show yelling for Mike Johnson, we were walking up to people and asking if they had seen Mike Johnson, it was great. Rich asked this 350 plus dark colored guy if he was Mike Johnson, and the guy had to think about it. Ok, one more thing, I know it’s wrong but you know how I like to entertain…as we were leaving the park that night I walked and acted like I was mental, something I had done all week with Rich to make the group laugh. I was talking loud and calling Rich my daddy. I said, “Daddy, I really liked that place, I think my favorite ride was the one that went around in circles. You remember? And it had the horses with the pretty hair. What did you like daddy? I thinked I just pooped my pants. And I went to Judy, mommy I think I pooped.” She says, “tell your dad.” I said immediately, “I think he pooooooped too.” Then Rich yells, “Johnny, get in the car.” I finished by saying, “Don’t hit me daddy.” Just so you know, there was at least one lady who was folded in half in the parking lot laughing at us. You may not have enjoyed this last part of the blog but it was a great time.
We had a little bit of interaction with the boys at the ranch but most of them were out doing chores or had day jobs that they had to do. It was a learning experience, a bonding experience and we had fun.
Thanks to all of you who prayed for and supported us and the tractor…we didn’t have enough but the guy took about half out it for it so God came through once again!!!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Going to MO
We’ll you have all heard about and it is final here. This Sunday we leave from the church at 5:30 A.M. We still don’t have the whole tractor paid for, I am not sure exactly what they are going to do about it…I will let you know what happens.
We are really excited about going, and a little nervous at the same time. I found out that I will be doing a Youth Group type of lesson for the boys while we are there. It will be challenging…I mean what do say to 20 boys who range from age 7-18 who have been taken to this farm as a last resort type of thing??? I don’t know…But God does!
I just wanted to say thanks again to those of you who supported us with money and showered us with prayers. If you can remember to pray for us next week it will be appreciated…. Remember we love you all…
We are really excited about going, and a little nervous at the same time. I found out that I will be doing a Youth Group type of lesson for the boys while we are there. It will be challenging…I mean what do say to 20 boys who range from age 7-18 who have been taken to this farm as a last resort type of thing??? I don’t know…But God does!
I just wanted to say thanks again to those of you who supported us with money and showered us with prayers. If you can remember to pray for us next week it will be appreciated…. Remember we love you all…
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Graduation weekend...
So it’s been a while since I’ve written anything on here, I thought I would try and give you an update on what’s been going on in our lives.
Last weekend was graduation, Mother’s Day, and busy. First of all, we had family arriving on Friday, Becky’s mom and Grandma came for her graduation and a fun filled visit to Colby!!! By the way, they got to visit our World’s Smallest Wal-Mart. We have a new one open now, it’s almost like an amusement park!!! I almost forgot to mention that they got to meet our friends Joey and Jill…Need I say more?
Saturday my beautiful wife graduated from Colby Community College at 2:00. I would like to tell you that it was a great day with an awesome speaker who gave words of wisdom and insight into the future, but I can’t. I don’t think I can even write on here what his speech was about. {If you want to know, you will have to email me.}
We enjoyed the rest of our Saturday, we went to City Limits to celebrate with Becky, and then drove to Hays. By the way, Hays is over 100 miles away, but Becky and I loved it! We showed Mom and Grandma the huge mall we shop at, ok it’s like 1/5 the size of Franklin Park mall.
Sunday we got up and went to Church, after Church I went to Baccalaureate Service for the High School Graduation. We went to Montana Mikes for lunch and then we all came home and took a nap. That night we planted flowers and trees in our yard to make it look beautiful!!
I just want to say thanks Sharon for a great weekend…
Last weekend was graduation, Mother’s Day, and busy. First of all, we had family arriving on Friday, Becky’s mom and Grandma came for her graduation and a fun filled visit to Colby!!! By the way, they got to visit our World’s Smallest Wal-Mart. We have a new one open now, it’s almost like an amusement park!!! I almost forgot to mention that they got to meet our friends Joey and Jill…Need I say more?
Saturday my beautiful wife graduated from Colby Community College at 2:00. I would like to tell you that it was a great day with an awesome speaker who gave words of wisdom and insight into the future, but I can’t. I don’t think I can even write on here what his speech was about. {If you want to know, you will have to email me.}
We enjoyed the rest of our Saturday, we went to City Limits to celebrate with Becky, and then drove to Hays. By the way, Hays is over 100 miles away, but Becky and I loved it! We showed Mom and Grandma the huge mall we shop at, ok it’s like 1/5 the size of Franklin Park mall.
Sunday we got up and went to Church, after Church I went to Baccalaureate Service for the High School Graduation. We went to Montana Mikes for lunch and then we all came home and took a nap. That night we planted flowers and trees in our yard to make it look beautiful!!
I just want to say thanks Sharon for a great weekend…
Monday, May 08, 2006
Busy in Colby...
So it’s been really busy in Colby…and it doesn’t seem like it is going to slow down. Here’s what has been going on…
I have been playing the role of Senior Pastor and Youth Pastor for the last couple of days. Pastor Gene and Joy went to OWU to see their daughter Wendy graduate, and that left me in charge. Thankfully it has been a pretty quite week…although we did have a baby born on Thursday. Her name is MiKayla Shae…and yes she is a cutie, oh by the way, yes I did hold her yesterday.
I got the privilege of preaching Sunday morning…I preached on the book of Jonah. It wasn’t my best sermon ever, but it wasn’t the worst one I have ever given either. I didn’t really get it into my head how I wanted to, and supposedly my microphone wasn’t on either…I don’t know, it was ok.
Joel was here for a few hours; he was on his way home on leave for a couple of weeks. He just finished his training in El Paso, Texas. He is going to be going to Korea for at least six months… for those of you who didn’t know, they believe the octopus is a delicate thing to eat…ALIVE!!! Yum, Yum Joel…enjoy!!
Oh yeah, Becky is graduating this Saturday from Colby Community College, her mom and Grandma are coming out for a couple of days, we are both really excited about it!!! She has one more project to get done; I probably would still have about 13 projects to do if it was I graduating again.
We are looking forward to our Missions Trip, I am excited if you couldn’t tell, by now of how many teens are going on the trip with us!! One last thing…we will be putting more pictures of our house in a couple of weeks…Until then…Love Ya Lots…
I have been playing the role of Senior Pastor and Youth Pastor for the last couple of days. Pastor Gene and Joy went to OWU to see their daughter Wendy graduate, and that left me in charge. Thankfully it has been a pretty quite week…although we did have a baby born on Thursday. Her name is MiKayla Shae…and yes she is a cutie, oh by the way, yes I did hold her yesterday.
I got the privilege of preaching Sunday morning…I preached on the book of Jonah. It wasn’t my best sermon ever, but it wasn’t the worst one I have ever given either. I didn’t really get it into my head how I wanted to, and supposedly my microphone wasn’t on either…I don’t know, it was ok.
Joel was here for a few hours; he was on his way home on leave for a couple of weeks. He just finished his training in El Paso, Texas. He is going to be going to Korea for at least six months… for those of you who didn’t know, they believe the octopus is a delicate thing to eat…ALIVE!!! Yum, Yum Joel…enjoy!!
Oh yeah, Becky is graduating this Saturday from Colby Community College, her mom and Grandma are coming out for a couple of days, we are both really excited about it!!! She has one more project to get done; I probably would still have about 13 projects to do if it was I graduating again.
We are looking forward to our Missions Trip, I am excited if you couldn’t tell, by now of how many teens are going on the trip with us!! One last thing…we will be putting more pictures of our house in a couple of weeks…Until then…Love Ya Lots…
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Missions Trip...LUC Boys Ranch
So believe it or not, I am actually going to tell you a little bit about our Missions Trip coming up this summer. Like I said, we are going to the LUC Boys ranch in Lampe, Missouri. Some members of our congregation go every summer; it looks like we will be having 5 teens join us on this trip this year! The reason this place means a lot to our church is because when the ranch started, members of our congregation moved there to help them run the ranch. We also have had at least one teen from Colby go through the program.
Just a little note about what they do…they take teens in who are rough, and who don’t have much other choice sometimes than jail. They help them work through many situations in their lives. The program is based on Christian values…what better way to turn your life around then having God in your life? The boys receive counseling to work through life’s problems, they are also educated as school, and they are taught different trades and skills that they can use in life.
So what will we be doing? About anything they want us to do…maybe working on buildings, remodeling or even masonry work…they have plenty for us to do and keep us busy. Plus, I believe we will get to interact with some of the guys.
From what I have been told we are taking a pretty big group of people this year on our trip. It should be a good bonding experience between some of the adults and the teens. It also will hopefully give us an awesome step into doing a bigger missions trip together next year. Somewhere, hopefully not in the U.S.
You can help…every year the church purchases something that the ranch needs. Last year we bought them an industrial ice machine. This year, our church is trying to buy a used tractor for the ranch…it will cost about $5000…if you want to give to this project, Becky and I would be willing to pass the money along to the church. You can check out the ranches website at www.lucboys.org
This is going to be an awesome surprise when we pull up to the ranch and have a tractor to give them!!! Just one more reminder, the trip is June 4th – 10th , the cost is only $150 per person, plus food on the way there and back.
Be sure to let me know what you think of this oppurtunity…
Just a little note about what they do…they take teens in who are rough, and who don’t have much other choice sometimes than jail. They help them work through many situations in their lives. The program is based on Christian values…what better way to turn your life around then having God in your life? The boys receive counseling to work through life’s problems, they are also educated as school, and they are taught different trades and skills that they can use in life.
So what will we be doing? About anything they want us to do…maybe working on buildings, remodeling or even masonry work…they have plenty for us to do and keep us busy. Plus, I believe we will get to interact with some of the guys.
From what I have been told we are taking a pretty big group of people this year on our trip. It should be a good bonding experience between some of the adults and the teens. It also will hopefully give us an awesome step into doing a bigger missions trip together next year. Somewhere, hopefully not in the U.S.
You can help…every year the church purchases something that the ranch needs. Last year we bought them an industrial ice machine. This year, our church is trying to buy a used tractor for the ranch…it will cost about $5000…if you want to give to this project, Becky and I would be willing to pass the money along to the church. You can check out the ranches website at www.lucboys.org
This is going to be an awesome surprise when we pull up to the ranch and have a tractor to give them!!! Just one more reminder, the trip is June 4th – 10th , the cost is only $150 per person, plus food on the way there and back.
Be sure to let me know what you think of this oppurtunity…
This Summer
This summer…well it is almost here. The kids last day of school is May 18th and things start to get busy right away. For one, the teens that don’t have a job will be calling about every day to do something. If you know any thing about Colby Kansas, it doesn’t take you more than two days before you’re repeating the fun same things over again…So what to do, if we had a church van it would be a lot easier to pack up and take the teens somewhere for a day, but as it is now, we have to find vehicles and drivers.
That’s enough whining for today…here a list of some things we are doing and possibilities of doing this summer. We are going on a Missions Trip to the boys ranch in Missouri. We will be staying up all night at Youth Camp in July, I’m sure the Junior High girls will beg Becky and I to climb the climbing wall again, I refused last year, but Becky did it. I would rather play in the water on the blob or go down the slide! We will have a Youth Camping trip where we take the boat and go tubing! We will have plenty of days where we will pull out the Slip and Slide and play in the back yard, (wow it would be so much easier if we had a pool). We already had a bbq in the park, I’m sure we’ll have more of those. Lastly, I can assure you that I will have my fill of card games before the summer is over.
We might go to the water park in Hays; it’s only 11/2 hours away. Or we might go to Denver to Six Flags, it’s no Cedar Point but it might do for a day. I want to go to a Rockies game, (by the way Barry Bonds was in town and hit his first homer of the year on my Birthday.) We could always travel on down to Dodge City; it’s only 2 ½ hours away and see a shoot out at Boot Hill! I am sure there are more things that I could list, but that is enough for now…
That’s enough whining for today…here a list of some things we are doing and possibilities of doing this summer. We are going on a Missions Trip to the boys ranch in Missouri. We will be staying up all night at Youth Camp in July, I’m sure the Junior High girls will beg Becky and I to climb the climbing wall again, I refused last year, but Becky did it. I would rather play in the water on the blob or go down the slide! We will have a Youth Camping trip where we take the boat and go tubing! We will have plenty of days where we will pull out the Slip and Slide and play in the back yard, (wow it would be so much easier if we had a pool). We already had a bbq in the park, I’m sure we’ll have more of those. Lastly, I can assure you that I will have my fill of card games before the summer is over.
We might go to the water park in Hays; it’s only 11/2 hours away. Or we might go to Denver to Six Flags, it’s no Cedar Point but it might do for a day. I want to go to a Rockies game, (by the way Barry Bonds was in town and hit his first homer of the year on my Birthday.) We could always travel on down to Dodge City; it’s only 2 ½ hours away and see a shoot out at Boot Hill! I am sure there are more things that I could list, but that is enough for now…
Friday, April 21, 2006
So What Do You Want??
So it's almost here again...Yep, it's coming this Saturday...So with it comes the question what do you want? I don't know that I can answer that honestly...But I can give it a guess, maybe I'll make a list and narrow it down from there.
Let me see...maybe a video game? Well that seems simple, let's go something bigger. What did I ask for two years ago...well, I asked for a party at a local pizza establishment with my closest friends at the time. My thoughts on that still today, the collest thing any 23 year old can get is seeing one of his best friends scream and run when approached by a life sizes rat, and being able to be 10 years old again, atleast for an hour.
Ok...maybe thats' a little silly. So I guess i will say...Ah, I know, I would like to be able to play a game of tackle football once again with all of my brothers...I can see it now, two plays in and we are all running out of gas and ready for half time, then we get mad at each other and end up quitting because that's how we did it when we were younger. Sorry, James, I still love you.
Well maybe that's not it either, maybe it's going to a football game that is so cold you go huddle in the bathroom because you can't feel your toes...well not everyone goes into the bathroom, there is one die hard fan who screams his head off, and that's not the only reason he looks like a dork, it might be the blanket wrapped around his head...He was definitely a dork.
I've got it...the perfect gift, just one more hug...
But since that will never really do, I will look for happiness in other areas on Saturday...P.S. Enjoy the John Wayne Movie!!!
Let me see...maybe a video game? Well that seems simple, let's go something bigger. What did I ask for two years ago...well, I asked for a party at a local pizza establishment with my closest friends at the time. My thoughts on that still today, the collest thing any 23 year old can get is seeing one of his best friends scream and run when approached by a life sizes rat, and being able to be 10 years old again, atleast for an hour.
Ok...maybe thats' a little silly. So I guess i will say...Ah, I know, I would like to be able to play a game of tackle football once again with all of my brothers...I can see it now, two plays in and we are all running out of gas and ready for half time, then we get mad at each other and end up quitting because that's how we did it when we were younger. Sorry, James, I still love you.
Well maybe that's not it either, maybe it's going to a football game that is so cold you go huddle in the bathroom because you can't feel your toes...well not everyone goes into the bathroom, there is one die hard fan who screams his head off, and that's not the only reason he looks like a dork, it might be the blanket wrapped around his head...He was definitely a dork.
I've got it...the perfect gift, just one more hug...
But since that will never really do, I will look for happiness in other areas on Saturday...P.S. Enjoy the John Wayne Movie!!!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
1/4 of a century?
It's been a long time coming...I haven't written anything on the blog for a while so I thought I would get on here tonight and tell everyone a little bit of what's going on in Colby. We have been busy the past couple of weeks...From Sunday April 9th to Sunday April 16th there were a total of 6 services that we had at church. Not including all of the practices we had for our Maunday Thursday Drama that we did, oh yeah, I actually did it twice. I was, I guess, the demon hate...talk about a good Easter week.
As far as the Youth Group goes, things are really awesome. Last week for Youth Group we had a serious lesson about the last few days of Christ's life on earth. I used the Bible and then read God's point of view from the book, Witness the Passion. When we were done with Youth Group none of the teens said anything...silence for this group tells you that you actually got through to them!!! Since we were very serious last week, tomorrow night we are going to have a fun night...we are starting to do something completely devoted to fun once a month. Anyways, we are having pajama and cereal night. It is going to be a twist on a normal Saturday morning full of cartoons, breakfast, were gonna read some books, and have some fun!!!
Saturday...well Saturday all I can say is I am sleeping in. Actually I probably won't. We have prom and prom alternative here in Colby this weekend and I think I will be hellping the boys get all ready for their night. Don't worry Grandma, we will give all of the girls sweaters!!!
So I think that's it for now..I will be writing in a couple of days to tell everyone about or missions trip, we are going to Lives Under Construction in Lampe, Missouri. If you want to check out their website before I write more about it you can goe to, www.lucboys.org
I think that's it for now...
As far as the Youth Group goes, things are really awesome. Last week for Youth Group we had a serious lesson about the last few days of Christ's life on earth. I used the Bible and then read God's point of view from the book, Witness the Passion. When we were done with Youth Group none of the teens said anything...silence for this group tells you that you actually got through to them!!! Since we were very serious last week, tomorrow night we are going to have a fun night...we are starting to do something completely devoted to fun once a month. Anyways, we are having pajama and cereal night. It is going to be a twist on a normal Saturday morning full of cartoons, breakfast, were gonna read some books, and have some fun!!!
Saturday...well Saturday all I can say is I am sleeping in. Actually I probably won't. We have prom and prom alternative here in Colby this weekend and I think I will be hellping the boys get all ready for their night. Don't worry Grandma, we will give all of the girls sweaters!!!
So I think that's it for now..I will be writing in a couple of days to tell everyone about or missions trip, we are going to Lives Under Construction in Lampe, Missouri. If you want to check out their website before I write more about it you can goe to, www.lucboys.org
I think that's it for now...
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Spiritual Retreat #2
Monday Morning…the boys decided that we needed to wake up at the crack of dawn, at 6 A.M. they were up and being loud. I walked downstairs and went into their room and said two words, Shut Up! Then I went back to bed until 7:30.
When we got up again it was time for breakfast, we had a list for who helped with the meals and they went to work making frenchtoast and sausage!!! After eating and cleaning up breakfast, I gave the teens 30 minutes to finish working on their questions for the morning.
We started with songs of worship and then we got down to business…I started off my lesson with telling them about their Youth Pastor. I told them all about myself and my call into the ministry. I think I spoke for about 45 minutes and asked them a few questions. After I was done talking, I gave them some free time to think about who they truly are, with their family, friends, teachers, and with me and their youth group. I asked them to think about who they want to become and who God is calling them to be.
After our lesson, we were supposed to go into town and get lunch and then proceed to go ice-skating. It had snowed most of the night and we didn’t know how the roads would be, if we could get into town or not. So Mike and I went down the mountain, we made it down but the road was still bad so we weren’t going to try it. That showed us another problem…we had planned to have two meals in town, now we didn’t have enough food/meals to eat. Becky and I thought about that before so we brought extra bread incase we had to make sandwiches. The only problem to that is the fact that I left the two packages of cheese in the back of our car in Colby. Fortunately there is a restaurant at the bottom of the hill, unfortunately they aren’t open on Mondays. We ended up making 7 grilled cheese sandwiches and found 2 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese that we made for lunch, everybody was satisfied.
I thought staying in the cabin would bore the teens, but actually it was probably the best thing for them. They all found things to do like read a book, take a nap, play board games, and some of us went outside and played in the snow by having a snowball fight. It was an awesome afternoon of just hanging out and having fun…
When we got up again it was time for breakfast, we had a list for who helped with the meals and they went to work making frenchtoast and sausage!!! After eating and cleaning up breakfast, I gave the teens 30 minutes to finish working on their questions for the morning.
We started with songs of worship and then we got down to business…I started off my lesson with telling them about their Youth Pastor. I told them all about myself and my call into the ministry. I think I spoke for about 45 minutes and asked them a few questions. After I was done talking, I gave them some free time to think about who they truly are, with their family, friends, teachers, and with me and their youth group. I asked them to think about who they want to become and who God is calling them to be.
After our lesson, we were supposed to go into town and get lunch and then proceed to go ice-skating. It had snowed most of the night and we didn’t know how the roads would be, if we could get into town or not. So Mike and I went down the mountain, we made it down but the road was still bad so we weren’t going to try it. That showed us another problem…we had planned to have two meals in town, now we didn’t have enough food/meals to eat. Becky and I thought about that before so we brought extra bread incase we had to make sandwiches. The only problem to that is the fact that I left the two packages of cheese in the back of our car in Colby. Fortunately there is a restaurant at the bottom of the hill, unfortunately they aren’t open on Mondays. We ended up making 7 grilled cheese sandwiches and found 2 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese that we made for lunch, everybody was satisfied.
I thought staying in the cabin would bore the teens, but actually it was probably the best thing for them. They all found things to do like read a book, take a nap, play board games, and some of us went outside and played in the snow by having a snowball fight. It was an awesome afternoon of just hanging out and having fun…
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Sprirtual Retreat #1
So it’s Spring Break time…time to head to the beach to get a tan, or to the mountains to go skiing. Well, ok so we went to the mountains but not to go skiing…we went to get closer to God. Well…I wonder what it really felt for Moses when God came close to him in person…But I do know what it feels like when God shows up in the Spiritual. He definitely showed up on this trip!!!
First of all, it was amazing that we were able to leave on Sunday at all. Had we planned to leave a few hours later or had a snow moved in a little bit before it did, we would have been stuck. We passed a couple of accidents and many cars in the ditch on the way to the mountains.
We made the five hour trip stretch into about eight or so hours. A couple of pit stops and slow going for weather and we were finally there.
When we got to the cabin, we couldn’t get up the driveway with the vehicles up the driveway so we had to walk up and down the driveway in about seven inches of snow to unload. That was fun let me tell you, then after that I got the Suburban stuck in the ditch…and Mike (the other sponsor who drove) had to get it out.
After unloading and getting back up to the cabin finally, we decided to do our first lesson. Steve Cummings, the guy who owns the cabin, ok let me rephrase this, it is a two hundred thousand-dollar house, spoke the first night. Steve shared his life story of how he had ended up in the military as a chaplain. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC (yeah Baby!!). Since almost everyone in Fort Bragg is a paratrooper, e decided to go to jump school and become a paratrooper. He told us how God had kept him safe one night when they jumped and weren’t over the drop zone, but rather a NC forest. God had kept al of the guys safe, this is when he gave everything over to HIM!!
Steve left that night challenging the kids to search for God while we were on the Retreat, to know Him, and that not everything would be perfect but that God will never leave them…
First of all, it was amazing that we were able to leave on Sunday at all. Had we planned to leave a few hours later or had a snow moved in a little bit before it did, we would have been stuck. We passed a couple of accidents and many cars in the ditch on the way to the mountains.
We made the five hour trip stretch into about eight or so hours. A couple of pit stops and slow going for weather and we were finally there.
When we got to the cabin, we couldn’t get up the driveway with the vehicles up the driveway so we had to walk up and down the driveway in about seven inches of snow to unload. That was fun let me tell you, then after that I got the Suburban stuck in the ditch…and Mike (the other sponsor who drove) had to get it out.
After unloading and getting back up to the cabin finally, we decided to do our first lesson. Steve Cummings, the guy who owns the cabin, ok let me rephrase this, it is a two hundred thousand-dollar house, spoke the first night. Steve shared his life story of how he had ended up in the military as a chaplain. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC (yeah Baby!!). Since almost everyone in Fort Bragg is a paratrooper, e decided to go to jump school and become a paratrooper. He told us how God had kept him safe one night when they jumped and weren’t over the drop zone, but rather a NC forest. God had kept al of the guys safe, this is when he gave everything over to HIM!!
Steve left that night challenging the kids to search for God while we were on the Retreat, to know Him, and that not everything would be perfect but that God will never leave them…
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Extreme Makeover Home Edition!!
Ok...so I have a few things to talk about and only a little time on the computer this morning.Today I just want to inform you about something that I think is really awesome. This week on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, there is going to be a Pastor’s family, the White family, on the show. They live close to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which happens to be where Oklahoma Wesleyan University is.
So let me just tell you a little bit about what I know of the upcoming show. The Pastor, I believe his name is John had a heart attack last year. The family was living in the parsonage, the churches house, and had to move. They had 10 children and 5 of them still live at home.
The contractor contacted President Piper from Oklahoma Wesleyan to see if they would help the family and the building of the home. He said yes and the whole campus and community jumped on board. Oklahoma Wesleyan had groups out at the site around the clock doing whatever they could do to help.
If you want more information on the build or the perspective of how the University saw things, you can go to their website www.okwu.edu to check it out.Remember…the show will air this Sunday night and it will be a 2 hour special…Do you think ABC can edit God out of a 2 hour show that focuses on a Pastor and his family??
So let me just tell you a little bit about what I know of the upcoming show. The Pastor, I believe his name is John had a heart attack last year. The family was living in the parsonage, the churches house, and had to move. They had 10 children and 5 of them still live at home.
The contractor contacted President Piper from Oklahoma Wesleyan to see if they would help the family and the building of the home. He said yes and the whole campus and community jumped on board. Oklahoma Wesleyan had groups out at the site around the clock doing whatever they could do to help.
If you want more information on the build or the perspective of how the University saw things, you can go to their website www.okwu.edu to check it out.Remember…the show will air this Sunday night and it will be a 2 hour special…Do you think ABC can edit God out of a 2 hour show that focuses on a Pastor and his family??
Friday, February 24, 2006
Retreats!!
Becky and I are getting ready to go away for a few days. We have our annual ministerial retreat in Salina(3 hours away) in a couple of days. This is where we get to hang out with other Pastors and Youth Pastors and wives for a little while and hear what is happening all across the State of Kansas within the Wesleyan Churches!!
This is only the beginning of what truly leads into a long Spring and Summer of camps, retreats, conferences and missions trips. In a few weeks, weather permitting, we will be taking about 12 teens up into the mountains for a "Spring Spiritual Retreat." We are going to go ice skating one day and go to the mall another, that will be a real treat since the closet we come to a mall is spelled Wal-Mart.
Anyways, if anybody has ideas of fun group activites, crowd breakers or lessons to do, please let me know because I am still planning everything out.
Thats it for now...
Stay Warm!
This is only the beginning of what truly leads into a long Spring and Summer of camps, retreats, conferences and missions trips. In a few weeks, weather permitting, we will be taking about 12 teens up into the mountains for a "Spring Spiritual Retreat." We are going to go ice skating one day and go to the mall another, that will be a real treat since the closet we come to a mall is spelled Wal-Mart.
Anyways, if anybody has ideas of fun group activites, crowd breakers or lessons to do, please let me know because I am still planning everything out.
Thats it for now...
Stay Warm!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
So this is the first time that I am putting anything on my Blog. We thought that this would be a good way for our families and friends to hear about what is happening in Colby Kansas. So let's start off by saying...if you didn't know, we are going to have an addition to our family!! Call us if you don't understand what that means.
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