TACO TOWN!

This was the funniest thing I saw on TV in 2005!

Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God/ How Great Thou Art

Worship Break! Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:1-2

Wildhorse Canyon

I took some of the HS students to Young Life's Wildhorse Canyon this weekend. I am always surprised by the powerful effect of simply getting away from everything familiar and getting a chance to experience something new-a new place, a new landscape, a new place from which to hear God's voice. We had a great time and I wanted you to see this picture. 

What is knocking around in my head right now

Someday I hope to be able to do this-walk around and present a complete, creative, entertaining and enlightening thought with no notes. Will it be the same without the hair and the trying-too-hard-college-prof clothes? This guy is very interesting-watch it if you have twenty minutes to kill.

Check out this link for a little laugh!

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=76986

Go to Costco right now and buy these!

They are like the crack of the dried fruit world, but they won't kill brain cells and they keep you on schedule (if you know what I mean!) Warning-the first time you open a bag of these the smell might seem a little weird-like someone put a little tiny piece of poop in there-but don't worry, that's normal (unless of course you actually see a little piece of poop in there and then you should probably take them back.) 

Montage Part #2

Don't get all excited! I am not even close to making new entries every day. The best plan that I can come up with is that I have some time every Thursday morning here at the office before it gets crowded that could be bloggerific-so I am working on it.

Anyways, in a continuing effort to catch you all up on some of what I never shared with you...

Here is the group on the morning we left for Esperanza. If you don't know about Espo then ask me sometime and I will tell you everything. It was a super good trip-and we even had ultra spiffy matching t-shirts!

The back of the boat

This
is
me
in
the
back
of
the
boat.






I went with 12 kids from my church
and 100 or so from the area to a Young Life camp called Malibu Club this summer. It is in Vancouver, B.C and is only accessible by boat or seaplane. One of the student's families has a boat. A pretty big boat. Like '60 and beds for 10 kinda boat. And we got to take that to Malibu. The trip there was great-good weather, calm seas, no puke buckets, great food...But the way back was a bit different.

A slight mechanical problem made our trip through the Strait of Georgia quite pukey. I don't think anyone actually lost it, but we pretty much all had buckets in front of us. Normally puking is not a particularly social event. Puking is why bathroom doors have locks. And yet that seasickness was one of the most unifying things we did. It was almost the only time that we are all on the same section of the boat at the same time. Know why? Because the back is less pukey. The waves are calmer as you get farther away from the spot where the boat is actually smacking the waves. So this picture is from just after the waves calmed down and we put the buckets away and we rested, 'cuz almost puking is really draining.

There are lots of other things that we all do (and almost do) that are draining. Certain tasks at work, some friendships, ways that we let ourselves and others down, as well as lots of other examples all serve to wretch a little of our lives from us. But there is good news in it. 'Cuz according to Mark 4, the back of the boat is where we meet Jesus.

At the end of another long day of trying to do his Father's will on Jesus' part and trying to keep up with him on the part of the disciples, Jesus requested a ride to a less crowded side of the lake. Along the way the weather got crazy and the disciples got scared and began looking for Jesus. And what they saw was frustrating/unbelievable to them, but is full of grace and hope to me. Jesus, in the back of the boat, sleeping, on a pillow. Jesus, worn out also. Jesus, figuring out the same place that we did for some comfort. They found him there, woke him up, and had their screaming prayers answered immediately. That he calmed the storm is cool and helpful and miraculous. That our Lord was back where the waves are calmer asleep on a pillow is cooler still. Even more endearing and humbling is that he understands the need to find a calm place, calmer at least, and close our eyes sometimes. And that he invites us, by example, to stop worrying about the winds and the waves and instead come back and lay down and share his pillow-that is the Gospel.

Montage Part #1(or what I've been doing since my last post)

As with any good movie montage, this purpose of this one is to fill in things you need to know, point out things that you might have missed and hopefully provide at least one "aha" moment. And just to keep it as confusing as possible, I present this one to you in no particular order.

This first picture was taken by Katie. It is me in Yellowstone National Park. I think this one was taken at the upper springs where we went to see the Grand Prismatic. It was a bit stinky, but super fun.


This one is with some of the youth group kids at a service project. I told them to make mean faces. The person taking the picture told us to make mean faces!



This picture is here for two reasons. One is because a student in the group named Jojo took it and I think it looks cool. The other is because this is what I do. Friends sometimes ask what is my favorite part of my job and this is it. Walking with a kid, a young disciple, a new friend. It is the place where my deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.


One of the fun things that I got to do this summer was get to know a town, Halfway, OR. Katie spent the summer there working at the Pine Eagle Clinic. Halfway is famous for being the first city in the country to sell naming rights for its town to a company, in this case eBay's half.com.