Fishing Time!

On Tuesday, July 29th, my father-in-law gave us a jon boat with all the "stuff". Trolling motor, fishing poles, vests & seat cushions, etc, etc. Not having gone out on a boat in a while, you can imagine how excited we were to be able to fish the lakes around us. And we have!!
Here's my eldest daughter as we cruised Saturday morning in search of fish. We were on Center Lake in Warsaw, IN. She had a ball - and she's one of them cutest fishing partners I've ever had!
Patrick & I went out Saturday night after dinner to see if we could improve on our fishing luck. We caught several nice bluegill and he caught this nice largemouth as we floated over to the boat launch on Center Lake. Below is a video of him dealing with his catch - I still laugh over it.

Church campout - Chain O' Lakes

Wow. Does our church know how to eat or what? God has definitely blessed us - not only with an abundance of food, but people that know how to cook. We had around 130 people out at the campground for dinner on Saturday night.

Not only can we eat, but we traditionally play a huge euchre tournament after dinner. While it no longer lasts into the early morning hours, it's still a lot of fun and a lot of competition. The Netzleys pulled off a huge win this year!

I love speaking at the campground on Sunday. I wish I could do it every year. In fact, I wish every service was this way, but then it wouldn't be special would it? I spoke on "Servants must share the message of hope" based on Mark 2:13-17 and the example of Jesus as the servant of God, giving hope to Levi / Matthew.

This was the first year for me to enter the horseshoe tournament. Jason Stover and I were paired together and went undefeated into the championship round (beginners luck). We then were promptly beaten twice by Mark and Eric. It was a great time of fellowship with these guys and their families.

If I would have approached the championship game a bit more seriously perhaps we would have won! What a great weekend we had heading out to Chain O' Lakes state park in Albion, IN.

Tree of Life

Today I took my wife on a "date". It was to the Tree of Life bookstore & cafe in Winona Lake, IN. You must check out their site and go grab a cup of joe there! They have wonderful drinks!!

Our barista was Sherrie, our former church secretary. She is one of the few people that understands that if you're going to drink coffee then it must be strong coffee!! No sock-water coffee here! She seems to really be enjoying this job and did a wonderful job on our drinks.

Here's the menu, but you can read it online better by visiting their site! My wife had a raspberry and banana smoothie while I had the "after dinner mint" - a coffee drink with Irish cream, Oreos and whip cream. Yeah, it's not necessarily a 'healthy' drink... but it was very good!

If you're in the Warsaw / Winona Lake area, I strongly suggest that you go to the Tree of Life bookstore on the campus of Grace College & Grace Theological Seminary. You will find a wonderful bookstore with a ton of books, clothing and gifts available at reasonable prices as well as an over the top great coffee cafe.

Smack down in Youth Group

Here's a fun game to try in youth group: "Smack-down". I think it's self-explanatory! We did it while we were waiting on our parents to get done with their meeting:

Wispy Weekend Whispers

Just a couple of random happenings:
This morning I am consuming my favorite Gevalia coffee: Mocha Java. I have brewed it strong and have added just the right amount of creamer. It is wonderful. I am drinking it out of my Caribou Coffee mug that I bought while away on our anniversary weekend. I first discovered Caribou Coffee in Tinley Park, IL where my folks lived. Every time I would visit them I had to get the Mocha from Caribou. One of the few downsides of living in a rural area is that there aren't near as many coffee shops as necessary to sustain life. I bought the mug because I firmly believe that drinking coffee is an experience, not just a vice. (self-justification alert) I explained to my wife that every time I drink from the Caribou Coffee mug I think of our anniversary weekend and the time spent together. The same holds true for my Starbucks mug - (purchased in Seattle while on a missions trip to Ron & Susan Hand's hospitality house to the military). I think of them every time I drink from it. I bought a NYPD mug this last weekend as we were in New York for our teen camp. I'll always remember the guys I took out to NY and the good times we had traveling back and forth. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Last night we were invited spontaneously to play tennis with friends, Dan & Lindsey. What an awesome time we had! I had not played tennis since 1991 - and probably only played 2 or 3 times in my life. It was great exercise and a lot of fun. I think we are planning on doing more of this in the future. Of course, afterwards we had to get some sweet tea from McDonalds. I think I finally fell into bed around midnight.
This morning I read of Christ's willingness to heal the leper. I often wonder why Christ didn't heal everyone he came into contact with. The same is true with salvation. He, offered to the world, is not accepted by all. But as one who has been touched by His work on the cross, I offer my thanks and gratitude. May your life also be touched by the healing hand of Jesus!

Video compilation of pictures from our WOL Island trip

A nothern New Yorker has solved the fuel crisis...

I have no idea who owns these vehicles, but they're great! I saw them as I was heading from Schroon Lake, NY traveling to the Ticonderoga ferry as I planned to make a trip to Vermont. Someone is pretty creative - and has a great sense of humor. But honestly, I'm glad they're not in my front yard.

Trying to catch you up...

I see that it is already Wednesday and I haven't posted much in the way from Monday and Tuesday! I am finding it hard to keep up the blogging side of camp. If pictures could speak a thousand words, then these will have to do for those two days.

The first picture is of Pine Pavilion - the meeting place for all the teens. They have all their sessions here and their nightly speakers come to the pavilion. It is the general meeting place on the Island.
Here you can see Chris and Patrick going through the high ropes course. I have video as well, and many more pictures, but they (the video) take too much time to upload and publish - so these couple of pictures will have to do. Both guys did really good - had some moments where they had to overcome their minds / fears, but they both got through it with flying colors! (and much faster than I ever could do it!!) Colin and Aaron were both swimming at this point - and I couldn't be in two places at once... but they had fun swimming too!

On Tuesday we had something new called "youth group family time" - and we'll have that again on Thursday. It was just a half hour designed for youth leaders to hang out with their teens in a quiet place and talk about the week. Our guys talked about stuff they're struggling with this week (from homesickness to patience in dealing with others) and stuff they're learning as well. Jimmy DeYoung has been the speaker all week and our guys really like him! Quote, "I didn't know Revelation could be so cool!" (I like that!) After this time, they had a run around the Island. I think it's called "Robbie's Run" or something like that. This first picture is of one of the staff members instructing all the teens on where to go and how to line up, etc. Our guys did a walk / run / sprint of the Island. Or so they told me, I simply walked over to the finish line and waited for them. We also played paintball after lunch on Tuesday. Despite the looks on their faces, our guys enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. I, however, have 12 welts from being "Davey Crockett" in our "remember the Alamo" game. Somehow the teens thought that was funny.
I'll try to post more later, but rest assured that our guys are doing well and enjoying their stay. They are also learning a lot about God and His Word, which is great too. Tonight is the campfire, where they will be challenged to give God their whole life. I'm praying along those lines for them, you pray too.

Misc Pics from Sunday on the Rock

If you click on the swimming picture you will get a better view of who's in the water. You can see Aaron, Colin and Patrick's heads as they are treading water for 5 minutes. This was after they swam 2 full laps in the deep end. All of them qualified and passed their swim tests!

Christopher getting re-hydrated again. I think he has two Gatorades here and already downed a water bottle before I got this picture. He is soooo excited too! lol...

Christopher and 3 other guys setting up to play Nintendo Wii's tennis game. It plays a lot harder than it looks.

We watched several rounds of speed paintball yesterday. Tuesday we will play regular paintball at 130p on the far side of the Island. This was kind of fun to watch, but went too fast for the amount of money it costs to play.

Two video comments from the Falls...

These videos take forever to upload, but I'm trying! =) Here's two of them, enjoy:

Sunday on the Rock...

Today I woke at 7:30am feeling very refreshed from the night's rest. The accommodations are very nice. I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, sausage, potatoes, juice and coffee this morning. I enjoyed reading from Isaiah 55 as I sat on 'my balcony' off my room. The weather today has just been tremendous. Blue skies, moderate temperatures and a little breeze. I enjoyed the morning worship hour with Joe Jordan as he discussed the "Battle for Truth". It was a good challenge.

After the morning worship, we enjoyed a wonderful buffet of prime rib, shrimp, potato / leek soup, asparagus, salad and rolls. There were even more items, but I am trying to keep to a single serving / plate at each meal. One can really get carried away here.

I was able to get to the Island around 130p and caught the guys just heading out for their swim test. They all passed (Patrick, Aaron and Colin) - Chris decided not to swim (due to not having shorts!)...and he didn't want mine. lol... After they passed the test, they headed to the deep water to swim. I caught up with Chris playing soccer with one of his cabin counselors. Afterwards, they all were explaining carpet ball to me, and I even gave it a try. Although I had a good start, I quickly got beat. We just hung out after that: watched some paintball, played some Wii at the imagination station, drank some pop, and talked about what we were going to do the rest of the week.

I left the group around 545p because the Island had a steak cookout for youth leaders - and I felt I just had to go. I came back to the room and then down to where I could pick up the internet to post some updates. I left my camera in my room - so the pics / videos from today will have to wait till later. I'll probably post them tomorrow.

I also made contact with Ryan Williamson (our former WOL missionary) and am looking forward to spending time with him later in the week. I'll try to get an update for the church as well. So far, this is what has been happening. I'll hook back up with the guys for lunch and then spend the rest of the day with them.

Fireworks over Niagara Falls, NY 2008

4th of July plans...

Tomorrow we head out. It'll be 4th of July and I'll be taking 4 teenage guys to the Word of Life Island (the Rock) in Schroon Lake, NY. We'll be staying overnight in Batavia, NY, and hopefully seeing the fireworks over Niagara Falls. It will be my intention to blog our activities - however, I'm not good at doing such a thing. One of my teens in Peru on a short-term missions trip does such a better job. Maybe I need to hire it out! I just got a new camera too, so maybe that will be my motivation. Below is my son, Patrick, getting the last minute things around. Me? I haven't even started packing yet.

A half-day's work:

This morning my coffee pot (my alarm) went off at 6:45 a.m. I struggled to get out of bed. I was well on my way to work this morning by 7:30 and had already accomplished one task: "fixing" the water heater. There is a gray "smart box" on top of the water heater that controls so many different things; it was this box that kept tripping the "water too hot" signal. I bled off the hot water (and it was really hot!) and then reset the box and it seemed to do the trick. By 10:00 a.m. I received a call from my wife about our sump pump not working. Seems it seized up and wasn't doing it's job. A quick trip to Lowe's to replace it (I had just installed it in February) and we were back in business. When I got home to switch out the pumps, the house smelled awful. Like burnt something or other. My wife had had a grease fire and threw the pan out the side door, along with the foot-high flames. This is not proper handling of a grease fire. Here is a site that can explain to you how to deal with grease fires, both out of control and those not yet out of control. It's very important to know what to do. My wife's grandmother had a grease fire that burnt a good portion of her home, as well as took her life, all due to mishandling of the fire. Please, please educate yourself to these things! After leaving the house to return to work, I saw some money blowing across the highway. I stopped, turned around and picked up a folded.....$1 bill. Good times! (all this happened before noon today!)

I thank God for watching over my family these past several hours. From providing us with the ability and resources to fix/replace household items to safely guiding us through small 'emergencies' God has been faithful. He alone is worthy of our praise.

My garden leads to God.... hopefully

Moving into our home in September of 2005 was a monumental decision. The location was perfect, we thought, as it is directly across from the high school. Being a youth pastor, all kinds of visions of huge youth gatherings in my basement were rolling around my head. And now, three years later, none of those have taken place. Why not?

As we moved in, we also were very excited about beginning a garden the following Spring. We planted heavily, fought the deer, squirrels and occasional ground-hogs to harvest wonderful crops. The garden caught the eyes of our neighbors. So, with neighbors on either side of us, we contributed to their evening meals with beans, zuchinni, corn, peas, strawberries and tomatoes. Unbeknownst to us, there was a 'neighborhood' joke about how no-one could grow tomatoes. And then we showed up. Last year we had 36 tomato plants. Yes, you read that right, 36 tomato plants. And our neighbors took notice.

Last night as I got home from a long day at the office, and then youth group, I wandered out to the garden. It was about 9pm. As I turned on my sprinkler system, I heard a neighbor holler something at me. It was a neighbor I had not met yet, and so I walked down the hill and introduced myself. About 40 minutes later, I left, having met her and her husband. They shared the joke about the tomato growing and kept commenting on how good our garden looks already. I assured them that they would get tomatoes this year. They were politely arguing but, they are going to get the tomatoes. Even if I have to buy the best from the produce stand.

This is an unreached family in my "backyard". I am going to continue to take the produce that God blesses us with and reach into these homes surrounding me. Already we have forged strong relationships with 3 of our neighbors, and now there is an opportunity for a fourth. With one family we are now able to discuss Biblical topics and give advice - they even ask for prayer. With one elderly neighbor, she keeps commenting on how we are "good neighbors" and prayerfully we will have inroads to show her and her husband how a life transformed by the love of Christ lives.

Does my garden lead to God? I don't know, but I am willing to use every tool available to reach the lost community around me. But what about the high school kids? Oh - I have several that walk through my yard each day. Maybe I can think of something to get them to stop and talk. With God's leading, perhaps we can see a spiritual harvest.

Frisbee Golf... with a slipped disc

Saturday I took four of my teens from the youth group to play Frisbee Golf at Little Big Horn Golf Course in Warsaw. They were part of the team that earned the right to go above the other teams in youth group. We had a great time - didn't quite make 18 holes, but learned a lot about disc golf and each other. My back was hurting by time we were done, due to it being out of place. The doctor is supposedly working on that - but time will tell. After the golf, we headed to Hacienda and enjoyed some wonderful chips, salsa and Mexican food. (all except for Jonathon who decided that popcorn shrimp sounded better).

Can I challenge you to read Psalm 104 today? It is 35 verses long, but so encouraging from the standpoint of seeing God interact, not only with man, but with His creation as well. He alone is worthy of praise!! These verses from Ps.104:

I will sing praise to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord.

Have you made that conscious decision to rejoice, praise and be glad in God? Can I encourage you to do so? God bless,

What I'm thinking and all that Jazz...

Today's post is just an eclectic mix of my thoughts over the last 24 hours. So buckle up and keep your hands inside the car at all times, because the trip through my mind is about to begin!

Yesterday was a pretty good day overall. It started early and went late. It included some awesome "used" book purchases, some killer food and mellow tunes. I went to what is becoming my fav used bookstore, the Green Banana located on Winona Ave in Warsaw. I walked out $6.99 poorer, but six books richer: Following Christ and Far from Home, both by Joseph Stowell, Desiring God by John Piper, Reason to Believe by RC Sproul, Bad News for Modern Man by Franky Schaeffer & Death in the City, by Francis Schaeffer. Awesome!

Then after dinner, my wife, son Patrick and I walked across the street to the Warsaw Community High School. There they were putting on a "taste of the town" followed up by the Jazz Cafe. So, we ate even more food, things like: Pizza, Bourbon chicken, Tomatoe Bisque, dainty pastries, meatballs, avacado dip and Ritters Frozen Yogurt - washed down with some Courthouse coffee of course!

The Jazz bands from the middle schools (Edgewood and Lakeview) were very good, but I must say that the WCHS Jazz Band was flat out awesome. My two fav songs of the evening were "Bein' Green" and "Zoot Suit Riot". Two of my teens from the youth group were playing in the HS band: Christropher C. on Trumpet and his older brother Kirk on Trombone. Good job guys!

When we got home from that I plowed through a new author that Kirk (see above) turned me on to. Joel C. Rosenberg. The book I started last night and finished today was titled, "The Last Days". Excellent and exciting reading! Good stuff!!

Finally, today I returned to my doctor because I continue to have chest pains. You'll recall that I went to the ER some time back with chest pains and they were unsure what was happening. They cleared by heart and lungs - everything is good there, so we are kinda scratching our heads on this one. I have some different medication to try for the next two weeks and then its back to the doc. We'll see what happens!

Okay, rides over! Unbuckle and disembark to your right. Thanks for stopping by today.

An attempt in parody...

A forum I frequent had a post delving into Christian Contemporary Music, it's pro's and cons. I altered it slightly to shed light into the silliness of the arguments. Enjoy!
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In recent years, it seems like just about every church in America has adopted the contemporary offering style - you know, the type with the one gallon buckets, sometimes in various colors, sometimes left in the back of the sanctuary or even in the foyer - definitely the type that does NOT go over well at PCC. What's your opinion -do you like it, or would you much rather prefer traditional taking of the offering, complete with fake brass plates and peeling red / green velvet?

I am not a big fan of contemporary offerings. While I was growing up, I never was a part of any churches that did this - in the IFB circles I was raised in, contemporary offerings were almost considered apostasy. My parents never gave into those sterile, plastic buckets, and still don't. In fact, I don't really like contemporary offerings in general. I don't really have anything against them - I've just never developed a taste for it, even though I give regularly at my church.

I greatly prefer traditional offering plates, even if they are considered old-fashioned and outdated by a lot of modern Christians. There are a lot of offering plates out there that are really wonderful old plates, plates carried by our Bible-believing ancestors through some tough times and that have endured for many, many years before a new group of Christians decided that they needed to go the way of the typewriter and the library card catalog. I'm afraid that, with the wide-spreadness of contemporary offering containers in many churches, many of these great offering plates will be lost for good.

I also dislike contemporary offering buckets for other reasons. One is that, in some of the churches I've been in, people just seem to give nonchalantly, giving the same amount over and over and over. Not that traditional offerings are not collected nonchalantly too sometimes, but I've noticed it more in these megachurches.

Also, the theology concerning contemporary plastic buckets is weak. While many traditional offering plates help us deal with issues such as forgiveness, redemption, salvation, faith, etc, (as we reflect on their passing during the traditional offertory) many contemporary giving opportunities deal mostly, or only, with praising God. Some of these plastic giving containers are used, by overly tolerant churches, to avoid upsetting people by merely suggesting that they MIGHT actually be sinners and in danger of going to hell without Christ.

However, my dislike of contemporary giving containers makes it kind of tough as a single person. Just about every church in my area that has a decent-sized singles group does the plastic bucket thing. The ones that stick to traditional offering plates are very small, very traditional churches with virtually no singles - all the people my age in these kind of churches are more likely than not, married, and usually with kids in tow. So when I'm church hunting (which I'm in the process of right now) I have to decide whether I want to simply tolerate the buckets in order to make some relationships in the singles group, or stick to traditional offering plates and be a very single, single. I know fellowship isn't the most important thing about a church, but it is still a very important component nonetheless.

My son & his first art show entry...

My eldest son, Brice, entered an art show at Warsaw Community High School. The picture to his right is his entry - I think it's pretty cool. He has a natural talent for all things artistic.


A couple more entries that I thought were interesting:

The "zombie" picture was done by a Heather Piper - I don't know her, but I liked her stuff.

This painting is done by Shay Dixon. I seriously would pay some cash for it!

IRONMAN: the review

Last night was "date night". A quick check of the movie listings online confirmed my suspicions that there wasn't much to go see. Until, I saw: IronMan. Now, I am not a sci-fi guy, nor am I a superheroes guy, but neither have I seen a movie in a long time! So, as my wife asked my what we might be doing on this special occasion, I suggested, "IronMan". A weak smile was the only response. I reassured her that we would catch something to eat...somewhere. I was again surprised by the cost of a movie ticket: $7.50 (x2) and the 'required' movie snacks: popcorn & sodas, in a combo, $11.25. Outrageous. The theater was full - which also goes to prove my assertions that people really aren't deciding whether they should buy gas or buy food. (that's another topic).

The movie started - and I must say that I was very pleased with it, almost in it's entirety. The movie, rated PG-13, could have easily been PG if they had left out one gratuitous bed scene (partial nudity) and about 3 'curse' words. Those small factors are the only things I have 'against' this movie. It was pure entertainment and did not disappoint. Even for a guy who isn't really into this stuff - I kept trying to anticipate what would happen - and was surprised at almost every turn. I enjoyed it... and so did my wife.

Oh, and lest you think I got cheap on the meal - we went out to AppleBees afterward. Of course, we used a gift card someone graciously gave us. Overall cost of the date was: $26.25, with the $25 gift card totally covering our meal. She had chicken alfredo, I had the smaller portion of the riblets. We both brought leftovers home (probably due to eating all that popcorn at the theater).

Summary: If you have a chance to see IronMan, do so. If you miss it, it would be a great flick to pick up on DVD. Don't sweat it if you miss it, although it was pretty cool to see on the big screen. About 3.5 out of 5 stars. And, if fate should allow that you have a gift card for AppleBees in your wallet when you see the movie - try the riblets, they're delicious.