JAM on Wednesday Nights

Back in September, I started working with kindergarten aged kids on Wednesday nights at a church sponsored event called JAM (Jesus And Me). Outside of some work and travel conflicts, I have been teaching each week to usually around 5-7 boys and girls. It will run through the end of May, so it was a much bigger commitment than I realized (8 months minus one month off around Christmas) but it has been fun and challenging. As with my own children, they can be hard to handle and entirely too full of energy, but the moments when you do get them to quiet down and focus, or those moments when they get what the story is about are pretty special and seem to make the difficulties worth it. Here is a moment when they were all quiet and praying:





Hopefully, we will have a good night tonight as well and they will find the story of God feeding Elijah by having ravens bring bread and meat each day as amazing as I do.

Whatever happened to Kirk Cameron?

I was a fan of Kirk Cameron growing up and it surprised me that I didn't see more of him as the years went by.  I had heard he became a Christian and I knew that he had worked on some of the Left Behind movies, but until I came onto this site awhile back, I didn't know if he was doing anything else. 

'The Way of the Master' is a pretty neat organization, it is mostly targeted at how Christians can communicate about God to professed atheists.  They do trainings and have created video series and tracts and quizzes....a whole bunch of stuff.  I received the following email where they took a scene from ER and are using it to demonstrate principles of the gospel and how we are all in need of what Christ offers.  The video is about 9 minutes long, and is led by Ray Comfort who is the other "face" of the organization.  Pretty cool that network television can prompt these discussions and then people like Ray and Kirk can help create materials so that everyone who is a Christian can help promote the kingdom within their own sphere of influence. 

 

If you have trouble reading this email, go to the online version.

March 17, 2007 A Powerful Lesson from ER A number of people called our attention to this clip from the popular TV series ER. It really is amazing for secular televison. The "Fair Use" law allows us to teach from it without violating copyright laws. Please send it all over the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HGc_jb6tk

 

Kristen's birthday

My lovely wife had a birthday today. She was still up early with the kids (dressing them, taking Jaden to school), still busy with the house (general clean up and one of the boys figured out to overflow the toilet) and still busy making meals (lunches for school, etc.). Maybe not the most relaxing, greatest birthday, I am sure, but she knows that she is loved by her family and friends. Happy birthday honey.

Tiger Woods

My normal sunday is pretty busy. We have church in the morning. We come home for lunch and to get the kids down for a nap. There is usually a bit of cleaning that needs to be done and then we have our small group over for bible study for a few hours. By the time that is done, we feed the kids diner, clean them up and get them to bed. The day is basically over. So, everyone is wondering at this point...what does that have to do with Tiger Woods? Well, our normal schedule was blown apart since Kristen and Jude were not feeling well. Instead of all those things, I sat down, held th baby in my lap and watched the tube this afternoon...it was awesome. I watched Tiger win his 5th straight PGA title and truly appreciated the peace that existed for the short time that everyone was napping. For Tiger, another stellar day at the office...for me? A surprising moment of serenity in a somewhat hard and hectic week.

Latest books I have read...

Thanks to my sister Emily who bought me this book for Christmas I am really enjoying Ted Dekker. I just finished this one today but I have already read two others in the last 2 weeks. I had not read much christian fiction before, but this stuff is pretty riveting.

Good night

How sweet is he?
I love how peaceful babies look when they are sleeping.
I also can barely believe that little Jude is 3 months old today!

Forceful reminder

I was driving home from a work event the other night and all of a sudden....

yes, police lights behind me. You know the feeling you get, right?
Stomach drops a bit, you get a little sweaty...I was wondering what did I do?
Just a little bit of authority and an impending sense of the potential for punishment and my whole outlook changed.
So, up walks the officer and he asks for license and registration. I give him the documents and he informs me that my right brake light is out.

Great, so he leaves me to stew about whether or not I am going to get a fine for something I was completely oblivious to...

But the whole experience got me to thinking about the way I reacted to authority. How my pulse raced and I became acutely aware of what I was doing on the road. I knew that I wasn't speeding, but had I inadvertently done something else?

I think it would be great to get these types of reminders in our relationship with God. Do we often think about sin in the context of the impending punishment that it really deserves and that we are destined to without Christ's sacrifice? Our pulse should race and we should sweat buckets over the ultimate's authority to pass judgment due to the actions we have done that have been against his law. We are blessed to have a God that wanted the relationship with us and gave us a warning and allows us to make our choice. I wonder if the police officer that stopped me was a christian, because he let me off with a warning as well.

The longest game of pool ever

It is always longer for someone watching, and that was me, but this
certainly seemend to be the longest gmae EVER. Really...this is what
the table loked like after half an hour...not including breaks!

This may have been a test in patience..but, those are always easier when
you are among friends :)

Playing pool were dave, tim, lisa, and michelle.

Fun with Jacob

I love that when you are young that anything can be used as a mike...not only that, but he isn't afraid to belt it out. I wish the sound came across, but regardless, you can see how much he was enjoying himself. The lyrics say something along the lines of "Cause I got you." Jacob's interpretation..."ZA ZA ZOO!"

Life's Big Questions

During my trip to Colorado last month I had a fun and interesting conversation on religion and Christianity with my brother in law. I love going into these because it makes me articulate the reasons why I believe. I may not always have the answers, but it is always a good conversation.
Well, now to add to my fun and hopefully my ability to answer, my church is doing a series on these questions...



Thanks to Sheila Laurence for posting the info below to her blog...http://connectingwithsheila.blogspot.com/

March 30 - Cheryl McGuinness, whose husband was one of the co-pilots in the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center, will address the question: How do I rebuild my life after tragedy?


April 6 - Why is there so much suffering in the world?

April 13 - How can I become a better person?

April 20 - How can I love difficult people, especially when they hurt me?

April 27 - What happens when I die?The above photo was the handout of information given out yesterday, it listed the above dates and questions.


Maybe I will have even more to talk about with my brother in law after ths series!