Pics from Mon and Tues

A post that is way overdue.

This is something that I should've posted a long time ago. I want to give a quick thanks to a warrior for the kingdom. I met this guy six or seven years ago, but that isn't that important. Frankly, it took me a while to appreciate this guy in the beginning, I was immature and didn't handle things well in several situations.

But here is where the story gets better. I was in over my head at 3DYC one year. I was in charge of a youth group and it was rough. I had to deal with some rough kids, and I had no idea what to do. I needed prayer. God had to humble me and told me that I needed to apologize to this guy and asked him to pray for me. I think through that God restored something in me.

I had the opportunity to go to Semp three summers ago. (Nygo this year, merge last year, then Semp) I had a great time with him. I was impressed with his wisdom, his leadership and his insights into ministry. I also loved the time when we crushed a couple of students in euchre

The last two summers, I have been given the opportunity to participate in Jr high summer camp at NMC. I loved the chances to see him in action, in his element.

Its been said by Derry Prenkert that this guy is one of, if not THE reason that Senior High Student Ministries is where it is today. I would agree wholeheartedly.

Thank You for putting up with me way back when.
Thank You for your countless hours of planning and spending time with the students.
Thank You for for your love of God, and through that God's love moves through you.
Thank You for your example of a Christ Follower.

Thank you Jason Thompson.

This is a test.

Blueberry Campfires

One of the highlights so far this summer involves slowing down, being open and real amongst friends. It also involves sitting on the porch around the "Blueberry Campfire" which consists of my two blueberry scented candles.

I've enjoyed it for several reasons. This my seem contradictory, but I am an introvert by nature. I draw energy from being alone rather than spending time with people. However, lately I've had this increasing desire to connect with people. Its almost like this hermit is feeling human again.

So, if you got nothing going on at say 10:45 pm, give me a call. Chances are you'll find me relaxing with some amazing people as the smell of blueberries in the air

Yes, I'm back.

Its been a crazy past three weeks. 1. New York for NYGO. 2. The work week on steroids, and purchasing this... My new baby, a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport. She needs a name, so come take a ride with me to help me name her.

3. Senior/Junior High Summer Camps. with all of that done now, I have the opportunity to actually slow back down to normal summer pace.

Summer Camps were great. My favorite non-spiritual highlights were:

• Driving a jet ski for the first time in my life
• paint balling with the students
• Seeing my creation in all its glory:

492 20oz Gatorade bottles and 28-30 rolls of duct tape in the raft, 15 bottles for each of the four oars. It was an awesome view to watch the cardboard boat races.

• Finally getting to ride Maverick on my third trip to Cedar Point for the summer

Its taking me a while to process the Spiritual highlights. Some of them are:

• Be careful when praying prayers... God may just answer them (like help in not being selfish)
• Praying in the prayer room at 3 a.m. after Cedar Point.
• Remembering to play like a child every once and a while

I was reminded once again how fun it is to work with Jr Highers. I love that you can earn their respect and get into their lives through being silly and they think you are the coolest. Something as simple as a pig hat can do wonders. So can catching a bird bare-handed.

I think God is on the move in my life. I feel like a brand new person as a result NYGO and camps. I've been making some mall adjustments here and there in my life, and it feels good. I'm excited to see what God is going to do next.

random text message

I've gotten random texts messages before, but sometimes you get cool ones. Apparently to no fault of the texter, I have no concrete idea as to who it was, but they asked for a scripture verse reference. So, maybe texting isn't completely of the devil

Investigate

Investigate my life and make me clean

Shine upon the darkest place in me

To you my life's an open book

So turn the page and take a look

Upon the life you've made

Always, my days, I'll praise

Verse of the day

Today's verse comes out of Psalms with the designation 42:11... Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Encouraged

Tonight, I went to a prayer meeting for the Senior High student ministries. It was encouraging. Very encouraging. I was encouraged to see students taking time out of their Sunday night to come together as one and lift up their youth group, their friends, their families and everything else. I was encouraged by the leaders that I got to pray with. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do at summer camp. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do in the upcoming year in the lives of students. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do in my life in the coming months.

An update, A soapbox, and A couple bottles of Gatorade.

Well, I'm back from New York City. Nie Go (New York Go) was an incredible trip. (Insert sentence here...)

I'm sitting here with a little Fierce Grape and Berry as i am recouping from another run/bike excursion. Hopefully I didn't try to overdo it this time. It was just me and my friend Jennifer this time around. And now I'm listening to Andrew. That should tell you I'm in a somewhat quieter mood.

I learned a few things as a result of my trip. I still don't like talking to complete strangers. I felt like I was a complete failure at times as a leader. Sometimes for good reason. I allowed myself to not stay connected to God like I should have. I don't like the fact that I think about being lonely. I feel like I am perpetually never going to figure out this Christ follower thing.

On the other hand I learned that there is nothing I can ever do on my own power to "arrive." I learned that when I am connected to God pretty cool things happen through me.

Now, all two of you that read this are probably thinking, "That's some pretty elementary stuff to be learning there, Jeff." Well... it probably is. I learn something, and then for some reason, I end up forgetting it. It seems to me that the people had that problem in the Old Testament as well. Could it be that i am normal? Hmm... The verdict is still out on that.

Anyways, my main take away from my trip is that in order to be an authentic Christ-follower and an authentic witness, I need to continually spend time connecting with God through time with Him. The best way for me to do this would be to do so in the morning. To accomplish this, I need to work on (gulp) Discipline. Along with TawG time and a habit of continually prayer, I need to work on listening better, encouraging, to name a few.

Now I feel like I want to complain or something but I can't do it. I guess I could simply use perpetual prayer. I don't know how to deal with loneliness. I could go into more detail, but I'll let you ask me. I'm going to go pray about it, since i just reminded myself to do so.

I've been tagged.

I've been tagged. You are supposed to put your Ipod on shuffle and write down the first 15 songs. So, here it goes.

1. Fishy by Philmore from Philmore
2. There Is A River by Jars of Clay from Good Monsters
3. Lonely Nation by Switchfoot from Nothing Is Sound
4. Nothing To Say by Andrew Peterson from Carried Along
5. Spinnin' Round by PFR from Goldie's Last Day
6. Take by Skillet from Hey You, I Love Your Soul
7. Love Life by Cross Movement from Human Emergency
8. Let it Rain by Newsboys from Going Public
9. Old West[Demo] by Five Iron Frenzy from The Cheeses of Nazareth
10. Easier Than Love by Switchfoot from Nothing Is Sound
11. Can't Get Away by Rush Of Fools from Rush Of Fools
12. Sure Shot by The O.C. Supertones from Chase The Sun
13. Raise a Voice by Matt Redman from Facedown
14. You Do All Things Well by Chris Tomlin from Arriving
15. You Put This Love In My Heart by Kieth Green from Kieth Green: The Ministry Years Vol. 1 - 1977-1979

I have to be honest (A) I'm not a fan of the whole shuffle concept, and (B) The very first time I hit shuffle I had three songs from the same worship compilation. Now that wasn't very shuffle like.

Sweatin' to the Oldies

So Monday night I actually went for a run. Yes, I just said I went for a run. Its amazing the things you'll do when you get kicked out of your place of residence for a while. Along with me, I had the opportunity to listen to some good old friends.


I've been having conversations with different people about the Christian music of the mid to late 90's. I don't know if I'm being nostalgic or what, but I think that this is the best era of Christian music. Argue with me all you want, but I'm sure I'm right. I mean who can be better than groups like:

Five Iron Frenzy
Poor Old Lu

Black Eyed Sceva

BleachJohnny Q. Public

... and I could go on. But I think I got my point across. Feel free to argue with me, or add other bands to the mix.

Saved by the Bell

So lately I've been on a Rob Bell kick. Since buying the number NOOMA 014, I, along with one of my esteemed housemates have been plowing through the previous installments.

I recently bought an Ipod. It took me a while to rip all of my cd's and then put them on there, but I think I'm done. This is exciting because I'm now delving into the world of pod casting. This has been something I've wanted to do for some time. I'm probably behind the time, but I just listen to Rob Bell's message on Matthew 28 from April. For some reason, maybe because of where I am in this whole being a Christian... this message resonated with me. I think its awesome how God's timing is , even when it is simply hearing a message from some guy from some church called Mars Hill.

Redneck Locksmith

Today was a busy day off. I enjoyed seeing a friend who is in the Air Force and is home for a spell.

I got to do some random running around, including picking up this. I've heard Rob speak on this at a National Youthworkers Convention in '02, I think. Good stuff.

Went out to Prairie Camp, to take some pics of the 1st and 2nd graders at Summer Camp. I tell you what... I spent a few hours out there, it felt like a few days. I can't imagine how the counselors handled it. Here are a few shots from it...

These are a pair of my house guests. It was fun to see these guys in action. From what I observed and what I heard, these guys were incredible.

I went to the parent's for a bit, then ended up going back to Prairie Camp to watch a little NMC church league softball. I got to take a few pics there as well. Afterwards, a certain senior happened to lock his keys in his truck. After an hour, two screwdrivers, a broken yardstick, and a coat hanger, we got his door open.

What a weekend

This has been a crazy long weekend.

NYGO retreat... good stuff.

Work at the church.

Accident at the intersection by the house... staying up late praying and turning traffic around.

Sleeping in because of staying up late, but not as late as others.

Church and work.

Hang with the parents.

Two open houses for graduates.

Partially attending church tonight.

Witnessing the aftermath of another probably deadly accident a mile and a half down the road.


What I've been reminded of this weekend...

God's goodness and faithfulness.

People need to be more careful on the road.

Update

Here is an update. Stop pestering me about updating... it only cheapens the pure creativity and the thrill and enjoyment of an original post. See? This is a bad post on my behalf.

Six Flags

On Thursday, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. Its been a while since I 've been to a theme park other than Cedar Point or Kings Island, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to do so.

Superman The Escape
Deja Vu

Those were just a sample of the rides. Moat of the rides there were nothing that Cedar point or King's Island wouldn't have. However, there are two rides they have that are pretty sweet.

This is Tatsu. What is so cool about this ride is that your seat gets turned over so you are lying down as if you are flying.

This is X. This ride has seats that flip according to where the train is on the track.

Until the sun goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard...

So, I suppose I should continue where I left off... almost a week ago. After I got settled in at the Hotel Wednesday, I tried to figure out what I was going to do. I decided to head up to Santa Monica to catch a movie at the theatre. From there, I drove down the Boulevard to try to catch the sunset off of the Santa Monica Pier.
Unfortunately, I forgot a little fact; the sun actually sets behind the hills:
It still made for good pics, I suppose. I took a bunch once I got there. here are some of my favorites...

For supper, I decided to hit this joint:

Its kinda hard to take a good picture by yourself, as you can see.

It was a good little outing. What was also great was I got to do this all before watching Lost.

Home again in Indiana

Well, I had all the best intentions to keep posting, but as you can see , it didn't go that way. I was in the middle of a post when I thought my Laptop crashed. Luckily, I had realized it was only that the battery had ran out. (I plugged it into a lamp that had outlets, which was fine until I turned the switch to the outlet that the lamp was plugged into, off.)

So, I suppose I have some catching up to do in the next bit.

From K.C. to L.A.

Well, time for more of the Journey. Last night, Anthony and I indeed got our Teahen shirts. We also had pretty sweet seats. However, we saw this for two hours longer than anticipated;Finally the rain let up. Before it did, some idiot had to play slip'n'slide, followed by being dogpiled and arrested by several police officers. He got a good cheer out of most everyone there, along with these people: I totally forgot to mention that the Sox won Monday night. They won Tuesday as well. The only other thing out of the norm was this: That's right, its Dave the Horn Guy. He did Take Me Out to the Ballgame. He got booed. A lot.

Now on to L.A.

Does this make you feel better about prices in Indiana?

Too tired to post more.... more to come.