Good Times, Great Friends...

The last couple days have been great. Andy, Jaron, and Curry (all former students of mine) came to stay a couple days with us and just hang out starting on Tuesday. Kenny and Daniel (also former students of mine) also came down yesterday. We have had a blast. The past couple days (and late nights...till 4 AM) have consisted of lots of eating, playing poker, and an extremely unhealthy amount of NCAA 07 on the XBOX. It has been so awesome to have these guys here with us. They are some of my former youth group students, but they are also some of my closest friends in this world. I am heading back to the house at lunch (to wake them up) and then we are gonna' go grab one last plate of BBQ and they are headed home...The only bad thing about times like these is that they fly by and never last long enough...But it makes me thankful for the relationships and friendships that I have with these guys. I miss them. And this was fun. Way more than words could ever describe. It just does my heart and soul good to be around these guys...On another note, our Christmas travels begin tommorrow. Just in case I don't get a chance to post again before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope you and yours have a blessed holiday season and that you get the chance to spend it with family and friends that are as great as mine.

The Weekend Update...

Another busy weekend in our lives has come and gone. It was another weekend wedding that occupied our time these past few days. My wife's sister got married in Temple, TX this weekend. The rehearsal was Friday afternoon and the wedding was Saturday afternoon/evening. It was a nice wedding and Clay and Jackie really had a beautiful day. Seeing Johanna walk down the aisle as the matron of honor made me remember seeing her walk down the aisle as my bride and how beautiful and incredible she looked on our wedding day. Pictures and videos don't do the memories justice so many times and although they say that your wedding day is so emotional/hectic/crazy that most people don't even remember the ceremony or the day, I don't think I will ever forget seeing her walk through those back church doors and down that aisle. I am so blessed to be able to share my life with such an amazing woman....
While we were in Temple, I awoke to a "bad news" phone call on Saturday morning. One of my former students called me and said that his older brother (also a former student) was involved in a terrible car accident on Saturday morning and was being care flighted to Scott & White in Temple. I just "happened" to be there (there are no accidents with God, right?) so I went and waited with their parents while they awaited the care flight because the parents drove down from Dallas where they were on a business trip and beat the care flight to the hospital. I had to leave to go to the wedding, but Johanna and I got to see Cade after the wedding. He is still in ICU and is paralyzed from the waste down. Please pray for him and his family. His spirit is incredibly good and his attitude positive, but there is much that lies ahead for this young man. If you are a praying person, please keep him in your prayers. I was griping about being in Temple on Friday because I have so many "not so good" memories of that town because of the hospital and it seems like God just taught me this weekend that he has it all in control, even to the point where weddings happen in the exact town that he wants them to. How else does a girl from Kingsland and a guy from Milano who both live in Corpus Christi end up getting married at Taylor's Valley Church outside of Temple, TX so that I would just "happen" to be in that place in order to minister to a family and give them love and support? God is crazy like that.
Church was Sunday and we had a few college students over at the house last night until about 1:00...It was great fun and I'm looking forward to the time we get to spend with them over the Christmas break. Hope that in the hustle and bustle of your weekend, you had a chance to see God's love for you. Until next time...

Being Jesus....Like Granny Elaine

I can remember my first year in youth ministry very vividly. I started off as a summer intern for a church, and after a really rough first couple of weeks, I began to love this thing called Youth Ministry. I had only been at the church a little over a month and my commitment as the summer intern was already half-way over. That's when one of the staff members approached me about staying on year-round as a staff member at the church while I finished up at Howard Payne University. I thought it sounded like a great idea and jumped at the chance. What followed were some incredible years of student ministry that I'll never forget...But times weren't always easy, especially starting out. I didn't make squat at my job...Literally, I think the church paid me $80 a month, after taxes and I was driving 60 miles to the church to or three times a week...But it was good because of people like Granny Elaine, or Mrs. Laughlin to those who didn't know her well. Of course, that wasn't anybody that I knew because everyone knew her as Granny Elaine. She was the mother of our music minister at the church. The music minister had a son that was about six months younger than me and then a son a couple years younger than me and we were instantly great friends. Since I was the age of her grandsons, Granny Elaine took right up with me. There was never a weekend that I wasn't invited to her table to eat, both on Saturday night and on Sunday after church. I can honestly say that I have never seen the amount of food, nor the quality and taste of food that she could put on the table for one meal. As a POOR college students who lived on cafeteria food, pb & j, and macaroni, the weekends were a big welcome. I was hungry and I got real food to eat...every weekend, without fail. I can also remember those first couple of summers where Granny Elaine just insisted on doing my laundry for me when we would get back from camp or a mission trip...She would always say that I was too busy with all those kids to mess with that and that she could handle it. Her reasoning was always this: "I just feel like I never do anything for you." It would make me laugh everytime she would say it because she did more for me than the vast majority of people I knew. I know her grocery bill went up because of me but she never complained that I was at the table, even when I dropped in unexpectedly. She became friends with my grandparents and when my brother or parents were in town she insisted that we share a meal at her house after church. There was never a stranger that walked in her door and there was never a lack of another chair to pull up to the table for somebody knew or an unexpected guest, family member, or friend that just happened to "stop by" during meal time. She was famous for her cooking and her fried pies and that meant a lot of accidental "I just happened to be passing through at this time" would occur. She would make fried pies every time I had a youth bake sale or food auction and we would make a couple hundred dollars off of just a dozen of her delicious treats they were so good and so popular. For a young college student, spending a lot of time away from home, and living on a tight budget she was a welcome friend. She was one of my biggest fans. It didn't matter what I did, Granny backed me and supported me. I could do no wrong in her sight and it's really encouraging to have those kind of people in your life. Granny Elaine showed me what it meant to live like Jesus. She fed the hungry (and the full), shared a story, and never met someone who wasn't welcomed into her home. She washed the clothes of a busy youth minister as her way of contributing, serving, and helping out. She raised a fine family who absolutely loved and adored her. I got to see Granny Elaine in good times and in hard times and all the time, she was full of the love of Jesus. She gave whatever she could to whoever she could and I think that is what Jesus taught us all.
Granny Elaine passed away yesterday afternoon. She went to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus, and her many loved ones in Christ that have gone on before her. I can see the smile on Joel's face (her grandson who passed away from cancer at 21) as Granny walks through heaven's gate and I know that smile is because he is expecting some fried pies pretty soon. I will miss the visits. I'll miss the fried pies. I'll defnitely miss the encouragement of one of my "biggest fans." But most of all I will miss the love and support of a genuine Christ follower who knew what it meant to be Jesus to others...And the world she lived in and touched will miss that too.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Christmas time is upon us...If you do not believe me try finding a parking spot at your local mall or finding a line in your hometown Wal-Mart that isn't at least 15 minutes long. As I have said in previous posts, I really have turned into a "Christmas lover" for lack of a better description. I don't know if it is from getting older or what, but I think it has a lot to do with being married because as Johanna and I have got to celebrate Christmas together the past couple years, that is when the transition has occurred. (Note: Not that I ever disliked getting presents, but some of the rest of the hoopla got old in a hurry.)
With Christmas in full swing I wanted to share a couple comical stories about our holiday experience so far. First of all, this year and last year I have become obsessed with decoratiing. However, we were waiting to move into a new house on Dec. 1st so I got a late start on the whole decorations thing this year. But finally in the middle of last week I finished getting my Christmas lights put up on the outside of the house. I had been working on them for several days and had tried everything to hang them. Certain staples from staple guns weren't strong enough to go through the wood and others were to thick for my gun. I couldn't find nails that wouldn't leave huge holes in the house, but after a few days I go it figured out. I had even went to Wal Mart and purchased these light hangers that were supposed to "stick" to the overhang of the house. I used them on the last strand and finished it up on Thursday. Last night when Johanna and I turned the lights on and were leaving the house to go eat with some friends I noticed that all my "sticky" light hangers had lost their stick in the humidity and drizzle and so that strand was hanging down. It just happens to be the strand on the tallest peak of the house so that will all have to be re-hung this week. Gotta' laugh about it because getting mad doesn't get the lights back up. Then on Saturday, Johanna and I spent all day looking for a certain Christmas present for my sister-in-law (my brother's wife). We went into 6 or 8 different stores all over the Austin area looking for this item and literally spent the entire day looking for that one gift. Yesterday my mom called me, laughing, and had some "great" news for me. She knew we had been shopping for the gift all over Austin, all day long and she had just got off the phone with my sister-in-law's mom, who informed my mom that they had already gotten Christie the same gift! I called my brother and after a threat to drive to Houston and strangle them I was ok. The also got the smae gift for my brother that we were getting, but I guess it's back to the gift drawing board - and back to the packed malls!
In the midst of this holiday season, I hope that you take time to stop. Just stop and relax and rest in the joy that Christmas brings. Stop and be still in the thought that this season is a celebration of the Savior. The one who stepped out of heaven and put on flesh and blood so that we would have a God who is like us in every way. He knows our hurts, pains, struggles, stresses, triumphs, and joys because he has lived where we lived and walked in our human shoes. And that is what it is all about. God loved us enough not to leave us alone, but to send us a Savior. And find some way this holiday season to share that love and message in a very practical way, be it big or small, with someone who doesn't know the One Who Is Love. Until next time...

Hilarious!

What's Goin' On?

Wow....It has been a busy past several days. We moved into a new house all the week after Thanksgiving. With Johanna and I both working during the day, most of the move was done at night and when I could slip away from the office during the day, making for a long, strenous week. Luckily we have some great friends and some great students who helped out and made the load lighter, literally. Also, I have been dealing with some conflict at work that has been really stressful and wearing on me. One of our leadership students has been having some big attitude problems and some repeated problems with language and we've had to deal with taking this student off of our worship team. It has really upset the parents and they can't get past the one thing about the language to see the bigger picture. They feel we are punishing her for struggling with cursing when it is a bigger issue than that with the attitude problems and repeated language/behavior and all. They also see me as a "dictator" and the only one making the decision when several people have been consulted and we all agree on the decision...I guess you just sometimes can't get people to see your side so they will misunderstand the process. My prayer in all this is that this student realizes that we do really love her and want God's best for her. I pray that she realizes that we are motivated out of the love, truth, and grace of Jesus to lead in this way and that she grows from this. But sometimes that is hard to see when you disagree with what is being done....
On another note, I had a great evening on Sunday. We went with two other couples from our church and one of the couples friend's from Austin to go to Burnet to Main Street Bethlehem. Main Street Bethlehem is an incredible "production" of First Baptist Church Burnett during the Christmas holiday season. Basically the church has an entire city block that they have built to replicate the town of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth. There is a stone wall around the town and it stays up year round. But on the first two weekend in December the church makes it come to life. The people of FBC all dress up as peasants, soldiers, rope makers, tax collectors, shepherds, jailers, basket weavers, and many other characters from the time of Jesus. You can go (after standing in line for a good while) take your own journey through the town, seeing people arrested for failing to pay their taxes, getting a look inside the tavern, smelling the hot bread being cooked (and the camels, donkeys, and sheep). You hear the sounds of that day in street vendors selling their goods, chickens clucking in the background, and the ruccus of the guards and prisoners in the town jail. It really is a production that involves all of the senses and it makes the story and atmosphere that existed at the time of the birth of Jesus come to life. It is a great Christmas present from the church for all who get to come through and experience it and it puts the birth of Jesus in a whole new light. You end your journey touring the inn that was full and going out back to see in the stable (cave), Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I have been to this a couple times now and each time it really brings to life that fact that we serve a God who spared nothing to show his love for us. Our God is one who stepped out of the realm of heaven and took on the form of a human body, just like us, so he can identify with us. When we deal with stress, hurt, pain, loneliness, temptations, joy, sorrow, happiness, and life's struggles we can rest assured that we have a God who can say "I understand your hurt. I share your pain. I rejoice with you." Whatever the case may be, we have a God who knows....because He's been there. And in my opinion, that's what Christmas is all about.

My Silence in Blogdom...

After I made the decision to post the Thanksgiving posts all week, I realized that my parents only have dial-up internet, so that challenge died a quick death. This past week my silence has been effected by my recent move. Johanna and I moved into a new house this past week and we have spent every waking moment packing boxes and moving furniture...We also moved into a sub-division of town where DSL internet service is not available from the provider we have so we are trying to get a new internet set-up at the house. All of that combined to say that I have been relatively silent in the blog world as of late and for that I apologize (if anybody even reads this...). However, I have a meeting at the church in a little while and am hoping to have time to post an update when that is over or sometime tommorrow morning.