Extreme Home Makeover

Today I go to spend time on the set of Extreme Home Makeover.  I had a great time with my wife, Misha, and friend, T.  Mish and I mostly picked up scrap and trash.  T is a real carpenter so he helped on the roof.  We also hung out in the VIP tent and watched the house be built and watched the spectators watching the house be built.  I spied a spectator taking a picture of me in the VIP tent.  Perhaps I look like someone famous?

If you are a doubter. . .

They really do build the house in a week.  Sunday they demolished the old home.  By yesterday afternoon the concrete was poured.  We arrived at noon today and the entire house was framed and enclosed, windows in place.  While we were there they sprayed the insulation in the walls, sheetrocked the bedrooms and hall and closet and bathrooms, taped and mud and finished.  By the time we left they had just about nailed the plywood on the roof and they were starting to apply the roofing.  My guess is that by the end of the night the roof is finished and they are painting the interior.

It was a fun opportunity even though we didn't get to do as much as I would like to have done because they were a bit behind schedule and basically they needed real pros working on the home.  But we did what we could to help.   

To answer the question I know I will be asked, no I didn't see Ty.  I did see Michael and Ed.  I may be in a shot if it makes the cut.  Misha was there for the march of the volunteers and demolition on Sunday so she will more than likely be on the show.  This episode is the final one for the season and will air in 6 weeks.  Enjoy the pics!

Plywood for the roof

T on the left, me on the right

Fans of the show understand

Me behind the house

Me and my lovely wife on our date

You may recognize this stud.  I'm talking about me . . .  not the lumber.

My homeboy T up on the roof

Our trash pile

T and me enjoying VIP food in the VIP tent

The house, there must have been 150 people working in and on the house

Misha my wife lookin good in a hard hat

Misha moving trash

Me posing with the house

T contemplating his upcoming adventure on the shuttle ride to the house

In case there is any question the badge says it all. 

More pictures and more about the project here

New Shoes!

I have had the privilege to write some articles over the past several months for Simply Youth Ministry.  This past week I received my first check for writing.  Does that make me a professional writer?  Good thing they have editors, :)  as some of you know because you have the nerve to give me grammar lessons in the comments which basically make no sense to me.  I'm one class away from a master's degree if grammar hasn't sunk in yet it ain't gonna.

I have been needing some new shoes for quite some time.  The NSS shoes my lovely wife gave me two years ago at Christmas were starting to show their wear.  They smelled a bit weird also.

So I took a portion of my writing money and went to OBBC and purchased a sweet pair of Vans.

My friend Whitney, who works there, helped me pick them out.  I need help looking as cool as I do, I'm not real fashion smart.  The best part of the deal is the fact that the shoes were 40% off!

So here are my sweet new Vans:

Happy Birthday!

Today our twins, "Fred and Wilma", baby A and B, are two months old!

They have doubled in weight.  They love to eat.  Don't cry much at all.  Sleep really good.  

I am looking forward to them sleeping through the night.

"Fred" is starting to have more awake  and alert time,  "Wilma", since she is a girl, has been a bit ahead of him on this.

Both are beginning to hold their heads up really well.  "Fred" looks great in blue and "Wilma" looks great in pink or purple.

They love to snuggle with us and we love to snuggle with them.  

Happy Birthday babies!

God has blessed our family through the miracle of adoption.  To find out more about our adoption story check out this post.  If you have questions about adoption or are considering adoption please feel free to contact me.

quick grounding story (Bump)

I was wondering this morning what I blogged about a year ago today.  Here is a post from a year ago today.  

I just thought about this a bit ago.  

I was standing in the church talking with a dad who had grounded his boy from youth group the week before.  I asked him, "Why did you ground "Johnny" from church?"  He looked puzzled.  He said, "I didn't I grounded him from youth group."  I asked, "Isn't youth group church?"

You could almost see the light bulb come one over his head.  He had an "Aha!" moment.  Then dad told me he wouldn't do that again.

I have actually had parents say to me: 

"I'm grounding her from youth group because it's fun."

"Youth group is just a game time."

Which leads me to wonder . . .

Parents out there around world. . . 

When was the last time you attended your son or daughter's youth group to see what it is all about?  Slide in the back of the room and see what is happening.  Of course if you want to make your kid melt into their seat barge in real loud and sit in the front row. :)

Youth leaders out there around the world. . . 

Is your youth group a "game time"?   Have you invited your parents to participate, even just pay a visit?

Just to add to the post from a year ago.  Not long ago I had my first set of parents come check out youth group a couple of weeks when they were new to our church. They asked me if it was ok.  OK?  You know it is and I wish more parents did this with their church's youth group gatherings, not just at our church but at churches everywhere.  Perhaps some would discover that youth group is church and that they themselves could get involved in helping out.

Sabbatical and Creativity

I believe that a part of a sabbatical should be setting aside some time to work on improving creativity,  taking time to tap into parts of the brain that have maybe become dormant due to getting stuck in a rut and doing the same thing over and over.  Today I set aside some time to get the creative juices flowing.  I chose a project that would help me to work through obstacles, build, make connections, placement.  I decided that it would be best to not do this project alone so I brought my 4 year old son along with me.  We not only worked on our creativity but also incorporated team work into the project.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fruit of our creativity project:

I've seen it all

This is a great video.  Much of what is in this video I have seen as well.  I remember sitting on the porch of the church at midnight with a boy waiting for his mom to pick him up.  After waiting almost an hour I asked, "so does your mom know what time to pick you up?"  

His response was, "No.  Should I call her?" Once again evidence that the synapsis are not connecting in the brain of a 15 year old boy.  I ended up driving him home and found out his mom worked the night shift at the nursing home.   I would love to know how many hours myself and others on the YM team have spent in our lifetime waiting for the last kid to get picked up.

Then there was the time a kid who told his parents that youth group ended an hour later than it really did so he could hang longer with his friends who were all gone within ten minutes of youth group finishing.  

I have also seen more wedgies than I can count but won't recount those stories.

Never Underestimate

Never Underestimate from Student Life on Vimeo.

My Life Song

I believe I may have discovered my life song.

Parent Discipleship Resources

Heart Connex devotionals are designed for very busy families. The head of the household can print the studies and make preparations in only about five minutes. In most cases families can complete the studies in 20 minutes.  

Heart Connex is a free service.  Simply click on the picture and go to the site to find out more and sign up and get started.  A great way to get together with your teen twice a week for a little devotion time together.  Spending this time together is vital for parents to disciple their teen.

Learn to live, laugh, love, and play together as a family. When you learn the 10 essential principles for creating a happy, close-knit household, you’ll discover a family that shines with love for God and one another!

This book is priced at $11.69 at Homeword.com  Simply click on the picture of the book for more info on this resource.

Possible stroke of genius?  

I'm currently working through this short book.  I know that students are a lot like me in that they get discouraged at times because it doesn't seem that they are successful at spending time everyday in quiet time with God.  We don't have to feel defeated.  Doug Fields has some great encouragement and ideas on refueling spiritually.  

As I was reading yesterday I thought that this would be a great book for parents and their teens to work through together.  Each chapter has some reflection and action activities as well as a discussion guide.  It is easy to read and some good humor sprinkled throughout.  I would encourage parents to go to the web site by clicking on the book and ordering a book for themselves and one for their teen (s) and work through this together.  

If I had grasped what is taught in this book as a teenager I probably would not have struggled so much as an adult in setting apart time to get alone with God.

Student Life Camp, July 13-17

Register Your Teen Today

NHC Youth will be going to Student Life at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. this summer.

Camp deposit is due by March 29.  For more information about Student Life visit their web site.

Refuel Book Report #3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

I've been steadily reading through the book, I just haven't had time to blog in the past few days.  

To get a better picture of what Refuel is all about check out this post.

Chapter 3 is all about Stopping.  

"It doesn't have to be a long stop . . . just stop for five minutes.  Or three.  Or one.  Or thirty seconds.  That's right . . . seconds!"

Refueling doesn't require me to spend 3 hours each morning in the word.  I can stop and take pauses throughout my day and refuel my soul.  Don't misunderstand me, if a person can spend a long period in the morning or night or during the day in the Bible and prayer then that's fantastic.  There are times I spend an extended period with God, but those are few and far between, usually it is a half hour max.  I would be spending more time with God if I created stopping points throughout my day to pray or read some scripture.  We get so busy we don't take time to stop.

"Just as you don't refuel your car while it is in motion, you can't refill your soul while you are in a flurry of activity."

Doug shared some obstacles to stopping:

Lie:  There's just not enough time to do everything

Lie:  I'm just in a busy season right now  (I highlighted this one because this would be the lie I use often to cover for not stopping)

Lie:  But this is really, really important  (when you say yes to everything.  we need to learn to say "no")

Lie:  Success and busyness are synonyms

Favorite quote from chapter 3:

"Stop saying yes to everything.

Stop occupying your life with trivial things.

Stop filling your life with too many good things and living a busy life with no margins and no space for God and what really matters.

     Stop so you can refuel your soul and have the spiritual depth to battle the superficiality of busyness."