Great Strides CF Walk

Just returned from a kick off lunch for our Outer Banks Great Strides walk.

I enjoyed the company of some fine folks as well as lunch at the best steak place on the beach.  I was a good boy though and had a grilled chicken salad.

Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that has no cure (yet).  Since Tricia married into "the family" I have decided to do my part to help raise the funds needed to defeat this disease.  I was vaguely aware of CF before I met Tricia.  I'm pretty much stoked about the walk but have to wait till September for the event.

I stopped by Butcher Block after lunch to talk with the owner, Johnny, super nice folks, and in my professional opinion the best sandwiches on the beach.  Butcher Block will be donating sandwiches for the Great Strides walk.  Super cool!  Let's see I walk and then I can turn around and down an italian hoagie.  By the way I've tried several veggie wraps at different restaurants on the beach an the best one by far has been at Butcher Block.  Go see Johnny!

I am participating in the CF Great Strides walk here on the Outer Banks in September. Would you consider helping me reach my goal?

Check out Ben Roberts' blog.

Ben is going to lose 65lbs for CF as a fundraiser in honor of Tricia.  Go Ben!

What are you doing to help defeat CF?

Tagged

My goober nephew Nathan has tagged me and since I'm the good uncle that I am I will follow through.

What was I doing ten years ago:  Let's see, I was living in OK so it is 9:57 there and since late night news comes on there at 10 I was getting ready to watch the news up through the weather and then go to bed.  I was youth pastoring at Harmony Baptist Church in Atoka, Ok.  Misha was working in the gospel music industry. ;)

Five things on my to do list today: Finish prepping for Contagious tomorrow night.  Make scripture memory key chain tags for students.  Blog.  My son's soccer practice.  Associational youth leader meeting.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:  Buy a bigger house.  Adopt 5 kids.  Hire a housekeeper.  Buy a home on Maui for us and for our friends to visit.  Buy a house for Tricia and Nate.  Buy a house for company to stay in here at the beach.  Donate lots of money to my favorite organizations.  Send Misha on a ginormous shopping spree.  Help the church with the building.  Pay for a few high school seniors to go to LU.  Work at the church for free.  Get involved in helping small church youth volunteers.

Sponsor a Chris Tomlin/David Crowder concert at FFHS auditorium.

Three of my bad habits:  Ice cream.  Popping my knuckles in church when it is quiet. Don't pay attention well at all.

Five places I have lived:  Paia, Hi.,  Haiku, Hi., Lynchburg, Va., Atoka, OK., OBX

Five jobs I have had:  Ice Cream Professional, Clubhouse Manager, Pressure washing/painting business owner, Youth Pastor, Musician (Nashville affiliated) ;)

I'm tagging everyone in the universe who blogs and reads this blog.

What is Your Plan? Part 4

In Part 1 we looked at doing "last minute" youth ministry.

In Part 2 we looked at planning on purpose.

In Part 3 we looked at planning an events calendar.

Now how do we pull this off as a volunteer?  Form some lead teams.

The answer is team work!  Don't do it by yourself.  Doing youth ministry (or any ministry) alone leads to burn out and all the bases won't be covered.  No lone rangers allowed.  Get others who are interested in youth ministry or parents of the youth involved.  On a team all players are equal and important.

• Plan one event at a time and form a team for each event (use responsible students on the team as well as adults)
• Think of all the steps that will need to take place to pull off the event
• Divide up the steps among the team
• Set "due dates" for the to do list and follow up (you could use a simple excel spread sheet to keep track)

Example: (set due dates for each task and who is responsible for the step, give yourself bout 6 months of time to promote the event and organize)

Laser Tag Outreach Lock-In

Step 1 - Contact Laserquest to find out cost of renting the facility for an all night event.

Step 2 - Choose a date (remember there is never a perfect day where everyone is available)

Step 3 - Get deposit check from church check writer person.

Step 4 - Reserve Laserquest

Step 5 - Publicize the date, use posters, postcards, e-mails, church bulletin, etc... (Set dates for each different way of publicizing.)

Step 6 - Recruit drivers (we got hotel rooms for our drivers so they would be fresh for the drive back home in the morning)

Step 7 - Recruit adult sponsors to play laser tag with the students all night.  Decide on adult to student ratio.  We like 1 adult for every 6 to 8 students.

Step 8 - Set the date for students to turn in their non-refundable registration fee.

Step 9 - Collect registration fees.

Step 10 - Confirm your date with Laserquest and let them know your updated number of participants

Step 11 - Organize food and snacks and drinks

Step 12 - Leave on time even if you leave someone (some lessons have to be learned the hard way)

Step 13 - Return on time.

Step 13 - Debrief the team to see what worked and what didn't and what to do differently the next time.

So within this one event team you could have sub-teams: (team can be as small as one person, but the more the merrier)

Facility team - to reserve Laserquest and get all the info that is needed from Laserquest, set the date, reserve the facility

Transportation team -  to organize transportation and drivers and hotels if needed

Publicity team - Promote the event

Sponsor team - organize and recruit adults to chaperon and participate

Grub team - organize the foods

Good Parenting Blog Post

Here is another good blog post from Walt Mueller on redemptive parenting.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Reflections of Mexican Food

by Andy Lawrenson

Tacos

Burritos

Chalupas

Enchilada

Sopapillas

Tamales

Anything with Grande tagged at the end

Rice and Beans 

(those of you that order beans without rice, or vice versa, are messed up.  I know I'm

a graduate of Las Manitas University of Rice and Beans, Austin, Tx.)

There is a "Tex Mex" restaurant in Atoka, Oklahoma, the El Adobe.

El Adobe is the only Mexican food restaurant I've ever been in that puts

shredded american cheese on their food.  That's not even right.  But their salsa is good.

There is a gas station in a small town of Caldwell, Kansas, just beyond the border of Ok.  In this 

gas station you can get some of the best tacos I've ever had in my entire lifetime.  All home made stuff and they put limas, potatoes and peas in their taco meat, different yet very tasty.

In Lynchburg, Va., there is a family of restaurants, La Caretta.  They have great food.  Mish and I used to go there when we had 5 bucks left to our name to eat.  We were young, stupid and in love with both each other and mexican food.

Chi Chi's, ahhhh, the blessed fried ice cream.

Abuelos, not liking this chain all that much.

Taco Bell, I eat there maybe once every two years.  Taco Mayo in Ok and Tx is much, much better than the Bell.

Herb Albert and the Tiajuana Brass.  Speaking of Tiajuana let me just give a shout out to velvet Elvis paintings and the donkey painted with stripes that you can pay to have your picture with so it looks like you had your picture with a "zebra".

Chiclets!  Gum with a whole 3 minutes of flavor.

One wintery day I was helping my friend Mike shovel snow off the walk of his Taco Mayo restaurant.  I walked up to the drive in window and got a hot bean burrito.  It was one of the most memorable moments of my life.  Something about freezing, standing in snow, and eating a piping hot bean burrito full of cheese and red sauce.  It was an incredible experience.

Dinner at the Zazuetta's home.  Killer dude!  Mrs. Zazuetta kept bringing food to the table from like a magical, mystical portal of goodness.  It was as if a thousand flavor angels were dancing the flaminco on my tongue.  Her beans were the best I have ever had in my entire existence as a human being.  My sister-in-law's, Gail, come in second, and that is an incredible compliment.  Mine are OK but often end up too thick and stiff (I'm working on perfecting that)

My hometown favorite is La Fogatta's.  I consider the white cheese sauce a beverage, it's that good.

I don't like fish but according to those that do, both Mama Kwans (my favorite restaurant on the beach, next to Prim Only) and Rundown Cafe (another favorite) both have good fish tacos.

Terasita's (spell check Ramon') tamales the best!  Made with banana leaves as opposed to corn husks.  Fantastico!  Full of flavors and S-spices.  Good washed down with S-spring water.

The dream of Clay and Esma coming to visit this summer and Esma teaching me how to make tamales.

The fact that you took the time to read my reflections on Mexican food proves that you too are a lover of this wonderful ethnic food from our neighbors to the south.

Have a Happy Cinco De Mayo and please visit your local favorite Mexican restaurant today.

Asta La Vista Baby! (spellcheck!)

An Inviting Building

When we built our building part of the purpose of the design was that the front of the building would have lots of windows so guests could see what they are about to walk into.  I've heard many comments about our building, the blue roof, all the windows, "doesn't look like a church"(that's the point), "where's the steeple and cross?", "looks like an airplane hangar", "looks cool".  I can't think of all the comments I've heard. 

I try to hang out after the service as Rick talks with the guests so I can hear what our guests think.  To find out what they think we are doing right, and what they think we are doing wrong.

Today I heard what I've been waiting to hear.  When asked how they decided to attend NHC, a local guest's answer was, "I drive by everyday and the building looks inviting."  It worked!  I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm excited about the next phase.  Today our phase 2 team met to discuss the steps to finish off the children's area and the youth room.  Our pre-school room is about maxed out, it's gonna be sweet when the upstairs is finished.  

Keep the End Goal in Mind

From our children's ministry parent newsletter and it's good stuff:

"Life with little ones can leave parents in day-to-day survival mode.

Calendars and to-do lists are essential for navigating countless

appointments, chores, school activities, work obligations, and more.

Your immediate goals might range from potty-training a toddler to

planning your summer schedules. But what’s your ultimate goal as

parents? Are you merely trying to prepare kids for adulthood?

While children’s earthly future is definitely

important, our main focus must be children’s

eternal future. It can be hard to keep that in mind

with each day’s pressures and obligations. But

what really matters is making sure our children

spend eternity with Jesus. To do that:

Develop a strategy. Partner with your church’s

children’s ministry to ensure that your children

get age-appropriate Christian education at every

stage. Reinforce that education at home by using

the take-home papers weekly.

Make sure everyone’s on the same page. Talk to your spouse,

family members, and your children’s caregivers about what’s most

important to you, even if you think they already know.

Choose intentionally. Arrange your calendar around your big picture

goal. If activities start to interfere with what’s really

important, re-evaluate and re-work your family’s schedule. When

faith becomes the top priority for your family, it also will become the

top priority for your children."

Thanks Tina!

Happy Birthday Nate the Snake Potato Cake (Bump)

May is CFF Awareness Month
Happy Birthday Nathan!  My little nephew is now 27, he's almost a man.  Something I had not done simply because I didn't think about it when I got my driver's license and no one asked at the DMV is to become an organ donor.   It was said that there are signs in the driver's license office about organ donation, which is great, but ADD boys don't read signs.  Someone has to gently place their hand on our shoulder and say, "Andy, do I have your attention?" . . .

So my birthday gift to little Nate is my organ donation registration.  Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you registered to donate your organs?  Why not give the gift of life when you die?

Become a donor today!

Want to follow youth culture?

Youth workers and parents - Check out this blog, its a good one.

There is an especially interesting post up there now on good old Hannah Montana.

Contagious Tonight

Contagious was good fun tonight.  The ping pong table was broken so they were playing ping pong in the lobby without a table, interesting.

Lots of hanging out up on the loft.  The kitchen queens were cranking out the cookies and chips tonight as well.  The young 'uns were quite hungry.

We tackled accountability tonight and next week we look at B.  Tune in next week for more on that.  Gave out three coke and candy gift packs to students who brought guests.  Another great crowd tonight.  Volunteers need a big pat on the back.  It's exciting, we are at the point that we are ready to let the church in on fantastic ministry opportunities in the youth ministry.  Some of our table groups have grown to the point they need to divide and that means some more adults can join the team and make an impact on a teen's life.  Our middle school girls table has more than quadrupled in size.  Go Marie!

Youth ministry isn't the Bible lesson (that's part of it but not all of it).  Youth ministry happens when an adult leader is hanging out with students, playing a game, laughing with them, standing around in the parking lot waiting for parents to pick them up.  It is the "be with factor".  If you are involved in youth ministry either on staff or a volunteer I encourage you to get there early and hang out late and get to know the students you are ministering to.  Hang out with them.

Lies about Youth Pastors

If you are in youth ministry you will either get a kick out of this post or relate to the post all too well.  Josh Griffin has some great stuff on his blog www.morethandodgeball.com

I'm blessed I'm not in that situation here at NHC!