One Week Left!!!!!

My Grandma Showed me this video, thanks!

Closing Time

We close on our house tomorrow at 2pm! We then clean the house and do a bit of painting and hang a door this week. We then pack our house up and move in next weekend! I am so excited! Home owners for the first time!

Isaac making pickles

Isaac, his Papa, and I made pickles. We can't eat them for 6 weeks though. I guess we can wait.

Isaac in Heaven

Pickin Tomatoes

Isaac got off the tractor and picked tomatoes with his Nana and Papa and put them on the tractor and brought them into the house. He had a great time. I think his Papa and Nana did too.

Isaac and the Tractor

Isaac got to go on the tractor for the first time with his Papa. He loves tractors. If you didn;t know how much he loved tractors you would have thought that he was not having a good time, but he was so in awe, he did not show any emotion. He has talked about it ever since.

Isaac and Samantha

We visited family this weekend in the Flint area. Isaac got to see his cousin Samantha. He really likes her and talks about her all the time...when she is not around. When she is around, he is leary a bit. But he is starting to open up a bit more around her. He started to run and said, "you can't catch me." It was really cute.

Nolan after a bath

Nolan looked so cute in his towel after his bath.

Grover takes a bath

As we were getting Isaac's bath ready, we heard a splat kind of splash and turned around to see that he threw grover in the tub. So we used grover as a sponge for that bath.

A Great Quote

I was listening to Rob Bell today and came across a great youth ministry quote that reflected what has been in my heart for our youth ministry:

"I saw the Giant youth ministry thing, where you just get a loud enough band and you get a speaker with enough funny stories about when they were young and you get a huge crowd, and try to get them all back the next week. I thought, there’s got to be a different way to do this. What if every kid who came to the youth group was hooked up with an adult mentor to disciple them, so every single kid had an adult contact that was leading them. So what if you started with the discipleship aspect, not the large performance entertainment aspect, and then try to get them discipled. What if you started with any kid who came here is being taught what it means to be a follower of Christ."

Life of Simplicity

I am reading the most amazing book on spiritual development that I have ever read. It is a classic, and I should have read it earlier, but here we are. It is Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline. I just finished chapter six on the Discipline of Simplicity. It was great and life changing. Here is a sum up and some thoughts:

1. First, buy things for their usefulness rather than their status: Cars, houses, clothing, things. Buy what I need, not what will impress others
   
2. Second, reject anything that is producing an addiction in you: TV, newspaper, internet, movies, video games, certain food, pop, candy, anything that lodges into my brain and won't go away until I do something about it. If I can't picture life without __________, it is probably an addiction.
   
3. Third, develop a habit of giving things away: Don't get attachments to things, God gives me everything, I own nothing that God has not given me. Don't treat it as mine.
   
4. Fourth, refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry: I don't need the newest thing with the newest buttons if my old one is working properly.
   
5. Fifth, learn to enjoy things without owning them: I don't need to collect and amass more junk and collections of things that will sit in my garage, or will sit in my garage after a few uses.
   
6. Sixth, develop a deeper appreciation for the creation: Turn off the air conditioner, go for a walk, study a leaf or flower, grow a garden, do more without the help of so much machinery that I disconnect from the creation around me
   
7. Seventh, look at a healthy skepticism at all "buy now, pay later" schemes: If I have any choice, I will never again finance anything but a home. If I can't pay for it now, unless it is a matter of life and death, wait.
   
8. Eighth, obey Jesus' instructions about plain, honest speech: Yes means Yes, No means No, no flattery, no lies, no deceit, no half truths should come from my lips.
   
9. Ninth, reject anything that will breed the oppression of others: Do I purchace things that keeps others oppressed. Do I get my bananas or coffee or clothes from slave workers? Do I live well at the expense of another's slavery or oppression.
   
10. Tenth, shun whatever would distract you from you main goal: "Seek first the kingdom of God." If anything takes the place of that goal in my life, kick it out.

It seems as though these are a bunch of RULES to follow, but in fact I have found the opposite in my life. I have been talking and thinking about these things, and Kara and I started implementing them in our life, and they are so freeing! I think that so many people think the gospel is full of rules to follow, and they decide they like life the way it is, and do not want to change, so they stay in their life full of burdens, enslaved to a way of life that wears them out. But in fact, the gospel is not a set of rules to weigh you down, but a new way of living that is free.

You are a slave to something, how harsh is your master? My master gave his life for me and wants me to live as free and unencumbered as possible. Living a more simple life has made a stronger connection to God in my life. I have been addicted to technology and gadgets, and now I have been getting rid of so much and reading and praying. It is amazing.

I ask the question, "How can we consume less?" Not "How can we make more money to live as we do?" It has not been a heavy set of rules to follow at all, but a way of life that is so much more free.

I'm Not Alone!

Our area is having a tough time financially, especially churches. Our unemployment rate is up in the 10%-15% which hurts area families, businesses, and churches. I have been trying to find a youth pastor in Belding, but there are none. I am the only paid youth pastor in our area! I have never been in an area like this before.

With that said, last night I went to a band practice for a worship team. I am in this worship team. the team is put together from the area Belding churches for a community wide church service in honor of our town turning 150. the Sesquicentennial Birthday. 50 years ago, at the 100, they did one of these and brought in the writer of the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" who apparently lived in the area.

Well anyways, at this band practice I met another pastor from a Church Plant going up in Belding. I got so excited to hear about this church plant. It is exactly what our area needs. It will focus on young un-churched families, which our area is crawling with them. The church planters were youth pastors in Lowell and are now planting this church in Belding. So I sat and talked with this guy for almost two hours in my driveway last night. I am geeked to do some networking! Finally something that resembles a youth pastor in our area. (Officially he is the worship pastor, but he WAS in youth ministry and that is the closest I have to networking outside of my church with another youth pastor.

A guy in Greenville (7 miles north) has started a Alliance of Youth Pastors, and wanted to start one in Belding, but then found out that there are none in Belding. Not one. Pray for our area, we need some more people who will get out of their little bubble of life and start advancing the Kingdom of God in our area.

Song of the Day: Ben Harper: Ground on Down

I believe in a few things :
God, the Devil and Love,
Cause I've looked up from the bottom and I've stared down from above.
And I have faith in a few things :
Divinity and Grace,
But even when I'm on my knees, I know the devil prays.

And you're working your way,
From the ground on down.

I hate to say I love you,
Because it means that I will be with you forever or will sadly say goodbye.
And I love to say I hate you,
Because it means that I will live my life happily without you or will sadly live a lie.

And you're working your way,
From the ground on down,
On down.
Your way,
From the ground on down,
On down.

Life is short and if you're looking for extension,
With your time, you had best do well,
Cause there's good deeds and there is good intention,
They're as far apart as heaven and hell.

And you're working your way,
From the ground on down,
On down.
Your way,
From the ground.
Way.

What the Heck!?

I don't know why this made me laugh as hard as it did. But I about died when I saw this on Noel's site. So here it is.

Isaac's Superhero

Isaac and I played in my office today while Kara went to the church's mom's group. We played at pbskids.org and made this Superhero Isaac character.

Family Photo

This is the first time we have all been together in 4 years. So we got this picture. It was good to be with the whole family.

Nolan and GG

Nolan got to spend some good time with his GG, and we took these cute pictures.

Isaac loves his Grandma

Isaac absolutely loves to go to Grandma's house. She loves to play with him, and tirelessly does so every time we goover there.

Nolan meets Great Grandma Rita

Nolan got to meet his Great Grandma Rita for the first time over Labor Day Weekend.

Nolan in a cool hat.

I am totally against the whole stupid hat thing, but this hat was pretty cool on Nolan.

At the Park

We have this double stroller for the boys, and this is our first time using it. Isaac thought it was cool to go to the park next to Nolan.