Field of Blog

I recently started reading First Samuel  again.  Check these verses out:

2 He (Elkanah) had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.  3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

Reading this reminded me of how sometimes ministry leaders like to show their success and others weakness.  We’ve all been around those who ask questions like:  “How many were in attendance at youth?”  or “How many decisions for Christ were made at your meeting?” 

Often I find people asking those questions hoping we’ll ask them right back so they can share their success.  It’s also likely that we’ve all been guilty of wanting to brag about our success at one time or another.  Nothing can destroy a healthy ministry quite like an inflated ego can.  Although we may not provoke other as blatenlty as Peninnah provoked Hannah, we still have our own ways.

I was reminded that we are the bride of Christ, and I found it fascinating that the bride that had the least amount of success was receiving double portion from her groom.   No matter what type of ministry we find ourselves in, Valleys will be in our path.  From the scripture above I noticed that THE LORD CLOSED HER WOMB.  There was obviously a purpose in what seemed to be a lack of success in the eyes of Hannah’s world (especially to her rivals, and even herself.)  God’s success does not always = the world’s success…

Congratulations- you made it through Monday.  Your reward is to waste some of your workday looking at these cool sites.  

 For you artsy fartsy readers:    This is pretty cool

Look at this pic .  Amazing.

Would you ever live in a garbage truck?

Typical Cardinal Fan

Alarm Clocks that would drive me nuts.

 Things that make you go hmmmm

You know that kid you went to school with in the seventh grade.  You know, the one who was really weird, never talked, and you just thought he was uninteresting.  That is until the day you sat by him and saw his notebook, and realized “weird kid can draw.”  He’s still weird, and has lots of freetime.  See for yourself.

Zack is a lego maniac.

 Join us next Tuesday for more of nothing.  Please email us you’re suggestions for Tuesdays with good links.

This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about this company.  A couple of months ago (before this site was redesigned) I had posted about how attractive it looked.  The past week I started an account to actually test drive it.  I have to say that it is an extremely powerful and time saving service.  I just want to post a few things that really make me love it.

• Picture of each youth on their info page (great for learning names!)
• Places to virtually put any and all needed info about a student, group, etc.
• Mass email made easy.
• Create groups of students and/or leaders, then easily email that group.
• Create a student directory that includes picture, email, phone, address with one click.
• It reminds you of upcoming birthdays.
• advanced search allows you to find students quickly – find all eight graders, or all drivers, or all 16 year olds, etc.  Then easily mass email them all!
• Easily keep track of attendance
• Quickly print mailing labels for everyone who attended or didn’t attend an event.
• export excel files with all info
• keep up with how much a student has paid towards a trip
• Quick response from Tech Support (usually within an hour.)

There are several more!

What I have found that I don’t like:

• No pics for Staff/Leader profiles note- after sharing this with Tech Service they assured me they would add this feature soon!

As you can see, the positive’s easily defeat the negative.  The guys from youthtracker have offer a free month trial of the program.  Simply enter FT1YS as the Promo Code.    Just try it!

It’s cold.  It is very cold.  Imagine the line to a popular roller coaster at a popular theme park.  The line starts and goes back and forth through a series of fences, ropes, and other “herding” devices.  You finally get to the end of the line.  You grab one of the many tubes that are on the ground.  Each tube has a nice “shell” with handles and a tow rope.  You then proceed to yet another line, but one that is much shorter.  Imagine the conveyor belt at Wal-mart check out lines.  Now imagine it being on the ground, and going up a mountain.  Literally.  The line ends and you take a step of faith onto this magic hill conveyor and it carries you(with your tube in tow) up the mountain.  Then you get to the top and step off, but instead of into the arms of a bluevested cashier, you are at the top of a mountain.  You guessed it, another line.  You see eight lanes that remind you of the old block derby car tables-often used in Boy Scouts (the cars that you build out of a small block of wood,  put wheels on them, paint them, and race them on a sloped table.)  You pick a random lane and when it is your turn, off you go.  Down a lane of small hills and valleys all the way to the bottom.  It lasts a whole 7 seconds.  Then you start the process over.  

I grew up on a farm where sledding/tubing was always intense, and honestly more fun.  The only thing we didn’t have was the conveyor, and that would have been nice.   I did enjoy the time tubing, but it was very cold.

I attended with a youth group from a church in central Kentucky.  There were about 40 of us, and I absolutely loved the trip.  I didn’t necessarily enjoy the tubing part, but the trip wasn’t about me.  It was much bigger than that.  I spent the majority of my time just hanging out with the youth as they would come into the lodge to warm up.  This gave me opportunities to talk with them in small groups or even one on one.  It was just a great time.    In the evenings we had a time of worship and devotion which went really well.

Here are a few things I wanted to mention:

• The youth and other adults loved the tubing, so I’m just old and stubborn
• Long van rides are exhausting, but man they build community
• Trips like these are exponentially more about relationship building than the activity
• Youth love to tell their story.
• Ski Lodges fall into the same pricing category as Airports and Hotel Giftshops ($11.00 for a burger and fries.)

Work History:Movie Gallery Manager-Associate Pastor-Director of Broadcast Services-Chief of Operations
I was talking with Joe the other day and we were discussing how people always remember the good times of our past.  The word Joe used was “over romanticize.”  I always seem to dwell on the things we enjoyed, and sometimes the memories of things we didn’t enjoy are amazingly enjoyable.  As I dwell at my past, I am just thankful.  It has been a fantastic life full of grace from God and those around me.  For a while I have been feeling the pull(guidance from God) back into full-time church ministry (gulp.)  That sounds easy enough, but life is complicated.  I have an amazing  job, that I love.  I’m not just typing that.  I love my job at Kentucky Heartland Outreach.  I have an incredible boss, and great employees working for/with me.  There is zero drama, and zero “that’s not my job” attitude.  Everyone seems to enjoy what they do.  I have complete freedom in the areas I am responsible for (no micro-managing.)  It is wonderful.  And now I have decisions to make.  A church has offered me a full-time position in working with students.  This possibility is scary yet exciting.  My life experience causes me to be hesitant, yet I feel that God may be pointing us in that direction.  It is decision making time.  I have came upon an unexpected fork in the road, and I really don’t want to go down either path.  Not because I dislike my options.  My inclination for stillness is because to choose one path I must deny the alternative.  So here I stand.  The directions are quite clear, it’s the destination that is a bit blurry. 
If you are the praying type, please remember my  family when you spend time with our God.  If you aren’t, try it sometime.