Relaxing Weekend (save for absence of aubrey)

So, this past weekend was relaxing, after feeling completely wiped from a full week of late nights and early mornings. I'm thankful for the Hulls. Here's some fun pics...for some reason I don't have one of Carol...who is quite the excellent cook. The only thing missing this weekend was Aubrey. It would be complete if she was here.

here's the box car kids. they're crazy.
and here's the cutest face ever...
And of course, hanging Brian himself has been quite dandy. He's a good friend. A good one. I think I'm lucky.

Also you should check out this cool conversation on his blog. Click on his picture and get sent to it.

Also, I hung out with an old friend from VA, Jeff Edmonson today. It was quite fun. He took me on a tour of the Nazarene Publishing House, showing me the printing presses and the massive folders. It was amazing!

adventures on the plaza 2

this is for aubrey

this was quite reminiscent of fountains in rome...

this is a guy i met. quite friendly, but slightly cold.

this is a waterway. hm. water.and this is another mosaic. lots of the around. not sure what a knight is doing chasing foxes in the plains of america...

adventures on the plaza 3

So, if you want a chronological turn of these pages, go to the first adventures and then the second adventures.

can't resist the gelato. too much like our time in rome.

unfortunately this gelati had a hole in the bottom of the cone, which left me leaking all the way around the plaza. so much leakage that i threw it away. it made my hands too messy to be sociable.

and another cool tile painting. i felt like stealing this one, i liked it so much.
i thought this was cute, and as aubs and i are preparing for the maternal and paternal roles, these things stand out to me more and more.
Ah. Nothing like finding Neptune hard at work among the traffic of an American city.
A store completely dedicated to cheese! What could be better? (beside having Aubs here)
dancing penquins. cute.
and aubrey likes doors, so i thought this was cool.
and more tile work. this kind of stuff is everywhere down here.

While all this stuff was great, it was not quite the same alone.

I can't wait to be back with Aubrey and the baby next week.

adventures on the plaza

So brian was kind enough to show me to the plaza in KC yesterday. after a sweet lunch at PF Changs (a chinese bistro, interesting combo) with dave and brian, brian turned me loose on the plaza, which i explored for a bit. below you will find some pictures of my adventures.

this is the original four faced fountain in KC, which started the fountain revolution.

KC is known as "city of fountains" and is also known for it's unique artwork.

I actually forgot the name of this fountain, but i loved it. it's to the left of the four faced fountain. Below you'll find individual pics of the horseback riders.


each of the riders was in great detail and portrayed a heated struggle with some type of beast.

this is one of the main streets of the plaza. the buildings have very unique architecture, playing off of italian and spanish themes.

prayer

why is it easier to tell others about times when i've prayed and been frustrated with God's response than about times where God has touched my life?

Chechen Brutality

Can you say middle ages?

This account is humiliating. A story that makes you wonder how humanity can get to this level and makes you hope for redemption and grace.

In reading Romans, I think I finally get chapter 5. Evil can never increase to the amount that grace will not be able to surmount it. Grace always goes beyond evil. From the beginning, love created the world and remakes the world, while evil can only destroy. As Rob Bell says, "love wins."

Let's pray for that in this story...

Again, you may need a NYTimes free account to view the article and video.

ah the joy of a camera and grandpa glasses

some pics from the KC

it's the academic building!
it's the frontside of the academic building!

it's my bed!

well, i've enjoyed the experience already. of course i love staying with the hulls. their hospitality blows me away. and i've already met some people who are of like mind and heart here. and i've met a dude who can give me a ride all the way back to Olathe.

it's odd, b/c i remember being here with my dad...20 years ago...

seminary begins...

and so it begins...

today marks the first day of seminary learning and shaping for me.

the first class: Evangelism Through the Local Church with Lyle Pointer

the texts:

Reaching Generation Next by Lewis Drummond
Building a Contagious Church by Mark Mittelberg
Evangelism in Everyday Life by Lyle Pointer and Jim Dorsey
Better than Imagined by Lyle Pointer

stated objectives:

1. to possess a working knowledge of a Gospel presentation
2. to grasp the NT principles of evangelism
3. to articulate the relationship of the church to the world
4. to grasp the sociological aspects of church growth
5. to attempt to lead someone to Jesus Christ and to nurture that convert
6. to think critically and prayerfully about one's personal philosophy and practice of evangelism

i'm very interested to see what's going to happen through this course and to see how i will be shaped, especially in light of our conversations on Christianity Rediscovered...

Child Labor Story: Alone

This is a well-done portrait of the awful child labor saga happening in Africa.

Listen to the commentary on the pictures. You might need a free membership to view them, but it's worth it.

It's a story about a 9 year old boy named Alone who lives with his grandma and crushes stones to make sure he and his grandma can live. It takes him about 3 weeks to make $3.00 from crushing stones into powder.

He has one toy: an aluminum cover of an auto air filter.

Only the Royals...

How could this happen?

another friend giving some brilliance...

so check out my friend's blog.

i like him.

I tried to convert an axe murderer last night...

So it started with a group of us going to a horror movie. Oddly enough, the movie was playing in a trailer. One of those trailers that litter the grounds of overpacked high schools. While we were watching the movie we felt the trailer start to rise from the ground. We looked out the window and we were looking through teeth into the throat of a ginormous T-rex.

It was at this moment that I realized I needed to get these people out of the trailer and to safety. So I proceeded to tell everybody to "Get OOOUUUT!!!" And we all stumble and fall out of the trailer, which the T-rex finishes off with loud crunches.

As we run, we see men coming at us with all sorts of yard maintenance tools. We thought they were coming for us, but then they went past us to the T-rex. Thank God for men with lawn maintenance experience.

But before we got away we realized that some of the men had begun to chase us. I quickly told all the people to run and went another direction, pulling apart the group of lawn maintenance murderers.

After outrunning most of the men, I turned and saw that there was still one fast on my heels. And he was weilding an axe. Angrily. Angrily holding and waving the axe. At me.

Then I remembered something my wife had told me. "Whenever you are being attacked by an uknown person, ask them their name. That way you will throw them off and make it personal."

So I did that. As I ran.

"What's your name?"

Footsteps. No words.

"What's your name?" I ask again.

"Luke," I hear through the heavy breathing.

"Oh Luke. I love that name. Have you ever heard of Luke Skywalker or the Luke guy in the Bible?"

I hear the axe swinging at me and turn and dodge it. He's too close to turn and run again.

I look him in the eye as he swings the axe again. I grab the axe. Looking into his eyes I say, "Both of those men, the other Luke's, had experiences where they had to choose good over bad. Both of those men chose to become better men. What are you choosing, Luke? You can be so much more than this."

I wrestle a little more and yank the axe from him.

I wake up. I wish I had finished my dream...but I didn't.

Off to camp this week

I'm off at camp this week, so I'll leave you a picture of my dearest roadside companion, who I see every day on my way to work. Enjoy.

Pick me!

So, we took the youth group to the river the past two days. Tuesday we took the high school hooligans and yesterday we took the junior high jacks. Whew, what fun it is to be on the river, tubing and swimming in the hottest days of the summer. most of the kids came back looking like tomatoes...

but there was a cool story in the middle of all this.

it started on Monday. I was sitting at the table after dinner with Aubrey when I got a call from one of the parents of a middle school boy. From the conversation I learned that his son was scared to come to youth group activities because of another boy who had "bullied" him. it had gotten so bad that his son didn't even want to come to the River Day. I did the usual "well, I'm sorry about this. I'll have a conversation with him" type thing and that was that.

Then yesterday, the boy came in and saw the "bully" and immediately clung to his mother and said, "I knew he would be here. I can't do this." His mom told him to hang in there and to give it a chance. End of story as far as I know.

Later that day while we were all swimming, he comes up to me. He says, "remember what my dad said to you on the phone the other day?"

I said, "Yeah. Is everything okay?"

He said, "yeah, it's over now. I'm OK."

I got curious at this point. "Why's it over?"

"because he picked me to be in his group."

And that was that. All that had to happen was for that kid to feel like he belonged. I know the other kid, the supposed bully, only picked him to be in his group because he needed 6 other people in his group in order to go swimming first. I know that the scared kid was the last to be picked. but he was picked!

Oh the power of including others...

Vacation Foto Time 2

And now more photos...

Me and my sis, Susan, before she heads off to work...she's cool.

Aub's family came and visited on friday...quite the fun time. That's Mark and Diana right there.

This is a scary photo of my parents, but fun anyway. Not sure what are in my mother's hands. Oh yeah, those are crispy crappy hotdogs. And in her other hand is the pasta salad we ate all week. Thank God for leftovers.

This is me during our levitation ceremony. I got pretty high before my mom broke her concentration and dropped me 10 feet onto the deck.

Actually, this is me jumping into the great river. Boy, what a riot. I actually did this jump like 5 times before we got the actual air shot. Not that I am complaining... And this is Mark on the kayak that we bent in half trying to empty it of the water we had logged in it.

Vacation Foto Time

So here are the first few selected pics from vacation...

here's dad walking down our dock. notice the lilly pads...at high tide they're almost covered, and at low tide, they stand about 4-5 feet above the water.

Aubrey and I chillaxing on the tube...trying not to get taken away by the current.

my huge catch.

my catch beside my dad's catch.

all of us, besides sue (somebody had to take the picture), hanging...and the sunset...

what a beautiful day.

vacation is awesome.

Book Review and Recommendation

So I've journeyed into reading a book written by a friend of my father, and now a friend of mine, Jeff Edmondson.

The Premise:

We are all called by God to something that takes guts. Through prayer, scripture reading, asking friends, and obedience, we will find our place in God's great story, carrying out his dream for the world.

The Highs:

I loved his stories. Jeff does an excellent job at getting to the point through bringing the Bible to life. It felt a little like Ray Vander Lann's 'Echo's of His Presence' at times.

Having questions at the end of each chapter, allows the reader to really engage with the concepts that Edmondson is putting out there. And most of the time, the questions weren't cheesy (always a fear)! They took the reader farther.

I felt that Edmondson offered quite a bit of hope for all of us, in following the way of Jesus.

In dealing with the question of evil, Jeff doesn't try to give exact reasons for the source, just that it happens. he doesn't try to pass it off on others or put all the blame on me and you, but says the real test is what we do with what we're given.

The Lows:

I think the main point of it all, found in chapter 12, was delivered too late. The main point is this: "Everything must be filtered through love of God and our neighbor." I wish that this had come up before the closing of the book.

Best Quote:

"God is looking for those with the guts to allow him to move in during tragic times, to bring healing to pain and suffering, to bring love to the unloved, to bring justice to the maligned. He is searching for those who, during their times of weakness, will turn to Him, allowing Him to show His incredible compassion for their situation. God is looking for those who will choose to allow Him to prove how powerful He actually is. He's desperately seeking those who will free Him to display His perfected power during their times of weakness."

Who I'd give it to:

Graduating High School Seniors

Peeps in their 20's who are trying to figure out where to go in life

Anybody who likes Jeff Edmondson

Small Group Leaders

Mission Week Last Week, Vacation This Week

So last week, had a dandy time with our youth in york and this week am hoping for a relaxing time with the family in VA.

July 4th Celebrations

Here are a few pics from our time with my dad and his brother's family on Tuesday. Ah the joy of having meals (check Jordan's blog on this one) and making funny faces for the digital camera.

We're thankful for our family and the time we get to spend together.