Before I made my way to the beach, I spent a couple of days in Washington D.C. I went to spend some time with my wonderful aunt, see my cousin I had not seen in years, and meet her beautiful daughter (my baby cousin). It was a great few days. I had some amazing conversations with my aunt and cousin. I went and saw some of the monuments, which would have been more fun if I hadn’t rolled my ankle early on in the day. I’m such a klutz. I needed to spend time with my family. It was great.

After DC, I made my way south to the beach. This place is beautiful! I haven’t done much while I’ve been here, but isn’t that the point? Sure there are times that I want to pick up my computer and “get to work”, but I am learning that I need to trust God during this time of rest.

Ways you can join me in prayer during this time:

1. That God will show me what’s next. Next for me and Jill, and next for the youth ministry.
2. That this time of rest will be energizing for me when I get back.
3. I will trust God even during this time away. I have heard about a few things back home that I would normally want to be around to voice my input or help out with, but I cannot be there.

Be back soon!

Here’s a little bit about the second step of my trip for your learning and enjoyment. 

Wednesday morning I woke up and made the long drive from Indiana, through Ohio to Beaver Falls, PA. It was a very interesting drive, but long. I made it to Chippewa Evangelical Free Church to speak to Ryan, their youth pastor. We had a great time talking about what they do in their youth ministry and why. Then later I was able to sit in on their  jr. high group. I was really impressed. A couple of things I thought they did very well.

1. They go out of their way to communicate how much they love the students.
2. They work extremely hard at making the atmosphere at youth group feel like a family gathering.
3. They had all sorts of people involved in making the night happen. All ages of leaders, jr. high students leading worship and running sound and video. It was great!

I was really impressed with Ryan, his leaders and what they are doing at Chippewa.

This morning I got to sleep in a little bit before jumping back on the road and heading to Hershey, PA. Yes! I did buy some chocolate! I got to spend the day with an old friend of mine, Dave, who is the youth pastor at Hershey Evangelical Free. It was great to reconnect, but it was even better to hear what they are doing and then getting to experience it at their high school youth group night. It was great to see Dave in action. Here are some things that I think they are doing really well.

1. Investing in the volunteer leaders! I could see that Dave is very intentional in helping them succeed.
2. Dave is direct, and they are not afraid to address issues some are, and they are not afraid of the doubts that students might have.
3. I don’t think I have ever seen a group that has branded itself so well. It was seriously cool!
4. Back to the leaders. Many of them were not your stereotypical youth leaders, but were a little older and extremely caring.

It has been a great couple of days. I have learned a lot. I have been encouraged by some of what I have heard because I think we are doing some good things. But there has been one thing that has been sticking out to me through both of these experiences… LEADERS. I am realizing how much work I need to do to show my current leaders how much I appreciate them, how hard I need to work to get more adults involved (so if I come talking to you, be prepared!), and how important it is to train and equip them to succeed! I have lots of work to do!

On a side note, I’m thinking we should consider changing the name of our youth ministry. Just thinking. Any ideas?

Anywho. Tomorrow I head to Washington DC to spend some time with family, which is really needed right now. Thanks for reading, and thanks for praying.

Well, Sunday I officially started my sabbatical. Jill and I went to Westwind Church in Waukee, IA where my friend Brandon Barker is one of the founding pastors. I have been wanting to visit and encourage Brandon as much as he has been an encouragement to me. It was a great time, and the message was great. You should check it out! That evening was really weird because I knew that youth group was going on across the parking lot, and I wasn’t there. It was a good lesson for me in letting go and letting God be in control.

Yesterday I began my journey west. I started my trip by stopping in Morton, IL to visit my good friends, Phil and Josh. These two guys have been a couple of my closest friends since the fall of 1993 when I started at Moody Bible Institute. We had a great time of sharing what is going on in our lives and ministries, encouraging each other and laughing. I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time. I needed to see them.

This morning I took a short detour from my schedule and went to Lafayette, IN where I connected with my old roommate from college, Tony, who is a children’s ministry pastor at a church near San Diego. He was at a conference, and it worked perfectly for us to spend a little time together catching up. While I was waiting for him, I ran into another old friend, Mike, unexpectedly. It was great to see him too. My afternoon meeting was cancelled due to unexpected family issues for the guy I was going to meet with, but that allowed me to rest for a little bit and then head up to Upland, IN and Taylor University where I got to spend a little bit of time with Sara, who graduated from our ministry last year. It was so nice to see her and listen to what God is doing in her life. I’m proud of her.

So, my original plans went out the window today, but it turned into a great day of connecting with old friends. It was a great day! I’m beginning to realize how many wonderful people God has put into my life throughout the years, and it was a blessing to reconnect with them. I need to do a better job of connecting with them more often.

Tomorrow I head to Pennsylvania, and hopefully my plans to meet with different youth pastors will get back on schedule. I’ll keep you updated!

Things you can pray for:

• Safe travel
• Sleep. I have trouble sleeping on the road.

Over the past 11 years, I have grown to love Jill more and more. I have seen her grow into a wonderful and beautiful woman. She is incredibly talented, extremely generous, deeply loving, and so patient.

There are two situations that I love watching Jill the most. The first is with her sisters. They laugh, they argue, the laugh some more. She loves them so much and when they all get together, I know she feels “right”. The second place is when she is with teenagers. When we first started dating, she wasn’t too interested in working with teenagers, and I told her that she didn’t have to, but she needed to understand that it was my passion. She gave them a chance, and now I think she loves them more than I do. I love watching her laugh, and hug them. I love how excited she is to see them. She cares for them, she prays for them, and she desperately wants them to know and follow Jesus.

I’m still a loser.

Each year has brought new and sometimes “challenging” experiences, but I know that I want to spend the rest of my life going through these storms with her.

Jill, I am so thankful for you, and how you love God, and how you love me. Happy Anniversary Baby!

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of us.

We were so young, but we are still beautiful.

This was on our 9th anniversary that we celebrated in Puerto Rico on a missions trip.

Last year I got myself a new DSLR camera. I really like it. I can take awesome looking photos, and it shoots HD video as well. But this is not a review on my Canon T2i, this post is about a new challenge I am on. It’s simple. In an attempt to grow in my photography skills, I am taking photos each day for the next year and then posting the one I like best online for all to see. I won’t blog every one of the photos, but you can follow along by going to my Flickr site. I would love you input on the pictures.

Here’s the first one.

I went down to the river in town with my new Sigma 3omm lens, and my new Lightcraft Workshop Fader ND trying to learn how to use the ND and a slow shutter speed to get the water to look “fluffy”. I found this tree that looked like it was ripped out of the ground roots and all. What do you think?

What do you think? Does this explain the Gospel well?

I also keep track of when each student’s birthdays is, and I send them a birthday card. They are simply a design I create and print on regular 4×6 photo paper and mail as a postcard. Each year I come up with a new design for the birthday card. So, instead of hoarding these graphics, I thought I would make them available to anyone that might want to use them. There are 6 different designs. I hope you can get some use from them. ZIP FILE

It was a very emotional time for my family.

I love Dropbox, and if you don’t use it, you should. It has been a great find for me. What I do now is whenever we have an event, trip or retreat coming up, I put all the forms people might need in my public folder of my Dropbox. I make each file a PDF so that anyone can use it. I put all these files on our youth group website, but sometimes people forget, so this is where my iPhone has made things awesome.

A couple of months ago we were getting ready for our high school winter retreat, so I was starting to get calls and texts about getting a brochure (which I mailed to everyone, but that’s another post about responsibility). One day I was sitting in a little rural church waiting for a funeral to start when I got a text asking about a registration form. I went to the Dropbox app on my iPhone, I copied the link to the registration form, then I went to the Facebook app and sent her a message with the link in it, then text her back and told her to go to her Facebook to get the form. It took me a total of three minutes (only because I wasn’t in a 3G area).

Sign up for Dropbox, install the Dropbox app on your phone, and start using it to get information to those who need it. I know that there are lots of ways to do this, and I would love to hear how you do it. This has been a great way for me to get information to students when I am on the go.

Side note: I have also started to try out CloudApp with the iPhone app, Cloudette. It seems to work the same, and allows me to use more of my Dropbox space for other files.