What?? Hey, I’m not married- if I want to call this a family addition then… 
It’s too dark out to take a real photo, but this it what it looks like. Finally a car- a 2009 Hyundai Elantra. The bad news? Insurance is about 50% more for this than for my Metro. Oh, well.
Coming soon: last weekend’s event when I am not so tired. Have to be up early tomorrow too…
Or three strikes and you’re out, but I prefer the title saying better. It is midway through the year of my third stint at being an AWANA leader. Some time ago, when I was still subbing, I was asked by family to break off a bit from the kids. After all, I was doing drama and serving in 4th and 5th grade on the weekends then working all week in K-8 classrooms. Not wanting to get rid of the weekend service, I dropped AWANA after the year was over.
This year things have been a little different but very much the same. Originally, 3rd-4th grade were known as Pals (boys) and Chums (girls) while 5th (normally 6th too, but at our church 6th grade is junior high and they don’t do AWANA) were known as Pioneers (boys) and Guards (girls). I believe it was during time #2 that the switch was made to T in T: Truth in Training for all three grades, boys and girls. One year I worked with Sparks (K-2) but the rest of the time has been with 3rd-5th grade. Would you believe the kindergarten Sparkies from that year are in 8th grade now? Time does fly. Other differences this year include keeping points for my team- kind of a pain with over 15 boys, mostly 3rd and 4th grade though I do have one or two 5th-graders- and game time is no longer the normal circle games, though at the beginning of the year we did do them. Now we switch off between double-kickball (two balls, two kickers, one set of bases) and dodge-ball.
Last night was crazy hat night. Every week has some sort of theme with varying levels of participation- last week was ugly sweater night and few participated. Wristwatch night also seemed to be on the light side. Hat night must have been easier as there was much participation. Conservative, childless me didn’t have a hat anywhere near crazy status and I didn’t have time to think about it anyway since I arrived home from work after six and had to be at the church at 6:30. There were of course Dr. Seuss hats among the fare, a mohawk hat, a creative lad wearing two Civil War hats representing both Union and Confederate sides, and another one wearing stacked baseball hats. I am slightly chuffed to say the winner came from my own team, though of course I had nothing to do with it myself. Cole wore the same hat he always wears to AWANA- he usually leaves it on all night except for prayer- but over that he had on a full Air Force pilot helmet, meaning not just the helmet but the breathing apparatus as well. Technically not a hat, but it did go on the head, so… He informed me one of his relatives was in the Air Force. If he went to this church on the weekend (he attends a different church- he came as another’s friend one week and signed up after that) he would fit right in at camp this summer and the winter retreat the following January- next year will be the military theme once again.
Anyway, speaking of winter retreat, *this* year’s retreat is tomorrow night and it is now after 11PM. Time to hit the sack so I will have at least some rest for it. And perhaps a blog post afterward. Please pray for us this weekend- 24 hours from Friday 7PM to Saturday 7PM.
Well, sort of. Also a celebration that my blog is working again! Anyway, just a video I laughed to today- apparently crows like winter sports too…
This is a video I think all ought to see. I am not going to say anything about it other than it focuses on a topic that is rather controversial among the population. I don’t want to say any more lest I cause someone who might come across this to put on blinders before even watching (I don’t believe my regular readers would do such a thing). This site will put it in a somewhat small window- I would encourage you to actually go to the main site: 180movie.com to watch it, or select the 720p version and make it full-screen.
There is a parental advisory on this for disturbing images. Running time is about 33 minutes.
More on my life soon, but in the meantime I saw this and just *had* to post it here considering the season, the animal people some of my readers are, and- oh just watch it already! 
I give you…
Over the years I have wondered if I actually have any emotions. Besides anger. When my grandparents, one by one, passed away (one is still alive at about 90) I know I should have felt more than I did. I’m embarrassed to say that even when I lost my father I didn’t grieve overly much, though maybe that’s because of how he died. It wasn’t sudden but spread out over weeks. I guess I did experience more during the drawn out days, but never the extent that I often see in others.
No one passed away this time, so what’s going on? Well, it started the weekend before last. Eight days ago. Following the message by our campus pastor (the senior pastor was on sabbatical and returned this past weekend) the associate pastor went up to give an announcement. A very discouraging announcement. It would be inappropriate for me to go into the details but it turned out our children’s pastor, a man who I called friend for several years now had to resign and was gone from our campus. I had just spoken to him the week before, as had many people, and we never knew what would become the basis of the announcement. Nothing illegal by the way, so don’t let your thoughts go there friends.
So he is suddenly gone and I may never see him again. I do know from what another pastor mentioned during our children’s leadership meeting that he and his wife are doing okay, attending another church, and definitely in contact with at least that one pastor. The discussion about him, the “elephant in the room” during a meeting where as far as everyone knew he would be too just eight or nine days prior, was yet an emotional one for our family pastor who will be taking on the duties he gave up to the now-former pastor several years ago once again.
He’s grieving. I’m grieving. But no one died. Yet things won’t be the same. Can I call him? I have his number. I called him friend at church, but I never saw him outside of church. Not appropriate then? I don’t know what I would even say if I called. Perhaps the best thing is what our pastor said to us- just pray for him and his family.
Okay, it’s proven, I have emotion- now when will this feeling go away?
Not mobile data- is that what you were thinking? I have a 4G phone released this year that’s not really 4G if that says anything about how long we’ll be waiting. No, our church has a regular meeting for all church leaders. This year we had about 400…more leaders than last year attend. One church, six campuses, 15,000 churchgoers. Yes there were a lot of leaders in attendance. Our thing for this year is five Gs. Let’s see if I can remember- the literature is in the car. Growing, giving/generosity, grace, gratitude, and… Okay, four out of five isn’t bad (giving and generosity are the same g). In addition to this upcoming series, our pastor announced a revisit of a past series done about 12 years ago and a new financial drive- no specific dollar amount goal, but something else. We’ll hear more about it soon.
In other church news, I am no longer a Liferock leader but am now a 4th and 5th grade leader. Did I ever name the ministry before? Probably not, but since I have stopped blogging for the most part causing my readership to heavily dwindle, I feel it is now safe to write. Back to topic, the kids ministry decided to dump all names and just refer to the classes by grade. Gone is Rock Solid (preschool ministry) and their climbers, leapers, trekkers, sleepers, and whatnot. Now it’s just nursery 1, nursery 2, preschool 1… (ten preschool classrooms if you can believe it- remember the number of churchgoers I mentioned above…?). Likewise, the separate names for the K-3 and 4/5 ministries have been removed. I’ll learn of whatever other changes they have in store in two weeks when we have are children’s ministry meeting. What this change means is I may be the only one who has served in the complete run of Liferock. The year I started doing kid’s drama at church they had a Friday night ministry for 4th and 5th grades which I did not serve in, but they called that Life on the Rock I just learned. They didn’t change it to Liferock until the following year when they moved the program to the weekends, separating the K-5 ministry into the now current K-3 and 4/5 as referred to earlier. Now that the name has been terminated, I have served from start to finish. How many years was that? Well, my nephew was in 4th grade at the time- he may have attended once or twice. He is now the equivalent of 16th grade. That’s right- a senior at a university. That makes this, what? My 12th year? Yes, I started drama in 1998, so Liferock the following year.
A note to L & C- 4th and 5th grade are quite different from junior high, but it is a real joy to teach those grades and I am sure you will agree. Not the handful younger grades are, but not adolescents pulling away from adult authority either. A perfect age in my opinion.
Blah- 11:00, and I have to get up and drive to Chicago in the morning. I detest driving over there. 30 minutes away in no traffic, so that means over an hour to get to where I need to be. I really wish this job of mine didn’t do business in the City…
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