So clearly I am LOUSY at keeping up to date with my blog… I would love to say that it is simply because I am sooooo busy that it just slips my mind! But I think the truth be told it just slips my mind! However if you were ever to look at my journals for the past 10 odd years you would realize that I am bad at keeping up to date with that as well. I will go like a month or so and realize I haven’t journaled and then brain dump for a few pages… I know that the “ideal” way to keep my life updated and have the freshest memories and feelings is to, keep all of theses things updated on lets say a weekly basis… but I think for the moment I do better when I just do it at random!
So lets see… since the last time I updated was oh …. August there has to have been a million things happening!!
So this year in Schweinfurt has been good so far! The high school joining with the Bamberg high school has gone fairly well! There have been bumps but over all there wasn’t too much blood shed! Working with the club staff in Bamberg has also been fantastic!! It has been really nice to have more then just sara and I holding down club. This year due to the joining of the two schools, club attendance on a weekly basis has been on the upside of 40!! Which is totally a God thing!!
Middle school … I love middle school students, I love their energy and their joy for life!! Club this year has been a building process!!! For the first month of so turn out was not the best…. But as of right before Christmas we had about 15 students hanging out. I had one of the best conversations with a middle schooler that made me laugh simply because of how it turned out!
It went something like this… a middle school boy told me that Club was stupid and he didn’t want to be a part of it, when I asked him how he knew that club was stupid even when he had never been there before, he response was “it just is!” however 3 days later he came to club and had a blast! So much so that the next day at school he asked me if it would be ok if he came to the next one, and he was concerned that he was going to the states for 3 weeks and wanted to make sure that he would still be able to come to club once he got back!
Middle schoolers do make me laugh!! We are just now entering into the crazy busy half of our year. Sara and I refer to this part of the year as being the never-ending sprint! Pretty much ever month I have a trip with and without students. I will be traveling from Spain to the Czech republic and down to Italy twice. As well as several different places in Germany. I will TRY to be better about keeping this up to date but there are no guarantees!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sunday, August 31, 2008
a glimps of life
ok so i took this apologetics class last week and we focused a lot of our time on these things called targums. which basically are when you take scripture and update it and add background information to make what the bible says relivant for a certain group of people at a certain time. so i wrote one to go along with 1st Corinthians 15:58 which reads:
"“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" and i kind of liked it so i am going to post it. it gives you an idea of what life working with teens, in particular military teens can be like. i hope you enjoy!
To my fellow CLUB beyond leaders, those serving in Europe, on army, navy and air force bases remember whom we serve. In this military culture where orders come from the chaplains and commanders, where DODs schools have the ability to shut us out of the High School and the Middle School, and you are constantly questioned for why you are here, remember that God has placed you on your base for a reason! When you get a week where all you hear is; “no, show me that in writing”, “we can’t afford it” and “explain to me again why the fellowship hall won’t work as the Club room”. Remember that it is Christ who we serve. It is in the smiles and laughter of the students when you see them at school, sporting events, plays, the PX and commissary.
We have taken on a tough job, but one that is eternally important! As we submerge ourselves in this military culture where we find ourselves confused by the acronyms and ALL the paper work, jump through the hoops with joy! Serve the chaplains with joy and humility, we are treading on their turf, they are allowing us to do the job that needs to be done to reach the teens of the communities.
For all the moving we do along with the solider, for uprooting your family and shipping your possessions half way around the world, for owning a home in the states at the same time paying rent in Euros for a much smaller apartment in Europe, in everything be confident in Christ! He will never ask more of you than you can give. He may push you to the point where the only place you can be is on your knees, but remember he will never leave you or forsake you.
For the weeks where sleep is scarcest, where you are cold and muddy, where you have spent days physically hauling mud out of the back yard of a church and all you want to do is not pay for a hot shower and enter into a warm dry cabin, and instead you get a student who is asking the tough questions of life, rejoice in that!!! Embrace those conversations! Encourage the questions, climb over the wall that’s students throw up to avoid the tough questions they just don’t want to answer, push through. Keep on loving the hard to love kids! The ones who at best cuss you out, and at worse ignore you completely. Its for the moment when all you have been telling them clicks, you see it in their eyes as the truth of Gods love sticks, takes hold and they embrace it as their own! It no longer becomes something some adult is telling them but it truly becomes their truth and reality. It’s in moments like that that your momentary struggles are completely forgotten in the awesome reality of the Power and Love of Christ.
"“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" and i kind of liked it so i am going to post it. it gives you an idea of what life working with teens, in particular military teens can be like. i hope you enjoy!
To my fellow CLUB beyond leaders, those serving in Europe, on army, navy and air force bases remember whom we serve. In this military culture where orders come from the chaplains and commanders, where DODs schools have the ability to shut us out of the High School and the Middle School, and you are constantly questioned for why you are here, remember that God has placed you on your base for a reason! When you get a week where all you hear is; “no, show me that in writing”, “we can’t afford it” and “explain to me again why the fellowship hall won’t work as the Club room”. Remember that it is Christ who we serve. It is in the smiles and laughter of the students when you see them at school, sporting events, plays, the PX and commissary.
We have taken on a tough job, but one that is eternally important! As we submerge ourselves in this military culture where we find ourselves confused by the acronyms and ALL the paper work, jump through the hoops with joy! Serve the chaplains with joy and humility, we are treading on their turf, they are allowing us to do the job that needs to be done to reach the teens of the communities.
For all the moving we do along with the solider, for uprooting your family and shipping your possessions half way around the world, for owning a home in the states at the same time paying rent in Euros for a much smaller apartment in Europe, in everything be confident in Christ! He will never ask more of you than you can give. He may push you to the point where the only place you can be is on your knees, but remember he will never leave you or forsake you.
For the weeks where sleep is scarcest, where you are cold and muddy, where you have spent days physically hauling mud out of the back yard of a church and all you want to do is not pay for a hot shower and enter into a warm dry cabin, and instead you get a student who is asking the tough questions of life, rejoice in that!!! Embrace those conversations! Encourage the questions, climb over the wall that’s students throw up to avoid the tough questions they just don’t want to answer, push through. Keep on loving the hard to love kids! The ones who at best cuss you out, and at worse ignore you completely. Its for the moment when all you have been telling them clicks, you see it in their eyes as the truth of Gods love sticks, takes hold and they embrace it as their own! It no longer becomes something some adult is telling them but it truly becomes their truth and reality. It’s in moments like that that your momentary struggles are completely forgotten in the awesome reality of the Power and Love of Christ.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Settled
I had this thought last night… it was a weird thought and one I am not sure how to deal with. For the first time in probably 10 years I am at a place in my life where I content… there is no waiting for something better to come, there is no wishing I could be doing something different. I am completely at peace and I am not sure how to deal with that. I know that must sound weird but it’s the truth! For so long I have been waiting for something better. Waiting for school to end, waiting to live someplace I really like, waiting for a job I love, just waiting.
The past couple of years it has been that feeling of not knowing what’s next that keeps me awake at night. I would daydream about the perfect job in the perfect place and how my life was suppose to be going. But now, when I try to imagine up a better place to be in my life I really cant do it. I mean there are things I would change, even now, but in general I completely at peace and I really like this feeling.
If I could change how I felt for the past 10 years would I?.... no I think not. Without the struggle to figure out where I am suppose to be I a) wouldn’t be where I am today b) not appreciate what I have now and most importantly c) would not have learned how to trust God the way I do.
So for all of you who are at the end of high school, or in college and struggling with the feeling of unrest and uncertainty take it from me, it does get better. And for as frustrating as life can get…. The timing of God is never what we expect and always for our good.
“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands”.
~Psalms 31:14-15
I had this thought last night… it was a weird thought and one I am not sure how to deal with. For the first time in probably 10 years I am at a place in my life where I content… there is no waiting for something better to come, there is no wishing I could be doing something different. I am completely at peace and I am not sure how to deal with that. I know that must sound weird but it’s the truth! For so long I have been waiting for something better. Waiting for school to end, waiting to live someplace I really like, waiting for a job I love, just waiting.
The past couple of years it has been that feeling of not knowing what’s next that keeps me awake at night. I would daydream about the perfect job in the perfect place and how my life was suppose to be going. But now, when I try to imagine up a better place to be in my life I really cant do it. I mean there are things I would change, even now, but in general I completely at peace and I really like this feeling.
If I could change how I felt for the past 10 years would I?.... no I think not. Without the struggle to figure out where I am suppose to be I a) wouldn’t be where I am today b) not appreciate what I have now and most importantly c) would not have learned how to trust God the way I do.
So for all of you who are at the end of high school, or in college and struggling with the feeling of unrest and uncertainty take it from me, it does get better. And for as frustrating as life can get…. The timing of God is never what we expect and always for our good.
“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands”.
~Psalms 31:14-15
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