A Day in Toronto

We spent a beautiful day in Toronto, Canada today with my brother and his wife and their new boy, Hayden. We went to Toronto Island Park and then Sara and I went to the rotating 360 Restaurant at the top of the CN Tower to celebrate our 17th anniversary – it was very cool! (Especially the glass floor!) Here are some photo highlights from the day. If you see an emphasis on the Blue Jay’s Roger’s Centre, it is because my brother, Jordan Bastian, covers the team for MLB.com. (Tomorrow I’ll be going to a game with some Canadian friends!) Reminder: Clicking on any image on my blog loads a larger view. Luke arrives in Toronto! Luke checking out the Canadian National Tower! (CN Tower) Luke and Mommy on our walk to Toronto Island Park Luke enjoys the Ferry Ride Luke is quite used to putting up with all Daddy’s pictures! But-cha gotta admit, this is one cute kid! Contemplating the Vast Needs of the City A Steeple Pointing Toward the Answers from Heaven? Once on the island a Car Ride is discovered! So is a high flying lift across the park! But later Luke says his favorite ride was…

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Adoption

On this Father’s Day, I’d like to give you 12 reasons you should consider adoption: The only thing greater than being a Dad is knowing you are giving a home to a child who otherwise wouldn’t being enjoying the life you are providing. Enjoy this video highlight from my Father’s Day, we had a great day just enjoying each other. Truly every day is Father’s Day for me, after waiting 15 years to be a dad, I am soaking in each moment with my son. But in this case, the soaking, was quite literal, as you shall see! Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there, and a special greeting to my dad, who I did a blog tribute to a few years ago that is as true as ever!

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Seventeen Years Ago Today

Seventeen years ago today I said, “I do!” But that was seven years after seeing her picture during my junior year of high school in a missionary slide show and deciding to write her a letter! Soon we were pen pals and an overseas friendship began from Chicago to Manila long before the Internet would have made it much easier to write back and forth. Each letter took two weeks to be answered so we maintained at times up to ten separate conversations as letters crisscrossed the globe. Eventually, I developed a growing love for the, uh, Filipino people, (yeah, that’s it!) and asked her father if I could come to the Philippines and be, uh, mentored by him during the summer after I graduated high school. Perhaps suspecting my ulterior motive, he requested I get a year of Bible college first before I could come as part of his mission’s summer intern program.I figured that was better than working for him for seven years and being given her ugly sister in marriage, and since she didn’t have a sister, the year of Bible college requirement seemed safe. So off to Moody Bible Institute I went. (I was going anyway,…

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Super Dad? Maybe Not.

Recently while in a store they had Superman Returns playing on a giant TV to encourage visitors to relax and try out their furniture. While I wasn’t too nuts about the film, my good friend Brent Peak had recent argued with me that the opening airplane sequence was one of the best cinematic scenes ever filmed, so after making sure no one was looking, I re-winded the DVD to that scene and Luke and I kicked back and watched it while mom shopped. Brent was right. Luke loved it and asked to watch it over and over! Then yesterday, I was wearing a Superman shirt and Luke pointed at me and said, “Look, Dad, you’re a hero!” Bursting with pride, I put my fists on my sides like the Man of Steel and puffed out my chest, standing as tall and dignified as I could and proclaimed, “Yes, I am Super Dad, flying around saving airplanes in distress!” in reference to the movie clip we’d watched since that’s all he really knows of Superman. My four year old took one look at me and said, “Well, maybe toy airplanes Dad,” and went back to playing. I wasn’t too crushed. It…

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CM Tele Summit – Your FREE From Home Conferene

If you have ever complained about the cost of conferences, or trimmed budgets, or travel costs or any other reason why you couldn’t get quality training – well, it’s time to quit yer belly-achin’ and sign up for the 100% free CM Tele Conference where you can get TOP NOTCH training from 16 Kidmin trainers without even leavin’ your home! Yup, I’m doing a Workshop! My workshop is on Tuesday, June 22nd, at 11am (Eastern Standard Time) and is titled Proactive Leadership. I will be expanding on my current Children’s Ministry Magazine Professional Edition series that kicked off with this article available here. This workshop is completely NEW and not available anywhere else! It’s June 21-22 – Registration is Required, but it’s FREE! You do need to register, but then all you do is dial up and listen to the workshops that interest you. You’ll also have the option of purchasing the entire conference in MP3 format afterward as well. And it gets even better! Most of the speakers are providing exclusive deals and even give aways that you can get only during the week of the CM Tele Conference, and Kidology is no exception! Kidology Teleseminar Special The Kidology…

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