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 Uncle Jordan’s shoulders. Awwww.
Rainy weather sends us home, but soon clears up.
Soon Daddy and Mommy head out on a date!
The shadow of the Tower looms over the city!
As a Blue Jays game is played BELOW us!
They play into the evening as we eat and the restaurant rotates!
I decide on a possible side job!
The outside observatory is spectacular!
(and extremely windy!!)
Soon we are walking home. Babysitter said Luke will be put out in the hallway at midnight whether we are back or not! (Jordan!) Seriously, they were awesome, they took him to the park while we were at the top of the CN Tower. (First two pictures of this post were taken while we were up there!)
Looks like Luke had a great time with his Uncle Jordan!
And Aunt Kelly! Just for fun, here is this train yard from up above:
Yup, we were 1150 feet above them as they played below us!
And then there is one of my favorite pictures of the day. We were walking home from Toronto Island Park when I saw these giant orange letters and I said to the gang, “Hey, we have to go back! There is a giant “H” we have to pose Hayden peeking out from behind the giant “H!” We did get a good solo shot of him, but before first getting one of him with his favorite uncle:
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!
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, just for the record. I didn’t go to Bible college for a girl!) I did date in college, but no girl could compare to my pen pal over the sea, so I wrote to her dad again requesting a summer internship and he relented and let me come. He kept me busy! I did over 80 evangelistic programs in the 60 days I was there, discipled young men and did teacher training, but managed to sneak in some dating time (and a first kiss!) all with her parent’s blessing. (O.K. maybe not the kiss!)
A year later Sara arrived at Moody and was shocked that everyone knew her name, even the President of Moody greeted her by name and said, “You must be Sara!” She was embarrassed by her welcome. Little did she know how well known she was before she arrived. I had even hosted a birthday party for her attended by hundreds of students while she was only a senior in high school! Her picture was on a table while every one ate cake provided by the famous Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s in downtown Chicago where I was the “House Magician” and everyone signed a birthday card which we then mailed to Sara. The largest birthday party of Sara’s life, she wasn’t even at!
We finally got to date like a “normal” couple, fell in love with downtown Chicago, walking for miles along the lake shore, “parking” at romantic spots, and eventually getting engaged at the top of the Prudential Tower where my parents had their wedding dinner (as did we), got married at Moody Church with a horse and buggy ride through downtown Chicago to the tower for dinner.
While marriage isn’t always bliss, it is always a blessing to have a partner and friend to share life with through thick and thin. I have been so blessed that my pen pal has been my life pal now for seventeen years, but truly twenty-four years since she wrote me back! The day I got that first letter, August 26, 1986, I was painting a shed at a side job and my dad drove the letter to me. I put baggies over my hands to open the letter and read it. He knew I wouldn’t want to wait until I got home to read the letter from this beautiful girl overseas. Little did I know, my life would never be the same. She would one day be my wife.
I’m not sure she knew what she was getting in to when she married me – I hope she’d do it again! But as for me, I’d sure marry her again. I’m not anyone else could be as patient with me. I’m not an easy guy to keep up with or put up with. A patient and gracious wife was custom ordered for me. The story of why and how that slide show was even being showed at the church my dad was pastoring is pretty amazing, and not worth the space to type out here – but it was a fluke. Most of Sara’s dad’s supporting churches were in the upper North West of the United States, except for one lone church in Chicago because of a chance encounter that led to one church supporting them, that led to me seeing that slide show.
I think it’s because when a five year old boy starting praying for a wife – heaven went into a panic, and had to start working in overdrive to find a woman who could handle this man, and then once they found her, across the globe, they had to rearrange circumstances so that they could miraculously meet. It was a challenge, but they pulled it off. Sure, they had to use a slide projector and pens and paper and five years of letters, but eventually they met.
And seventeen years ago today, they both said, “I DO!”
If it wasn’t for all you mother’s out there, not only would none of us be here, but our socks wouldn’t match! Our stomachs and our hearts wouldn’t be full, and our boo-boo’s wouldn’t have been kissed. We might have run to dad when we wanted to horse around and play, but we ran to you when we were hurting… even after we grew up.
I miss my Mom. She passed away on Christmas Day, 1996. It look several years for me to stop reaching for the phone after I got a great children’s ministry idea. She was always the first I told it to. Of course, for a long time, I just ran into the kitchen to show it to her. My children ministry career started at age ten when I told my mom I wanted to be a children’s evangelist when I grew up. My mom said, “What’s growing up got to do with anything? You start next Wednesday.” I answered, “But I said, “When I grow up!” Her response was, “If God called you to be a children’s evangelistic, why wait until you grow up?” She coached me through planning my first talk, and I spoke to all the children at Awana the following Wednesday evening. And I’ve never stopped.
I’ve been speaking at a children’s ministry conference all weekend here in Canada and tomorrow morning for Mother’s Day I preach in the Sunday Morning Service. My sermon title ought to be: Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Children’s Ministry I Learned From My Mom.
I am so thankful for a mother who saw past my craziness and energy and hyper-activity and saw only God-given potential. I can remember countless times when she would hold my head between her hands and though exhausted (exasperated even!) she would say to me, “Karl, if you can ever figure out how to focus all this creative energy for God – watch out world.” Even when my creative energy was getting me in trouble, she was instilling in me HOPE that God wired me the way He did for a PURPOSE – that I wasn’t a screw-up – that He made me for a reason! That I would someday help people, even if while I was young it meant getting in trouble for being misunderstood. Today my puppets do the things that once got me in trouble. People buy DVDs of toys doing things that I once got taken away in church. Through Kidology.org and the other things I do, I have so many creative outlets now to equip and encourage other kid ministers and impacts kids, but I had no way of knowing those things then – children’s pastors didn’t even exist then!
But the words of my mom did. And I hung on them, sometimes daily, for hope. I am whatever I am today because my mom believed in me often when no one else did. (and dad too, but hey, it’s mother’s day!)
So for all you mothers out there – I don’t know how you do it all – but my hats off to you!
My four year old is destined to become a judge. He already has a keen sense of justice. Or at least a better sense of mercy than I do.
Yesterday I could not find my shoes. I had gone up and down the stairs and searched every room of the house at least three times. I was managing to keep my grumbling humorous so as to hide the real anger that was mounting inside because I had a four year old following me and offering to help me in my hunt. But the volume and frequency of my complaints were growing even as I kept them light hearted on the surface, since I had impressionable little eyes and ears watching me. But we were eager to out the door and the delay in finding these shoes was delaying us, and I was getting acutely frustrated. (A scene I hope is not limited to our home?)
The shoes that were acquitted
In the end, my shoes were found – in the first floor coat closet – with all daddy’s shoes, right where they belong, just under some other shoes.
As I went to couch to put them on, my little boy behind me, I was eager for an outlet for my bottled up anger, but still wanting to keep things light for my son, and so I found the “perfect” fun solution, and said to Luke, “Let’s spank the bad shoes for making us late” and proceeded to spank one of the shoes for all the frustration it had inflicted upon me for the past 15 minutes and invited my son to spank the other shoe before I put them on.
Then it happened.
My four year old put me to shame.
Luke simply went into an judicial statement such as a Supreme Court Justice would before handing down a judgement in the highest court of the land.
“Daddy, when you come home, and take off your shoes, you are supposed to take off your shoes and put them in the coat closet so they don’t get dirt on the floor and make a mess in the house. That is where the shoes go. So the shoes were in the right place. So they didn’t do anything wrong. So they don’t deserve a spanking. So I’m not going to spank that shoe and you shouldn’t be spanking that other one either.“
And I’m supposed to be the father here! Where did my son get this sense of justice? And for a SHOE? I must be doing something right! I was stunned, but proud.
January 27, 2010 at 8:39 pm · Filed under Family, Luke
Luke is now four years old!
It’s hard to believe, but my little boy that entered my life rather suddenly four years ago, is now a little man.
It was a very special birthday – as we had both sets of grand parents in town. My dad and his wife live in Colorado, and Sara’s parents flew in from California for this special event and to visit for a few weeks.
We took advantage of this unique opportunity and went to a photo studio to get nice photos taken of each of the grandparents with Luke, as well as some shots of mommy and daddy with our little boy.
Lukey was an absolutely sweet heart the entire time and we got some wonderful pictures.
Here is Luke with my dad and his wife Patty…
Luke with Sara’s parents, PJ and Dave…
Here is Luke with all his Grandparents!
I can’t believe Luke is four! Here is the post when we first got luke, looking at those pictures brings back so many memories. When I ask Luke what happened to my “baby Luke” he answers, “He grew up!”
Four is an amazing age! It is the age I asked Jesus in my heart. It is also the age at which I have the earliest memories! So it is an awesome realization that I now begin creating memories for Luke that he might remember his entire life! It is a big part of why I moved to Colorado, I want him to remember mountains and the adventures we will start to have living here.
Obviously, his ability to talk and play and interact is incredible now and growing daily! I am so looking forward to his fourth year!
It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about how I hoped 2009 would be better. And here it is 2010! Aren’t we supposed to riding around on hover boards and beaming from place to place by now? I read that post, and instead of writing a post about my New Year’s Resolutions, I think I can just say “ditto” to that post!
But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that an entire year has passed by when I reflect on all that I accomplished in 2009 – it’s actually quite an astonishing list – no wonder I am so exhausted!
And I wonder why I’m feeling exhausted?! No wonder I wasn’t ready for 2010 to arrive! I usually spend the last week of the year doing evaluation of the year just past and planning for the year to come, but I had some projects culminating and family visiting and am writing at CPC in Nashville (which I really don’t like being right after the new year) so I missed out on my week of margin for reflection and I can really feel it. Just reviewing my blog and making that list above has been very encouraging and eye-opening. For now – I need to survive this week at CPC – finish a few deadlines that still loom over me, and then do the planning and reflecting I wanted to do last week.
I’m excited that 2009 is behind me, and have NO desire to see 2010 “top” last year. In fact, you know what I am MOST excited about in 2010? Starting a guys hiking group here in Colorado for children’s pastors! Yup, I’m calling it “The Fellowship of the King.” (I know it’s corny, but I do like to hike to LOTR music.) I’ve been collecting a list of guys in Colorado, friends and soon-to-be friends via facebook ad twitter, and I’m going to be inviting them to join me hiking around this beautiful state to spend time away from ministry and with God. One thing I learned from Yosemite Summit was that once a year just isn’t often enough to disconnect from normal life and connect with God out in nature with others who share your passions in life. Most of them already know about this and are just waiting for info on the first hike – if you live in Colorado and are a guy – let me know, and I will add you to the list! (No, you do not have to be a children’s pastor or even in ministry to be included. But you may have to endure some worship music, prayer and spiritual conversation if you are not a Christian.)
December 28, 2009 at 9:10 am · Filed under Christmas, Family
Here is the Bastian Christmas Letter 2009:
Dear Family & Friends,
It’s hard to believe, but it was during Christmas last year that I said to Sara, “by this time next year, we won’t be in Illinois.” And here I am, writing to you from Colorado, looking out my window at prairie, cattle & mountains! It was mostly wishful thinking at the time – but a brush with death in April made the idea of moving to Colorado a firm plan! After a big magic show Easter weekend, I felt some chest pain and went to the ER hoping to be told I was fine. Instead, I had a stent put in my heart! That brush with death (and the lightening strike in May) focused my resolve to make what mattered most matter now! I read on a blog a quote by Andy Stanley that I could not get out of my head,
“Everyone ends up somewhere, few end up there on purpose.”
So here we are – on purpose, loving our new home, in a new setting, and a fresh start in a new place! Sara and Luke seem to be enjoying our new surroundings. Luke loves his new neighborhood. For starters, it has sidewalks so he can drive his motorized Ford F-150 to the mailbox which is a block away to get the mail, and we have a community playground and lots of little boys his age in the ‘hood to play with. If you visit, he is eager to show his playroom where his ‘car table’ is the center attraction! Sara has made new friends to bake and shop with and is enjoying exploring the new area and especially that when it does snow, it melts within two days and warm weather returns. (unlike Chicago!) She is enjoying having a new home to set up and decorate and especially hosting guests who visit – and yes, the guest room is always available for you should you be in Denver on business, or even if you plan a visit just to visit us! (hint, hint!)
We have found a church we are attending and I’m volunteering on Christmas Eve with Gus (my puppet) to teach, but otherwise we are just enjoying attending and making friends at this point. People often ask if I am looking to be a children’s pastor again – the answer is I give is that right now I am enjoying being the children’s pastor of ONE little boy named Luke, but yes, in time there is nothing I enjoy more than teaching and pastoring children and it’s probably where my gifts and passions are strongest. But right now my plate is full equipping and encouraging other children’s pastors through Kidology.org – especially with the writing assignments I currently have. But I have a sneaking suspicion that in God’s timing the perfect opportunity will present itself and I look forward to the time when I will get to be a children’s pastor again – and hope that I can teach Kids Church while my son is in grade school – and I look forward to that day, in God’s timing. Until then, I have plenty to do!
God has opened doors for writing a new children’s church curriculum for DiscipleLand.com called DiscipleTown and a column in Children’s Ministry Magazine as well as in their Professional Edition. So I’m learning a lot about working at home and what it means to be an author and managing time and deadlines! It’s not easy, but I’m learning! Keeping my own Kidology deadlines has been challenging since I’m my own boss for those. I’m learning you can’t manage time, – only tasks! If you have kids, they may enjoy my new kids videos at www.objecttalks.com
Be sure to keep up with our family via my blog at Kidologist.com and both Sara and I are active on Facebook. If you are on Twitter, you can follow me @Kidologist, if you don’t know what that is, visit www.twitter.com/kidologist and get with the times! ☺
Yes, we are packing everything up and moving to Colorado this month!
In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley makes the following statement:
“Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose.”
I have been in Chicagoland since my parents brought me here in 1985. My wife has been here since she married me! I LOVE the city of Chicago! The architecture, the sports teams, the political corruption, the hustle and bustle, the malls (that’s for Sara) the blizzards (yes, I love to snow blow), and the friends made over the years, will all be things I will miss. It is a world class city. I have traveled throughout the world as well as the United States and there is NO CITY like Chicago – not even close.
But in my heart I’ve always been an outdoors guy. And after hosting two Yosemite Summit retreats, nearly dying in April, and again in May, it was time to stop putting off for “someday” what could be done now.
I grew up in Colorado where my dad pastored a country church in Elizabeth, Colorado. We got picked up from school on Friday and drove to the country where my imagination was unleashed and bows and arrows and BB guns and a countryside to explore were all mine before returning to Denver for the week. I even had a horse that was “mine” named Rusty that a rancher we called Rollie let me ride freely all over his property. My preacher dad’s sermon prep and prayer retreats were also father-son weekend camp outs where I fought off Indians, discovered lost civilizations and explored abandoned mines and railroad cars while he studied before we made a camp fire and then argued the finer points of Calvinism and Eschatology over s’mores. Those were the days!
Becoming a father myself has changed me deeply in ways I can’t even put into words. The ambitions that drove me in my younger days – to be a “mover and shaker” in the world of children’s ministry – to make an impact in as many kids as possible and to equip and encourage as many workers as possible – suddenly slipped behind becoming a better husband and wanting to be the best dad in the world to this ONE boy rather than a great teacher or entertainer to the crowds of children I used to regularly stand in front of.
Don’t get me wrong, my Calling has not changed! My life mission is still to Reach and Teach as many children as possible with the Good News of God’s Love and in the process to Enlist, Equip and Encourage others to do the same. But my ministry hot rod crashed three years ago from going too fast in too many directions for too long and I’ve been rebuilding it for three years from the inside out. And its a much slower vehicle now. And it needs some new roads to drive on and some new scenery. Like Rascal Flatts sings in I’m Moving On, “I never dreamed home would be where I don’t belong.” I’ve reached a point in my life where after nearly 25 years in Chicago, I need a fresh start and it is time to start again back where I began as a boy. (And as a bonus, my dad is back in Colorado too now – so we’ll be close to Grandpa and Grandma for Luke!)
I’m looking forward to a mountain view and hiking trails to walk with the family on – to riding my recumbent bike more and to practicing my photography more. And to being in a place where it is easier for me to simply be still and know my Creator more. There is a State Park just minutes from my new home where I plan to hang out with the Maker of that park quite often!
And, yes, I plan to find a church to minister in and will continue to serve the Lord and others through Kidology.org. But sorry, the hype-active super-busy over-achiever Karl has faded away and the new, much slower paced, chilled out, freer Karl is moving with his family to Colorado. I’ve called myself a recovering pastor for three years – the recovery is about complete – the final step is this move. A fresh start in a new place.
Thank you for your interest, your support, your grace and your friendship.
Karl
HELP NEEDED!
If you are an Illinois friend, and want to help load the moving truck at my home or Kidology office, let me know, the dates are Sept. 22-25.
If you are a Colorado friend, (new friends needed!) and want to help unload at our new home, contact me as well. The move in dates are October 5-7. We are moving to Parker, Colorado, a South East ‘burb of Denver.
August 4, 2009 at 9:04 pm · Filed under Family, Luke
While we are excited about moving to Colorado this fall, we won’t deny we will miss Chicago. (We just won’t miss driving downtown or paying to park downtown!) Today we decided to brave both and visit Millennium Park and our nephew Parker tagged along for the fun. (Click on any image for a larger viewing)
Our reflection in the Giant Silver “Bean” – the main attraction.
Sara and I in a rare moment with few people around, it was VERY crowded!
A fish-eye lens was almost redundant here!
Can you find Sara and Luke? Another fish-eys shot of the Bean.
Luke checkin’ out the Bean!
With the fish-eye lens I could get the whole Bean in the picture, kinda cool.
Luke lays down and just soaks it all in.
Luke underneath holding the whole Bean above him!
Mommy and her little bean in front of the Bean!
Next we headed over to the fountains where the kids can run and play in the water. It was pretty cool. Hundreds of kids, running and splashing, and laughing. It was very relaxing and seemed to hearken back to the days of community pools and parks – something we don’t have much of today. It was nice. Luke was mesmerized by the video displays behind the water walls. It was all pretty high tech and simple at the same time.
I love this picture. Click the image for a bigger viewing.
Look at the JOY in this kids face!
He chased me around for what seemed forever. Click for bigger image.
We had a great time. Other than extortion parking and over priced ice creme, the day was free and sunny and we went down in the convertible which made it even better for viewing buildings in the downtown area. (At least that’s what my passengers tell me, I had to keep my eyes on the pedestrians, cabs, and crazy drivers!)
In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley makes the following statement:
