Begun, This Sabbatical Has.

Well, the sabbatical is officially underway! In fact, this post is being made from a hotel in Richmond, Indiana – and with my laptop online with my cell phone, due to some fancy third party software that makes my Treo600 take my Powerbook online at 100K – not bad for free unlimited Internet while traveling (anywhere there is cell reception, of course) But since most of you are bored already with this ‘tech talk’ on to our adventures…. First stop: Fridays with Sara’s parents in the South Burbs… Next Stop: My older sister and her kids at Dairy Queen…(SEE MORE PICS FROM TODAY IN DAY ONE GALLERY) Me and Pastor Dave Barber. (boss man) I’d like to dedicate this first sabbatical post to my boss and pastor, Dave Barber. He’ll cringe for me saying it here (huuuummmmmble man of God that he is) but I am so grateful to be able to work with a pastor who truly seeks after God’s heart and who cares for his staff beyond just “job performance.” He really works hard to minister to us, encourage us, challenge us, and make sure we are doing well spiritually. While he is reluctant to accept any credit,…

Continue reading

Taking Over Culvers for the Last Time…

One of my favorite things to do is go out to eat with families after church (which you’ve seen on this blog) You may remember reading my joke about how I should get a discount for bringing so many families to a restaurant – well, either the owner of Culvers reads my blog, or the Lord moves the hearts of restaurant owners! Because at our last ‘Culvers’ after church gathering, the owner identified me as the ‘ring leader’ of this massive group, and asked the name of our ‘group’ – and next thing I know, I’ve got a BOX of 500 10% off VIP cards: Now I’m the guy to know around church. :) I passed these out to friends after church and then headed off to Culvers for my ‘last Sunday meal’ until after my sabbatical! Off to Culvers with my fan club. ;) (I didn’t forget Sara, she left church early for the wedding shower of my little bro’s fiance’, who are being married on May 27th, the finale’ of my sabbatical.)   Part of the gang, actually 56 people came for lunch! We took over the place!! (Manager said we ran them out of hot dog buns!)…

Continue reading

My Last Sunday…

Well, hopefully not MY LAST Sunday (on earth), but today is my last Sunday at Village Church until the END OF MAY!!! I will be on sabbatical, traveling from Chicago to Ohio to Washington down the coast through Oregon and Northern California to San Fransico and ending up in Yosemite before flying home and then after Star Wars III will be off for one more trip to Michigan and concluding with a long anticipated trip to Cedar Point! I’m going to miss being ‘on the job’ but with my new Treo 600 I will be connected throughout and able to get my laptop online to post here. I will post here as much as possible, and will be looking forward to COMMENTS posted here so I know I’m actually missed!! While I am excited about the Adventures planned (some really cool plans are in the works) I am also finding that it is really hard to leave – and most of all – hard to leave the KIDS I get to see and enjoy every week at church. I may only get to see them for a few hours a week, but they are the BEST hours of the week!!…

Continue reading

Going to new HEIGHTS!

I’m on the top of the world, Lookin’ down on creation, And the only explanation I can find… is my new 5 foot unicycle! I debuted my new 6 foot unicycle tonight at Awana! If you follow this blog, you read the post ‘On Top of the Word’ (read here), where I learned to ride a tall unicycle on my first try at CPC. So as soon as I got home, I ordered one on ebay! Unicycle Like An Eqyptian I never was very good at basketball… But suddenly I have a HUGE, er, TALL advantage! Move over Mike! I CAN SLAM DUNK!!

Continue reading

I Kid U Not…

Well, it’s hard to believe that KID U is over! What a FUN BUNCH OF DAYS! Friday, was the pre-conference, and WHAT A BLAST that was! Every presenter did a BANG UP AWESOME job at presenting the theme in their own creative way. We had an in-house contest to spur them all on… every Kidology staff member and volunteer that wasn’t presenting was given a ballot to choose who did the best job, they ALL did awesome, and the vote was close, but the Winner of the Most Incredible Presentation went to: Jamie Doyle and his magical presentation. He won an Incredibles DVD, Basketball, and Pez Dispenser. Not bad, eh?Saturday was KID U! We had over 250 people there all to be equipped and encouraged. Dave and Jody VanKley leading the opening session I taught workshops along with several other presenters. But my favorite thing of the day was meeting Monty the Python from Camp Timber-lee: How do you like my necklace? Monty made a great hat too! OK, maybe the snake wasn’t my favorite thing, but it was pretty cool. My favoirte part of the day is usually at the end when I like to treat the staff and…

Continue reading