Brandon’s first couple of days

It’s been pretty good with Brandon here. We got his room ready and “closed” off. I’ll get a picture of it some time. He is very gracious about being here, at the house, and we have had good discussions about what he wants to do and what some of his next steps will be. The two of us were relating to each other on the way back from his probation officer about things and how the Bible describes the same things, like what it means to be free. He pulled out his Bible, which I didn’t realized he brought with him and said that he liked the way that the Message Bible translates Galatians 5:19. He has come a long way from last year at this time.

Otherwise, our Memorial Day was spent with the Ben, Trisha, Ethan, Brandon, Kaleb, and Tishia coming over and Ben and I grilling burgers and potatoes, playing volleyball and then having a bonfire in our newly expanded fire pit.

Karlie arrives today from NYC. They were supposed to see the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway last night before boarding the bus and driving 16 hours back home. Mary is coming home early so that we can gather everyone this afternoon, just in case Karlie’s bus gets back when I’m picking up Kaleb from school.

Tomorrow is another big day with Kaleb taking his road test for his driver’s license and Brandon has a short court date in Emmet county.

Phewwwwww!

Busy Memorial Weekend

Happy(?) Memorial Day! (I’m never sure if you are happy remembering people who died in the wars of the US.)

Mom called the other day and I haven’t gotten back to the family. Sorry! I’ll get a call in soon. If you have read Mary’s blog, you know that we picked up Brandon and he is here. Saturday, after we dropped off Karlie for her trip to NYC with her band, then back to the house where Kaleb and his girlfriend; Ben, Trisha, and Ethan; and Brandon were here. We were busy all day. Yesterday we went to church, ate out (!) and then dropped by Ben and Trisha’s for a bit. Before napping and then over to Trisha’s inlaws for a bon fire. I might blog on some insights from the sermon yesterday. I’m still formulating the freedom from and our job to help those that are imprisoned in my head kind of idea, balanced by the tension of non violence. Check out our Flickr page to see some recent pictures of the E man.

Where does 4% come from and does it matter?

I’ve been reading about this 4% thing about teenagers. I have been involved with a couple of ministries that like to quote this statistic. Knowing statistics, I see in this article how the statistics are being misused. The other thing that I have heard from other blogs, is that most ministries are using this information to scare the rest of us as if Christianity will disappear. I highly doubt that, I serve a God that is so much bigger than that. However, I wonder if we are looking at this wrong. In most cases, all of the groups say that we have to evangelize the teens. Well, that’s fine and dandy, but the problem that I have run into, over my 9 years of youth ministry, is that you can’t evangelize until they trust you. One reason that I think that our current ministry that Mary and I are involved in is being “successful,” is that the core group of kids trust us, and they bring in their friends. However, it doesn’t stop there. We have to show concern and an ability to listen. Most of the kids that are in the youth ministry are pretty good, they just have some area of their life that needs to be repaired. They just need someone to listen. I think that this generation will be ok; and I don’t worry about the 4% claim.

My mornings

It’s been a while, but things have been moving along with a new dog and family things.

My mornings, as of late, have been set into a routine that helps me for the rest of the day. I get up and shower(that really helps me wake up), get dressed, then take the dog for a 15 minute walk (this has been really good, because I wouldn’t get up early to work out like I wanted to), then I spend the rest of pre-drive time fixing something for breakfast, finishing the download of my daily podcasts and reading the news from overnight.

Once it hits 700 am, I am out the door and I begin my “quiet time.” My drive is 35 minutes to the NWS office, if I drive direct, so I use the time listening to: 1. The Lifespring Family Bible podcast, 2. Pray-as-You-Go podcast, 3. NBC Nightly News (audio), 4. The Daily Breakfast podcast.

The Lifespring Family Bible podcast is a read through the Bible in a year podcast. Steve Webb, the host, has been skipping around some with the Book of John being first then Genesis, Matthew, and now in Exodus. I usually hear this one between Boyne Falls and Elmira.

Elmira to Hayes Tower Road is usually the Pray-as-you-Go podcast. The Jesuits from a monastery in England put together a meditative podcast that runs about 12 minutes or so. They began this podcast last year for the Lenten season and then kept on going since it became pretty popular.

From somewhere along Hayes Tower road, ususally about the time I pass Lake Arrowhead, The NBC Nightly news kicks in. Face it, I’m a news junkie and they did the main thing I was looking for, and that was put their nightly news into an Audio podcast (they now have it in video as well). It helps with a news summary that I was looking for. This usually takes me into work.

I listen to the Daily Breakfast, next. This is done by a almost 40 year technogeek of a RC priest in The Netherlands (no I’m not converting to be Catholic). He mixes religious and secular and technical things to have a pretty decent podcast that runs about 40 minutes.

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