Vacation Update, Part 2

What Not to Eat...and What to Eat:
As you may have noticed from the above post, food has been a central focus of our trip...here are the yummy and the icky:

First Dinner - OK, so I forgot the name of the Tex-Mex place we ate the first night, but man, was it tasty!...I had some kind of enchilada with chicken and chorizo...I thought I was going to burst I was so full...














First Breakfast - we had breakfast at Lowell's at Pike Place Market...Marcy and I each ordered something so we could split each...big mistake...we should have gotten one thing and split it...the blueberry pancakes I got - three of them - were the size of hubcaps...isn't gluttony one of the seven deadly sins?...

Second Dinner - forgot the name of that one, too, but we got Thai take-out...had a spicy Pad Thai...yum!...again, thought I was going to die I was so full...

Pagliacci's - outstanding Italian food in Victoria...our first night there, we were standing outside the restaurant, and a woman walked past us, into the restaurant, and said, "It's fabulous!"...that was all we needed to hear...she wasn't kidding - it was great!...we had linguine with a red sauce, sausage, and pepper, but I think the highlight of the meal was the bread - WOW!...

Rosemeade Dining Room - this is the shwanky restaurant in the English Inn & Resort where we stayed...the only reason we could afford to eat there was because we got a voucher with our room...Marcy got crepes with granola and a berry sauce; I got eggs Benedict and hash browns - muy yummy!...

Wharfside Eatery - ate there for lunch in Victoria one day...the starter we got was very good, fries with a gorgonzola cream sauce...the pizza we got - four cheese with basil and tomatoes - was gross...I've had pizza with lots of cheese before, but this was overwhelming...four cheeses, all of which were strong - I don't recommend it...

The Garlic Rose - this is a Mediterranean seafood restaurant right across from the Wharfside where we ate dinner that same night...it was much better as far as I was concerned, but Marcy didn't really dig it...nor did she dig my garlicy breath the rest of the night :-)...

Starbucks - a trip up here wouldn't be complete without a mention of Starbucks...yes, I have had my share of Starbucks, and it's been wonderful...and being able to drink coffee poured at the original Starbucks was truly a treat...here's a pic...

Vacation Update

So, we're in the great northwest and having a great time...by the time it's all said and done, I will have gained quite a few pounds...but hey, what are vacations for, right?...some highlights and not-so-highlights:

Why you should never fly with an airline that has gone bankrupt:
We flew to Seattle on Northwest Airlines...not a great choice...because they are doing so poorly financially, we had to pay to get snacks on the flight between Minneapolis and Seattle...no joke, there was no bag with three pretzels or five peanuts to munch on during our 3 1/2 hour flight...we had the choice of paying a buck for a bag of trail mix, or three bucks for a snack pack...we chose the snack pack that included Ritz Chips, some dried fruit mix, a beef stick, chocolate Giant Goldfish, and some nasty cheese sauce...I think we'll be sneaking snacks on the plane for the ride home like we do at the movie theatre (crud! Was that out loud?!?)...

Amber & Jeff:
This is why we chose to come to Seattle...Amber, Marcy's sister, just married Jeff at the beginning of September, so we decided that it would be fun to see where they live and visit with them as they start their life together...it has been fun!...unfortunately, we haven't gotten to see their house yet, as they are waiting to move into it...instead, we are staying at their temporary corporate housing that Microsoft has for them...it's a pretty nice place, except for the fact that it takes a couple of days to do a load of laundry - literally...but we have had fun with them tooling around the city, getting rained on together, and eating entirely too much food...tomorrow we get to see their house, where they work - Microsoft (she works for the XBox division, and he works for MSN) - and eat more food...

More details tomorrow...time to go to bed now - after I get the popcorn shucks out of my teeth...

Fantasy Basketball

Just did my fantasy basketball draft with some friends...didn't get Lebron like I wanted (stupid Trey!), but here's who I did get, in the order they were drafted - your thoughts are welcome:

Tracy McGrady - F/G
Elton Brand - F
Mike Bibby - G
Rasheed Wallace - F/C
Carlos Boozer - F (I'm really unhappy with this because of what he did to the Cavs)
Kurt Thomas - C/F
Jamaal Tinsley - G
Jason Terry - G
Antonio Daniels - G
Wally Szczerbiak - F
Michael Finley - G/F
Mehmet Okur - C
Raef LaFrentz - F/C

This is my first foray in fantasy basketball - I've done baseball and football before...we'll see how it goes...

Seattle, and parts surrounding

It's been a while since I have posted much on this page, and it will probably be another week before I do so...Marcy and I are heading up to Seattle to visit her sister and new bro-in-law, and also just to get away...we will be in Seattle a couple of days, and in Victoria, BC (that's in Canada, eh!) a couple of days - we have to take a ferry to get there...the picture you see here is the inn that we will be staying at in Victoria; pretty nice, eh?...yeah, we're loaded - I'm a youth pastor, what do you expect?...seriously, it will be good to get away for a while...I'm pretty tired and it will be good to have some uninterrupted time with my wife, and some good, solid reading time...maybe I'll blog more from the coffee capital of America: Seattle (I definitely plan on checking out the first Starbucks - it will be like Mecca)...

What do we do?

Events over the past days have made me stop and think...as I've stated in the past, I hate it when that happens...it makes my head hurt...seriously, the recent earthquake in Pakistan and India breaks my heart...the report I read today said that they are estimating the death toll to be around 41,000 people...FORTY ONE THOUSAND!!!...I have a hard time comprehending that number...the whole city of Cape Girardeau has a population of around 35,000 people, less than the number of the dead in Pakistan and India...unbelievable...

Now, not too long ago, New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina...the Church was praised, rightfully so, because of how it reached out to those affected by the storm and its resulting flooding...the way believers banded together to serve was something to behold and to be proud of...the Church continues to minister to these individuals...but if we put the need in New Orleans on a continuum with the current need in Pakistan, it really doesn't measure up...I certainly don't want to downplay the need in our own backyard; it's a real need...but the question it raises in my mind is, what will we do?...the Church was Jesus in a real way to the New Orleanites; how are we going to be Jesus to the Pakistanis?...how will we serve them?...or perhaps the better question is, will we?...

Core Values

I am working on a list of core values that will help in the overarching direction of the student ministry that I lead...my thought is that there would be a series of images that would correspond to the various core values, so that it is not simply a series of words or sentences, but that they would be pictures that would conjure up certain emotions or thoughts...here is what I have so far; please let me know what you think or if you have other ideas that would communicate the values more effectively:

We Value:

• Wrecking balls, not mortar - (I don't have a one- or two-word phrase to go along with this one, but the idea is that we want to tear down walls between students, not build them up)
• Welcome mats, not deadbolts - Hospitality
• The path, not the finish line - Journey
• Sugar, not Sweet'n Low - Authenticity
• Potluck dinners, not TV dinners - Community
• Closets, not home theaters - Prayer
• M&Ms, not Hershey Bars - Diversity
• Flashlights, not darkness - the Bible
• The body, not the building - the Church
• The person, not the number - Individuals
• Marathons, not sprints - Longevity

Your thoughts?...

What Does It All Mean?

I have been pondering a lot lately...I hate it when I do that...it makes my head hurt and makes the formerly clear things quite muddied...I prefer black and white, but lately have been getting varying shades of grey (I like the British spelling of that word)...specifically, I have been wondering what it really means to be a Christian...how does that journey really start and what is the best way to communicate that truth?...here are some thoughts from my life and observations:

Fire Insurance: when I first got saved (I won't even attempt to define that word in the Christian sense - it's a book in and of itself), it was at junior high camp between 7th and 8th grade...much of the preaching and teaching done that week and in that day and age was about heaven and hell, that if you didn't want to burn in the lake of fire, you needed to get saved...I also remember a series of movies about the end times designed to scare the crap/sin out of you...so one night at camp, I thought, "If the guy next to me goes up to 'get saved,' I'll go too."...he did, so I did...I got saved that night mostly to make sure I went to heaven instead of having to deal with all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Personal Relationship With God: this is probably the most tossed around phrase in evangelical circles these days, although I'm not sure the chapter and verse references of where it shows up in the Bible...we talk a lot about the God of the universe and how we can know Him personally and be friends with Him...but can we really 'know' Him...I mean, he's pretty big and all, so whatever we know about Him is scratching the surface at best...is this a way to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like God is a really cool big brother?...almost the opposite of fire insurance; more of an emphasis on heaven, and less on hell...

Born Again or Sell Everything: Story #1: a religious leader is told by Jesus that in order to see the Kingdom of God, he had to be born again...Story #2: a rich guy is told by Jesus that in order to get to heaven, he must sell everything he has and give it to the poor...so which is it?...it seems that we - the North American, Western church - have latched on to the concept of being born again, but we rarely talk of selling everything we have and giving it to the poor (He also said that it is very difficult for a rich person to get into heaven in later in the story)...both were directives by Jesus, but we emphasize one over the other...granted, the Kingdom of God does not necessarily equal heaven...but is our emphasis a sign of our comfortable lives, that because we have it good here in America, we don't want to downplay the American Dream by talking of giving it away?...I remember a story about Rich Mullins: as he drove by a store with all sorts of stuff in the front windows, he started crying...when someone asked him what was wrong, he said, "The things of this world just don't satisfy."...do they satisfy us too much?...

Follow Me: it seems that the most popular way that Jesus referred to becoming a Christian (which of course is a term he didn't invent) is in terms of following...He told his disciples to follow Him...Peter, Andrew, Matthew, Philip, and the rest...so they did...and according to Rob Bell, this meant that Jesus saw something in them that made Him think, "These guys (and girls) have what it takes and can do the things I do."...is the Christian life merely a journey in which we make a decision to follow Jesus and, with His help, do the things He did?...and if so, what did He do?...He fed people; healed people; looked out for the overlooked and downtrodden; He served; He prayed; He sacrificed; He stood against injustice; He forgave; He refused to be pigeonholed; He taught about truth; He loved life...and that's just a short list...am I a Christian, if this is the definition?...

Some Sports Figures Are OK

Charlie Weis gets my vote for being one of the good guys in sports...they are sometimes hard to come by, but the Notre Dame football coach stepped up big time this past weekend in their game against Washington...apparently, he visited a 10-year-old boy with a brain tumor in the days leading up to the game...after talking with him, he asked the boy what play he should call on the first play of the game...the boy said, "Throw right."...the boy ended up dying the day before the game...on the first possession, Notre Dame got the ball on the 1 yard line, so no one would have blamed Weis if he had bailed on his promise, because there are just too many things that can go wrong throwing from your own end zone: your QB can get sacked, you can throw an interception, you can get flagged for holding in the end zone resulting in a safety, etc...but instead, when Weis was asked by his QB what they were going to do, he replied, "We have no choice. We're throwing it to the right."...they did and gained 13 yards on the play, with the young boy's mom watching the game from home...Weis is OK in my book...you can read the full article here...

P.S. I still don't like Notre Dame...

My Pirate Name

Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, matey...so, for the rest of the day, I shall be known as Mad Tom Flint, my official pirate name...I found that out when I took a Pirate Quiz online...I also learned this about me: "Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!"...who knew?...

The Ultimate Guy Furniture

Ran across this couch at a blog that features strange new products...I'm not sure why this is featured at this site, because it certainly isn't strange...it is what every guy has been dreaming about their entire lives:

The new "man couch" boasts the following features...

• Two Domino's Heat Wave hot bags


• A mini refrigerator


• A Coca- Cola beverage cooler


• Remote control caddy and bottle opener


• Built-in Xbox with three controllers


• Built-in MP3 player


• Built-in XM Radio


• Built-in NEXTEL cellular phone and a NASCAR headset


• Built-in DVD player and two flat screen televisions


• And a megaphone to complain about bad referee calls

The couch can recline back, and the head rests double as paper towel holders. The white cabinet fronts at the bottom of the couch pull out to reveal the Xbox consoles.

Christmas is only a few short months away...man, I hope Marcy reads this...

Thank God For Sports

On ESPN Radio this morning, Mike & Mike In The Morning read a portion of a column by John Seracino...in this column, Seracino suggests that the NFL is wrong in going ahead with the first week of the NFL regular season in light of the devastation from that evil woman, Katrina...he suggests that it is somehow disrespectful to those that have suffered and are suffering...I couldn't disagree more...when I heard them speaking about this, I tried feebly to put myself in the shoes of those that have lost everything...I imagined myself living back in Cleveland, Ohio and having a massive tornado or a freak tsunami on Lake Erie come through and wipe out the city and surrounding areas...my house has been flattened and I have been forced to relocate to another state...and now, the NFL is getting ready to start the season...what would feel better to me: for pro football to take a symbolic week off, or to escape for a while at a sports bar watching the Browns play (and probably lose)?...the choice is easy...sports are ultimately meaningless, but for those of us that are sports fans, they become the fabric of our lives, the blood that runs through our veins, the air that we breathe...what other activity allows grown men that have never met each other to hug and high-five each other or cry together depending on how 'their team' does?...sports is transcendant and lets us step away from the horrors of real life for a few hours...let the games continue...

I Guess It's True

We officially have visual confirmation...in case you haven't heard yet, Marcy and I are expecting our first child on April 4th, 2006 (although I'm hoping it comes on April Fool's Day)...it's one thing when your wife tells you through tears that she is pregnant...it's yet another when you start going to the doctor and they take the blood and urine - from Marcy, not me - to confirm what you think you know...but when you see a picture of the little critter - who we are lovingly calling 'Flipper' at this point - and hear it's heartbeat, it takes on a whole new level of realness...I'm pretty sure it still hasn't hit me full force yet, but when it does, YIKES!...I don't know exactly how I'll react...but for now, it's just pretty cool...

The Porch

We had our first youth group meeting of the year last night...it is now called The Porch, based on Acts 5:12...there was a lot of change that went into this year, all in a couple of week's time...we changed the name from The Deep End...we changed the meeting room (we now meet in the former auditorium that the Big Kids used to meet in)...and we changed the structure...now, both junior and senior highers meet on the same night for dinner, hang time, and worship...then we split them up for large group teaching and small group discussion times...all in all, I think it went quite well...there were a few bumps in the road, but that's bound to happen with anything new...we'll work out the kinks as we go...but I think overall, for the 70+ kids that were there, it was a good experience...but man, does my throat hurt today...

My Youth: What Did I Do With It?!?

I was talking with Kat Renfrow the other day, and she told me all about her summer...it only consisted of about 14 week-long camps over a ten-week stretch...I think she was home a grand total of seven minutes this summer...then I heard an 18-year-old St. Louis kid on the radio who landed an interview with O.J. Simpson through mere perseverance (not to mention his other interviews with Muhammad Ali, Pete Rose, Jim Brown, and George Stephanopoulos, among others)...these two incidents made me pause to think about my own youth...I have to say, their stories and mine sound remarkably similar...if you consider sitting around my town home, running up my mom's electicity bill because I had the air conditioning set at 60 degrees, eating all the food, watching lots of MTV and VH-1, while dreading the start of soccer season to be similar to the kind of work that Kat and Graham have put into their youth...probably not, though...

Another Black Eye

And we are puzzled by the fact that some people won't come to church because there are too many hypocrites there...here is yet another example why I sometimes cringe to be lumped together with others who claim to be Christians...whatever happened to taking care of the least of these in the name of Jesus?...of course, I'm sure there are things in my own life that make people shake their heads and say, "He's a Christian?"...so who am I to throw the first stone?...I'm just glad that God still takes the time for us no matter how big of a jerk we sometimes are...

No More Indian Mascots

Word came out today that the NCAA has banned all Indian mascots from postseason tournament play...this would mean that teams such as the Florida Seminoles and the Illinois Fighting Illini would have to cover up their names and any references to their mascots during the tourney...my question is: will they be brave enough to enforce the same rules with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish...I, being Irish, have hated that mascot for some time and think it should be banned...I'm Irish, and I'm a lover, not a fighter...

Steroids and Moral Relativity

OK, it's one thing for Rafael Palmeiro to get busted for doing steroids, even after denying it...it's much worse that he lied and said he did it unintentionally, when in fact, it was revealed that it was a hard-core steroid he took, so he had to have known about it...but what really bugs me is that it now comes out that Major League Baseball and the Players' Union actually found out about his failed test long ago but held onto the information - and the suspension - until after Palmeiro had reached 3,000 hits...come on, MLB!...if you are going to make a stand on drug testing, do so all of the time, not just when it is convenient and works for your timetable...just because Raffi is a good player and future Hall of Famer (although, maybe not anymore), he gets a pass for a while, while other not-as-good players get busted right away...nice message you are sending to baseball fans, and especially kids: if you are good enough at hitting a ball with a stick, it doesn't matter what you do - it will still work out in your favor...

Fashion Rant

First off, allow me to apologize to my loyal readers for my lengthy absence from this space...both of you must be getting quite fed up :-)...my summer has been a little insane to say the least...I just returned from Xtreme Camp at Blue Mountain, at which I had a great time and got to see kids' lives changed...however, the downside to that was that it meant more time away from home...counting this past week, I have been away from home close to an entire month this summer...needless to say, it is good to be home for a while...of course, my next trip is just five weeks away for my sis-in-law's wedding (which I am co-performing - how crazy is that?)...I will enjoy home while I have it, I guess...

Now that I have gotten my excuses out of the way, I should probably say something about fashion, since the title of this entry is Fashion Rant...I have recently become more aware of a fashion trend that simply bothers me...maybe it has been around a long time and I'm just clueless, but I doubt it in this instance...the trend is that more and more youngish people of the female persuasion wearing lingerie as regular, wear-around-town clothing...and I don't mean under other clothing, either...I mean, that is their clothing...they will wear a lingerie top or two, layered, with jeans or shorts or a skirt...check out this picture of a recent American Idol contestant if you need a visual (she was famous for this fashion trend)...

whatever happened to modesty and certain things being saved for the privacy of one's own bedroom?...it's just that it is difficult enough for men to control their minds when it comes to sexual thoughts...we are bombarded by sexual images, from television to magazines to movies to advertising...experts say that men are more visually stimulated than are women, so this trend of sexual imagery will likely never go away because it is clearly making people money...but have we come so far that lingerie is now common wear?...if it is, what is being saved for the bedroom?...the intrigue, excitement, and curiosity that would normally be experienced on a couple's first night together - hopefully their wedding night - is slowly being stripped away (no pun intended) so that nothing will be a surprise when they get to it...I guess this is my way of saying, "Ladies, before you put something on, regardless of how fashionable it may be, simply think about it first."...at least, that's the way I see it...

Reflections in New Orleans

I am finally started to get rested up from our senior high mission trip to New Orleans...it takes longer and longer to do so the older I get...man, what a great week!...I couldn't have been more proud of our crew (Drake, Art, Trevor, Jen, Lauren, Brittany, Emily, Taylor, Christine, Julianna, Paige, Caitlin, Kelsey, Karen, and Marcy)...they worked hard, were excellent examples for the people we ministered with as well as for the other youth groups that were there...it was especially rewarding to see the growth that occurred in each of them as the week wore on...the hope and prayer is that they will be able to make the mountaintop experience last as they come down off of the mountain...a few reflections on the week about random stuff:

• Our kids dealt with disappointment much better than I did...I found myself getting disappointed with such non-important stuff...I was really excited about the possibility of working with the people at ARC, which was a center for people with mental disabilities, but I found out that I would be working at Teen Challenge instead...it turned out really well, as we were ministered to probably more than the Teen Challenge residents were (and not just because we ate really well - Strawberry Shortcake Sneaux Balls!)...but the point is, our youth accepted whatever assignment they were given without even the slightest hint of disappointment...they didn't even complain about the VW-sized roaches - they just killed them and went on...they taught me a thing or two about contentment...
• I found that as the week went on, I was becoming more OK with being sweaty and sticky...if you know me, you know I like to be clean and I hate sweating (unless I'm exercising or mowing, etc.), which makes New Orleans a bad place to be...you can't avoid feeling gross there...but as the week progressed, it wasn't as big of a deal...it was still a deal, but not as big of one...living in Cape Girardeau is not a lot different that New Orleans, so this is a step in the right direction...
• As we toured the French Quarter, we came across a basilica that the Pope had preached from in the 80s...we all stood in front of it and had our pictures taken while I waved like the Pope...the interesting thing about this was the number of psychics/fortunetellers/palmreaders/etc. that were set up right outside the front doors of the basilica...it was like Obi Wan Kenobi squaring off against Darth Vader, the ultimate in light standing toe-to-toe with the ultimate in dark...I don't have any conclusions, just the observation...
• I simply lost my mind last week...along with everything else...every time I turned around, I had misplaced something else...my water bottle, my coffee cup, my man purse, my notebook, whatever...I spent half of my time on the trip looking for stuff...man, I really am getting old...
• The cockroaches in New Orleans were quite impressive, as alluded to above...I killed two of them...I think I caught them off-guard, because on a normal day, I don't think I stood a chance...
• Yummy beignets at the Cafe du Monde...apparently, it is the world-famous coffee joint in the French Quarter that has these French donuts called Beignets...essentially, it was the same thing as a funnel cake but in a different shape with LOTS of powdered sugar...it was yummy, but I don't know about world-famous...
• We visited an African-American church for a worship service on Wednesday night...it was a great, energetic service...before the service started, we came in and had a seat while they were praying...but then, when the actual service got started, an usher came to us and ushered us into the balconies to make room for the regulars, I presume...it felt a little weird...I wondered if it was how the black individuals felt decades ago when they were banished to the backs of buses or to a different restaurant altogether...I am not likening this church to those that promoted segregation...it just felt a little strange...the Pastor, Lester Love, had a great line that I wrote down...when speaking about being treated badly by people, he said, as if speaking to God, "They have not been as bad to me as You have been good to me."...nice...

This is probably not what you expected from my summary of New Orleans...we did the usual stuff: French Quarter, trolley ride, hike through the bayou...but these are the things I wrote down...go figure...

Randomness, Randomness is What I Long For...

This link was sent to me...apparently Darth Vader can read your mind over the internet...I managed to stump him, but probably because I didn't know enough information about the emu:

http://www.sithsense.com/flash.htm



Went to see an exhibit a couple of weeks ago in Paducah...it was a traveling exhibit of the Dead Seas Scrolls...it was fascinating to hear the history behind these artifacts, and to hear how much work went into reassembling the pieces...they compared it to taking a bag of Lays, a bag of Ruffles, and a can of Pringles, crunching them all up, mixing them all together, and then reassembling them all and putting them in the right bags...200 TIMES!!!...WOW!...now that's patience...there was also a chunk of Colossians that was worth $7 million (I stole it)...but the highlight was seeing a portion of the original Egyptian Book of the Dead (pictured above), featured prominently in the classic movie Evil Dead 2...I almost cried...

Some people have too much time on their hands...

My dad just moved back to Ohio...he should be getting in today sometime...this makes me happy...ever since he moved to Florida, he really hasn't been happy...he hasn't really made any connections there...so now, he will be back in The Heart of It All, lucky guy...he has a couple of jobs lined up already and will be staying with my aunt and uncle until he finds a place to stay...this is not only a plus for him, but for me also, as I will get to see him more regularly than when he was in Florida (which mean maybe once a year instead of every other year)...

Ally, thanks for the ice cream yesterday...very yummy...

Our summer youth programming kicked off this week...not too many people showed up for H2T, but we had 30 at 6:57, which is very good, considering we haven't really had summer youth group before...I know a lot of our students have band camp and soccer and stuff, which makes it a bummer that they can't come too...we sure miss them...

Pray for us next week as we (Me and Marcy and another adult leader and 13 students) are in New Orleans for a mission trip...dang, it's gonna be hot!...next year we're going north...

My beloved Tribe is going for the sweep today over the first place San Diego Padres...in a word, "WOO-HOO!!!"...

That's all for now...have a great day...