Thursday, April 30, 2009

YAM Retreat

Our Young Adult Ministry (YAM) had its first ever retreat back at the beginning of April up at Lake Arrowhead! We stayed in a house up there that belongs to the sister and brother-in-law of Jeff Tritt who heads up the ministry along with his wife, Denise, and Wes and Denise Toy.

It was beautiful weather for the weekend: sunny, and clear, but still crisp and cold. We studied through the theme "Lifting the Barriers" and were reminded that there is no one we can't forgive because we have received ultimate forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

Here are some pictures of the trip:



Tuesday, April 28, 2009

What a Canker


Every once in a while my body goes through a lapse of motor skill, and my mouth forgets the well tread boundaries of my teeth.  I'll be happily chomping away at some tasty morsel, and my lip will just fly with reckless abandon into the path of my oncoming incisors

The pain is horrendous, but what's worse is the frustration at the lack of coordination and common sense exhibited by my body.  I've been chewing stuff for over 26 years, one would THINK that my lips would know to stay out of the way of my teeth.  But no.  They apparently don't.

The following hours are wrought with residual sting from the bite, and swelling of the pulpy flesh into which I've ripped.  I don't bleed that often, I save that for the worst bites, but I do try to keep all foods and liquids from touching the bruised area.  Within the next couple of days, the wound begins to heal; but in most cases, I will almost certainly bite the area again due to its swollenness, and will not only perpetuate the healing process, but cause the wound to take more drastic measures to repair itself. 

Enter the Canker Sore.  These beauties are like those blisters you get on your hand that fill with puss so they look like little, white water balloons.  Wikipedia says that Cankers and "Cold Sores" aren't the same thing; that Cold Sores are caused by Herpes, which I DON'T have.  So these Canker sores just sorta go away on their own, if you can manage not to bite into them and puncture the little puss-jewel.

Amidst all the annoying and painful qualities of these babies, I do kinda start to enjoy the feeling of running my tongue over the small alien texture on the inside of my lower lip (where the current one happens to be, and come to think of it, where most of them show up).  It's like a little ramp for my tongue who gets to pretend he's a skateboard or BMX bike just for a second as he leaps off the sore's squishy surface.

Jess remarked to me the other day something about our bodies being "the ultimate luxury transportation device" like it's a BMW or something.  I understand the sentiment; that God created our bodies with such an amazing technical aspect, and we should utilize that more often; as in exercise.  But my Canker sore is definitely more characteristic of a Kia than a Rolls Royce.
NOTE: These are not MY canker sores! They are random images I found through Google.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo...

Those of you who know me well know that I derive a certain enjoyment from English as a spoken and written language. I love how imperfect it is, and how often we fail to communicate what we mean, despite (for some) an extensive vocabulary.

My buddy Peter showed me this Wikipedia article on this famous example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated sentence constructs.

Before you follow this link, let me encourage you to stick with this, and not give up if it seems complicated at first. I would definitely recommend you share this experience with someone in your near vicinity. I would also recommend that you read the article out loud (either one of you). Hopefully it will sink in and have you reeling at just how ridiculous the idea is, and at the same time, how much sense it makes. Just wait until you get to the examples from other languages!!!

CLICK TO EXPERIENCE "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

Monday, April 6, 2009

Full Time!

As of last Wednesday, April 1st, 2009, I am now a full time employee at Crossroads Community Church! God's been great to this church, and we were able to stick to the plan of adding on five hours every six months.

I'm really grateful to the people at Crossroads, for how they've loved and accepted me from the beginning, and how much they've encouraged me along the way! I'm grateful to the leadership for being so transparent and up front in their communications, and for trusting me with this position.

So after 1.5 years here, things are going unbelievably great, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.