Summer Kick-Off

Last night was our summer kick-off for JSM and we had a blast! We played ultimate frisbee, had lots of food, hung out, and did fear factor! We had cow tongue, livers, and more! We blind folded the students then had them feel the livers, tongues and stuff then switched it out with gummy worms, beef, malted milk ball (cow eyeball) and other stuff. The students were great, they were freakin' out as they ate it, literally shaking! Some even thought the gummy worms were gross gaging on it. Anyway, we had a great time kicking off this amazing summer!

We are still getting ready for the lot sale and it is going to be HUGE! We have sooooooooooooooo much stuff to price, set up and organize still, but we are getting there! They are calling for rain these next few days so if it is raining we will have the sale in the back foyer area and in the zone! This is going to be a great sale, we are praying that everything goes! Students have been coming up each day and helping us price and organize all the stuff!

Well today we have practice for worship this weekend! This weekend is the MC (master's commission) graduation ceremony! We are going to lose some amazing people for the summer but hopefully most of them will come back next year! We also are having a pool party for them tonight at Courtney Knights house! What a blessing MC is to Journey church and Sallisaw Oklahoma! We are going to miss them more than they know!!!

Busy Weeks Ahead!

It's Tuesday morning here in the office and I am ready for another awesome week. Some GREAT friends of our (The Joy's) were here in town staying with us over Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time hanging with them and showing off our new life, we miss them dearly! I had the opportunity to lead worship here Sunday morning at Journey and what an honor it was leading our great folks into the presence of God! Cory Joy got to play with me for my 1st time leading worship here @ Journey and it was like old times, how fun! We have such a great church and a great Pastor! Sunday service went wonderful Sunday and Pastor Jeff delivered an amazing message called, "Love & Marriage".

These next few weeks are going to be insane! We have the Parking lot sale on Saturday which is going to be a huge deal! We have the potential of raising thousands of dollars for the youth room remodel! This is an enormous undertaking with picking up items, sorting them, pricing them, we will be working ALL WEEK trying to get ready! Our church has been so faithful in donating items for the sale, we have TONS of great stuff!

Then next week is Youth Sunday, which is going to be awesome! We are leading both services the weekend of the 10th and we have some great things planned for that!

June 8th is the girls book club overnight @ our house. Erin is leading the whole night as the girls kick-off the new book they are reading and they are setting tents up in our back yard, hanging out! Then the next morning we are having Youth Sunday practice @ 10am!

Also, tomorrow night is our BIG Summer Kick-Off! We are having a cookout, playing games, and hanging out at the Andersen's house!

On top of that we are leading worship this weekend, making flyers & promos, working on summer calendar & events, planning our student leadership conference, planning the summer series, building adult leadership team, and much, much more!!!

We are on the move and I may pass out after the next few weeks! Just kidding! God ROCKS!

I'm Back!

Well, it has been a while, but my computer is all messed up. The other day I came into my office and my laptop was frozen up. I shut it down turned it back on and the screen won't display anything, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Anyway, I took it to 2 different stores and they don't know what is wrong, so basically my life is all turned upside down. EVERYTHING I have is on that computer ALL my programs that I use probably everyday in order to effectively run the nuts & bolts of ministry is shut down!!! I am not sure what I am going to do because it may cost just as much to get it fixed as to buy a new one, and that is not in the cards right now if you know what I mean! So...I have a desktop in my office now but I still have to get ALL my programs, remember all my passwords, set up everything, and yet still I had so much on my laptop. Enough about my computer problems, it is making me cry!

Everything is going great here in Sallisaw. We are in our new house and we lOVE it! We are completing projects every few days so that is good. We still have a lot to do like, paint the rest of Zion's room, clean/organize garage, paint and decorate master bathroom, finish master bedroom, touch up paint, fix our crater in the backyard because of the pool that was once there, strip wall paper, paint kitchen, move a big overhead light, and various other things. We love being there though God blessed up so much with this house.

Youth is going great, we are having our big summer kick-off next Wednesday at the Anddersen's house. We will cookout, play games, and have a sneak peek into the summer events and stuff. Tomorrow we are gutting the zone in order to get ready for the lot sale and remodel, so that will be a big task. Other than that we have all kinds of events for the summer and God is up to great things. I get to lead worship for the big church this weekend since Chad is out of town, so I am looking forward to worship together with our amazing church! God is totally cool, and rocks my WORLD!!!

Mother's Day

We finally have Zion back and we missed her soooooooooo much! Today is mothers day and we had a lot of fun. We went to Ft. Smith and had lunch then went to the mall and let Zion play on the playground, and I got a cinnabon (they are from Jesus, literally He created them)! Tonight we are just hanging out unpacking a few things and just having a good family day. Erin's dad & step mom got to come down for a few days and we had a good time with them these last few days. Well, we are still getting settled in and slowly but surely getting unpacked. Tomorrow we will try to do a lot since we have all day here at the house. I can't wait to get everything in order so we can just come home and chill out, without knowing we have all kinds of stuff to do here at the house. We got the 5th season of Alias finally and tonight we are going to watch a few. We still haven't seen this last season so we have been dying to get to it. Erin bought me Alias the first season for my birthday a few years ago and we LOVED it. Since then we watched all four seasons, but ended while the 5th was still on t.v., so we waited and now it is time, yeah! Anyway, Erin's step mom Anita made us homemade guacamole, and it is the best I have EVER had, so we are going to devour that and have a movie night!

By the way, I have the best wife on the planet. She is the most important part of my life outside of Christ, and I love her so much. Mom's get under appreciated but I acknowledge and appreciate my wife so much, she is my best friend, love of my life, counselor, partner, and everything in my life!

Also, my mom is the best mom in the universe! I couldn't imagine having anyone else. I literally think she is the best mom on the planet. My parents have shaped so much of my life and I am so grateful for that. They are the best example of a Godly marriage & simply passionate followers of Christ! I am who I am today because of THEM! Happy mothers day mom, you are the sweetest person I have ever known, I miss you guys!

Friday

Today I got to sub at one of the high schools here in the county. Central High School is where I spent all day from 8am - 3:30pm. It was great to meet new students and see some of the ones that come to Journey. Not many kids were there today since it was senior trip, skip day, a tournament baseball game, and near the end of school. A few classes I only had under 10 students but it was good non the less.

Tonight Erin and I went to the Sallisaw High School Band concert, it was awesome. The Jazz band and the regular band are great here! Erin and I were blown away by there talent, it seems as if they should be a college band or something. Anyway, we came home and we are cleaning and still unpacking. We are probably about 60% unpacked and on the way. We still have much painting, decorating, fixing, changing, and other things to do, so it will be a while before we are totally settled in.

Well these last few days have been so busy with getting things ready for youth, summer schedules, camps, retreats, care, messages, worship, student leadership, adult leadership, set up & tear down, the zone remodel, and much more not to mention all the things that we are doing church wide! God is doing amazing things here and we are so happy to be here in the midst of it. Wednesdays we are challenging the students pretty hardcore to step up and not make Christianity to be about boring, religious stuff, but for it to be a revolution of our soul. I believe God is going to reveal himself in huge ways this summer and it is going to be great!!!

Fast Times @ Journey Church

Oh my goodness! We have been super duper busy here! We moved into our new house and we have been working on it non stop. Last night Erin and I were up until 4 this morning, painting and unpacking. We love our new house and it is so fun setting it up! We are without internet at home so I can only get online at the office. We still have soooooooooooo much to do. We are probably 30% unpacked, since we are painting, cleaning, more cleaning and getting the house ready. We have most of our stuff in the garage, we are waiting until we get all the rooms finished then moving stuff into them. Everything is going great here, God is really moving. I can tell that Erin and I are really connecting with the students. Trust is being established and they are warming up a lot to us. Erin had an amazing time on her trip to St. Louis with the school. She really got to bond with the girls and meet many new students, what an opportunity that was! Well, today we are back at it getting things knocked out for this weeks tasks and ministry. We are starting a new series Wednesday called, "The Revolution". Our slogan is, "Living for what Jesus died for." I believe that God's call for us is so intense and serious. When Jesus said, "Come follow me." Those words were more than just a nice invitation it was a call to a revolution of God's love and purpose! This will be an amazing series about what Christianity is truly about: A REVOLUTION!

What A Week

What a week! We have been super busy here at Journey! Last night we had the Diamond Daze festival and it went GREAT! There were tons of people there and everything flowed so smooth. It is so awesome to take Christ out to the community. We prayed the rain would hold off and it did! Most of the day it rained but God gave us a window of dryness. As SOON as Pastor Jeff ended the service rain started coming , but thankfully we got everything tore down before the downpour came. What a great God we serve! Well, we are going to make a cool highlight video for this Sunday that captures last nights energy. Some people we not able to make it there, so this will make them feel apart and show what a great church we have here @ Journey. God is so awesome and everything is great here!

I took Erin & Zion to the school today about 6:30am for their trip with the school. Erin is chaperoning a band trip to St. Louis until Sunday. My mother in law is picking Zion up in St. Louis since it is about half way to Indiana. Zion will stay there until late next week when my father in law will bring her back either half way or they may come stay with us for a few days. Anyway, I am single for the next few days and then it will just be Erin and I for the next few days after that. I am going to work non-stop on the house I need to prim ALL the rooms, clean, patch holes, paint trim, paint doors, hook up washer & dryer, hang our new T.V, set up the surround sound through the walls, and more. I have A LOT of work to do these next few days so I am going to get working here at the church and get everything done I need to do!