Christmas Time

Well I am sitting here with my amazing family doing our Christmas tradition. Every year the week of Christmas we pull out the blow up mattress, blankets, pillows and all into the living room around the Christmas tree and T.V.. We stay up late watching Christmas movies, eating wonderful goodies, and just hang out snuggling together. It is one of my most favorite of times together. Tonight on the menu: Chicken Parmesan, Toasted Bread w/Bruschetta, Tortelleni w/Alfredo Sauce, Strawberry Lemonade, & some great desserts. On the T.V., my favorite Christmas movie: White Christmas. What a great time with family.

A few weeks ago at church we had our Christmas special with the children & youth doing some drama's. We did a human video to the song One Way which the youth band did live. It was awesome. We had almost 50 people on the stage doing the human video. It was a Remix Christmas Musical. Check it out below.

Thanksgiving & Wal-Mart

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving except Allie got a 103 temperature fever and was not feeling well. She is doing better tonight, but just starting to. We were able to eat lots of food and sit back a little, so that is always good. We are getting over our Thanksgiving food coma I guess. We decided next year we are going to join the hard core shoppers and experience Black Friday at 12am or so. We don't really care about the shopping to much. Erin and I just want to experience madness and see what the craziness is all about, we figured it would be a good experience at least once in our life. So next year 2010 we are going for sure!!! Thanksgiving week is always a good week to rest since we don't have our mid week services. I cherish this time very dearly to have a normal week and not a 110 miles per hour week as usual. You have to know when to put your life in 5th gear and know when to put it in 1st. This weekend I am speaking at church for our Family Is series. I am excited and as always have a LOT to share. I find in putting together messages the hardest part is trying to figure out what doesn't need to be said. I start with about a million thoughts and ideas and have to shave it down to the most important things that flow well together and need to be said. I feel when I put together a message I have to shave 3 hours worth of talking to 30-45 minutes worth. That's not always easy to do, but must be done as a communicator. After all a communication is best when more can be said in a little amount of time rather than a little being said over a long period of time. A rather tough balance sometimes when you have a lot to say but only a little that truly needs to get through. I am always honored to get to speak to our church thought and am very excited about what God has put in my heart to share.

On a side note: Donnie and I were at Wal-Mart the other day getting some spray paint for a project we were doing at the church. Well, when he picked up a bottle the top was busted and it fell to the ground. The nozzle got stuck in and starting spraying everywhere. Donnie quickly grabbed it and stuck in a box until it drained all the paint, but not before it sprayed the floor, display unit and end cap. Then when the attendant came over after all this she picked it up to throw away the empty can and it started to spray everywhere again (revenge of the can I guess). Needless to say we decided it was time to leave. To this day weeks later we left our mark @ Wal-Mart, probably forever.

Family

So we started a new series Sunday morning called, "Family Is..." The service went great. Worship had a great presence of God, Pastor Chris had a great message and the whole service just went really smooth. Family is a big topic this time of year with the holidays. Sometimes we take family for granted and let it become familiar, but family is truly the best part of life. Family is like a business and the parents are the CEO, the kids the employees (funny thought) and so on. God is the founder, president, chief, head honcho. In a family God has to be first in order to operate a successful family. Then goes the marriage, because so goes the marriage so goes the kids. You can't let the kids run the business. So many times in marriages I think the kids become the focus and the marriage just falls apart. The marriage has to be the foundational rock in a family. Spouses stay kids leave. We train a child in the way they should go and then they go. The spouse stays forever. The marriage is the very heartbeat of a family. The stronger the marriage the stronger the family becomes. That's why it is so vital to have time as a couple to grow, enjoy, & romance each other. When those things go so goes the marriage out the window. So this series will be great talking about God's heart for family and how important it is. After all God uses the metaphor for the Kingdom of heaven, the church to be the family of God. The Bible talks about the family to be a mirror of the structure of God's kingdom and heart. We need to reiterate God's structure in our family, demonstrate God's love in our family, and communicate God's word in our family.

Speaking of family, my beautiful, amazing, talented, strong, genius, gorgeous, God-loving, honoring, sweet, gracious, compassionate, soft yet firm, purpose-driven, smokin' hot, great cooking, caring, home-school teaching, inquisitive, self learner, encouraging, supporting, understanding, super fun, best friend, loving, God-fearing, great leader, hard working, servant, thoughtful, humble, funny (laughs at her own jokes), piano learning, take charge, make it happen, giving, selfless, really great MOM, stunning wife is heading up VBS 2010 next year. She is CRAZY pumped about this. God has given her a HUGE vision to see not only our children at the church be impacted but salvation come to the children of our community. She is planning BIG for a BIG GOD. We made a video (well she basically told me everything to do for the video I just put the pieces together for her) for Sunday morning. Really though she planned this whole video out and I just carried out the notes she left me. We played this video Sunday morning as she pitched the vision for VBS 2010. My new slogan for this is, "VBS 2010, YOU BETTER BE IN"

Mind Mapping

So I have really been drawn to the MIND MAP way of putting a message together. This is a great way of mapping out the message that you share. I picked up on this a few months ago and I am loving it. On my Mac I have this great program called MyThoughts for Mac that allows me to be creative and map out thoughts. They say that visually mind mapping is the best way to retain thoughts and organize ideas. At first I thought that's cool but not sure I would use it. Boy was I wrong I use it for personal things to map out my life, tasks, brainstorming, organizational flow charts & MORE!!! They say that linear text doesn't stimulate the brain as much as visual pictures, colors, shapes, and flowing. Which makes sense because when I say elephant you don't think of E L E P H A N T no, you think of a big animal with a trunk eating peanuts, right? We are visual learners and thinkers so mind mapping just makes sense to truly tap into creativity. Anyway, had to share that with the blog world. I highly recommend you to look into mind mapping weather with a computer program or just on old school paper. Check it out and research it a bit, I think you will find an amazing way to take your thoughts to a "whule nutha levo". Here is my message for tonight @ REMIX.

Christmas, Choices, & Campins

Guess what? We have been decorating for Christmas, that's right ladies & gentlemen we are in the Christmas Spirit. Couldn't wait till after Halloween had to start now. Christmas never lasts long enough when you wait too long any way. So we decided to get a head start on the festivities. When I was young I left my decorations up in my room ALL year long (Christmas lights and all). I will post some pictures up when we get more done.

I've been thinking lately about the power of choice. The idea that everything we do in life is a choice. We are not merely victims of the past or just products of our environments & upbringing (although those do play major roles in how we choose the choices we make). But we have the ability and responsibility to make choices. Responsibility in that we our response-ABLE people. God created us with seeds of greatness within, but we have to respond to those seeds and make the right choices to water them. We are ALL able to step up and live the dreams that God has placed in our heart. We may go through some hard times but you can't climb a smooth mountain, there has to be some rocky ridges that are sharp and dangerous. Those sharp hard times become stepping stones for us to learn from and keep moving higher in our destiny. One of the most famous and highly honored basketball coaches of all time is John Wooden (who I might add lived in Martinsville, Indiana as a teenager and took the high school basketball team to 3 state championship finals in a row) said,

"There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end that choice you make, makes you."

What a great statement, so true. The choices we make ultimately make us. So in the words of the Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "Choose, but choose wisely." Choose to be the person that God has created you to be regardless of who says you can't or that you can never change. We ALL are able to respond and carry the responsibility of choosing God's path for our life.

A few weeks ago we had our camp-in with the students so check out the highlight video.

Girls

I had to post some pictures of our beautiful girls!!! They are growing up super fast. I love being a father and raising these amazing girls. I believe God has great things for their life and I am excited to see it come about. Zion has talked so much about God lately and is always asking great questions to learn more. I love the curiosity and hunger of children, they seem to want to know so much. Somewhere along the lines as we grow up I think we lose the exploration and adventure of learning and growing. I NEVER want to stop learning and asking questions to better my understanding of God & life. Growth does not come automatic in life it is an intentional act of engaging your life. I like the example of the Children of Israel. They didn't have 40 years of experience in the desert they had 1 year that they repeated 39 more times. WHY? Because they didn't learn, they didn't get it, they just keep doing what they always had done and wondered why. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. But if you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always gotten. You have to break out of the rut and explore greater understanding of life, family, ministry, purpose, hobbies, etc... All that to say, I will always strive to have the adventure of a little child that is learning new things everyday!!!

www.pastorjohnbarrett.com

Check out our new family website. I always enjoy being creative and finding new ways to do more. I have been putting t his together here and there late night messing around just having fun.

www.pastorjohnbarrett.com

Friday Early Morning Thoughts...

Well, I've been off the last few days. Erin has been going through some pain which we are still trying to determine the extent of. Today we had our 3rd doctors visit and got some answers but still have some test to run next week. We have been playing back and forth between hospitals & doctor's office. Everything seems to be alright though we'll know more on Tuesday with the tests. They thought it was a kidney stone but turns out it's some other big medical words that I won't even try to explain. So we're praying for the best and believe everything to be good as we find out more.

I heard a song tonight called "Down" by Jason Walker. It is a great song if you view it from a whole nutha perspective. The words are:

Verse 1

I don’t know where I’m at
I’m standing at the back and I’m tired of waiting
Waiting here in line, hoping that i’ll find
What i’ve been chasing

Chorus

I shot for the sky,
I’m stuck on the ground
So why do i try
I know I’m gonna fall down
I thought I could fly
So why did I drown
I never know why, It’s coming down, down, down

Oh im going down, down, down ( On 2nd time around )

Verse 2

Im not ready to let go
cause then i’ll never know, what could be missing
but im missing way to much
So when do i give up, what ive been wishing for

Bridge

I can’t find another way around
And I dont want to hear that sound
Of losing what I never found

Sound a little depressing huh? Well, to me the song speaks of a life without Christ. Everything falls through. Every dream we could have means little compared to the reality of Eternity. We search for something in life yet come up empty unless we find the true meaning of it all. And that is to connect with our Creator God who loved us so much He gave His one and only son to die for the junk that disconnected us from Him. This song makes me so grateful that I have SOOOOO much hope in that if I try to fly on my own I just git the ground but when Christ is my life the Bible says we will soar on wings like eagles. Life can bring us down but through Christ we are lifted high above the pain of this world. One day Christ will come again and we will forever be. My prayer is that for those who don't know this amazing Savior will come to not be stuck on the ground but will shoot high for the reason they were created, to live for CHRIST!!! This song is a reminder to me of the life that I once had yet now am completely changed for Christ. So Jason God will forever change the pattern of down, down, down to a life that goes up, up, up if you give Him your hopes & fears!!!

YO

We had our Camp-In Friday night here @ HHC! Since it was raining and very cold we changed our Camp-Out to a Camp-In. We had a blast hanging out all night playing games, video games, & more! We had a great turnout with about 55+ students. We got maybe 3 hours of sleep or so then sent them home Saturday morning. It's always good to have these fun night to build relationships with the students and just open the door of trust and showing that we care about them. It's amazing how spiritual a normal night of just eating and hanging out can be. It may not be directly spiritual but it is for sure a in-direct connection with the students. The more we build relationships the more we are able to speak into their life. In today's culture teenagers are used to a breakdown of trust, leaders, and people that say they care yet don't show it on a practical level. So that's what these nights are ALL about building relationships without any thing in return just showing the students we are here for them. When you have those kind of times you are able to have heart to heart challenging times that take them deeper & further in their relationship with Christ!!! The more you build trust the more we can speak into their lives on a weekly basis.

Worship went great Sunday morning at church. We were able to break out of the box a little and truly let worship ring from our hearts. Our team is AMAZING here @ HHC. I am so excited about the journey ahead of us with worship. The team is united about the purpose of why we do what we do and that is so much deeper than just music. It is about connecting with God's presence and leading others into His presence. That is a BIG responsibility to not only journey into God's presence but lead others there as well. It challenges you to go beyond the melodies, beyond the chords, beyond the music and to go to that focused place of expressing your love and passion for GOD!!! Sometimes that is hard to do when you are thinking about the arrangement, chords, melody, timing, words, is everyone doing their part, sound, harmonies, rhythm, & more! But you have to be able to juggle all that and go beyond into a deeper expression of worship that involves the heart pouring out to God without going through the motions. I LOVE to worship our Creator God and lead others into a genuine experience of His presence. I don't take that lightly. I consider it a joy & challenge to become better at worshiping God and leading others into that place as well. After all we are ALL WORSHIP-LEADERS on the team from sound to singing. We first worship God personally then lead others into that place as well.

Just my thoughts for the day!!!

Capture The Flag

Sunday night we had our Capture the Flag event with about 6 others youth groups represented. Cory & Michelle Joy put the whole thing together and did an amazing job. We estimated about 125 students then leaders so probably had a great turn out of 150+ for the night. We had a cookout, worship, devotion, and a big game of Capture the Flag. It's always great to get together outside of our normal service and connect with other teenagers and a different environment. Students need to see other students that are involved in youth groups and connected to God. Teenagers move in packs and when they see other teenagers following God they begin to open up even more to the things of God. Sort of a positive peer pressure that gets them truly hooked on the Creator of the universe.

This week we start a new series called, "You Asked For It". We had the students fill out a questionnaire last week and based on that we are going to deal with some issues that the majority of the students asked about. This series will truly be dealing with what the teenagers are facing from their perspective. We are also tailoring the games and more with what they asked for. I am excited about hitting some of these topics that were heavy hitters and kind of the common denominator throughout the questionnaire. Topics like Depression & Anger along with some other ones. Students are dealing with depression like never before. Some of these reasons are: broken families, abuse (physical, verbal, emotional), parents that are too busy for their child's time & energy, & the fact that for some stupid reason it's a fad to be down & out as though the world's against me attitude. So we are going to break these lies & bring some truth to light about joy, peace, God's ultimate LOVE for us that makes you wanna get up and dance baby, yeah!!! Understanding your purpose & why we are here crush many misconceptions about life. We want these students to know that God created them for something amazing. We are NOT an accident that might have good luck or bad luck. We are created in the image of a mighty God who calls us to great things on this earth. The relationship we can have with Christ will truly energize our WHOLE being, physical & spiritual. Now I am preaching, I'd better get to bed!!! Good night!!!

Friday Night

Haven't been feeling well the last few days but I am definitely feeling better. We had our Caramel Apple Fest 09 Wednesday night and it went AWESOME! We had our biggest attendance night @ REMIX which was great (I guess caramel really draws kids in). We had a blast ending our series. We are starting a new series next month called, "You Asked For It". Wednesday we had the students fill out a questionnaire about things they deal with, topics they want to learn about, food items they want in the cafe, & more! This next month is ALL about letting the students pick EVERYTHING we do @ REMIX from the games to the message. It was really interesting seeing the overlaps of what students filled out. There were for sure some things that seemed like the common denominator with issues they deal with and things they want to know about.

Sunday night is our annual Capture the Flag event with 6+ other youth groups from the area. We are having a cookout, games, prizes, music & more! We were supposed to have it a few weeks ago as a pre-rally for SEE YOU AT THE POLE, but it got rained out. Sunday night is the rescheduled night for this event.

We also had a wedding rehearsal tonight. Tomorrow I am doing Dustin Huffman & Jessica Smith's wedding. Zion is the flower girl and she did amazing throwing the pedals tonight. I love doing weddings. Erin and I were reminiscing about our wedding not too long ago (2003). It is such an exciting and awesome time getting married. Truly I am more excited now about this beautiful thing called marriage than I was even then. Our marriage seems to get better and better over time like a good stew or something I guess. I LOVE my family!!!

Caramel Apple Fest 09

Tonight we are ending our series, THE APPLE with a HUGE Caramel Apple Fest. That's right we are going to dip apples in hot caramel and let the students walk down a line of candy & toppings and just dip away viking style!!! It's going to be insane tonight. This has been a great series talking about temptation and how the enemy throws fake apples at us to bite into. We talked about how to know the right apples in life, how to overcome the fake apples that will destroy us, and all kinds of great things. This has been one of our best series that really built on each other week to week.

Things are going great and we are keeping busy as always. Our Community Service Day was great. We had 200+ people helping out downtown cleaning streets, cleaning up neighborhoods & more! One guy stopped us and asked who we were and why we were doing what we were doing. He couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was we were here in the community on a Sunday morning just serving. He pulled away in his truck then turned around and gave us a donation (even though we tried to refuse). How cool is that? It made an impact far beyond just our blessing of being able to serve. It blessed others too!!! There were many other stories too. It was truly an act of the church last Sunday!!!

We are in a series right now on Sunday morning talking about, "THE OTHERS". This series is all about reaching out, not sheltering ourselves, interacting with the un-churched, and being the loving, compassionate people God has called us to be. Too many times we have a us against the world mentality rather than a us for them mentality. We are called to be for, encourage, reach, love, pray, and interact with those who don't know Christ no matter WHAT!!! This series is tackling those issues head on!

Community Service Day

Well, I'm sitting here in bed getting ready for our HUGE community service day tomorrow. We are going to meet for our regular Sunday morning service do a few songs then head out into our community here in Martinsville and be the hands and feet of Jesus. That's right we are cutting our service and getting OUT THERE!!! As our pastor says, "Let's not just do church let's be the church." We are going downtown and cleaning up the streets, ally ways, weed eating, pulling weeds, mowing, & more! What a great way to do something practical for the community. So many times the church prays for the community and talks about reaching out but... nothing more goes on other than that. This service day is a way not to just talk about reaching out but actually doing something that is REAL. Sometimes we over spiritualize things when God is simply looking for those who will GO and serve. Jesus was more about serving & loving than He was about talking & debating.

On a side note I have been introduced to Mind Mapping which is this AMAZING way of organizing your thoughts, plans, strategy, & more. I have heard of mind mapping years ago but never really paid much attention. Then I came across some software that let's you create mind maps and I am learning a WHULE NUTHA way of processing and taking things to a new level. I LOVE learning ways to be better and more efficient. This is going to take my BRAIN to some serious good places. I will let you know more as I study this thing and dig into it. So far I HIGHLY RECOMMEND looking into Mind Mapping. Erin and I have been mind mapping how mind mapping works (kinda crazy).

Here Goes!!!

Not even sure where to start but here goes...

So many things have happened in the last several months. We had our summer camp INGAGE for the first time. This camp is something that we started this year and God brought the people in. We had 7 churches involved from all around the different states. About 155 people total for the kick off year. It was a great start to something great in the years to come!

We also had Zion's 5th birthday, a great vacation in Florida, a youth trip to St. Louis City Museum, the county fair, the state fair, & much, much more!!!

Things are going great at the church. We are in a great season of moving forward. Each Sunday gets even that much more momentum. Last night we met with our adult leadership team for the student ministry and we talked about the whole semester. We have some great things planned with the different series, events, and creative ideas to take us to a new level. As we talked about the last year we celebrated a big growth year. We have had over 20+ salvations in our Wednesday night services, we have had literally a 300% growth rate over the last year in our numbers. Worship has gone to a new level, and we are hearing great feeback from parents & students about what God is doing in them. We had over 20 events/steps forward this last year which has been great.

Need To Post More

Well, tonight at youth was fun. We ended our team challenge for the semester (a challenge where students have been gaining points bringing friends, bibles, & winning various games that sometimes goes along with the message). We have a lot going on right now with everything. We are gearing up for our huge summer camp called INGAGE! We are hosting the camp with about 6 or 7 other churches coming from different states. We will be going to Pigeon Forge for an intense week with God. Our students are working hard raising the money for that. I wish every student could go because these experiences are truly destiny changing (I know from experience in high school). Money is always the issue with students being able to go, sadly it cost a chunk of bling to go to these type of environments, but we are believing God to bring in the money for these teenagers.

This Friday is our Experiencing God worship night at HHC. This is going to be a great night of breaking out of the box and truly connecting with God's presence in a laid back way. No agenda, no hurry, no rush just PURE worship to an amazing SAVIOR!!! I am really excited about the night. Our worship team is so incredible. These guys & gals truly have talent and a worshipping heart for God. I love being a part of the team and worshipping together.

I started running Monday night again. It has been almost a year since I was running consistently. I was actually running 3 - 5 miles a day (can you believe that) REALLY I WAS. Then we moved and I packed up the treadmil. But don't fear I got it out Monday and have ran 1.75 miles each night since. It feels great to run and get in shape, it has been far too long for me. I have a lot of weight to lose and some muscles to form so I am on my way!!!

On a side note we got a camera the other day. We were just missing too much of our beautiful little girls life to go without one. So we got a Nikon D40 and started shooting. Here is what came out...

Well, it has been busy lately as always! We have many things going on here @ HHC! We had our Whyi Conference that went great a few weeks ago. We spent the day with WII's, games, great food, incredible sessions about making a difference as a wife, husband, parent, behind the scenes @ HHC, making a unique difference & more!!! Check out the highlight video below.

Also, we went to the mall the other day to get a few things and this is what happened as we sat around table while eating some great Lucas Pizza!!!

Allie's 1st Birthday

Well, we had Allie's 1st birthday last Friday! It was a great time with family! I can't believe she is one year old now it has gone by so fast! She is so awesome! I have the BEST family in the world!!!

Photoshoot

All I have to say is we had a photoshoot with our family the other day!!!

Home School Convention

What an incredible weekend Erin and I just had! First we went to the Indiana Home School Convention Friday & Saturday with about 1,000+ other people. We really wanted to home school our girls for several reasons some of those being:
. Erin is a stay at home mom already
. Being a pastor our schedule is crazy and home school would be a great way for me to be more a part of the girls education than a traditional public school approach.
. Zion is NOT a class room type girl, she is for sure a hands on creative learner which home school offers a little more freedom for field trips, outdoor science projects, less sitting in a chair and learning and more doing basically.
. We want to really base our girls education with a Biblical world view (especially in the science area as well as literature & so forth)

The Home school convention blew us out of the water. I figured it would be all about down with public school and yada yada yada! But man was I wrong. It was so informative and so cool to see the amazing curriculum out there that is Godly based yet incredibally acedemic. For example there was one that incorporated a lot of ideas together like:
- Learn recognizing the Letter S
- Phonics with the sss sound
- Writing the letter S s with a creative method
- Learning the word SUN
- Talking about the science of the Sun how it gives light - also with fun flashlight games
- Then Bible talking about how Jesus is the light of the world
- Then doing math with how long the sun is out and counting the hours & other fun elements
So it incorporated ALL these concepts into a really cool cirriculum. That was one of probably like a thousand that were there (a little overwhelming). But Erin and I were just so excited and learning so much about child development and creative technics of teaching your children and creative ways to instill concepts into them.

The speakers there were AMAZING! Again I figured it would be about teaching kids, how to set up a classroom or something like that. NO WAY the key note speakers were professional world known communicaters. The first key note speaker was Ken Ham the creator and owner of the largest Creation Museum located in Ohio. He has been on the O'Reilly Factor, CNN, Good Morning America, & many more national venues. His ministry is called Anwers in Genesis is mind blowing! He is a genius on creation vs. evolution and the science behind it ALL. He had some phenomonal messages about raising our kids up with an understanding of where we came from and how God is CREATOR of the world. It blew our minds with the things Ken was speaking about and his ability to communicate these concepts. We learned so much! I wish I had time to talk to each one of you about this event but I would type all day if I put everything down we learned just go to ANSWERSINGENESIS.ORG for the BEST resources I have EVER come across concerning ANYTHING on creation and history of the world.

Well, I could go on and on about all this but man was it great for us to go to a whole nutha level in our understanding of Genesis, Creation, Evolution, & More! Boy did it wear us out all weekend learning and studying stuff. We were up crazy early and home late but it was all worth it!

Also, today is our 6th year annivesary for Erin and I! It has been the BEST 6 years of my life hands down. Erin is the best wife a man couldn't even dream of! She is so supportive of me and everything I do, she literally is SOOOO encouraging to me even when I don't deserve it! She is the best friend I have ever and could ever have. We have a blast together in life just enjoying it. We have so many fun inside jokes & experiences that only we can share together and it's great! She is the best mommy EVERY! I have never seen a woman so in love and dedicated to caring for their kids like Erin! She would sacrifice ANYTHING for them. She is the most selfless person I know! She holds my life together, without her I wouldn't be anything I am. She is literally the glue of my life outside of Christ. I LOVE her so much and couldn't have hand-made, selected or fashioned a better partner than her! So here is to 60,000 more years with the love of my life!

Holy Smokes!

Holy Smokes! I haven't blogged in FOREVER! I will give you a snapshot of life these past few months.

We are rocking and rolling here with ministry! We started REMIX for our 6th -12th grade @ HHC. Is is going great. We kicked off with our band (they are doing AMAZING), team challenge, new series, our awesome cafe each week, & more!!! We have a great team of leaders and things are going ever so smoothly and many new students have started coming as well as students giving their life to Christ in our services.

4Twelve is going great at the Salvation Army in Brown County. The students are growing and fired up. Josh & Emily Smith started a student leadership team that is going great. And we have some great leaders there helping out with Dramas, media, & more!!! God is truly doing a strong work there at my parents church!

We just had our Encounter Weekend 09 this last weekend. We had almost 70 people with both of our groups (HHC & 4Twelve). Pastor Tim Roberson flew in from Las Vegas and spoke throughout the weekend. It was off the hook. Students were encountering God's presence in a real powerful way some for the first time EVER!!! The weekend went above and beyond our expectations (and we were expecting a lot).

We are moved in to our house still unpacked though!!! We literally haven't had any time to unpack our stuff and when we do we are so worn out and just want to rest a bit so... We will get there.

Life is great! Ministry is awesome! And we are pressing into new & great things!

Erin and I have been going through the book THE CREATIVE MARRIAGE by Ed & Lisa Young (our favorites) and it has been very eye opening. It has opend the door for Erin and I to go to another level in our marriage and put words and strategies behind things we have experienced and are experiencing. I suggest it to ANYONE who is married or even thinking about getting married.

SNOW DAYS

Well, we had a huge snow storm a few weeks ago and I figured since I haven't blogged in forever I would start with this. We had like a foot of snow and Zion and I went outside to shovel the driveway and play in the snow. Erin took Allie out earlier and I don't think she liked the cold too much. So Erin kept her inside while Zion and I worked outside. We had a great time! It is so fun to be with our family and spend time together those are the most important times a person can have above anything else. The legacy we leave behind in our children is our heritage and that is the first ministry we are called to.

On a side note we kicked off all of our youth stuff this last week and it was AMAZING. I will blog about ALL the stuff later just wanted to get these pics up of Zion in the snow!!!

2009

WOW! 2009! This last month of December was awesome! We had our Christmas parties and they went great! New Life Drama Company from Tennessee was here and did an amazing job. We also did a STOMP routine for our Sunday morning service right before Christmas! The students did GREAT! They nailed it! We had dancers and stompers.

We are getting our house set up still. We are getting ready to lay our hardwood floors and carpet soon! Then we can finally unpack after 6 months (whew). Well I gotta run and get going so check out these pics from our STOMP!