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!

Where To Start?

Where to begin?

We have been so busy working on the new house and with ministry that I haven't had time to post! Well, here it goes.

Youth @ HHC is going great.
- We are practicing our STOMP routine for the Sunday morning Christmas service the 21st. It is going great and we have like 22+ people in it. They are having a great time with it.

- We had our Concert and event a few weeks ago with like 150 students here in our youth facility rocking out! We hooked up with some other great churches and had an awesome time. Many students responded to salvation and rededicated theirs lives to Christ.

- Zion was in her fist live drama last Saturday night at the Salvation Army for the Legend of the Candy Cane. Erin, me & Zion all had our own parts in the play. It went great and she did amazing. She remembered her lines and all her cues. She is a natural at acting and she LOVES it.

- I have been leading worship here @ HHC on Sunday mornings lately when Gary hasn't been able to be here and it has gone great! We have an awesome team of people that are great singers and musicians. I love worshiping together and leading our great church into God's presence.

- We have installed our recessed lighing in the house and have been painting like CRAZY. I and my dad & father in law layed ALL the tile in our upstairs bathrooms and laundry room.

- We are getting ready for our big formal Christmas dinner here in a few weeks. New Life Drama Company from Tennessee will be coming in to perform that night. It is going to be a lot of fun dressing up and playing some fun games & eating some great food for Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

- I got a new MacBook computer that I am setting up. I am pretty excited about that. I guess I sold out to Mac now and became on of "those" people (Jared Day don't say anything).

- Many other things but that's all I can write for now. God bless!!!

Family Pics

Well, things are going great as usual! We have been busy as always getting the new house ready, ministry, life, voting, and everything else in life. We are only getting a day or two a week to work on the house since things are so hectic right now with events, services, and all that is going on in our lives and the churches. We did get some time a few weeks ago to get some amazing pictures of our family made and they turned out great! I love my family more than any other part of life and these pics capture the essence of that I think! Check them out!!!