(disclaimer: I seem to ramble a bit in this entry it really is a journal entry of my summer for me and not really for anyone else I just had to get it out, so don’t feel like you have to read it, it defiantly wasn’t meant to be entertaining, or maybe it is because of the rambling)

It amazes me how quickly time gets away from me.  I can’t believe that the summer is almost already over.  I have had a crazy summer and the next few weeks are only going to get busier but Ithought I would give you an update on my life.

I think I have only been around two weekends this summer.  We had a funeral again, we can’t seem to go any significant length of time without one and this one was hard because of the impact it has in my sister’s family.  Marlene was awesome and a very Godly woman.  It was crazy because the funeral was at the church that I grew up in until high school.  I was able to spend some time with people I haven’t seen in 10-15 years.  It is amazing how much life has changed in that time.  Julie and I were reflecting on how life is strange in that our lives could look so different if one little thing in our life changed.  What would life be like if I didn’t move toPuyallup in high school or if I would have hung out another year with my friends, I have friends that have made some really poor choices but because I moved and because I found a new group of friends and didn’t stay that close to the old ones I avoided a lot of pretty crazy stuff.

This summer I have been fully involved in student ministry stuff and it has been crazy.  I have had camping trips, beach retreats, andBBQ’s that seem to take so much time that I haven’t really gotten a chance to just hang out with students.  Don’t get me wrong I love the retreats, I’m looking forward towater skiing and camping for 5 days next week with High school students and the weekend after going to the beach with College students, it just seems like it is so easy to be busy doing all of these things that just getting a chance to hang out with a student seems to take a backseat.  I say this because this is something that I wrestle with a lot.  This idea that I need to be doing all of the crazy youth type stuff rather than just being with students, getting to journey with them.  It makes me want to do something like cancel youth group for the summer and just plan time with kids instead of the big production that usually happens.  Maybe next year.  I’m excited though, this summer has been good and the events have provided some of what I’m talking about.

Julie and I celebrated 10 years of marriage last week.  This is another thing that amazes me, the fact that we have been married for this long.  It sure doesn’t feel like it.  I love being married to Julie.  She challenges me in so many ways, but more importantly she is such a huge support and encourager in my life, I know that I couldn’t possible have grown as much if it wasn’t for her in my life.  We have so much fun together and it sucks when we aren’t together, and to think it has been 10 years of feeling this way, and we are only growing closer.  Pretty dang cool.  We didn’t do anything super exciting for our anniversary except shut our phones off for three days and just enjoy playing around town.  We went to the zoo, a car show, and hung out together.  It was nice to just relax together and not feel like we had to go do anything.  We are hoping to get a trip to possible Hawaii in November however that might be a long shot.  Our finances are tight as always but it would be great to get a trip away together.  It doesn’t really matter as long as we get to be together (cue the cheesy music and sighs from the audience).

In the midst of this busy summer I have also been working on my first wedding in September.  I am going to be marrying Julie’s brother Joe and his fiancee Bethany.  It has been fun to get to know them better through the counseling but it has been a challenge to try and fit that into an already busy schedule.  I sometimes have a hard time thinking that I would have any wisdom to contribute to anyone else but again I realize that it isn’t my wisdom rather what God has revealed to me through my own journey.

Ear piercing, I know I have already posted on this but I thought I would just follow up, it really has been interesting to hear people’s reaction to my piercing as if they could understand the reasons behind why I would do something.  It amazes me how quickly people pass judgment, he is doing it for attention, to fit in, to be young, he is stupid.  Even after I explained to people what I was experiencing with God that lead to the piercing they still think it was for some other reason, as if my explanation wasn’t good enough.  Really, do you know my walk with God, have you experienced what I have experienced?  Didn’t think so, I still don’t know what I think about the piercings but given peoples reaction it makes me want to go out and get more piercings and a crap load of tattoes.  Don’t worry that isn’t happening.  But, if nothing else peoples reactions have just varified my reasons for the piercings in the first place and that I guess is all that matters.

Also, yesterday as a staff we had a chance to listen to Peter Scazzero and his wife present on going back to move forward.  The idea of by understanding our personal history specifically family lines we can understand some of what motivates us in ministry.  It was really interesting especially working on our own genogram (family tree with a relational, emotional, and social bent) it can be hard to look at and see some of the dysfunction that exists and see how even though you work hard to not make some of the same mistakes as your family they do happen.  After the lecture we had a chance to hand out with Peter and his wife Geri.  It was cool to hear there heart for churches and pastors.  If you haven’t read their book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality you need to and you need to NOW.  I’m serious go get it now.  I will wait… It has had a significant impact on our leadership team and continues to challenge how we look at life and ministry.  Good stuff.

Also, I went through a bit of technology hell this last month as my computer which is pretty new and pretty awesome was being stupid, forcing me to reinstall Vista.  The frustrating thing besides taking almost two weeks to get my computer back up and running is now it works perfect in fact it works better than when I first got it which leads me to believe that the smart people of Dell didn’t have things set up correctly from the start, I don’t know what is more frustrating the fact that it took me two weeks to figure out how to get it all back up and running or that for 4 months I have been using a gimpy computer.  Good news is it is working and working well.  Of course now I’m having some mobile phone issues we shall see what happens but it could lead to getting a new windows mobile phone which sucks but is also exciting for a tech-junkie like myself.  Currently I’m trying to see if it is a battery and am upgrading the operating system on my current phone to see if all is fixed but it might require being replaced to truely be fixed.  Stay tuned I have been thinking about writing a blog about technology I can’t live without because, “I love technology, not as much as you, you see…”  (anyone guess the movie quote, for more bonus points)

To sum up my summer I don’t think there is room to fit much else into it but it defiantly has been an adventure and I’m learning a lot about myself, God, and church in the process.