Deep (or not so deep)Thoughts Of Chris The Youth Guy!

Another quick trip to the St.  Louis Bread Co. to do this blogging thing.  Things are still going GREAT.  God has blessed us with a trouble free trip so far and we expect and pray that it will continue.  Since my last blog a LOT has happened, and I wanted to share it with you.  Worhsip on Monday night was very good.  The theme for the day was “release for the captives”.   The powerful part of the service was when each teen and adult had their wrists tied together with zip ties to get an idea of what it is like to be in captivity.  Then each person was allowed to get up and spend times at any or all of 6 different stations that represented things that many teens today become captive to.  The stations included relationships, money, sports, self-image, technology, and drugs and alcohol.  So as music quietly played 80 students were going from station to station praying about their own lives and struggles while they had their hands tied together.  Then as they finished they were invited to a cross in front of the room to have the zip ties cut to symbolize allowing God to release them from whichever item in their life is holding them captive.  It was very powerful and moving.  Afterwards, we had a great devotion tim with our youth group to debrief what had occurred.  it was a good time of discussion and accountability.  The devotion time ended by our group circling up and holding hands and one by one each person saying a sentence prayer for the  person on their right.  It was one of the greatest prayer times I have experienced with teens because each person was so sincere and really encouraged their neighbor.  But more importantly as God showed up amidst the tears, the smiles, and laughter…that’s right laughter.  It was a great lesson and reminder to all of us of the true JOY of prayer.

Tuesday morning marked another day of service opportunities for everyone.  I don’t have a lot of details of the service projects becasue there are so many, but I can tell you from our discussions with some of the folks that everyone is having a great experience and as far as I know feels as though they are making an impact for the Kingdom.  Last night (Tuesday) was our free night out.  We had gotten a suggestion from the Bockstanz family to try out SKYZONE, and indoor trampoline court facility.  That is the best description I can give.  What I do know is that for two hours we were bouncing around like kangaroos at the facility.  There were dodgeball games, dunk contests, and many flips (even by yours truly…see the pic for proof).  We had an amazing time together as can be seen in the group picture.  Afterwards it was on to Chick-fil-a for supper and then next door for Culver’s frozen custard….YUMMY.  On the way back we rode by the Lamborghini/Maserati/Bentley dealership and glared at some nice cars from the bus, then made a quick Target run.  What youth trip has ever occurred without a Target run.  It was a great night of fun and bonding.

This morning brough another trip to our work sites.  We got back just a bit ago and are eagerly awaiting another great meal at 5:30 local time.  Today’s theme is Freedom for the Oppressed.  I am looking forward to how God will speak to me and to our students tonight and throughout the week.  Let me close by telling you about one of the “God Sightings” that was shared with the entire workcamp on Tuesday morning.  God Sighting are a big part of the Group Workcamp experience.  At least two times a day students are given a chance to share with their youth group or work crew where they saw and/or experiencedGod that day.  One of the leaders from another church was asked to share his God Sighting from Monday with the entire workcamp group on Tuesday morning.  He began to tell the story of one of the young ladies on his crew who he thought had exemplified the love of Christ at their worksite.  He shared about how at somepoint during the day there was a period of time where they had nothing to “do”.  Then he noticed one of the girls in his crew (who happens to be one of the girls in our group) sitting by the bed of a paralyzed, elderly woman whose house they were working in.  This young lady had taken an opportunity to be God’s instrument to spend some much needed and often unreceived time with this lady to simply talk.  It was a great story and a great testimony and reminder of why we are here.

Well, I have escaped! No, not from prison or the zoo, but from home base for the workcamp…but for just a few minutes. I am sitting in the St. Louis Bread Co. getting ready to enjoy a coffee and a few minutes to blog to keep everyone who is following us updated. There is wireless internet at the Christian school we are staying at, but it won’t allow me to access my email or blog, so it doesn’t help a whole lot. If you are reading this and wondering who is supervising your teen(s), rest assured they are safe. The other counselors have it under control. A LOT has happened since Saturday night, so here we go.
Sunday was a relax, recover, and reload day. We slept in until about 9 or so and then headed to the communicty center that the Bockstanz’s have access to at the lake. There we held a mini-worship service/bible study time together to prepare us for what would lie ahead. I was a simple reminder for our adults and students that this week, our focus is to take our focus away from us and toward others. We even talked about how it was not JUST about serving those on our sites, but even each other at the sites and in our rooms, and making servanthood a lifestyle to take home with us. Afterwards we enjoyed the lake for a while and then had a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs. Then it was on to the workcamp. By the way, the Bockstanz family were incredible hosts, and we can’t thank them enough for opening their home up to us. Snicker the dog may have been the most popular Bockstanz though.
We arrived at North County Christian School around 3:30, got checked in and settled. We have two girls’ rooms with 6 girls/women each and two guys’ rooms with 6 guys/men each. I don’t know that in 13 years of leading trips I have ever had one that was balanced PERFECTLY with guys and gals. Oh well. We got settled and ready for supper which was….drum roll please… PIZZA. For those of you keeping score at home that is 3 days in a row that pizza has been a part of the menu. ONe of our students said he was gonna develop a lactose intolerance and and allergy to meat so that he didn’t have to eat any more pizza. The opening worship service was last night, where we all got a chance to get to meet our work crew which consists of 4-5 students and 1-2 adults. We will be working with those crews all week long on our sites. There was also a commissioning time where we were all commissioned to serve this week and to “see” people through God’s eyes as we do his work. They showed a GREAT, and challenging video set to Brandon Heath’s song Give Me Your Eyes. Then it was church devotion time. We met on the playground at the school…kinda fits us I think. We had a great discussion about our theme for the day – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” from Luke 4:18. Our discussion revolved around what is different about someone when the Spirit of the Lord is upon them. The challenge was for us to allow His Spirit to fall upon us as we work this week and to REVEAL Him to those we work with and for. The theme for the week is REVEAL. It is a great theme as it connects on so many levels of what we are doing. We had some time to meet and hang out with some of the other groups before bedtime at 11. There are groups here from North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, and of course Missouri. Being the only southern representatives, we are trying to educate folks on some of the finer things in life like SWEET TEA, which we made for supper last night. The N. Dakota folks were very skeptical. We are still waiting to hear if we have any converts. We’ll keep you posted. The staff is amazing. They are very cool, and Godly people. Please keep them in your prayers as they are encountering some tough stuff this week, which is there first full week of camp this summer.
Today, we were up to a WONDERFULLY funny wake up call courtesy of the staff at 6:45 AM. After breakfast, and getting everything packed up for the day, we had our morning meeting which consisted of lots of directions and an introduction to our theme today which is REVEAL Release for the Captives. Then is was off to the sites. We have students and/or adults in almost ALL of the groups. I haven’t talked to everyone, but so far all of the folks I talked to had a great day of service. Some of the sites included Habitat for Humanity office and resale store where we painted and organized, the Kingdom House (downtown ministry started by a United Meth. pastor in 1902) where some of us worked at a day camp with children, a food bank where we made 7000 lunches, and some who worked at a food bank and soup kitchen that serves persons with AIDS and that are HIV positive. That is just a sampling.
It has been neat to watch the way our kids have responded here. Each person in each crew has a “job” that they are responsible for. It is a GREAT lesson on the church being the Body of Christ. We have different folks in all capacities. We have some devotion leaders, some organizer, some break makers, other work site leaders. It is really cool to me as a youth worker to see them step up to the plate and take these things on. I am proud to be their youth leader. TUMC should be and is proud.
We have supper in a bit, so I have to head out. Hope to blog again tomorrow. Until then, Good Night and God Bless.

Chris

It is almost midnight here in St. Louis. We have only been back from an incredibly thrilling, but incredibly long day. Here are the highlights:
The morning didn’t start quickly as we wanted to let the natives catch up on some rest after a long day of driving yesterday. So we left the Bockstanz house at about 9:45 this morning to hit some of the highlights of the city. We started out going straight to the St. Louis Arch. The gateway to the west was great. You get into an oversized dryer drum and rid up almost 700 feet to the top. From the top you get a chance to look out over the Mississippi River into the state of Illinois out one side and overlook the downtown area of St. Louis out the other side. Some of the highlights that you have a great view of are the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was handed down, the Edward Jones Dome where the Rams play and an INCREDIBLE view into the new Busch Stadium all the way to home plate. My highlight of that was watching my two oldest girls look in awe out of the windows. Love being reminded of the innocence and awe of things through a kids’ eyes.
After coming back down in the dryer tubs we got a great group shot beside the steel monstrosity and then went to a St. Louis favorite…IMO’s pizza. Imo’s was started by Edward Imo in the 60’s and is now known as the birthplace of St. Louis style pizza. It was all thin crust, and I learned that the more toppings that you put on it the better. It was good pizza. I wouldn’t call it GREAT, but I can say i tried it and have had the experience. After Imo’s it was on to Forest Park. We had one group that hit the zoo, and a smaller group decided to hit the Science Museum. The zoo was incredible. My favorite part was the penguin and puffin exhibit. I liked it because the little critters were cool, and partly because…well it was cool (actually COLD) in the exhibit. The funny of the day came when one of our high school graduates was excited because she wanted to see the orangutans, which is understandable they are coo. But she pronounced it (oren- goootin). It was funny when it happened, but probably not as funny on a blog. Then it was off to our final stop…the CIty Museum. Now, please don’t think that this was an educational experience. The City Museum is basically a 7 story jungle gym made out of scrap industrial parts including two wrecked airlplanes, an old fire engine, lots of gears, an underground cave land, and a 7 story slide. VERY cool. We had a few hours of fun there, and then made it back. It is almost time for bed. Tomorrow we are getting up for a devotion and bible study by the lake, then some relaxing time on the lake before eating lunch and reporting to the workcamp. I hope to continue blogging daily updates, but don’t know if i will have internet access. If so, more to come tomorrow. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

So, I decided to give you all (all 4 of you who read this) an “INSIDE” look into the ROCK Student Ministries’ Sr. High Mission Trip to St. Louis. Today was day one. Appropriately, day one consisted of ONE thing DRIVING. we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. 14 and a half hours to be exact counting 7 stops. That is right SEVEN stops. Two for meals and 5 for potty breaks. We did arrive safely at the home of the Bockstanz’s who are graciously allowing 23 of their closest friends to crash on the floor (all over the floors) on air mattresses for the first two nights. It should be a blast.
Even though today was uneventful in so many ways, because it consisted of driving 700 miles, you can imagine that there were plenty of zany things that happened. Doesn’t that always happen on youth trips. So here are a few of the highlights:

* I saw two of the weirdest combinations of vehicle/trailer I will probably EVER see. Both, as you would guess were in Tennessee. The first was a red convertible mustang with a pop-up camper in tow. Are you serious? And as if that isn’t enough about 45 minutes later I was an Audi pulling a horse trailer. Maybe it is just me, but those are both WEIRD combos.
* We stopped a not so quick 7 times. Two of them were food breaks, and the rest were potty breaks. It is always funny as a youth leader to see who has the guts to admit they need to stop to potty. I try to discern the actual need before stopping too. For example, today (stop one to be exact, only 1.5 hours from home.) I was told that some young ladies in the other bus needed to stop. So we drove 25 minutes more until I heard the following from one of the adult counselors over the walkie talkie. “Chris, we have some young ladies that are now becoming hostile”. So at that point, I knew it was time to stop and we did.
* We stopped at the Illinois welcome center for a picnic supper. It was great. Enjoyed the food, but enjoyed watching the guys playing on the see saw, trying to balance. It was amazing.
* Finally, we arrived in St. Louis to the amazing sight of the Arch. As we were trying to drive downtown and admiring the sights, we were brought back to reality when we almost missed the exit to I-70. After a great maneuver, we made the exit by the skin of our chinny, chin chin and made it safely to the destination.

So that is all for day one. Day two should be great, and my plan is to keep you posted via the blog each night. Have a great evening.

I have been inundated (big word, look it up and let me know if I used it wrong) the last week or so with several things. Field Day season is here. I LOVE field day. I loved it when I was a kid and love it now as a Dad. There is just something cool about good, clean, pure competition and I have enjoyed being at both my oldest daughters’ events. Graduation is just around the corner. For me, that means bidding another incredible class of seniors farewell, praying and knowing that somewhere along the way, I may have played an ever slight role in the young men and women they have become. I am proud of them. And it has also been a time for something new. For the first time ever, I have a summer intern. Rebekah Scott (aka Bekah the intern) began working at TUMC last week. if you haven’t yet met Bekah,  you should do so.  She will be around all summer long, so be sure to swing by and ask her some goofy question, like why she has a fetish with High School Musical and is in college.  It is going to be a great process for each of us. I hope she can put up with me the whole summer.  I know I am looking forward to the process myself. But it will take some getting use to.

Speaking of summer, it is so close! You can smell it! Oh, sorry that smell is my head beginning to slow down from the constant SPIN it has been on the last couple of weeks. It is that time once again when all of us (at least most of us) in the youth ministry world take one last deep breath before plunging head first into the depths of a crazy summer, hoping that we can hold our breath long enough to survive it all. It is the calm before the storm hits. I AM excited about the summer. I love the opportunities I will get to hang out with students almost each and every day, the trips this summer to St. Louis and Myrtle Beach. But as much as I look forward to it, I enjoy this part of the “pre-summer” schedule as well.  Along with the field days, graduations, and interns comes a chance to relax a bit and get the batteries charged.  My prayer for the next week and a half is that I truly get a chance to not only relax physically, but to spend some quality time in conversation with the most important folks in my life:  God, my wife, and the girls.  I need do that with all of them because they are what makes me tick.   So, God grant  me whatever it takes to meet you in a BIG way the next week or so, so that you can guide me and give me what i need to get through the summer.

So here we are at the beginning of  the most important weekend of the year in terms of our faith as Christians.  Seriously, think about it…where are we as a group without this weekend?  We are nowhere.  We are nothing.  We are non-existent.  That, to me sums up what this weekend (actually what this weekend celebrates) is all about.  It truly is a celebration and rememberance of the most critical weekend of our faith.  It all starts right here, with the triumphal entry to the city and the sudden changes that take place.  The change from hero to villain in the eyes of so many folks.  The change from death to life.  It simply is remarkable, the events themselves.

The events themselves are only surpassed in their “remarkable-ness” (yes, I realize that is not an official word) by the fact that those events took place not for his sake, but for our sake, for my sake.  I was reminded of this so many times a couple of weekends ago as I took part in our church’s easter drama, The Journey to the Resurrrection.  I ran the sound and lights in the room where we re-enacted the crucifixion of Christ.  As the actors who played Jesus entered the scene carrying the cross, I was one of the handful of people who shouted at the top of our lungs “CRUFCIFY HIM” over and over again.  That is hard to do, even when you KNOW you are only acting.  Each time the soldiers hung him on the cross and nailed him to the cross (not really, but it looked real) my heart cringed.  To think that He relly did that for me 2000 years ago just began to sink in in a new way that weekend.  The most powerful thing about it is that if I was the ONLY one to EVER walk this earth, he loved me enough to do it for me.

So what is my response?  My desire is to live a life that shows my love and thankfulness for Him and his love for me in everything i do and say.  I don’t always succeed and that is part of the reason he died there on the cross and then kicked death to the curb when he rose again.  For each and every one of my sins and each and every one of your sins.  So this Easter weekend, I think one questions begs to be answered:  what is your response to that kind of love?

I have determined that 2 months of NO BLOGS is enough.  My people want more, they want to hear from me…Okay that is not true at all, but it sounded better than “I just haven’t had time to get a new one posted”.  So  let’s play a little catch up on what has been going on in my world since the last post at the END of January.

*  Ruthie got to see her first snow.  We had a blast playing in it although we didn’t get much of a chance because as most SC snows happen it was gone after a day.  All the Lynch ladies (and daddy) for that matter got plenty of it while it was here.  Been a while since we have had a snow like that.

*  The FIRST EVER Anderson District UMY Retreat was held at Lookup Lodge in early March.  What an AMAZING weekend we had with youth from 5 churches and Steve & Cody Simoneaux.  There were plenty of highlights for everyone who went during the wekend, but the weekend was somewhat of a lowlight for me as I got the flu and had to leave to come home on Saturday afternoon.  That has NEVER happened, but I was glad I did, because it got much worse before it got better.  Funny things began to happen after I left including oen of our youth acting as a chain smoker on the Dr. Phil show during Saturday Night Alive ( we did improv) and we brought home 4 tables that weren’t ours.  Which meant I had to ride back up to TR the following Monday.  Enough about that.

*  I have started refereeing intramural basketball games at Anderson University  two nights a week.  It is for the most part a good time.  Every so  often you have a cocky college student try and tell you that you don’t know what you are doing.  So you give him a tech and move on.

*  Speaking of basketball, I got to play one game and part of another on the TUMC 35 & OVer (can you say OLD MAN) bball team.  Two highlights already.  The part of a game I played I had 11 points in 11 minutes before I had to leave.  The highlight of the other game, was making a 70 foot shot as time expired in the game.  That was the good news.  The bad news:  we still lost by 3 b/c of a bad call a play earlier.

*  The ROCK Student Ministries hosted an incredible golf tournament fundraiser where we, with the help of 28 golfers raised over $12,000 that will be used to cover some cost of our mission trip this summer AND to pay for some of the renovations in the Trinity House that will be used for a youth after school hangout that will open in august.  AWESOME!

So as you can see it has been an incredibly busy couple of months.  And even amidst the busy-ness of it, I am continually thankful for the opportunities that God has given me to minister to and with the students ( jr. high, sr. high and college) that I do.  I try to never take that for granted.  Here is to me blogging again before JUNE.  I hope to be abit more regular with it.  We will see what happens.  Until next time, remember it is never as good as it seems and never as bad as it seems.

Okay, so this is it!  The weekend that sports fans and even non-sports fans enjoy.  Super Bowl XLIII (or 43 for you non-Roman-numeral-reading folks out there) is Sunday night.  As you may know, I am a self-proclaimed sports junkie.  I enjoy watching sports and watch a lot of sports on TV.  If I am watching the tube it is usually either a sporting event or 24 of course (which brings up an idea, i should do a weekly 24 blog…that would  be fun), and that is the extent of it.  Number one,  I don’t have a lot of time to watch the tube and when I do, there are very few shows that I find more entertaining than a good game whether basketball, baseball, football, or even playoff hockey.  So I watch.  Millions if not billions of people will join me this Sunday night is watching the biggest game of the year.  The Super Bowl has become so much more than just the game that determines the NFL champion.  I often find myself laughing at the surrounding activities that occur on the day of the game and the days leading up to it.

For example, I caught a little bit of the Super Bowl Media Day on (where else) ESPN on Tuesday  and laughed.  In a nutshell Media Day is much like what I think a cattle auction would be like.  They station nearly EVERY player, if not all of them, around the field at little stations with a background, chair, table, and of course microphone.  The members of the media move from station to station (like cattle) asking questions of each of the players hoping to get a great quote that everyone will remember.  The funny thing to me is the questions that are asked of the players.  Sure, some of them have to do with the game or football in general, but then it just gets plain silly and members of the media begin to ask RANDOM questions that have nothing to do with football… and WHY?  I just don’t get it.  For example, Pittsburgh’s coach Mike Tomlin was asked Tuesday who his favorite poet was.  No, why do I care who Tomlin’s favorite poet is.  I don’t, and I assume that VERY FEW people in the WORLD do other than maybe his parents, kids, and English 101 professor (at William & Mary where he attended college by the way)  Do you care?  If you care, please respond to this blog and tell me WHY you care so I can understand.  So what was his answer….enquring minds want to know… so here it is:

“I am a Frost guy,” Tomlin said. “The guys look at me a little cross-eyed sometimes when I                                         quote     Frost, but oh, well. You can blame William & Mary for that.”

That’ it.  Now that gives me GREAT insight into this game.  I am sure that Tomlin’s favorite poet will have a huge impact on the way that the Steelers play on Sunday.  I mean isn’t he worried that by saying that, the Cardinals may now have an advantage in the game.  I hope you sense the sarcasm.

Another thing about the Super Bowl that I can’t understand, but tells us how BIG this game has become, is the pre-game show.  Not so much because of the content of the show, becasue like media day much of it has NOTHING to do with football, but simply by the length of the pre-game show.  NBC is broadcasting the game this year.  Do you know how long the pre-game coverage lasts?  6…that’s right SIX hours.  The game itself last 3 and a half hours, and there are 6 hours of pre-game coverage.  Is that really necassarry?  John Madden will have to eat 3 meals DURING the pre-game show.  Again it makes me laugh.

But I will watch along with the youth in our youth group at our annual Super Bowl Party.  We will watch the game, laugh at the commercials (which is usually the best part of the game), and get stuffed on plenty of food.  I hope for a good game that is close and entertaining.  But we shall see what happens.  If you want to know, I am pulling for the Steelers and think they will win.  The Cardinals are a great story and I deeply respect Kurt Warner for his faith, and if they win I won’t be totally disappointed.  But for me the Steelers are just better than the Cards.  Plus, there coach is a Robert Frost guy…how can you go against that?

You ever notice how some sayings or proverbs stick with you and others don’t.  I have several of those little silly sayings that I use over and over that truly do contain some profound truths.  Here are a couple of them that have stuck with me and why I think they are important.

1. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there”.  -  this one was drilled in my head by my mom when i was little, usually because EVERY time she said the word “doctor” i started freaking out because I didn’t want to get a shot.  So when I asked her if I would get a shot she would always quote this one to me.  But man there is a lot of truth in it.  As an adult, I find so many times that I begin to “freak out” about what I think MIGHT happen.  I am constantly quoting this proverb to myself to remind myself that it is best oftentimes to wait til we get to the bridge before we try to cross it.  So thanks mom for that bit of wisdom.
2. “It’s never as good as it seems, and never as bad as it seems.” – This little nugget of wisdom was one I discovered as an adult after being in youth ministry for a few years.  I have shared this with countless teens as we have discussed the events that occur in their lives that they view as being AWFUL.  Adults as well as teens tend to get caught in the MOMENT and even exaggerate the feelings that stem from the moment.  Many times when we step back for a minute and look at the “awful” event in light of the GREATER picture of life we see that it really isn’t as bad as we thought.  I am known by many folks as one of those people who is pretty level-headed, and even-keeled.  I believe that is due in part to my understanding the truth of this phrase.  In the highest of highs or the lowest of  lows I try to remember that it is never as good as it seems or never as bad as it seems.
3. Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20! – We all have regrets of some actions that we have taken in our lives.  There is always that ONE little decision we wish we could go back and change.  What is it about our makeup as humans that keeps us looking back so often.  For me there are a few lessons learned from this proverb.  The first is that looking back on things always gives you a clearer perspective.  I have experienced this first hand in positive and negative ways.  I have looked back over life and regretted some things and I have looked back and seen how God’s hand was upon my life EVEN when I didn’t realize it.  The second lesson is that we should seek to learn from our past.  How can we take what we see clearly from our past and apply it to the present situations or decisions that face us.  And the final lesson this phrase has taught me is that looking back for too long affects your “vision” in the present.  I have learned to be careful how much I revel in the victories or analyze the mistakes of my past.  No matter what has happened in the past, time doesn’t stand still, so we must continue to look where we are headed and make the most of it as well.

Who would’ve thought that 3 little sayings could be packed full of that much wealth.

Below are some quick random thoughts that have filled my mind/time since last weekend:

*  Yes, I have apologized to Jeff T. and yes we are and will continue to be friends even though he has 16 stitches on his forehead thanks to the atomic elbow I gifted him with during our basketball game last night.  It was an accident, and those things happen.  I felt horribleand will NEVER live it down.

*  Why is it that when your team wins no one notices, but when they lose EVERYBODY suddenly watches every play of the game.  Yes, I know my dawgs LOST…and lost BAD.  I am still functioning and have not been committed to a psychiactric ward for analysis.  EVEN my dad called to “ASK, ‘what happened to the dawgs’?”  it is crazy

*  My niece’s birtday was yesterday.  Happy 4th B-day Emma!

*  Youth yard sale is this Saturday.  The best thing about the yard sale is the fact that i can now have my office back.  it has slowly been overtaken by everything from ancient suitcases to talking mini-christmas trees over the last few months. 

*  The annual bonfire/hayride was a hit as it usually is.  I enjoy seeing who shows up to that event every year.  Blake H. gets the award for most consecutive years attending.  I swear he has been at everyone since the Carter administration. 

*  I stayed up way to late watching election coverage last night.  Even stayed up to see the president-elect address the nation (or at least that part of the nation still awake).  I am still baffled by the folks who are convinced that the result of the election will be the end of the world as we know it.  I voted for McCain, but also know that God is sooooooo much bigger than John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, or any other politician, community leader, pastor, youth pastor , etc.  i have seen too often how God works through me and others in spite of ourselves.  God is in control…I pray that he reminds me of that when I lose sight of that fact and think that other things (me, presidents, electoral colleges) control what happens. 

*  Funny of the week… In the past two weeks, my oldest and middle daughters and my wife got and fought off Strep throat.  Also during the course of those two weeks we had an unsuccessful attack from a virus on our computer.  The funny happened after both of those events.  We took my youngest daughter to the doctor for her 2 yr. checkup and all 3 girls were getting the flu shot.  While Dr. Draisen was looking Ruthie over and talking with Michelle Cami interrupted (rudely) in order to be SURE that Dr. D. understood the severity of what had happened at our house.  Her comment was: “Dr. Draisen, you will not believe it, but guess what?  Our computer…it got strep!”  it was hilarious.  Another moment that you will always remember.