Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

How does that cover everything. It's amazing, I have been off a few days but have been unable to blog up to this point. These are the kids skating at the local school. We did this a couple days before Christmas when the temp was about 50.

Pierson liked playing on the swings. He is getting so much more animated and loves to hear his own voice. His favorite words and gifts are car and ball. He points at the TV when a car is on it and says, "Car". His reaction to opening Aiden's gift of a car was priceless.

My mom came up the day after Christmas and was with us to yesterday. We just hung out a lot, went to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks, went shopping in the after Christmas rush.

Maggie got a new Helmet for her bike for Christmas. She was looking cool!

We played games as a family, with Kate's and with the kids and my mom.

I must say doing twister is getting harder as I get older. I really need to stretch my body more than I do. It was fun with the kids laughing with each other.

It has been nice to have a few days off from work. Everybody needs a break. I go back on Jan 2nd. 2008 forecasts to be a busy year. I am going to Memphis in mid January as well as an overnight trip to North Carolina. We are just trying to enjoy this slow time before school begins. If I don't get a chance to have another post by tomorrow, have a happy new year!

Hallelujah

My Senior Pastor made me aware of this. Hope you enjoy

The Ultimate Gift

Another week has passed and no blogging. It is hard to keep up regularly, especially with Christmas time.

Last night Kate and I watched The Ultimate Gift, a movie which came out about a year ago. It was about a incredibly wealthy man who gave his grandson the ultimate gift. I won't spoil it for you but instead of giving him money, he gave him the gift of things that matter, the gift of work, the gift of family, the gift of laughter, the gift of problems. It keeps you on the edge of your seat seen this young man gain responsibility in his life.

Tonight a Sunday School class is doing something great. They are making a steak dinner for those in Transitional Housing (MATS) and the Daily Bread Ministry (who feeds people from our community every day). About 15o are scheduled to attend. On top of that, they are giving each person gifts and after the meal, they are going to watch The Ultimate Gift. It is exciting to see how Christmas for several folks means more than attending worship services, but it means giving back, of their money and their time. I'll let you know how it went later.

Another exciting thing this year is how many responded the jail ministry request of helping kids at Christmas. There was a M and M tree with kids names on it whose parents (usually fathers) are in jail. So many gifts have shown up at our office to be given to those kids whose parents are seen weekly by people from our church.

Which leads me to another thought, is the disposition of our lives in general to give back or to take. SOmetimes people do great things at Christmas to either relieve guilt or to make it Christmas or Thanksgiving special to others. But I have to ask myself if overall I am a giver or a taker. Do I look first to help others or to meet my own needs first? I saw in a recent article that Gingumsburg UM Church has challenged churches and local busiiness to give as much money as they spend on themselves to their mission to Africa, with a goal set of $1.5 Million dollars. WOW! This challenges me to be that giving to others, especially others I don't know. Think about yourself, your disposition, your Christmas giving. Are there any adjustments that need to be made?

Search for Baby Jesus

This past Sunday night was the Search for Baby Jesus with some of our kids at church. We gathered and went around town to find Jesus. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt. We closed out the night at Jeff and Polly Adams house. As you can see Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus were in their barn.

Suzanne Then read to us the Christmas story.

The rest of the night involved smores, looking at the beautiful scenery, driving the golf cart. It was a fun night.

Way Too Long Not To Blog

Hello, It has been quite a while since my last entry. I will blog more later but Trav Wilson sent me this video of Asbury Professors doing a commercial. Included in this is Dr. Kalas, first man in the video, who is now the president of Asbury Seminary. It is funny seeing such a distinguished man making this kind of video.

Reactions from Last Sunday's Sermon

I must say I was surprised by the number of comments I got after preaching last Sunday. Ususally I get, "good sermon, Pastor" types of comments but the reactions I got were heartfelt. The best was one I receieved in the early service when she said God spoke to her about two things in her life. Those are the types of comments I like to hear. While I want a sermon to be easy to follow and at least enjoyable, what I most want is for God to say something to people through his word. Sometimes he does that inspite of us or with us. I pray that it might be the latter most often.

Tomorrow I preach again, This time on Mary. It is advent and I am taking a look at each of the characters. Basically I am preaching that Mary was 14, from a small insignificant little town in a land occupied by a foreign power and in the midst of her lack of understanding of all the angel explains to her, she still responds in faith. What makes this story even more amazing is the story which comes before it in Luke is the story of Zechariah, a priest with a tremendous spiritual heritage, who does not exhibit the same degree as the uneducated 14 year old girl. I close that sometimes in life God doesn't seem to make sense, like in both of these cases, yet how we respond makes all the difference. Last time I checked, there weren't two many people naming their kids Zechariah.