Ha

so, yeah . ..

Don't ask me why I haven't posted anything since the 11th. I don't have a really good reason. So a week ago today I turned 25. I am now a quarter of a century old, and that's cool I suppose. Abigail gave me Call of Duty 2: Big Red One for my birthday, and it may just be the most cinematic WWII game yet. It has two beach landing levels, and they are both crazy and chaotic. If you ever got the joy of playing Medal of Honor Frontline (or Allied Assault if you are a PC person), and were in awe of the Normandy level there, then you ahve to play this game for the expereince of landing on Sciliy. My parents gave me the Complete series of Firefly. For those of you not in the know, Firefly is the tv series that was continued (and ended) in the awesome movie Serenity. I am completely in love with Firefly, and I now fully understand the meaning and implications of this shirt. The plot lines are incredible, and the characters are among the best I have ever encountered in any form of media (be cinema, televison, video games, or books). It has to be some sort of crime against humanity that this show was canceled half way through one season, while American Idol is on for five hours a week. I seriously can not stop watching episodes of Firefly, I seriously stayed up till 3 in the morning on Monday/Tuesday watching it.

A little bit of pressure

Tuesday of this week marked the official 6 month point of my job here at Epworth. I must say that after six months things are going really well. The youth group has grown in attendance and gotten stronger. At the six month mark, I had the youth feel out a report card on everything and they gave me an average of an A. In general there is just a lot of excitement around the youth ministry right now. The diaconal minister told me that the congreation isvery supportive of the youth right now because "they see it working." Another person told me that the youth group has not been this strong and had such a good vibe about it for at least 12 years, another person made the same statement, only increased the time span to 20 years!
So that is all good, but it scares the crap out of me! It sounds like a lot of people have a lot of high hopes building up, and it feels like a lot of that is riding on me. The problem is that I know just how painfully human I am, which means soon or later I am going to fail. I would say at least once a week I start to worry about this, but then I realize there is no need to worry, because it is not about me but about Him. Then I remember the lyrics to one one of Abigail's favorite Casting Crown songs:

Cause when I'm weak, You make me strong
When I'm blind you shine Your light on me
'Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability
How refreshing to know You don't need me
How amazing to find that you want me
So I'll stand on Your Truth, and I'll fight with Your Strength
Untill You bring the victory, by the power of Christ in me

If I rely on my own understanding in doing this youth ministry thing, then I will surly fail, and fail hard, but if I rely on God then I know I have nothing to worry about, because even when I do fall, He will be there to help pick me right back up.

A double post

because according to the Internet I'm a genius:

English Genius You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 80% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

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It doesn't get any geekier than . . .

this. If you don't get it, don't feel to bad it just means you are not that big of a geek.

Sorry, I don't have much

Yes, I realize that I have been fairly quiet on the ol' blogspot for a while. By and large there is not a lot going on, just buisness as usual. Then it occured to me the few of you who actually read here may not be aware what buisness as usual is.
Everything with my job at the church is going really well. Believe it or not, but we have been in Indianapolis for six months, so this past Sunday I had the youth feel out a youth group report card and evaluation. I was happy that they gave me an A! :) I got a lot of good feedback, and I think we will be able to make some positive changes. At the youth group meetings we are talking about the Big questions. This past Sunday the question was "What makes Christianity different from other religions?" The Sunday before that, "Why should I believe the Bible?" and the first one was "How do I know God exist?" A lot of the youth here are very Post-Modern in their world view, which presents some challenges when talking about questions like this, but overall it is going well. I am also in the middle of teaching Confirmation, which is going well. I have been able to break out all of my teacher training for this, and I am really enjoying it. Of course with Confirmation from 3:30-5 on Sundays and youth group from 5-7 on the same day, it makes for long days. We are in the process of creating a youth group room as well. The youth have decided it is going to have a beach theme. To go along with this, we are also trying to come up with a name more exciting than "youth group." To give it more appeal, and feel more college-y/grow up I want the name to be abbreivated by greek letters. Yes you read that right, me, Mr. Anti-frat is trying to come up with a very fraternal name. Irony of ironies.
On top of all of that, I am knee deep in the process of planning a mission trip to the Cayman Islands. There are 32 people going, and as you can imagine the flight alone puts the required money into five digets, which easily makes this the biggest project I have ever been a part of EVER. It is a little bit intimidating to be honest. So yeah, that is what is going on. . .