I am still on vacation and have been since dec 19th. here are a couple things I have done.
Finally after probably 40 attempts at the final level, i beat mercenaries on the xbox
Have read 2 books in 3 days. dont think i ever read a full book in school.
(re)understaning prayer - very challenging, very helpful. it made prayer simple.
pocket guide - not inspirational by anymeans (but it never claimed to be), a ton of information. very easy to understand. one thing in the book that i am still shocked at it that when truman was in presidental office, billy graham made a claim that jesus was coming back within 2 years. 50 years later, here we are.
I'm going to be punched for this, but here is katie on christmas rocking out to black sabbath's iron man
Yes, i am still working my way thru blue like jazz. it is not a book that i can sit down and read in 2 days. to much thinking and digesting.
Taking Care of Business on Vacation
Starving for High Speed
On vacation
Only have dialup availability, unless i chill at panera and use their wifi.
Went to the mizzou - illinois game in st louis. 10 rows up from the court. the sweetest thing about the game was i sat next to jason sutherland who played for mu from 93-97.
jason sutherland's 1996-97 stats
12.6 pts/game
27.8 min/game
2.2 assist/game
2.4 rebounds/game
84% free throw
40% 3pt
100% heart
Busy working on two different websites.
stancourtney.com
wisefinanceloans.com - will be launching soon
Some Online Resources I Found
2 tooth and nails cds fro $15
free download sufjan stevens christmas albums
i am the church - relevant article by ag pastor from elevation church
Kingston Falls Show
Kingston falls
Twelve gauge valentine
Transfer to red
In place of hope
Weathermen Wordage
i heard on the news like 5 times in the past 2 days, weather people referring to the midwest as "the nation's midsection." why must we be described as this.
Great Scripture
do for God what you said you'd do - he is, after all, your God. - psalms 76:11 - the bible
I have to confess
i gave in the offering today, because i felt people were watching.
Ed Young on giving
"often our selfworth is too tied into our networth" - ed young
Relient K still bringin it
Watching relient k on hard rock live on mtv.
Still can't believe that i gave matt thiessen a ride in a golf cart 2 years ago at cstone. too funny.
IHOP Round 3
Its about 20 minutes after midnight and it is still going strong. the crowd right now is significantly twentysomething. i heard the bands were a lil more edgey in the nightlife, so i thought i would do some calendar work in the midst of it all.
IHOP Round 1
i am sitting at the international house of prayer in kansas city in their coffeehouse, i think it is called something like holy grounds (but aren't they all). i am here to spend 1 1/2 days with about 10 pastors from the macomb area for a time of reflection and prayer obviously.
In the next 1 1/2 i am hoping to deepen my relationship with christ, get direction for my life, and for h2o and the 2006 year.
IHOP Round 2
sitting in the middle of ihop. getting ready for round 2. service starts at 7pm.
got here about 2:30 and went to the prayer room until about 4:30. 2 different bands played sets. they have live music 24 hours. people were just hanging out in this room, that is really a sanctuary. people are scattered all through out the room. some people prayed, other stood and sang, other read books, others worked on homework or whatever, just in this atmosphere. there are a ton of laptops. people typing out prayers, working on stuff, blogging, whatever.
Sunday AM Service
Kt is elbowing, telling me that this is not the church to open my laptop up and starting typeing in.
im in his morning’s service, someone gave a message in tongues followed by an interpretation. followed by some of the people in the sanctuary mumbling amen, or something to that fashion. do we as christians really believe that this is god speaking to us, or do we believe that it is something that is scripted by the church staff.
1 cor 12:7-11
Halloween Costume Party
Sitting at h2o taking a break from painting waiting to open for after school rush.
Had our halloween outreach this weekend. it lasted for 2 hours on sunday night. we had about 80 students come out to it.
we had a mario kart tournament
costume contest
2 bands
In Place of Hope
Prodigal
the party was so hot, i even busted out my 1919 authentic doughboy helmet.
Reflecting Back to Menards
We had a motto when i worked at menards during my college years, "people don't interrupt your job, they are the reason you have one."
god spoke this to me today. i planned on spending most of the day cleaning up and maintaining h2o after the plumbing issues, and needed to rearrange the gaming rooms to better suit the halo 2 addicts. once i got started on rewiring our under cabinet lights (which katie says i wired wrong the first time), a twentysomething student who is somewhat mentally challenged came him. he is very high maintance.
i thought to myself, great im not going to get anything done. i talked him into doing some cleanup for me, in exchange for a free soda (there has to be something wrong with this). it seemed like in no time he was done, and i had just started.i gave him a dew. he sat at the water bar. frustrated i tried to continue wiring.
he attends sunday morning services atleast twice a month, and has came to almost every concert we have done. he begin to ask me about drinking and god. he went on to explain that he believed in god, but thought it was ok to have a couple of drinks now and then. at the end of our conversation, he asked me to keep him in my prayers. that god would
help him with this this.
in the past week, i had all these scheduled times of ministry (what i thought was doing god's work), whether it be youth service, small groups, school lunch or whatever. and then out of the blue, unscheduled, is the time that i got to be the most successful at meeting somebody's need. go figure.
shot 66 (that was on 9 holes) at tuesday's staff golf outing.
watched fever pitch tonight.
Watching the NLCS game 5
went to church at the rock this weekend. service started at 7:07pm on a saturday night (gotta love sleeping in on sunday). i came into service late because, i parked in a no parking area, and didn't want to risk getting a ticket, so i drove around for a while trying to find a spot. came into service about 5-8
minutes late to the band already playing. seemed like there was about 80-100 twentysomes there, with a couple parents (it was homecoming weekend).
the church meets in a lecture hall on the university of missouri campus. the band played a couple songs, as the crowd mostly stood and sang, with not much move moment. the lecture hall was very dimmly lit, with other colored par cans on the stage. after a couple songs, a leader came to the mic and introduced the pastor and his upcoming
message.
i sat down. got out the iBook and started to take notes. to my surprise i was the only one in my eye sight that had a laptop out. there was a couple people around me writing with the trusty pencil.
the pastor came onto the stage as kool and the gang's celebrate played over the speakers. he continued his series called, the life of an apprentice.
he centered his whole talked about partying and celebrating, and when it is appropriate to party and reasons to party.
revelations 19:9 Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb!
the pastor concluded his message with prayer, and the band came up and played 3 to 4 more songs.
after the service was over, they had free soda and snacks for everyone.
as i drove home (3 hours) on sunday morning, it felt good to go to church on a saturday night. if only we didn't have youth service that night, i could have had the whole day to do whatever.
H2O Press
western courier article on h2o (9/05)
http://www.westerncourier.com/media/paper650/news/2005/09/28/News/H20-Is.Refreshing.For.Christian.Teens-1001306.shtml
western courier article on hurricane katrina fundraiser sponsored by
h2o during the falling up tour (free registration required) (9/05)
http://www.westerncourier.com/media/paper650/news/2005/09/16/News/Western.Supports.Katrina.Relief-987913.shtml
western courier review of falling up tour at mag (9/05)
http://www.westerncourier.com/media/paper650/news/2005/09/23/theedge/falling.up-996249.shtml
macomb eagle article on h2o (1/05)
http://www.eaglepublications.com/article.jhtml?DB=dbase/dbase&DO=display&ID=1105981579_31103
Fall Retreat Wrap Up
Had our fall retreat this weekend, that lasted about 24 hours. instead of having a guest speaker, we did 4 different prayer experiences. the first one was centered around simon the pharisee and his dinner with jesus. the students were encouraged to meditate and pray during the reading of the story. with provoking questions intertwined.
2nd experience we setup 4 different stations, all centered around being thankful.
3rd experience the students found a spot by themselves and just sat, and were silent.
4th experience was 5 different stations centered around praying for all different aspects of the harvest and workers. the student started with pots and filled them with soil, planted seeds, watered, etc.
The student seemed to really enjoy it. very relaxed. we even got to take a nap on saturday.
Prepping for Fall Retreat
Getting stuff ready for our fall retreat coming up this weekend. it is going to be totatlly different from our retreat in 03 and 02. this one we dont have a guest speaker. but are doing more of total experiences. i really think we do too many services anyway. students just need to be able to experience god, instead of people talking to them about him. so this should be a
really cool time.
Will post some pics here after the weekend.
Watching jay leno right now, and sinead o'connor is on. crazy.
