being real

Sorry it has been so quite around here. I have been taking most of my spare time memorizing lines. The show opens in 18 days and I think it is in pretty good shape. I am having a lot of fun.

After about an 8 year hiatus from doing musicals I thought I would throw my hat back into the ring. I was cast as a lead part in a local community theatre. I was cast as “Prince Dauntless” in “Once Upon a Mattress”. “Once upon a Mattress is a cleaver retelling of the story the princess and the pea.
I was in a musical 2 years ago, where I filled in, a week before the show opened. I didn’t audition or anything, they just cast me. This time I actually auditioned which was a lot of fun.
The read through starts Monday, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about taking the stage in a musical again.

So I thought I would take a little time to catch up on my life as I have not blogged much in the past 4 months.

It really has been a good summer. It has been busy, but good. As far as youth ministry goes our summer is very trip intensive. I like it like that, except it is a little frustrating that there is a whole section of students I feel disconnected from for two reasons. Some move on to high school and others just don’t so up for the events.

June’s main thing was our annual Junior High Mission Trip. We again went with an organization called TEENSERVE. We served the good people of Merrill, WI helping them repair their homes. I got to know a group of pretty cool kids from all over. One of the people in my crew I had in my crew 3 years ago. Then she was a sophomore and this year she just graduated from high school. It was an amazing coincidence that was on my crew again. Going on mission trip really feeds the soul. God meets students their and he meets me their. We served a nice lady named Ruth that made us strawberry pie from fresh strawberries she picked that morning. I think our company was truly the mission as she lives out in the country all by herself. We had one kid ask Jesus into his life for the first time at mission trip which was cool. I was a little confused at first because I thought he asked Christ into his life at a different event. However, at mission trip his “girlfriend” broke up with him and it sort of put him in “crisis” mode. God used that pain to draw the kid to himself.

July involved 3 major things. First off I got a new boss. After 2 years of not having a senor pastor we now have a new one. It is weird, I sort of got use to not having a senior pastor. Actually, I was quite comfortable without it. He is a very nice man, and I think is a great addition to our church. However, it is strange having the longest tenure and still being the junior high pastor. It something feels like my existence in my church is a little bit of an oxymoron.

I July I also spoke at a 4-6th bible camp. This is always a lot of fun for me. However this year I was at a camp I have never been to before and I was speaking to a younger age than I am use to. I all worked out. I even brought out my annual Elvis Impersonation to keep the kids attention. My wife and kids absolutely adore being at camp.

The we after speaking at camp me and a few other JHer leader took so students into a wilderness camping experience. This was a pretty amazing experience. We caught a lot of big fish. We sat around the fire and talked about life, did a little improve acting in front of the camp fire, gave each other secret names like Bearbait, Dewit (that was me), and the Guardian of Whatnot. Speaking of bears a couple of other JH leaders thought it would be cool to scare the crud of of me at 3:00 am pretending to be a bear! I have never been so scared in my life. I may not ever go camping up there again. I am scared.

August brought other local events with water parks, amusement parks, professional baseball games, tubing, and lots of other relational building events. At the amusement park we went to I went on a ride that you had to pay extra for to try . It was called The Skyscraper.” It pretty much rocked. And it was fun to scare one of the guys that pretended to be a bear. Payback is sweet.

3 weeks ago I got completely few up with gas prices and I bought a scooter. It rocks and get about 80-100 MPG. Nice, huh?

That bring us to the approaching fall. I am getting weepy because my first born will be heading off to Kindergarten next week. It is the beginning of the end. Pretty soon I will be walking her down the aisle.

We got lots of good stuff lined up for the fall. I have a renewed commitment to reach more lost JHers for Jesus this fall.

My wife wants me to try-out for the local community theatre. We will see…I think I will and then go crazy because I will be so busy. I do get an itch quite often to be on stage doing some musical theatre. Ok…enough said. Thanks for reading.

I feel a little bad at abandoning this blog. I found that it is much easier to abandon a blog that you don’t pay for. It is funny how slowly the visitors just go away completly. The fall is starting up again and maybe it is time to start blogging again. I have had a really busy summer with lots of good stuff. I should fill you in on all that happened. Right now I have no time as I am going to a picnic celebration for my daughter’s new school. She starts kindergarden next week! I can’t believe it! She is really growing up.

It has been about a week since I have blogged. Here are some of the highlights.

Last week we started our softball season. I am on a team with a bunch of college age students. The reasons I am on the softball team is two fold: #1 to have a little fun and #2 to get to know the students so that I am able to minister to them in some way. Some of them are not believers, so I am least hope to befriend some of them and at least pray for them.

Today, I took pretty much the whole day for a spiritual retreat. I want to start doing this is just really connect with God and focus solely on him. I spent a lot of time in prayer, the word and focusing on the future. This included continuing to pray about changing ministry/location. It was a really good and refreshing time today.

Tonight, I watch my first movie from cleanfilms.com. It was pretty sweet. I watched Oceans 11. It is so nice to be able to watch a high quality movie and not worry about the objectionable content. Very refreshing! It was enjoyable, even though I’m not really to into heist movies. We have Oceans 12 on our “Q” too. We will probably get that one in the coming weeks.

The parent that complained last week called me into my office tonight. I wasn’t sure if she was still upset. To my surprise, the parent apologized to me for the phone call she made. I think that was the first time something like that has happened in my 7 years of ministry. This is a little bit of a weight off my shoulders.

I got this from Kristen’s blog. Nothing much to do before I go to bed.

YOU:
Name: I will not say

FAVORITES:
Ice Cream: orange sherbert
Soda: Cherry Coke
Food: Mc Donald’s fries
Candy: Butterfinger
Chip: Plain Lays with Dean’s French Onion Dip
Color: red
Song: “Unite” by the Supertones
Sport: Basketball
Number: 10 (my old basketball number)
Season: summer
Holiday: Christmas
Book: Pickle juice…(from when I was a kid)
Magazine: Relevant
Vacation Spot: Wisconsin Dells
Actor: Tom Hanks
Actress: Nicole Kidman
Brand of Clothes: Levi’s
Brand of Shoes: I’ll go with New Balance. Running shoes.

CHOOSE ONE:
Peanut Butter or Jelly: jelly
Reese Cup or Butterfinger: Both equally good.
Book or Magazine: Depends on my mood.
TV or Radio: TV
Tape or CD: CD
Cold or Hot: hot
Sugar or Salt: start with salt, always end with sugar.
Chinese Food or Mexican Food: Chinese
New York City or Beverly Hills: NYC (gosh, these are so random)

FRIENDS:
Best: T
Funniest: Aaron
Shyest: Carrie
Kindest: Carrie
Most Outgoing: Kevin
Loudest: Chris
Most Talented: Aaron
Sweetest: Carrie
Has Always Been There For You: Mom and Dad
Makes You Laugh The Most: my kids
Best To Hang Out With: T…that’s why I married her!

QUESTIONS:
Do you like school: sure…college was good.
How many hours are you online a day: Way too many.
Have you ever been to a concert: Yes
Do you believe in God: Yes
Where were you born: Southern Iowa
Have you ever failed a grade: no
Do you have a job: yes
What is your biggest fear: losing kids/wife
Have you ever ridden a roller-coaster: yes
Have you ever been to Disneyland: YES! It rocked!
Have you ever been trapped in an elevator: Yes
Who did you talk to on the phone last: a SH student from our ministry
Who wrote you a note last: my daughter
What C.D. is in your C.D. player right now: the closest is Pillar
Have you ever smoked: Once…it was lame.

FIRST:
Best Friend: Matt Betz
Crush: Jaderian
Job : paper route
Album/CD: Bon Jovi, “Slippery when Wet”
Piercing/Tattoo: Ear pierced in high school… no tattos
Enemy: I don’t remember.
Big Trip: Egypt…Mission Trip first year out of high school

LAST:
Movie Seen: A Knight’s Tale
Beverage Drank: Dr. Pepper
Food Consumed: PB and jelly
Kiss: goodnight kisses frommy kids
Show Watched: Amazing Race

Have fun!

How bout you? Post yours in the comments.

It is my wife’s birthday today, and check out where we are going to celebrate!

We are pretty pumped. We first heard about it coming last year, and we have had our tickets since October. Hakunamatata!

I don’t like doing things I am not very good at. However, for the second time in my lifetime I am giving softball a shot. I am going to play softball with a group of 20-somes. The goal of me being on the team it to get to know these young 20-somes a little better. A few of them don’t know Jesus, and my prayer is that through this team they realize there is more to life than partying. I am not that great of a softball player but I think it will be pretty fun.

I have continued running daily. I’m not sure if I will get out today because it is a bit rainy today. I need to go now and judge our video scavenger hunt that we had last Wednesday.

I know…boring post…sorry.