My Part of the Conversation

Every year, our church puts on a big youth rally. It ends up being my “big project” each year.

This year, we streamlined some things to put information, registration, and even payment online. Check out the site we put together using a wordpress theme.

www.youthrenewal.com

We just moved into our new house this weekend. Every time we walk in the door we say, “I can’t believe this is ours!” We’re thrilled to be here. Once it starts being more of a home and less a maze of boxes, think I’ll like it even more.

Now, I just have one question:

Where did all this stuff come from?!!

Life is pretty crazy right now. A few highlights:

• We bought our first home! It’s pretty amazing how fast you can sign your life away. We got a good deal on the home and a great interest rate, but will be paying on it until 2038.
• Winterfest 2008- I took a group to this event, and it was really good. Jeff Walling brought some great lessons that really connected with our teenagers. There were nearly 5000 people there, which was the largest youth event I’ve ever been to.
• Putting together a sermon I felt good about at the beginning of the year helps curb off the annual January career crisis.
• Websites are great for getting out information for an event, getting out updates, and even taking registrations. But, I know just enough to be a danger to myself and others. Fortunately, I’ve got a pretty good friend who has helped bail me out on the computer end (thanks Jimmy). Check out www.youthrenewal.com to see our Youth Rally website and what I’ve been working on for the past week (and thereby neglecting this blog).
• A Brett Favre vs. Tom Brady Super Bowl showdown would have been much more appealing to me than an Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady showdown. “Can he follow in his brother’s footsteps?” is already a boring story.
• Cold weather is overrated.
• Last Tuesday was free chicken biscuits at Chi-Fil-A. Today it was Chicken Minis. I’ve been saying since they came out the chicken biscuits must have drugs in them. Now “the first one’s free”. Hmmm…
• As a super sc-fi nerd, a tv series on the Terminator storyline is pretty cool. Especially when there’s a writer’s strike on.
• You know you’re at a great church when people offer to help you move without you even having to ask!

More soon

Yesterday, I went to lunch with one of the college age students.  We went to a nearby Quizno’s to talk and grab something to eat.  It wasn’t very crowded, but soon after we sat down, another family with a load of kids sat at the 2 tables directly behind us.  Kids seemed to be all over the place.  I noticed the dad seemed a little tired, but didn’t think much of it.  I was talking to John when he suddenly froze and said, “Oh, that’s Les Miles!”

I looked back, and sure enough, it was.  Les Miles is the coach of the LSU Football team, and if you have been in a cave for a week, they also won the national championship this year (which was just the night before).   He was grabbing lunch with his wife and kids.  I said, “Wow, today that’s the most important man in Baton Rouge!”  We left him alone, but a few people congratulated him, while another patron asked him how his caps are always so clean (brilliant).

Later that day, I found out they had just come in from New Orleans a few hours earlier, and I saw him on the news in footage from a press conference he had apparently just left when I saw him.  I imagine every sports radio or news columnist wanted to interview him that day, that ESPN, every LSU fan, and every tv station in the nation would love to have a piece of his time that day.

But he was spending it with his kids.  I thought that was pretty cool.