Sermonizing

I'm speaking at Encounter Christian Church this Sunday on 1 Samuel 14. I suppose I should get started with only 3 days to go...

If you don't have a church home, consider coming to Encounter this Sunday. Caleb, the pastor, is a really cool guy (who plans his sermons more than 3 days out) and they, as a new church, would love to have you part of their church family. Plus, they have church in a theater - how cool is that?!?! (My own church family is getting ready to do church-in-a-theater as well as we are starting a second location this September).

Leaving Teeth Marks in the Czech Republic

Long time no blog...

I've been itching to put some of my thoughts into this form of communication to help myself process all that took place during my time in the Czech Republic, and as a way to share what happened at the English Camp with some of you I might not get to talk with otherwise. So to begin, let me start in an unconventional way by talking about the book I took with me.

I knew we had some long stretches of travel, both by plane and train, to reach Hotel Malenovice, the location of the English/Business Camp. Being a bookworm who doesn't get to read as much as he wants, I wanted to take along a good book as a travel companion. I perused the stacks of unread volumes in my office. I knew I needed to pack light, so one book would have to do, but I needed something with some girth to last me the whole trip. I also decided I didn't want something too mentally challenging for travel, not knowing what state I would be in towards the end of the trip (I planned to get very little to no sleep to adjust faster to a different time zone), so something on the lighter side seemed more appropriate for my backpack. Then I saw it - after sitting on my desk for over two years (or was it three?), it was finally time to crack open flashBang by Mark Steele.

I have read articles by Mark before, and I find him to be absolutely hilarious. So I truly looked forward to reading a whole entire tome penned by him. And I was not disappointed. The book had me laughing to the point of tears at places (my teammates had almost as much fun laughing at my laughing...), which opened me up to the deeper points Mark was making. The subtitle of the book is "how i got over myself" and I enjoyed reading Mark's journey from showman for God to child of God. I would find much pleasure in handing this book out to many of the young adults I get to work with because I know they would enjoy the book and learn through it as I did.

But one of the chapter titles did not sit well with me. Each chapter title was intentionally a bit of a paradox, much like the book title itself. Chapter titles such as "slapHAPPY" or "dumbSHOW" didn't make sense until you read the chapter. But even after reading Chapter 2, I didn't like the title "teethMARKS".

Mark talked about how many of us think that love kisses. But Mark argued that true love leaves teethmarks. A kiss only flatters, but doesn't last. Teethmarks, on the other hand, leave an impression that stays with the person. Having a teething 10 month old son, I would argue from personal experience that teethmarks just hurt. :o)

So we arrived in the Czech Republic, enjoyed a day in Prague taking in the amazing sites, travelled by train out east the next day, and made it to the hotel. After a day of preparing for the arrival of the students, camp got started on a Sunday with English testing and getting to know names. I was so amazed how on Sunday these people were just faces with a name, but by Friday these people were friends we hugged goodbye. Here are some of the highlights of the week for me:

• My English class (pictured at the right). We laughed SOOO hard all week long. Man, did we have fun! They were such a great group to work with. I wrote in my journal to LeAnn that this group could take the worst of lesson plans and make the teacher seem like a genius. They had such a desire to learn, they had the most amazing attitudes, and they loved every moment we had together. It was such an honor to me that God would place me with that group. So Lumir, Tadek, Monika, Simona, Basia, Petr, Adam, and Roman - if any of you are reading this: thank you for letting me be your teacher for the week. You helped dispel every fear I had of teaching such high level English students and made it the most fun I've had in a while. And a special thank you to Adam for letting me be his English apprentice (sorry, inside joke there...)
• The change in my English Reading/Conversation Group. While I had fairly fluent English speakers in my 9:00-11:30 am English Grammar class, I had a new-to-English conversation group. It was fun watching and hearing their English improve all week long. But the bigger highlight to me was watching a group of mostly athiests or agnostics have little interest in our reading time on Monday (we would read a section of the Gospels in English each Reading time and answer questions about it to work on reading skills, comprehension, and conversation in English) have tons of interest and honest questions on Thursday and Friday.

There are of course many other highlights, stories, and pictures to share. But let me skip to our debriefing on the Saturday after camp.

After a good breakfast and a few last goodbyes, our team gathered for a time of worship, prayer, reflection, and debriefing about the camp. As our team talked together and shared our experiences, I realized that through our love of our students, time with the campers, and just being ourselves, we had made an impact on the campers and they on us. It wasn't just a kiss that was nice in the moment and faded after the camp ended. We truly had left an impression on the campers - or to use Mark Steele's phrase, teethmarks. Guess I like Mark's chapter title after all...

Visual Consumption

What looks like pretty desktop patterns/pictures but is actually a visual representation of the amount of material consumption in America? Chris Jordan's latest series of art work.

(This one depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. Go to the website to see the close-up view, along with many others).

Lucky Number 13

Yesterday was my 13th anniversary being wed to the most wonderful woman God could have paired me with. To celebrate, we left the kids at Grandma and Grandpa Bird's house in Pella while we escaped for a night to the Stone Mansion in Oskaloosa. We enjoyed shopping together, eating together, walking together, and just being together.

It was so needed for LeAnn and me to get "us" time in the middle of all this busy-ness and impending separation due to my Czech trip. It was also wonderful to get 9 hours of sleep after many nights of 4-6! Yesterday was simply a great day.

I am so thankful for my wife and for my marriage. After Christ, LeAnn is the best thing to ever happen to me. Being married to her makes me feel like the luckiest man in the world!

Bad Communication Habits

As I wait while my computer imports or exports video for a project I am working on, I've been catching up on some reading - blogs, emails, forums, etc. I just read a post on Monday Morning Insight about communication, and boy did it hurt! I struggle with the first 3 "bad communication habits" more than I'd like to admit. Thankfully the last 4 in Todd's list aren't much of an issue for me, but still missing the mark on 3 of them is bad enough.

Do you struggle with any of these? If so, please join me in correcting them so that we can make sure that everyone we come in contact with feels valued.

Happy Birthday, M!

Today was my second daughter's 7th birthday. We had a great family celebration over breakfast with scrambled eggs and chocolate-iced doughnuts, and then got the joy of watching M unwrap her new scooter.

As we ate breakfast, K (the big sister) came up with a brilliant idea. "Let's each say some things we appreciate about M." And here are some of the wonderful comments we shared with our special "M Poema":

We appreciate M's joyful, comical spirit. We love how she makes us all laugh. We appreciate how she cares for her younger brothers. We appreciate how she cheerfully serves (most days!). We appreciate the art and cards she makes for all of us and others. And we are thankful that God put her in our family.

We love you, M! Happy 7th Birthday!

It's never too late

No matter what anyone tells you, it's never too late to seek your dream. And it is amazing how far perseverance can take you. Here is a lady proving it...

If I knew you personally and could shake your hand, Nola, I would. But a blog post will have to do. Congrats, Nola!

The greatest donation yet...

As I have shared on here before, I am going to the Czech Republic this June to help teach at an English/Business camp. As I shared in my letter I sent to friends and family, I need to raise some money in order to go.

I have been humbled thus far by the generosity of several people. While I haven't raised the full amount yet, I have received some VERY generous gifts, and I am extremely honored by these financial offerings.

But today I received the best donation yet. No, it was not the largest. But it was the most meaningful. My oldest daughter, K, baked cookies and brownies (with a bit of help from Mom) and made some Kool-Aid to sell outside. She spent most of her day in the front yard selling her baked goods and colored drinks to the walkers, bikers, and neighbors that passed by. At the end of the day, she had earned over $40 dollars. When she combined this with the money she had earned from jobs she's been doing the past month, my 9-year-old daughter will be donating over $50 so that Czech business professionals can see Christ in me and hear him in my words.

I am so incredibly humbled by my daughter's wonderful attitude and actions. Truly, this was and will be the best donation I receive.

The photo is of K and me after her piano recital two weeks ago.

Feed the Pig

My friend, Kim Pagel, has a great post about debt and young adults on his blog, with some amazing and sad statistics, most of which I think are provided by the Feed the Pig website. Take a look.

Buy a shoe, give a shoe

My dad worked in the art department (correction - he WAS the art department) for a small chain of retail shoe stores in the midwest for over 30 years before moving on to something new 4 years ago (which they just successfully sold this year to move into semi-retirement. Congrats Mom and Dad!). Because of Dad's job, I used to get to "shop" in the warehouse, having my pick of hundreds of name brand shoes at employee pricing. Oh, how I miss those days.

So while I don't have a fetish, nor a closet stuffed with footwear, I do like shoes (but I have to admit I don't understand women who go shoe shopping when they already have like 50 pairs in their closet - two everyday wear and one dress pair is enough, right?).

Because of this appreciation for a good pair of shoes, I really liked this site. TOMS Shoes combined the idea of footwear (important) with helping others (very important). While I'm not a huge fan of the appearance of the shoe, I love the idea, so thought I would share it!