Saturday, May 24, 2008

Does this make me a "Twit?"

So I'm liking this new "Twitter" thing.
Briefly, it's a sort of text-based blog. You can post a 140 character 'blog' if you're standing in line or headed somewhere cool for lunch (Chick-Fil-A comes to mind), then the people who are "following" you get the text.
I'm thinking it's a great way for us to build the "community factor" of the Student Ministry.
Here's how I see it:
We all sign up and "follow" each other.
Then we can keep up with what we're doing.
If someone is about to take a test & is worried, just post a "pray for me - hard math test in 10."
Everyone gets a text and can pray.
It's also good for keeping up with what all is going on in the Student Ministry.
Sort of a "mySpace bulletin" that's short and is sent directly to your phone via text.

Go to www.twitter.com and you can sign up. It's free. I'm "robsigns" so you should be able to find me pretty quick. The more of us that get on it, the more fun it will be.

Hope you have an amazing Memorial Day. I'll be Twitter-ing about it, so if you're following me, you'll stay posted!

Rob
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Monday, May 19, 2008

Let them eat cake!

So the cake auction last night was a phenomenal success. Last year's auction brought about $80 per student. This year, the students made $120 each! Our church members are awesome. At one point, there was a bidding war. One of the bidders offered to let the other guy keep the cake, to which he replied, "I don't want the cake!" All these people showed up for fellowship, fun, and cake.

Sure, some came for the cake. Most of the people who buy a cake cut them right there and we all pass around cake and get a gigantic sugar rush going. But those buying cakes certainly aren't in it for the cake. I truly do appreciate the generous hearts of everyone who came and supported the event. We had a record high cake sell for $600. Christina's 8 layer chocolate cake looked totally out of control. 8 layers of chocolate, with sweet peanut butter between layers and what looked to be almost 30 Reese's peanut butter cups all over it. Simply amazing!

Thanks also to all our great kids who worked so hard making their cakes. Last, but definitely not least, thanks to Mark Lemm. Even after two banquets earlier in the day, he still made coffee and tea and had stuff ready for us to cut and serve cakes. Mark truly is an amazing servant.

So now, we're almost ready for camp. It's going to be amazing this year. It's a whole new camp experience for us, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what God does in our Student's lives at camp this Summer.

Rob
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Thursday, May 15, 2008

On Closet Poles and Gold Spray Paint

So we took a break from 1 Peter last night. It took 4 weeks to get through the first chapter and the first 3 verses of chapter 2. It's amazing how much is in three verses. The first three verses in chapter two have so much meat it's incredible...

Anyway -
So I made a trip to Home Depot yesterday and bought two 12 foot closet poles. Just getting them off the shelf was an interesting feat. For a second I thought I was going to have to leave the first one blocking the aisle. You see, they have this cable across the shelf to keep them from falling off. You sort of have to work it out of the cable, and I had to work around some boxes on the other side of the aisle to get it off the shelf. After the "learning curve" of the first pole, the second one came much easier. Then came transporting them back to the church. Fortunately, I had borrowed Mark's truck. They stuck out the back of the bed about 6 feet. I ended up putting them through the sliding window and they just barely fit from the windshield to the corner of the bed.

So here we are, back at the church. Me and Jason spray painting these two poles gold. I think I oversprayed a little bit of gold onto the bleachers, (shh! don't tell the maintenance guys I did it) but we finally got them ready.

Then to the sermon - In 1 & 2 Samuel, the Phillistines captured the ark. In transporting it around after that, there was alot of putting the ark on a cart. Now remember that the ark is the symbol of the presence and glory of God. For the 'bad guys' to have it in their posession is not a good thing. Even after they got a clue and returned it, the people of Israel still didn't get it for a while. They used a cart. When they finally said "oh yeah" - poles, things started to work.

We need to remember to get poles in our lives. God has told us how to live. We don't need anything more than what He's already given us. 2 Peter 1:3 says "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to live and godliness." In 1 Peter 2:2 we're told "long for (crave) the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation." God has given us the instructions. His Word. If we truly want to experience the presence and glory of God in our lives, we need to remember that He has told us how to do it in His Word. We have to get poles and do it His way.

It was very encouraging to see so many students come up after the sermon and sign the poles indicating that they want to be obedient to God and get poles in their lives and passionately seek to know God and make Him known. If you have a minute, stop by the High School building and check out the poles and signatures.

As I was perusing the interWeb this morning, I came across this on John Piper's website (www.desiringgod.org)
Quote of the Day: "Revival is the sovereign work of God to awaken his people with fresh intensity to the truth and glory of God, the ugliness of sin, the horror of hell, the preciousness of Christ's atoning work, the wonder of salvation by grace through faith, the urgency of holiness and witness, and the sweetness of worship with God's people."
—John Piper, A Godward Life, p. 111.

I can't put it any better. This is my desire for our student ministry and our church.

Rob
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

What happens when you eat waffles at the beach?

You get a San Diego!

So the weekend was great! The trip down was fine. A little traffic, but not bad at all. Dinner at In-N-Out is always a bonus.
Street witnessing (2 people prayed to receive Christ) and getting hassled by security guards.
The beach is always a good time. Del Mar was pretty nice. I do have to say to all our San Diego friends, however, that I still think that our own Orange County beaches are superior to what I've seen down there so far...
The concert was great. The magic show was amazing and mystifying. (I mean, how could it not be?) According to Pastor Jeff, quite a few of the attendees weren't members of the church, so that was good. They definitely heard the Gospel presented clearly.
Sunday morning church was good. Nate is an amazing worship leader and Jeff ain't such a bad preacher after all! I loved the Skittles illustration.

Our host homes were amazing. No complaints from anyone. All the students told me how their host homes went above and beyond what they needed to do. Thanks for all the hospitality.

We're heading back to San Diego to partner with Cloudbreak again later in the Summer. In the meantime - we're praying for you guys!

Rob
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Monday, May 12, 2008

First Night in San Diego

So I wrote this Friday night after we settled into our host home. I just haven't been anywhere with wifi to upload it until now. Sorry it's so late. I'll be posting an overall weekend reflection tomorrow.

We’re Here!
After months of having it on the calendar, it’s finally here. The youth group down here, and their youth pastor Nate, are great! It’s a small group, but they seem very excited about having us here and all that we’re doing.

We pulled out 18 minutes late, much to my chagrin. I hate pulling out late. But we still made good time. There was, of course, some traffic, but it really wasn’t all that bad. We made it from Highland to Rancho Bernardo, South of Escondido, in just a little under two hours. Not bad for rush hour.

After getting here, we all enjoyed dinner at In-N-Out. (I mean, how can you not enjoy In-N-Out? Seriously!) After dinner, we split up into teams of four. Three from Immanuel, and one from Cloudbreak. We split up and went all over a busy shopping center, talking to people. The goal was to engage people in conversation, invite them to the concert tomorrow night, and if possible share the Gospel with them. We weren’t on a mission to just hand out flyers. The goal was to engage people in conversation and see where the conversations led.

I haven’t had a chance to hear every group’s story, but I heard of at least one young lady who prayed to receive Christ! The Gospel was shared at least a few other times, and one group was told by a Security guard that we couldn’t pass out flyers here. Now to be fair, we weren’t really “passing out flyers” so much as we were giving them to people who were interested. But after the security guards started zeroing in on us, we ended up herded back to the In-N-Out, where we started. I would definitely call it a successful evening!

Then, it was off our separate ways to host homes. From the text messages I received, all the groups have great host homes! So far, Cloudbreak has proven themselves to be an awesome church! Their hospitality is great. One text read “we’re getting pampered. Popcorn, drinks, coke, candy, food, and movies! LOL I’m loving it!”

So we’re off to a great start! Tomorrow, some “down time” at the beach, then back to work. Prayer walking, more flyers, and hopefully some more engaging of people.
I’ll be doing some magic (or “illusion” if you prefer) and sharing the Gospel at the concert, so keep that in prayer. Nate (the youth pastor who’s coordinating everything) has 24 confirmed “yes’s” and 84 “maybes” on Facebook. Let’s pray that the “maybes” turn in to “yes’s”

Have a great day! I know we will! God is good! All the time!
Rob
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Friday, May 9, 2008

San Diego Bound

Okay - we leave in 45 minutes, I'll make this quick...

After several days of what I'm calling Driver/Van Tetris, we're finally ready to go. We've got our drivers and such lined up and ready. The first couple of kids have just arrived. I'm feeling much better (still a little hacking cough lingering though...)

We're off and away.

Passing out flyers and street witnessing tonight. The goal is that each team we send out gets to share the Gospel at least once as they go.

Then tomorrow, at the concert, I'm doing "magic" and sharing the Gospel. I'm excited.

Keep us in your prayers. I'll keep you posted.

Rob
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

What goes around.. comes around...

Especially whe it comes to those tiny little 'bugs' called bacteria or viruses. I've become a host to a whole colony of them and we're at war with each other. I hate being sick. I'm on my regimen of medications & herbal supplements. I've stepped up the Apple Cider Vinegar intake as well. (Some would say that if I'd been taking it all along, I wouldn't be sick now, but it's too late to prove or disprove that theory).

Anyway - the older I get, the longer it seems to take to recover from being sick. I'm definitely feeling better than a couple days ago, but still low on the energy factor. Even coffee isn't really helping. (well, maybe it is - I'm willing to try)

So onward and upward!

P.S. - we still need a driver or two for the San Diego trip this weekend. If you're available, call me!

Rob
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Friday, May 2, 2008

Black Shirt Wand.

... is what the screener said as I was about to pass through the metal detector.

We've all had "The Moment." You know what I'm talking about. when you look at something & realize it's not right. That you somehow messed up somewhere. You're hoping you're misreading it, but deep down inside you know you did & you realize exactly what you did all at the same moment.

That's what happened to me this morning. I was checking my flight departure info. The time wasn't quite right. Then I noticed the day said "Tuesday" and the date said "20" not "02" like it should have. Everything replayed in a single instant. I had typed "2" into the date category. instead of 2, the Delta website gave me the first "2" which was the 20th, not the 2nd. (I should have typed "0"). All the flight numbers were the same, so I apparently wasn't looking close enough and my brain saw the 20 as 02. So I'm booked on a return flight 18 days from now.

After a lengthy discussion with the Delta person, the $450 ticket difference, for which she wanted to charge me $368, ended up being $120 more. "Will that be Visa?"

Which brings us to "black shirt wand." If you book a same day flight, you're flagged for a special extra screening at airport security.

When I showed the TSA person my boarding pass, I was ushered to a different line. I put my stuff in a specially marked tub. Went through the metal detector, and the guy who had just taken my stuff said to the one at the detector "black shirt wand." (I'm wearing a black shirt in case I haven't made that clear) After a pat down and special search of my backpack, I'm through. Ahead of everyone else I'm with ironically enough.

I wanted to title this post "Yew Eediot!" since I feel like an idiot for booking a flight on the wrong day...

Anyway, so I'm on the first flight ok. Of course, I'm not on the second flight, increasing my layover from one to at least 3. Maybe I can sweet talk someone at the gate to getting me on the earlier flight....

Wish me luck! (or "providential blessings" if you prefer)

Rob