Hangin’ with My Nieces

My sister April and her husband Lalo …

(Get ready! This is where things get tricky!)

who is my wife’s brother …

(I’ll give you a minute to do the math. It’s not incest, I promise!)

… are here visiting from Virginia for Christmas. They have three little girls ages 4, 2, and 4-months. Yesterday I took their two oldest daughters along with my two to McDonald’s. It was such a blast!

They were very excited about eating their chicken nugget happy meals,

dipping their nuggets in “chik-up” (Ketchup; which interestingly became “ranch” when they dipped their nuggets in it.),
getting “I-geem” (as the two-year-old said – “Ice cream”),
and playing on the playground.

They have also enjoyed coming to my office to see my turtle and get “Keen-E” (candy) from Uncle Kevin’s closet. We have been having a lot of fun hanging out together.

Teens Try To Steal Police Car With Officers Inside

Received this Stranger Than Fiction Article from the e-Journal of Student Ministries: http://www.justnews.com/news/18238647/detail.html

Validation

My friend had this video on his blog. It’s a short film with a great message!

Heaven, Life After Death, Life After Life After Death

I have been pondering, studying, and thinking a lot about heaven, life after death, and “life after life after death” (as N.T. Write calls it). I have been studying the Scriptures, early church beliefs, church tradition, as well as more recent understandings.
“Christians Wrong About Heaven,” Says Bishop … Read this fascinating interview with N.T. Write conducted by Time:

Simple Words … Powerful Impact

Last week I met with the single dad of one of my students. After talking about a few things I asked him what seemed to me to be a simple, natural question, but an e-mail the next day revealed that it was in fact a powerful question that had deep significance for him. The question I asked? “How are you doing with all of the things that you have been through?”

Here’s the e-mail he sent me the next day:

PK, Thanks not only for hearing me out, but especially for asking how my life is going. That question is rare. It means a lot to me.

What an interesting statement and a sad commentary on our culture – even within the church. Questions are a powerful tool that we have to help others. That’s why I wrote a book of questions (What Would You Do? 500 Questions to Get Teens Talking).

What good questions have you asked this week?

What are some good questions you can ask in your encounters this coming week?

Lord, help us to demonstrate our care for others through asking good, open, powerful questions. Amen.

Giving for Christmas

This Christmas we decided as a family that rather than Christmas being about presents for us we wanted to give in a more substantial way to help others as well. We prepared shoe boxes with toys, school supplies, and candy for children at our friend’s orphanage in Mexico City which we are sending along with about 35 other shoe boxes prepared by students in our youth ministry. We also decided to give the gift of fresh water through the digging of a well as well as chickens to help a family be able to eat and provide additional income through World Vision. If you would like to consider doing something similar, follow this link to World Vision to see these and many other options for giving: http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?lpos=top_drp_WaysToGive_GiftCatalog&go=gift&&section=10024

Incredible Guitar Player! Can You Say, "August Rush"?

Review: 10 Minute Moments

10 Minute Moments is a new devotional book by Kurt Johnson designed especially for Jr. High students. I decided to put the book to the test by giving it to Olivia, a 7th grade students who has been following Jesus for about a year. After a few weeks I asked her for her honest feedback. Here it is … raw, unedited, and straight from the mouth of the target audience:

“It’s really good. Not boring. I actually get to write my own thoughts. I like the journal part. I am learning different Scriptures. It is helping me learn more about the Bible. It doesn’t take long. It really does only take about 10 minutes.”

To receive 10% OFF this and other great resources, use the link to Simply Youth Ministry at the top of my blog or click here: http://us-dc2-order.store.yahoo.net/ymix/MetaController.html?ysco_key_event_id=&ysco_key_store_id=yhst-95977426524948&sectionId=ysco.cart