Tonight Adriana and I went on a date night to see 88-year old blues guitarist BB King in concert. What a privilege to see a living legend! Opening for him was Kerry Kearney who was also an incredible guitarist. What a fun night together! See all the pictures here.
My mom found this recently and sent it to me. Not sure who that original author is, but than you, whoever you are. Enjoy!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN 1930’s, 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and Early 80’s!!!
First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking. As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van – loose – was always great fun. You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but you weren’t overweight because … YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! You would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach you all day. And you were OK. You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem. You did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms … YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them! You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents you played with worms (well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
It’s one of the most inspiring, encouraging, challenging, best connecting and equipping things you can attend as a youth worker. It’s time to register for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2014!
I’m in!
Our team is in!
Are you in?
We’d love to see you there! Save yourself some money and register by October 31st.
This past Sunday I had the privilege of speaking to our Shelter Rock Church Tweens (5th and 6th graders). We talked about God being trustworthy. At the end of the lesson I had the students name things that reveal that God is trustworthy. Here were their responses.
On Monday we took the family (and Claudia’s best friend Mary) for a drive out east and had a delightful day at Harbes Farm in Riverhead. We drank apple cider, ate homemade apple cider donuts, ate kettle corn, went for a hayride, picked pumpkins, and traversed an 8 acre corn maze. So fun!
See all the pics here.
A couple of weeks ago Adriana and I had the great joy of going to one of our favorite states in the United States: Colorado! We went out for a few days of meetings at Groups Publishing to brainstorm and help plan the Simply Youth Ministry Conference: A Conference For Youth Workers BY Youth Workers. We decided to head to Colorado a few days early to enjoy some time hanging out in Rock Mountain National Park. Just before our trip we discovered that my second cousin Nate Larkin would be in Denver at the same time, so we arranged to swing by and have a quick visit with him. Our time in the Rockies was so relaxing! We were thoroughly refreshed as we were taking in the beautiful views, hiking, trout fishing, and even 4-wheeling (yep, we got Ady out there and she really enjoyed redneck living! lol!). Our meetings at group were very productive and I couldn’t be more excited about the conference! We were also treated to a private concert by Gungor who performed songs from their incredible new album I Am Mountain. They will be leading the music at the conference in the spring. (See pics from concert here.)
See all the pics from our trip here.
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| With my 2nd cousin Nate Larkin & Matthew Ward (of band 2nd Chapter of Acts) |
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| Gungor |
Tonight Adriana and I went into Manhattan to have dinner with our friend Tim Smith. We discovered yesterday that our friends from Bible college, Nathan and Emily Sanders were in town, and we were so happy that they were able to join us as well. We had a wonderful time having dinner and reconnecting at Bubba Gump overlooking Times Square. After dinner we said farewell to Nathan and Emily and Tim, Adriana and I had fun navigating the crowds, going to some stores, then headed to a very nice place for dessert. What a fun evening!
Last month I experienced one of the greatest joys of my youth ministry career. I was able to bring two of my former students – Ren Jainarine and Michael Fenimore – onto our student ministry staff at Shelter Rock Church. It’s always been my passion to see the young people I have the privilege of investing in through their middle and high school years serving God wholeheartedly as adults, and to now be serving shoulder-to-shoulder with these fine young men is a dream come true. Today as we met for our weekly connection, we cracked open the book that was so helpful in shaping me as a young youth pastor and began reading and discussing it together. Not only is it a great read for them as they are beginning in youth ministry, it is also a great reminder for me. I realized in just the first chapter where I have wandered a bit from some of my guiding principles, and I felt so challenged to get back to the basics of good, healthy youth ministry. Whatever role you play in youth ministry, if you’ve never read it, or if it’s been a while, do yourself a favor and pick up Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields. It’s so great!
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