Month: November 2013

It’s been …

20 years since I graduated Honeoye Falls-Lima High School,
17 years since Adriana graduated from our college (Elim Bible Institute),
14 years since I graduated from Elim (I took a few years off),
11 years since Adriana has returned to Elim,
6 years since Claudia and I have been at Elim,
and Natalia has never been to Elim.

So, we decided it was time to all come up to the old stomping grounds for a visit. The Elim Fellowship Saturate Youth Conference was a perfect excuse to make the trip up from Long Island. In addition to really, thoroughly enjoying the conference, we have had the fun of seeing several of our old friends and professors, and showing our kids where Adriana and I met, and where I grew up. It has been nostalgia on steroids, to be sure! We’re looking for another great session at the conference tomorrow morning and reconnecting with more of our friends. See all the pics here.

Fall is far and away my favorite season of the year, and we are currently in the middle of the changing of the leaves. Nothing like the fall colors here in New York. Here are some pics we took on Sunday. Beautiful!

Last night I had a bunch of the fellas from SRCStudent Ministries over to my house for food and football. We hard a lot of fun chowing down and watching the game. At half-time I took 5 minutes and shared with these young men something I heard years ago from my pastor. He suggested that there are 3 types of guys.

1. Males. To be this kind of guy, all one has to do is be born with the Y chromosome. Pretty simple. 
2. Men. To really be considered a man, one must demonstrate a certain level of maturity marked by characteristics such as courage, hard work, responsibility, etc. It is good, noble, and appropriate for boys to become men in this regard. (1 Corinthians 13:11)
3. Men of God. But there is another level that we are all called to pursue, and that is to be the spiritual leaders God has called us to be. Men who don’t just work hard and put food on the table, but men who seek to make Christ the center of every area of their lives, work with integrity, show honor to their elders, view and treat women with purity, gentleness, and respect, love their wives with a selfless, serving love modeled by Christ for the Church, train their children in the ways of God, and who are the spiritual leaders of their homes. (Matthew 22:37-40; Job 31:1; 1 Timothy 5:1-2; Ephesians 5:25-33 Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Not a Seahawks fan, but I am a Jake Rutenbar fan. This is great!