So this weekend is our snowboard trip. Here’s a couple of files to download. The first is the student manual and the 2nd is the parent newsletter.

Download 06_student_manual.pdf

Download parentnewsletter.pdf

A couple of years ago on the way home from a trip I complained to my wife that I didn’t have anything to read. She casually mentioned that she had the first 4 Harry Potter books and I could read those if I wanted. 1 Week later I was done with them. Something I really like is engrossing myself into something completely. That was pre-kid days and I took full advantage of it. This last week I’ve sort of done the same thing with a tv show called Battlestar Galactica. Funny that I remember watching some of the episodes of the original series back when I was young. But, those are totally different than this new Sci Fi Channel series. Now I can’ t vouch for all of the episodes because there is a bit of a seedy side to them but as it is tv its not so bad. What I’ve enjoyed this last week is watching all of last seasons episodes, the mini series and all of this seasons episodes. That’s 23 hour long episodes and a three hour miniseries. Now I should at least say that a lot of that was watched on a 6 hour drive to Mammoth and a whole day of being snowed in because of a blizzard so I’m not as lame as it sounds. I’ve loved immersing myself in the story though and not having to wait a week at a time to see it has been awesome.

I meet with a couple of guys for breakfast every Friday. Its a great thing and it really pushes me to be more open. What I like about it the most is that we are a big mix of people. A couple of us are pastors, a couple work in big sales type jobs and one is just trying to get by. We have breakfast, talk about our lives and wives and end up praying for each other. One of the guys today did something that I thought was pretty cool. We have the same waitress every week. Colin told her what we were doing and asked her if there was anything in her life that we could pray about. I was stoked because this was a guy who is trying to live out his faith in the world and he’s not getting paid to do it like a lot of us pastors. Fast forward a couple of hours I was at the gym wearing a t-shirt that said “God is my D.J.” some guy on the basketball court asked me what it meant and my great response was “I got it as a present.” How lame am I. I wore the shirt as a tool to talk to people and then I flubbed it when I got the chance. What did I learn today. Sometimes (often times) my friends who are more “in the world” than me in my church have a lot to teach me.

This is a particularly busy month for me. Staff retreat and a student retreat. Spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about student ministry. I think high school is best remembered as a series of transformational events. We can all probably remember our first day as a freshman, our first dance, that first kiss, the first time we were rejected, getting our drivers license, getting accepted into college, those cool trips we did. So in two weeks I’m taking 80 people snowboarding. Thinking about the trip as a transformational event is a scary thought. Some students will have great trips and it’ll be something that they always remember. But, the reality is that some students won’t have great trips. I became a christian on a ski trip in high school. I am just praying these next couple of weeks that God will use me in spite of me and that students would have lives changed on the trip.

Oh yea 1 more thing. Mammoth had 18 inches of new powder on Sunday and it was sunny. sick…..

I started my second semester of Doctoral classes today. It was a tough morning. Our typical morning chat centers around a book we are reading together. The book this week is tough Michael Polanyi Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. I haven’t gotten a copy of my book yet (What up Amazon) so I was a bit lost but from what I acertained the book was written way ahead of its time and creates a foundationalistic approach to Philosophy. I wish I had the chat text in front of me to add to this post because it was truly enlightening (and difficult) but also a great way to start off the semester. I’ll add a bit more to this when I dive into the book.

I’m not sure if you guys caught my last post. I’m 35 years old and Coach Lear was my drivers ed instructor 20 years ago. And he’s still doing it. In my opinion that is amazing and freaky.

I’m up in Seattle for a couple of days.  Had to attend a funeral.  Funny thing happened when I was trying to pay for parking.  A homeless guy came and talked to me and he knew my name.  Now I’ve spent a lot of time in Seattle working in the shelters and last summer I was here for two weeks so it wasn’t so surprising but it startled me a little.  Cold and wet up here but I’ve managed to stay warm.  I’m wearing a scarf this time. Danielle bought it and its my first.  Nice and warm.  Anyways….Hanging out on the island.  Speaking of things that don’t change I was in the thrift store this afternoon buying used books. They charge $.50 per book.  I asked the lady who works there how many of the books get returned and sold again. She said it was a high percentage.  It would be interested to track that. 

One last crazy thing.  As I was driving into Langley today I saw a drivers ed car backing into a spot on the street.  I remembered practicing parallel parking 20 years ago with my drivers instructor coach Coach Leer.  The crazy thing is as I drove past the car I realized that Coach Leer was sitting in the drivers seat.  Yes, the same Coach Leer.  I remember him being pretty old in 1986 so I couldn’t believe it was still him 20 years later.  I asked my mom about it and she said he is still teaching peope to drive.  The only thing which has changed driving on the island in the last 20 years is that we now have 5 stoplights.  Crazy

Here’s a list of people that impress me. They are living lives in the “real” world and showing their Christian beliefs in the middle of it. Colin, Josh, Bryce, Bill, Donovan, Dermot. All of them are being Christians in the world. Sometimes I envy them.

I’m from Washington. Spent all of my growing up years in the rain. I like the rain and don’t mind getting wet. The problem with rain in California is that it makes me tired. I just want to lay on the couch and read a book. That’s not quite possible when you have 3 kids. So, I’m not sure what’s going to happen today.