Sunday, October 26, 2008

Update

I apologize for not updating this guy sooner. It seems as if it's been forever. My new job here in K.C. has definitely been a time consuming burden on me since August, but it's great to be in the teaching field once again.


So, here we are in Kansas City. Sandra and I continue to look for the church where Father wants to be at. We haven't found it yet (at least we don't think so) so we are continuing to look around. There are just so many to look at! Some of the things that we are looking for in a church is first, Godly leadership, preaching the word (w/o trying to water it down or dress it up), a Sunday school class of young married couples starting families, and the list goes on. You would be amazed at how many churches we've visited that we've "hear good things about" and left scratching our heads as to what we just heard. It seems many churches want to put on a good show, but show little if any reverence towards God. I mean, He is the creator of the universe is He not?

The past week has been a crazy busy one. Last Sunday was my marathon in Detroit, MI. I ran a new PR at 3:44:27. That's like 9 minutes faster than anything I've ran before! We had a great time as several of our Michigan friends came down to Detroit and visited us and helped cheer me on towards success. It was nice to travel to Michigan and back at a leisurely pace for a change and to actually enjoy the hotel that one pays so much for.

As soon as we got back my schedule again got nasty as I got waaaaay behind in grading papers and our 9-week grades were due on Thursday morning. Not the kind of way you want to recover after a marathon. But, with some help from Sandra I survived the week.

Hopefully things will slow down a bit soon and we can start to visit our Kansas friends before the busy holiday season cranks up here soon. After all Christmas songs on the radio will start next Saturday! Crazy.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Big News

Well, many of you already know what the big news is, but just so we're all on the same page: Sandra and I are moving to Kansas City. I have accepted a job offer in the KCK school district to teach high school chemistry and physics at a local high school.



It will be so nice to be teaching again. I haven't taught since May 2005 so it'll be a stretching time getting back into the groove of things. This decision was not made easily. If you were in touch with us last year, we turned down several job offers in order to stay in Michigan with our friends, church and ministries. Welp, after being turned down by a nearby school here in Michigan we decided to make the leap. I don't want to say that K.C. was the final backup plan, but, well....teaching in K.C. is our final backup plan. I would have a mess of a problem in renewing my teaching license for Kansas if I don't teach the following 2 school years so there it is. It's necessary for the time being.



With that, we are very sad (unexplainably so really) to be leaving our lives here in Michigan. We are also excited to see what God has in store for us down in K.C. I'm not a city person, but I'll make my best effort for now. We're also excited to back closer to our families and some of older friends (length of relationship, not age). So there you have it! Now we just need to pack up our things, say about 110 goodbyes, report to several of our pastors, leave Sandra's job well, find a place to live, move, unpack, open new bank accounts, close the old bank accounts, set up our new apartment and get ready to start the school year all in about 15 days time. No problem!



As promised I'll post a few pictures from our summer adventures. I'm waiting on some of our travelmates' pictures to show up online to get some really good ones. My camera started to die on the trip and is now officially dead to me so we have a limited amount of pictures to choose from. Anyways, I'll post a few of them from time to time. Peace out and I hope to see some of you Kansas folk soon!

Our awesome little hotel was on top of a hill on the north side of the town:


The backdroup of our fair town that we stayed in. This
was the view out of our hotel window at dawn.

This is where we ate breakfast at every morning.
Notice the grapevine-covered terrace!

We even had our own volcanic backdrop on the horizon


The landscape in the area is ver unique. All around there are buildings and homes,
both past and present carved into the rock formations
.

This a picture of me trying to get out of a passage in an underground city. It may not look tight, but it got tighter and darker the further back I went. I traveled probably a good 30-40 yards before I turned around. Next time I'll dress for the conditions and see how far back I can go!


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

We're Back

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are back from our two-week trip to the Middle East! Everything went very well. We'll bring up some pictures on here in the upcoming days. Also, we have some big news that I will be sharing on here very soon. But for now, I'll just leave you in much anticipation :D

Friday, March 28, 2008

Spring Time

While most people reading this will be experiencing spring in full bloom, here in Michigan it's still cold. It's true that Michigan has two seasons, winter and road construction season. After all, one must fix all of the damage that has been incurred thanks to winter!

I hope everyone had an awesome Easter celebration. We did despite the snow flurries (we just missed out on a foot of snow to our south). We celebrated Christ's resurrection by attending services at our church. Several of our international friends decided they wanted to come too. I know surely a lot of it was confusing and foreign to them, but they really seemed inquisitive to learn about all that we were doing. They asked many great questions, including questions about baptism after 3 people got baptised during our service.

We followed that up by enjoying an Easter dinner with a couple that are dear friends of our ours from church. Good company + good food always equals a great time :)

We're looking forward to when it will actually warm up, the grass will turn green and the Wal-Mart parking lot will be snow free and completely drivable again. I'm guessing that should be coming up hopefully before May. Seriously!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

March Madness!

Well, it's finally here. March Madness otherwise known as the NCAA Basketball tournament. The time of year wear people don their school colors and cheer as loud as they can unitl they can't talk anymore. I remember my days in the KSU marching band. Screaming as lound and for as long as my voice would hold out. Dancing when things went well and being frustrated with the play calling when things didn't go so well.

Now, I admit it, I'm a big baskeball fan. I always have been. I used to be a lot worse in my younger days, but things have changed a bit over the years.

It's also Easter weekend, a time of both reflection and celebration. As Christians we should reflect on God's huge sacrifice. The more I think about what He did, the less I can wrap my mind around it. Giving up Your Son for a bunch of rebellers. Giving up yourself for someone you love would be hard enough, but God's came from the other side of the sacrificial spectrum. We should also be clebrating in a BIG way! After all the MVP of the story is Jesus and He lives today! He conquered both death and sin and lives again!

So why do we get so excited about the NCAA tournament and only semi-excited about celebrating Jesus? Let's see, making a 3-pointer at the buzzer or being raised from the dead? Making a shot that you've practiced all your life or defeating sin? Sure, it's fun to get excited about your team doing well, but we should be get that much more excited about Jesus and what He did. We should be cheering and shouting and dancing in the isles. If you want a good example of what this should look like look at David's example. The kid was dancing with all of his might when bringing back the Arc in 2 Samuel 5-6. Saul's daughter even said as much. It reminds me of an old White Cross song, "Dancing In Heaven" Why shouldn't we act this way and celebrate with all our might.? That's what we'll be doing in heaven after all, celebrating God.

Enjoy your Easter celebrations with families and friends. Remember this Sunday and every other day we should be dancing before the Lord and celebrating with all of our might like David did. The battle is won. God already has the victory in the biggest game and it isn't on ESPN classic.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Cold weekend fun!


This past weekend Sandra and I decided to get out of town and have some fun. We drove down to East Lansing to spend our afternoon watching the Harlem Globetrotters!

On our way home we were just about ready to pass by the exit for Frankenmuth when I suddenly remembered Snow Fest!!! I've never been before, and quite frankly I didn't know what to expect, but we decided to be spontaneous for a change so we went for it. To our surprise Snow Fest was awesome! All along the main highway through town were ice scupltures just off of the sidewalks. When we got to the main area for snow fest there were snow sculputures too. We even got to stand and watch some of the artists as they build their ice sculpures. Check out the pictures from our weekend!

The Globe Trotters are getting introduced


Globe Trotters doing their thing


Me hanging out with a frozen squirrel. Darn Michigan winters!


Elephant snow sculptures


An ice sculpture in the makings. We think it's a peacock!


Polar bears!



A monster T-rex

Friday, January 18, 2008

Winter and weddings.

So, it's Michigan and it's January. Lately the weather has been way too mild for winter, but I guess all of that is going down the tubes. It's already chilly and it's just supposed to get colder this weekend. Yes! Bring it on!

The problem is that we have a wedding to attend just outside of town. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for those in attendence. Sure it would be cold for those wearing dresses and standing upfront, but the rest of the attendees would be nice and warm. But this wedding just happens to be in a barn.

Growing up in small town Kansas, I've spent a good deal of time in barns. I've done many activities in barns including working, napping, dancing, fixing cars, watching other people fix cars, jumping on trampolines and much, much more. But I've never been to a wedding in a barn. Before you get too crazy of a mental picture, I must admit that this is the cleanest barn that I've ever visited. I mean, it actually has floors and there are no holes in the walls. The doors and windows even work like they should. I know, crazy isn't it!

It should be a good time as the couple being wed have become good friends of ours. I'm thinking that there are some people out there who would be confused and maybe even disturbed by the idea of a barn wedding, but I for one think it's a grand idea. It's going to be cold, a bit itchy, and maybe a bit stinky. But it will also be distinct, memorable, a good time, and a beautiful start to a wonderful gift called marriage.