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a whirlwind of a weekend

Monday, November 24, 2008
God is always teaching me things when I least expect it. One of those things was this past weekend. I got to spend 48 hours with some of the coolest teenagers in New Mexico at one of my favorite places in the world.

The small group I helped out with was probably the best one yet. We talked about REALLY tough stuff but that is what you get when the entire camp is about asking the tough questions. Suddenly on Saturday morning there were tough questions floating around the room. There were struggles with the death of friends. There were struggles with the possibility of having cancer. There were all sorts of things that I wasn't prepared for but that turned out to be absolutely amazing.

On Saturday night we participated in a simulation called the Underground Church Experience. It was a powerful experience for all of us and I walked away with the realization that no matter how difficult this job can get, the impact that I can have on teenagers and the impact that they can have on me is HUGE.

I'm about to hop on a plane to see my family, but I'll leave you with our group shot on Sunday morning. I love these youth (and youth sponsors) tons and tons!

Ridiculousness

Thursday, November 20, 2008
So my friend Jenny's boyfriend decided to make an Elf Yourself of a bunch of friends of mine from high school. I've watched it about a million times so far just cracking up. So I figured I should share. Really, Brian just has way too much time on his hands.

Click here to watch...

halloween explosion

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

My office is a war zone. A halloween carnival exploded in here sometime last week...

officially a youth director...

Sunday, August 10, 2008
So my youth group while growing up was pretty good at destroying things. Or at least a few members were. Broken windows, pulling an entire sink off the wall, completely unloading a fire extinguisher on an empty room...

So far I haven't had too much trouble with my youth... but this month has just been the kicker. Having to send kids home from events, having to get on them about other stuff... and then this...


So it was an accident, but there is a LARGE hole in the wall of the hall way upstairs. What got my goat was that there wasn't an immediate coming forward of the boys that did it. I didn't get a solid confession until today. That's the part that irks me. You mess up, you come tell me and we'll work it out.

Thankfully pretty much all of the people that run the church thought it was pretty darn funny. My anger on Friday night did not think that whatsoever.

It certainly could have been worse, and won't be a tough fix, but certainly made for an exciting weekend I'd say. One of my youth sponsors commented to me that even though I have been on the job for a year, I wasn't officially a youth director until Friday when we knocked a serious hole in the wall.

awesome day at the botanical gardens

Thursday, June 19, 2008
I had a play date with the Christian Ed director to just go hang out and wander around the botanical gardens here in town. Here are some pictures from our morning. We then went and had lunch at one of my favorite places, Sunshine Cafe. The potato soup today was seriously to DIE for. Finished it up with some empanadas from the bakery across the street, it was an awesome morning.






camp update

Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I should get to some pictures and an update from Costa Rica this afternoon. I feel like a chicken with its head cut off running around trying to finish up stuff for Junior High camp... but here are some pictures from sr. high camp. It was awesome. Tex Sample blew me away and spending time with 4 of my girls was amazing.

There was one incident involving bees and the medevac helicopter but thankfully everyone is a ok.

Now for pictures...

My girls thought I looked funny enjoying part of my dinner...


Waiting for the helicopter to come down.


Med Evac! It was actually pretty cool especially because everyone is ok.

Meeting as a group to pray for the people at the hospital.

Worship!

cool link

Sunday, May 25, 2008
I went to this event last year and a friend from that event posted this. It was actually a huge factor in my decision to be where I am at today and just a darn cool event.

I love the picture because I have crazy memories of hanging out with Earl and Jim, two of the guys featured in the picture who helped lead the event. Good times. It also was good to know that the event happened again this year as they were talking about not having funding towards the end of our stay in 2007. It was an invaluable experience for me and so many of the others on the trip.

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