Big Vision

Back in April I was challenged in my personal quiet time to think big, way bigger than what I can accomplish, but with a God sized vision. This began a work in my personal life and in my ministry life. I kept thinking about all of the students that I would see on different campuses, at the mall, just riding their bikes down the sidewalk. I then started to ask God what this meant. To make it short, He gave the simple statement: every student. That's it. So I started to pray about this and asked Him to guide me and direct me in regard to this broad vision. I shared it with staff and student leaders. every student. Without hesitation and reservation all have jumped on board with this vision. Here is the break down:

Our Mission:
We want reach every student in the Jupiter area with the love of Jesus.
Jupiter High School – 3,800 students
Dwyer High School – 2,000 students
Independence Middle School – 1,200 students
Jupiter Middle School – 1,200 students
Other schools – 1,000+ students
Total = appx. 10,000 students in Jupiter

Ministry Vision:
Our Student Ministry seeks to reach every student in the Jupiter community in the 2008-09 school year. We will do this by filtering everything we do through our 4 core values, utilizing our environments and partnering with other local churches and para-church organizations.

Now it's time to pray, fast and sacrifice. Will you join us?

Sick slides

Today we took the boys to this park that we frequent. It has the best slides ever, they are very much capable of entertaining adults as well as kiddos. Here is Roman next to one of them.

Why I like Apple

On Friday I made a Genius Bar appointment at our local Apple Store for Sunday afternoon. I have been experiencing some touch screen issues with my iPhone (original, not 3G). So today I brought it in to the Genius and without hesitation he said I'll get you a new one. So, I have a new iPhone. No too shabby eh?

Helping Granny in the yard.

Raise 'em up.

I love BBQ ans so do my boys. Evidence here of that fact.

Student Leadership

I have been the youth pastor at our church for 6 years. I love it. To be honest the past couple of years have been rather trying, as we have gone through a church split and have navigated through personal challenges at home with our adoption. I feel like this is the beginning of a new, fresh season in our church and in particular, our student ministry. With this in mind, earlier this year when I was planning out the summer schedule God put a heavy vision on my heart. That vision: reach every student in Jupiter with the love of Jesus this coming school year. That is some 12,000 students! That vision has not cooled off, but the burn is hotter. As a part of that vision I knew we had to be very deliberate this summer with our programming. Community building (Summer Tour), Getting outside of our comfort zone (Mission Camp) and now Student Leadership Training. Tonight was our first session we will have over the next 5 Wednesdays. We started tonight by defining leadership and helping our students to evaluate their weaknesses and strengths. Our guide is Denise Vanecks "Leadership 101".
Here is the upcoming schedule:
Tonight - Leadership Defined
July 30 - What Kind of Leader am I ?
August 6 - The Serving Leader
August 13 - The Communicating Leader
August 20 - The Mentoring Leader
August 23 - Campus Training

Re-introducing.....

After several months of being out of the blogging game, Jeff is back at it (here). You don't want to miss his latest post. Very interesting, yet controversial topic. Welcome back Jeff! Enjoy.

Waiting.....

We have been waiting for our new couch to be delivered for over a month. I'm sick of laying on an air-mattress in the middle of our living room. Its very uncomfortable. One good thing about the air-mattress, it makes a great wrestling mat for me and my boys!

Are you kidding me? From Deland, Fl.

Mission Camp stuff

You should check out what we have been doing this week with our Student Ministry.I love being a part of what God is doing at my church!
GO HERE!

Bad Christian T-shirts: One Way

Bad Christian T-shirts: Made His Way

Bad Christian T-Shirts: Example 1

On the road to Mission Camp!

Bandwidth killer!

Penny and JJ were in a Skype video conference with Roman and I. We were about 15 feet from each other. The kids loved it, AT&T probably didn't. Good to know I can chat with my fam this week while away at Mission Camp.

Mission Camp

This Monday we are taking off for StudentLife Mission Camp at Stetson University for a week of serving Spring Hill Boys and Girls Club in DeLand. We are looking forward to this domestic mission trip and believe that the Lord is going to do some amazing things in the hearts of our students. I will be posting pictures and video through out the week. Will you pray for us? Thanks.

Happy Birthday Jadon Paul!

July 11, 2006 our youngest son was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. We weren't there and didn't know he was being born, but we were praying for this miracle boy! Thank you Jesus for bringing JJ into this world 2 years ago!

4:30 PM Today.

Silence.

For a couple days. Prayer and reflection. Will you join me?
See you on Thursday.

Firsts: Flying a kite

I always loved to fly a kite as a kid. It has been at least 20 years since I have flown one, but that streak ended on Friday. I taught my oldest how to. Even though the wind was non-existent we were able to get the kite in the sky for a brief moment.

Amazing.

Penny loves that show "So You Think You Can Dance". This guy was one of the final 20 contestants and then he bailed. I never knew a human could do this with his body. YOU MUST WATCH IT!

Firsts: Independence Day

Coldplay

For the record I love Coldplay's latest release. It's different than X&Y and I enjoy the addition of strings to some of the songs. I'm not a musician but music is important to me and this is good music. My fav song on the album is 42. Eerie and different with a nice surprise.