Attack!

Friends. I'm afraid I find myself under attack.

The other day, I was minding my own business just riding my bike home from church in the bike lane of a busy California road, when out of the blue, someone drove by in a green SUV and threw a water balloon at me. Luckily, this person, along with lacking kindness, lacked quite a bit of aim. The balloon exploded on my front tire and left me shocked but mostly unaffected. But I still wonder what could possess a person to do such a thing.

This is just speculation, but I am positive it was an executive from BP, setting an example for the consumers by gallivanting around in a gas-guzzler while doing his best to discourage users of non-gas-powered transportation. He's just fussy because everyone's mad at him. Poor billionaire.

On a more serious note, things are kickin' into high gear around here. Our Wednesday night programs start tonight and I'm leading worship on Sunday and we are hosting a SERVE youth conference in a bit more than a week. Also, tomorrow I'm heading up to Camp Dunamis for a day or two to help their staff and to hang out with the kids. It should be great. The camp is similar to Camp Tall Turf in that it focuses on kids and staff living together in diversity and experiencing God.

I'm excited.

But when this much good is happening for God's Kingdom, we can be sure that the Devil will be working hard against it, and his attacks might be a bit more serious than water balloons. Please pray for me and for the church in all of our upcoming ministry events. And pray for me, that I may trust God to work through me, rather than just asking him to bless what I already decided to do.

Thank you. Y'all are great.

Peace.

-chris

Reaching Back #3

Let me reach back once again into my memory of the past two weeks.

My work has consisted of many meetings. I meet with three mentors, Pastor Bonny, Pastor Dan, and Ryan. Pastor Dan is the funny and passionate senior pastor. Pastor Bonny is the hard-working, hospitable family ministries pastor. Ryan is the director of a local non-profit that specializes in community development. I am learning so much from each of them. In order to fill my days with even more meetings, I have been attending meetings for various comittees and for the staff. I serve as a tiny voice with no voting powers on each of these comittees, much like Pastor Bruce for Fifth Reformed's leadership meetings, or like Guam's representative in U.S. Congress. But really, I enjoy it.

I spend time between meetings organizing and leading various worship services, hanging out with sick people and homeless people, tutoring, getting ready for various church events, and secretly checking the scores of the world cup matches.

Basically, my life is pretty sweet. I went to Hungtington Beach with Cousin Tyler and his lady-friend last Monday. We saw dolphins, napped in the sun, and then went body surfing. Unfortunately, we got called in from the waves on two separate occasions due to riptides developing in the swimming area. Those lifeguards are killjoys.

At church, I'm beginning to see that my role might be aptly described as the Official Office Utility Player. I do everything from data entry to worship leading, from teaching 6^th grade Sunday school to preaching at a nursing home.

Yesterday, I visited a very sick woman named Nadine. She is only about 40 years old, but she has spent the last ten years or so in a hospital bed set up in her living room. She used to have a great voice, but now she is barely audible due to her tracheotomy. She has such spirit, though. She is a passionate Christ follower, and the movement of the Holy Spirit was more tangible during that visit than it has been for me for weeks.

Praises:

-a great host family
-the presence of God
-that I'm learning so much

Requests:

-that I continue to abide in Christ
-for Nadine
-for the ministry of Rosewood Church
-for the ministry of Kingdom Causes

Peace.

-chris

Reaching Back #2

~originally written 6/8/2010~

Hello friends, romans, countrymen,

It's my first day in the office. It's not as entertaining as the Dunder Mufflin office, but we get a lot more done in a day. My time here has been wonderful so far. I got picked up at the airport by my host parents Cotton and Betsy. I still haven't figured out where Cotton received such a nickname. My best guess is that he is a decendant of Eli Whitney. If you have any ideas, you can let me know.

On Sunday, Rosewood Church celebrated GEMS and Cadets Sunday. In conjunction with GEMS presentations and Cadets presentations, there was also a baptism and a Profession of Faith. The whole service was followed by a barbecue at the church. It was pretty wild. I met 117 people and remembered 11 of their names. This is going to be a challenge.

That night, I pretended to care about the Lakers game to fit in at the neighborhood barbeque (for those of you keeping track at home, I'm up to 2 barbeques in one day). I was sure to offer my own analysis of why Kobe wasn't playing very well, and I instantly fit in.

On Monday, I celebrated my sabbath by not going to a barbecue.

Things are kicking in now, and I could use your prayers. Please pray that I would remember all of the names I've learned, that I would continue to connect with people in and out of church, and that I would continue to abide in and rely on God.

You're all wonderful. I'm off to a congregational meeting that will occur right in the middle of the Lakers game. I might be the only male in attendance.

Peace. Love.

-chris

Reaching Back #1

~Originally posted June 1~

Hello there friends, family, and creepy internet stalkers,

I would like to welcome you to what was recently dubbed the "Best Blog on Blogger.com*!" Those of us on the editing staff are thrilled that you have chosen to spend your precious internet time reading what we have so thoughtlessly composed.

The purpose of this blog is to keep you all updated on what's going on in my life this summer. I'll be sharing my best moments and my most embarrassing moments, the ups and the downs, the happies and the crappies.

This summer I will be participating in a 10 week internship at Rosewood CRC in Bellflower, CA. I was originally offered an internship in Nebraska, but for obvious reasons, I whined about it and got moved to a much nicer location. The internship is part of a program that I was accepted into this past fall called the Jubilee Fellows. I originally signed up because I thought it was Calvin's barbershop quartet performance club. I later found out that it is a program for students who have felt a whisper of a calling to church ministry and would like to further explore that calling.

I decided to stay in Jubilee Fellows. But you'll be happy to know that I also joined the Barbershop Harmony Society. Thus, I am actively pursuing both of my callings.

The first component of the Jubilee Fellows program was a class with I took with several members of the Congregational Ministries Studies Department at Calvin and 11 other students. We discussed church ministry and great heroes of the faith over excellent dinners every Friday night. Now each of us has a summer-long internship which will be followed by a service project in the fall in which we each will apply what we have learned.

It's been great, and it will continue to be great.

I'll keep this blog updated as best as I can, but so far, I'm not doing a very good job. Let's see if I can turn that around.

Peace.

-chris

*Won by default. No other blogs entered.