My Epic Journey

I know it has been a while since I have written last. 

Family . . .

. . . ministry . . .

. . . school have kept me very busy. 

I will try to be more consistent.

But now I have a reason to write.

8 members of our EPIC Leadership Team just finished a day at our local YS One Day.

It was really good!!!  I really needed it!

The focus this year–back to the Bible.

Interestingly, tomorrow we kick off our Origins series.  It is a fresh look at Genesis (I will write more about this next week).

Many of the things we learned today I already had ready to implement tomorrow.  Either I am a head of the curve or I have been trained well by others (okay, it is the latter).

Our trainer for the day was Crystal Kirgiss.  Crystal has worked with teenagers for more than 20 years. She writes a monthly column for Youthwalk magazine and is the author of What’s Up With Boys?. She’s also the coauthor of Guys, Girls and Sex Has a Price Tag, and she teaches at Purdue University.  She was hilarious and poignant!

I would encourage any one who is a youth pastor, volunteer leader, small group leader, etc. to find a One Day training in your area in register.  For our team, it was well worth it.

Thanks to my leaders who gave up a Saturday for the sake of the student ministry at Grace Point!!!!

I grew up in a teaching home.  My mom was and still is a teacher.  Needless to say, school didn’t end during the summer.  Our summers consisted of regular visits to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, working on MANY 4-H projects (actually mom did most of the work), and my favorite, rock-hunting.

To this day, when I go home, Mom and I (and the boys) are making a trip to an area creek bed in search of fossils like crinoids, horned-coral, trilobites, etc.  We also REALLY like to find geodes.  There is something amazing in finding a fairly ugly rock on the outside and cracking it open to unveil the beauty on the inside (there’s a spiritual analogy there that I will tackle in a later post).  Every geode is different on the inside so it is always a mystery.

Recent, I was reading a National Geographic magazine when I came upon an amazing article about an amazing cave in Mexico.  Scientists have found a cave, 400 feet below the surface, that is full of MAMMOTH crystals.

They say it is like stepping into a giant geode!!!

Just goes to show you how AMAZING our God is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 9.30 last night, I found myself surrounded by 15 ROUDY guys from Grace Point at the Rave Movie Theater.  We were all anticipating the new Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) movie.

I have always been intrigued by Indiana Jones.  Perhaps it’s the adventure, Harrison Ford, the biblical connection to two of the earlier movies or for the fact that his name is Indiana (the state from which I am native).  Yeah I know the name is not about the state but from his childhood dog but oh well!!!!!!!!!  Still a cool name.

Anyway, I was excited about this new installment and then the movie began.  At first it was interesting and then it got weird.  I love the fact that they stayed true to the throw-back look but it began to go ET-ish.  It was like all of Speilberg’s movies thrown into one.  You had Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Star Wars, Indiana Jones–if only there would have been a dinosaur (besides Harrison Ford) it would have had a Jurassic Park flare as well.

So I walked away VERY disappointed but then I did some research on the movie and some of it’s claims.  There is SOME historical connections to this movie and that has made a lot of difference in my perception of the movie.  In fact, I am hoping to go back with Anna to watch it again.

So my advice would be this–research the movie and then some of it’s themes and you will appreciate it that much more.

Overall, I would give the movie a B+