Church League Softball

Last night I played on the coed softball team for our church. I played softball at the church I served in Indiana, but they were SERIOUS softball players. I would come early, talk with the team and sit the whole game on the bench. Even the youth would get more opportunity to play. Of course I am not a great softball player by any means but if I go to play a sport I like to play. I mean they wouldn't let me play if we almost had the mercy rule against the other team. So after a year of mistreatment I retired from softball.

I have been going to the church in Frankfort for about a year now and have played on thier basketball team. I decided that I would give softball another try. So out of retirement I have come with my first game yesterday. Again I sat in the dug out but after the 3rd inning I was put in. I got to bat, hoping for a home run and I swung at the first ball. I actually hit the ball and ran because I hit a short grounder. Somehow I was able to get to first base.

Next person up, got a hit and I ran to second. They threw the ball to get me out but somehow it fell a few feet short of me and for some reason I decided to run. As I was running I saw that the short stop and third baseman was halfway between 2nd and 3rd base so I knew if I could outrun them I would make it to 3rd...which I did.

The next batter was up and they hit the ball so I booked it to home for my first run. :)

Of course that was not enough for my friend John Dudinskie. He had to call me and harrass me for almost being beat by a girl at 1st base. If I would have hit a homerun he would have said something about that so I don't really listen to him anymore. :)

I had fun hanging out and actually getting the opportunity to play softball. I sometimes listen to the Bob and Tom show (when they get nasty I turn it) and the song below will sometimes play. I thought it was a clever a comedic song so I thought I would share it with you. There are a couple of minor foul words so if you get offended please don't listen.

Church League Softball Fistfight by Tim Wilson

Malachi's Obsessive Nature

Malachi is 3 going on 4 and I have had the privilege of observing him through these short years. There is one thing that sticks out, he obsesses over most everything and they usually deliver themselves from one thing to another. Not that is unusual for a child but with him its a little excessive I think. Unfortunately I don't know where it comes from...

The most recent one is his little Tigger. He got Tigger as his bed toy from "Santa Clause". He woke up with it at the foot of his bed, He liked it but because Christmas was so piled with presents that he didn't really hold to it for to long. Recently he has reconnected with his Tigger and has decided to take it most everywhere he goes.

Side Note: I LOVE it that he loves his Tigger, he has gotten into Spiderman and The Hulk but for some reason I am not ready for him to be involved with those toys. I guess I am having trouble letting go of his toddler years.

And we're back: He loves his Tigger so much that when he broke he took it to his Daycare so they could fix him. Yesterday was a tragic day. When bedtime came, he wanted his Tigger. Elizabeth and I could not remember when or where we saw Tigger last. We looked under the bed, in the pillows, through the room, in our room, my parents room, the living room, called the last restraunt we went together, and I was even prepared to go to church to see if it had got left there. We could not find Tigger and so Malachi had to go to bed without his favorite toy. (I think he took it quite well, much better than Elizabeth and I)

I was prepared to go to the Disney store and buy another one, but as I was searching for my things prepared to go to work this morning, I looked in one of Elizabeth's bags and found little Tigger with his sown up back. He had spent the night in a bag not to far from us, so this morning we reunited Malachi with Tigger :)

The Weekend

The weekend was actually quite exciting, plus I kind of lied when I said I haven't had much to blog about. I couldn't mention anything because my Mother sometimes reads this blog and what I was doing was a surprise for her birthday.



I have been watching Simply Youth Ministry Podcast Live on http://www.ustream.tv/. While watching/chatting live I saw some really cool things you could do with this website. I mostly was thinking church related but somehow got to thinking about personal things such as live feed from a living room.



My siblings are kind of scattered, (Ohio, Kentucky and Florida), so I decided to call them to see if they can do a live feed. We tested it on Thursday with very bad results. Friday my brother and I spent most of the afternoon testing and it finally worked.

Friday Night we celebrated my Mother's birthday. My sister and her family from Ohio came and we secretly had my brother and sister and their families from Florida on the live feed. They sang Happy Birthday to her as we turned on the computer and showed my mother her surprise. We all talked for most the night and was able to see the babies.

It was a fun time. We also played a little cornhole which I won two rounds of :)

I can see how ustream can be a good tool in ministry and for bringing families together for a short time.

When your mind goes blank...

I really haven't been doing to many updates to this blog. I am not happy about that but life has been busy and busy with typical things. Nothing really new or exciting. I also have writers block and have trouble typing my thoughts in a orderly manner. I do have a couple of post that I have worked on that relate to youth ministry but do not feel confident enough for them to be published yet but hopefully I will release them soon.

I just got done watching the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast for the 2nd time. I watched it live but I sometimes concentrate on the chat and loose a lot of what the cast is saying. It was a pretty good one. Its nice to see people relaxed and having fun. That show has been kind of a blessing, not being in youth ministry has been hard and its nice to listen to people you can relate too. Thanks for the awesome podcast!!!

Whats the deal?

Ever since High School I have had facial hair of some sort. I don't necessarily like it but I dont really like shaving. Every once and a while I go and shave the whole thing off. (I use to have a gotee but after almost 10 yrs decided to grow a full beard) A lot of times I try something different, mostly to be funny.

This was one of those days. I decided to do a different type of cut in which I was going to take it to youth with me just for laughs. My wife hates me clean shaven and loves the gotee so I told her that I would compromise.

When I get out of the bathroom, this is what she saw:

She was not happy to say the least. She really didn't think it was funny. I saw she that she did not approve so I took pictures and shaved it off. I made sure that my blog, facebook, and twitter got these pictures. :)

I tried photoshop Express on some of them, just for looks. I hope you enjoy my temporary face change.

Why change the name of the blog?

I have blogged here and there for several years. My first blog was through livejournal and quit blogging soon after my son was born. I started blogging a couple of years ago on blogger and titled my blog New Life.

New Life was a synopsis of my life at that time. New Life can mean several things but I thought when people saw those words it would give a positive feel to what they were about to read. I had a son, a great wife, and lots of things going well for me and my family.

As time has progressed I left this blog behind to die as my old one has. But this year I had decided (as a New Years Resolution) to write more on my blog and so in 2008 I have blogged more than ever before. This past month I have changed the layout and included some widgets. (next I am going to try and get my blog where it can be read)

As my blog has found new life so have I. As some of you know, I have temporary left full time ministry. Two years ago I left New Albany, IN and one year ago I left Lexington as a part time youth pastor. It was a painful experience because I have a passion for youth, and its been hard to be patient.

My life and my passion took me to a new place....a volunteer. Not as the leader but as a helper, its definitely a new perspective of ministry. To be honest, I would love to lead again but I am not ready so I type here as a volunteer. (I hope to share some of those experiences here, to help Youth Pastors see a different perspective)

I have been in ministry for over 5 years and had lots of experiences as a leader. I am learning new experiences as a volunteer so I am trying to write post on my past and current experiences. Anyone in ministry is a resource and I hope I can be one as well.

Even though Life is still New, I am learning the heart of a volunteer. So this will be a place where you still read about my life but you also might read about my heart. Some post I am working on and should publish soon:

Relational Youth Ministry

Volunteers are a funny thing

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my Mother's birthday!!! She went to her office and found this from her coworkers. I hope you have a Happy Birthday!!!

World of Warcraft

Right before I moved out of our old apartment, my wife decided to get me a gift. It was Warcraft battle chest. She bought this thinking it was World of Warcraft, which I had been obsessing over for some time. I laughed and took back Warcraft Battle Chest and got World of Warcraft Battle Chest.

I am not a big RPG guy, in fact I kind of hate them. I use to constantly make fun of my younger brother because he loved them. It was mostly the fact that I didn't understand them. To many numbers, to many "rules". Then I went to college and met Mike Sanchez.. Mike and I had lots of things in common, but mostly he likes Ale81 and a friend to Ale8 is a friend to me. He invited me to play Magic. I have heard of magic and all the satanist views around it so I was intrigued to give it a whirl. So I signed up for Magic: The Gathering Online. He hooked me up with the elves pack which was a great start but from the very beginning he whooped up on me. It would take a while before I would gather my first win. At one point there were several people on Magic but the interest has died down some and not even I go on to play anymore. I hope someday we get back just for fun times but now the game lay on my laptop waiting for the next time to open.

After getting hooked on MTGO, I was invited to a release party for the new MTG cards. I forgot what they called them but the point was to pick go through some pack of cards and pick out one card you liked and pass it on. I didn't know what I was doing so I was very vulnerable and like a new guy playing poker was taken advantage off. I think it was double elimination and I was the first one out.

With all that said, I started to enjoy the games because of the interaction that came along with it. We talked, laughed, and beat each other up...well not really but we had fun. When my brother told me that he was playing World of Warcraft I decided that I would like to try it.

I tried playing, with the purchase of the game you were given a month of play time. It was not fun, I was in the process of moving and had no Internet, so playing was difficult because it was usually playing at the local Panera. Nothing can make you feel more like a nerd than playing WoW at Panera!!! With the added frustration of having to type code to respond to a group, person or community I decided that I was not fit for WoW at that particular time.

Months have gone by and I have threatened to play several times but finally bought a game card to try it for 2 months. This past weekend was WoW opportunity for changing my mind. I had previously bought an adapter for my computer that allows my Xbox controller and microphone to be used in the game with the help of switchbade. With the ability to talk rather than type it made the experience more enjoyable. I was able to talk and have fun and at the same time was able to be helped in the game (before I would lose a person and by the time I figured out how to type and get it on the board they were far away from me).

I am starting to have a better understanding of the game and had a lot of fun. Saturday night I went to bed at 1:00 AM which I have not done for some time.

I can see how these games can take up your life. It was past 12 before I ever knew it. I enjoy the game and think it would be a great game on the weekend after Malachi goes to bed. I am excited about playing again although my Xbox was neglected.

My New Toys

I love the xbox and almost all its components. Yes, I did have to send it to get it fixed but I believe its a far superior machine than the other consoles out there. I really love xbox live which is why I bought the messenger kit to help with typing, and just won a xbox visual camera w/ two games.

Of course I know that these items are really not necessary but I had some money to waste and decided to get these because I was interested.

I will probably not get my camera until next week but it will be a joy to use.

ALSO...

I have got a 2 month card for WoW, so I am back at trying WoW for anyone interested!!!

The Lockin

For the past year I have been volunteering at the local church. As a youth pastor, I was not fond of Lock Ins and would attempt to not doing them at all cost, but the youth liked them therefore twice a year lock ins were presented and we would have more students than expected. They were exhausting, frustrating, and would test me on my knowledge of students.

On a personal level I am not a planner, on a professional level I plan with excessiveness. So when doing lock ins I would try to have every minute planned from registration, eating, games and yes even free time. Every time I planned I would be disappointed because the youth were not interested in doing a "planned" activity. At one point, I was discouraged and talked to my youth that I was closest to. I asked them, "Why doesn't anyone want to play games?" and one particular youth said, "Sometimes we just want to chill?"

"Sometimes we just want to chill?" That answer was, at the time, a little confusing. I asked myself, "Why even do a lock in?", "Why take the time of the adults and myself to chill?", but as I kept pondering his answer I realized a couple things:

• Youth are not free to be out all night for no reason
• Youth like to be with friends
• Youth like to break things...ok I just threw that in
• Youth like to have fun in the way THEY know how to have fun not the way I thought they SHOULD be having fun

His answer and my thoughts helped me ReThink lock ins. I do believe they need to be organized, but not to the very end. Put some games in to help keep youth moving and being a part of each other and not in their own clicks. But leave a good amount of time so they have just "chill" with their friends, allowing them freedom.

I went to my first lock in as a volunteer and for the first time was did not plan any activities. I was at the mercy of the youth leaders and being a former youth leader myself it is hard to keep my mouth shut. (honestly, youth leaders don't care about your personal opinion about lock ins) I decided when I started to attend and help out with youth I would be a youth helper and support whoever was leading youth and I stand by that. It has helped me gain insight about future volunteers that I may have.

Our student:Volunteer ratio was 1:1 (4 youth total), which made organizing a cornhole tournament quite easy. I brought my xbox 360 and we jammed all night with Rock Band. We played 3 rounds of flash light tag, unfortunately the church doesn't have to many hiding spots but still the youth made it a long fight to find them. I say all this because this particular lock in was not "planned" and we did these things as the night progressed. It was still fun, it was still a great bonding experience (I think more for the counselors because we stayed up longer than anyone), we still filled up the time allotted to us...

Planned or unplanned, wanted or not lock ins are successful for what they are intended for..."Chilling out"!!!

All OUT (4:00 am)

All the counslers are still up plus the youngest of the bunch. We are getting ready to play cornhole.

We did have good 4 rounds of flashlight hide and seek, in which I am the only person to find all people :)

There will be pictures to come later!!!

Rock Band (Lock In Update 2)

12:36

A youth ministry must:

ROCK BAND

We have had a blast with this game as a group, from singing, druming and playing Guitar, everyone is involved!!!

Here you see the band: 3 Girls Trying to be Stars

Cornhole Tourny 1

Our first double elimination game of the night. The final game consisted of T.J. & Ben vs Trevor & Jessie. It was a close game but overall Trevor and Jessie took on thier undefeated role and won.

Other exciting things throughout the night..... a nice game of Halo 3

Sorry not much going on yet I will put in pictures soon!!!

Lock In

I am not a huge fan of lock in's but our current youth leaders are putting one on this weekend. As a youth volunteer, I will be there every step of the way. I am however going to try something different, throughout the night I will be blogging about what is going on during the youth lock in. If anyone has no life come back to check throughout the night to see what we are doing!!!

Easter Sunday

Sunday was a blast, it was relaxing and fun. We had the Pastor and his family over for Easter dinner and really had a good time together.

Typically we eat Ham for our Easter dinner but this time we decided to have steak and it was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! It was from Critchfield Meats in Lexington.

After dinner we played Scene it! Lights Camera Action on the xbox 360. Paul and Tammy seemed to really love the game. They did get beginners luck and won but only slightly :)

Malachi and Malory had a blast and played together very well. After everyone left I got on and played Halo 3. So the day was good, fun, and relaxing!!!

Snake Killer?

Several months ago I mentioned our cat Mouse, and his talent of killing mice and birds. THe running total has changed slightly and the mice still have one escaped and all the birds have not made it including one that was found without a body, just a head (and to this day we still have not found the body).

Recently Mouse has taken it easy. Mice have not entered, been tortured, and died in the house for several weeks but a new discovery was found.

Saturday morning, Malachi and I were watching TV while Elizabeth was off taking a test. I walked to the porch and was amazed to find a snake. You know that I am terrified of mice and probably more so of snakes so I was not real happy to find one outside. I grabbed a broom stick, again Malachi jumping around that a new creature might enter the house, held him back, and opened the door.

STOP: It did come to me that I gave the snake access to our house, and it did occur to me that if he got in I would be helpless to find it and take it back outside. But I couldn't let a snake stay on the porch... and yes it did occur to me that I was putting my son in a little danger of a snake bite BUT

I poked it with the broom to see if this snake was alive. One poke and no movement, but I have been dooped by creatures before and decided for another poke...again no movement. After a moment or so I decided that the snake was dead and I was able to get the dustpan and give it a nice sling into the back yard. I also realized that I taught my son its OK to poke snakes...

I got to thinking...Did Mouse find a new prey? How was that battle created? When the mouse bit Mouse, Mouse ran like a little girl. Did he have Domino and the dogs for back up? (even though they are all chicken) Was it even Mouse?

I was left with many questions and a lot more fear. I definitely don't want a snake coming into the house...

Finally A New Car

After almost 2 years and 3 engines, we finally got rid of the Isuzu Rodeo. It was a hard decision...well not really. When you are paying on something and can't drive it than it makes it easy to say goodbye.

As several of you know, my dream car is the Honda Element. I have wanted one ever since I first saw them. I think they are practical cars.

Finally, after 5 years of waiting I got one. Pictured is the color and model but not mine. Here is my review:

2006 Honda Element EX-P:

From the very beginning it has been a dream to drive. The sound system is a booming, with surround sound speakers (including a sub woofer) conveniently located throughout the car. The seats are very comfortable and the added plus that it can be transformed into a bed is quite nice...probably never use it but nice to know I could if I needed it. The radio is equipped with XM radio, cd player and AUX (which I could hook up my ipod to).

No carpet, which is great because we live where there is a lot of mud and we have a 3 year old. The seats are water resistant and stain resistant as well. The back seats come out as well or they can flip up.

It drives really smoothly, I thought it would have a lot of road noise but it doesn't. THere are just to many things to point out on "whats good" about this car. I might never go to another car ever again.

The only downside is its a four seater...

With all that and even with the downside calculated in I give it an A+

This car is, because of its unique design, definitely not for everyone but it is what I liked before I got it and I can say I am not dissappointed!!!

Most Anticipated Movies of 2008

This year, is an exciting year in movies. There are some comeback films, some reboots, and some originals that make this years movies selection hard to pinpoint anticipation. But I have narrowed it down to 5 picks, that I am willing to fork out the $8 (plus food) to see on the big screen.

The Dark Knight: 1 of the last 2 movies with Heath Ledger, plus the return of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale. The first (Batman Begins) was a good refreshing taste of the franchise since Tim Burton's Batman Returns. At first I was a little skeptical of Heath Ledgers portrayal of the joker (I mean seriously who can out do Jack Nickelson) but his new take is almost looking at a different character. If I go in thinking a new character with same name then I think I might buy into his new persona. I think Heath Ledger is a talented actor and picks wisely so I don't think I will be disappointed.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: I absolutely loved the first two movies, then liked the following two movies and again enjoyed Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. I really got into the books at this point (Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix), and fell in love with last two books. I love how they were getting darker in its nature and the writing was more intense. Because of the previous movie fitting to well in the franchise and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being split into two movies, I feel that this movie will have to be in depth, well filmed, and filled with excitement, highlighting some foreshadowing circumstances. I also love that the key actors have come back to finish the series, I think this will be a must see for the year 2008 as it will be the beginning of the end for the franchise.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Harrison Ford coming back as Indiana Jones with the involvement of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas....well really enough said... but just in case that answer doesn't satisfy: I was 10 years old when the last movie was released and was disappointed that the Indiana Jones adventures would come to a close. Sure they tried the Young Indiana Jones series but it wasn't enough so after almost 20 years of waiting it has finally come and it looks pretty good, adding Shia LeBeouf as "Indy's Son" seems to be a nice touch. The only real downer is that Shawn Connery is not returning maybe we can hope for a surprise cameo. This movie really intrigues me because I see it as a possible movie that will reboot the franchise but not with Harrison Ford as the lead character but I can see Shia LeBeouf taking it over and really doing something spectacular with it. It will almost be changing the roles Shia to Harrison, Harrison to Connery. I dont know but it will be a good one to see, and I am all for a franchise reboot as long as its not like Episode I,II,III of Star Wars...blech!!!
Juno: I have already seen this BUT I was anticipating it. I loved the movie Saved! even though the people involved with this movie were not connected with that movie they seemed similar, but they were quite different in the approach of the movie. This is a young girl, gets pregnant and you see what she thinks and feels throughout the movie, Saved! seemed to be the internal struggle of a young girl being involved with a Christian School. Well I don't have much to say but you can see my review of the movie here.
Wall-E: I love Pixar they have not come out with a movie that I haven't loved. I own all except for Bugs Life (just because I can't find it). This is a story thought of with the original ideas of Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. The trailers look great and even though there is not to much to assume about this movie, because of the story lines that are created by the writers at Pixar, I don't see anything but a successful portrayal of a robot who cleans up trash on a post human earth.

The movies that were denied from the cut but almost as equally anticipated are: Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Hellboy II, The Incredible Hulk.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree, disagree? What are the 5 most anticipated movies you are looking forward to in 2008?

Xbox is off

The time has come. My family did a little ceremony as the xbox was put into its final resting place.

It was sent off on Friday and hopefully will return to me sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will be on live but through the church so I will not be on as often. :(

Update: According to UPS it is now in Texas, this is going to be a LOOOOOONG wait

My 50th Post and Its Snowing

This post makes it officially my 50th post. Quite an accomplishment since I have had this blog since 2006 and in 2008 I have written 25 of them.

ANYWAY...

This week we have been dreading a snow storm that has been predicted since early in the year and the snow started on Friday. We got about 3 inches and we decided to take Malachi sledding for the first time. We had a blast, but Mom and Dad's hills are pretty treacherous and Malachi could not slide down the full hill. I did though :)

I love the snow, I love almost everything about it, but I like it during Christmas most. Anyway I have wanted to go sledding and wanted a big snow since I moved back north and it finally came.

Its 6:30 a.m. right now and outside there is close to a foot of snow (pictures later) and its still coming down. The downside is that we are stuck at home but we will go a little sledding later and probably take some pictures.

The best news is we get to have this big snow and by the end of next week it will be in the upper 50's so the snow will be almost gone. NICE we get the big snow, play in it, and then get to get rid of it.

For those who have it, what are you doing on the big snow day????

Below are some of my favorite post that I recovered from the 50 I have written, look back at them, comment on them and hopefully you enjoy them.

The dreaded Flashing 3 Ring of Death
Raising Cane's
The one where I took my wife out on a date
Healthy Breakfast
Mouse Killer
Malachi's first day at Ginza II
My Silly Little Brother