It's been to long once again, perhaps it was the devastation of losing the Mt Pleasant Div III Co-Ed Soccer Final 3-2, or perhaps I'm just slack...
Anyway, it's been a good month, particularly as I had an old college friend from my NTC days, Gordon Weir, come and stay for a week. It was great catching up and reminiscing about old times.
We're heading back home for Christmas, and I can't wait! e leave on Weds 20th Dec, fly into Gatwick and will spend Christmas in Hereford, before hopefully heading up north to the Wirral and Sheffield for a couple of days hopefully, and then maybe a tea-party in Marlow...
Can't leave without mentioning some films you have to see:
Casino Royale (best Bond yet?!)
The Departed (Nicholson & Dicaprio and incredible)
Prestige / The Illusionist (simlar types of film, and both very enjoyable)
Little Miss Sunshine (the end will make you cry with laughter!)
Flags of Our Fathers (Clint can't put a foot wrong)
The Nativity (surprisingly good)
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Off to Jacksonville for Thanksgiving today. Looking forward to a bit of a break, albeit a short one as we'll be back Saturday. Monday we won our semi-final game, 3-1, although that is a flattering scoreline as we could easily have lost 5-3. We just didnt gel well on the night, but hey, you know what they say about good teams - they win even when they play badly! The final is this Monday at 7.45pm US time, 12.45am UK time. Watch this space for the result and hopefully some pictures. Do check out Jonny's blog for his review of our game this week (it is much better!).
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Terrors top the Mt Pleasant Co-Ed III Division 'Soccer' table!
Would you believe it! We are seeded 1 for the play-offs after an amazing 8 game unbeaten run. Here's hoping we can take the championship. Quarter finals are next Monday at 7pm. Watch this space for results...
1) Holy Terrors 22 points
2) Charleston Classic 19 points
3) Spoccer 16 points
4) Mudslingers 13 points
5) Moe's 12 points
6) Iacafano's 10 points
7) Charleston Wave 7 points
8) Unfiltered 6 points
1) Holy Terrors 22 points
2) Charleston Classic 19 points
3) Spoccer 16 points
4) Mudslingers 13 points
5) Moe's 12 points
6) Iacafano's 10 points
7) Charleston Wave 7 points
8) Unfiltered 6 points
Thursday, November 02, 2006
November already
Can't belive that Christmas is just around the corner, and Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away. For the Brits amongst you, Thanksgiving is definitely something we need to introduce. It's a bit like a Christmas without the presents, which isn't as bad as it sounds! Most people get an extra long weekend (Thurs-Sun) and spend time eating, watching movies, watching sports (football mainly, of the American variety) and hanging out with friends and family. This year we'll be heading down to Melissa's family as ever. They live in Jacksonville which is a pretty big city in the north of Florida, about 4 hours south of Charleston. It's always very relaxing, so I'm looking forward to it.
In other news... the local/national elections are just around the corner, and they can't come soon enough. There's only so many political ads a man can take! Talk is of the Democrats taking back the Senate/Congress, which may not be a bad thing. It seems that the Republicans have done very little in their time in control.
I've been enjoying listening to Leland recently, a brand new band from Texas who write contemporary worship, and claim to sound like a cross between Delirious & Travis to name just two. Check them out at My Space. I've also been enjoying Delirious' new live album from Willow Creek. I love 'Now is the Time' and 'All This Time'.
In other news... the local/national elections are just around the corner, and they can't come soon enough. There's only so many political ads a man can take! Talk is of the Democrats taking back the Senate/Congress, which may not be a bad thing. It seems that the Republicans have done very little in their time in control.
I've been enjoying listening to Leland recently, a brand new band from Texas who write contemporary worship, and claim to sound like a cross between Delirious & Travis to name just two. Check them out at My Space. I've also been enjoying Delirious' new live album from Willow Creek. I love 'Now is the Time' and 'All This Time'.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Success vs Faithfulness
One of the toughest things about doing youth ministry is measuring how successful you are being. As I taught a bunch of youth ministers this week though, it's our job to be faithful, not successful. God is the one who grants success.
However, there is always this nagging question of how well are we doing? The trap that is all to easy to fall in to is to use numbers as a guage for how well your youth ministry is doing. What I have come to realise though is that this is not a good measure of success. Time and time again I hear stories of youth groups that have large numbers, but that see little fruit in the years to come ('fruit' being students who actually continue on as Christians beyond the youth ministry). The reason for this is invariably that the youth group attracted kids with a bunch of stuff that was really pretty frivilous and although it looked great at the time, it actually produced little of value. Success can also be measured by how others speak about your ministry, how many paid staff you have (bizarre!), how big your budget is (even more bizarre!), or just how many programs you run, ie. business.
Real fruit can only be measured by being patient and seeing what happens in the years to come. Are students continuing in their faith, or did they graduate their faith when they graduated high school (to use an American phrase).
I say all this because of twothings that happened this week. Firstly, on the day I taught the fellow youth ministers, I received a letter from a student who has just gone to university which basically said thanks for the past 4 years or so and confirmed in my mind that he's committed to his relationship with Jesus for the long haul. It was a good feeling. Secondly, last night we had almost double the amount of kids at our 11s-14s program than we had the week before. We've been running the group for a couple of weeks since school began, and have been struggling to get kids to come. It was a good feeling.
I'm tempted to leave it there...! But I think what it taught me about myself is that I am actually starting to understand what is more important, not just in work, but in life. For once, I realised that the second feeling wouldn't last. It's tempting to measure your success in life by the world's standards (how much you make, what you do, what you have, how many friends you have, how much you know etc), but actually it's really about the long haul, being faithful to the ones you love the most, and making sure that you are committed to what is truly important, not the temporal, but the eternal.
However, there is always this nagging question of how well are we doing? The trap that is all to easy to fall in to is to use numbers as a guage for how well your youth ministry is doing. What I have come to realise though is that this is not a good measure of success. Time and time again I hear stories of youth groups that have large numbers, but that see little fruit in the years to come ('fruit' being students who actually continue on as Christians beyond the youth ministry). The reason for this is invariably that the youth group attracted kids with a bunch of stuff that was really pretty frivilous and although it looked great at the time, it actually produced little of value. Success can also be measured by how others speak about your ministry, how many paid staff you have (bizarre!), how big your budget is (even more bizarre!), or just how many programs you run, ie. business.
Real fruit can only be measured by being patient and seeing what happens in the years to come. Are students continuing in their faith, or did they graduate their faith when they graduated high school (to use an American phrase).
I say all this because of twothings that happened this week. Firstly, on the day I taught the fellow youth ministers, I received a letter from a student who has just gone to university which basically said thanks for the past 4 years or so and confirmed in my mind that he's committed to his relationship with Jesus for the long haul. It was a good feeling. Secondly, last night we had almost double the amount of kids at our 11s-14s program than we had the week before. We've been running the group for a couple of weeks since school began, and have been struggling to get kids to come. It was a good feeling.
I'm tempted to leave it there...! But I think what it taught me about myself is that I am actually starting to understand what is more important, not just in work, but in life. For once, I realised that the second feeling wouldn't last. It's tempting to measure your success in life by the world's standards (how much you make, what you do, what you have, how many friends you have, how much you know etc), but actually it's really about the long haul, being faithful to the ones you love the most, and making sure that you are committed to what is truly important, not the temporal, but the eternal.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
September already!
Can't believe it's been a month since I last blogged. In that time I:
1. Finished all our summer programs for students
2. Took an awesome week's vacation right here in Mt Pleasant
3. Saw Hannah learn how to sit up, and now nearly crawling
4. Picked up Jonny Keys (see pics here of all the apprentices) from the airport to begin his year apprenticeship program here
5. Began all our programs for the autumn/fall
6. Watched many films (including the disappointing'Lady in the Water')...& the amazing 6th season of West Wing.
7. Saw my first live Premiership match at the awesome Madra Rua Pub in old North Charleston - Spurs lost 2-0 to Everton much to Jonny's dismay.
8. Joined my first ever Fantasy Football League...then joined my second...!
9. Booked plane tickets home for Christmas! Dec 21-Jan 2
10. Got some great music - Doves, The Fray, Passion: Everything Glorious, Thom Yorke and more
11. Finished a book all about the fall of Berlin in WW2
12. Celebrated Melissa's 25th birthday with 10 friends at a great little Chinese place near us
13. Saw the Charleston Battery (our local 'soccer' team) play 4 times I think - they are 4th in their division, and the play off's beckon!
14. Survived Tropical Storm Ernesto (lots of hype, lots of rain, but not much else)
Which just goes to show why I should blog more frequently...!
Happy Birthday to my nephew Cameron by the way. He is 3 today!
Hope you're all well. Please keep us in your prayers.
1. Finished all our summer programs for students
2. Took an awesome week's vacation right here in Mt Pleasant
3. Saw Hannah learn how to sit up, and now nearly crawling
4. Picked up Jonny Keys (see pics here of all the apprentices) from the airport to begin his year apprenticeship program here
5. Began all our programs for the autumn/fall
6. Watched many films (including the disappointing'Lady in the Water')...& the amazing 6th season of West Wing.
7. Saw my first live Premiership match at the awesome Madra Rua Pub in old North Charleston - Spurs lost 2-0 to Everton much to Jonny's dismay.
8. Joined my first ever Fantasy Football League...then joined my second...!
9. Booked plane tickets home for Christmas! Dec 21-Jan 2
10. Got some great music - Doves, The Fray, Passion: Everything Glorious, Thom Yorke and more
11. Finished a book all about the fall of Berlin in WW2
12. Celebrated Melissa's 25th birthday with 10 friends at a great little Chinese place near us
13. Saw the Charleston Battery (our local 'soccer' team) play 4 times I think - they are 4th in their division, and the play off's beckon!
14. Survived Tropical Storm Ernesto (lots of hype, lots of rain, but not much else)
Which just goes to show why I should blog more frequently...!
Happy Birthday to my nephew Cameron by the way. He is 3 today!
Hope you're all well. Please keep us in your prayers.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
This week
It's been a good week and I'm now enjoying my day off which gives me some time to catch up on blogging. Currently enjoying listening to Mike's new tunes on My Space (you can also listen here - www.purevolume.com/liketheracecourse).
We just had a really enjoyable lunch with a guy from El Paso, New Mexico who is here in Summerville with his wife visiting family. He runs what sounds like an excellent youth ministry program on the border with Mexico. Interestingly he actually lives in Juarez in Mexico, but commutes on his motorbike across the border to his office! They need to run that story on the American news instead of all the ones about Mexicans 'commuting' here... on a side note, how do you 'accidently' allow 12 million illegal immigrants into your country?
We recently signed up for Blockbuster's online rental scheme as our local music store very sadly closed down. They also rented DVDs at a dollar a time (maybe why they ended up closing!), so we had to find something cheaper than the crazy prices Blockbuster stores now charge. For $18 a month we now get 3 rentals at a time, plus one free in store rental a week. As a result I have been watching a bunch of old and new movies recently as well as ploughing through West Wing Series 5 (which has actually been very good despite losing Aaron Sorkin's skills). I've watched Tristam Shandy, Flightplan, Four Brothers, Billy Connolly Live, March of The Penguins, and Brokeback Mountain. Probably the worst of these had to be Brokeback, which for all the fuss actually was pretty dull and poorly acted. March of the penguins was actually probably the most interesting (how do the Penguins do it?!), and Tristam Shandy certainly had its moments, but mainly just wanted to make me go and watch Alan Partridge! A-ha!
I've also acquired some new CDs. The Eraser - Thom Yorke, Dashboard Confessional's new one, Passion - Everthything Glorious (Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin etc), Smashing Pumpkins - Adore. Haven't really had the chance to listen to them enough to decide if I like them or not, but so far I think Eraser wins the prize for being most interesting, although as with most of the newer Radiohead stuff we'll see how much I listen to it in a month or so. Passion and Dashboard are fairly predictable and I need more time for the Adore album. Has anyone heard the new Keane album?
Work is winding down for the summer as all the trips are done. Currently I am tidying up from the summer and planning the next year's trips and programs. It has been a great year and I am looking forward to the next 12 months and seeing what God has in store for us. The Apprenticeship program looks like it is going to grow this year and I am excited that we have hit a groove with our programs and trips. It makes it less stressful to think about what we are going to as we are not constantly seeking to invent new things. One of thebig things this year is going to be developing youth ministry at Holy Cross' newest location on Daniel Island (15 minutes drive) from the Sullivans Island location. There are loads of opportunities here as it right next to both a High School and a Middle School. One of our apprentices (Jonny Keys) is going to be living within half a mile of it so it should be interesting to see what happens.
We're going to take a weeks vacation starting next weekend but we're going to stay right here in Mount Pleasant and, for once, enjoy all that is on offer on our own doorstep!
Tonight we have some friends coming round for dinner before heading out so see our local 'soccer' team, the Charleston Battery. They're on a winning run, so hopefully we'll see a good game tonight. Apparently the Miami team they are playing features Romario and one other ex-Brazilian star. Any way, it's about as British an experience one can get around here, although the temperature will be about 30C. But then there is a heatwave in the UK at the moment...
We just had a really enjoyable lunch with a guy from El Paso, New Mexico who is here in Summerville with his wife visiting family. He runs what sounds like an excellent youth ministry program on the border with Mexico. Interestingly he actually lives in Juarez in Mexico, but commutes on his motorbike across the border to his office! They need to run that story on the American news instead of all the ones about Mexicans 'commuting' here... on a side note, how do you 'accidently' allow 12 million illegal immigrants into your country?
We recently signed up for Blockbuster's online rental scheme as our local music store very sadly closed down. They also rented DVDs at a dollar a time (maybe why they ended up closing!), so we had to find something cheaper than the crazy prices Blockbuster stores now charge. For $18 a month we now get 3 rentals at a time, plus one free in store rental a week. As a result I have been watching a bunch of old and new movies recently as well as ploughing through West Wing Series 5 (which has actually been very good despite losing Aaron Sorkin's skills). I've watched Tristam Shandy, Flightplan, Four Brothers, Billy Connolly Live, March of The Penguins, and Brokeback Mountain. Probably the worst of these had to be Brokeback, which for all the fuss actually was pretty dull and poorly acted. March of the penguins was actually probably the most interesting (how do the Penguins do it?!), and Tristam Shandy certainly had its moments, but mainly just wanted to make me go and watch Alan Partridge! A-ha!
I've also acquired some new CDs. The Eraser - Thom Yorke, Dashboard Confessional's new one, Passion - Everthything Glorious (Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin etc), Smashing Pumpkins - Adore. Haven't really had the chance to listen to them enough to decide if I like them or not, but so far I think Eraser wins the prize for being most interesting, although as with most of the newer Radiohead stuff we'll see how much I listen to it in a month or so. Passion and Dashboard are fairly predictable and I need more time for the Adore album. Has anyone heard the new Keane album?
Work is winding down for the summer as all the trips are done. Currently I am tidying up from the summer and planning the next year's trips and programs. It has been a great year and I am looking forward to the next 12 months and seeing what God has in store for us. The Apprenticeship program looks like it is going to grow this year and I am excited that we have hit a groove with our programs and trips. It makes it less stressful to think about what we are going to as we are not constantly seeking to invent new things. One of thebig things this year is going to be developing youth ministry at Holy Cross' newest location on Daniel Island (15 minutes drive) from the Sullivans Island location. There are loads of opportunities here as it right next to both a High School and a Middle School. One of our apprentices (Jonny Keys) is going to be living within half a mile of it so it should be interesting to see what happens.
We're going to take a weeks vacation starting next weekend but we're going to stay right here in Mount Pleasant and, for once, enjoy all that is on offer on our own doorstep!
Tonight we have some friends coming round for dinner before heading out so see our local 'soccer' team, the Charleston Battery. They're on a winning run, so hopefully we'll see a good game tonight. Apparently the Miami team they are playing features Romario and one other ex-Brazilian star. Any way, it's about as British an experience one can get around here, although the temperature will be about 30C. But then there is a heatwave in the UK at the moment...
Monday, June 05, 2006
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