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flags for a marine

Erik — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:52:17 +0000

A Marine from our town of Bethalto passed away on Christmas Eve from injuries sustained from an IED while he was on duty in Afghanistan. His funeral will be held at our church this week.

Yesterday, volunteers set up flags all along the road from the airport to our church. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see and it’s incredibly inspiring. The pictures below don’t really do it justice, but I wanted to capture a piece of it and share it here.

Part of what inspired me to do this is the fact that I’ve decided to take at least one picture a day and post it to my Flickr account. I’ve seen several posts from other people doing the same thing so I thought I’d join in. You can see all the pictures I’ve uploaded by visiting my “2011 – 365″ set on Flickr.

links

Erik — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:50:55 +0000

I made some updates to the blog today. I created a page of links to friends and family who have blogs. At some point, I’ll get around to making it look nicer, but for now it’s at least functional.

If I missed your blog or someone else’s blog that should be on the list, let me know.

Everyday I tell myself that I need to get back to blogging on a daily basis again, but I’m just going through a season where I don’t have much time or content to post here. Instead of rambling about nothing, I figure I’ll save the posts for when I’m more inspired and have something more substantive to say.

No related posts.

barack paper scissors

erik — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Someone clearly has too much time on their hands to make this. Very clever.

Though I didn’t come across anything offensive when I played, I’m not endorsing any of the content here. There are several possible outcomes and I didn’t try them all.
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barack rolled

veterans day

erik — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:56:00 +0000

In today’s chapel at the Stone Church Christian Academy we heard from three veterans: one from WWII, one from Vietnam and one from the Gulf War. It was hands down the best chapel service I’ve been a part of here.

It’s moving to hear these men recount their days in battle and the dangers they faced for the freedom of others. Cecil told about his service in a submarine, sinking ships and being shaken by depth charges. Bob spoke about being on guard duty and being forced to fire upon enemy fighters. And Rick shared of an encounter with an enemy sniper from 30 feet away and avoiding any injury.

It puts things in perspective for me. It reminds me that the freedom and opportunities I have came at a cost. They came with risk and fear and sacrifice. It reminds me that some things are worth fighting for and those things shouldn’t be forgotten.
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operation blessing

erik — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:28:00 +0000

On Halloween our students went around and collected non-perishable food items for Operation Blessing. Because of my schedule and vacation, I wasn’t able to drop of the items until today.

Operation Blessing is a pretty amazing place. One of the people from our church, John Whittall, volunteers there and was telling me that they are serving the needs of an overwhelming number of people (more than double than this time last year). He shared with me that recently they had run completely out of bread. So the volunteers gathered together, held hands and prayed that God would somehow provide. Within ten minutes a truck arrived with a full load of bread to be donated.

I share this because, I’m having an increased awareness and burden for the needs of people around us. I’m tired of having a faith that doesn’t consciously meet those needs. So, 2009 is going to be a bit different for our students. We’re going to be providing service opportunities on a regular basis. In January, we’re going to box meals for children around the world at Feed My Starving Children. In February, we’re going to get serve Operation Blessing (either at their building or by earning credit for them at the Food Depository). I’m not sure what will happen after that, but my goal is to keep the needs of others at the forefront of our attention throughout the year.

My desire is that our students would (gasp) think of others instead of just themselves. I pray they are challenged to consider how they can make a difference in the world right now. My goal is for them to exceed the low (or non-existent) expectations placed on them and pursue their fullest potential.

Less talk and more do.
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vacation pics

erik — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:22:00 +0000

I posted pictures from our vacation last week. You can view them online here.
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dad daughter date night

erik — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:45:00 +0000

In an attempt to create memories and connection between dads and daughters, we held a Dad and Daughter Date night tonight for the girls in our youth group. 19 dads and daughters came over for ice cream, games and friendship. Bethany put the whole thing together and ran it while I had the responsibility of trying to put Kent to sleep (emphasis on “try”).

When I did make it downstairs, I found myself playing Pretty Pretty Princess (you’re welcome, Laura) and an epic game of Jenga. We completed 35 rows with 1 on row 36. I’m not sure how that stacks up to regular games of Jenga, but according to Hasbro’s site, the record is 40 2/3.

Thanks to everybody who made it out. It’s great to see dads and daughters spending time together. Our hope is that these times open lines of communication and appreciation for each other.

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do hard things

erik — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:40:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, one of ladies at church gave me a book to read, telling me that her grandchildren really got a lot out of it. I wasn’t looking for another trendy Christian bookstore feel-good bestseller to read, so I was hesitant to start. Many books for teens that I’ve seen are cheesy, offer little substance and have cool “youthy” words like “xtreme” in their titles. Fortunately, I gave it a shot and ended up finishing it tonight. It’s called Do Hard Things, by twin brothers Alex and Brett Harris.

The brothers argue that teenagers rise to the expectations placed upon them. The problem, however, is that society doesn’t expect anything from them (other than going to school, perhaps finding a part-time job and goofing off), and therefore they don’t accomplish much. To solve this problem, the authors invite the reader to join the “Rebelution” of teenagers who do hard things, exceed society’s expectations and end up changing the world.

It’s definitely a book geared for teens, though I did find it engaging, encouraging and inspiring. It’s a fairly quick read and the brothers do a great job building their case and then outlining ways to respond.

It’s not a perfect book, but I do recommend it. In fact, I find the message to be so compelling and important to students, that I’m going to start a two-week series on it in our youth service next week.

Before we get to the “go and buy this book” link, let me throw out a heads up. I debated whether or not to even mention this, but my observant youth pastor friends will likely make the connection here, so I’d better say it. The authors of this book are the brothers of Joshua Harris who wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye. I don’t hear much about his book anymore, but back in the day there were a lot of polarizing views on that book. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan. I was a bit leery of reading Do Hard Things, because of the connection. I just didn’t want invest time into a book that I didn’t think would be relevant to teens and realistically offer something for them. Fortunately those fears were alleviated. I mention this connection and my hesitation, not to bash the dating book, but to highlight the fact that I found Do Hard Things to be an excellent book for teens. I’d hate for someone not to read it because of a preconceived (and unfair) idea about an unrelated book.

Do yourself (or the teenagers in your life) a favor and pick up a copy.

Oh, one more thing. Chuck Norris wrote the forward. How sweet is that?

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vacation from vacation

erik — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:42:00 +0000

We got back from the Wisconsin Dells today (I’ll post pictures in the next couple of days). We were gone for two and a half days and I’m completely wiped out. We had a great time. I love getting away with Bethany and the boys, but I definitely wouldn’t describe it as relaxing. Parker’s old enough to entertain himself, but Kent…well let’s just say he adds “spice” to the vacation experience.

I’m starting to realize something about myself. The last couple of times I’ve been away from home overnight, I’ve had an increasingly hard time getting a good night’s rest. Last night in the hotel I tossed and turned. I felt like I was up all night. I think it’s the pillows. I never thought I’d say this, but I think I might have to bring my pillows with me. Is that weird? There’s nothing special about my pillows. In fact, they’re crazy old. I’ve been using them for at least 8 years. But for whatever reason, I just can’t get comfortable with the hotel pillows.

Maybe it’s because I turned 30 this year….oh well, at least I’m back home with my pillows.

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traffic tuesday #14 – foggy windows

erik — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:54:00 +0000

It happens to everybody. You’re running late, and when you get to your car, you find the windows fogged up. If they were frosted, you could grab your scrapper and clean of the ice. This, however, is different. It’s some sort of strange temperature thing and to solve the problem you’re going to need to wait ten minutes for your car to warm up.

But, as I said, you’re late.

So what do you do? You go ahead and leave hoping that windows will defog before you run into your neighbors garbage can or run over that strange neighborhood cat that always seems to be lurking around.

I’ll admit, I’ve done this, but last Saturday I fell victim to this seemingly innocent, yet defiant act.

Around 7:40am I was traveling north on 80th Ave. when a guy in a red Pontiac Firebird pulled out in front of me. He pulled up to his stop sign (I had none), stopped for several seconds (as if he was waiting for me to pass) and then just pulled out in front of me. Fortunately, my lightning fast reflexes kicked into gear and I immediately laid on my horn (priority #1) and then swerved and slammed on the brakes. As I was moving to safety, I realized that I couldn’t see into Mr. Speedracer’s windows. Yep, they were all fogged up.

He forgot one of the most important rules of driving with foggy windows: Role Them Down. After all, being able to see is one of the slightly essential aspects of driving.
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