good-bye 30 …

Well, another year has come and gone … and I must say that with all the hype about turning 30, and a bunch of people who said I should dread it … It has actually been one of the best years of my life!

There has been so much change this year. Some of the major headlines of my year: No Shave November (okay maybe not a major headline, but fun nonetheless), AFRICA, leaving a church position, making some unbelievable new friends, being challenged in new ways, summer in Jeff City, taking a new job – and being stretched by it every day, I trained for and ran in and finished the Chicago Marathon, and I experienced support and love of friends and family unlike many people ever have the fortune of experiencing.

Thank-you 30 for proving all those nay-sayers wrong!  Bring on 31!

Here are some photos to go with the highlights:

The beard:

AFRICA:

Jeff City Friends:

New job:

Marathon:

sorry it’s sideways…

 

Hope your year is great!

-E

Really, are people that interested??

I get no fewer that 10 new visits per day to my blog from people who have been sent to it after searching for Ho-Ho’s and Swiss Cake Rolls … all because of this post.

I need to know … are people REALLY that concerned about the differences between Swiss Cake Rolls and Ho Ho’s … I mean we did this for fun, but c’mon now … HUNDREDS of people have come to this post…  makes me laugh!  That particular post has been viewed exponentially more than any other … glad to know snack cakes are so important!

-E

Reading and listening..

It’s been a little bit since I’ve posted, and in an ongoing effort for personal/leadership growth I’ve been reading a lot.  I have a hefty stack of books that I’m trying to work my way through.

Here is what I’ve just finished and what I’m currently working on:

 

Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer:

Compelled by Love by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation

Working on these now:

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman

 

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

 

Listening to:

Not Guilty Anymore by Aaron Keyes

 

Catalyst Music Project by Various Artists

 

What are you reading/listening to?  And what have you been learning lately?

Fall Break…

I don’t remember getting a “Fall  Break”  when I was in college.  Usually we were lucky to get an extra day at Thanksgiving … BUT SEMO gets a Fall Break AND 3 days at Thanksgiving!

So, this past Wed. – Sun. was Fall Break and we took a group of students on Fall Break Mission Trip to Cornerstone Farms in St. Jacob, IL to help out my friends David and Cortland.  They are a great family who run a horse ranch just outside of St. Louis with a missional goal.  They look to be the hands and feet of Christ through their lives and through the avenues that are available to them through running the horse ranch, riding school and non-for-profit therapeutic riding club.  We were unable to do a few of the things we had originally planned on due to weather, but we had a great time on the farm and I feel like we were able to accomplish a good amount of work while we were there.

We were able to work with a group of special needs adults who come out to the farm on a work program and got to be part of a therapeutic ride with them one day, helped to prepare for a large horse show that was supposed to happen on Saturday (which didn’t because of weather) and then helped to winterize a barn after our original plans were thwarted due to poor weather!  It was a great time to develop community with the group that we had there, and I was very excited for our group to get to know David and Cortland and their family, to hear their story of faithfulness to the Lord in their lives, marriage and their experiences on the mission field in Russia, the Middle East and St. Jacob, IL!

Here are a few pictures from the trip…

Jennifer getting ready to lead Paul on a Therapeutic ride:

LeAnn, Michael and Matt working on winterizing one of the barns:

Our group picture on the farm … horse barns in the background (of course it would be sunny on the day we leave):

Working on Thanksgiving and Finals week events now, and before you know it Spring Break Mission Trip plans will have to be finalized!

… because of Christ …

-E

Lots …

Okay, so a lot has happened since my last post, and a lot is still happening … so here is a quick run-down:

Last week I was able to attend the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta with several other campus missionaries/BSU directors from Missouri.  It was a great conference with great presenters/speakers.  The most valuable part to me was probably the time I had to fellowship and talk with other men who are doing the same thing I am doing all over the state … learning from their experiences/advice.  It was great.  I’ve told a few people this, but each time I go to a conference like that it is like trying to take a sip from a fire hydrant!  So much information in such a short period of time.  There were some pretty profound things said at that meeting that I’m still processing … maybe more thoughts on that later!

I then left Atlanta and flew to Chicago to run in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon with Team World Vision.  (you can click that link to see why I ran, and to continue to give to the cause that I ran for) I had been training for about 6 months for the marathon and was excited that the weekend was finally here … but no part of my training in warm-er weather could have prepared me for the start temperature of 30 degrees on Sunday morning!  It was so cold in the windy-city.  The run was tough, especially the last 5-6 miles, but I completed it in an official time of 4 hours 24 minutes and 22 seconds …. finishing 17,132nd out of 33,608 finishers!  LOL   I have been asked several times since Sunday if I’ll run another one … and my answer has been “never say never” … but for now, I’m fine having some time back in my life not running!

I got back into town late Sunday evening from Chicago, and today I’m leaving with a group of students from the university on our Fall Break Mission Trip.  We’re going on a service project trip to a horse ranch just outside of St. Louis that runs a non-profit ministry to handicapped and special needs children and adults.  We’ll be working on getting some things repaired and ready for some upcoming events that they have at the ranch.  I’m excited for our students to meet the owners, to hear their stories and the vision that they have for the ministry of their farm!

Like I said, it’s been busy, but it will slow down a little bit here soon … I even have a cruise coming up at the end of the month!  Great timing on that deal!

Be Blessed!

-E

Getaway!

Ha ha.  Seeing how it has been about 15 days since my last post, my “getting back into a regular schedule” didn’t work out too well!

This weekend our ministry is taking students to the Missouri Baptist Convention collegiate “Getaway” retreat.  Getaway has a special place in my heart.  I had  a lot of fun times with friends while I was a student involved in BSU attending Getaway:  the dance/skit with Angela Herring, the Princess and the Knave skit with Mark for the talent show, jumping in the lake (shhh), our BSU showing up with everyone in overalls … and my freshman year at Getaway was the first time I can look back and remember that God spoke directly to me through reading His Word.  There is something special about being able to  get-away from all the distractions in life, to get-away from the hustle and bustle of campus life, homework, etc., to sit back and relax, have fun, and most importantly to hear from the Lord.

So, if you think about it, pray for our ministry and the students that will be traveling with me this weekend, that they would encounter the Lord in a new way, that we would bond and connect on a deeper level as a ministry, and that we would have safe travels to and from Tan-Tar-A.

Hope everyone is doing well!

-E

Reading/Listening

Okay, here’s attempt #1 at getting back onto a somewhat “regular” blog schedule from the Cape.

Took my long weekend to continue finish unpacking from the move, and to fit in my long training run (it was an 18 miler this weekend) … I can’t believe that the marathon is only a month away!  Still raising $ before the race to help benefit the ministry of World Vision to under-developed villages in Africa … if you’re interested helping let me know!

So, I thought I’d just give a quick update today with some things that I’ve been reading and listening to lately.  I’ve got a LARGE stack of books on my desk at home that I am looking forward to getting to, but need to get settled in to a little bit of a more regular schedule right now before I start too many of them!

So here’s the list:

Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal

It’s a great book that challenges your thinking on what the Church is and should be and gets you to thinking about how to live a missional life.

Samson and the Pirate Monks by Nate Larkin

A book for men on authentic brotherhood, challenging men to find community with one another where you can be completely real, completely honest and free to be who God created you to be.

Listening:

This is my current favorite:

Jimmy Needham  “Not Without Love”

I’ve heard some of his other stuff, but this one has been on repeat since I got it.  This may be a terrible description, but sort of like the Jason Mraz of Christian music? … whatever it is, I like it!

That’s what I’ve got for now… what are you reading or listening to?  Any recommendations?

-E

you’ve been waiting I’m sure ….

Well, maybe the handful of you that read this thing haven’t been clinging to the edge of your seats over the last month waiting for me to post something again (well, maybe you Hayward … ) But, lots has happened, especially over the last 2 weeks, so I thought I would post a new update and let those of you who read this, and don’t already know, in on what’s going on in my life right now.

I posted this on my facebook last week:

Let the ambiguity cease… I know that I’ve been pretty un-clear with some of you about what is next for me, and I’ve been keeping to myself a little bit trying to not be presumptuous or get too excited until I had a more certain answer, BUT ….

I received a call today from the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Baptist Student Union at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau offering me the position of Campus Missionary/BSU Director, and I said yes. This was an opportunity that first came to my attention this summer, and through lots of prayer, discussions, and an interview process … the decision has been made. I’ll be officially starting in September.

I’m very excited for the opportunity, I feel like this is something that the Lord has been preparing me for. In addition to being excited I’m also a little overwhelmed at the task in front of me. It is a great responsibility to reach college students, disciple them, and to impact a campus for Christ, but I know that God is faithful, and He will continue to lead as I surrender to follow!

I can’t thank you enough for your prayers … some of you were able to pray specifically, and some had to pray more generically because I didn’t give up any details, but I’m thankful for all of them! I am blessed to have friends like you all who love and show such great support. And, trust me, I’ll be keeping in touch and asking that you continue to pray as I do take the next steps into leading this ministry at SEMO.

The time line looks like this for me… I’ll travel to Cape next week to look for and secure a place to live. While I’m there, I’ll attend the first weekly service/meeting of the BSU for the semester and be introduced as the new campus missionary/BSU director. Then, I’ll travel to St. Joseph for a conference on Friday and Saturday, and then back to Springfield on Sunday to continue to pack and get ready to move, which will hopefully take place early that week. It is going to be a crazy couple of weeks, but like I said before, I’m excited.

So, thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray that I listen intently to God as He continues to lead in this, and that the transition period over the next couple weeks goes smoothly!

Well, I’ve been in Cape Girardeau for a few days this week trying to find a place to live, and looked at SEVERAL today, and hopefully have found one that I can get into. I’ll hopefully hear back from the leasing agent tomorrow. In the meantime, there are opening week activities every night sponsored by the BSU this week. I was able to hang out with them last night at their game night and will be with them again this evening for their “sports night” with sand volleyball, frisbee, football, etc. It has been good to get to meet and begin getting to know some of the students, and meeting the student leadership that is already in place. Tomorrow night is our first worship service for the semester and I’ll be addressing the students for the first time. I’m excited, and nervous at the same time. I’m pretty sure I’m landing on the passage about the woman at the well and the end of 2 Cor. 5.

One thing that I’ve been encouraged to do lately is to put together a personal prayer support team. I know that many of you who read this already are praying for me, and I am SO thankful for that, but in the near future I’ll likely be putting together a team who I can count on to pray specifically for me as I move forward in my personal life and in my new leadership position with the BSU.

For now, I need to get going. I’m so thankful for the way God has been working in and through my life over these last few months, and blessed to have friends and family like you to walk with me through all of this!

More updates soon I hope!

-E

A lot…

A lot … has been going on since I’ve last updated. Seems like I’m not getting to write as many of these as I’d like to, but every time I feel like I have time to write something, its late, and I’d just rather get to bed. So, lucky for you (or un-lucky if you don’t like reading my ramblings), I had the rest of the evening for Saturday off, and am taking the time to write a little something …

Well, first off “big” news … I’ve reached 5,000 visits to my blog! I know that may not seem like a big deal, and I’m not doing this for fame or to gather a following or anything, but I was impressed at over 5,000 individual/first time visits to my blog since I started back around November.

Okay, now to some REALLY big news. I can’t say with certainty yet, and therefore must be vague with the details, but it looks like I may have a job lined up for the fall. Things have really come together for that in the last couple of weeks, and I’ve had a couple of really great conversations about it in the last week. Honestly, it kinda scares me to death, but God has really given me a peace about pursuing the opportunity, which has to be from Him because left to myself, I wouldn’t think that I could do this! So, hopefully soon I’ll be able to share more details about that!

We had an amazing time in St. Louis. We arrived there on the 9th of July to prepare for the students arrival the next day. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent in training and preparation for the groups to be out on the mission field starting on Monday. Each church/youth group that came was paired up with an inner-city church or location at which they were going to run a Vacation Bible School or Back Yard Bible Club type of ministry. I was put into a group of 3 ministries that were partnered with 15th Street Baptist Church in East St. Louis. It was definitely eye opening. Just a few years ago, the place where we were serving in East St. Louis was one of the top 2 poorest zip codes in the entire United States! Sometimes it is easy to forget that some people right here in our “back yard” live with so little. It wasn’t un-common for us to knock on a door to invite kids to the VBS where there would be anywhere from 7-20 kids in one home/apartment, etc. often from a couple different families. Anyhow, we had a lot of success with our Vacation Bible School and at least 7 kids made professions of faith in Jesus Christ for the first time that week!
The people at 15th Street were great! I got to visit with one of the deacons there name Joulius. He was a man in his late 60’s early 70’s who had graduated with an undergraduate degree in Political Science, studied Law at Harvard and taught law at Southern Illinois University for 26 years. The entire time he was teaching at SIU, he still lived in East St. Louis trying to reach the community and trying to do all that he could to give them more opportunities. He was part of the team that got the public commuter train to come across the river so that people in their community could have transportation to the city and be able to get jobs there. He also wrote the grants that are being used to build new/nicer housing complexes to promote a better community. He was a really cool guy.

The group of interns this summer have realized that we have a lot of things in common as far as our interests go. All of us are musicians of some sort, piano players, guitar players, percussion, vocalists, etc. We all enjoy the artistic side of things ranging again from music to photography to painting, etc. Which brings me to my next topic. Tomorrow we’ll all be painting together! It came to us a while back that we should have a day where we each buy a canvas and just paint … so that idea transformed into us picking a Bible verse as our inspiration and then everyone is going to paint whatever they are inspired to based on that scripture verse. Our verse is Psalm 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to You o Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.” Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures of our artwork soon!

I continue to learn SO much this summer as I spend quality time with the Lord, and as we continue to encourage one another on our team as we share what we’re learning and as we continue to walk through “Master Plan of Evangelism.” Sometimes it feels a little bit like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant, but God has been so faithful in teaching us this summer, and is speaking to us in specific ways. This is one of those experiences that is going to continue to take a while to process, and will be hard to explain to people everything that this summer was for me … but if I get the chance, I’ll sure try.

Okay, that’s going to be it for tonight … I’m tired. I’m still training for the marathon in October, and I had to run 12 miles this morning. . . my legs are sore and I’m tired so I’m going to bed! Blessings to you all!
-E

Post about a 4 a 5 and a 1 1/2 …

The 4 is for the 4th of July! We traveled to St. Louis area to spend the day with one of the Collegiate Regional Directors for the Student Ministry team. He directs the greater St. Louis area ministries. His family lives on a horse ranch just outside of St. Louis. We went up on the 3rd, stayed in a hotel on that evening and then spent the day with he and his family. Their farm was great, his 5 kids were awesome, and we had such a good, relaxing time with them … all capped off by shooting off fireworks with the kiddos.

The 5 is for $5 Prom! Last night we had a $5 prom here in the house. The deal is that everyone has a $5 limit to buy an outfit (plus using things already in their wardrobe) for our “prom.” We had a blast shopping at goodwill. Then when we got home from there, Angela had set the table with the dishes and silverware, candles, place cards, etc. After decorating the basement, we got dressed up and went upstairs for dinner … we even had Chocolate covered strawberries! When dinner was finished we moved the party downstairs and had a little dance party in the basement … and finished off the night with an “after prom” party of watching The Princess Bride! So fun …

The 1 1/2 is for the amount of weeks that we are preparing to spend in St. Louis. We are leaving today to travel up there to prepare for the St. Louis Project. It is a mission project that youth groups from all over bring their students to St. Louis to be paired up with a church in the St. Louis Metro area to run a VBS for the week, do community outreach etc. We’re going up tonight to get ready for the arrival of the church groups tomorrow, and then the rest of the weekend will be a training weekend focused on evangelism before they go out starting Monday to lead their VBS or Back Yard Bible club. I’ve been a part of the St. Louis, Denver and Houston projects several times in the last 6-7 years and I’m looking forward to this week as well!

Another brief update from this neck of the woods. Still praying about the Fall and where/what God is leading me to. Hope everyone is great!

-E