Wednesday, May 19

Going to be a long year . . .

Wow! Ya know they always say that in baseball players get old overnight. Well it's official the Mariners are OLD! I went to my first M's game of the year last night and they just don't have it. With the fickleness of the Seattle Market I'll be interested to see what the team draws next year (it'll take a year for them to really see the impact).

I'm grateful that I'm only a casual M's fan. Cause otherwise this would be a truly painful year to watch.

Thursday, May 13

An Encouraging Day

I’m in this class that over the last 2 semesters has been extremely time consuming. In the class you are required to make a covenant and goals and all this stuff to help you work on some of your weaknesses. Along with that you meet with a Field Supervisor (my boss) weekly, a Spiritual Director (a pastor friend of mine) Monthly, and a ministry support and reflection group (made up of people I work with) 6 times over 8 months. It’s a lot of paper work, but the intent is great and it has given me a lot of feedback on how people perceive me.

Today was the “competency interview” or basically what I thought was going to be a “hey here is all the things that you need to continue to work on” meeting. Instead what it turned out to be one of the most encouraging 45 minutes I’ve ever experienced. The meeting had my boss, 2 co-workers who’s opinions I highly value and respect, my peer group leader ( a convention leader that I’ve enjoyed getting to know through the process), and a guy from the seminary.



I won’t go into all the specific of what they said (cause that would feel really self absorbed), but they spoke words of encouragement about the things they saw in my life all most all of them positive and a few that pointed to areas of needed growth. But all four were tremendously encouraging and spoke from a genuine heart. Their words were very comforting and something I feel God ordained for me to hear today. Not to stroke my ego, but to remind me of the call he has on my life, words that are needed as I look for my next place in ministry. I officially have just over 6 months left in my current position and have begun to think about what my next move might be. It’s exciting and frightening all at the same time, but today I feel blessed and encouraged. Blessed to have friends that will speak truth in my life, encouraged by the fact God’s call on my life is noticed by those around me.

Wednesday, May 12

Delaware in the Spring

Last week I had the privilege of attending a disciple now weekend at former youth minister's present church. It was a great weekend, where I had the privilege of hanging out with 8 of the coolest 7th and 8th graders you could ever meet. After the weekend was over I we took a trip to New York and Philly on separate days. It's amazing how close all those places are.

The last evening Emily (a new friend that lives in Delaware), Jason (a good friend from Ark and Seattle) and I went to Beautiful Citizen's Bank Park.



It was great to be able to see the new ballpark, but it was even better as it was my first game of the year. AND as if that were not enough they boys in Red were there to boot! SO I was pretty much giddy from the time we hit the parking lot. To add to my excitement I had the privilege of negotiating the price of our tickets with local merchants.

We got there in the middle of the first, which I was ok with because that meant we'd definitely get below face value. After passing on some REALLY good seats that were a bit out of my price range. I was thought to be a sucker by vender #2 (tried to pass off $22 roof top bleacher seats as between 1st and home), we wound up going with vender #3 getting front row seats in the second deck just inside the foul pole.

The stadium is a great place to watch a game and of course state of the art. Being in philly I of course had the obligatory Cheese Steak (my 3rd of the weekend) which I must say was delicious. The game was great going down to a 6-5 victory for the cardinals with Izzy striking out Pat Burell with the bases loaded to end the game.

The evening was a blast in large part due to the company, proving once again that the best things in life are those that your able to share with someone else! Speaking of which I have to grab a movie on the way home, as some friends are coming over. So I'll try and be a bit more frequent in my posting. I also have some things to process as my world slowly begins the transition process yet again!

Wow !

Ok major props to the folks at blogger. This is a much easier format. I'm also pumped that I can use them for comments as well.