Plantar Fascia run amuck

This weekend at the church was pretty awesome. This was our yearly missions weekend and it went well, like it usually does. I was particularly blessed this year because Jim Adams coordinated every bit of my adult class' participation. I need to send him a big thank you.

Andy Hanson from CIY did the combined SS class time, and he talked about the usual CIY stuff, mentioning the pre-teen program Superstart that they had started. I had already checked out Superstart and found it to be too expensive for our group (I might take the kids if it was in Springfield). Maybe they have reduced the price by now, I am not sure. The other reason I wasn't interested in it, was I wasn't sure if having pre-teen CIY events was a good idea or not. I have tried to avoid as much "hype" as I can in my children's ministry. (Although perhaps a little can be good sometimes.)

Anyway, it struck me while he was talking about the importance of Children's Ministry that I have not done much strategic planning - I kind of inherited what we have and am just fumbling around with it. So I am going to work on that this week.

Two more things:

Joel's soccer team finally won their first indoor soccer game 3 - 0. They played so well and it was so fun to watch. The other team was a little too serious I thought. There was a mom of one of the other team's kids up there screaming her head off the whole time (I'm so glad my wife is not a screamer!) I think the kid's name was Cole, maybe. Anyway, there was an old guy up there, and after the mom was getting really crazy yelling at Cole, the old guy said, "Cole, you'd better get going or your mom's going to come down there and kick your butt." Everybody in earshot laughed out loud, and I think that calmed the mom down a little! It was pretty funny!

I talked to Dr. Scott about my problem with my foot and he said it was "Plantar Fascia," which is a latin word for "gimpy foot." He said I need a steroid shot in my foot, which sounds more painful than "plantar fascia." If I walk around on this for a while, does that make me a "plantar fascist?" So Jenette, my professional internet researcher has learned some things that we are going to try to see if it will get better. (She wants to feed me salmon and blueberries spiced with tamerick or something like that. ) Maybe I'll take the shot.

jc

Making A Green Screen With Local Materials

Making A Green Screen With Local Materials

Interesting article - thanks to Janet Stephens for this.

jc

X2GEN MG19V8 Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor Built in Speakers - Retail at Newegg.com

X2GEN MG19V8 Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor Built in Speakers - Retail at Newegg.com

The stats and the price on this look awesome - I have read some comments that suggest the rebate is a challenge. We'll see.

jc

Creativity Run Amuck

Well, the last few days have been full of creative work for me. Wednesday was our weekly Studio456, and I had not been able to work on doing the kids videos until Wednesday (although I did all the video capturing Tuesday night when I took Joel to soccer practice.) It really took me all day to get the kids videos together (they all turned out pretty awesome - especially making Shelby look like a fire engulfed demon!). I also got a video ready of me teaching from last week. I always teach the kids the same lesson two weeks in a row (the first week they make their videos, and the second week we watch their videos.)

So, since my monitor at the church office is just a step down from horrible, my eyes and head were buggy at the end of the day. We had an awesome Studio456 Wednesday but only had 17 kids. I was disappointed in the low turnout after I had done so much work. I know that families are very busy and kids have schoolwork and some people were sick - I recognize all that and we struggle with those things also, but the simple fact of the matter is that bringing the kids to church is not a high priority for many people and that saddens me and disappoints me.

I love doing children's ministry - kids are always more fun and more interesting than adults! But whether they show up all depends on if the adults think it is important. Sigh.

Well anyway, yesterday I sequenced some tracks for "No Not One" combined with "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Thought it would be cool to do some boom-chick hymns with the kids. Also started on sequencing "I'm so wonderfully made." That's going to work out well.

Yesterday I also started on doing a video background for "Deep & Wide." I finished that today, as well as three others. I love doing the music and video stuff, and I could do it all day everyday. I didn't have to get an adult class lesson together this week because of the missions rally, so I had some more time.

Janet Stephens sent me a link about making a green screen out of foam painted green. It might be worth a try. When I get back to the church computer I will post the link on the blog.

My biggest frustration the past few days has been my monitor - I'm going to have to break down and buy one. Darrel and Caroline came over tonight to eat - Darrel helped me fix the stove pipe on our wood-burning stove - it had totally separated.

I am going to start another blog on the homesteading blog site that Jenette uses to keep track of all my stuff about the wanna be farmer/country bumpkin part of my interests. One of these days, I will do a blog posting listing all my varied interests. But, then I probably won't remember them. I have much more to say, but can't think of it right now.

jc


Still having problems with Studio10 and Easy Worship crashing. I really think there is something goofy with my computer. I am going to buy a new monitor from Newegg.

Preaching on repentance brings about change!

Pastors.com Encouraging pastors and church leaders

Carrying on my Joel Olsteen rant, you won't hear him talking about repentance. This is a great article that every Christian should read. If your preacher wont preach toward repentance and life change, then find another church. (That especially goes for the 20,000 or more that listen to Olsteen's happy talk every week!)

jc

Joel Osteen's Wimpy Life Now - CWN

Joel Osteen's Wimpy Life Now - CWN

I don't always agree with Brannon Howse, but I think he is right on with this article. It saddens me greatly that Christians could even possibly think that Joel Olsteen is a credible Christian witness. This article says that Olsteen published an apology on his website for his lame responses on Larry King. I'll have to check into that.

jc

Amazon.com: Mega Church: Networked Special Edition (PC Game): Computer & Video Games

Amazon.com: Mega Church: Networked Special Edition (PC Game): Computer & Video Games

This is the funniest thing I have ever seen! (By the way, it's a parody!) I love the descriptions, including the line,

"Do it all without a degree, license or even the Bible! Just like Joel Olsteen."

I think this will get me started on a blogging rant about Joel Olsteen that I have been meaning to get going.

By the way - this parody thing is a sort of contest where you vote for the most interesting internet thing. I need to enter that contest with something.

jc

Adventures in Organization

Today I put off killing a chicken (Jenette has been telling me that this week she wants that rooster in a pot!) in favor of building one of two locking wooden cabinets that Jenette got me for Christmas. That was quite a story in itself. Before Christmas Jenette and the kids told me they got these two cabinets for me (they were pretty expensive). She told the kids that in order to buy these cabinets for me, there would not be any money for buying Christmas presents for them. (Which was true, although I don't know if they all believed that at first!)

So, the kids and Jenette sacrificed any possibility of getting gifts. I was the only one that got any Christmas presents! (Kind of sounds like the intro to a sappy hallmark movie!) Of course they got presents from grandparents and other family, and we are still giving away and throwing away skads of stuff (especially girl's stuff). June Ivanov was so touched by the story that she brought some fun gifts over for the kids (including the Blokus game, which was the single greatest hit of the holiday season!) Just imagine, we may not have got a Blokus game if the kids and Jenette were not so generous!

So anyway, these are locking cabinets made by Osullivan (makes me think of the really annoying guy on the commercials here where the guy raises his hands gloriously in the air and says, "Ohhhhhhhh, sullivaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan." Only thing I didn't like about it was the back was cardboard (not laminate like the rest) and they shorted me some of the screws. As I was finishing up, Jason came up to me, clearly upset, and asked me if he could help me. I could tell there was some other motivation there, so I just kind of waited. He got more upset as he said, "and also there's something I need to tell you." "I broke another window."

At this point I was trying to remember if this was three or four windows Jason had broken in this house when he said, "I was throwing a snowball at the chimney and it accidently hit the window and broke it. " Because this has come to be something that I totally expect, I just said "ok." He cheered up instantly.

I took Joel to soccer practice at the church tonight - he loves soccer. They sure played an awesome game on Saturday.

The kids watched the Tweety and Slyvester video again today. I am always amazed to think that one guy did all the voices for all those cartoons. The cartoon where Sylvester keeps trying to eat Tweety even though there are 100 bulldogs in the yard always makes me laugh. It makes me think of our culture - people will go and go and try again and again to get whatever they want, even though it always ends up biting them. Whether it is money or power or affection or love or whatever it is they want, if you chase after the world and trouble your own house, you will only "inherit wind." (Proverbs 11:29) (Or in the case of Slyvester, you will repeatedly get shredded by bulldogs)

That's why living on the bombproof budget has given me more peace - it helps me face the reality which is, "I can't have it all." I love the line from a Casting Crowns song, "I'd rather have a shack on a rock, than a castle in the sand."

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and turmoil with it. Proverbs 15:16

jc

Our Family May 2005 

Picture of Jenna that I like

All in a day of loafing

Today was a blessing. After the busyness of yesterday, I was able to stay at home for President's Day. Played Blokus several times with the kids, did some routine cleaning around the house with Jenette and the kids, and did a little internet research about buying tires for the van. (My physical work and activity today was limited to bringing in wood, cleaning out the ashes from the woodburning stove, wrestling with Jenna and Joy while Jenette was gone, and grinding two cups of grain so Jenette could make cookies tonight - yum!)

Ran into this link

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/studies/15PassVans/index.htm

on a lawyer's (ambulance chaser) website about 15 passenger van rollover crashes. All stuff I have heard before, but I was reminded of the importance of good tires. I got the oil changed the other day at the Express Care here in Ozark (awesome guys there!) and they told me, "you need new front tires!"

So now I am fretting about that a little. Tires are not cheap these days, and we have just this month finally after 16 years of marriage established a realistic budget that we are committed to so we can get out of debt completely in two years.

Jenette has never been the big spender of our family, she is content to live with nothing and she would even give that away if I would let her. This new, bombproof budget only works now because I have started using online banking which enables me to force myself to commit the money to double our minimum debt reduction payments.

February has been a great success for our new budget - Jenette spent the final $45 for the month today on a few groceries for the rest of the month. (Including more grain for me to grind.)

As anyone who has lived committed to a budget knows, it is things like new tires that are the budget busters. So we are going to get two new tires in March and wait until April or later for the back tires. We also need a new serpentine belt, and we are paying for the processing of a side of beef with March's budget. Should be interesting.

The boys and Jordan wanted to watch Star Wars tonight, so we watched Return of the Jedi (they call it episode 6). Of course the hokiest line of all the movies is when Leia says to Han, "hold me." Gag!

If Leia had a blog, she probably would have written something like this:

Today I found out that Luke was my brother (did I actually kiss him on the lips?) and that Darth Vader was my dad. Talk about a wierd day. Then I was so overwhelmed with emotion that all I could say to Han was, "hold me." Can you believe it? How corny. Oh well, not as corny as my hair-do.

All in a Day's Work

Today's timeline:

6:00 AM Wake up - get everyone ready for church
7:45 AM Leave for church
8:00 AM Set up room for the Breakfast Club
8:30 AM Teach the Breakfast Club
9:30 AM Go downstairs and set up computer for Adult Class
9:45 AM Adult SS Class
10:30 AM Take 'puter back upstairs and set up for the Upper Room
11:00 AM Sit in service briefly - just barely made it for communion!
11:20 AM The Upper Room - worship and a short lesson and the Gibberish Powerpoint game.
12:15 PM Tear down stuff from upstairs, take 'puter back to office
12:30 PM Fellowship ministry lunch and meeting
3:00 PM Went home and slept
Evening - watched the History Channel with the boys (Superpower secret aircraft - very cool)
Midnight - start working on this silly blog that no one but me reads!

Each Sunday can be very busy and tiring doing Children's Ministry. Today I began my second Sunday doing children's church during the 2nd worship service. I put my computer on a cart and set it up for the adult auditorium class, then took it upstairs to do "The Upper Room" - our children's church.

I have been struggling with the idea of Children's church in general - are we just pandering to people who don't want to teach their children to sit with them through the sermon? Or is it a great opportunity to help them to focus on God in a way that is appropriate for their age? I thought I knew the answer to that, but today they seemed to listen fairly well.

I used Easy Worship again - I am going to try the trial version of Media Shout this week and get it figured out if it kills me.

My lesson this morning to the Breakfast Club (1st service kids) and to my adult Class was this:
(If you want the entire lesson I will be glad to email it to you!)

Lessons from the End of the Spear:

1. God's purpose and plan is not all about my personal comfort/convenience.

God uses our pain and suffering for his glory. When those 5 missionaries were speared to death, they could not have known the impact they would have - how the gospel would be spread and the glory of God would grow because of their deaths. Acts 8 says that the first missionaries were scattered out from Jerusalem because of hardship and persecution. We need to learn here in the US that we do not hold God on a leash - he is sovereign and he does what he wants when he wants for his own purposes.

2. The power of the Gospel to transform lives and cultures.

The good news of Christ death on the cross for our sins had such a powerful impact on the Waodoni indians that had speared those missionaries to death. When they learned how Jesus had taken the spear for us, it radically changed their culture. They stopped killing each other and started helping each other. Interesting that our own culture has gone further away from the Gospel, and we have a culture of death and murder.

3. Our conviction in the reality of heaven and hell will fuel our passion for missions and evangelism.

This movie forces us to ask, "what do we really believe?" The Waodoni have one word that translates "hearing" and "application." In other words, they don't see a difference between hearing words and acting on those words. For them, application, or active obedience is the essence of faith. James 2 says the same thing. If we really believe in the gospel, that should be the active ingredient or fuel for our own efforts towards evangelism. This movie also makes me wonder why Christianity is in such a sorry state. Is it perhaps because millions of people who say they believe in Christ and in his salvation really don't believe? The evidence, or lack of evidence, sure seems to point to that conclusion.

I recently teased one of our church deacons who is in charge of an "involvement" day where we try to get more people at the church to be involved with the ministry of the church actively. I told him that we ought to call it, "Git off yer butt Sunday."

Probably wouldn't fly well with most of the congregation, but it packs a punch! After seeing the End of the Spear and doing this lesson, I thought that maybe we should call our "involvement" Sunday something like, "Active Faith Sunday."

Nah, I like "Git off Yer Butt" much better.

jc

Back in the Saddle

For all the both of you who have been following my poor attempts at blogging (my wife included), I am hereby resurrecting the clayblog.

Most of my teaching at church has centered around two different movies: the Chronicles of Narnia and End of the Spear.

I have missed many great blogging opportunities because of my absence.

Jenette now has her own blog - she inspired me I guess.

That's all for now.