A place for my thoughts

New blog

2010-01-18T20:35:00.001-05:00

I'm migrating over to wordpress. You can find me at http://captinchip302.wordpress.com

2009-12-13T13:05:00.001-05:00

Give the Gift of Clean Water from Blood:Water Mission on Vimeo.

Going off the grid

2009-11-01T08:04:00.002-05:00

So I'm taking my own advice and going off the grid this week. I spend a whole lot of time on facebook, twitter, blogs, and email that it's consuming. I consume. So for the next week I'm going to go off the grid. No twitter, no facebook, no blogs, no email.....well maybe email like twice a day. Instead I'd like to use my time to create more. I'm certain that the leaders that I look up to the most do not spend their free time on twitter, or reading blogs, or endlessly researching seminaries. I do. So I'm trying an experiment here. Check back here this week and maybe some of my creations will make their way to my blog.

Hebrews 13

2009-10-28T17:35:00.002-05:00

Reading these words from the author of Hebrews the other day brought tears to my eyes. I feel like this is where I am right now: going to Jesus, outside of the camp. For all the the critiques I have of the church I still love her and always will.

We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Hebrews 13:10-15 (NIV)

I particularly loved the way the message puts it.

The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It's the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God's altar to cleanse his people. So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This "insider world" is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let's take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus' name.

May I never be a privileged insider.

The Wisdom of Eugene Peterson

2009-10-12T11:31:00.003-05:00

“Living with some tension, in mystery, is part of the life of faith, and it’s what keeps us growing. The minute we become dogmatic, we close our minds. There’s a lot to be said for saying, “i don’t know.” Some parents don’t say that to their kids enough.”

- Eugene Peterson in Image Magazine

The art of asking the right question

2009-10-10T22:33:00.002-05:00

In the middle of trying to walk through a difficult situation I asked a wise friend how you give someone advice when you can clearly see the solution but they don't. He gave me the a great answer:

Often times the best thing to do is ask a slew of questions and allow the person to come to their own conclusion. People don't need your solution, but need to come to it on their own terms.

I was struck by it's simplicity. I admit I'm not very good at asking those cutting questions. I have friends that are. In the midst of all the haze they can ask a question that cuts to the point. I hope I get there someday. Even today in the middle of another tough conversation I was asking myself what is the question that needs to be asked here? I don't know if I found it, but I tried.

It reminds of a great book I read by Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak. In it he describes a Quaker tradition called a "Clearness Committee." During this process a group of friends essentially ask you questions about a particular decision, or a certain circumstance. I've always loved the idea. Jesus rarely answers a question directly, he usually answers with another question. I wonder how much better our relationships, our advice, our churches, our teams would be if we could simply learn the art of asking the right question.

MP3 Experiment

2009-10-08T15:51:00.001-05:00

Super cool, I wonder if we could pull it off in Buckhannon?

I and Love and You

2009-09-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

The Wisdom of Henri Nouwen

2009-09-11T18:19:00.002-05:00

Found this today from Henri Nouwen. There's so much truth and wisdom in this, not just for letters, but for how we interact with each other. I'll let Nouwen say it:

When you write a very angry letter to a friend who has hurt you deeply, don’t send it! Let the letter sit on your table for a few days and read it over a number of times. Then ask yourself: “Will this letter bring life to me and my friend? Will it bring healing, will it bring a blessing?” You don’t have to ignore the fact that you are deeply hurt.

You don’t have to hide from your friend that you feel offended. But you can respond in a way that makes healing and forgiveness possible and opens the door for new life. Rewrite the letter if you think it does not bring life, and send it with a prayer for your friend.

From Sept 4 2009 Henri Nouwen Society

Embrace the Good!

2009-09-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

A new blog to check out

2009-09-03T05:50:00.002-05:00

If you haven't heard Seth's blogging!!! Be sure to check him out and offer him plenty of encouragement.

What to do with credit card rewards?

2009-09-02T17:13:00.003-05:00

So you've been buying everything on your credit card just to earn rewards or points. What are you going to spend those points on? Something you don't need? Maybe. Something useless? Probably. Something you frivolous? Certainly. What if you could offer an affordable loan to a farmer in Afghanistan, or a merchant in Kenya? Wouldn't that be a better use of "free" money?

As Karyn and I look to give more one area that we've been intrigued with for a while is micro finance. (If you're interested in it check out this great book.) So yesterday we used the rewards from Karyn's credit card to fund a micro finance loan for Rahmat Gull. Here's his story:

Rahmat Gull is a young boy with great experience, though he is not literate. He works in the agricultural sector and has been involved in this business for nine years, working with his family during this time.

He has some land but he would like to buy animals for his land so that he can provide the grass for the animals from the land. To manage the economics he needs extra money. Therefore, he requested a loan of 50,000 Afghani to buy animals to start raising them.

Rahmat Gull is a professional man and, from when he started his business, he always wanted to improve his business. He is grateful for this loan process. He wants to say that it is his first loan and it is really great, especially for agriculture workers. He wants to continue his partnership and encourage other workers to use this loan service.

If you're want to try micro finance check out Kiva. They're a non-profit and 100% of your loan goes to the entrepreneur that you're supporting. I literally set everything up in less than 15 minutes. Karyn and I are excited to cash in more of our points so that we can continue to support micro finance operations all over the world.

A Short Deep Question

2009-08-26T22:17:00.001-05:00

A what point does a ministry get in the way of your ministry? I'd love to hear what everyone thinks.

The Avett Brothers Tiny Desk Concert

2009-08-17T18:17:00.002-05:00

The Avett Brothers have grown on me for the past year and a half. Karyn and I got to see them in a small college in Kentuky and it was amazing. I also got to see them in Pittsburgh with JJ and it was good too (although not as nice as the first time). If we ever talk about music odds are my love of The Avett Brothers will come up. For anyone unfamiliar with them I wanna give you a little taste. This comes from a series of concerts from NPR rightly titled tiny desk concerts.

Two questions I ask when planning events.......

2009-08-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

I had a meeting last night to plan some events for our youth ministry with some folks last night. With planning events on my mind I wanted to pen down a couple of questions to frame our events with. Here is what I would say to any youth leader, volunteer, or parent planning an event:

When we're looking at events I'd like us to ask ourselves two questions. The first one is, "Is this sustainable?" Here's what I mean by that. First of all I ask that of myself (I try to ask that with more than just these events). Will I be able sustain this pace over the long haul? A quick trap that youth ministers (and plenty of others) often fall into is saying yes to everything. In light of both of our schedules Karyn and I have discussed this and feel that one event a month is sustainable. To dig into that a little deeper a two night camping trip probably shouldn't be followed up with an overnight trip Canada (an exaggeration of course) to be considered sustainable. I also look at my volunteers. Am I asking them to be involved in so many activities that it easy to quickly become overwhelmed and burned out? Or an even a better questions is am I asking volunteers to be involved in so many activities that it becomes increasingly difficult for them to be present for those weekly programs where discipleship happens. I also want to ask is this sustainable for the families involved. The one thing I repeat more than anything else to students is that they have an obligation to honor their parents. So am I honoring families when I'm asking parents to have their kids out 3 or 4 times a week? That's not always a bad thing, however church can easily become another obligation in a busy families' life. We teach often that families need to be strong, do our events reflect that? Also is the event financially sustainable. When I was a student there were several events that I could not participate in because we did not have the money to pay for it. I will almost always default to the cheaper local option for that reason. One of the reason's families struggle financially is because we've lost the art of playing cards, board games, camping in the back yard, etc and instead instead entertain ourselves with expensive vacations or video games.

The second question I want us to ask is, "Is this Purposeful?" I'm not Purpose Driven by any means, but when I'm looking at the youth ministry one the easiest tools I can use to make sure that I'm balanced are the five biblical purposes of Discipleship, Worship, Evangelism, Serving, and Community. If all of our events centered on gathering around a guitar and singing a song then we would quickly become unbalanced. Likewise if all or our events are times where we "hang out" (which is easy to do since I believe relational ministry is the most effective way to minister to our students) then we're unbalanced. Most of our events will have some overlap, that's natural. However the question to ask is which purpose does this serve? If we go and work in a soup kitchen that's serving. We'll also get some community out of that, maybe even some evangelism. The main drive of the event though is serving, and that helps us to become focused. We should work to maintain a balance in our events.

I believe that asking these two questions are crucial. They go a long way in the longevity of the ministry. Churches generally have a tendency to get stuck in the rut that we don't know why we do what we do except to say that it's the way we've always done it. Let's try to avoid that as much as possible and be intentional in everything that we do. So let's plan these events, but let's also ask ourselves: "Is this sustainable" and "Is this purposeful"

2012 Plan revisited

2009-08-06T08:19:00.001-05:00

Sometimes even the best laid plans need to be adjusted. My adjusted plans are a good thing, in fact a great thing. A few days before church camp in July I got a phone call from the unit I was deploying with. They told me their mission had changed and no longer needed me to deploy with them. Needless to say I'm thrilled with the idea that I'm not going to be away for a year in Iraq. One thing that Karyn and I had to do however is to rethink our 2012 plan....again. One positive thing about the deployment is that the extra income was going to allow us to pay our debt down quicker than we anticipated. Also the educational benefits would have been much more after I spent a year in Iraq. Now however Karyn and I are forced to rethink those plans, and that's a good thing.

I think that going to seminary should be a challenging thing. If it's too easy then I may be tempted to think that it's because of my hard work and good planning that everything went well, and not that God provided. That's the danger of living in the wealthiest nation in the world isn't it?

Some more cabin pictures

2009-07-23T15:09:00.009-05:00

Building the walls, my Dad had done the foundation and floor the week before.

Next step is putting the walls up.

Dinner, and yes my sister actually ate that.

Johnny "encouraging" the guys.

A view from the inside.

The man behind it all.

The Cabin

2009-07-23T12:53:00.001-05:00

Almost a month ago I took a week off of work in order to build a new cabin in Selbyville. It was quite an event as my entire family took the week off to help out. My Dad, brother, and I did most of the heavy lifting, while Mom, Karyn, and Laura cooked meals for us. There were plenty of other people in and out the entire week helping out too. In fact if it wasn't for Brad and Kevin coming back on Tuesday we would have had a really hard time getting the lofts up.

It was loads of fun building the cabin (which my brother and sister want to call Carolina. It makes no sense seeing that we're in West Virginia. They like it because a song called Carolina that talks about a cabin in the mountains.) and someday I'll be able to take my kids back there and tell them stories about when their Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle Matt built the cabin. I have so many fond memories of Selbyville, this is just another to add to the list.

Not living in the moment

2009-07-06T10:02:00.001-05:00

There's so much going on in my life right now. The most pressing being church camp quickly approaching next week. There is so much to do, lessons to plan, music to prepare, skits to put together, camp fires to get ready for, and plenty of other things on top of that. Most things are pretty well lined up, but there's always more stuff to work on. Then I'm taking classes right now full time so I have all of that work that I have to work on. I'm behind on my school work so that's some added stress. On top of all of that I leave in about three weeks. Whew, that's alot and I'm not even mentioning all the other things that just come with life.

You'd think with all of that I'd be here fully present here and now. Funny thing is that I'm not. I'm constantly dreaming about one year from now (when I come back from Iraq) and even two years from now (seminary). The problem is that I need to be here now. I have to earn a degree before I move onto seminary, I have to get through church camp in less than a week. It's getting tougher for me to stay focused on things. I'm easily distracted. I don't want to be this way, but I find it hard to change.

In other news I truly am enjoying my time before I leave. We built the cabin last week (pictures coming soon) and I've been spending time with Karyn. The next three weeks should be very fun, I'm looking forward to them.

The Story of the Mouse

2009-06-29T17:39:00.002-05:00

So Justin made a comment on my last post about building that cabin that sparked a really funny memory.

The year was 2000 (?) and we had several of us were camping in Selbyville. If I remember correctly it was a church related trip (that didn't turn out at all like we had planned). One thing you have to know about Selbyville and my brother is that when he was in high school anytime he went back to camp he had to bring camo that covered him head to toe. I mean facepaint, leaves sticking out of him, the whole nine yards. Well he was standing inside the cabin (the one we're replacing) and he leans up against a cabinet. Now leaning up against a cabinet isn't unusual, but what happened next is. A mouse jumped from the top of the cabin and went right down the sleeve on Matt's long sleeve camo shirt. He started jumping around and yelling like a crazy person yelling something about a mouse in his shirt. To make it even better he had his shirt tucked in so before you know it he was taking off his pants and rolling around on the floor because the mouse had travelled from his shirt all the way to his pants.

That memory is hands down one of the funniest things that I've ever seen.

Building the cabin

2009-06-28T15:32:00.002-05:00

For years my brother and I have talked of building a new cabin in Selbyville, WV. It's where our great grandmother used to live but now we just use it as a retreat, or simply camp as everyone calls it. Well after years of dreaming my Dad is finally onboard so it's actually happening. This week the whole family will be in Selbyville to build the new cabin.

I leave tonight, and when I get back I'll be sure to post some pictures. I'm really excited about getting away for the week. It should be a great time.

The knot in my stomach

2009-06-27T08:21:00.002-05:00

So I have this knot in my stomach that just won't go away. Sometimes I can forget about it while I'm reading, or when I first wake up in the morning before I get oriented to where I am or what I'm doing. It's driving mecrazy to tell you the truth. I'm about one month away from my deployment. Last night I dreamed that instead of going to Iraq we actually ended up going to Virginia Beach like I did before. I'm only lucky enough for that to happen once so I'm sure that I've used up all of my good fortune. I'm not too afraid to go, just anxious. I don't want to leave my wife for a year. She's been gone this week and I feel like I've just been wallowing in self pity with out her around. It's tough to imagine what a year is going to be like. I think I've gotten a small taste of what it will be like for Karyn this week and it's not very fun. Sitting around waiting on her to call, not hearing from her for extended periods of time, and not having much time with her when we do get to talk.

So this knot of mine. I don't think it's going away for a while so I think I should get used to it. The problem is that it's almost incapacitating. I find it hard to do anything, and it's even harder to care. It's certainly that I don't care, it's just hard to feel like I care. There's so much going on and I just wish that I could fast forward to a year from now. Since that's not possible I guess I'll have to take it as it comes. In the days and weeks to come I hope I can get rid of this knot.

2012 plan modified

2009-06-26T12:15:00.001-05:00

It all hit me one day while I was running on the treadmill at work. Usually the TV gets tuned into CMT, which is not the most conducive thing to watch to working out. It just seems that country music doesn't seem to get me to pumped up to work out. This day was no different than any other day. I wasn't paying much attention to the TV until a Kenny Chesney (I know, don't judge me) song caught my attention. He was in what looked like a small town in Mexico. As I was running on the treadmill I was thinking how great would it be to be able to live in Mexico for a year if I wanted too. I often have dreams like that. Dreams of traveling the country, living in a cabin, moving to Oregon, or becoming a whitewater rafting guide. The next thing that pops into my mind when I have these dreams is the reasons that I can't do those things. Car payments, a mortgage, and student loans all demand a payment from me every month. I don't thinking being a hermit or a mountain man pays much. This dream was a little different however because I started thinking, "What if I didn't have those bills?". Such a simple thought but it opened up a whole new possibility for me.

I began looking at all of the bills that Karyn and I had and crunching the numbers. I read a few personal finance blogs thesimpledollar.com and getrichslowly.com and found the debt snowball. You can read more about it here. I started my figures using February 2012 as the date that I wanted to have all of our bills paid off because that's the time frame that my enlistment ends with the West Virginia National Guard. The idea of not having to stay in the guard appealed to me. If 2012 came and I wanted to stay in it would be because I wanted to, not because I had to.

With the news of the deployment however the plan has been adjusted. Karyn and I's plan is to have the majority of our bills paid off by the time that I come back from Iraq. This opens up a world of opportunities to us, especially when we look at moving to attend seminary. The thought of being debt free is liberating. It certainly isn't the answer to all our obstacles, but it will go a long way into making the road so much smoother.

So the 2012 plan is for me is less about money than it is about freedom. Freedom to live my life more simply and be able to enjoy my wife, my family, my vocation, and all the things in between. So here's to the 2012 plan and the freedom it offers.

Seminary and things to come

2009-06-25T08:28:00.001-05:00

When I found out I was going to be deployed I made a list of things that I wanted to do before I left. My list included going on vacation with Karyn, building a cabin (more to come on that), watching the Mountaineers, you know real important stuff. Another thing on my list was to see The Avett Brothers in concert. If you've never heard of The Avett Brothers you're really missing out. They had been touring with Dave Matthews, but I wanted to see them as the main event. As I was looking around only one date worked in Karyn and mine's schedule. The only problem was that it was at a college in Kentucky and it was being advertised as for students only. I emailed a few people and after pulling the Iraq card got the thumbs up to go to the concert. It's about a five hour drive to the college so we were going to spend the night Friday and come home on Saturday. I didn't want to pay for a hotel room so Karyn and I tossed around the idea of camping, but I thought the weather might not work out for us. Then I remembered couchsurfing.org. If you're not familiar with couch surfing it's pretty simple. You register and offer to host someone in your home who will be in the area. Well we're adventurous so we decided to go for it. I logged on and found Laura who graciously agreed to host us. Laura lives in Wilmore KY and I knew that Asbury Seminary was there. I've wanted to attend seminary for a while and I've been looking into different online, and intensive programs so that I could take classes and continue to work. I thought that since we were in the area maybe we should try to get a tour of the seminary. When I asked Laura (who works at Asbury College, across the street) she said she could give us a tour.

Laura grabbed her neighbor Wes (who just happened to be coming home when we pulled into town) and asked if he could give us a tour and he agreed. Now you should know that I had a preconceived notion of what Asbury would be like and what the students would be like. I pictured a stuffy atmosphere with people walking around in shirts and ties wearing penny loafers talking about how great John Wesley was. Not my type of crowd. Wes totally blew any of those stereotypes out of the water. He had bushy beard (I'm jealous) and wore cut off shorts and sandals. He gave us a great tour of the facilities and answered all the questions that Karyn and I had. To top it all off the weather was amazing and spring was in full swing. We talked long about church and about the hope that can be found there. Wes, Laura, Karyn and I had many of the same critiques and dreams and thoughts. It was wonderful. I started wondering what I would miss out on if I didn't attend seminary full time. Too often I spread myself to thin.

On the trip home Karyn and I started talking about what attending seminary full time might look like. It's an exciting thing to be thinking about. One positive thing about the deployment is that the educational incentives that I'll received after the deployment will be enough to pay for seminary, however I choose to do it. This much I know for sure is that I want to attend seminary, and I want to be involved in ministry as a vocation. I have no passion for Military Pay. As Karyn and I wade through all of the options in front of us I pray that we can do it with an open mind and with a faithful heart.

Back in the saddle

2009-06-24T11:42:00.001-05:00

Alot has happened in the last six months since I've posted anything here. I seem to go in waves, however I've had alot things that I wanted to blog about, but was just too involved in other endeavors to make it happen.

The biggest is that I'm going to Iraq for a year at the end of July. I found out the Friday before Valentine's Day and have been reacting to that news ever since. I've joked with people that it's difficult to care about much else; maybe that's why I haven't blogged much. I leave July 29th. I'll blog pretty regular here just for my own enjoyment and for anyone who wants to know what's new.

Karyn and I have been trying to make the most of the time that we have together before I leave. We've gone away for a week of vacation, we're headed to Selbyville next week with the family to build the new cabin and we're going to church camp in a couple of weeks.

I have tons of other stuff that share, Seminary plans, deployment plans, books I've read, great conversations I've had, but those will have to wait for another day. Check back because I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat.

Test

2009-02-09T08:52:00.001-05:00

Test

I concure

2009-01-02T23:48:00.001-05:00

link

How is it a CD can take you back?

2008-12-07T23:03:00.003-05:00

I just got back from a good night at youth, even with the weather it was a good crowd of kids. I just sat down and started playing the very first CD that I ever bought, Pearl Jam: Vs (1993). Actually I'm listening to the mp3's I downloaded recently. It sounds as good as I remember.

It's funny because I can remember listening to that CD for the first time very distinctly. I had just saved up and bought a CD player, I plotted for months on how I could save the money to buy one. I did all the research spent $40 bucks on a CD player you could get today for maybe $10. For any seventh grader with his first CD player the pressing question is what CD should you buy first? My taste in music wasn't quite as refined as it is now, but I still managed to pick a great CD. I probably chose it because I saw alot of Pearl Jam T-shirts at school. So I bought my first CD, Vs. It must have been the weekend because I was sleeping downstairs by the stove, we had a wood burner then, and listened to the entire CD. I remember reading all of the lyrics, checking out all the pictures on the cover. I was blown away by this new sound, these new ideas. Simply beautiful. There is no one with a voice like Eddie Vedder, no one.

I'll leave any readers that I may still have with a clip from one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, Daughter. Enjoy.

For JJ

2008-11-17T22:35:00.003-05:00

Taken at about 10:30pm. Just for JJ.

Holy Cow

2008-10-18T20:19:00.002-05:00

Fall Countdown

2008-10-18T20:08:00.002-05:00

Here's video I made to kick off things at The Alley this weekend. If anyone is interested you can check out more videos at youtube.com/captinchip302

What would Seth do to get his lunch card back?

2008-10-15T23:01:00.003-05:00

A couple of new videos

2008-10-13T15:48:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of new videos that I've done. Check them out. I'm most proud of the music.

Scavenger Hunt

2008-10-07T15:54:00.003-05:00

We did the annual Scavenger Hung at church last Sunday night. There were over 200 pictures to go thru afterward but I did pick the most creative. Check it out.

What makes this picture so great is something you can't see. Ryan drew in a little Duddley Doright mustache. Classic.

Recovery

2008-10-01T20:53:00.002-05:00

I went to the chairopractor yesterday and he "fixed" me. I say "fixed" because I know I'm better than I was, but I'm still not good. I still grimace when I'm getting up and down and Karyn is still waiting on me hand and foot. She's been very good to me, but I suspicious that she may expect me to treat her the same when she's sick. I don't know about that.

I was hoping to take tomorrow off to test out my new meat smoker but I can't do that since I've already missed some work this week. Some time soon though. When I do it'll be a feast.

Getting old

2008-09-30T10:55:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend at my office they did some remodeling. When I came in on Monday morning there were walls missing, furniture rearranged, and dust over everything. The word on the street is we're getting new furniture in the near future. Until then however we've got the old stuff.

So yesterday I was attempting to put my desk back to a state of normalcy and I decided that I would lift heavy things by myself. I had just picked up one piece of furniture about a foot off the ground when my back suddenly disagreed with the action that I was taking. I dropped the now incredibly heavy object and proceeded to walk around like an old man. I ended up going home early yesterday and today I'm laying around thinking that I wished my back would stop hurting. I'm going to the doctor today, maybe he'll give me some magic pills to stop the pain.....we'll see.

JJ's Baptism

2008-09-02T20:19:00.005-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I got to be a part of a great milestone for JJ. JJ came to church camp this year and was incredible, especially since it was his first year. Shortly after he told me he wanted to be baptized, but he wanted to wait until his cast came off because he wanted all of him to be baptized. So on Sunday night I saw him and asked if he still wanted to get baptized. He said yes and we decided to do it the next night. JJ's family and some friends came out and it was incredible. The afternoon was perfect. JJ truly is a great person and I'm so excited to see what the future holds for him. Below are a few pictures from the baptism.

JJ and I (Karyn didn't tell me she was taking a picture)

Matching Chaco's how cute.

JJ trying to decide if he trusted me.

The warm embrace

Dolly Sods

2008-08-24T14:46:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago Karyn and I went camping at Dolly Sods and hiked a couple of trails. Below are a few pictures from the Sods. It was a great weekend. We both want to go back soon, maybe we'll catch it again in the fall.

Profile with the sunset

Look out for the bombs

The Sunset

Karyn at the overlook

The campsite

At Bear Rocks

graduation

2008-02-28T15:44:00.001-05:00

So I'm sitting in graduation right now. As normal tha Army squeezes 10 minutes into 2 hours. How anything ever gets done I'll never know. I'll be home in about 29 hours and counting. I can't wait.

Nor'easter?

2008-02-22T16:22:00.001-05:00

I'll let you guys decide. It's been snowing all day. We're supposed to get 10 inches today. I'm routing for a white out.

Closing in

2008-02-19T23:00:00.001-05:00

I'm closing in on the end of my stay here. I'm certainly not gonna miss this place. I've got a few pictures from Boston that I'll post soon. I gotta keep you coming back for more.

stuck

2008-02-16T12:25:00.001-05:00

So I'm stuck on the train going into Boston. We've been sitting here for about 30 minutes. They said another train to pull us the rest of the way to Boston was on it's way. The picture is a girl that's stuck with me. I've been keeping her brother and sister entertained (well trying to). Well one little boy offered me $20,000 for my phone. I'm out.

unChristian

2008-02-16T09:42:00.003-05:00

I'd like to give you a few quotes from unChristian, but that will have to come later. The premise of the book is that Christianity has an image problem. When you mention the word Christain most people's negative perceptions are hypocrtical and antigay. Whether that's true or not that's the preception that we have with what the Barna Group calls "outsiders." It taints people's view of Christian and Christianity. Do you think Charles Barkley has an unChristian view of Christianity?

Valentines Day

2008-02-14T20:31:00.005-05:00

Happy Valentines Day folks. I don't get to spend it with my first love, I do however get to spend it with my second love the Mountaineers. They're currently beating Rutgers, but the game's not over yet. I went to class at 7am today and left at 7:30pm tonight. That's a long day. Especially when you're looking at document reference numbers.

I took a couple of pictures the other day of Jefferson's car so that you guys can get the full affect from My Crazy Day. Now don't get me wrong I'm not knocking Jefferson's car. It's just that this isn't the most ideal vehicle to travel through NYC. I'd prefer maybe a black Lincoln with tinted windows and a driver named Charlie. You know something classy.

I'm considering going to see The Blue Man Group. They perform regularly in Boston and it looks like I may get a day or two off. I'll probably just go by myself, but if any one wants to come up here and go with me let me know. I'd kinda like to just go and explore the city a little bit. I think it'd be fun.

I'm almost half way through my time up here and I'm looking forward to getting back home. It'll sure be nice to sleep in my bed again. Karyn might be completely moved in by then though so I might be staying with my parents for a few weeks before we get married.

One more thing for the 4 people who actually read this. I've been rolling around Galatians 4:8-11. Any thoughts? Specifically "not that you know God, but the God knows you." I love it and don't fully understand it at the same time. Use the comments folks.

The Search Continues

2008-02-13T10:04:00.002-05:00

So I think that I've finally lighted somewhere when it comes to this car search. I've been changing my mind every 5 seconds. I really want to go with a 5 door Subaru Impreza (it's a wagon basically). It's got all wheel drive, and it gets reasonable gas mileage. I'm a little fickle when it come to stuff like this, so I'm looking for a little feed back. Take a look and tell me what you think.

For the creative folks

2008-02-12T08:04:00.001-05:00

For all you creative folks out there you may want to check out this great blog. John Chandler has encouraged me to become more creative. For me that means getting a handle on all the things I've got going on simultaneously. Check it out.

Honeymoon

2008-02-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

Everytime that I talk to Karyn she reminds me that it's only 47 more days (or whatever the count may by on the day) until she becomes Mrs Chip Bennett. She is very excited, and so am I. I would have to admit though I'm much more excited to be married than to get married. The getting married part comes with choosing colors, wedding favors, and menu's. How should we decorate this? Who's going to do that? It's alot of planning for one day. I'm proud to say that I've been involved in plenty of those desicions. I'm happier to say that Karyn has been wonderful and taken care of most of the things I could care less about. The part of the wedding planning that I care most about however is the honeymoon.

We've been blessed with a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. When we were in the decision making process and Mexico came up I knew that any resort area that we went to in Mexico was likely to be surronded by poverty. I didn't like the thought of being the rich American that spends more on a plane ticket to get there than some people make in a year. So I started researching and found an organization called CompassioNetImpact ran by a guy named Ric Lehman. I got in touch with him and asked if we could connect with the things that he was doing while we were down there. He was more than willing to help us out. So while we're enjoying our honeymoon we're also going to get a chance to jump in and get a little dirty helping with Ric's minstry. We're not sure exactly what we'll be doing because we'll see what the needs for the day are and just kinda jump in. When I first started searching for an organization that works with the poverty stricken in the area I wasn't looking for a Christain organization. It makes me happy however that people doing good in world are driven by the love of Christ.

At our reception Karyn and I plan on taking up donations that we would give directly to Ric and his ministry. If you want to give and aren't going to be at our reception get in touch with me and we'll work something out.

You can check out some of Ric photo's of Puero Vallarta here.

Nor'easter

2008-02-10T22:34:00.001-05:00

So it's about 10 degrees here and the wind is howling. I hear it's
cold in WV too. I spent the Lord's day learning about Basic Allowance
for Quarters. Gotta love the military. Oh well it could be much
worse, I could be spending a year in Iraq instead of a month in
Boston.

I wish I could have been at youth tonight, but I can rest easy knowing
things went well. See you folks later, I think the guy in the room
next to me is done with his 30 minute shower.

2008-02-08T20:37:00.000-05:00

-I'm listening to the Robbie Seay Band, thank you Relevant

-So I'm starting to get into a routine here. Alarm goes off at 6am.....I fight it for a while, heave myself out of bed and get ready for the most boring day of my life. No kidding I'm incredibly bored. I think it may not stay this way but I know literally more than the instructor. Doesn't motivate me to do much more than surf the internet mindlessly, which by the way is getting very old. Luckily I brought several books with me that I've been reading in the evenings. Another post coming about unChristian soon. I also have a couple of "sex" books too. I am getting married in about 50 days.

-Speaking of getting married holy crap I'm getting married. It's been great planning and working through all of this stuff with Karyn, but I'm ready to move on and I know Karyn is too. It's taught us so much about how each other deal with finances, pressure, family, etc.

-So our accomodations aren't the best, but I've been in worse. I took a few pictures for you guys so you can get the full experience.

-The Mountaineers continue to kill me. Last night they lost to Pitt. Pitt people. Of all people beat Pitt. To top it off it was a last second 3 to give them a 1 point victory. Don't let them shoot the 3. I repeat don't let them shoot the 3. I was so upset I forgot to watch Lost, the only show on TV I don't miss. I think I'm gonna have read the summary to get caught up. That just makes me even more upset with them. I'm gonna have to stop watch when my health starts to fail or I'll die watching a mountaineer game. I'd much rather die in a pistol duel.

-I'm done for tonight folks. If you have anything to keep me entertained pass it along. I'm literally dieing of boredom.

A quickie

2008-02-07T22:50:00.001-05:00

-I'm listening to the Avett Brothers, thank you Micah.

-I need to post from something other than my phone. This is getting old.

-I threw out an invitation to Amy of welcometoamyville.blogspot.com
for lunch or coffee (that's assuming the slave drivers give us a day
off). Who better to make a guest appearance right? Even if she
copletely snubs me you should check her out. Maybe buy a
painting......tell her I sent you.

-I'm missing being home. Especially Karyn who has to plan this
wedding without me. She's been great. I also miss all the kids (and
leaders/friends). Maybe I'll try to get a video out to you guys for
the weekend.

-I'm reading a great book, unChristian. I'll post some insights soon.

Maybe?

2008-02-06T14:29:00.000-05:00

What do you think? Or maybe this.

Day 2

2008-02-05T23:04:00.001-05:00

Well I'm two days into my stay at Deven's. It's pretty relaxed, which
I like. In class today I IMed Micah a little. Looked up the bar that
Cheers was based off of (I wanna go there bad), and looked at used
cars. Which leads me to my next subject.

So my Explorer is shot. I'm in the market for a new vehicle. Any suggestions?

-I saw a grown woman picking the crust off of her bread. Who does
that? What kind of person do you think she is just from that
observation?

-I'm off to bed folks. Catch you later.

PS I can't get this row thing off, doing this on my phone.

row

Wake Up

2008-02-05T07:23:00.001-05:00

I woke up this morning to revelry (?) at 6am. Yep I'm on
an Army post.

My Crazy Day

2008-02-03T19:04:00.000-05:00

I left Buckhannon at 6:30 this morning, to catch a ride with Jefferson. Jefferson and I work in the same office and we are both going to Fort Deven's, MA for a month long school that we both have to attend. I probably would have drove myself up, but about a week and a half ago I was abusing my Explorer and blew the transfer case. Many of the people who know my Explorer think "It's a good thing that he's not driving himself up in that thing." Too which I take great offense. But if you saw what we rode up in you may sing a different tune. When I met Jefferson this morning he was in his 1992 Dodge Shadow. No radio......I miss my Explorer.

In any case we start heading north east. I'm a passenger right? That should mean that navigating is not my responsibility. I'm napping, reading, picking my nose. You know completely zoning out. I ask where we are and Jefferson isn't quite sure. I see a bunch of cars with New Jersey plates, but he doesn't remember crossing the state line. I just assume that Jersey sucks so much that they all go to PA for the weekend. Well long story short somehow we get into New Jersey and we don't realize it. I start actually paying attention to where we are headed because Jefferson doesn't seem to know where we are. The plan was to take I-287 to skirt New York City, because who wants to drive right through the city right?

I'm still looking for I-287 when I look up and notice the skyline. It looks a little like NYC, but I've never been there, what do I know. Then I look in the bay, and notice the statue of liberty, and we can't turn around. I start looking at the map a little harder and I realize we are driving right thru the city. Holy crap!!! I get turned around in Elkins sometimes, NYC kinda has me worried. To sum my adventure we go thru the Holland Tunnel, under the Hudson River right into downtown Manhattan.

Now I should clue you in a little more on Jefferson. He's from Braxton county. He told me they had 5 stop lights in the entire county. On the way up Jefferson is talking about how he hates driving in the city. In fact while we're driving thru Manhattan he keeps saying, "This is worse than Iraq." and "Make sure your doors are locked."

I took over the navigation and drove us right thru China town, down back alley's, thru Queens (not the one just up the Tallmansville Rd), the Bronx and out of the city (no kidding). So my first experience with NYC was navigating thru the city with a guy from Braxton county in a 1992 Dodge Shadow, with no radio. Plenty of memories.

You can view all my pictures here. Enjoy....more to come later.

On the road

2008-02-03T18:01:00.000-05:00

Well I look at my last post and it's been 2 1/2 years since I last posted. My only excuse is that I don't really care. However I have decided that while I'm in beautiful Fort Devens, MA that I'd tried to keep everyone in the loop of what's new with me, since I'm sure that everyone is on the edge of their seats. Tonight I'm in Sturbridge, MA and tomorrow I'll head to Deven's. What a fun way to watch the super bowl huh?

I had a pretty eventful trip up here today, but more about that later. Leave some comments folks, let me know you're out there.

2006-05-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents. It's one of many of Jesus's parables. When we read this parable (and any scripture for that matter) we have to be able to apply it. If we can't do that then it's worthless. Often the best way to apply a lesson learned from scripture is to ask a question. So when we read this we ask this simple question.......What am I burying?

Relevant

Brio (for the girls)

Breakaway (for the guys)

2006-05-11T05:33:00.000-05:00

I can remember when I was a younger my brother and I used to wrestle all of the time. Sometimes it was for fun, but usually it was because he took my GI Joe, or he'd been playing Nintendo forever and it was my turn. What I remember about it was that it was an intense struggle (for him not me of course).

We ask ourselves what does it look like to struggle with God. Do we put Him in a "full nelson"? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Does it even make sense? I mean He is God and all.

In Genesis 27 we come across this story of guy named Jacob. Now Jacob had a twin named Esau, which translates into hairy. People commonly say that Jacob translates into "Grasper of the heel" because he was holding onto Esau's foot when we was born. Another way that we can see Jacob's name is that of "deceiver."

A name is so important to these people at this time. A name is the essence of who you are, kinda like a brand that you carry with you your entire life. So Jacob carries around this tattoo of "deceiver" his entire life. To make a long story short Jacob tricks Esau out of his inheritance and then he runs away for 20 years or more. Read Genesis 27-32 for the story.

Jacob is traveling back to meet his brother after he has been gone, and he's nervous. He catches wind that Esau is coming and he's got 400 men with him. It's not looking good for Jacob. He sends his family across the river and he stays on the other side alone. While he's there a man comes and he wrestling with Him till day break. Jacob refuses to let go until he is blessed. So he gets asked this question? What is your name. I bet that stung, I bet that took the wind out of his sails. He's Jacob, the deceiver. So he gets blessed with what? With a new name.

I think that one we can wrestle with God in this story is to ask ourselves: What is our name? What kind of identity do we carry around with us.

Here's something else to struggle with. Read Matthew 25, and ask the tough questions. What is God trying to tell you through these stories? Don't just be a consumer of these stories, but put them into action. Test them, try them, let God work through you.

PS Don't forget to check this SN: TheGreatSackRace

Sack Race Video

2006-05-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

Free video hosting, video codes at www.vidiLife.com

Misconceptions of Jesus

2006-05-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

People view Jesus in alot of different ways don't they? I mean some people say that Jesus was tall and muscular and handsome. Some people say that he was short, fat, and ugly. Some people think that Jesus was some revolutionary politician, and others think he was just a really good teacher.

It's funny how we can get caught up in what other people have taught us to believe about Jesus. Whether it be in a Sunday School class (anybody remember the flannel boards?) or church, or movies, where ever. The fact is that we all have misconceptions of who Jesus really is.

We can find a few examples of our misconceptions here. Click on the Media link (the top of the picture) then go to videos and the second page of that.

Those videos are funny, but how many of us give false ideas to people around us about who Jesus is? The way that we view Jesus has a direct effect on how we live our lives. Let's not be the type of people that give people misconceptions about Him, but lets be the type of people who find out for ourselves who Jesus was (John 1 is a great place to start) and live it in our day to day lives.

PS you may want to check this AIM Screen Name....... TheGreatSackRace

The Great What???????

2006-04-28T16:51:00.000-05:00

After Wednesday's lesson I came across this article. It's pretty good and worth reading.

The Great Sack Race II

2006-04-26T21:47:00.000-05:00

So The Great Sack Race II is underway. I can't tell you guys how excited I am to be doing this. It's such a great opportunity for everyone to really get the most out of this. I really want you guys to take this and run with it.

You know tonight we talked about The Great Commission (Matthew 28) and how we're not about "getting people saved" but we're about changing lives, and pointing lives towards the ways of Jesus. It's so important. You guys have no idea how much that that idea has set me free. When you look at it this way you have so much more potential, more influence. It starts to become crystal clear that the way Jesus has called us to live is so much more than living on the surface.

In relation to The Great Commission and The Great Sack Race II, Jesus says that all authority has been given to Him and since he has that authority he in turn gives the authority to his disciples to go and make more disciples (kinda sounds like rabbits huh?). My point is this. In some sense I'm giving you guy’s authority to go and invite people into this life that we get to enjoy. I want to see Casual Christians turn in to Committed Christians, essentially to become disciples.

Good luck everyone and I'll see you next week.

God Blog

2005-10-21T08:09:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking about going to the God Blog Convention

Update on the way

2005-10-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Hey guys I'm gonna get an update later on today with some of the stuff that Scott talked about last night. Check back to see what's on there.

The Theology of Popeye

2005-10-12T21:19:00.000-05:00

Imagine Popeye, go ahead close your eyes imagine the skinny biceps and the abnormally large forearms. Now Popeye's arch enemy, his exact opposite is Bluto. Bluto draws his identity from the things that he's done, or the

things that he has. Popeye on the other hand has a higher calling. In fact one of his most famous sayings is "I yam what I yam." Now that's deep, I wonder if they got that idea from somewhere. "I yam what I yam" is especially interesting when we see how God reveals himself to Moses.

Exodus 3:1-15

Interesting observations:

Moses went further into the wilderness than he had ever gone before
God knows Moses' name first
The ground was holy (When did it become holy? Give me your thoughts)
Moses did not know God's name

God reveals his name as YHWH, which in most translations comes to I am that I am. Well that clears it up some. There is so much debate about what this name means, it's awesome. I love that no one can seem to quite put their finger on it. I mean who can truly knows God for who he really is, who knows his name? Mystery......that's the only word that I can find to describe it.

In Matthew 14:27 most translations read: "fear not it is I" when it really says, "fear not I AM." That's powerful. Jesus, in not so subtle terms was saying I am God, I am YHWH. If you read John 8:12-59 you can see how this got Jesus into some hot water. It's simply fascinating.

God's name is ancient and sacred. It's a mystery that we are all fully wrapped up in. That's why it kills me, absolutely kills me when I hear someone misuse his name. When someone swears and they throw in a "Jesus Christ" or "Oh my God" it makes me cringe. Swearing by His name is essentially claiming authority over YHWH. Not that they're is anything mystical about His name, but when you do that you show your ignorance of your roots, and what it means to know God's name.

Lets remember that we are dependent on His revelation to understand Him.

Some articles if your interested:

Popeye

Some deep reading

Something to check out

2005-10-08T23:31:00.000-05:00

I thought that my blog was getting kinda boring. I don't live an exciting enough life to post something everyday, but I'll try to keep it semi interesting. Anyway I thought I'd link up to my bud Corey's blog at Xanga. Corey's an amazing guy who is going to school at DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary). You should check out some of his stuff sometime, it'll challenge you if you let it.

Anyway if you wanted to get a jump on me for Wednesday you could start by reading Exodus 3. That's the second book of the Bible, so just open it up and it'll be real close to the beginning. When you read it keep in mind what we talked about last week. I'm out for now.

2005-10-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

I thought that I'd post a picture of The General for your viewing pleasure.

So What's a Name?

2005-10-06T03:53:00.000-05:00

Your name implies who you are. More importantly a good name in biblical names meant more than just a good reputation, it expressed the essence or identity of that person.

There are 3 aspects to names and naming that we need to be aware of, especially when talking about biblical names.

1. Identity

A person's name identified something about that person's character or circumstances. For example Sarah (Genesis 17:17, 21:6) had her first son Isaac when she was in her 90's, do you know what the first thing she did was? She laughed. Do you know what Isaac means in Hebrew? Laughter. Another great example is Moses, when he was born his mother put him in a basket in the river, and Pharaoh's daughter drew him out of the the river (Exodus 2). What do you think Moses means? To draw out. If you dig a little deeper, peel back another layer you find that Moses drew the people out of Egypt. Amazing, simply amazing.

2. Knowledge

It was understood that the namer knew something about the named and his/her circumstances. For example Adam named (or classified) the animals (Genesis 2:18-25). This knowledge implies more than just knowing something about who they are individually and goes much deeper than that. It means that namer understands us completely, from begining to end, top to the bottom. In Exodus 33 God told Moses that he knows him by name, this was huge for him and it's huge for us still today.

3. Authority

In order to name someone you had to have authority over that person, or things (Adam and the animals). God changed Abram's name to Abraham (Gen 17:5) and Pharaoh changed Joseph's name (Gen 41:45).

I go through all of this to tell you that your name is who you are. When people hear your name they think of you. They picture the things that you've done, or haven't done. Our name can shape who we are.........

BUT

If you look in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 you find this guy named Jabez whose name means pain, or sorrow, or suffering. What a horrible name to walk around with, almost as bad as a boy named Sue. Now Jabez did not allow his name that his mother gave him to dictate what his future would be like. He drew his Identity straight from God...... WOW. That's what we can do today. No matter the crap in our lives or the things people associate our names with we have the oppurtunity to draw our Identity from God. Which is what he intended for us to do in the first place.

Here's a good site to find out what your name means: Behind The Name

Show some love

2005-10-04T22:06:00.000-05:00

Alright I see that there is only one comment on my blog and guess what it's from me. Because I was getting depressed. Anyway I thought maybe I needed to walk you through how to do it.

Click on the comment

Click post comment

now click other, fill in your name and leave me some love.....it's that easy.

Come on folks I'm dying here.

Modesty and Respect

2005-09-21T15:42:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the high points of what I talked about that I thought would be good for you guys (and girls) to take a look at:

Culture Vulture's
Today's fashion has taken girls away from showing off their personality and instead has them trying to show off their sexuality

1 Peter 5:5

Guys, girls demand and deserve our respect
Don't enforce the idea that a girl has to dress provocativley to get your attention

Chivilary is not dead

Rules with out a reltionship equals rebellion

Here are a couple of articles that helped me out

For the girls: Modeling Modesty

For the guys: An Immodest Proposal

I hope this helps you guys.....give me some feedback.