Moving to a new site

Hey all, I've recently decided to migrate my blog over to WordPress. Mainly because I needed something new to get me blogging again. I seem to need an outlet for being reflective and don't have a good one right now. So head on over to chloesdad.wordpress.com for my newest entry!

The Speedway

OK, I've been threatening to blog about this for quite some time and finally got the inspiration to do so. My wife and I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood filled mainly with young families or retired folks. So it always strikes me as odd when we hear some car or truck flying down our street at high speed. According to the Kansas DMV Handbook, the speed limit in non-industrial areas is 30 mph. But we regularly hear cars go by that have to be going 40 or over. So, we have jokingly taken to referring to our street as The Speedway.

At first, it was funny to us but as we get nearer to having children of our own (two weeks or so) it has started to seem more dangerous than funny. I guess we should be grateful that the city finally posted a yield sign at the intersection near our house. For the first few years we lived here there were no signs at the intersection at all. All the high-speed traffic makes me appreciate the speed bumps that I encountered driving in Mexico a little more.

I'm baaaaaaack

Friends have been asking me to blog again for a while. I've been avoiding it because all of my posts during my first blogging phase seemed fairly reflective and possibly even deep and meaningful. Not that I don't still have those kinds of thoughts, but life since then has been full of change (marriage, job change, expecting a baby) and I suppose it is fair to say that I don't have those kinds of thoughts as often.

So...every time I've thought of blogging again, it has been about things much less reflective and of course I've felt like they somehow don't count or aren't worthy of blogging. But if I'm going to start again, I suppose I've got to start somewhere, so I'll start with the seemingly mundane - SciFi and Fantasy TV programming!

A couple of friends have asked recently what I think about the new Joss Whedon series Dollhouse. After only two episodes, here are my thoughts: So far, I'd give it an OK. It didn't have the WOW factor that the first episode of Fringe did, but it was, well...OK. It also doesn't seem vary Joss-y: the dialogue doesn't have that smart quality typical of his previous work, the characters (not just the dolls) don't seem to have much personality yet, and I still don't understand what makes the dolls want to go sit in the chair at the end of each mission but maybe that will be explained later.

Also in my SciFi cue this spring is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I know the ratings are needing some help, but I'm a sucker for the show. The characters are interesting, the drama is intense, the action is great and hey, it's Terminators for crying out loud. I actually had the thought the other day (and this could be Terminator heresy) that Lena Heady is a better actress than Linda Hamilton. Now, before both of my readers have heart attacks just remember that Linda was my first celebrity crush. But Lena simply has a better range of emotions she can portray. She can do intense, sympathetic, tender and everywhere in between. Aside from the screen full of endoskeletons, losing her from TV will be the saddest part if the show is cancelled - so watch it!

I'll finish on the Fantasy side. I'm pretty sure the only fantasy show on regular TV right now is Legend of the Seeker, a syndicated series produced by Sam Raimi of Xena and Hercules fame and based on the Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind. Don't worry, the show won't be giving Lord of the Rings a run for its money any time soon, but it is notably better than Herc or Xena. The writing is better and it feels like they are majoring on trying to tell a story, not showing as much mid-riff as possible. If you are a fan of the genre, it will be enjoyable, it not, well...there is a lot of other stuff on TV. :)

In Memoriam...

Yesterday I had the horrible privilege of speaking at the memorial service of a former student and friend. Richard Ryan Heyroth (the one in the hat) died in a canoeing accident on August 5th. He was only 30 years old and leaves a wife and 18 month old son behind. I had the honor of knowing Rich for four years while he was a student at K-State involved in the campus ministry that I lead. He is one of those people that I am blessed for having known.

I think the hardest part of the day was talking to his father after the service. What do you say to a man who has lost his son - and a wonderful one at that? I can only hope that my presence and kind words were of some comfort to him. Personally, I'm probably still a little in shock over the whole thing, and still very sad. As a tribute to Rich, I am posting the words I shared yesterday.

From the time that I first met Rich as a sophomore who had just transferred to K-State, I knew that I was going to like the guy. Not only did Rich share a love for the guitar and the music of Bon Jovi, but he had a desire to grow in his relationship with God and to love people and point them towards Jesus. He was one of those transfer students that every campus minister dreams of meeting.

We spent many hours during the years that I mentored Rich praying for his friends and talking about how he could help them experience Jesus. One of his regular concerns was for his roommate in the dorm who was a new or young follower of Jesus. Rich spent many hours talking, praying and living life with that young man, even after they moved out of the dorm after their sophomore year into separate residences. And I have to think that Rich is one of the main reasons that young man is following Jesus today and serving as a youth pastor in his local church.

In the Bible, the apostle Peter tells us that those who follow Jesus should always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within them. And he says that they should do so with gentleness and respect. I think that is a great description of Rich. He was never the kind of guy who would beat people over the head with his faith. Instead, he loved people where they were and treated them like he thought Jesus would. And when the time was right, he would tell them why he lived like he did.

For those of you who knew him, you know that it made him a wonderful person to be around. You always felt safe with Rich. He was such an inviting person who always seemed to have room in his heart for new people. And it didn’t matter if you didn’t share his faith in Jesus yet. I never once saw Rich refuse someone his friendship just because they didn’t believe what he did. He was a friend in the truest sense of the word.

And he wasn’t just that way some of the time. He was like that all of the time. Whether he was relating to Liz & Ethan, or his friends and family or his co-workers or the students that he taught and coached, Rich was always Rich. What you saw was what you got. And what you got was pretty wonderful. And I think that is why we will miss him so much.

Rich lived his life loving God, loving others and pointing them towards Jesus. And he died doing the same. The writer of Hebrews tells us to remember those who lead us and imitate their faith. Rich’s faith was worth imitating. Well done, my friend.

13 August, 2007

Transitions

Since my last post when I announced my engagement in September life has been and continues to be a series of transitions. The first of the transitions was the move to married life. Jenni and I were wed in December and have spent the last six months getting oriented to married life. Having remained single into our thirties (way into my thirties), our experience is unique among our friends. We regularly encounter extreme gratefulness to God for allowing us to finally find each other. At the same time, we regularly find ourselves butting up against our well-developed patterns of life/though that we established during our singleness. It makes for an interesting experience at times, but we are still enjoying the journey.


The second transition is the vocational one. Two weeks ago, we decided to transition off of the staff of Campus Crusade in order to work with Emmanuel House Seminary here in Manhattan, KS. We have both discovered over the last few years that shepherding others towards maturity in Christ and developing leaders for God's work in the world are passions of ours. And while we had both been involved in those activities in our respective ministries, we felt that Emmanuel House afforded us the opportunity to work more out of our giftings and preferred work styles as we did so.

Personally, this move has been an emotional one for me. Although I sense that this move is from the Lord, it is difficult for someone like me who has a high loyalty factor to say good-bye to an organization and a family of people who have been so wonderful to me and have given me the platform to influence others for the kingdom for almost 16 years. In many ways it is another loss for me. For those of you reading this who are a part of the Crusade family, we are planning on attending Ministry Days in July in Ft. Collins and hope to catch up with many of you there.

We are excited for this next phase in life and invite you all to share it with us.

Engaged

There are some people who thought this would never happen. And at times in my life, I was one of them. But on Friday night, I got to see the good Lord's provision first-hand. I took Jenni up to Scenic Overlook outside of town which was the site of our first kiss. As we watched darkness descend on the Konza prairie we talked about our relationship and some of our favorite memories.

At one point, Jenni reminded me that our first visit to Scenic Overlook was after my mother's birthday party where she had met my family for the first time. She said, "I remember thinking that I really loved those people (my family)." To which I replied, "Well, I hope you'll be willing to love them for a long time." I then sat her on a nearby bench, got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and said, "Jenni, I love you. Will you marry me?" She said "Yes" immediately and there was much rejoicing! Hooraaayyyyy!

In the few days since, there have been times when we have both gotten nervous or frustrated with the process. But the experience of helping each other through those moments gives me a glimpse of what marriage could be like and makes me even more excited. We aren't sure what we will do next in life. We are both in campus ministry and want to continue to develop healthy leaders and laborers for the kingdom, we just don't know where or how yet. We will keep you posted. (Note: I said "we")

The rest of the story

I'm usually not that great with surprises, but sometimes I really enjoy them. Thursday was one of those cases. The "Birthday that took a while to end" stretched into day three on Thursday night (there was a pre-birthday cookies and cup cakes extravaganza at my seminary class on Tuesday night).

Before the weekly gathering of the campus ministry that I work with a student approached me and handed me a bucket that said, "Happy B-day, B-Wat" on it. She then proceeded to drop a single golf ball signed by her into the bucket. I was not really sure what to make of the whole thing as I was genuinely surprised. A few moments later a couple other students that I knew came up and tossed more signed golf balls into the bucket. Now I was starting to catch on. Over the course of the evening 40-50 students came up and wished me a happy birthday and added their golf balls to the collection. It was a very kind gesture and really made me feel appreciated. I was almost embarrassed at all of the attention.

As if that weren't enough, after the meeting was over, I was told to wait around until 9:45. I knew there was a scavenger hunt going on after the meeting and figured that it had something to do with that. When I walked out into the entryway of the Student Union, a large group of people began singing Happy Birthday to me and announced that they had brought refreshments. One of the students, a semi-professional cake decorator, had made me a cake and decorated it like a golf course (see picture). It was pretty amazing. She even used brown sugar for the sand trap - very creative. The cake was awesome as were the birthday wishes.

And to top it all off, when I got home I had a birthday card from my friend Mark. In it he said that he had purchased me a one-year subscription to SciFi magazine. Does he know me or what? Thanks, Mark! You are awesome!

Day four (Friday) brought more celebration when my team of co-workers cooked lunch for the whole team and served yet another cake (no golf theme this time). It was almost an entire week of celebrating. It makes me wonder if God is trying to tell me something about the value of celebration. Even if not, it was a great week.