Sorry!!!

Goodness! It's been a month since I've blogged!

I have been extremely busy, but at the same time have had free time, I just forgot about yall who read this! So my apologies.

Anyways, Lots has happened and is going to continue to happen for myself and the youth group :)

Flag football was a huge success! Thanks to all the youth for coming out and playing with us! It was a great time!!! Thanks to Mike Frasher for being my other adult to play! Hopefully next year we'll have enough interest to do a league of sorts.

High school Bible study is under way. We have 12 signed up and it has been tons of fun! Experiencing God is the study that we are doing and I encourage all of my high school students who are in the study to keep up the work and stay with the homework because it will be immensely rewarding.

We have our Costume Party/Bonfire this Sunday night! Come out and carve pumpkins, eat smores, and all that great stuff! It'll be tons of fun and you'll get to see my baby dressed up as a bumblebee!!!

So in my quiet time yesterday I found myself struggling with a question that I wonder if others do as well. How much does "feelings" affect the way we act/see/do Christianity? We say "we feel close to God" or "I don't feel close to God." Or, "I feel God is telling me to do something..." Obviously the only way to discern our feelings is to ask God for help in that, but do you ever think you have misinterpreted a feeling?

A New Calender

Well we had a good turnout for the Parent/Student meeting yesterday. I passed out the new calender for the next few months and then quickly went over it. If you were not here for that meeting that's ok. I have extra copies and will pass them out to you as I see you.

Just a couple quick things. This Friday the 24th, we will be having Game Night from 6-9!!!! Bring your friends and be ready to have some fun and fellowship. Also, on October 9th we're having our youth car wash alongside the Deacon car care. People come to get their oil changed and we'll wash their car! It starts at 8 in the morning and goes until noon. Then we'll eat some pizza and go bowling until 3! If you want to bowl you'll need to bring $15.

I was excited to see a new face in the youth group yesterday! Yall are doing a great job of bringing friends to check us out and I pray that they like us enough to keep coming back! Keep on inviting your friends, because for some of them it may be the only invitation they ever get in their life!

Ania and I love yall and we're excited about all the upcoming months! If you have any questions or ever need to talk do not hesitate to call us :)

Exhaustion

So, I'm tired! Having a baby has been killer on Ania and my sleep patterns. But it's worth it! Hannah is by far the best thing ever! She is so adorable and I absolutely love her to death!!!

Ania is still sick though :( So pray for her as she tries to beat whatever illness she has. We see a doctor Monday morning so maybe she can get some antibiotics or something.

Youth!!!! We have our quarterly parent meeting coming up September 19th right after service. Free pizza and pop so make sure you stick around with your parents so we can talk about what's going to be happening in the next few months!

Have you given anymore thought to the question I asked you Wednesday night? Let me ask it a different way. If you were a Christian in Saudi Arabia (a country who hates Christians and has banned the Bible from being anywhere in the country) and you were housing an underground church and some police came by and asked if you were having church or had any Bibles. What would you do? Lie and say no, or say yes and risk jail or death? Then if you lied, what would you say to God when you asked for forgiveness? Would you even think you sinned if you lied?

Miracles

So, Hannah was born September 3, 2010. I cannot even begin to tell yall how absolutely amazing it was to watch her being born and to hold her in my arms for the very first time. God showed me a miracle on that day. He answered my prayers. He gave me a very healthy baby girl who is perfect in every way. Needless to say I am one of the happiest guys on the face of the earth right now!

I am extremely proud of you guys as well! God is doing some amazing things in our youth group and slowly but surely I'm starting to see some growth, not just numerically but spiritually! I really hope that you are continuing to read your Bible every day for at least 10 minutes and then spending at least that much time just chit-chattin with God. He wants to talk to you. He cares about you. Spend some time with Him!

I'm working on schedules for the upcoming months. If you have any ideas for events/activities let me know so I can get them on the calender. High school guys and gals get ready for a Bible study starting within the next month or 2. I'll keep you posted!

A Title Would Go Here

August is winding down! Which means I'm about to be a father! Crazy crazy crazy!

Youth, yall are doing a fantastic job of inviting friends to come check out the church. I'm extremely proud of you for reaching out to your lost friends! Don't forget that the 27th (Next Friday) is game night! Daniel and MariaLe Watson will be there hosting the event, and depending on whether or not Ania has given birth we might be there as well. Bring your friends, and whatever board/card games you want to play and be ready to have some fun!

Also, I'm going to need to know if it will be at all possible for you guys to start saving for a spring break ski trip. The cost will be around 400 which means you'd need to start saving money now. I don't want to take 2 or 3 people, and I don't want 20 people telling me they can do it just to try to back out later. If I can get enough of a response then we'll set a time for deposits and stuff like that... just need to know within the next few weeks.

God has been showing me this week that I absolutely 100% have to rely on Him for my strength and well-being. I'm realizing just how frail and meek I am in comparison to Him and how easily he can bring me home.

You see without knowing it, we like to make ourselves seem extremely important on this earth. At times we wonder why God can't or won't do things the way we want them done. We think our way is better than His way. Those words may not be the exact ones we think, but thoughts like it often occur. I'm humbled by what God says to Job in Job 38-39. God is in control, and He knows everything that happened, is happening, and will happen. It's amazing and humbling.


Yet Jeremiah 29:11 also comes to mind for me. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."God wants to do great things in our lives... but first we have to step out of the way and let God do them.

Monday, Monday

Hey guys and gals! So Ania and I have hit the single digits on our baby countdown! 9 more days til her due date... I can tell right now our little baby girl is stubborn, like her daddy, so she may not come on time. My guess is that she's comfortable and happy just chillin inside Ania. Too bad she's got to come into this sin filled world...

Anyways, I'm very glad to see our youth group slowly starting to pick up in numbers. It's encouraging to see so many people coming to learn about God. At least I hope that's what you guys are doing! I've always said it's never about the numbers. I still say that, but for your sakes I know seeing a few more people makes you happy. So I encourage you to invite your friends. If you can get them to church then Ania and I will do everything we can to encourage them to stay and continue to return.

You start school this week. My prayer for you is that you will continue to live your Christian life at school the same way you live it at church. It won't be easy, but you have lots of people praying for you. And if you ever need any help, Ania and I are just a phone call away!

Love yall,
Brent

2 More Weeks

So tomorrow there will be 2 weeks left until our baby is born... if she decides to come on her due date. It's extremely exciting and extremely nerve-wracking all at the same time. Wow.... crazy how fast 9 months went by.

Youth!!!! I am so proud of you guys and gals. You are really starting to understand what it means to be a Christian and what it means to desire a life devoted to following Christ. It makes me extremely happy to see and hear your eagerness to dive into the Word and learn about what God wants to do in each of your lives.

Are there any topics that you feel like would be good for the youth group to study? I'm getting ready to start a study in the next couple months but before then I want to take time to go over some things that yall want to learn about. So now's the time to sound off and tell me what you want to learn!

Morons

So I'm here to say that there are certain times where I find it extremely hard to love moronic people. I totally know the Bible on this one guys and gals, I'm just saying.

So how do you deal with moronic people? What's your strategy when it comes to someone who seems so hard to love that you just can't do it?

A Quick Reprieve

So I'm off of work this week... (except on Wednesday night when I WILL be teaching!) I'm trying to go through everything that happened last week. It was indeed an amazing week and I cannot wait until next year as I'm sure most of you are thinking. God did some wonderful things in our lives this past week and I am very thankful for that.

So, we're moving on. August 6th is our back to school lock-in. It will be the first event that our new 6th graders will be allowed to attend! As we get ready for school to start back up I hope everybody is keeping to a regular schedule of reading the Bible and praying. Everybody enjoy this week and I'll see yall Wednesday!

BUSY!!!!

Hey guys and gals! I am so sorry it's been so long since I've had a blog post. I have been extremely busy getting ready for camp and well my time is just pulled between places... yet Ania will tell you I can still find time to sneak a game or two in now and again. For those of you not going to Falls Creek you can skip this next paragraph.

Falls Creek is coming up next week!!!!!!!!!!! I am extremely excited and cannot wait to see what God does for our group. The theme for the camp is SENT. Jesus was SENT to save us, we are SENT into the world to spread the love of Christ. The theme for the in cabin devotional during the evening will be titled "What's holding you back." So I hope you come hungry for spiritual food, because we're going to be dishing it out like crazy!

Ok, so August 6, we're having a back to school lock-in here at the church. Invite your friends!!!! It's going to be awesome :) It's going to be 9PM - 9AM. So get ready for that! Don't forget about Sunday School starting at 9AM!!! Daniel Watson and Jamie Mediak are doing a great job teaching, so come back to hear them teach some more! Next week Daniel will be teaching Wednesday night, so if you can't or aren't going to camp then please come to youth group to hear him speak!

Be praying for the youth group for this week. Pray that God will open the hearts, minds, and souls of all the youth going and please pray for Ania as she will be very pregnant in a very hot town!

July

Well, fireworks was pretty fun even though it was extremely rainy. Thanks to the Robison family for making Ania and I's 4th pretty darn fun! Ania mentioned it felt like we were on vacation, and I'll have to agree. Sam, Kyle and I got some much needed card playing in, and Daniel got to cheat and beat me at SSB Brawl....

Tomorrow is back to work and that means preparing for Falls Creek. It's coming up so fast and there's still quite a bit left to do!

Question for the week: Why do Christians tolerate so much sin?

End of another month

Ok, so now that I have a grand total of 3 people following my blog I will now update more frequently.

Here's a question that was raised to me earlier this week. Let's look at Matthew 5:48. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." So now the question... What does it mean to be perfect? What kind of perfection is Jesus looking for?

Mid June

Ok, so it's the middle of June and the summer is just starting to get hectic... well it's been hectic, so I guess more hectic now. FALLS CREEK!!!!!!!! July 19th - 24th. It's going to be absolutely amazing. Mark Matlock will be speaking and kids will be saved. That's just all there is to it.

In our cabin, we will have the always amazing Will Rupert leading worship! Ania will be leading the noonday devotion time and I'll be teaching in the evening during the evening devotion time. It's going to be so much fun that I can hardly contain myself.

Staying busy with the church website, the youth room, and so many other things. So I'll try to keep this updated, if not well... yeah.

So if you want to go to The Creek you better talk to me ASAP because spots are filling up fast!

Life

Life is hard.

If you're living life by yourself and not surrounding yourself with friends who actually care about you then life will suck really hard. Having a network of Christian friends who will help you grow in Christ and will be there for you is pretty much the most important thing any Christian can have here on earth.

Thank God for my wife. And a few other friends I have on campus.

What?!?!?! 2 updates in one month! Holy cow, what is wrong with me?

I feel like updating at 7:55AM in the morning!

My wife is amazing, just want the world to know. She's kind, caring, and most of all forgiving when I mess up or say something stupid. It's wonderful to know that you have the exact person God planned for you from the beginning. It took awhile to find her, and I went through a lot and caused a lot of heartache along the way, but finally here she is.

Ok, enough sappy stuff. The Chapel is almost done!!!! Hopefully by the end of next week it will all be completed. The tile gets finished today, with waxing tonight and we do some more painting then carpet comes in on Monday. Wow, so close to being done.

Ok, well got to take Ania to work and then go to work myself. I'll catch yall later.

May Day, may day!!!

It's May 1st! Wow time is flying by. Probably has something to do with the fact that I am about to have a baby... well, not me personally, but Ania. Only 17 more weeks until I'm a daddy... wow.

For those of you who missed it, True Love Waits was a lot of fun! We had a great time talking about not only sexual purity but just purity in your life in general. If you missed it, well don't worry we will do it again sometime next year! Thanks for everybody who came out this weekend though!!!

School is almost over!!! Well for the summer at least. Hopefully I'll only have 1 more year after this and I'll be able to be done with school for awhile. I'm ready for a break. I need some time away from the classroom and worrying about assignments and things like that. And I'm pretty sure all you all are ready for school to be out as well.

We have a busy summer ahead of us! First on the list is that church camp was moved back 1 week. So now we are going July 19th - July 24th! So make sure you put that on your calender.
Lots of other things happening so make sure you check your calender and all that fun jazz.

Just finished putting some paint on the walls in the youth room. It's going to look so sweet in just a couple weeks. I cannot wait for it to finally be finished. A big thanks goes out to Todd Merriott for doing most of the work, and Renee Comtois and Aaron Armstrong for also helping out quite a bit in the whole process. It's taken a long time but it will come together soon, I promise!

Alrighty guys, I'm signing off for today, I hope God blesses you this coming week and don't forget to study hard for your finals!

April already

So Ania and I are having a little girl!

Wow... I'm going to be a daddy. It's still hard to believe.
It has been a busy busy year. Obviously since i haven't updated since February a lot has happened. Ania and I had an appointment with the sonogram place to find out about our little baby. We found out her due date is August 25th, but chances are it will be a little bit earlier than that. Our little girl is so far very healthy and very active. During our last check-up she even kicked the ultrasound monitor pressed up against mommy because it was too loud! She's already got Ania's feisty attitude.
Spring break was a pretty good time. We went to see Ania's family in New Jersey and I got to spend a few hours in New York City one evening. I got to go to the Nintendo world store and wow... Talk about amazing!
The picture sucks, but the guy taking it couldn't figure out how to make the flash go.... so whatever. That's me in the store. It was a lot of fun! I ended up buying a onesy(or however you spell it) for our baby and an awesome turtwig doll for the baby (and me but mostly the baby).

April is here now and it's just one thing after the other! The youth room is coming along quite nicely and I am hoping it will be done within the next couple weeks. Wishful thinking on my part, but I really do hope it happens.

Tonight's lesson is going to deal with Kenosis. Basically do you believe that Jesus emptied himself of any of his deity-ness or that he willingly gave up certain attributes to become human, or did he just veil his being a deity?

Few and Far Between

Well, I'm not very good at keeping a "consistent" blog, but at least I will be making posts! It's Friday February 12, 2010 and it's 2 days before Valentines Day. I've come to a few revelations recently that I have shared with my wife. Let's just say God is still good even when I'm not. And He always comes through even when I don't deserve it. God is patient and for that I am very grateful. God will always be patient and He will always be waiting for us to turn to Him for everything we face. Sometimes it takes me longer to turn to Him than it should but I'm slowly realizing that I need to be turning a lot sooner.

There is a youth I need everybody who reads this to pray for. She is dealing with a lot of issues and also doesn't know what she believes about God or Jesus or Christianity. So just keep this young girl in your prayers as God works in her life.

Hump Day

It's the middle of the week... "Hump day." Like a mountain that you are on top of... tomorrow you will be going downhill towards the weekend and the end of one week and the beginning of another. An endless cycle until God calls you home.

What are you doing during this endless cycle?

A New Year

Hello all and Happy New Year!!! I know this is a bit late, but today is my birthday so I am allowed to be late ;)

We have started NTX (New Testament Experience) at Birchwood this week and we will be reading through the New Testament by Easter. I am pretty excited about it actually and cannot wait to see what God shows Ania and myself.

The first day of reading, yesterday, we read Matthew chapters 1-4. I am always amazed at chapter 4, the temptation of Jesus. After spending 40 days and 40 nights fasting the Bible says Jesus was hungry. Let me just say... that has to be one of the biggest understatements of all time. After 40 days I am going to speculate, quite accurately I think ;), that Jesus was FAMISHED. I'm pretty sure that none of us can last that long, I know I sure can't. I start freaking out if I miss a meal. Well, let's just say my body starts getting angry at me if I don't eat something during "meal time".

After that long without food the body starts to shut down. Fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, stress, extreme hunger, possible hallucinations, etc. begin to ravage the body after not having anything for that long. Let's just say it is not a pretty sight.

Why would Jesus do that to himself? Let me hear your answers on that question...

Then after he finished with that Satan decided to step in and start tempting him. Now the funny thing about his tempting is that he's tempting Jesus with things that Jesus already has. Power to turn stones to bread... check, power to call the angels to His side, check, power to own all the nations of the world, check. Jesus has absolutely all that within His power. However, God doesn't work that way. Even thought He can force all of those things He chooses not to. God wants us to come to Him and be saved. Also, as Jesus quoted scripture quite impressively since he is the scripture incarnate... Man lives on more than bread alone, don't tempt God, don't worship other Gods... Satan was trying but Jesus was too strong even after being weakened by fasting...

How can I show that same kind of strength.... how can you?