PUDDING!

So we had our jr. high Great pudding fight last night, and it was a blast. Although, they did come form behind and dump a bucket on me, it was awesome. We had 28 jr. highers there, which is the biggest we've ever had. We had a very slhort message and worship time. I think too much pudding and sugar, cause they were crazy!

Pray for our chic team. We are 2 1/2 weeks out, and have one student who might be bailing and may have a replacement but may not, so pray that the right students go to our conference and that it will be a experience that brings them closer to God that doesn't end in Tennessee but transfers to back home.

THings are pretty quiet this week and most of next, just working on future planning and getting our summer trips organized, but not too many events so I can rest and get geared up for the summer.

Thanks for praying
Brad

3rd post in one day

Just wanted to post a prayer request. My "uncle" bud. (My dad's cousin and one of the guys who got me my carved baseball bat with my name in it) past away suddenly with a massive stroke yesterday. Please be praying for the family. My dad took it pretty hard, and is just a big shock.

Thanks!

Encouraging Worship

What an exciting day at church. Now that I have some more time to blog. Everything from the worship (great songs and balance of our team) to the excitement of people while we ate hot dogs waiting for the congregational meeting to start. Immediately after the meeting, the committee called Brian and LInda, and they accepted. What an awesome feeling.

The excitment continued to our BBQ tonight for high school. I got in the short end of a water fight, and just generally had a ton of fun. That fun lasted until we started a worship time. We have people that whine and complain and refuse to participate. These guys will wander and distract and do anything to keep others from having the chance to worship through singing. How do we communicate that I'm here to build relationships and have fun but to serve God and bring people to him? Please pray for these guys, and pray for discernment for me on how to handle the situation. We're 3 weeks out from our trip to Tennessee. Pray for all the process on that as well.

Brad

Sr. Pastor

Brian Wiele has accepted a call to be our new sr. pastor! What an exciting morning!

I just finished speaking at Foothills Church jr. high retreat this week. It was a great time to catch up with old friends and make new ones. It was a great frist retreat speaking experience.

I'll update more later!

Brad

things I will never learn in Seminary!

So today, I get a call from a recently graduated senior who is housesitting 2 kids (jr. high and 10 year old) and 3 pets. She's frantic, can I come over, they're having a pet issue. Sure, so I go over, and one of the dogs has decided to try to eat the neighbor's turtle. So I get there and one dog is in a kennel, another locked in the bathroom, and the turtle stumbling outside with a hole in its shell, so we get the turtle in a small dog kennel, and try calling vets, but no one deals with reptiles. Finally the neighbors come home, so turtle crisis over.

Good times!

Dodger

This post having nothing to do with ministry, but dodger was put to sleep today. They discovered a brain tumor, and he could barely walk, and was having seizures. Poor dog.

Exciting Stuff

It's been a weekend of meetings, gearing up for our summer, and for the fall. I'm exciting about some of the cool things that's happening in our church. God seems to bring everything together. It's been fun to watch. We're going to shoot for a end of Sept. kickoff for small groups in our youth program. I'm excited about the possibility to get a little more depth to our ministry through the groups. I'm also excited that our high school leaders are taking ownership in the ministry, and have some great ideas for things in the fall. It's just an awesome time. I can feel the excitement and energy in anticipation of what God is going to do in our church, but also in the lives of our students. We've had about 15-20 in jr. high the last couple of weeks, and hope the momentum continues into the summer. I went to two graduations and two graduation parties last week. It was neat to see how much one of the guys really appreciated us at his graduation.

Also, I saw God work in a really cool way this week, a jr. higher came to our cutters point hang out last week, and brought a friend who stutters. It was cool to see the instant bond and I've never see God use that "trait" in me before. I pray he keeps coming. It was a neat experience. I'm off to bed!

Church Update

Hey everyone, I'm excited that the church has decided to call a potential sr. pastor to come in and candidate the weekend of June 25. Please be praying for this process, I met him yesterday briefly and like him. I'm excited about where things are going! Please be praying as we take what hopefully is close to a final step!

Brad

What a great weekend

What a busy weekend. It's amazing to see how God worked this weekend. Everything came together and went even better than expected. The youth band sounded great. Some highlights of the weekend

1. The fun fair went well, we had enough kids show up that we didn't eat too much money, and everyone had a blast!

2. Mine and Sarah's parents got along!

3. The sermon went really well. The best comments I recieved were from the interim sr. pastor who said it sounded even better than what it was on paper. That made me feel good, and the old associate pastor said he would've broken down the passage in the same way I did. It was very encouraging. Although nervewracking, I can do this! I'd totally be up for doing another one. Definately not every week, but once in a while is fine!

4. The Mariners won! Me and Sarah went to the game last night and sat in the hit it here cafe. It was a great game and a nice date night!

5. I think the most valuable thing about the weekend was getting the congregation excited about the youth in our church. It was great to honor the graduates and get everyone fired up about youth.

What a great weekend. God showed himself in a great way!

Long time

Wow, I definately have spaced on this blog. Things are going really well. It's a busy weekend, but things are good. We have a kids carnival I'm helping organize on Saturday, Sarah's parents are coming up (dinner at my parents on Saturday, no there are no announcements!) Sunday is the sermon. I'm preaching on Hebrews 12:1-3 and focusing on the Christian life as a race. I'm nervous but excited about it at the same time. Everyone seems really excited to hear me preach, so that makes it easier actually.

I'm just exicted about where our group is going. God's working in surprising ways in some of our students, and it's been exciting to watch and experience. I need to update more often, so I actually remember what's going on.

Not only pray for my sermon, but pray for our youth sunday. The youth are leading worship, and doing everything in the service, so pray that everything goes well.

Hope everything's going well.