CIY and Baby Showers

This last week I had the opportunity to take 4 of our high schoolers to CIY (Christ in Youth) Summer Conference, in Anderson, IN. We only had about a 2 1/2 hour drive so it wasn't too bad. And Jessica is about 6 weeks away from due date, so it was nice knowing that I wasn't all that far away to be able to get back if anything happened.

The conference was great. CIY always does a wonderful job of putting on a wonderful experience for the students. At the beginning of the week I thought that I had 7 kids going, but then we only 4. The four that went really were impacted by what all went on at the conference. It's awesome for me to see them get excited about coming home and taking on the things in their life. I had a mother come up to me and tell me that her daughter was talking with her about some of her friendships and decissions that she was making. That, to me, is an incredible feeling knowing that the students came home and are beginning to make some decissions for themselves.

Sat. after I got home on friday, my mom and mother-in-law are here for the two baby showers that people have planned for Jessica. Sat. was the one at the church and then this Wed. the ladies at the bank are throwing her one as well. We are truly blessed with a great group of generous people around us.

And now, for your added pleasure here is a video that CIY would show. Enjoy.

The End of an Era...Again

On Thursday of this week I had a friend come over and help me tear out the old tile from around our fireplace and replace it with some new tile. The tile was put in in 1992 when the house was built and definately was from that era. It was a deep hunter green tile that was remeniscent of the '90s. We replaced it with something that looks a little newer; like it came from 2007. This was my first attempt at tiling, and I don't think it went too bad.

Jessica is only 7 weeks away from the due date of having the baby. It's getting increasily more real that we're about to be parents, but I don't know that we'll ever fully get it until the baby gets here. We have 2 showers coming up. One next Saturday, and then the following Wednesday. It's amazing all the stuff you "have" to have.

We've been doing a parenting series for the last 4 weeks on Sundays and I've been given some of the sermons in this series. I preached the first one in the series, and now tommorow and the next Sunday to finish up the series. It's a little wierd preaching about parenting when I'm not one...yet. I feel like I have no credibility standing up there telling people in the middle of being a parent how I, a 24 year-old, childless youth pastor, thinks they ought to be doing it. It's going okay, but I'll be glad when I can just talk about Jesus. However, I probably know more about parenting than I do about Jesus.