Tag: Christmas

  • I got my wings!

    Sometimes I just latch onto a prop and an idea that just has to happen. When I saw the wings in Beth Slevcove’s office I had to use them for the podcast.

  • Stress vs. Joy

    I think I’m just exhausted. It’s a feeling of over-stimulation that comes on fast and is wearing me out. The solution is really that I need to get destimulated soon. Fairly soon I will need to schedule some “off the grid” time. Either that or I may post something extra snarky for no reason and I’ll regret it.

    I have so many excellent things going on. Or is that just the exhaustion? There’s these competing things in my head. Things that bring me joy are stressing me out. And things that should be stress-filled are bringing me great joy.But very little “meh” in my life right now.

    – Our community group getting involved with a refugee family. Stress-free joy.

    – Other projects I agreed to help out with at church. Expecting joy but stressed.

    – Going to The Price is Right today. [airs February 10th] Stress-free joy.

    – Friday’s staff Christmas party. Expecting joy but stressed. 9 miles out of my comfort zone.

    – Getting our money situation under control. Stress-free joy.

    – Thinking about planned vacation time. Expecting joy but stressed.

    – Getting ready for Christmas. Stress-free joy. I’m feeling advent-astic.

    – Coming up with an age-appropriate discipline system for the kids. Just freaking stressful.

    – Working with Kristen on a new website about San Diego living, our first collaborative project. Stress-free joy.

    – Nurturing some relationships from Michigan. Expecting joy but stressed.

    I don’t really have a point to this post that’s a take-away. Life lessons, nah. Looking for sympathy. Not so much. It’s just kind of capturing some places in my life that are confusing to me. I think in all arenas of both sides of this stress/joy coin I just need to build some time to rest and wait on God. At least, that’s my plan.

  • Christmas in the City

    Yesterday our church hosted an event called Christmas in the City. It was one of the most unique expressions of God’s love I’ve ever witnessed.

    We are an unashamedly urban ministry. Situated in City Heights, a diverse working poor community, we reach out to the neighborhood in ways that just wouldn’t work in the suburbs. This is a great example.

    How it works

    The organization that actually presents Christmas in the City [er, I forgot what it’s called!] encourages church, schools, and businesses to give toys in a way that is very similar to Toys for Tots or Operation Christmas Child. Additionally, previous year’s proceeds go to purchase more toys.

    On the day of the event volunteers from all over come to to create a store, checkout areas, and wrapping stations for the presents. Additionally, our church set-up some play areas, snacks, live music and activities for shoppers and their kids to enjoy while parents shopped.

    This is where the line comes in. Since they’ve done this event for a few years people in the city know and depend on the sale to buy gifts for their kids. So think of this line a lot like a Black Friday line. People literally showed up at 7:00 AM for this event… which started at 12:30 PM. Thankfully, this was more civilized than a typically line at Wal*Mart.

    When the store opens, gifts are sold at 10-20% of retail prices. ($2, $5, or $10) The idea behind Christmas in the City is that they don’t just want to hand parents a random gift to give to their children for free. While that is nice and many organizations do that, this is different in that they allow parents to choose some gifts for each of their children and also give them the ability to buy presents for their kids. The hope is that by doing it this way they can help the working poor while helping the recipents maintain their pride and dignity. They chose the gift. They bought it with their own money.

    How did it go?

    I had read about this type of event in community development books. So I had some idea that there would be a big line, that there would be a lot of toys, that there would be a lot of smiles.

    I guess I wasn’t prepared for the volume. On a typical Sunday our church has 150-200 attendees. (About half non-English speaking, the other half English speaking.) There were at least that many who were in line to come to the Christmas shop. Tons of different ethnic background, tons of different stories, tons of people helped.

    Another thing I wasn’t prepared for was that we’d have to turn people away. I know the need is great out there… but I never presumed that we wouldn’t have enough gifts for those who would come. We could have easily sold twice as much stuff! Now that I know how it goes I think I’ll have to do a better job promoting how people can get involved.

    I’m still getting the pictures and video together. I will share that when I have it all ready.

  • Quick check-in

    I’m always amazed at my inability to blog from NYWC. I think it’s a combination of my insane schedule and a lack of good internet connectivity. More importantly, I feel like I don’t have much to share while in the midst of NYWC since I’m soaking it in so deeply.

    So here are some random thoughts in no particular order.

    – I’m looking forward to getting season one of “NYWC as a YS staffer” out of the way. 2008 has been a major learning curve for me. I feel like I admit ignorance way too much. I look forward to 2009 because I’ll be more useful beyond what I was able to handle here. I know that is gray and fuzzy, I don’t want to bore anyone with details.

    – I’ve said this before but I want to say it again, people are people no matter what they do. I’ve had some stirring conversations with speakers and authors… but I’ve also had very similar conversations with people who don’t write or speak for a living.

    – Nashville is a great convention location. I love the arena environment!

    – A ton of people asked me if the convention gets boring having gone to all 3. No, not boring. Not really repetitive. If it were boring I would need to find a new job.

    – I have huge respect for convention volunteers. My only frame of reference is a PGA Tour event. I think it’s a lot like that. Simply put, if we didn’t have the volunteer we couldn’t do it. Thanks to our volunteers!

    – I’ve gotten more sleep than in Pittsburgh. The reality is that my body is just waking up at 5:30 AM Pacific time. My roommate, Andy Thompson, thought I was kidding. With no alarm I woke up at exactly 5:30 on Friday morning. Today I woke up at 5:27.

    – Security at the Sommet Center is a little crazy. They are diligent, to say the least.

    – Is it really Christmas shopping season?

    – It’s true. I’m staying over on Monday night so I can get a good nights sleep before going home. I felt like my recovery process after Pittsburgh was elongated by my lack of chillaxing.

    – I’m looking forward to checking out the details of Obama’s transition team when I get home.

    – Mark Yaconelli, pictured above, brought the funk today.

    – I am thankful for Ian [Dude] Robertson. Every time I do an interview I am praying I don’t ruin it. It’s happened, it’s embarassing and every shoot makes me wish I knew more about the camera.

    – Just heard this on the Nashville news, “NASA astronaughts are working on their hardest project ever, they are installing a device that will make drinking water out of urine.“

  • 7 days til Christmas

    Christmas PresentWith less than a week until the big day, there’s much still to do. We have the staff Christmas party tonight, the Light Force party tomorrow night, a small group party Friday night, a killer service on Sunday, and MainStreet on Monday. (We’re actually still trying to squeeze a family party in there somewhere with Kristen’s folks.) In other words, Christmas is just kicking into high gear for me.

    This year I’ve actually been into Christmas. “Into” for me means that I don’t complain about it. We’ve had our tree up for a while, we’ve gotten most of the shopping done, and Kristen has done a great job of keeping the Christmas drama away from me. (Selfishness about presents… our kids get 3 small presents from us and they think its normal and fair!)

    santaOf course, since I’m labeled the Christmas hater… I can’t be seen enjoying it too much.  Paul is a hard core Santa-hater. There was a Santa at Buffalo Wild Wings on Sunday (I thought maybe he was too drunk to drive home Saturday night, odd place for a Santa) I asked Paul if he’d be willing to have his picture taken with St. Nick. Paul told me, “I would punch him in the face and put him in the garbage!” Ah, a disciple.

    Merry Christmas! 

  • Paul’s Thougts of Christmas

    PaulPaul is 4. He is mostly into Power Rangers and otherwise lives in his own pretend world of karate chops, animals, adventures, and other play things. And while Paul rarely looks like he is paying attention in KidsTown he really learns a lot.

    Here are some things we talked about this morning:

    • When the advent calendar is over, it’s Christmas.
    • Christmas is about someone’s birthday, but not Santa’s.
    • Santa is just pretend, but Jesus is “for real.”
    • Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.
    • Why do we get presents on Jesus’ birthday? “I don’t know.” (He’s right, it makes no sense!)