Family/Friend Friday --- The Tree

OK, on Wednesday I told you my niece Haley was turning 16 this week (her birthday was yesterday) and that I would tell you a little story about her today. Back when she was around 6-years-old, she came to my parent's house for a visit. In front of my parents house was a very large tree. It was a nice day, so we were all outside. My dad and I were standing down by the tree along with Haley.

Haley had a large stick in her hand and was banging it against the tree. I asked her what she was doing, and she replied, "I'm going to keep hitting this tree until I chop it down". My dad replied to her saying, "You know, your dad (my brother) used to come out here when he was little and hit this tree with a stick and was going to chop it down too".

Haley stopped what she was doing and looked a little puzzled for a second. Then she looked up at my dad and asked, "Well, did he?"

(obviously not!!!)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Theological Thursday --- The Sea

In Revelation 21:1 the Apostle John gets to see a glimpse of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Of all the things John could tell us about heaven, it is interesting that in verse 2 (one of his first observations about heaven) is that, "The sea was no more".

I believe to understand this, you have to know the context in which John is writing. He has been in exile on the tiny island of Patmos (only about 10 square miles in size)...surrounded by the sea. Imagine what it would have been like for someone like John, who had a passion and a heart for Christ, waking up day after day and being surrounded by and seeing nothing but the sea. I am sure he would prefer to be like Paul, Peter, etc going on journeys and preaching the Gospel. But God called him here and that sea probably became like prison walls to him.

With that in mind, it is so much more powerful to hear one of John's first observations about heaven..."THE SEA IS NO MORE!!!" YEAH!!! That means a lot for us...with our first taste of heaven (after being awed by the glory of God), we will realize the thing(s) that hold us bondage on Earth, will be no more. What is the first thing you will say about heaven? "My allergies are no more", "My taxes are no more", "My cancer is no more"?

What a great promise to know that the old things pass away and one day those of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior will all proclaim, "My (you fill in the blank) is no more!!!"

What's Up Wednesday --- May 28th

This is my niece Haley. She turns 16 this week. Be careful if you are driving through North Carolina...she might be out on the road! I'll tell you a good story about her on family/friend Friday.

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---- I am in my final week of Greek 3 (this is week 29 overall). We had to translate the entire book of Philippians. The phrase, "It's all Greek to me" doesn't have as much meaning for me anymore.

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--- Jen and I won a free steak dinner! It was a drawing from the last year's county fair. Seems strange that we just found out yesterday since the fair was back in September, but we'll take it!

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--- Speaking of the county fair, I just got a contract to perform my show there this year. I will also be doing an outreach show the end of June (at our church), Community Days in DuBois in June, a United Way event in Ashland in June, another outreach show in July (for one of my former professor's church), a youth group overnight event in July, a YMCA show in August, and another outreach show in August (for one of the pastors in the program I run at the seminary). So a fairly busy magic schedule this summer.

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--- Congratulations to our brother-in-law (Ron) for getting a job with American Eagle. We all know what we will be getting from them this Christmas!

Time Warp Tuesday --- The Dentist

Back when I was in 3rd grade (or somewhere around there) I was sled riding with my brother and sister across the street at my grandma's house. After I went down the hill, I felt a strong pain in my mouth and went running home. To this day, I have no idea what happened, but when I got in the house there was blood everywhere! We went into the bathroom and started to wash my mouth out and realized that one of my permanent teeth had somehow been knocked out. My mom called the dentist and he said to come over right away and bring the tooth if we could find it. My brother and sister were able to follow the trail of blood and find the tooth.

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At the dentist, I got the tooth stitched back into place and cemented to another tooth in a several hour procedure the dentist had never attempted before. Afterward he told me how brave I was and how well I had done and that he wished he had a medal to give me. Little did he know what was to come...

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A few months later I was with a friend in K-Mart. We were playing around in the toy aisle and I ran face first into one of the shelves. The tooth split right in half! My parents were out of town, so my aunt Mary Lou and grandma had to take me back to the dentist. The dentist looked and said he would need to pull it out completely. I guess I had enough of the dentist, cause as soon as he said that I jumped straight out of that chair, and out the door I went!

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It took everyone quite a while to convince me to come back in, and throughout that visit I was everything but a model patient! Any ways, to this day, I have 1 less tooth than everyone else.

Magical Monday --- The Big Tip

Shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh in 1998, I was picked up by an entertainment agent who booked the majority of my shows. In the fall that year, I was asked to do a show for a birthday party for the daugher of John Smiley, a former MLB pitcher, All-Star, and Pirate. He had just completed his final season with the Indians, but still lived with his family in Pittsburgh.

As we spoke on the phone, he said his father-in-law HATED magicians and asked if there was a way I could really fool him. So about a week before the show, I sent him an Ace of Spades from an extra card deck and told him to find a way to sneak it into his father-in-law's wallet.

When I arrived at the show, John confirmed that he was able to secretly place the card in the wallet. John's daughter at the time was only turning 6, so the show I was doing was more of a "fun comedy" show rather than serious magic. So after I set up for the show, I asked the adults if I could share a new trick with them. The father-in-law declined to come over (after all, he HATED magicians), so we moved over to where he was sitting. I forced an Ace of Spades (meaning I "made" that person choose that particular card using slight-of-hand) on one of the adults. They mixed it back in the deck and I stated I could make it re-appear anywhere in the room that I wanted. For the first time, I stated, I would attempt to have it appear in someone's wallet.

I couldn't ask for anything better when the father-in-law responded, "You set someone up to go in with you on this trick". All I had to do was say, "OK, I'll use you then, because we haven't set anything up, right?" He responded, "If that card ends up in my wallet, you can have all the money that is in there!"

Well, John and I were the only two people in on the secret, so all the adults were floored when he opened the wallet and there was the Ace of Spades! The father-in-law insisted I take the $50 he had in the wallet as he had promised. I've received many tips around and above that amount, but I called this post "The Big Tip" because on my way out after the show, John Smiley wrote a check for the price of the show plus an extra $500 as a tip for getting his father-in-law!

The best part of the day --- when the show eventually started, the father-in-law turned into a kid again and became just as excited and drawn into the show as the children.

Family/Friend Friday --- The Big Prize

Ashland University (who is my employer even through I work for the seminary) always seems to be giving away prizes and drawings for employees...baseball tickets, football tickets, concerts, etc. So imagine how happy we were able to make Joni and Ron (Jen's sister and brother-in-law) when we called and told them we won and all expense paid trip to Hawaii for four as well as $1000.00 spending money for the trip.

About 10 minutes into the conversation, they were practically packed and ready to go when we reminded them that it was April 1st and only a joke. Have a great weekend!

Theological Thursday --- The Sheep

Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known Psalms. As many of you know, David begins by saying, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want"...followed by a lot of comforting words and promises. One of my favorite parts of the Psalm is from verse 2 that says, "He leads me to still waters". To dig a little into this, take into consideration that David is comparing God to a shepherd, which would make us his sheep.

Now, think about a sheep...they are covered in wool. Wool becomes extremely heavy if it becomes wet. If a sheep were to drink in a body of water with a strong current, the weight of its wool may knock it down and if that happened, the sheep would not have the strength to pick itself back up.

So God's (shepherd) promise to lead us (sheep) to the still waters is a comforting promise for his protection. It is a promise that His path is the path that is safe to follow, and that we should have no reservations in following His perfect plan for our lives. It is also a promise of provision from Isaiah 49:10...

"They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them besides springs of water."

What's Up Wednesday --- May 21st

Jen's grandpa went to be with the Lord on Sunday. It was sad to see him go, but a relief to know he is no longer suffering. We got to pray and sing over him soon before his death.

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. --- 1 Thessalonians 4:13

I found out I was recommended as one of the final 2 candidates that has been interviewing with the church back in PA. The head pastor and his wife will be flying to Ashland to meet with Jen and I for 3 days next month. (This is not a picture of the church...it is much larger with a membership of around 1,600).

I am excited to get back to the detention home this Sunday and spend time with the kids and do the church service. Pray especially for Tyler who ever week mentions he is losing hope. He has been there for several months and for the past 3 months none of his family has come to visit him even though they all live in town.

As a follow-up to Magical Monday (thanks for all the e-mails!)...here is the rest of the story...

Every magic course I have ever taken teaches the same philosophy, "A mistake is never a mistake unless you let the audience know". I have always taught my assistants this philosophy and if something goes wrong during the show...the audience doesn't know...always play it like it was supposed to happen that way and try to get a laugh out of it.

So from the box I told Amy, "tell some jokes"....and I couldn't hear what she was saying, but the audience was laughing (Amy is one of the former assistants that was a professional actress). In the lid of the box was a 1 inch hole to allow air and light. So I raised the key through the hole and called for Amy. The audience went nuts thinking it was part of the trick and cheering. Unfortunately the key was still on the key ring which wouldn't fit through the hole. Amy said, "You want me to pull a 4 inch key chain through a 1 inch hole...I'm not the magician" and the audience burst into laughter again. I took the key off the ring and pushed it up to Amy. The audience cheered like we had done the greatest trick ever, and little did they know it was all a mistake.

So did we continue to perform the trick this way on purpose? NO WAY!!! Every audience is different, and I think we were really lucky on this particular night.

Time Warp Tuesday --- Where Babies Come From

On morning when I was probably around 4 or 5 I decided to try and figure out where babies came from. So I asked my mom and her reply was, "From the belly of fat people". You can imagine my surprise and confusion when I got in trouble later that day for asking my brother's overweight friend Ronnie if he was pregnant.

Magical Monday --- The Key

One of the large illusions I used to perform is called the "Subtrunk" (pictured above). I've used several different assistants (including Jen) over the years...two of them are now in LA as professional actresses! Basically, the assistant gets placed in handcuffs, tied in a bag, and locked in the trunk. I would stand on top of the trunk, lift a curtain overhead, and within a few seconds the curtain would drop and the assistant would be standing on the trunk in my place, with me locked in the box, tied in the bag, and handcuffed. I know most have you seen me perform this before, but if you haven't here is another guy demonstrating it...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ6AXV43YiE

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So one day my assistant at the time (Amy) and I were performing at a large mall in Pittsburgh for Halloween. There were around 500 people there. This is probably our 10th time doing this trick together, and after I lock Amy in the trunk I would take the key and place it on the front of the stage so she can get me out of the box at the end of the trick! So we go through the entire trick, do the "magical switch" and I am now locked in the box. Pretty soon I hear tapping on the box and hear "I can't find the key" which is normally on the front of the stage. I realized that I never put the key there for her and started to think where it could be. Unfortunately, I realized where the key was...it was in my pocket! So here I was, in handcuffs, tied in a bag, locked in a box in front of 500+ people and the only key to get me out was in my pocket.

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Quite a predicament! So what happened? Well, I am always curious as to who actually reads this Blog, so leave a comment, send me an e-mail, or ask me in person and I will tell you the rest! magicmike@magicmikeshow.com

Family/Friend Friday --- Steve's Remote Control

This is Steve. We were roommates in Pittsburgh from 1999-2002. I am sure he will be popping up quite often on Family/Friend Friday as I have plenty of stories to tell...especially the one about the Philippian Tubes (which he hates when I tell)...but I'll save that one for another time.

Let me start off by saying Steve is very careful when it comes to money (I wouldn't say "cheap" as he does spend a lot, but he definitely knows where every single penny of his goes). So if his restaurant bill would be off by 18 cents, you knew he would make it known and make sure it was made right.

Secondly, Steve and I each had our own couch. They were in an "L" shape in our living room, and many evenings we would each be laying on our own couch watching TV, and deciding whether we would eat pizza or cereal that night for dinner.

So here we were one night laying on our couches. I am watching TV and Steve is opening his mail. He opens his cell phone bill and realizes it is off by over $100! Of course this sent him into hyperventilation and a near nervous breakdown. Of course I had to add a little fuel to the fire during the commercials and egg him on a little --- "You need to get in your car and drive to Verizon right now!", "They think you're a fool!", "Think of how many starving little children you could feed with that money!", etc.

Of course once he gathered up all his evidence he was going to make the phone call and make his case. I was still laying on the couch watching TV when all the sudden something strange happened...the channel kept mysteriously changing!?! Turns out in his delirious state, Steve was trying to call Verizon on my TV remote control.

By the way Steve...you still owe me 3 cents for the battery power you drained from my remote that night. Have a great weekend everyone! See you Monday.

Theological Thursday --- A Letter from an Atheist

Before I get to today's post, I've received a few e-mails from people saying they had problems leaving comments on here. I've changed the settings and have attempted to make it easier for you. Just click on "Comments" at the bottom of the post you want to comment on, type what you want to say in the box that pops up, select the option that says "anonymous user", and then click "submit".

Today's Theological Thursday comes from an Evangelism course designed by Pastor Ray Comfort (I went through it about 2 years ago). One of the reasons for creating the course was his conviction as the result of an e-mail he received from an atheist. Here is an excerpt from the e-mail:

You are really convinced that you've got all the answers. You've really got yourself tricked into believing that you're 100% right. Well, let me tell you just one thing. Do you consider yourself to be compassionate of other humans? If you're right, as you say you are, and you believe that, then how can you sleep at night? When you speak with me, you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation, into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain which your 'loving' god created, yet you stand by and do nothing. If you believed one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unchangeable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That's equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You're just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that 'walk' signal will shine your way across the road. Think about it. Imagine the horrors Hell must have in store if the Bible is true. You're just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you're right then you're an uncaring, unemotional and purely selfish (expletive) that has no right to talk about subjects such as love and caring.

How powerful is that? I mean really, if Christians truly believe people are going to eternal damnation, how can they do nothing? If you saw someone sleeping on the train tracks with a train coming directly at them, would you not do everything in your power to wake them up and drag them off the tracks? But isn't death apart from Christ and eternity in hell much worse than being hit by a train?

With that said, the Christian needs guidance from the Holy Spirit (see Acts 8:26-40 for the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian). God doesn't call everyone to stand on the street corner screaming the Gospel 24-hours a day (as this letter writer was suggesting). However, there are many Christians who have never led anyone to Christ and never share their faith in which case there needs to be an examination of obedience to the Holy Spirit (I would have a hard time believing the Holy Spirit has never convicted someone of sharing their faith). Today's post is as much for me as everyone else. I am certainly not the model of perfection when it comes to Evangelism. I will leave you with 2 quotes that's a reminder that sharing the Gospel is not just what we say, but what we do as well (Matthew 5:16).

---Your actions speak so loudly I can't hear a word you are saying (Ralph Emerson)

---Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words (Saint Francis)

Now get out there and share your faith cause that train is coming for a lot of people!

What's Up Wednesday --- May 14th

This is Dick, Jen's grandpa. He is in his final days. It is very evident that he loved the Lord, so it will be a time of celebration for him, but sorrow for the family that loved him. Please pray for Jen's family, especially her grandma Shirley.




This is my nephew Zach. He turned 5 yesterday.






Our friend Heath and cousin Kimberly both graduated from college on Saturday.






I have been in the process of interviewing for a position to start a small-group program for a large church back in Pennsylvania. Please pray for God's will above all else.

Hope everyone else is doing well! Stop back again tomorrow for Theological Thursday!

Time Warp Tuesday --- When Winning WAS Everything

As most of you know, track was kind of my big thing back in high school. Our relay teams made it to states every year, and I made it all the way to the state finals in the 200 meter dash my senior year. One of the big meets every year was in Altoona that was by invitation only. There would be top runners not only from PA, but WV, NY, and OH as well. Because people came from such a great distance for a Friday night, it would always start late and we would run under the lights and would not end until after midnight (and our 4 X 400 relay team was always the very last event to run).

There was another event we liked to go to in Oil City. It had a lot of smaller schools there, so we could take our entire team and winning a lot of awards wasn't as difficult. During my senior year a problem arose....the late night Altoona meet was on Friday night, and the Oil City meet was the next day starting in the morning. Only a few of us were invited to be part of the one in Altoona, so a few of us went there and the rest of the team was going to go to Oil City. But, this was my senior year and I wanted to go to both! So I was able to talk my coach into letting me sign up for both knowing I would just sleep on the way back and the way to.

OK, so here's where the story gets good. I remember getting home from Altoona and only having a few hours to sleep. When the alarm went off, I was far from being awake. I just threw on sweats, went to the bus and continued to sleep on my way to Oil City. My first event there was the 100 yard dash. They would announce our name, and we would go out to the track in our lanes. I had a routine (maybe superstition?) that I would do a practice start with my sweats on, take them off, and do another practice start.

So I hear, "Mike Catanzarito, DuBois High School" and go onto the track and do my practice start. I took my sweats off and did my second practice start. Everything is looking good. As I walk back to the starting line I start to tuck in my shirt and realize I have a problem...a serious problem...I HAVE NO SHORTS ON! Apparently being half asleep that morning I completely forgot to put them on. So I hurried up and put my sweats back on, but the official said that was against the PIAA rules and I had to have shorts.

So did I give up? Of course not! Winning was everything back then, remember? One of my teammates, Shawn, who was only a sophomore was sitting by the track. I said, "Give me your shorts". Believe it or not, with no questions asked, he dropped them right there and handed them over. Of course this entire time people were wondering what the hold up was....I heard an official from the finish line call down on the CB radio inquiring, and the official on our end not being able to give a response because he was laughing so hard.

The rest of the day went much better! I won that race, and actually took 4 first places that day and our team was first overall as well. It was a day I won't soon forget! (nor will Shawn).

Magical Monday --- The greatest show ever!

The picture above is my uncle Mikey and my aunt Phyllis. Mikey is the other magician in the family who got me interested in magic when I was about 7. He taught me all the basics, and although our performances and stage styles are very different, we are still able to share a lot of ideas and tips with one another. And despite the differences in the way we perform, we have done many shows together over the years.

So one year we decided to spend a week together in Pennsylvania doing volunteer shows for the hospital, nursing homes, youth groups, etc. We had a show scheduled every day of the week. At one of the nursing homes, they brought all the residents into the community room in their wheelchairs. We performed for them for about 45 minutes. In the very front row, an older lady caught my eye. Throughout the entire show she was in a dead sleep...snoring away. Not once did she open her eyes.

At the end of the show, we walked around to greet people, thank them for coming, etc. As I was going down the line, I noticed the woman who had been sleeping the entire time was now awake. When I got to her, she grabbed my hand, pulled me close, and remarked, "THAT WAS THE GREATEST SHOW I HAD EVER SEEN!" (must have been quite a dream).

If only all audiences were like that...(stayed tuned for next week hahaha)

A JOKE GONE AWRY...

A while back, Jen kept asking me to fix the "catch" on one of our kitchen cabinets that wouldn't stay closed, and I kept forgetting to do it. I would always be reminded (that's the kind way to put it) that it needed done just before it was time to leave the house so I would never have time to do it the moment I was "reminded". On one particular occasion I didn't have time to fix it, but decided to provide a more meaningful reminder to myself...I wedged the screwdriver (that would be needed to repair the cabinet) in the crease of my desk chair, knowing the moment I sat down, I would certainly remember to finally do it (if I wasn't it too much pain from sitting on the screwdriver that is!). Here is what it looked like...

So as we were about to leave, Jen saw what I had done and started to laugh, thinking it was really funny. I removed the screwdriver and put it back as there is no way I would ever endure the pain that this could potentially bring!

Well, later that week, Jen thought it would be funny to put the screwdriver back into place in the crease of the chair and thought I would see it and laugh. Later that day I was reading on the couch and heard a SCREAM in the computer room. Turns out she forgot she had put the screwdriver back and really did sit on it. All was well with the exception of an "end-of-the-screwdriver" sized hole in the seat of her pants!

Theological Thursday --- The Turtle

Back in my Pittsburgh days, there was a man on Christian radio everyday from 3:00-6:00 called Marty Minto. He had a call in Christian talk show where they would discuss everything from Brittney Spears, TV shows, the president, etc. On Thursdays he would call his show "Theological Thursday" and the topic and/or debate of the day would not be anything going on in the world but rather a topic/debate from the Bible. So I've decided to make every Thursday on my blog, "Theological Thursday".


Today I want to look at something called "The Turtle". It was a formation used in the first century by the Roman military. So when Paul wrote his Epistles, he would have very clearly known about this particular tactic. Basically the soldiers would gather in a large square formation. Those on the outside of the formation would hold their shields out...those on the inside would hold their shield up. As they stayed in formation, they could advance on the enemy and stay in total protection. Picture...



So if you were the enemy, how would you break this formation? The other soldiers would do this --- they would light their arrows on fire and hope one would make it into the midst of the group, or shoot them in front of the formation causing them to change direction and cause confusion. Because the enemy knew as long as the Romans stayed in this formation there was nothing they could do...but if they could somehow disrupt it, GAME ON!


Now let's look at what Paul has to say about the Christian life...

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ---Ephesians 6:16


Paul knows who the real enemy is...Satan. In this passage we are told to put on the "full armor of God" together...so we can defeat him and his attacks together. What a wonderful picture of how Christians need each other, and if we can support and hold each other up in formation we can grow and overcome Satan's temptations and flaming arrows together. However, if one of our brothers or sisters leaves the formation, GAME ON! So let's take Paul's charge to us to stand in formation together with the Full Armor of God...and those who have been pulled away by the flaming arrow...let's bring them back (Hebrews 10:24-25).

PoE

No, Not Edgar Allan...PoE is our acronym for "Pastors of Excellence", the small-group program for pastors I run. Currently we have over 300 pastors and over 50 groups that have been part of the program from 34 different states and provinces across the United States and Canada. This week there are over 100 pastors in the program here to work on "Healthy Relationships". They go through a 2-year journey together that focuses totally on their relationship with God and healthy community (which pastors don't get to focus on their own life very often as their focus is usually on others).

The program was built around the life and journey of one of our faculty members. He started his own church, built it to a "megachurch" within a few years, became president of his denomination, but ultimately found himself in a psychiatric hospital from a breakdown. During his recovery, he asked the question, "What could have prevented this?" and "How can I transfer that to the lives of other pastors?". So he had the dream, and my job has been to make that dream come true.

So how bad is it really for pastors? In a study in the 1950's pastors ranked in the top 10% of all professions for overall health (physical, mental, emotional) and in a recent study, they rank in the bottom 10% of all professions for overall health. There are a lot of different reasons for this which I won't go into now, but it's a fact that over 1,500 pastors are quiting every month (18,000 a year!) and less than 20% of them will last as a pastor to the age of 65. We work closely with several research agencies and here are some other facts about pastors:

---70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
---90% say their Bible School/Seminary training did not prepare them for what they face day-to-day in the church.
---80% of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
---50% of those who begin in the ministry leave after their first pastorate in less than 5 years never to return to ministry though they felt called.

PoE is working on changing this discouraging trend. The good news is there are many wonderful and solid pastors out there. But we will continue to work hard until we can say that about all pastors who have been called. One of the biggest things every church needs today is a healthy pastor...and PoE can position pastors for healing, wholeness, and growth in Christ through community. A brief video of PoE...

Studdabubba

One of the people I was closest to growing up was my great-grandma on my mom's side. Her name was Mary --- but EVERYONE called her "Bub". I asked my mom and grandma where that name came from, and the only answer I received was that everyone just always called her that. I loved to go to her house and spend the night on Saturday and ride into church with her on Sunday morning. She was also my babysitter a lot (especially if I was home sick from school) as my parents and grandma both worked. As she got older I always seemed to be the one who could perk her up and make her happy. For some reason not that long ago I was thinking about this conversation we had...

As a joke (and sometimes to make her a little mad), I would call Bub by her real first name --- Mary. After she turned 90, she had a series of "mini-strokes" and her mind just wasn't good. But she would still get upset when I would walk in and say, "hey Mary". When I asked her what her name was, she would say, "Bub". One day I asked that question and I got a different answer: "My name is Stud-a-Bubba". I laughed and asked her if she was, in fact, a "stud". She continued to insist her name was "Stud-a-Bubba".

As I thought about that conversation not long ago, and living in a Google World, I thought I would type in "Stud-a-Bubba" to see what came up...I got the message, "Do you mean Studdabubba?" Following that trail, I found Studdabubba is actually the Eastern Europe (where her family is from) word for "grandma". Mystery solved --- she actually knew what she was talking about!

If Bub were still around today (she died about 6 years ago) she would have turned 104 this week! Some of my favorite funny memories/stories from her:

1) When her family got their first car and she was learning to drive, she yelled "whoa" at the first intersection (thinking it was a horse) and crashed the car into a pole.
2) When I was really little, she would drive from her house to town (about 10 miles) in neutral to save on gas (after all it was like 50 cents a gallon back then!). On some of the up-hills, we would slow down to about 5 MPH and a big line of cars would be honking like crazy which she wouldn't care less about.
3) When I would go to her house and ring the doorbell, she would answer the phone. If you were visiting her and the phone rang, she would answer the door.
4) She would lock her keys in the car ALL the time (on purpose) and carry around a coat hanger in her purse to break in. Said she didn't want to lose her keys?!?

Sorry I have no digital pictures...thanks for reading though!

All-4-1

For the last 3 years I have had the privilege of leading a class at our church called "All-4-1". When the class started it was 2-4-1 because it was pretty much all newly married couples. Since then, most of the couples have had children and the name was changed. We are not to be confused with the band All 4 One...I Swear! (only some of you will get that...especially if you were born in the 70's or 80's).

Our church has grown to about 1,200 people every Sunday now, so we break down into these "small churches" to stay better connected. Even within our "small church" class of 40, we have broken down into even smaller groups that we call "care teams" to ensure everyone is being connected and cared for in a way that brings glory to God.

Currently we are going through the book of James. I try and connect each lesson with how it applies to our lives, our marriages, and our children - and James certainly has a lot to say about that! It is also a great experience for me to connect my Greek, hermeneutics, and seminary training to exegetical (basically getting into the mind of the author based on language, culture, placement, surrounding text, etc) teaching. Was seminary worth all the time and sacrifice? I'll let you ask Jen that question since she worked way harder than I did.

Anyways, All-4-1 is an awesome group of men and women, and it is amazing how many of them are involved deeply within the class (on our teams of care, teaching, hospitality, social, mens/womens ministry, and missions), or outside the class with youth group, nursery, The Cove (for young children), our church plant, Mother's of Preschoolers, etc. I say "amazing" because our class is at an age where time is a major factor since the high school/college days are done for everyone, the married days with no kids to be responsible for are gone for most, and retirement and empty nest is a long way off! If I had to guess, I would estimate 90% of us are involved in ministry inside and/or outside the class. Many churches would love to go above 30%! My philosophy of ministry and being a pastor (which I will talk more about in the future) is based on Ephesians 4 which Paul tells us God has gifted all believers and we are to all (not just pastors, elders, etc) use those gifts for His glory. My main function is to identify, teach, and train those to use their gifts for His Kingdom, and it is truly a blessing to see that happening in All-4-1!

Here is a video of a recent social --- Progressive Dinner

What happened to Jesus???

In the center of our seminary campus is a large statue of Jesus

One morning we woke up and out the window there was a crane taking Jesus away. Most of the people on campus were not awake yet, so when they got up, all they saw was the missing Jesus. There were a lot of theories being bounced around on what could have possibly happened to Jesus and the theological implications of where He could have gone.

I am known for playing some sneaky tricks around here and got blamed for quite a few things during this time (most of which I wasn't responsible --- for once). Someone placed a large sign in the center of where Jesus used to stand that read John 20:13 --- "They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have laid Him".

That got quite a few laughs, but however the best was a set of posters that began to show up all over campus. Someone (not me even though I got blamed) made posters that said "Missing --- Have you seen me?" with a large picture of the statue. At the bottom it said, "Call Joe" (another guy that plays a lot of tricks) along with his cell phone number. My sister bought be a talking Jesus a few years ago, so I decided to call Joe on his cell phone one night and have Jesus talking in the background. Problem was, the person who made the poster switched 2 numbers by accident and the call went to some State Farm Agent in Philadelphia. I wonder what that guy thought during the week Jesus was gone? I figure he must think a revival is breaking out since he got all these calls from people saying, "I've found Jesus"!

Anyways, Jesus safely returned on Wednesday from His repairs and cleaning, but not to be outdone, I had to show people once and for all what really happened to the statue of Jesus...

Welcome to my blog!!!

Thanks for stopping by. My desire is to keep everyone up-to-date on what is going on in life, share some stories of joys and struggles, as well as all the funny stuff that happens in between. Feel free to leave lots of comments so I know I am not just talking to myself!

P.S. --- Not my kids. That is my nephews Brady and Zach...along with my wife Jen.