Youth Ministry in Katrinaland

a new blog

2009-04-30T15:58:00.002-05:00

Since my life is resetting, I figured it's time to reset my blogging life too. Thus, you can find my new blog at:

www.plantandrun.com

thanks.

NYWC 2006

2006-10-11T15:14:00.000-05:00

So Kevin and I got back from the National Youth Workers Convention on Monday. We drove up to Austin late into the night on Thursday (Oct. 5) and the convention was Friday through Monday. Anyway, if you are a youth worker, I highly recommend it. This is my second time going...and the second time I have brought a volunteer with me (I miss you Joel). Very good stuff. I great mix of spiritual refrestment and training. Some of the highlights of the main sessions were David Crowder Band and Shane & Shane leading worship and talks from Donald Miller and Sharon Cohn. My breakout session highlights included learning about the latest research on adolescent development from Tony Jones and learning about experiential worship from Dan Kimball. All good stuff.

Oh, and by the way, if you ever get a chance to see Dan Kimball live...DO IT! Why? Well just because he has really...interesting...hair.

I only attended one session that ticked me off. Yeah. And I don't really get ticked off all that easily. The title of the session was, "Sacred Journeys: Re-Crafting the Youth Mission Trip as Pilgrimage."

Here is my summary of the session:
If we are honest, we'll admit that we take our youth on mission trips so that they will be changed. Changing the lives of the people we minister to is secondary. And, while we are at it, let's go ahead and admit that we really don't make much long-term change on their lives anyway. ("They" being the people our students minister to on the trips.) So, instead of taking mission trips, let's all go on "spiritual pilgrimages" where the focus is squarely on changing the lives of our students.

Now, I'll admit that this line of thinking has some worth. I have taken our students on mission trips where, if I am honest, I must admit that (1) we were there more for ourselves than for the people we ministered to and (2) we didn't make much of a real, lasting impact.

In fact, this whole concept has really shaken me over the past year as we been on the receiving end rather than the sending end of mission trips. Actually, you could make a case that the reason we have had so many churches do hurricane relief through us (instead of a big parachurch organization) is because they want to make a real and meaningful impact on the lives of those they help.

Berean is here for the long haul. Berean is committed to following up with the families that have been helped by hurricane relief teams. Berean is committed to changing and adapting to meet the new needs that are presented to us by being involved in hurricane relief.

AND, at the same time, we feel confident that the "missionaries" are being changed by the experience as well. My experience as a youth pastor who takes mission trips is always in the back of my mind as I lead in our hurricane relief efforts. Our goal is to reignite churches to reach their own community when the get back home.

So I think we have stumbled upon a model that is both/and instead of either/or. We have been able to create a model where both the "missionaries" and the "mission field" are impacted in a meaningful, long-term way by the experience. And I would argue that the key ingredient in this model is local churches working with local churches.

So what is the plan for our youth mission trip next summer? Well, we found a church that stayed here last summer that we felt a kinship to. It's a church that in many ways is a step ahead of us in their involvement in the community. We want to be able to go up and work with them in their community in much the same way that they worked in ours. It looks like it just might work out...

how 'bout dem Saints?

2006-09-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

So a couple of us gathered at my house yesterday afternoon to watch the Saints game. Man, they looked alright! You just don't know how bad we need something to cheer about here in New Orleans. I don't think this team is going to light the world on fire or anything...but I think they will do well enough to give us something to cheer about this year.

Check out this quote from John Carney, the Saint's kicker:
"I'm happy for two reasons, we're 1-0, and there's no hurricane in the Gulf."

So true...so true.

helping out in the schools

2006-09-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

Call me crazy, but I just absolutely love the fact that we have been able to help out in public schools since the storm. The above picture is from the Times-Picayune and it is of Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Algiers.

On Tuesday morning I walked into Tubman with a small team from Akron Bible Church. Before we walked through the gates, I briefly explained to the team the story of the Algiers Charter School Association and how we have been able to partner with them and send help their way. We held hands and prayed together and they walked into the courtyard on the side of the building.

The courtyard was filled with students. Teachers were doing their best to corral their
class together so that they could enter the building in a somewhat orderly fashion. The principal, Patsy Gearing is walking amongst the students, greeting some and pulling others back in line. Needless to say, they were a bit distracted with the beginning of the school day and we found ourselves sitting and waiting for the next half hour.

While we waited in a hallway of the school, Freddie, one of the team members, decided that we should pray. So we began to pray for the school, the students, the parents and the teachers. As we are praying, I can hear the voices of students and teachers walking back and forth between us as their day begins.

It was an amazing experience. I couldn't believe that we were able to do this in the halls of a public school.

That is such a great picture of what hurricane relief ministry has been. Doors that we never thought would open have been opened. We have been able to walk through those doors, with the help of work teams, and shine our light clearly and unashamedly. This is what the church is all about...being salt and light...bringing a dose of heaven into our broken world.

That has kept me going.

getting back

2006-08-29T11:16:00.000-05:00

So I guess August 29 is as good as any day to start blogging again. This is it. I'm starting back up. I promise.

I know, I know, you want to know why I haven't blogged for three months. Well, I don't have a good explanation, except to say that I just haven't felt up to it. Being part of ministry in New Orleans for the past year has been both extremely exciting and extremely depressing. I think I hit my lowest point sometime in June. I was ready to pack it in and go start over somewhere else.

It has been a long road to put our youth ministry back together, but it seems like the beginning of the school year is bringing us a fresh start. A lot of students have moved away...and a lot have come back home. Things surely look a lot different than they did last August before the storm, but God is working. I am genuinely excited to see where God will take us in the next year.

As for the work teams, this summer has truely been amazing. There have been times that hurricane relief has been the only thing that has kept me going. We are in the midst of thinking and dreaming about what Hurricane relief will look like for the next two to three years. That's right, I did type two to three years. We plan to equip ourselves to house mission teams from now until doomsday. God is using this whole experience to wake up our church and get us involved in our community. And if you know me, you know that I am excited about that.

I guess I don't need to make this long. I'm just here to say, "I'm back." Thank you all for all of your prayers and support over the past year. May God continue to heal New Orleans!

the lost experience

2006-05-25T16:52:00.000-05:00

Did you watch Lost last night? (PLEASE don't tell me you watched that OTHER show with the judges and the singers and the phone numbers!!) Anyway, it was really good and really disturbing. I don't know how they are doing it, but every time they reveal a "secret" they get you curious about three new ones.

In case you haven't seen it yet, check out this blog to learn about what is called "the Lost Experience." Apparently there is a whole online reality that has been created by the producers (which they deny, by the way). Lots of hidden clues and information, even a book that you can buy that is supposedly written by a man who was on the plane that crashed into the island (Sawyer is reading the manuscript in one of the recent episodes).

the newest iPod accessory

2006-05-24T10:25:00.000-05:00

My birthday is coming up. Maybe someone should buy me this.

The "iPod integration" into every aspect of life amazes me. Talk about a cultural revolution.

Barry

2006-05-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

You like watching baseball? I do. I have many fond memories of listening to Astros games on an old radio when I was a kid. I remember Barry Bonds in his prime with the Pirates. He won a couple of MVPs, hit for average, stole a ton of bases and, yes, could knock the ball out of the park.

I have to admit, I want Barry to be innocent. Maybe it is because I don't want to believe that the beloved national pastime can be marred by cheating on such a mass scale. Maybe it's because I believe that IF (this is totally hypothetical) Barry Bonds were somehow proven to be innocent...then he would be the greatest player ever to step up to the plate.

Anyway, if you are interested in the whole Barry Bonds situation like I am, then you will probably really enjoy this ESPN article. Apparently Patrick Hruby (the writer) did a bunch of reasearch to try to determine an approximate number of home runs that Barry would have hit without Steriods. Of course, it's not to be taken too seriously...it's all guesswork. BUT, I think it proves the point that Barry Bonds would have still been one of the greatest players of all time without the drugs. And that, my friends, is a tragedy.

the 10 commandments [of myspace] audio

2006-05-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

Since I am still catching up from Ruston, you must excuse my tardiness in posting the final talk of the IM or am i? series. It is titled, "the 10 commandments [of myspace]" from 05/07/06. You can download it by visiting our audio page. Just click on this banner.

Interactive Map/Timeline Thingy

2006-05-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

The Times-Picayune just posted an interactive timeline/map of exactly how the city flooded. It is an eye-opener...and a little scary since it reminds you of some type of military invasion. Check it out here.

out of town

2006-05-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

We (that is, Doug, Crystal, Sam and Zach) are heading to north Louisiana for a couple of days. We leave tomorrow morning (Monday) and come back on Thursday. We will be staying with the Trauths in Ruston and will see the Burtons and all of the LaTech students from Berean. Keep us in your prayers. Traveling with two little boys can be quite a chore. To make things even more complicated, they both appear to be coming down with something. It is currently 10:30pm and Zach just woke himself up with a really bad cough.

United 93

2006-05-05T14:27:00.000-05:00

Crystal and I made a rare trip to the movie theater last night to see United 93. Wow. We were impacted greatly.

I have been thinking a lot about the movie, and my mind had gone in a million directions. So, rather than writing a review, I have a couple of random thoughts:

Many have questioned this film. Are we still too close to the actual events? Will this film be a chance for someone to push their political agenda? Will the circumstances of Flight 93 be trivialized? All I have to say is this film has somehow steered clear of all of these possible pitfalls. It is accurate and honorable.
There is not one actor in this movie with which you are familiar. In fact, many of the roles are played not by actors but by the real life people who were working on Sept. 11, 2001. This adds to the realism and the "non-hollywoodesque" feel to the movie.
Paul Greengrass was the perfect choice to direct this movie. If you have seen The Bourne Supremacy (which he also directed), you know that his style is gritty and real. He loves to use handheld cameras, which gives his films a "documentary-like" feel. That style worked sooo perfectly for this story.
I expected that experiencing this movie would make me revisit my feelings on those fateful days in early September 2001. That didn't exactly happen. I think that for most of us, we felt so helpless as we watched this whole thing unfold on our television screens. Greengrass seems to have intentionally avoided showing that perspective. Every scene is seen through the eyes of someone who was in the middle of this. You are forced to view this story through the eyes of someone who has the opportunity to act.
Speaking of perspective, as we talked after the movie, Crystal and I realized that we each took totally different perspectives. I found myself in the plane, questioning whether or not I would be able to act with such courage. Crystal, having read Lisa Beamer's book, found herself in the place of the family member at home who helplessly talks on the phone with their loved-one for the final time. While I was very emotional, I felt like I had just been injected with pure adrenaline. My will to survive was kicked into high gear and I was ready to fight for my existence. Going back to the previous point, this is not what I expected. Titanic is a tragic story that left you cold and numb. United 93 is a courageous story that almost excites you.
The pacing of the narrative is perfect. The film moves rather slowly, and you already know exactly what is going to happen. So, you spend most of the movie waiting for the hijackers to act, and then waiting for the passengers to respond.
Speaking of timing, I didn't realize this, but the length of the film is supposed to be realtime. The film is 121 minutes long. I guess that is about the amount of time it took for all of this to occur.
It's rated R. That is for violence and language. I personally would have no qualms taking a teenager to see it. I think it is worth the experience and the ensuing discussion.

Anyway, that is all I have time for now. Needless to say, I highly recommend the movie.

"othercotting" Da Vinci Code

2006-05-04T12:04:00.000-05:00

There is an article over at Christianity Today that is asking evangelicals to "othercott" the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie. It is a call for Christians to go to the theaters on opening weekend and to see another movie. He recommends the Dreamworks animated feature Over the Hedge.

I think that is an interesting and creative idea.

5 nike cycle

2006-05-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

The audio from Sunday night (04/30) is up. Week 5 of the IM or am i? series is called "the nike cycle." Click on the banner to visit the Connection Audio page.

online TV

2006-05-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

"Hey, have you seen that commercial?"

How many times have you been asked that question? How many times have you asked that question?

It is pretty scary how much 30 second advertisements have infiltrated our lives and our culture. Some are clever, some are annoying and some you simply can't get out of your head.

Let me give you a piece of advice. If you are in the midst of casual conversation with me...don't ask me about commercials anymore. It's not that I find them offensive or something (although, when you think about it, maybe...). I just don't ever see them anymore.

And I don't miss them.

One of the reasons we wanted to get TiVo was so that we could avoid watching live TV. I mean, we never watch live TV. When I flop down on the couch. I don't flip through the channels...I scroll through our playlist.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who is avoiding commercials. The networks are feeling a hit and are trying to find alternative methods of force-feeding us advertising. One of the more creative ideas to come down the pike is ABC's new "full episode streaming." As of yesterday, you can now watch full episodes of four of ABC's most popular programs (Desperate Housewives, Lost, Alias, and Commander in Chief) anytime you want for free.

So what's the catch? You have to watch commercials. They are using the term "limited commercials." Basically, every commercial break is one 30 second commerical that ends with a clickable banner ad.

That's cool. Although I won't really need to use it.

Thanks TiVo.

Mat Kearney CD on sale at Best Buy

2006-04-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

Mat Kearney's new CD, "Nothing Left to Lose" was released on Tuesday. Drop everything and head over to Best Buy and pick up a copy. I think Best Buy is smoking a little something, because they have the CD on sale for only $7.99. In fact, make that two copies so that you can give one away.

The CD is amazing. I know it is cliche, but Mat Kearney is going to be the next big thing in the music scene. You just mark my words.

Evangelical Climate Initiative

2006-04-19T14:20:00.000-05:00

Click here to read an article from an Orlando newspaper on the Evangelical Climate Initiative. It is a movement among evangelicals to start paying attention to global warming. A bulk of the article is an interesting interview with Evangelical pastor and ECI spokesman, Joel Hunter.

I really liked his answer to this question:

OW: The ECI is being attacked by Chuck Colson and Jim Dobson, who say the evidence supporting global warming is not conclusive. Why should Christians listen to the ECI and not Colson and Dobson?
Hunter: First place, every time we come up with a general health scare there will be people who have a general investment in that field who for years come up with scientific evidence that says this isn't conclusive. They did this with tobacco. They did this with asbestos. There's always going to be a skepticism that has kind of a protectionistic attribute to it.

I have tremendous respect for Chuck Colson and James Dobson, but I think they're working off an old agenda. The old agenda is that the only way to approach this issue is to put in more government regulation, and that will hurt business. And I've heard the argument that if you hurt business, you hurt the poor.

That's an old paradigm. We are for – and you can read this at our website – we are for market-based approaches. We believe the economy can actually be stimulated by doing what's right, rather than suppressed.

I honestly don't know enough about global warming to have an opinion. But I applaud evangelicals who are willing to think both biblically and intelligently. I am very happy to see us get to a place where evangelicals care about issues because it is the right thing to do...rather than the "right-wing" thing to do.

my tricked up iPod

2006-04-18T17:20:00.000-05:00

Yet further proof that I'm a geek.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that my iPod was not working right. Apparently my "fix" (banging it against my desk) only kinda fixed it. I did some more research and figured out that I could buy replacement parts and fix/upgrade it myself. So, I spent a little less than $200 for a new hard drive (8gb instead of 4) and a new double capacity battery. I followed the instructions that I found online here, took apart my iPod and fixed it.

Now I have an iPod mini on steriods. I can listen to twice as many songs for twice as long. Horray! Wow. I am a geek.

In case you care, here is what my iPod looked like in pieces:
.

the new Berean website

2006-04-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

The new Berean website is up and running. Head over to www.bereannola.com and check it out. We don't have everything up...but it was close enough to launch. Let me know what you think.

The Ten Commandments of Hollywood.

2006-04-14T10:23:00.000-05:00

So, did any of you watch the ABC "made-for-TV" movie, The Ten Commandments? It aired in two parts this past Monday and Tuesday. I TiVoed it. (Oh, I love that verb) I finished watching it last night. You can find the official ABC webpage here and the filmmaker's official website here.

What was my impression? I was a bit disappointed. I thought the acting and special effects were subpar. I could have overlooked that, though, if it weren't for the problems I had with the plot itself.

I sat down this morning to read through Exodus and think through the film. I have been trying to put a finger on why the movie didn't feel right. Please bear with me for the next couple of paragraphs. It might not appear to be that relevant right away...but trust me.

I've heard filmmakers say that character development is extremely important to a good movie (and a good story). Good filmmakers are meticulous about the way they present their characters. They pay attention to every word a character speaks, the clothes they wear, the background music during their screentime and the situations in which they are placed. Their first scene is always crucial, and there are always certain scenes that only appear in a movie in order to transform the way you view a certain character.

When filmmakers tackle the daunting task of transforming well known literature to the silver screen, they have to make changes to the story. Common logic tells us that some things that make sense in written form just don't work when the story is told visually. It seems to me that the filmmakers that have done the best job are those who truly understand their characters and let those characters guide the changes that are made.

A great example is the Lord of the Rings movies. There are people that have lived and breathed Middle Earth since they were ten years old...and they, by and large, accepted the changes that Peter Jackson made to the stories. Why? I think it is because Peter Jackson's changes were true to the characters.

Perhaps the biggest stroke of genius about Jackson's movies was his decision to treat "the Ring" as a character. Way to think outside of the box, Petey! (Yeah, Peter Jackson and I are close. I call him "Petey." Okay, not really. But I do have a friend who is a pastor in New Zealand. That's close, isn't it? But I digress...) The Ring is an inanimate object, but Peter Jackson treated it just like any living, breathing character in the film. He recognized that this tiny piece of gold represented something extremely important to the human condition...something that you can't see or taste or touch...something that exists on a spiritual level. Peter Jackson avoided a mistake that is often made by filmmakers...trivializing the unseen...the spiritual.

I think herein lies the major flaw of this version of The Ten Commandments. The filmmaker, Robert Halmi Sr., admittedly focused on the character of Moses. He says, "our version will leave the viewer with a totally new interpretation of who Moses is." As you watch the movie, that agenda is obvious. Almost every change from the Biblical text appears to be an attempt to develop the character of Moses.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

Example one: in the movie God only appears to and speaks to Moses. Many of the Israelite doubts and complaints come from the fact that they have never seen or heard from God. Instead, they must blindly trust that Moses' conversations with God are real. In the Biblical text, we see something entirely different. During the plagues, God often speaks to both Moses and Aaron together (Ex 9.8). The night of the Passover is one in which the entire nation relates to God through worship and ceremony (Ex 12). When the people of Israel reach Mount Sinai, God reveals Himself to the entire nation and allows them to listen in as He speaks to Moses (Ex 19). These revisions are all done in order to characterize Moses as someone who was put in cirmstances that made him a loner...having to deal with something with which no one else could sympathize or understand.
A second example is Israel's response to the crossing of the Red Sea and being conclusively saved from the Egyptians. Chapter 15 of Exodus is one of the most worshipful moments of the entire book for both the people and for Moses. In beautiful poetic language, Moses leads the people in song to God. They sing lyrics like, "The Lord is my strength and my defense, he has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name." (Ex 15.2-3). It is a moment of unity and confident praise of God. In the movie, it is changed into a moment of separation between Moses and the people. While the people cheer (like they are at a football game), Moses is hundreds of yards away on the beach by himself, cradling the dead body of his adopted Egyptian brother and crying out at God. Again, this is a change that is made in order to characterize Moses as a recluse, steeped in depression and doubt.
A third example is the visit from Jethro (Moses' father-in-law) in the desert. The entire visit is summarize in Exodus 18. Over half of the chapter is reserved for a description of Jethro advising Moses to appoint judges so that he does not have to sit as judge over the people. The text causally mentions that Moses' wife and two children arrive with Jethro, but the content focus' on the conversation between Moses and Jethro. One is given the impression by the final verse in the chapter that Jethro leaves alone...meaning that Moses' family is reunited from this point forward. In the movie, the visit focuses on Moses' argument with his wife and his decision to send the family away because he doesn't have time to spend with them. He accuses God of taking his family from him and leaving him alone. Nothing is said of Jethro's advice about appointing judges. In fact, the following scenes portrays Moses as the sole judge over the people. He is overwhelmed. His detractors turn to each other and say, "He is speaks to God for us, He must lead us in battle and he appoints himself as our judge!?" (my paraphrase).

My problem, though, is not with the decision to portray Moses this way. It might be a bit exaggerated, but I think that, by and large, their characterization of Moses is true to form. He did feel like an outsider amongst the Israelite people. He had never lived with them. He did doubt his own leadership skills. He did feel overwhelmed at times. He did feel like the entire nation was against him at times.

My problem is with the unintended (or maybe intended) consequence of these changes to the story. In order to portray Moses as a loner...and one who must carry this burden alone...as someone who was constantly doubted by his people...they necessarily had to recharacterize the central character in the story: God. The gap that is built between Moses and the people means that a gap was built between God and the people. So instead of portraying God as a caring, involved God, He is instead portrayed as a cruel dictator who forces his will on people without explanation.

I wish the filmmaker had chosen to go the Peter Jackson route. Treat God as the central character in the film. Think long and hard about the first scene in which He appears (the burning bush). Think about the words you place in His mouth. Think about the colors and images and music that are associated with Him.

I guess I should not be surprised. I don't think the filmmaker shares my view of God. In fact, I get the impression that he intended to portray God as cruel, distant and violent without reason.

Perhaps the success of The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia doesn't mean that evangelicals now own Hollywood. Darn it.

IM or am i? week four

2006-04-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

The files for Sunday 04/09 are up. Week four of the IM or am i? series. The talk is entitled, "image consultant."

Click the below banner to download it. By the way, our new website should go live sometime in the next week.

Relatedly, we do not have youth group this sunday night...since it is Easter Sunday.

3 christian t-shirt MP3

2006-04-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

The audio from Sunday night (04/02) is up. It is week three of the IM or am i? series. The talk is called "Christian T-shirt." Be sure to listen to the story of Doug's trip to the local Christian "bookstore." (Yes, I use the term "bookstore" very loosely.)

the highs and lows of technology

2006-03-30T10:12:00.000-06:00

I must admit, I am a geek. It must be unhealthy how excited I can get about technology. My wife gets annoyed with me because I seem to be always in need of some new and exciting product that will wire my life a little bit more.

My latest calling has been to acquire TiVo. I had heard amazing stories of people's lives being changed by this wonderous, magical box. Marriages had been restored, enemies reconciled, life snatched out the jaws of death...okay, so I made all that up. BUT, I did hear a lot of good things about TiVo.

Last week I was in Best Buy. (Yeah, further proof that I'm a geek. Sometimes when I am driving near Manhattan Blvd, Best Buy enchantingly sings my name like a siren and lures me in.) The 80-hour TiVo box was on sale...and I had just received a "bonus" (you know, one of those anonymous checks) from church just days before. I immediately flipped open my cell phone and held down the "2" to speedail my wife. (Did I mention I also have a new camera flip-phone? It's very exciting.)

It didn't take too much convincing to gain permission to walk out of Best Buy with TiVo under my arm. Oh, what a glorious day! I got it hooked up fairly easily and I added a wireless network connection yesterday. This thing is amazing. I could sit here and bore you by listing all of the cool things it does...but I will restrain myself. If you want to come over and visit me, I'll be happy to give you a demonstration.

Now, on to the bad news. Yesterday afternoon I my iPod froze and upon resetting it I saw an icon that I had never seen before...the "sad iPod" icon (see the pic).

I knew this probably wasn't a good thing. I tried resetting it again...no luck. I tried connecting it to my computer...it didn't recognize it. I tried calling Apple support...I found out that I would have to pay $50 just to have one phone call with a tech support rep. I researched sending it in to Apple (it is out of warranty), it was going to cost me some absurd amount of money (like $200) to get it serviced.

I was sad. The sad iPod icon made me sad. At this point, it appeared that I was down to two options: (1) I was chunking my iPod and buying a brand new one or (2) I would somehow figure out how to fix it myself.

I did a little bit of research online and discovered that the "sad iPod" icon most probably means that you have a problem with your hard drive. Not good. I held the iPod up to my ear and I could hear a clicking noise...like the head of the hard drive was trying to move but was stuck. I also read that some people had "thumped" their iPod to fix this sort of prob. Hmmm...

So a thumped it...pretty hard. No luck. I tried it again and again and again. (What do I have to lose? It's worthless anyway.) Finally I slammed the side of the iPod against my desk...and lo and behold the menu screen popped up!

And there was much rejoicing.

Everything is fine. I didn't even lose my sound files that were stored on the hard drive.

The moral of the story is: technology is good. When it makes you sad...just bang it against something really hard and it will make you happy again.

The End.

YOUTH EVENT: Final Four Party

2006-03-29T14:14:00.000-06:00

Hey all.
You are invited to watch the Final Four semis at Church. We'll set up the big screen and project in high definition. We'll have some food and drinks.

The games are Saturday night at 5pm (George Mason vs. Florida) and 7:45pm (LSU vs. UCLA). We'll watch the game in the front building at Berean.

Don't miss it!

Let Doug know (doug@bereannola.com) if you will attend. Thanks!

MP3 file for week two of "IM or am i?"

2006-03-29T13:35:00.000-06:00

I just uploaded the audio from last Sunday night (03/26). It is week two of the IM or am i? series. The talk is entitled, "identity theft."

Instead of posting the links...I'm gonna let you in on a secret. We are currently working on the new bereannola.com. Click here to visit the new youth audio page to download the current message (and all the previous messages). Feel free to click around a bit and let me know your thoughts on the new site.

SHHH! Don't tell anybody! The website isn't live yet. We hope to launch it very soon.

random links

2006-03-28T19:23:00.000-06:00

Hello all. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I plan on uploading the talk from Sunday's youth group sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a couple of interesting weblinks for you to peruse:

Click here to view the trailer for the upcoming movie United 93. Yes, it is about that flight 93. The one that didn't hit a building on September 11th. It looks very good. It is directed by Paul Greengrass (who also directed the gritty Bourne Supremacy).
Apparently Tom Hanks has agreed to star in a new movie entitled, "How Starbucks saved my Life." And they haven't even asked me if they could make a movie about my life! Ha. Just kidding. It looks to be a story about someone working at Starbucks...not someone who is merely addicted to coffee.
Why do Christians always have to take whatever is trendy and create their own (lame) version of it? Did you know there is a "Christian" version of myspace? Speaking of myspace, have you checked out the new youth group myspace?
I just signed an online petition called CAPS - "Christians against Pat Speaking." You should too.
I just stumbled across an article on the turnaround of O. P. Walker High School. For those not from New Orleans, O. P. Walker is a pretty rough public school that is here in Algiers. It was chartered and has been reopened for a couple of months. It is a pretty amazing story. I think good days are ahead for that school and for all of those in the Algiers Charter School Association. Big props to my elementary school principal Brian Riedlinger. He is heading up the ACSA.

I love you all.

ourspace

2006-03-21T19:26:00.000-06:00

Well, we have decided to take the myspace plunge and start a official Connection Youth Group myspace page. You can see it here. Special thanks to Sam. She started the myspace for us and she will be helping me to keep it updated.

If you have a myspace, feel free to ask to be our friend. You never know, maybe we'll even honor your request. (Doesn't that sound a little weird? You can ask to be our friend? Yeah. I think so too.) In fact, you can even ask Jesus to be your friend.

Everything you need to know about our youth ministry will be posted there. We plan on having lots and lots of pictures, activity info and other goodies. It will constantly be evolving...so be sure to visit often.

So what does that mean for this blog? Does the new myspace page replace it? No...not exactly. I will no longer post youth group announcements here. Instead, I will focus on making this journal about me (Doug) and what goes on in my personal life. Which, of course, means that a lot of it will have to do with youth ministry. In other words, it will pretty much be the same minus the youth announcements.

Enough rambling...no one is reading anyway...you all have already hit the above link and are checking out our new myspace!

March/April Parent Connection

2006-03-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

Click here for the Parent Connection newsletter that will be mailed out today...and click here for the Summer Trip Application that is talked about in the newsletter.

MP3 file from Sunday Night

2006-03-16T10:21:00.000-06:00

We started the IM or am i? series this past Sunday. Things went off without a hitch...NOT. Despite the technical difficulties (which I was able to edit out. hehehe.), we had a great start to our exploration into Cyberspace. The title of this first talk is, "the WORLD of cyberspace." We explored what Scripture has to say about the "world." Is it good, bad, neutral? I guess you'll have to listen to find out.

Here is the handout and the MP3:

Click here to download the MP3 sound file

Click here to download the handout

Again, don't forget, it's best to right click on the link and choose "save target as..."

pics from the student life tour

2006-03-15T11:22:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics from the Student Life Tour in Baton Rouge this weekend. Also, Student Life is supposed to post some "official" pics here sometime soon.

Enjoy:

Hornet's tickets still available

2006-03-14T17:01:00.000-06:00

I still have a handful of tickets left for the Hornet's game this Saturday night. The game starts at 7pm...so we will meet at church at 5:30pm (eat dinner before you come). The tickets are $20 each and they are in rows 10 and 12 of section 315 ($43 seats!). Parents, if you want to come with us...just let me know. I'll reserve a ticket for you.

Let me know if you want one of the last couple of tickets.

my last couple and next couple of 24 hours

2006-03-10T12:08:00.000-06:00

Hey all. Lots is happening in the life of Doug.

Crystal and I (along with Brad, Julie and Chris) went to the Pastor's Luncheon with Billy and Franklin Graham yesterday. It was cool to see and hear from someone who has meant so much to evangelicalical culture. Heck, Billy Graham has meant a ton to American culture. Anyway, there is just something super-affirming about Billy Graham telling you that what you are doing matters. I think that it was encouraging for all of us who are mucking it here in Katrinaland. At the same time, though, it was a weird afternoon. People were ohhing and ahhing and claping and standing like this guy was Jesus or something.
Last night I went to the MuteMath concert with Thecla and Chris (see the above pic). It was nothing short of amazing. Those guys can flat out play and they know how to make your jaw drop. If they ever are in your area, go see them play. If you have never heard of them, you can check out some of their songs over at their myspace page. The best way I can describe their sound is to say they sound like Coldplay's next CD. Does that make any sense?
We leave for the Student Life tour this afternoon. I am excited! It's gonna be really good.
We start a new series this Sunday night. (That's right, youth group is now on Sunday evenings at 6pm.) The series is entitled, "IM or am i?" We will be talking about cyberspace and who you are when you are online (think myspace). Here is a snapshot of the title slide. -->

my new phone

2006-03-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I headed over to the local T-Mobile store so that I could get a new phone. I have had their newest "free phone" for about six months and one of the buttons is broken. I decided it was time to spring for a nicer phone, and I figured I would go for a camera phone while I was at it. If you know me well...you know that I'm not much of a picture taker. I'm hoping that having a camera phone in my possession will help me take more pictures.

It's also a great way to keep two-year olds occupied at restaurants...

Student Life Tour This Weekend in Baton Rouge

2006-03-07T15:32:00.000-06:00

This weekend is the long awaited Student Life Tour. I am pumped about this! If you are going (or still considering going...more on that in a sec), here are some important tidbits:

It's not too late to sign up! I purchased some extra tickets...I will give them out first come, first serve. Once I run out of tickets...you can STILL go. The only hitch is that you would have to pay an additional $5 for your ticket (bringing your total to $25 instead of $20).
Speaking of money, make sure to pack some extra spending money. You will need to pay for one fast-food meal on the way to Baton Rouge. Also, their will be a ton of Student Life merchandise for sale at the tour. Check out their store website for an idea.
Speaking of packing, you need to bring (1) a sleeping bag/pillow, (2) toiletries, (3) a towel, and (4) clothes for Saturday. We are spending the night at Community Bible Church.
Speaking of Community Bible Church, they are a "sister church" that is providing accomodations and meals on Satuday. Awww...how nice of them. Their youth group will also be attending the tour and they will also be spending the night at church on Friday night to protect us from the Baton Rouge Boogey Monsters.
Speaking of the Baton Rouge Boogey Monsters, I think that would be a great name for an Arena football team.
Speaking of football, we like to play football at church...and YOU need to be at church at 4:30PM on Friday if you are coming. If it makes more sense for you to just meet us in Baton Rouge, call Doug (975-7570) and we can arrange that.
Speaking of traveling to Baton Rouge, we will arrive home FROM Baton Rouge on Saturday night around 7:00pm.

For more info, visit the Student Life Tour page.

See you Friday at 4:30pm.

X3: The Last Stand

2006-03-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

The new trailer for X-Men 3 has been posted online. You can see it here. It looks really good. Also, the impression I get from the trailer is that this will be the final X-Men movie. Too bad...'cause...well...did I mention it looks really good?

Luau Hilights

2006-03-06T14:24:00.000-06:00

So, the luau was last night. About 25 of us were there. (Yay.) We listened to the Beach Boys and Jack Johnson. We enjoyed our shish kabobs and smoothies. We danced...we surfed...we played basketball?!

Seriously, it was really fun. Thanks to all that came. It was a great way to kick off our new Sunday night youth group. From now on, we will meet on Sunday nights from 6:00-7:30pm.

Congrats to Samantha, Stephen and Kaleb. Sam won our airboarding contest with some unique moves. Stephen and Kaleb's Thriller dance captured the coveted hula doubles competition. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I don't have any pictures of their award-winning acts.

Speaking of pictures, be sure to check out a couple of pictures of the night at the bottom of this post. We are going to try to do a better job of taking pictures of events so that we can post them online. Hope you enjoy...

Thanks to all that helped. Thecla and Samantha did a wonderful job decorating the place. Bridget and Crystal put together a scrumptuous menu...and Christina helped them prepare it. Jim and Rob were our grill masters. Thec, Rob, Keith and Clay were our judges.

Come to the Luau

2006-03-01T18:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I told you we wanted to do something special for the first Sunday night youth group...well, we decided to put on a LUAU. That's right, we will have grass skirts, palm trees, shish kabobs, the works. Don't miss it! See this flyer for more details. Invite your friends, be ready to eat and dance.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Mardi Gras

2006-02-28T10:25:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to extend a Happy Mardi Gras to all. It is really weird to think about the fact that this is a holiday here in New Orleans and pretty much a regular work/school day for everyone else around the country. Sorry you don't get a day off! I guess there still are some perks for New Orleanians.

Speaking of Mardi Gras, I'm sure some of you noticed the anonymous comment posted concerning this year's festivities. I must admit, my first thought was, "I'm not responding to an anonymous comment!" Come to find out, the author didn't intend to be unknown. Lawrence, a Berean elder and a good friend, revealed himself as the culprit.

So, Lawrence's comment has been swimming in my head over the past week or so. I plan on posting a response either today or tomorrow...

six months after Katrina

2006-02-26T17:41:00.000-06:00

I just can't say enough good things about the Times-Picayune's coverage of the aftermath of Katrina. They published a great graphic that gives a clear picture the demographics (yes, I typed the word DEMOGRAPHICS!) of the metro area. Click here to view the graphic.

my rant

2006-02-25T10:24:00.000-06:00

Can I rant for a minute?

Thanks for your permission. So yesterday was the deadline to signup for the Student Life Tour. I want to extend my gratitute to you who contacted me and let me know whether or not you (or your child) will be attending.

I really didn't hear from that many of you.

It's not that I think we don't have a lot of people who want to go. I pulled out my handy-dandy list of students, made some rough estimates, contacted Student Life and paid for 20 spots.

It's not that you were uninformed. I communicated this deadline: (1) in the Parent Connection Newsletter, (2) in multiple emails, (3) on my blog and (4) verbally at youth meetings.

So what's the deal?

I know that everyone is busy. Maybe I would overlook things if it weren't for the fact that this happened frequently before Katrina.

So what do I need to change? What do you need to change?

Please let me know your thoughts.

2/22/06 Youth Group MP3

2006-02-23T11:27:00.000-06:00

We wrapped up the Amos Outdoor Prophet series last night. The final lesson was entitled, "Listening for your Hopebeat."

Here are the downloads:

MP3 file

handout

Right-click on the links and choose "Save target as..."

FEMA trailer cities

2006-02-23T09:48:00.000-06:00

An interesting brief article was just posted over at Relevant Magazine's website. It is one that is very relevant (no pun intended) to our circumstances here in New Orleans concerning FEMA trailer cities. If you don't live here, you might not be aware of the controversy swirling where neighborhoods shout, "no FEMA trailer cities in my backyard!"

It's funny how scared we Americans can be sometimes. We hold "safety" in such high regard. How often do we neglect basic tenets of our faith (reaching out to the poor, showing love to our neighbors and our enemies, etc.) for the sake of making our lives "safer."

Two quotes to ponder concerning this issue:

We cannot avoid risk even if we want to. Ignorance and uncertainty about tomorrow is our native air. All of our plans for tomorrow's activities can be shattered by a thousand unknowns whether we stay at home under the covers or ride the freeways. One of my aims is to explode the myth of safety and to somehow deliever you from the enchantment of security. Because it's a mirage. It doesn't exist. Every direction you turn there are unknowns and things beyond your control.
-John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p. 81

poverty is so hard to see
when it's only on your TV and twenty miles across town
when we're all living so good
that we moved from Jesus' neighborhood
where he's hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
I want your time, I want your voice
I want the things you just can't give me
-Derek Webb, Rich Young Ruler from the CD Mockingbird.

pray for Ben

2006-02-22T15:31:00.000-06:00

A good friend of mine from DTS, Ben Blackwell, is in the UK right now. He is on a wirlwind trip around the US and Europe to visit a host of different theological schools. He is applying and interviewing for Ph.D. programs. You can read about his travels at his family blog here.

If you remember, keep him in your prayers. Needless to say, this is a huge decision for Ben and his family. I truly believe that Ben has been gifted in a unique way and can make a big impact in the academic arena.

I must admit, I am a little jealous. I would love the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D., especially in Europe. Maybe one day. For now, I guess I can experience it vicariously through Ben.

waiting one more week to start youth group on Sundays

2006-02-21T14:41:00.000-06:00

I must admit, I had a blonde moment (no offense, blondes) when I set the date for us to begin Sunday night youth groups. It did not occur to me that this Sunday (Feb 26) is the Sunday before Mardi Gras. That means that many of you couldn't make it because of parades or out of town trips. So, we have decided to wait one more week before the big transition. Our first Sunday night youth group will be on March 5th.

Sorry for the last minute change. See you Wednesday night.

YOUTH: 2 reminders

2006-02-20T12:11:00.000-06:00

Hello all. Two important things to remember this week:

Our first ever Sunday night youth group is this week. We will meet this Sunday evening (Feb 26) from 6:00-7:30pm. We have some fun stuff planned to kick things off. Let's just say...it will be a party! Don't miss it. Also, we DO have youth group on Wednesday night as well.
The deadline to sign up for the Student Life Conference is this Friday. Please call me or email me before Friday to let me know if you are planning on attending. It is March 10-11 in Baton Rouge and will cost $20. More info here.

I love you all. I can't wait to see you.

2/15/06 Youth Group MP3

2006-02-16T11:42:00.000-06:00

Hello all.

I uploaded the MP3 and bulletin from youth group last night. The talk was entitled, "Painkillers, Plumblines and Plumblives." We looked at Amos 7.1-9. Below are the downloads.

Click here to download the MP3

Click here to download the bulletin

remember, you want to right-click on the links and choose "save target as..." from the menu.

Oh, and Dillon, be sure to listen.

new Parent Connection Newletter

2006-02-14T11:11:00.000-06:00

The Feburary Parent Connection newsletter is being mailed out today. You can also view it here.

religious prejudice

2006-02-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

I read an article a while back by Philip Yancey. He is a Christian author and speaker who gets the opportunity to address all kinds of different groups...including university groups that usually aren't too friendly to evangelicals. He is often approached by university professors and others and gets asked something like, "How in the world can you associate yourself with evangelicals? They are so bigoted and narrow-minded!"

He responds by asking them a question.

"Do you know any evangelicals? I mean, do you know any personally?"

Usually the response is silence.

It's funny how easy it is to attack a straw man...a stereotype. Unfortunately, it looks like another writer has made the same mistake in this recent USA Today article.

It's kinda funny. He talks about stereotypes of American Christians...then talks about actually personally meeting some Christians in Italy...and how they are nothing like the stereotypes...but then concludes that American Christians are more like the steretype than the people he met!?

Sad. I hope that Rob Borsellino gets a chance to actually meet and get to know some Christians sometime soon.

a grave admission

2006-02-11T21:45:00.000-06:00

I have something I have to confess to you.

As I type, it is late on Saturday night. The house is dark. Sam is sleeping. Crystal and Zach are away at Bonko (curses! and I thought that Katrina washed away the coveted Bonko table). I sit here in front of the computer with a cup of hot tea seaming beside me.

In the quietness I must face the facts.

Here it is. Are you ready?

I just watched a Will Ferrell movie.

You heard me right. I actually headed over to the movie theater, shelled out twelve bucks for two tickets and sat through an hour and a half of Will Ferrell.

The worst part is that I actually took my two year old son with me.

The worser part is that I enjoyed the movie.

Okay. So it's not as bad as it sounds. Quit throwing rocks at me! I saw Curious George. Gosh.

Seriously, though, it got me thinking. So I did a bit of research. If memory serves me right, I have seen a total of one Will Ferrell movie: Elf. And I borrowed the DVD from the Trauths...like a year after it was released to video.

Enough of my hatefest with Will Ferrell movies...let me tell you how much fun I had tonight.

So Sam and I read Sam's favorite Curious George book, packed some milk & dinosaur crackers and jumped into "Daddy's Jeep" to see the movie.

Did I mention that we listened to the Curious George soundtrack in the Jeep on the way to the theater? (By the way, I think I have a mancrush on Jack Johnson.)

Words cannot describe how much fun it was to watch Sam's eyes and face from the moment the lights dimmed until the credits rolled.

He loved it. He sat through the whole ninety minutes. He laughed out loud and burst out comments at the screen. ("There's George!!")

He didn't even get distracted by the kid two seats down who started screaming when a pack of poodles started yapping at George through a Taxicab window.

As for the movie itself, it is really interesting to see 2-D animation in this day and age. I remember when I saw Toy Story for the first time. I was wowed by the 3-D animation. I thought it was amazingly cool.

I think that over the past couple of years, we have forgotten how animation can be a beautiful piece of art. The story is painted in bold, bright colors. The starry sky takes your breath away.

And the whole thing has this feel to it. I don't know how else to describe it except to say that it feels like the old Curious George books.

The story is simple. It is full of little moments that just make you smile. Both George and the Man with the Yellow Hat are very well done characters. You fall in love with them pretty quickly. Will Ferrell and all of the voice actors do a great job (am I really typing that?). The soundtrack is Jack Johnson with some orchestration added here and there (which sounded awesome). And like all good children's movies, the point is clearly spelled out not long before the credits roll.

It is refreshing to see a kid's movie that is really for kids. I am tired of children's movies that throw in humor that flies over the heads of the primary audience. By the way, that doesn't mean that adults won't laugh or enjoy themselves.

It is a movie that makes adults want to be kids again.

So, if you have kids, take them. If you are a kid, go see it. If neither of the last two apply...pretend that one of them is true of you and go to the movies.

IFCA Pastor's Retreat

2006-02-06T12:40:00.001-06:00

Crystal and I will be spending the next two nights at a hotel in Baton Rouge for an Pastor's retreat. The IFCA (Berean's "denomination") has graciously decided to host a retreat for all of the pastor's affected by Katrina. We are excited.

That means that don't expect to be able to reach us for the next 48 hours or so. We will return sometime Wednesday.

Oh, and please pray for us. Zach is coming with us. He has not been feeling well lately. It wouldn't make for a fun trip if Zach is cranky. Sam is staying with Christina and Rob. Two nights apart from Mom and Dad. This will be a first. Hopefully he'll be fine.

See you later.

routines and rantings

2006-02-03T13:47:00.000-06:00

Every morning when I get up I...

walk to the bathroom

brush aside the shower curtain in order to grab my face soap and washcloth.

turn on the water in the bathroom sink

wait for the water to get warm

wash my face

put the soap and washcloth back

put in my contacts

put on deoderant

wet my hair and slap a little bit of gel in it in order to get rid of that horrendous bedhead

brush my teeth

go back to the room and get dressed

It never changes. I do the exact same thing in the exact same order every morning. I don't think about it. I just do it.

How much of our life is routine? More than we probably realize.

When you live in a fallen world, life often throws curveballs. There is traffic where the streets are supposed to be open. We get unexpected phone calls, flat tires and pop quizzes. It rains when Bob Breck says it will be sunny.

Or the hurricane that he says will turn northward and go into the Atlantic hits New Orleans.

Routine is about security and control. It is often the only controllable thing in our uncontrollable lives. Whether it is driving to school every morning, watching your favorite weekly show or going to the beach every third week in July, it is important. In fact, we have no clue how important to our general well-being these mindless activities can be.

At least, until you lose it all.

Five months later, I find myself in this place where I just want my pre-Katrina routine back. Yet so much will never be the same. Every Friday night my extended family gets together.

Every Friday my entire life. That's twenty eight years.

We would gather at my grandmother's house, go out to eat and enjoy each other's presence.

We recently started up the tradition again.

My grandmother's house was under eight feet of water. Her house was on edge of the 17th st. Canal in West End. So, tonight we are going to meet at my cousin Forrest's house.

His temporary house that is. His house had ten feet.

It's not the same. It will never be the same.

It is scary how our spiritual lives usually go the way of the rest of our life. My spiritual routines/disciplines have been shattered as well. Sunday mornings don't look the same. Wednesday nights don't look the same. So many people are missing...and not just those who are still evacuated.

We're all scared to reenter our routines. We know that things will never be the same, don't we?

It's time to stop mourning the death of our old lives and begin cultivating our new ones.

It's hard to start new routines. Ever kept a New Year's resolution?

Me neither.

So I'm not asking you to get back in the saddle. I'm asking you to throw out the old saddle (it's probably moldly anyway) and buy a new one.

Just like so much that was flooded by the storm, our lives needed a fresh start.

Pretend that you just moved to a new city and you are starting over.

That is in effect that is happening.

Make new friends. Get involved. Begin anew.

Start over with God too. I'm sure there is a lot that you which you could change. Take a chance.

Hi Jesus. My name is Doug. I need You to cleanse me and redeem my sorry life. Get rid of the garbage that I hate about who I am. Let's get to know one another. I want to be with You. Thanks for caring.

Amen.

MP3 from youth group last night - 2/1/06

2006-02-02T11:22:00.000-06:00

Here is the MP3 and handout from youth group last night. The title of the message was "The Poor and the Poorer." Enjoy. Don't forget, right-click on the links and choose "Save target as..."

Click here for the handout

Click here for the MP3

Hornet's Tickets

2006-02-01T15:19:00.000-06:00

I just got off of the phone with Trish, my favorite ticket rep. She told me that we can get tickets to the Hornets vs. Nuggets game on Saturday, March 18. Upper Side B tickets normally would run you $43...we can get them for $20 a piece!

I am going to order a pack of tickets either Thursday or Friday. It would be helpful if I had a general idea about how much to buy. So, do me a favor, shoot me an email and let me know if you think you can join us.

Go Hornets.

pre-order Mat Kearney

2006-01-30T12:33:00.000-06:00

Mat Kearney is one of my favorite artists in the world. It's like he took every style of music that Doug's likes and combined it together. You know how your Mom cooks the perfect meal for you on your birthday...topping it off with your favorite type of cake for dessert? Yeah, that is what Mat Kearney did for me.

Anyway, he just got signed to a major market label, Aware records. His new CD will come out in April. I just pre-ordered it from the label's online store. Also, you can buy the first single from iTunes here.

No Youth Group MP3 this week

2006-01-26T13:58:00.000-06:00

I know that you all were anxiously awaiting another exciting episode of the youth group series on Amos. Well, we decided to watch a NOOMA film instead. It was good...but that means no MP3 of the message.

We will return to our Amos series next week...

MySpace

2006-01-25T14:23:00.000-06:00

So, are you a fan of MySpace? Hmmm...go read this article.

listen to message from youth group last night

2006-01-19T10:57:00.000-06:00

Below are links to the flyer and an MP3 file for the message last night. For the past week or so, I have been feeling sad about the fact that soo many students are still out of town. I guess is this an effort to keep our youth group CONNECTED. (Get it? Connected...like the Connection. Yeah, I know you all miss my amazing sense of humor.)

Anyway, here are the files:

Flyer for Wednesday 1/19/06

MP3 file for Wednesday 1/19/06 (I would suggest that you right-click and choose "save target as..."

I miss you guys.

Ben Franklin reopening

2006-01-19T10:00:00.000-06:00

My alma mater...and one of the schools that a number of our students attend is Ben Franklin High School. They reopened on Tuesday and were featured on the CBS Early Show. Here is a link to watch the video.

!og snoclaf

new Wed night series

2006-01-18T11:12:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday was our first "normal" youth group. We are meeting at 7:30pm in the front building. We started a new series called amos outdoor prophet. It is all about the book of Amos in the Old Testament. It is a book that was written right before a huge earthquake devastated the people of Israel.

So that never happens anymore. Wouldn't it be just horrible if a natural disaster of biblical proportions hit someone's hometown?

I guess so.

So, if you are living out of town and wish you could come, here is a copy of the flyer from last week. I'm gonna try to figure out how to record the messages and post them here my blog. No guarantees. I have no clue how to do it.

I miss you all.

YOUTH OUTING: Baton Rouge trip this Saturday

2006-01-17T16:28:00.000-06:00

Just a reminder that we are planning on going to Baton Rouge this Saturday (Jan 21). What will we do? Well...that is up for debate...but it looks like it could look something like this:

7AM meet at church
9AM arrive in Baton Rouge and eat breakfast
10AM Mall of Louisiana
noon eat lunch
2PM LSU Men's Basketball Game (vs. Alabama)
5PM eat dinner
8PM arrive at church

Woah. That looks really busy! As far as costs...you are looking at three meals (two fast food and one sit down restaurant). I would think that $20 would be more than enough. LSU tickets are $14...I'll supplement the cost...let's make them $10. That means that your teenager should need about $30 in their wallet. If $$ is an issue, PLEASE let me know...we can take care of you.

I will have a sign up sheet at youth group on Wednesday night. If you won't be there, then email or call me to let me know your are going no later than 5pm on Thursday.

End of the Spear movie

2006-01-13T13:11:00.000-06:00

My oldest son's middle name is Elliot. He is named after the missionary Jim Elliot. His journals and story are an inspiration to me.

It looks like someone finally had enough wherewithall to make the story of Jim Elliot and the other four missionaries who were killed by the Auca indians into a film. The trailer looks pretty amazing. Looks to be a pretty high-quality production.

The movie is called End of the Spear, and the official website is here. You can watch the trailer, find out more info on the movie and find a list of theaters that will be showing the movie. I was very surprised to find that our local theater, the Westbank Palace, will be screening the movie. Horray! Maybe I'll take the youth group.

Our New Orleans

2006-01-09T15:13:00.000-06:00

I just listened to an NPR "Story of the Day" podcast that is entitled "Musicians Regroup to Benefit 'Our New Orleans,'" from Jan 2nd. It is an interview with Nick Spitzer who was involved with the production of the recently released benefit album, Our New Orleans 2005. It is a compliation of tracks recorded by New Orleans artists just a couple of weeks after the Hurricane. It includes the likes of Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Buckwheat Zydeco, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and others. I was so intrigued that I immediately headed over to Best Buy and picked up a copy.

On a side note, this is such a great example of all that is great in our Postmodern-influenced culture. Nearly every one of these songs was written years...even decades ago. A host of these songs were written in the 20s. Yet these words strike in a fresh, new way when taken out of their original context and dunked in the floodwaters of Katrina. There is a depth that is almost hard to describe. These new recordings of old songs is a way to tie our current circumstances into the storied history of this town. This is not the first disaster to hit New Orleans...chaos has devestated New Orleanians before...and it will devastate us again in the future. Circumstances like these make us beg for something bigger than ourselves. We want to somehow tie ourselves into history and tradition. As a Christian, I firmly believe that these are reminders that we are mortals longing for something immortal. Our souls were created for eternity and an everlasting Kingdom.

So, go buy this CD. It is great music. It speaks to what is going on down here. On top of all that, all net proceeds are being donated to Habitat for Humanity's efforts in the Gulf Coast.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-22T14:49:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Ephrata!

That's right, Crystal, Sam, Zach and I boarded an American Airlines flight yesterday and arrived in Philly around 11pm last night. It was a long day...longer than it was supposed to be. Our short layover in Miami became a long one when the flight from New Orleans was delayed. We missed our connecting flight by a matter of minutes and had to wait for the next one. Not fun. Nevertheless, the boys were amazing considering the circumstances. Sam made friends with another two-year old boy named Malachi from La Place. They were on both flights with us...and thus were in the same predicament. Let me tell you, seeing a pair of two-year-olds throw around a basketball and run around the terminal made the time pass a little bit quicker...

We are staying with Crystal's parents and will be here until New Year's Day. The weather here is hovering around freezing and there is snow on the ground! I just checked out the weather forcast...looks like we probably will get some fresh flakes next week. We are the first to arrive in PA. Although, only three of the seven Moyer siblings live out of town these days. The Talley's will arrive on Christmas day. The Norton's can't make it this year.

Our time here is pretty packed out. We will be visiting lots of friends and family. We will even treck over to VA next week to see my brother and his family. Looks like we will get a chance to eat dinner with the Drigger's while we are over there. I am looking forward to seeing them for the first time since they moved from New Orleans this past summer!

I am excited about relaxing and enjoying family. If you know me well, you know I will spend lots of time with my nose in a book. (Is there a better way to spend a vacation?) I plan on finally finishing Mine Eyes have Seen the Glory, starting God's Long Summer and spending lots of time with the OT prophets (that portion of Scripture has really spoken to me in the Katrina aftermath).

Anyway, just wanted to wish you all a Happy Holidays!

Youth Group News

2005-12-20T09:48:00.000-06:00

This post is for those of you who are part of our youth ministry. I am excited to say that things are going to look a little bit more normal in January. I just polished up a new edition of the Parent Connection which spells out what things will look like. While we are mailing them out...I figured I would post in here just in case. You can read the newsletter online here.

Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't heard, we are having the Connection Christmas Party THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT (Dec 21). It will be 6:30pm at the Sisung's house (101 S. Randall Ct in Gretna). Contact Thecla if you are coming (cell 232-1332). Bring a White Elephant Gift (don't spend more than $10).

I love you guys!

Yeah, and the picture...it has nothing to do with this post. But I thought it was classic and I had to share it. Merry Christmas!

2005-12-19T09:26:00.000-06:00

So I got an email about a week and a half ago from Ted Dekker's official website about an opportunity to preorder his new book and receive it early. The new book is entitled Showdown and is supposed to be released at the beginning of January. FedEx delivered my copy on Friday. Horray! So far it is very good. Maybe his best novel yet. Although I must warn you, it is dark...way darker than you might imagine a "Christian" novel should be. I guess that is what happens when a writer explores the core of our souls. It gets messy.

If you haven't heard of Ted Dekker, I would highly recommend him. I have been scared to death of Christian fiction...picturing it as cheesy, sugar-coated and amateurish. Dekker is none of the above. I read Thr3e shortly after it was published a couple of years ago (which, by the way, is currently being made into a movie). I was hooked. I would recommend it as a good entry book into Dekker's writings.

Understanding Katrina

2005-12-10T10:53:00.000-06:00

The local newspaper here, The Times-Picayune, has really done an amazing job with their coverage of the Hurricane and it's aftermath. They recently published a graphic map to help explain where and how the levees failed. It is as clear and understandable as anything I have seen thus far. Check it out here. (It is an Adobe PDF file. If you don't have it, you can download their free viewer here).

DTS podcast

2005-12-08T09:15:00.000-06:00

Dallas Theological Seminary started a couple of podcasts for your listening pleasure. Surf over there and you'll find two podcasts: DTS dialogue and Chapel online.

I have been listening to "What Katrina has taught us about the Church." It is pretty good to hear some talk on a big picture level about what this situation tells us about the American church. As someone on the ground level, I agree with many of the observations and conclusions they draw.

BUT, I have to admit, I couldn't help but be annoyed as I listened. Dr. Bailey, Dr. Cecil and Dr. Bock all spoke in the past tense. They spoke as if this thing is over. Hurricane relief is just beginning down here. The church's response is not over. Our list of people who need help steadily grows each day.

Now, I think these guys understand that. In fact, they said it once or twice during the discussion. I guess I just get worried sometimes that we will get forgotten. We need your help.

Christmas Video

2005-12-01T11:52:00.000-06:00

Speaking of Christmas, I just watched the most amazing Holiday home video EVER!! Click here to see it with your own eyes. Props to Relevant Magazine for sharing the link.

'tis the season

2005-11-30T10:56:00.000-06:00

Hello all. Just wanted to let you know that I created an Amazon.com Wish List at the request of my family. Although, if you are not related to me, you can still buy me stuff. I added the link to the sidebar over here --------------------->

blogging

2005-11-29T12:27:00.001-06:00

So I haven't posted much lately.

Have you noticed?

I have. I think about it every once in a while. I say to myself, "Self, you need to write something on your blog."

Then I reply, "But I don't feel like it. I don't know what to say."

And then my mind wanders in another direction.

So here is my attempt at returning to the world of blogging. You know, it's kinda ironic. I have been blogging for about a year now. It started as mostly a place to communicate information about our youth ministry...but also a way to communicate with my friends and family around the country. More than that, I wanted an outlet. I love to write. This was my chance to write about whatever I felt like writing about. I never felt like I had a large audience reading. To be honest, it didn't matter to me if the whole world was reading or just my wife. I just wanted an outlet. It's who I am. I process life verbally. I like to talk through my thoughts. I've gotta get it out...regardless of whether or not anyone is listening.

Well, since August 29th blew through my life, I have had lots of readers and lots to write about. For some reason, though, I haven't felt like writing.

Maybe it's because I'm really busy. Maybe I need a little bit more time before I can start to reflect on all that has happened. Maybe it is just the way I am emotionally responding to this whole thing.

I don't know what it is...but I have decided I'm gonna just write anyway. We'll see where this takes us.

Let's start with the most important relationship in my life...the one I have with God Himself.

I have been in this awkward place where God seems to be close by and far away at the same time. I firmly believe that my entire life was leading to this moment and this storm. God led Crystal and I back to New Orleans for this. God is active and involved. Ministry is more meaningful and real than ever. This is why I do what I do. This is it. This is the opportunity that you dream about when you are preparing for a lifetime of full-time ministry.

Yet at the same time, God seems so far away. I feel like I am spiritually and emotionally spent. If I had to get up in front of a youth group tomorrow night and deliver a message from God's Word...I don't know what I would say. To be totally honest, all of the Bible and Theology that I have studied for the past decade seems so trivial right now. It's like I have spent my entire Christian life talking about the weather and nothing more. Everything I have known about prayer and Scripture doesn't seem to work any more. I don't know what to say to God. I feel like we are an old married couple...and one morning I rolled over and looked at the person sleeping next to me and said to myself, "we have been married for twenty years and yet I feel like I don't know you."

Not to say that I am having some sort of crisis of faith or anything. I know that God is real and that I am his child. I guess it's like my life has turned the page and I find myself reading a different story. I keep flipping back and forth and examining the words on the printed page and I scratch my head.

What happened?

I don't know, but I think I have a clearer picture than I did when I started typing.

Thanksgiving Youth Group

2005-11-22T16:36:00.000-06:00

So, we normally would cancel youth group the week of Thanksgiving because teenagers are too busy spending time with their family that lives elsewhere to spend an evening with their peers that they see all the time. Well, that just isn't the case this year, is it? We are going to get together at my house on Wednesday night at 6:30. Call me if you need directions or if you just want to let me know you are coming (which would be nice to know).

quiz on theological worldview

2005-11-17T10:15:00.000-06:00

Click here for a online quiz on your theological worldview. I was surprised to see it nailed me pretty squarely. Anyway, my results:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82%

Emergent/Postmodern 75%

Reformed Evangelical 68%

Neo orthodox 64%

Fundamentalist 61%

Roman Catholic 43%

Charismatic/Pentecostal 36%

Classical Liberal 36%

Modern Liberal 14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

more retreat info

2005-11-15T12:29:00.000-06:00

Here some more details on the retreat this weekend (Nov 19-21):

The cost of the retreat is $25. You can bring the money with you on Saturday morning. That price includes the cost of a retreat t-shirt (yay!). Also, bring a couple of bucks for a meal on the road on the way home.
We are not going up on Friday. Most of the group couldn't come up until Saturday morning...and we would get there after dark anyway.
We are all meeting at the church on Saturday morning at 6am.
Please be conservative in packing. Only bring what is necessary. Remember, we are camping. There is no need to bring hairdryers, curlers and whatever other hair supplies that Craig normally brings to make himself so pretty. (In fact, I'm not even gonna pack my makeup. What a sacrifice.)
You do need to bring a sleeping bag, a flashlight, and a modest bathing suit. (Of course, it's also a good idea to bring some clean underwear and deoderant.)
As usual, leave your CD/MP3 players at home.
You can go home either Sunday or Monday...depending on your school and family schedule. The Sunday return will probably arrive at church in the early evening (5-7pm). The Monday crew will probably arrive in the late afternoon (3-5pm).
If you are planning on going and haven't talked to either Doug or Clay in the last couple of days, please call me to confirm. My cell is 504-975-7570.

I hope you all can go. I am really looking forward to getting together with everyone for a couple of days.

out of town protestors

2005-11-08T10:22:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, that nasty word, "racism" has been flung to and fro in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In the days after the storm, some national politicians and celebrities got in front of TV cameras and yelled and screamed and pointed out the skin color of many of the evacuees that emergency workers were struggling to rescue from our flooded city.

Now, a bunch of out of town protesters have decided to come in and yell at people in Gretna. They have brought this ugly accusation of racism back to the surface just when we thought it was buried for good.

Did you happen to notice the lack of local leaders shouting that word?

Both New Orleans' mayor Ray Nagin and Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard lost it after the storm. They both were highly irate at the slow progress of the rescue efforts. They both were emotional. They both lost their cool on national televison.

But neither of them uttered the term racism. Did you notice that?

Now, I must admit, I hesitate to open my mouth on this issue. I am a church leader, not a politician. I am a white, middle-class church leader who could afford to evacuate my family.

But, you know what? I am a New Orleanian....through and through...I love this city...I'd like to think I know my city and my people pretty well.

and I think I have a good idea why neither Nagin nor Broussard nor any major local politician cried racism.

It's just simply a false claim.

Maybe if this happened to some other city. A city that doesn't have the rich, cultural heritage that New Orleans has. A city that doesn't build it's identity and personality on the shoulders of it's diversity. Maybe if this had happened to that city, the claims of racism would be valid...but not here. Your words betray your ignorance of our city and our culture.

No offense, but if you want to help our city, then quit talking and start working. I have a long list of homes that need to be gutted. Put on some rubber boots, some gloves and a facemask. Grab a wheelbarrow, a crow bar and a flat shovel. Come to 3712 Herschel St in Algiers. I'll give you the opportunity to help out.

Otherwise, go home.

New Orleanians need help. All of us. Katrina didn't discriminate when she flooded our homes. So help us rebuild together and stop trying to divide us.

my MTV

2005-11-03T16:25:00.000-06:00

Now this is cool. The boys and girls over at Relevant Magazine have recently unveiled their own online TV channel. It is mostly music videos. Now, this isn't your typical "Christian" music video channel. It focuses on music that speaks to us on a deeper level...regardless of whether it's considered "Christian" or not. It ranges from Coldplay to Relient K...from Kanye West to John Reuben. That is my kinda MTV.

Here is the direct link to the pop-up player.

the retreat

2005-10-31T11:11:00.000-06:00

Be sure to mark your calendars the weekend of November 18-21. We are having a retreat. In case you hadn't noticed, that is the weekend before Thanksgiving. We wanted an excuse for everyone in the youth group to get together for a couple of days...no matter where you are living right now!

So, here are some details:

While the retreat is Friday-Monday, you can come and go when you need to. Some students will arrive Friday night...some on Saturday morning. Some students will leave Sunday night...others will leave on Monday. We understand that everyone's situation is different right now. Let us know what works for you...and we will plan accordingly.
The retreat will be at Kingsland in Franklinton, LA. It is about an hour and a half north of New Orleans. Kingsland is a small, family-owned camp. We will be the only group there. We will be sleeping in tents (oh yeah!).
Everyone who attends needs to bring: (1) enough clothes for however many days they are staying, (2) sleeping bag, (3) towel/washcloth/toiletries, (4) a modest swimsuit (just in case...), and (5) a bible & pen.
The retreat theme is RECESS. The past couple of months has made us all grow up a little too fast. Have we lost something in the midst of all of this?
The cost will be $25. (holy cow. that's cheap.)

So, if you can come, please let me or Clay Schuler (home # 393-7003) know ASAP. The quicker we know who is coming, the better we can plan.

Also, if you have any camping supplies that we can borrow (tents, lanterns, collapsible chairs, etc.), please let Clay know.

I'll post more details as they come...

youth group update

2005-10-24T16:09:00.000-05:00

So...many of you are wondering what is going on with our youth group. Well, currently we have about 10 teenagers who are located in the New Orleans area (come back!). We met each of the two past Wednesdays...once at Kev's and once at our house. We plan on meeting each Wednesday in someone's home until further notice.

As for activities, the big thing we are planning is a retreat the weekend of November 18-20. That is the weekend before Thanksgiving. If you are located out of the New Orleans area...then this retreat is your excuse to come home and see everyone for a weekend! We will give you more details as soon as we know it. For now...mark your calendars.

If you are back in the New Orleans area and I have somehow missed you...please call me on my cell at 504-975-7570.

I am tired and energized

2005-10-14T17:54:00.000-05:00

Wow. What a week! I hope I can find the time to write more about all that has happened this week. We have had three work teams...45 people...this week. This is just the beginning. We helped so many people. I am dumbfounded by the doors that have opened for us to minister. The Cedarville University work team that is coming next week will have the opportunity to help rebuild Ben Franklin High School. Yeah, that Ben Franklin. My alma mater.

Anyway, our first youth group meeting since Katrina was this past Wednesday night. We had Jonathan G, Stephanie T, Jared K, Andrew R, Kaleb A, Jessica R. We met at Kev's house, ate pizza and talked about what our lives have been like for the past couple of weeks. Good times. We plan on getting together this Sunday afternoon to hang out at my house. We will probably watch some of the Saints game. We might head over to the Eastbank so that we can see the 17th St. Canal and London Ave. Canal breaks. I saw them this week with the youth group from St. Louis. It was jaw dropping.

Speaking of the youth group from St. Louis...they were AWESOME! It made me miss youth ministry. It was a team of about 25 (adult leaders and students). They worked hard and had a wonderful experience. I loved getting to know them. They have a leader named Joy who reminds me of Kelly (I miss you Kelly!). They even call her "Momma Joy." How great is that?

I'll write more soon. I am tired. I am stressed. I am excited. God is moving in an amazing way. I can't believe I get to do this. This is the experience of a lifetime.

foiled by Rita

2005-09-25T17:50:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the Starbuck's on College Ave in Baton Rouge. I figured I would take a moment and just let you know what's up...

Well, we were supposed to go down into the city again this weekend...at least Kevin, Chris and I were going to go. Hurricane Rita ruined our plans. Oh well. We are planing on making our way down there sometime this week. There are a couple more families that need some immediate work done on their homes. Plus, we have to start nailing down details on how things will work with these work teams that will arrive soon. We hope to form a team this week that will oversee things for the work teams. It will consist of whatever church leadership is in a position to spare the time and energy. I am really thankful that my Uncle Larry is already on board. We need his knowledge and skills.

My pastor during my college days, Sherman Soileau, is now in Henderson, LA. It's a small down about 30 minutes west of Baton Rouge. Sherman's church has been working overtime to minister to evacuees over the past couple of weeks. They have been caring for them, loving on them and putting them in a situation where they can take care of themselves for the time being. It is really cool to hear their story. Apparently Governor Blanco even sent some men down to Henderson to find out what they were doing!

Anyway, they just packed a U-Haul truck full of supplies for us to take down to New Orleans. That will be the first order of business for Chris, Kev and I this week.

So, if you wanna help out this week, let me know. If you need help, let me know that too!

flooded memories

2005-09-21T09:59:00.000-05:00

I walked into Keith's room. In many ways, it looked no different than it had last time I had been here. The piles of dirty clothes scattered around would fool you into thinking that Keith had slept in his room the previous night. Of course, Keith was away at college...and no one had been in his room for weeks. My mind flooded with memories of Keith's smiling face inviting me into his room...proudly displaying his new pet or the latest piece of art he had sketched.

The smell of fresh mold pulled me out of my daydream and into reality. I knelt down and rubbed my hand over the carpet. It was wet...just like every other inch of carpet in the entire house. I peered to my left and my eyes focused on the mold creeping up the bottom two feet of Keith's wall. Splotches of every shade of green, grey, yellow and black covered the bright red door of his closet.

My job was to rip the carpet of out Keith's room. It was located in the back corner of the house...so it just seemed like the best place to start. Our plan was to cram it full of furniture from the other rooms in the house. I walked back to the kitchen and grabbed two plastic garbage bags: one for items that could possibly be salvaged...one for items that Keith would never see again.

As I began clearing the floor, I quickly realized that I was being forced to make decisions that no one should ever have to make. I found stuffed animals, toy baseball bats and handwritten think-you notes. My mind flooded with questions. Why did Keith save this? Does it represent some unforgettable moment he shared with his family? Is it too wet? I desperately wanted to call Keith and ask him about each and every item. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was that this had happened to him. I wanted to tell him how I wished he were here with me so that he could tell me the stories that go along with these memories.

It's kinda ironic that I ended up in Keith's room. I had watched Keith grow and mature in our youth ministry over the past three years. I had grown to love his sense of humor and artistic perspective. I had spent many, many hours on the phone with Keith talking about everything from his unrelenting workout schedule to his job at Marble Slab to his frustrations with our youth ministry. If anything, Keith was always honest with me, and I love him for that.

This moment, though, wasn't just about Keith for me. It was about every teenager that I have grown to love over the past three years. Their lives have been ripped apart by a storm. Their lives, their rooms, their memories have been wrecked. Their innocence has been taken from them. Our innocence has been taken from us.

Then again, Keith is making new memories as I speak. He has just begun a new life in Ruston. I would imagine that his dorm room has fresh paint and dry carpets. His walls will soon be full of new sketches that represent the new chapter in his life. He is probably surfing the internet on his new computer or working out with his new roommate (and old friend) Ryan.

Starting college is a time when you start over. You begin a new life. Youthful recklessness begins to mature into adult responsiblity. New friendships are kindled and new memories are made.

I guess we are all starting over. Our old memories are shoved into a white plastic bag sitting on our curb. God, renew us. Rebuild our lives. Rip out the toxicity in our lives and leave us dry and clean.

entering into the fray

2005-09-15T16:54:00.000-05:00

So I finally was able to get into New Orleans this morning. Lawrence and I drove in with minimal problems (via our secret way that is available to those helping to restore the city). Our main objective was to scope out the area to prepare for our work teams coming in tomorrow and Saturday. With that at mind, we started out at church. I took a ton of pictures of the damage to the church facility that I hopefully will have posted at the Berean blog in an hour or so. It looks like we will have more than enough work to do there to keep us busy for at least tomorrow all day. If I counted correctly, there are six trees that are completely down on the main property.

We then headed over to my house, and the neighbors had left some nice signs out to greet us:

Well, at least I know my house has been kept safe!

On to the damage....

The major issue is a tree that fell from my neighbor's yard unto our roof. Man, it was really close to taking out my Jeep! No damage to the car...but it needed a jump
after sitting for two weeks.

Here is a closer look:

We walked inside and promptly climbed the attic steps to access the damage to the roof. The good news is that the structure of the roof is intact and the tree did not break through the roof anywhere. BUT, it did pull of enough shingles and tar paper to spring a couple of leaks. Nothing major, but we definitely will need to at least throw a tarp up there ASAP.

The second major issue is another tree that fell on our back overhang. Here is the best angle I could find to give you an idea of what it looks like:

And here is a picture of where you can see how we lost maybe two feet off of the edge of the overhang:

Yeah, that doesn't concern me in the least. I'm not a fan of that overhang anyway. The inside of the house was fine. All of the windows are intact, the only evidence of any water damage is one small spot in the ceiling right below where the tree is on the roof. We had electricity, water and sewerage. No cable, phone or internet (all provided by Cox Communications). We cleaned out the freezer and fridge (I figured you didn't want to see pictures of that). Yeah, that wasn't fun. We were worried about the trash sitting on the curb for days and days...and lo and behold the garbage men picked it up before we left!

Our house is definitely okay for us to move right back in. Right now, my concern is enough of the surrounding infrastructure being in place. I think we will probably wait another week so that the grocery stores, gas stations and other stores will be up and running.

Overall, the city didn't look as bad as I expected. It seems like they have done a good job of the initial cleanup, clearing the roads, restoring power, etc. I am beginning to believe that everyone will be amazed at how quickly life will be restored to New Orleans. Don't get me wrong, we will be repairing homes and buildings for well over a year...but much of the city should be operational in the next month or two.

So I drove my Jeep out of the city. Oh, it felt good to be behind the wheel of that car again...

learnings

2005-09-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

So I am typing this from a borrowed office at Community Bible Church in Baton Rouge. Brad was able to get into the church facility yesterday and he brought back my laptop (hooray). It looks like much of my day will be spent online, making sure that we are communicating well with our church body and with other churches that want to help. So, if you want to contact me, email is always a good option. Also, the office number to reach me at is 225-924-3647.

I can't go through an experience like this and not ask myself, "what is God teaching me?" So I did. No really, I just said aloud to myself, "Doug, what is God teaching you through this?" I then replied to myself, "Thank goodness no one is here to hear you talking to yourself like this."

Okay...anyway...I think I have learned a lot about what grace means. It's really kinda crazy. I talk to others from New Orleans and their experience echoes mine. Over the past two weeks, I have had oodles and oodles of people ask me if I needed any help. Like a good American, I yelled back at them: "No! Who do you think I am? Some sort of charity case? I am a red blooded American and I am gonna pull myself up by my bootstraps and get through this!" Okay, not really. That would have been rude. Instead I just thought those words and politely replied, "No thanks. We are doing okay."

After having that conversation about ten times with people, you begin to wear down. You start to say to yourself, "We could use some help, I guess. What would it hurt?" You start to realize that it is not normal to be evacuated from your house for weeks on end with only three sets of clothes. You watch the news and remind yourself that this is maybe the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States...and it happened to you.

So then, all of the sudden, this amazing thing happens. You swallow your pride. Gulp. It's gone. You are now free to say YES when people offer you money. You don't feel guilty when you accept gifts from total strangers. (Although you still feel a little awkward.) When people ask you what you need, you actually try to think of stuff you need instead of immediately turning them down.

Once this happens, you begin to find out that the people who are benefitting the most are the people who are giving. You see the joy on their face as they hand you a Walmart gift card. You hear their story about how they prayed all night about what clothes to buy for you. You realize that they not trying to make you feel bad...they are only trying to follow God's leading in their lives.

Then you start thinking about what the gospel means. The gospel means God gives when no one deserves it. You realize that we all live lives that were wrecked by a hurricane. We are all nomads who have been taken from our homes by sin. We deperately need help, and God Himself is asking us, "What do you need? Just tell me, and I'll give it to you."

Do I really understand grace? I mean, I have said the words, "I am a sinner in need of God's grace." Do I really know what that means? Does it affect the way that I live my life? I don't know about you, but I am so puffed up with pride. I don't think I need any help in my life. Not from God, not from anyone. Maybe I believe that I am saved by grace, but I sure as heck don't live by grace.

So...to you who have helped me and my family, thanks for showing me grace. You have been used by God. God is channeling is grace through His people towards us whose lives are affected by this disaster. I love you all!

housing

2005-09-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

Hello all. I got a call yesterday from my good buddy Chris Burton. He was in Algiers! He said that the church property was fine...it even had electricity. Amazing. He checked out our house. The bad news...we have two trees down on our roof (actually one on the roof and one on the overhang over the back porch). The good news...they didn't appear to have caused major damage. We'll just have to get up there and see. Clay Schuler visited as well. He told me he took some pictures. I'm gonna see if he can email them to me. I'll be sure to post them.

Also, we are leaving in the morning to travel down to Baton Rouge. Keep us in your prayers. We are a little concerned about road closures, traffic and gasoline shortages. We will be living there until we can move back into Algiers. Community Bible Church in Baton Rouge is providing us with an apartment, funishings, and office space. Nice. It will be good. Brad is coming down to Baton Rouge as well. As many elders, decons and staff as we can scrounge together this weekend are going to meet to pray and plan.

Anyway, our new address will be:

Doug & Crystal Daspit
5850 Jefferson Hwy, Apt C
Baton Rouge LA 70806

What has brought me encouragement

2005-09-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

In the midst of all of this, here is what has encouraged me:

Talking on the phone to just about anyone I know from New Orleans. And I don't like to talk on the phone.
Churches and Christians that want to help.
1 John 4. Especially the verse that says, "if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us."
Finally seeing the aerial photo of my house on Sunday. Even though you really can't tell hardly anything from the picture. That didn't matter. I saw my house.
Music. Especially Coldplay's "Fix You," Mat Kearney's "Renaissance," Chris Tomlin's "How Great is our God," and U2's "Beautiful Day."
Partcipating in the live online fantasy football draft on Thursday night with Laura and Keith.
Visiting my alma mater, Southeastern Bible College last Friday.
Our friends Jeremy & Christa with whom we are staying. They cried with us when we found out that my Dad was okay.
Sleeping next to Crystal.
Playing Super Tecmo Bowl on Jeremy's NES last night.
Sam.

stressed and overwhelmed

2005-09-03T21:08:00.001-05:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of days. I know that many of my friends and family have been checking the blog pretty often because of Katrina. The truth is...I have hardly had a spare minute over the past couple of days. We are being contacted by churches and individuals all over the nation that want to help.

Yeah, so I am overwhelmed and stressed. I am beginning to feel the weight of the circumstance we find ourselves in. It's kinda funny, my gut reaction was that I would have to put my role as "pastor" on hold until we were able to all get back into the city. That is the furthest thing from the truth. I think I am perhaps having to work harder and longer hours now than I did out of my office in New Orleans! I am excited to say that we have found a way to keep many in our church connected...via the internet. We started a blog, thinking that we would need a place to communicate information to our church, as well as a way to just make sure everyone is okay. Come to find out, we are all starving for community. We need each other so bad right now. I was surprised at my emotional reaction to talking to Toni on the phone the other day. She and Jonathan are here in Birmingham too. I have savored the phone calls I have received from friends and family from New Orleans. Going through an event like this...and not being able to be together for support and encouragement is really hard. The blog is starting to get cluttered, there is so much activity there. So we started a message board. They are much more conducive for the type of connecting that is going on. Hopefully it will become our place where we "meet" instead of 3712 Herschel St.

The second part of my job has become "spokesperson" and "networker." Since I am the one staff member who can be easily reach via cell phone and internet, I have become the person who people contact when they want to help. We have been contacted by well over twenty churches that want to help. These range from "we want to send you a check" to "we want to adopt you as a sister church, send money, supplies and work teams. We want to help you figure out how to reach people in New Orleans as a result of all of this." I have enjoyed contact with church leaders all over the country...including some good friends (Aaron Latina at Calvary Church Mid Rivers, Alf Nelson at Grace Fellowship Church, John Talley at Calvary Bible Church, and Steve Foster at Sayrewoods Bible Church) These are men that I deeply respect and love. I am glad to count them as my coworkers in a time like this. Who knows where God will take us?

Crystal and I are doing fine here in Birmingham. We are very comfortable with our good friends Jeremy and Christa. Our boys have adjusted well to sharing a house with another family with two girls (Harper is five and Liv is three). In fact, we have had the house to ourselves most of the weekend and Sam seems a little out of kilter. He keeps looking around for his new friends! Maybe he has adjusted too well. He might get a little lonely when we finally are back in our own home!

So it looks like Birmingham will be home for a while. It seems that we will stay here until we can get back into New Orleans. If our home is not livable at that time, Crystal and the boys will possibly stay in the Baton Rouge area while I head down into the city to start to get the church facility up and running.

Speaking of our church facility, we were able to find an aerial photo of the property online. I cropped it and posted it here. It looks like we didn't sustain any major damage, although Crystal is a bit concerned about what looks like a car right next to the front building. It would be a tragedy to arrive back to a building with no major hurricane damage, only to find our property looted. Please pray that our building is okay. Many people will be without homes, and we would like the ability to shelter people ASAP.

Talked to my Dad for the first time last night. He is in Houston right now. The long and short of the story is that his house took in about 4-5 feet of water in about an hour. Mind you, his house is raised about 3 feet off the ground...that means 8-10 feet of flooding in an hour. They had enough time to move some possessions up into the attic before the water got to them. They spent the first night in the attic, were resucued by boat, spend the second night in the Superdome, were helicoptered out to the airport, spend the third night in the airport and were flown to Houston. He described the Superdome as "pure evil." Wow.

My cousin Forrest worked with the National Guard on Sunday through Thursday. He manned the Superdome and roamed the streets downtown. He mostly dealt with crowd control and defending against the gangs and looters. It was not fun. He said that there are people down there that are very dangerous. It is as if there is no law...every man for himself. I talked to him last night and told him that over the last few days, his job has let him see the worst of humanity and my job has let me see the best of humanity. He says we should just stick with my people.

I guess that is enough for now. We hope to try to refocus a bit next week. Perhaps we can get our minds off of our circumstances a bit. I need to start reading again. I need to hang out with some old friends who live here in Birmingham. I especially need to play that vintage Nintendo that Jeremy somehow got his hands on. Super Tecmo Bowl, Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Super Marios Brothers. Yeah!

GOOD NEWS

2005-08-31T22:02:00.000-05:00

MY DAD IS ALIVE!

I haven't talked to him yet, but he is on the phone with my brother in VA as I type. All I know is that his house took in about twelve feet of water in less than an hour and that he was rescued by a helicopter. I'll post more details after I talk to him.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. You have no idea how much they mean to me.

Are you all okay?

2005-08-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

We want to make sure that we can communicate back and forth as a church body during this time of crisis. So, we created a blog: bereannola.blogspot.com. If you are from our church, be sure to visit there so that we can all connect. Thanks!

By the way, thanks to all who called today. It was nice to hear from concerned friends and family. Your support means a TON to me.

Oh, and I still haven't heard from my Dad. Keep him in your prayers.

What is waiting for us in New Orleans?

2005-08-29T22:17:00.000-05:00

I am pretty emotionally spent. I have spent most of the day either in front of the television, on the net or on my cell phone. Needless to say, the question that has been weighing heavily on my mind is what is waiting for us back in New Orleans?

From what I can piece together, the Westbank is the only major residential area in the entire metropolitan area that has not been hit hard by flooding. I am about 99% certain that our home did not experience any flooding. BUT, it is very possible that we have wind damage. There are two large trees in our yard. If either tree falls on our house...we are in serious trouble.

All of my family, though, does not live on the Westbank. I am pretty certain that my Mom, my Dad, my grandmother and much of my extended family has water in their houses.

I am really worried about my Dad. As I said in a previous post, I am pretty certain that he did not evacuate. In fact, he is the only person that I know personally that didn't evacuate. Anyway, I have tried to contact him to no avail. (It seems that all phone coverage, cell and land lines, are out.) He lives in Gentilly. It is very possible that he has 5+ feet of water in his house. Please keep him in your prayers. I just wanna know that he, his wife and his mother-in-law are safe.

I'm sure that many New Orleanians share my feelings right now. I just wanna go home. I want to find out how bad it is and start to deal with it. It sounds, though, like we won't be allowed to go home until Thursday or Friday at the earliest. Even then, we might not have power for weeks. Those factors make me wanna put my wife and kids on a plane to her parents' in Pennsylvania. We'll see. It is way to early to make any decisions like that.

waiting and praying...

2005-08-29T00:15:00.000-05:00

It's a little after midnight, and Hurricane Katrina is a couple of hours away from landfall. I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight. It's interesting how you find yourself responding to extreme situations like this. I find myself wanting the storm to just hurry up and do it's damage so that I can get back home to deal with the aftermath. I'm tired of the "what if"s. I'm ready to deal with reality, no matter how bad it is.

Crystal and I have tried to think through worst case scenarios. I guess it is possible that we won't be in our "home" (whatever that means) for weeks. If this is as bad as it could be, Crystal and the boys might fly to Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks while I go to New Orleans to figure things out. It is interesting to think through what life could look like for us for the next couple of months. My job is to help people in New Orleans, right? I am more than willing to throw myself into helping out in any way I can over the next couple of months...or years. Who knows what good God can bring out of tragedy? If we want a chance as a church to truly impact our community...could that mean that we play a role in putting our community back together?

Please keep my Dad in your prayers. I talked to him around six o'clock this evening and he was in fact still in New Orleans. It sounds like he was most probably going to ride out the hurricane at home. I'm sure that thousands of New Orleanians have made similar choices. Please, God, keep them safe.

I'm off to try to get some sleep. Who knows what kind of new world will greet us tomorrow morning?

this is surreal

2005-08-28T10:45:00.000-05:00

We woke up this morning to news that Hurricane Katrina is now a category-5 storm with 175 mph winds. Mayor Ray Nagin has called for a mandatory evacuation of the city of New Orleans for the first time in the history of the city. In his press conference he said, "our levee system most likely won't hold." Basically that means about 15-25 feet of water in the city. Now, I know that they are trying their best to scare people into evacuating...but this could be it.

It's so crazy, we had no time to even think about it. Normally we have days and days to think about a storm, how to respond, what to pack, etc. It is now hitting me that my house could really be gone. We didn't have time to think through what momentos to take. It sounds like many New Orleanians were in the same boat as us. I had lots of friends who still hadn't evacuated as of last night. Everything moved so fast...they didn't know what to do. I'm so thankful that we could pick up and leave, knowing that Jeremy and Christa would take us.

I have no clue if my Dad is still in town. The phone lines are overloaded and it is nearly impossible to contact him.

I keep thinking of the Old Testament prophets, knowing that God will judge the people of Israel and pleading for God to show mercy. God, spare our city.

Hurricane Katrina

2005-08-28T00:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Birmingham. Crystal and I evacuated this afternoon (Saturday) with no problems. We didn't board up our windows or anything, but we did make sure that nothing is loose outside. This is crazy. It is the first time that I have driven away from my house and thought, "Next time I see this place, it could be devastated." I mean, I've lived in New Orleans for almost my entire life...I have never been this concerned about a storm.

So keep New Orleans in your prayers. This very possibly could be the worst storm to hit the city in sixty years. From what I can tell, a lot of people are choosing to just stay home. My Dad and step-Mom are still at home...as well as lots of good friends. The mayor is hoping to call a mandatory evacuation in the morning. That will be the first mandatory evacuation in the history of New Orleans. Yeah, this storm could be that bad.

That is enough apocalyptic talk. On to the good stuff. So we are staying with our good friends Jeremy and Christa. We are looking forward to hanging out with them. It has already been great catching up. Hopefully we can see some of our other Birmingham friends while we are here.

We did have one crazy mishap along the way...we noticed some wobbling, stopped and found a huge chunk of rubber missing from one of the tires. Apparently we caught it just in time. I think we would of had a blowout if we had driven another ten miles. Anyway, we stopped at a gas station in Mississippi and got a new tire.

So if you want to know what is going on in New Orleans, then check out WWL's website (the local CBS affiliate). On their website, they actually have a live feed of their TV coverage. Here is the direct link.

How in the world did I get educated?

2005-08-26T15:49:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I am proud to say that I am a graduate of the public school system in New Orleans. While I am more than willing to admit that the school system has a lot of serious problems, there are some schools that are bright spots and should make us proud. I attended Jean Gordon (K-6th grade), McMain (7-8th grade) and Ben Franklin (9th-12th grade). I am proud to be associated with all three of these schools. The teachers that I had were great people. They cared deeply about their jobs, their students and about education.

Today I am ashamed. I am ashamed to call myself a New Orleanian and ashamed of my school system. If you haven't seen it yet, surf over to the Times-Picayune website and check out this article. This is sad. It hurts me that so-called teachers and educators are willing to trample on our children in order to fill their pockets. Let me say, also, that I don't include Kathy Riedlinger (principal at Lusher) in this group. Although the article lumps her name with the others, she has operated above-board and has done so much for our school system. The article does explain her situation. (The parents at Lusher have donated money out of their own pockets as an added bonus to her salary as a way to thank her. She is not receiving unwarranted money from the school board.).

Anyway, I just had to post this. This article left me speechless. I hope that we can work together as New Orleanians to make our schools better rather than running away from the problem. I am fully aware of how fortunate I was to be able to attend the public schools that I attended. Not every kid in New Orleans has the advantages I had. A vast majority are at the mercy of whatever is their district school. I long for the day when every kid in New Orleans gets the chance to get the kind of education that I had.

The 2006 Ocoee Trip

2005-08-25T09:55:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I have finalized a couple of key details for our 2006 summer trip. We will be spending a week in Ocoee, TN where we will be hiking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing and team building. It should be challenging and exhilerating!

Mark your calendars. The dates for the trip will be July 24-30, 2006 (that is a Monday through a Sunday). We will be staying at Copperhill Country Cabins. Unfortunately, I was unable to book with the same company where we stayed in 2003. Copperhill is a smaller company that owns 8 acres of land and only four cabins. We are going to have the entire place to ourselves. Surf over to their website and check it out.

my sweet new ride

2005-08-23T17:57:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, you all have been mourning the loss of Smokey, my van. Well, take off your sackclothes, my friends, 'cause I bring you good news and glad tidings...

I proudly present to you my new vehicle:

It is a 1997 Jeep Cherokee. It has 110,000 miles, an empty hole where the radio is supposed to be, and a bent back bumper. And yes, folks, your eyes aren't deceiving you, the front quarter panel is a different shade of white. They tell me that is because it was replaced. I like to think of it as the accent of some great, anonymous automotive artist...the pure white representing what Christ has done for us.

Yeah, I know. You are jealous. It's okay. Many probably echo your feelings. I just ask that you remember God's command concerning not coveting your neighbor's wife (or his cool jeep).

I am currently accepting submissions for a name for my new ride.

Ship Island this Sat

2005-08-23T11:42:00.000-05:00

School has started...are you ready for a break yet? Yeah, I thought so.

We are going to Ship Island this weekend so that we can pretend like it's still summertime and that we don't have any homework. Here is the details:

We'll meet at church at 6:30am. We will take the 9:00am ferry ride. We will probably return around 7:00pm.
Bring a swimsuit (no bikinis please), a change of clothes (they have a bathhouse), sunscreen, a bag lunch, some $ for dinner on the way home and anything appropriate for the beach (a frisbee, raft, football, etc.)
The trip costs $20 (for the ferry that takes us to the island).

Let me know if you have any questions. We will have a sign-up sheet at youth group Wed night.

2005-08-22T17:07:00.000-05:00

September is gonna be a good month for new CDs...in addition to the new Switchfoot CD, my fav worship band, David Crowder Band, is releasing their new CD, A Collision. The first single is entitled, "Here is our King." It is an awesome song that we have sung in youth group once or twice. You can hear it on their myspace page. Check it out.

Mission Mexico 2005

2005-08-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

I figured I should post a couple of pics from the Mission Trip for all of you wonderful peoples. All pictures are courtesy of the amazing Dana. So here you go:

We stayed at a Red Roof Inn in Laredo on the way to Mexico. It was a great last night in the US. We ate hamburgers at Fuddruckers that night. It was a fitting "last supper" before we crossed the border. I was very pleased to find an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game at the restaurant. That is only the best arcade game ever!!

Driving in Mexico is pretty darn crazy. It's basically like driving in a big city like New Orleans...that is driving in New Orleans with mountains and on steroids. All traffic laws are suggestions. This is a great pic that Dana took of Brock while he was driving. I'm sure he was looking for me, since his van was always in the lead and my van took up the rear.

Roadstops in Mexico were pretty similar to the US. Your gas stations would have all of the normal candy bars, soft drinks, cappuchino machines and packaged pasteries. Everyone would pull out their pecos and practice their Spanish on the poor, unsuspecting cashier.

We arrived at the camp in the early Tuesday evening. We found the camp to be way more developed than we had expected. They had four one-room cabins built. We occupied two of them...one for the girls and one for the guys. They only had a limited number of bunkbeds, so we put them all in the guy's cabin. There just wasn't enough space in the room to put all of the guys on the floor. We all slept on those foam pads that you see in the pictures. They were pretty comfortable. One issue was the climate. It was really cold!!

As for the projects...two of the main ones were succo work on the exterior of the four cabins (it had been started by a previous group but not finished) and fixing the foundation of one of the cabins. As you can see from the first picture, our girls did most of the succo work. The second picture gives you a little idea of the foundation work. The long and short of it is that three of the four cabin walls were laying on cinder blocks instead of the edge of the concrete foundation. We had to raise those walls one at a time, remove the cinder blocks, build forms and pour concrete to extend the foundation to the edge of the walls. Does that make sense?

Another big project was to build retaining walls around the front corner of two of the cabins. As you can kinda see from these pictures, these cabins are built on an incline. When it rains, water was flowing right into the cabins. So, the walls we built are meant to direct the water away from the cabins. As you can tell, we did a lot of digging (the first two pictures), then forming and framing the walls (third picture) and you can see the final product (last picture).

My favorite outing of the trip was the hike at Bernal. Bernal is one of the largest rocks in the world. You can see it in the first picture. Basically it is a mountain that is one, big rock. It was an extremely difficult hike to the top. I don't know if we all would have made it if it weren't for all of the encouragement that was flowing through the group. The second picture is the view from the top.

Here is a picture of the group that made it to the top:

Another outing we took was to visit the city of Queretaro. Queretaro was about an hour drive from the camp. It is a city of about a million people (about the size of New Orleans). We went there to sightsee and shop. We were really impressed. It was beautiful, historic and clean.

So that was our trip...at least a couple of highlights. It was an amazing trip for each of us that went. God truly changed us through the experience.

Is it time to hang up the Mavs hat?

2005-08-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a sad day in Dougland. I've been a big Mavs fan ever since I lived in Dallas. My favorite NBA player, hands down, has been none other than Michael Finley.

Last night Fin was released by the Mavs. Here is an article on ESPN about the frontrunners in the race to sign him. Gosh, I hope it's not Miami. I just don't think I could ever cheer for Shaq. I wish there was some way that the Hornets could sign him...

Calvin the Bass Player Extraordinaire

2005-08-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

The most famous Connection Youth Group alumni, Calvin Turner, currently plays bass for Marc Broussard. (Yeah, that's right. I just decided that Calvin gets that award.) Calvin is featured pretty prominently in Marc's new video, Home. If you wanna see Calvin jamming on his bass and dancing in a rocking chair, check out the video here.

Oh, and here is the disclaimer: the writer of this blog nor all associated organizations do not necessarily endorse all of the content of the above said video.

We're back

2005-08-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

It is Wednesday afternoon and I am back in my office for the first time since we arrived home late Sunday night. Mexico was an amazing experience. God did so many things while we were there. First of all, we had no major problems or injuries. We all made it back safe and sound. Secondly, we got a ton of work done! Finally, God worked in our lives as individuals and as a group.

As for the projects, we...

fixed the foundation of a cabin.
built two concrete retaining walls that will prevent water from entering cabins.
succeed the exterior of, oh I don't know, 3 full cabins?
began the process of rewiring all four existing cabins.
secured a swing-set in place.
put up fence posts around the swing-set (although we weren't able to put the fence itself up)
put up posts for the dogs to be chained to.
put curtains in all four cabins.
cleaned up the entire camp on the first day and again on the last day.

Most of these projects were not super expensive. So much of our funds went to tools. We purchased:

Eight shovels
Two pick-axes
Two wheel-barrows
A rotary hammer (I think that is the name...it's like a jackhammer)
Two sets of alan wrenches.
A couple of random wrenches.
A bunch of other tools that I either can't remember or don't even know about.

So, anyway, I post more about the trip in the coming days.

Oh, and one other thing, we do have youth group tonight (Wed, Aug 10). I hope to see you all there.