A busy couple of weeks

Well, I finally have some time to write a little here and am awake enough to do it. I actually have spent quite a bit of time lying around the past couple days, but have slept most of (Allison is a little jealous). I’ve been lying down because I reinjured my back and that’s about all I can do right now. My wife and mom even coerced me to go to the doctor…he thought it was likely something with the muscles again. So I’ve been on muscle relaxers, which I’m not sure what they are doing for my back, but they certainly relax me…hence all the sleeping.

But things are definitely not all bad. Last weekend my uncles visited from Texas and we had a great time hanging out, playing some games, checking out some local restaurants (Hudson’s and Café Strudel for sure) and a comic book shop, and going to the state fair. The fair was a lot of fun, although I seem to have lost my desire to go on rides that spin around and make you throw up. Sadly, for us, that is all that Brian wants to do. So, we took turns taking him on those rides. There was some great food to enjoy…although I recommend staying away from deep fried Pepsi. Of course, if you know them, the rest of the weekend included some spades…but we also taught them Settlers which I think became Ken’s new favorite.

The time on the couch has given me some time to think about something that’s been on my mind lately - the kids in our neighborhood, although I still have no answers. I've been thinking about what it would look like for these kids to come to our church. I just can't reconcile images of the kids I play basketball with and our church. These are tough kids, or at least they feel they have to act that way, they love to fight, they love rap, and about the only other thing they seem to care about is sports. And our church...is amazing...the people there love to praise God and do it so well. The teaching is strong...but how can these kids fit in there to hear it? The younger kids seem fine with it, but once they become teens...I just don't know. Is the answer just to get them there and they will appreciate it...or is there a better way to reach them.

Classes have picked up a bit as I have a number of books to read. One excellent one for anyone who is in any kind of leadership position, ministry or not, is "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley...it has quite the baseball theme to it...but if you don't like baseball, nothing to fear...Allison enjoyed the book as well. (She even now is trying to figure out how to "narrow her focus.") Hebrew and Greek are the ones that take most of my time. I like them, but sometimes they are quite a bit of work. AO work has also been keeping me pretty busy, but it has been a huge blessing to have it...so no complaints really in that area. It is also nice that it keeps me in touch with the people there.

Allison is enjoying her linguistics class still, especially since it does not have a ton of out of class work :) Brian is mostly enjoying 3rd grade, he sometimes doesn't like compromising with others on projects, but he's getting better. However, he has determined that he does not like homework. No school yet for Kelly, though she is sure she wants to go...especially if she gets to ride on a bus.