Our scribbles - God's joy

Last Mother’s day was really stressful for me. Friday night my High School choir performed their final concert of the year - our Pop Show. It was a great show called "All you need is Love" featuring music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. So it was a week of super long rehearsals after school, plus working at church. Thursday and Friday ended up being 17 hour work days for me, and I was totally beat.

Then we spend Saturday night with my mom, which was totally great, but took away the prep time I usually have to prepare for the services the next morning. So I woke up Sunday morning, completely exhausted and feeling crummy that I was going to be doing a half-hearted job.

In the midst of that, while hearing our pastor talk about Motherhood and children, God gave me an image of how he receives our worship. I was thinking about how little kids will take a bunch of crayons and pencils, and then scribble all over a piece of paper. When they bring it to their parents, beaming ear to ear, the parents always praise the child and tell them how beautiful it is – whatever it is or looks like. I was thinking that our worship is like that. We spend so many hours a week planning services, practicing with our worship teams and choirs, and producing the services – but our best is just scribbles compared to what God our father can do. He is praised by the entire earth and the heavenly hosts, yet he loves for us to bring our scribbles to him.

So hopefully this will speak to you. I know for me it was a reminder to take my eyes off of what I was doing in front of people, and to really worship God and God alone.

- Blessings!

The New gig

Well, I'm a little behind, but I guess I should let everyone know that I officially got the job at Christ First Baptist Church in Covina. As of Jan 6th I started as their new worship and choir director. This has turned out to be a huge blessing so far. Although I was really hoping for the Glenkirk job, there was a small part of me that wondered if I could be satisfied only conducting one song per service. I wouldn't have been able to use my gifts of service planning or leading worship, which would have been hard. God must have known this, because now I am doing it all!

It has actually been a smooth transition so far, and I thank all of you who were praying for me through this. If anyone is interested in singing with my choir, we meet Thursdays from 6:30 - 8:00 for rehearsal, and then sing at the early service on Sundays (8:15 call time). We are currently putting together an Easter concert for the evening of April 5. So you could just come and sing for that (the first 45 min of Thursday rehearsal is for that only).

So life is pretty crazy right now. My wonderful wife has been a huge help - coming to school with me once a week, and picking up the slack with some of my church duties and meetings. As a friend recently said, "it's all good - but it is just too much good right now." That's how I feel - blessed beyond measure.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family reunion - Geneology

Got this site from my wife... Too bad I'm not cool enough to know who all these people are. The next highest match was Wayne Brady!! Seriously??? What's funny is that I get all the time - "You look like Bob Saget," but he wasn't even on the radar.

What Teachers Deal With Part 8

For about a month now I have observed a VERY affectionate couple who always parks near my spot at school. At first the couple was just "making out" outside of their car, but the last couple of weeks they have taken their PDA to the back seat of their car. I finally approached them last friday, and this was the conversation:

I knocked on the window, interupting them, and motioned for them to come outside. Fortunately they both were fully clothed, but he had to "dismount". Once outside I asked to see their id cards. The girl said she didn't have hers, and didn't know her ID. I got her name, and she said she was in 9th grade. I turned to the guy, and the girl said he wasn't a student here and didn't speak english. I asked her what his name was, and (get this) she had to ask him his last name! In my broken Spanish I asked how old he was, and he said 23. 23!!! Flabergasted, I asked her if she wanted to be pregnant as a Freshman, and whether she knew their actions could be illegal! She said her parents were fine with it, and he always used protection. Unbelievable... So I told them their PDA was against school rules, and that I would bring the sherrif next time I caught them. I passed the information on the our guidance counselors, and they are working with her.

How is it possible that a 14 year old girl could be sleeping around with a 23 year old, and not even know his last name!! So scarey...

First time for everything