Welcome to Unshaken City

Well its been a while, actually a long time since I blogged. So, I decided to blog today. I titled this one Driven for a purpose. It's not that I have some great desire and burning to do something and am totally focused on it. No, its more like being driven to your knees in prayer. These past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy. God has a way to bring about stuff that you take a step back and just think there is no way I can handle this. And I have said that a few times in the last couple of weeks. I would like to share with you some things that have happened and maybe you'll see why I say God has a way to drive you to your knees. I sat and talked with a good friend who is struggling to keep his marriage together. It hurts because I've known them over 15 years and it's always been those two. What do you say to someone who says it might be over? I have a former employee who worked for me whose dad has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He is not that old. She has a 5 yr old son and they are best buddies. She is looking at losing her father and best buddy to her son. I get word from my sister in law that their marriage is crumbling and seriously seeking a divorce. They have a son. My wife remembers the day her dad "had to leave" and thirty years later she is still a bit hurt even though they have reconciled. I stayed on the scene of an accident for almost 2 hours when one of my kids in youth group hit a motorcyclist. I later found myself in the ER praying with her and her family as she was having a serious panic attack. 2 days later the man died and as the family got word, this 18 year old girl's world just collapsed. We prayed for what seemed like hours. And we wait. We wait for the next step which is a trial where she is most likely going to be charged with vehicular homocide. If I had any thought that I could be a youth pastor in my own power then God really drove a point home these past couple of weeks. What do you say? What can you say? Life doesn't stop. There will be more calls. Just give it time. One of my favoritest passages in the Bible came to mind as I just sat and was overwhelmed. It comes from the book of Isaiah chapter 40 verses 29-31: "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." I cannot do this on my own and God doesn't expect me to. He gives a super great command in 1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on the him because HE CARES FOR YOU. I don't know what you have going on in your life. I do know just give it time and bad news will come in some form. Will you rely on His grace and strength to get you through? Will you cast all your cares on Him? I sat this morning in a hospital praying with a family whose husband, father, grandfather, friend was having lung surgery. The doctors made no promises or predictions. They said if they got in there there is a good chance they won't be able to do anything. I reminded them that through the worst of situations God is good. He is good. As I sit here I just got a text from the family. The doctors believe they removed all the cancer! It is all gone! I cannot help but to think of the cross and how Jesus took away all our cancer in the form of sins. God is good! this man will be in ICU for a few days and we pray that he will be healthy enough to leave and go home. I cannot handle the burdens life throws at us. But I serve a God who is bigger than the problems and issues and gives me the strength to face whatever it is that comes my way! Blog Vader

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Can you believe it was 2 short years ago that the Summer Olympic games were going on? Remember the greatest opening ceremony ever? Remember the excitement as Mike Phelps went on to win 8 gold medals? Remember the first time I blogged? I do. My how time flys! Jayden is 2 and a half now and we got another little rug rat Taylor who is 4 months old! She is a poopin machine! We live in a new house, in a new county, and I have a new job. My new job consists of scanning youtube all day. But anyway, did you happen to catch the opening ceremonies? If you went to Believe you missed it. I live for the opening ceremonies. There have been some that were just down right stupid. this year was a tuff one- you follow the greatest one ever. There were some highs and also some lows. Once again I jotted down some observations. I hope you enjoy. 1. No yetti? Seriously? So disappointed. 2. The host country has a bacon named after it and they don't drop any from the ceiling? Am I the only one with an artistic vision here people? 3. No ode to John Candy. Just the greatest comedian ever. 4. Shamu was cool superimposed on the floor. Would have been better if it sprayed maple syrup in the air. 5. France should have more attention given to it with a ceremony all to themselves. After all, without them we wouldn't have mayonaisse. 6. Was anybody else trying to think of any famous Canadian? Was anyone successful? 7. When Bryan Adams sang I couldn't figure out which Bryan Adams he was. 8. Then again it was Milli Vanilli night with the singing. (Google it) 9. You spent a ton of money with the ceremony and special effects which is great. But you couldn't spend a bit more so Gretzky didnt have to ride in the back of a truck to light the flame outside? Seriously? I can hear the organizer: "Ok Wayne, Cooter's gonna meet you outside, jump in the pickup, wave to Bubba and yer off. After that whole lighting thing, go huntin fer some muskrat, eh!" 10.Canada's slogan for the olympics: Come for the games, stay for the health care!

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Hey Everyone, Hopefully you are all back in a nice warm school (whether that is your home or not!) where you have decided that this year you will be the best student ever! I don't know if you made any New Year's Resolutions or not so let me give you a few of mine to inspire you! 1. Only eat at Sheetz 6 times per week. 2. Trade in my old baseball cards for a fainting goat. 3. Talk more about wolly pigs (I slacked on giving them the respect they deserve last year). 4. Go to Omaha Nebraska 5. Find Big Foot 6. Invent something (I have an idea about a huge blanket that is like a sleeping bag that you can snuggle up in, maybe I will invent one for your dog too! 7. Read every book written by any of our junior high students 8. Juggle at Take A Break 9. Make some incredible memories with my family! 10. Read and momorize more of the Bible Hopefully you can see some are real and some are fake but strive to become more like Christ this year than you were last year!

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Hey what is going on!!!! it's been a while since I've blogged. i've been quite busy recently. Let's see...i had a new baby! We named her Taylor Joy and she is awesome! She likes to sleep during the day and be awake at night. it is so wonderful! Seriously. But she has gotten much much better. She's so tiny! Its fun to put pants on her that are a size too big- her little legs get lost and you cant see her feet! Jayden loves her. Though the other day she walked up to her sister and just started coughing on her. She gets jealous at times and we try our best to show her the love and attention she needs. So what is going on over there? How are things at Oasis and Grace Church? My wife and i definitely miss Grace church and the people. But we love it here too. It's weird. We miss Grace but not in a homesick way. We miss it cuz we miss so many good people and pastor johnathan and the youth group but we look forward to growing here. As the youth pastor here I got to tell you- Oasis is awesome!! Pastor Ryan has done an awesome job creating an awesome environment for kids to feel welcome, loved and to learn about Jesus. Not that its bad over here, cuz its not. But I look back and remember the sense of belonging kids had and that is cool. It's alot of work to be a youth pastor!!! it can be frustrating at times but extremly awesome too! I think everyone who reads this should give PR a hug, or a punch in the arm. Or if you can kick him in the head. But do it with love. I just got back from Mikes Place in Kent. Its an awesome place with a HUGE menu!! i mean HUGE!!!! I've never seen a menu so packed with food before..ever!!! Go home and google mikes place in kent, ohio. get on the website and read the rules. I like em! BTW, the food was awesome and cheap!! Well thats all I got for now. My thanksgiving was really good, hopefully yours was too. Well im going to go and play with my lightsaber.PEACE!! Blog Vader

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Hey Everyone, I hope that you all have enjoyed the series that we have been in called "Gospel Journey"! I think it has rocked and it has been cool to see the interaction between the people of different faiths. But like all good things we must come to a close and say farewell to the Gospel journey this Wednesday night, I will pause for the tears! I just wanted to give you a glimpse of our next series called "Wipe Out". After watching the show Wipe out I laughed harder than i have in a ong time and it gave me the idea to use that theme to do a series, so we are going to show clips of the show and focus on a few different things that wipe us out in our growth with God! So this Wednesday night come ready to say farewell and get ready for the next series. Later PR

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Well I just got back from a nice drive around my community. Actually this time I went right out of my driveway instead of left. If I go left I eventually hit Kent State University. But I never went right. What does going right hold for me? I thought about the endless possibilities that going right could bring about. So I went right. If you go right you hit a small town called Mantua. It is correctly pronounced Man-Away. Its a fun word to say. go on say it 5,6 or 10 times. Actually if you repeat it over and over its one of those words that lose all meaning. Mantua was founded by Jim Leavitt and named the town after the Italian city of Mantua. I read that on a sign. There are some intresting things going on in Mantua. There is a McDonalds there. Noticed I said "a McDonalds'. Yep, just one. And you can get an Angus meal for 5 dollars. Anyway, I think Mantua is a farming community because I see farms!! Its actually pretty neat! There are some old barns and new barns, old tractors and new tractors. When i was driving through town I looked to my left and saw a horse farm! Intresting!! And for the very first time I saw a horse peeing. Thats right! I never saw this before and let me tell you I think this one had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tooo much to drink!! As I drove farther down the road I saw an alpaca farm! With actual live alpacas!!! After passing the alpaca farm the road just goes on and on and the land just sprawls over the horizon. I sensed there was nothing more for me so I turned around. I entered Shalersville where I live and saw an iontresting sign I never saw before. Do you know who lives in Shalersville??? I will give you $100 if you can tell me. In fact I'll give you 10 guesses! There is a sign that says Shalersville is the home of the 2008 SOAP BOX DERBY CHAMPION!! I didnt catch the persons name because I stared laughing. oh yeah!! Shalersville representin' in the soap box derby!

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Well we have been moved now for over a week! We went from the city to the country! It is weird to look out and see corn!!! Its even weireder to not be in the city! But I have no complaints. we have a huge backyard where Jayden can run around until she poops out and I can practice my golf swing. We live right next door to the church Crossroads Community Church and its not so bad! I just got the keys to my new office and other than a paint job its pretty cool! I have a desk which is big enough to display my lightsaber!! Which I still cannot believe I got one!!!!!!!! I have a sweet Chuck Norris poster I must put up. I havent officially started yet- I start on the 15th. But I met with the youth advisors (they call them sponsors out here) and saw the youth room. Its a pretty sweet room! Its almost a combo of jr and sr high rooms. We have a very nice wood bar, fridge for pop and stuff, coffee pot, wood floors (makes for easy cleanup from gross games!) and plenty of couches. we have a small stage for a worship band, which inlcudes a worship band! im really excited! There hasnt been a youth pastor for about 2 years!! DUDE!! So there has been a missing piece for quite some time. Alot of kids have let over the years because of instability and such. But I think God is going to bless this place. I have a bajillion ideas floating around in my head and cant wait to get started! We have a huge lot of land whcih is really cool and they told me they like to play ultimate frisbee! Dude Im in!!! We are almost box free in our house! We are getting there. Some boxes just seem to linger around! we have more room than ever before and one of our rooms on the main floor is really empty because we dont have enough stuff to fill it!! Jen gets to go shopping after the new year for furniture and stuff! Its exciting how God has opened a door for us to be here. Its cool how God blesses. For instance, our dryer is a gas hook up, here the dryer is electric hookup. Sooo, we cant use our dryer. A guy from the church who helped us unpack was saying how his sister had the simliar problem when she moved. Next thing I know the guy is unloading a dryer off his truck for us!! he had an electric dryer his sister couldnt use just sitting at his house and brought it over for us!! that was awesome!!!One of my advisors used to build houses for a living and can do or make just about anything! He actually remodeled the youth room and I must say did a fantastic job. According to him, he's not done yet. theres more stuff he wants to do! With a new house, new job and new sense of God's awesomeness I must say I really miss Oasis. Its good that i can still blog!!! (pastor) Vader

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That is what I said after our playoff game today in softball. In all my years of playing and I've played in some unbelievable games this ranks up there as maybe the best 5 innings i've ever played. This ranks above the time we played in the State tournament in Toledo and rolled up 18 runs in the FIRST inning!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if I'm being honest I did not feel we were going to win coming into this game. We as a team had a tendency to start slow or start fast and slow up, letting the other teams come back. That was not the case today! It was such a great game!!!! We went down 3-0 in the top half of the first only to take the lead 4-3. That was a good thing! Then we exploded for 5 and took a 9-3 lead in the 2nd. That was even better! Then the score went 9-8; 11-8; and then 17-11 in favor of the other team. So its 17-11 in the bottom of the 5th inning. This is where we proceed to hit for 12 straight minutes! We rolled out 13 runs!!!! 13!!!!! Dude that is sick!!! the guy who hits behind me was A BEAST!!! Dude had already hit himself a solo jack and now gets up and I dont know if it was a grand slam or 3 runners on but dude HIT A BOMB!!!! I MEAN DUDE WENT NEW JACK CITY ON THIS PITCH!!! I was impressed. The game was stopped and we still only had 1 out!!! It was stopped because of time limit. but just to tell you how everything just clicked: One of our guys I think had a slight heart attack couple of weeks back and he raked in his at bat!! Dude smoked a single up the middle!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!! It's 10:08 pm and I am still excited that we came out rolling!! it was awesome to be a team that rose up and had 1 goal in mind. the team was unselfish and that was cool!

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Tonight was an incredible night!  I met up with David O. and we started our trek to Strongsville to welcome the brand new Sheetz Gas Station.  I have a hard time calling it a gas station because it is more like a 5 star restaurant with a hint of an amusement park built in.  You are in awe of the sheer beauty of the building and then you are welcomed by friendly workers who genuinly care about how your day is going.  You stroll up to the touch screens and have to make one of the hardest decisions of the day, which food will you chose to dine on from thier menu that seems endless.  David O. and I labored over our decisions and then sat and feasted on our dinner that was made just for us with love!  It seems as thought the chefs looked our our personalities, looked at our passions, looked at what we enjoy in life and made a food to fit our personalities.  It was an incredible experience and I can't wait to go there again.  If you have never been to a Sheetz, go to the one in Strongsville as soon as possible.  Make sure you say "We are so glad you you have moved into our neighborhood!"

 

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It feels good to be sitting back in my office chair again!  I have been gone for 16 days speaking to a ton of incredibly cool people in Florida and Tenn, but I could not wait to get back to you all!

There are a ton of things that I am excited about now that I am back:

1. I get to play softball again
2. I get to sleep in my own bed
3. I get to hang out with you guys
4. It is a little closer to the WV Missions Trip
5. I can finally open my imaginary petting zoo in my back yard!
6. I get to come back to Grace Church
7. I get to watch cartoons on my TV(Phineas and Ferb are amazing!)
8. I get to play fetch with my dog
9. I get to remember all the cool stuff my family and I got to do.
10. I get to check on the Brand New Opening Soon Sheetz Gas Station, with car wash!                                                                                                       

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