Tales from the 'Hood: The First Mowing of the Lawn and The Drive-By

Today as I returned from a youth fundraiser at church, I saw one of our young neighborhood kids standing in the culdasec, with a handgun. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was one of the two kids I met a few weeks ago, who showed me their gun and pliers. I just noticed the kid and went on to park my car and then crank my new mower, which I bought from my newlywed buddy Wes. I proudly mowed my lawn (I own grass and dirt people! I am a man!), and then I cleaned up and helped Ashlee prepare for dinner.

We were having dinner guests from our Sunday School class at church. Ashlee is a great cook and gifted at hospitality, so moving into the new house (closer to our friends, church, etc.) is great for this. As I looked out the front door I saw a weird reflection of light from one pieces of glass in my car. Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that a small projectile moving at a high speed had struck the glass, causing it to spider out.

I wrestled to know what to do, and didn't do anything at first: we continued and had our dinner. Eventually I called the police, who sent a cop to visit. Ultimately, he asked a few questions, and I learned that I had a pretty shakey case (I couldn't even say with certainty who I had seen with the gun previously) and little would happen to a 7-year-old kid. (Not that I wanted a lot to happen.) I think it would have been nice if the cop could have talked to the shooter and his parents, but like I said, there wasn't much certainty, and not much was going to happen unless I tried to sue or something - which I have no intention of doing. My insurance doesn't cover this, which the cop said was what would normally happen - a police report would be filed in order to place an insurance claim.

Ultimately I filed a report to document what happened. I figure it could be valuable if there ends up being a pattern of vandalism. Just the other day the other half of our duplex was vandalized - paint strewn through the back yard/back of house, and the privacy fence torn down partially.

Mostly I'm hoping that the kids/parents will be more sensitive to playing with these guns/monitoring their kids, and that we don't burn bridges with our neighbors through this. I'd hate for them to be ticked off and lash out at me.

The parent of the gun owner came out and looked at my car while the cop was there, and noted that her son's gun was broken, wouldn't do that damage, etc. and offered to test it on her own car. I wish she'd just said, "I'm sorry - it was an accident".

TextMarks - Ministry Communication Tool?

Recently in evaluating our Student Ministry, we've seen that communication is one area in which we are lacking. We've already been working to remedy this, especially in our communication with parents.

It's very difficult to depend upon Middle School students to remember an announcement an hour after you tell them. (Who am I kidding; it's difficult to depend upon students to remember an announcement five minutes after you tell them!)

Students
Several weeks ago I saw a tool called TextMarks that allows you to set up a free text message subscription service. I am not much of a text messager - actually I dread the sound, because it sounds like 10 cents dropping into a bucket, to me. However, the idea that all of my students could send a text message to a service, subcribing to receive MY text messages, enabling me to send a message to everyone at once (without paying a dime each) is very tempting. Students would probably think it was cool; they like receiving text messages. In this way, I could update them at will; perhaps this tool could help build an on-line community -- by texting them telling them to go check the blog and comment.

Parents
While parents might be less likely to want to take advantage of this, it could be offered for communication with them as well. The beauty is, they can unsubscribe if they want to. Also notable for parents it that... they might want to know if their kids are subscribing. I'd hate to take the blame for a $150 phone bill from text message charges.

I haven't tested it yet - partially because I don't want to send or receive any text messages because I don't have a text messaging plan. But I'd be really curious to see if this works well in a ministry setting. Any takers?

Neat Example of Church Serving Community

This article about a church in California serving its local community in a neat way came to my attention. What are other ways that the church can reach out in a way that show that love of Christ to our communities, and open more doors for ministry and sharing the Gospel? I would love to see the day where our local schools, upon realizing they have a need, say, "We should call the church."

...on the morning of Saturday, March 24, more than 500 volunteers from Shadow Mountain arrived at Logan Elementary. They came ready to paint, clean, landscape, hang banners, plant a vegetable garden, build soccer goals, and tackle any other project that needed to be done. The day was an opportunity to put into action the church's Signs of Life campaign, a six-week series of teaching focused on living like Jesus, with dusty shoes, worn-out knees, rolled-up sleeves, open hands and outstretched arms.

HT: Joe Ball

Current Reading List

George Mueller: Delighted in God by Roger Steer (Ashlee and I have been reading this together; I read it for my Spiritual Disciplines class in the Fall.)

Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney (a la Kroger bargain book bin- why, I still don't know)

7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner (Fantastic book)

An Introduction to the New Testament by DA Carson, Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris

Random web tutorials about XML and XSLT

Buy This CD: Glory Revealed

My beautiful, wonderful, amazing wife bought the CD Glory Revealed: The Word of God in Worship as a birthday gift for me. I love it!

David Nassar and Mac Powell produced it. At first the Nassar thing kind of threw me... what is HE doing producing an album? But it looks like he might have felt about the same way. They assembled a dynamite group of artists - including two boys from the Bluegrass State. The songs are deeply rooted in Scripture, and they are all new songs. One of my favorite tracks is "By His Wounds", focusing on Isaiah 53:5, with vocals by Mac Powell, Steven Curtis Chapman, Brian Littrell, and Mark Harris (of Casting Crowns).

Check out this track listing:

1. He Will Rejoice Trevor Morgan
2. By His Wounds Mac Powell, Steven Curtis Chapman, Brian Littrell & Mark Harris
3. Waters Gone By Shawn Lewis
4. To The Only God David Crowder and Shane & Shane
5. Glory Revealed Candi Pearson-Shelton
6. Altar of God Josh Bates
7. Come, Worship The King Michael W. Smith and Shane & Shane
8. Who Is Like You Tim Neufield
9. Restore To Me Mac Powell and Candi Pearson-Shelton
10. You Alone Brian Littrell

Buy Glory Revealed: The Word of God in Worship today!

Tales from the 'Hood

As Ashlee and I prepared to leave home one day, I noticed two of our neighbors standing in the culdasec. Two guys, maybe about eight years old, each on books. One was struggling to somehow mount a piece of luggage onto his bike. The other suggested using the pegs on his bike wheels.

I'm anxious to get to know my neighbors, so I introduced myself. From here, it went something like this:

Luggage Kid: "Want to know what's in our bag?"
Me: "Sure, what's in the bag?"
Luggage Kid: "A BB gun!"
Me: "Oh... wow!"

Luggage Kid: "And we've got pliers!"
Other Kid: "No one's going to kidnap us!"
Me: "Oh... so if someone tries to get you what are you going to do -- hit them in the head with the pliers?"
Luggage Kid: "No... we'll PINCH'em. And then shoot'em."
Me: "Oh... I see..."

Me: "What? What's the secret?"
Luggage Kid: "We could do a drive-by!"
Other Kid: "Do you know what a drive-by is?"
Me: "Yes, I know what a drive-by is... but we don't need any of those around here."

I bid them farewell, and then they asked for help with mounting the luggage on the bike.

If you see two kids riding on bikes, one with a piece of luggage expertly mounted on one of the bikes -- don't miss them. They have a gun. And pliers.

Home Ownership

before 021
Originally uploaded by sundog2000.

Ashlee and I bought our first home two weeks ago, moved into it last week, and this week we're... still... moving into it. At least unpacking things.

So many aspects of living here have been so exciting. My commute time has dropped from 45 minutes to less than 10. We can go home on Sunday afternoons. We can hang stuff on the walls and paint (as we have) and feel like it's a worthwhile investment of our time.

Ashlee and I have begun making a list of all the people we want to have over for dinner. She is excited about being able to offer hospitality to people in a way she hasn't been able to previously. I look forward to having older couples over for dinner so we can learn from them and their journey.

Now we will be home enough that we can be more intentional about meeting our neighbors and sharing our lives with them. We live in a culdasec, and there are kids EVERYWHERE. One of the ladies said that during spring break, the ice cream truck would come by three times a day. He knows the market I guess. I think the two ladies I met on our street our both single moms. They complained about the kids, how they would be on their porches early in the morning, while their own parents weren't even out of bed yet! Ashlee has encouraged me to consider that I could be an influential male in the lives of these children whose dads are not present.

Pray for us as we land in this new mission field and get settled into our new home!