Wow- it has been a long month and a half, but I am ready to get back into the swing of blogging again . This semester ends a period of time that might have been one of the most refining times of my life thus far. . . but, we’ll get to that some other time

 I thought about catching you up on everything, but that would take a book, not a blog – plus, I know some of you have been following me on twitter – and greenlockers on twitter too – so, I am just going to start with a top 10 list of things that I have learned in the last month and half:

10. Lasik is a modern day miracle – seriously going from 20/600 to 20/15 over the course of 5 minutes. . . . . . . . come’on that’s just crazy!

9. God’s adventure (i.e., greenLockers) is wilder than I ever could have imagined

8. Not much compares to seeing a “smaller than average” middle school student encouraging his “much larger” peers to not waste schools supplies, but to donate them instead, and he did not know that I was watching

7. I don’t hear anyone talking about parenting in a positive light – about how wonderful it is to be a Dad or a Mom – I plan on changing that a little bit (get ready for . . . . “parenting tips” – coming soon to this blog ). I figured my wife is currently teaching college course called “Parenting” and I teach Child Growth and Development as well as Adolescent Growth and Development – though we ourselves still have a lot to learn, and are NOT perfect by any means!!!! – we also have a lot to share

6. This is one of my favorite pictures of Kya so far – love his Spirit

5. My wife does not get even a 10th of the credit that she deserves. . . – Here is Dane smiling at her during bath time – yeah, he loves her!

4. I am excited about the God’s plan to use the Church (with all of her quirks) to move His kingdom forward. Here are some middle schoolers from GSM cleaning out 800 bins. . . in the rain!

3. The heart of Bethel students continues to impress me – countless students gave up time and effort to FREELY give up parts of their summer for greenLockers

2. Absolutely NOTHING compares to “intentional use of time” and “open communication” when a family is running fully on mission (i.e., the busy, stressful times of the “six days” before the “7th day” rest period) 

1. Blogging and many other “good” things/opportunities are important to me for many reasons, but my family is more important – specifically, being the best husband and father that I can be  – - WILL ALWAYS take precedent over me saving my public face. – here is a picture after Dane’s dedication at church.

Well, 6 years almost to the day. . .

What were you doing 6 years ago?  Life was a lot different me . . . just starting Graduate School at Notre Dame. . . no kids. . . absolutely no concept of what was to come.

But one night during a church service, I felt God telling me that I needed to go and help out Corey Mann with Lifeline (the name, at the time, of the high school youth group at GCC),  so that is pretty much what I told him. . . “hi, I’m Ted. . . and God told me that I am supposed to help you with the youth group” – ok. . . . sort of different – but it was the start of a wonderful 6 full years.

A week ago this past Sunday night, I said goodbye to GSM (Granger Student Ministries) and yet:

1. I was still having so much fun volunteering

2. I was still having tremendous impact with the students

3. I was still effective in my teaching times to the youth group

4. I was fully supportive of the leadership, and loved the leadership team so much -

5. I believed with all of my heart in the future of GSM and D. C. Curry

6. I got to enjoy weekly time with some of my closest friends

7. I could not have enjoyed the band’s worship any more than I was – just amazing!

Do you get the point . . . . NOTHING WAS WRONG. . . .

It is so funny that many times we assume that something must go wrong (either from one of our own mistakes or the mistakes of someone else) in order for God to pull us away from something. . . . BUT, I see no promises of that in the Bible, in fact, there are many instances when God or Jesus calls someone to transition from one good thing to another.

Rob Wegner gave a message a few weeks ago about being a laser in life – you know – the idea that if our efforts are widely dispearsed then we have little effect – BUT, if we focus our efforts on only a limited number of things then we can have tremendous impact and power (i.e., just like the focused light in a laser). . . . well, . . . God started to do something with me on that one . . .

As a prayed and wrestled with God on this a little bit, these are some things that I discovered:

1. I am no longer able to be the laser focus at GSM that I wanted and used  to be (go on all the trips, go to student’s ball games, hang out late at night, lead a small group, etc…) - largely due to some of my life circumstances (i.e., 3 soon to be 4 small children, among other things).

2. I believe God is moving me into three other areas of my life where I can be a laser (husband/Father, being a professor at Bethel, and greenLockers), and I am supposed to focus there now.

3. Though leaving is saddening, I was reminded of a saying (not sure who said it, but it is on the wall in my sister-in-law’s house ) – “Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened!”. . . . to that I say AMEN! . . .

and so I end with some of my highlights from the years – in no particular order – and this is just the start of a huge list in my head: Feel free to leave comments below with some of your favorite memories!!

1. Stephen Smith’s baptism, and a certain conversation I had with Nathan Gage on a Monday night  – both on a Mexico trip.

2. Serving with my amazing wife for 3 of the years!

3. The dresser drawer night

4. The night that I felt the spirit move so much that I taught for 1.5 hours. . . . oops

5. Without a Trace

6. Campfires at Men’s retreats. . . . all of them, but especially one at Camp Mack when a father and son were reunited

7. playing basketball down on the back porch outside the Great Room with some of my boys from Niles – that one goes way back!

8. Acquire the Fire trips!!

9. Camp Adventure. . . . way too many memories to even start!!! – - God is just so tangible there, and that main room there where we worship is pretty close to Holy ground in my book.

10. Just all of the week-in and week-out hugs and heys from everyone. . . . I may miss that the most. . . thank you for all of the love everybody. . . I will miss you tremendously, but thank you for helping me become the Man that God wants me to be. . . . . . . . . . and if God has ever used me to influence your life. . . . all I can say is – go . . . . . GO. . . . and do likewise!!

I have sensed from the moment that I stepped foot on this campus that I was called here. . . . . in part. . . . to stretch these students into becoming more than they every thought was possible. . . . to start a few fires in their hearts and minds that they cannot ignore, – - – you know, I often believe in my students so much more than they believe in themeselves. . . . . and one wish that I have for them. . . . is that they live out this radical love of Jesus. . . . . without feeling destroyed when others don’t approve.

This is a video that we used in our identity series last year or so at Lifeline (GSM now). . . . and it is a wonderful reminder to me today that God loves you and me so much. . . . . enough that. . . . we don’t have to play the comparison game anymore. . . . that your worth is NOT CONNECTED to others’ dissaproval or. . .  conditional love. . . . .The truth of God’s grace has set you free from those chains of being obsessed with other’s approval. . . . Praise God for that freedom. . . . and live like you are free. . . . because you are!

So, I am going to do a conglomerative (word??) post this morning on the past weekend.

FRIDAY: We start off with the Halloween festivities . . . . The Thursby’s (Ang’s older sister and family) came over too in their High School Musical 3 costumes. . . . our kids rocked the unicorn, fireman, and giraffe outfits. . . with Ang as a doctor, and well, I went as wanna be back in the 80’s guy

We had a great time!!!!

In fact I think we only made to about 1.5 streets, but Kya was still pretty excited about the “catch”

It was fun. . . . and I was so proud as a parent to hear my kids say “thank you” more often than not when they got their goodies:) – around our house we have a saying. . . . be grateful, . . .not greedy -

- SATURDAY: we took the entire day off – no commitments. . . . . .  2-hour nap!!!!. . . . heard my friend Don sing at church . . . . what a great day. . . Praise God

- SUNDAY: I once again had the honor and pleasure to speak at Youth Group (Granger Student Ministries – GSM). . . . This week on finding your shape. . . . now, if you have been around GCC at all you know that we take S.H.A.P.E. pretty seriously around here, because we really believe in finding everyone’s sweet spot – - -So knowing one’s Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences is one way of going about doing that. God did not make us from a limited set of cookie cutters . . . but all unique. . . and wonderful!. . .Now, . . . this is a 5 hour course (called 301) that our church offers, but I had about 20 minutes to give the High school kids a quick run-through. . . . . so, let me sum up the whole thing with a single quote from Max Lucado for you to chew on today. . . . .

If you don’t get you, we don’t get you

- it is not easy to figure out who exactly we are. . . . nor does it come overnight. . . . or even remain the same. . . however, I believe with all that I am that IF we chase after this mystery of ourselves. . . . we will not only find who you are. . . . . but the rest of us will benefit from your divine fit. . . . . we all have such a story to write and share . . . . Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose”. . . . . chase on!

Logo by Jeff Myers

I have been helping out with the high school youth group at Granger Community Church for 7 years now, and this summer has been one of many transitions. Which is why, I think, that I was so pumped to get this thing started last night. D.C. Curry kicked things off challenging all of the students to think about what they are going to do for the next 2.1 million minutes (that’s 4 years of high school). Just like a match. . . what you do in High School can have the potential to spark something waaaaayyy bigger or it can create a lot of pain and destruction. What are we all going to do with the minutes that have been given to us – in case you had forgotten (like I often do). . . we never get them back -

Seth Bible has been hired to lead us in worship. . . and he totally knocked the ball out of the park, and I am so thankful!! We are very blessed to have someone that is such a great combination of talent, humility, and passion. I can’t wait to experience musical worship this year at a whole new level!

Jeff Myers created an amazing video highlighting all of the events of the summer – it was awesome to see how God can use a group of students who are on fire. . .

The new format of GSM – having a pretty power-packed hour of programming bookended by 30 minutes of social time – gave great connection time before and after the program. I just think the whole thing was a success. . . well not completely. . . but, that is what is pushing us to always strive harder to Bring Up There Down Here.

You might be asking. . . what went wrong?? Don’t get me wrong. . . last night was great, but. . . well, I was thinking about how the Republican Candidate for Vice President, Sarah Palin, has a 17 year old daughter who is 5 months pregnant. Now, according to reports, she IS planning on marrying the father, and keeping the baby, but regardless – I began to wonder if she has a youth group to go to?? Does she have people that will love her for her – not just because she is famous?? I think God just put something inside of me that will not be content until I see students walking through that door who are pregnant, have had abortions, strung out, homeless, friendless. . . hopeless. . . isn’t that what this is really all about?? Where do they have to go?? I pray it is GCC on Sunday nights from 6:30 – 8:30, do you know any teenagers like that?? Please send them our way – - and we will do our best to love them.

Peace be with you all –