Tonight I heard about a church marquee and thought it was too good to be true. But on the drive home, I found out that yes, it is true. If only Donny would take a picture for me to post.
Spotted on a (new) church marquee in Grand Junction:
Help Wanted
Music Director
We suppose that’s better than advertising for a Senior Pastor.
There are lots of moments when I feel inadequate as a dad. Sometimes I feel totally unqualified, unprepared, and incapable of the daunting task of raising a child (soon to be children).
Tonight, I had to do some stuff up at the church office that kept me away from home for several hours while my poor little boy was mopey and dopey. Poor Jayden has a cold and if it wasn’t for his Grandpa, I don’t know how he would have been comforted.
I came home and he was ok… but sleepy. So I started the bed time routine only to have a showdown.
It’s in moments like those that I feel helpless. I know he’s not happy. I’m just trying to help the poor kid get some rest so he can feel better.
As Alana and I were singing him his Good Night song, he was still kinda fussy. I felt so bad. I had been gone all evening and didn’t get to play with him - I got no “happy” time the whole day.
But then, I took him in my arms and rocked him to sleep. He clinched on - hugging me tightly. It was the calmest, sweetest moment of the day. I spent the next several minutes praying over him. Then I realized I’m so blessed to have a son and all my perceived inadequecies are worth it for a moment as simple and pure as this.
Every Saturday & Saturday, the Daily Sentinel publishes anonymous “blurbs” from residents of all kind (some sincere, some nutty, some odd, but all passionate). When people aren’t complaining about roundabouts, taxes, oil & gas, or lost kittens, it gets pretty comical. And frustrating at the same time.
In Saturday’s column:
Stop demanding that those without children support those who choose to have children. Have those with children pay their way, school, welfare, and other social programs. I’m tired of paying for someone else’s choices. Let’s tax everyone who has children to fund new schools and leave retired property owners out of the equation.
Maybe they’ll publish what I submitted in response:
To all the retired folks who complain about their property taxes going to others’ children, perhaps we should stop paying your Social Security taxes.
Was that too crass?
This weekend, Tim Brown (the Regional Administrative Bishop of the Rocky Mountain Region of the Church of God with International Offices at Cleveland, Tennessee) and his wife Rhonda came for a visit. They are on their 30th anniversary trip through Western Colorado and decided to make Grand Junction their last stop.
It was great to have them here. I really love those guys. They’re fun, funny, and best of all, technologically savvy. I mean, they have iPhones and Macs. What’s not to love about that? Plus Rhonda and I now follow each other on Twitter. Tweet Sweet.
Last night my in-laws had them over for dinner and we had a chance to visit with them and share a little bit of our heart for future ministry. Bishop Brown was so encouraging and open to us. You can tell they really do love and support young ministers.
This morning, he spoke in our service on “Guess Who’s Thinking About You.” His message really hit me as a great reminder that God has hope-filled, future thoughts - good thoughts - about me. God is passionate about what I’m passionate about. He’s concerned about what I’m concerned about. He grieves when I greive. He cares about me. He loves me. He has great thoughts for me … and I don’t need to be scared to embrace them.
As a kid, I always wanted to be cool. For a while, I wore one. Yes, I succumbed to the 80’s and wore a fanny pack. Not to school mind you, that would be just plain wrong. But on trips. I remember wearing a kid sized Mickey Mouse fanny pack at Disney World as early as 4. Then there was the fanny pack fiasco of 1990 when I lost my fanny pack on The Rattler at Fiesta Texas. I was disappointed, but not as much as mom.
Mom ALWAYS wore fanny packs on trips. That faux leather dark blue fanny pack looks like the sixth member of the family when you flip through pictures at the Grand Canyon, Tijuana, Galveston, the Alamo, Schlitterbahn, Tennessee, and Wal-Mart. Just kidding … we never took pictures of our trips to Wal-Mart.
On missions trips, fanny packs are required. Especially for leaders. But on all the trips I have led, I have never worn a fanny pack. Before my time with Spring Explosion, someone decided that treasurers were required to carry an overgrown fanny pack aka shoulder pack/hip bag around 100% of the time. Foreign trip treasurers had to keep their cash in an under the clothes money belt.
I changed all that. Sure we still had the hip bags, but the treasurers no longer had to use them as pillows. Money belts were out too. Besides, the sweat marks were out of control. Plus I simplified the spreadsheets. Three pages of legal sized paper a day was just too much!
Besides my mom and missions trippers, the only other person I know that thinks fanny packs are perfectly normal is Jayden’s doctor. Yep, Dr. Mike loves his fanny pack. But for him, it’s very practical. He carries his little pediatrician tools in it. You know, the special scope that finds alligators in ears and frogs up your nose. At least growing up that’s what I was told.
I don’t think the fanny pack will ever make a comeback, but if it does, I’ll run down to the store and buy a neon green one with hot pink trim, just like the one I lost on The Rattler.
I’m so old. A couple of months ago, I gave myself whiplash and couldn’t turn my neck for days. Since then, I’ve had a few instances of neck cricks. Most recently last week. Well that pain still hasn’t gone away. I’ve gotten several suggestions to just wear a neck brace so people don’t wonder why I’m turning so weird.
Well today at work, my neck was bothering me all day. So I came home thinking my wife would massage it out. But instead, my back started hurting. After hours of icing it, lying down, massages, and popping… I’m still in pain!
I’m so old.
The show Beijing put on certainly wasn’t shabby. Despite their horrible human rights record, resistence to openness, and pollution problems, they really did a great job opening up the games. All thoughout the night, Daniel and I were texting. Just one question remains unanswered: why is table tennis an olympic sport?
This is the first in what may be a sporadic series of posts about our Momentum students.
This is Treyce. He will be a senior at Grand Junction High School this year. I love this guy. He’s got a great balance of brains and humor. He loves video games (he’s playing one in the photo) and has a great girlfriend.
One of my favorite memories of Treyce was on a trip to Denver last summer. Most of the guys stayed up talking and I could see that Treyce truly loves the Lord and wants to see God move in our youth ministry - and this was just as he was getting plugged in. Since then, he’s quickly become one of our key leaders and someone our younger students can look up to.
Whenever I ask for a response from the group, he’s quick to respond - sometimes with a joke - but usually with a clear, concise, logical answer. He seems to wrap his mind quickly around the topic and helps move things along.
Treyce is a great guy and I’m so glad to be able to walk with Him on this journey.
There’s nothing like a Wednesday night. Lately, I’ve been rushed to get out of work and over to the church to get prepped for the night. This week was no different, but I felt more prepared. The whole night I felt more in pace than usual. Perhaps I’m finally adjusting to the changes we’ve been making.
Relationally, tonight was great. I feel we’ve built great relationships with our students this summer and helped them on their journey with God. Tonight we focused on defining discipleship. This is one of my biggest passions and I sincerely hope that our students will follow after God with all their hearts.
Jayden was putting on a show all night. It’s not that he craves attention, he just gets it because he’s so cute and funny. So he was going around, doing his thing - and everybody was watching him. But other than that slight distratction, everything seemed to flow pretty well.
After the service, the old folks (Alana, Donny, Tabitha, Jenna, and me) checked out one of student’s moped. Totally sweet. And of course I took it for a ride. In fact it was the first time I’ve ever ridden one. I’m a dork! This kid gets like a million miles to the galloon - he only pays $3 a week for gas. Maybe Alana will let me get one!
After playing around in Photoshop with Donny, we headed to IHOP for a change of scenery. Very good night relationally. Sweet.
Lately so much has been happening, everything feels like a blur. Jayden is already 18 months old and our little munchkin is coming in only 6 months. Life is going by so fast, sometimes it’s hard to stop and take inventory of what’s going on.
Yesterday after I worked and took a nap, Alana and I took Jayden to the Lincoln Park pool to celebrate his half birthday. Other than the cool winds of the early evening giving us chills, we had a great time. Jayden had a fun time playing and splashing around. First he started in a floatie motor boat. I call it a “bloatie.” Then we took him out and let him walk around in the shallow end of the kiddie pool.
Our time there was nice. I tried to stop and soak in the moment. It was a moment of rest and relaxation in the middle of a blurry season.
My hope and prayer is that Alana and I will never get so consumed, our vision so blurred that we don’t stop and enjoy the little moments of life.
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Scott Ammons | 
08 27th, 2008| 