Archives for November 2008

If you work with high school or college students, well Twilight is part of their world. I have a bunch o thoughts about this, but here’s 5:

1. WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THIS CRAZE COME FROM? with other movies, especially ones that are part of a series of books, I’ve at least heard of this ground swell, but it’s like a tidal wave that came out of nowhere- at least for me- and the books are 4 volumes deep already.
2. CHRISTIANS LOVE POP CULTURE AS MUCH AS ANYONE: I saw like 10 girls from our college group go see it Sunday after I taught at church.
3. THIS MOVIE GENRE IS WEIRD TO ME. Since when do students flock to a vampire love story? I’m fine with lots of genre’s of movies and books and I am fine with fantasy. My son TJ read the entire Harry Potter series in like 3 months straight. I have had a few Christians tell me this Vampire movie is from hell and has no redeeming qualities. I was also told some Mormon lady wrote it. I’m not sure where it is from really, but I’m highly doubting any of our students are like looking out for vampires at school now as a result of this movie or book. But I honestly don’t know enough to say what it’s impact will be. I’m gonna have to ask more questions I guess.
4. I MIGHT NOT CARE, BUT I ALSO CAN’T IGNORE THIS THING. I love students, but one part of my job that I’m not naturally good at is staying up on pop culture. In fact, I suck at it. The only way I make up for it to ask lots of questions of my students. I don’t watch enough TV, see enough movies, or listen to enough radio stations to get the scoop myself. So I just quiz people out of pure ignorance and genuine curiosity until I feel like I’m in the know. For example: I asked the college girls (several of which are on my leadership team) all kinds of questions about this movie and books and their appeal while they were waiting to get in line for this movie while I ate lunch with my kids in the mall. One question I asked was: what would the book be rated if the movie was true to it? I was told this: “It’s not like a Danielle Steele Novel. I’d say PG13 for the first 3 and R for the last one.”
5. MY RANDOM PREDICTION: Twilight or some tweaking there of will the be theme for a lot of summer camps this year.

ok…. I have no idea what this means just yet. But Twilight just found it’s way into my student world. Now what?

My grandma Delma would be turning 86 this next month on December 3rd. Her birthday is still in my calendar and her friendship still missed.

But while I cannot have coffee and ice cream with her at my house over thanksgiving, I did get a little piece of her world sent to me in the mail today.

It was my grandma’s paring knife!

It’s so cool to have this piece of history in my life. I’ve seen my grandma peel thousands of pieces of fruit and make countless meals with this knife in her hand. I spoke about it here in my tribute about her last September.

Here’s what I said about this knife in specific:

I once even remade the wooden handle for her on a kitchen paring kife she had sharpened and used so many times that the wooden handle was all but gone and the blade was nothing but a piece of tin. I offered to buy her a new one but she insisted on keeping that one, so I made her a new handle for it. I really wish I still had that knife, but I’m sure it was tossed by someone at some point in the past decade.

WELL I WAS WRONG! Someone had saved it. THANK YOU UNCLE CARL!

The knife on the top of this picture is one that she held onto that had a handle falling apart that my Uncle also sent me. However the one below is the one I replaced the handle for. It started with a blade like the one above, but after decades of peeling and sharpening, it has all but disappeared.

You can go over here and read how to BUY COFFEE for your house or your office or your friends and family or total strangers this holiday season. Regardless it will actually produce funds that will go towards our adoption expenses.

You can thank Amy Taylor for us by visiting her post here and then buy some JAVA!!!

If you wanna help us with our adoption funding and find a piece of art for your home. Search no further. Just check out the picture below and then go bid on it here. It’s made by a friend of mine, Randy Lipsey and is hosted on another friends site, Amy Taylor. Yeah for talented and creative friends.

Today was the first time in over a year that I taught in what some affectionately call, “Big Church.”

I call it teaching in “Main”- short for the “Main Service.” I mentioned I was teaching in “Main” to one our adult volunteers and he asked me if he should be praying for my flight. Guess I need to give a little clarification between “Main” and “Maine”.

Anyway, if you want to give it a listen, click here and download it or whatever.

Embedded in it is a testimony or story from a gal in our church, Susan. It’s about how Jesus met her in a really tough spot. It’s worth the listen just for that story alone if you ask me.