Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.

Archives for November 2009

DESERT BONDING WITH MY BOYS

November 30, 2009 by 1 Comment
Ever since I started taking our high school men to the desert, my kids have been begging me to take them. I have taken them several times shooting, but never for an overnight stay and never with “fire”. But this year I promised them I’d change that and we’d go spend the night and we’d invite some friends and family- (The Berrytribe with Sr. member Papa, The Phillipsons, The Hammonds, and The Bowers)
So, the Friday after thanksgiving we ditched the women, finished loading up my truck, a trailer, and 2 suburbans and peaced out of El Cajon and headed to our favorite desert spot- an hour and half east of us.
Here’s what was on the agenda for our 30 hour overnight trip:
  • eat too much food
  • shoot shotguns and .22 rifles to the tune of over 1500 rounds.
  • HUGE bonfire with some explosions
  • model rockets
  • climbing rocks
  • zipline
  • letting my kids do all kinds of stuff they can’t do at home.
  • 4 families, 9 kids, 6 adults
Here’s what was not on my agenda.
  • 40+ mile an hour wind storm starting at 1 am on Friday night.
  • Having the wind break my french press- for the 3rd time in the desert. I need a steel one for the desert and camping evidently.
  • Getting chased out earlier than planned on Saturday cuz we were completely soaked and freezing from the rain.
Here’s the pictures that prove it was all worth it anyway. My kids now have back-to-school stories to tell today and for years to come. Including Billy doing the zipline in a torrential downpour!

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THANKFUL FOR SO MUCH

November 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Often bedtime or meal time prayers around the Berry household (especially those said by the kids) are long lists of thank you’s to God. We have so much to be thankful for and this Thanksgiving was surely more proof of that. It was a first for Becky and Billy and for us with them. It’s so great to see it fresh and experience all the wonder of the holidays through new eyes and ears.
We expected a bigger crowd and invited several other friends and family, but in the end we had lots of cancelations due to other family obligations that came up. But since our family is 7 strong and we had 4 grandparents here, it made for a large group none-the-less.
Here’s a window into our day:
Becky was our hairdo specialist, adding berets to anyone with enough hair to hold them in 🙂
This is the pie making crew.
My dad and I gave the BBQ it’s annual cleaning before I BBQ’d the bird, like I’ve done every year since we moved to San Diego.
The boys and the papas made rockets to fire off on our post Thanksgiving day desert boy/man trip.
We watched the parade on a TV that we got last Christmas…. and that was super fun for my mother-in-law and wife especially who have had this as some kinda family tradition for decades or something (even going to it a few years back after Cheryl retired from Macys). Cheryl said it made her feel like she was there again. Billy also decided that he wants to go to the parade. I think there’s something about watching it that makes everyone want to go to New York right now too.
Finally, here’s the table all decked out and filled with the official “thanksgiving dishes” we inherited, the family, and too much food.
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A WEEKEND AWAY WITH THE WIFE

November 30, 2009 by 2 Comments

Twice a year, once on Shannon’s birthday and once on our Anniversary, we try and escape sans kids. A few weeks ago, Shannon and I escaped for a few days while her mom watched the tribe.

The budget is tight, so we have to get creative, and the last two times I’ve scored nearly free beach pads via friends of friends. This time, we went to a BIG beach house (literally on the beach) in Capistrano Beach just south of Dana Point proper and where HWY 1 meets I-5 along the pacific coast. The gal who lives in the house is a grandma who travels now and again and when she does, she opens the house up to friends and family to stay for a small cleaning and housing fee. So we had like 3000 square feet all to ourselves.

It was beautiful and we were so thankful for the place to stay. This year, shannon and I decided to watch movies, eat, sleep, walk on the beach, and veg for 3 days, 2 nights. I ended up having to some homework catch up with Seminary, so while shannon slept and read, I crammed my brain with Greek words. But if you gotta study, this ain’t a bad place to do it.

We watched the sun set both nights.

We made a trip to the store to stock up with food and such so we didn’t have to leave much and could relax. I made fruit and toast for breakfast each morning and chicken quesadillas for our one lunch we had there. We ate out one night and found a place that was beautiful and out of our price range but by the grace of God, was 50% off food and beverages if you sat down at your table before 6pm. So we had arrived early and got super lucky! SCORE!

I enjoyed watching the birds do life on the coast, a seal or two, and even had a dolphin pod sighting off our deck 🙂

Finally one indicator that you are in a place you can’t afford to be in: the neighbors pay the gardener to rake the sand on their property between their house and the high tide mark. Yeah, American’s are stupid.

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THE BERRYTRIBE IS DONE…

November 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment

…with 2 things this fall:

#1. SOCCER FOR THE SEASON. August to November, my world is filled with hours of practice, names to memorize, games to attend, athletes to train, goals to set up, fields to chalk, and so much more. It is all encompassing as all 5 of our kids play. It finished on Saturday.

I coached TJ’s U-14 boys. We finished tied for third.
I also coached Tyler’s U-10 boys team. We also finished tied for third.
#2. PIANO FOR BOY NUMERO DOS. I’m not musical. In any way. I can’t sing, play any instrument, or even call out the latest and greatest artist on the radio. So I don’t coach anything regarding music. Instead, they can coach me. 🙂 But if you want to play an instrument in the Berrytribe, per the family mom rules, you have to learn piano first.
Tyler finished his season of training and graduated on Sunday with a recital. You go Ty. Now he’s off to play drums and he can school me 🙂
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SOMETHING’S BROKEN

November 21, 2009 by 2 Comments

I’m not sure what just yet, but something’s broken.

Maybe in me.

Maybe in my ministry.

Maybe both.

But it’s clearly broken and I’m not sure how to fix it or even that there is one solution.   I know of some things that are broken that I can and should fix.  I know of other things that are broken that I think I could fix if someone holding that thing would just say, “Ok, I agree it’s broken.  Let’s fix it together.”  But this thing that is broken is deeper than either of those.

I can’t describe it or put my finger on “it”, but I’m hunting.

Tonight I walked into my house and shannon and I unanimously said, “What is that smell?  Something is dead in here.”  I’m not sure if a rat died in a wall or the milk is rotten in the fridge, but something is not right.   I have that same feeling about several other things right now.  “Something is dead in here.”

I also checked my snail mail tonight.  Bills came and so did an advertisement for a conference I normally would not attend.  It features another pastor who I don’t have a lot of respect for his methods or at times his message.  I actually hadn’t heard his name in a while and then I read this conference ad and inside was this quote:

“In a recent and important book, Michael Horton has made a compelling case that the American church has been willingly taken captive by American culture and ideals including consumerism, pragmatism, self-sufficiency, individualism, positive thinking, personal prosperity, and nationalism.  As a result, we have pushed God aside and trivialized the faith.  Instead of the gospel, we proclaim a therapeutic and moralistic deism.”  

I have not read this book and I don’t know that they are right.

I don’t know that they are wrong either.

I do know something is broken and I can’t fix it with my hammer, my computer, or by myself.

I’m on a quest.

 

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