I saw some pictures on the news that the fires were threatening some very big houses.

Evidently it also took out 14 staff homes, a dorm, a science building, an a few others at Westmont College too.

Check out the pics and captions here as you pray for the students and staff and resources that have been pretty jacked up. Stuff is temporary and life is fragile. Fire season is a hard way to remember.

Ever wondered… what goes through the brain of a high school teenager?

Well, we’ve done a few things to try and give the students I work with a chance to express themselves and give us some insight into that very question in our high school weekend services lately.

We started out our weekend series this fall with one called, “everyone matters“.

We asked students to write down their “stories” about how these messages were changing their thinking on cards during the third message in the series. We then re-wrote them anonymously and taped them to the wall the following Sunday. We talked about how our stories are all different, but our uniqueness also reinforces how “everyone matters”.

Here’s some of what they said: (click them and they should get large enough to read)

This weekend we’re starting a new series called, “Dear God”.

We stole the name from Saddleback (a series they did last school year) and then we added an iphone/texting theme to it.

Anyway, we had students turn in cards and ask questions about God and life and faith. They asked some great questions. I love the fact that high school students are embarking on the process of becoming true faith thinkers. I try and tell students as often as I can that, “I have no desire to teach you what to think, but rather how to think.” I hope our ministry is producing intelligent and thoughtful followers of Jesus.

You can read their questions here on our high school ministry blog.

Pray for us as we seek to live relevantly and help students find hope and faith in the truth of God’s word this series.

Don’t even try and tell me you don’t either personally want this purse or think someone you know NEEDS this purse. It’s will bring you way more prestige and oohs and ahhhs than GUCCI.

I promise. Your friends will like it so much they will try to steal it- but don’t worry, it comes with a guardian angel to protect you and your purse.

GO HERE NOW TO BID ON IT. Hurry. You only have 24 hours to share the love.

Becky says you’ll like it. She already owes Amy a kiss for making it.

Here’s some stuff from the world of the berrytribe family soccer season. From oldest to youngest.

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TJ’s team is called the “scorepions”, but um yeah…. we didn’t do much SCOREing. However, today was different! We played a man down and made as many goals today as we have made all season- go figure. Crazy I tell you. Crazy! It was fun to coach today- not because the won so much as because the didn’t stand around acting like they forgot they were playing soccer. I love soccer, but this team made me think sometimes that I might suck at coaching. Here’s the crew.

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Tyler’s team is currently in first place- undefeated with one tie. “The Storm” has been raging all year with some very gifted and talented athletes. Today Tyler scored again, a great shot where he beat his opponent, then waited for the goalie to make a wrong move and perfectly shot it in goal. I was so fired up for him. We have the semi-finals next weekend and then the final match for first place on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Pretty cool. Here’s that crew:

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Finally, there’s Jake. We decided to pull Jake this year from our AYSO league and put him in a league where they only train in ball skills, don’t have a “real team” and show up on saturday for a mini-field game that is 4 v 4 with small goals. The kids then try and get control of the ball and “go to goal”. It’s perfect for his age bracket- though lots of injuries on the coaching staff kept this from being all that it could have been. I still like the concept better for his age bracket though. Here’s Jake with the crew on the last day (last weekend) and another with his buddies from our neighborhood.

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Oh.. and I started playing indoor again on Sunday nights with the “has beens”. That’s good for my soul and my health. I love playing indoor. Last Sunday I scored twice. Rock on. No pic of me and my team. Sorry. I’m too fast for the camera 🙂

Today I heard president-elect Obama say that our auto industry is failing and needs our help.

Great. Let’s help. Um… I have an opinion on how per my experience today.

• Car breaks.
• Car towed per AAA service I pay for.
• Car serviced.
• Parts $101
• Labor $188 or $94 per hr. for 2 hours.
• Actual time it took to do the job including the paperwork per my bill: 50 minutes.

Auto industry explanation: “The guy is fast. He gets paid the allotted book time regardless of how long it takes, under or over the book time. Sometimes it works in the techs favor. Sometimes it works in your favor.”

Reality: My wife works as a substitute teacher. She has to work 16 hours to make what it took the car dealership 50 minutes to make.

Are you kidding me? 2 days of work to teach our kids verses less than an hour to fix my ignition? Can your cool new financial policy solve that discrepancy please?