According to the April chapter page of my One Minute Bible, Theodore Roosevelt said,

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.

Last night in my seminary class, my prof claimed that for far too long people have known too much about the Bible, but have not lived it, placing too much value on knowledge of the Bible. He said Christian spiritual maturity is not Bible knowledge, it’s defined by 3 things: Character, Servanthood, and Generosity.

Hmmm. Well I think that we have a generation who are growing up largely Biblically Illiterate and that if they don’t put two and two together, we’re going to only perpetuate the mess and create people who behave differently, but when challenged as to why- will just stand there dumbfounded and give some lame humanistic or legalistic justification.

I agree that a true follower of the Way of Jesus will be of great character, serve others first, and generously give their life away. But I don’t believe they will do this aimlessly. Instead I believe that they must do this based on a thorough ownership and their faith that is deeply rooted in the Scriptures. This will produce an ability to answer the “why do you do that question” from a foundation that will stand up as something other than founded in what so-and-so said or what the church taught them.

I think Theodore Roosevelt was at least half right. Knowledge is still worth a hundred grand, and among the teens I’m working with, I’m tired of watching them adhere to standards that lack rooting in the why’s of the faith. They will not withstand the storms of life if we don’t help them shore up the foundation of their beliefs.

One of the Grandmas and Papas gave our kids Target cards for Easter. Well, on Monday we went shopping cuz it was burning a hole in their pocket. Like to the point of tears for us being bad parents and not taking them to Target.

Jake got a Diego something or other. Which you can see caused this rarity to be built in my front room. I’m gonna miss the days when this table turns into some kind of mini city. I’m sure they are numbered. So they make me smile more when I see them lately.

TJ got two dvd’s. The first two Harry Potter movies.

Tyler got “pegs” for his bike. Yesterday we called Grandma to tell her and well, there was some confusion. So here you go grandma. These are pegs.

[Side note: If you check out my previous Mexico post with our family and Hector’s, you’ll also notice that Tyler has left the family not only in the addition of pegs to his bike, but Tyler has also departed from the family tradition of the proper nice roll one should develop for their ball cap. This is a technique I have mastered and worked long and hard to get the proper roll. Since my boys were born, I have “fixed their caps” to give them the nice roll a fine cap wearer like myself demands. However he is officially a straight bill kid. Despite my best of efforts to teach and mentor him, he has left me behind for the tall lid with the flat bill. Ahhh… that’s my Ty. How can you deny a kid with no teeth a flat bill. Even if it is wrong.]

Oh.. and here’s how you use the pegs…. and how to take a pic of half of a Dad showing off his mad skills and tyler’s elite photo skillage.

I realized today I forgot to post a draft I started one day. So today I did. But for whatever reason, it stuck it down in order on the day I wrote it, not the day I finished it. And rather than try to fix it, I’m so lazy I’m posting to a post. So, if you’re a reader who likes to get all the info. The newest post is 4 down. OR here if you’re as lazy as me.

Last Friday we took our students to Mexico on a “wing it” trip.

A few weeks before, we were set to work with a local church in Tecate when the thing fell apart due to a pregnancy complication with the pastor’s family. So I was left with either cancel the trip, or come up with my own. So I prayed about it and decided that rather than cancel, I’d drop it to a one day trip to go visit Hector and his family (a boy we sponsor as a youth ministry) in a small town just south of Tecate.

[Side note: our goal is 1 kid sponsored on every continent that I can figure out how to- I’m guessing antartica is out. So far, we have one in North America and one in Africa.]

So, that’s what we did, we went to visit Hector and bring his family some gifts. We really had no real agenda. We decided to just go, follow the spirit, and wing it. The only thing we did know is that they knew we were coming and would be home. So we decided to try an 8am to 10pm- one day shot. Fastest Mexico missions trip I’ve ever been on. Far cry from the 15 hour Nor Cal drive to Mexicali I did in a bus for years. Here’s how the day went.

• 9am: leave church.
• 11am: arrive at Hector’s house. Give them 50lbs of rice, 50lbs of flour, 50lbs of sugar, 25lbs of pinto beans, 4 containers of salt, 40 chicken breasts, 40lbs of beef, a box of toilet paper, a box of paper towels, a new set of heavy duty washable plastic plates/cups/bowls, some new kitchen towels, a couple of brooms, some cleaning supplies, a huge box of laundry detergent, a shovel and a few gifts for Hector: a baseball/bat and soccer ball and football for hector (and a few other things I think I’m forgetting.
• 11:30am-1pm: Play with Hector and his family and a whole bunch of kids from the surrounding neighborhood and help with some projects they had around the house- like clearing a six foot section around their fence to keep the snakes from having something to hide in near the house.
• 1pm-2:30pm: A fat BBQ lunch for the family/community.
• 2:30-4:30pm: Clean up trash in a local community park and then debrief our experience/get to know one another. There are 34 of us, about 25 of which had never been with us to this part of Tecate and lots of whom did not know one another before the trip.
• 4:30-6:30pm: Eat a lot of local tacos and quesadillas and plenty of manzana soda.
• 6:30-7:30pm: Visit a Tecate missions youth outreach center.
• 7:30-8:30pm: Enjoy some local ice cream
• 8:30pm- leave Mexico and arrive back home, hopefully changed and better for it.

Here’s some pictures. Honestly. I love Mexico. I think it’s so fun.

On Sunday I lost an envelope with $445 cash in it- left over from some money I had as emergency cash for a day in on a Mexico Missions trip.

On Monday I found it under the seat in my car, in some random location I swear I looked at least 10 times before. I literally stuck my head out the window and yelled, “Thank you Jesus!” as loud as I could. I guess maybe I thought Jesus was deaf, cuz I can yell loud. I’m sure the mall parking lot thought I was nuts. I had been praying like crazy I’d find this envelope and searched my house and cars for like an hour plus too.

Maybe God stuck it there. Maybe it was there the whole time. Either way. I was super stoked. I can’t afford to lose almost $500. I’m just not that lucrative.