Last Monday I took my kids and some of their friends and ditched school to go see the saber tooth cats and mammoths and other stuff from the ice age in down town Los Angeles at the La Brea Tarpits. Who knew that we had saber tooth tigers and Elephants roaming in LA before it was LA and that we would eventually find their bones in a tarpit in the park. Crazy. You never know when you go to a museum what your kids are really going to think, but I figured with a tiger with 12″ teeth and tar and stuff I had a good chance of them liking it. I wasn’t too sure though until Tyler told his mom (who had to work and didn’t go) that he wanted to take his friends for his birthday. Guess that means he thought it was fun.

On another level, these things make we wonder about the age of the earth, my view of creation, and the ebb and flow of the temperature of this globe through history.

Our family is loosing teeth like crazy.

• Monkey #1 lost another one late last week. He has four gone.
• Monkey #2 lost another last night and is missing almost the whole upper front deck.
• Monkey #3 decided not to be left out and entered the land of the toothless lost his first tonight after shower time. His first question was, “Dad, will you take my picture?”

The tooth fairy is going broke visiting our house.

I wrote an article for Simply Youth Ministry last week. I didn’t know it had posted to their site, but I just got an e-mail from an old friend who read it online. Funny.

Anyway- if you want to read it, click here.

I’ll be writing 3 of them. My next one is due Friday. Just like 800 word “help from the field” advice and practical teaching stuff. Drop in on Simply to check it out in the future or to look up other quick articles to read from men and women in the trenches of youth ministry with me.

Tyler lost another tooth tonight. Evidently he’s going to have to start eating all his food through a blender or just gum his food to death. Only one left on the prized top front row.

Crazy world we live in. Uganda is 11 hours ahead of us and so tonight I talked to my brother in law in Uganda via a video conference through Skype while he was experiencing the beginning of tomorrow. Great to get caught up and to see his face. Absolutely crazy that we can do that 10,000 miles away. Sometimes I really praise God I live in the internet age. Most of those days I wonder how I ever got along without it.

Also, we’re planning our trip to Uganda this summer. We’re currently putting together our team 15 and in late July we’ll be headed to Uganda to serve in this orphanage and the surrounding communities. Should be awesome and I can’t wait to see my family. I’ll be there for almost a month this summer, staying after the “missions portion” to hang with my family and meet with the child we sponsor through World Vision. I think that will be AWESOME!!!