Month: September 2006

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if it’s not slightly odd then it’s not any fun

i like things that are slightly quirky. life is just a tad bit better when you throw something unexpected in it- it’s spice for life. that’s why i love eric landry’s gorilla costume that randomly shows up every now and then when we are doing something. that’s why i loved the great statue search that was a part of last year’s JESUS project. odd things thrown into the mix add a little fun.

i say this to tell you that i have decided to add something meaningless to the registration process for this year’s JESUS project. you now have the ability to register online for the JESUS project (and of course, you can still register at the youth ministry office or any youth ministry activity). when you register i or jessica will time stamp when we received your registeration (if you do this online the internet will do this automatically). this is important because i’m going to use that time stamp. i refuel my truck once a week with gasoline. since, the theme for this year’s JESUS project is refuel i figured it would be fun to throw something stupid into the mix that has to do with refueling. therefore, the person who registers on the same day that i fuel my truck and is closest to the actual time that i refueled will become a “star” of the retreat. if you register on the same day that i refuel and are closer than anyone else to the time of the refueling you will have a video made about you and incorporated into the retreat. what’s the video about? i’m not sure. i’ll figure that out when i see who wins the privilege each time. you could be a superhero, a bum on the street, or a person who just stares at the camera. all i know for sure is that you’ll have a little bit of your 15 minutes of fame and it will make the registration process a little more interesting for me.

you can sign up for the JESUS project HERE.

SIDE NOTE – indoor skydiving is just plain cool

[Listening to: Homeward Bound – TreeFinger – (3:38)]
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forms

i’m not the world’s greatest on html and web design. i know enough to be dangerous but not enough to do what i actually want to do. this year for our fall retreat i wanted to have sometime of online registration (i’m not comfortable with allowing credit card payment yet because i can’t do that through the church and i don’t want the money coming through my hands). i tried a few different ways of creating forms (manners that work for the stupid people like me). none of them really worked for me until i accidentally ran into formsite. it’s pretty much dummy proof. if anyone knows of a better form building site i’m still open to changing things. i appreciate the collective wisdom of the two people who read this blog.

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JESUS project

i tried something new this year for the JESUS project (our annual fall retreat). actually we’re trying allot of new things during the retreat but what i’m talking about here is that i’m trying to work out online registration for the event. i have a basic form up on the youth ministry website now but hopefully be the end of the week it will be something more professional than that. i’ve tried a few wordpress plugins that are supposed to be able to do the trick but nothing has worked just right yet. i’ll keep on trying.

i through the view was great tonight. the band and sergio were but right on target. of course, it didn’t hurt that i got to knock antonio around during the message.

some exciting news youth ministry-wise is the planning that i got to do with several other youth ministers today. right now at least four other churches will be joining us for this year’s famine. you’ll here more about this later.

my run for the day
distance – 3.7 miles
total time – 35:31
pace – 9:35/mile

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have it your way … yeah sure

every now and then i get a strong craving for burger king cheeseburgers. in high school i worked at burger king for awhile and yet still i like their food (which is unusual because typically when some works at a resturant they usually hate the food after awhile). my problem is that while i enjoy the taste of burger king charboiled burgers i despise the service you find within burger king resturants in the baton rouge area. i’m not sure why it is that burger kings stink so bad at service around baton rouge. all the other places i have lived (alabama, michigan, texas, missouri) had burger kings with exceptional service. yet that’s not true in baton rouge.

this past thursday i finally reached my limit and i had to write them. i sincerely hope that someone will read the letter and change some attitudes around burger king because every now and then i really do like their cheeseburgers.

here’s the letter i sent

burger king corporation
5505 blue lagoon drive
miami, florida 33126

to whom it may concern,

i have lived in several states within the southern and midwestern portions of the united states. in fact, i worked at a burger king in dothan, alabama when i was in high school and had a positive experience there also. i have enjoyed eating at burger king restaurants within each area that i have lived until i moved to baton rouge, louisiana six years ago. the franchises within baton rouge consistently offer miserable service. the food is usually fine but my experiences with the service personnel both within the restaurant and through the drive-through window is consistently awful.

while i have felt this way for some time i finally reached the point that i felt i had to say something based on my experience thursday, september 7, 2006. my family and i entered the burger king restaurant on o’neal lane (within baton rouge) and stood there standing for almost five minutes before seeing any cashier. there was no one visible behind the counter. we finally saw an employee walking from the rear of the building. i called out and asked if someone could take our order. the employee rolled her eyes without saying a word and walked away. at this point my wife and i both decided that we did not want to support such a business and we walked out of the restaurant. we went to another fast food restaurant further up the street and bought our meals there.

i still enjoy eating at burger king restaurants outside of the baton rouge area but the same cannot be said for those in baton rouge. i am not sure that i will ever enter another baton rouge burger king.

sincerely,
robert terrell

my run for the day
distance – 3.7 miles
total time – 37:43
pace – 10:12/mile

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worshipping the CREATOR

the walking labyrinth
i’ve done the path of prayer labyrinth with amazing results within our youth ministry. awhile back grace (a worship community in england and the creators of the “path of prayer laburinth”) developed a new prayer experience on the CREATOR. i wrote jonny baker and asked him about the resources and he said they would be coming out soon. well they came out awhile back and we’re going to use it for our fall retreat. i haven’t used “worshipping the CREATOR” yet but i have a great deal of faith in what comes out of grace.

do any of y’all have any experience with “worshipping the CREATOR?”

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reading


i finished organic church by neil cole yesterday and i found it very challenging. i have to admit that the thought of a house church is very compelling. I don’t have any experience with churches that only operate out of homes. i do however have some experience with churches that operate often out of homes. they regularly incorporate homes into their times together. i would be interested to find out how well house churches age. it seems to me that they would work very well with younger ages but i don’t have any idea how they would do with older individuals. this is my lack of experience speaking here.

i’m now reading shane claiborne’s irresistible revolution. last year i went and spent a week with shane and his friends at the simple way. many of the stories within the book i heard then. i’ll write more concerning the book when i finish it. it’s enough to say at this point that it is very powerful … just like shane.

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it only took a month

yesterday, after a month of globetrotting around the world my lost dufflebag that delta airlines lost at the end of our mission trip to nicargua came back home. last week i had actually turned in my “loss claim” and figured delta would just be reimbursing me for the loss. of course, i was pretty upset by this fact because there were certain things in my bag that couldn’t be replaced, such as;

  • the table runner and random fabricy thingie i bought in masaya for pam
  • the baseball jerseys i purchased in nicaragua for my boys
  • my last almost complete moleshine journal – filled with decent and terrible ideas from the past year and a half.
  • the flip flops that i have spent the past 2 1/2 years wearing in (i bought these to replace the pair i had for seven years that finally broke after they were really welling good.)
  • the soccer jerseys i purchased for myself when i was in diriamba – the england national team and manchester united
  • the six pounds of coffee that i brought back for my family and friends.

the other things could be replaced but the list above would be hard to correct. thankfully my duffle bag of eight years is now back and i am presently wearing my flip flops. ahhhhhhh! life is good.