Author: Robert

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two great things

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this afternoon i got to do two things i love: 1)talk with someone concerning youth ministry, and 2)fish for smallmouth bass. josh is helping to start the youth ministry at tapestry’s sponsoring church, fellowship church in waupaca. when he asked if we could get together and talk about youth ministry i asked if we could do it while fishing (i haven’t been in three weeks so i was going through the d.t.’s). it made for a great afternoon. i have no doubt that josh is going to do great in youth ministry because he has a wonderful heart.

SIDE NOTE – since i no longer have a study all my books are disorganized in a ton of boxes. therefore, if anyone has a spare copy of “the first two years of youth ministry” by doug fields (which i think is the best starting youth ministry book around – even though i’m not a purpose driven guy) i know someone who could put it to good use. actually if you want to get frid of any youth ministry books let me know. email me and i’ll connect you with josh.

IMG_0605SIDE SIDE NOTE – i caught this 22” catfish on a shallow running shad rap.  the fish bite all the way through the bottom inch of balsa wood that makes up the lure’s body. the only reason i caught the fish was because the because the metal of the eye transfers up the body of the lure to the front of the lure. that’s the first time that’s every happened to me.

SIDE SIDE SIDE NOTE – andy lickel (the uwsp intervarsity campus minister) was also out on the river and that guy can catch some fish. josh and i caught out share but if it had been a competition andy would have smoked us both. i don’t know how he does it.

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lars and the real girl

i’m sick and therefore the normal terrell family tradition of august being “no t.v. month” is temporarily suspended. if one of us is sick to the point of having to stay inside during the month of august then television is allowed. even though it’s always hard to start it i still always love “no t.v. month” because i get so many things done. of course, we haven’t reached the point of getting rid of the tv all together.

anyhow, pam and i are watching “lars and the real girl” and i thought i would just post that it is a strange but very enjoyable movie. quite strange but also quite entertaining.

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a personal pet peeve

austin-blog

one of the things that google reader does is identify who actually posts material on the blogs you are reading. for example, the above image came from a post that susie austin did on the austins’ blog concerning alicia’s birthday (which was the 19th – if you forgot it is still not too late to wish her a happy belated birthday). how do i know susie posted the article? while google reader tells me who was logged in when the post was placed on the blog. of course, someone could have pretended to be susie, but i choose to think most people are honest when it comes to logging into an account.

anyhow, as of today i’ve decided to quite reading a few ministers’ blogs because i’ve realized something about them … they’re secretaries are the ones posting everything. actually that’s not the only reason i’m quitting these blogs because i’ve suddenly realized that all these blogs really are is advertisement. i read blogs to learn the thoughts, concerns, and experiences of those i care about and/or be challenged by other peoples’ thoughts. these blogs do neither. i’m not challenged by them because all they every do is talk about what is coming up at that church or how cool something was when that church did it. i also don’t learn anything about the thoughts, concerns or experiences of these pastors because … well … they didn’t write it. they’re secretary or tech person played ghost writer.

anyway, it’s just a personal pet peeve and i’m taking care of it by ditching those blogs. bye, bye.

SIDE NOTE – the austins ARE NOT one of those blogs. they are cool people who post their own stuff. this is why i used a screen shot of my reader with their blog. they are trustworthy.

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tapestry nicaragua '08

the receipt for water at kilumbo
we are back from nicaragua and my stomach is slowly but surely surviving my swap from nicaraguan to american food (major food changes always throw me off – much like my dogs). as always there is way too many amazing things for me to post them all. therefore, i will only post a few.

  1. the baltadanos are incredible – they are my friends and they are the ones doing all the cool ministry down there. we anglos get to work along side them and it is a privilege to do so.
  2. tapestry is incredible – i loved working and hanging with our group. they did amazing stuff and came up with some great new ideas. it is so cool planting a church with these guys and girls.
  3. we got to hook kilumbo up with water – the families that used to live in the dump have been moved 45 minutes away to an area called kilumbo. this is a mixed blessing. the positive side is that the kids no longer live int he dump. the negative side is their parents still have to survive off scavenging from the dump and that is a 45 minute walk away. along with this they didn’t have any running water and were getting sick constantly. you can see a photo of their water cistern here. pam found out about this and then as a group we were able to get them connected to clean water. that’s what the above photo is about. it’s the receipt from having them connected. that receipt will be framed and become a part of tapestry worship. there is something just plain cool about bringing fresh water to people while you are talking about the living water of JESUS.
  4. things are improving but we still have miles to go – this was my sixth year down there and significant improvements have happened in some areas. yet, there is still so much that can be done. tapestry is committed to kilumbo (which is a part of diriamaba). we are going to see life there improve. i am more and more convinced that with the baltadanos we can be a part of GOD doing something amazing.
  5. we suck at soccer (a.k.a football) – we always get our butts kicked. i will same that the diriagen game (the local professional team) we saw down there was incredible.

i’ll post more later but i need to leave emy j’s now and head home.

SIDE NOTE – i just finished talking with a local radio station’s ad guy and i think it is going to be possible for tapestry to buy some ad time on that station before we launch. of course, this is not a CHRISTian station because it would not be in our character to advertise to church people. we’ll be the only church advertising on their station (at least for the short time we advertise). we’re talking about doing an ad that is a cross between a monster truck rally and a church opening ad. just imagine “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” it should be fun. 🙂

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my d.min experience

the beginning of my d.min experience at new orleans seminary was ok. the reason i say ok is because my first workshop was basically just an orientation to the school and what is expected from my research. obviously that not very exciting. of course, it wasn’t meant to be exiting.

the good part is that i got to see a little of what i’ll be a part of. the way the program works is that i’ll have to 9 semester hours of workshops (these are related to prepping my research – 9 semester hours equals 3 workshops), 9 hours of divisional seminars (these are courses within 5 different general divisions – again 9 semesters hours equals 3 courses), 9 hours of specialization seminars (these are courses within my specialization – by now you should know what this equals). these course will probably take me about 2 1/2 years to finish. then i’ll do my project. judging from what the professors and other d.min students told me my project will probably take between 1 to 2 years.

to be honest in the past i’ve been a little down on the d.min degree. yet with that said i am pretty excited about working on the project. i think there are some pretty cool things i can explore concerning using some of the collaborative software on the web. tapestry has used some for a few things (mainly google docs but we’ve also used mind meister) and it has been pretty useful. i don’t know how i would turn that into a hundred page research paper but i’ll figure that out later. of course, i’ll probably change my ideas ten times by the time i finish my seminars.

i also met a few fellow students that i really enjoyed connecting with and a couple of whom are possibility interested in doing something with tapestry.

SIDE NOTE – i took the eee pc 901 with me to nola and i love it. it took me a day to get used to very tiny keyboard of the 901 but after that day everything was fine. it is perfect. it’s just the right size for carrying around (about the size of a hardback book) and has just the right amount of power to handle surfing, word processing, and other basic tasks that i need from a laptop. in fact, at the moment i am in the air between nola and chicago typing this on the 901 while watching a movie at the same time. it’s all good.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – the fletcher family and clint barron were nice enough to come down to new orleans for supper while i was there. it was great seeing them and the food was excellent.

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i'm okay

for those who read my plane post and are worried that i’m depressed or completely freaking out i just want to let everyone know that i am fine. all i was doing was posting my thoughts at that moment. those feelings are my real feelings sometimes but VERY RARELY. in other words, I’M OKAY MOM.

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the report question

i’m presently in the air between chicago and new orleans and since i am very bored of reading turabian (writer’s guide of style) for my class tomorrow, i though i would post something on the blog.

each month i have to complete a report to send to the mwbc to receive my funding. it’s really no big deal because the questions i have to answer aren’t that difficult. truhtfully, i think the whole thing is done just to make sure that i actually am working on planting the church rather than just using church planting as an excuse for a paid year long fishing excursion. the first pastor i ever worked for said that ministry could be the easiest or the hardest job a person is ever involved in and that each person decides which it will be. i would say that this is even more true of planting a church. i could sit around and do nothing all day long until my funding runs out, or i can try to use every opportunity all day long, seven days a week to try and accomplish what i believe GOD has called our family to. hopefully, i done more than just sat around. i think i have. anyway i figure that the report that i complete each month serves two purposes: 1) it hold me accountable to actually be doing stuff, and 2) it shows a history of the birth of the church.

one of the question that i have to answer each month is “in what areas are you struggling right now as a church planter?” the question always intriques me. the main reason i find the question interesting because my struggles are almost always the same … fear.

most of the time i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my family and i are doing what GOD wants us to do. in fact, i love doing what i get to do everyday. there are moments where i will call pam at the university just so i can tell someone about the small but great things that happen during my day that i am positive are leading to the planting of tapestry. i can see it happening. i’m convinced that GOD is going to do things thorugh the planting of tapestry that bring people to him. i’m convinced thi whole thing is going to come to pass and it will be amazingly cool. i see tangible things happening and real relationships growing that convince me more and more that we were right concerning what GOD wanted.

all of the above is true most of the time. of course, there are other times.

i don’t talk about the other times much. i don’t usually tell them to anybody except for pam because truthfully they scare me. these times always to bring to mind the old parable of human nature being two fighting dogs and the dog that wins is the one that has been fed the most. i don’t want to dog of fear to win, so i don’t focus on it much when it’s one of those times.

you see every now and then i start to freak out concerning what we are doing. the closer we get to september 14th (tapestry’s launch date) the more often i have brief moments of “what if i was wrong?” you see i don’t have a plan b. this is it. we moved up here to plant a church that honors GOD and that’s that. it would be a lot easier if i knew there was something i could fall back on, but i don’t. that’s what causes me to have moments of fear.

i don’t like those moments.

thankfully they don’t last very long.

usually doing these moments i pretty quickly see something that reminds me that GOD is in control and that he honors the work (no matter how pathetic) of those who agree to follow him. i’m real thankful for those things that remind me and i’m even more thankful that the moments of fear are few and far between.

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stupidity & the 901

this will be short but just wanted to let you all know that i am stupid. my first class for my d.min begins thursday. i’ve been reading the wrong syllabus for the past month and therefore thinking that my papers would be due weeks after the class is over. baaaaaaah! wrong answer. i looked at the correct syllabus today (after i realized i was reading the one for the next semester) and discovered that two papers were due in the professors’ offices last friday. great way to start off my new degree.

i’ve been writing feverishly to get things done and also emailing and calling new orleans seminary to try and see if it is possible to make arrangements to correct my stupidity. it’s made for an interesting day. the killer is that even when i didn’t take school that seriously (high school and college) i NEVER turned in a paper late. i went through high school, college, and graduate school (which i took very seriously) without ever turning in an assignment late. it just wasn’t an option for me. here i go starting my doctoral work by being a complete (though accidental) slacker. it’s killing me.

SIDE NOTE – the asus eee pc 901 came in today. i would love to tell you how cool it is but i’ve been too busy reading and writing to play with it. i’ll get to play with it wednesday.