Mom’s Blaagh

Matt Doan passed on this weekend.  The good news is that he is not dead but just passed on from High School Pastor to another significant ministry within Calvary Church.  Matt Doan is a great man of God who has poured his life into High School Students for the past ten years, three of which are my own kids.  Here are some of my observations about Matt….

Matt Doan is an above the call of duty kinda guy.

Matt Doan has a kindness about him that is rare.

Matt models humility. 

Matt Doan has made each of my kids feel loved, accepted and respected.  He has done this with hundred’s probably thousands of other students.  

Matt Doan has a crazy streak & did his own chinese fire drill on the way home from the senior dinner.

Matt Doan struggles w/ saying his “ng’s”  which sometimes makes me laugh outloud.

Matt Doan is not gifted administratively.

Matt Doan loves his wife Marie, & cuties Lilly & Samuel, they are an amazing family.

Matt Doan finished extraordinarily well as High School Pastor.  The fruit from his ministry will go on for eternity. 

Matt Doan is a servant leader, one of the most outstanding I have ever known.

Matt stays calm in the midst of crisis situations….here’s an example Matt’s attitude in the jungle on the morning we were to leave. We woke up to crazy rain & radio notice  that MAF pilots could not fly  until the rain stopped, which could last for days. Did I mention we were out of food for 15 students?

Matt - I just need you to know that I’m gushing over you because it’s worth celebrating what God has done in and thru you.  It’s been a joy to watch you serve.  Thanks for modeling Christ to us & teaching us the slow clap.  

I have a really great job. The people I work with are fun, hard working, real, and great at what they do.  They are passionate about serving God and always up for having a little fun.  Today, we barricaded XP Eric’s door so he couldn’t get out….. here’s what happened next.   Notice that anytime there is fun to be had VICTOR is right in the middle of it.  I love that guy!

The best $9 I ever spent is on a book called 31 Days of Praise.

I ‘ve read it fairly consistently for the last 15 years. Each of the days is full of things to thank God for, reasons to praise Him, all pulled directly from scripture. I never tire of this book, I never feel like I grow out of it. It keeps me thinking about both the greatness of God and the personalness of God.  It helps me let God be God.  It also keeps my prayers from being all about me and my things and my stuff…..

Here’s a taste of Day 24…

“I praise You for how You use my sins and failures to humble me, and for how this opens me to the inflow of your grace–amazing grace, that enables me to hold my head high, not in pride but in humble gratitude for Your undeserved, unchanging love and total cleansing!”

I don’t know if I’ll ever retire 31 Days of Praise to the shelf, maybe if I fully grasp all the truth of God it holds I’ll consider it.  Like that’s gonna happen…

It’s 7:05pm  on Christmas  and I’ve had enough wonderful family time….besides Ben got a Wii and I believe it’s the end of his verbal communication skills.  It’s been a great couple of days, I hope you have also had a blessed time with your family and friends.  I wanted to post a Merry Christmas video so here’s a word from our Calvary Seniors take it away class of 08…

When one of my kids is hurting it takes all my strength not to lash out at the one messing with them.  I want to take charge and kick bootie and, in my mind, I write the script and play it over and over and it’s a perfectly satisfying moment because I always win.   When they were little  I got involved at times but I feel like I knew to hang back long enough to let them figure it out on their own if they could.  Right now, I know the answer is to empower my son to defend himself, speak the truth in love and trust God to be his defender.  But everything inside me wants to strike back and make it right.  I could call this kid’s mom and in a minute have him busted bigtime…but if I do that - Ben learns nothing. He wouldn’t learn to love friends even when they screw up.  He wouldn’t learn that sometimes it’s about issues bigger than what it seems like its about.  He wouldn’t learn that character really matters.   Right now, God is growing him.  and me.

What is baby J thinkin’ in this picture? Baby J is the son of Matt and Marilee. She let me hold him at the staff Christmas party and he doesn’t look happy about it…

Jed’s first dirty look

HE has the funniest look on his face….any ideas as to the thought going thru his head at this moment?

Here’s an instructional video to show how to use Calvary Church’s 2007 Christmas Unwrapped Outreach Tool. This tool was thought up by alot of cool people like Trevor and Nicole (needs a blog)  and other equally cool idea generating people.

I hope it really is something our people will use.  I am wondering who I will give one to…

Dancin their way to a date…

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We had a fun pumpkin carving night on Monday - all people instinctively know how to carve a pumpkin……except this person….can you guess which family member carved this demented one…

I’m haven’t spent much time on Youtube.com but after stumbling on this little jewel I might find the time….this guy is a riot!