Grattitude Sets The Altitude for...Something Of Something...

I am so very grateful that God has provided everything we need for life and Godliness, especially through His sufficient Word, the Bible. That I will always have reason to thank Him. That my relationship with Him does not depend on the mood I put myself in, circumstances or the music I listen to, but the power of His Grace and my continual dependence on nothing but it, which does waver.

More German hospitality and Discipleship

Yes, Dan and Elke had me over for dinner again on Monday, and it was wonderful. When you hang out with this family, you can't miss that you are also worshiping with this family. It's a good thing. The meal was great, as usual. I also got to try something new. If you haven't figured out already, that's my favorite thing to do. I just realized it recently actually. Bee pollen! Well, flower pollen, but collected by bees. I don't know much about the process or actual health benefits of it, but Dan gets a supply of bee pollen from a farmer in Montana (I think). The bees enter their hive using a special passage or door which strips the pollen off of one leg. Put it on bread with honey and bam!! A great snack. Anyway, the purpose of this visit was not just fun. I get to dog sit for Arka for the next couple of weeks. A big old puppy who is lots of fun to spoil. My type.

During Tuesday discipleship, I was just very grateful for the continual attention God pays toward our sanctification. Our responsibility and dependence on Him in the work of our growth.

House to House - Hood Edition

You're only getting caught up by a day cuz I still gots things to do, and our internet is still being a poop.

This Sunday kicked off another six weeks of house to house. A short term small group study that our church puts on to encourage spending time in God's word and getting to know other people. I had been in plenty of house to house groups before and feel rather well connected. It's nice to have Sundays off, so I decided to pass...until Jed got a group going in our hood. There's really no way to get out of that one :-) Steve and Elise graciously hosted and put together a great food selection.

Mmmm Food

I've decided that three or more pictures of food justifies the title. But first..

We talked about Missions in Bible study last night, how we can participate and had a missions mindset in our normal lives. But also, how our participation in local or short term missions impacts us when we do them. The Rescue Mission and South Side mission have had a bigger impact than I knew. Someone at work recently pointed out a Peoria website which reports on certain crime in the city, and posts pictures of the offenders. I'm alot less interested than I used to be in being judgmental or poking fun at those people on the site when I realize that I could very well be talking to one of them at the Mission this Sunday. In that setting, they will not be fighting tooth and nail to defend their poor choices, but pouring out their regret for them, and seeking God's grace and healing relationship.

Ex-rommie Jed gave the talk at the Rescue mission Monday, prepping the men of the mission for this Christmas season from Matthew 2. Mr. Saunders spends alot of time serving the mission and pouring love out on these guys. He played piano for us which is a huge relief for me leading the singing. If the men pick a hymn that is difficult for me to sing, I can still count on him being able to play anything they throw at us. The mission guys sing pretty loud, which I like because it covers up my poor singing. However, it was this week that we found out someone in the front lobby listens to the microphone feed from the service and gets to hear every bad note from my mouth very clearly. For crying out loud! He wasn't complaining when Linda sang though. She can SANG!



Don't ask how or why, just stare in awe at these pumpkin pancakes. It did seem like there was more pumpkin flavor in the whipped cream than the actual pancakes though.


Small group
I took away alot of changes and good direction from my last discipleship group. But as a leader, I'm now digging to find out what I can learn about leading a group of guys from my last leader.

Here's what I've dug up so far..
-It's about relationships.
-Digging into other guy's lives. They've already asked for it, it's your job to do it.
-Ask "how are they better off?" Learning something from the book doesn't count. How have YOU contributed to them, or led them in a direction God used to add to them.
-What things outside of the one night per week can be used to make a difference in their life?

I don't have answers to all that, but some ideas. We're on our way, already having alot of good discussion, persistently encouraging each other to stay in God's word and memorizing. Discussion is a two-way road of course, and they are contributing immensely and deeply.

Noah and I decided to crash Amanda's B-day party after discipleship. We were either too late or she was just too embarrassed to admit that no one showed up except her roomie Joanne :-) Happy Birthday Amanda. I can't give a birthday wish to all my friends on here, but I'll let you have one just this once. Great cake Nichole!

Dude, where'd Noah go?
Ha ha ha...ha. I'm just..ha...laughing so hard right now...HAHAHA, I can't tell...ha ha ha...tell you what's so funny....ha! You'll have to ask them.

Couldn't go to bed without trying this snack idea they told me about. PB and Ice Cream.

Quickie Updatie

Our discipleship group may have finally found a home. Panera was quiet and roomy, and offers a wide range of food should anyone have an appetite. I've always been wary of the potential for a business to claim that you can't use the facility without purchasing something. Places like this never call you out on it, but I still feel bad if I don't buy something when I'm leading the group. So, if you plan something with me on Tuesday nights after 8:30, plan on me being super-wired on the cheapest low calorie option I can think of. Coffee.

I hear it's getting a little crowded for the Kade's boys. We might let you in on our action, for a price. An Iced Chai Tea Latte each week would be nice.

I know I said Wednesdays would probably get the axe most weeks, but I'm just so proud of my AWANA boys...most of them. This week, the girls were a little short handed on help. So Stevo and I were recruited to help listen to the little princesses during their handbook time. It's a cinch. These young ladies set their mind on something God glorifying, and do it well. It's hard work joyfully done in the girl's rooms. I chose the 6th grade girl's to make life clearly easier on the 5th graders. They got baldy instead, who has a little girl of his own and just digs it. All this to find out they didn't need me in the end. Humpf!


My boys kicked it again with almost 20 sections done between just two of them! The other two were being putzes this week. There will be consequences!






Waaaaaaait a minute...is that...?

Mice And Loud Music

Discipleship group checked out Panache this week. I knew they had music occasionally, but turns out it's live music five nights a week. Donovan and crew were quite loud. The wondering group will try Panera next week, and if necessary...Kades. We get dibs on seats since the other group meets at 7:45. Suckerrrrs! :-)

Here's the crew.

I'm not very good at keeping a conversation going with a group. It's extremely beneficial that theses guys are willing to talk and respond to pointed questions.

Before going to discipleship group, I got to do some killing. Now, I really do think mice are cute. Even bats are cute, when they're not flying around. But it's getting quite easy to annihilate the little rodents. Julie came over after work to see if we had any mouse traps, and to avoid going back to her place where a mouse had just taken a dive into their wedding gifted ice cream maker ice cream mix.

We went over with three traps and some peanut butter. The little booger had actually made quite a nice little hole, right next to the food. How creatures get around our houses intrigues me.

Anyway. I wasn't home for more than 20 minutes before getting word that they caught him. He must have been a lonely bachelor because they haven't caught any since. I told Julie to stand on a chair and scream really loud anyway, just in case.

Next Generation

No, this is not a post about my favorite sci-fi TV series. You would be SO lucky if it was though! It's a rare pictureless rant about moving on.

My previous discipleship group of guys completed our 18ish month course in August. As a requirement for completing our time together, I was charged with starting another one. Another 18 months seems like a long road ahead, especially when you don't know these guys yet. But so did my last group, and it wasn't long enough. I truly miss them.

First week was pretty casual. I wanted to get started on the right foot and not let us feel superficial or light after the first week. So after sharing my sappy thoughts and vision for discipleship, we all shared our life, family, church and spiritual background with each other. Holy cow it went well. These guys are serious! I thought it would take a while to ramp up our interaction, depth and challenges. But now I gotta step it up!

Location
I wanted to check out a cozy coffee shop that I knew about in the heights, but the cafe part had been shut down for a while. Since I couldn't blog about our group if we met at Oliver's Pub on Taco Tuesdays, our backup was the nearby Starbucks. Not my top pick, but I hadn't actually been to one in Peoria before, so I couldn't complain yet. Now I can. Too cramped, uncomfortable and loud. We'll try a couple of places before clashing with another group at Kade's.

Our group is pretty diverse. One is married with two kids. One is pretty fresh out of college. The other two are in my career Sunday school class with very different backgrounds. We've got professions represented all over the board. It's not just a Cat group!


Things about discipleship (relationships in Christ in general really) I've become passionate about:

Grounded in God's word. Open Bibles are not optional!

Being challenged. Do I have to explain that any more? Challenges don't have to be general, they can be directed at YOU. Your priorities will always make themselves known, even if you don't notice. I get very defensive when someone calls me out on something. But if they can show how they came to that insight (and if I cool off), their ability to observe me from another angle becomes much appreciated.

Being open/deep. Not saying one deep thought on occasion to say you did. If there's something that you wouldn't tell them, then you probably need to. If you're in control of your own personal and spiritual development, you've put a serious restraint on how far you'll get.

It's not a side note in your life. That's why we meet so often and for so long. Keeping in touch throughout the week as well. You can't emulate or be encouraged in any meaningful way if they don't play a significant part in your life.

Discipline. Just "feeling" like you're getting something out of it ain't gonna cut it. There's nothing more subjective, growth killing and even harmful than basing your level of success in life on how you feel. Your comfort level or if you are at peace with it. What you can look back on in life is results. Changes. Though I'm highly disappointed with alot of areas of discipline in my life, there is a HUGE difference in what, why and how well I glorify God in life after living with Rodney (bottom of post) for two years. That discipline was based on some good conversations and a good example. In these groups, it has been more direct and followed-up challenges. We will look at some challenging questions that have been asked by men wiser than I, and hitting up God's word in memorization.

Yeah Discipleship!