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.

Cedar Point Explanations

So the background of this Cedar point photo shoot is that one of our fearless leaders, Peter, planned a trip for all us singles to check out his family farm and Ohio's finest roller coast park, Cedar Point.

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, though you may not know who everyone is. I'm sorry. Gotta live with it. Mom, you can ask me who the girls are later. So here are the highlights.

Four separate 4-hour drives were required for the trip. Not a bad length. Perfect for naps and trying (but failing) to squeak through without potty breaks. I was one of the many guilty parties.

The farm. This is the warm and friendly home base we had for the weekend. I love farms.

We got to the park at 10am and stayed until almost 8pm. Definitely good for getting plenty of rides in. Considering the short lines, good weather and the logical progression from ride to ride which Peter lead us on, it was a packed full of good times. It is my opinion that this place had some of the most thrilling rides available.

Favorite picture of the weekend.

Scariest ride on the face of the earth. Noah is fired!! (just kidding...you're not fired)

The generous fam who put up with us all weekend! Thank you!

And son.

Cedar Point Photos

No time to post but here is a link to the Cedar Point album and fun at Pete's farm from this weekend!

AH!! Must blog before long weekend!

Kari's Surprise Birthday party Tuesday. Very fun to surprise the all-knowing. Couldn't get pictures. Too many anti-picture people in frame. You win this time people!!! But Ryan was there holding the last piece of cake.


Work this week was going to be me whining about projects, but it's been pretty good so far. I've ditched my maintenance boss, Ken, and will be doing all IT in June, then back to maintenance in July. I'm doing alot of wall mount installations and running wires at the middle school. It's nice to be somewhere different and have a really tight schedule. Also, I'm so not working more than 5 hours a day.

Our buddy Nick is in town for the summer from Iowa State. While he raises support for a Cru internship there next here, he's spending time with folks to spread the word. Ryan and I made a deal with him. If he rode bikes with us Wendesday we would listen to his schpeal. Ryan gave me the girl bike, as he so gleefully points out. Nick did a great job and I'm really excited for him as the Summer goes by and he gets back to full time ministry. We'll miss him again!!


Finally, a relaxing Friday (not really because I botched up my schedule) on the golf course with my boss and church friends. Then off to dinner with the fam to celebrate Mom and Bro's birthdays!!! At golf, we continued to prove that anyone I don't know, my boss knows and vice-a-versa.


Off to Cedar Point for the weekend with the Sunday School class. Please pray that I have the energy and sanity to survive the van rides. Don't see how that's possible without God.

About The Place Setting Pole Poll

You guys stink.

On which side do you PREFER to see your fork?

Left 10 (66%)
Right 3 (20%)
I use chopsticks 0 (0%)
I refuse to answer because I love Chris and Jerelyn too much 2 (13%)

Learned Me A New Game

Learned me a new game on Friday. Joe and Ginger were once again very gracious in having my roommate and I over with a couple of others to enjoy dinner and a new board game, "Power Grid". I did not win.



Saturday morning was my first time doing anything at the Washington Cherry Festival. Storm once again got me into a 5k which was very fun. Alot of BCC folk participated (and smoked me). It was a personal best time for me though, very nice.






For some reason I saw this jeep and thought of Storm. Weird huh? :-D







The rest of the morning and afternoon was a thoroughly enjoyable hike in Matthiessen State Park organized by J-Gerb. Pictures of the hike can be found here.

...thanks Noah.

...thanks Gerb.

FINALLY!


Later capped off the night with some man talk time with Ryan and Ben.

Memorial Day

Following an afternoon of pre-potluck craziness with Josh otherwise known as roommate iron chef, it was party time at the Rabe's. Nancy and Doug let us take over their house and grounds for half the day, including ultimate frisbee on the lawn, with lots of spectators.

The extremely brief but torrential downpour earlier this week left the new church building wet where it wasn't supposed to be (....). Quite a few people were blessed to have a schedule open on Wednesday morning to sweep out the lake. I keep telling Kristi she doesn't have to salute me, but it doesn't take.

Wednesday was also the celebration of a visit by our remote hoodies, Rodney and Katie. They still own a house in the hood but will not be back to it for a while. While they were gone, baby Abigail was born and it was my first chance to see her in person!! With four babies, two in the oven and 7 other children present, the average age was well into the teens.

Horsey

Giddy up cuz the next activity on Saturday was an afternoon of horseback ridding organized by our seasoned cowgirl, Amanda. Amanda took us to the Rockin' P Ranch in Pekin. Check out the Picasa page for a full listing of pictures.








We had one more outdoorsy event on the schedule Betsy and fam invited everyone to a cookout at her place in Tremont. It wasn't long before Josh and I noticed we were the only boys in the chatty room so....

Time for some guy time.

And little doggy the size of my foot time.

Thursday was multiple opportunities to worship beginning with a great crowd from our Sunday School class checking out the Rescue mission service. It's a different experience than the South Side Mission, where you get to see and hear more about the work God is doing and making available to us in their hearts. But PRM is still a great challenge and blessing. Especially when you have a whole team leading music instead of my shaky self.

Next stop, sending off our friend Holly with prayer and a little social time at her place. Holly, second row, second from the right, was headed to South Africa with a team from church the next morning.

Things got a little nuts Friday night. A quick really long game of mini golf with the three Amigo's got violent at times, but ended with few injuries, except to Amanda's pride. Good job Sarah!


This is proving to be the year of being outdoorsy for me. Can't get enough of it. Chris let me break him in after a year off the trails with some mountain biking at Farmdale. It was great to finally finish the entire BMX course (below) without stopping or crashing like last time a couple years ago.


Jere had brunch prepared for us upon our return (I'm a liar) and it was wonderful!! Thank you for some old roomie catch up time guys!


Question for you all. Do you prefer to put the fork on the right side of a place setting, or the left? Your answer may determine the future of Chris and Jerelyn's marriage, so please be honest. Please respond to the survey on the right side of the blog.

Dr. Hut

Slightly new experience at the South Side Mission on Sunday. I agreed to fill in for Worship leading for a dude who's done so for me joyfully in the past. But on Sunday morning, I come to find that my church is forgoing any evening service plans and asked the congregation to attended the evening's mission service. A simple announcement like that would easily go missed, but there was a trifecta of notices made (one verbal and two written). It was good though. No peers, just leadership who already know I'm a dunce and love me anyway. The service was great and I got to hear Justin speak for the first time. He does alot with the Jr. High group at church and I give him alot of grief. I was totally floored at his speaking ability and might actually have to show him some respect in the future (but don't bet on it).

Dr. Becky. Technically that's what she is now. Becky graduated from Physical Therapy school and it's time to celebrate. She had everyone out to the farm to celebrate with the usual, pictures and cake. But the real fun started when I got there..I mean when it was time to burn things.

Saying goodbye to her nine-year career delivering pizza's for one of Peoria's Pizza Huts, Becky ceremoniously burned her outfit and 30 pizza boxes, providing our hot dog cooking warmth.




Congratulations Becky!! I'll miss being able to say "Hey lets just have Becky deliver us a pizza". It never got old. Maybe it never will! :-)