Yes, I'm a spanish speaker. We're taking off in a little bit so unless something very worthwhile happens you won't hear from me until at least Wednesday, maybe not for a lot longer than that. I'll be in the woods tonight and every dusk and dawn that I can manage for a few days. Hopefully something will die out there. Charlie, try to keep the 27th open and I'll call you about meeting up in Commerce again. If there's somewhere else closer to Atlanta that works better then just let me know. Ryan, feel like taking a little drive just to eat a quick lunch with us? Merry Christmas to you and yours. Catch you guys later.

We're going skiing in a week. 1 week. When it gets this close to time I'm useless, all I do is think about skiing. I'm a little nervous since Winterplace is not such a wintery place right now, but we'll be ok. I planned my first 2 ski trips to places in North Carolina. While the mountains were fine, December is really just too early to ski that far south. We were always scared that there wouldn't be snow, and it was usually just ice, slush, and a little mud. Last year we went to West Virginia and the snow was pretty good. Still a little early but much better than NC. Someday I'd really like to make it out to Heavenly at Lake Tahoe(not on a church trip of course). It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen on Earth, I can't imagine what it would be like to ski there.

Check out this post at Friesville. Micah links to an article saying that 9 out of 10 Americans have had premarital sex. As a youth minister who doesn't operate by the happy-happy fun time let's eat pizza for Jesus principles, as a minister who doesn't turn a blind eye to sin when it comes to my students, I know all too well what's going on out there. Considering that so many churched people are having sex when they are supposedly taught that marriage is God's plan, I have no problem believing the number is at 95% since most of America is unchurched.

In college I listened to a professor give an interesting lecture as to why teens are so likely to give in. Sure, there is the media and the fashion of today, but he also had another bit to offer that I had never heard before. God designed people to become sexually mature in their early teens. Back in Bible times people married as young teens. Also in Bible times, the family played a crucial role in the supervision of young couples during the courtship process. And today we're asking them to supress their biological clocks twice as long in a culture where they have the freedom to go where they please, when they please, and do things without being held accountable. Is that report any surprise? No, it's not.

Got a card in the mail today, it was from my brother who is serving his 3rd term in Iraq right now. He says "We're doing the best we can to celebrate Christmas here in Iraq...Just a bunch of infidels celebrating Christ in a land of non-believers!"

She's pretty much awesome. Since we're going out of town Thursday we just did our Christmas tonight. The kids had a great time with it and after they were tucked in bed Audra and I swapped gifts. All I wanted was money to go towards a rifle, and that's what she gave me so I was very happy. After she opened her gifts she told me that I could either keep the gift she gave me or exchange it for what was out in my Jeep. Reallly...

I took her Explorer this afternoon to secretly install a 10" subwoofer for her and while I was out she put a Winchester 270 bolt action in my Jeep for me! I do love that woman and all her crafty ways.

We all know ryang from JBB, but now Ryan has his own website. He's a gifted worship leader and speaker, I trust him, you can too. Pass the link along to the student ministers in your churches, I promise they wouldn't regret having him at their next event.

Good times at lunch today. Audra and I are talking, kids are eating, and JonMichael starts getting very frustrated. I look over and he's up to his knuckle, digging in his nose. I assume he's got a crusty booger up there. Audra asks him if he put something up his nose, he answers in the affirmative. I hold his other nostril shut and tell him to blow. He did and shot a rasin across the room at a pretty high velocity for a 2.5 year old! Kids cost a lot but they sure are good entertainment.

I just got one of those emails, you know, those emails that says if you're a good person and you love God then you'll forward this to everyone you know. Do it and you'll recieve a blessing(it really really works!), don't do it and you'll rob someone of their blessing. How can you look at these precious pictures of children and puppies and sunsets and NOT FOWARD IT?

Honestly, I'd be embarressed to send that mess along. Yet every week I'm bombarded with emails like that from sappy friends who just couldn't help themselves. Don't think I'm being mean in calling them that because I get a good laugh out of teasing them to their face when I see them. It's pretty funny when I run into one of my forwarding-friends and they'll ask if I've gotten "that one about the ...." yet. I laugh and tell them I must have trashed it because I only look at the ones with funny pictures. "OMG I can't believe you didn't read it!!!" Hilarious. I just got one a couple minutes ago, that's what brought this on.

I'm sitting on my couch at the house right now, using my neighbor's wireless internet! It's all ok though, I know who the neighbor is and she told us to use it all we wanted so I'm not stealing. This is great! I had to run to my office at 11.30 tonight to pay my car insurance than I've been forgetting to take care of. While I was there I downloaded the driver for my wireless adapter since I lost it when my hard drive crashed and I just got it all fixed up. I'm feeling pretty happy about this new situation.

In other news, we're really thinking about getting a Suburban. My in-laws are selling their immaculate truck for a great price. It's huge but actually gets near the same gas mileage as our Explorer. Audra isn't working anymore so it's not like the everyday gas would kill us. Regardless of if we ever have more kids, the extra space would be so nice. We've always got friends riding with us so it would help out there too. We've done the minivan thing, never again, going for the tank this time around.

I was driving on the highway last Thursday afternoon and happened to shift my focus just in time to notice something laying in the road. It was one of those split second images but it looked like a wallet so I hit the brakes and pulled over. Sure enough it was someone's wallet, stuffed full of credit cards and lots of cash. The guy had a Georgia driver's license and there was an address so I figured I could look up a phone number, but then I saw a business card with the same guy on it. I called the number, told his business I found his wallet, they called his daughter, she called her mother, mother calls me, we meet up 30 minutes later. They were in town on vacation and he was riding his bike when he lost it. I asked him to make sure everything was there because if it wasn't I could take them to the place where I found it. A credit card was missing so I led them out there and it didn't take me long before I found the other card as well. I was quite happy to help them and they were so nice to me. The guy stuffed some money into my shirt pocket and told me to have a merry Christmas. I took it out and tried to give it back to him but he wouldn't let me. After I said my goodbyes and we all hugged(on the side of the highway) I drove off, and it was only then that I realized the guy just gave me $150.

Had to replace the rear main seal on my Jeep this weekend, by far the dirtiest job I've ever done on a vehicle. Putting a transmission in the Jetta was no fun, but at least I wasn't on my back the whole time. This required me to lay under the thing for hours, working over my head, grease and grit constantly falling in my face. I had to wear safety glasses just so I could see because my eyes got so caked up in stuff. It's done however so I'm feeling accomplished. If it goes out again I'd be tempted to sell the Jeep before I did that job again.

If not, all you need to know is the headline, Saints Clobber Cowboys. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Tonight is our staff Christmas dinner, funded by our Coke machine. If you ever stop by, come thirsty, because you're helping me enjoy a steak, mushrooms, and a bloomin' onion at Outback.

We do Christmas with my family at Thanksgiving. My mom knows me well and knows that I always want some little toy in addition to whatever else I may get. Just something small. This year she got me Superfly Monkey, and he's great! I don't know where she got him but keep your eyes open, he'll change your life.

still here

Hey guys, hope all 3 of you are doing great. Busy here, just like you. We just brought on a new children's minister who is actually an old friend of mine. Now that she's in place our church is getting ready to go thru a lot of changes so the staff is reading several books together. The one I'm on right now is Rethinking the Church by James Emery White. Going to be a good read I can tell, even though I'm only starting it. Something I thought you guys might find interesting is a survey he did that asked unchurched people why they didn't go to church. Those surveyed were allowed to cite any reason or as many reasons as they felt applied. The results were...

1. There is no value in attending.(74%)
2. Churches have too many problems.(61%)
3. I do not have the time.(48%)
4. I am simply not interested.(42%)
5. Churches ask for money too frequently.(40%)
6. Church services are usually boring.(36%)
7. Christian churches hold no relevance for the way I live.(34%)
8. I do not believe in God, of I am unsure that God exists.(12%)

1 and 3 seemed to be tied together, "I don't have the time to go because I'm too busy doing other things that do hold value for my life." They get nothing from church, but they do get something from hanging out with their family at the lake on the weekend. That wasn't a quote from the book, just my observation. By and large, there are specific reasons why people don't go to church. For the overwhelming majority it's not that they have a problem with Christian theology, just with the way Christians do church.