Today I started my new job as the Youth Director (Pastor-ish?) for River Valley Church.  It’s rad working for the church that I’ve loved for the past year attending, and even cooler that I was able to serve in this ministry as a volunteer for a year before receiving this position.  It’s great working with people you like in a fun environment doing something you love.  Having my “own” ministry is scary.  I feel inadequate in so many ways.  I’m only several years older than some of the kids I minister to.  I just know that any good that happens to this group of kids is going to be God’s doing and not my own.  I trust that God has a plan for me, and this youth group.  I’m going to do my absolute best listening to His voice.  I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.  Being real with the students, showing them love, letting them know someone cares, and building authentic relationships with them.  I can only pray that they are able to know the love that our Heavenly Father has for them and the relationship that He so desperately wants with them.  

My first item on the agenda for the group is finding a female volunteer/leader (we need male leaders too but we now have 0 female leaders).  With Luke moving on to another rad position at the church we lose Sarah (his wife) our female leader.  For any of you that are reading this, I and the RVC students would really appreciate any prayer you can offer up in this area.

Here’s my shout out/thanks to Luke Mundy.  Luke ran the jr. high and high school group this past year.  He did a hell of a job.  (Did I just say that?)  I had the pleasure of serving under him and watching him grow in a way that I’m not even sure he knew he could.  He’s better for it.  Now he’s moving on to help with our adult worship and rock some other areas in our church that need… to be rocked.

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Here’s a picture take from Tyler’s phone from this past Saturday night.  We made the sunset, lit up cigars and took pictures with Sarah’s SLR.  This is a picture of me taking a picture of Jameson while Donnald looks on.  I wonder how the picture I took turned out.  Hopefully I’ll post the result when I get this weekend’s pics from Jameson!

I’m back from a great weekend spent in San Simeon.  Unfortunately it was still insanely hot (100+ degrees on Friday and Saturday), record breaking in fact.  Despite the heat the guys and I still enjoyed ourselves by golfing, playing tennis, smoking cigars, going out to eat, going to the beach and much more.  

Luckily Sunday brought some cooler weather.  Before anyone else woke up I decided to sneak off to the beach with my phone, earbuds, and Bible.  I found myself a rock to sit on and began to listen to some music while cracking open my Bible.  Then it hit me.  I’m at the beach.  I took out my earbuds and took in everything around me.  The ocean’s roar, seagulls talking, and the crackling of the salt water as it moved it’s way through the seaweed on shore.  I saw how huge the ocean is, I tried counting the millions of rocks around me, and couldn’t even comprehend how many grains of sand there were on the beach.  It was one of those times that I got to see how small I am and how HUGE God is (no, I don’t think God is fat.  Though I think He’s 6′7″ or something).  I had a feeling of purpose.  A feeling of encouragement.  I felt hope.  

“Nothing will be impossible with God.”  - Luke 1:37. That was what was playing through my head.  I stopped thinking about the things “going wrong” in my life, and started giving praise for everything great.  This is what I needed.  I don’t know why but being at the coast just helps me focus more on my Father.  I think I need to make these trips more frequent, and more importantly learn how to keep this same attitude ALL THE TIME here in Fresno.

Tomorrow morning I leave for the coast with Jameson, Tyler and Donald for Jamie’s bachelor party as he’s getting married in less than a month!  This weekend is about Jameson, and I’m going to make sure of that but to be honest, this couldn’t have come at a better time for me.  I’ve been wanting to get away for a while.  Escape the heat, car problems, stress, and really just everyday life.  I usually don’t like change but lately I’ve been craving it.  

Sometime after Jamie’s wedding I want to get away…  maybe for a week or something.  Maybe even alone.  I don’t know.  I have a list of things I want to do/accomplish this summer.  I hope to post the list sometime next week.

But here’s to a weekend filled with ocean breeze, 70 degree weather, golf, tennis, longboarding, Flight of the Concords-watching, smoking (cigars), FSU baseball, and most important - time with friends.

On a completely random note, I’m starting to read a new book but I’m too embarrassed to say what it is.  I just finished reading Tony Dungy’s “A Quiet Strength” which was great and inspiring.

I feel like this album was underrated by a lot of Dashboard Confessional fans.  I should start out with saying I used to be a closet-DC fan, but now I don’t really care who knows.  I’m much more comfortable in my lameness awesomeness these days.  This is the first DC album featuring a full band (including electric guitars).  This also happens to be the first album of theirs that was put out by a major record label.

I still enjoy their earlier work as well but “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar” is at the top of my list.  In 2003 it was love at first sight, and as I listened to it all day yesterday, I remembered why that was.  The songwriting is phenomenal.  The melodies, production, guitar work, lyrics, all great.  I hear a lot of people saying it’s one of their worst albums to date but I beg to differ.  If you are one of those who did not care for this album, I encourage you to revisit it sometime this week.

(note: I know this album reached Gold Status meaning at least 500,000 people agree with me.  It just seems like this album is on the bottom of DC fan’s favorite albums lists)

We (the RVC youth group) just finished week 2 of our “24″ series - A day with God. Luke was out of town spending the weekend at Disneyland with his wife Sarah so that meant I got to teach!  Things went really well.  I think the students really understood what was being taught.  It was a challenging week preparing for Sunday, between filming/editing the video (posted below), the sermon prep, a virtually sleepless Saturday night, and a Sunday morning where I freaked out over something pretty small.  Luckily God is good, and He takes care of things.

Anyway, here is episode 2 of the “24″ series.  I had some more help this time so it made it MUCH more fun to shoot.  Hope you enjoy!

We started a new series in our jr. high and high school group at RVC called, “24″ - Spending a day with God.  We draw a slight example from Fox’s TV show, 24.  Now if you know anything about me, you know that 24 is my favorite show, so naturally I decided to make a goofy video series to show our youth group.  This past Sunday I showed the first of 3 videos to the kids.  To be honest, it didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for but… you can’t win em all!  I’m hoping to get more friend/student involvement in video #2.  But here you go, here is episode 1 of “24″

I’m not a big fan of milk.  You’ll never see me drinking a glass of milk, just to have a glass of milk.  You’ll never see me drinking it alongside a meal either.  The only time I drink milk is with my cereal which I probably have 4-5 times a week.  Do any of my readers drink milk past the date listed on the carton?  I don’t.  I know it’s supposed to be good days past the date but I just don’t buy it.  If that’s true then why don’t they put THAT date on the carton?  Maybe I’m really strange in this area (ok, maybe in every area).  How do you compare???

If you’re familiar with the movie Zoolander (one of my personal favorites) you might remember the character Mugatu:

Mugatu: “Let me show you Derelicte. It is a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique.”

And with that, Derek Zoolander took the runway wearing an altered trash bag.
 

This is the byproduct of Mugatu’s Derelicte Campaign:

Exhibit A
 

Exhibit B

Exhibit C
 

I went to Victor and Heidi’s wedding on Sunday.  It was lovely, and I had a great time.  Remember my post about the mini skirt and uggs a little while back?  Well at the wedding I came across another fashion trend that I just don’t appreciate. 

To me, this particular dress looks like a trash bag. A green one in this case.  Now, this in no way is meant to reflect on the person wearing it.  I do not know this girl, she’s probably a good person… I just don’t care for the dress.  

For any of my female readers, I apologize if you own a dress like this.  I mean no disrespect.  If you do own one, maybe you can enlighten me on why you like this style.  I’m willing to assume part of my lack of appreciation is due to the fact that I’m a guy.

You’ve won this round Mugatu…..

After a very long and full day I came home to check my email, blogs, etc.  That “etc.” included my myspace tonight.  To my surprise I saw the “You have a new message” text on my homepage.  I gotta say, its like getting a letter in the mail… I still get a little excited since I don’t get a whole lot of love on there.  But the excitement quickly left when I opened up the message and saw this:

Here’s the girl’s profile (private)

Ewww…

No thank you DYSMENORRHEA.  It’s nice to see what type of girls my “m-space” attracts… not that I’m trying to attract women on here by any means.  Still though, it makes me wonder.  Anyway, hope you got a laugh from it.  I sure did!