When Sardines and Generally Clean People Collide

I really love, I mean love, hanging out with middle school students. They bring my heart so much joy even when they are yelling over you, trying to jump on your back... even when they throw sardines, ketchup, flower, sno cone syrup and chocolate sauce all over you while you're wearing a giant baby costume. Just in case you're thinking this is very difficult to imagine, I've supplied you with photographic evidence. Suffice it to say, it was not my favorite day at Vertical, but despite smelling like rotten fish and sugar all night, it was one of my favorite days!! For our fall kick off we had nearly 50 students come, many of whom I'd never met. It was a little crazy, but extremely fun, and I'm excited to see what God does with this upcoming year.

This Sunday K2 launches it's south campus and relaunches its north campus complete with an all acoustic service. I'm getting anxious to see what happens on Sunday. We've been inviting people to Question God, and some of the questions are pretty intense. In addition, we are launching a Sunday school type class for middle school students during one of the services, which should be an awesome way to connect with some of the students we don't get to see on Mondays. It is an exciting time in the life of Vertical and K2!

Peace.

Wyoming Love

This weekend I went camping with the McHenrys. Now, when I say camping I mostly mean staying in portable Hotel de McHenrys. They camp in luxury! I've never slept better camping due in large part to the air mattress supplied for me and for the 0 degree mummy bag I recently purchased. So cozy! We traveled up to Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. I've never been to Jackson or seen the Tetons. They were incredible, and I couldn't have asked for better company. Here are some pictures. If you want to check out the rest you can click here. The big bummer was not spotting a moose. I guess that will have to wait for next time!

That's all for now.

Peace.

3for5... just five dollars!

Some friends of mine launched their nonprofit this week. The name of the organization is 3for5. Check out their website! Their goal is to provide clean water in the developing world. The idea is simple: Donate $5 and then ask 3 friends to do the same. Then, before you know it a huge difference has been made. It is so simple, but we just need people to donate. I strongly urge you to check out their website, read about their vision and consider donating $5 to the cause. If you can't do that at least go to this website and vote for 3for5. Thanks!

What am I reading? Well, I blasted through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and am now on to Prisoner of Azkaban. Our first Harry Potter movie screening went well. Heidi posted about it on her blog and added some pictures of our snitch and lightning bolt cookies. You can look here. Since I finished The Much Too Promised Land (good read, interesting insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) I picked up another book called Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. About 50 pages in I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I like it, but the writing style is a little different after reading so much Harry Potter! The novel is about one man's life in Nigeria and how he and his family deal with the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries as they arrive in Africa. I've heard good things. I'll let you know how it goes.

Peace.

Yurts

I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Great read! I'm halfway through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. So far just as entertaining and fun to read. Heidi and another friend have also just completed the first book so tomorrow we are celebrating the holiday by watching the first Harry Potter movie. Should be fun!

Last week I had my first ever experience camping in a yurt. Our yurt looked something like this:

The camping event was a retreat for the leaders of Vertical, the middle school ministry at K2. It was really fun to get to know the leaders better and have some great bonding moments. We fell out of a canoe not only once, but twice. Good story. Anyways, it was great to just sit around a campfire, undistracted, eating s'mores, and talking about what we see God doing in this upcoming year in regards to Vertical and our students. Let me tell you, we have high hopes and BIG dreams and we know that God is more than capable! Next week is our fall kick off at Storm Mountain where we will enjoy another campfire and eat more s'mores. I'm pretty excited!!

Other than that, I'm more than ready for fall to take over Salt Lake City. We've had a couple of cool, breezy days. And nothing says fall like college football and overpriced Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks! Before we know it Halloween will be here! And I'm pretty excited about my costume. But you'll just have to wait for that one...

Peace.