Thursday, July 16, 2009

So That's Where All The Dirt Has Gone

I have been teaching creation from Genesis to my young boys class on Wednesday nights for the last six weeks. Tonight we finished talking about how God rested. As we were going back over the days of creation, I mentioned that God had formed Adam/man out of dust or dirt. One of the boys in my class chimned in, "Yes, God made man and woman and kids from dirt. No wonder we've been loosing dirt in our backyard. My mom has four kids."

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Regular Blog Entries

Okay, after attending a two hour seminar on social media and ministry with the rest of my church staff, I've decided to start making regular blog entries each week here. I know you can probably hardly contain your excitement with the thoughts of what wisdom and nuggets of truth that will come to you each week ....right.

So what will I really be blogging about? I guess you'll just have to come back and check it out. My first official entry will come next week. :)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

How to Prepare for a Cross-Country Motorcycle Trip #1

In a matter of weeks my brother and I will be loading up our motorcycles and riding to the Grand Canyon. This trip will bring on many firsts for both of us. One of the wildest is trying to get a weeks worth of stuff and camping gear packed on my bike. Time to get creative. But being out on the road, in the "wild" is going to be a far cry from my King size bed, a/c and ...stuff. So, I've begun preparing for all that I'm going to be encountering. I thought I'd share a couple of my preparation methods with you, incase you one day decide to head out into the wild, wild west...on a motorcycle with your brother...or sister...or whoever. :)

TASK: To keep your senses keen and train yourself in the ways of a survivalist
METHOD: Purposly don't look where you park at Wal-Mart and then buy something frozen. Now find the truck before it melts! Skills!

TASK: Abandon the frills of urban life and learn to rest camping on the land.
METHOD: Downloaded one of those nature soundtracks to your ipod and listen to it as you go to sleep each night. For extreme training...just use one pillow. (I woke up last night and spent twenty minutes trying to kill a cricket then reazlized I'd fallen asleep with ipod ear buds in and sounds from the great outdoors playing)

TASK: Prepare yourself for hundreds of miles sitting on your motorcycle.
METHOD: Play your favorite game system of choice while sitting on a wooden kitchen chair for an hour. Then, down a Big Gulp, hit the bathroom and play for another hour. Buns of Steel!

TASK: Preparing to visit various State Parks and Historical Landmarks
METHOD: Walk through your neighborhood. Knock on someone's front door and when they open up, hand them $5 to $10 and walk around their backyard and then move to the next house. Resist the urge to pick up a stick or a rock!

Well, that's enough preparing for tonight. I've figured out how to work out while I'm on my trip. I bought some cool camping stuff that packs up in these little bags. They pop right out ....but getting 'em back in those tiny little bags...yeah, can you say Glad trash bags? :)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Hope for the Hurting

This week I have been volunteering with the local Hospice's day camp for kids who have experienced a death in their life. Other than having to get up early, it has been a good experience. I have done a lot of things working with hurting kids (divorce, abuse) but death is one I've had little experience with while working with kids. One thing that I've been reminded of each day this week, as I've sat with these great kids, is that from outward appearances - we can have no idea the hurt or turmoil going on in the lives of children. Children who have lost one or both parents, siblings, or grandparents who have raised them. Yet we get aggravated when kids don't do their homework, or can't sit still while we talk, having no idea the worries and grief they have.

It's great to have people who see these kids and work so that their lives continue to have laughter, smiles and hope as they learn to heal from their hurts. Kudos to Hospice!

Oh, and on a totally random note, I just picked up X-Files: Season One on DVD! I used to be a major fan...after watching some of these first episodes, now I remember what I liked so much. Spooky!

Well, in a matter of hours I'll be getting up for my second kids day this summer. We call it TAG or Thursday Activities with Greg. This is about the 11th year for TAG. I probably would have named it something a bit grander had I know it would still be around this long. Guess I should go to bed.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Summer's flying along

Wow, it's been forever since I've blogged here. Oops! Actually, with blogs in so many places, I've kind of neglected this one....however this is the one blog that's accessible to everyone, without joining some membership, so I guess I'll try to do better.

The summer is flying along. Preteen camp has come and gone. It was great. I think we had the best group of campers we've ever had and the staff was great. Bonus, I didn't fall off a horse this year!

Yesterday was the first of my summer kids days. We will gather each following Thursday through the first week of August. I'm still amazed, I think this is my 11th summer for TAG or Thursday Activities with Greg (If I had know this was going to last as long as it has, I might have found a more inspiring name...but everyone here loves TAG).

My brother and I had planned to take a motorcycle trip to the Grand Canyon this summer, but early on in the summer we decided it would be better to do in the early Fall. It now looks like we'll be mounting up near the end of August into the first of September. We're both pretty pumped, having never really done a road trip like this, let alone on our bikes. We're expecting it to look something like Wild Hogs 2. :) You will definitely want to keep up with our blog for that trip.

Well, today's my day off so that means getting the yard mowed before it hit 95 degrees and then tonight is a boy's night out with some of my married buds who have swung a kitchen pass for the night. Hope your summer is blessed and you are making memories like crazy!

Greg

Monday, December 03, 2007

What an Experience

Well, Friday was a day of new experiences for me. First, I headed back to collage and made a presentation for a friend of mine who is a professor. It was for a class called Crimes Against Children and I was to present on the Internet and it's dangers for kids, particularly how sicko's lure and trick kids (yeah, sicko is a professional term, don't ya know). Now I am not an expert in the field by any means, but I have taught a couple of classes on similar subjects and I do spend way to much time online, so it wasn't too hard. Wow, the research is pretty scary about how many kids and teens are still being tricked, lured and enticed into meeting up with adults and getting hurt or worse, killed in the process.

Anyway, after the class I went with the group to tour our maximum security prison. Let's just say, Greg's gonna stay a good boy. It was an eye opener...I had no idea we'd be walking out amongst the general population inmates. I found out you are placed in the prison not by your crime, but how you behave inside. For instance, in one dorm area for the general population, there might be a mass murder sleeping a few bunks away from someone who wrote hot checks. Scary!

As for the really bad ones, we walked past their cells. Yeah, it was pretty creepy. In one area every inmate was standing in front of his door window watching us as we walked through. I guess when you're alone in your cell for 23 hours of the day, anything different is entertaining. The even badder... er, worse...the really bad prisoners in one section started yelling and kicking their doors just like you see on tv. Boy it was loud. It's was a good tour, but I was glad to be out.

So, December has arrived and the madness of celebrations and parties is about to begin. You gotta love it. Well, hope things are happy in your house. Peace.

Greg