Battle at Fort Betts!

February is kind of odd here in Ithaca. It's basically warming up, but it's still quite cold. The past couple of days have been absolutely beautiful though! The sun has been shining but there is snow on the ground. It makes for perfect snow bricks, snow balls and snow beatings!

Yesterday we went out and had a bunch of fun in the back yard. The boys were having a blast, Stephanie helped them build a little snow fort, and in the end I got to throw them down the hill! What a great day.

I've recently been learning how to edit videos using imovie. I put this footage together and posted a video to youtube.

check it out.

Sports Glasses

This past week we got our little man Johnny some new glasses –Sports glasses! My hope is that these babies can take the abuse that 5 year old boys unleash on their eyeware…...and their face! The technology these days is amazing! It really is. When you go to buy kids' glasses the salesperson will show off all the cool different ways that the new glasses will bend and and fold and then spring back into their proper shape! But that hasn’t stopped Jack from finding ways to regularly tweak his almost beyond repair.

But that’s how it goes. So hopefully these special forces grade spectacles are up for the challenge! They’re made for sports, but Jack is gonna wear them most of the time. When you’re 5 –life is a sport!

What do caterpillars think about?

I wasn't planning to post two Francis Chan Videos in a row, but youtube suggested this one to me since I'd checked out that balance beam clip. But this one struck me because it corresponds directly to a part in Chan's book-Forgotten God- that I just recently picked up. Forgotten God is a great book about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, and how most Christians are tragically missing out on the closeness and power that we should be experiencing in our walk with God.

Just today, after lunch, I had my friend Larry read page 36.

He starts off with this: "Years ago, when a random thought came into my head, I decided to share it with my wife 'Have you ever wondered what caterpillars think about?' Not surprisingly, she said, "No."

(click play.)

He goes on: "As [Christians], we ought to experience this same kind of astonishment when the Holy Spirit enters our bodies. We should be stunned in disbelief over becoming a "new creation" with the Spirit living in us.......I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me."

Challenge from Pastor Francis Chan

I came across this video the other day from Pastor and teacher Francis Chan. He's a great preacher, and his theatrics can be pretty unique! Chan pastors out in California. His message is usually both compelling and convicting!

Cereal Party

We've decided that the thing Joe says most in life is "I'm still hungry." He's always been our best eater to be honest! But every night, the thing Joe wants to do before bed is have a "cereal party". If he had his way, we'd all sit down and munch some flaky goodness, but even if he ends up sitting alone -to him it's a cereal party!

He went away sad....

This past weekend was an amazing time of championing the Greatness of God, and promoting world missions involvement. On Friday night at our meeting, we talked about God's missionary heart and our role to participate with him in making himself known to the nations. We talked about seeking first the Kingdom of God and not missing out on the things God has for us by seeking greatness for ourselves.

That was followed up (perfectly) on Saturday night with an event here on campus we call LIGHT 2010. Cornell alum, and World Missionary Alex Lee came out to challenge the students to surrender everything to our savior Jesus and follow him -wherever that might lead!

He told parts of his own story, and preached from Mark 10 -the story of the Rich Young Ruler as well as the book of Esther (chapter 4) challenging Cornell's rich, young, successful, "rulers" with the realities of a life spent in pursuit of God vs. a life that deny's His call.

The rich young guy in Mark 10 was unwilling to "sell everything", to leave behind his worldly riches and success and life to follow Jesus. As a result "he went away sad" Lee pointed out the fact that not surrendering to the call of God is a sad loss for you personally, and it's also a loss for those around you.

He challenged the students to step out in faith, to seize the opportunity God has for them now, like queen Esther, and not to miss out like the Rich young ruler did.

These are some words from an article that Alex wrote that corresponded to his message:

Let us take Christ's words to heart. The rich young ruler was first in the World's eyes, but what did that mean to Jesus? Did the wealth of the world really make him rich? The twelve ordinary men who left their boats and fathers and businesses behind -they were the rich ones. She was wise who broke her alabaster jar and anointed her Lord extravagantly. Church, break your jars! Leave your boats! If we are not careful, an entire generation of [north] American Christians will pass away silently into spiritual obscurity, impotent in eternal influence and mournfully barren. we will walk away the saddest of them all. Then we will have proved Christ's warning indeed. How greatly Good wants to use us! How Jesus longs to give us life, and life to the full....As God saved a nation through Esther, so he plans to save many more in our day? Through whom? The answer to this question lies with you.

Parenting tip #1

Are you having trouble getting your kids to try new foods? If reading that dinosaur book about good dinosaurs trying everything at least once isn't cutting it with your little ones, then I've the got the solution for you! Your pre-schooler needs some inspiration! And nothing has done so much to invigorate my little wild-men to broaden their culinary horizons like professional Wild-man Bear Grylls! After weeks of watching Bear eat bugs, insects, worms, grubs, raw zebra, skunk meat, snakes and goat testicles, getting my guys to try smoked oysters and a new vegetable every now and then has been a breeeze!

Here's a shot of Bear mowing down a raw trout down in Mexico. Now, whenever one of my guys doesn't wanna eat what's on his plate, I chide them with a healthy "Come on Bear Grylls! Give it a try." They then pick it up, and they either like it or, they chew it up, swallow it and look at me -and with classic Bear inflection say "Aw, disgusting" and we all laugh about it!

In case you don't have the Discovery channel, like we don't you can watch "man vs. Wild episodes on Netflix and I think maybe Hulu.