Highlights from Hawaii

• Poke and Shave Ice with Mike and Joni when they picked us up from the airport (Poke is Ahi marinated sushi, and shave ice is like heaven).
• Staying in a fun hotel with Ariel
• Getting handed a buy one-get one free coupon booklet our first night in Honolulu. Which we used. A lot. :)
• Staying in a perfectly adequate hotel with our friends
• Walking to, hiking, and walking back from Diamond Head (total: 8miles)
• Actually being there for John Armstrong’s post about being a real surfer. I too never got up and was on a little 6’ short board.
• Seeing Tim Lin’s intense glare through the entire wedding ceremony. He did break into a smile once :). I think he was really concentrating.
• Steven’s “second best speech ever” that most of the people couldn’t hear because the speaker wasn’t loud enough.
• Leonard’s malasadas (a freshly baked filled donut with macadamian nut goodness. I imagine this is what was hanging on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, and that’s why Eve couldn’t resist.)
• Driving back from the North Shore on the Windward side and enjoying the most fun dinner ever with all our friends, eating an incredible pork sandwich, watching the sun set over the ocean, listening to our monotone waitress say “sure” like a dozen times.

Cam-bowl(s)!!

Today was the inaugural Mullet vs. Soups house football throw down. It was epic. Score: Mullet 40ish, Soups 7.

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December 1st

In honor of the first day of December Ariel and I celebrated by turning our heater on to 65.

A bit more celebratory was our first annual watching of White Christmas with peppermint hot chocolate while wrapping the presents we bought on black Friday. :)

Birthday Week

For my birthday my wonderful wife took me to Sedona for 2 days of rest and relaxation. It was the perfect vacation-hiking, great weather, starbucks in walking distance from the hotel, great food, and time catching up with Ariel after she worked 5 out of the last 6 days.

Collegiate Staff Conference

A lot of work went into this staff conference.  525 Collegiate Navigators staff embers flew to Florida all last week for a time of refreshment, encouraging speakers, and friends.  I was able to reconnect with my good friends Mike and Tim from University of Hawaii, as well as Scraw from UC Long Beach.

Praise God Ariel was able to join me for all 8 days of the conference.  It was so encouraging being able to experience this with her!!!  She was able to really connect with a handful of other staff members in our same EDGE class and really had a great time.

One of our highlights was being able to interact with other couples our age who are on staff.  It’s been difficult to find fellowship in Tucson with other young couples. It seems my EDGE class has the most married couples in it yet (almost more than single staffers actually…) and we enjoyed living with 2 other couples and sharing meals with several throughout the conference.

Jerry Bridges (author of several books) shared devotionals with us every morning over the Greatness of God, the Holiness of God, and the Love of God. They were some of my favorite times of the conference. Also a highlight was Mike Jordahl (former president of collegiate navs) sharing on the simplicity of a passion for Jesus.  He challenged us to not allow anything to take that place, whether good or bad. Not other ministry related things, busyness, time constraints, or results. Both Ariel and I fell blessed, cared for, encouraged and refreshed as a result of this time.

Mulleteers

Trick or Treat from the guys at the Mullet.

Through the Bible in an [extended] Summer

Today marks a significant day for me as I actually finished a goal I had previously set!  That’s pretty rare in my life…

5 months, 14 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes ago I set off to read through the Bible chronologically looking at some specific questions. I am looking forward to reviewing my notes and sorting out what I felt like God was showing me through this time.

Deb Masshoff, a NavRep who leads our bi-weekly staff Bible Study in California, keeps reiterating that the entire Bible is a story about God working through Jesus Christ.  I’ve never found that more true than now. God’s the main character. Not us.