Big Bend

I recently enjoyed a trip to Big Bend National Park with two of my friends from church, Conner and Collin (I called them the wrong names all week. Sorry guys!). We took the trail for the Outer Mountain loop beginning with the South Rim trail head from the Chisos Basin. If anyone ever says Texas does not have mountains, they have obviously not taken this trail. Parts of it are brutal.

Here is a link to the details of the trail.

Elephant Tusk from the Dodson Trail

Conner, Collin, and me at Emory Peak

Sunrise on the morning we hiked out

Big Bend, Abilene Eagles Football, and Christmas

I leave in about three hours for a four day backpacking trip to Big Bend with some of the guys from church. I will post pictures next week for sure. Obviously, I will be unable to post this week, but I promise another 6 month break won't follow! I'm excited about listening to music, reading, waking up when I want, getting to know the guys on the trip better, experiencing God's incredible creation, and listening for God's voice in the quiet stillness that you can't find in our busy lifestyles of "everyday" life.

Congratulations to the Abilene High Eagle football team on their trip to the State Championship game to be played in San Antonio on Saturday night. Though this perennial challenging team has fought deep into the playoffs year after year, this is Abilene High's first trip to the state title game since 1956. They are the only undefeated team in 5A football in Texas this year and they will try to remain that way as they go up against the two-time defending state champion Katy Tigers. We have 6 youth group boys that play on the AHS Varsity football team and have thoroughly enjoyed their run for this milestone. We wish you the best, hope you study for finals this week, and play a safe game on Saturday. I plan to drive straight to the Alamo Dome from Big Bend to catch the game!

I cannot wait: Jacinda and I are joining her family for Christmas at Disney World in Orlando! I've never been so my little kid dreams are heightening! I will get to spend three days with my sisters in Ft Worth, their families, and my mom. Family time is my favorite!

Music Monday: "O Holy Night"

I admit that I have a lot of hobbies and many of my interests come and go through the seasons of my life. I believe a hobby becomes a passion when it weathers all seasons of life and maintains a high level of importance throughout. One of the few things that I have continued to show passion for and through is music. I love music! I love to listen to it, read it, sing it, talk about it, and experience it. I have decided that I will show this passion by beginning a weekly blog spot for music. It will be called Music Monday.

Music Monday will bring about songs I like and would love for you to listen to, stories behind songs, personal articles about different artists or worship songs, etc. We'll try this out for a few weeks and see if you people like it or think it is a dumb idea!

Since it is Christmas, I would like to share my favorite arrangement and performance of one of the most well known Christmas carols: "O Holy Night" by Shane Barnard & Shane Everett.

"O Holy Night" was originally written in France by a poet named Placide Cappeau in 1847 when he was asked to write a poem for Christmas mass by a priest. Cappeau was moved by his own work, then known as "Cantique de Noel," and asked a musician friend to put it to music. This song rang through cathedrals in France for years and quickly became a favorite Christmas song. It turns out, however, that clergy learned of the fact that Cappeau had left the church to join a socialist movement and his musician was in fact, Jewish, not Christian. The heads of the French Catholic church of the time deemed "Cantique de Noel" as unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion." Yet even as the church tried to bury the Christmas song, the French people continued to sing it, and a decade later a reclusive American writer brought it to a whole new audience halfway around the world.

Not only did this American writer--John Sullivan Dwight--feel that this wonderful Christmas song needed to be introduced to America, he saw something else in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: "Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease." The text supported Dwight's own view of slavery in the South. Published in his magazine, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night" quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

Back in France, even though the song had been banned from the church for almost two decades, many commoners still sang "Cantique de Noel" at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench. Both sides stared at the seemingly crazed man. Boldly standing with no weapon in his hand or at his side, he lifted his eyes to the heavens and sang, "Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle ou L'Homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous," the beginning of "Cantique de Noel."

After completing all three verses, a German infantryman climbed out of his hiding place and answered with, "Vom Himmel noch, da komm' ich her. Ich bring' euch gute neue Mar, Der guten Mar bring' ich so viel, Davon ich sing'n und sagen will," the beginning of Martin Luther's robust "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."

The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. Perhaps this story had a part in the French church once again embracing "Cantique de Noel" in holiday services.

The song has become one of the most familiar sounds during the month of December and has weathered much adversity to bring joy to the listener on earth and the One who listens to the world sing about Him. I hope you enjoy Shane & Shane's performance of the song.

Recognition: The story behind the song came from memory, but many of the details came from this article - The Amazing Story of "O Holy Night" by Ace Collins.

Our Home

I promised pictures of the inside of our house back in May ... well, here they are! Obviously, we're all decked out for Christmas, but you get the point. I put a few of the pictures in this post, here is a link for a private Picasa Web Album, and for all the normal people in the world: here is a link to the facebook album.

Enjoy!

Living Room

Formal Dining Room
(The pictures on the wall are from our world travels!)

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Living Room

Jacinda's mom made all the curtains in the house for our house warming. We are extremely blessed! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Hello Seattle

Jacinda took me to yet another place I had never been: I am now a huge fan of Seattle! Jacinda's sister Jenise joined us as we went to hang out with our friends who live in Oregon, Mandy & Kory, and go to a couple from college's wedding. While we were there our site-seeing included: Safeco field and a game against our very own Texas Rangers, the Seattle Aquarium, the Botanical Gardens, a discovery park, the space needle, the tallest free standing rock wall (REI), and the Public Market.

Trent and Jessica Wilson's wedding was beautiful and perfect for them! It was so good to see so many college friends and see how well they are all doing. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Kory & Mandy while we learned some of the quirks they've learned about the Northwest.

Enjoy the pictures from our weekend trip!

Immediately off the plane, Jacinda and Jenise found some clam chowder in the Public Market!

Public Market; October 2, 2009

Picture op provided by the Wilson wedding (Kory & me)

Pacific Oceanfront from Seattle

Classic shot with the Space Needle
(sorry I didn't take the best picture, girls)

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Seattle, do it! Funny thing about our trip: Three days in Seattle, WA and no rain. We land in Dallas/Ft Worth: Three hour drive to Abilene in rain the whole way!

What Flava is Yo Kool-Aid?

Nearly forty adults and high school students from Abilene drove to St Louis, Missouri for a week of service projects in order to show compassion to the community in an inner-city neighborhood in northern St Louis. Among service projects like mowing, planting a garden, constructing and repairing several fences, and painting, the young people led a three day VBS for nearly fifty children from the Mark Twain neighborhood in St Louis. In the midst of the first day of a several station VBS, one of our students looked on as a twelve year old girl from St Louis wrote in the prayer journal she had just made. The young lady from Hillcrest drew closer to the girl writing in her journal and asked, “What are you writing in your prayer journal?” and the young lady responded, “You all up in my Kool-Aid, n you don’t even know the flava!” With much alarm the Abilene student quickly responded, “Girl, you all up in my grill and you don’t even know the tempracha!”

Cassie, our student in the aforementioned exchange

Upon hearing this humorous story, I was so proud of our students for entering a culture they don’t understand and working as hard as possible to bring a message of grace with relevance to their world. Throughout the three day VBS these two young ladies grew closer to one another as they worked through their cultural differences. Likewise, in Abilene, the adults involved in the youth ministry at Hillcrest encourage our students to engage with people of all shapes, sizes, cultures, and backgrounds with the intention of spreading the news of Christ in every life we touch.

I firmly believe that when we teach others about the gospel we are to meet them in their environment. In the Great Commission Jesus did not say, … And invite everyone in your neighborhood to go to church with you at your convenience. As we all know, he said, “Go and make disciples of every nation.” As you go through your life and I through mine, let us think to ourselves this silly question, “What flavor is their Kool-Aid?” Let us think of where people are coming from and bring the gospel to them, rather than waiting on them to ask us what flavor of Kool-Aid we live by.

Wilderness Trek 2009

Wilderness Trek is one of the coolest organizations. Our youth group has been taking a group up mountains in Colorado with Wilderness Trek since its inception. Last year, for the first time in a long while, we brought enough kids to fill two mountain groups (Colorado only allows 20 people on one trail in one group). Basically, on Wilderness Trek your group is led by two guides who are trained in mountaineering and are solid Christian leaders. Most of the mountains they climb are 14,000 feet of elevation and higher. A lot of the trip is about climbing the mountain, but the emphasis is always on spiritual things. Many of our kids have never seen mountains (...they are from Texas!), nonetheless climbed one. So the fact that we are in the mountains helps our group choose to make the trip meaningful. By the end of the week, the group is always so close and open with one another, it is no wonder Jesus went mountain climbing with his disciples (: ... (Mt 15:29, 17:1).

One of our students, Hayden, had been talking with Jacinda and me for nearly a year about being baptized and decided during this trip that he wanted to accept God's gift of salvation and no longer live his life for himself. So I baptized him in a creek from snow melted water at 13,000 ft on Mt Elbert (one of the coldest experiences I remember ever having!). I hope you enjoy the pictures posted below.

In front of Mt Elbert's peak

Hayden's baptism

Our group on summit of Mt Elbert

Jefferson

I will make an attempt to catch everyone up on our life throughout this week, then get into new stuff beginning next Monday.

As mentioned in my most recent post, Jacinda and I bought a dog this summer. We didn't just buy any dog ... that would be unacceptable! For the first dog, we must buy the dog! Jacinda LOVES shelties. And not just any sheltie! She wanted a male, sable sheltie with a full white collar. I searched and searched for months! And I found nothing at a reasonable cost. Her dad was simply parusing the classifieds in the Abilene Reporter News one day and called, "There are some sheltie puppies in Abilene!" So Jacinda and I decided that we would go out and look at them.

For Jacinda's birthday, we added a member to our little family. He is a male, sable sheltie with a HUGE, full white collar. In keeping to the Judah family tradition of naming their pet dogs after American presidents, we named him Jefferson (after Thomas, not Bill J Clinton!). I joked that we should add a black lab and name him Obama, but I got elbowed in the ribs by my sweet and innocent wife. Speaking of, I will probably catch another elbow for the last sentence!

Here are some pictures of the little guy:

The night we brought him home

His first bath

Following his first bath

His 6 month birthday

Since the Last Time...

I apologize for the half of year break!

Since the last time I blogged, Jacinda and I bought a house, a puppy, and new furniture! I made summit on the mountain with the highest elevation in Colorado (Mt. Elbert), served a small community within the greater city of St Louis, Missouri, helped lead a children's Bible camp, and experienced two retreats ... all with our teens from Hillcrest. Jacinda and I took trips to Seattle, Washington and Galveston, Texas. And Jacinda got a rocking new job as a country singer's Accounting and Office Manager!

I will do my best to integrate stories from the past 6 months with the current on-goings of our life. But for today, the big news is that Jacinda and I put up Christmas lights up for the first time. In fact, it is the first time Jacinda has ever had Christmas lights on her house (one of the very few things that I've experienced in my life that she hasn't). It was very fun for me to be able to do something for her that she had never experienced! Anyway, you can see some pictures of the exterior of our home and our Christmas lights. Enjoy!