Musical Houses

My wife Jacinda and I are about to buy our first home! In fact, we drew up the contract this evening and are elated. What's even cooler is that we are purchasing our home from her parents! You may ask, "how is that cool?" This is how:

1. Jacinda has the coolest parents. Her parents are as loving, honest, and understanding as possible.
2. We know that we can trust the buyer in the contract.
3. We have already moved half of our belongings over.
4. Jacinda's dad is an Ag professor and both yards look immaculate!

Here's the funny situation. When Jacinda and I moved to Abilene in May 2007, Jacinda's parents sold their house of 22+ years in Snyder, Texas and bought property about 10-15 miles outside of Abilene with the intention of building on the land. In the meantime, they began to rent a property and wound up purchasing the home she and I wanted (kind of to hold it for us for until we could afford it!) last summer. Obviously, as Jacinda and I got closer and closer to buying the house Jim and Deborah were beginning to feel obligated to go somewhere. Without having decided whether they are going to build on the land outside of Abilene and - being the kind and considerate people they are - they began looking at other options for the time being, while they begin to build, decide to buy somewhere else, etc.

While I was in Chicago for a conference, I got a voice message from Jacinda at 7:35 pm saying that her parents were going to look at a house. I received another voice message from Jacinda around 9:00 pm declaring that her parents were on their way to draw up the contract on the house! The best part: the house is only three doors down from the house we are buying from them!! So as Jacinda and I are moving all of our belongings into our new house (my in-laws old house) at the end of this week, we will begin painting her parents' house on Saturday. Then as the house begins to be painted, we can forget all about trucks and simply carry everything down the street!

I am thoroughly excited about our first home and cannot wait for the hilarious adventures that are sure to come in the days and weeks to follow! Pictures of the new house are coming soon!

Senior Sunday celebration

Let me begin this post by apologizing for taking a two week hiatus from the blogging community. As summer is picking up, I will have a little difficulty writing on a daily basis.

This past weekend was chocked full of preparation and activity for Hillcrest's Senior Sunday. We celebrated 17 students' achievement of graduating high school and their future as they head to college.

One of these students, Logan Cole, shared his story of how God is bigger and in more control than he could have ever imagined. His story was a major blessing to the family at Hillcrest and I hope it blesses you! To hear his story, click on the link above and Logan begins at 21:25. His part of the sermon is about 5 minutes long.

I'm Free! Maybe...

You know those days where you can't say anything right? I mean, everything you say comes across with a tone and possibly a scowl? Your temper is short and your emotions sensitive? Well, I had four of those days in a row this past Friday through Monday - the main reason I haven't posted since Thursday. :) I literally couldn't get anything out without regretting that I said it immediately afterward! An example? Sure, I'll give you an example: I was taking a nap on Saturday afternoon before Jacinda had some girls over for a girls' night. Jacinda woke me up during a nap saying, "honey, some of the girls are here early to make a cake..." My response? "IS THAT WHY YOU WOKE ME UP?!" It turns out that the only reason she was waking me up was so that I wouldn't walk into the living room in my underwear! Seriously, I was ridiculous. If I snapped your head off, I apologize.

Well, today it was gone! I had patience and grace and felt so comfortable in conversations. I also taught a 3rd grade class today ... for 6 hours. I'm so impressed with teachers. I have no clue how they talk that much! So now that I feel gracious and patient in my responses again, my voice is hoarse and I sound harsh even if I were to say the kindest things. I'm at a loss. If I bite your head off in the next few days, please accept my apology in advance. Even if I am angry, I'll blame it on my voice!

Thank you

To the couple who spends their Sunday afternoon cleaning the crumbled and left over bulletins, crushed cheerios, and hidden gum in the church auditorium. To the family who spends their hard earned money to buy groceries for a family who cannot afford it. To the teenagers who spend their afternoon preparing a birthday party for a person whom they don't even know. To the people who do the right things, even when it is inconvenient and possibly detrimental to themselves. To the parents who spend time developing their children into loved, faithful, and selfless individuals. To college students who give their time and opportunity for money to love on a bunch of teens whom they had never met prior to an interview and movement of the Holy Spirit. To the girl who smiled at me at the grocery store for absolutely no reason but to be nice ... thank you!

I was moved today by several acts of kindness that wind up being thankless and overlooked wonders. All of the things listed above have happened either to me or people I know and by people I know or have seen within the past week. I have been hurting over people who can't get themselves out of their own vision. What a beautiful thing: to be able to recognize when people do something incredible for others - all the while knowing they won't be recognized and thanked. Find a thankless job as a way to serve others - I promise it will be rewarding to you, as well!

Thank you.

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

I ran in my second marathon this past Sunday. Sometimes I feel "like a runner" and am ready to attack whatever road is in front of me and the rest of the time I feel like a fat junior high kid trying out for the USA Olympic Track Team. For the first 22 miles on Sunday, I ran like a runner! And actually if it weren't for the final 6 miles being uphill and windy (up to 40 mph gusts), I feel like I would have torn up the entire thing! I finished with a time of 3:35:11 and 96th out of a field of 2407 finishers. I am really proud of my time (even if I did miss my goal by 5 minutes) due to the condition and that I beat my first marathon's time by over an hour!

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is special, though! The memorial is really inspiring and pretty spooky at 5 am! Prior to the race, the race director calls for 168 seconds of silence to remember those who lost their lives in the very unfortunate bombing in the mid-1990s. This silence is so different than the energizing bells and whistles so many other directors choose to use in order to begin their races. I loved feeling like I was running for a purpose: to let others remember that good defeats tragedy!

In the meantime, I am going to train to attempt a Boston qualifying time and get two marathons in by next February.

This Week: BUSY!

Last week was only busy in order to prepare for this week! Tonight I am driving to Dallas in order to fly to Chicago with two friends (Chris Hayes and Tye Brooks) for a youth minister's conference (and of course some sightseeing!). We are going to see the Chicago Cubbies tomorrow night, which, to me is the most important part of "what to see while in Chicago." We'll definitely catch the Sear's tower, Navy Pier, and Giordano's World Famous Stuffed Pizza. Do you have any other suggestions for "must dos/must sees" while in Chicago?

I must be a glutton for punishment. Not only am I packing in a week of tourism on top of a conference, I am also ending the week with the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Sunday, April 26. I am hopeful that my being in Chicago will calm my nerves and allow me to rest my legs by not running as often. I am excited, but as always, nervous about the big run that looms at the end of the week. In my first and only prior marathon (Dallas White Rock Marathon, December 2008) I was happy to finish standing up, since this was my only goal. I finished rather easily just under 5 hours and was ready to "raise the bar." I ran a half marathon two weeks later under 1:45 and decided to aim for the 3:30 club and try to get the OKC in under the 3 hour and thirty minute mark. This is what I am now nervous about: the time goal.

By the way, I have a cousin and several friends running in the OKC Memorial marathon this weekend ... think of us all between 6:30 CST and 12:30 CST. You can track any of us by clicking on this link and they will send you tracking alerts via email or text messaging, but remember to pay attention in church!

I will be blogging this week despite the fact that I will be out of town, so keep checking in!

Let Someone Help

As a minister I learned very quickly that I cannot do it by myself. Sometimes Satan tricks you into thinking that you are or that you can, but it is not true. The body of Christ must work together. We are a family for a reason.

I'm the kind of person who thinks, "if it is going to get done correctly, I must be the one to do it!" About ten months ago on a youth group trip called Trek (if you are unfamiliar with Wilderness Trek, we climb a 14,000 foot mountain in 6 days with a group of about 10-20 teens) in Colorado and I had a revelation: "I must invite others to help me." There was a deeper level to this revelation - I was not allowing people to serve and give of their talents because I was too worried about "doing my job" correctly. As a youth minister fresh out of college, I wanted to impress and calm any potential nerves that anyone may have about a 22 year old college graduate coming into serve as the new youth minister. I came in hard: planning activity after activity, literally making myself sick on the amount of work I loaded upon myself (some weeks I logged 70+ hours), meticulously caring after every minute detail, and making sure I did at least 50% of the work. I backed off a little after our first summer and Fall retreat, allowing some to help in the Spring ... and then the worst happened.

My dad died on March 1, 2008 and I couldn't rebound. I was in this whirlwind of self-doubt and frustration. I could no longer call my dad and hear his reassuring words of confirmation and suggestions. I could no longer focus on one detail without thinking of the hurt inside me and I nearly broke. I began to allow Jacinda (my perfectly sweet wife) to help pick up where I was missing and be a huge part of the students' lives. I stopped caring so much about the activities themselves and began to look more intently at the students. I feel that I have more openly invited their parents and our Christian family to share in their lives. I am listening to the studies that show the more adult interaction students have, the more love they will feel and more opportunity they will have to connect with different adults.

It was on this Wilderness Trek last July where I gave up my control of the group and asked for God to control what we did, how we did it and how much "work" went into it. More volunteers got involved and I began to take a day off. I'm glad to say that my wife and I have grown closer through her incredible involvement with the youth group and their parents. All of the kids say, "this is our youth minister Evan and his wife Jacinda (whisper: she's the cool one :) )."

The reason I am writing this post is to thank all of the volunteers who make our (Jacinda and me) opportunity to serve you in a healthy way possible. We have 25 weekly volunteers and about 40 others who give their time to the teens and are available for personal interaction with these students. One of our elderly members handed one of our volunteers a check last week to "do with it as they pleased the next time the youth group comes over." I LOVE when people recognize our volunteers as the ones working with the students, it's great!

Thank you