Friday, October 31, 2008

Hold on to your hats...

That's right, two posts in a week!

First order of business... Janelle, thank you. Thank you for the gentle reminder to slow down.

You see, I had a little wake up call on Monday... I think I was just dehydrated and tired, but I felt real sick. (relax, Mom... just nauseous, nothing serious) Janelle shoved water down my throat and made me rest. Then she insisted (wisely) that I take another full day off. You see, even my days off tend to get wrapped up in some form of kid time or ministry. And if we look at the past few months, life has been... well... full.

I love it- ministry pumps me up. I just needed to remind myself that I'm in this for the long haul. (marathon, not sprint)

So taking time to relax sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.

Therefore, today is OFF. No (well, almost no) ministry emails, texts, etc. The email/text reminder about Crazy Shirt Night at CONNECT can wait. Nothing will explode in the next 24 hours.

Second order of business. For my Springs peeps- I'll be in Monday afternoon, and my schedule will have me decisively engaged from 8am-8pm. However, if anyone wants to cruise downtown, I'd love to meet up with you in the later evening! I'll also have some time Friday afternoon. Give me a call or email me!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

McIver Prayer Requests

Hey there to the faithful dozen who keep checking just in case I actually post... here ya' go!

Praises:
-Praise God for a sizable grant that will enable more students to participate in our four most cost intensive events!!! (Thanks, CH S)
-Safe travel for Janelle's mom as she joins the family for a few weeks.
-Great ministry & safety at two events this month- High Schoolers camping trip and Middle Schoolers Paintball day

Please Pray for:
-Jon as he travels to Colorado Springs for MCYM training.
-Janelle and her mom as they hold down the fort at home.
-Planning and preparation for an outreach event on December 5th.
-Health, especially for Laren & Liam (a little wheezy)


Thanks to all of you that stand in the gap for us. We love you.

Jon for the McIvers

Friday, October 10, 2008

NYWC

I am at the National Youth Worker's Convention in Sacramento. I love this event- these are my people, you know?

However, riding up the elevator last night I had a bit of a revelation. You see, I was carrying all my "free stuff." If you know anything about Youth Workers, you know that our hearts skip a beat at the mention of a free CD, t-shirt, water bottle... whatever. I was doing a quick inventory and calculated how much all my schwag* was worth. The total? Well over $100. Yes, you heard right, my 45 minutes walking through the exhibit hall netted me over $100 worth of the good stuff. Three t-shirts, a backpack, a pair of Etnies flip flops, two CD's...

Then I started thinking about how much these vendors are going to spend on trying to woo all of my fellow YWs to take their groups missions trip, buy their "cutting edge" curriculum, buy/sell their t-shirts...

At the risk of being excommunicated by my fellow YWs, I'm going to share where my mind went next:
1-How many kids are going to die tonight for lack of proper nutrition or safe drinking water? (Some statistics say 30,000 in a 24 hour period. You read that right: THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE WILL DIE IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT!!!)
1b-How much of a difference could we make if we gave up our free stuff and focused our resources on meeting physical needs of the hurting/dying.
2-Does any of this stuff really equip me to be better able to point kids to Jesus?

Back to reality.

I still love this event.

I will still go to seminars telling me how to run crazy games.

I will still go through the exhibit hall for another round of freebies.

But maybe...

Maybe next time I will pick up a Compassion Child to sponsor.

Maybe I will encounter someone today who needs a smile or kind word.

Maybe today I'll remember that I am a child of the King, and live for what really matters: Loving HIM and pointing others to HIM.