The Party

Megan and I found our new time filler.
Mario Party on N64!

Either // Or

Last Wednesday, the Middle School Team sat down with Matt Parks who is speaking at our retreat in 2 and a half weeks. We had the content nailed down for the weekend, but we needed a theme to package the idea. We landed on the idea of "Either // Or".
Matt will be leading close to 100 of our 7th & 8th graders through the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13 that weekend. The story deals with the unfortunate rape of Tamar by her half-brother, Amnon, the events following, and ultimately how God offers grace in our lives.
We landed with the idea of "Either // Or" after talking about how the relationships in our lives help us lean toward God or away from him. It was Amnon's relationship with his cousin, Jonadab, who gave him the idea to lie to David and get alone with his half-sister, which made him lean away from God. After Amnon's sin was discovered, we noticed that we have a choice, like Amnon, to run toward or from God, thinking that running away will save us from embarrassment and consequence.
And finally, we noticed the obvious choice we have to accept or reject God's grace in our lives. While God always offers grace for the mistakes that we make, it is up to us to live according to that free grace.
At first we kind of struggled with this very black and white view of God and grace, but as we thought about the target audience, 12-14 year olds, we knew that it is much better to offer clear boundaries and choices to students who probably won't be able to process the many variables or unknowns that come with the topic.
We are getting more excited about the weekend, and I ask that you would pray for us as leaders and for the students as we prepare for what God will do. Pray that all the technical and fun things we do stay on the floor and God's unwavering grace takes the stage, and that the students begin to move to a new place in their spiritual journey.

Also, pray for me. This is the biggest week of my year each time we do one of these. It normally requires close to 75 hours of work that week alone, and as you would presume, it is very stretching. Thanks!

Grandpa

So I just got a cool email from my Dad. It had a news article attached to it from 1941.
The article is about my Grandpa and his Army days. Basically, when my Grandpa McDermott was 14 he enlisted in the Army! 14! Then at the age of 16 he was promoted to Sergent. He was the youngest Sergent in military history!

It is cool learning about him and his history! I had ten great years with him and one of the things I remembered most was his passion in worship! He would sing his lungs out. There are times even now during worship that I can hear his voice singing along with the rest of the church!

Also the man was blind as a bat! He wore these special thick glasses that could flip up over his head and one day he fell asleep on a park bench and the sun burnt his scalp because his glasses were so think!

Here is the article: