Pops Update!

Well I guess I was wrong regarding the type of test pops underwent this morning, it was not a bone marrow test, and I'm still not sure which test they did take. But the result of the unknown test was that it doesn't look like the cancer spread anywhere outside the kidney, which is huge. The doctor said it was a 99.9% chance it hasn't spread. They will know 100% on July 10th, which is when they see the bone marrow doctor. Although cancer inside my pops never will sit well with me, I do rejoice in the hope that it hasn't spread. I called my pops shortly after the doctors appointment and he and cindy were already on a plane heading to Las Vegas to just get away. Trips like this are not common for pops so I'm glad he and cindy can get away and enjoy each other. Please pray for them to enjoy the time away, experience God's indescribable peace, that time will fly for July 10ths appointment, and again that the cancer has not spread.

Prayers for my Pops!

Last night just before our student ministry worship service I got a phone call from my brother Dave. The call was to inform me that our Pops (our dad, i call him Pops) had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The tumor is 2-3 inches taking up 1/3 of one of Pops kidney. Pops has been abnormal the past months as he lost 30 pounds and became very fatigued. Today Pops is undergoing testing to see how bad the cancer is, I believe the test today is on bone marrow. I could be wrong on the test but if it is bone marrow it can be pretty painful. I ask for your prayers for Pops and my step mom Cindy. They have a lot going on right now and can use God's comfort and grace as well as His miraculous power. As always lets pray that God would somehow be glorified in all this. Thank you already for many of your prayers and support. I'll do my best to keep you up to date until then let us pray. (The picture is at Callie Joy's birthday party on May 26th. Front right is my brother Dave, above him is my step mom Cindy, to the left of Cindy is my Pops, and then of course Callie Joy and I.)

Beach daz are rad

This is a picture of Tony laying out with Aaron Koref. This picture made my day-Today a bunch of us from the student ministry went to the beach to simply hang out and have a good time. It was a great time of fellowship as about 50 of us hung out and enjoyed the day. TJ and the kids came which is always good. At one point about 20 of us were in the ocean playing tackle the man (or woman) with the football. The idea was if you had the ball you didn't want anyone to take it away from you as you'd try to throw it to someone else. There weren't any teams, just everyone for themselves. What stuck out to me was when one of our youth leaders (Tony McCormick) had the ball everyone was calling out his name requesting the ball. Tony with only one football had to chose who to throw it to and when he did everyone else gave him grief for not throwing it to them. This is when tony replied "what do you expect me to do? There is only one football." I felt like that was a great picture of us Christians sometimes. There is so much to do that we often spread ourselves too thin trying to do it all instead of doing one thing really well and trusting God to tackle the rest, pun intended. God has given us each only one football (limited resources) and we can't possible please everyone (the 19 other people aka every ministry in your church or every need in our community). But we can make the most of that one football God has given us and see where He takes it. And with the 19 other people disappointed, well we'll just have to trust God that He'll care for those we can't. I'm reminded of the life of Jesus. He didn't physically heal everyone while He was walking the earth (and He could have). He didn't bring peace to everyone while He was walking the earth (and He could have). Jesus actually could have done more throughout His ministry (in the physical sense) but saw the value in staying focused to His calling and trusting God the Father with the rest. Man am i glad He stayed focused on His calling, as it was to die on the cross for all our sins. I just can't imagine life without the cross.

Sr. High Camp

Well, I waited for this camp for 6 months. We took a group of 35 of us to Myrtle Beach, SC for Student Life @ the Beach camp, and it was amazing. Louie Giglio was the speaker and Chris Tomlin was the worship leader for the week. To say God used them would be a huge understatement. The Senior High students were a solid group and it was fun to be with them as well as grow with them. God is doing some phenomenal stuff in and through our senior highers and I am excited to be a part of it. Again thank you to everyone who made this trip possible.

Junior High Camp

2 weeks ago we took 15 junior high students to Stetson University as we took junior high students to Student Life camp where Todd Agnew lead musical worship and Wade Morris spoke. We had a great time growing together. The highlight for us was realizing about midway through the trip that few of us were actually encountering God and we were probably missing out on all God wanted to do with us there. So after we as a group saw the problem we began to chase after God during our worship services or caring for each other during meals or waking up extra early to have a second quiet time. It was beautiful to see the students make the turn and realize all God has in store for us. The students were fun, the leaders were awesome, and the trip was a great one. Thank you to all who sponsored a camper, it truly was life changing. Much love, DA

Lets give it a shot

I'm not to sure how long I will be keeping this blogsite up and running. I've never done one of these before, who knows maybe no one will even read this. However I'm going to give it a shot, so here I go.
I wanted to create this site to simply share my thoughts on what God is doing in my life and in my heart. I've always enjoyed to journal my thoughts on paper so I'm pretty excited to open my heart and brain and share with you what God is doing in my life through the good and through the bad.
I'm new to this whole thing so if you notice me doing something dumb don't leave me hanging, let a brother know. may God bless you on your journey, DA