TJ turned 28

28 years ago yesterday my wife was born. We had a great day celebrating her. She went out to dinner with some friends and when she got back we surprised here with a carvel birthday cake. I love carvel cakes. So the first pic is the the cake with 28 trick candles. The second pic is her after she finally blew them all out and me next to her with a towel in my hand. The reason I have that towel is because all the smoke set off the fire alarm. The kids loved it. It was a great day and really feel don't know where I'd be without me beautiful and amazing wife. Thanks TJ for all you do for me, the kids, others, and His Kingdom. Happy Birthday!!!

Jingle Jam

Well since coming off Thanksgiving vacation I've been going non stop preparing for Jingle Jam. Jingle Jam was our family targeted outreach event that took place last Friday and Sunday nights. My original (far fetched goal) was to sell 500 tickets ($5 each or $20 per family) and between both nights we sold just over 560 tickets. I was very please with how the event turned out. Both nights were a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of new families. Pending adequate follow up it seems that as of now 9 people gave their lives to Jesus for the first time, AWESOME! We had lots of volunteers that worked long and hard to make this event a reality, thank you. However no matter how much work we did none of it would have been fruitful without God directing the whole thing. All props to Him.

Vacation 2008

Well we are back from vacation and it was awesome. Here's some of the highlights of what we did in Wolf Laurel, North Carolina just north of Asheville.

• We had nonstop snow for three of days we were there.



• Riley totally freaked out after seeing a nail hung on the wall, claiming the house was falling down.



• It didn't get higher than 30 degrees until the last day.



• We went sledding 6-8 times.



• The kids made snow angles.



• We had about 10 snow ball fights and I had to make everyone’s snow balls.



• We had a chipmunk jump out at TJ after opening a kitchen drawer, it became our pet for the week.



• We made smores around the fireplace.



• We picked apples (they were frozen but it was fun).



• Explored a cave that was 2500 feet below the blue ridge parkway.



• Saw Madagascar II



• Bought Riley his first “real tool, a utility knife”



• We had a creek side picnic



• Saw deer on Blue Ridge Parkway.



• We had a total of 7 inches of snow throughout the week.



• Completed a Christmas puzzle.



• Made a gingerbread house.



• Kids jumped on a giant trampoline thing at the mall.



• Saw hundreds of gingerbread houses at The Grove Park Inn.



• Rode a trolley and fiery in Savannah.

For pictures of everything follow the link http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=758100187#/album.php?aid=187212&id=758100187

On Vacation

As of right...now I am on vacation and headed up with the family to the mountains in North Carolina. As of now it is snowing there and will continue to do so for the next several days. Looks like the mom mobile (our Honda Odyssey Van) is going to meet it's biggest challenge yet. We'll be back next week in around Thanksgiving time. Stay toned for some vaca pics. Happy Thanksgiving! Be back soon, later.

Jingle Jam

The first week of December our church is putting on an event called Jingle Jam. The event has two goals, 1)to reach new families through an exciting and unique event 2) to encourage and equip families to chase after Christ together. For those of you in the area our two dates are for Friday December 5th @ 7 pm or Sunday December 7th @ 6 pm. Tickets are $5 for an individual or $20 for a family pack. You can purchase tickets at any service or online @ http://www.fellowshiporlando.com/jingle-jam.asp Please be in prayer for this event as we are looking for God to do BIG things.

Current Series: Glow N Tell pics

Let the panting begin...

This morning during my time with God I read something that King David prayed that gripped me. Here is one key verse from David's prayer, "I pant with expectation, longing for your commands." (Psalm 119:131) I was amazed and challenged as I was reminded how much David seeked God. So my prayer and hope for us all is that we too would learn to pant with expectation after God and His Word. May the panting begin...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Wow! I'm going to have another little girl. That totally rox! Riley (my 5 year old son) already has named her Violet and Callie Joy (my 3 year old) named her Kitty. As soon as I can I'll post the sonogram pictures. TJ and I thought it was a boy but we are thrilled to have another girl. Looks like #4 will have to be a boy to even things out, that's right I said #4. Be sure to click on the pictures to blow them up, it's pretty cool. Again I'm blown away by God's grace.

72 hour update

In the past 72 hours a lot has happened, so here it is:

• Sleepover Challenge @ church for our GLOW N TELL series and it rocked. I'll post pics and talk more about this soon. A-TEAM great job making it happen. u-rock!
• McCormicks: After Church Sunday we went to lunch with some friends from our old church, the McCormicks. It was really good seeing them and hearing all God is doing in their lives. Old friends rock! Holla McCormicks!
• Beach Baptisms: After that we headed to the beach for beach baptisms. Speaking of things that rocked, it was awesome. Somewhere around 30 people got baptized by, without exaggerating, hurricane force waves. The water was so rough but it made for great memories. Pics to come.
• The Nadars: one of the highlights (of many) during the beach baptism was a family friend of our, the Nadars. The nadars have 2 sons (Mikey and Boyd) and a daughter (Ashlyn) from 1st grade to 6th grade. We'll the entire family got baptized. Mom, dad, and all three kids. It was so cool to see someone we care for draw close to God. Afterwards we celebrated at an awesome seafood joint in Cocoa Beach. Nadars Rock!
• TJ is amazing: On top of all that I somehow have the most amazing wife and mother, TJ you really do rock!
• Boy or Girl: Tomorrow we find out what gender our baby will be. The kids really want a boy so we'll see what happens. Also my 3 year old Callie Joy told us last week that the baby (unborn and in the womb) speaks Spanish.
• Old Faith: Lastly: today i took an hour of my day and read some old prayer journals from high school. It was hard because i was reminded of how much faith i had back then. Although I feel like I am moving closer to God daily I can't help remember how much i simply trusted God.

I need to Change!

Last month our church did a series called "I need to Change". It was powerfully convicting as God revealed to me many areas of my life that need to change. So in honor of that series I changed the layout of the blog. Fresh start all around. How about you "what do you need to change and what's stopping you?" by the way that is a rhetorical question.

Sleepover Challenge

This Saturday Night (October 25th) we are having our first ever Sleepover Challenge. Kids bring your friends to your house, have a blast, wake up and join us in the Theater for some good times.

Isaiah 1:17

"Learn to do good.
Seek Justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows."

Wow, I smell a 5 week series sometime in the future. What a jammed packed verse, amazing. good stuff.
DA

Opps

I'm not sure what happened but somehow my links to the left all disappeared, so I am slowly but surely putting back up all the link love. If you see one I missed holla at a brother, thanx

Monday Morning Dumpster Diving

This morning as I woke up I got excited about the week ahead of me and felt like this was going to be a great. Well I may have been wrong. It is noon on Monday and the only thing I've done is spend several hours looking for my cell phone. The good news, I found it. The bad news was...well you can see the picture. That's right I had to dumpster dive for my phone. At all started yesterday at church. Every Sunday I leave my phone on a back table. It seems someone accidentally knocked it into a small little waste basket. No big deal. The problem was no one saw it go into the clean little waste basket. So when our clean up crew cleaned up after church they emptied all the trash cans and put them in a big trash bag. Still this can't be too bad. But then I realized they already took out the trash to the dumpster. For most churches this wouldn't be a problem, but with our church being in a plaza, we share a dumpster with Party World (not bad), Quiznos (bad), and a Chinese Restaurant (very, very, bad). To make matters worse, the Chinese Restaurant doesn't use trash bags, they just throw the food in the dumpster. It was bad, I mean it smelled horrible. Flies were everywhere, it was not good at all! At first I thought my phone might be in there but wasn't going to search on a whim. But we (Tammy Joseph) called my phone and heard it vibrate in the very back bottom of the dumpster. So I look at Tammy and let her know, I am going in. I grab a mop from my Chinese friends to use as an extended arm and found a cardboard box to jump in so I wouldn't touch anything. After going through about 6 bags I found my phone. After grabbing my phone and cleaning it up I tell Tammy I'll be back later as I off to take my second shower in 4 hours. God and His sense of humor, gotta love it.

Sleepover Challenge

As we are doing this series in Children's Ministry called GLOW n TELL, the whole point is to encourage kids to reach out to their friends. So we came up with this idea to have a sleepover challenge where we are challenging every student to invite a friend to stay the night and bring them to church. We've never tried this before and I haven't heard anyone do this before so I'm really not sure if this is going to work or not, well see. With me transitioning from student ministry to children's ministry just 6 months ago I'm still learning the best practices on how to do outreach events for kids. If you have any ideas, I am all ears. If you are in children's ministry, what has worked for you? What hasn't? Lets keep on doing whatever it takes to keep reaching more kids for His Kingdom.

Oh to have faith like a child.

Today as I am driving on I-4 TJ (wife) calls me and with son Riley crying in the background tells me to "hurry home, Riley just busted his eye open, ok I gotta go, bye." As she hangs up my thoughts immediately go to my college years in St. Augustine where there was a deaf and blind school. I was already making plans to get him in. That is the only thing she tells me. I freak out with my mind thinking the worst. Well I get home and take him to the doctor and as you guessed he is ok. Above is a picture of him at the doctors office with him smiling and yeah nothing wrong with his eye. He does have a small cut next to his eye which required no stitches and one butterfly band aid. The story is he was on a stool and fell. With all that said on the way to the doctors Riley ask me "Daddy if God can heal me why are we going to the doctors?" Wow! What a great question. I managed to give him some less than adequate answer. Thus leaving me with the reminder that I'm all grown up and my thinking of who God is is totally different than my sons more accurate view of our God and Savior. (The other picture is my beautiful daughter Callie Joy, I just got this pic, so I had to throw it in).

Oh to be rich...

Do you ever get frustrated when you hear of some rich person that "has it all" complain over a "problem" we'd love to have. Like P-Diddy complaining because he now has to fly first class instead of on his private jet because the gas prices are so high. Tough problem, huh? Well I have a feeling we are all sounding more like P-Diddy these days and less like Mother Teresa. Most of us in the U.S. are filthy rich, including myself. Of course we don't think we are but what we think doesn't change the fact that we are rich. I don't mean rich in Christ, I mean rich in Bling Bling. Check out this site. Simply log in what you make and it will tell you how rich you are. Pretty neat and pretty darn convicting. http://www.globalrichlist.com/ In Philippians 3:7-10 Paul talks about how everything seems like garbage compared to Christ, WOW! I pray that for me. Too many times I know I get easily lured into the newest thing or wonder, "yeah why don't I have that". I guess when it comes to the national bailout I don't blame the government, I blame myself. I make plenty of money. If only I'd spend less, save more, give more, and want less. Congrats, were RICH!!! I can't tell you how passionate I am to help kids from a young age realize what we do have and not cry for what we don't have. This is so anti-american but very much pro Jesus. Let's teach the next generation that "His grace really is enough".

That's my boy!

This past weekend my son Riley played in this third baseball game of the season. He is 5 and it's his first season of "coach pitch". Here he is playing catcher, he loves playing that position and I love watching him with all that gear on. Great stuff!

New Kids Series: Glow N Tell

I don't remember having more fun preparing for a series than we are with our upcoming series entitled, "Glow N Tell". The series is all about teaching kids to build relationships with others in hopes of telling them about Jesus. As much as that alone excites us we are almost giddy about how fun it is to get our room ready. You see for the entire series we will be using black lights and all glow in the dark stuff. The kids are going to love it, heck, the adults are loving it. Once we are done decorating I'll drop in some pics. PS I want to give a huge shout out to Taylor Wynn for heading up the setting up team, thanx for all your doing, YOU ROCK!

Were having another BABY, YEAHHHHH!!!!

That's right, TJ is pregnant with #3. That's what were going to name it. We are sooooo stoked!!! We've known for a little while now and told some people, but this is our going public official web announcement. I was hoping to have a picture of the sonogram but they didn't do one last visit like I thought they would. We don't have any names picked out yet so if you have any idea's we'd love to hear them. True story, when we had Riley, I honestly wanted to name him BAM BAM. Obviously I was overruled. Anyways we are stoked and will keep you up to date. PS: Jon & Kate plus 8 will no longer be allowed to be watched in our home. I have to draw the line. Also TJ gets extremely sick during pregnancies, so pray for her. And because of that this probably will be our last of our own. After this we are praying about looking into adoption. We'll see what happens. c/ya DA

Pick a Fight!

This past week we started a new series for our kids called, The Good Fight! Every family fights but we have two ways we can fight. We can fight against each other about pointless things or we can fight with each other against something worthwhile. Fighting isn't bad. We are called to fight evil, poverty, injustice, loneliness, despair, and so many other worthy causes. The neat thing is when we pick a fight it is amazing to see how much that unifies a family or community. Just think back to 9/11. Afterwards we all picked a fight which brought each American together. So my family is trying to figure out what kind of fight we can pick. If you have any thoughts or want to share some fights you picked just let me know.

Sacred & Unfailing

"Jesus himself sent them out from east to west with the sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life." Mark 16:8b
I read this today and it hit me hard. Our Christ has sent us out to spread not just the overused term "gospel" or "good news" but He has sent us out with the sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life, that is HUGE. I couldn't help but think what my life and ministry would look like if I approached His great news with such reverence and confidence. Lord, help us all to wake up daily alert and ready to go out and spread your sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life."

Special Delivery!

“It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Isaiah 55:11

During ZOOPLOSION over the summer we saw over 100 decsions to follow Christ for the first time, which was awesome. But that was then and we wanted to do something NOW that would help them in their new found relationship with Jesus Christ. So with the help of a gracious family within FOkids we were able to purchase 125 Bibles. Not small generic Bibles but good study bibles for kids. Today we met to distribute them to almost 100 households. It was so cool seeing the body of Christ come together and follow up those decisions. It was neat seeing whole families pack out an SUV and deliver bibles together. That’s the kind of family I want to look like, well done Simmons Fam. What a great morning. Thank you to everyone who helped get the greatest love letter ever written to kids that have a whole lifetime to soak in that Word. May it be so. I look forward to seeing the fruit in the coming years.

President or Vice President?

As Barrack Obamma hand picked Joe Biden as his running mate it got me thinking. Clearly Presidents get more love and attention than their Vice Presidents. But the two places find two different paths to the oval office. The President has to spend countless hours, weeks, months, and years pushing and shoving to get "up front". And if he wins it's because he made it happen with lots of hard work. However the VP gets picked, gets selected, get chosen. As I was thinking about which one I'd rather be I used to think the President but now I see how flattering and humbling it would be "chosen" as the VP. No "pick me, pick me" campaigns. A VP pick is bringing someone along that is being successful at what you hope to be successful in. Which would you rather be President or VP?

Mythbusters Blog.

Wow, what a story. So it started when my neighbor and friend Tammy called me over to help jump start her car. I get my jumper cables and attached them like normal and started the car up. Well the first set of cables were acting weird; it was smoking and really hot. So I took them off assuming something was wrong with the cables. So I got my other jumper cables and attached them. Immediately after I place them on the batteries and started the car the cables got so hot that they almost caught on fire and quickly ate through the cable from end to end. Smoke was everywhere as it dissolved my cables. Picture it. I place the cables on and from the middle they begin to melt like wax each end heading to the car. Tammy and I have no clue what to do and we both are thinking this very well might blow up each vehicle. So I quickly ask Tammy's daughter Abigail, who is 5 years old, to grab me a stick so I can make sure the heat doesn't damage the cars. She comes back with a 4 inch twig. By the time I come back with an adequate stick the cables completely dissolve and eat into one of her vehicles. All throughout that process I am trying to handle the cables with oven mittens because of how hot they are and I'm not sure if they can shock me (not that an oven mitt would save my life). So as I am trying to put out a near fire, with oven mitts on, an over sized 10 fit stick, Tammy can't stop laughing at what a fool I look like. After we get it all cleaned up I become determined to figure out what happened that triggered the event. Through much research I find out that on one of the cars I accidentally attached the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. I know that sounds pretty dumb. What made it frustrating is the reason I did that was because whoever put the battery on mistakenly switched the labels. The negative was painted red and the positive had a black cover over it. So I assumed their identities. Once again I am proven that I am not the macho macho man I hope to grow up and be some day. How embarrassing! So there you have it. My promise to share my life with you, the good and the bad. No need to comment, I know how dumb I am and so does Tammy. So the mythbuster on "what happens if you misplace the cables when jumping a car" has been solved. Don't try it at home.

Funerals, Weddings, and Pregnancies!

Within the past 14 days I found out that we are pregnant (Oh by the way if you didn't know, we are pregnant YEAHHHH!), I was in a wedding (Shaun & Hailey Lafferty), and then tonight I led a funeral service (the first funeral I lead) for an amazing baby boy named Malachi. Wow no wonder I am emotionally spent. The funeral tonight was awesome! Yes I can use a postive word with the word funeral. Remember for Christians there is no sting in death. Tonight Malachi's family proved that verse and taught many of us how to celebrate when we lose a loved one. Malachi was just 5 months old and never spent a day out of the hospital. Although a strong fighter his ailments were just too much for him to overcome. I know this sounds morbid but I never thought I could feel so blessed and encouraged to be apart of such an inspiring funeral. Mia and Myran (Malachi's parents) you guys are such an inspiration on how to cling to our Saviour in the midst of chaos. May God continue to carry you and heal all that is broken.

Should we try to be the best?

In the pursuit to reach as many people as possible for the Kingdom of Heaven it sadly can quickly turn into a silent competition. Of course no one says this and very few pastors admit such a thing, however I happen to believe it exist. I also believe it is one of the key components that is holding "The Church" from going to the "next" level. Obviously scripture is clear on the fact that we are to give 100% at anything we do especially when talking about helping people finding God. So I don't have an issue with a mentality that is driven, focused, with an attitude of pursing excellence (I think this is the exact attitude we are to have). What I've discovered is I don't like the idea or phrase when we try to be the best or have the best this or that. For example I don't want our church to pursue having the best children's ministry in the nation or world. The moment we make such a statement we immediately take our focus off what we are called to do, in this case leading kids to Jesus, and begin looking around at other churches and their ministry teams to determine if in fact we are the best. After concluding where we stand we then go back to the drawing board full of a "false inspiration" to try harder to reach more people. I believe that this kind of thinking not only distracts us from what God is trying to do within our own ministry but I also believe it steers us to go in a direction that God never meant for us to go down. Let me be clear I am not saying we can't or shouldn't check out other ministries, pastors, or churches. I think all that is extremely beneficial if done with the right motives, I do it all the time. I just wish our motivation for building great churches was more based on the fact that lost people are dying and going to hell and less of us comparing with one another who has the best this or that. I actually would love it if we were trying our hardest and we weren't the "best". That would mean there are so many other churches reaching more people than we are. I'd love to reach hundreds of kids and know that it's no big deal because so many other churches are doing the same thing. You see my passion and desire isn't to be the best Children's Pastor. My passion and desire is to see people fall in love with Jesus. I don't care if they are black, white, brown, old, young, Swedish, African. I don't care, I just want to see people be drawn to Jesus. If that means God places me to be the best at something, great. If I am not the best (out of 6 billion people) but the gospel keeps moving forward I think I can gladly live with that. Bottom line are you trying to be your best for what God is calling you to do or are you to preoccupied with simply being the best? PS: These are thoughts I've been chewing on for years and are not at all a reflection of my current church or my current situation. Just thoughts from along the way.

Make Him Famous

"Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things He does." Psalm 96:1-3 This passage hit me like a laser. Wow! What a passage. What does it mean to publish His glorious deeds? And tell everyone? Amazing things? He does not He did? Wow! bottom line that I get out of this is that we are to make Him famous as He is still rockin this earth. Tadd Grandstaff (pastor of Pine Ridge Church, NC: http://taddgrandstaff.com/) did a series called "Rockstar, making Him famous". This scripture reminds me of that. Alright I am off to do whatever I can to make Him famous because He still does amazing things. dustin

Upcoming new series

Starting Sunday we'll be learning how to act out the Word of God through our series entitled, "Welcome to Hollywood". I am really exciting about this series as well as the fall. It seems that my previous 4 months here have been observing, learning, and praying about all that God wants to do here. Now I feel like God is given us some clear vision and objectives that I am anxious to implement this fall. Also my mind is still transitioning from student ministry so if anyone has any series that are geared for kids and not too lame send them my way. Thanx and keep rockin for Him.

Beach Baptism: 7/21/08

Last week we had a phenominal beach baptism where we baptized 17 people at Cocoa Beach. It was an awesome day. God is doing some amazing things. GOD ROX!!!

Sharks and Sermons

This past weekend I got to spend 3 full days with my family on a fishing and scalloping trip at Crystal River. It was a blast, I had so much fun. We didn't catch much fish (except for small catfish) but it was such a great getaway with my family, I loved every minute of it. I did happen to catch a small hammerhead shark, probably about 3 feet long. That was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then on Sunday I was given the opportunity to speak during all three of our adult worship services. Pastor Rodney is on vacation and I loved sharing what God placed on my heart regarding how to be friends with God. We are in the middle of a series called Wired for Worship. I wont go into detail about what I spoke on but I was thrilled to have the opportunity. Thank you to all of you that were praying for me this weekend, your prayers were felt, and I believe God impacted some lives today. Remember we must show reverence for our Holy God but at the same time He did and does all He does just to be friends with us. He gave up everything to be our friends will we do the same. I'm out, DA

Simply Amazing!

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! What a week. What an amazing week. We just ended our Adventure Week called ZOOPLOSION. It was a week long 3 hour a day jam packed mini camp type event held at our church. We had an am 9-noon and a pm 6-9 session and God showed up in huge ways. We had over 160 volunteers, 525 students participated, and 114 made 1st time decisions to follow Jesus Christ. We had many more stand up to comitt their life to Christ but after meeting with counselors we were able to confidently say that 114 of them understood and were ready to begin a relationship with Christ. Simply Amazing. You can visit www.fokidsonline.com for pics and stories that took place all week. Thank you all who prayed for us. DA

ZOOPLOSION updates

Wow, I am humbled by how great our adventure week is starting off. We are in the middle of day two and this morning we saw 308 kids show up. Wow, nothing like seeing hundreds of kids do the cha cha slide. Anyways for those that care this whole week I'll be blogging daily on all that is happening in ZOOPLOSION. But i wont be blogging it here. If you want updates head over to http://www.fokidsonline.com/ You can see pics and stories of all God is doing. So far so good. Please keep us in your prayers. Now that we have an auidence we are praying that God rocks their world. thanx, dustin

Night Of Prayer

To get ready for our BIG ZOOPLOSION week next week we held a nigh of prayer last night. It was simply a two hour time period for families or individuals to come and pray at various prayer stations. The stations ranged from pray for kids far from Jesus to pray for brokenness inside homes. All in all it was a wonderful night of connecting with my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. I had to show these pics because i thought they were so great. #1 is TJ and my daughter Callie Joy praying. #2 is hilarious. 3 seconds earlier all three had there eyes closed and head bowed. Right when the camera went off Jacob couldn't resist smiling for the camera. Callie Joy began to pout because "it was her turn to pray" and riley kept on praying. Classic. #3 Riley praying for "kids that don't know Jesus to come because he likes them". Good night with my family, good night with friends, good night with God, can't beat it. dustin

Launching FOkids!

The past several days I have been working on launching a blogsite for our children's ministry, FOkids. Well it still has some work to be done on it but here it is. http://fokids.wordpress.com/ We are in the process of purchasing our own url name, but until then here it is. I wanted to get this ready to roll before our Adventure Week where we are predicting 400-500 kids. I didn't want to miss out on such a critical time to get connected with so many new families and kids. When it comes to blogs and websites I am just a rookie so if you have any suggestions or thoughts I am open. Oh and if anyone knows how to post a youtube video on a blog, holla at me.

In Orlando

Today the Aagaard's moved to Orlando. We've been commuting for the past three months and it feels good to move into town. We moved into a temporary apartment until we figure out what to do with our house, which is for rent and for sale. We decided yesterday to move today and within 18 hours notice we had over 10 people two trucks and two trailers. We completed the move in about 4 hours, record time. 10 teen students from my old student ministry showed up at 7:30 am to help me move. That is what I miss the most about Pine Ridge Fellowship and Fusion Student Ministry, their heart to serve is amazing. Thank you everyone for serving us the way you did today. FUSION ROCKS! Thanks Tom, I look forward to see what God continues to do within FUSION.

Home Sweet Home!

I am currently sitting on my couch watching scrubs with my wife with both my kids sleeping in their rooms. This is a scene I haven't seen in over 3 weeks. The past 3 weeks I have had the honor of going on 3 different trips to help spread the fame of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First was to the Bahamas for a senior high mission trip, then it was kids camp for 3-6 graders, then it was middle school camp for 7-9 graders. As great as those trips were (over 35 decisions from our group alone) I am glad to be back home. I missed the TJ and the kids. Glad to be back home.

Middle School Camp

Fresh off middle school camp which was amazing. We headed to Stetson University via Student Life Camps, www.studentlife.com We took 40 people and 11 kids gave their lives to Christ. The students seemed to take their faith to levels they never knew existed. It was their first camp experience and they seemed to be spiritually overwhelmed in a very positive way. The camp speaker was phenomenal. Sam Bhatt was a great speaker who taught passionately about how to follow Jesus and what it takes. He's a very gifted and funny speaker. www.sambhatt.com Chuck Hooten led us in worship music and followed Sam's passion for following Jesus. They both complemented each other very well. Chuck clearly has a passion to lead people to the feet of Jesus. You can check him out at www.chuckhooten.com

Kids Kamp 2008 Updates

Well we just wrapped up kids kamp 08 and it was incredible. The kids had a blast and our leaders did a phenomenal job with the kids, (Steph, K-Dawg, and Chadaliac-you guys rock!). We had 4 kids begin a relationship with Jesus for the first time, AMAZING GRACE! Check out the pics.

Camp Bahamas part I

Here we are in Eleuthera, Bahamas. Eleuthera means freedom and boy do we have it. Things couldn't be any better. We staying in (55 of us) a couple houses right on the Caribbean. I wake up and right in front of us is crystal blue waters, gorgeous. Camp Bahamas is a ministry that brings in mission teams to help facilitate or prepare for Camp Bahamas, which is an outreach to local Bahamian teens. They just received 23 acres recently so we are cleaning it up and are in the process of building 3 cabins. In two day we were able to knock out 4 walls all framed out. So by the end of the week we should be roofed up and done with exterior. i wish i could show you pics but forgot my connecting cord in the states. The people here are great. God is doing what He loves to do, bring people to Him and each other. We are gearing everything up for an end of the week outreach fair where the gospel will be shared. Pray for us. All is well, I just miss TJ and the kids. PS: no sign of the Black Pearl.

Unstoppable Momentum

Something I've been learning recently from our lead Pastor (Rodney Gage) is how to create and utilize the unstoppable power of momentum. For example last week we played a game the kids absolutely loved. The resources we used to pull that off were an investment to help create encore experiences for our kids. IE: momentum for them to enjoy church thus wanting to come back as opposed to be being dragged back. Or another way to gain momentum on a more simplistic level would be to focus on 3-5 kids and genuinely focus on caring for them, their needs, their worries, their pain, their life. If you did one genuine thing for each kid every week you'd have enough momentum to role out the gospel and see huge results. The goal of this idea is to create as many wins as possible. The more wins you have within your ministry the more momentum. Thus to put this into practice you must first figure out what is a win within our ministry. The opposite is also true. The more loses you have the less momentum. Thus what obstacles are in your way from reaching maximum momentum? If you have any create ways of building momentum, holla back.

Blessed!

Tonight we went to a birthday party for a friend of Riley and Callie Joy. We went to a place called Sliderz. It was another bounce house party place for kids, the same type of place we went to last week for Callie Joy's birthday. Tonight as all the kids were running around having so much fun, eating their heads off with pizza and coke my mind was racing ahead to next week. Next week I am heading to the Bahamas for a mission trip. It just got me thinking how ridiculously blessed we truly are. Two phenomenal parties in two weekends. Both full of lots of fun, tons of presents, great pizza, and plenty of soda. And they were "typical" get togethers. My point is with 4 billion people living off less than $2 I can't help but feel like we are living like King's and Queens. We've got it made. We are so blessed and so rich. My first thought is, "wow, great for us." but then God reminds me that we are blessed to be a blessing. I guess you can say that today I realized once again how awesome of a lifestyle we have in America. But with that blessing does come the responsibility to use our leverage to help those not as fortunate. To be honest I'm not to sure what I am going to put to action with this thought but I do know God will open my eyes to someone I can serve someone. Remember you are rich and you are blessed, yes you, now enjoy it and lets take care of each other. PS: the video is just a funny shot of us goofing around inside one of the bounce houses and yes that is me at the end.

28 years and 246 days...

It took 28 years and 246 days for me to eat my very first salad. You don't get any pickier of an eater than I am. I have some of the worst eating habits you can have. Thus as of May 1st, 2008 TJ (my wife) and I challenged each other to attempt a much healthier lifestyle. Of course she eats great, is in shape, and has no health issues. So this challenge is mostly for me. The goal is to go from May 1st to September 1st with no soda, few sweets, few fast food if any, and to began eating healthier food choices. Now for years everybody around me wanted me to eat better but to my knowledge not one person actually prayed that God would help me with this challenge. So my quest was to learn to lean on God and pray specifically that God would change my taste buds. That I'd actually would crave healthy food choices. The goal was to also start eating a salad in June. Well last week I took my daughter Callie Joy out for a birthday date and I thought no better time to eat my first salad than with my precious daughter. I already had picked out what type and from where. It had to be a salad from Chick-Fil-A. I don't remember what kind exactly but it was with ranch dressing, which I didn't really care for. Anyways to 99% of the population this is no big deal. But to me this is very much a huge deal and one I don't want to take lightly. More than trying to be healthier physically I am much more enjoying the spiritual journey God is bringing me through as I am learning to lean on him and not on the comfort of food. Thank you to all of you who have been encouraging me.

Callie Joy's Birthday

This weekend was Callie Joy weekend as we celebrated her 3rd birthday. Saturday we went to a place called Kangaroom, which is big warehouse full of jumphouses. Pic #1 is us at Kangaroom. Monday we had her birthday party with our family. TJ and I got her a "princess scooter" that she is riding in pic #2. Pic #3 is her in the middle of eating her cake. Great weekend, my little girl is now 3.

My little girl is turning 3!

My peacious but crazy (taken after her daddy) daughter is turning 3 on Monday, May 26th. She is such an amazing daughter and is total girl. She makes me laugh everyday. As you can see here she enjoys life. We are having a weekend full of activites for her including a specail daddy daughter time tomorrow. I'll recap after monday with some pics. c/ya.

Senior High Lake Party

After a great morning of worship this morning we headed out to a friends house to enjoy a senior high lake party. We had a good time just relaxing with some good food and good times. The time was center around the tube runs. The runs consisted of three tubes holding 10 people who are tube hopping. Between the tube hopping and the boating circling to hit its own wake (aka a double up) it gave me a bit of a work out. Good stuff.

Name something better...

Last week our community celebrated baptisms at the beach. It was such an awesome sight. Over 100 people showed up to encourage, support, and cheer on 21 baptisms. Kids, adults, even whole families got baptized. It was a very inspiring day to see 21 people passionately wanting their reputation to be known as a follower of Jesus by following Him in baptism, I loved it. Here are some pics to give you a glimpse of God at work. Pic 1: Pastor Rodney (our Lead Pastor) and I. Pic 2: Two sisters gettting baptized together with Pastor Chad (our student Pastor). Pic 3: A teenager going down. Pic 4: A teenager coming up ready to charge hell with a water pistol.

Reason #390,222,849 why I love the Bible

A couple weeks ago I began reading Psalm and right off the bat God convicted me. Psalm 1:2 talks of "those" who mediate on His Word day and night. Immediately I knew my thoughts in the morning and at night were not focused on God, they were just random. Thus I began reading His Word every morning and every night and of course it has been awesome. I read Psalm 20 recently and just wanted to share it with you. This is a great prayer we can pray for those going through difficult and challenging times.

"In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry. May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm. 2 May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. 3 May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your offerings burnt. 4 May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. 5 May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers. 6 Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. 7 Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. 8 Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. 9 Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help."

Amen!

Humbled and Pastorized

Tonight was an incredibly special night. Tonight I got ordained and it blew me away. I really wasn't expecting much and was overwhelmed with how much the night meant to me in so many ways. So many of my friends and family showed up and showered me with affirmation of God's calling in my life to full time ministry. I knew what I've been doing was from God but to have so many close friends and family that I respect support and encourage my calling into ministry just blew me away. Thank you to everyone that cheers me on, the support breathes life into me. Thank you to everyone who prays for me, you have a direct impact on all God is doing. I feel humbled to be apart of all God is doing. He is such a big God with HUGE plans and I feel so humbled to be on His team. So after many years of full time ministry I am now officially an ordained Pastor. I know it shouldn't matter but for whatever reason it does feel special and exciting. Thank you everyone for all you do for TJ and I. Please continue to pray for us as we continue our journey on making Him famous. For His Glory, Dustin

Oh to be like my master

For years I have had a thought. This thought has haunted me over the past several years. This thought has kept me up countless nights. This thought is not good but is true. My thought is this, "it seems like for me it is so much easier to be a Christian and blend in than it is to be like Jesus." You know what I mean, to be a Christian means you say the right thing at the right time to the right people and we've more or less think we've fooled everyone into thinking we really are following Jesus. Worse yet, we've fooled ourselves. We began watering down the gospel or staying away from the tough parts because we know that may be something we'll have to change. I'm not sure about you but I love Jesus, I really do. I want to make Him smile so much but so often my sinful nature just gets the best of me and without seeing it coming I end up so different from Christ but still tell others I'm a Christian (Christ follower). The term Christian to many people means they "get" to go to Heaven. That's not what the definition means. Yes we get to go to Heaven but there is so much more than that. The definition means Christ follower. So if Jesus prays for hours, then were to pray for hours. If Jesus touched those with leprosy then we are to touch those with leprosy. If Jesus led people to the throne of God than we are to do the same. Christianity is not merely getting into Heaven it is following "The Way" (this is what the original followers of Jesus were called, found in the book of Acts) and becoming more like the master Jesus Christ. May we pray for one another that we would be more and more like Him and less and less like sinful selves.

Ordination Time

On April 12th I will become an ordained pastor. It's really weird because I'm not going to be doing anything different as a Pastor. My responsibilities won't change because I've always been doing pastoral work but this still feels special and something I feel honored and excited to do. I ask for your prayers upon me and my ministry. Pray that God anoints me and blesses our ministry. I ask for specific prayers in the following areas: wisdom, courage, creativity, vision, leadership, and a ridiculous passion for God and His Word. Thanks for the support and encouragment.

You Version

Calling all God fans, you have to check this site out. Lifechurch.tv came out with a sweet bible resource unlike anything i've ever heard of. By the way i love lifechurch.tv they are doing things in ways that has to make God smile. You can check them out at http://www.lifechurch.tv/ . Feel free to join their podcast too, its great. anyways the site to check out for "you version" is http://www.youversion.com/ . It's difficult to even explain, the best thing to do is just go and check it out yourself.

Easter Rocks!

This past weekend we all celebrated Easter. I can't imagine what my life would be like without Jesus conquering death. Paul talks about this openly in 1st Corinthians 15. How without the resurrection we'd be the biggest fools in all the world. But because of the resurrection we have the greatest hope mankind can ever imagine. Without the resurrection there would be no difference between Christianity and many other religions. Because we have so much hope in the resurrection may we celebrate it as if our souls depend on it... Our services were great, our community is amazing, and I am so grateful to be apart of all God is doing through Fellowship Orlando. I am loving working here, it has been way better than anticipated and I love working alongside my good buddy Chad Harper (the Student Pastor). Continue to pray for us as great things are happening there are still too many people experiencing too much pain for us to even think we've arrived. The best is yet to come...

Sunday Kickoff!!!

Yesterday I officially started at Fellowship Orlando and our whole family couldn't be happier, we absolutely loved it. The kids enjoyed it and already meet some new friends, which is huge. To get introduced to the children's ministry we they had a game planned for me called "Are you smarter than our Children's Pastor". It was great, the people were great, the service was great, and we felt at home, as if we'd been there for years. Now is the time to pull up the sleeves and explore where God is taking us. We are not sure where He is leading but we are sure He is leading and we are anxious to follow. Thank you all for you prayers during this transition.

Goodbye

This week has been tough and good at the same time. Our last Sunday with Pine Ridge Fellowship was Sunday and our my last youth service was last night. Man am I going to miss the worshipping with those teenagers. Their passion for God shows up every week, I love it. Last night was a great night although we had some technical difficulties. It was a great time of worship, celebrating, and just enjoying each other in the Lord. FSM I will not forget all that I have seen God do in and through you. You have inspired me in many ways. I look forward to hearing reports of God doing amazing things for He is an amazing God. Well tomorrow is officially my last day @ PRF, then we'll take a little vacation (heading to Disney for a couple days), then we'll start at Fellowship Orlando March 9th. We are exciting to open the next door and see what He has in store for us. Grace and Peace, Dustin

A new season is here.

January 1 2006-February 28 2008 will conclude a great season for the Aagaard family. This is the season we will have lived and worked in Deltona through Pine Ridge Fellowship. This season has been very good to us. We have been blessed by a great church community, great staff team, and amazing student ministry filled with awesome leaders and students. This week we have annouced that we have recognized God wanting to open up a new season for the Aagaard family. Although our time here has been great we had 3 primary problems. 1) We worked too much. I'm not against work but TJ and I both have been working 2 jobs each and still struggling financially. 2) Due to being overworked we naturally have undercared for our family. Like most people we love our family more than anything and just felt like they were getting the shaft by daddy being gone all the time or tired when I was home. 3) The longer we stay here the more debt we accumulate. Obviously I don't need to go into the ramifications of that. Although we struggled we felt like God wanted us there for that season and then my buddy Chad and I began dreaming of doing ministry together. That dream quickly went from dreamland to reality as just last week we were offered to join Fellowship Orlando staff to work with kids. We will begin March 9th and are excited to see what God has in store for the southeast community of Orlando. You can check them out at http://fellowshiporlando.com/ . If this blog lacks heart it is becuase I feel emotionally drianed from dealing with telling the church all week. Although we are excited and know its a God thing it still is hard telling close friends that we are moving away. I'll blog more about all this when i have more energy. Grace & Peace, Dustin

Show and Tell: 1.30.08

SERIES: Show and Tell TALK: The theme was the best way to share Jesus is to show a changed life and then tell about it. STUDENT RESPONSE: AVERAGE, We didn't really do anything to be able to gauge the response, but I spoke with many students that were challenged to getting out of their comfort zone. LEADERSHIP: ABOVE AVERAGE, All the tribe leaders have indicated who is in their fab 5 and it's neat watching them have a focused ministry where they are pouring into 5 students every week, so far so good. MUSICAL WORSHIP: ABOVE AVERAGE, Tom our worship leader was out sick which led us to make a decision to either cancell our worship through music time or let our student team do it on their own. Of course we let them do it on their own, there is nothing better than to work with a team for a year and then release them to do what God has been equipping them to do. I was so proud of them. They all stepped out on faith and said yeah we'll do it. They didn't feel adequate, they didn't feel comfortable, they didn't feel worthy but they did feel God and that made all the difference. To say i was proud of them would be a huge understatement. They did great. Anytime we can get more students on stage and more adults off of it the better. ATTENDANCE: AVERAGE.

LA Rocks!

Tom (our worship pastor), Lauren (his girlfriend), and I just got back from a Passion gathering in Los Angeles. It was off the hook amazing. David Crowder, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, and Francis Chan all did phenomenal jobs. It was a much needed escape to simply cling to my Lord and Savior Jesus. We got to see my good friend and mentor Danny Furukawa and the Fu family. Pastor Fu is a campus pastor for Shepherd of the Hills Westside LA and we were able to go to their Sunday morning service as my old youth pastor and friend Kyle Wall was also in town. It was a great service, by far the most blended service I have ever been apart of. As we pulled in we saw a chauffeur drop off their "master" in their Bentley and as we walked in we saw poor and homeless people. What a beautiful picture. Rich and poor worshipping God together. I'm sure God smiled. Sunday night we were able to make it to cornerstone church, Francis Chan's church and the whole thing was very underwhelming, which is probably why I loved it so much. I have deep respect for Francis Chan and all they are doing at cornerstone. God is using them in mighty ways and it was neat to be there. Francis is the one next to that good looking guy. The other pic is about 4,000 of us worshipping God at the new Nokia Theatre downtown LA, across from the Staples Center.