Clay Pigeons and Resolutions

I hate New Year's resolutions, not because I don't believe they are a great thing, but because I don't want to do something the rest of the world is doing at the exact same time, unless of course that is being involved in the rapture or watching the Giants win their second consecutive World Series.

I know I have things I want to change about myself, lots of them.  Do I want to lose the 10 extra pounds I carry around but no one can see? Yup.

Do I want to follow God more closely? Always.

Do I want to become a better writer? Sure.

Can my husbandry duties and fatherly requirements get a tune up? Of course.

That being said, I don't want to make any resolutions because resolutions are destined to fail harder than Chris Gaines Rock and Roll career, don't know who Chris Gaines is, check wikipedia, it's worth it.

I am not saying if you make a resolution you are going to fail, I know people who are phenomenal at keeping their resolutions people who have lost they weight they have carried around, people who have learned a new instrument or read an incredible book, I am saying making a resolution is like shooting a shotgun with on eye closed.

The other day I went to my buddy's ranch to shoot some clay pigeons and talk before his wife had their baby.  I knew it was going to be th elast time seeing him before the birth of their beautiful baby girl (Caroline May).  As we were shooting he told me to stop closing one of my eyes while shooting the shotgun.  At first I mocked him because everyone who has every watched a western knows if you are shooting a gun you either: a) wear an eye patch (I can't wait to fall in love with you 'True Grit') or b) close your left eye.

He then reminded me that I shoot a gun twice a year and he knows what he is talking about and to listen to him.  So I did, and after I opened both eyes my shooting percentage went way up.  It wasn't that I couldn't see what I was shooting, I just couldn't see it as well and that is the flaw with a resolution, you can see it, just not as well as you should.

This year instead of resolutions I am going to make measurable goals.  Things that I can check my progress on with both eyes, things I can check off a list to keep myself accountable.  I want to have a clay pigeon in my cross-hairs and turn it into dust not miss it completely.

What are you goals for 2011? Don't like goals, thats cool, what about your resolution(s)?

Game Nights

I love to play any type of game, that is just the way my brain works, I think I may have missed my calling as being FAO Schwartz, except I hate the giant piano in the movie "Big" you think it is cool until you try to play it and you sound like every other person who isn't musically inclined or just has short legs.



I love situational games like baseball, I love thinking about what should be done because rarely is a situation the same.  The challenge that being in a new situation after every move is exciting to me.  My love of strategic games started innocently when my Youth Pastor introduced me to Risk.  3 hours later I was wiped off the face of the earth and hooked.  That following summer my dad was worried about me and my friends because we were staying up too late playing Risk.  In hindsight, I don't think he had too much to worry about, I actually just think my friends Jordan, Caleb, Brandon and Schroeder were all incredibly loud even after their people groups had died off.  At one point we recorded an entire game of risk from beginning to end, it may be the single most boring thing that has ever been recorded.

But games are incredible and I have found more and more that there is a type of game that I put higher on a pedestal than any other, they are games of strategy.  Now one would instinctively think that my favorite game has to be Stratego because it's very name is arrived from the word strategy, however, that person would be wrong, Stratego requires as much strategy as Candy Land in comparison to the my favorite game of all time, THE SETTLERS OF CATAN (That is my booming movie preview announcer voice).

You may think that sounds lame, or what is a Catan?  But to you I say stop pondering such silly things and start pondering where you are going to find a Catan board and who you are going to play with.

Games bring a sense challenge, you get the opportunity to be a commander in charge of huge armies or a developer in charge of developing cities.  You get to go head to head with other people to see where you stack up or in the case of Quelf you just get to have fun and don't worry about who wins.

Christmas season and New Years is the time for staying up late and playing board games with friends, whether it be old school like Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary or too new and quirky like Quelf, open the closet, grab a board game and some friends and enjoy a game without the distraction of TV hindering you.

Whats your favorite board game?  Leave a comment and let me know.

TRUE Grit

Before you read this post watch this trailer for True Grit, I haven't seen it yet but if you haven't heard of the movie, you'll understand this post better if you see the preview.



Sarah and I used to go to the movies all the time, it was kind of our default date before we were married or had kids.  It was fun and it was easy, it gave us a chance to put our brains on pause for a bit and just be entertained which I am a huge fan of.  Needless to say if Sarah and I get a night free from the boys we don't sit next to each other and not talk for 2 hours while Freddie Prinze Jr. kicks a hacky sack around on a stage while making an obvious metaphor about his life.  We go grab coffee and talk about life, it is strange having a full conversation with my wife without being interrupted by a young child talking, pooping, crying or climbing onto something he shouldn't be climbing.

Last night I had the opportunity to go to the movies with my brothers-in-law and another friend and I was psyched up and ready to go.  Sarah said yes but as i was getting ready to go things were not going as smoothly as had hoped, actually it was as smooth as ice-skating on gravel.  Babies were melting down, messes were being made, wives were getting sick, overall it wasn't the scene I wanted to leave behind as I left to watch James Brolin, Jeff Bridges, and Matt Damon be super cool by wearing tattered leather coats and shooting stuff.

So as I was walking out the door I prayed and said, "God, if I should stay at home tonight make Micah meltdown before I get into the car." 5 seconds later Micah went into one of his screaming rampages and rather than get in the car to watch Gritty Gritty Bang Bang (street name) I grabbed my tools and came back inside to get some honey-dos done.

Needless to say this small act of love went a long way with Sarah.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not some incredible husband who does things right all the time, that's not even close to the truth, this was more of a testament to God taking care of me and all I did was be obedient to Him.  I am not a good prayer, I am a reader and a thinker and because of that my ability to try and pray like a champ gets hindered.  But last night I truly felt God say hey pray about this for a second, so I did, and God delivered.

Do I want to see True Grit? Uhh am I a dude that has a pulse? The answer to both of those questions is yes.  Did I pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Jeff Bridges drunkenly stumble around while riding a horse with Matt Damon?  Probably not, the Academy Awards are coming up.  Did I decide to stay with my bride rather than go to an EPIC western?  Yup, and I won't regret it, ever, because that's how we show love, we put others concerns over our own, others desires over our own.

True Grit, I love you, but I love my wife more.

26thmas

The day after Christmas was always a lot of fun for us when we were kids.  The excitement had worn off from the day before and we had settled back in and slept of the sugar rush that the food in our stockings had produced.  We were back at home and free to roam around the neighborhood with the 7 other boys our age that lived there.

I call it 26thmas (which is the Christmas Hobbit equivalent of Second Breakfast or Elevensies) because on December 26th we went to all of our neighbors houses and saw what they got for Christmas and played with their toys since we were already bored of ours.  The best 26thmas was when our neighbors got a backyard trampoline and we jumped for hours, it was magical.

The biggest thing that the 26thmas Holiday brought to us was the confirmation that (Santa Spoiler ahead) Santa did not in fact exist and our Moms were in fact the fat bearded man who delivered presents on the night before.  We figured it out by simply getting the cards that Santa had left for us and comparing hand-writing.

Our first thought was to protect Santa saying things like, "He must carry different pens and disguise his hand-writing," or, "He must have his elves prewrite all of the cards and deliver them with our awesome presents."  We may have said this mostly out of terror that if we stopped believing Santa would forever black ball us to the naughty list but the hammer came down when we compared our mom's hand-writing to Santa's and it was an exact match.  We could have continued to fight it, but alas we gave in and Santa was no longer something to believe in.

When did you stop believing in Santa Claus?  Was it devastating or did you already have a hunch?  or tell me about your 26thmas.

Merry Christmas Eve from Micah

Micah thought it was time for him to be happy just in time for Christmas. If this doesn't put you full of Christmas cheer you may be dead inside.

- Peter

It's a Two Christmas Tree Christmas

Around here we measure the success of a Christmas not in the amount of lights we can hang or in the amount of presents we can give away, we don't even give a Christmas industry standard of elves on a shelf.  No, in the Anderson home we rate Christmas with the number of trees we put up in a year.

I am a firm believer in being a man and come Christmas that means putting on your boots and your flannel shirt and driving to the nearest KMart parking lot to pick out a "fresh" tree.  This is the first year I didn't have a truck so instead of tying it to the roof, I  lowered the seat and threw it in the back of our HHR, it smelled like I opened 30 air fresheners that also had real pine needles that are definitely still taunting me in the back of our car.  Regardless, this was on November 27.

Do we get excited about Christmas?  Yes, we do.  Did we get so excited that we bought our real tree too early and we had to throw it out 3 days ago because it had a better chance of catching fire than it did at spreading holiday cheer? Yes, we did.

So there I stood, at the entry way of Target, many people pushing past me trying to get their shopping done, I was trying to come to terms with doing what I was about to do, buying a fake tree.

I am a purist, I hate fake trees, they are so fake, and fake.  But after wasting 40 dollars on a real tree that was nothing more than a giant piece of kindling, I decided it was time.  I made my way to the back of Target where all the fake trees stood proudly boasting their green needles, prelit amazingness, and 50 percent off signs.  I took the plunge.

So now in our house we are fake tree people.  I never thought it to be so but alas it is true, rather than fresh pine scent coming from our den, we have the Christmas tree equivalent of a Barbie doll standing proud and true, green and beautiful in our corner.

If the amount of Chrismas trees we have gone through this year is any indication of of what Santa is going o bring me, I think I am going to make out like a bandit.  (Or at least get 2 pars of socks.)

Cooper Comic Genius

- Peter

It's a Pooptastrophe

This blog post will have no pictures for reasons that you can figure out on your own, but I will say this, "I touched more poop this morning that doesn't belong to me than any civilized human being should touch... ever."

I uttered those words as I walked out of my house this morning and then realized that any poop whether yours our your children's shouldn't be touched on a regular basis.  I have heard some pretty bad poop stories since I became a parent, as a matter of fact Sarah and I have at least three conversations about poop every day.  It's like when you become a parent you substitute the normal things people talk about like politics and religion for poop and vomit.

The Coop was up around 8 this morning like normal but we give him a little bit of time in his crib before we go get him so he can wake up and get used to having a little bit of down time before the whirlwind of the days starts.  But this day wasn't like other days, when Sarah walked in to get Cooper out of bed she immediately knew something was wrong when she tried to lift him out of bed but he was dried to the sheets, he is actually still sitting there.

Not really, but there was poop everywhere, on his stuffed animals, on the sheets, his clothes, his body and pretty soon on everyone that came withing a 5 block radius of his crib, it was like someone was sniping people with a Coop Poop gun and not even Jack Bauer could escape it.  It was gnarly, and gross, and mom and dad got to clean it up.

Parenting is hard a lot of times, but you know what you do when things are hard?  You do them.  I didn't know how we were going to handle having a newborn and an 18 month old at the same time, but we just did it, we are continuing to do it.  Are there days that you want to put everyone to bed at seven o'clock make a fire and watch a chick flick, yeah, there are, and yes I am a dude.

But you get through those days, those hours, those minutes where you feel like the whole world is about to squish you like a ten year old version of myself with the mosquitoes I caught playing 3rd base in Atwater Little League (Shout out to Von Gooden DDS, 2 tome league champs 12 and under division).  And you move onto the minutes where your son says, "Hi Daddy" when he runs over to give you a hug even though you have been playing with him for the last hour.

Parenting is tough, but you do it, you get through it, and you see the blessings those little pooping children of yours bring.  Any good poop stories?  Let's hear 'em!

Sappy Sweet Love Heart

My wife is smokin' hott (like Jon Acuff, author of stuffchristianslike.net, has said, as a Christian who is a dude who married up, you have to spell hott with 2 t's, it emphasizes the hotness your wife possesses).  And since my wife possesses an incredible amount of hotness, she is a two t wife, hands down.  But my wife, her name is Sarah, is not just a super hotty, she is also really smartt.  And not smart like I am going to  only type in binary code because it's the purest form of communication smart, but smartt like we are on a single income and I am going to make sure we don't go into debt smartt.

After we had the boy (Coop) and now the kid (Micah) Sarah's heart was to be at home with our children, our crazy crazy crazy children.  I love the fact that we are able to let Sarah stay home while I continue to puff my chest out and be the bread winner for our family.  I am also incredibly thankful that our church pays me enough to be on one income.  The thing I am most grateful for though is how my wife has put on her green accountant visor, taken out her ten key and figured out how to keep us afloat until Sarah starts getting paid for being an awesome mom (If anyone has heard of any mom sponsorships let us know, we aren't opposed to tattooing logos or wearing the same corporate polo shirt everyday).

In a time of life that can only be described as nutzo bonkers, Sarah has managed to help us keep the wheels on the cart.  Telling me when I am allowed to spend and when I have to tighten up.  Telling me when it can be a Starbucks day  and when home brewed is the drip of the day (ironically enough it's a Starbucks day when she is in the mood for caramel deliciousness), she is responsible for our financial responsibility.

I married someone who balances me perfectly.  I am not the best at managing money, but she has taken the job on and because of her we are going to make it.  She picks up my slack when I drop the ball, what slack and a ball have in common I am not sure, what I am trying to say is she helps me.  We are in this together and with my ability to open the pickle jar and her ability to do everything else we make a pretty good team.

How does your spouse balance you?  Don't have a spouse, thats cool, what ways do you need to be balanced?

Tuesday Means Micah

As Sarah and I were doing some Christmas shopping on Saturday Morning, two things occurred to me, the first things is how much easier shopping is when you are alone, and by alone I mean when you don't have to push the Cadillac of double strollers around.

The second thing that occurred to me is that our precious almost 4 month old son is getting thick.  I don't know if it makes me a bad dad that I realized he was packing on the weight when I saw a baby Santa outfit and thought how amazing Micah would look in it, but if it does, I am a bad dad.  I am ecstatic at this weight gain though, and not because he can fit into Cooper's clothes faster, but because this is about the same time Coop got some extra meat on his thighs.

This weight is a great thing because it signifies Micah turning into a person, not just a crying pooping lump.  He is getting a personality, he can hold his head up without whiplashing his cranium into the floor after 2 seconds, and he will start eating baby cereal soon (thats cereal for babies, not cereal made out of babies.  That being said Micah is so legit he eats other babies for breakfast!)

Up until this point in Micah Man's life the role of Dad is kind of diminished, not because I don't want to hang with my son, throw him around, and offer really sound sage-like advice to him but because mom is the nurturer, the feeder, the bather.  Mom gets to do those things because God literally built her for that role (granted the bather is a stretch but since I am not a huge fan of bath time Sarah gets that responsibility).  Now that the scale is moving in an upward direction for our youngest son it signifies a time when Dad gets to burst onto the scene and show Micah how awesome he is and by awesome I mean how long I can make a fart noise on his stomach without stopping to breathe.

Moms are awesome but Dad has a different role than she does, just ask Coop after he hits his head, the first words out of his mouth aren't, "Daddy, ouch."  They are, "Mama, ouch." Or when it is time for Cooper to fly like Peter Pan, he doesn't run to Mom and say, "Fly! Fly!" it is Dad that gets that responsibility.

What roles did your parents play in your life whether it be growing up or now?  How were they the same, how were they different?

Monday Morning with Coop

When Bing Crosby sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" he was probably in the Central Valley, because a dream is as close as we get to having anything white on the ground during the Winter Season. So it being December I wanted to do something fun for my son and niece, Juniper, who Sarah watches on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Now if I had my way we would be behind massive snow forts making snowballs and hitting each other in the face with those snowballs until someone started to cry. But there is still no snow, however, I think if I wait long enough there will be enough to build a little snowman, like the size snowman a plastic GI Joe would build if they were alive, and they made snowmen rather than fighting team Cobra.

So instead of whizzing snowballs at my 20 month old son and 2 and a half year old niece I raked leaves so they could play, and once they got used to the other stuff that was in the sidewalk gutter they loved it. (Not really, they played on the grass but still, it would have saved me some time if it were socially acceptable to let your kids play with leaves soaked in dirty gutter water.) Long story short, here are some pictures I snapped.

I left out the pictures of me jumping in the leaves with them because they were having so much fun I wanted to get in on the action.  I want to be able to create special moments like this one on a regular basis.  As a Dad it isn't my job to sit idly by and let mom plan all the activities as Monday Night Football is on TV.  Creating adventures for our kids is huge in them developing into self-assured, confident, independent people.

The adventures don't have to be rake the leaves and have a sitcom afternoon throwing leaves and galavanting in the midst of all the fall colors.  It could be simple like when I was little we used to decorate sugar cookies with my parents, their friends, and all of their kids, it was a blast decorating cookies shaped like stockings with neon blue and yellow frosting.  Did most of the cookies end up getting thrown away because they were too sweet?  Yup, but it was an adventure in itself that my parents wanted us to do because it was fun and special and out of the ordinary, it was an adventure.

What things have you done this season to make it special for your kids?  What things do you plan on doing?  Don't have kids? What adventures are you going to partake in?

Irked is a Funny Word

My chair is broken. And not broken like it needs to repent of it's sins because it feels terrible about the way it treated my desk last week, broken like every time I lean back the hydraulics give out and I slowly lose a solid 10 inches of height at my desk. This may be my bosses way of making sure I don't get too comfortable and lean back while I am supposed to be anxiously pouring over my work, but I think he has better things to do. Things like work on getting approval from the board to get us all iPads and Segways for Christmas (this is totally going to happen* and the best part is that it's all coming straight out of the Children's ministry budget).

*This will never happen, not in a thousand years, even when iPads are featured on VH1's Remember the 2010's and the thought of someone still owning one is considered "retro".

There are a few things in this world that really irk me, things that when they happen I clinch my molars in disgust or passive aggressively make a sarcastic comment at. I began to notice my irkiness at certain things one day when my then roommate would come into my truck and place his things on my dashboard. No big deal, just things on a dash, until I touch the gas pedal at all and they go flying everywhere, particularly in my face and then we get in an accident because he was being all willy nilly with the placement of his things. Regardless, I noticed I had issues, here are some things I have issues with.

1. 15 items or less means just that, unless there is no other line open

Look really mean elderly woman, I don't want to be in this line any more than you do, but there is no other line open right now and my frozen waffles are getting soggy, so if you don't mind I was in front of you and your "sprouts".

2. Biting Ice

I don't bite ice, I would never do such a thing therefore it is out of the realm of possibility, but hearing other people do this is the worst thing anyone could ever do to me. It should be no surprise that I love listening my wife, but she loves chewing on ice and frankly it is the only time I get to cover my ears and say "la la la la la" as loud as I possibly can. One ice chewer in the family no big deal, but now our son is ice chewing as well and if you go to her family's house to have a refreshing beverage you might as well be listening to a man carving an ice sculpture, of people chewing ice.

3. Ambiguity

4. Family Sidewalkers

I get it, you are really cute in your matching turtlenecks, you haven't seen each other in a long time and now you are Christmas shopping for those less fortunate, that is awesome. I love helping the needy and turtlenecks as much as the next guy but just don't line up four wide when you are walking on the sidewalk. Some of us who are way more impatient and thrive on moving quickly need to pass you and save the 15 seconds of our lives you would have wasted.

I know we are supposed to be all happy and jolly this time of year but seriously, we are all friends, what are some things that irk you?

College Life is Hard

When I was in college life was really hard, I mean really hard. I had to stay up until 3 am with my roommates and then drag myself out of bed by the crack of noon to go to 2 classes that were each 50 minutes long. After that the decision was really difficult as to whether I was going to go home and take a nap or get some coffee and read at Uncle Harry's (It's a bagel place, I don't have an Uncle Harry. (Also, having the name "Harry" in any food establishment's name is a mistake)).

When I woke up from my nap, because whether I went to read or went home to take a nap I still ended up sleeping somewhere, I had to play my super competitive roommate in Mario Baseball on Gamecube because I had a bet to see who can be the other guy 50 times first. My idea of shopping is finding my roommates leftovers in the back of the fridge and pretending like I didn't see his name on the box in bright red permanent marker. I did some homework and that was the extent of college, other than the 1 week per semester you were super stressed out and had no time to do anything because you waited until the last minute to do all of your papers.

Okay, I was being sarcastic, college wasn't that hard, just sue me why don't you (that was also sarcasm, plus, if you sue me I will make sure you get my dogs in the settlement, and my dogs dig.) The truth of the matter is I never understood why my parents ever got upset when I wouldn't do my homework one night or when I had a grade come back that was below my ability and their standards. I know now, it is because life when you are younger isn't super difficult, responsibility is limited, and sleep is always available. I say this because with each piece of life change that Sarah and I have had life gets a bit harder and we are forced to grow up a little bit more.

The good news is that as we continue to mature and take responsibility for what God has blessed us with life becomes more and more fun. We become "responsible" adults, we finally start to feel like grown ups (Even though any time I am visiting students on campus someone still thinks I am a High Schooler). I loved being able to sleep in until whenever I wanted when I was 20, but life is a lot more fulfilling waking up at six to get my run on to the Black Eyed Peas before the sun comes up.

What things do you miss from college (If you say record players or big hair you are dating yourself)? What things are you glad you no longer have to do now that you are a responsible adult?

Traditioooooon. Tradition.

I love Christmas. I have always loved Christmas and so far this year I love Christmas just as much as I have loved Christmas in the years past (you can tell by the amount of times I have used the word Christmas. Christmas!).

Like most families mine has a lot of traditions that are associated with this time of year, Christmas eve in particular. We go to church, we go to a Chinese restaurant (kind of like A Christmas Story except without the mispronunciation of la la la la la), and we all get matching pajamas. It is a good thing. Sarah and I have started talking about what traditions we should have every year and so far this is what we have.

1. Get a tree
2. Decorate the tree
3. Be with family
4. Unwrap gifts

We want Christmas to be a special time full of wonder and excitement but we also want the meaning of Christmas to resonate louder than the commercial side of the holiday. We want spiritual depth much like the makers of "Tickle Me Elmo" did in 1996 or Matchbox and "Stinky the Garbage Truck" do this year.

I have kicked the idea around of writing from the different viewpoints of those who were at the manger but when thinking from the point of view of a donkey, Eeyore's voice wouldn't get out of my head.

What are some fun and deepening traditions you have with your family every year? What things are you excited to try this year?

Babies are like Snowflakes

We have an almost two year old, Cooper. I have learned a lot from him. Things like when he wakes up at 3 in the morning there is usually a reason, and that reason may or may not be that he pooped in his diaper and the aforementioned poop is now on his feet, his hands, and his sheets. I have learned other things like how many times a 19 month old can spin in a circle before he falls down (2.5 revolutions). But Cooper was our first child and Sarah and I were excited and because of this hung on Cooper's every coo and movement (except that one at 3 am).

About 3 months ago things got slightly more complicated, we had our second baby boy child kid, Micah. Now this kid has been a whole different beast, not that he is a beast, unless of course he is on the football field where he will go for the throat. But regardless I have learned a lot of new things from Micah that the Coop decided to leave for his little brother to teach us. Here are some of them:

1. Babies cry when they are bored.
I am a lot of times distracted by what Cooper is doing, not because I love him more, but because Coop is strolling across the top of the couch or scaling the fireplace. So while I am trying to encourage calculated risks for Coop, Micah is yelling at me to do something with him.

2. Babies like to sleep in armpits.
It may be the amazing scent of Old Spice's "Pure Sport" deodorant, it may be the tickle of my underarm hair on his cheek, it may the feeling of security it brings to the boy (but I doubt it) but whatever it is Micah loves to sleep in my armpit. As a matter of fact there is seldom a place he sleeps more soundly, Sarah had trouble sleeping last week and I suggested she try it, apparently that becomes "weird" and "gross" once you hit 9 months.

3. Babies hate 10 minute car rides.
Got an hour and a half drive ahead of us? No problem, Micah is a champ. Need to drive to Michigan for the weekend? Great, Micah will sleep the whole way. But wherever we go the first 10 minutes is almost guaranteed to be meltdown city, there is no solace, no place to hide, you have to sit and listen to your son cry until his stopwatch hits 10 minutes.

I have learned a lot about myself from my kids and they can't even fully converse with me yet. What things has parenthood taught you? If you aren't a parents what things are you most looking forward to?

Merry Christmas to Coop's eye

I love having boys because it is times like these that begin to shape who they are. Cuts aren't fun, but the adventure that led to the cut makes it all worth it.




Fireplaces have sharp edges, Coop knows that now and will jump further away next time.

Reality YM High School Review week 7

Teaching Series: Greater Than (Week 2 of 4)

Sermon in a Sentence: In order to become greater, you must become less, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Length: 20 min.

Message:It is of utmost importance to give, it is of huge importance to share the things you have and the wealth you possess. The time you volunteer, the money you give, the skills you offer are all valuable things, but doing them for the sake of being recognized isn't the point of doing them. We are called to give out of being the "least of these" so we must give from an "I'm not worthy of the grace God has given me" standpoint.

Games/fun: Assassin. The goal of the game is to be the last surviving person. The game is still going as Connor King, Cody Nash, and Wesley Viau are still trying to assassinate each other. A winner is expected by Christmas.
Worship Band: Scott Bergstrom, Peter Anderson, Matt Hull and Stephanie Nash

On Deck: Greater than Week 3; Everyone deserves to be served.

God and the Giants

It is no secret, I love the San Francisco Giants as much as Bono loves sunglasses and religious ambiguity. My whole life I have loved baseball, the situational aspect of the game, the what-ifs and the could haves, the hand eye coordination, the 3-1 counts and sacrifice bunts. I am getting excited just thinking about it. I am even more excited because as some of you may be aware, the Giants are playing for their first World Series Championship in 56 years and tonight could be the night.

Now you may think to yourself, "Peter, why would you like a baseball team for so long that hasn't ever won a world series in the town that it currently resides?" or "Didn't the Giants lose 100 games the year you were born? Surely that can't be a good sign." The reason I love the Giants is because I love them. Do they have any bearing on anything else that happens in the world other than releasing endorphins to hundreds of thousands of Giants fans tonight? No. If they don't win the World Series will I go into a serious depression where my main source of nutrients are derived from the special sauce of a KFC double down? Probably.

But that's just it, the Giants don't matter, the dodgers definitely don't matter (also I didn't capitalize dodgers on purpose, they aren't worthy of such an honor) baseball doesn't matter, Brian Wilson's beard, where emotion goes to die, doesn't matter either, but don't tell it that, it may eat your soul.

John 5:44 says this, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

We are called to glorify God first, can we do that as the Giants win and in the process ruin every dodger fan's comeback since 1963 of, "You've never even won a world series in San Francisco."?

Sure we can.

But God must be glorified through it all.

Go Giants!

Bless God!

BOOM!

My Boys and Me

So I have two boys, they are amazing, both of 'em. One of them, the boy, his name is Cooper, he is just over a year and a half old, his hobbies include tackling our dog Parker, playing in boxes, and saying, "No Thank You." He runs, he talks, he cries, he even gives knuckle bumps on command, he is one of my greatest accomplishments in life.

My other boy is Micah, he will be 2 months old next week. His hobbies include vomiting, pooping, and especially crying. He is exhausting, he doesn't sleep super well, he needs to be held during every waking moment, and he hates the heat, which is really bad for my energy bill and as a resident of Central California. He is one of my greatest accomplishments in life.

Right now, these two boys take a lot of time and energy, they don't know the joys of sleeping in yet, they like cheese and milk at all hours of the day and night, they clap when everyone else is excited and cry when others get sad. They light up when Handy Manny comes on or smirk when their cheeks get tickled. They at times are hard to deal with emotionally and physically and sometimes I want to just sit in the corner and weep but because I have an integral part to play in their developing into men, I need to be the father that I hope they become.

I am reading a book right now called Fathered by God by John Eldredge, the same guy who wrote Wild at Heart. (He's like a sweet hybrid of Bear Grills and John Piper rolled into a spicy breakfast burrito that would be too much for even a young Chuck Norris to handle.) In Eldredge's book he is writing of the necessity of a father and the ginormous roll they play in the lives of daughters, and more specific to this book, sons. In the book it says this:

The safety that a father's strength provides allows a boy to be a boy, creates a universe for a boy's heart to become fully alive... When a boy has this confidence, this security and safety created by masculine strength over him, the whole world opens before him. He is able to live as a boy, and explorer, an adventurer. (Eldredge p. 42-43)

I hope to provide that strength and security in the lives of my boys, so they can build forts and climb trees, when I can teach them to shoot guns and hoops, how to throw a ball and catch a bride as great as their mom. Do I love throwing Coop onto the couch and tickling him until he wets his pants and says, "Daddy!" of course I do, I love holding Micah and letting him spew all over me because at least he won't get an upset stomach that way.

Boys are awesome but a huge responsibility, I am in charge of teaching my sons to be men of integrity and leaders of their households, and it starts with me handing Cooper the football just so I can tackle him and rocking Micah 'til his cries become snores, it starts with me providing the security that every boy needs to fully be a boy and develop into a man.

Ungrateful and Evil People

I was in Starbucks the other day and it was one of the employees birthdays. Just from sitting there listening I found out she is 23 and allowed to give out free drinks to who ever she wants today because it is her birthday and she doesn't care what anyone says, so there. The other thing I learned is that even though she was giving out free drinks to old men and young babies alike, I was not worthy of such a prize. Stupid birthday girl. (She probably isn't stupid, she just made me pay for coffee while she treated everyone else a bff she hadn't seen in 7 years.)

While I wasn't eavesdropping on the barista with poor business practices, I opened my bible to Luke chapter 6 which covers everything from Jesus setting the Pharisees straight to choosing the 12 disciples to the Beatitudes. But one thing in particular stuck out to me that I have read before but write it off as a, "Duh, everyone knows that," passage. It comes in verses 35-36 where it says,

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful."

When is the last time we were kind to people who were unkind to us?

I am a great driver, probably in the top 2% in all of North America. I do things right when I am behind the wheel but there is seldom a place where I am sitting that stirs aggression in my like my drivers seat does. As soon as I grab the steering wheel everyone else loses all ability to make wise decision and have some sort of common sense. It's like freshmen during there first day of high school, wandering aimlessly through the halls, slowing wen they shouldn't walking through the planters, turning in wrong directions, it's a disaster.

When I am behind the wheel I have zero sympathy for those inferior drivers around me. It says, "SLOWER traffic keep right," not, "If you want to go 55 in the fast lane go ahead, we aren't here to judge." But I have realized more and more as I get old and senile that I am a jerk and unloving to those cars around me. To the people who own those cars who don't turn when the light is red when clearly you can, or those who don't use their blinker and it wastes 10 seconds of my life, or those who get on the freeway going 45.

Those are the ungrateful and evil men in my life and I need to be kind, I need to be loving, I need to leanr to be merciful as my Father is merciful.

Who are the ungrateful and evil people in your life that you need to show mercy to?

Rap and Rebellion

I have been listening to rap lately. There is something about an autotuned voice and way too much bass that is appealing to my eardrums right now. With lyrics like, "I don't need drugs, I got the most high," who needs to listen to anything else? Now don't get me wrong, I love a good country song just as much as the next Central Valley kid, but recently my musical taste has been stretched and challenged by a sweet young man who goes by the name Lecrae as well as his bff Sho Baraka.

In one of Lecrae's songs his rhymes go something like this, "You're just a conformist if you're drunk and naked, and driving around on a motorcycle, smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments and getting pregnant out of wedlock. Everyone's done that! That's so tired. If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one's doing that. That's rebellion. That's the only rebellion left!"

I see a lot of young people trying to find their niche, trying to fit it, trying to be accepted and most of the time students find where they fit, where they belong. Whether it be in music, sports, academics, friends, family, church, whatever it may be, they find where they belong. But some people never find home, never find where they belong so they resort to acting out to being a rebel in order to make someone think they are cool because they are pushing on the status quo, they are crossing the line as far as they can to make sure someone takes notice of them.

The issue with acting out and looking for rebellious individuality is that everyone is looking in the same place. Students are trying to outdo one another by buying the newest NKOTB tape or having the most expensive acid washed jeans. Trying to outdrink each other, out smoke each other, out cuss, out tat, out non-conform each other. And when everyone is trying to be a non-conformist at the same time all you get is a lot of conformists.

So in a society where rebellion is the norm, where you aren't cool unless you pee your pants, or go party on Saturday, wouldn't the true rebellion be to seek what is true and real?

I join Lecrae in saying, "This ain't how it outta be homie, it's how it gotta be."

The Boy

In Him,
Peter Anderson

Sports and Stories

I love sports, I love to play them, I love to watch them, I love to figure them out. I was never the most athletic of my friends, that role was reserved for those people who hit puberty before they were 17, but regardless I feel like I could hold my own. It wasn't until recently that I realized what sports really are, it wasn't until recently that I realized why I love sports so much, it is because they are a story within themselves. Let me explain before you get upset because you thought you were going to be reading about how awesome the Giants are and how great Peter was at Water Polo in High School but instead he has you reading about stories.

Every story has a beginning and an end, unless you are watching a little tale called, "The Never Ending Story," which by definition never ends (and if you have watched lately you know that Giant dog is nothing short of creepy, he is like a mixture of Clifford and the sadly misunderstood Boo Radley.) But all sports have character development before the actual game. Storylines that come into the game can be seen as the prologue if you wish, but this is whats going on before the actual story, the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings, the Hide and Seek before the Wardrobe, the Peter and Sarah before the kids. It is what the characters are up to, what they have been through, their attitudes and idiosyncrasies.

This sets the stage for all things that are going to happen during the Event, (which I only watched the first 30 seconds of, and I have it figured out, they are rebooting the War of the Worlds franchise again.) Sports tell a story like few things do, and sometimes it is a great story, think about October 30, 1974 and the Rumble in the Jungle, or Rudy (and even though Joe Montana bashed Rudy a few weeks ago, I still weep every time I watch Sam Wise Gamgee get carried off the field).

Sports move us because of the stories that run through them. I am interested to tear more into this, what are your thoughts about stories and sports, how do they go together? What are some of your favorites sports stories?

Coop and Micah Pics

Yesterday Micah had has big 1 month old doctors appointment. He was a champ.



Today I just got this email from my wife of our oldest watching his show Little Einsteins.


I love my kids.

MASH Lied to Me About My Future

I love games. I think my crush on them started when going on a long bus ride to somewhere educational in the 4th grade. I was sitting next to my BFF Jordan on the bus and across the aisle were two girls who had a binder and a piece of paper out. They were giggling and writing and laughing and pointing and smelling good, standard girl stuff. Being the manly 4th grader I was I leaned over to whisper into Jordan's ear, "Hey man, ask them what they are doing."

Turns out they were playing a magical game called "MASH." Now if you aren't familiar with the game Mash then I can say two things about you, 1. You weren't a 90's kid, and 2. You didn't plan your life around arbitrary counting and random outcomes. But none-the-less, this is when I realized that games make everything more bearable, even if I did end up marrying Mrs. Van Horn, living in a shack, driving a Gremlin, while having 13 kids and being a professional basketball player.

But games can't just be rushed into and done at the drop of a hat. A game has to have a thought behind it, planning, rules, time frames. They have to have an element of risk, excitement, fear, competition, and challenge. If a game is run poorly then no one will want to play next time, trust me, I know. I have done multiple games that in my head sound like a great idea and they have fallen flat on their face because we either played them too long, too often, or they were too easy (or too hard).

But think about what you do when you get together with friends, unless you are only having a boring dinner party with appetizers and cloth napkins, they usually revolve around a game. Whether it be Pictionary or the Superbowl, we love games, they make us laugh, they loosen us up, they give us the opportunity to be our crazy competitive selves and it's okay.

I recently shot flour out of a potato gun at Jr. Highers and High Schoolers for getting an answer wrong, and you know what, they loved every single minute of it. Games are a way that we can worship God through community, they are a way to introduce others into our community, I mean is there a better way to say Jesus loves you by shooting 100 pounds per square inch of flour at someones face? I dare you to find a better way.

God is Love

I ran across this little diddy today, it is pretty thought provoking, tell me what you think.

Coop's Box

Yesterday was a big day in the Anderson household for two reasons. The first being our double stroller came and Sarah is in love with it. More importantly than the stroller was the box that the bohemith kiddy caddy came in. Cooper had his first experience with a box fort.

Now when it comes to building forts I am kind of like Mike Holmes meets a burrowing woodland creature. Need a fort, lets dig a hole, no room to dig? Let's find some scrap wood. No scrap wood? How about those old palm leaves. It is raining outside? Pillows, blankets, and a few staples will suffice. Whatever the material may have been, a fort could be made from them and essentially if I was in a Fort building contest with MacGyver, a gopher, and Wilhuff Tarkin I would win because I don't have a mullet, I am not a rodent, and I wouldn't leave a 2 meter wide exhaust port open for any rebel fighter to come and and blow up my entire Deathstar. In short, forts are my thing.

When I was growing up I remember a time when we were 7 or 8 and for some reason we had 4 or 5 massive boxes just sitting by our garbage can outside. We quickly turned them into our headquarters, command center, barracks, and mess hall all in one. We painted the outside of them, we painted the inside of them, we made tunnels from one box to another box by crawling through a box. I am pretty sure that these structures could have withstood a nuclear holocaust if it came down to that, or at least a strong gust of wind. Eventually the sprinklers came on a our impenetrable fortress collapsed faster than the 2010 Dodgers.

But never mind how awesome we were/are/is the thing that blows me away about Coop's box is that there are no buttons, there is no speaker, no lights, no talking tools, or creepy clowns. The box was simply that, a box. But to Coop it was a new world not yet explored, a fortress of solitude, a darkened lair, a place for his imagination to run as far as it could possibly run.

I wish that as adults we could recapture that sense of awe. The amazingness of a box to a 17 month old is paralleled to how awe-inspired I am when I see snow sitting quietly on top of Half Dome, or how excited I am to see the bright green outfield at AT&T park. The times I am blown away by what God has done in my life and for my life is what my oldest son finds in a simple box, and thats awesome.

What about you? What things make you stop and remember the amazing intricacies around you? What about when you were a kid, what things made you stop and stare in wonderment?

I'm a Sick Dad

No really, I am sick and I am a Dad. Actually the two go hand in hand for me right now, it's not so much that if I wasn't sick I wouldn't be a Dad but more of if I wasn't a Dad I probably wouldn't be sick. A week ago I got blindsided by a head cold, sore throat, runny-nose, a bit of a cough, standard. Now normally I can shake a cold like a champ, my medicine is lots of caffeine and denial, it seems to work pretty well for me, but not this time.

You see nowadays we have a second little tiny person living at our house, and no, we haven't adopted the prepubescent version of the 90's phenomenon known as Kris Kross, we just have a second baby and he's really cute. Now Micah is very different than Coop was, you see to say Cooper at all of his meals would be an understatement, he devoured them and he could rarely be satisfied, which lead to him not sleeping very well because he was always hungry. Micah on the other hand doesn't eat all that well, he is still get food and growing like a healthy boy but because he never "cleans his plate" he wakes up wanting more.

And you know what the crazy thing is, he tends to wake up wanting more at 2 in the morning. I have seen 3 am more in the past week than I did in my whole college career, including when I was the captain of Astronomy Club and we were studying the Ant planetary nebula while it was ejecting gas from the dying central star showing symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns of ordinary explosions, but thats neither here nor there.

Because I get to see the sites and sounds of the middle of the night on a regular basis my body doesn't have the time to kick this cold and because my body is acting very selfishly and all it wants is sleep I feel like I have been in a state of hypnosis, wandering around the halls of work and home not really knowing what is going on but doing what I can regardless of consciousness. Being a dad is awesome, being sick is not. Live long and prosper others.

Also, here's Kris Kross

Can we use electric cymbals so we can turn them down?

The Fall season of ministry is a hard season, it is when we are trying to boost our numbers, we are trying new things, doing our competition series, games are fed steroids to make them more exciting, I tend to spend more time in preparation to ensure that excellence is a descriptive word that we are buddies with. And so far this Fall has been a blast, we are doing Mac v. PC for High School and Man v. Machine for Jr. High and bth are going well. We shot bean burritos out of water balloon launchers into a crowd of High Schoolers who had to catch them. It's fun stuff, but too often the meat of ministry is overlooked.

Here's what I mean, Youth Ministry is fun, we launch bean burritos, we play games on slip 'n slides and with shaving cream, the music is too loud, the students have too much energy and the hormones are all raging. Sometimes they don't pay for sodas, sometimes students are caught kissing, sometimes I want to kick them out because of the annoying self explanatory repetitive questions they ask, but all the time we put up with the baggage of ministry to show these students the love of Christ.

If we do all of these things, these crazy, fun, sometimes stupid things, and have not love, not for each other and not for Christ then we are a mere clanging cymbal. There are days when I have zero desire to go to the office, there are days when I don't want to be a creepy older guy on students campuses when I go to visit, there are times when I don't want to sacrifice another Friday Night to go to a football game, but I do it not because I am awesome but because God first loved me and I need to do my best to reflect that mirror at the people, and specifically the students around me.

Cheers.

Seek, Don't Mope

I met a friend when our Youth Ministry went to Yakama Valley Reservation to serve the Yakama Nation for a mission trip, his name is Brandon. In Youth Ministry there tends to be a lot of politics even between other Youth Pastors as far as beliefs go, theology, group size, most of it has to do with ego I am sure, but it is rare to meet someone and instantly become buddies not just mere acquaintances. So I follow him on Twitter, if you are wondering, his handle is @daxsdad, and I hope to collaborate with him on a few things. Regardless, today he posted this, “How are you engaging God today?”

When in ministry (or in life for that matter) it is easy to feel alone and so your reliance needs to be on the Lord and you need to find a community that is going to encourage you, both of these things are critical to continue in ministry. But lately I have felt closed off to God, like we were playing hide and go seek in a meadow and he is still hiding even though it is time for dinner.

At first glance it seems like a normal thing that your token Pastor friend would write to encourage those around him and especially those he does ministry with, “How are you engaging God today?” But I got to thinking about this question and the more I thought about the more that I came to realize that God hasn’t gone anywhere, I have. I counted to 100 and rather than finding His hiding spot I sat down and waited for my mom to call me in for meatloaf because I felt like the game was too hard.

God is everywhere, His creation is majestic, and he isn’t hiding, we just tend to get lazy, or bored, or frustrated, or busy and we sit and sulk rather than to glance up and see him smiling and swinging his legs on the Oak branch above you (Does Jesus climb trees?)

2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Monday Morning with Coop

So I haven't written about my boy lately and I think I am overdue. Yes, it is Thursday morning but to keep with tradition I am going with my normal Cooper-man title, Monday Morning with Coop. My boy is at a cool age right now, he can interact with you, he has a personality, one of his current favorite things to do is to impersonate the sounds he hears. He loves making barking noises, and the other day I taught him how to say, "Doh" in true Homer Simpson fashion.

He has also reached the height where everything is forehead level, mix that with still being slightly wobbly and you have a recipe for disaster, this kid hits his head everyday as often as I did while sitting through two hours of, "Dear John," with my wife. But he remains a champ regardless.
(He fell on pebbled cement)

And he is getting really big really fast, which I guess is a good thing because his little brother will be peaking into the world in 2 short months.

Because of this we are working on Cooper's ability to share, we are working on please and thank you, and we are working on his ability to be a bit more independent (Just yesterday we taught him how to use public transportation.) Everyday we hang out with Cooper-man is a day that he learns more and more, he has recently taken to killing bugs. I was barbecuing last night and Coop walked over to the door but stopped half way, turned around, bent down and squished an ant with his fingers then continued on his way. I am very proud of the way he has asserted his dominance over inferior beings, he squishes ants, tackles our dog parker, and just last week caught a fly with a pair of chopsticks (we may also be training him to be a ninja as well.)

Life is good, Sarah is pregnant, Cooper is talking, and we are busy. I love you all. John 3:19-21

Story Telling

I saw Toy Story 3 yesterday, I won’t lie, there were two parts in the movie that made me get a little weepy and emotional. I have heard from many other people that this has been their experience too. I felt like Rex from the movie, always a bit over emotional and extremely melodramatic. But as the movie began I felt myself get immediately wrapped up in the story, I was taken back to the first Toy Story, when Woody has an inferiority complex concerning Andy’s new toy, Buzz. Ultimately they had to work together to get into the car with Andy and then they became best friends. Then the sequel came out, and this time rather than Wood saving Buzz it was Buzz saving Woody from the crazy guy in the chicken suit.

I grew up with these characters, and yesterday I saw the door close on this franchise, a culmination of an amazing storyline with great characters had my heart thrown into a vice. And after the movie I sat there and thought about the power of story. These are cartoon characters, but beyond that talking toy cartoon characters. There is no way any of these stories could ever happen, could ever unfold, it is kind of like Twilight but with better actors and a more believable plot.

It got me thinking about how Jesus taught, he taught using stories, we call them parables, but he just used stories to convey truth to those around him. Now, how does that translate into our world? Short of us being around a campfire, making smores, with a long haired person playing acoustic guitar, we don’t tell stories. Or maybe we do but not in the same regard. We tell stories by the way we live our lives, we paint a picture for the world to see, whether that be on Facebook, Twitter, the Blogosphere, but mostly in real life, our stories are tangled up in who we are and how we live.

How are you living? What stories are people reading about you? On your Facebook? The emails you forward? Your attitude while driving? What story are you painting for the world to see?

Jesus Loves the Little Children

As I am writing this I can hear the sound of the children’s musical going on in our sanctuary. It is a pretty cool thing to know that we serve a God who is a multi-generational God. I guess as a Youth Pastor I am biased, I get to see the amazing things that students can do for the Lord and for His kingdom. We were on a mission trip to Yakama Valley, Washington last week with 14 people from our team and we got to serve to people of the Yakama tribe of American Indians. When the leaders got there for their orientation a man named John Black-feather came in and said to us in his native tongue, “Welcome to Yakama Valley, you are guests in a foreign country, thank you for coming to serve us.”

At first I was upset, my nationalistic chest was bumped out a bit and thoughts like, “What do you mean foreign country, this is America!” began to pop into my head. But as the week progressed I began to see more and more that the believers in this nation worship the same God we do, granted it may be a different way, church looks a lot different to them than it does to us, I would venture to say their community is closer knit than American Christianity, and it was very different than the way we do things.

We serve not only a multi-generational God, but a multi-cultural one. I am remembered of the not-so-politically-correct Sunday school song where it says, “…red and yellow black and white they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

I have been on 5 mission trips to Mexico and every time I come back and it seizes to amaze me how God speaks Spanish and English, how our God appreciates communion taken with tortillas and water, how regardless of any barrier of language, color, or culture, our God is present everywhere. I get blown away by the fact that our God is so big that a 7 year old in Mexico and a 35 year old in the Yakama nation can relate to a 25 year old Youth Pastor from Selma. We are children of God and called to serve Him, we are children of God and called to worship Him, we are children of God and get the honor of being in community with His followers. Our God is huge, he is being worshipped all around the world today and I hope you get to partake in the festivities. I pray for wisdom and boldness to you all.

Where's Waldo?

When I was little my mom would take me to the dentists and when I got there she would chat with the receptionist for a solid half-hour. During this time I had two options, the first was to endure the catching up of two old friends as inside jokes skipped over my head. The second option was to break out the Where's Waldo books that the doctor kept in his kids library. We were regular attenders to the dentist so I knew when i got there to make a beeline for the Yellow Where's Waldo, as the red was a little more beat up and I had to make sure I got it before my brother. Needless to say as soon as I opened the book the hunt was on to find the man wearing a red and white striped sweater, even at the beach.

The reason I jog your memory back to the life of Waldo is because regardless of how many years I am in ministry I always forget how crazy life gets in the summer time, just like every time I cracked open the same book, I couldn't remember where Waldo was (except the ocean one, he is sitting on a small island with 3 mermaids). I get excited for summer, I rush into it with great anticipation thinking I know exactly where I am going and what I am doing and all of a sudden the speed and ferocity of June to August hit and I am left dazed and bewildered.

Thus is my first few days back from a week and a half of Mission trips and vacations. I feel like I have been broadsided by a semi with chrome plated fangs on the grill (I decided a long time ago that if I was a truck driver I would put fangs on the grill of my truck, it has to be some sort of trucker street cred to have those.) Things are together, I know the course we have planned for this summer and beyond, but it is like hitting a baseball, you can't connect until you have the pace of the pitcher down, and that's what I am doing now, getting the pace of 100 degree weather down so we can have a solid summer where I keep my sanity and your students serve their Savior.

Peace and Bless God.

What day is it?

I know I didn't update yesterday, it is because I was zonked and couldn't write anything if I tried. But today is a new day and so I will write.

The first two days Denver's team was running a kids camp called Kid's club. From what I have gathered the camp wouldn't have run if it wasn't for the organizational ability of Allie D. She sorted kids and took down ther information, organized them by street that they lived on and just went above and beyond. On the same site Connor impressed everyone with his ability to love on these kids. He got a buddy named Javier that was distraught beyond imagination when Connor didn't show up yesterday because we got out sites switched. Overall Denver was blown away by how well his students were able to use the gifts they were given to communicate God's love to these kids.

Amanda's crew was on scraping and house prep on the first day and day 2 was all painting. Her crew was placed with a less mature group of Jr Highers and they were able to step up and lead. Nathan became another site leader by merely leading by example and serving those on site.

I just finished writing about 5 more paragraphs and this crashed so I will write more later. Just know your kids are doing amazing things for the Lord and impress my hourly. Peace and grace.

In Him,
Peter Anderson

What we do

The students are doing devotional time right now. I snuck out because our free time is limited and I wanted to let you know what we are up to. We are on three teams. They are as follows:
Denver
Connor
Allie

Amanda
Kevin
Jessica
Nathan

Peter
Alex
Marisa
Stephanie
Tim
Wes
Brandon

We are a part of larger teams but those are the students you know from their teams.

Yesterday my team and Amandas team did work. My team cleared brush and old burn barrels for the majority of the day for a woman whose husband died 2 years ago and her son passed two months ago. She has become a full time mom of 2 adopted girls, 1 permanent resident since she can't be adopted and a foster parent to a 2 month old and a 1 month old. Pretty humbling to see her heart. And your kids are all rockstars leading the way and showing by example.

Denvers group is doing a kids camp. Allie ran the entire check in on her own and Connor has a sore back from giving a billion piggy back rides. God is good!!!

I gotta get back to devos but just wanted to let you in on what's happenig around our neck of the woods. Peace and Grace. John 3:30.















In Him,
Peter Anderson

Location:E Toppenish Ave,Toppenish,United States

Good Morning

We are at our site in Toppenish, WA. It is at a Methodist Church and we are sleeping very snuggly with one another. We find out who our teams are this morning but it is very clear that God is going to serve us some humble pie this week as John 3:30, "He must become greater, I must become less," has been everywhere. Pray that our team would be effective and that we would have a blast. Here's some pictures, and thank you for supporting us.










In Him,
Peter Anderson

Location:N Chestnut St,Toppenish,United States

We left and Kevin is confused.

Kevin uses the women's bathroom. No excuses Kevin.



Here is our Yakama Valley Team. Gooooooooo Yakama!


In Him,
Peter Anderson

Location:Interstate 5 Frontage Rd,Lodi,United States

More Coop

In Him,
Peter Anderson

Coop Pic

This was taken at Kevin and Teri Helton's wedding last weekend. I was a groomsman and Cooper was awesome.


In Him,
Peter Anderson

Transition

Last night I gave the commencement address at Immanuel Jr. High School, I felt important.I sat with the principal, the superintendent, and the Jr. high drama teacher. Essentially the rat pack (without the cigarettes and scotch) of IJHS. I was nervous too, I speak in public all the time, at Youth, in church, sometimes i just start talking when I am in line at Save Mart in hopes people will listen, so far there have been no convert in my Checkout-line ministry, maybe soon though.

Regardless, I was nervous, and I don't get nervous when I speak. I believe it was because of the weird dynamic of the situation. I was speaking to 8th graders, who were being watched by their parent, grandparents, siblings, and friends. I felt like I was a fish talking to other younger fish while a lot of people were watching us from outside the fish tank while waiting for their turn in the Doctor's office (I went to a doctor who had a fish tank once, I stared at it for 2 hours while I was waiting to be seen by him.)

I wanted to make sure I was talking to the graduates, but it is hard to do that when the podium is placed with my back to them so I did a half turn to see them but then I had to lean over so the microphone would pick up my voice still. I felt awkward, which didn't help my nerves at all. Once I settled in I told the graduates I had 4 words I wanted them to remember, "Love God and Love Others." Obviously I missed the Sesame Street where I found out that there is a number greater than 4, it is called 5.

The main thing that struck me though was as I was speaking to this class and looking at all of their faces, I realized I have had a conversation with the majority of them. I realized I knew most of them by name, and had played basketball or gone to Magic Mountain with the majority of them. I essentially helped see this class of students through their Jr. High career. There are a lot of leaders and strong willed people amongst these 8th grade graduates, they will do great things I am sure, but seeing all of their faces just remidns me of how fun and scary transitions can be.

I had an 8th grader talk to me last night and tell me she didn't want to graduate, she wanted to stay in Jr. High, and I thought about how much she would miss if she decided to stay an 8th grader (Not to mention she would be very creepy as a 52 year old dancing with 7th graders at their dances).

I have a couple different friends in the midst of transition, some moving, some getting married, some having a baby. Change is fun and terrifying and it reminds me how we are called to move and to change, we are called to not get comfortable, we are called to pursue God fully and unashamedly. We are called to follow Him witha reckless faith.

I have enjoyed every stage of life I have been a part of, and each time there is a change it is hard at first, I resist as much as I can, but eventually I realize how amazing the new stage of life is once it is embraced. Embrace your new stage of life, embrace the stage of life you are in and when it is time to transition accept it with open arms and thank God for the opportunity to grow.

Monday Morning with Coop

"Hi." That's my son's new favorite word in the morning. You see Cooper has a specific corner of his crib he stands in and cries in to get mine and Sarah's attention when he wakes up, whether from a nap or from sleeping at night. He could be crying and whining with the best of them, and when we walk in the door we hear him say, "Hi." I also say hi, we formally shake hands, exchange business cards and then I change his diaper. It's one of those things that warms your heart when you hear it, it's also a reminder that my son is growing up really fast. Just last week he got some digits from a fly honey for complimenting her on the rims she has on her stroller. Ok that was a stretch but still, kid is getting big.

He does stuff like run, and climb on the fireplace. Granted he falls a lot when he runs and gets stuck on the fireplace because he hasn't yet mastered the art of getting down, and he is way too cautious to jump. He gets that from me a think, I like risk but only when it is safe, which I don't think would be considered risk at all, unless you are playing Risk, in which case it is safe until I wipe you off the fae of the earth by amassing an army in Australia and wreaking havoc on Asia from there. Just remember, the Ukraine is weak.

Regardless of all that, I understand why parents favorite phrase when they are talking to us, "Enjoy it they grow up so fast." It is usually accompanied by a shake of the head and a purse of the lips to which I respond with a head nod and an eyebrow raise. Did you just make those faces as I described them? You did huh? But Coop is a big kid now and he is going to seem huge when baby boy comes in August. That's when the storm hits; we have Coop, a new baby, one less job since Sarah is going to take time off to be with babies, I start seminary, and it is the big Fall push in ministry. No big deal I can handle it, but if you happen to come into my office and I am weeping in the corner, just give any information you have for me to Dobby my office elf and I will get back to you when my tears dry up. Life change is good, it is challenging, and it grows us.

Coop is growing up, and that's awesome he would be boring if he stayed the same for his entire life, plus it would be weird if he was sleeping in a crib at the foot of our bed when he was 37. It's the same with adults, don't get stale, embrace life change, take on a new and interesting activity, go bowling (okay bad example bowling is neither new nor interesting), go on a hike, play cards with your spouse, call up a high school buddy and have lunch. Whatever it is, try something new this week that way you aren't a 37 year old sucking his thumb in your parents room, cause that's just awkward.

Wedding Season

I like weddings. I may be different than most because I like the ceremony more than the reception. And it may be because I dance like my 14 month old, but I just happen to delight in the ceremony. Let me walk you through my thoughts and observations as it goes on:

3:55- Find a seat, look for people I know well enough to sit next to without feeling awkward if I brush elbows with them.
3:56- Watch a slideshow of really cute pictures of the bride and groom while secretly wishing I knew them well enough to be in one of the pictures.
4:00- Okay good, change of music, enter grandparents escorted down the aisle by groom/brother of bride.
4:10- Grandparents still being escorted down the aisle.
4:12- Change of music, her comes the wedding party starting with the friend no one thought would be in the wedding, then future brothers-in law, then close friends and family.
4:14- AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! Did everyone see how cute the flower girl and ring barer were walking down the aisle? They will probably get married, or in a fight at the reception.
4:15- Awkward silence, music is stopped, double doors in the back of the church are closed... Fire drill?
4:16- Organist begins to hammer the keys and everyone stands up, double doors open, everyone is looking at the bride, but I am different, I am looking at the text messages from people I texted earlier to try and find a seat. (Unfortunately 3 weren't invited to the wedding and one was the groom).
4:17- We all continue standing awkwardly, staring at the back of the persons head in front of us, my guy is bald and has a mole.
4:20- And we are sitting, the Pastor talks for awhile.
4:22- Vows, standard, not those hippie vows that people write themselves.
4:30- Unity candle took 15 seconds to light now we have three and a half minutes until the band finishes whatever the current worship song is, probably "Our God is an Awesome God" (This post may have been written in 1989).
4:33.50- Reading of scripture by the friend who was almost close enough to be in the wedding party but the numbers were uneven so she gets to read scripture instead. Weird, I have never heard Revelations 21:8, followed by Genesis 2:25 at a wedding before.
4:35- Pastor Preaches, cell phone starts playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and everyone checks their phones at the same time even though no one has had the ring tone for 5 years.
4:45- Kiss, loud hooting and hollering, song comes on that should never be played in a church as the wedding party dances out.
4:46- Chapel is empty and a huge mess of rose petals is left for the janitor to clean up.

I love weddings, I am excited I am in one tomorrow, by good friend Kevin Helton is marrying his love Teri Bartel. The officiant is my old youth Pastor Josh Lane, plus it's in Cayucos. Booya, and to everyone else who is attending a wedding tomorrow, enjoy it, and give the bride and groom lots of money during the money dance, not a dime and .63 cents left on a Sonic Burger card (You know who you are.)

Monday Morning with Coop

This Monday was a good one. It was fun, it was exciting, Cooper slept for 3 and a half hours which means I slept for almost 3. Good stuff. The exciting thing about this Monday wasn't Cooper's awesome nap, it was the fact that he got to hang out with his uncle Scotty. For those of you who don't know Scott, this is him (He's the big one).

Scott lives in New York with his wife Dani, she is finishing up her Master's degree in city planning, combined they may be the smartest couple I know (and that isn't sarcasm, really, they are both really smart, really). Needless to say we don't get to see Scott and Dani terribly often, which isn't cool (And not like the I wear skinny jeans cool, but like the I wear old school baseball shirts cool). Selfishly, I want Scott and his wife to live in my garage. It's not very well ventilated and I have my weight set in there but other than that and the fact that we put the dogs in there when they are bad, I think it would be kind of cozy.
I want them to live in my garage because both Sarah and I love these two people, Sarah gets along great with Dani, Scott challenges my theologically and is the only guy I know who has popped a bird. Essentially, we love the community they bring to the table.
Community is something I have come to hold dear to my heart. Sarah and I have always been without a world so to speak. We got married young, we have had kids young, we got full time jobs young and so finding people that we can relate to has been difficult since the get go. I have my bible study I got to every week and Sarah has her friends, but there are very few people we connect with as a couple and Scott and Dani are one of those couples.

For those of you who feel overwhelmed at times by the conceived burden that following Chris can have, I would encourage you to seek community. Find it, live it, love those people around you unashamedly. We miss Scott and Dani when they aren't with us because there is a hole in our community, a missing people, and it isn't like replacing an iPod where you figure out the amount of songs you want it to hold and you purchase it. It takes work to find those kindred spirits that give you a breath of fresh air when you commune with them. This post won't make a lot of sense to many of you, but this was for Scott and Dani because we love you both and i am sorry for stealing that picture of you two off of Dani's Facebook page.