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