Mexico

My wife and I just returned from a wonderful week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. For our wedding we were given 1 week to use
at a time share compliments of an aunt and uncle. Now that's one awesome wedding gift. But when do you use something like that? As we got to thinking about the next 10 years of life, Lord willing, it will be filled with screaming little kids who fill up this house. With that image in our head we opted not to wait any longer! One much needed peaceful moment before our whole world gets turned upside down with a little one. Ends up the timing couldn't have been much better for several reasons. Here are some pictures from our trip that during these could days of winter will warm you up. You might have a tendency to get jealous... and well I don't blame you, because it was awesome.

We went to the restaurant that was on a hill the overlooked the city and the sea. When I say hill what I really mean is Mountain. The view was breath taking. Pictures don't do this place a bit of justice. It was a great night, until we got home and settled up with our taxi driver?! It cost like 2 million dollars for him to drive his car to the top. Next time I'm going to hire some Sherpas and just spend a day scaling this mountain to get to the restaurant.

Our hotel was pretty great as well. It had its very own water slide. So what if it was for children 5 and under. That wasn't going to stop this overgrown kid. I'm on vacation!

All and all we are so blessed to have been able to go on this vacation. It was great to rest and grow closer with my wife aside from the business that seems to fill our lives here in Ames. It's great coming back refreshed physically as well as spiritually. Oh and coming back tan is a plus too.

Pranked...again

This weekend my wife and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. We had a fun date planned and were anticipating enjoying some birthday cake, but we had know way of knowing what was in store for us Saturday morning.

Friday Night was a late night. We didn't get home until about 11pm after a long evening of hanging out with international students at Cornerstone. It was a great night of ministry and we were blessed to be invited to be a part of things. We drove home and with little thought went straight to bed. No doubt that the events of the week and both of us dealing with some colds lead to some solid slumber. In nearly no time we were fast asleep with no intention of starting our Saturday too early. All was well... so we thought.

We arose the next morning to what ended up being quiet a sight. So much so that the neighbors had already been up and taken pictures. It seems that at some point during the night a pumpkin patch sprung up in our driveway.

Who's responsible for this loving gesture? I'm not really sure. I have a few leads and in time the truth will be discovered. I commend their taste. This wasn't some senseless "T.P." job which creates more destruction that it does laughs. This one was pretty enjoyable. Even the 65lb pumpkin that blocked

us in the door was a nice touch. I'm going to chalk this one up to being loved as a youth pastor and my wife will continue to smile, especially since she got some free decorations out of the deal! God Bless, Stan

*Any information in regards to who would be welcomed!

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SYATP World Wide Prayer

See you at the pole SYATP has been taking place since the 90's. It started in a school down south and has spread as a world wide movement taking place annually during the 4th Wednesday in September. Today those who claim the name of Christ gathered around flag poles everywhere to pray. It was awesome to see God's people gathering to seek him despite the not so nice weather.

These are a couple pics from Ames. It doesn't do the crowd much justice. Their were probably 75 students there so we broke into much smaller groups to pray. We would take a piece of the Lord's Prayer and pray through it. We'd then join together to hear another portion of the prayer then we'd break into our groups again to pray through that portion. It was awesome!

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. -Amen

Worship Workshop

We had a crazy good time at worship workshop. So many talented musicians at Cornerstone. Isaac Schmidt our new worship leader did a great job putting on this event. Here are some pictures taken from the "stomp" portion of the event. Students were placed in teams and given random materials and asked to create an entertaining routine. Check out the video for a clearer example. Oh and the 4 words were chosen at random and each group had to incorporate them some home.

Top 10 Panama

Their are a few things that make Panama a very unique missions trip. It's a great place and God is really at work in the lives of people there. But anytime you step from one culture to another, especially with 18 teenagers, you are going to have some culturally different moments. Here's my personal Top 10 "Culture Shock" unique to Panama moments.

10. Every 5 steps one of our interpreters would pick something up from the jungle, exclaim how it's edible, and ask us if we too would like to try it.

9. Training Time: Jasey wowed us with her magic knife trick. Talent. It's not really a culture shock but it is a pretty sweet video.

8. Bathing in a River. You could actually sit down and being washing your hair while simultaneously have minnows (small fish) nibbling on your legs and back.

7. The fruit track actually just came straight to you instead of supplying a store. And much like an ice cream truck came complete with it's own song and loud speaker.

6. Volleyball in a monsoon. Amazing.

5. Language can be a barrier when entering a new culture. Nice Manhart broke down the walls of communication with the kids rather quickly. He learned the word "hurt" in spanish. He then proceeded to scream "hurt" in spanish while taking a wet bandana and whipping it wildly. He chased the boys for hours and days... and they LOVED IT!

4. What's that smell? By day 4 it was growing rather pungent in the male leaders room. I wanted to personally blame Travis. Only two days later did I realize the origin of the smell was coming from my duffle bag. Seems that something had literally died in my bag allowing the smell to ripen with our time there.

3. Tarantellas. Snakes. Caterpillars with ears that shoot venom. The wildlife was crazy and some of it very deadly.

2. Sweat. Here in our culture if you are sweating you are usually working hard. In which case when you finish the job you enter into a nice Air Conditioned vehicle or room and things return to normal. Not here. You just keep sweating. More then a couple people melted away over 5 lbs on our trip.

1. Machettes. Here if you have enough muscles to swing one... you should. Manual labor was the only labor. Even when we went to the city I never saw a lawn mower but a half a million guys with weed eaters who would use them as mowers. Crazy Cultures. Makes me wonder what people say when they come here!

Lessons Learned

So after 7 Months of Marriage I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means. In fact I'd say I'm pretty far on the other side of the spectrum, but I'm learning. Allow me to share with you the top 5 things I've learned during this short time. Hopefully these things that got me in trouble with the Mrs. will now make you laugh.

5. You can be winning 11-0 in Racquet Ball and still be the world's biggest loser. Seems that my wife didn't appreciate my forehand "crush" as much as some of the guys might. Lesson Learned.

4. Gold Bond: Well if you didn't read this original post within the first 8 hours... you missed a good story which has since been deleted. My wife has convinced me some stories are better left un-told.

3. Guns should not be one's sole purpose of entertainment. Now this may be the hardest lesson I'm still in the process of learning. My wife is helping diversify my interest. We even went to "The Theater" to see a Broadway show last month. Another couple joined us. His response, not mine, at intermission was. "Is it now over?" Nope the fun continues. More to fun than just guns. Lesson Learned.

2. Donuts served fresh, are better for wives then "Donuts" in the truck. My wife is pretty healthy but will enjoy a nice bakery donut. What she doesn't enjoy is when I surprise her with the other type. When the tires are sliding across the ground and the centripetal force is jamming her against the door... Donuts vs. "Donuts." Lesson Learned.

1. Food Groups. My food pyramid was made up of Meats, Potatoes, and ice-cream. My wife has help me make the correlation between the spare tire in my mid section and such eating habits. Ends up I don't mind stemmed broccoli........ covered in cheese! Food Pyramid. Lesson Learned