Son #1

Here are some pics of my oldest son D. He is two years old now and loves to sing and play with his brother Gus and all his friends. He gets his red hair from his grandmother affectionately referred to as "Neena." The top picture is D and I cruising on the M/S Mount Washigton, and the lower one is D at his brother's birthday party.

Just when it seems all hope is lost...

And then just when it seems all hope is lost something happens to turn everything around. While getting ready for youth group Thursday I felt compelled to seek out my Pastor to ask him to pray with and for me. what started out as a simple request to pray for the youth group meeting that night turned into a marvelous season of prayer. Pastor and I spent the afternoon interceding for God's church, asking Him to lift the burdens and weariness of His people, to give them rest. I have faith that can and will bring revival to His church because He did it for me.

A dream, eh?

This has been probably one of the hardest weeks I have ever been through to date. I am beginning to see signs of some serious stress issues at work. This week I went to my first meeting where people actually got up and left in the middle of it. While I've been assured by friends in the ministry that no "good" meeting ends with everybody still there, it has been really unsettling for me. I don't exactly know how to put into words what has been going on but either God is in it or I'm in trouble.

Lately there has been a great deal of "other" things going on at the church that have really been weighing on me and none of them really have very much to do with why I thiought I came here. My goals all had to do with youth ministry but lately the expectations of me have been much different. The pressure to be more than what I believe God has called and equipped me to be is almost overwhelming. But leaders lead and that's it, right? It's wearing me out to say the least. I have been extremely short and insensitive with my wife, all I want is for my kids to leave me alone... This is not healthy and it's not the me that I know I am.

Gus is ONE!!

So here Is Gus at his first birthday party! He has grown so much! He now is walking and babbling just like his big brother.

He's hit the big ONE!

Here he is. My youngest son "Gus" turns one today! Of my two boys this is the guy who is always glued to my side, or arm, or leg, or any part he can get a hold of! We were able to spend the whole day together yesterday as Kann had to go to the airport to pick up her old college roommates that are staying with us for a few days. I had a list of things to do and, well... let's just say that Gus doesn't care anything about "to-do lists." We had a good day and got one half of one item on my list done and we did it together so that's a victory in my mind.

New House?

So my family and I may be moving. The church that I work for has a large parsonage just up the street from the church building itself. The house is a four bedroom with a garage and around three acres of hardwood forest. The idea for us moving in came about as a way for the church to save some money out of the monthly budget by exchanging housing for some cash. The idea seemed to be off and running until our last congregational meeting. Some people put up a stink about my financial contribution not being high enough. Good thing it's not a congregational decision! Either way I have been assured that we will be moving in there, probably next month. The best part of the deal is that we would be able to hold Youth Group in the basement of the parsonage instead of at the church. There is a semifinished basement with enough room for about 35-40 kids (if you stack them about three high!) We will also be able to use the woods for challenge course obstacles and such, which is my favorite thing! I hope to include some pics of the house so we can do some before and after stuff. 'Till then...

Old Millerite Victory!

Some people from my church formed a softball team and joined a local slow pitch league this summer. I have been fortunate enough to be able to play First Base for most of our games. Tonight the "Old Millerites" were victorious in a 17-10 rout! we are sponsored by Old Mill Construction and if you are familiar your church history, our church was based on teaching from the Millerite movement in the mid 1800's. Wow that was useless trivia! Anyway this was our second team victory but only the first that I have played in. It's a lot more fun to play when you win!
Youth Group went very well tonight, although it was shortened because of the softball game. All of the kids came down to the field to support our team which was great. We have been doing some group initiative and challenge activities as a way to build unity and teamwork in our youth group. I think it is really going to pay off. The challenge has been finding activities that make the spiritual stuff stick. I think the Lord is really going to use this stuff for not only the Youth Ministry but the whole ministry of the church. I can just imagine getting our Official Board through a spider web or our elder doing trust falls. But THAT is what it's all about, getting people out of their comfort zones, showing people who they really are and what they are capable of.

It's just me...

Well, this is my attempt at blogging. My name is Heath and I am a 28 year old youth Pastor in New Hampshire. I would like to say that this is a picture of me and the view from my front porch but... actually it's me at La Bufadora, Baja California, Mexico. It's also almost 25 pounds ago :) My family and I moved here to New Hampshire one year ago to start serving the Lord full time for the first time. It has always been my dream to work with teens full time, thusly the name for my blog.