Gimmie a "U" !! Gimmie a "W" !! What's that spell?

UPDATE: Bad Link to photo gallery corrected!

Gimmie a "U" !! Gimmie a "W" !! What's that spell?
UNCHARTED WATERS!

Uncharted Waters is the Sports Camp Ministry we have used for the past two years to reach out to the kids in our church and community. (see last year)

We had 50 kids come divided between basketball...

and cheerleading. GO! GO! GO!

We had at least six kids make a decision to give their lives to Jesus and GO FOR THE GOLD that will last for all eternity!

The secret to the success of these sports camps is NOT me... I could never lead a sports camp (unless it was sport stacking!) What I love about the ministry of UW is that they do most of the work for us.

Here is the UW Team: Coaches Josh, Catie, Lindsay and Lisa!

Of course, a lot of work was also done and thanks are due to our Sports Camp director, Cherie and a bunch of volunteers.

Anna Maria, Barb and Cherie (not pictured: many more!)

What did I do all week?

Worked on my six foot unicycle shooting.... (still needs much work)

And my "Air Karl" moves!

Were you there?
SEE ALL THE PICTURES HERE

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
(16.8MB Requires QuickTime)

My First Father's Day - My 13th Anniversary - And Baby Luke's First....

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY (to me)
HAPPY ANNIVESARY (to me)
HAPPY FIRST TIME SWIMMING (to Lukie)
HAPPY HAPPY WEEKEND (to me and sara)

YES! It was my FIRST Father's Day as a DAD, and it was a wonderful day. Luke headed off to church with me early as usual to 'help' me with my morning set up duties and then we caught the first service so we could watch the video I made on the big screen! It was a very nice Sunday... glad to finally be in a part of "Club Dad."

After church it was off to Sara's parents home for a DELICIOUS steak lunch and visit with my other awesome Dad. Sara's dad is truly a father to me in every way... except that I don't have any embarrassing pictures of him from when I was a kid.

Luke is so blessed to have the heritage of a Grandpa who loves God and has given his life to serve Him. Who knows, maybe Luke will be a third generation preacher? But even if not, what a blessing to be adopted into a family where both sides know and love God. It can't help but be a wonderful influence as he grows up!

This was a SUPER WEEKEND - my first Father's Day on Sunday, and then Monday was my 13th Wedding Anniversary to my beautiful and sweet Sara. Nothing unlucky about this 13! I'm lucky to have Sara for a wife, and now Luke for a baby! We've hardly changed in 13 years, as these pictures prove:

Here is Me and Sara (and Luke) this year....

And here we are 13 years ago...

See, we are the same now as then!

Anyway, back to today. For our anniversary we headed to one of our favorite get-a-ways: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Our anniversary gifts this year were simple but fun. A portable hammock that converts to a backback for hangin' out with The Boy for me, and....

A cool chair for Sara with a shade cover, that also folds into a backpack for carrying. (for the husband to carry, that is!) Here is Sara chillin' to her iPod.

Today was also a first for Baby Luke - check out his coooool swim outfit! It was Luke's first time to the beach and into the lake!

BEFORE:

Cool Baby

DURING:

Wet Baby

AFTER:

Grumpy Baby!

He wasn't very thrilled with the water, but sometimes when it comes to new things, you just have to get your feeet wet! I told him he had just taken his first step into a larger world.

But a little play soon cheered him up! Like most babies, being held up high in the air is like a roller coaster ride. So fun to hear his squeals of delight!

But all the fun and excitement eventually wore him out and it was nap time.... and the Napster coxed him into Lala Land with ease.

I could go on and on gushing about being a dad and enjoying my first Father's Day - but sometimes a picture says a thousand words... (and keeps blog readers happy not having to read so much!)

Luke Given... From Heaven.

And just for family (I assume) click the picture above for a wallpaper sized version of the happy new dad and his bundle of joy.

A Tribute to My Dad

Yes, it is FATHER'S DAY today... so what better reason to post some sentimental pictures of my dad - a DAD of DADS...

MY DAD:

A great Nap Buddy...

Fisherman! (with me and big sister)

Handyman, and builder of his son's first puppet stage!

A man of toys... here seen fighting over
a toy with the boy who one day would do Toybox Tales.

Man of the Sea... well, paddleboat anyway.

A man at one with his car...

A man a fashion... even matching his car!

A man comfortable in the kitchen...
(did I actually EAT that?!?!?)

A man one with nature...

Camper Extraordinaire...

Athlete of Athletes!

A persistant man who never gives up
even in the face of disaster!

An avid swimmer...

Ping-Pong Champion...

A man of many awards...

But the greatest award: World's Greatest Dad.

Yes, I had a great dad growing up. Not a perfect dad, but I had something better... a REAL dad.

A dad who made time for me.
A dad who sometimes helped me and other times let me learn the hard way, and always seemed to know which would be the better teacher.
A dad who sometimes went before me, other times backed me up, but always was there for me whenever I needed him.
A dad who challenged me, complimented me, or critisized me (lovingly) whichever would help me be a better man someday.
A dad who admitted his own faults before pointing out mine.
A dad who put his wife and kids above his own needs and interests... even suggesting eating at McDonald's (which he hated, but mom and kids loved).
A dad who sometimes bought me toys, but more often helped me build my own.
A dad who sometimes gave me what I needed, but other times helped me work and save to get it myself.
A dad who knew when to give advice, and when to wait until I asked, which I often did as a result.
A dad who would sometimes go fight a battle for me, and other times coach me on the best response, whether it was to fight back or respond with a gentle answer, depending on the situation.
A dad who not only told me how to live for God, but modeled it... not in perfection, but in ever striving, ever learning, ever being a disciple in process.
A dad who never pretended to have arrived, but instead was simply real. I could never imitate a perfect dad or live up to a perfect dads expectations... but a real dad? That's something I can hope to be too, now that I am a father myself, this first Father's Day as a dad.

So, for all the walks, talks, camping trips, lectures, vacations, discipline, bedtime stories, laughter and fun dad.... THANKS!

Click the image above, or here, (of me and my dad) to watch the Father's Day video I made for our worship service on Father's Day. (17MB, Reqires free QuickTime)

Year End KC Krew Party!

Well, it's hard to believe, but I just finished my fourteenth year of K.C. Krew. (Kids Church Krew) So we headed off to a friends house on a lake to celebrate a year of serving God together. I still remember that first KC Krew - I didn't have a clue what to do with the kids, just a conviction that I needed to be trainig kids to serve in church, rather than just sit and be entertain/ministered TO. Since then, well over a hundred kids have been trained to serve God and given the experience of serving God at church. Several of my past Krew members are in ministry today and a few are at Bible college! But even those who don't do vocational ministry have learned that serving God is a lot of fun and rewarding too. My prayer is that serving at church will always be just something they do. It's no mystery to me why so many adults have no interet in serving, the church trained them through childhood and youth to come to church and sit and watch.... and then we wonder why they won't volunteer. It's about time we taught kids to serve at the age they want to anyway... so they will never stop! (I talk a little bit more about this in my Kids Church Book).

While there are many aspects to ministry to children - my KC Krew has always been my favorite. It is the KC Krew Kids I get to know the best and tend to keep in touch with over the years. I like to think it's Jesus' model of ministry - He ministered to the masses, but he poured his life into a hand full of young people who carried on His ministry after He left. I do the same. I teach a lot of kids, but the KC Krew are the ones I get to pour the most personal ministry and training and friendship into.

Go figure, it was in the 80's just a few days ago, but in the 60's for our beach party... but tht didn't stop the kids from divin' in! That's what I love about kids. I wish I had their endless energy and enthusiasm!

Of course, FOOD is an essential ministry component. It's what Jesus would have his disciples do!

As is some soft air target shooting. These army guys didn't stand a chance! With God on our side, we can only be victorious!

And since Master Ron was around, we also added juggling flaming torches to our ministry skills.

The kids took to it really well! Nothing focuses your concentration like juggling flaming torches. I never was able to juggle pins, but put one end on fire, and suddenly I found I was pretty good at it. I guess fear of burning is a great motivator!

Actually, missing and catching the flaming end wasn't so bad... though it did leave a black mark!

The back of my sweat shirt got nailed a few times... but hey, learning new ministry skills requires sacrfice!

One of the fun attractions at this house was the tree rope!

The adults could push the kids pretty high... but the real fun started after all the kids left. (Since I didn't want to set a bad example!) I learned that the boys who live here jump off the roof with the rope swing... I just had to try!

Here is a video of me auditioning for "America's Stupidest People" jumping off the roof and swinging down between the tree and the back toward the corner of the roof. I had images of a video of me smacking the tree or nailing the roof corner ending up on some TV home video show.... but I survived to blog again. (QuickTime 8.6MB)

Introducing the Senior Pastor Cam!

At our pastors/elders planning meeting last week, we came up with a great idea that is sure to sweep the country! As our church is growing, we are talking about the options for handling growth and the possibility of a video-venue service - live music/etc. in the gym and then the message from the pastor on screen from sanctuary. (Just in discussion mode, VCBers, no set plans yet)

ANYWAY, someone mentioned that to make the video sermon enjoyable to watch, it would be important to offer several different camera angles rather than just one static camera showing one boring view from the back. THATS WHEN IT HIT ME!

I blurted out, "THE DAVE CAM!"

I slipped out to our Kids Church backstage and retrieved a helmet mounted webcam that I hooked up several years ago for Kids Church (where what/who I looked at appeared on big screen!) and returned to the serious pastor/elder meeting and plopped it on my boss's head.

Pastor Dave modeling the prototype "Dave Cam"

I tried to convince the group that this was a fantastic idea! Not only would it create a great alternative view of the service, but it would provide a view of the service that few get to experience - the preacher's perspective! See people nodding off or sleeping.... watch wives elbow their husbands at certain points of the message... watch kids looking up in a daze counting the ceiling tiles... teenagers passing notes.... people reading the church news instead of listening to the sermon....see who the pastor is looking at when he discusses certain points in the message(!)

The attention paid to sermons would sky-rocket since everyone in the service would know that the people in the alternate service or overflow room would be able to see them on the big screen. What do you think?

My idea got a few laughs, but was ultimately rejected at our pastor/elder planning meeting, and I even got to keep my job... so there will most likely never be a 'Dave Cam' at the Village Church, but....

What do YOU think of the idea of a "Senior Pastor Cam?" Why, you could even stream it on the Internet!!

Few things are better in life....

Few things in in life are better than an afternoon with friends at the park...

Today was the final event of the year for our VIP Family Ministry at my church. (VIP = Very Intentional Parent) It's been a fantastic year! Our family ministry this year was an experiment in an opt-in partnering ministry where families and the church participated in a genuine partnership. I will be writing a review/evaluation soon for my church and will publish on Kidology.org for those interested in what we are doing at Village Church to attempt a better solution for families than just planning 'family events' and hoping parents will come. It has been a very encouraging year for me, and MUCH thanks goes to the Dawne and Jay who helped coordinate the ministry and manage the communication and details! THANKS!

Any casual time hangin' out with the kids you love is the best spent ministry time. Better than you greatest lesson is giving your love and time to kids. They will remember YOU longer than any cool lesson you can come up with, and will learn from those lessons better too! Its the best of everything... it's all about relationships.

Sack races are always a hit. My mom had these sack race sacks made for me YEARS AGO and they are still holding up! Made of thick canvas and made tall and thick and very well sewn, I'm amazed how many sack races they have survived in over a decade!

Nothing cutier than kids sack racin'

We even got a few of the grown-ups to compete as well!

If you can't jump with your kids... just drag him across the finish line!

Next it was parachute games.... good way to work on team work!

Oh the thrill to send the ball flying as a group!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Did they set the distance record??

Me, my boy, his buddy (only 10 days older) and buddy's older brother.

The highlight of the afternoon was not the food, the games, the fellowship... it was when one of my rockets (that I like to shoot off and let the kids race to get and return to me) got stuck in a tree. It became a matter of manly pride and competition as volley balls, soccer balls, baseball, softballs, even plastic bats where thrown repeatedly into the tree to try and knock therocket down.

Here is the CHAMPION DAD who got the rocket down with his chosen weapon!

A BIG thank you to Dawne and Jay for helping coordinte our VIP Family Ministry all year, for ALL the familes who made their kids and family a PRIORITY this year by being intentional parents, and a HUGE thank you to God for giving me and my wife a kid this year so we can join the club of Very Intentional Parents too!

Beautiful evening for a bike ride....

I have gotten the spider webs and dust off of my recumbent and after a tune-up, and getting back into using it as my excerisize bike. I'm hoping to put a few hundred miles on it this summer after a few years of slacking off. Went for an evening ride this week.... and it was beautiful...

Unaltered photo taken at 20mph on the Millennium Trail near my house. They just completed this segment of the trail and I plan to soon explore it and figure out where/how far it goes.

Slightly altered photo to show the awesome colors of the sky. Reminds me of Psalm 14:1, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "

Saw four deer... here are three, and it turns out it is TRUE, deer eyes DO light up! Funny how my camera flash lit up their eyes! They seemed unbothered by the passing bike.

A picture of my bike from a few years ago. I LOVE this bike. it has 48 gears, and go up to 60 mph. (though I’ve only been up to 38 mph on mine.) You sit back in the comfy chair can peddle with your feet out in front of you. It even has a speedometer on it so I can make sure not to go above the speed limit again. (I once got pulled over by a cop for going 36 in a 25mph zone!)

LIVE IN CHICAGO AREA? I am planning to do the LATE NITE bike ride again, I've not done it since 2002! If you are a biker, post and say hi! Curious how many bike enthusiasts are out there reading my blog.

Speed Stacking - THEY ALL FALL DOWN!

This week I got a fun opportunity to visit an elementary school in a nearby town to teach Sport Stacking to a class of fourth graders. A man in our church volunteers every week in this classroom and brought me in as a special guest. (If you are a student from the class reading this: THANKS for being so fun, it was a fun time for me too! Check out www.toyboxtales.com too, the other site I told you about!)

Here are some pictures, and a COOL VIDEO at the end!

Pastor Karl teaching the Way of the Cups...

The eager padawan learners...

Practise makes perfect...

Downstack before moving on.... left to right... no fumbles....

Use both hands.... don't worry about being fast... learn it right, and you will be fast!

Cup Master Karl expounding on the Secrets of the Cups...

Oh, the great feeling of a good smooth up stack!

A few were already for competition! But remember, your greatest opponent is only yourself! You can always go one hundredth of a second faster!

After the instruction, practise and some competing... I got to my message. When I started making a long row of cups along the table, the room fell silent, and then filled with murmors... 'He's going to make a GIANT STACK!'

As I build, I ask the kids to tell me what determines how HIGH the stack can go? The usual answer is 'how many cups I have.' Which is the wrong answer. Even if I had a thousand cups (which I probably do!) the height of the stack is determined by the width of the bottom row.

Why is that important? Because in life, CHILDHOOD is when you are building the foundation of your life. I tell the kids that every lesson they learn, every positive character trait they build into their life while they are young, will determine how high and strong and great their life can become. It is very hard to add to your foundation later. I help them figure out that adding just ONE cup will add MANY MORE to the tower, in the tower above, one cup added 30 more! A second cup added only on 30 more, but actually 31, because another cup could be added over the two added rows up... so the more they learn and the more good and right habits they form WHILE THEY ARE young will have life-long good consequences!

Pretty cool stack, huh? Then I point to ONE cup in the bottom center, and say it represents that ONE lesson they didn't want to learn, that ONE time they decide to disobey, that ONE wrong thing they decide to do, whether it is something illegal, or dangerous or wrong - and ask what would happen to this giant tower if I removed only that ONE cup.....

WATCH THE VIDEO to find out! (QuickTime 9MB) You'll see the devestating power of one bad decision, or one wrong act, or one important truth of lesson that you ignore or don't listen to when you are young. Kids need to know they have a choice - no matter what their background or situation - they have a choice on how they want their life to be.... big and strong and impressive like the tower... or... broken and destroyed by one bad mistake.

I end by showing the one cup that brought down the whole tower... and ask them to think about what could be that 'one cup' in their life... and encouage them to choose wisely. Listen to their parents, teachers, pastors and others in their life who know and love them!

For more information on how I use Sport Stacking in my ministry, visit: VCBkids Speed Stacking Site or www.SpeedStacks.com or the World Sport Stacking Association.