Small Group X-mas party
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Small group at Starbucks
Last night two of my small group boys had a JV soccer game against one another, so rather than exclude them from the whole night we did small group with the rest of the guys at a Starbucks near the high school. We met for an hour before the game, started to look at the Christmas story from the gospel of Matthew, sipped on some caramel apple cider and then went to the game. I did the honorable thing and watched the first half on one side with parents and then switched for the second half. The game was pretty exciting, but with two guys playing at least one got to win! After the game I was reminded, once I had taken a few of the guys home, just how much it means to show up to a game and sit with some parents and enjoy watching their son play a sport. I don’t do it as much as I would like but I know the parents are thankful and express it in words. The guys on the other hand usually show it in other ways. Not with words, you might get a forced, “thanks for coming to my game…” out of them but you create an even deeper bond and have something else to talk about and compliment a student on later. It’s really a win, win situation! After going to a game you win so much respect from both parents and students and with that respect comes even greater influence in both of their lives. Its really the quickest way to earn trust and if you show you care they will let you into their lives. Sometimes the biggest relational break through with parents or with just getting to know a small group student better can come from not saying a single word and just showing up with a gingerbread latte and watching a JV soccer game. At least last night it was JV soccer, for those ministers who sit through freshmen girls’ basketball games; there is a special place in heaven for you!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Chargers win 43 -14
The Chargers got another win yesterday which is really nice but my question of the day goes to the people at Reebok, the official supplier of all things NFL. Look at those beautiful royal blue Chargers uniforms! If you can make those jerseys for all those old guys who aren’t even playing in the game, then why can’t the Chargers do a royal blue throwback game? Someone please tell me this is in the works for next year!!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Traditions
Traditions
I love the fall and although a Southern California fall really just means fire season here, I really love this time of year because of a few traditions that come along this time of year. Here are a few in calendar order:
- Christ-Ma-Halloween – Oct 31st at the house I used to live at before marriage we started a little tradition of celebrating Christmas on Halloween. We put the Christmas lights up, invite friends over, dress festive, make Christmas cookies and cupcake and instead of candy we pass out toys. Each child gets a toy and not some Halloween candy they will never remember. Some of the toys we hand out are actual toys but usually kids get things like turkey basters, logs, old cassette tapes, and really anything that can be bought at a garage sale, the 99cent store or Big Lots. It’s a lot of fun and the families and kids in the neighborhood really enjoy it and look forward to it. Many parents have told us the past two years that their kids who may live 5 or 6 blocks always want to come to the “Christmas House” first before they go trick-r-treating. It’s a great tradition and I hope it never dies… that poor house will be egged for sure!
- Day After Thanksgiving Dinner Dinner – Nov. 27th this year. This is a tradition the wife and I have been doing with the students that were either in our small groups over the years or somehow earned our love which isn’t very hard. We started this when the last batch of small group kids were Juniors in high School as just a fun way to spend a Friday after Thanksgiving together as a community of students that were doing life together. Naturally we can’t eat anything that resembles Thanksgiving dinner the day after Thanksgiving so we eat fried chicken and waffles. Kids bring over left over deserts and we just spend the afternoon and evening together with some people we just really love. Since most of the students are now away at college this tradition has really come to mean something way more than we ever could have dreamed and it’s kind of like a homecoming of sorts for a whole group of students. They come home for Thanksgiving and get to spend Thursday with their family and Friday they get to spend with our family. It’s really great and every year is full of fun memories and great conversations.
- Moine’s Small Group Christmas Party and Tree Decorating Extravaganza. This is a new one, we only started this last year with our new students who being freshmen we wanted to start a new tradition with them plus we wanted to invite them to be a part of the wife and I’s first Christmas as a married couple. First weekend of December we have both small groups, I think 24 this year, over to the apartment and eat homemade chili and cornbread waffles. We also make every student have to bring an ornament for our tree, the more homemade the better! This year will be fun as we let the students decorate the tree with their new ornament for this year plus they will get to find theirs from last year and also put it on the tree. We hope that this tradition will be something amazing and make our family Christmas tree sort of life a yearbook full of memories and amazing students that God has put into our lives.
- Lastly, Party Till Christmas Eve Comes. This is the oldest Tradition and this year will be the 10th installment of this wonderful night. This all started a decade ago with just a bunch of good dudes in my life. It was Christmas break of my freshmen year of college and with my friends also home from college and a senior in high school named Chase and a junior named Ryan we decided that December 23rd really gets the shaft and is over looked as the holiday it should be. I mean people all over this world celebrate Christmas on December 25th and they should. Christmas Eve has equally become important with the whole Santa Claus myth and Christmas Eve church services everywhere. This means Christmas and Christmas Eve and locked into many people’s calendars as important dates but no one really celebrates Christmas eve, eve. I mean it’s important; it’s the eve of Christmas Eve. Without Christmas Eve, eve there would be no Christmas! With this in mind we decided that night as a group that every December 23rd should be celebrated and counted down just like any new year. And this is exactly what we have come to do the last nine years. We come together as men every year on December 23rd and sing our “Party till Christmas Eve comes” song and spend the night together. We catch up on each other’s lives and talk about old times; we remember great memories like toilet papering Doug Fields house and play X-box and drink Martinelli’s and lots of Cactus Cooler. It’s a beautiful thing and I hope I one day get to bring my son to it.
These are just a few of my traditions; I hope to share some pictures with you soon!
I love the fall and although a Southern California fall really just means fire season here, I really love this time of year because of a few traditions that come along this time of year. Here are a few in calendar order:
- Christ-Ma-Halloween – Oct 31st at the house I used to live at before marriage we started a little tradition of celebrating Christmas on Halloween. We put the Christmas lights up, invite friends over, dress festive, make Christmas cookies and cupcake and instead of candy we pass out toys. Each child gets a toy and not some Halloween candy they will never remember. Some of the toys we hand out are actual toys but usually kids get things like turkey basters, logs, old cassette tapes, and really anything that can be bought at a garage sale, the 99cent store or Big Lots. It’s a lot of fun and the families and kids in the neighborhood really enjoy it and look forward to it. Many parents have told us the past two years that their kids who may live 5 or 6 blocks always want to come to the “Christmas House” first before they go trick-r-treating. It’s a great tradition and I hope it never dies… that poor house will be egged for sure!
- Day After Thanksgiving Dinner Dinner – Nov. 27th this year. This is a tradition the wife and I have been doing with the students that were either in our small groups over the years or somehow earned our love which isn’t very hard. We started this when the last batch of small group kids were Juniors in high School as just a fun way to spend a Friday after Thanksgiving together as a community of students that were doing life together. Naturally we can’t eat anything that resembles Thanksgiving dinner the day after Thanksgiving so we eat fried chicken and waffles. Kids bring over left over deserts and we just spend the afternoon and evening together with some people we just really love. Since most of the students are now away at college this tradition has really come to mean something way more than we ever could have dreamed and it’s kind of like a homecoming of sorts for a whole group of students. They come home for Thanksgiving and get to spend Thursday with their family and Friday they get to spend with our family. It’s really great and every year is full of fun memories and great conversations.
- Moine’s Small Group Christmas Party and Tree Decorating Extravaganza. This is a new one, we only started this last year with our new students who being freshmen we wanted to start a new tradition with them plus we wanted to invite them to be a part of the wife and I’s first Christmas as a married couple. First weekend of December we have both small groups, I think 24 this year, over to the apartment and eat homemade chili and cornbread waffles. We also make every student have to bring an ornament for our tree, the more homemade the better! This year will be fun as we let the students decorate the tree with their new ornament for this year plus they will get to find theirs from last year and also put it on the tree. We hope that this tradition will be something amazing and make our family Christmas tree sort of life a yearbook full of memories and amazing students that God has put into our lives.
- Lastly, Party Till Christmas Eve Comes. This is the oldest Tradition and this year will be the 10th installment of this wonderful night. This all started a decade ago with just a bunch of good dudes in my life. It was Christmas break of my freshmen year of college and with my friends also home from college and a senior in high school named Chase and a junior named Ryan we decided that December 23rd really gets the shaft and is over looked as the holiday it should be. I mean people all over this world celebrate Christmas on December 25th and they should. Christmas Eve has equally become important with the whole Santa Claus myth and Christmas Eve church services everywhere. This means Christmas and Christmas Eve and locked into many people’s calendars as important dates but no one really celebrates Christmas eve, eve. I mean it’s important; it’s the eve of Christmas Eve. Without Christmas Eve, eve there would be no Christmas! With this in mind we decided that night as a group that every December 23rd should be celebrated and counted down just like any new year. And this is exactly what we have come to do the last nine years. We come together as men every year on December 23rd and sing our “Party till Christmas Eve comes” song and spend the night together. We catch up on each other’s lives and talk about old times; we remember great memories like toilet papering Doug Fields house and play X-box and drink Martinelli’s and lots of Cactus Cooler. It’s a beautiful thing and I hope I one day get to bring my son to it.
These are just a few of my traditions; I hope to share some pictures with you soon!
Back on the horse again
Back on the horse again
That’s right, I am back to blogging again and when I say “I’m back on the horse” I mean to say I plan on using this blog to capture in words and pictures the next stage in life for me and the wife. We are currently looking for a new church to do full time youth ministry and we could not be more scared and excited all at the same time. Here starts the journey and hopefully I will do my best to narrate this exciting next chapter in the Moine’s life.
That’s right, I am back to blogging again and when I say “I’m back on the horse” I mean to say I plan on using this blog to capture in words and pictures the next stage in life for me and the wife. We are currently looking for a new church to do full time youth ministry and we could not be more scared and excited all at the same time. Here starts the journey and hopefully I will do my best to narrate this exciting next chapter in the Moine’s life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)