The Journey

My blog is getting a new home.  Visit it here: theammons.net/scott

Posted on May 7th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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It’s been slightly more than 24 hours and we just started the season finale of Lost season 2.  After a short break, we’ll go back to our 85 minute episode, the 11th in our marathon.

Addicting.

Posted on May 4th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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There’s some movement on some blogs of people I know.

• My sweet Alana is bummed about our computer.  Which reminds, I need to call Compaq.  So she’s iPod blogging.  Or is it iBlogging?  Or blogging thanks to Steve Jobs?  Whatever it is, she’s talking about the cutest baby in the world and about the oh so exciting details of our lives.  Yes, I told her to blog about Wednesday.
• Donny’s War Report is hitting some hard issue: Linux and Lolcats.  It’s pretty awesome.  I’m just glad he finally blogged!
• Bethany hates the weather, snow, gas prices, and probably exercise too.  And she’s not pregnant.  I can’t believe they want us to move to Chicago with weather like that!  NO WAY!
• And my father-in-law, Dave Crowley, has joined the blogging world (again).  And he’s already at 4 posts in just 2 days.  He feels loved and appreciated and is excited about the river rising.  Plus, he went to National Day of Prayer.  I kinda forgot.

Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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We got off to a slow start tonight. By 6:30 (the official starting time, we really start about 6:55) there were no students. The first one came about 5 minutes later. Finally at about 6:50 a handful of kids showed up.

• Worship went well. The presence of God was there, even with a small group.
• I inflicted whiplash upon myself while telling a story about riding a horse in Honduras.
• Rather than me preach, I had planned a group inductive Bible study on God’s Big Four.  I gave each group two elements.
• That went really well.
• We’re skipping Applebee’s tonight and just having the Warbritton’s over. It’s all a part of our debt-fighting, money-saving plan to take over the world.  Or at least our checkbook.

Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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I don’t necessarily feel up to writing a real post, so I’m just going to list out a few things that have happened / that are on my mind:

• Sunday morning service was good. Good attendance, good move of God.
• I thought the church did an excellent job showing appreciation to our pastor.
• Lunch with about 20 people at Carino’s on Sunday.
• Why did they drop the Johnny? I still want to call it just Johnny’s.
• We napped way too long yesterday. We ate dinner at 9pm.
• Then I went and got disc 3 of season 2 of LOST.
• We’ve been staying up WAY too late watching LOST.
• Jayden already thinks its fun to be in a different room from us.
• Our computer’s power cord has been messed up for a while. I think it finally gave out on us so I ordered a new one.
• Until then, I don’t know if our computer will be operational.
• I’m very glad we got our iPod.
• I hate bills.
• I like Panchero’s queso better than Qdoba’s.
• I miss Casa Olé’s pollo con queso.
• Today while doing laundry at the in-laws, I accidentally rewashed clean clothes.
• A very exciting blog announcement is coming soon.
• I appreciate my wonderful wife for putting up with lately. I have been inexplicably grumpy.
• Jayden doesn’t like to nap anymore.

UPDATE at about midnight:

• Despite the best efforts of Donny’s power cord, we’re still having some problems.
• At least we have the iPod and a borrowed laptop.
• I just spent the last hour+ trying to get our internet up.  Success at last!
• Hanging out at Borders tonight was fun.  And I’m kinda looking forward to getting our finances under control with our new Personal Finance for Dummies book.

Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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I found a great denomination quiz here.  You just put whether you agree or disagree with a short list of various beliefs and rank their importance.

COG isn’t listed, but the AG is and that was my #1.  Oddly, #2 was Mennonite Brethren.  I could do that.

Posted on April 26th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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TV’s back and we’re watching Grey’s Anatomy. Alana is on the laptop and I have the iPod so we’re not really paying attention.

Alana says “we should turn on closed captions and read the tv like civilized people.”

Posted on April 25th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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Yet another Momentum recap. Alana’s take on the night (plus extra thoughts) is here.

• This is the first time in a very long time that the school was out by 4:30. That made it very easy to set up the room early. But I didn’t feel like setting up chairs tonight, so the students sat on the floor. Very cas.
• Before the night even started, I sat down with one of sponsors, Leland and had a good conversation. I see a lot of good in him and hope to bring that out more. He has a lot of passion - and it’s good to see him growing.
• One of our newer guys came to worship practice to play drums. He may be ready to play on the team in a couple of weeks. I’m very excited that he’s connecting.
• Elevation rocked out to Taking Over Now, My Savior Lives, Never Underestimate My Jesus (For the Moments I Feel Faint), and Facedown.
• We played three rounds of knockout.
• Knockout didn’t have the same tiring effect as it did a few weeks ago.
• The bonding over the weekend continued into this week. Yay!
• I tried to make the message more interactive tonight. It went ok. We talked about being prepared for pressure. It’s important to be built upon the rock and keep practicing our faith for when the hard times come.
• I love our kids.

Posted on April 24th, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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Over the weekend, Alana and I took 14 students and 3 adults to Acquire the Fire in Denver.  We were really looking forward to this weekend as a chance for us to connect better with our adult sponsors and develop deeper relationships with our students.

People in the church are sensitive.  This is a fact I’ve been aware of for many years.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sensitive guy.  I cry all during Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  And The Big Give … pass the tissues!  I get easily offended when others in the church bring up criticisms or slam something not knowing I’ve spent a great deal of my time on it.

Students are especially sensitive.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way at all.  But the teenage years are a very sensitive in general.  With hormones raging and everything changing, feelings get hurt for virtually no reason.  I remember getting mad at my youth pastor once because he told me to turn down the guitar on the sound board.   Because apparently at the age of 15, I was an expert at sound.

From the beginning of our time here, we have faced many challenges and we generally take them in stride.  But this weekend, we were faced with a situation that made us step back and evaluate how we interact with our students.  After some painful examination and doubting our call, I feel like we will come away from this stronger and more aware of how we relate to others.

But my question is, when we will stop being so sensitive about what’s going with ourselves and start being sensitive to the world around us?

It was hard to take, because above all, my desire is to love God and love others.  While I don’t agree with everything in the conversation, I believe we can come away from it more sensitive to our students.

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by Scott Ammons
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Sometimes I’m embarrassed by other Christians. We do crazy things as Christians. We like the weirdest stuff. Everything from Chick-Fil-A (which I do) to Psalty (which I did). The jury’s still out on whether we’re really supposed to like Joel Osteen.

Tonight I looked at Drudge Report, and what did I see? Those crazy Christians are up to something crazy again! A church in Jonesville, SC has on their marquee: “Obama, Osama, humm, Are they brothers?” Despite the fact that Barack Obama has been very public about his Christian beliefs (and his very public disagreements with his pastor).

What disturbs me most about this church is not the fact that they’re Church of God, but that in the video, my fellow COG minister appears to be an uneducated redneck. Now I could be wrong but he knows nothing about Obama. Like the fact that he professes to be a Christian.

Now I have opinions about what life would be like with Obama (or gasp, Hillary) in the White House, but I’ll reserve those thoughts for later. My point is that too often as Christians we take sides too quickly and fail to educate ourselves on what’s really happening in the world. We fail to recognize our faults and when those mistakes are brought before us, we rebel.

As a Christian, I’m supposed to hate Obama, Oprah, liberals, universal health care, and Earth Day. But I don’t. I’m supposed to hate anyone who isn’t “on my side.” Instead I love them the way Jesus would. While I may not fully agree with everybody else, I don’t have to go crazy.

Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by Scott Ammons
Filed under: Other blogs, Politics, Thoughts | 2 Comments »