We Are Spent

Greetings friends and family,

You say it's your birthday?  It's my birthday too.  Gonna have a good time!  

Today wraps up five days in a row of being at church more than 8 hours per day.  The marathon is over and I get one day off tomorrow...  just kidding.  I get to go to my "real job" before taking Tuesday and Wednesday off for a major software implementation at the church.  Luckily I get 21 days of vacation per year.  Otherwise taking 4 vacation days to give in ministry would be difficult.  After this coming week there will be three major milestones and closures.  I am hyped to have a day or two off to do what must be done around the house.  Forget having a day off to do nothing...  That's a foreign concept.  I am not even close to there yet.   After this week I will:

1. be done with the Kairos conference

2. be done with the software implementation at church

3. be done with my temporary job rotation

Life will go back to normal, but there have been so many neglected aspects of life including spending time with Kendra, house repairs and projects, hobbies and exercise, and then...  once I get all that lined up then I'll look forward to doing nothing for a change.

Here's my birthday picture.  I wanted to get the four of us in a single picture, but had to merge and rotate 3 times to get the desired effect.  we were all dressed up for church today so I wanted to take advantage of that as well as the fact that Ouma was here to take the picture.

OK, so let me walk through the Kairos conference briefly to get it on paper.  The 10 hour conference was spread over two days.  We created and published the book, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole thing. It was published by our friend with such excellence that it set the tone nicely for the weekend event.  A couple of years ago I said I wanted to write a book.  This isn't completely our own content, but we gave credit where it is due and put in a ton of writing hours together what we believe is needed to facilitate the class.

During the 10 hours Kendra and I coordinated the entire thing including child care, food, logistics, speakers, participants, and scheduling.  We taught every topic except two, which included writing speaking notes, preparing video clips and presentation slides, and coordinating who will say what.

Kendra was outstanding.  We did most of the topics as a tag-team style.  I've never seen it done before in a church setting so we have no examples to pull from.  we created our own style and it worked wonderfully.  She also did some teaching and speaking all by herself.  I'm a proud husband  

I should also add "photographer" to the list of things we did because nobody else took pictures.  They had no idea what to expect!  I can't describe how much fun we had leading the event and watching people experience revelations in their life.  

Guess who also got in on the action?  Mom.  She did a great job speaking as well.  Her willingness to jump in and help where needed was such a blessing.

We'll probably do this twice per year, but I'll be happy when we have a team of people with us next time to help carry the load.  We are both completely spent (tired), but at the same time full of life and fulfillment.



I don't have a single picture of Easton and Layla other than the ones taken from today at church.  They look so old to me in this picture.

May be the last birthday where I can pick them up together and hold them in my arms at the same time.  I better eat more protein and lift heavier if I want to make it through another birthday with them in my arms.

I'll be so happy to get back into the normal routine. just in time for the kid's spring break next week!

See you soon.