Just a Head's Up

If you are planning on sending anything by mail to Dan or I for Christmas, make sure it gets in the mail early enough to get here by THIS FRIDAY the 18th! This is important and I'm sorry for not giving the warning earlier but I only just found out myself. Our school post office will be closing for Christmas break, and anything that doesn't arrive by Friday the 18th we will not get until the end of the first full week of January. We promise not to open anything until Christmas Day if you tell us to do so.

Also, for some reason our comment system seems to be quite out of whack. We are trying to figure out why. Until then, if your comments aren't getting through, we apologize.

Dan is working hard on final projects, exams, etc. It snowed here all day yesterday and we probably have a foot or more but the weather is absolutely GORGEOUS today. Sunny and sparkly: it's like a magical world out there. (or a vampire... hehe)

Today we are going to this awesome place in Rochester that has a huge display of really elaborate gingerbread houses. I will try to post pictures if I can.

Love,
Hilary

What do a Deer, a Cow, a Pig, and a Turkey have in common?

Answer: They were all served and eaten at Thanksgiving dinner. Yum.
Hilary posting, FYI.

Our trip home was eventful, but tons of fun. We got to spend a lot of time with a lot of different family members, and really enjoyed ourselves. It's a bit sad that we won't make it home for Christmas, but at the same time it will be nice to make our own tradition for once.

Tonight Dan and I went to the youth group we volunteer at. Well, I went, and Dan was going to go, but on the way there (of course it happened on the night we were already running late) we got pulled over because our taillight was out. So Dan dropped us off, went to Olean to get a new light bulb, and Tom is fixing it right now. This is important because we were given 24 hours to fix it and confirm that it got fixed or else we get a ticket. Stupid New York. Oh well.

Anyway, at youth group tonight they had the kids play this stupid game where they had a glass of water, and they had to take a sip, and then they added steak sauce to the water, and they had to take another sip, and then ketchup... etc etc etc. Anyway, the point of the game was to see who could drink the most gross ingredients. It seems like every other game they play at this group is a game which the goal is to make people puke. It kinda weirds me out. I don't actually like working with this youth group very much... but God must have a reason for wanting us there. Either that or we committed too early and are stuck now. One or the other. Either way, I am committed to learning as much as I can from the experience, even if it is just a whole pile of here's what NOT to do.

Anyway, not much else is new for now. Talk to you all later.

Love,
Hilary

Dan posting....I know it's been awhile

Hey everyone,

I wanted to give you all a little update on what is going on. First off I just wanted to tell everyone that a couple of weeks ago Hilary and I attended a marriage seminar and it was amazing. It was on conflict management and it was hosted by Greg and Erin Smalley. We got so much out of it and it is really helping our marriage. Also this past weekend Hilary and I went to Erie, PA with Tom, Mary, Megan, and Peter. It was a lot of fun and we had dinner at the Quaker Steak and Lube. That was neat because I'd never been to one before and their wings are almost as good as Anchor bar. Also the atmosphere in there is really interesting. If you don't know what it is, the original restaurant took an old gas station and converted it into a restaurant, really neat.

As for my health, the leg is getting better. The MRI showed absolutely nothing, which is in a way good because it means I don't have cancer or a tumor or anything like that, but it also means I'm still not sure what is wrong. The doctor told me just to keep up with the physical therapy and see how it goes. The therapy is helping so I'm encouraged by that.

I have a presentation in Christian Apologetics tomorrow on women in ministry and marriage. I think it will be really interesting. The last two weeks, and for the remainder of the semester, we have had student led topics. We are trying to develop a Christian apologetic for each of these issues. So far we've done things like homosexuality, abortion, the morality of God/problem of evil, and euthanasia. The discussion in class have been extremely eye opening and my hope is that people will respond with the same fervor to my presentation.

One last thing before I go. I know people were probably not that interested in Hilary's rant, which is why I don't want to rant a bit myself but there is something that has been bothering me that I feel I need to get off my chest. So I'm giving you a fair warning. I'm not going to rant about the same thing as her but I am going to rant a bit.

So I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose my mind if one more Christian tells me that their personal hero is Glenn Beck. The reason has nothing to do with his political beliefs. I admittedly am not a republican. I am certainly not conservative. However, I do have a problem with Christians who are all gaga over this guy. Every time I see him my skin crawls. He says all kinds of nasty, outrageous, and just plain derogatory things about his opponents. Again, I have no qualms that he is conservative and disagrees with liberals, but why does he have to do it in such a flamboyant and distasteful manner. In my past I have done some things like that which I am not proud of, but God has really been working on me and trying to help me love my enemies, and I am tempted to put that in quotation because members of an opposing political party are not my enemy they are trying to solve the same problems I am, only in a different manner.

It really upsets me that Christians are looking up to this guy. I don't know whether or not he is Christian so I don't actually care about the manner in which he says things, but those who are Christian should be very disapproving of that kind of an attitude. I am a liberal but I refuse to watch MSNBC because all they do is bash and hate on conservatives. That kind of behavior is unacceptable. I am really getting sick of politics because all they do is demonize each other.

Back to Glenn Beck specifically, I can't help hearing a casting crowns song in my head when I think about him. You all know "What if His people prayed" I'm sure. Well there is a line in the song that says "What if the life that we pursue, Came from a hunger for the truth, What if the family turned to Jesus, Stop asking Oprah what to do" I can't help but replace Oprah with Glenn Beck. The reason is that I don't think his attitude is very becoming of a follower of the Christ who sat down with his enemies and ate with them. He sat down with them and tried to help them become better. He died so that they might...just might...be reconciled to Him. Glenn Beck would rather see his enemies die than die for them. I mean the man wrote a book in which the sub title is "How to argue with Idiots" So much is wrong just with that. I mean would Jesus Christ ever call a sinner and idiot? Secondly Jesus isn't interested in teaching us how to argue, He wants to teach us how to love and disciple those who reject Him. The difference in how Jesus and Glenn Beck treat their opponents is staggering. I am pretty sure that Christ calls us to emulate those who emulate Him, and I'm not convinced Glenn Beck is worthy of that.

I'm sorry to go on such a rant but I really can't stand hero worship of someone who isn't worthy of it. If you want to look at someone who stands up for what they believe in by all means do so, but pick someone who doesn't demonize and badger their opposition.

Warning: This is a Rant.

I mean it. If you are easily offended, stay away. ~Hilary

Okay, so seriously people... Congress needs to just pass the health care bill already. Health care in this country is RIDICULOUS and I do not know WHAT the hold up is. I mean, I do know what the hold up is, it's people who think that health care is a privilege and not a basic human right, but I don't know how ANYBODY can hold that opinion in the 21st century, so I don't know what the hold up is. This isn't the dark ages people! Everyone should have access to affordable health care. I mean, trust me, I know I'm one of the lucky ones. I have health insurance. It's provided by my job. I don't even have to pay the premiums. I am lucky, lucky, lucky and I CANT AFFORD THE DOCTOR BILLS. And if that is the case, then how the hell can anybody who isn't as lucky as me go to the doctor? Answer: THEY CAN'T!
I mean, my insurance covers a lot. It cuts my prescription prices by 60% or more. If I didn't have it, I would be even more screwed. But for all of that, it still is costing close to $50 a week for Dan to have the physical therapy he needs (which is actually making him feel better PTL, they think he tore a ligament but we will know for sure when we get the MRI results) which is $200 a month which is like 20% of my monthly income. And the insurance won't cover a penny because I haven't paid my deductible yet for the year because the deductible is... oh yeah... FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS. That is very, very close to HALF what I make in a year. NOBODY, NOBODY can afford to pay HALF of their income in doctor's bills. AND MAY I REMIND YOU THAT THIS IS SOMEONE WHO HAS INSURANCE!!!!

Honestly, all the people who vote based on one issue, and one issue only (read: abortion) need to get their heads out of the sand. Making abortion illegal isn't going to do a damn lick of good (even if it was possible to accomplish it) if nobody is going to take care of making sure the babies stay healthy once they are born. Nor would abortion be as attractive of an option if it wasn't like 20 times cheaper than giving birth. Oh sure sure, I don't want this baby, I can pay a few hundred dollars to have it torn out of my womb or a few thousand dollars to give birth to it and give it to someone else. Well, I might be WILLING to give birth to it and give it to someone else if I had the MONEY to do so. Of COURSE I am not in favor of abortion. I think it is a tragedy and a travesty and one of the worst evils in this country. BUT it is not the ONLY thing to worry about and there are more practical ways to reduce and eliminate abortion than wasting all our time and effort and money on making it illegal. STOP calling yourselves pro-life, you are only pro-birth, you don't give a DAMN about what happens to that baby once it's born or you would make sure it had access to the DOCTOR when it needed it.

And all the people who say that Christians should be the ones taking care of the sick and the poor and the hungry not the government... well I have news for you. YES you are right but we are doing a piss poor job of it right now so what makes you think it would work if we were the ONLY option. At least the government can make laws and take TAXES rather than tithes which are a little more reliable. Plus Christians are so self-righteously "debt-free" and "good stewards" and what ever other holy sounding synonyms we can come up with for STINGY that they won't even tip a waitress more than a couple dollars, even though they know damn well that waitresses don't even get minimum wage. But if that waitress got pregnant I bet they'd tell her not to have an abortion. What makes you think Christians are willing to part with their money to the needy? They are too busy making sure that the needy DESERVE their help... there is no such thing as mercy anymore.

What a weekend!

Sorry guys... I know everyone is really upset that it's been so long since we updated. We're trying but life just gets in the way sometimes, ya know? Anyway, Hilary here to tell you what's going on.

First of all, last weekend was my birthday, of course, and I turned the big two-one. Mom and Aunt Barb and Sandy all came to visit me. They didn't get here until quite late Thursday night so I barely got to see them until Friday at lunch. They came to eat lunch with me at work and meet the people I work with and of course embarrass the crap out of me with balloons. LOL.

Anyway, then after I got home from work I walk into the apartment and it is CRAZY decorated... looking totally awesome... and the best part was... a TABLE!!! A table and chairs was one of Aunt Barb and Uncle Kyle's birthday presents to me and I have to say it was the best because I've been wanting one so badly. Then Dan and I realized that with the exception of our bed, all of the non-college provided furniture in our house comes from Aunt Barb. We've got two chairs which were hand-me-downs from her house and then the table of course. It's kind of funny.

Anyway, we had a magnificent dinner Friday night, with cherry cheesecake cooked by mom, and I got to open presents and I got a lot of wonderful ones. Lots of cute clothes, a blender and a rice cooker, a perfect brownie pan, and lots of books. Oh, and LOTS of really adorable socks, which is great, because I've worn holes in almost every pair I previously owned. I'm thinking of making a quilt out of all the socks I've worn out and or lost the matches to. Because I have so many cute ones and I can't bear to throw them out but they aren't usable anymore. Only I don't know how to make a quilt, so that might be a problem.

Also, a very big thank you to anyone who sent me birthday cards / presents in the mail. I got enough birthday money to buy that sweater dress I'd been wanting so when it comes in the mail I'll have to post pictures.

Saturday was pretty great too. We went to this little town called Angelica and poked around in some antique shops and then had a great lunch at this little tiny family owned restaurant where the family actually lives upstairs... it was way cool... it was in a house that was built in the 1840's. Then we went home and I had my birthday / Halloween costume party with my friends so that was fun. After the party was "officially" over a couple friends stayed and we watched 80's movies: The Goonies and Back to the Future.

Sunday was sad, because everybody had to leave, but not before we had brunch at Friendly's and then were able to go to the Blockbuster going out of business every DVD in our store is $10 or less sale. Dan and I got like... 10 new movies for our shelves including the three mom bought for me. We are WAY overflowing our DVD shelves, lol.

Anyway, that was the weekend and it was very awesome. Some not so awesome news, however, is that Dan has some sort of injury to his leg and we have no idea what it is. It started hurting, seemingly randomly, several weeks ago. He has been to the doctor 3 times now but it is steadily getting worse and the doctor can't seem to figure out WHAT is wrong. He may have to go in for an MRI and he starts physical therapy next week. So please pray.

Thanks,
Hilary

Well, it's been awhile...

Hilary here to give you a much belated update on how things are going in our lives...

Things have been going just awesomely. After Dan preached his sermon at the church in Cuba, we decided to get involved with their church. We are going to a young adult small group and starting this Wednesday we will be helping with their youth group. It's a bit of a drive, being half an hour away, but totally, totally worth it. Last night's small group was about confronting your fears and not allowing fear to choke out your faith. It was wonderful and uplifting and just... the fellowship was so good. Dan and I have been missing that in our lives.

I have a story, too, about how amazing God is. Even though we knew that going to this church was the right thing to do, we were wondering how we would afford the gas to travel there twice a week. Well, Friday at lunch Dan comes up and shows me the deposit slip from him depositing his paycheck. I looked at it and I was like, this can't possibly be right! Dan says, oh no, that's accurate, my paycheck was $114 this week. And I say... but Dan, this deposit slip says FOUR hundred and fourteen dollars. And he said, yes, the other three hundred came from this. And he handed me a card we had received in the mail. The gist of it is that some people we have never met or even heard of, know who we are and God laid it on their hearts to send us some money to help support our "pursuit and dedication to ministry." What an awesome, awesome God we serve. When I found out about that I just spent the rest of the day in total awe and worshipful reflection. God is so GOOD and we are so blessed!

Sunday Dan and I went to this place called Pumpkinville, which is a huge pumpkin patch / cider press / corn maze / a bunch of other really cool things. We got hot, fresh, literally they made them five seconds before they handed them to us, pumpkin donuts and a gallon of apple cider. We also went through the corn maze and ate delicious barbecue chicken and poked our heads in all the shops and generally had a fantastic time. It's so good to go out on dates and connect and strengthen our marriage. When we were in line for the pumpkin donuts (we had to wait an hour for them but they are sooooo good it was totally worth it) we were behind a couple who were bickering and generally just being annoyed and irritated with each other. It made me very sad for them, and even a little uncomfortable having to stand behind them and listen to them. I hope Dan and I never end up like that. I don't think we could though, because we constantly are working on our marriage... we're never content to let it be but always trying to make it better... the same way as all Christians should be with their faith. In November we are going to a relationship seminar because the school is making it available to student couples for only $10. I hope lots of people take advantage of it. In the past few years God has really given me a heart for hurting people with hurting marriages.

One last note, does anybody have, hiding in a basement or some such place, a card table and a few folding chairs they wouldn't miss for a little while? Our apartment is small and we have no table. We have room for one but it would be better if it was one we could put out of the way when it wasn't in use. If anybody has one they could let us borrow for the year, we'd be very grateful. We'd also need two or four folding chairs. Four would be better but we have desk chairs that could be used for two of the chairs if we only had two folding chairs. If you have one you could share with us, let me know, and perhaps my mom can arrange to bring it to us when she comes to visit in a two and a half weeks.

Love,
Hilary

Preacher Dan

I want to give you all an amazing story about how God is God.


A few weeks ago I was sitting in my apartment playing video games to pass the time until my class. I was getting up to leave when I got a phone call from Ren. He said that he was with a pastor from a Wesleyan church in Cuba. This seemed odd to me because Ren is not a Wesleyan and makes that pretty clear, but I listened to him. He wanted me to come meet this pastor and talk to him about possibly preaching a sermon. I couldn't go right then but I told Ren to have the pastor email me. Eventually I set up a lunch meeting with this pastor and he told me that he was going on vacation and wanted to give a student minister an opportunity to preach. He also mentioned that the church would pay me 100 dollars to do it. I wasn't going to pass that up.

The really amazing God thing that happened this weekend. On Saturday while I was preparing the sermon, Hilary was having a really bad day but I needed to work on my sermon. I then felt God compelling me to take Hilary out and cheer her up, and I felt overwhelmingly that this sermon was His and He would see it through. So I did. When we came home I finished my preparations and trusted God to take care of the rest.

On Sunday when we got to the church, we loved it. We both immediately felt a connection and may try to get further involved there. Anyway this is where God really showed up. I had decided to put in my introduction some statistics about stress related illness. I was speaking about the fruit of the Spirit, peace specifically, so I thought it reasonable. After I preached the whole sermon, several people came up to me and commented about how I was mature beyond my years and how they all thought it was a great sermon. This made me feel good, but the real amazing God thing happened next. The last person to come up to me and speak with me was a woman who said that she had been having some trouble lately because her father was in the hospital and she had been getting stressed out. She mentioned that she had developed a skin condition because of her stress. This was something I had mentioned in my stats about stress and she said that God really spoke to her through this. She then went on to mention how she hadn't been in church for a couple weeks and God must have put in on her heart to be there today, she also mentioned how she took notes which she never does.

God really touched this woman. She was crying as she told me all these things, and how she knew God would do awesome things in my life. She even begged me to come be the youth pastor at this church because they had just lost theirs.

Isn't it wonderful and mind-boggling how our God works? I keep having to remind myself that God is God, and God is who He says He is. I can't even tell you how nervous and unsure of this sermon I would be. I felt like I'd prepared it inadequately, but I followed God as He directed me and His will was done. Praise God!

Christina Ricci Looks Better With A Pig Nose

That's right, I said it. Dan and I finally got around to watching Penelope, that movie that came out a few years ago with her having a pig nose, and it was supposed to be a modern day fairy tale. It was pretty good, and I enjoyed it, and it had some great messages about loving yourself the way you are... but when the "curse" was broken and Christina Ricci got her real nose back... well, both Dan and I were like... she was cuter before! Lol.

Today was an AWESOME day. Dan and I went out for a day on the town. Grocery shopping, dinner at Applebee's (our favorite restaurant) and just an all around good time. An amazing thing happened, too. Dan broke his glasses a month ago, during the moving in process. Something got sat on them and the arms snapped. So whilst we were at Wal-mat we decided to go to the vision center and have them checked out. We asked if they were fixable, and they were like, no. Bummer. But the lady said she could put his lenses in a new frame, and found one that looked almost identical to his current, busted frames. We were like... can we afford it? Then she was like, well these frames are only $18. $18! We were like, heck yeah! So now Dan has his glasses back, and all for under $20. I was so afraid when they were busted that it would be so expensive to replace/fix them and then $18! What a blessing!

I haven't gotten new shoes yet, but I bought new insoles and they seem to be doing the trick. So maybe I can get away with forcing my shoes to last one more year. Come on shoes, you can do it!

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. I'm also considering dying it blonde. I get bored with my hair way too often, lol! I'll update later with pictures after I get it done.

Love,
Hilary

It's the Ides of September!

Hmm... somehow that isn't nearly as powerful as the Ides of March. Nevertheless...

Hilary again:

Guess what everybody. I need new shoes. Now, I say that on a regular basis, because I LOVE shoes. Usually, I need the pair of shoes I'm coveting like I need a hole in my head... or like I currently need THIS really, really pretty sweater dress at Victoria's Secret that costs $80. Of course I don't NEED it, I just WANT it really, really, really badly. But this time, guess what. I really do NEED the shoes... and I don't WANT to purchase them. Is that a switch or what? The problem is, my work shoes are worn out. They've very much outlived their usefulness. They are holey and they are no longer supportive and I've been dealing with massive, massive back pain. I really just DON'T want to pay for practical shoes. How boring. Oh well, I suppose I'll try replacing the insoles first, but if that doesn't work, shell out the cash for boring, practical shoes I must. After all, breathing is kind of a necessity.

Other practical things that I don't like paying money for include:
$160 textbooks. Seriously. $160 for one book. Ridiculous!
Gasoline that is creeping ever closer to hitting the $3 per gallon mark again.
Paper checks. Why do they have to cost money? You use them AS money.
Etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, there's not really much going on here this week. It's pretty slow and boring. Just thought I'd give you all a little update before you thought we didn't love you anymore.

Love,
Hilary

Just.... wow.

Hilary's turn...

Well, today I woke up at about 3:30 in the morning to go with my mom and KC to Bethany. I should be there right now, but today didn't exactly turn out as planned. Mom and I were just past Corning, only an hour and a half from Houghton, when K.C. called to say he'd flipped his car! HE was fine, but the car was not. So our trip to Bethany turned into an extended tour of the Corning hospital, (again, K.C. was discharged almost as soon as mom and I got there, he's just fine) Corning McDonalds, and a towing service in Bath. They have a Bath in New York. Does EVERY town in Michigan have a counterpart in New York?

Dan was awesome and made no complaints about me waking him up at 5:30 in the morning to come help out, and Dan's boss was awesome and didn't get upset about the fact that he had to skip his shift due to all this. I'm so glad KC's okay, and I hope all of his stuff is okay too. It seemed to be when we got it out of his car, but who knows until he actually tries it all out right? His keyboard was definitely all busted up, and the car is of course totaled.

God was definitely watching out for him and keeping him safe, and that's just awesome. I'm praying that this doesn't interfere too much with his freshman year of college... poor guy. But we all know that the devil likes to mess with us and try to hinder us from doing what we're supposed to be doing. I'm sure K.C. can stay strong and persevere.

Dan and I have been doing very well. It seems like every time we try to get those few last odds and ends unpacked, something happens which causes us to have to go do something else and put it off a while longer. Frustrating.

Dan has a perfect attendance record so far this school year. No classes missed, no chapels missed, no work shifts missed (well except for today but that doesn't count.) It's only one week, but it's a lot considering how badly his sinuses mess with him this time of year (summer by day, winter by night, ugh!) I'm very proud of him and know he can keep it up. Can I get a big "WAY TO GO DAN!"

I'm just praising God for seeing us all through the ordeal today, and for keeping K.C. safe. Our God is truly an awesome God. Can I get an AMEN?

Love,
Hilary

Alright so I'm a little late

Ok I admit I'm a little late with this update, but we've been so sidetracked by stuff. I am honestly trying here.

Anyway Hilary is off to work this morning and I have an hour before my first class of the year. So I thought I'd give you all a little update about where we are.

The past week was full of unpacking, unpacking, and oh yea did I mention unpacking. We still aren't done but the end is in sight.

I rented MLB 2k9 and have played it a bit. I haven't played a lot of new sports games recently so when I started to play this game I was shocked at how awesome the graphics are. The players look so real. It was neat.

Speaking of games, if you haven't heard about SWTOR, then you need to watch this http://kotaku.com/5343638/the-old-republic-20-minute-developer-walkthrough

It is a 20 minute video broken into four parts detailing in depth the game's story aspect. It is so neat to see an MMO with real story. Also it is star wars so you can't go wrong there.

As for school, I'm all set to go. This semester I mean business and I want to show the world what I can do when I actually put my mind to it. I'm tired of being the guy with all the wasted potential, so this year I'm going to leave no stone unturned and I promise that I will have my best semester by gpa that I've had so far. I even dressed up today in an effort to show my professors that I mean business. Let the school year begin!!

Dan

Back in Houghton

Hey everyone!

This is Dan

I just wanted to give a quick update for all of you waiting on us.

We're back in Houghton. We've got everything moved in from storage but we're still working on putting it all away. Hilary had her staff meeting on thursday, but she doesn't start actually working until Wednesday, so we still have some time to move in.

We had a blast while we were home. Thanks to everyone we hung out with and stayed with. It was fantastic and we miss you all already.

Stay tuned throughout the school year for regular weekly updates!

Kingdom Bound!!!

This is Hilary posting, with Dan's input.

Well, we had planned to give daily updates from Kingdom Bound, but unfortunately lacked internet access, so you will all have to bear with us for an extremely loooong post as we try to tell about everything.

First of all, let me say thank you for all the prayers that went up on my behalf. Those and a lot of painkillers helped me get through the week with no more than minimal discomfort.

The trip to Kingdom Bound was largely uneventful. Some of the teens decided that our car is a Transformer (a Decepticon named Cherry Bomb) but that was about it. When we got there, Dan and I particularly were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of OPTIONS there are. You could keep busy from morning to night without ever riding a roller coaster, and in fact we only rode two the entire three days we were there.

The first day Dan and I went to an insightful seminar on why teens leave the church after high school, and the way that Christian groups (particularly one called InterVarsity which is where the speaker was from) work on secular campuses to encourage Christian growth. That was encouraging to us, living in the Houghton bubble, to know how God is working in other colleges, and that a person has options to go to a public school and not need to compromise their faith.

After that, we rode the Mind Eraser, a rather pitiful ride. It was too jerky and shaky and really not much fun at all. Then we went to see Matthew West in concert (we LOOOOOVE him!!!) and Dan got to get his autograph. Matthew West was actually really nice to him, and when Dan mentioned a particular song (History) which has touched his life in a very tangible way, he APOLOGIZED that he hadn't sung that one! Then we walked around hanging out with the many Houghton students that were there. It was a nice little pre back to school reunion. Dan ordered some Dippin' Dots, and something hilarious ensued. He ORDERED a medium. He PAID FOR a small. He RECEIVED a large. Awesome!

Finally, the big evening concert that night was Casting Crowns. Dan and I are not really that big of fans. It might be borderline sacrilegious to say that, but its true. We like their songs, and even love some of them. But their strength is in their lyrics, not their music, and in our opinion even though they are good they are not great, and do not deserve the over hyped MANIA that surrounds them in the Christian music world. Even so, we enjoyed the concert, and it touched a lot of people. When you can feel the Spirit in a place, when you see literally thousands of people all joined in worship, it is hard to begrudge them anything, even if their music is mediocre.

One more, extremely important thing, about Monday night that I need to share. (This is Dan.) I have been struggling with the emotional part of my faith recently. I say that because I have never doubted that God is God, nor have I doubted that He loves me. However, ever since my mother died, I have felt a disconnect from the presence of God. That all ended Monday evening at Matthew West. As soon as he sung Only Grace, I felt the rushing of the Spirit come over me and I was brought to tears. It was like the burden that I'd been carrying around for the past 11 months was finally lifted. God showed me in His most tangible of ways how much He loves me. Ever since then I have been singing and praising, praying and reading, and just generally rejoicing with that presence in my life once again. For so long I had been going through the motions because I believe firmly in God and I think that it is very important to worship even when you don't feel like worshiping. God is worthy to be praised even if He never blesses our lives simply because He is God and He died for our salvation. But, having said that, I'm glad we serve a God that cares for our needs and wants to have relationship with us and cherishes each and every second that He can rejoice and fellowship with us. Now back to the recounting of the week.

That evening we all got to bed around 1 AM, then had to be awake the next morning at 8. RARGH! Devotions were at 9:30, and the kids all had to share about the speaker they had heard as a way of keeping them accountable. Although it was clear that some of them were merely going to a speaker because they had to and not because they wanted to, it was also cool to see how many of them were really getting something out of it. Woohoo!

The second day we took some of the teens to see one of our Houghton friend's band play. His was not an "offical" band in the sense of the word, but they were playing in the middle school tent for morning worship each day. They were REALLY good, and those who went with us seemed to enjoy it. Keep an eye out for "Adulation" because they just might be something someday!

Afterward Dan rode The Ride of Steel, which no one ever calls by its proper name, rather calling it the Superman, with some of the boys, while I wandered the market tent and then went to a really informative seminar on drama ministry. I was less than impressed with the drama team's SKITS but very impressed by their passion and the information they had.

Dan and I met up for lunch and then went to a couple seminars together, mainly because we knew the larger portion of our group was going to them and wanted to be sure they were getting good information. One guy was speaking on the reaction of the church to people struggling with homosexuality. Although he started off a bit dubiously, his eventual premise came through very well, which is that we need to love them as human beings, and treat it as a sin like any other sin, not the unforgivable sin. If a Christian went to a Pastor and said "I'm struggling with homosexuality, I don't want to be this way but I don't know what to do" they would get kicked out of the church. If a Christian went to a Pastor and said "I'm struggling with gossip, I don't want to do it but I don't know what to do" they would receive wise counsel, and accountability, and definitely NOT get kicked out of the church. Why do we as a church get to decide which sins are worse than others? Is a non-practicing homosexual any more sinful than a non-practicing gossip or a sober alcoholic? Is a STRUGGLING homosexual any more sinful than a struggling gossip or a struggling alcoholic? Why do we treat homosexuals worse than say, a couple engaging in premarital sex or even adulterers? We don't even kicked divorced people out anymore! We can love the sinner and hate the sin in this case just like any other case, but we do not. This leaves two extremes. Hatred and condemnation, or indulgence and approbation, like the United Church of Christ. Where is the middle road, the path that Christ embraced? "Go and sin no more" not "Get the hell away from me you pervert!" Sorry that we have taken up so much time on this one seminar, but the fact of the matter is that it is a position we both share and it was so encouraging to hear someone else advocating it. He could have done it better, but he was saying the right things.

The other seminar which we were concerned about our teens getting right information was a "girls only" seminar. By nature Dan and I are wary of gender specific seminars because there is so much trash out there, and so many stereotypes. So often the boys ones are "Girls are evil, tempting creatures. Don't look at porn" with no more meat, and the girls ones are "Boys are evil, lustful creatures. Don't wear bikinis." Well, what can I say about this one? I feel it was about 50 percent garbage and 50 percent gold, with the garbage being evenly divided between Feminazi rubbish and what I will now use the term FemiNInazi to describe. First of all, the gold. The seminar was quite encouraging to the girls, reminding them of their worth as daughters of the King, of their beauty as a creation of God, and their purpose as His redeemed. All good and important things for girls (and boys too, but that's a whole 'nother rant) to learn and be affirmed in. The garbage was a mixture of the Feminazi: Don't waste your time with boys, they are pigs, they will distract you from being an "independent woman," etc, etc. There is nothing wrong with being a strong woman who knows what she wants, of course, but this attitude is strikingly selfish and superior. Then, of course, there is the FemiNInazi garbage: You are so pretty, your beauty is power, use it to make boys fall in line (because of course they are boorish pigs who only want your body) make a boy work hard to woo you while you stand there and pout, etc, etc. Again, there is nothing wrong with having high standards, simply something wrong with (again) having a superior and selfish attitude. It really struck me today for the first time how SIMILAR the message of the liberal, left wing, Feminazi zealots and the conservative, right wing, "girls must submit and be homemakers" (like I said, FemiNInazi) zealots are. Of course there methods are different but the bottom line is the same. Girls are better than boys. The end. Since when did Feminism (the declaration that girls are EQUAL to boys) become so perverted on both ends? I am a feminist, and proud of it. I subscribe to the mutual submission of marriage theory. I am a proud believer in the ideals of the CBE (Christians for Biblical Equality) (endorsed, by the way, by Dr. Jo Anne Lyon and Dr. Earl Wilson, present, and previous General Superintendents of the Wesleyan Church.) I believe the Bible firmly supports the EQUALITY of men and women. So where does all this woman superiority garbage come from, and why is it coming from BOTH the secular world AND the Christian world? Bah! Sorry, I am getting preachy there, but this is a pet topic of mine! If you guys are still with us after our preaching, THANKS! We now return to our regularly scheduled blog post.

So, after these seminars we went to the Everyday Sunday concert. They have VASTLY improved their sound. We were minor fans before, but we are MAJOR fans now. SO GOOD! Their new CD is JUST fabulous. Every song is good, both lyrically and musically. The teens all REALLY seemed to get into them, also, which is very good for them, as they weren't seeming to really connect with any of the other bands, except of course Casting Crowns with the hype. Lots of them bought CDs and drumsticks which were autographed by the band.

Then Dan finally talked me into riding the Superman, which is the most fantastic roller coaster I've ever been on, although also the scariest. The first drop is PURE TORTURE as you literally get about 5 seconds of WEIGHTLESSNESS as you drop down a 208 foot drop at a SEVENTY degree incline! That's the biggest and steepest I've ever been on, though that doesn't hold true for my much braver husband who has conquered both the Millennium Force and the Top Thrill Dragster. The REST of the track, however, is what I'm constantly begging for in a roller coaster. HELIXES! Banked TURNS! Fun up and down up and down little hills! It was GREAT! So then I decided to play a trick on the teens, who all knew how nervous I was to ride the ride, and not tell them I'd been on it, and act all nervous as I rode it the next day. Haha!

Dan interjecting again: So when I went home for my Dad's wedding, Hilary had a girls day with some of the girls in the youth group. Ever since my boys have been begging and begging me for a Guy's Night. So I told them to bring all sorts of food and junk to the hotel and we'd do it one night at KB. So we did it this night. It started out with a contest. Hot Sauce in one cup, and tomato juice in the other. (Later I found out that it was Hot Sauce in both cups, just that one was cut with water.) Next we chugged Mountain Dew. First person to down two cans won (that was me btw :). And then we got a box of Little Debbie's brownies and threw them at each other in a brownie fight. After that we went bowling...with mountain dew cans for pins and brownies for a ball. Fun was had by all....except that one of the teens spent most of the next day in the bathroom. I thankfully was fine.

Anyway, the next morning was a little different. Dan was responsible for devotions that morning, and he talked about friendship, which ended up giving me my idea for MY devotion, about encouragement. But more about that later. That morning, instead of going straight to the theme park, Dan and I took five of our group on a little detour to Houghton College for a visit. We had decided on spur of the moment to do it the day before. Dan called up Houghton to try to arrange it. They were a little skeptical. Dan's like, look, I'm a current student, my name is Dan Holtz. The guy on the other end of the phone goes "Oh Dan, this is Mark, Mark Satta!" who was Dan's RA and had classes with him and worked on class cabinet with him. In other words, a friend. After that, he quickly made it happen for us.

Another spur of the moment decision had us calling up Kelvin and Margaret at about 11:15 asking them to have lunch with us and 5 teenagers at noon. Fortunately they were good sports. Guys, if you're reading this, THANK YOU! We're sorry you had to put up with them in one of their more mischievous modes. Anyway, the Houghton trip seemed to go really well, and I'm grateful we were able to give them the opportunity.

We missed about half a day of Kingdom Bound on our return trip, not returning until 4:30. The last day was rather uneventful until 6:30 when we got to hear Sanctus Real, one of our all time favorite bands. They were good, of course, and we bought their new(ish) CD and got them to sign it. We got to talk to them (well, Dan did, I'm shy as it is and was also a little star struck) and we told them that we had been fans since Say It Loud! their first CD. They seemed genuinely flattered and mentioned that we got to see them grow up, which is really quite true. Their new stuff is way better than their old stuff. They have matured musically and lyrically just as Everyday Sunday has. Dan and I were actually first in line to get their autograph, which was cool. Even cooler, though, was the fact that every Christian band (except for the ones doing the very last concerts which never ended til close to 11) signed autographs and talked to their fans, seeming very down to earth and just really genuinely nice. It's so neat to see the difference between Christian bands and secular ones. It's reassuring to know that a walk with Christ truly DOES make a difference in behavior, because so often the statistics tell us otherwise. But here are all these famous guys who are humble and personable and just awesome. It's totally due to the influence of Christ.

Anyway, after that David Nasser was speaking. That was a total blast from the past, as we had seen him as a speaker numerous times at various youth conferences in Jr. High and early High School. It was so cool to hear him again, and his testimony is something powerful. Short version is that he's from Iran, and his parents were Muslim, and they moved to America and he started going to church as a teenager and found Christ. He was disowned, but eventually his whole family became Christians. How cool is that? The best thing he said is that some people, when they become Christians, have to repent of UN-righteousness, and some have to repent of SELF-righteousness. How true.

Finally I was able to pull my trick on the kids with the Superman. They were SOOOOO mad at me at the end, but they all agreed it was hilariously funny. I thought it was a great joke!

Finally, we went to the last concert. The final concert was the newsboys, with the new singer, Micheal Tate from DC Talk. Most of the teens LOVE newsboys, and were pretty displeased with their new sound, but Dan and I have NEVER been newsboys fans but have liked DC Talk in the past and thought their new sound was much more mature and musically diverse. It was kind of cool when the old lead singer came out to sing Breakfast with them, and the encore was the best part of the show, as they played DC Talk's Jesus Freak

That night, we did devotions in the evening to save time the next morning. This kind of put me on the spot as I had been planning on having the evening to prepare mine. Oh well, I thought it went very well, as I talked about the importance of encouraging and complimenting each other. I admonished the guys to affirm their sisters beauty, and admonished them all to be genuinely edifying to each other. Some cool things came out of that, as one of the teens who never really says much told me I was pretty, and I told the girls in my room some specific compliments about themselves, and then they gave me some back, so even I was really uplifted by my own message. Cool how that works, huh?

Then of course this morning we packed it all up and came home, and that's about all there is to that story, which anybody who is still bothering to read this is probably going "phew, glad that's over with!" Sorry for regaling you guys with such a LONG post, but there were SO many important things that happened, and we just really wanted to share it with you all.

And Saturday we leave for Lauren's wedding and then for home! WOOO HOOO!!

Love,
Dan and Hilary

P.S. It took us over an hour and a half to write this, it is six pages in a word document, and if you really read the whole thing, we'll give you a cookie.

Please Pray!

Hilary here...

Boys, sorry if I gross you out. It's just past 6 in the morning, and we're getting ready to leave for Kingdom Bound. I've known all along that I was going to have my period this week, the week of Kingdom Bound, but 9 times out of 10 that isn't any big deal. Well, it chose this week to be a big deal. I woke up this morning in a LOT of pain. Please, please pray for me that God would take care of this pain, because I honestly feel like standing up straight is a chore right now and I need to be at my best for three days of music and amusement park riding. I want to be effective for the teens... but right now I just want to crawl in a hole in the fetal position.

I love you guys and Dan and I will definitely keep you posted on how Kingdom Bound goes. Except for this, I'm SOOOOO excited. Thank you in advance for all your prayers, I know they're gonna get me through this!

Love,
Hilary

Forecast: Tears

Hilary here,

Well, today was our last Sunday in Lisbon. One more week, and then next Saturday we'll be heading to Lauren's wedding (YAY!) and then home. And as excited and anxious as I am to see everybody... I am going to MISS it here!

I cried in Sunday School today as we said goodbye. The teens were fantastic and all gathered around Dan and I in a group hug. Then they kicked us out for secret plotting. I'm frightened.

After Dan preached in church today (he did an AWESOME job by the way, definitely the best he's done ever) we said goodbye to our new family. And they are our family and leaving them is SOOOO hard and I cried again. Then I teared up several times as people were hugging us goodbye.

I imagine there are many more tears in my future the next week. I just can't help it... I've come to love this place and everyone here SOOOOOOO much and the idea of leaving is just painful.

But I love you all and I'm excited to come home and visit!
Love,
Hilary

Flour Power

Hi this is Dan posting.


I know Hilary already posted about our adventure yesterday, but I thought I'd give you all a glimpse at just what flour can do to a person.

Oh and btw, Hilary "forgot" to mention to you all that she is evil and refused to participate in the snowball fight, but then decided it would be a good idea to play everyone against Pastor Dan. If you could see me better you would notice that I am completely covered in flour, head to toe, back and front. I had flour in my eyebrows even. Also one teen hit me right in the mouth with one and I was spitting flour for the next couple hours.

On a happier note *wink* the Ice rink was really fun and good times were had by all.

That's all for now, but with only a week and a half left out here I'll try to update more often. My goal for next week *kingdom bound* is to bring my laptop and make a blogpost every evening from the hotel. So we'll see.

Keep reading and praying!!!

We appreciate and love you all

Duck Duck Goose is a Dangerous Game

Hilary reporting...

Today was the youth group "Snow Day." The teens came over to the church for a snowball fight. The snowballs were really nylons filled with flour, so whenever they hit someone they made a huge POOF! Afterward, the plan was to go to the local ice skating rink. We finished the snowball fight early, however, and ended up playing duck duck goose while we were waiting to leave. When I was up, I was running away from the "goose" chasing me and tried to slide into my seat. BIG mistake! I ended up falling right on my outer hip and thigh. It hurt SOOO badly. As usual, I was laughing and crying at the same time.

Eventually we did end up at the ice skating rink. Since it was attached to the mall, and the kids don't get to go to the mall very often, not a lot of them skated for very long. That was okay though. They all stuck together and were good. Anyway, I skated for about an hour and a half of the two hours... and I'm exhausted! My legs are totally jelly; I think it's been three years or more since I've actually been ice skating.

It was a good time. Two days from now, Wednesday, is our last youth group meeting. Then it's Kingdom Bound, a pool party, and the end of the life and times of Hilary and Dan in Lisbon NY.

Love ya!
Hilary

Long Weekend

Dan here,

I'm going to tell you all of my journey home and back again (a hobbit's tale?).

Anyway when I left Friday morning everything seemed to go alright. I wasn't tired even though Hilary and I stayed up far to late the night before. However, as I got to the bridge in Ogdensburg (15min from here btw) I noticed something strange. The bridge was completely grated. There was no pavement whatsoever. Needless to say I was quite frightened. I'm glad I never have to cross that thing again.

Later in the day I came to Toronto. 2.5 million people live there. Crazy huh? Well for me the coolest thing was seeing all the cars. At one point there was 8 lanes of traffic on either side of the highway, for those of you with bad math skills *me too* that is 16 lanes of traffic in total. I've never seen that many cars before. It was fun.

When I got to Port Huron the border was fairly backed up, I spent about 45min waiting to get back into Michigan. Then when I finally got to Josh's house I ran out of gas about a block from his house. Right at the corner of Maple and Fenton road. I was disappointed but also pleased that it only took one tank to get from Lisbon all the way there. Anyway after I got to his house, he slept for the first four hours I was there. It was alright though because I talked with Lindsay and played with Logan a bit. Logan is the most adorable little boy in the whole world.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. Josh and I talked and watched CSI. That was neat. I've never seen it before.

On Saturday I got up and headed over to the church. The ride up was fun. Very stimulating conversation. I know my views tend to be different from more conservative Christians, but to be honest when it comes right down to it, I believe we both want the same thing; We want people to love Jesus and we want to love them like He loves them. We just go about this in two different ways.

The wedding itself was very difficult for me. I wanted to support my dad but so much of it was almost like a slap in the face to my mother. When the Pastor announced them as the "New" Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holtz my heart just broke. I know the Pastor didn't mean to say that like my mother was irrelevant or anything but it still hurt me. Also I'd never seen my dad kiss my mother like he kissed Karin that day. I couldn't even look at them when everyone was banging the table to get them to kiss.
On the plus side the cake was delicious, but being serious my dad did seem really happy to see us all there and I'm glad we came because he only had one other person from his family there. Rob and Dawn didn't even come which surprised me.

Later that night I went and saw Harry Potter with KC and his friend. I liked the movie a lot even though there were some obvious problems with it diverging from the book. But the cool thing about the night was the ride home from the theater. KC and I had a great talk and I really feel like he's starting to grow up. Some of the things he said to me really impressed me and I think he's heading in the right direction. I think that will only continue as he does the XD program at Bethany. I pray for him fairly regularly and I think God is working on him.

Sunday after church Josh and I visited my mom. I try to get out there every time I come back home. After that I headed back to Lisbon.

On the way back I encountered a lot of interesting things. First I hit Toronto at rush hour. Have you ever seen 16 lanes of traffic at a standstill. It was not fun. Also later I saw a lady drinking a Heineken while driving, and the reason I know that it was a Heineken was because I could read the label. Some people are so irresponsible. Also I may have met the dumbest gas station attendant in the history of time.

I got off the highway for the exit that said bridge to USA at Ogdensburg. I must have turned the wrong direction though because I remembered the bridge being right after the overpass. So I pulled into a gas station to ask for directions. The man at the counter tells me he has never heard of Ogdensburg and that he thinks the only bridge is at Prescott (which was about 5 miles back the other direction on the highway) or at Cornwall (which was about 30 miles up the highway). Well I know the bridge is here because the exit said so and I crossed at Ogdensburg on Friday. So I leave this extremely unhelpful man and head back toward the highway to find my mistake.

Well as soon as I get up onto the overpass I can see the bridge and then proceeded to cross back into NY. Now tell me how you work at a gas station that is not even 2000ft from viewing distance of the bridge and not know it exists? I wasted 15mins of my life talking to that man.

But to make a long story short (hehe) I made it home with only a few emotional scars, and I know God can and will heal those.

My Fingernails Look Awesome!

Hilary here...

So since Dan went back to Michigan this weekend to go to his dad's wedding, I'm here in Lisbon holding down the fort. I decided to have a girls day for the youth group girls... no boys allowed! We baked cookies, and then we watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and did manicures and pedicures. It was a blast.

Only three girls came, plus the Pastor's wife, but it was kind of nice to have such a small, intimate gathering. Most of our youth group is involved in marching band, and they had a parade this weekend, so that's where the rest of them were. It was nice to have individual time. They all seemed to enjoy it, and it turns out one of them is an aspiring nail artist. Not really, but she totally could be when she grows up... she's FANTASTIC. My nails look incredible. The only problem was, EVERYBODY wanted her to do their nails, so she did the most work.

We had one little mishap... Pastor's daughter (she's four) came over and wanted to "help." It was totally an accident, but a bottle of nail polish got knocked over, staining two blankets a (rather beautiful) shade of bright blue. Anybody know how to get nail polish out of fabric? We already tried nail polish remover...

Anyway, I'm glad the girls and I got to bond. It's so sad, they were all expressing how much they don't want me to leave at the end of the summer. Well... right back at ya girls... I'm in the same boat.

Love,
Hilary

It Makes You Feel Old When...

...it begins to be difficult to stay up all night for an event.

Well... Our last kid just got picked up from the lock in and we are exhausted, exhausted, and more exhausted.

Tonight was our youth lock-in and we had... dun dun dun... TWENTY teens! That's right, twenty of them. We were SO excited, because we've really been praying for all these new teens, and so many of them came! Everyone seemed to have a good time, and the new kids all got quite well integrated into the group as a whole. We played games like Psychiatrist, Moron, and Mafia, and fed them junk food (pizza rolls and chips.) Then we split up and some played video games, some played board games, some watched movies, and some got some sleep. We fed them MORE junk food at 4:00 am (pigs in a blanket this time.) Finally, we fed them breakfast (ice cream sandwiches) cleaned up, and sent them home.

We think the most encouraging thing was that nobody hung out with the same people all night. Everybody was in small groups doing their own things, but the groups were constantly in flux. Also, we got to spend some one on one time with a lot of the kids, getting to know them better. It is going to be SO hard to leave here at the end of the summer. We don't even know how we're going to be able to do it.

The night was great though, except for the fact that Hilary's voice is totally gone... oh, and the teens are already asking us when we can do it again. Did we mention we're EXHAUSTED?

Oh well, we'll take the exhaustion any day... it's totally worth it. What we're doing is so COOL!

Love,
Dan and Hilary

Holy Kids Batman!

Hilary speaking...

VBS has been this week and it has been AWESOME!!! There've been over 70 kids each night and it is CRAZY around here! What an exhausting, thrilling, wonderful week. Dan's been spending all week as a crew leader for kindergarten and first graders, and I've been floating. I spent one night co-crew-leading with Dan, was the storyteller Tuesday night (the ten plagues,) spent Wednesday night as a crew leader for the 4th 5th and 6th graders, and then tonight was the storyteller again (crossing the Red Sea.)

In addition to VBS activities, this has been a busy busy week for youth group. Monday night we had an ice cream pig-out, and today we had a beach trip in the afternoon and a bonfire after VBS. It was a HUGE success. There were something like TWENTY teens! A lot of our regulars didn't even come... several of them were new... incoming seventh graders that were attending VBS that we invited. It was insane. We passed out information for our upcoming events... please pray that all these kids would come back! There are two in particular that I got to know during my night working with the 4th 5th and 6th graders at VBS that are just really on my heart, and I'm praying for them especially. But if these kids keep coming back... well, we'll have just EXPLODED!!! I am SO excited right now... it was truly a GREAT night!!!

Much Love!
Hilary

P.S. I am calling for a roll call. Dan told me he doesn't believe anybody but Steve-O and Aunt Marta are reading our blog anymore. So if you read this... comment, even if it's just to say you read it, so I can prove Dan wrong! Thanks!

God is Wonderful!

Dan here


So wow! That's pretty much all I have to say. I've been feeling really disconnected from God lately and distant, but guess what. Jesus still lives and still moves and still wants to be there for his children. Let me explain.

Last night I preached my very first authentic sermon. I wanted to preach about how God can always take bad situations and turn them to good. So I started out by talking about a sprint commercial that I love so very much. I'll post the link here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kl1CNffn0M. The title of my sermon was "No Rain, No Rainbows." Anyway to make a long story short the sermon ended up being about 15 minutes. I had timed myself at 23 minutes and I thought that was a decent amount for a first sermon. However, when I actually got up to preach it I was incredibly nervous and spoke fairly fast, I also forgot a few illustrations, so that is how I lost time.

I was feeling ambivalent about my performance afterward. A lot of people praised my effort, but I kind of just felt like it was an A for effort kind of thing. I did however think it was the best sermon I've gave to date, which isn't saying much because my experience includes speaking once at Lennon when i was like 10, and three sermons I gave for my expository preaching class. Anyway, I felt alright about the sermon because I knew it was a message God had laid on my heart.

Well here comes the wow. Today I got an email from the parent of one of my teens. She told me about how my sermon had really touched her and especially about how my story about High School and my GED really related to her own son. She said that it gave her hope for him and that maybe he could follow in my footsteps. I guess he wants to be a minister and is considering Houghton.

I've never felt so good in my life. I feel like I'm finally doing what God has called me to do, to bring the hope and love of Jesus Christ into the lives of others. I may not have everything figured out yet and I may not be the most skilled orator, but I know what my calling is and God confirmed that in a big way last night.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!!

So far we've had a pretty darn good holiday weekend. Of course we miss being in Kalamazoo but... we've had a nice time all on our own. We had a fantastic Fourth of July dinner of barbecue chicken, garlic herb mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon, and for dessert, lemon cake decorated like a flag, which we've kindly included a picture of so you all can be jealous. The longer we're married, the more of our "own" traditions we get to create. I think this cake is definitely going to make it on the traditions list... DELICIOUS!

We decided not to do fireworks this year, mainly cause there's not really anywhere we knew to go, so instead we cuddled on the couch and watched the NYC fireworks on TV. We never even knew before this year that they televised them! They were far more spectacular than any fireworks show we've seen in person, and for all that, it was missing something. There's really no comparison to fireworks in person. Still, we have to admit, there were some REALLY cool ones, the likes of which we'd never seen before. Giant cubes, rainbow circles... even a smiley face!

Fortunately Dan has gotten over his sickness, so instead of preaching last week he'll be preaching tomorrow night. Next week is VBS, so we'll be insanely busy. We've also got a beach trip scheduled for Tuesday... but the weather is threatening thunderstorms so... pray for nice weather!!!

We love and miss you all... enjoy your Independence Day!
Dan and Hilary

You ever have one of those days...?

Where you're so bored you almost WANT to do something productive, but at the same time so blah feeling that you can't quite muster up the energy? That's how I feel today.

Dan is taking a nap (yes, this is Hilary writing) because he's been sick for the past few days. He ended up not preaching on Sunday night. Any time he gets sick beyond his normal every day sick, I freak out. I'm always convinced he's suddenly on his deathbed. Something tells me this is not healthy.

His being sick always frustrates me so much because I am so HELPLESS. I can't do anything about it. I can't even make him go see a doctor, because the odds are 20 to 1 that it is just his sinuses, therefore the doctor can't do anything, therefore why waste money? I vary between agreeing with his assessment on this and being desperate to do ANYTHING that will get him healthy faster. It hurts me so much to see him sick and know there is nothing I can do. The only cure is sinus medicine and lots of sleep. Sometimes I want to yell at God and ask why He made Dan with faulty sinuses. But of course 1 that's a theological inaccuracy, and 2 I have a feeling sinuses are just Dan's (and by extension one of my) thorn in the side.

Is there such thing as a mid-internship doldrums? Cause I think I have a bad case of that. Nothing is shiny-new anymore, and the time left seems to both stretch out before me like a never ending ocean and crunch up like a tiny puddle. There is practically no time left. There is too much time left. It is a contradiction I don't quite know how to process. I suffer from a sense of urgency (everything must get done NOW) and a sense of lackadaisicalness (I have plenty of time to get everything done) and it's kind of gotten me paralyzed.

One thing I've noticed is that strengths and weaknesses are never just strengths or just weaknesses. Both are a combination of both. A strength of Dan's and my marriage is that we push and inspire each other. A weakness is that neither of us likes to get anything done unless we are working together. It's two sides of one problem and the balancing point is very narrow indeed.

All right, well you should probably just ignore my random musings. It's just one of those days.

Love,
Hilary

Angry Security Guards

Today was our big scavenger hunt / initiation event for incoming seventh graders. The event itself went swimmingly. The kids really seemed to enjoy it (one even said it was one of his favorite events ever) and the newcomers were accepted into the group with open arms by the youth group "veterans."

The teens were very well-behaved, and respectful of the mall, although we expected no less from them. Apparently, however, this particular mall is very teenager-prejudiced, because we'd only been there for an hour or so when the security guards found us and told us that scavenger hunts were against mall policy and demanded that we leave. Whaaaaat? Well, we immediately offered to end the scavenger hunt and just commence shopping, which is what we were planning on doing after the scavenger hunt ANYWAY (it's not like the mall wasn't going to get any business from us!!!) but he told us again that we had to leave immediately. Those were "his orders" (yeah right, as you shall soon see.) So we rounded up the kids and they sadly brought the scavenger hunt to a halt, as we prepared to leave the mall.

Dan went to talk to the mall office to see if anything could be done to allow us to stay. We were all pretty upset at this ridiculous "rule." If the kids had been rowdy and disruptive I would have understood, but as it was, we know they were not. Well, the mall office seemed flabbergasted that we had been told to leave, and only told us we had to quit the scavenger hunt, we were welcome to stay and shop. We told the kids the good news and prepared to stay and enjoy the mall. Several kids hugged Dan in appreciation for fixing it.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, except for some of the girls who got fake piercings and scared Hilary into thinking they were real. They laughed and said their parents would kill them... Hilary cheerfully replied that she would kill them first.

At the end of the trip there was some minor frustration with miscommunication between kids and their parents as to whether they were to be picked up or dropped off. That was unfortunate and caused some strife, but hopefully we can move past that.

All in all, a successful day... hopefully the mall learns its lesson! One store owner even said he was going to complain to the mall... he LIKED the scavenger hunt!

Love,
Dan and Hilary

Counting Our Blessings

This is Hilary posting...

Dan and I have shared about the many hardships we have faced, including times of doubt, times of faith testing, and our seemingly never ending struggle with insomnia and fatigue. I just thought I would take some time to also post about our blessings.

First of all, we are surrounded here by people who are truly living their Christian faith. This church is a family, and they have welcomed us with open arms. We are now a part of this family, surrounded by their love and encouragement. I do not think we could be in a better place for a learning environment. We are loved and accepted for who we are and challenged and encouraged to grow and be better. They take care of us. We are so blessed.

Secondly, we are figuratively surrounded by you all, our dearest friends and family. There are so many people out there both interested in keeping up with our lives and praying for us. We are uplifted and supported by your love and prayers. Though you are not with us physically, you are with us in your hearts and in ours, and we are so grateful for your presence in our lives now, and the influences each and every one of you had in getting us to this point.

Thirdly, we are hugely blessed to have each other. When one of us is down, the other helps to bring a smile back to their face. We truly complement each other in every way. My strengths are in areas where Dan has weaknesses, and Dan's strengths are in areas where I have weaknesses. Together we make an awesome team, and being able to work together to hone those skills and become a better team is just awesome.

Fourthly, we have been blessed by a great group of teens to work with. They are polite and well-behaved. We are not kept over-busy disciplining, so youth nights go smoothly. They seem to have taken a shine to us; they listen to us and respect us. They are unique individuals, each of them wonderful in their own way, and as a collective group the best "starter group" we could have hoped for.

Of course, there are many more blessings in our lives at the moment, but those are the big four. God has blessed us beyond our wildest imaginations, and even though there are hard times and rough spots in the midst of all these blessings, God is using even them to bless us, by stretching us and helping us to grow, to depend evermore on Him.

Thank you, all of you, for being a part of this journey with us. Your support and prayers are appreciated more than you know.

Love,
Hilary

A post from Dan!

God has really been testing my faith lately. Or maybe it isn’t God at all; maybe it’s Satan trying to keep me down. I’m not really sure which one, but whatever it is, it is causing me to lose focus. I can’t sleep at night. Over the past 72 hours I’ve slept about 9 hours. My whole body is racked with pain. I’m not really sure what to do at this point, because no matter how exhausted I feel, I can’t fall asleep.
There was a loss at the church this week. A young man, who was married with two small children, had some kind of heart condition and died Thursday morning. The whole church is in a state of shock. There are a lot of tears and it’s been making me think of my mother. Also a friend back home just lost her father unexpectedly. It seems like this has been happening a lot lately. My faith tells me that God can do miraculous things from bad situations and I’ve seen that very thing happen in my own life, but this string of untimely deaths has really shaken me. I still believe in God and I still believe he can do wondrous things, but my spirit is broken right now and everything is so gloomy.
On a lighter note, Hilary and I went to the mall yesterday. We are planning a welcoming event for the upcoming youth next week and we are doing a scavenger hunt through the mall. So we spent a few hours just going from store to store finding random things and writing down the prices. When we actually set the teens loose they will have the name of the items and they will have to find them and tell us the price of the item to verify that they found it. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and hopefully we’ll see a lot of new faces to add to the youth group for the summer.

The Great Soda Mystery

This sounds like a case for Nancy Drew!

Or a kindergarten class... you know?

"Who stole the soda from the Holtz's fridge? SteveO stole the soda from the Holtz's fridge. (Who me?) Yes you! (Couldn't be!) Then WHO???"

Yes, WHO stole the soda from our fridge is what we are asking today. This morning, at breakfast, there were 8 cans of soda in our fridge. At lunch, there was only one. 2 cans of Mountain Dew, 2 cans of Game Fuel, and 3 cans of Pepsi mysteriously disappeared. Yes, the fridge is in the church kitchen, which is public space. But it is CLEARLY marked "Holtz Fridge" and the people in the church KNOW that the stuff in it is not for public use. Needless to say, we're pretty upset. Soda is kind of expensive and therefore usually a splurge for us. We found a GREAT deal last week and bought enough soda for pretty much the entire summer. Now, a week's worth is gone. We are frustrated and sad and mad. We are trying to be graceful and not sin in our anger. We don't even care if the culprit is caught, we just hope we can do something so a repeat of this doesn't happen, but we don't even know what could be done. After all, we don't even know HOW this happened in the first place. As far as we know, nobody was even in the church today, and we know the soda was there THIS MORNING!

Grr.
With frustration,
Dan and Hilary

As per Stephen's request

This is Dan!

Hey everyone, another late night post from me. It seems like I'm having a lot of late nights lately. Mostly due to the fact that Hilary and I are having a hard time getting on a regular sleeping schedule.

Anyway I am starting to feel a whole lot better about where I stand with this internship. Hilary is going to teach the lesson on wednesday and she has come up with a really awesome idea. We are speaking on parables all summer long as mentioned before, so this week we'll be doing the parable of the sower. She is going to use how the different places that the seeds fell to represent different points in our faith journey. I thought it was a fantastic idea.

We are also working on a destination unknown for the teens. It is a tradition at this church that all the upcoming youth members get kidnapped and brought to a secret event as an initiation. So we are going to do a scavenger hunt at the nearest mall, which is like 45 minutes away but w/e. I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be next saturday, June 27th.

Also on the 28th I'll be preaching. It's a sunday evening service but I'm really nervous. I've decided to speak on how when bad things happen, good things will come out of the ashes. I'm titling it "No rain, no rainbows" after the sprint commercial where they imagine what the world would be like if it were ran by movie crews. It cracks me up. I'll also be dealing with the story of Joseph and specifically how if he hadn't ended up in prison, he never would have become 2nd in command of Egypt and able to save his family from the famine.

Well that is all for now...more to come

Dan

Plauged by Doubt

Ahhh Sunday School... what can I say?

For a long time I've had an idea to do Sunday School lessons through hymns. So since I volunteered to do the youth Sunday School, I decided now would be the perfect time to try that idea out. I started this morning with "All Creatures of Our God and King" which is about 800 years old. These are the lyrics:

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in Heaven along,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou rising moon, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light.

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

This is one of my personal favorite hymns, and so I decided it would be a good one to start with. The lesson was on the creation of God and how it displays the glory and character of God. I was prepared. I played the song, we discussed the lyrics, I actually got the kids talking and interacting... so why do I feel like I could have done so much better?

I just wonder... I wonder if they are actually getting it, you know? And how do I know if they get it? And I wonder if they "like" me or if they think what I'm teaching is totally lame. And I wonder if I'm encouraging them enough when they do give responses, or am I making them think it's not worth it? I wonder if they are taking any of it home with them, if it's going to "stick?"

And then I wonder if it even matters if it sticks. After all, out of my own life, there are maybe three or four lessons that really "stuck." The rest wasn't exactly in one ear and out the other, but it got crowded out pretty quickly. The thing that stuck with me was the love that was lavished on me and the example that was set. I should remember that... more than freaking out that each lesson is going to somehow be the magic lesson that is impressed upon their brain forever.

So I pray that I will love. I pray that I will lead by example. And yes, I pray that the lessons touch them; that we teach the truth, but mostly, I pray for love.

Love,
Hilary

(Bon)Fire

Tonight was our bonfire, which was really so small it was basically a campfire, which the kids called us out on. Geez, when I was in youth group a little tiny fire like that was considered a bonfire. Of course, it probably has something to do with the fact that it's totally rural out here. Out here, bonfire means BIG fire.

This event seemed to go much better than Wednesday night. Part of that is simply because it was more low key. I mean, it's hard to go wrong when all you're doing is hanging out. No pressure of a lesson or anything. There were probably 11 or 12 kids, a pretty good turn out. A couple of kids were not regular attenders but were guests of friends, so that's a good sign. We had a good time joking around and getting to know each other, and I was pleased by the way the group seemed to include everybody most of the time.

A couple of not-so-fun incidents happened. At the beginning of the night, one girl dropped a frog down another girl's sweatshirt, and it took us a long time to find it and get it out, and she was crying and freaking out. And I don't blame her one bit! Part of the reason I had such a hard time trying to find the frog and help her get it out was because I didn't want it to fall out and actually ::gasp:: TOUCH me! But we finally got it out and then I made Dan throw it somewhere where the kids couldn't find it again and get up to more mischief.

Also, at one point, more than half the kids around our bonfire (sorry, campfire) circle had their cell phones out and were completely not interacting with each other. What IS it with people and technology these days? Although, that was actually kind of a blessing in disguise. Dan and I quickly put a stop to it, and it gave us our first real chance to test our authority, so to speak. Would the kids actually listen to us, as young as we are? Fortunately, no one challenged us, and I was grateful for that. I hope they continue to listen to us. I know at least for me, it's scary to give direct orders, but I feel a little better now that I've had to do it and nobody rebelled.

So, all in all it was an exciting night. Plus, I ate s'mores, and you can never go wrong with that, right? Love you all,

Hilary

I know it's late but....

I can't really sleep so I thought I'd post a little update.

Today I took the day off to recoup from wednesday night. I've felt so bad all day I don't really know why. So I tried to rest up and just have a little fun today. I played video games all day and the only church related thing I did was worship band practice, which actually went really well. The instrumental special that we're putting together for sunday morning is coming together really nice. I'm actually really enjoying playing drums again. It's sorta carthartic and that's been really good for me, plus it's just plain fun.

Well that's all for now.

Thanks for all the prayers and kind words. I love you all and I hope you keep on reading our blog!

Dan

So my preaching needs a little work....

Well because Hilary already posted the events I won't give you a run down of the night again. However, I will tell you a few of my own thoughts on the evening.

I felt pretty good going in. The lesson was planned, we'd written a nice little role-play for the teens and we'd even had a theme for the summer planned out. Unfortunately as Hilary pointed out, not much went right. I feel less than adequate lately. My lesson seemed to fall flat, and I realize that was partly due to very little prep time.

Originally we had intended to use a lesson that I'd prepared for one of my classes last semester, but I found it was totally non existent tuesday morning, meaning we had to pull tonight together entirely in two days.

But I also feel like I'm not the same person I was when God called me to be a youth pastor. I still have a great heart for teens, but now that I'm actually here doing ministry, I'm feeling totally overwhelmed and thinking God must've made a mistake. I know that isn't true but it's how I feel. I also know that this is all probably due to the fact that I've had less than 2 weeks of ministry experience, but still I'm feeling like a failure. Your prayers are greatly appreciated because I'm not the best self motivated starter and I often procrastinate until the last possible minute, and as I'm discovering.....pastors do not work just one day a week!

I hope the teens will have fun this summer, but I know that will probably happen whether or not I try very hard, and so my real goal is to help them gain a better understanding of just how much God loves them. I also hope I can help them foster a greater love for God within themselves, but I feel like I'm just going to let them down.

I'm very discouraged about tonight, but I hope it will fuel me to be better throughout the course of the summer. Rome wasn't built in a day...or so they say.

Dan

If only one person went home bleeding, that means we did a good job... right?

Tonight was our first youth meeting. Well, we had one last week, but pizza and games don't count as us actually having to run the thing, teaching a lesson and all that jazz. So tonight the pressure was on. I guess the best way to sum it up is to say: at least we got through the announcements without any snags!

After announcements came worship, and there was our first mistake. We had forgotten to get the powerpoints with all the lyrics to the songs. So Daniel (not my Dan, one of the kids in the youth group) played a couple of more familiar songs, but the youth still couldn't sing along very easily. Most of them seemed totally bored and disengaged, and I'm not sure if it was the lack of lyrics to sing along to, or if that's their normal mode. Some of them still seemed into it, and I was grateful for that.

After worship we did a role play of a modernization of the story of the Good Samaritan. That, I thought, went really well. The kids acting and the kids watching seemed to get into it. Maybe a little TOO into it at times. :) Mistake number two happened after the role play. I was the all important "narrator" but had thought Dan was going to lead the discussion questions. But when I tried to turn it over to him, he thought I was going to lead them!!! I felt awful, like we looked bad in front of the teens, but I laughed it off and began leading the discussion. The discussion was a mixed bag. Some of the answers were really silly, but some of them went deeper. Overall, I thought that they grasped what we wanted them to grasp fairly well.

Unfortunately, I was almost done with what we'd prepared for discussion when I noticed mistake number three: Dan had forgotten his Bible. So I caught his eye and mouthed that to him. He got up and went to get his Bible (thank goodness we live in the church,) and I had to keep the discussion going until he got back. When he did, he was very much out of breath, since there are two full flights of stairs between our "house" and the youth room. So I read the story of the Good Samaritan so he could catch his breath.

There weren't any more outright mistakes throughout the night, but some things still didn't go as neatly as planned. The lesson was finished earlier than had planned, leaving us with a full 20 minutes to fill at the end of the night. Now, we had planned to play basketball as a fellowship / gaming time afterwards, but didn't know if it would hold the teens attention for that long. Fortunately the ones that didn't get into basketball began kicking a soccer ball around. It wasn't long until two of the basketball kids collided, and one wiped out spectacularly on the parking lot. She tore up both knees, an elbow, a foot, and even bruised her hip. She was very brave, and didn't even cry, but I feel bad. I know it was an accident, but I still feel somewhat responsible. Like if I had been watching closer... but what was I going to do, jump in and catch her and keep her from falling? I try to tell myself it wasn't my fault, but I still feel guilty, like I could have prevented it.

Well, keep praying for us. Some of the teens are opening up, and a couple told me they think we're alright, so I think we're beginning to make some connections. On the other hand, there are some teens who are very standoffish, and it's difficult to even get them to converse about mundane things. Pray especially for the bonfire. It's going to be very low-key, so I'm hoping we can get the teens to open up and get to know them more.

Love,
Hilary

Our First Blog Post

Well, we've been at Lisbon for a week and a half now, and we've finally got a blog going. We've set this up so that we can keep in touch with our friends and let them know how the summer's going for us. So far...

Well, first of all we left Houghton a week ago Saturday. That was an adventure and a half, and I don't mean the good kind. All of our packing and transporting our stuff took HOURS longer than we thought it would. We intended to arrive at Lisbon at 5:00 pm. We left Houghton at 5:30. The car was packed so full that Hilary was driving, because her legs are shorter and it made more room. Well, after we ran into a parade and ran around the route for almost an hour trying to find SOMEONE who could give us directions (note to the world: Parade routes should NOT block important highway junctions) Hilary was too shaken and upset to drive anymore. So guess who had to drive with his legs all cramped up? You guessed it, Dan did!

We FINALLY found someone who could tell us how to get where we needed to go, and we got back on the road and headed for McDonald's, the only restaurant that we knew where it was on our journey. We were STARVING by that point, only to find out that... this particular Ronald only accepts cash. So we backtracked to an ATM, got cash, and finally got our food. Safe at last, right? WRONG. Things continued to go badly for us, as Hilary was even clumsy enough to spill salt in her Sprite. Gross!

Somewhere around 11:30 at night, we finally pulled into the parking lot of the church that will be home sweet home for us for the next ten weeks. And it will be a home for us. Even though we're living in a Sunday School classroom that has been turned into an apartment, it is one of the most homey places we've been. For one thing, the people here are amazingly welcoming and friendly. For another, they decorated this place better than our own apartment is decorated. All the colors even match!

Our time here has gone much better than our trip here. Monday we spent acclimating and unpacking, but Tuesday was our first youth meeting. Yikes! There were about 18 or so youth, and the first meeting was very low key. We shared our testimonies and had pizza. We are getting to know most of the youth by name, and are so excited to serve here. They seem like a good group... no rotten apples. They are very fun loving. We feel like God is calling us to help them go deeper, and with His help we want to do so. We've decided to focus on "story" as our theme for the summer. We want to teach them that they each have their own unique story and place in God's kingdom. We'll be using Jesus' parables to help us acheive that, starting tonight with the Good Samaritan.

We've also gotten involved with many other things going on around the church. Hilary helped out with MOPS (that's mothers of preschoolers) one morning as a glorified jungle gym. Who would have thought that three preschoolers could take her down? We've also helped the pastor's wife with a fundraiser for the local YFC, attended a young adults meeting, and helped out with VBS planning. This church, for its small size, has a ton of activities going on. Hilary has also gone to a Wesleyan Women's meeting and a prayer group, and that doesn't even touch the surface of some of the other things this church has to offer. There is truly something for everyone. We feel very blessed to be a part of the church here. Someone said that this is a good "starter church" and that's true. We hope that we can learn so much during our time here.

We don't want to make it sound like it's all peaches and cream and roses, but so far we have had a truly blessed time. Even when Dan was very sick for several days, it was like God's hand was on us. We want to be truly honest with you, our friends, and we won't hide our struggles, but so far, praise God, they have been few.

Please pray for us as we have our first "real" youth meeting tonight and have to teach a lesson. Also, we are having a bonfire Friday night as our first event, so please pray that that will go well.

In Christ,

Dan and Hilary