Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
New Year’s is one of my favorite times of the year, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s — the last week of the calendar year — tends to be a time of reflection (looking back) and refocusing (looking ahead). And the fact that it’s our first week back after family leaves, makes it … Read more
Our family leave (8 weeks plus 2 weeks of vacation) ended Sunday, and Monday was our first day back to work, so we thought it might be a good time to write an update on how things are going with our bonding and adjustment. It’s been a little while since we’ve posted an update. For … Read more
Our first Christmas as a family of four was a lot of fun. Christmas morning began early when Ethan got up around his normal time. We woke Sarah up earlier than her normal wake-up time (which could have been risky!) so that she and Ethan could experience Christmas together. Grandma and Grandpa Willis were also … Read more
We haven’t posted too many photos in a while, so here are a few from the last couple weeks, leading up to our first Christmas as a family of four.
Too often we get so comfortable with what’s familiar that we stop looking for other ways, including better ways, of doing things. We live by the cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” (actually, I like “If it ain’t broke, break it!” better!). We settle for less and it stifles our growth. But, years … Read more
When I was a (20 year-old) kid, trying to figure out what God was doing in my life as I sensed a call to ministry/leadership, I tried to learn as much as I could from others in ministry. I talked to the Christ-following leaders I knew or came in touch with while in college. In … Read more
Today, I connected my laptop to the TV and Ethan (wearing his backpack, at the time) helped us choose some gifts. As we’ve written about before recently, we’re enjoying involving our kids (mainly Ethan, at this point) in our mission giving. We usually do some extra giving at the end of the year and one … Read more
In the monthly West Side UMC Stewardship newsletter, we have been looking at the twelve qualities of the Christian steward as presented by Rev. Phillis M. Bowers in the booklet, Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation: Stewardship. The next quality, which is appropriate in the midst of Advent/Christmas and as we begin the new year, is … Read more
I have written several posts this year about the Virgin HealthMiles activity rewards program. The program is available to individuals but is available to us through our health insurance in The United Methodist Church. The program involves wearing a pedometer to track steps. Depending on how active you are, you can progress through various stages, … Read more
Earlier today, Ethan described the past weekend, saying, “I had a big weekend.” Well, we’re a little over seven weeks through our 10-week family leave (in connection with our adoption of Sarah) and we finally took a couple days for the four of us to go out of town (most of the time has simply … Read more