personal shopper #19

The Neighborhood Ministries is a group that meets the needs of the poor community in the Metro area. Their headquarters/church/meeting place is in downtown Phoenix. One of the ministries they have is to the parents of needy families. They allow adults to volunteer there in exchange for ministry money. It's not actually money redeemable for cash, but it is redeemable for brand new items during the Christmas store. People donate brand new items to the Christmas store so that these parents can purchase them with the volunteer dollars they've earned throughout the season. Why have a store instead of just giving handouts? Well, the idea behind doing the store comes from wanting to give people a sense of dignity in providing for their families during the Christmas season when so many needy families find they have no ability to give to their children. Instead of someone coming in, giving them things, and the parents being left with a remorse and lack of dignity from not being able to support their family, they now are able to earn these gifts for their family. All that to say, KAIO, the college-age and twenty-somethings group at ncc, got to join in on helping out during the Christmas store. There were lots of different jobs, but we all were set up as personal shoppers. We got to partner with a parent, take them through the store's mad rush, carry their gifts, keep a running total of what they were spending, and make sure they didn't go over their amount. We got to do this three times. It was quite an ordeal. People rushing to and fro, looking for what they could get their family. There were bikes, video games, a PSP or two, an iPod Nano, a couple TVs, jackets, things for him, things for her, children's toys for both boys and girls, balls, movies, and even kitchen appliances (nothing huge, but there were a couple of smaller refrigerators about 3-4' tall). Carrying it all, getting it to the holding area, keeping a running total, trying to understand their Spanish (most were Hispanic and couldn't speak English), getting them checked out, and helping them to their vehicle. And all of that three times. It was quite a rush. I was truly blessed to be a part of it (and I got to utilize my Spanish a lot!). I was personal shopper #19.

new hat

I got a new hat because a couple of guys from ncc and I have joined a program called the Timothy Program through Scottsdale Bible Church. It's a program geared to help men learn to be godly men. SBC regards the class as leadership training for men. Kent DelHousaye, my pastor, can see this as deacon and elder training. Anyway, all that said, I got a hat. The kids saw me wearing it and wanted to wear it, too, instinctively wanting to be like me...you know how it is. I thought they looked cute, so I took some pictures.

cardboard testimonies

NCC will be doing something similar Thanksgiving weekend. The worship team I lead will have the privilege of being the team leading worship for this exciting event.

Update: they changed the date and my group will NOT be the group playing.

facebook

I was just recently told that KAIO (college-age and twenty-somethings group at ncc) had a facebook page, I should join facebook, and that I then would be made an admin of that page so I could help everyone in KAIO stay informed and build community. I didn't take it seriously at first, but then I decided to try it out. I set it up last Friday at 1am. I had 100 friends within two days. I now have 159 friends. It is one of the coolest things I have dealt with online. Myspace can be really trashy, but facebook seems to be different, for all of my exposure so far of less than a week. I liked it so much that Amy made a facebook account for herself, as well. There is an iPhone app for facebook, so I am on facebook on my iPhone as much as I am on my computer at home and my computer at work, as well. I have connected with friends I had in high school who've I've not seen nor heard from in 9 years until facebook. It is an amazing networking tool. I just hope I can keep blogging and doing facebook without it killing me for time.

KAIO study

I took this picture a couple months ago, I suppose. We are doing a study through Colossians together in KAIO (college-age and twenty-somethings at ncc). This diagram represents Col 2.6-7. Look it up!

the band

I have been given the amazing responsibility to create a new band that will start leading worship once a month at ncc for the entire congregation.  We're not talking children's worship or student ministries worship, we're talking church-wide worship.  Don't get me wrong, all of those time are important and shouldn't be taken lightly, but my group has been honored with bringing some more youthfulness into the mix for everyone.  It is going to be quite the task.  The LORD just finished off the group by giving us an electric guitar player who's rapidly becoming one of my favorite people musically, philosophically, and comically.  So here's the group; pre-named "analogue groove" (it won't stick, I'm sure):

Adam Van Liew :: Leader/Vocals

Jenny Brothwell :: Rhythm Guitar/Vocals

Daniel Kwast :: Electric Guitar/Vocals

Kha Do :: Bassist/Vocals

Ben Esh :: Drums/Percussion

Jenny (23) has been a friend for years, but never really close; I respect her insight and ability.  Daniel (20) and I just met on the KAIO get away trip to Lake Elsinore, CA, but he has impressed me with his philosophy of worship and his desire for excellence in what he does before the LORD.  Kha (18) and I have known each other for years; he is an incredible musician with an amazing heart; I am truly blessed to be working with him (and we share the same birthday!).  Ben (23) is now one of my best friends; I can truly say that I love this man; he's about half my size, so I make fun of his height all the time (yes, I'm cruel and rude); he has a great heart and I am just glad that he and I can talk and learn from each other.  I am so pleased to be a part of this.  We practice as a group for the first time tomorrow morning, though Kha will be missing (he's at a student ministries lock-in right now and will need to be sleeping when we are practicing), and our first time to lead the congregation will be July 6th.  We've got three Saturdays to be completely ready.  These are an excellent bunch of musicians who care about the LORD and I have no doubt that we'll all put our effort in to make this worth something glorifying to the LORD.

christmas dessert pics

Here are a couple pictures that Amy took of my barbershop quartet Four Cryin' Out Loud.

We very much enjoy singing together.

ncc christmas dessert

The NCC Christmas Dessert for the ladies of NCC and all those whom they invite is tonight at NCC (we're calling tonight "December Eve" since it's so early in the year for a "Christmas" program). Four Cryin' Out Loud, my barbershop quartet, is performing as the opening act of the program. As soon as I can, I will be posting a video I uploaded to YouTube of us singing our introduction song. I think we're hysterical, but you can make up your own mind. Check back soon!

men's retreat

We recently had ncc's men's retreat up in Prescott, AZ.  It was a nice get away and JoJo Bortolotti did our speaking for us.  He is quite an enthusiastic personality, let me tell you (as Melissa Hundley would say).  This is what happens when the group is all men and we need to use more than one restroom in our meeting hall.  Makes me wonder what the ladies do to the men's sign when we're not there.

The only thing we couldn't figure out in our short time there was how to ditch the skirt.

barista

These pics are from when Club Pink (the women's ministry at ncc) had a scrapbooking day and I was asked to serve the ladies specialty coffees. I had a good time getting to use all of my old barista skills, and I think the ladies had a nice time, too. Amy took these pics with her iPhone.

maggie brown's wedding

Maggie and her parents, the Browns, waiting for her grand entrance.

Maggie and new husband makin' out!

Amy and Maggie.

So, Maggie's now married. This marks the first marriage of any student which Amy or I discipled at ncc. Maggie married just two weeks after she turned 18, just two months after graduating high school. He is in the Air Force, and he helps guard missile silos in Montana (side note: the Spanish word montaña translates mountain in English). Don't know how things will go, since we've not really been around her for the last year and a half or so, and we definitely do not know him, but we wish them the best of the LORD's blessings for their new family.

long time

It feels like a long time ago that I truly posted last (other than the two videos of Aidan, that is). We've done and been through a lot in the past month or so. For some of it, we have pictures that we'll be posting, for others we have more feelings and things to express via words that we do pictures. First things first though, I feel as if I need to ask you for something. Please be praying for my family and a wise direction to follow as the LORD directs us. We desire to bring Him glory above all else, and we are having the privilege of being in the middle of a fairly major trial involving our church. There has been a lot of upheaval over the past few months. The elder board asked our senior pastor to step down to be shepherded through some issues they'd all been seeing for a long time. Randy Murphy decided to go ahead and take his family elsewhere. Our prayers and well-wishes go with them. We, as a body, are still trying to deal with what that all means, and yet there is more upheaval to come. We need to have a new senior pastor, and there will be another associate pastor position created to lessen the burden of responsibilities that the senior pastor has to deal with. Not only this, there are other things in the works right now that have not been shared with the congregation, and I have been asked not to divulge that information with anyone, spare my wife, so I will not loosen that bond of confidentiality here. I will only discuss it here for others to read once the elders have brought they're direction to the congregation as a whole, which should only been in another two weeks, at the latest, I am told. This hits Amy and I hard, though, as we now have to decide what role we are to play in the future of our church, ncc. We've been dedicated to sticking the storm out and seeing where the LORD lands us all, but now toward what will hopefully be the end of the storm we see another storm on the horizon and we're having to brace ourselves for it. Do we take up positions to guide people through the rough patch ahead? Do we abandon ship like so many others seem to be about to do? These are questions that need answers, and so I ask that you'd be in prayer with us about what the LORD would have us do to glorify Him most in the coming weeks, months, and seasons.

a game of settlers

Settlers of Catan has got to be my favorite board game of all time, maybe my favorite game overall. I got invited over to Justin Kary's folks' house last night for a game, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. First, I got to hang out with Justin and Tim (Davis) who were my guys in discipleship in the student ministries at ncc until Tim graduated last year and Justin this. This game turned into a 3.5 hour game. I didn't get home until almost 10pm and I had left around 4:15pm (I'm sorry, Amy). We had a great time playing and goofing around. I would love to have times like that with any of my guys, I mean, the men-who've-now-graduated-high-school (too long of a title?). And, yes, I won (w00t!). It was a long game, slow at times, but the wit around the table kept things interesting. I very much enjoyed myself in their company. If you've never seen Settlers, then below is just a visual taste of the game for you to take in. Maybe you and I should play some time (btw, Amy normally beats me).

These are resource cards that help you build items to increase your points which helps you win.

These are Development Cards from the original game. They are also used with the first expansion to the game, Sea Fairers, but not the third, Cities & Knights.
The Longest Road is used in all three expansions. If you have the longest road, you get two victory points toward your normal goal of 13. The most common ways to get victory points are through building settlements and cities.
This card displays all of the building costs for the original game. There are different things to build on top of these once you reach the Cities & Knights expansion (which is what Justin, Tim, their friend Nathan and I played).
This is Sea Fairers, an expansion to Settlers which includes more water hexes and shipping lanes to add to the Longest Road.

superhero rumble

Talk about an epic battle!

Those DP cans are deadly.

Bat-Girl is ready for anything.

In the end, Dr. Pepper invited Bat-Girl to a nice dinner together in the cafeteria.

dr pepper

I was asked to put a few of the "Dr. Pepper" pictures up, so I decided to put a few select ones up that show off the outfit that Amy and I put together for me for sc07 Chasing Heroes Friday. What do you think?

Chaz Oltman, Mike Chase, and I all looked fantastic, I must say. ;-)

Steven "Bomber" looked great.

We didn't think about it until the day of, but Amy could have gone as Diet Dr. Pepper and rocked the house. That would have been sweet, or nutra-sweet, at least. ;-)

sc07

I know it's been awhile since I posted last, but we've been at camp for the student ministries at ncc. sc07 (summer camp 2007) was incredible: heart change; great, freeing worship; good lessons; and awesome games. But best of all, we did it all to the glory of God. I've got over 500 pics that we took, but I won't be putting all of them up on this blog, though I plan to put a few select ones up. It was a great 5 days at PLNU (Point Loma Nazarene University) in San Diego, CA. It was at least 30 degrees cooler in SD than it was in Phx when we returned. Believe me, I love Phx and don't want to move away from my desert home, but it was quite nice to have a respite spiritually at camp and physically with the weather and beautiful ocean. I hope to get mon Amy's opinion on things up here, as well, but we are still trying to get back in the grove of life. We've had family here, as well. Misty & Melissa Sides, Amy's first cousins, have been staying with the Ogles for the last few weeks. It has been great to see them again and to be able to disciple Misty even more. She's got a desire for growth, and that's exciting. They leave today, so life might get back to normal soon, but it was a great time together, and Misty joined us at camp, too. Melissa will be with us next year, you can count on that. Overall, these last few weeks have been a blessing. Praise our God, for He is good.

quote

"Not about how to do church, but how to be the Church."
~Jamie Self (ncc sm pastor)

great evening

Tonight was great. The poker games were fun, but it was the fellowship of believers that made it even better. We got to just mess around, poke fun at each other, and enjoy getting taunted. It was a blast. Chris Blackford, Matthew du Mée, Michael Withem, Gethsemane (Sam, Chris' friend, and now mine), and I were the only ones who made it, but, boy, did we make it! I had so much fun. I got to talk with Gethsemane after everyone else left (he was waiting for his wife and step-daughter to pick him up). We talked about music and people who we know in common (JJ - the tenor section leader from DVHS when I was a freshman; he made All-State Jazz along with Gethsemane; they both went to Grand Canyon University for college on full-ride scholarships for vocal music). Gethsemane is also a Tenor 1 (same range as JJ and I; but with a little more range at the bottom than I - but that's true for almost any man) and plays the piano and guitar. He'd led worship at his previous church (now trying out NCC) and he had led the youth there, as well. He is 26...quite accomplished. He loves recording and computers. We had a great time laughing and getting to know each other tonight. Amy said his great laugh reminds her of someone she knows. She can’t remember who that is right now, but she had good feelings hit her when she heard the laughter (I bet it hurt). I look forward to getting to be around Gethsemane and his wife more. They’ll be trying to make it to our Saturday night Bible study, too, and we’ll see them on Sunday at church. Good times. Good times.

night with amy

Amy and I got to enjoy our late afternoon, evening, and night together. We dropped Aidan off at his grandparents' place, and we then went to dinner. We ate at Applebee’s, at Central & Camelback. It was happy hour, so we got a bunch of appetizers and that's all we needed. We enjoyed our time just taking it slowly. We then went over to Aaron Bros. to see some of Amy's previous co-workers. It was good to see them. We then headed downtown to get a good parking spot for the Suns' game we were going to. We parked in a garage that was only a block and a half away from the arena. We walked over, and on our way, Raymond and Marcus Roberts (people from our church, ncc, were there because we got the tickets through the church) got in front of us. We talked about them behind their backs, and when they realized who we were, we had a good laugh together. The game was fun, but it was even better that Amy and I got to enjoy the experience together. When the game ended, we started heading back to the car, but it was pouring! The sky sobbed its tears, and we swam our way to the car. We were definitely moist by the time we reached the garage. We dried ourselves off and headed to a Wal-mart so that Amy could get some decorative flowers for Kate's baby announcements that Amy's prepping. We then headed home, but stopped off at a McDonald's to get some ice-cream cones to make us even colder than the stormy weather. We then watched TV or something until about 1:30 am, and then went to bed. Since Aidan wasn't home, we felt that we could just enjoy ourselves and take all the time in the world...and we did. It was a great evening together.

the best part

I must say, the best part of the Suns 129 - 127 victory was being able to cheer the Suns on with my guys. My discipleship group has been together since they were in 7th grade, and I joined them as a leader the second semester of their 7th grade year. This is my sixth year with them, and they are a great bunch of guys. We poked fun at each other, each one pretty much getting his own turn, but we laughed and screamed and had a blast cheering our Suns on to this great win. We were hosted by the Tolmachoffs, and they provided pizza and the HD experience that this game deserved. What a blast we had together! We all jumped up and yelled when Nash hit that three at the end of regulation to tie. We high-fived and grunted together. Guys, if you're reading this, I love you all. You're an incredible blessing to me, and, no, not just because you like the Suns, also. I've been extremely privileged to be your d-group leader for all this time, and I am looking forward to the impact the Lord will have in and through your lives throughout the rest of this year and the many to come. I am proud to call you my friends. Serve Him with all your heart. He deserves our all. It's all for His glory: live like it.