Christmas Review

This week has been nuts! I spent most of the last week at the Vineyard. We had the play on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday then regular church stuff on the weekend plus the Donut Outreach Sunday night. The play was so so, I mean I don't really know what the point of the play is supposed to be at VCC, so it's a little hard to evaluate how it went. One if the staff people asked me about it and I told them i thought it was OK. He asked me what I thought the point of the play should be, I told him that we should somehow tell the story of Christ. By the story of Christ I mean how people are hopelessly separated from God without the redemption offered by Christ in His death on the cross. It could be my Young Life background talking here, but doesn't it just make sense that if you have a church full of people who ordinarily wouldn't go to church, to talk about Jesus in an evangelical manner. Anyways the play came and went as did the rest of the weekend leading to the donut outreach on Sunday night. This outreach is one of my favorite outreaches of the year. I love the opportunity to make someone feel really special, especially when it takes almost no effort. You really get to see God do some amazing things, because honestly a box of Krispy Cream donuts sucks and God has to overcome that, and He does, and its incredible. I took one box to CVS and one box to Wings and Rings both in Milford. No breathtaking stories this year, but who knows what God may do with it. We aren't commanded to make things incredible, we are just commanded to go.

After the donut outreach I met my mom's side of the family at my grandma's United Methodist Church in Perintown. It was about as radically different from the Vineyard as anything could be. First of all the pastor, her name is Naomi, knew the names of everyone there, even the people who don't normally go and just came with family. The church only actually has like 19 members and for the choir performance 10 of the members left the pews to go sing in front. It was awesome. Another awesome thing was the "congregational choice" hymnal. Naomi asked the congregation what we wanted to sing and some ladies in the back had one already picked out. The best part was that she really convicted the audience to think about where they stand with Christ. It wasn't threatening or awkward at all it was just good.

The most disappointing part of the weekend was the Bengals game. I didn't see the game or the highlights, but I heard about it...and that was enough. I don't know how it happens, it's just not our year. Now I have the dolphins game on int he background which sort of depends whether we have a chance to go to the playoffs or not. It's just a bad situation for us. We have on of the best teams in the NFL, and we lost a lot of games that we should have won and here we are likely not going to the playoffs. It just makes me sick. Baseball starts in 2 months...

Tonight I went to a party with my dad's side of the family. It was a very predictable experience. The same stuff always happens at events with that side of the family. People always get the same gifts, we eat the same food, we sit in the same arrangement, and talk about the same things. I still like it though, it a piece of familiar in a world of change for me. I got some sweet gifts, this year. I got a soccer jersey from my cousin, a gun case from my uncle, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. I am usually not about gifts, but this year I liked them a lot because people actually took time to get me stuff that I will use. They put more thought into it than usual, and it was great. So that's pretty much it. I hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas as well. Have fun back at work tomorrow, I know I will.

matt