beach and baby

These are two great pictures! Wesley was really smiling and having a great time the other day and we were able to get a shot of it. He keeps growing and his legs are getting chunky now. The past month has been lots more fun since we are sleeping more and he is more interactive. The next picture is one of our teens buried in the sand at Misquamicut Beach in RI. The Connecticut beaches aren't that great so we took a trip to RI, which is only about 1.5 hours away. It was sorta cloudy, but we had a great time playing in the ocean, burying people in the sand, playing cards, eating humongous cheese fries, and enjoying each other's company. I got a little burnt since I didn't follow my own advice to the teens about "how easy it is to get burnt on a cloudy day." The water was a little chilly - probably the upper 60's but we swam a bunch anyway and laughed a lot as we tried to use the skimmer board and ended up crashing a bunch. If you have tried to use a skimmer board you know what I am talking about.

this is the day...

Probably my favorite part of being a dad, right now is the mornings. Usually I'm up before Hillary (since I sleep while she nurses during the night) so I'll try to grab Wesley when he first wakes up. Lately he's been on his belly - he rolls over now - and I'll flip him over and say hello as I take him out of the crib. He's usually a little groggy but once I talk to him a little bit he'll start to smile. Then as I'm chaning his diaper I'll sing his morning songs. The first morning song is "This is the day," which has a fun echo and goes like this: This is the day [this is the day], that the Lord has made [that the Lord has made]. We will rejoice [we will rejoice] and be glad in it [and be glad in it]. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And then you repeat it. When I start singing this song Wesley really starts to smile and gets all fired up. Singing this song and watching Wesley's response helps me internalize the words and remember that God has given me this day and that because of what Christ has done, I can rejoice regardless of the circumstances.

good books

I'm trying to catch up on my "reading plan" for 2008 and am enjoying time with books. The primary challenge has been rainy afternoons and late nights. Both of these sabotage my reading by inducing sleep. Here are two neat quotations that I've come across recently.

This is from the chapter on Apologetics: "Corresponding to human blindness is God's hiddeness. God hides himself from those who would know him without loving him. Pascal glories in the obscurity of Christianity, its "folly" as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 1. This obscurity is what we should expect from a God who hides himself from those who have no desire to love him. The revelation of God in Christ is ambiguous. Only through the gift of faith do we discern the presence of God in the same of the cross. ... The cross is the revelation of God to those disposed to love God, but it hides God from those disposed to reject his reign." This is a thought provoking book and as the authors here speak of the hiddenness of God they are arguing for the necessity of a faithful church community to show God's goodness. The chapter concludes "We need to make people want Christianity to be true. Then we might be able to persuade them that it is true."

This has also been a thought provoking book and still is. (I haven't finished either of these books yet.) N.T. Wright is a very smart and hard working guy who has done a lot of thinking about the resurrection. His primary thesis is that the early church's belief in the resurrection is only explainable by the fact that there was a resurrection. This may sound simple but after reading 250 pages there is a lot to his argument. A major theme that I've seen is how belief in a resurrection challenges power structures in this world. "The future resurrection and glorification of Jesus' followers will vindicate them as the true people of the one true God, despite their present suffering and humiliation, and herald the victory of the gospel of the powers of the world through the final act of new creation. ... Resurrection challenges the powers of the world, as no other theology or spirituality can do, with the news of the kingdom of the creator and covenant God."

family wedding

This weekend Hillary's dad got remarried and we were up in NY for a 4.5 days. In many ways this was a good time, but there was some sadness as it ties into the loss of Hillary's mom. Outside of the wedding some highlights included:

6 days of vacation - Wow!

Time with Hillary's sister and her family (3 cute kids).

Me going kayaking with Hillary's cousin and his girlfriend.

Swimming in the Battenkill, a river running alongside the family farm.

Reading under the apple tree in the afternoon shade.

Hillary's highschool reunion.

Seeing Hillary's cousins, one of who has a six month old we met for the first time.

Coming home and Wesley returning to a normal sleep schedule.

White Mountains

This past Thursday through Saturday I took 6 teens and one other adult hinking in the White Mountains of NH and it was a great time. We had awesome weather, which is super rare up there, and all made it back safely from our hike. I read this book about mountaineering and the author was saying that the trip is always a success if everyone makes it back safe and sound. This has become my motto and though some of us made it to the summit, the best part was all strolling into the parking lot together. It was a neat time to strengthen relationships among the teens, expose some of the teens to aspects of God's creation they had never seen, and for all of us to experience a serious challenge. My favorite part of the hike was emerging from the forest to hike above the tree line. There were stunning views, sunny skies, and a refreshing breeze as made our way along ridges, across boulder fileds, and finally across the saddle between a minor summit and Mt. Washington. Another highlight of the weekend was seeing the personalities of the different teens emerge, some more than I had seen before.

pictures and a week at home

Here are a few pictures of my time in Seattle and a recent photo of Wesley.

The city from a Water Taxi heading to West Seattle.

In the center of the picture you'll see a guy behind the counter catching a silvery blur. That is a huge salmon filet that another worker at this fish shop threw to him. This fish market is located in Pike's Place Market.

This is a shot of a neat exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. Cars flipping through the air with fiber-optic cables shooting out light.

This is me atop Granite Mt. which is east of Seattle and is an amazing hike. At the base it was almost a temperate rain forest, while at the top there is still a lot of snow. It was an exciting hike.


And finally, this is Wesley about two weeks ago at nine weeks old. He continues to grow and change and it is hard to keep the pictures up to date with the baby. He is smiling more and sleeping in his crib which is pretty awesome. This past week we've just been around home and that has been great.

a breather

This is the first somewhat normal Monday in three weeks, except for the electrician restoring power to half of our home. Between traveling to Seattle, ImpaCT 09 at our church, the Hartford Project with our teens, and visiting family for 4th of July we have been somewhat scattered. What I'll do is give you a quick summary of each and then I'll put some pictures up later.


Seattle: a great city with a totally different feel than cities on the East Coast. Lots of water, trees, and modern architecture. There aren't older buildings like there are here and there is this spread out feel to it all. I stayed at a great Hostel, walked around down town, explored via public transport, visited a neat museum, and spent time reading at a neat tea and crumpet shop. It was great to spend time with friends at the rehersal dinner and wedding and I was excited to hear about God working through his church in Seattle. In many ways the spiritual needs reminded me of the New England area, but it was interesting to see how the same issues of sin and brokenness played out in different ways. The same root issues lead people in New England to work themselves to death, while in Seattle people take vacation and rest very seriously. Here people tend to be blunt and cold while in Seattle they are warmer but very passive aggressive. Anyway, you get the idea - same underlying disease with different manifestatoins.


ImpaCT 09 - This was a time of focused gospel ministry where we had teams from AL, and MA, as well as individuals coming in from various other places. The two teams primarily focused on a children's program which we ran in an impoverished area of the city. The other individuals went through West Hartford and Waterbury (a city about 30min away) and sought to have conversatoins with people about God. God blessed these endeavors by providing opportunities to speak with a variety of people about the gospel. We are currently following up with the many people who either expressed interest in further conversation or committed themselves to Christ.


The Hartford Project - About 200 teenagers and youth leaders from fourteen area churches came into Hartford for a four day missions trip. We partnered with churches and orginizations in the city to show the love of God to Hartford. This was an amazing time of service as we God powerfully at work in all sorts of ways. We saw him controlling the weather so we could continue with our plans for outdoor festivals at two churches. We saw his life changing power as we heard about his work in saving people that come from places of influence and power, and people who have been brought to nothing by addiction. We also had wonderful times of worship as we praised God for all that we saw him doing that week. This was my second year participating and both times it has been an incredible experience.

Visiting Family - Right after the Hartford Project ended I hopped on the road to meet family in the Pocono Mountains of PA for a few days rest. Hillary had been staying with my parents for a few days and came up with my dad to meet us there. The unsung heroes of all that I have been telling you about are Hillary, my family, and some friends who have helped Hillary care for Wesley as I have been generally out of the picture the past few weeks.