Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Orange Conference 2008 p2

IMG_4006 Day 2 of the Orange conference has been great. Francis Chan, Kristian Stanfill, Donald Miller, Nancy Ortberg, Jennifer Tamborello, Donald Miller, Kid Stuf to the max.

Over the next week or two, I'll be blogging and sharing my notes and thoughts from each session attended. I take take great notes, too.

I'm a tired man. I hope I can sleep well tonight.

BTW - My room at the Sun Suites in Duluth, GA smells and is very noisy. It's a "leave your socks on" kinda place. I don't like the place but for $50 a night we are saving a bundle on lodging that i will get to spend later on taking volunteers to another conference experience.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Orange Conference 2008

I'm in Atlanta attending the Orange Conference. If you came here through twitter 'cause I'm following you now, it would be great to connect, meet and network.

I used the twitter tracking feature to find quite a few people that are attending Orange. If you send 'track orange' to twitter, you'll get every twitter message sent to you that has the word 'orange' in it. (you wouldn't believe how many people twitter about orange juice, orange julius, orange liquor and some orange computer thing)

BTW - I'm a children's ministry director at a reasonably large church in Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Our team is working hard to transition the ministry into an orange ministry using 252 and My First Look. For four years prior to my two years in this position I was the CMP at a fast growing church - from 1800 people to 4000 in 28 months. I've done some conference speaking, including the 2006 Purpose Driven Children's Ministry Conference. I really appreciate and value having a strong network of other leaders - that's my purpose for connecting.

Enjoy Orange!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Rider's Log 4.18.08 - On the Road Again! Milliken

This was my first ride on the road bike since last fall. I easily forget how much faster a skinny tire road bike is than a fat tire mountain bike. It was a blast to be out there again.

65 miles. 3:47 ride time. 17mph average.

Rode with Roger (62) and Bruce (55?) through farmlands east of 1-25 from Erie exit north past Ft. St. Vrain into Milliken. We ate a light lunch at a total small town dinner in Milliken and then rode back along the same route (Rd23). I felt great for the first three hours. The fourth hour was tough because it was by far the most effort I've put into the bike since last fall. My legs were screaming "STOP!" but I didn't. I let the two "old" guys drag my butt back. They are very strong riders and drafting is amazing. I imagine my time would have been 45-60 minutes longer if I would have been out solo.

Check out this bald eagle webcam along the route. http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/eagle.html There are eaglets in the nest right now and you can see them on cam on on the daily snapshots if the cam isn't working. We saw these birds out in the air when we rode past. Phenomenal.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Rider's Log 4.13 and 4.15

Both days about 17 miles up and down the Big Dry Creek Trail and three lung busting shots straight up the City Park Hill. (last summer i was doing 10).

April goal: 200 miles. So far: 34.

Wednesday Afternoon Snack Choices

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I wonder if I can eat the snow peas and not the cherry pie goodness.....

any bets?

P.S. The cherry pie is WAY better than gold fish crackers. (you know who I am talking to)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Twitter

According to Wiki...

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-bloggin service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterific or Facebook.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, text messages on their phone, email or through an application.

It's called micro-blogging. A great way to be connected with people around the country or in your own neighborhood. I've been doing it for a bit, like it and have connected with other people in my profession around the country. You can read my updates over there on the left or follow me http://twitter.com/johnincolorado

Julian Xane Phillips

David and Stacy Phillips are long-time friends. My wife and I have been been hanging out with them and serving with them for about 14 years. I love them both. Currently David is living in the basement of our home while he continues to work in Colorado so that he can keep Colorado residency and, therefore, his medical insurance at a reasonable rate. Each week he commutes back to Phoenix or, recently, Palo Alto while Julian prepares for a kidney transplant. Julian is a miracle baby. I smile looking at his picture because he is so unique and special; and, I remember the emotional impact of being at his bedside at Children's Hospital while he looked like a Matrix baby because of all of the tubes and holes he had in him immediately after he was born. Learn his story and you'll learn the kid is a survivor. Please read their story, read the updates and watch a video or two of Julian so you too can smile BIG when you see his picture. Also, please consider donating to help them cover their medical costs. - John

From their Children's Organ Transplant Webpage:

On Wednesday October Julian13th, 2004, Julian Xane was born to Stacy and David Phillips at the Estes Park Medical Center. He was 6 lb. 4 oz. 19" long. Julian was born with Potter's Syndrome, type 4 variant; the urethral valve, which normally allows urine to exit the bladder, was blocked, distending the bladder and severely damaging his kidneys. Most Potter’s babies die within hours of birth, but due to the hard work by the doctors at the Estes Park Medical Center and The Children’s Hospital (Denver) NICU, as well as healing hand of God, Julian survived and is thriving. His life is a miracle, and has even been acknowledged as such by the doctors who worked on him after his birth. Julian’s current diagnosis is End Stage Renal Failure, and his combined kidney function is in the 10% range – severe enough for dialysis, with the long term goal of a kidney transplant.

So here we are.

With the cost of an organ transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. COTA is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. At present, an estimated $100,000 is being raised by a team of friends and volunteers on Julian’s behalf. If you’d like to make a donation to Julian’s COTA fund, please click on the “Donate” tab above.

Please pass this web address along to those who may be interested in Julian’s story or in making a donation. Check back from time to time, as we’ll be using this web site to keep people informed about upcoming fundraising events, as well as the new home for Julian’s blog and photo album.

Thanks for visiting.

Stacy, David & Julian Phillips

Read their blog and get updates! Julian is pre-op for surgery as I write. Follow on Twitter @dphillips

Thursday

IMG_3993 6:00 a.m. awake. Hang in kitchen. "adios" to kids. shower

7:15 Scrape ice and snow off of car windows. Snow?

7:30 Meet Bill at Flatiron/Interlochen Starbuck's. discuss all things important: kids, jobs, Avalanche hockey, Starbuck's black logo, "Shout to the Lord" on Idol.

9:00 Arrive at work. Meet with Sami and Amy about Kids' Camp.

10:15 Straighten office for 11:30 VIP meeting. check email, clean up main CM space

11:30 Meet and talk with VIP

12:30 Give VIP tour of downstairs space

12:45 Hand off video project to editor

1:00 Meet with peers to debrief VIP meeting

2:00 Back in office. email. weekend prep.

3:30 This post

4:00 Weekend prep. powerpoint. music playlists. props gathered. stay at church until 8:30 so i can give L15 a ride home after youth group.

8:30 Home.

8:50 Weekend begins.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

What are you supposed to be doing?

Classroom/Child Management Help

If a child's not doing what he's supposed to be doing, he usually knows what he is supposed to be doing. So, in a friendly voice, ask the child, “John, what are you supposed to be doing right now?” When you ask, do your best to make sure it sounds like a question and not a statement. You might even need to practice a few times beforehand. If the child answers correctly he'll often start doing what you want him to do without any further prompting. Sometimes, it might be necessary to follow up with, “What are you going to do now?” He'll usually correct his own behavior and comply.

If a child gives you a response that indicates he doesn’t know what he's supposed to be doing, ask him to look at the other kids and see what they are doing or give him a direct instruction. Be sure to encourage children when they comply with your requests.

Variation: When a child is behaving in a way they are not supposed to behave, such as using a doll as a hammer, ask him if he's supposed to use a doll as a hammer. He'll usually know the answer and stop on his own and you won’t even have to tell him what to do. He's made the wise choice on his own.

What do you think? Have you ever used this? Any favorite techniques in your bag of tricks?

Last Weekend

Last Friday was horrible. Massive headache. Migraine. Pain. I was up early and started a repair job on the car at 9:00 but felt so badly that by 10 I was in a dark place in the house with a blanket over my head. I stayed that way until 10 that night.

Saturday I made up for lost time by getting a lot done. I met over breakfast with a guy I mentor professionally, unloaded a freezer that someone gave to us, loaded, unloaded and stacked a load of wood, got the lawn aerated, worked some wrench magic replacing two belts on the car engine, late in the day rode 25 miles on the bike and cooked chicken on the BBQ. It was a good day.

Sunday afternoon we all met at the in-laws for some of mom-in-law's gooood fried chicken, relaxed hanging out and some weird physical challenges. How long can you hold one leg out and extended while you sit in a chair? How long can you stand on one foot? How long can you hold a push-up position - two hands and two feet with your body straight? The competition was tough and ruthless! I don't want to brag about my domination of the events...cause that would be lying. I didn't dominate, but I did compete.

Had any good family times lately?

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Thursday

IMG_3989

Moved from the couch to the bed at 5:10 a.m. (L is out of town - fell asleep watching Seinfeld)

5:15 a.m. L15's first alarm goes off. (last night i kindly told L15 and A16 that i'm not waking them anymore at 5:40 a.m.)

5:20 L15's second alarm

5:25 L15's third alarm

5:45 A16 alarm goes off

6:00 Me up and in the shower

6:10 out of shower.

6:20 encounter L15 dashing from bathroom to bedroom(they catch the bus at 6:25)

6:20 While Alex is standing bewildered in the dark, casually tell L15, "Hey, I don't know what your plans are for getting to school this morning, but I'm leaving at 7:00 and will be headed in the direction of the school on my way to meet Bill." major relief from A16 and L15.

7:00 leave house and take kids to school. A16 says he wasn't worried about getting to school cause he knew he'd get a ride.

7:01 Make plan for how to be unavailable to give him a ride next time he over sleeps. (natural consequences?)

7:20 Call L and chat with her. (Forget to wish her Happy Birthday) Go to wrong Starbuck's.

7:40 Correct Starbuck's with Bill. Remember I forgot to tell L Happy Birthday. Chat about all things important - Rockies, Bill's move to NC, marriages, kids, wacky family.

10:15 arrive at work. read The American Church in Crisis...at least try to focus. email.

IMG_398211:30 Wonderful couple arrives with new cloth banner for CM space. Hang banner downstairs. It looks wonderful.

12:20 20 minutes late to lunch with special guest, Derek, from Kennsington Church. Creative and good place.

1:10 leave lunch early. Organize office a bit. Check a blog or two. Write this post

4:00 will leave to pick up A16 from home and take him to school for the Battle of the Bands. Take Lizzy home from track.

4:45 TBD. it's my Friday!!!! Maybe enjoy a precious Chili beer?