Schmucker Kick Off

Today will be my first experience as an official member of the five star team. For the next eight weeks I will be slowly progressing into the position of "point person" at Schmucker Middle School, which is the largest middle school in the area with around 1,100 students. Today I am just going to be observing the whole time. Each week I will be slowly taking more and more responsibility. Four weeks from now I will be speaking and basically running the whole deal at Schmucker. Should be fun working with Seth and trying to manage 62 middle schoolers.

La la la la la la, la la la la la

Have you ever wanted to be a smurf? I guess I never thought that running around in underwear and a white hat would that great but I guess if I would have to be a smurf I would be happy being...
Yes, this is my smurf personality.

If you want to take the smurf personality test, click here.

Oh...and my smurf nickname is...

Josh King - Goodie Smurf
Otis King - Vanilla Smurf
Joshua King - Smelly Smurf

Marriage Counseling

Hayley and I are in the midst of our marriage couseling and we are loving it!! We are taking a little different approach than most couples. We have decided to meet with 6 or 7 different couples who we know to get their advice about marriage and to ask them a series of 8 questions that we came up with. Here are the questions:

1. What was one of the best decisions you have made in your marriage?
2. What was one of the worst decisions you have made in your marriage?
3. What do you feel is the strongest area of your marriage?
- What advice can you give here? How can we make it strong as well?
4. How do you do your finances? Advice here?
5. Before marriage, what do we absolutely need to know about sex?
6. As you look back on your marriage, what is one thing or some things that you wish you were more prepared for or knew more about?
7. What do you do to pursue Christ as a couple?
8. Any other advice or any questions you might have for us?

So we are looking forward to hearing some of these answers and to see what patterns may emerge throughout the process. I know we are finding out some cool things about each other and I look forward to discovering more and more.

Family Missions

As I sit here at GCC brainstorming about Family Missions and what that might look like, I thought I would pull you all in on the process. We are making progress in this area and I am getting excited about what lies ahead. I am traveling to Mexico in April with Dan Blacketor (incredible volunteer here at GCC) to do some exploring for possible partnerships down there so I am excited about that. Also, a few of us are meeting in February to begin to lay a foundation for a team of people who will work together to pull this off. But for now, it is still in the brainstorming stages. So here is my question for you to think about and hopefully answer. For those of you who have a family: What would make you not want to miss an opportunity to travel to a third world country and serve? You can't say a free trip because that pretty much can't happen. So...

Hat Trick

No this post has nothing to do with hockey. But it does have something to do with me doing something for the third time. And with my wedding coming up in June, I decided that now would be a pretty good time to get started. So what am I doing? Well, I have decided to dig in and grind out another 12+ weeks of the Body-for-Life. There are parts of this program that I really like and some...well...not so much. I like that I always feel great during and especially after the program. I like the set up of lifting three days, cardio three days, and the ever coveted FREE DAY where you simply slip into sloth mode for a day (no workout, eat as much of whatever you want). I don't like getting up at 6:30 every morning to workout. I don't like passing on the awesome dinner or desert offered to you for free at different church events. And I don't like that if you quit the lifestyle after 12 weeks your body won't stay the way it is forever. But, I guess the phrase "nothing good comes easy" holds true once again.

So there you have it. I'm going the for the hat trick. As I press on, I do it along side some fellow BFL comrades. Good Luck Brian and Lisa Keim and Joel Maust. See you all on the other side of fat and lazy.

"Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey

I wandered in to Barnes and Noble last night, while Hayley was babysitting, to do some catching up on my reading and journeling. I have been thinking a lot about finances lately. Setting up a budget, controlling my money so it doesn't control me, and making sure we (Hayley and I) are making wise choices with the limited income we have. It was recommended by the GCC CPA that I check out the "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey is a Christian who has been twice a millionaire and flat broke inbetween. So I decided I would pick that up, grab a hot chocolate and begin reading. Once I started I couldn't stop. The book made so much sense and it was inspiring. I read the first 130 pages in one sitting. So much for the journaling part. The book is all about destroying the myths that rule our society regarding finances and helping people in debt (which the is majority in our country) get out of it. I feel fortunate that I currently have no debt but I know that if I don't continue to make wise choices that could change pretty quick.

So if you have debt or struggle with knowing how to manage the finance side of life, I would strongly recommend this book. More to come later.

A Slight Change in the Journey

As we live each day of our lives we make choices that will impact our future. Some are bigger than others but regardless of the magnitude, the choices we make will affect our future. A choice I have made recently was to put school on hold for now. The program that I was enrolled in at Bethel College was the Master of Ministry program. Granted there was some good material in both of the classes that I took, but after talking to a few different people who had been through the program, I wasn't sure it was worth the time and the money. The feedback I got was that the program was good on the theology end but the ministry training was very irrelevant. So, with the wedding coming up and the opportunity for further ministry involvment (five star, merge leadership team) I felt that the best decision was for me to save that money and time and use it elsewhere. Will I go back in the future? I think I would like to but it may just be a class here and there. For now, it's wedding and ministry and trusting that the Lord will provide in many ways.

Wedding Planning...

So Hayley and I are in the process of the making the important decisions to pull off a wedding that is going to be sweet. Anyways, we are currently looking for a photographer. Do you have any idea how much a good photographer costs? Well, if you don't, let me just tell you it is pretty ridiculous. So I am posing a question. Does anyone know of a good photographer that is fairly reasonable in price? If so, I would love to know.

iWant

Yesterday Apple introduced its newest creation. The iPhone. This thing is incredible. Hopefully a future purchase for me. Take a look at it here. I'm so glad I have been brought out of the darkness of PC land and into the light of the Mac world.

Five Star

As of the end of last week, I have committed to be a volunteer for Five Star. Five Star is a ministry founded by Justin and Seth Maust that reaches out to middle school students to help them discover who they are and what they can achieve. Over the last year this program has grown significantly in popularity in the Michiana area and is in very high demand. My role with Five Star will be a coach. A coach is a person who leads a small group of junior high students one day a week from 4-6. If I enjoy what I do, there are more possible opportunities that lie ahead. Just taking one step at a time. Hey, the doors open so why not explore what's on the other side?

Hit the Ground Running

2007 is off to a blazing start. Here are just a few events set for the new year...

1) Start volunteering for Five Star as a coach. (more on this later)
2) Going to Mexico for a week to do research for family missions.
3) Getting married...no small task...and going on a honeymoon.
4) Going to Vermont to stand up in my cousin Christian's wedding.
5) Co-leading a trip to Southern India in August.
6) Five Star Summer camp at Manowe.
7) Traveling to Chicago to do research for potential family missions.

...And if I pile the normal everyday odd and ends on top of these seven events, it could get pretty crazy. Not to mention all the traveling back and forth from Lansing for wedding planning. But I am looking forward to all of it because I know that in the midst of the crazyness and new experiences, physical, mental and spiritual growth will be the result. Time to saddle up!!!

153

That is the number of days left until Hayley and I are tying the knot. In case you don't want to figure what day that falls on it is June 8th, 2007. That is about 5 months. So the planning begins...it's go time!!!

The Countdown has been added in the right column.

I am Superman!!!

According to the super hero quiz, I would be Superman. Not sure about the little red speedo though.

Click here to take the what super hero are you quiz.

A Look Back

2006 was a year I will never forget. I dealt with more changes and more transitions than ever before in my life. I tried to pull out some of the big events from the previous year below.

1. Lead Pigeon River through their refocusing process
2. Made contact with Granger Community Church
3. Met with Jack Magruder (Director of Life Missions) about a possible internship
4. Traveled to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
5. Started talking with Hayley (who would later become my fiancee)
6. Announced my resignation from Pigeon River
7. Moved down to Mishawaka, IN
8. Started taking Masters courses at Bethel College
9. Started my 2 year internship at GCC
10. Was a guest speaker at a youth retreat in Albion, IN
11. Traveled to Chicago
12. Proposed to Hayley and she said Yes!!!

Those are 12 big events that took place in 2006. To sum it up, it seems like it was year that introduced a lot of new beginnings in my life. I can't wait to see where God takes these in 2007.