Which Superhero are you?

My brother posted his results for the following survey on his blog and my obsessive curiosity couldn't resist filling it out.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern
Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Green Lantern		95%
Superman		70%
Spider-Man		65%
The Flash		55%
Hulk		55%

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Early Bird Extravaganza ( Day 3 )

Monday was a bummer as we had hoped to face a few teams that we saw playing on other courts that were very beatable. I don't know what tournament bracket those teams made it into, but they weren't in the Ruby Tournament where we hoped to meet them.

We lost the first match of the single elimination tournament, but the girls should be proud of their effort all weekend as mostly 15 year olds in a 16 year old tournament. The results are posted on the BAVA website: Match Results

The girls are improving and they have several tournaments to go. Carmen got a lot of good experience returning 16 year serves and that will help her much more than last year's experience on the 14-2 team.

Carmen views her volleyball experience as "character building" since the losing humbles her, but she has asked why God wants to develop her character instead of someone else.

The coach has goals of getting the girls to play together more as a team and I think she has focused on the right thing. They all need to be more vocal and assertive. By the end of the year, I am sure they will be clicking like clockwork.

Early Bird Extravaganza ( Day 2 )

Our second day in Columbus started out with a late lunch with Keith at Buca Di Beppo Italian Restaurant.

I rode 20 miles on an exercise bike to try to overcome the sluggishness hanging over from Day 1, but I easily recreated that sluggish feeling with single order of fresh salmon with pesto from the lunch menu.

We ate at this restaurant with the team last year but the staff at Keith's hotel encouraged him to go there for lunch today so we went again. The food was fair, like last year. The restaurant's best features are its Front Street location and the variety of entertaining Italian artwork, statues and photographs.

A light lunch of pasta is also good for athletes planning on a long day. It's really too bad that only one of us would be participating in the tournament.

Carmen's first match was at 4:00 and her team played very well again. Her second match at 5:00 was the most difficult of the weekend. After watching them play at 3:00, we really thought that might have been our first win of the weekend. We were wrong. This team won our pool and we lost our pool, so it was very disappointing.

The net of two days of pool play puts us in the Ruby tournament. While we were driving home, Carmen wondered if Ruby was the third level: Gold, Silver, then Ruby. Jackie explained that there were a few more between Silver and Ruby: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Diamond,Emerald, Sapphire, and then Ruby.

We've also been enjoying my brother Keith's observations and commentary on the weekend. Keith is a retired consultant with an open mind, a frank speaker and a great writer. His research on our family was definitely widened this weekend.

Early Bird Extravaganza ( Day 1 )

The BAVA 16-2 girls played well today at the Early Bird Extravaganza in Columbus, but they came up short on all the matches. The second game of the first match was probably the best game that they have ever played.

There were 28 courts of volleyball and most were busy all day long.

I could really see the improvement in Carmen's play since she has been working at the HIT center. She is playing with more confidence.

Keith was excited about the variety of people at the conference center: Volleyball, Cheerleaders, United Nations and 4H.

He spent most of his time dealing with Becca's energy. She doesn't pay much attention to the volleyball game.

We enjoyed a surprisingly good meal at really reasonable prices from the Thai restaurant at the food court for dinner.

The Gospel in Six Minutes

We made it to Columbus late last night and I got to play Euchre with some of the other volleyball parents.

This morning I slept in until 7:45 and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast. We are eagerly awaiting Uncle Keith's arrival and the start of Carmen's tournaments this afternoon.

I had a chance to talk to a couple this morning in the lobby that had driven to Columbus from Maryland to participate in an annual musical event. I also met two families that drove from Pittsburgh to attend a Harley convention.

Columbus is the place to be!

After returning to the room, I found this simple testimony from John Piper that hits the mark.

Simply Good News

I finished reading a book that my nephew gave to me. His family knows the author because they have worked together on mission trips.

Ben gave it to me at Thanksgiving and I didn't finish it until mid January. The whole book was an interesting testimony but I particularly enjoyed chapter 8.

Chapter 8 talks about Awe, Honor, Respect and Trust that are necessary parts of any loving relationship. He states that taking away trust from any relationship will cause respect, honor and awe to fall away. Soon, we will not place time and energy toward honoring the other party. Certainly not the time and energy that we first invested when Awe was at its peak.

Our relationship with the Lord is similar because it is a loving relationship, but very different because the Lord never fails and is always deserving of our awe, honor, respect and trust. Bob suggests that these four characteristics are summed up in the phrase "the fear of the Lord".

Today, society is trained to seek a doctor when we are sick, a lawyer when we are in trouble, a pastor when we need spiritual counsel, or your favorite search engine when we need information. Jesus told us to "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God".

Judgment Day

A week after Dare2Share, several of us got a chance to show Tatesbrook a shortened version of the Judgment Day drama. Later, the youth shared their testimonies and Kim led the body in a cell phone exercise. It was very good to have Kent's praise band from BCM there to follow the sharing.

I sure am glad that God's got everything in control. Sometimes it doesn't seem like anyone is in control from our earthly perspective.

Video credits: Josh Wilson.
Directors and producers: Matt and Kim Hind

Beyond the Ultimate

I just got an email from my college roommate pointing me to the following website: Beyond the Ultimate

At this website, I found a new book to put on my wish list.

It is amazing that the Super Bowl became a platform for two Christian men to Go, Fight, Win in sharing the superior leadership styles of Jesus Christ and how those styles can unify and motivate athletes at the top of their game.

Super Bowl XVI was the third most watched event in all of history. And these two coaches demonstrated great sportsmanship on the field and pointed to the most significant event in all of history. Be sure to listen to Tony Dungy's view of our heavenly Father's ultimate sacrifice by choice.

Quote from Tony Dungy: “Football is a profession that is judged by performance and results,” says Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. “However, those things come and go so quickly that, as a coach, I have to base my career on something more."

Nice job, Tony and Lovie!
Nice job, Athletes in Action.
Nice job, Campus Crusade for Christ.

Dare2Share a Success!

We had a great time at Dare2Share. 4,300 kids collected 9 tons of food for the Salvation Army while they canvassed Columbus. Four of the twenty one kids that traveled from Lexington accepted Christ. All were eternally impacted.

GO! FIGHT! WIN!

Here's a picture that we took at Beechwold Christian Church. We all slept in the youth room on Friday and Saturday nights. We worshiped with them on Sunday morning and got back just in time to head to the Super Bowl Party.

Heading to Dare2Share 2007

Game Day

As we prepared to leave for Columbus today to reinforce this message:

• God created us to be with him.
• Our sins separate us from God.
• Sins cannot be erased by good deeds.
• Paying the price for sin, Jesus died.
• Everyone who trusts in Him has eternal life.
• Life that's eternal means we will be with Jesus forever in heaven.

I was amazed at the timing of this YouTube news report that a friend sent to me. I don't know the Newscaster or the Atheist, but I dare to say that neither are great world renown thinkers, pioneers and leaders like Albert Einstein, George Washington, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Galileo and Columbus ( just to name a few )

I told Carmen about this report on the way to school and she saw the folly of at all quickly. How smart can they be if they compare the greatest leader and thinker to ever walk this earth to Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. As Christians, we try to tell "the entire world" about Jesus Christ, but this guy is fighting an uphill battle recruiting from kids that don't appear to be very deep thinkers from the way they speak.



I can't help but wonder if this guy has read the book from which he quotes. Clearly, he doesn't know anything about the author or else he wouldn't have a smirk on his face about the attention that he is getting at the expense of teen age lives.