Spoonful of Sugar to Can Held Down

Last night at TNT we played Telephone Pictionary. In case you haven't played, it's a combination of that telephone game you played when you were a kid and pictionary. (I give credit to Jake for this genius game.) For those of you who missed it, we got a stack of 13 papers (because that's how many people played) and we had to write a saying on the top paper. Mine was "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." You give the stack of papers to the person to your right and they have to illustrate your saying in 30 seconds. Then you had the picture to the next person to your right and they have to put down the saying that they think the picture is.

Mine was going really well until it got to Kelli and Jaime. Everyone did great until them. Then all of the sudden "spoonful of sugar" became "can held down." (Kelli and Jaime know I love them and I don't blame them for completely ruining spoonful of sugar) How does this happen? How can we be going so well and in one fell swoop, total change in understanding.

This morning I am reading this book called "It." About churches and ministries and people who have "it." I have enjoyed this book until this morning. Now, "it" has birthed a holy discontentment in me. I long for my life to engage with "it." How do you get "it"? I don't know. Even the author doesn't know but you know when you've got "it" and when you don't.

I pray for us as TNT that we will get "it." "It" doesn't happen all at once. Sometimes "it" takes time. And sometimes "it" surprises us. This morning it seems to me like I live in a dark hole and I am about to see some new light. Ever wonder if we are REALLY making a difference in what we do? What is the ONE thing that I can do and do well that would REALLY make a difference? Today, I don't know what "it" is. But, Lord willing, if I search, I will find "it." It may take losing my life to find "it" but "it" is worth that.

Here we go!

TNT is ready to go! After a couple of weeks off, we will be meeting on Wednesday, January 14th at 6:30 p.m. We will catch up on everyone's Christmas/New Year's, eat some pizza and play a couple games. We will order the pizza after everyone is there... Again, we meet in room 101 next to the coffee bar at Third Church in Pella, Iowa.

The next few weeks look like this...
Wednesday, January 21st 6:30 p.m. - Truth Project - Government. (One day after the President's inauguration (can I buy a vowel?), we will review an hour long video from the Truth Project. Discussion to follow.) Dinner is on your own.

Wednesday, January 28th 5 p.m. - NOTE THE TIME CHANGE! We are pumped about this week as we will be going down to Ottumwa to listen to Jeff Sangl give a Debt Free Seminar. Learn how to handle your money and benefit the Kingdom. Cost of the seminar and a dinner is $10. (BUT DO NOT let the $10 get in the way of you going! Really. Let us know if the $10 is a problem and we will handle it...)

Friday, January 30th 5 p.m.-ish - Iowa Chops Hockey Game. (Hmmmmm... Chops...Aurrgghhh) Cost will be between $10-15... We haven't nailed down all the details, but you can count on some hockey action at Wells Fargo for sure!

Wednesday, February 4th - 6:30 p.m - Nooma Video

Sunday, February 8th - Potluck after church. 12:30 p.m. More details to come.

Wednesday, February 11th - 6:30 p.m. - Nooma Video

What's up next!

TNT will be taking the next couple weeks off to celebrate the Christmas season. We hope and pray that you have safe and happy holidays!

A couple items of note. We will start back up on Wednesday, January 14th at 6:30 at Third church, room 101. We will be watching Nooma videos and studying scripture for the next semester. We are excited to get to know each other more and get to know and understand God and His plan for our lives.

We also have some social events in the works for the next couple of months. We will be traveling to the big city of Des Moines to watch the Iowa Chops in some exciting hockey action at Wells Fargo Arena. We may even work in some ice skating of our own at scenic Brenton Skating Plaza...the only outdoor skating arena in Iowa! We will keep you all posted on our plans.

Finally, we rejoice with Kyle and Sheila Punt on the birth of their new born baby boy! Caleb Jay was born on December 15th at 7:50 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs and 5 oz. Both mother and baby are doing very well! We actually got to visit the Punts in the hospital on Wednesday as we were caroling. The little guy is cute! We were able to snap the picture and let me tell you, he is every bit as cute as the picture show. Just precious!

Merry Christmas to you all and we will see you in January!

TNT Update!

Hey guys and gals! Just a quick update before you start your weekend. Three things!

1. No TNT this week on Wednesday (11/26/08). Enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday!
2. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, December 3^rd, at 6:30 p.m. We will be reviewing the first part of a video series entitled “The Truth Project.” I have no idea what this is about, either I spaced off when we talked about it, or they are keeping me in the dark…either is a distinct possibility. (But if you are curious, google it…and believe the hype!)
3. On Wednesday, December 10, we will be reviewing a NOOMA video, discussing how it applies to our lives and opening up the last 30 minutes for you all to give us some feedback. What do you like? What do you NOT like? What would you want to see changed?
4. I lied about only three things in this post. (And you fell for it!)
5. On Wednesday, December 17, we will be going caroling in the community. We did this a couple years ago and it was a big hit! Basically we just go around to different places, singing and passing out cookies. So on 12/17/08, please bring at least a dozen homemade cookies to pass out. And your beautiful voices.

Thanks everyone and again, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! If you have ANY questions, please let me know. Again, we meet at Third Church in Room 101 at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings. (By the coffee bar..) Everyone is welcome! Later!

James 5:1-12

Hi Everyone!
I really enjoyed our discussion the other night on James 5. If you weren't able to be there you should take a look at the text because wow, it's pretty powerful stuff. We discussed a lot on Wed night including a lot of the deeper meanings in the text. It's always amazing to me though how much we can learn from scripture alone. So here are a few things that I wrote down about the text and have been pondering throughout this week that were pretty clear to me simply from the text....

What we learn about hoarding wealth~
*Leads to misery, corrosion, fire
*Associated with dishonesty, selfishness (not paying the workmen), luxury, self-indulgence, getting fat (really that's in there!!), condemning and murdering innocent men.

What we learn about the Lord~
*His coming is near
*He is the judge
*He is full of compassion and mercy

Traits we want to have~
*Patience
*Perseverence
*Control of the tongue (No grumbling or swearing).

Isn't the book of James great?!? Next week we'll be finishing the 5th chapter and the following week you WILL NOT want to miss! We're going to do a wrap up of the book of James using "The Office" TV show...it'll be AWESOME!!

True, Kind and Necessary

One of the things going through my mind is this idea that Sheila brought up. When we have talked about "the tongue" and it's power in James 3, we talked about how do we know when to say something. There is so much power in this small thing. So, we talked about 3 things to let us know when we should say something.

1) Is it true? This is usually where we stop - yes, this is true, so I will say it.
2) Is it kind? Hmm.
3) Is it necessary. Boy I could save myself some grief and be much more quiet if I would get to number 3.

Maybe the political candidates should live by this. We would have a lot fewer commercials.

A night of service...

TNT had a great night of service last night. We started with a very hearty meal provided by Jen, which everyone enjoyed. I am going to butcher what it was, but it was a Mexican soup over cornbread and was just delicious! (Seriously hoping that Jen posts the recipe right here.) It was a great time of fellowship and I found it very relaxing after a hectic day at the office. (Lots happening with my fantasy football team...plus the waiver wire was busy....)

Then we got to the jobs. Three persons who were more "cooking inclined" took to the kitchen and baked up a storm. 350 cookies later, and they were finished. The gauntlet was laid down for the cleaning portion of the evening, with myself talking smack about my crazy cleaning skills (or skilz as the kids say...). Let me just say that Kyle and Clark answered the bell, and came out swinging... Clark tackled cleaning two windows at a time, one with each hand, cleaning in a clockwise manner with his left hand and counter-clockwise fashion with his right. (Did you just pick up your hands to see how easy that is??) Kyle answered by cleaning three (!) windows at a time, spraying them down with his right foot, using both hands and his tongue. It was impressive. He said it was a little trick he picked up in the Sioux Center plant. I thought I would go above and beyond the call of duty and pick up some trash, but Clark, cleaning some of the windows outside, found a chunk of concrete misplaced under the prayer tower, so, I kid you not, the man picked up the entire tower! I mean, it was just a couple inches off the ground, but I was impressed. The Tower looked a lot better after he put it down too. (See picture depicting the effect.)

All in all a great night of fun and service, answering James' claim that faith without works is dead. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like."

(Feel free to use the windows at Third Church to see a perfect reflection of yourself, because those bad boys are clean!)