Not a Coincidence

Why do I doubt, or why do I every have concerns that I don’t give to the Lord? Sunday morning in church our Minister talked about the most important think in our walk with God, our relationship with Him. The world might call it a coincidence that only a couple weeks after the Lord laid it on my heart to evaluate my relationship with Him; I hear a message on it church. There is no such thing as a coincidence though so I know that Gods hands where at work again!

What I have come to the realization of is that it’s my relationship with God that drives all the other parts of my Christian walk. How close I am to God directly affects my attitude, my relationship with others, my ministries, my patience level, my desires, etc. My relationship with God takes work though its not fast food, its more like a home cooked meal it takes time & effort. I need to spend time talking to God, reading His Word, listening to God, then I am focused on the Heart of God and not my heart, and life seems simple!

SOS Olympics I

Last night we had the first every SOS Olympics. SOS is a long story but what it has come to be is getting the High School Sunday School kids together every other Wednesday night for some fun activities and a lesson.

We had a great time last night I laughed incredible hard a few times. It got a little serious a few times (but at least no one was pulling others canoes, right Chad). I personally decided I better not get involved because all I would do was prove how out of shape I am getting. But watching the kids was a blast, they all had fun and wanted to do most of the events over again.

The funniest think that happened all night was these three young lads steering there canoe under the pier. Watch in the video towards the end the canoe in the top right corner. How Dillen made it under the pier I have no idea………




So with out further ado here are your winners……..

Girls Shot Putt

Bronze: Elise Gold: Tiff Silver: Jessica

Boys Shot Putt

Bronze: Jordon Gold: Alex Silver: Troy

Girls Long Jump

Bronze: Elise Gold: Jenna Silver: Tiff

Long Jump Boys

Bronze: Troy Gold: James Silver: Brandon

Relay Race

Gold: Jr Sr. Team
Silver: Freshman Team

Canoe Race

Bronze: Clint, Caleb, James I Gold: James A, Tiff, Cheater Silver: Phillip, Taylor, Shawn

Vollyball

Gold: Jr. Sr. Team

The last event of the night was Devotions, because winning without a good attutide does not bring Glory to God. But winning with a good attitude can!!!!

Prayer before Devotions

For more pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.gerber/SOSOlympicsI

Work, Work, Work......

All the administrators got new BlackBerry’s this week. For me that meant I had to setup BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) that allows them to get all there email calendar and task, all that collaboration stuff. Which sounded simple but come to find out the BES is very picking on which version of BES software you are running with which version of GroupWise Server and GroupWise Client on your BES server. After putting that puzzle all together I found out we were running different version of GroupWise on a couple of our GroupWise servers. So we update the all the GroupWise servers to the newest release, which in turn meant that we needed to update all the GroupWise Clients on all the staffs’ machines. At this point I sing my praises to ZENworks because instead of having to run to every staffs’ computer we updated all 500 some staff computers this morning and I never left my office or remoted into any staffs computer. The BlackBerry’s are being synced and the administrators will being getting them soon.

Also today I the opportunity to help in an online webinar to prompt the wonderful Helpdesk software that GroupLink puts out. Daren, Jarod, Zack keep plugging along you guys have create software that makes my life better, and Norm thanks for letting me get involved. I appreciate it!

Only two more days to go……..

Gods first desire

I read John Hagee’s weekly devotional on occasion. The following is an excerpt from this week’s
“God did not deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt's bondage so that they could live in the promise land. He brought them out of bondage so they could know and worship Him.”

He goes on to talk about how God first and foremost wants a relationship with you that is the reason we were created. That it is easy for us to get caught up in other things bad or even good things can interfere with that relationship. He therefore may bring things into our lives in order for us to see our need of a relationship with Him.

If you want to read his version here is the link he says it much better.
John Hagee Weekly Devotional

So I say all of that to say this. Today I have really been thinking about where I am with my relationship with God. Is He the friend I talk to everyday and share everything that is going on in my life? Or is He the friend that I call when I need someone to talk to? Is He the friend that I call when I need advice with a problem? Is He an old friend that I only talk to when I bump into Him somewhere? Or is He the friend that I don’t talk to anymore because I we had a difference of opinions?

If He is not the like the first friend the next question is why? I don’t really like the answer to the first question so I am trying to figure out way. What is in my life that I am allowing a higher priority than my relationship with God?

Looks like it might be a good weekend for pondering and organizing priorities.

Remodeling Pictures

Here is the link to the before and after pictures of the house that we remodeled.


http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.gerber/BeforeAfter

Emotional roller coaster

Emotional Roller Coaster…….

This Labor day weekend will be remember for many years in our family, for good and sad reasons alike.

Saturday morning we went to the memorial service for Leslie Aschliman, (Brittany’s first cousin). Leslie (32) beat cancer in July and now is perfectly healed and praising Jesus for it every minute now and for all of eternity. The memorial was but together and done in great style; Tyson’s (Leslie’s husband) minister message was very good. Honestly I have no idea the last time I cried that much, but it was good to get all those emotions out.
Two thoughts have helped me come to grips with this whole situation. One is that God the created of the universe can see everything, everybody, every situation as they are right now, and into the future forever, while I can only see things through my own two eyes. Which leads me to thought two, I know that God is using this for good in many ways that I can’t see or understand and that I will never know about. For example Tyson and Leslie blog that originally was used to keep family updated on what was going onn ended up receiving over 100,000 first time hits in 70 different countries. So I could ask why for all my days on earth and never completely understand, but I know All things work together for good when you are following God!

Sunday my brother In-law Logan Aschliman got married Abby Reinhard, still not sure how he got her to marry him (just kidding Lo). It was a great day everybody was all done up and everything looked great. The minister Ted Witzg Jr. was great I got to talk to him some he truly is a scholar. The food at the reception was amazing I could have had 2cds and 3rds.
Most importantly is that they both have Jesus first in there lives and I know that they will be together forever. Sure they will have some ups and downs and they might even argue a few times (even though they probably don’t think that yet).

Monday was a relaxation day, I slept in did work at the new house to get ready to move. Then we went and hung out with friends for the afternoon and evening, which included swimming and badminton (I was 0-4) for the most part. It was great end to a very emotional weekend.

Tyson, Steve, Vic, and family we are still praying for you. Logan and Abby Congratulations!!!!!