the Wims family

This post is simply to offer up a family in great need of prayer and encouragement. It is a family that I do not know very well but have some connection with through our church. Brad Wims is the son of one of my elders here in Granbury. I know Brad through a fantasy football league that I used to play in a few years ago as well, yet I have only met him in person once here at church. Brad, however developed a rare form of bone cancer last year. Here is the description from their blog:

In January of 2007 Brad was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma. After 3 massive surgeries in a 4 month span, 2 1/2 months of stomach bedrest and hundreds of hours of physical therapy, our family continues to take each day at a time.

The Wims have not experienced a lot of success with conventional treatments so they are looking at some alternative treatments abroad. They have settled with a treatment in Germany and are making preperations to fly over there by the end of the month. This will both be expensive and time consuming, but will possibly be an answer to the illness.

Our church had an extensive prayer time for Brad on Tuesday evening. It was beautiful to see God's people show up and pray for Brad, especially those who had never met him or his family.

I want to extend the prayer circle ever so slightly through this blog. Go to www.thewims.blogspot.com to get the full scope of what this family is going through right now.

I know that it seems like there are so many people to pray for and so much sickness and hurting going on in our world right now. It probably would be easier just to focus on the hurting people in our little circles, but I encourage you to battle with us on behalf of this family.

the bullet-point update

I really need to update the blog so I figured I would do so in bullet point form without a lot of detail.

- I am married now as of two weeks ago. Married life rocks.

- There is a possibility that I will be changing directions in grad school to have a family ministry emphasis instead of just general ministry

- Lydia and I are homeowners in a little country neighborhood outside of Granbury in a town named Cresson. I have a little stream out in the back that I catch ginormous 1\2 pound perch out of.

- I will be an uncle soon (by blood). Check out my sister's blog

- This site is friggin hilarous

That outta hold you for a while........

the "bad' kids part 1

This past weekend we had our spring retreat with the youth ministries from the Tenth and Broad COC in Wichita Falls and the East Point COC in Wichita, KS. We met up at Pettijohn Springs Christian Camp in southern OK. This was a special weekend because we were able to bring in Benny and Nikki Nowell of the Sevens ministry in Boulder, CO. These three ministries coming together with the purpose of learning more about the love of the Father excited me. What was even more exciting is that I was able to bring 26 high school students, by far the most we have ever brought on a HS only retreat.

Yet this weekend was extremely difficult for me when it came to my group. I have been used to having pretty clean cut church kids who do what they are supposed to do and ones that you don't have to worry too much about. We have a large amount of those kiddos in our group yet we have a small but growing segment of teens who are rough, immature, and pretty hard to deal with. It seemed like this minority of the group really made it tough on the rest of the group.

What was striking to me about this group was that these kids (the difficult ones) are the ones that need to most love and attention yet will demand the most discipline. I am a horrible disciplinarian! What tends to happen is that I will let a lot of things slide then come down super hard on the kids when they have gone too far. I have never had a group of kids that I have to be constantly on the lookout for kids doing what they aren't supposed to do. A big part of me wants to tell them not to come. That is horrible, but it is how I feel sometimes.

I tend to heap a lot of this on me because I don't exactly know how to deal with kids who are perpetually "on the bad list". It would be easier to just love them and accept them as they are, but they become a drain on everyone else if their behavior is left unchecked. These are the things I have struggled with, especially how to keep the "balance" of discipline and love, expectation and acceptance.

I have much more to say about this so I will post a "part 2" soon. Post your thoughts if you would and we will keep the discussion going.

A quick update

A new year arrives and I didn't really know it! Life has been running at such a break-neck pace that I haven't really had the chance to take stock in a whole lot lately. So, let me get you guys a couple of things that are going on with us right now.
1. I have bought a house. Actually, Lydia and I bought a house. Now, before you dial the phone and call me a fornicator, let me explain what the situation is. A few months ago when Lydia and I knew we were going to get married, she found this house in between Granbury and Fort Worth. She knew that she would be working in Ft. Worth so it would be convienient to find a house in between where she worked and where I worked. Well, we found this house that was at a perfect location and was the perfect size. But, she wasn't working yet so we couldn't afford it. A few weeks later, she got an offer from Cooks Childrens hospital in Fort Worth. So, I called our realator and she put an offer on the house. They accepted and the rest is history. It is such a cool house! I plan to post some pics soon so that everyone can see it. Lydia will be living there for the next three months until we get married. I have moved out of my apartment and will live with one of my elders until the wedding. So, fear not my friends! We are doing everything we can to keep things on the up and up despite what it might look like.
2. The wedding date is on April 12th. That is a little more than three months! We are really excited and frankly really ready for this day. It will be a day of celebration for what God has done for both of us and our families. We hope you can come.


Things are really exciting right now! Pray for us as we continue to prepare for this life together. I hope to write more soon.