saw this on a friend’s facebook…amazing video. that’s the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the lower right. dangerously beautiful.
ht Shirley Jahn Parrott
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take your best shot…God wants to use you.
hanging at the pdym-slc - parker, austin, emmah and adam
last summer while at the student leadership conference at saddleback we had the chance to hangout with alot of cool folks – one person in particular was austin gutwein. austin is a humble guy. yet he’s had a huge impact on so many in his short life and the impact just keeps growing. most recently he has completed his first book …take your best shot… scheduled for release in early september.
austin joined us for a skype conversation during the dare2serve mission trip in june. had a great conversation with our students. you can watch it
here.
here’s the promo video for the book. so cool.
here’s my take on the book…take your best shot is a great read. many good stories about finding your place in God’s Story. what makes the books so good is that its “just” a story about a pretty typically “normal kid”. but as austin admits he’s gotten “swept along on an adventure that’s totally abnormal.” something he hadn’t planned on at all. and its out of that honesty that the book is a real encouragement to seeing how God can use the humble heart of anyone. The core for me is the reminder from austin that the adventure that we are all called to be a part of looks like this…
- we realize the world actually does not revolve around us
- we realize that we only have one life to live, only one chance to make it count.
- we start off by focusing on who we are rather than what we do.
- we discover that doing something bigger than ourselves begins with Someone bigger than ourselves
- we do a major motivation check.
- we embrace our own passions and adopt our own purposes.
- we are willing to dream big and act small.
- we partner with others who are going in similar directions.
- we prepare for desertion, opposition, and distraction.
- we celebrate like crazy when cool things happen around us.
- we willingly join this group of people who are taking their best shot and doing things that are bigger thant themselves.
take your best shot is a book that everyone will enjoy. students – to help them see that they truly have something to offer and the world is just waiting for them to act…and adults – realizing they have something to offer our youth.. that we see how important it is to risk in the ideas, heart and passion of those around us…whether our own children or youth at church. the quote from abraham lincoln near the end of the book that sums it all up ” in the end, its not the years in your life that count. it’s the life in your years.”
what life is in your years? Review Grade: A
you can order the book by clicking on the image above. you can also follow austin and his exploits on twitter.
summer camp fun
this week was our 5th wednesday gathering. when a month has a 5th wednesday we use the day to deepen the sense of community we share as a staff. we usually get out of the office for a few hours. since this month we were in the middle of camp new hope, we went out to the camp to hang with the kids from our camp. two fun things happened while we were there.
the first was jeff selph, myself and a camper being tapped by shoe-dini (our own kevin rush) to participate in a skit after the meal. i wasn’t really prepared to capture the whole experience. but the great shoe-dini asked us to remove a shoe. which we did and then…check out this clip…
not too much later, as we thought the campers were headed out for rest time, scott hall the executive director turn the tables and invited the campers to invite us to join in on one of their songs about joe and the button factory…check out this clip…
we had a lot of fun. given the transitions were pushing through it was good medicine for us all. glad we did it…good memories all around.
summer camp!
one of the deep memories for me has been summer camp. early on my parents sent me off to skyview over by millersburg. then the camp was owned by former browns footballer vince costello. a few years later my parents sent me to a church camp and literally for the next 30 years i didn’t come home. i moved from camper to counselor to director the last three years i went.
so now that i’m pastor by vocation i’ve had the pleasure helping create the process of getting our kids to camp. given the buys nature and the newness of our outpost we’re starting with building summer camp into the dna of our spiritual process for youth. my hope is that in a few years we can add a teen session to our summer calendar. so yesterday was our first day. the campers arrived at 5:00 got checked in and then dinner. after dinner they spent the evening building community. it was fun to hear the laughter from the field. several moments stood out to me last night. the first was the “lowering of the flag”. it was sort of amazing as thc campers assembled from having played really hard at the foot of the flag pole. by cabin they stood there silent as our amazing program director ben shared the process for the closing each evening. then christiana one of the amazing counselors lowered the flag and helped fold it neatly. here’s some video…
the most important part of camp is the heart of the counselors. all these young guys and gals are amazing. there’s more to think about but i need to head off to join them for breakfast. i’ll leave you from one of the “you repeat back” songs that they were introduced to last night. if you think about it, please share your favorite memory from summer camp.
Jill & Kevin’s big day- me 2
just have to add this. when i first saw this early this morning the count on youtube was 1.2 million… now 7/24/09 13:50 its 1,960,242! …and NOW – 7.25.09 12:00 its at 4,639,607 ! simple craziness. (its was posted on youtube on 19 july!) so if you’re not in the internet viral loop check it out. and then head over here and see the rest of the story. there’s a great interview of jill and kevin about the fun they had.
i thought they were at the airport someplace…i figured heading home from their honeymoon. nope…it turns out they were headed out to ny to do the national morning tv circuit. it the midst of our many messes…this video has to make anyone smile and laugh. life is good when folks risk.
check this out
