Early Birthday Present

It is 2 weeks before my birthday, and today I received an early birthday present. We went down to Guitar Center to pick out a starter Electric Guitar set for our son Matthew. We found him a Fender Squire Strat starter set that includes the guitar, amp, strings, instruction booklet, and most importantly, headphones so we don't have to hear him practice. It was offered at a good price. It was such a good deal that after we picked out a set for him I picked out a Fender Squire Bass Guitar starter set for myself. I have played the Acoustic Guitar off and on for about 30 years, but have always wanted to learn the Bass Guitar. Happy Birthday Rick! I promise I'll learn how to play quickly. I promise!

Youth Encounter 2006

Wow! Marilyn, Matthew, Bethany, and I all attended Youth Encounter last Thursday and Friday in Springfield, Illinois. We went with our church's Youth Group. There were about 3,000 High School and Jr High School kids at Youth Encounter and aroound 200 came to know the Lord personally there. The speakers and the bands were all top quality.

The speaker was Doug Herman of Vertical Ministries and PureRevolution. What a great testimony Doug has. In addition to his testimony we was a very polished and captivating speaker. He had the youth riveted to and listening for every word. Very motivational and convicting.

The worship leader was Joel Engle. I've heard Joel a couple of times at our church, and thought he was good, but he was fantastic at YE. He truely is a gifted worship leader and his testimony had our youth talking late into the night.

Other music playing at YE were very good also:

Inhabited kicked things off and played again on Friday. I thought they were extremely talented, but our kids wished they had more audience interaction. Music was great!

The Afters closed things down on Thursday night with an hour concert. I thought the music from Inhabited was a little better, but our kids liked The Afters a lot more because of the way they interacted with the audience.

KJ-52 finsihed off YE on Friday afternoon. Although I am not a rap music fan he did a great job getting the crowd involved and building excitement. My daughter was part of the mosh pit and she couldn't quit jumping up and down all day. By far KJ-52 was the kids favorite act of the conference.

All in all the Illinois Baptist State Association put on a top quality event that provided entertainment for our High School and Jr High School youth and at the same time gave them an avenue to think about purity and loving God.

Good job Charles Campbell for putting on such a great event.

Christmas Movie Marathon

We spent a good part of this last weekend watching movies that had a Christmas theme. I think we may had OD'd on Christmas movies. Almost all of the one's we watched were made in the last 20 years or so. I can't believe how many movies are out there that are made in the last 20 years that have a Christmas setting. Here's a list of the ones we watched this weekend:

- Home Alone! 1
- Home Alone! 2
- Christmas With the Kranks
- The Santa Claus 1
- The Santa Claus 2
- Christmas Vacation
- Miracle on 34th Street
- Jingle All The Way
- Its a Wonderful Christmas, Charlie Brown
- The Grinch
- Elf!

My favorite Christmas movie of all time: Christmas Vacation

The Christmas movie that surprised me the most: Chrtistmas with the Kranks. I didn't think I would like it, but it is a great movie and it was a lot of fun to watch.

The Christmas movie that I don't care to see again: Jingle All The Way.

I still have not seen It's a Wonderful Life and I don't plan to. If our paths cross I will watch it, but whenever they run it on TV it seems like we are too busy to watch it.

What are your favorite Christmas movies?