lone star news

howdy ya'll!!!!! here i sit in my hotel room down here in the great state of texas with a myriad of emotions and thoughts. yesterday and today were some pretty big and busy days. yesterday we arrived safely and met the associate pastor (ap) by the baggage claim, got our luggage and then headed off for our first trip into the great state of texas. got to our hotel and found out we needed to wait a while before we could check in so he took us up to the church's building and showed us around. we also spent some time in his office chatting and then went out for lunch to joe's pizza and pasta with him and the director of worship. the food was good. then we headed to the hotel to check in and relax for a little bit before we had a meeting with the senior pastor (sp). the sp then took us around and showed us the building again, but this time he talked about why it was designed the way it was. it was really neat to see the building from that perspective. it is laid out with three general areas, the neighborhood, the courtyard and the theater; because those are the places where we can find Jesus. in the neighborhoods, the courtyards and the theater of life. we then went back into his office and chatted some more about the church, his vision and passion for the church and also the student ministry. as i sat there in his office i noticed two things; one was that he had a copy of "purpose driven youth ministry" on his shelf, and also that his office was pretty much the same size as the other two guys and that his furniture was the same as the other two guys. this matches up with the things that the other two guys told me, that the sp sees them all as equals and laborers together. after that we went to panera bread (hint, hint bryan!!!!) for dinner and then headed off to a high school football game.... texas style! only seats 12,000 people! there was probably about 6,000-8,000 people there last night, because the two schools that played were smaller schools! these texans are serious about their hs football! they even had a jumbotron and tv's in the concession stands, so you don't ahve to miss the game! totally nuts! today we met with the adult volunteers and gave them an opportunity to ask us questions and for us to ask them questions as well. the one thing i was nervous about, more than anything was going to a new church and there not being as good of a youth staff as i had at my previous church. and while they are not the smae people and i would miss my old youth staff terribly, i was really excited by this gorup of adults and their passion and heart for student ministry. soem really good people and a nice mixture of ages and status in life. i also had a first during that meeting..... i had chik-fil-a for the first time! not bad. after that the music guy took us for a tour of the city and even printed out some listings of homes that are for sale and we stopped by three of them and looked at the outside. he also showed us the middle and high schools in the area that the church primarily draws from. it was a good time getting to know him and his wife along with the community. we then headed back to the hotel to chill for a little bit and change into some more casual clothes to head off to a fundraiser for a little girl who has a disease called "spinal muscular atrophy" which is a form of musular dystrophy. so basically the church took us to a barbeque and casino night! LOL kind of funny to think about! after that we went back to the sp's house for a little dessert and a time to hang out with the church's staff and their spouses. which was really fun and cool. lots of laughs and more questions! of course! while we were out with the music guy, i asked him if there was anyone else that they were looking at and he said "no", and that there was one other guy but he declined the offer to come out, because he wasn't interested. so if they like us, then the job is pretty much ours if we want it. we are staying cautious, but i will admit that we are really excited about this church and are praying that it works out. tomorrow morning we get to check out the church's worship service and then during the secon service i will be doing the messgae for the hs ministry. after that a couple of the youth staff volunteers are taking us out to eat and then we are going to the church's "building on purpose banquet", where we will get to her the sp's vision for potential building projects. so please keep praying for us and i am heading off to bed!