Youth Story

The only way to truly FAIL  is to stop trying to succeed. That's how I feel these days. I am often known for doing some quirky things, but sometimes I think that may be my best attribute. Yeah sure I say some dumb stuff sometimes and I do some dumb stuff too. If I was to allow those things to define me or to stop me from trying then I would be missing OUT on the actual keys to success. Try hard and when you fall down get back up until nobody can knock you down anymore....

How To Play Carpetball Each player begins by setting up their billiard balls behind the line. Each player may choose how they set them up. The defending champion rolls first. The objective of the throw is to knock as many of the opponent's balls into the pit as possible. The challenger then rolls with the same objective. Rotate back and forth until one player has no balls left. If the challenger is left with no balls first, then they have one final chance to take out their opponent's balls. If the champion runs out of balls first, they are immediately eliminated and a new challenger enters the game. If the challenger manages to strike back and knock all of the champion's balls from the table they both place one ball on the table and have a sudden death runoff with the same rules as before. Each time the game ties both players add an extra ball until all balls have been placed back on the table. Any ball that flies off of the table shall result in the thrower losing...

  Purchase Carpetball Tables Building Instructions Rules of the game

Recently our church received the announcement that our worship pastor ans his family were being called into a new ministry at a different church. We said our goodbyes this week as they are headed up to Ohio to continue pursuing their call in ministry. The whole experience has made me question what a calling lived out looks like for me. Lets take a quick look at it. See, my first job at a church was at this church as an intern youth pastor. I spent four years as the intern doing very little up front stuff at the church and a heavy load of behind the scenes work. This was where I fell in love with the ministry. I enjoyed being a pastor to students without having all of the responsibility of speaking in front of adults or having to participate in "the show" that was a Sunday morning worship service. My passion was for the daily life with God and my students. I was called away to a new church after those four years. I tried to replicate the up front personality that I h...

Standing Out Today I took a tour of a place in downtown Nashville. Kari and I are looking for a rental property and we found this triplex building that is up for sale in Nashville. I asked my real estate agent if we could see it and she warned me about how scary a part of town it was in. I vaguely remember the feeling of being scared of an area from when I was younger. I haven't felt that way in a long time. I thought that perhaps as I entered this place today I might have those feelings again.  My real estate agent was meeting with some other clients in town from California to purchase a new home so she sent one of her co-workers to let us in. I could tell that right off the bat she was timid about the area and the situation.  It didn't bother me though because that is what I would have expected. I got there a bit early to begin checking out the neighborhood, as well as to make sure that the agent did not have to be there alone. As I drove around seeing some o...

One of the major issues that plagues most middle schoolers is the issue of dating! Thus I shall contribute my 2 cents on the issue in this weeks edition.   Middle School Problems: Dating We all know that the early teen years can be rather awkward. I have found that in my experience dealing with this age group that there is absolutely no more awkward a time to deal with the issue of dating than middle school. Teens usually have about three things on their mind when it comes to dating. First: Attraction..... A young teenager begins to deal with the issue of attraction. This can lead to the desire to date. My advice on this is don't do it. First off you are likely to develop a crush on someone. That doesn't mean that you should date them. I had a crush on Taylor Swift, but if I had dated her in middle school, something tells me that I would have a terrible song about me as a number one country hit.... What I am trying to say is that, dating your crush in mid...

The 20 Best Modern Vampire Films by  JustJonAllen   The requirements to make this list: Includes a type of vampire. Made after 1990. Showing all 20 Titles Sort by:  List order Title A-Z US release date # ratings IMDb rating Your rating MOVIEMeter Date added     View:      1. Let the Right One In   (2008)   9 / 10   Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl. (115 mins.) Director:  Tomas Alfredson Stars:  Kåre Hedebrant ,  Lina Leandersson ,  Per Ragnar ,  Henrik Dahl Add to Watchlist “  This film is not in English. It is still better to watch this version with the voice over than to watch the English remake. This film shows us that even the best vampires are still parasites. Let the Right One In reveals at its core without the fluff, what the human experience feels like. I rate this film as the ...