color by numbers

It’s been a pretty good weekend.  Yesterday Sara and I spent hours out in the yard raking, burning and other general up-keep that we probably should have done last Fall.

I’ve also been working on our new site(s).  We are moving our blogs over to a more permanent location:  http://www.two10eleven.com/ It has been a while since I’ve done much web design/development, but had heard some really good things about Joomla! so I thought I’d check it out.  Having dug around in it this weekend, I’m pretty impressed.  Once you have the “flow” of the content theming and location, it really is great to use.  Again, check out our new site and let me know your thoughts.  If nothing else, it’s been a fun challenge!

This next week looks like it may be a bear.  We have a LOT of video to shoot and edit and one major After Effects project to bring to completion.  By the way, did you know that my official role is a Director of Children’s/Family Ministry?  I mean, come on, how many kids pastors get to play around with video cameras and Adobe products week in and week out?

Life has been crazy lately.  Now, I don’t want to freak out thinking I’m the only one in the world that has been working hard.  There are definitely people out that that work harder than I do/have.  But….I’m tired.  I’ve been tired.  And this journey has just started.  But…I’m excited.  And I continually become more excited about the possibilities and the look I see on people’s faces when “they get it”.

We had another good meeting tonight.  I’m realizing that as a leader, you need to have your crap together.  Not only do you need to explain yourself to people, but you also have to explain yourself regarding questions you haven’t yet asked yourself.  And, you need to be able to say “You know….I haven’t really thought that through” or “You know what, you’re right.  What was I thinking?”, etc.  I’m learning that.  And those types of questions are tiring.  You have to think.  You have to justify spending $80,000 on a remodel to start a new Family Ministry.  You have to justify moving Adult Sunday School into a Small Group setting in order to free up space in your environment and volunteers.  I definitely think we are on the right track with all of this.  But it is tiring.  But as tiring as the guy collecting cans to recycle in order to get enough money to buy a meal for dinner; thus, I’m not really complaining.  Although, I suppose I am or I wouldn’t have posted this….

Now I feel bad….

Things are going well.  I’m as excited as ever about what’s to come.  And I see the mountain of work before me as a huge challenge…but one that I look forward to hiking up.

In college I went on a few Spring Break trips.  Now, these weren’t the Girl’s Gone Wild types of trips.  Instead, it was quite the opposite.  We went backpacking…with 3 other guys.  It was a dude-fest…in a non-homosexual sort of way.  We had a lot of fun but it sure was a challenge.  Now, I hate running…and really don’t even like walking…but hiking, now that is something I can do…for about 4 hours.  The problem was that these trips were 5-6 days in length…in the back-country…away from civilization…no phones…no email…no vehicle…only you, the trail, and your hiking buddies.  No wife to cook you dinner.  It was a blast…and an amazing up-hill climb at the same time.  The mountains just seemed to continue…and it seems we were constantly walking uphill.  It was torture.  It was horrible.  But I would do it again in a heart beat.  At the time, I would trade it for anything…especially a warm beach with the ocean…and beach volleyball…and a pool…and parties.  But now…I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything…

God has  a plan in all of this.  I just pray we are faithful to follow it…and listen to it…and heed it.  You can’t go wrong following God.  So, the uphill climb sure seems like a long way up.  But eventually we will get there…and see the valleys below…and the peaks across…and the view that can only come from climbing up.  What a sweet view it will be…

Just to leave this post on a solid musical note, check out the YouTube video below.  Imogen Heap rocks it solid.  Love it.

Sara and I went out to Illinois to see her family today.  Was a pretty decent trip overall.  We weren’t able to get out there last weekend for Easter due to having to be at the church all weekend…and week…so we needed to get a trip in out there before Sara is done with Spring Break.  It’s quite a bit of traveling to make the trip in a day…several hours there…and several back.  Not to mention that it was pouring buckets of water the entire way home…and at times it was hailing/sleeting.  Lovely weather this time of year!  The trip seemed forever long on the drive home…even though we watched SNL’s Best of Will Farrell (Vol. 1 and 2) and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on our iPod.  You’d think it would make the trip go by faster.  It didn’t.  If anything it rubbed in the fact that we watched hours of SNL and an hour and half long movie….and STILL weren’t home.  Trips like that always leave my stomach a little loopy.  Just doesn’t quite settle…not to mention that I am nursing a sore throat…hoping it doesn’t turn into it’s evil step-sister a full-blown cold.  Here’s hoping…

As for the in-ear thing, let me explain.  We’ve been thinking a lot about how to get the best sound quality/coverage in our KidStuf space.  It seems as though the monitors may pose a problem.  Personally, I’m all for using in-ears.  I love to use them and prefer to use them.  Problem here is two-fold though….  1.)  Not everyone in our neck of the woods has ever used them…in fact, most haven’t and 2.) They cost money.  A decent bit of money in fact.  Just another 3 or 4 sets can augment our Audio budget a pretty decent little bit.  But, hey!  Live a little right?

Ok….let me preface this by saying that I don’t want to come across as complaining.  God has blessed my wife and I with good jobs and has brought us to this point for a reason.  So, I’m not here to complain…but maybe a rant wouldn’t hurt.

I’m a director of family/children’s ministry.  Last week I also led worship.  Tomorrow I’m preaching.  Last Tuesday I was in Indianapolis (two hours away…turned into an overnight trip) on a hospital call.  Thursday morning was spent fixing a computer in our church’s “library”…if you could call it that.  Tonight I drove to Indianapolis to pick up a mission team returning from Haiti.  Monday I worked a bit on our church’s website.  Monday night I spent working at home on an After Effects project to showcase the Haiti trip.

At what point do you stand up and say too much?  It’s not that it is unnecessarily too much…maybe it’s just too many things…too much of too many different things.  I do enjoy preaching, leading worship, and visiting hurting families in the hospital.  I also really enjoy web design/programming and graphic design/video post-production.  I enjoy all the things I’ve done in the last week.  But if I am supposed to do all these things, how can I ever focus and be great at my first role….  a children/family ministry director?  Is it my fault?  Probably in some ways.  Is it their fault for asking?  Probably in some ways….

I dunno, maybe I’m just tired and incoherent.  I’ll let you know how the sermon goes tomorrow….

Well, it has been a few days now since updating.  I got called out Tuesday night to drive down to Indianapolis (about 2 hours from my home) for an emergency surgery that was taking place.  The surgery went ok and because it didn’t get over until about 12:30 AM Wednesday morning, I stayed the night down there.  It’s always different sleeping in another bed…it’s always different not sleeping next to your wife…even if she says my knee is in her butt all night…

We’ve also had some nice weather lately.  The sun is out and has nearly melted all the snow.  There are a few piles here and there and everything will continue to be a muddy mess for another month or so…but it’s a nice change of scenery…mud and all.  Sara and I went out today and piddled in the yard.  Planted some grass seed while the ground is moist, dug up some awkwardly placed cement stones that were in the middle of the yard (why where they there?  who thought that was a good idea?  no one knows…)  I’ve also been out rollerblading every day; although, today I pulled a muscle in my lower back….it hurts.  I’m so out of shape.  But…soon enough my double chin and lover handles will be diminishing in size and scope…and I will be a happier camper…  and a better lover… at least that is what I tell myself…

Loch Ness?  um…no…well, maybe.  But not today.

Ever just feel lost?  Not like physically lost but, rather, mentally lost.  Like your brain is on vacation…but not to some place warm…some place luke warm, maybe.  But definitely not the hot kind of warm.

I dunno.  Maybe it’s just the weather.  Yeah, I’ll blame the Indiana weather.  Cold, windy, wet.  I’d go on vacation too if I were my brain… if for no other reason than to just thaw out.  There’s not a whole lot you can do during weather like this…especially in a place like this.  If you haven’t been to rural Indiana…don’t.  At least not at this time of the year.  There is not a whole lot going on.

Tonight I had great intentions of forcing something creative out of me.  It never happened.  First, I opened up Photoshop.  I tried to create from scratch…anything really would have been fine.  Nothing came.  Next was Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and GoLive…  I hoped to design/code a kickin’ site for my wife’s blog.  Again, nothing came.  Back to Photoshop briefly to revisit some old photos and experiment with some creative attempts at post-processing them…  My end result was such a sight to my eyes that I nearly vomited on my Wacom tablet…  Now that would have been a bad day…

Not sure what is going on.  Some people are really good at forcing creativity, you know, the on-demand creative minds out there.  I discovered that’s not me..at least not tonight.  I presented opportunities for my brain to respond and all I got was an out-of-office reply…  I’m ready for Spring…

So, as I delve back into the blogosphere after a year or so sabbatical, maybe you don’t really know me much… Well, here it is:

Me: Michael “Brook” Sarver (I go by my middle name)

Her: Sara Sarver (She’s the better half…no questions asked…)

Us: We’re the lovely parents of a nearly 5 month old puggle puppy, Lily Ann

Work: I’m a Director of Children/Family Ministry….She works all day with Special Needs kids at a local school….

Passions: Thailand, Thai food, Thai language…now that I’ve got that out of the way… Computers… Technology… Singing….. Playing…. Napping…. Creating…. Destroying… Reading… Thinking… Learning…

Un-passions: poop on the floor, complacency, not being open to discussion, big government spending and the same question being asked of me several times after I’ve already responded (pet-peeve….sorry)

Desires: To see people take their next step in getting to know Christ more closely…

Un-desires: To see a Republican win this next election Sorry….had to put that there! BTW, it’s my blog!

Serious un-desires: To not pursue Christ more closely…. To not use His gifts to the best of our abilities… And to not love like He loved…

Currently reading: Juicing the Orange, Communicating for Change, The Fabulous Reinvention of Sunday School…

Favorite Book: A Farewell to Arms, Blue Like Jazz

Favorite Show: The Office

Music to my ears: yes, please…. (aka… nearly everything) …Shane & Shane… DMB… Jazz… Classical… Rap… Classic Rock… Oldies…. R&B…. Techno… Dance… Trance… Easy Listening… Acoustical… ….Barack Obama…

Un-music to my ears: Student loans yet to be paid off…

Fetish (un-sexually): cell phones, internet, candles while I work on the computer…

Well, now that you’ve probably ran off and find yourself hiding, I would like to invite you out from underneath the couch to leave me a message or two… Thoughts anyone? Bueller? …. Bueller?