Last Sunday night our new church held a welcome party for me and Dana. The full photo album of this event can be seen here, but here are a couple pictures to summarize the evening.
Started off with dinner. Man, so much good food.
Dana’s checking out the desert table operated by a couple students.
Several students teamed up together to lead a couple worship songs. They did a great job, too!
The Sr. Pastor re-wrote the lyrics to the song, “Deep in the heart of Texas,” and had my former pastor from Texas and his wife lead it.
Then we had a head-to-head text messaging competition. Looks like I have the fastest thumbs this side of the Missisip (thanks to Verizon’s T9 text-entry method)!
A FUNNY STORY HERE: I also had to identify several text message abbreviations, such as LOL and G2G, that our pastor got off some website somewhere. Well, POS came up and I was like, “Uhhh, you really want me to identify that one?” Several students in the audience started laughing so hard they could hardly contain themselves, which confused our pastor and the adults. Apparently this website said that it meant “Parent Over Shoulder,” so I just played along with that. Monday morning I told him what POS really stands for and why it made the kids laugh so hard, to which he started laughing hysterically, too! Ahhh, good ol’ innocent church bloopers.
They tested our our Texas BBQ sauce tasting skills by having us identify which sauce was which. Alas, Dana is clearly the true Texan.
Story time with Tim! I shared a brief version of my testimony and life story.
Before closing several youth volunteers came up and prayed for us as we begin in our new ministry.
Me and Dana front of our welcome sign.
About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, 
From Ministry Questions.com...
March 20th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Man looks like a good time! The key is going to be to take advantage of your new “honeymoon” to build relationships with the key adults.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Yeah, definitely, and to have them build relationships with each other, too. One of my primary goals here in the beginning is to build unity among the volunteer staff as a team and as friends.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I’m impressed that the church gave you such a welcome. WOW, a pastor who gets it! I pray the best for you at your new church and home.
March 20th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
wow! that’s a really encouraging way to start at your new church.
March 21st, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Yeah, God has blessed us so much with bringing us to this new church. I’m excited to see all of the plans He has for us here.
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:26 am
Good, fun, and clever evening!!.. Besides creative!
And you two showed up WELL ! You’re YOUNG, and SMART..with a HEART ! Can’t beat that combination.
God bless every venture.. and see so much positive things, and CHANGING of lives for eternity.
Abiding prayers and love,
G’parents Hugh/Betty Wayman
March 27th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
looks like everything is going great at the new place! Congrats!
i haven’t been around for awhile, and now I am trying to play catch up (I broke my leg and ankle 3 weeks ago and had to have surgery.)
I alas, am leaving the world of youth ministry for awhile. I think God is calling me to other things. I submitted my resignation today. But i will continue to check in!
God’s Peace!
March 27th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Sorry to hear about your leg, CBQ. God bless ya as you follow Him to the best of your ability in the future!