Serving Together

7 02 2009

One of the things I look forward to every month is taking one of my kids to the Soup Kitchen.  I’ll, be honest, I don’t always feel like going to serve.  There are LOTS of excuses that come up each month.  But I ALWAYS leave, grateful and thanful for what God has blessed us with.  Since Makalah is in pre-school and gets out at 11:30 AM, I’m able to pick her up on the first Friday of each month and head to the Salvation Army soup kitchen to help serve lunch.  Both the kids and I choose (I make them) to eat whatever is being served.  I even ate fish a few months ago.  YUCK!  We go out among the people and sit down to eat our lunch after serving those in need.  Yesterday, Makalah and I sat with a young couple with three little kids.  I was SO THANKFUL for what God has given us.  It is so easy to sit in my 4 bedroom house with my heat on, pantry and fridge stocked, closet full of clothes and bills all paid, only to find myself complaining about what I DON’T have.  WOW, how much do we have?  More than I need to be honest.  I LOVE teaching my kids to serve, but also to teach them to be thankful for what we have.  Here is a picture of my care bear serving by my side.

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STILL learning,

Jeff


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Categories : Discipleship, Element Church, Family, Personal

Swimming And A Trip To Denver

24 01 2009

Wednesday night we took our family to the city indoor pool for a night of swimming and hanging out.  We had a TON of fun.  The city has a great swimming pool.  It was our first time there.  They had a perfect kiddie pool for Jaydah (and it was warm).  A high and low diving board and an indoor water slide.  They had life jackets for all the kids that wanted them and a very large swimming area.  It was our first time to that pool since moving here and I think we’ll go again.  The kids didn’t want to leave (well, except Makalah who may be developing a fear of water).  img00082

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Yesterday (Friday), Pastor Adam, Amber, Sabrina and I all went to Denver for the day.  We went to the Denver Zoo to film some promo vidoes and sermon intros for our upcoming sermon series at Element.  It was a BLAST!  Two weeks ago when we planned this excursion, Adam and I wanted to make part of the day taking our wives with us and going to The Melting Pot restaraunt in Fort Collins.  Sab has been REALLY wanting to go there.  It is a 4 course fondu meal.  HOLY COW the food is good (and pricey).  We had a great day and fun double date with Pastor Adam and Amber.  In fact Adam has some cool thoughts as it relates to church HERE so check it out.

It was FREEZING at the zoo, but it was perfect for keeping the crowds away as we needed to film in several areas of the zoo.  Anytime you walk around with a big professional looking video camera and a microphone you attract attention.  Go figure.  We saw the lions get fed (never seen that before).  And WAY more of the animals were out than usual it seemed.  Not sure if it was the weather or the lack of crowds.  The zoo NEVER gets old to me.  We ended the night at The Melting Pot with the Flaming Turtle chocolate fondu.  WOW!  I think that is the only word to describe that chocolatey goodness.  lol  Thanks to Adam and Amber for hanging out with us and my awesome wife for spending the day with me.

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STILL FULL,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Family, Personal, Updates

From A Four Year Old?

20 01 2009

Maybe we can learn a little from a four year old.  The simplicity.  The innocence.  The unbiased and pure attitude of a four year old.  I got home from work today and wanted to see some of what the news was saying about the whole inauguration.  Mariah (5) told me all about watching it and talking about President Obama today it school.  Makalah (4) knew all about the back yard that our new president has from some school material she received.  Mariah was VERY proud to know that he is the FIRST president that isn’t white.  (interesting how she put that.  Not just the first black president, but the first one NOT white)  Then when I mentioned our evening devotions and prayer time Makalah said “I want to pray for Arack Obama (yes, no “B” in the name for her)”.  We talked some more about how cool it was to see the new president inaugurated.  Again the fact that he wasn’t white.  Mariah at one point said “His daughters are so lucky.  I want to live in the White House.”  We got to our devotion time and Makalah had her turn to pray.  She simply prayed “Dear Jesus.  Thank you for President Arack Obama.  I pray they would have good rest and good dreams (she prays that every time).  I pray you would protect them.  In Jesus name, Amen!”

Know what I realized?  7,5, and 4 years old.  Not ONE snide comment.  Not ONE complaint.  Not ONE “end of the world” scenario.  Not ONE “I can’t believe He is president!”  She prayed for him.  Huh.  I wonder if we can learn from that?   The first person she wanted to pray for at prayer time was our President.  It didn’t matter that he was black or white.  Republican or democrat.  Pro-Choice or Pro-Life.   Bail out or no bail out.  She prayed!  She prayed!  Did you get that?  SHE PRAYED!  I think we can learn from that.

From a four year old,

Jeff


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Categories : Discipleship, Family, Personal

Family Night

16 01 2009

Wednesday night is family night around our house.  We typically play games.  We didn’t know if we could take playing Famiy Crainum (with a 4 year old) another week, so we gave the kids a choice.  Stay home and have soup and play a game.  Or go out to eat and go to the video arcade.  (We tricked them)  Of course it was video arcade and eating out.  It was a fun time out as the fam.  Here are a few pics of the evening.  (Jonah lost video games because he lied to us about something before we left)


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Categories : Family, Pictures

Family Fun

10 01 2009

Our fam was invited to a birthday party today of some Elementers.  Their daughter turned 5 today.  The party was down in Fort Collins at a very cool place called “Jump It up” (I think).  They have a bunch of giant inflatable games and a climbing wall for the kids.  We had a BLAST together and wanted to share some pics of the kids.


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Categories : Family, Personal, Pictures

Haircut

9 01 2009

I shave my head EVERY two weeks on a Friday morning.  I go to the barber and shave it all off.  Jonah, who has LOVED his long hair for a while now just out of the blue said “I want to shave my head like daddy.”  We actually tried talking him out of it for a while, but he would have none of it.  One of the things we’ve allow jonah to have ultimate freedom on, is his hair.  It’s just hair.  If he asks to shave, we shave.  Long, it’s long.  Mohawk…YEP.  SO, we went to the barber and off it came.  Here are a few pics of the experience.


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Categories : Family, Personal, Pictures

“Hey Dad!”

30 12 2008

Adam and I were out in the worship center talking sound stuff with a sound tech this afternoon when from behind me I heard “Hey Dad!”.  It was Jonah’s voice and it took me a second to realize “My son shouldn’t be here why did I just hear his voice?”  I turned, and sure enough, there was Jonah.  He said “I came to see you.  We were over at Marcus’ Grandpas shop and I wanted to come say hi”.  (Marcus is a friend of Jonah’s, his grandpa has a motorcycle shop across the street from Element)  I LOVED that.  He didn’t need anything.  He wasn’t whining or complaining about something.  He wasn’t hurt.  Sick.  Upset.  Sad.  NOTHING!  He just wanted to see me.  To say “hi”.  To be around me.  Made me wonder.  How often do I just sit and go to my heavenly Father, just because He’s my dad.  When I don’t need anything.  Just to be near Him.  Talk.  Not whining or complaining.  Not hurt.  Sick.  Upset.  Sad.  Just because?  When was the last time you went to God, just because?

Thinking out loud,

Jeff


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Categories : Discipleship, Element Church, Family, Personal

Christmas Thoughts

26 12 2008

Well, the stockings are still up and the tree is still lit, but another Christmas has come and gone.  It’s been a fun couple of days here in the Maness house.

— The week started with a trip to Denver on Sunday night.  We took the kids down to Casa Bonita (always fun) and then to the Denver Zoo to see the lights.  The lights were beautiful.  The whole zoo is lit up with Christmas lights and a couple of the animal houses are open to view animals as well.  It was pretty cold but everyone (except Jaydah) seemed to have a good time.  Here are a couple of pics from the trip.  Check out the one with Makalah standing up inside the stroller.  Her fit were on the ground and she absolutely REFUSED to be pushed any further.  It was hilarious.

—  Christmas Eve we delivered 4 dozen donuts to two different nursing homes, as we did our families part in an Element Gives Back opportunity.  Ryan (volunteer) did an INCREDIBLE job organizing the event.  We showed up at the church about 5:30 PM and Ryan had our boxes of donuts neatly packaged in a sack.  With the sack was a slip of paper that had our delivery addresses on it.  Out of 28 confirmed families to deliver we had 2 no shows.  I’m not sure how many total locations we were able to serve Christmas Eve, but it was a lot.  Thanks again Ryan for heading that up.

—  Sabrina and I watched It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve.  That movie is good every time.  LOVE the message in it.  We watched Famil Man last night.  Another great movie.

— Christmas day Sabrina and I got up to find that Jonah had set the table already for breakfast, and he also had all the presents from under the tree neatly arranged in piles for each person ready to open.  The kids had a BLAST (obviously) opening their Christmas presents and stockings.  They got some pretty cool stuff.  Jonah was super excited about his ipod shuffle and the girls all got some very cool baby strollers for their babies.  I don’t think they’ve stopped playing with them since.

— Today we just relaxed, played some games and hung out at the house.  I braved Wal-Mart (we’re actually going back tonight) cause we needed laundry detergent.

— I gave all the staff Wednesday through Saturday off.  I need to go into the office and finish my sermon tomorrow.  I am SUPER excited about this weeks message.  We’re celebrating what God has done in 2008 and looking ahead to what He wants to do at Element in the coming year(s).  I believe GREATER things are yet to come.

Remembering Christmas,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Family, Pictures, Updates

The Unhappy Way To Visit Family

13 12 2008

We just got word this afternoon that Sabrina’s grandmother has passed away.  Her battle with cancer is now over and in that weird way, it is an answer to prayer.  Her cancer started in the lungs and two weeks ago they found 15 tumors in her brain.  They knew it wasn’t going to be long from that point.  For the past day and a half she has been in and out of consciousness and the family was just praying for God to take her.  Sabrina, the kids, and I  will be leaving immediately following church on Sunday and we would appreciate your prayers.  While we look forward to seeing family, it is definitely not the circumstances in which you wish to spend time with them.  Thank you for your prayers.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Family, Personal

Teaching To Serve and Give

18 11 2008

Admittedly, I am have not been, nor am I a “natural” servant.  In fact, since planting Element God has rocked my world on that whole topic.  It’s definitely something that I’m striving to become.  My wife has the spiritual gift of serving and giving.  In fact sometimes I tell her to STOP serving and giving.  (I know, maybe not the right move)  I do think you can give or serve to a fault IF it begins to injure you ie. time with God, family, meeting your own needs, etc.  But I digress.

One of the things my parents ALWAYS modeled so well was serving and giving.  I never once questioned whether my parents were generous people or committed to giving to the work of God.  I never once questioned my parents concert for the church AND their “neighbor” because they served.  While I didn’t always follow their example, today at 34 years old it makes an impact.  I want to teach our children the same.  So, we give them opportunities to do that.

Jonah helped make Sabrina some cookies and we took them to the local fire department to say “Thank you!”  the other day.  Here are a couple pictures of J Man getting to sit in the fire truck after serving and giving.    img00656

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On Halloween we took our kids trick or treatin’ around our neighborhood.  I was inspired by Curtis and Andy going trick or treating for canned goods for the local soup kitchen.  I took that idea and after our kids asked for candy, we asked for canned goods or non-perishables to take to the local food pantry.

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It was cool for our kids not just to get candy for themselves, but to explain why we were getting food for people in need.  I hope moments like these stick with them when they are 34 and teaching their kids.  I know I need to continue to get better at this and so not only does it teach them, but challenges me!


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Categories : Discipleship, Family, Personal, Serving

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