Miriam and I have been experimenting making coffee with a French press. Here are some easy instructions on how to use one. I’ll say it makes a darn good cup of coffee.

When we first moved out here to the left coast, I found it odd that we have little coffee shacks everywhere. The obsession for coffee here is paramount. In the south you’ll find churches on each street corner - here it’s coffee shacks.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed a new trend. Coffee evidently isn’t enough anymore because they’ve come out with the “bikini barista” stands. Yes, the name says it all. It’s like Hooters without the wings and more caffeinated.

I’m dumbfounded that coffee isn’t enough anymore. But, no one ever said that folks up here in the Pacific Northwest were normal…

It’s almost ten o’clock at night and I’m still at work. The coffee quit working hours ago. Tomorrow is a big day for us. We have our annual fund raiser and last minute details are being wrapped up (and wrapping me up). Pray for me and the rest of us working on this event. Our goal is to raise over thirty thousand dollars towards the ministry here at Arlington Youth Dynamics. We’ve already brought in ten, so twenty more to go!

Pray for my sanity and the Lord’s provision tomorrow…

It happened a couple of days after Christmas. I received a phone call from someone I haven’t heard from in over a year—someone whom I never thought I’d hear from again. It was an old student wanting to have coffee and needing to talk.

Normally this wouldn’t surprise me, but the last time I had seen Jimmy was over a year ago. I remember that experience very well. It was just before our ‘07 snow retreat and Jimmy’s father was looking for help with his son. He was out of control and diving deeply into drugs. Jimmy’s father had heard about our weekend retreat and thought we could help. Jimmy showed up for the trip so incoherent he could barely speak. It was like having a child around, his brain was still fried by drugs. I spent a majority of that trip babysitting him. The volunteers and I prayed the whole trip for Jimmy.

The young man on the phone with me sounded very different than one I spent time with a year ago. He was sharp and articulate. Needless to say I was intrigued.

As we sat down for coffee Jimmy began to open up and share. For the last 10 months he has been in a rehab facility getting help for his drug addictions. During Christmas he was allowed to go home for a few days and he wanted me to know that he had changed his ways. He remembered the retreat and how people cared for him there. He remembered how we told stories about a loving God. He remembered about how Jesus offered him hope and new life. I sat there drinking my coffee watching the beginnings of a changed life in front of me. I was amazed, but that isn’t the end of the story. It only gets better.

When we finished our coffee, I invited him to attend this years’ snow retreat. Jimmy accepted on the spot.

A week later, he was so eager for the retreat that he showed up hours early. Over the weekend he shared his story with the other students. They listened and many of them who had been dabbling in drugs heard a stern wake up call. Every time we shared a message or read scripture, Jimmy was hungry to take it in. Any time we had discussion, he was the first one to share or ask questions. I was so excited.

Later in the weekend, we offered an opportunity for the students to pray to accept Jesus as their Lord. They closed their eyes and prayed. And with their eyes still closed, I asked if anyone had made the decision to raised their hand. Jimmy’s hand didn’t go up. I was excited for the students who had made the decision, but had hoped that Jimmy would have taken that step. We finished out the weekend in great fashion and I loved the time and the conversations I had with him.

A week later he called me up again. In that conversation he shared with me that he thought a lot about what we had talked about over the weekend and he decided to given his heart to the Lord. He wanted a new life and decided that Jesus was the only way. Then he informed me that when he graduates from high school, he wants my job as well!

I’ve always read about dramatic life changes, but this was the first one I was able to watch happen right before my eyes. From incoherent, to following after the Lord; God loves the prodigals.

His journey has just begun, and it won’t be easy, but he’s come so far already. The work God has begun won’t easily be diminished. Pray for this young man as he seeks the Lord.

You ever been so busy and so tired that you don’t really know what to do with yourself? I’m approaching that point right now. I drink tons of coffee to wake me up and my body is there, but my mind is stuck somewhere in last week. So I’m feeling pretty wired, tired, and fried.

I’ve never been so tired in all my life, but through it all, I keep going. I don’t really know how. My plate remains full, but things keep getting done. Not small thing, big ones. The marathon continues and I can only attribute it to the Lord. I have no bragging rights here. Though, for being so worn out, I keep leaning in and finding this odd job amongst the whirlwind of business.

Now, I’m not saying that God blesses the busy. I’m just saying that I don’t know how I would have made it though the past few weeks (and few more to come) without Him. Less of me and more of Him seems to be working. I’m reminded of this scripture: