general

“So, I’m trying to find Jesus in the tangled mess of ministry and Christianity. I feel lost in the forest of institutionalized BS, religious culture, judgmental Pharisees and those that are lost but think that they are found. Sometimes it’s just way too easy to lose Jesus in the religion.”

-someone I know

When I head this, I connected with it. I’ve been here (and frequently visit this place). How about you?

It’s been like 3 weeks since I’ve posted and I figured that I should give you a bit of an update on things. No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth… life’s just been busy. So I’ve hiked up the Olympic Peninsula, been rafting with a men’s group, and then there’s also the bee’s (just keep reading).

So I give you the Delony Ketchup: Top 5 things over the last 3 weeks.

5. Despicable Me

We got free sneak preview tickets to go see Despicable Me. It was a fun movie, not awesome, but fun. The movie felt like a long looney tunes cartoon – lots of fun, but pretty much no story. The kids loved it, so don’t listen to me.

4. Fabulous 4th of July

The family got invited to a big party with tons of fireworks and a bouncy house. Life doesn’t get any better than that if you’re of the 8 and under crowd. And then later we took the older kids up on the roof of the house to watch fireworks. My pick for best fireworks? The ones I don’t have to pay for, but can watch for free.

3. Rafting on the Skagit River

I was asked by a local church to come on a men’s retreat and guide one of their rafts down the Skagit river. Boy, what a fun group of men. It was like a WWF wrestling match on the water. I love it when guys cut lose and act like kids. We had epic water fights and tons of laughs. It was a great retreat.

2. The Swarm of Bees

This was one of the weirdest and coolest experiences we’ve had as a family. One Sunday afternoon, we’re all out in the back yard when we see a huge swarm of bees circling around our shed. Miriam ushers the kids in the house like aliens were attacking. Then the bee’s settled down and congregated on one branch at the top of a tree.

Lucky for us, we have a friend that’s a beekeeper and he came right over. We took the bee’s down, relocated them into a bee box and now the Delony’s are amateur beekeepers!

1. Olympic Peninsula Backpack

We took 8 students backpacking up the Olympic Peninsula for 5 days. It was epic. Our senior guide commented that he’d never seen such good weather in all his years of guiding. We had great weather, sandy beaches, tons of wild life, and a beautiful coast filled with sea stacks. It was a great time basking in God’s creation. It was a great time of bonding with students and having good conversations about their spirituality. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Thanks for all of your prayers. It made a difference.

FYI: I’m not dead… yet. I’ve just not posted in a while.

My apologies. I’ve just been on the go and away from the computer.

No, really… I’m serious. Hiking, rafting, beekeeping and more!

I’ll tell you all about it… soon. I promise.

I’m also bringing a tag-a-long on my backpack trip. Aida has sent Rosalina on our journey.  Hopefully she’ll survive the week…

I’ll have pictures of her adventures!

See ya!

I was going for a “Sparrow”, but it ended up looking like my Cinco De Mayo ‘stache (see options). Oh well, Viva la Olympic coast!

I’ll be gone for the next week taking 8 teens backpacking up the coast on the Olympic peninsula. We’re making our trek through Twilight territory (ie Forks, WA). Hopefully we’ll escape without any sparkling vampires or oiled up werewolves. We’ll be having some fun and seeking the Lord. So far, weather doesn’t look to spiffy, so pray for sunny days!

See ya in a week!

I’m off to the wilderness for a few days of backcountry guide training. See you back here next week!

[HT CatalystBlog]

This is a pretty fascinating video. If you get past the ADD visuals of the presentation, the content is pretty profound. It’s worth a watch.

This is a presentation from Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.