Left for Marion, Indiana at about 8:15AM this morning.

I returned at approximately 5:03PM this evening.

What a day it has been.

The highlights:

– Sr. High Youth Camp Committee Meeting at Bodyshop – good stuff, made some decisions. Got lots of work to do now…

– had lunch with other youth pastors @ Fazoli’s – I ate about 5 breadsticks AND a full plate of spaghetti

– headed to Tree of Life bookstore with Glen Robinson for some “window shopping” – picked up a 50%-OFF copy of the “Word on the Street” paraphrase for Jess

– had a good convo with buddy Darren Campbell about “similar” ministry situations, and he gave Glen and me some free stuff (including an album – “Look to You” by United LIVE!!!)

– headed back to campus to check on some professors..

– had a great conversation with Dr. Keith “Coach” Drury – and I explained my “hurt feelings” for being on the bottom of his “blogs I read” list at his “Drury Writing” website.

– met up with Dr. Steve Lennox and talked about him coming in the next few weeks up to Warsaw to fill in as our Sunday morning speaker. Looking forward to that for sure.

– visited with Aunt Pam Sempel (formerly “Morton”) for a good long while and got the updates on “cousins” Josh and Jenna.

– on my way back to get my car, got a returned phone call from buddy Nate Thompson and spent an hour-or-so “catching up” with him over a Jones Soda.

– during my Nate-convo, Nate Quick showed up, two of the guys from Master’s Praise (who were with us last night at church giving a concert), a guy that was still in High School my Senior Year (I can’t remember his name), and Josh Berry!

– drove back towards Warsaw and passed former-teen-turned-college-student Bethany Kinney as she drove towards Marion.

I feel like it has been a “social” day! It was great to get re-connected to so many.

Accountability group tonight at 7PM. I need to get to bed early tonight – another FULL day tomorrow – including our first church league softball game of the season tomorrow night @ 8!

What started out as Stevan and Jess joining the young adult Sunday school class for an evening of Ken Davis comedy, turned into an off-road JEEP adventure complete with “getting stuck”, mud-flinging, and fevorishly snapping photographs!

For the “complete” story – I invite you to check out the newest gallery- “Ken Davis Comedy & JEEP!”

Enjoy.

Dinner: Smokey Bones BBQ
Shopping: Old Navy, Lane Bryant
Movie: Fever Pitch
Dessert: Starbucks & Krispy Kreme

Fun night.

Tomorrow: I’m mowing Craig’s yard tomorrow morning and then it’s off to softball practice. Tomorrow night we’re joining a young adult Sunday School class for an evening of laughter at the Ken Davis comedy concert! Should be a blast!

In about 15 minutes (if I drive fast enough to meet up with Jess & Craig at their school), we’ll be leaving for Ft. Wayne.

I am excited.

I’m excited about riding in the Pathfinder with Passion ’05 being played TOO loud, especially. Riding with people who can sing better than you is a lot of fun – until you try and sing louder than them.

Then you get punched.

Had a gret meeting with the Warsaw-area youth pastors this morning. We did our usual updates, sharing, and prayer time and then a long-lunch at a new restaurant in town: El Jalapeno. Not going back there. Wasn’t impressed.

I did get a great Youth Ministry link from Josh – a youth pastor in Milford: www.pdymcommunity.com – looks like it’s just started, but will provide some great resources..

Last night and today has been full of DVD-R watching. Some programs that we didn’t have a chance to watch LIVE, I recorded and watched today and last night!

Last night was the latest Navy NCIS and Amazing Race episodes and today was “Super Volcano” – a 3-hour “what if” movie about the possiblity of an erruption of Yellowstone National Park’s “sleeping caldera”. VERY INTERESTING.

Tomorrow evening will be fun – Jess and I are joining Craig Helfrich for an evening in Ft. Wayne. Dinner and a movie and much laughter will take place for sure!