Enjoy:

This afternoon Mom Garrett and Jess got Ella all dressed up for her Warsaw Wesleyan Baby Shower!

Here’s her closeup:

The baby shower was great (or so I’ve heard). I managed to snap a few photos of the festivities:

Also, during the Baby Shower, two friends stopped by – Ben and Candace – on their way to their Prom!

After the shower, I took the numerous balloons and tied them to an extra notepad I had in my office. I scribbled my dot-com and my e-mail and a short message on the notepad, tied all of the balloons to it and headed outside:

Hopefully someone will contact me after finding my makeshift aircraft!

Ella, of course, found the entire day exhausting.

We are very glad to have Mom Garrett here with us again tonight. She and Jess will recuperate from today’s events tomorrow – and I will be making lunch! Jess is still having moderate pain from the mastitis, so continue to pray for her healing!

It’s Friday night. I’m sitting at the computer at a quarter-till-eleven in the evening. I have changed 3 diapers tonight already. I have bathed my daughter. I have rocked her to sleep, even.

This is a new life.

She is SO worth it!

We had a NETWORK meeting this morning at the First Christian Church here in Warsaw. We got to check out their new youth center:

Before our meeting got underway, we took a quick walk over to the Warsaw Justice Building to answer once and for all whether the stained-glass mural that we pass by as we drive through town is actually a map of Warsaw.

The answer? Yes. Actually it’s an “artistic map” of Kosciusko County!

Here’s the lineup of today’s Network attendees:

L-R – Rick Nier (Winona Lake Free Methodist), Scott Greene (Warsaw Community). Kevin Lilly (Warsaw Community Grace Brethren), David McBeath (Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian), John Bryan Lowe III (New Life Church & World Outreach), Gary Boschain (First Christian), and Yours Truly (Warsaw Wesleyan).

Aren’t we a motley-looking bunch? John Bryan is a bit of an exhibitionist, I guess! He likes to surprise us on occasion.

After work I came home and we packed up Ella and headed for a night of grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Good times. She slept the entire time. We came home, ate quickly and then gave her a bath. She is now finishing off her late-night meal and will hopefully/prayerfully sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow Mom Garrett comes to town to help Jess at the Baby Shower that our church is putting on tomorrow afternoon! I’ll sneak in to take a few photos if I get the chance. Mom Garrett will also be spending the night and helping us get Ella prepared for her second Sunday in church!

Family Force 5 literally “snuck” up on me as a youth pastor. I had no idea who this band was until I read about them on another youth pastor’s blog (thanks, JB!)

The CD came across my desk (as many CDs do), but I admit I put it on a shelf and forgot about it. Just yesterday I saw my first “Family Force 5” video (Kountry Gentleman) and enjoyed laughing through the whole thing.

I wouldn’t say that Family Force 5 is overly spiritual in their lyrics, though they do say that Jesus Christ is their personal Lord & Savior. I would label this band/album as “fun music”.

Family Force 5 is on Gotee Records.

I recently read Craig Gross’ new book, “The Dirty Little Secret: Uncovering the Truth Behind Porn”. It was a quick read – in fact, I finished it in under 2-hours and thoroughly enjoyed the stories contained within. Craig Gross, along with Mike Foster, created “xxxchurch.com” – a site promoting conversations about the problem of pornography and the lackluster performance of the Church to confront the issue. Some are even offended by Mike and Craig’s “over-the-top” approach to a topic that many Christian’s are quite comfortable leaving alone.

I picked up the book after continuing to have conversations with people about the subject of pornography being such a huge “hidden sin” among the church. I have been following the work of the XXXchurch.com movement for some time. I even had the opportunity to attend a pre-screening of their documentary over a year ago (which is now available on DVD, by the way.)

The book confronts the issue of pornography head-on, which I think is the best way to confront any issue – no matter how “ouchy” it is to talk about. Craig writes in an easy-to-read, lay-person, non-heady way that I can relate to.

It was interesting to read about some of the “behind-the-scenes” interactions Craig has had through the ministry of XXXchurch.