Crab Fest 08

I was so proud of our crew that served tonight. Thankfully we had a large team as we were the only ones (besides two high school students) who showed up to serve. For the past four years usually there are two or three teams of wait staff, this year only us. But 14 people rose to the task. It was fun, good food, and exciting to pray throughout and seek opportunities to love on people!
It's cool because the Menlo Kiwanis Club has invited us back every year--this is our 5th--and we see some of the same people working and eating. Some of very own PCC family were there, too! I thank God for providing us this opportunity to raise money.

Jesus is Risen! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

The words from the book of John about Easter in Chapter 20

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.




They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"



"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus."Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!"



And she told them that he had said these things to her.On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.




The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

Looking for Summer Interns...

Do you know anyone who would be a good fit for PCC's summer internship?

Pass this on!

Wedded Bliss

Right now I am writing from a hotel in Chicago. I got to see some family and also visited my Alma Mater NPU to promote PCC's Summer Internship. But the main reason we (me and my family) are in Chicago-land culminated this weekend with the wedding of a good friend of ours Aimee, now Mrs. Melgar. It was a beautiful ceremony of worshiping God. I love officiating weddings (a lot more than I like going to them, sometimes).


There is something amazing about facilitating this momentous event the lives of people. I don't just want to sit and "watch" but I want to participate! Especially when I get to celebrate with two people who have patiently and purely waited for God's best for their lives it is powerful!
Getting to pray with people, speak from God's word about God's plan for love and relationships--I just love it. Last night was no exception. What an honor! And I always get to have great conversations after, too. Mostly because people have stereotypical expectations about pastors. Why is it so weird that I was dancing the Macarena and doing the Robot on the dance floor? Don't all pastors do that?
(Seriously, last night I got to pray with a couple whose grandson Dylan was in some critical care at three months of age. Please pray for him to heal!)

I have loved having my family attached at my side, too. After the ceremony I just had to run to Wendy and tell her how much I love her and that I will forever keep my vows to her! Another nuance in the wedding officiating for me is what God is teaching me and doing in me now that I am a father. Below is a letter I will print out and put in Isella's journal that I am keeping for her!



Dear Isella,
You had your first wedding experience. I was officiating the ceremony for two great Christians who God brought together. I got to see two people vow to commit to love each other and rely on God's power to have a marriage that thrives and lasts. I usually get a little choked up when I am doing a ceremony because preparing always reminds me how much I love your mom and how I would do it all over again with her. But now that we have you I have more reasons to get emotional. As I watched the bride's father "give her away" tonight I couldn't help but think some day I will do that for you. Just thinking about it causes me to well up. Not so much that some day I will "lose you" to your future husband (although I do get a little sad thinking about that and that I loved you first song hits me right in the gut), but because of this amazing privilege God has given me to raise you up to be a godly woman--just like your mom--and prepare you for two things--1-to raise you to love God and be a blessing to the world and if God wills a total gift to your future husband and 2-first and foremost (if God wills) to wait and find a worthy man who loves God with his whole heart and will love and honor you! After the ceremony I was holding you and walking through out the wedding hall talking to you about how much I love you and how I vow to give you my best so that you can be who God created you to be. I desperately pray and hope that you see God's good plan for your life and that you make great choices that honor him. Every day I will pray for you and remind you of this so that when that one day comes and I give you away and you are now longer under my care, I can faithfully say to you that I have loved raising you and preparing you for the life God has for you!
Dio Ti Benedica figlia mia! Ti amo con tutto corozone mio!

Rolling the dice

Saturday night Wendy and I had a date night and spent it with a hundred other people. PCC's Plus Ministry hosted a huge Chinese food potluck and a little known dice game now becoming famous called BUNCO. It was a cool intergenerational event. Seriously, four people came up to me saying how nice it was to see "young people" attending the event. They didn't just mean me and Wendy but a group of PCC young adults joined the fun, too. I love that. We might not like the same music, wear the same clothes, or be dealing with similar life issues but we can eat the same food, play the same games and share the same God! Andrew, one of our young adults, said he made ten new connections with people he never would have known by just coming to a worship gathering on Sunday. That's so worth it! And people invited their friends. One favorite moment was seeing this big muscular guy with tattoos on his arms and great facial art (goatee and beard) towering over three little gray haired ladies as he rolled the dice! A man after my own heart! I pray he sensed God's love and acceptance in this simple way. I love our church and the effort to be connected and intergenerational. I hear more and more how important this is from the men and women in their twenties. So thanks to Plus Ministry! Another one of my favorite moments of the night was partnering with Henrie(tta)--I was her partner once and we won, and then she rolled against me and beat me silly. She's good. She had a way of rolling winning combinations multiple times in a row and doing it humbly. While if I would have rolled the same combos I would have been it rubbing in my opponents' faces HMMMM....

CONFESSION:
It's funny that I wouldn't call myself "competitive" but I gotta admit I got little edgy and impatient rolling those dice with no success! You know you have issues when you are praying for the dice to roll in your favor. I had to laugh. I'm praying to win the game when I could have been praying for people to have fun, be blessed...or you know, come to Christ. Thank God for his grace and sense of humor.

La tartine has a new system

When you order you get a city instead of a number! Clever . This was
mine from Sunday. Sent from my iphone.

buzz

This past weekend I was at a training for a new physical fitness program that is coming to PCCC! That's a P and 3 C's --Peninsula Covenant Community Center!

BODY TRAINING SYSTEMS
Check out the link and watch the video at the bottom right hand corner.

With that--I came away this weekend pumped (and sore) about this new group fitness program coming to PCCC! The trainer leading the weekend was so into BTS that she motivated all of us through her excitement about how BTS can change people's health and change their life---and seriously I came away pumped about real life change not only through group fitness but through God's love! Our trainer at one point said that this group fitness program is so awesome, people are going to be talking about it. She believed in this "product" so much as a way of life that she believed there would be a buzz around Redwood City about people's experience with Body Training Systems. It really convicted me. I thought, how often is the "buzz" about stuff that isn't really satisfying or eternal? The buzz usually is about movies, sports, fashion, money, news, etc....but when we are living in God's kingdom--we have so much to "buzz" about. It really made me think! I hope I buzz. I hope WE buzz.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8