Top five reasons I love the fall season…

So I’m dedicating this post to the great season of fall.  I LOVE the fall, and here is why…

1. Saturday College Football

I love to wake up on a saturday in the fall knowing that there will be a multitude of college football games on.  My favorite college, of course, is UCLA… but they’re not so much a football powerhouse… but they just might take down USC this year!

 

2. colorful fall leaves

One thing that I love about living in Indiana, and that I especially loved about going to college in Pennsylvania, is that the leaves on all the trees turn brilliant colors.  It is truly breathtakingly beautiful.  My college was on top of a hill… and we used to say that in the fall, the hill looked like a bowl of that cereal TRIX.  I grew up in California where there are mostly evergreen trees… so it was a big deal to me.

 

 

 

3. Back to School sales

This reason is dedicated to my beautiful wife.  Sarah was a teacher (still is… she just teaches a class of one right now) so she LOVED this season because we would pretend like we were in school still and go to wal-mart, target, etc… and stock up on school supplies.  Why?  because it was fun… and they were cheap.  Now our youth ministry does this thing called “schools supplied” where we buy school supplies and donate them to a local elementary school that has students who are in need.  So Sarah and I can still get our “fix” of back to school sales if we want.  :)

 

 

 

 

4. the World Series

 

 

it is of no surprise to anyone who knows me that one of my favorite sports is baseball.  And the “fall classic” is the best of the best when it comes to baseball.  Sure, there can be a case made against baseball because of all the idiots (yup… I said idiots) who ruined the game with their use of performance enhancing drugs… putting the sport on the same level as WWE wrestling, but I still love the game.  I can’t wait until it gets back to the level of game that it used to be without morons screwing it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. fall walleye fishing!

{picture has permanently been removed… go to www.jqoutdoors.com} 

I love fishing as it is… especially walleye fishing.  There is just something about the fall that makes walleye fishing better though.  I have caught some of my largest walleye in the month of September.  I have only been fishing 1 time this summer… a tragic waste of my $17 fishing license, but when September comes… LOOK OUT!  It’s walleye fishing time!

 

 

 

 

So those are my top five of the fall…

what are your top five??? 

OSM opener

here are some shots from the OSM opener last night.  These shots were take during worship time.

the best olympian ever – Michael Phelps

we just witnessed the best olympian ever.  He is probably more fish than man.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Phelps won all 8 and was the greatest both in one year as well as all time.  You and I are witnessing history!

Olympics & the kickoff to another OSM season

As I’m sitting here on my couch this awesome Monday afternoon… two things are going through my mind {actually three if you count the laundry that needs to be swapped into the dryer… see sarah… I do work } and those two things are: #1) the Olympics and #2) the kickoff to another OSM season this Sunday night.

I am a BIG TIME Olympics fan!  I especially love to see the swimming, basketball, and the running.  I think this is the first time since my childhood where I’ve found myself on the edge of my couch cheering out loud for the USA teams.  If you saw the mens 400m freestyle relay swimming then you know what I’m talking about.  It was AWESOME.  I’ll have to admit… I’m still a cynic when it comes to USA basketball… so I hope they prove me wrong!  I love the Olympics.  I secretly had a dream when I was little that I wanted to be in the Olympics, win a gold medal, and have tears streaming down my cheeks as they played the national anthem.  Ah… those were the days.  Wait… that was yesterday.

I’m also very excited for OSM to kick back up for another season.  This year there just seems to be a buzz around OSM.  The leaders are catching it… and Core students are getting excited.  I feel like something huge is about to happen with our ministry.  We have always dreamed that OSM would not just be another Youth Group… but that it would be a movement of students that would change our city, county, state, and world.  This sunday night begins another season of that movement!

txt post over @ oakbrook blog

hey… go check out the oakbrook blog to see the post I contributed about the text series… make sure that you leave a story after you’ve read it.  

Sam

TXT – week two 2G2BT {transcript}

Here is the transcript for my week two talk.  The original talk, concept and idea was from a talk that I heard from Jared Herd @ Bigstuf camp.  I re-wrote the story for Oakbrook Community Church in Kokomo, In.

txt-week-two-2g2bt

TXT – week two 2G2BT

here is the link for the week two podcast of TXT.  enjoy.

TXT week two

TXT – week two 2GTBT

I have recently been rocked by a realization.  That the God of the universe has invited us to intimately experience Him through His word.  We can KNOW the creator.  But the deeper we get to know the heart of God and the more intimate we go with Him, the more we discover something… HE LOVES US.  And not the way that we church people have thrown that phrase around.  HE LOVES US.  meaning, when we were still in complete and utter rebellion against Him, He loved us and sent Jesus to prove it.  That the cruelest of all hate acts against Him, He used as an act of love back toward us.  HE LOVES US.  It’s “Too Good To Be True.” {2GTBT}