1/1/09

Happy New Year!  I thought I would start the blogging year off right with a post on the first day!  I could make a resolution for how much we will blog, but resolutions are just guilt inducing mechanisms and I already carry around enough guilt as it is.

We have been busy these past few weeks, and by “busy” I mean ridiculously busy.  Noah is already 4 weeks old, though he technically won’t be a month old until tomorrow – if you can explain that one to me, you get 10 points.  I have to tell you, no offense to any of you parents of one child out there, but the truth is you really have not even begun to experience parenting until you have 2 of them!  It is thoroughly exhausting, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Lillian had been waiting for weeks for us to get a Christmas tree, so finally the Saturday before we went and got our tree (a real tree from Target of all places).  Earlier that day I took Lillian up into the mountains with some families from the Korean church and we went sledding.  Lillian was a natural when it comes to the snow – it must be that Minnesota blood.

We had a quiet Christmas, staying at home with the family all day and talking to both sides of the family via Skype.  Most of Lillian’s presents centered on the theme of Cars, Meggan’s on the theme of sugar, Noah’s on the theme of clothing, and mine on the theme of electronics (says a lot about us).  After the kids were down for their naps Meggan and I were quickly packing because we were getting ready to leave for a weekend trip to Virginia.

Christmas night we sent Lillian to sleep at our good friend’s apartment while we got the car packed for the next morning.  We went to Virginia because there is a church there that I had been talking to the past few months.  We finally got to the stage where they needed to have face-to-face interviews, so I went through a few “grill Bryan” sessions, which were actually a lot of fun for me.

In addition to the interviews, which all went very well, I was given the chance to provide pulpit-fill for the pastor.  He was going on vacation with his family that Sunday so he needed someone to preach.  I was more than willing to do it when he asked me!  I chose to preach out of the last part of John 3 and John the Baptist’s final testimony – the sermon basically focused on making much of Christ in our lives while making less of ourselves.

After watching the Vikings barely win on Sunday after church we had a self-guided tour in Washington D.C. which was pretty tough going until we discovered the GPS in the glove compartment.  We didn’t have much time so we experienced drive-by site seeing.  At least I can say I’ve seen the White House, the Pentagon, and all the others!

We got back from our trip this last Monday and have been trying to get our lives into a little more normal of a schedule.  Yesterday I drove to Fresno to meet with a pastor from Iowa about a possible position there.  It was a very nice time talking with this man and his wife – we’ll see where the Lord takes it.

Meanwhile, I also wanted to let you know of a few prayer requests on our end.  First of all, with all of this candidating stuff (remember, that is Greek for “job-hunting”), we would really appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s guidance in all those matters.  I am incredibly encouraged that there are many churches out there looking for someone like me, so now it is about narrowing the list down.

Also, you can be praying for Meggan and dealing with the two little ones at home.  You can imagine all that goes into that.  In addition to that, I will be starting school up again next week – my final semester.  I have a feeling my motivation level will be at an all time low as I am ready to get out of here, so please pray that the Lord will keep me faithful to the task at hand.

Finally, I thought I would throw a couple resent links at you for your interest.

• It’s never too late to jump into one of these.  I highly encourage you to pick one and stick to it!
• I was called out on some of my heretical views (tongue firmly in cheek) over here.
• This is a must see video for any Christian.
• This year is John Calvin’s 500th birthday and many are organizing reading schedules of his works.  See here and here and here.
• One of my favorite profs. at school has recently been blogging here.  I usually find his posts very authentic and humbling. I hope I can “do” theology in my life as he does it now.
• I listened to this interview today and thought it was great on the topic of counseling.

Alright, that should get you through until the next post.  Happy New Year to you!

bry