Busy season

I feel like this has been one of the busiest holidays that I have had in a long time. From Thanksgiving till now I think that I may have had four or five evenings where I actually came home and there was nothing scheduled to do. Amongst all this whirlwind of action Melissa and I are getting very excited about the baby. We decided that one of our Christmas presents would be finding out if our baby is a boy or a girl. It is down to two more days of waiting, not including today.

I hope that this will narrow down our baby name search. It is very difficult to pick a name for a child. They will have it the rest of their life so it is not an easy decision. I am not sure how we will know what we are supposed to name our child but I guess we will be able to cut it in half in a couple of days.

Hope you all are having a great holiday. Like I said before you can come back here and check on Christmas day to see the gender of the baby. See you then.

Thanksgiving

This is by far my most favorite holiday of all. I love spending time with the family and eating lots of food. I think if Christ was actually born on Thanksgiving it would far surpass any holiday in the world. I guess that Christmas has something on Thanksgiving since it is the birth of Christ but I still love my Turkey Day.

I have had a great Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It was great to see everyone and those we will see in the next couple of days. I do like spending Thanksgiving with Melissa's family but we will be having Christmas there so all is good. I definitely over ate this year. I don't know if it is sympathy pains or if it was the food but I am now getting some heartburn and I felt boated. I guess that's was happens when you gorge yourself.

One thing that I started while living in AZ was shopping on black Friday. I loved it there because even though lines may be long the weather was great and you can laugh at all the shoppers that where way to serious about the whole situation. While shopping in IL this year it was worse than I ever remember from last year. It was so cold!!! I went to Menard's today for a TV, it was so cold that I justified that I should get two so I could sell one on craigslist. I think that my brain had frozen at that point. I figured if I was going to freeze in line I should try to make some money for doing it. So I guess what I am saying is I have a TV for sale. lol.

I have more family to see and more food to eat so I hope that I will be able to have a good representation while I am here this year. I hope that you are all having a great time and having fun laughing at all the shoppers.

P.S. If you are interested in baby information check out our family blog storytimewiththeschneiders.blogspot.com. You will be able to find out here and there what gender the baby will be on Christmas Day. It will be a blast.

The point of Blogging

So I don't know why but I just don't check blogs very often. Maybe it is because I do not fully understand the point of it or I do not have a specific purpose for this blog. I do read a couple of blogs from my friends but it is only to check up on their family or see what they are up to. So i will try to keep you up to-date on how things are going with us.

Melissa is doing well with the baby. We have not found out yet what the gender is but we have decided to open an envelope that has a picture on Christmas day. We thought that it would be a fun surprise for Melissa and I. I will update and let you know Christmas Day what is happening. We are hoping and praying for a boy but we will be happy with healthy

I have finally been able to feel the baby move. I almost can not put it all together. I know there is a life in there but it almost feel unreal. I love going to the ultrasounds because then we get to see JJ (this is what we are calling the baby for now, Jason Junior). It becomes so much more real to me then and I get very excited and nervous about being a Dad.

The house is coming along well. We are done with most of what we needed to get done and what we wanted to have done to the house. I still need to finish up the baseboards for the hardwood floor. I am hoping to work on that some this weekend. When I am done I will try to post some pictures.

Well that's some basic stuff from our life. Hope you enjoy and I will put more details down in the future. Have a great day,

Let the magic happen.

Well I think it is funny that my last post was titled "been a long time" and now it has been a long time again. Well I hope that this does not discourage you as the reader but I am sure that it does.

Melissa and I have been pretty busy moving into our new home. There has been lots of work and many long nights fixing things or updating items. Most of the big work is done, now it is down to the little things.

We are very excited about all that is happening in our life. We are going through foster parenting classes. We are not sure if fostering is quite what we want to do, but we have always wanted to adopt. The foster parenting classes are required to take if you would like to adopt. They are holding the classes here in Lamar so we thought we would take them. We are looking forward to the possibilities that God has in store for us in the future.

Another item that we are very excited about is the baby bump. Yes we are pregnant. We have had our difficulties and heart aches as we have been trying to start our family for a couple of years. We are officially 18 weeks today. That's half way. This is exciting and nerve racking at the same time. We have wanted a child so bad but now that it is only a couple of months away from happening it makes me anxious.

I am working on updating the look of the blog since I do not like the way the previous one looked. I am not happy with they way some of these operate so it may change a couple of times before I figure it out. I hope that you bear with me.

Have a great day,
Jason.

Been a while

Well it has been a long time since my last post but I have had some reasons why (not like it matters). Melissa and I bought a house a couple of months ago and we have been working very hard on getting it ready to move it. We have done some major work on the house. With out going into much detail here is a list of things we worked on; roof, ripped out old carpet, Put in new hardwood floor, painted, moved plumbing, new cabinets, new back door, sump pump, windows and we took out a wall. We have been very busy with this but it is not done. We have the majority of these things completed so we moved in. Now comes the unpacking.

We are now online so I hope that I will have more posts coming your way. There is still so much to do but we can take it a little slower now.

I have not mentioned all the time I will be away this summer. I have already spent two weeks at JH and HS camp. It was great BTW. Next Melissa and I will be leaving for Haiti on Friday. I am very excited about this mission trip. We will be going to northwest Haiti. This area was not affected by the earthquake nearly as bad as Port au Prince. We will be starting a building project there. We will be setting up the first of many building for an orphanage. Once we get back from there a couple of weeks later I will be headed to Colorado. Fun but busy summer.

I hope that you all are having a great summer as well. I am not the best at taking picture but I hope to post some pictures from Haiti soon after I get back.

What is "Church?"

This is a quote of a quote. A friend of mine posted a quote from Francis Chan on Facebook the other day and I thought it was very thought provoking. "If "Church" is not a building, then why do we call it that? If we really believe that "Church" refers to all people that God has redeemed, then why are we using the word for so many other things?"

Right now our Church is going through a building project. It is very exciting to see things resurfaced and things modified to be more modern. (I dare not use the word change, so modify works better.) During this time people in the Church body do naturally focus more on the building. Initially I did not think this was a bad thing. I mean we want to have a nice building and all but where is the point were it becomes to much. I think that point is when people from all over the body, not those designated for the project, give their input and opinions on what should or needs to happen.

This gets to my point, if we refer to the Church as being the building, we will care more about what happens to it then the people in it. If we were to use the word Church in reference to the the people of God, there would be less opinions about the building. I know that I have been guilty of this many times in my life.

I do care about what the building looks like and how it is precieved when a new person walks in but when this becomes more important than that new person, I feel, we have a big problem. I am very thankful that the people in our church care more about people that do not have a relationship with Christ than the building we meet in. The fact that we are making our building more inviting to a guest than what we want or desire. This is very cool to see and means so much to me. I commend those working on our building project and those who are willing to "change" for the advancement of His Kingdom. That is what "Church" is about... People.

Holy Spirit

I am going through a "Discovering" series with our youth group. We have talked about discovering our Identity, Purpose, Talents, Spiritual Gifts, and why we are important to the ministry. As we have talked I wonder if this is a topic that we to often neglect. I wonder what our churches would or could be like if we truly tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit. What if we allowed the Holy Spirit to impact our lives so we could impact others.

Our church leaders and members need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. He was specifically left here to guide us, comfort and counsel us in our Christian lives. I know that this is something that I need to improve upon myself. Simple fact, if we do not allow God to move through our lives we will not reach people for Christ. This is hard to swallow, even for me.

Let's change that way we receive the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let's start to actually use His power and the gifts that He has given to us. What amazing things could happen.

What's the Difference

I have been experiencing a big difference in how ministry is done from one church to another and from one region of the country to another. Let me clarify ministry is still ministry and has most of the same elements. The difference come in you application of these elements. While working on a bigger staff you can create different materials and curriculum with ease because of the different members involved. While working in a small church you could still produce the same type of things if you want to do it all yourself, if you want to kill yourself.

I am not saying that it is impossible, it is but at what cost? If you are stuffed away in your office writing curriculum or designing graphics is this the best use of your time? There are many places that can create an amazing curriculum and designs for you. Why do larger churches feel like they can not use these items. Is it pride. If a youth minister or children minister is able to purchase the finest materials out there why shouldn't we.

For me I do not need to be known at the most intellectual or deep thinker. I do not think this is the best way to benefit the local church. I want to be known for my relationships and the time that I invested into others. I want to be able to show Christ's love to people instead of telling them how to in a new theological way.

Haiti in the Limelight

I always find it interesting when a disaster happens in foreign country. It seems at times that we would not have a clue to what is happening in the world unless some catastrophe happens that brings it into the limelight. Why have we not thought of Haiti and all the problems that are happening there before the earthquake? Why has it not been the focus of the nations attention until there is resolution in Haiti?
I know that there are lots of missions and orphanages in Haiti that have helped and supported the Haitian people for many years. There are actually more than I would have imagined. Why do we not care more about these places when there is no disaster? Is it a lack of information? Unfortunately it is not due to a lack of information but a lack of compassion. I am guilty of this just as much as the last person.
If it were not for the trip that we are planning on in Haiti before the earthquake I would not know anything about Haiti. Hearing stories and learning about the corruption that is in this country my heart breaks for them. From headlines to headlines we see how we can help Haiti and the people there. I can not help to wonder how long this will last? How long will the mass of our nation care for the Haitians?
What is another country like Haiti that needs help but we are too blind to see it until some disaster happens there?

What's Up

So, I am finally getting back into the blogging world. This time I will be an active participant instead of just an observer. I am excited to be able to get my thoughts out of my head and into the world. Who knows who will be reading this but I hope that some people will come and take a look.

To fill you in on what is new with my life I started as the Student Minster at First Christian Church of Lamar in December. I feel like my first month has been a whirlwind of excitement and busyness. Starting a new possition at a church durring one of their busiest times of the year has been interesting. From students being out of school, to getting lessons ready for midweek, to preaching on Christmas Sunday, to Christmas Eve Service, to finding things for my office in storage, to getting settled into new terms and ways of doing things I am exhausted. Just writing it all makes me a little tired.

I am very excited for the possibilities that we have at this church. I am going to start a new project of creating an identity for our group of students. Currently we are simply called FCC youth. This does not seem very exciting to me, or provoke questions about our group. I am wanting to create an identity for this ministry that students can connect to and proudly invite their friends to. I have some ideas but feel free to share your thoughts.