This Is It

Hard to express right now at 6 AM.  I love you guys.   I will see you soon.

Pittsburgh Week 1

I am officially titling it week one because it is the first week because it is some wierd nebulous place for us to be in where we are part of the SHBC family and still at CBC.  We arrived on Monday with no serious incidents.  Jess did great on the airplane and at one point the flight attendants took her for a “fly” around the cabin (she was wearing her Wonder Pets cape and t-shirt).  She was tremendous on what could have been traumatic for her.  She’s adjusting to meeting new people so there is some acting up but that’s mostly due to her being extremely tired.

So far I have gotten to be a celebrity judge at Battle of the Bands and been the brunt of some initiation at Muckfest.  I found out what tempera paint tastes like and got to make my first dog food angel. The church has been great and we have been extremely overwhelmed by the love and hospitality of the Arnita family who we have been staying with.

Now for the family disaster story of the week.

We lost Lamby.

If you don’t know who this is then the impact of those words won’t mean much to you.  Lamby is Jess’s best friend in the whole world.  You know the one.  The disgusting, smelly sheep whose ear my daughter has chewed on at bed time since nine months old.  He was lost in one of the houses that we looked at yesterday.  The owners swear that they can’t find him but I think he’s somewhere in the back yard.  We are trying to replace Lamby with Pablo from the Backyardigans and it is looking promising.  Keep praying that the heartbreak is short lived.

All in all having a great time and yet we miss our dear friends in Texas.

To Our Family At Crossroads Bible Church–From Last Night’s Meeting

Dear Friends and Family of Crossroads,

I am writing, on behalf of our family, to inform the students at CBC and their parents that I have accepted the position of Pastor of Youth at South Hills Bible Chapel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and will be stepping down as Pastor of Student Ministries at Crossroads. I have always known that one day God would lead us into another ministry opportunity and that time has arrived. It’s never been a question of “if” but rather “when”. I have been blessed to have grown up in this church and to serve as part of the staff for the past seven years, four of those alongside my wife. We love the students and families more than we can express and this is a very bittersweet time for us.

It’s cliché but true to say that the decision was not easy, however, as far back as the months prior to our wedding, Kim and I discussed whether God wanted us to stay at Crossroads. We knew that, at least for that time, CBC was where we needed to be. The question was brought up again in December of last year and this spring we took steps to see if God opened a way for us and presented a ministry opportunity. We received several inquiries from churches around the U.S. but the position at South Hills was unique among the ones we considered. The church is positioned in an area that is greatly lacking in solid, biblical teaching and ministry. South Hills stands to do great things there. It is a mission field in many ways and we are excited about a new chapter in ministry for us.

To the students at CBC I want to tell you how proud I am of you and the indescribable blessing you guys have been to us. Kim, Jess, and I love all of you so much and want to spend as much time with you as we can before our departure. You have shown us what a group can be when the students lead by their lives. You have strengthened your relationships with one another. You’ve taken initiative to serve, encourage, and love one another and because of this the group is solid. The group is about your relationship with Christ and His transforming of your lives, regardless of who is sitting in the Pastor’s chair. I am confident that you are secure in Christ even when there is rapid change going on around you.

Parents, thank you for your support, encouragement and love. There are so many of you we have gotten to know very well, who have prayed for our family and taken care of us. We are going to miss you and ask that you pray for us just a little more for the transition we are going to undertake. We will continue to pray for you and your children.

We will leave for a week to finalize some details in Pittsburgh and then be back by August 2. I will be departing in mid-August to start work at South Hills. Kim may stay for a short time longer to take care of details with our home and her father’s health concerns. We are praying that all of those details are resolved quickly that we can be together as soon as possible. We ask that you feel free to come see us at our home. Our door will continue to be open for us to, again, spend as much time with you before we go.

We love you so much and thank you for the honor of serving your families.

Nathan, Kim and Jessica

Nathan’s Dark Knight Review

It’s the biggest movie of the year, unfortunately for many, because of Heath Ledger’s death.  I am here to say that without a doubt it is in the top ten favorite movies for Nathan.  It’s so close to perfect that the few things I had a problem with probably won’t matter when I watch it again.  On the way out of the theatre someone asked me what I thought the third installment might be about and I agree with some reviewers in saying that this is the movie that Christopher Nolan will be remembered for in film history.  I don’t think people should expect a third one any time soon because he would be risking a fall from the movie throne he’s sitting on right now.

Ok…My review with, hopefully, minimal to no spoilers.

The Good

1.  The Story:  I didn’t think it was earth shatteringly new in terms of theme and the issues it was addressing (and it does have some heavy subject matter) but it was presented in a way I would dream of being able to write.  It is a new stylistic approach to a Batman movie because it’s more like watching a gangster movie than a comic book movie.  It never gets hokey and still looks at what it means to be a hero and sacrifices that have to be made.  The final line in the movie will give you goosebumps and it really could have been cheesy.  It never gets that way.  Potential Spoiler warning:  Some reviewers have noted that you may be surprised by the meaning of the film’s title.  It’s well done and when it’s revealed at the end you will LOVE it.

2.  Heath Leadger:  Yes…he’s amazing.  Maybe not Posthumous Oscar but man, the first time he has an extended scene of dialogue in the film I found my jaw hanging open.  Not lying.  I was hooked on his portrayel of The Joker.

3.  Everyone Else (Especially Gary Oldman):  Just watch everyone fit perfectly into what they are doing.

4.  Barely Discernible CGI:  I challenge anyone to tell me where the CGI is.  You won’t notice much because it’s done so well and used so minimally.  A little in the Batpod chase scene but it’s such a cool chase that you won’t care.

5.  It’s Not Slow:  Moves fast.  And it’s INTENSE.

6.  The Score:  WOW!  Find a way to listen to the track “A Dark Knight”.  That’s what hero themes are supposed to be like.  In a couple of scenes, I found myself missing the musical score.

The Not So Good

1.  Unclear Marketing:  Let me be clear.  DO NOT TAKE A YOUNG CHILD TO SEE THIS MOVIE.  It is violent, scary, and very disturbing in some parts.  I was cringing in some scenes.

2.  Maggie Gylenhall:  Great acting with a pretty worthless part but man…I couldn’t get over how not pretty she is.  Maybe it was the movie but it was like “Wow…can we make her look any more unattractive?”

3.  The Fast Pace Will Quickly Confuse You:  Sometimes it moves so fast in the edit you may miss something.

4.  SPOILER WARNING!!!!! Harvey Dent’s Transformation Into Two-Face Was Like Anakin’s Into Darth Vader:  It happened too quickly.  The motivation was there.  The acting was superb.  I understand it’s a limited amount of time and I liked how, ultimately, Harvey was more a pawn of the Joker than a true “villian” but man it just happened to easily and too fast for the film.

So my review is officially:

The more I have thought about it as I wrote this the more I stand by the statement that it’s the best movie I have seen in the last ten years.

Amazing.

Best Ad Campaign For A Movie In Quite Awhile

This is why I love Guillermo Del Toro

Before I Leave For Mexico…

I LOVE MY WIFE!

SHE’S THE BEST!

Vacations, Bigfoot, and Otter Otter

Greetings from a post-vacation mind as it tries to reestablish contact with the world.

We made the two day trek to visit my grandparents in Wisconsin or as Jessica liked to put it “We’s going to see GiGi in ‘Sconscin!”. It was a great time. Very nice to sit and do nothing at all. I read four books, none of them of substance, all fiction, two great, two lame. I enjoyed every second of it.

Mom, Kim and I took Jess to the Minnesota Zoo which doesn’t get the credit it deserves. It’s a very well done park and worth the extra mileage and cost. Jess got up close (as close as the glass would let her) to wolverines, wolves, a cougar, bobcat and various fish, sharks and dolphins. She was able to pet cows, rabbits, goats (one of which tried to eat her ponytail), sheep and other barnyard creatures. However, nothing will ever hold a candle to otters in that little heart. It’s hilarious to watch her get excited over water rodents. She would park herself on the ground, head in her hands and watch for hours if we let her. I think that’s one of the things I love most about being a dad is watching her develop her “things”. Like some girls love unicorns, rainbows or horses, my daughter loves otters. The obligatory trip to the gift shop yielded a life size stuffed otter named, creatively, “Otter Otter”, a tiny plush turtle and a lamb that mommy and I named “Lambo” (we were so happy the name stuck).

For me, I ate an entire pack of Louie’s Finer Meats Hunter Sausage and a bag of cheese curds which is as close to heaven you are going to get in this world.

Then to cap off a tremendous vacation I took my first step in my quest for Sasquatch Americana. Behold my picture with the Cumberland Bigfoot:

You can read the accompanying account of this fearsome creature here.

Great vacation…now I need to get my brain turned back on.

Oh yeah…I have to prepare a sermon for Sunday.

I Gave In…

Nathan South Park’d

Home Alone 4: Monster in New York

SPOILERS AHEAD! You have been warned!

I finally caught up and saw Cloverfield today. I had been waiting for this movie from the very first viral ad trailer before Transformers. I am a sucker for a “gimic” film and let’s face it…that’s really all this is.

I guess, since I’m late to the party, explaining the plot is a moot point. So my personal review:

The Good:

1. The “Gimic”–Blair Witch Project did on a wide commercial scale first. Cloverfield does it better. The first person POV actually works to it’s advantage unlike Blair Witch (that film could have been great but the irritating characters ruined it). On DVD I was able to avoid some of the motion sickness, being on a smaller screen.

2. The No Set Up Plot–Really there isn’t any set up at all. We are literally put in the film to figure out what is going on along with the characters. No explanation or exposition in many cases. I know it was irritating to some to have no rhyme or reason given for certain plot devices (Why the parasites? What happened to Marlena? What is the creature?) but that lends to the tension and confusion. Explaining before hand why a bite from the parasite carries an extra component of danger would have been less effective than suddenly having a character’s stomach explode without warning. It lets the viewer see the “rules” of the plot with the same kind of “what the heck just happened” feeling that the characters have. The explanation is left to our imagination which is sometimes worse than reality. But as noted below if it’s not IN the film, it’s not part of the story.

3. The Creature and Visual Effects–Money well spent. A $30 Million home movie that looks real. New York looks real and the creature is seldom CG-ish.

The Not So Good:

1. Hud–I know he was meant to be the comic relief but the character was just so irritating and unrealistic that I could get behind him and was fine when he suddenly found himself a snack.

2. If It’s Not In the Movie It’s Not In the Movie–Watching the extra material it was discussed that the filmmakers saw the creature as an infant that was lost and newly born/hatched. This is a great idea as it makes the monster’s actions that much more unpredictable and gives it some purpose. Plus it creates another plot tension–Where are the parents? Problem is…the average movie goer doesn’t even know this. You have to be a hardcore movie nut who will listen to a commentary track or a Comic-Con panel to even have a glimpse of their thought process.

All in all a good film. Great exercise of a somewhat overdone gimic but I would definitely put it on my own list.

Thus endeth my first movie review for the IDHOBC

Iron Man coming soon.

This Just In!

From the Barely Discernible Intelligence Press:

Consumer Pressure For God to Remove Bears As Predatory Threats

People are tired of the lack of safety when they venture into the woods. Naturally, instead of practicing caution and common sense they are now turning to the Creator Himself with petitions and statistics that prove within the realm of possibility that bears eat people when they leave the relative safety of their homes.

“We can no longer afford to live in fear of these heinous beasts when we leave for our jobs and take our children to school”, stated one distraught urbanite. “It’s a complete lack of responsibility for God to create anything that would endanger our families.”

When asked for any statistical or empirical evidence that would give credence to their claims the Center for the Irrational Protection of Everyone had this to say:

“Simply put, the number of deaths amongst small woodland creatures, though they are biologically miles apart from a human being, at the hands of the bear species can easily be interpreted to mean that one day a bear will walk into your house and eat you while you watch The Office.”

When asked for comment, the Almighty delivered a prepared written statement to this news agency.

“Philippians 4:6″