Goodbye Grandpa

Yesterday morning at 6:30am my grandpa went to be with Jesus.

I know he is telling "Cecil" jokes in heaven and nobody can understand what he is saying because of his Bajan accent.

I wish that everyone would have had a chance to get to know him . . . I wish that I would have known him better.

The stories he would tell (true or not) could capture anyone, and they always ended with a punch line that left your side splitting. Beyond his humor, was an incredibly deep and committed love for my grandma. Karyss and I got to see them just two years ago when we were on our honeymoon and it was so much fun to watch them interact. Grandpa would make a joke towards grandma and she would pretend to be annoyed, but you could tell she absolutely loved having all of grandpa's attention.

And even beyond that love was a love for the Lord. He has done so many things in his life to further the Kingdom of God. Building a church from the ground -- up in Barbados (his home country) is only one of the many things my grandpa will be remembered for forever.

I think that these two pictures really give a glimpse into the heart of who my grandpa was.



He absolutely loved life(being very patriotic on the fourth of July), not taking anything too seriously . . . and he loved his grandchildren(and great-grandchildren).

Grandpa, we will all miss you and we mourn our loss, but we celebrate your victory!

Learning

When I was in high school I was passionate about learning information.

When I was in college I was passionate about learning about myself.

After I graduated I was passionate about learning who God has created me to be.

Now . . . I have become a little bit complacent . . . and have lost a passion for learning.

Realizing this is half the battle, now I need to get off my butt and push myself.

How do you push yourself?? Or do you??

catch up - post 3

ok, so i'm not quite as caught up as I would have hoped . . . but we're on the road to renewing our friendships.

One of the main reasons that I was not able to catch up is because I spent a lot of time yesterday catching up on reading all of my friends blogs. One that I came across that really struck a chord in me was this post by my friend John Voelz:

For any of you who read this that are in leadership, soak in what John is saying! Recruiting, challenging, stretching, and expecting a lot from volunteers is something that has been lost in many ways.

The only reason that I am in ministry, or even learned how to play the guitar is because my youth pastor pushed me and stretched me. One weekend he asked if i wanted to lead worship . . . i said no . . . he made me . . . i lead worship every weekend from there on out until i moved away for college.

I have a Student Leadership Team for our worship arts ministry in Resonate and they have blown me away at how well they have responded to my challenges! Next year we are taking it to the next level!!

Catch Up - post 2

This is the second post in my series of catch up posts. If you are new to my blog, i don't normally post several times in one day . . . but i also don't usually go several weeks without a post either. So this is me catching up :)

IGNITE!!!

June 23 - 27 was the biggest week of Central Student ministries year. Several months of planning went in to putting on a world class summer camp at UCLA. It was an absolutely amazing experience! I was a little distant from all the programming stuff this year, so i'll give ya'll a few links to check out:

Ignite Blog
You can watch the recap videos and see pictures from the week.

Annalise's Summary (very thorough) :)
Annalise wrote all about her week at Ignite.


As far as my experience goes, it was awesome! I lead a small group for the second year in a row and i had some of the same guys as last year. It really felt like they were able to bond and connect with each other so easily this year. I told everyone at the camp that I had the best small group ever, and i really believe that!

God did some amazing things in those students lives that week . . .things that I know will last the rest of their lives. I'm so excited about Ignite '09. We'll be back at UCLA and I'm sure it will be better than ever.

If you are interested in bringing your youth group, let me know: josh.bollen@centralchristian.com

Catch Up - post 1

Ok, so going way back when in Resonate we went through a series called Deadly Viper Character Assassins. It was a great series for our church, and we were really able to do a lot of creative stuff with it because the ongoing theme was kung fu. You can see a little bit of what the main auditorium did at the Deadly Viper Blog.

One of the Character Assassins is the "Bling Bling Assassin." So we decided to do Weezer's Beverly Hills for our special that week. It was a blast!! The band all wore white shirts and black ties and we even did a little bit of simple choreography. The students loved it and it was a great connection point for new high school kids. Annalise also wrote a little bit about it on her blog.

Check out the video and please pardon the bad quality :)

First Things First

So first things first . . . I got a hair cut. Seems totally unimportant, i know. However, the last time i actually went to someone to have my haircut was my first year of college.

I believe that would be about 4 years ago.

This was a significant moment for me in my life, even though my hair doesn't even look that different.

Props to Talitha for having the courage to take the challenge to please me when it comes to the mop on my head!! She's awesome!!

Long time no see

Ok, so it has been far too long since the last post!! I am sorry for that. There is no excuse for my lazy blogging. However, there is something to be excited about . . . I am going to fill everyone in on all that has been happening . . . one post at a time :)

I'm not a huge fan of the "novel" blogs that take 25 minutes to read, and actually, I rarely read those. SO . . . i know that you all would greatly appreciate me breaking up the posts. I will try and do some today, and finish tomorrow.

Again, sorry for the delay . . . but we will be best friends again by Saturday morning :)