:: Obligatory New Year's Post ::

Today marks the beginning of a new year and a new decade. Since I was born in 1980, today also marks the beginning of my 4th decade... the year my wife and I will both turn 30! As is the custom out here in the Blogosphere, I would like to look back over the last year.

If you want to skip on back to Facebook... wouldn't blame you.

Let me start by saying that 2009 was a year in which God moved in nothing short of miraculous ways. For as long as I have known Christ (over 12 years now), I have been praying that my family would come to know Him as well.

In April I was blessed (in the truest sense of the word) to be able to baptize my mom. Seriously, one of the best moments of my life!

Our next blessing came from my sister and brother-in-law.

I'M GONNA BE AN UNCLE!! Seriously, I love this little girl already and pray for her tons!

A good chunk of my generation has decided to leave the Church. They say they're disenchanted with the way things are done. They say the Church has lost her way. I'll write more about this later but, in short, they are arrogant... and wrong. Which leads me to the next blessing in our lives, Sun Valley Community Church. I could go on about how God is moving in this church. For now, I'll focus on things in which I am more intimately involved.

This year God led Robert (the High School Ministries Pastor) and I to start a student leadership team. Through their service and leadership, the students of Sun Valley have collectively raised over $4,000 in one semester (our goal is $5000 for the whole school year). This money is going to Charity:Water and will be used to bring a fresh-water well to a village in Africa.

Robert, the other two Student Ministry pastors and I also dreamt and developed an intern program for the student ministry. We took the program live in August. We have had one intern for the last semester and have 3 more on deck for this next semester.

Let's see, what else happened this year? Shannon and I got our own apartment in Gilbert. I got to take a group of 9 students to Jamaica. I landed a part-time job at Eddie Bauer (yes, I'm 29 and yes, I work at the mall).

As I look ahead at 2010 (or "Oh Ten"), I am looking forward to 2 things: What is God going to do in us this year? What is God going to do through us this year?


Also, the Cardinals all the way this year. There, I said it.