World Changing in Salt Lake City......Utah!

So I'm really tired but I am so excited to share about World Changers in Salt Lake!

The back story -

I was returning home from a World Changers project in Clovis California. It was one of those rare moments in youth ministry, where everyone in the van was asleep. I was excited for the silence and for the opportunity to thank God for the week. I ended up asking God where we needed to head next and I felt God tell me that Salt Lake City would be a great location for World Changers. After some delayed obedience I made a phone call to NAMB and left a message on the world changers general mail box. To my surprise I received a return phone call from the director of World Changers 30 minutes later. He told me that he was going to fly out and we would pitch the project. To make a long story short we pitched the project to two cities and both loved the idea. NAMB approved the project dates for July 14-21, 2007. It was here that the work began. I was appointed by the Salt Lake Baptist Association to serve as the Associational Coordinator and began all the prep work to make a World Changers project happen.

The Week -

307 volunteers from Illinois, Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Washington, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Wyoming showed up ready to work. They came prepared to roof, side, paint, replace windows, perform yard clean outs, and anything else we needed them to do. These volunteers came with a purpose: To tell Salt Lake City that God had given them a gift and because of that gift they wanted to serve God by serving others. These volunteers slept on cots or air matresses in classrooms. They were constantly hot, sweaty, and tired, but despite all of this you never heard them complain. They were overjoyed to participate in this project.

Their efforts helped lead 13 people to Jesus during the week. Several others wanted to know about how and where to attend a church that was supporting World Changers. The media was all over the project. KUTV, Fox13, KSL, Univision, Telemundo, The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and several others all came out trying to understand what these people were doing.

I was amazed at their constant positive attitude. They all desired to know and understand the culture they were surrounded by better. I'm not sure if I could put into words just how I feel about the project. Good just doesn't seem to cut it. God blessed this project and the efforts of the 400+ volunteers that helped make this project a reality.

Here are some pictures of one worksite. This house started off with wood siding and wood shaker shingles. This crew was tasked with replacing the roof, including new decking and siding the house. They also re-insulated the attic. This was truly an extreme make over. I talked with the homeowner and he told me that he would need to make his address marker bigger because he didn't recognize his own home. This house tranformation easily echoes the change that came about in Salt Lake City last week. It was great to see Christians in the news for something positive.

Great job World Changers! Thank you for your efforts and love of our community. I hope you all come back next year!

Ugh...gross.

As an avid sports fan I spend most of my mornings watching sportscenter on ESPN. I am usually holding out for any NFL news relating to the Denver Broncos but usually during this time of year the only thing that is happening is baseball. Reluctantly I ended up watching a spoof about a japanese professional eater named Takeru Kobayashi. This guy has won the 4th of July Nathan's hot dog eating contest for 6 years straight. Kobayashi had just had his wisdom teeth removed and, as many who have gone through that precedure can attest, couldn't open his mouth very well. All the commentators were giving him a hard time saying that he was a coward and was afraid of the competition.

The 4th of July came and, as is the custom, the competitors filed out one by one at Coney Island to gorge themselves on hot dogs. I stumbled upon a re-run of the contest and was absolutely sickened by the contest but also the commentary. The outcome came down to a guy named Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi. Chestnut had to eat 66 hotdogs and buns in 12 minutes in order to beat Koabayshi. While this is going on the in-contest commentary is saying things like this is the greatest moment in American sports and that courage and valor were the things that were helping these great "athletes" accomplish this spectacle of gluttony. I ended up turning off the television very disappointed.

Every day, millions of children go to bed without having even a scrap of food. This isn't just in third world, poverty stricken countries overseas. This happens in our backyard. People go hungry and are dying because of it. I don't have any statistics but I know enough to know that it is a very big problem.

I don't think these pictures look very heroic...do you?

World Changing in Sioux City......Iowa!

I just got back from taking my youth group to World Changers in Sioux City Iowa. The drive from Salt Lake City is 17 hours if you drive straight through which we found out the hard way. I'm not sure if I ever want to drive that far in a stinky van full of teenagers on Mountain Dew ever again....but I probably will as the trip was amazing!

God did some amazing things in the lives of our youth this year. One of them even committed their life to full time ministry! The Sioux City WC project completed 11 jobs that included everything from roofing and wheelchair ramps to building garages from the ground up.

A the coolest thing about the trip for me was getting to see our home owner use the ramp that we had built. Our home owner had recently returned from the nursing home recovering from pneumonia. She had a set of large steps in the front of her home that took every bit of energy to go up and down when she tried to leave. This caused her to just stay at home and have her daughter take care of her. We put a new roof on the house and built the ramp and on Friday she walked down it on her way to a doctor appointment. What a cool moment to see that we could help her with something as simple as a ramp. Hopefully it will help her get out of the house more as she continues on the road to recovery.

Another cool moment happened in the service today. Our church has two services and the second service needs some extra chairs put up. I asked some of my youth to help and all of them stood up without complaint and put up all the chairs that we needed. Hopefully this attitude is contagious!

I will leave you with some pictures of the trip.

(from the top....Bill losing his head, Nail Heads 2007, George taking a nap, Happy mural in the school, the most evil looking painted face in history, Jordan taking a break)

Check this out...

Guys like to show off war wounds so I had to show this baby off. I play in a Men's softball league on Tuesday nights and this is proof of what a line drive to the leg will do. I was playing 3rd base and didn't have any time to get out of the way. This picture was taken a week after and believe it or not the bruise actually got bigger and darker!

Not to worry though...it has healed up fine and they won't have to amputate.

June already?

Life has been busy lately...thus the lack of posts to our blog. I have been working on all things world changers. I will be taking our youth group to Sioux City, IA on Friday and will be roofing, fencing, or painting all next week. Rachael is bummed because she is in the middle of a summer internship and isn't able to take the time off to go with us. She will get to hold down the fort in SLC. She has been working with some community patients and has plenty of stories of some strange people and their crazy antics.

I have also been working on the World Changers project that is going to be in SLC from July 14 to the 21. I have had to drive all over SLC getting things ready and we are still more than a month out. I am scared to think what the week of the project will look like. I am also working on bringing our local churches together to work on this massive project. We have committed to 29 projects in South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. 14 of those 29 projects are new roofs. Our youth are also raising money to benefit these families during the holidays...they will be buying thanksgiving dinner for them with the money they are raising now. I couldn't be more proud of them.

Things on the church front have been moving slow for my taste but they are progressing. We still don't have a Sr. Pastor but for now that is a good thing. Our church is dreaming again and that is amazing. My overall feeling is that the church is ready for some changes and we are moving forward to make those changes in the way we minister to our members and our community. I have been frustrated, excited, mad, let down, encouraged, and supported...it kinda sounds like life huh? As we discover who God wants us to be as a church I can't help but press on. I have a good feeling about this...more posts about this soon. I am also our church's new webmaster and have used a great website sofware called snapshot to create our new site. Check it out at www.hbcutah.org. It is still a building process but at least we have current information posted.

Check my next post for some of Kevin King's Wedding photos.

too busy to blog?

One of my favorite things to do online is catch up with my friends who have left Utah behind. While I will admit to occasional blog slacking caused by busyness, lately I check blogs to no avail. What happened to the quotable quotes, witty responses, and interesting pictures? Lately I have been forced to be entertained online by nintendo8.com. I hope all of you are happy.

p.s. enjoy the picture.

Quality Amongst Crap

As I checked out this week's Box Office numbers, I realize that people are spending hard earned dollars on absolute crap. The top ten movies this week were the following:

1. Blades of Glory
2. Meet the Robinsons
3. Are We Done Yet?
4. Grindhouse
5. The Reaping
6. 300
7. Wild Hogs
8. Shooter
9. TMNT
10. Firehouse Dog

COME ON PEOPLE! Of the top ten, I could make a case for seeing possibly two of them. I normally don't give you my take on movies because, like Clint, I really haven't seen anything lately that I have been wowed by. That was until I saw Reign Over Me.

Let me first say that our first choice was Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. The idea of Will Ferrell in spandex and figure skating sounds too funny. My dad had already seen it and Reign Over Me was next on the list. I'll probably also end up renting Meet the Robinsons mainly for the T-Rex.

Basic Plot (no spoilers here): Adam Sandler plays a man named Charlie Fineman. Fineman has lost his entire family in the September 11th attacks. Fineman runs into his old college roommate, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) who finds that rekindling their friendship is the only way of helping Fineman deal with his grief.

Reign Over Me is labeled by imdb.com as a dark comedy....don't believe them. While this movie has its funny moments the truth is that this movie is a great example of how resilient the human spirit can be in the midst of unspeakable tragedy. Adam Sandler does an amazing job in the funny moments as well as the serious dramatic moments. When the credits rolled I actually said..."wow". Rachael and I also spent a lot of time talking about the film afterwards.

Check it out if you dare.

Next blog: Patrick Spring Update.

Crazy Faces

Since I now have a phone with a decent digital camera taking pictures has become much easier. Here are some photos of crazy faces. At least we are having fun!




Starting top left...Crazy Fro Zach, Crystal and Mike, Yours Truly, Rachael after a day of studying, and Happy Max.
I'll be posting soon.

Spring is coming!

Spring is on its way finally! After some freak snow storms it has actually been flip-flop weather in Salt Lake City. This meant that we could finally have our dogs groomed. They have really been needing it. Our dog Scooter's hair was so long that he actually got his paw stuck when he was scratching. His claws got tangled in his long hair and he sat that way for a little while until I realized what had happened and bailed him out. Here are some pictures. I think they look much better.

Scooter Before Scooter after

Timber before Timber after

It's snowing updates!

This picture was taken as I was sitting in my car on I-215. You can see that several cars were stuck and so the cars behind were trying to get around any way they could. It took me almost two hours to get from school to the church. That drive usually takes at the most fifteen minutes.

I hear that we should be expecting another storm to be moving through today. I'm ready for spring!

***UPDATE***

Life: I recently returned from the middle east. We had an amazing trip that I can't tell you about here. If you are in Salt Lake, come on by, we'll make you some tea and I'll tell you all about it. It was really sad to go from camping on beaches, shorts, and sunglasses to snow shovels, jackets, and snow but it was good to be home. In other news, Rachael and I are in month two of our strict training program. Rachael doesn't need it but is encouraging me and pushing me toward my goal. This is the longest I have been able to stick with any diet/training program. To date I have lost 18 lbs. I hope to be at my goal by this time next year. I was thinking about posting pictures of my progress but I would rather just have a before/after.

School: Rachael and I are halfway through the semester and both of us would love for it to be over. We have been busier than ever! We are going to Moab for a few days during Spring Break. We'll update the blog with pictures from Arches when we get back. I am looking forward to doing a little bit of hiking and taking a break from everything.

Church: As you know, Rodger has officially retired. If you want to check his progress on the trail click here. We are in the transition process now and to be honest it has been a little stressful/busy. The good news is that I got to preach last week and I feel that it went about as good as it could have. I received a lot of good feedback from the congregation which was really encouraging. I am excited to see what is going to happen at our church. There are a lot of changes coming up with the youth group that they are really pumped about! More on that later.

Currently Watching: We were finally able to get our Directv DVR set up so we can now watch all the shows that we wanted to but couldn't before. Scrubs, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, CSI: Miami, 24, and The Office are all set to record. If you don't have a DVR or Tivo...you're missing out. I like that I can fast forward commercials and pause live TV.

Current Tunes: Future of Forrestry, Gnarls Barkley, Jim Gaffigan, Norah Jones, Anberlin, Smashing Pumpkins, Switchfoot, U2, The Fray, Mutemath, and Corrine Bailey Rae are all in frequent rotation on my ipod.

Idea: I was listening to a podcast this week and they presented an idea of taking one interesting picture a day for one year. I think I am going to try this one out. I'll post them here if I decide to do this.

Until next time!

Picture time...

I have had this picture on my fridge since it was taken during the Olympics. Several people have moved away, others are married, and I have no idea about the others.

Keeping it real

I want to be cool like Jake and Gino-Dean so here we go.

1. List your 3 favorite musical artists
Dave Matthews Band
David Crowder Band
....too many to choose from....

2. List your 3 favorite TV shows
Grey's Anatomy
CSI: Miami - Horatio is da man!
24 - power to Bauer

3. List your 3 favorite books
Flashbang: Mark Steele
Blue Like Jazz: Donald Miller
Don't Waste Your Life: John Piper

4. On a scale of 1-10 how important is Clay Aiken when thinking of home refinancing?
The question should be when am I not thinking about Clay Aiken

5. Have you changed your religion since you were a child?
No...I have always been a Broncos fan. I meant...no

6. If money were no option would you live near the water, in the woods, in a city, or on a dirigible that circled the globe on a tri-monthly basis.
near the water, in the woods, close to a city.

7. List 3 of the best songs ever written
"Wedding Dress" by Derek Webb
"Return of the Revolution" by The O.C. Supertones
"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay

8. List 3 people you've never met who you'd like to have lunch with
John Piper
John Elway
John Boy Walton

9. List 3 ways the internet has changed your social interaction
I agree with Jake on this one

10. List 3 of the best concerts you have ever seen
Neil Diamond at the E Center
Mutemath
Dave Matthews Band with Robert Randolph at the Usana Amphitheater

A new year...

These are my dogs Timber and Scooter. There is no particular reason that they are on this post other than to say I really like this picture of them...they both need to get groomed in the worst way!

As a new year begins there is a ton of things already happening in the Patrick area of life. Here is an update:

1.) After 31 years in the ministry our Pastor, Rodger Russell has retired. This brings about a change at Holladay but one that I am excited for. It does mean that I will be busy to quite busy with all of my new responsibilities and other said fun stuff. Rodger posted the reasons for his retirement on his blog and you can read all about it here. They leave to follow a dream...God Bless and the best of luck to the Russells.

2.) We had a good time over the holidays and were able to re-connect with friends and family. We saw our out of towner friends/family Brandy... the Umbriacos, Kevin King, Jordan, and Holly. We capped off the holiday season with a New Year's Eve Lock-in with the youth group. We had a great turn out and had fun hanging out with our new friends from Mount Oly.

3.) Rachael and I are back for yet another semester. I have 15 credit hours and Rachael has 17. We just started so it will take a few weeks in order to settle into a routine. After the holidays though, I am ready for routine. We have also entered as our friend Dave would put it...Strict Training as we are seeking to eat better and exercise more for the new year. Hopefully after watching the marathon of the Biggest Loser I can get motivated to lose a few.

4.) Books, books, and more books. I have read several books over the past couple of months and will be posting about them in the near future. It would be cool to get a conversation going about a few of them. The books are:
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller
Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die by David Crowder and Mike Hogan

5.) click here

Traditions

Christmas time is a time of traditions. Every year there is something that you have to do or it just doesn't seem like Christmas. My idea of Christmas has been changed quite a bit over the years but it is still fun to look back and see what used to be Christmas to me. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas traditions.

1.) The Christmas Eve Candlelight service. This still is one of my favorite traditions.

2.) Every year my sister and I got to open one gift on Christmas Eve.

3.) When we (my sister and I) were little and were still avid believers in Santa, my parents had a heck of a time getting us to go to bed on Christmas Eve. After we had opened our gifts my mom snuck out of the room with a Santa hat. She snuck outside and shook the hat by the window that we were sitting next to. My dad told us that it was one of Santa's elves and if we didn't hurry off to bed, Santa would skip over our house. I don't think we ever went to bed that quickly ever again.

4.) When the movie Home Alone came out on video it became a tradition to watch it on Christmas Eve.

We kept that going for a few years and then Home Alone 2 came out. We ended up watching that one for a few more years. This is one tradition I was glad to see die.

5.) Breakfast Burritos for breakfast on Christmas day.

6.) Steak, Baked Potato, and Caesar Salad for Christmas Dinner.

7.) Christmas Parties with friends and family.

Rachael and I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. From our family to yours a Happy New Year as well!

I is a kollege stoodent

This will be a short post...

I feel like my friend John here. Taking class after class and final after final can really fry your brain. The good news is that Rachael and I are finally done with this semester. We are looking forward to taking a break for a couple of weeks and enjoy the holiday season.

If you are in classes...congrats for making it though yet another semester. If you are out of college...congrats on finishing and getting your degree.

I'm going to play Nintendo...and turn my brain off for a little while. It was beginning to overheat anyway...who's in?

Frosted Muffins for Everyone!

It is true. Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Or in my case, I am from a small family and she is from a large family. Or even better, I am from New Mexico/Utah and she is from Idaho. All that to say that our conversations at times are quite funny as we try to understand what we mean.

For example...

I have always understood the word "frumpy" to describe someone who is in a bad mood or is irritable. My mom would use it like "Why are you so frumpy today?" or "You're sure in a frump today." On the other hand Rachael had always understood the word "frumpy" to mean a very old/overweight/moo-moo wearing/sad looking person. Imagine my surprise when, while we were dating or engaged (I can't remember), Rachael was in a bad mood and I asked...."Why are you so frumpy today?" (insert gasp here.)

I'll let those words soak in a bit...

The reaction you are thinking about is the reaction I received. She shot me a look that would cause the strongest of men to curl into the fetal position and cry for their mama. Needless to say she was hurt that I would ask her why she was frumpy. What she thought and what I meant were two different things and it took a few minutes for me to explain what I meant by frumpy. I have since removed frumpy out of my vocabulary and Rachael has taken to pointing out what frumpy is when we come across it in public.

Fast-forward to last night. We were in the store buying some things for dinner when Rachael remembered that she needed to buy some items for her class-mates as she was going to bake a tasty treat for them. She told me that she needed to make muffins so I started to look for blueberry, poppy seed, or cinnamon muffin mix. She then told me that those wouldn't work because they needed to be "Frosted Muffins." When I explained that I have never had a frosted muffin she shot me another look (not as intense as the first one). She couldn't believe it. I told her that I had eaten a cup-cake but never a frosted muffin. To which she replied "That's what I meant! Cup-cakes!"

I have found that in marriage I am bound to be an idiot but as long as I can avoid becoming frumpy by eating my frosted muffins, we might just be able to communicate!

Until next time....Frosted Muffins for Everybody!

another random photo

In need of a piano? I wonder why this store was going out of business...

November Update...

I must say that I am extremely disappointed in our two faithful readers. The Mulletwatch 06 title goes to me by default as there were no other entries. Jake gave a concession speech similar to many Republican Senate candidates. I guess everyone is so busy that they can't stop and view the mullet. Rachael and I will continue our game. If you want to submit a mullet score...bring it on. We're pretty good at spotting them. So without further ado...here is the Patrick November update.

Football: The biggest news in the football world is about my bro-in-law's pee-wee team. They went 11-0 and won the championship game. It was awesome to see Zach play. He played as MLB on Defense and Running back on offense. WAY TO GO ZACH! (Black dot...PRIDE) In other football news...The Broncos are 7-2 but they barely squeaked out a win against the Raiders. The defense is hurting and with the way the offense is playing, it has been tough to watch the games as an avid fan.

Random stuff: Rachael and I are still busy with school. Arabic is becoming increasingly more difficult. Constructing a sentence in the language is very difficult if you are thinking in english grammar. Rachael got to spend two weeks in an internship in Occupational Therapy (OT). She said that she enjoyed the internship more than she has enjoyed her classes because it was more like going to a job. We are also getting ready for Mike and Crystal's wedding. I will get the chance to lead 4 worship songs at their wedding with Jordan and Holly (his girlfriend) joining the band. That should be fun. In other news...I got the chance to go with some church members to a Utah Jazz game. I have attached a scanned image of my ticket, note our seat location.

IT WAS AWESOME! I have been in the lower bowl for a game but never on the second row! The Jazz played great and have found a new, fast-paced, offensive attack. Their defense was pretty tough as well. As I type this the Jazz stand at 6-1 and are ranked 3rd in the ESPN power rankings. Call me a bandwagon fan but...Go Jazz!

MOVIES: Rachael and I recently hooked up our old-school VHS player and have been re-watching some old favorites. We hadn't been to the theater until last night when we saw a portion of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I say only a portion because we walked out after the scene where two grown men were wrestling...naked. I thought that the movie would be funny as the clips that I have seen were hilarious. It just seemed like the producers and Sacha Cohen (Ali G) wanted to blur the line of what is acceptable. I was told before seeing the movie that if you stayed long enough you were guaranteed to be offended...so true. If you want my opinion. Don't EVER waste your money on this film. Save it for a trip to Coldstone or to rent something a bit tamer.

MUSIC: Currently listening to: Skillet, Pillar, RED, The Fray, Mutemath, David Crowder Band, Incubus, Mat Kearney, and Jack Johnson

BOOKS: Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die by David Crowder and Mike Hogan, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, i am not but i know I AM by Louie Giglio, Marley and Me by John Grogan, Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller, and Collected Writings by Mike Yaconelli. (I welcome your thoughts on any of these books)

That is it for now. If I don't post before then...Happy Thanksgiving! Take down a turkey for me!

Mulletwatch '06 and the World Beard Championships

Rachael and I have noticed a strange phenomenon. It occurs everywhere we go from bookstores to the state fair. Everywhere you go you will notice young and old throwing their fashion sense into the wind when they declare "Business up front, party in the back!" The mullet is everywhere! We first noticed this phenomenon when we attended...no joke...a demolition derby. While we were getting our culture we observed 14 different occurrences of the once thought extinct mullet. Some 'loving' parents had even passed down the mullet tradition to their children as many a 'babymullet' were seen. This disease doesn't just affect men! Women can be attacked by the 'femmullet' and many of those have been documented.

So here is the challenge: On a specifc outing such as a trip to the grocery store, mall, or the movies, keep a eye out for the mullet. I doubt you will beat our experience at the demo derby, unless you live in Texas...the unofficial birthplace of the mullet. The current record is 14. Remember...we are on the honor system here.

In other hair related news...check out www.worldbeardchampionships.com. Trust me. You won't be sorry. Apparently there is a competition for growing and grooming facial hair that is held in England each year. Below is one example from our very own Team USA. They even have a documentary called what else? Splitting hairs.

Nature pics

The funny thing about where you find things. They usually are right where you left them. This was the case with our camera. I pulled off the pictures and noticed that I have been attempting to be a nature photographer. What do you think?

Sitting underneath Corona Arch in Moab, UT

A really cool dead tree in Glorieta, NMA picture of a "Wadi" in the Middle East.

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park

So it's not nature but this old fort entrance in the middle east is pretty cool.