I feel like I've been in a bit of a blogging funk lately. One thing I'm wanting is to re-focus my energy on exactly what I'm blogging about. I know there are about 50 subscribers to my feed, plus those of you who just come by and visit. Do me a favor: take a second to answer this poll and help me as I try and focus in on the best way for me to blog.
Today was day one of hanging out in fresno. Grabbed some lunch with eric putman at this amazing place called the doghouse. We may head to modesto tomorrow if I hear back from one of my high school friends. Here is a pic of nicole and I relaxing.
I'm super excited to be headed up to my parents for a little rest and relaxation. Not too much of an agenda other than hopefully connecting with some old friends. Should be nice. Anything I blog will probably not have too much substance (not that it normally does anyways).
Something you should know about me: I hate making phone calls. I'm ok with calling someone to chat. I just hate making phone calls asking people to help with stuff.
So, I needed to get a bunch of people to help be greeters at this conference we're hosting in a couple weeks. I started making phone calls, but after the first "no answer" I realized a better method. I came home, jumped on MySpace, and sent messages to most of the high school students I have in my friends. I've already got three people saying yes and one maybe. It's only been like 2 or 3 hours.
Now I'm really excited about the possibilities of using TXTsignal in our ministry.
Little update on what's been happening around my life lately
We had our annual Errny Awards last night for high school ministry. Turned out to be a cool night with about 80 people showing up - great decorations, funny videos, and just a cool time. I'll link to a post with some pictures from our high school blog when it's up.
I got a new phone (no, Jon, not an iPhone, I seriously don't want one, my fat fingers could never type on it). I like it, but I'm having trouble getting some stuff set up on it for my Outlook stuff and it's got a bit of a learning curve for me.
Tomorrow's the funeral for the mom of some of our students that passed away last week.
On Thursday, we head to Fresno for Easter. We're also going to take a day to go up to Modesto where I used to live. I never make it back there so it will be lots of fun.
They're carpeting our new high school room this week and all our sound/video stuff will be up sometime next week. They're also painting and carpeting the building that my office and our jr. high room are in. Things are a mess, but it's almost over. Unfortunately, my office is getting neither painted nor carpeted (it has a spot that looks like someone hacked up a lung there).
My wife is still cute and pregnant with our little Addie.
Today, the mom of two of our high school students and two of our jr. high students passed away. She had ALS and it moved very quickly in these last few days which made it very tough for the family....thinking they had more time. It's definitely a huge bummer anytime a child loses a parent, but this is one is even rougher because this family has adopted like 6 or 7 kids. They're some of the most giving people on the planet and now she's just gone. I was at their house for a little bit this afternoon with two of our staff members visiting the dad. That's got to be a rough place to be. Take a minute to pray for the Stilwell family if you'd like to.
Nicole had an ultrasound on Monday and we found out the sex of the baby. It's......a girl! Addison Rose Lovato is due on July 28th. I'm going to have to toughen up so this girl doesn't walk all over her daddy. Check out Nicole's post about it here.
Had a pretty good day off today hanging with Nicole and a couple of our friends, Chris and Sarah. First off, we went to have lunch at Sonic. Delicious. Then, it was off to Disneyland. On the way there Nicole discovered that our annual passes that we thought expired this coming Monday actually expired this past Wednesday. So we had to make a pretty quick decision on whether or not to renew them. We decided to renew. (So if anyone wants to hit Disneyland with us, let me know).
Got on a bunch of rides at Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear (I kicked butt), Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Alice in Wonderland (not my choice), Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise. Then, Nicole and I headed out because we're old and didn't want to stay until the park closed.
On the way home we stopped at Target to buy three things: a belated birthday card for my mom, a noise hair trimmer for me (yes, that's gross, but be thankful I can now trim them), and a pregnancy body pillow for Nicole. We walked out with a birthday card, noise hair trimmer, gummi life savers, bluberry nutrigrain bars, apple cinnamon nutrigrain bars, fruit snakcs, and a chocolate milk. Target is awesome.
We've been working in our ministry to come up with a plan to both care for our existing students as well as to personally reach out to new students. I just confirmed last night that two of our high school students will be heading up these efforts. One girl is our InReach Coordinator and one is our OutReach Coordinator.
The InReach Coordinator's job is to look at "Who's Missing?" She will mobilize people in each of our Bible study groups to follow up with students who aren't showing up for whatever reason.
Here's the plan for students who are missing:
Phase One
Missed one week – Card
Missed two weeks – Phone call
Missed three weeks – Personal visit
Phase Two
Missed one month – Card
Missed two months – Phone call
Missed three months – Personal visit
Phase Three
Missed one quarter – Card
Missed two quarters – Phone call
Missed three quarters – Personal visit
The OutReach Coordinator's job is to look at "Who's New? and Who's Next?" Her job is to help new guests on Wednesday night get plugged into a Bible study group on Sunday mornings and to help our group members go after prospects for their groups.
Here's the plan for students who are new or next:
New Student (Sunday)
By Tuesday…
Phone call from same-sex leader or student
Card from same-sex student
New Student (Wednesday)
Thursday – assigned as prospect to Bible Study group (Susie in office takes care of this)
Thursday or Friday – OutReach Coordinator emails new student info to OutReach leaders
By Saturday afternoon – phone call from same-sex leader or student inviting them to Bible Study on Sunday
Prospects contacted once a month (until they ask us to stop)
Month 1 – Personal visit
Month 2 – Phone call
Month 3 – Card
On the personal visits we'll be taking a "We missed you" bag to the first group. It will contain a Starbucks drink, info on what's going on in the ministry, hand-written note from a student, candy, etc. The second group will get a welcome bag with similar items customized for that group.
I'm stoked to get this off the ground and running. Now that these main coordinators are in place, the plan is to identify students in each group who can make this happen.
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