Hi guys! I made it to Kenya safe and sound, Today was our first day doing our health clinics - Laura and I saw and treated 45 families.
All I can really say is that I am completely overwhelmed. I was fine all day and then I sat down on the bus and had to literally get up and walk around to stop myself from weeping. There just is so much to do - soebs knows the song by rich mullins - where it talks about the morning coming so soon and being so tired but so much work left to do... I am completely overwhelmed.
But I am blessed - blessed beyond belief. I was able to give such simple simple medications that literally saved some little kids lives. I was able to set up and entire family to get them started on antiretroviral drugs for HIV - it's been amazing.
Funny story - this family had 3 sets of twins and all the twins had the same names with the number 1 or 2 after! So I saw Kevin 1 and Kevin 2 today! :)
I will try to keep in touch - lots of love to you all.
SoeYun
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
Off to see the giraffes!
SoeYun is off to Kenya today. She is going with a team of doctors and nurses with her church to go serve Jesus! Her favorite animal is the giraffe, and I hope she glances up and gets to see one as she saves people's lives and tells them about the love of Jesus! I am so proud of her, and extremely jealous!
If you remember, please pray for her!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thanks God!
There are some times that God tells you... "You know, here is a little gift for you. Just to let you know that you are on the right track."
God has given me a few of those lately. Today in staff meeting, we had a discussion... on block parties.
If you know me well at all in the last few years, you have heard me talk about block parties. I have talked about how we need to be doing them, we need to be intentional about them, etc. I don't mean block parties out in the church parking lot, I mean block parties that you organize with people, *gasp*, on your block!
Today in staff meeting, one of the issues that was on the agenda was block parties. Obviously, I was curious about what they would say about them.
Currently, there are two staff members that are talking about them. Our music minister's block is having one, and our senior minister is wanting to do one. John's block does them quite frequently. The discussion today was about how to take church money and support them.
We are talking about letting them use tables and chairs for free, we are talking about using outreach budget to furnish some things, like bounce houses and food. We are talking about doing outreach with the express purpose of reaching out to our neighbors, regardless of whether they go to our church, the church down the street, or if they even go to church at all!
There have been several God moments already in the last couple weeks that I have been here. Thanks God for talking... I am trying to listen!
God has given me a few of those lately. Today in staff meeting, we had a discussion... on block parties.
If you know me well at all in the last few years, you have heard me talk about block parties. I have talked about how we need to be doing them, we need to be intentional about them, etc. I don't mean block parties out in the church parking lot, I mean block parties that you organize with people, *gasp*, on your block!
Today in staff meeting, one of the issues that was on the agenda was block parties. Obviously, I was curious about what they would say about them.
Currently, there are two staff members that are talking about them. Our music minister's block is having one, and our senior minister is wanting to do one. John's block does them quite frequently. The discussion today was about how to take church money and support them.
We are talking about letting them use tables and chairs for free, we are talking about using outreach budget to furnish some things, like bounce houses and food. We are talking about doing outreach with the express purpose of reaching out to our neighbors, regardless of whether they go to our church, the church down the street, or if they even go to church at all!
There have been several God moments already in the last couple weeks that I have been here. Thanks God for talking... I am trying to listen!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Here is to my guys!
Monday nights are going to be really tough. For the last year or so, I have been meeting with some dear, dear friends to argue, er, discuss theology.
These are some of the best times I have had in my short life. Joe, Eric, Darin, Scott, et al., you guys pushed me, you guys challenged me, you guys helped me grow. Thanks for making me think about church in a new light, christians in a new light, and especially God in a new light. I needed that, I am a better man and minister because of those discussions. God really was there when we gathered.
I love you guys a ton, thanks for everything!
Oh ya, and Bill, thanks for making me think about predestination all the time.
These are some of the best times I have had in my short life. Joe, Eric, Darin, Scott, et al., you guys pushed me, you guys challenged me, you guys helped me grow. Thanks for making me think about church in a new light, christians in a new light, and especially God in a new light. I needed that, I am a better man and minister because of those discussions. God really was there when we gathered.
I love you guys a ton, thanks for everything!
Oh ya, and Bill, thanks for making me think about predestination all the time.
The superfriends!
I remember near the end of my Junior year of college having this dream. The dream was that a group of us guys, all brothers for several years at Lincoln, would form a team. A team of Superfriends, with the express purpose of doing ministry together.
I would do youth ministry, Toad would administrate, Lowery would preach, John would evangelize, John Hughes would do something... anyway I have made that dream one step closer. I have joined Wentz at Southside Christian Church, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Toad, we are waiting for you!
Batman was awesome! Just got back from it. I think I need to see it again! I loved it. Heath Ledger was crazy!
You know what's amazing? You never realize the depth of crazy until you remove yourself from crazy.
I am going to blog more. I have stuff to talk about!
I would do youth ministry, Toad would administrate, Lowery would preach, John would evangelize, John Hughes would do something... anyway I have made that dream one step closer. I have joined Wentz at Southside Christian Church, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Toad, we are waiting for you!
Batman was awesome! Just got back from it. I think I need to see it again! I loved it. Heath Ledger was crazy!
You know what's amazing? You never realize the depth of crazy until you remove yourself from crazy.
I am going to blog more. I have stuff to talk about!
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Closing time...
It's official, my time in Newburgh is up. I have taken a youth ministry position at Southside Christian Church in Springfield, Il. My last day here is July 14th. I have learned a lot and grown up a lot here, and cannot wait to get started with a new work... in central Illinois. :)
Anyway, I am excited for what the future holds, and am at the same time sad t0 say goodbye to my many friends here.
To everyone: Thanks for all the love and support.
Anyway, I am excited for what the future holds, and am at the same time sad t0 say goodbye to my many friends here.
To everyone: Thanks for all the love and support.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Yup, check out this hog.
Picked this bad boy up yesterday. 45 mph and 80 miles a gallon, 'nuff said.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Ummmm... anyone think this is a bad idea?
Skynet military launch postponed
"The launch of the third and final satellite in the UK's next-generation military space communications network has been delayed by a few days."
Is anyone else wishing that maybe we wouldn't let this happen at all? I mean seriously, haven't we learned anything?
"Software on the launch vehicle did not behave normally during a test sequence."
Big shocker...
Skynet 5 is intended to provide British forces with a secure, high-bandwidth
capability through to 2020.
A successful launch will complete the in-orbit part of the £3.6bn project.
Additional work has included upgrades to ground stations and the installation of new antennas and terminals on military ships, planes and land vehicles.Taken together, the three Skynet spacecraft - known as 5A, 5B and 5C - will provide coverage from the Americas to Asia."
Friday, May 23, 2008
Ummm... Indiana Jones... I hardly knew you.
What was that? Memo to George Lucas: You don't have it anymore.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Mystery Solved... Still Amazing!
I did some research on the painting elephant...
"Just for clarification, with these realistic figural works, the elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but the paintings are learned series of brushstrokes not Hong painting a still life on her own."
"Just for clarification, with these realistic figural works, the elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but the paintings are learned series of brushstrokes not Hong painting a still life on her own."
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
De Plane Boss, De Plane.
My Sister and I all got matching Tatoos!
They are all ancient Korean symbols of birth order.
Mine (First Son):
SoeYun's (Oldest Daughter):
KeyLyn (Youngest Daughter):
They are all ancient Korean symbols of birth order.
Mine (First Son):
SoeYun's (Oldest Daughter):
KeyLyn (Youngest Daughter):
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
How 'bout them Patriots?
O.k., so, I don't admit this very often, but a part of me likes the Patriots. I was rooting for them yesterday, but it seems to me that the Giants, "out-patrioted," the Patriots.
I remember the Superbowl following the 2001 season where the Pats faced the Rams. The Rams were heavy favorites, and rightly so. They were of course, the "fastest show on turf." I was rooting for the Rams pretty hard that year, and thought that the "lucky team" from New England had no shot. I remember the introductions very vividly that year, the Rams all being introduced individually, which was perfectly normal. What wasn't so normal though was the Patriots introductions. "The New England Patriots have requested to be introduced as a team." After which they all ran on the field together. I remember an announcer, or maybe someone where I was watching the game saying, "uh oh."
They then did what the Patriots do. They kept it close by playing great defense, til the 4th quarter in which Tom Brady marched down the field to win a close game at the end.
I remember being impressed by that, both Tom Brady's cool-headedness and the introduction thing.
Ever since then, I have admired the Patriots attitude of "no one is bigger than the team attitude. You want more money, or want to hold out? Alright, you can go find it somewhere else." In an era of Keyshawn Johnson's, that is such a breath of fresh air. Randy Moss this year took a major paycut to play for this team. They told him, this is what we have for you, we would love to have you, but this is all we are going to do. They told that to the best wide receiver in the game!
Anyway. I watched the highlights of the Giants stepping off the plane all dressed in matching black suits and sunglasses, and thought to myself... "Uh oh." And then the Giants did what the Patriots usually do. Kept it close into the fourth quarter, and then won it at the end.
Hats off to the New York Giants.
I remember the Superbowl following the 2001 season where the Pats faced the Rams. The Rams were heavy favorites, and rightly so. They were of course, the "fastest show on turf." I was rooting for the Rams pretty hard that year, and thought that the "lucky team" from New England had no shot. I remember the introductions very vividly that year, the Rams all being introduced individually, which was perfectly normal. What wasn't so normal though was the Patriots introductions. "The New England Patriots have requested to be introduced as a team." After which they all ran on the field together. I remember an announcer, or maybe someone where I was watching the game saying, "uh oh."
They then did what the Patriots do. They kept it close by playing great defense, til the 4th quarter in which Tom Brady marched down the field to win a close game at the end.
I remember being impressed by that, both Tom Brady's cool-headedness and the introduction thing.
Ever since then, I have admired the Patriots attitude of "no one is bigger than the team attitude. You want more money, or want to hold out? Alright, you can go find it somewhere else." In an era of Keyshawn Johnson's, that is such a breath of fresh air. Randy Moss this year took a major paycut to play for this team. They told him, this is what we have for you, we would love to have you, but this is all we are going to do. They told that to the best wide receiver in the game!
Anyway. I watched the highlights of the Giants stepping off the plane all dressed in matching black suits and sunglasses, and thought to myself... "Uh oh." And then the Giants did what the Patriots usually do. Kept it close into the fourth quarter, and then won it at the end.
Hats off to the New York Giants.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
SoeBeck's Principles of Youth Ministry
So, my one adoring reader asked me to please post something new, so here you go.
I have a fundamental principle in youth ministry. For all of those youth ministers out there, pull up a chair and listen up, because I have some sage advice for you:
Don't do lock-ins. Seriously, they are evil and of Satan.
Now, I don't really like Lock-outs either, overnight events where you move around every few hours to different places - i.e. bowling alley, ice-rink, etc., such as the one we are doing tomorrow night. Lock-outs though are 100 times better than lock-ins, and are necessary to do once a year or so to get everyone off your back to have a lock-in.
Of the devil, I'm telling you.
Also of the devil are Gym's, like the one I just joined. That's what I am looking forward to the most about heaven, awesome abs with no working out. Yup, that's what I look forward to the most.
Oh, and the hanging out with our Lord and Saviour.
Is there going to be sex in heaven? That is a fun topic to discuss. This guy thinks, yes.
I'm out.
I have a fundamental principle in youth ministry. For all of those youth ministers out there, pull up a chair and listen up, because I have some sage advice for you:
Don't do lock-ins. Seriously, they are evil and of Satan.
Now, I don't really like Lock-outs either, overnight events where you move around every few hours to different places - i.e. bowling alley, ice-rink, etc., such as the one we are doing tomorrow night. Lock-outs though are 100 times better than lock-ins, and are necessary to do once a year or so to get everyone off your back to have a lock-in.
Of the devil, I'm telling you.
Also of the devil are Gym's, like the one I just joined. That's what I am looking forward to the most about heaven, awesome abs with no working out. Yup, that's what I look forward to the most.
Oh, and the hanging out with our Lord and Saviour.
Is there going to be sex in heaven? That is a fun topic to discuss. This guy thinks, yes.
I'm out.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The Physics of Santa
The Physics of Santa Claus
* Please note that centrifugal is a made-up non existent word. The real word should be centripetal. Centrifugal is a made up force that physics people HATE! So please, everyone use the world centripetal, not centrifugal. Thanks!
- No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
- There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
- Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, and assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of his sleigh, jump down the chimnye, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course we know to be false but for the purpose of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking aabout .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
- The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 punds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (refer to point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal load, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
- 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entereing the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per SECOND, EACH! In short, hey will burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create a deafening sonic boom in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousanths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal* forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
* Please note that centrifugal is a made-up non existent word. The real word should be centripetal. Centrifugal is a made up force that physics people HATE! So please, everyone use the world centripetal, not centrifugal. Thanks!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Oh darn that first digit!
Tomorrow I turn 30. Wow. Life is never how you picture it. Thanks be to God for life, and life abundantly.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
At a loss...
Holly and I broke up this last Saturday. It was the hardest thing I have ever been through, and I have been through quite a bit in this short life. I am hopeful as ever that we may get things worked out someday soon and live happily ever after*... but for now that seems to be on hold. Thanks for everyone's concern and well wishes. I am blessed to have such great friends and family in my life.
*I know things are never happily ever after, thank-you very much.
Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees
And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin
I'm singing hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
*I know things are never happily ever after, thank-you very much.
Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees
And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin
I'm singing hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Friday, December 07, 2007
I know, I never post.
I have had some major life things going on, it will all be resolved soon. I will be around more then, I promise!
In the meantime here is Zombie Love! It's in 2 parts. After you watch the first, there will be a link for the second. Making that was a lot of fun!
See you all soon.
In the meantime here is Zombie Love! It's in 2 parts. After you watch the first, there will be a link for the second. Making that was a lot of fun!
See you all soon.
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