the life of Jared

The week that was

Holy week was filled with both some good down time and also a few events.  This has been a challenging lenten season and I'll blog about it sometime this week.  The first part of the week was pretty uneventful with the latter part of the week being fairly busy.  I have switched my day off from Friday to Monday to accommodate Holly's schedule with her last rotation.  This has been a bit of an adjustment, but one I'm taking fairly well.  On Thursday we had an open communion time where Doug (my co-youth pastor) and I manned a station.  I love having the chance to connect with families in this way.  We were able to serve communion to and pray with many of the families that either work with us or that we directly serve.  On Friday our youth ministry held a tenebrae service at the same time one was going on in the main sanctuary.  It was a very good service as we reflected on the death of Christ.  The thing that I liked the most is that our students actually left the room in silence.  I don't know if that has ever happened before!  We had good services on Sunday as well.  It was weird to be in the back and not involved, but it is also a welcome change.

The week that is:

Our student ministry is participating in the 30 hour famine this weekend in conjunction with another church.  So this week is going to be spent mostly in preparations for that and Sunday.  Our past two famines have been a huge success and I'm praying for the same again.  I'm also in the process of securing housing for our family when Holly starts residency.  This process is starting to stress me out a bit so please keep this in your prayers if you remember.

What I'm reading:

Ok, so I have a bit of ADD when it comes to reading lately.  I'm still reading the book on the atonement, "Recovering the Scandal of the Cross".  I have also started two others though.  The first one is called "The Sacredness of Questioning Everything."  The second one is called "The Hole in our Gospel."  The last one is by the president of World Vision and he is writing about his own journey but also about how we in the western church aren't really living out the whole gospel.  I picked this book up through a program that Thomas Nelson offers to bloggers.  It's free, all I have to do is write a review on here and a place like Amazon.

What I'm listening to:

Nothing consistently.  I've been taking advantage of the genius feature on iTunes lately.  Man, I love that feature.

What I'm keeping an eye on:

I have a big and tough announcement to make this weekend.  It's one of those bittersweet things that pop up in life.  I just pray that God will be glorified in all that we say and do.