Ten Moments of 2007

My good friend, Mark Webb, has a blog entitled Converging Heritage on which he posted 10 memorable moments of the last year. I always enjoy reading Mark's blog (and I would encourage you to take some time to read through his thoughts) but I thought I would copy his post. This is always a good exercise - to look back over the year and think about its impact. If you are reading this, consider yourself "tagged" and create your own "Ten moments of 2007" and post the link in the comments. I would love to read about your year.

1. Our family's trip to Overton, Nevada (June)
We traveled to this little town about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas for a interview for a pastoral position at a church there. We fell in love with the place and the people. We had a great time together as a family and saw some great sites: Hoover Dam, The Lost City Museum, and Valley of Fire. They decided not to call me as their pastor but we gained a new friend, Kim Abbott, who has her own blog entitled A Plumber's Wife, always a fun blog to visit (Kim, if there are better links to any of the above let me know).

2. Our family's daytrip to The Happy Apple farm (July)
The three of us took some time this Spring to run out to Penrose, Colorado, to The Happy Apple Farm, which is a "pick your own" fruit farm. It was a nice day for us as a family and we got some nice apples, with which we made apples pies. Always a good time.

3. Rhonda's and my trip to Portland, Oregon (September)
Another trip on which I was interviewing for position, this time at a bible college there. It was essentially two days of interviews but they gave us a couple of extra days to run around the city. It was a nice time alone with my wife.

4. Mini-vacation with the family (October)
We wanted to get away, but not too far away, so we got a great rate on a nice hotel here in Colorado Springs. We stayed there two nights but ran around town like we were visiting. It is nice to go on vacation where you know all the best places to eat. We all had a great time together.

5. Jessica's knee surgery (November)
Not a fun memory but an indelible one nonetheless. There is nothing worse than knowing your child hurts and the only way for you to fix it is to allow a stranger take her into another room, make her unconscious, and then cut into her. Not the best feeling in the world, but I remember thinking how much worse it will be when I have to let her go. Not fun but very, very memorable.

6. Pastoral visit to a prison inmate in Oklahoma (October)
My pastor and I drove to a prison just inside Oklahoma to visit an inmate whose mother goes to our church. We had a great time going there and back and laughed a lot (see here and here for a sample). We also had a more somber time during the visitation (see here for more on that). It was quality time with my pastor and good time ministering.

7. Weekend with my brother-in-law and his new girlfriend (September)
My brother-in-law came to Colorado Springs in September and we were able to meet his new girlfriend. We had a nice time with them both. We played Wii a lot and celebrated my father-in-law's and my birthday (click here for the post about that). We always have great time when Sean comes to visit.

8. July 4th outreach event (July)
On Independence Day, our church had an outreach event which I spearheaded. The pastor and I planned for several months in advance and overall it went well. Best we can figure, we had about somewhere between 200-250 come celebrate with us. We had singing, dramatic presentations, prizes, food, bounce houses, all kinds of stuff. I was glad to see how well it went and how much the church enjoyed reaching out to the community.

9. Preaching through Psalm 119 (multiple dates)
Granted, this is not one moment but instead 22 moments but as a whole it was a nice time. It had been a long time since I was able to go through a significant section of Scripture with any group. I appreciate my pastor's willingness to share the pulpit with me. I enjoyed everything about it: the studying, the preparation of the sermons, the preaching, the discussion after, the whole thing. But after twenty-two weeks in one chapter, I was ready to move on to other things.

10. Doctoral studies orientation seminar (April)
In April I drove to Kansas City, Missouri to attend the orientation seminar for doctoral studies. I am almost sure this was the worst week of my life but definitely it was the worst week of the year. I met some great people there. I met a new friend from Georgia named Troy Lindsey (scroll about 2/3 down the page for a picture). The class itself was not all that hard and I got an A in the seminar. But I did not like the time away from my family and the professors there were some of the more arrogant people I have ever met. Scripture say, "everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40b) and I did not want to be like these gentlemen. Memorable but not something I would like to do again-at least not at that school.

Well, for good or bad, those where the top ten things I remember about 2007. And now the year is almost gone. What about you? What things do you remember about 2007? If you do not have your own blog, just post yours in the comments to this post.

Have a great 2008! And let me know if this blog has been of any benefit to you.