This was an incredibly busy, but productive week (mostly at home)… Because I need to get cleaned up for a wedding for our good friends Nathan and Megan, I thought I’d give a quick bulleted list of a few highlights:

• Network meetings with West Seattle (Tuesday) and Burien (Wednesday).  Both discussions were fantastic; it is neat to see/hear some specific areas of youth ministry in the Puget Sound region.
• Sent off my first “mailing” for Youthmark, sent to hundreds of churches in WA/OR as a last-minute pitch to participate in a YMV.
• The Blogs at youthmark.com were set up and several have posted already (I encourage you to check them out here).
• Took an all-day trip to Portland on Thursday with my friend Chris.  I was able to meet a bunch of Youth Pastors and see a bunch of friends down south. Portland Youth Foundation gathers 200+ YP’s each year for a lunch.  Nice to be able to represent Youthmark there.
• Was able to take/pick-up Halle from school a few times this week, so fun to see her in her new element!
• Able to spend time with just the three kids a couple times this week when Elisabeth had errands to run (or sanity to reacquire  after my recent travels).
• Dinner with the Andersens, new friends, Alan is a YP in the greater Seattle area as well.  My parents watched all three kids, so this was a real grown-up date!
• Coffee with John; one of my lifeboat guys
• Time dreaming and praying for the Spring Retreats out at Lake Retreat Camp.
• Diagnosing the problem and replacing my Starter in my 4Runner, thanks to my good friend, Walt.  We spend 5 hours+ on that baby!  If you have a 99 4Runner that has had a starter go out, you’d understand.

Quite certain I missed a couple things, but overall, it was a fantastic week.

Grace,
Brian