Sorry for the brief non-postings! It has been a crazy busy week of scouting.
I am just returning from the Montana and Idaho scout and look forward to sharing all the blessings of this scout for the 13 places we needed to identify!
Be back soon.
Grace,
Brian
On Christmas eve at the Aaby house (as in, my house growing up, not my current adult life), one could always count on “the squeak.” Approximately three to five minutes after lights out, as the anticipation for the next morning grew, my brother, David, would let out a rather girlish (keep in mind he was only 4 or 5 when this started) squeak. His level of excitement had risen so much that there was nothing he could do but squeak.
I think for at least 5-6 years the squeaks were real, but then for the next several years he claims he was only doing it for my benefit (hmmm, I’ll have to call his wife to see if he still doing it)?
Yesterday began my squeaking for the Christmas in March I am about to experience. Selection Sunday! Every year, in the middle of March, the NCAA tournament brackets are announced for March Madness, the 65 team tournament for college basketball. The Thursday and Friday after the brackets are announced are the two best days in any given sport hands down! People schedule days of vacation just to be a couch potato. Doctors report they are booked with men making “the appointment” for the Wednesday before March Madness begins just because they want to be sitting around for the next couple days.
Last night, after the tourney was announced, we had two other couples over to our house for the first ever Aaby Tournament Draft. Every other year I have had an office staff to do a tournament draft with, well, this year my wife wanted to get in on the action and so we invited the Rocks and the Robinsons to jump in.
This challenge is different than the average “fill in your brackets” (guess the winners all the way through). In this style you pick a number (in our case 1-6) out of a hat. This establishes our draft order. Then the person who had #1 picks a team he/she thinks will get the most wins (in our case it was Heather, and she picked North Carolina). Then #2 picks, all the way down to #6. Here’s where the twist happens. We then go back the other way, #6 picks again, then #5, all the way down to #1. So it is constantly going up then down the order. Each round of the tournament we will count the number of wins a given participant had.
I’m looking forward to a great tourney. If you’re interested in knowing my teams (again, not necessarily the teams I think will win, just the ones that were around when a given round came to me):
Pitt, Gonzaga, Utah, Kansas, Utah St., Butler, BYU, VCU, Stephen F. Austin, Portland State and Binghampton.
Sqeak!
Grace,
Brian
So far I have been able to chill on the couch with Audrey. Laugh with Halle. Crawl around on the floor with Will. Go to Arby’s to pick up a roast beef sandwich for Elisabeth and do absolutely NOTHING else productive.
It is a wonderful Saturday at home!
Grace,
Brian
I know I have done something like this in the past and it is time to do it again. I’d love for you to participate if for no other reason for me to become more curious about you.
I’ll post three words that describe my current state of mind… they are just words, but perhaps others can relate, or you’ll find yourself curious enough to find out why I am feeling each of the following.
After reading mine, go ahead and “comment” your own, perhaps I (or others who comment on this blog) will follow up with you?
My Three Words:
Jumbled
Sore
Hopeful
Now, what about you?
Grace,
Brian
On Sunday afternoon the Aaby family hosted a prayer gathering for our good friends Byron and Shannon. A few weeks ago I had posted about Byron and his recent discovery of cancer. Well, on Monday he began his chemotherapy treatments which will last for the next couple of months.
The report is that the first chemo treatment went well (he goes in every day this week, for up to seven hours in a day).
As you know, many who go through chemo will lose their hair… this WILL NOT be the case with Byron (see below). We took care of the hair issue already at the end of the prayer time. It was such a rich time of fellowship and prayer, folk from as far south as Olympia and as far north as Marysville came to the gathering. Shannon’s brother, Neil, is on spring break from Boston and was able to join in as well!
Pray for Byron, pray the Lord has much ministry in store for this great young couple in the years ahead!
Grace,
Brian
What it looked like at the end.
But first, I had some fun!
Don’t hesitate to check out my “Youthmark” blog here.
My previous two blog entries were both about the NorCal scout trip, if you want to catch up on those two first, scroll down and start with 36,000 Foot Blog Post.
Etna, CA
On Thursday, our last day of the scout trip, we got up a little earlier to get out of the hotel to drive two hours north to Yreka and a half hour SW to Fort Jones/Etna. We had set up a meeting with a couple Youth Pastors in the area. We got up north in plenty of time to drive through both Fort Jones and Etna (20 minute further south) and still get back in time for our 11:00 AM lunch in Ft. Jones.
The lunch with Phillip and Brett was very exciting. Aaron and I both were able to share our vision for what we thought could take place. These guys were both on board and began to dream out loud. The tri-tip sandwiches at the deli were great too!
The “Problem” we encountered was when we discovered that this area ought to have two teams and not just one.
Yep, a second trip!
After the meeting we had to get back in the rental van and make the trek back to San Francisco (about 6 hours, not including traffic). The good news: we made good time and were able to get our In-N-Out treat (yep, the same two burger meal).
So, we traveled to NorCal needing 5 communities and we had zero contacts. We left having 5 meetings, but 6 communities. So, we were 6 for 5, we’ll leave it to the Lord to work out the details!
Thanks for your prayers along the way. Praise the Lord for the fantastic contacts and pray for these details to be worked out!
Grace,
Brian
I started the NorCal Scouting report in my last post, if you haven’t read that, you may want to scroll down to that post first.
One-for-one on Tuesday with a few appointments set up for Wednesday. We woke up, grabbed a quick bite-to-eat and departed for French Gulch for our 9:30 appointment with Pastor Ted. Ted is a great man, serving as Senior Pastor for the Village Missions church in French Gulch (just outside of Whiskeytown). We fell in love with the community and could easily
Bill and Ted in French Gulch?
see a team here. Before we left, we got to meet an older man, Bill, in the church/community who came by to take Pastor Ted out for lunch. We couldn’t help but laugh when we realized we were hanging out with “Bill and Ted.” Excellent!
After French Gulch we drove another half hour west to a beautiful valley. At the bottom of this valley is a town, Lewiston. Pastor Joe greeted us outside his church. Joe is probably in his 30’s, so this was one of the younger Rural Pastors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Joe had told me that when he heard my messages he just assumed it was some sales call. But after he read an email and could see I was rather persistent he checked out the website and instantly emailed and
Lewiston, CA
invited us to lunch. Within minutes of sharing with Joe, Aaron and I could tell that this was going to be a connect. We stuck around for lunch with a few of the church families (some great Fajita Tacos), they gather each Wednesday at lunch after a ladies ministry thing, many of the men take their lunch hour at the church; great to meet some of the folk.
We were very impressed by the landscape in the entire area, by the time we got back to the hotel in the afternoon (and returning to cell coverage) we had a few voicemail messages from other contacts. We set up an appointment for Shasta for that night and another for Fort Jones and Etna on Thursday (2.5 hours north).
During our brief afternoon break we were able to grab about 20 minutes with my good friend, Wescott, as well. Wes is moving back to the NW from Bakersfield right now. He just happened to be driving thru Redding at the same time as our little break! Fun times.
Aaron and I got to Shasta Community Church about an hour before Youth Group was to begin. Here is this rural community just a few minutes outside of Redding, yet it still feels completely rural. Shasta Bible College is very close by, so this church as been blessed with youth leaders from the college. Therefore, they have had an active youth ministry for many years. Here, we got to meet Josh and his wife, Lisa (and their six week old daughter). Great young couple serving this community. Again, we felt it was a fit and it looks like we’ll be serving in Shasta as well.
We came down looking for five communities. As of Wednesday night we had seen four communities and all four were ready to go! Not a bad percentage, 100%.
mmmmmm!
We were beat, time for some food, hot tub and sleep.
Steak Dinner: Great
Hot Tub: Cold, still broken.
Sleep: AHHHHHH!
More on NorCal in my next post!
Grace,
Brian
I once had a blog post entitled, “35,000 foot blog post.” Well, the pilot was just on the PA on my flight from San Francisco to Seattle and said, “we’ve now reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet;” thus, I now can post a 36,000 foot post.
I am returning from a three day scouting adventure with my friend, Aaron. Aaron is the Youth Pastor at Faith Baptist in Kent 
and is serving as my Lead for the NorCal mission. This two night excursion can be described as a 100% success. We came down, again, with no leads, early Tuesday morning. Upon arrival in San Fran. we jumped into our rental mini-van for the 4 hour drive to Redding. Our priorities were set, we knew we had to quickly do some research for the five rural communities we plan to serve this summer, but first, the larger priority: In-N-Out Burger.
Ahhh!
Side Note: Aaron has always been a Double Double guy, which, in my opinion, is a mistake. I turned him on to the real way to do In-N-Out. Two singles beats a Double Double. You simply get more and get to enjoy eating the same two patties but you also get double the onion, double the tomato, double the bun, etc. Aaron is converted.
Back to the scout. I was quite impressed with the way Aaron jumped into the scouting mindset. We were looking up towns on the internet, followed by specific churches in these rural towns and then we began the cold calls (Aaron listened to me do one, and then quickly made several of the next calls). We typically would receive voicemail greetings or answering machine messages.
After several calls, some we research and a drink at Starbucks (we wanted to pay rent for our temporary office) we received the call from Lakehead, CA. Pastor Jim is a man i have worked with in the past. Lakehead sits about 20 miles north of Redding and serves as one of the houseboat launching areas for Lake Shasta. I had sent a team of students to Lakehead back in 2001. Jim agreed to meet us at his church and we jumped on I-5 north from Redding.
We had a great meeting with Jim (he made a nice fire in the wood stove in the fellowship hall). We shared memories of the 2001 mission and dreamed about what it could look like this summer once again. After praying and touring the area we left feeling confident we were one-for-one on our scouting endeavor. It was now time to check in to our hotel in Redding and gear up for dinner, the hotel hot tub and 24 (neither of us had watched Monday nights episodes).
Along the way to and from Lakehead we received a couple calls with appointments set up for Wednesday.
Dinner: Great (Chevy’s)
Hot Tub: Aaron dropped his leg in about up to his knee and quickly discovered the hotel hot tub was a hotel iced-tub. We reported the problem to the front desk, Peter (the employee and our new friend) assured us it’d be fixed for tomorrow night.
24: Wow!
A great first day of scouting NorCal. The NorCal report will continue…
Grace,
Brian
I am moving into what I would call “the busy season” of ministry. Though I have felt “busy” in the past, this season is sort of the convergence zone of all things Youthmark. I would greatly appreciate your prayers as each of the following is being done:
Final Sales: I still have the last few teams inquiring about last minute sign-ups. Since it is my first season of missions and because a couple of the regions are not full I really want to see as many teams go out this summer and am willing to let the teams still sign up (though training will need to be done a little more quickly).
Scouting: Gulf Coast and Hawaii have been scouted. I have trips to NorCal, ID and MT which are taking place this month (March). Pray that our connections for these 15+ places are true kindred-spirit places. I love meeting these pastors in rural America!
Training: My spring retreats (April 3-4; May 8-9) are quickly approaching. On top of that, my out of state teams receive a one day training from Youthmark (so this means a little additional travel).
2010: It is time for me to start writing the materials for 2010 so that not only do I have training materials done on time, but the promotional materials as well. I really want to retain clients and see us at the place where we can expand the ministry as well.
Extras: There are many other “little things” which need to be prioritized as well. Fitting some of the smaller tasks into the schedule seems tough when there are so many big-items to do.
Really appreciate your prayers for Youthmark. If you haven’t already, go check out the blogs for individual churches who are joining the YMV’s here:
Grace,
Brian
It was a thrill to be back at Young Life Club for Kentridge tonight. Last week I was up at Birch Bay speaking at a retreat for a denominational Pastors/Wives retreat. So, I missed club last week. Rob (the area director) and I have been team teaching a series through the spring. Rob shares a couple minutes of his story and I follow with a portion of the Gospel.
Tonight Rob took them to the point where he was truly questioning if he could have a relationship with God.
I shared a quick (and sadly true) story of a young man who found a $10o bill at the bottom of the out-house. And went fishing for it. Though this young man had everything he could ever want on this youth trip, he wanted more and was willing to dig through and into the ick to get that $100.
That $100 may not be what you and I are reaching for, but we are reaching. We reach for acceptance, popularity, that next high. We all reach for the fruit, don’t we? Romans 3:10 says, “there is no one righteous, not even one.”
So, tonight, pray for these young lives that heard the message of sin. The fact that we have all reached for what we thought was better. We invite these students to come back to hear the rest of the message. We let them know there is hope. There is a better life that we can all have in Christ.
I’m thankful for these 60-70 who have faithfully come and listened. Pray the Holy Spirit is working in and through each one!
Grace,
Brian
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