Category Faith Foundations/Bible Study

Feeling Friendly: NW Ministry Conference

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

I am a couple months into my Feeling Friendly weekends; a series of posts in which I highlight a specific ministry, organization or individual offering services that would enhance your ministry. It’s been fun to hear about some connections that have taken place as a result.  Just yesterday I was blessed to be the recipient of something similar. Check out the missionalchallenge blog here.

A couple weekends ago I took part in a pretty sweet conference in Chicago. It was my first experience at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference hosted by Simply Youth Ministry and Group Publishing. In addition to the SYMC, I’ve attended many-a-conference in the past. For this edition of FF I would like to highlight a conference for all of you in the the Pacific Northwest.  The NW Ministry Conference has been around for years, a few years ago they made a great move by changing their name from the NW Christian Education Conference to the NW Ministry Conference.

For an area that is as “unchurched” as the experts say we are, I will tell you that the NW Ministry Conference is proving otherwise. With over 3000 people in attendance each year and literally hundreds of workshops and hundreds of vendors the NWMC has the “feel” of a very legit conference. It takes place April 7-9 at Overlake church in Redmond.

I have been honored to be a speaker at this event for many years and am once again given the opportunity (get to teach “Mission51” this year!!).

For those in the “know” of Youth Ministry, the line-up this year is very strong! In fact, I’d say its the strongest lineup of offerings the conference has ever had. A great mix of local leaders (people many would know and great leaders we’ve never heard of), with a fantastic bunch of national “names” in Youth Ministry as well.

The GREATEST element of the NWMC to me is the commonality I sense in ministry. Because it is not just a youth leader conference you can go to whatever workshop you want.

  • Want some training for preaching? -It’s there!
  • How about counseling? -There!
  • Want to better understand those elementary minds you’re about to inherit in your middle school program? -Go to one of the workshops for kids ministry!

I’m excited to have a number of my friends offering workshops this year! My best bud (and author), Jeramy Clark is teaching a few workshops. He and his wife, Jerusha are flying up from SoCal; Jerusha, has authored many books and is really an expert in her field (dealing with identity issues, self injury, women’s ministry, etc.). She will be facilitating a few workshops too! Over the last few years I’ve gotten to know Greg Stier pretty well and am excited that he’ll be here to train for THE Cause! Though Dare2Share isn’t coming to Seattle right now, I know Greg would love to stay in touch with the NW leaders for their return!

I’ve always been impressed with Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins, both older “names” in Youth Ministry but having spent some time at national conferences with these guys, I can tell you, they don’t think of themselves at “names.” They are very approachable and desire to see Youth Leaders trained to be more effective in ministry! A great opportunity to join them for their extended track (“Speaking to Teenagers”)!

Hope you’ll check out the Conference, you’ll be blown away by how affordable it is ($29-$120 p/p)! On top of the great tracks, great people and great opportunities, the main sessions are entertaining, worship-filled and inspiring!

Grace,
Brian

Feeling Friendly: IGNITION

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago the men at my church had a “Hockey Night.” Seattle has its own Minor League team, the Seattle Thunderbirds. Blessed by a friend who hooked me up with a ticket I made the five mile trek to the arena in Kent. It was a blast to cheer on the T-birds with about 80 guys from church and about 5000 from the greater Seattle community.

A couple things stood out to me about the game itself:

  • 5000+ were screaming to our hearts delight for high schoolers. The average age of the players is probably 17.
  • These same fans cheered even louder when these same 17 years olds stopped skating and started fighting.

Yep, there we were, rising up to cheer on a fist fight between two not-even young adults. Only in hockey!

What if we cheered on high school students who were fighting for a different cause?  What if we were celebrating the fight it is to be a young man or woman of God in todays society? Well, we have that opportunity.

My “Feeling Friendly” this weekend is for the IGNITION conference taking place March 25-16 at Faith Church in Kent, WA. Described as “Serious Fun” this conference is really unlike others. The subject matter for this conference is “The Bible.” The purpose of the conference is to equip students who already know and love Jesus with the tools and information they can use to dig even deeper in the Scriptures and Application. The “fun” will show up in the events they have planned, the times with friends, meals and the exciting worship (think concert-like setting). The “serious” will show up in the content; creating an atmosphere where real questions are not just asked but honestly addressed (elective classes, main session speaker, etc.). I think it is going to be quite exciting to see a couple hundred teens praising God in song and digging deep in His Word!

I’m excited to be a part of it, speaking in the electives, but also representing Youthmark.

If you are a Youth Pastor, Youth Leader, Parent of a teen or a Student, IGNITION is something you ought to “seriously” look into! Check out the Facebook page here or the website here.

I’ll stand up and cheer for this fight!

Grace,

Brian

Unpleasant Reminder of 1994

Brian Aaby 2 Comments

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan (and other places) has served as an unpleasant, but needed reminder…

The earth shook violently as I curled into the fetal position and covered my head with my arms. As I was shaken awake, I looked up and was able to read the illuminated 4:31 on my alarm clock that sat about a foot from my head in my college-dorm room.  The January 17, 6.8 Northridge quake rocked my world. The freshly purchased Snapple bottles rattled. Books and Picture frames were being tossed around the room.  Within minutes the entire student body would be gathered out in grassy areas outside of our dorms we were forced to evacuate. With the power out, reports were only received through a few radio stations broadcasting in the wake of the disaster.

“The 5 and the 14 collapsed” I heard someone talking about the freeways that were only a five minute drive away.

“A cop literally responding to a 911 called drove off the freeway and fell to his death.” A college classmate relayed what he heard.

The next few hours were filled with confusion, disorder and questions.

My small Christian school began to pray.

The next few days were filled with confusion, disorder and questions.

I began to pray.

I was 21 years old, a junior, a leader (RA) on campus and the Youth Pastor at my church. Caught up in who I was in me, rather than who I was for Him.

When it was all said and done communication was restored, roadways rebuilt and life returned to “normal.” I, unfortunately, slowly allowed myself to become calloused. I don’t know even know if calloused is the right word to describe it; maybe intentionally ignorant or self-absorbed?

I’ve had other rude-awakenings; the orphans in India. The sex-trafficking in Costa Rica. Stories from  my own students about drug, alcohol and sexual abuse in their own homes. Perhaps the “feeling” is best described as a wake-up call. These are earthquakes and aftershocks that help me to see the immediacy to wake-up, get-up, gear-up and get-out to proclaim the best news I have to share.

The death toll will rise in Japan. Hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands will perish.

Death is imminent. Death is immediate. But Death is not permanent.

Created by God to be in relationship with Him. We have eternal souls; life is eternal and in the end we will either spend that eternity with God, glorifying Him or spend eternity (forever) separated from Him. Because of our sin we would-be eternally separated from Him; but the ultimate rescue mission was performed some 2000 years ago. Long before this quake and tsunami, Jesus, took the current of our sin upon his back. He came to restore life eternal with God for those who put their trust in Him. His life, death and resurrection all proving that He is who He said He is. The tsunami of our sin which leads to death is blocked by the blood of Christ.

But not everyone knows this news. I imagine the majority of those who died as a result of this earthquake and tsunami did not. The news is immediate and the messengers (Christians) must wake-up. I must get-up, we must gear-up and the Church must get-out and share the loving story of grace through faith alone!

If you know Christ, share Christ. For His glory and as part of the ultimate rescue mission with Him.

If you don’t know Jesus, understand that we don’t know when the next natural disaster, cancer or car crash will come. Know that eternal peace is possible in Jesus. He has come so that we may have life. Life eternal with Him.

I am praying for those suffering in Japan right now. Loss of life is devastating. Recovery will be hard for those living. As a human I want to help. As a believer I want my help to be both practical (physical and emotional restoration) and eternal (so that they may know Jesus, forever). Likewise, for my neighborhood (because we don’t know when death will appear), I want to help, eternal life is at hand!

Anyone else waking up?

Grace,

Brian

Consulting and More

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Chopper Dave to the rescue!

“Chopper Dave” is a faceless guy we’ve all come to trust.  Sure, his name may not be “Dave” but you know who I am talking about, the traffic voice on the radio with the thumping sounds of a helicopter in the background. It seems the position description is changing as I see more “TV-traffic-gals” showing up on the morning news giving us the high-tech traffic maps showing the highways to take and the roads to avoid during the morning or afternoon traffic rush.

Sometimes it just pays to listen to the person who has a different view than we do from the road.

I enjoy the role of “Chopper Dave” in ministry.  Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to do this for a number of churches. This is something I would love to do more! I’m able to do so at a very affordable rate where everyone feels like it is a “win.”

Who Would Benefit? My most common consulting has come in the form of Student Ministry, however, I have worked with Senior, Lead and Executive Pastors as well.  Here are the most common forms of consulting I am doing:

  • Transitional Consulting: Churches that are in transition between Youth Pastors have hired me to consult them through the transitional process including the assessment of needs, training of lay staff to carry the load and developing a philosophy of ministry.  In addition, I have developed the search process, team and the position description.
  • Ministry Remodel: Some ministries just need fresh eyes and an assessment that can lead to some new strategies.  Quite often this starts with a new philosophy of ministry.  This is most-often done with an existing pastor/director in place; but can be done with key volunteers implementing the changes as well.
  • Specialized Consulting/Training: Sometimes there are smaller aspects of a ministry that need tweaking, retooling or specialized training of staff.  Administration is often an area of weakness for Youth Ministries, I have been able to train Youth Pastors with key admin systems for communication, calendaring and training of volunteers.
  • Staff Training: Weekend retreats, one-night training seminars or a couple sessions with a volunteer team have proven to be ideal settings to bond a team, create momentum and infuse groups with practical “how to” knowledge.
  • Interim Role: I haven’t done this… yet, but I would consider a well defined interim role with a church to help establish the things needed for long-term success in a ministry area.

Perspective and Ownership!

Why? I believe that long-term ministry needs to have sustainable strategies that are rooted in Scripture and carried out by the Spirit through willing vessels.  I love working with individuals and teams to create the ownership needed to carry out long-term ministry.  Specifically in student ministry I believe that ownership in the program comes from Students, Parents and Leadership!  In essence, I eat, sleep and breath “Mission51” so in this context, it means helping a group understand that we are on mission all the time, let’s train and live in such a way that we understand our own Jerusalem is our mission!

Does your church/ministry need a fresh perspective? I’d love to talk to you.  Again, there are creative ways to make this work financially (in other words, we’re creative and affordable).

Do you know of a church in transition? Feel free to pass on my information to them and we’ll see if it could be a fit to help the church or organization the time of transition.

Don’t let distance detract, because of regularly schedule “other” stuff that Youthmark does, I am able to take on consulting roles virtually in any location; let’s chat we may be able to work it out where “travel” is not really an added expense!

Contact: info@youthmark.com

Grace,
Brian

So To Speak…

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, The United States and India of all places.

Summer 2010, Speaking with former Laker Mike Penberthy and worship led by Everfound

I know it’s not a lot, but it’s fun to reflect upon the places the Lord has given me the opportunity to speak. In addition to these countries, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to preach and teach in some pretty scenic settings; I think of the chapel viewpoint in Port Alsworth, AK. How about the scenic camp on the top of the ridge in Maui? Colorado is pretty much beautiful everywhere and I’ve done numerous camps and retreats there.

When I think back to ANY of these camps, conferences or retreats it’s never the scenery that stands out to me.

I sat here for 10-15 minutes struggling to remember the places.  But in each place I remember the faces.

The stories these faces told:

  • The boy in Oregon who by the age of 14 had been in and out of too many foster homes to remember. He trusted in Christ when he finally understood the pursuit and passion of a loving Father who doesn’t abuse.
  • I remember the look on the Mother’s face two years ago while speaking at Exposed, I said, “I think that our teens addiction to texting may end up being a worse epidemic than driving under the influence of alcohol.”  She later came to me crying telling me her husband was killed two weeks prior by a teen-texting driver.
  • The teary eyed girl on Vancouver Island who admitted to years of an eating disorder and knew Jesus wanted her to surrender all of herself.
  • The vibrant young man just this last summer who said, “I’m all in!”- I’ve followed him on FB ever since; by all indications, he’s lived all in since! He’s leading others to Christ!

  • Live and Love Loudly tour

    I remember hundreds of the faces of students with arms outstretched toward God or one another singing “How He Loves Us” at the top of their lungs just this last spring at each of the “Live and Love Loudly” spring retreats.

There are scores of other stories I could post. And I hope many, more faces to know.

Over the next few months I have several speaking opportunities I am really excited about, but I am willing and ready to take on a few more. A few weeks ago I added a “speaking page” to this blog. I’ll keep an updated list for each month; if you’d like to add your group or organization to this please do contact me (Youthmark has a toll free line: 800.455.1450, or email info@youthmark.com). Whether it’s a one-evening event, a retreat, a church service, parent gathering or Youth Rally, I’m intrigued by all of these and more!  Let’s chat!

Elisabeth speaking at women's event

In addition; any ladies group, women’s ministries, MOP’s etc. I would HIGHLY recommend you contact us to get in touch with my wife; I’m biased, but I think she’s just about the best I’ve heard; but I know the groups that she’s spoken to are not nearly as biased but many would share that same view!  Elisabeth speaks with such grace, Biblical wisdom mixed in with great story-telling and appropriate humor!

Speaking of speaking, just checked out the website of an upcoming opportunity I have this summer; I love the video near the bottom of the homepage, Summit is going to put on a great camp; check out their site here.

Grace,

Brian

 

One Month Window!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

January 28 to February 28 is what I would consider our one-month window! Over the next month we’re praying that God provides many “Harvest Workers” for the fields he is preparing throughout the U.S.A, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Just last night I received this instant message from a college Freshman in Oregon:

“Brian, are you doing a spring retreat again?  That training and all the prep for and the actual mission to Alaska completely changed the direction of my life, I want to help at this years retreat if I can so that others get it too!“

Many Youth Pastors have already chosen a mission trip, but the sad reality is that most groups don’t do much with training these teams.  To me, “sign-up and show-up” mission trips must stop, these are nothing more than “Christian Experiences.”  I believe the real blessing in mission is the “get it” moment when students (and adults) realize that mission is not just there and not just here–mission is anywhere!

Regardless of whether a team has a mission in mind; we want teams trained for Mission51.  Will you do Youthmark a big favor?  Help us get the word out about Mission51–training for the 51 weeks beyond the mission.  If you know of a youth group doing a mission ask the Youth Pastor what he or she is doing to get the team ready for after the trip.  Reaching our own Jerusalem is part of the mandate.  In fact, I’d argue that God did not release the Apostles to “anywhere” (read: uttermost) until they were effective at reaching Jerusalem.

We’ve released a quick three-minute video that explains Youthmark Mission Ventures and the Mission51 training.  It can be found at the Youthmark homepage here or on Youtube below.

Spread the word, we’re hoping to see a large increase in the number of teams using some training books, attending one of our Together, Spring Retreats or getting copies of Merge for after their mission experience.  Of course, we still want many Youthmark teams as well, the full benefit of all the training at the most affordable prices for a mission.

We’d love it if you would send emails with links to this blog or Youthmark.com, post on Facebook, do whatever you can; get the word out, let’s use this one-month window where Youth Pastors are making big decisions to spark Mission51!  Will you?

Grace,

Brian

SMS: Marginalization (part 3)

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

My Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) blog post is normally a once-a-week post (typically at the beginning of the week), however, last week I was motivated by a post by one of my friends in Colorado.  Jason Lamb is a former Youth Pastor who now works for a great ministry (Dare 2 Share) which is based just outside of Denver, Colorado.  Jason blogged about the trend he sees in church-ministry.  That trend being a marginalization or prioritization of teens in church.  To summarize, he sees the grey-area shrinking (grey being a church that places some emphasis on teen, but not enough to call teens a priority and enough to clearly say that they aren’t ignoring teens).

My take on the subject is that emphasis and prioritization ebbs and flows in most churches. This peak and valley is often dictated by the leadership in the lives of the students.  Whether lay-driven, paid staff driven or a combination, my own belief is that a church can/will see greater prioritization in the lives of the teens if/when the leadership to the teens become proactive in the prioritization.  Of course, this isn’t fool-proof; some churches will still somehow kill student ministry and in other cases ministry to teens can flourish when it seems there is no plan at all.

I suggest you go back and read part 1 here, then part 2 here.  As a background, you may also want to read Jason’s post here.

As a church (and the leadership) begin to prioritize a philosophy of ministry instead of a personality and all of the personalities begin to invest in the congregation (by inviting them to participate in/with the teens) a third component for long-term prioritization emerges:

Prioritize and Publicize Evangelism. My own belief is that is pretty much impossible to fall more in love with the Lord without falling more in love with the lost.  In other words, as the youth ministry prioritizes reaching out to their community, clubs, campuses and even those whom don’t know Jesus within the four walls of the church the rest of the congregation will NEED to hear about that.  I don’t think anything infuses new life into a church more than hearing about NEW LIFE.  Everyone should be practicing peer-to-peer outreach.  As your teens fall deeper in love with the lost and begin to risk in relationship by sharking the Gospel make sure your congregation hears about that… others will begin to follow.  Not only will they see that teens are making a difference they will see that youth ministry is much more than an entertainment stock-pile place.  They’ll see it as Students IN Ministry, not just a youth group.  Suggest to the pastor that students have the opportunity to share a quick testimony about their witness, get a volunteer leader to write a quick story in the church newsletter and prioritize these great proclamations of new life at ALL of your events!

Call me biased, but I FIRMLY believe that evangelism is the key to discipleship.  As we (children, students, parents, congregants, pastors, etc.) love, relationally pursue and passionately share (not scripted) Christ crucified we are drawn back to Discipleship/growth.  in other words living “THE Cause” fulfilling “The Great Commission” or practicing “Mission51” is simply the foundation for the prioritization of not just teen ministry in a church, but ALL ministry in the church!  Your gift/strength/passion area may be more oriented to growth/encouragement in the lives of believers, but that cannot be done without the unchurched/unbelieving in mind.  A natural bi-product of maturing in Christ is new life in Christ!

I am thrilled to lead a ministry (Youthmark) that emphasized this evangelism/discipleship model.  We simply want to partner with the Church build upon the foundation that the Lord promised to be THE ROCK!  We see it year in and year out, sending and host communities both growing their love for the lost and Mission51 enhanced both places!  Praise God!

I believe that marginalization of teens may happen at churches, but I believe this can/should be prevented if we prioritize reaching out, become more committed to congregational exposure and relationship and build a philosophy that will withstand any one leader!  Let’s prioritize!

Grace,
Brian

SMS: Marginalization (part 2)

Brian Aaby 3 Comments

By way of quick review, a recent post by one of my Dare 2 Share friends, Jason (click here for his post) led me to this three-part series I’m doing on the potential ways to help churches, specifically, help Student Ministries, not become marginalized and stay a priority for the congregation.

Part one, posted Tuesday (click here to read that post), made the point that a church leadership and the youth ministry team need to Prioritize Philosophy over Personality.  Quick translation: create and maintain a philosophy of student ministry that has a foundation and function that will outlast any one personality.  I might add, any good Youth Pastor should want this to be the case!

After prioritizing the philosophy, we move on to the second way to avoid the youth ministry becoming marginalized.

Prioritize Congregational In-Reach: A simple principle that is oft-ignored in churches is the visibility of the youth ministry.  If the congregation doesn’t hear about the youth or see the youth they don’t have the opportunity to prioritize the youth.  You’ve heard it “how come we don’t see the youth at our services?”  To be honest this just evokes way too much emotion for many youth-ministry leaders… instead of opening your can of something-or-other and going off about the worship, sermons or liturgy not-being relevant to teens, I suggest the answer is found by simply inviting the congregation to the youth! What would it look like to make the congregation a priority in youth ministry?  Create opportunities for the congregation at-large to be involved with you.  Here are a couple ideas to start with…

  • The last Wednesday of the month is targeted to be youth group plus a different group (children’s ministry; seniors; parents of teens; staff and elders; etc.).  Wouldn’t it be a hoot to play a version of “sardines” with parents?  How about singing a funked out/hyped up “Jesus loves me” for your worship through song time with the younger kids who adore the teens of the church?  What would it look like to have the seniors hear testimonies from teens who are more passionate about Christ then they are their video-game system?  Oh and staff and elder night needs to be the night you play Dodge-Ball!
  • Quarterly “worship nights” honoring the folk you intend to come to the event.  Help your band be mindful of the older part of the congregation who may attend by doing some well-done, but potentially more-upbeat hymns… Help the others in your congregation see the youth as Spirit-gifted individuals able to “be the church” now.
  • Small groups with personal invites from “experts” from the congregation. The 80 year-old retired former military man just may have some stories of perseverance your teens could benefit from.  The financial advisor may just have some practical advice the 11th grade girls could use right now.  Who wouldn’t love to hear the cop-stories from Joe Officer? Everybody has a story, let’s bring some of those stories to our teens!

I can only imagine how many more ideas we could come up with that could lead to a better known-congregation.  The end-result is that as teens gain relationship with those outside “Youth”, they will want to go to church for those relationships regardless of worship style, sermon length or quality of communion grape-juice.

On Monday I’ll conclude the three-part “Marginalization” SMS series with one last suggestion:

Prioritize and Publicize Evangelism.

Have a great weekend!

Grace,

Brian

SMS: Marginalization (part 1)

Brian Aaby 3 Comments

My friend Jason Lamb recently posted about a trend he sees in the marginalization or prioritization of Youth Ministry in churches (click here for his post). He believes that the grey area between marginalization and making Student Ministry a priority in a church is getting slim–churches are choosing to make (and invest in order to make) teens a larger priority or they are intentionally doing the opposite.

His post caused me to take a look at the churches around my region and the regions I visit as part of Youthmark. Jason sees this as a growing trend, however I don’t think it is a new or growing phenomenon, I believe we will continue to see marginalization, grey and prioritization–but I believe the players are consistently switching positions.  A church that today is prioritizing, may be a marginalizing church tomorrow.  The church of Youth-Marginalization that had a key volunteer begin to act upon her heart for teens all of a sudden can become the church of Teen-Priority.  Much of it depends on the hired help (or assigned leader).  Unfortunately the Youth Leader (or leadership) is often seen as the glorified babysitter, the “activity director” or fun-guy (read: fungi) who’ll entertain the teen-flock for a couple years.  I know this is not true in every church and I hope it can become not true at ANY church.

Today’s SMS is the first of a three-part series on this subject.  I hope the series will address a couple key questions every church (regardless of their current marginalization/grey/prioritization status) should be answering…How can our church be one that is prioritizing the teens? How can our congregation be one that avoids the marginalization of students?

Please understand that even a series of blog-posts on this subject cannot answer questions this large, I am choosing to write with the assumption that many of my readers are either leading or part of the leadership to youth in your current church.  I certainly don’t assume that because a church has a youth group that it is a church that prioritizes ministry to teens. This series of posts will come from the perspective of what the youth leader and/or youth leadership team can do to help teen ministry continue to be or become a priority.

Prioritize a Philosophy over a Personality. The Youth Pastor’s personality should not  shape the youth ministry, it should season the existing philosophy.  Let me start with a note to the strong-personality Youth Pastor: help create something that is much bigger than you!  I see it way too often, a church will hire a Youth Pastor because he/she is great with teens–this is a GREAT thing, however, that person comes in and creates a philosophy of ministry for the youth ministry.  Everything from terminology to methodology and sometimes overflowing to theology is dictated by the Youth Pastor.  A long-term approach to church-youth ministry should be built by the leadership of the church, not the youth leader (the current Youth Leader/Pastor can/should be part of that process, but not necessarily be the leader of that process).  Churches can begin to prioritize a simple youth ministry philosophy that is literally Youth Pastor-proof.  Allow the Youth Pastor’s personality to season the philosophy by his/her personality, but the structure should prioritize team, not just the leader.  A team of volunteers will bring long-term sustainability and prioritization of students that will not be dependent upon the  often-revolving Youth Pastorate door.

I’m excited about this three part series and had a REALLY hard time separating this into a three part series so instead of keeping with my usual Monday or Tuesday SMS, I’ll do an extra one on Friday to keep this subject on the burner.  Here’s the preview:

Friday: Prioritize Congregational In-Reach–bring the congregation to the youth first.

Monday: Prioritize and Publicize Evangelism–everyone has a story, they must be told!

Blessings on you and your ministry, may we glorify Christ as we seek to prioritize the things in His ministry!

Grace,
Brian

600 Club!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Blog post #600!

A lot has happened in the last 2 and half years, I am happy to say that a lot of my life (and Youthmark’s life) has been recorded in this online journal format.

Just a fun little survey to find out what you like best about the blog… So, if there is anything you’re particularly fond of, pick it (multiple selections are possible).

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you continue to stop by! Here’s to the next 600 posts.

Grace,
Brian