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The New Look!

Brian Aaby 2 Comments

Welcome to the new look for brianaaby.com! (still under construction over the weekend)

As I stated last week, I am a fan of change, therefore this may happen from time to time.  What does the new look mean?  Well, beside a makeover, it means some new content as well.  The categories will expand a little bit as I am planning on implementing a few new ones.  For instance, I am going to add a category for those of you serving in Youth Ministry.  Sort of a Student Ministry editorial piece of sorts.  One might see it as an opinion, whereas others may see it as a written advice section.

What stays?: Contests will still take place from time to time… in fact I’ll try to do a contest at least once every two weeks.  I’ll keep posting stuff about my family.  I’ll continue posting Youthmark related stuff, however, I’ll also do other Youthmark blogging here.

What goes?: Just the old picture.

What changes?: Top 5 Tuesday is going to be changed at least for the time-being to Top Three Thursday.

What’s been added?: I plan on adding some more links, the Student Ministry editorial and perhaps a few other categories. In addition, I’d like to enhance the “Faith Foundations” category by doing these more often. I feel we learn so much from one another when we share about the things we do to pursue Jesus.

That’s it for now… I hope you enjoy the new look!

Grace,

Brian

Getting There… and the 100five50

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Apologies for those who may look forward to surfing the net and finding a new post on this site… I have been pretty swamped these last 10 days and am preparing for some overhaul to the ol’ site.

I normally posted the update on Monday, but haven’t had web access the last couple days that was solid enough to do anything besides some facebook updates while speaking at a camp.  However, the last week was a recovery week on the 100five50.  I got back in the groove and back on the bike!

Physical:  I rode my bike six of the 7 days last week for a total of 62 miles.

Carbs/Eating: Certainly got back in the groove with the carb-count.

Weight: Was sitting at 220 pounds on Sunday late afternoon… did this Sunday instead of Monday because I figured there would not be a scale at the camp I was speaking at.

Overall a great week.

Looking forward to some changes on this site and some new features.

Grace,
Brian

Fake Christianity?

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

I just read one of our Youthmark blogs that really struck a nerve; one that a couple weeks ago was struck over and over again in Colorado when I was speaking at Ponderosa Camp.

Here is an awesome post about what God is doing through a number of folk in Petersburg, Alaska.

Did you go there and read it?

Some who are reading this may even feel that tug on your heart.  Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

If you are a believer, do you understand that you are on mission as well?  Are you telling others about your relationships with Jesus?

Don’t stop with the E. Boulder blog, go to youthmark.com and click on missions and then mission team blogs, read them all, you’ll be so encouraged!

Grace,

Brian

Top Five Tuesday: All Star Sports

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

In honor of our national pastime taking a break over these three days to have their All-Star game, I thought I’d give you my top five “All-Star” activities for all sports.  The criteria, looking at all professional sports “all-star” breaks, I am listing my top 5 activities that take place surrounding these events.  Please note, I think that NFL needs to get rid of their “Pro Bowl.”  Nobody cares the week after the Super Bowl.

Without further ado, the list.

Honorable Mentions: NHL Skills Competition and the  NBA Rookie/Sophomore Game. Haven’t even seen one yet, but I think I’d also enjoy an MLS All-Star Game.

Five: The NBA H-O-R-S-E competition. Nothing like taking a backyard favorite and having some of the guys in the NBA compete.

Four: The NBA All-Star Game. It’s crazy-go-nuts, no defense, but for whatever reason, I still watch it.  The only way I think it will become an actual game is if they did something crazy like made it count for home-court advantage for the winner conference for the Championship series… oh wait, that’s bee done by the MLB.  Okay, here’s my suggestion, the conference that wins, the teams in that conference that are in the NBA draft lottery get an extra ball in the drawing?

Three: NHL All-Star Game.  I’m not a huge NHL Guy, I like the play-offs, but I have enjoyed watching bits of the All-Star game because of the increased scoring.  It’s fun to see a game end 12-10.  I think, similar to the NBA, the game is so much different than the actual season that a purest wouldn’t like it, but for an occasional fan, it is fun to see.

Two: The Three Point Contest in NBA. I love the one-minute format with five racks of five balls each and the “money ball” as the last one on each rack.  This is one competition that can always be repeated because it doesn’t require creativity and it happens so quickly… whereas the Dunk Contest needs to go away for a good number of years.

One: The Baseball All-Star Game.  All other All-Star games are played for fun.  Not that I’m a huge fan of the home-field advantage in the world-series going to the winner, but I do like that the All-Star game in baseball actually seems to be played competitively.  Take basketball for instance, if LeBron is on a break, nobody makes any effort to defend… I’m thankful that Cliff Lee didn’t underhand a pitch to Albert Pujols in tonight’s game.

Anyone have something I am missing?

Grace,
Brian

1609

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I am so thankful for the faithfulness of family, friends and prayer partners of those who are serving on Youthmark Mission Ventures.

Just checked the analytics for the Youthmark.com blogs. Yesterday saw 1609 visitors to the mission blog pages!

If you have not gone there yet, I’d invite you to pick one (those posting this week will most likely have a red or orange dot next to them, indicating a recent post).  It is such a blast to read a blog from the beginning (which will take less than 10 minutes).

Click here to get to the Youthmark blogs.

Thanks for your prayers!  I cannot believe how faithful the Lord is in answering these requests.  Life changing, for real.

Grace,
Brian

100five50 Update: RESTART PLEASE!!!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

That’s right, I need to hit the reset button.  The last three weeks have been horrible for me along the lines of my disciplines, ad that is EXACTLY what this whole system I’ve created is.  If I am disciplined it works, without discipline it does not work at all.

Here we are on July 12; I just went back to my iCal where I keep track of my riding/exercise and read that the last time I rode a bike was on Sunday, June 27 in Phoenix.  Since then I have been in Phoenix, Colorado, LA and Spokane with just a couple days at home.  Being in those settings needing to eat at restaurants (PHX and Spokane), having an all-you-can-eat buffet thrown at me every meal (Colorado camp) and great food from my Mother-in-Law and In-N-Out (in CA) has not been a good thing.

So, here I am at 223 starting over on July 12.  This is not upsetting at all, just a great self-realization exercise.  I am committed to being disciplined in a much better way starting RIGHT NOW. Knowing I have similar schedule the rest of the summer with another camp and a family trip to Hawaii, I know that food temptations are going to be present, which is not a bad thing to partake in, it only becomes “bad” when I don’t take the time to exercise to match the intake.

I look forward to the second half of this challenge.

Heading home for an afternoon bike ride in just a few.

I would really appreciate the prayers for the second half of this challenge, looking forward to feeling great and dropping 13+ pounds!

Grace,
Brian

It’s A Small World After All

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

On my way home from Spokane yesterday I received a text message from my best friend who lives near San Diego.

The text read: “Youthmark is everywhere” and my iPhone promptly displayed a picture  for me.

Classic.

Jeramy and his family were hanging out near Oceanside for the afternoon when Jerusha (Jer’s wife) saw some folk wearing Youthmark Mission Venture shirts.  She began a conversation saying “our friend Brian Aaby is the founder of Youthmark.”

Jeramy quickly engaged another group of people wearing the shirts.  He said, “Do you know Brian Aaby”

“He goes to our church!”

Jeramy sent a second photo to me of Jenny, Tracey and Katie.

How cool that Jeramy and his family decided on Oceanside for a day trip.  How cool that the team heading to Mexico jumped off I-5 right then/there for a short break.  How cool is it that God wanted my friends to meet right then!

Praise the Lord!

Grace,
Brian