See You At The Pole

I can't tell you how excited I am about writing this post. It has been a while since I last wrote and what an amazing couple of weeks we have had as a family and as a youth pastor!

See you at the pole is an event that takes place each year on our local high school campuses. Millions of young people gather at their flag poles to pray. It is an exciting event where students encourage others and are encouraged by others. Here is a link to a video that I made from Waynesburg Cental's SYATP. After SYATP we have a post pole rally at our church and each year I encourage our students to bring their friends out. This year I had Jenessa Wrick speak and Megan Fox sang a powerful song. It was a great experience for all that attended. I had give aways and hot wings after the event was over. We had at least 30 students that came to the altar for rededication. I was really encouraged and the students are excited about what happened and this current school year.

Also, to go along with this, a few weeks ago we signed up 25 students to be campus missionaries to their schools. This means that they are commited to the Youth Alive code which is to: Pray, Live, Tell, Serve and Give. It is a powerful time to be in Youth Ministry and our students are reaching their friends for Christ. That excites me!!! Please pray for our students as this is a true battleground that the enemy does not want to relinquish.

Thanks,
Pastor Carl

Our Vacation!

I figured that since we will be getting on the ship tomorrow that I should post a blog tonight. I don't know what kind of internet they will have there if any!

We had a great time at the beach today in Fort Lauderdale. We went to the beach around 11 am and stayed till around 2 then came back to the hotel and swam the afternoon away. We are a little sunned but had a great time. We had a visitor by our pool this afternoon, a small Iguana stopped by to say hi. Of course Megan wanted to catch it, but it just ran away. I snapped a quick pic before it was completely gone though. We are already having a great time just being together and we are looking forward to the week on the ship! I am sure glad that God has made a way for us to be able to take a vacation like this. We love spending time together and are thankful whenever we can get away!

blessings,
Pastor Carl

Vacation Time!!

We are currently sitting in Pittsburgh International waiting to board our plane. It is always refreshing to get away for a time and re-energize!! We have been looking forward to this vacation all summer and it is finally here. We have done so many things this summer and are certainly thankful for all that God has blessed us with. I am so glad to be a part of His Kingdom and there are times when I wonder why He blesses us so much, but I know that when we trust in Him and what He has for us it is a wonderful place to be!! I am so very excited about our events coming up, but I know that the next seven days will be relaxation time, doing nothing time, laying on the beach time! I may or may not blog through this time. This may just be a do nothing vacation, that we will talk about or blog about when we get home!! Thanks for praying for us this summer and we love and appreciate all of our friends for holding us up!!

Blessings,

Pastor Carl

More Vista/Apple Trouble!

I fought for a couple of hours yesterday because I tried to download the newest version of iTunes. Yep that's all just iTunes. I use iTunes to keep my music in some kind of order and to play things when I want them! I like the interface and the usability of the software, I am not into the limited playablity (drm) but that is another blog. Anyway, I downloaded the new version and then when it was finished it prompted me for a computer reboot. I thought it suspicious at the time but a lot of software needs reboot when updated so I let it go. I then worked on something else for a minute then went back to my desktop to see where I was at. I tried to start iTunes again and got the same reboot prompt. I then knew that there was an issue. I then noticed that my network connection had been terminated. I thought that it was absolutely crazy!! I proceeded to work for about an hour and finally did a system restore. After that didn't work I then took it back to two days prior!! After that my network came back but itunes was shot. I immediately went online to see if others had experienced the same issues. Sure enough they had. Vista has been leading the way with incompatibilities, but I think that Apple dropped the ball on this one. So anyway after researching a bit I discovered the fix for the problem. Here it is in order!! Be careful that you follow directions as you can make major changes in regedit:

For those interested, this is how to fix this:

go to start menu --> run (or window key + r)
type regedit, press enter
go to computer/hkey_classes_root/
find pcast and right click it
click permissions
during the course of this you may get a message saying you cant change anything, but you can change who can change things. click ok on it (possibly more that once).
click advanced, then owner tab
change the owner from administrator to whatever name you are using
click ok twice to get out of the pop-ups completely
right click pcast again
click permissions
click OWNER RIGHTS
by full control and read click the allow boxes.
click ok

There are some cool new features in iTunes... for what it's worth!!!

Let me know if this helped you by commenting on this one... maybe I can save someone a headache and hours of work!!

Blessings,
Pastor Carl

The Fruit of Our Labor!

Mark 4:13-20
13Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."

It is really amazing when I see students that really get the Word of God. Over the past 5 weeks we have seen 7 students in our youth ministry receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and still more seeking Him. That's exciting, especially with the world and our country in the state that they are in. I feel sometimes like I am sowing seed along the path or in the rocky places or even among the thorns. But, I have to remember that God is the one who reaps the harvest not me. It is not about me or my desires, but rather what He desires to do in someone's life. They have to be receptive and they have to desire the deeper things of God. When they realize this, God is just waiting to pour out His blessings on their lives.

Is there a greater way to start a school year than to be baptized in fire? I think not... You go guys/girls... just go!! They all inspire me, and for those that are seeking, seek diligently and you will be rewarded. Be opened to receiving The Holy Spirit and it is only a matter of time until He baptizes you with His tongues of fire!! Be ready though because He will change your life. Live in the Spirit... In His power... You will do Great things in Him!

Blessings,
Pastor Carl

The Power of Pressing Through To God

This blog is about us and our own human behavior. We have been challenged through the past two services in not leaving the altar without getting through to God. We are often held back by our own selfish ambitions. We have to give everything up to God. It is kind of unpopular in today's church world when we start talking about taking time to commit to God. It is essential for us to take whatever time we need to when it comes to us seeking God. We have learned that God wants to bless us but sometimes we have to wait on His timing. This advance is so enlightening in that I have realized that sometimes it takes more time than we think it might when it comes to us drawing nearer to God. Sometimes we need to give up things in our lives to allow God to work in a deeper and more intimate way. He is so good and loves us so much, it blows my mind! I am heading to bed for a short nap now, it is back up at 7am.

Blessings,
Pastor Carl - Carlisle, PA

Robots Are The Now!!

With robot technologies getting better and better as the days progress you will be influence by the technologies that come out of these interesting devices. Your back-up sensors on your car, for example, have come out of this technology. There are a lot of others as well. I wouldn't mind having a robot cleaning my house when I came home from a long day's work. The new models can actually learn how to do new tasks and are easily programmable. You have surely seen the kids toys that learn tasks as kids teach them new things. Awesome technology that is advancing every day!! There are many things today that we don't understand how they work and yet we put our lives in their hands. Take a look at the computer system in your car for just one example. When we bought our minivan a couple years ago the salesman told us that there was more technology in it than the first space shuttle. Wow, that amazed me! We trust the things that we don't see or know anything about everyday of our lives... and yet so many people refuse to have faith in our God who loves us!! What a shame! We press on though, and share with whoever will listen!
Links: http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/category/robot-gadgets/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/edsinger/domo.htm


Blessings,

Pastor Carl