Tools I use in Ministry pt2: PC to Video EZ

Back in January I had every intention of making this a continuing series, but with a pastoral transition and a few other things cropping up, it just hasn't happened. Well, I'm gonna rectify that problem right now. So, without any further ado, here's tool number two¹.

PC to Video EZ
If you are blessed to have your own room to decorate and minister to students in at your church, rejoice! We are, and I love not having to set things up every week. However, in order to get in there, we had to give up all the cool toys the sanctuary has to offer. One of those that was sorely missed was the video projector. We love doing powerpoint to help reinforce the messages but normal tv's don't have VGA inputs. Then I discovered this nifty little device:
All you do is plug a VGA cable in and it converts it to RCA or S-video. It works great for smaller youth rooms where a projector just isn't practical. If you're in that situation, you can pick one of these up by clicking the link here: http://store.grandtec.com/ultimateez.html It retails for $49.99 and is well worth the cost.

¹Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't even think about it very much (HaHa).

Do our words matter?

I found this interesting article and I'm interested to get your take on it. Click here to read the article, then you can read my comments below.

Being a youth pastor, I know students have learned to censor their language when their around me. Also I spend a lot of my time working with Christian students at church, which isn't an atmosphere conducive to swearing (although Tiffanney would tell you she learned to swear in a church youth group). I have noticed a lot more hateful language coming from our teens. Even words said in jest are powerful, and we have to be careful with the words we choose. One girl in our group constantly is saying "I hate you." And I know she means for it to be funny, but the bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and words like those can be easily misunderstood. You have to be cautious when you throw around words like that, because the words you speak go on forever. Words can be powerful weapons, we need to treat them as such.

Too much stuff going on!

Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted alot lately, but hopefully that will be changing in the next couple weeks and I'll get back into a Tuesday-Thursday schedule. I needed to take a break though and thought I'd throw out a few updates and thoughts that won't make up a whole blog by themselves:

• We have a new Senior Pastor coming in! I talked with him today for about a half an hour on the phone and he seems like a great guy. I can't wait to really sit down with him and hear about his vision for the church and the community. It's fun to have a new infusion of vision.
  
• That means, I don't have to be the Interim anymore! And Tuesday can't come soon enough! Then I get to go back to just being the youth pastor!
• When I met him he started asking me questions about our house and everything that happened here. It confused me how he knew so much about my life until he admitted to reading my blog.
• Tiff and I went up to her Grandma's house this last Sunday - Tuesday. Her Grandma had open heart surgery to replace one of the valves in her heart and needed someone to help for a couple days. I spent a lot of time with Tiff's grandpa who has Alzheimer's. It was really tough to deal with him, not because he was mean or frustrating, but because everytime he asked where we were going I wanted to cry. He is so confused and just not with it anymore. He's started getting the shakes too. I pray that God takes him home quickly.

Well, those are my thoughts for now, time to get back to work.

-Jeff-