Do you remember The Christmas Story?

My Dad always called me either "Buddy" or "Ralphie," which I suppose was in honor to this classic movie. My thoughts were turned to Ralphie's brother, Randy, this morning when I heard from Walt, the Youth Pastor of East White Oak Bible Church Senior High, that another snow storm was blowing through. I'm preparing to speak at their ski retreat this weekend in Winsconsin.

You see, yesterday was a cold day in Chattanooga... it dipped down into the 20's with some pretty intense winds. If you travel up to Covenant or the Overlook, the cross winds on Lookout Mountain can be a little brutal, but it isn't as bad as other places in the US right now. Walt informed me, via facebook, this morning that it was going to dip down to -20... let that sink in for a second. This weekend, at the retreat, it is going to be about 10 degrees. Therefore, I am planning on dressing up like Randy, at all times. Whether I'm skiing or hanging out in the lodge, or taking a shower I will look like this classic picture, unable to put my arms down.

Here are some things you can pray about:

1. At first I felt like we were going to go through I John, but the Lord has directed my attention to the topic of discipleship. We're going to walk through some of the principles addressed in Being A Disciple and Counting the Cost and Dietrich Bonhoffer's Cost of Discipleship. Pray that hearts will be fertile to hear what the word of God says on this weighty, unpopular topic. Weighty because of the implications, unpopular because of the clear line in the sand that is drawn!

2. Pray for Walt! He did a similar retreat last weekend with the Middle School.... nough said.

3. Pray for travel, both mine and the youth groups.

4. Pray for the worship, both the word and in song. I hear a EWOB has a pretty sweet worship band, so I'm excited to worship with them!

5. Pray that the Holy Spirit clearly communicates His Word through every aspect of the weekend. Pray that hearts are changed--disciples made, motivated, and willing to live and die for Christ.

5. Finally, and close to my heart... pray for my family as I'm gone.

While Becky was dealing with a sick little one, I was off to Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania this weekend. A group of Precept Trainers were invited to teach at West Shore Evangelical Free Church, an amazing facility with excited individuals! I taught through the book of Titus, teaching people how to study inductively. My class was energetic, excited and eager to learn the inductive method. They walked away from the weekend with the desire to continue being grounded and established in the word of God.

I also spent the weekend near the famed Chocolate Capital of the Word--Hershey, Pennsylvania. Our family would take a trip up to Hershey every year for the annual Antique Car Show. It has been awhile since all the cousins and grandkids were all together, but the place brought back a lot of memories. The smell of chocolate was in the air, though I never offically got to go in the town to see how much it had changed. There were chocolate kisses all throughout the weekend.

I was also spending the time away from home getting caught up on all of my school work. Most of my suitcase was filled with books. Each night I would leave my roomate, go to the lodge or the hot tub and read my book. One night, I was reading and had my Iphone playing my class lectures while I had my feet in the hot tub. I fell asleep, only to be awoken by the horrific sight of an extremely large, hairy man and his extremely large, hairy wife... at least I hope they were married. It was that akward, where am I... inbetween sleep and dream world. Thank God it was reality and not some sick dream!

The next night, though still scared from the previous encounter, I decided to brave the hot tub again. I had taught all day and was fighting off some sickness. Same situation--reading and listening to a lecture--when two ladies came in. They were laughing and cackling; pretty hard to ignore, though I had the lecture up all the way. They swam and I tried to ignore them for both their sake and mine. The next day, on the last day of the workshop, I had finished early... so I was sitting with another trainer, relaxed with my shoes off. As people were walking by, I noticed a familiar face. Without the mumu type bathing suit it was hard to determine, but I finally realized that the ladies from the night before were participants in another class. They walked by... I could tell they noticed me. One whispered to the other, but they were already passed. So, the one that missed me acted like she dropped something on the ground... eye contact! I laughed and so did she. Just goes to show, you never know who you're going to run into while you're in your bathing suit!