my favorite clip.

several years ago I was sick at home, flipping through channels on the sofa. I saw this clip of fred rogers and I found it to be the most caring moment I think that I have ever seen on tv.

I searched for the dvd and bought it.

the church was doing a volunteer appreciation event, and i showed this clip and spoke about caring, individual attention, and affirmation.

I have often done a series for hte middle schoolers called "liking yourself" where I talk about biblical self-esteem and Gods love for us. I often show this clip and make the point that God loves us in spite of the way we feel about ourselves, or even the way the world has treated us. God loves us in spite of our weaknesses with an unconditional love- says to us, "its YOU I like, not the things you do or have."

it may sound hokey, but this is the kind of minister and dad that I want to be. the way that fred rogers makes this kid feel is the way that I want to make the people that I interact with feel. I have a lot of heroes for the various different roles that I play and things that I do. I have preaching heroes, and leadership heroes, and i also have a hero when it comes to the art of the interpersonal conversation- and its fred rogers.

there are days when I am overwhelmed with details and my mood is sour. I know that I need to care for the people that are on their way to meet with me, and I know that I don't have the capacity. in those moments, I watch this clip, learn from the master, dry my tears, and get back in the game. this clip inspires me to care, to listen, to affirm, and to leave others with a blessing. I have watched this clip a hundred times, but it still does not inspire me to sing to, or with middle schoolers, but its still effective. (the first 5 minutes of this clip is what I'm referring to).

God is love.
-rev-rob

rob the black swan

Last weekend the middle school ministry that I lead launched its 3rd weekend service. We pulled out all the stops, a ton of students came out, and we all had a blast. This morning I was reflecting on this weekend, and the fact that I get to do what I do, and it dawned on me, that when I was a kid, I had absolutely no intention of doing any of this.

I’m essentially a farm-kid from the central valley. As a kid, I loved being by myself and I still enjoy solitude; when I was a kid I had no desire at all to be in front of a crowd, the center of attention or anyone’s leader- and yet here I am.


One of my friends read a book with me called “the black swan.” The book says that when you look back on your life or on history, things seem to follow a natural progression; but if you remember being there in those moments, things actually happened fairly randomly. There are these moments- called black swans, where a random event occurred, but it completely affected the future and changed the course of your story. As believers we prefer to think of these black swans as God’s plan, God’s grace and God’s providence.


Here are some of the black swans that led me here:


• When I was a teenager I worked at an ice-cream shop. And while I was there I met a friend who invited me to church.


• The church just happened to be near my house, and it just happened to have an amazing youth ministry.


• I became a Christian in that church and somewhat randomly got involved as a leader in my youth group, with special attention, training and mentoring from the youth pastor and volunteers.


• This church just happened to have an intern program ith monies set aside for intern salaries and graduate schooling; and I just happened to be chosen as an intern and had my schooling scholarshipped.


• When I finished school, my church did not hire me, even though they had openings. I was hurt by this, but it sent me on a search for a new ministry-


• And somewhat randomly, I met my former pastor galen and los gatos Christian church.


• I just happened to run into the most incredible bunch of leaders and students on the planet.


• The church just happened to merge with another church in town, and I got to team up with my friend justin and his amazing team, and all of the sudden, the little youth ministry was a big one.


• The senior pastors of that church retired, and the church hired a well known speaker and author.


• And all of the sudden, that big youth ministry became a bigger one.


• And added to that, I found myself in the sweetest, most wonderful family with my favorite people in the world, Deanna and jane.


And the crazy thing is that I didn’t make any of these choices. This farm-boy from the central valley just seemed to find myself in the midst of these changes and opportunities. and when I start to think I’m something special, I just remember that I didn’t navigate this course or create these opportunities- they are all a gift of grace. And it makes me wonder what black swans are coming up ahead. As a kid, I never wanted to be anyone’s leader or to be in front of a crowd, and to be honest, it always intimidates me; but I wouldn’t trade this story and life for anything. I’m absolutely in love with this stage of my life.


This summer our youth ministry is studying the psalms, and I think of psalm 23. And I can say with David that the LORD is my shepherd; and He has been leading me on the most amazing journey- and my job is to be His sheep; to follow Him closely, and to enjoy the ride.


God is love. -rev-rob

strength and bravery, 2/2011

jane and I have been spending a lot of time at chuck e. cheese lately. they got all new games, and in the daytime, the place is clean, quiet, and a super-cheap way to have some kid fun. at the one closest to our house, there is a little air-hockey table that she loves to play on. I consider myself to be a fairly good air-hockey player, but I always let her win. lately, its been getting easier to let her win! she’s got quite an accurate shot!
a few weeks ago, I scored a goal on jane and she pulled the puck out of the side, placed it on top of the table and said, “wait a minute, dad.” and with her most serious face, she made a heart shape with her hands, pointed it to the ceiling, and then grabbed the puck with a determined look on her face.

“what was that?!” I said. with a straight face she said, “that’s my strength and bravery.” “WHAT?! where did THAT come from?!” “oh- I just made it up.” and she continued her game with fierceness and resolve.

strength and bravery shows up all the time these days. during yatzee games, uno games, anytime jane needs to gear up, she gets those heart-hands out and her strength and bravery comes out.

yesterday we went to the jungle and I told jane that I would get her a toy if she rode the orange slide. jane has been avoiding the orange slide for years. it has a dark section to it, it involves a wobbly net-bridge, and its been intimidating her ever since we have been going there. she responded to my offer by saying, “I have enough toys.” I offered two toys. a lunch at burger king. I appealed to her age- after all- she’s six now, she’s not 3 anymore. nothing worked. I brought her flashlight with me and told her she could use it in the dark section, and she was not interested. finally, I said, “what if you got your strength and bravery. I bet that would help you do it.”

she took a deep breath. her lip kind of quivered, and those heart-hands went up to the ceiling. she gave me that serious look and simply said, “flashlight?” I handed it to her and off she went. she was strong and she was brave. she slid down that slide so fast that she flew out and landed on her bottom. she had tears in her eyes, but she did it. she faced her fears with strength and bravery. I was so proud. she slid down that slide 20 more times, and we got the last one captured with the cell phone.

 we drove to burger king, and the preacher in me was thinking about all of the spiritual applications from what we just experienced- about trusting your Father, about the passage in psalms that calls the bible a light for our feet and a lamp for our paths- and i was thinking about strength and bravery- and who it ultimately comes from.

“this is my command—be strong and courageous! do not be afraid or discouraged. for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” -joshua 1:9 (new living translation)

I’ve taught jane much- and she is teaching me much too. imagine what we could accomplish if we could remind ourselves to be strong and brave whenever we are afraid, intimidated or overwhelmed?

God is love.
-rev-rob

chuck e. cheese videos

if you follow me on twitter or facebook, you have probably seen these, but if not, here you go! we have recently rediscovered chuck e. cheese and have been spending quite a bit of fun times there lately. and jane has discovered some fun new games that she is really good at! (all of these videos were taken with my new blackberry and tweeted onto twitvid.)







and here is a bonus video- you can hear me chuckling in the background-



being a dad is fun.
God is love.
-rev-rob

images from vacation-

I took a week off between Christmas and new year's- it was a daddy-daughter-week! here are some pictures of our fun week together:

we went to christmas in the park with aunt susan,

opened a bunch of presents in san jose and in modesto,

worked on some puzzles,

saw a couple of movies-

made a couple of new dolls- amanda pig and lollipop-

made a new lightswitch out of pottery,

we worked on our basketball skills,

and we played about a million games of yahtzee, nearly wore out our dvd of the ginch cartoon, went to togo's for a snack each day, ate at a bunch of different restaurants, and drew lots and lots of pictures. what a relaxing and fun week together! now deanna is ready to go back to being a teacher, jane is ready to go back and be a student, and I'm ready to go back to work at the church.
being a dad is fun.
-rev-rob

out of 2010, into 2011-

what a wild year.
I didn't blog much- twitter and facebook have been my outlet for short, random thoughts. I have written a number of blogs only to delete them minutes after they have gone up. I guess I'm becoming more choosy about the stories I tell and share. but its been a great year- one of those years that no one could earn or deserve- but I'm keeping it.



when it came to my new year’s resolutions, I did ok.


• I wanted to go the whole year without using a credit card, and I made it all the way to December, but my trusty explorer found a way to break just before the year ended. It broke earlier in the year too- so did our VW, but in those cases, we were able to pay for those out of our bank account.


• I wanted to go to the gym 300 times this year; but in January, the craziest thing happened: my right ear exploded in a very quiet mixture of pain and ear fluid. I was on pain meds for the entire month. I also added a few evening meetings to my week which made it almost impossible to get to the gym often.


• I wanted to have a great attitude this year, and that went ok. On one occasion, I was actually commended by my boss for specifically having a great attitude; and on other occasions, I had to apologize for not having the best attitude. My attitude-study eventually turned into one of my more popular teaching serieses this year.


• I also wanted to eat NO FRIED FOODS all year. aaaaand, that was an epic fail.


• last- I wanted to take Janie to Disneyland, and I was able to that twice this year- and without using the charge card!






this has been a wild year at work too-


// in middle school, we added a saturday night service to our weekly ministry; which means that I was with students, speaking to them, 5 days a week this year- sheesh!

// we did some experiments with our programming-

:: we went on a new kind of mission trip, focused on ministering to children in need- and it was a blast. we want to do it again this year.

:: we did our first ever summer camp that was just for us. it was the craziest week that I can remember- more on that later.


:: we took our journey program to the next level- and had a ball with it- we want to go bigger and better this year.


:: and I restarted my ministry to kids at Princeton plaza on wednesday mornings.

:: we got a new member of our student team, in addition to saying goodbye to another.


:: our volunteer team added new faces and said goodbye to others-


:: and I celebrated 10 summers at hume lake in July.


personally, this year has been amazing.


• my daughter turned 6! and she and deanna started HOMESCHOOL! jane loves it and does so well. so does deanna.


• I started memorizing bible verses with a friend


• we have cut down debt


• we celebrated 14 years of marriage


• and I still made it to the gym a lot.


• jane is growing up- and had her first “friend-birthday party”


• and she fell in love with the Toy Story franchise. we saw all of the movies, rode the rides, listened to the audiobooks, a trillion times. we also bought a ton of the merchandise.


• jane has also become an accomplished author, uno player and yatzee competitor.

as far as goals for 2010, they are pretty simple:


// continue to aggressively eliminate debt and not go in ANY further.
// continue to have a great attitude
// celebrate TEN YEARS at the church in july
// get to the point where I ENJOY running and look forward to it.
// I want to drop weight and pants sizes


and for the BIG goals:


// I want to see how long I can go no soda, no candy. yikes! (in other words, no 7/11 in 2011)
// I want to be able to quote the entire book of romans by the end of 2011.

a year can bring so much- so much grief and drama, and so much joy and opportunity. we’ll see where 2011 takes the walters, and you.


God is love.
-rev-rob

monterey bay aquarium 11/2010

 this place was fascinating. can't wait to go again!

well, this just blew my socks off!

I do my best to encourage the socks off of the local youth pastors, but this time, a friend of mine out-did me by about a million times!

homemade toys:: disneyland pt. 2

last time we went to disneyland, jane was inspired to create some toy-rides for her hello kitty toys. and ever since we got back from our 2nd trip to disneyland, she has been making more and more rides for the kitties to enjoy. she made a pretty elaborate buzz light year bllaster ride that I wished that I had taken a picture of. it had a blacklight, toy story figures, and all kind of cool features. she also made a toy story mania ride out of legos that had targets for the kitties to shoot at and carts for the kitties to ride through the ride on. it was very similar to the actual ride.

the other day jane said, "what should we make next?" I said, "well, what rides did you really like?" she said, "I liked the swing ride. why don't we make a swing ride?!" that took a lot of thought. deanna suggested that I go take a long shower to figure that out. I do some of my best thinking in the shower. the warm water must warm up my brain. she was right. at the end of my shower I knew how I was going to make it. I made a quick trip to homme depot. I used a lazy susan that we had in our pantry, a dowel for hanging up clothes, some string, some industrial velcro, a bucket-lid, and some clips for hanging mini-blinds as seats. and it works! of all of the toys I have made for jane, I think this is the one I'm most proud of.

being a dad is fun.

-rob

disneyland part 3

this year, jane has REALLY been into toy story 3; and it didn't take us long to decide that our next vacation would have a toy story-focus down at disneyland!

its halloween-time over at disneyland- and kids can come dressed in a costume. on certain days, disneyland closes early to allow for a special halloween party with unique music, decorations, character-meet and greets, trick-or-treating, and a special halloween parade and fireworks show. we were elated when my friend chris surprised us with tickets for this exclusive party! jane got to see her first fireworks show- and she loved it. and she got to dress up in her jessie costume and take pictures with some of her favorite toy story characters:

keeping with our toy-story theme, we also played several rounds of buzz light year's blasters

and we even tracked down buzz and got a photo with him.

we also discovered an awesome new ride: toy story mania! it was broken for most of the time that we were there, and the line was super-long, but we did get to ride it twice. it was worth the wait.

probably the most special toy story moment that we had was during the toy story parade. my friend chris knows jessie and told her that her biggest fan was in the crowd. she made an extra-special effort to wave to jane and blow her a kiss. then she sprayed us with water.

we had lots of other non-toy-story highlights too.

jane discovered the swing ride at california adventure:

after-swings from rob walter on Vimeo.

we also got to see disney's new water and light show, world of color.

jane was in tears when it was over. I thought she was scared- she was sad to see it end.

 

we had such a fun time as a family. I am constantly surprised at jane's great attitude, patience and ability to adapt to new situations. as usual, we got to take lots of pictures, we got to ride lots of rides, and got to meet some of our favorite characters. here are some more photos and videos of our time together. like I often say, being a dad is fun.

tigger from rob walter on Vimeo.