me and seth

a couple of years ago I wrote a blog about a friend of mine from high school named seth. when I first became a Christian at 16 years old, I needed some new friends quick, and seth and his circle of friends from first baptist were there for me. like I said in the earlier post, seth and his family now attend my home church in san jose. he has been doing a lot of work for the church in helping us remodel and whenever I see him meeting with one of our pastors I always pop mt head into the meeting and say, “if it wasn’t for this guy and his family, I might not have stayed in the church!”

one day seth and his wife came upstars to the middle school ministry. I thought they were there to volunteer. actually, they were there to drop off their son! I said, “you’re old enough to have a junior higher?! that means that I’M old enough to have a junior higher!” for the longest time it was so surreal to see seth’s son at the middle school ministry. this boy’s dad helped me to grow in Christ and now I had the incredible honor of helping seth’s son grow in Christ- its some kind of full circle effect.

for the longest time, seth’s son would get so embarrassed every time I saw him, because I would always say, “this guy's DAD was MY FRIEND when I was a student! I am so grateful for this guy’s dad!”

a few months ago seth’s son came up to me and said, “hey pastor rob? can I ask you a question? would you help me get baptized?” I almost burst into tears. “sure buddy.” I answered. “it would be an honor.” when I talked with seth about the service I asked him if he would join me in the tank in baptizing his son.

seth has 6 kids- all adopted- and that day we baptized 5 of them. when we were back stage I was back there with seth and his kids and there was so much joy in the room. I was thinking about all of the memories that we had and how huge of a moment this was. I wanted to share everything that I was feeling about this family, but for the sake of time I said, “we have 5 brothers and sisters getting baptized this morning with their dad seth. they were all brought together into seth’s family through the miracle of adoption- and by their faith in Christ, they are all brought together with us as our brothers and sisters in Christ, adopted into God’s family.”

this was seriously one of the greatest honors of my 15 years of ministry service.

God is love.
rev-rob

let's go fly a kite!

yesterday we went out and got a kite! we went to vasona park in los gatos, tied on our string and let it fly! jane is a natural kite-flyer! we had so much fun that we went 2 days in a row. a reporter from the san jose mercury news was walking by and snapped a few photos and they should be in the newspaper on May 31!

another broken bus story-

I've written a few broken bus stories on this blog- here is my latest:

last night the middle school ministry took the 8th graders to their annual goodbye party at the boardwalk in santa cruz. it was pretty much a perfect night. we had a good crowd of students, a good group of volunteers, the traffic was mellow, the boardwalk wasn’t crowded and the weather was perfect. I noticed that my cell phone battery was draining a lot faster than normal- and while we were at the boardwalk, it actually died (which is something that has never happened on a youth trip before.) I didn’t have a car charger and no one else had one that fit my phone.


after we went to the boardwalk, we went to seabright, where our high school team was waiting for us with a bbq and bonfire- again- everything was perfect. when it was time to leave, we got in the bus and drove off. while I was on HWY 17 I noticed that the power steering was a little stiff. I pulled over in Scotts Valley and could tell that we had lost it- and there was no way that I was going to take a bus full of students home on 17 with no power steering!

we called in the other cars who were with us and the high school team and got the students home safe. I stayed with the bus. dave called my favorite bus towing company, and they told me that they would be by in 45 minutes. so there I was, parked at a little church in scotts valley, waiting for a tow truck with just the bus and me and with no cell phone. I kind of started freaking out. something in me needed to have contact with the outside world! I saw a gas station over an overpass and thought they might have a car charger for my phone. I don’t really enjoy bridges, heights or edges- and especially when the go over HWY17 in the pitch black dark, but I went for it. I went to 2 gas stations, a grocery store and finally a quik stop to get this car charger. I was actually sprinting because I was afraid that the tow truck might come and I might miss it. they had the charger- I got it and sprinted back- all the way back to the overpass, over it, and back to the bus.

I was so relieved to see my phone charging up- I really can’t explain how excited that made me. the first call I made was to the tow company. they told me that the guy was 20 minutes out. then I called Deanna, then paco. the tow guy didn’t come for another hour. when he did get there, I discovered that he saw an accident and stopped to help even though they didn’t ask him to in order to get the commission. he told me that a little pulley under the hood has worn down and that kept the belts from staying tight and took out the power steering. it couldn’t be fixed, it had to be towed. when I got in the car, he said, “actually I was hoping that you would be the guy from the radio- I love that guy! I listen to him every day!” he was talking about my pastor, chip. I said, “yeah- he’s pretty great, I like listening to him too.” he said, “my lady lives right behind your church! I asked her, ‘can you just feel the presence of God radiating from that place?’ she said ‘no- actually they are kind of annoying- they’re really loud!’”

we actually had a great talk about some of the questions that he had about the church and the bible- he was a really cool guy. most of the tow guys I meet are pretty cool.

my journey over the hill started at about 8:30, and it ended at about 12:30am- sheesh! that vehicle…

well, at least everyonne got home safely, and I got a new story to tell-

God is love.

-rev-rob

mid-year resolutions

I started this year with several resolutions, and some of them have been going great, some not so much- so I'm going to do some mid-year tweaking.

I started off saying no candy or soda in 2011- and I ended up replacing candy with cookies and soda with sweet tea and starbucks mochas. not a big upgrade in nutritional value. so now I'm going to do the points system- or monitor and limit my calories. I've been doing this for a week, and I'm already down 8 pounds. I still want to avoid candy however. Instead of avoiding soda, I'm actually drinking only diet soda. so I still get all of that caffeine that I love, but not all the calories. 

memorizing romans has been going along just fine. I'm excited that I now have 3 other friends from the middle school staff doing this with me. this has evolved into one of my favorite parts of this year so far. each morning I get up early (well, kind of early...) and go for a walk on either the Los Alamitos Creek Trail or the Los Gatos Creek trail with all of my flash cards and review paul's letter to the romans. this has become an exercise that centers me, prepares me, coaches me encourages me and rebukes me. lov it- can't wait to 2012 to learn some other books too.

we wanted to not use the credit card at all this year and that went pretty well until the cars broke. now its time to get back on the saddle.

its been a wild 6 months- lots of new students and volunteers at the church, lots of incredible camps and services-
like I said in my last post, jane is growing up way too fast and is absolutely loving her life.

I'm full of hope for the future.

here is a little blessing for you from the book of romans, chapter 5-
"since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand. and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, and for a good man someone might possibly dare to die- but God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

God is love.
-rev rob

jane's graduation from kindergarten:

I am super proud of both jane and deanna for completing their first year of home school. jane did a great job on all of her schoolwork, and deanna did an amazing job as her teacher. last night we went to a little ceremony for the local homeschoolers where they were able to get a certificate and show off their work. jane read her book, "amanda pig goes on a hike." after watching her do this, I think my face was literally glowing with pride. I was so impressed with my little girl.

jane's graduation story from rob walter on Vimeo.

security!

over the last few years, the church has grown quite a bit- because of this, I'm not on stage as much as I used to be and not as many people recognize me as one of the pastors; I(by the way- this isn't a complaint- this doesn't bother me at all!)

also- our church has implemented security to make sure that the hallways that have children in them are secure- if I want to go down one of these hallways during church, I need to show my employee badge- which I rarely carry.

last sunday, I was walking with a student up to the middle school roomm where I was met by 2 security guards- I could tell that one of them didn't recognize me. he said, "hi- this area is secure." I said, "oh- I work here- I'm allowed to go through." he said, "do you have a badge?" I started digging through my pockets- (as if it were in there!)

his co-security-guard partner was a lady who knew me from years ago- she said, "what?! don't you know who this is?! this is rob walter! he is a pastor here! don't you know who this is?!" the other security guard apologized and let me through-

all that is to say is that I felt like some kind of celebrity, if just for a moment- and that was kind of fun.

God is love.
-rev-rob

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