Daniel at the "Next Church"

NCBC is in the process of building a new church outside the city of Hiawatha, Iowa. We are really excited about this as a church body and I got a taste of how excited my youngest (Daniel) is about it today. My day off is Thursday and that is the day that Daniel and I do a lot of "honey do" stuff together. Today as we were driving around town he said, "Daddy can we go to the next church?" Initially I had no idea what he was talking about but as we talked I figured out he wanted to see the new church property. If you click here or on the picture above you can see a little slide show of what we did together -we played on the hay bales, saw the ducks in the pod, and throw rocks in the pod. It was great time together and I'm really glad he is excited about the new place.

Family get away - Spring Break 2009

Spring break has come again and we are at a water park again as a family. You can see what we did the last two years by click on 2007 or 2008. This year we decided to go to the Grand Harbor resort and waterpark in Dubuque, Ia. It has been a fun time and everyone has a had a wonderful time making memories together. If you would like to see a short slide show of our time here please click on the pic.

Thanks Giving in Kansas 2008

I'm extremely behind in updating my blog and so I'm trying to catch up a little.

For the Thanks giving week my family and I got a chance to take a trip to Kansas to be with my family. We start out on Nov 25th by giving my wonderful wife of 15 years a "Birthday Van" instead of a "Birthday Card." We decorated our van with stickers and signs that said, "Birthday mom on board." It was a lot of fun traveling to Kansas with the van looking like this and we had a number of people honk at us to say happy birthday to my wife - she loved it.

For the rest of the week we enjoyed spending time with a lot of my family, eating turkey, playing in snow, riding horses, being at my Aunt's farm, played board games with my brother more than we have in a very long time, and of course watching football. I love my family very much and they really made the time there fun, relaxing, and enjoyable
(if you want to see some pictures of the trip please click on the picture of Lindsey riding a horse)

Spring Break 2008 - more fun with the family

Another awesome spring break has come and gone. It was simply a wonderful time with the family as we got to do some of the things we love to do together. We went geocaching again, enjoyed time with Becca our friend from across the street, and went to Wasserbahn Waterpark resort. We went there last year (click here to see that post) and it was even more fun this year since Daniel was able to enjoy the big water slides, Lisa tried and enjoyed the fastest waterslide, and we had Becca with us. We took some pictures and if you click on the picture you can see a short slide show of our time together.

Easter 2008

Last year my wonderful wife put together an Easter egg hunt for the neighbors (to see pictures click here). This year there is snow on the ground and the temp is below 32 degrees, so no egg hunt for us today. But we do get to go to our off campus worship at 11am today as a family. We haven't been there yet so I'm really excited to see it. This is one of the few times of the year that we ask our daughter to wear a dress - she looks so beautiful.

One last thought of the day of days - "I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high GOD (Ps 7:17 MSG)."

I hope to have some pictures on later.

Better Late then Never

Well the leap day of the leap year is over and we have finally got our 2007 Eades family Newsbrochure done. Don't think of this Newsbrochure as a long newsletter or short newspaper (because it is 16 pages long) but as a short brochure of what has happen in the Eades lives this past year. There are a lot of pictures and a few captions throughout the brochure. It's a very easy, short, but fun read. Enjoy. (note - click on the picture to go to the brochure).

Valentine's day w/Lindsey

Got a chance to take my daughter Lindsey out for valentine's day. We did basketball practice for her, then she schooled me in miniature golf (see picture for score) at Planet X, and then we did BK with the rest of the family. Simple but fun and more memories for the family to.

Snow Day at the Eades home

With the big storm that came through central America yesterday all schools were closed and over a foot of snow hit Cedar Rapids. My wife called me about 3 pm and said the kids were outside playing in the snow. I wanted to sneak up on them and start a snow ball fight. After getting home (I only live 90 steps from NCBC where I'm the middle school pastor) I was able to start the fight, but found out that my boys were still inside. Well, that had to change and so a 1/2 hour later I had them outside and we went at it. Even our neighbors dog came out and played. It was a great time with the family. If you would enjoy a short slide show of our snow day please click on the picture.

Fun times with Daniel

If you read blogs or material for middle school/jr hi ministry very much you probably have come across this picture. The caption is "only in middle school" and I so agree. But yesterday in Sunday School at New Covenant Bible Church my four year old son did one better. He decided that a child's potty would be interesting to put on his head. Well it got stuck. My wonderful wife was contacted by the poor childcare worker that they needed her help. After much pushing and pulling and Daniel's left ear getting rubbed a little more than he would like it came off.

After my wife told me what happen I asked, "did you get a picture?"

Nope, rats! Oh well.

I talked to Daniel that night and his first comment was, "the next time I do it dad make sure you rub my right ear since it didn't get hurt" - oh Daniel you live in another world. I'm sure this is just the beginning.

The Ice Storm of 2007 - again

Back in Feb of this year we were hit with the first ice storm (I blogged about it here). Now we are digging out of another one. The picture is the same lap post that I've been taking pictures of (you can see other shots here and here). The last ice storm we didn't lose power (we were one of only a few areas that didn't lose power) but this time we were w/out power for almost 12 hours (temp in the house got down to 54 degrees - cold).

You can click on the picture to see a few more pics from around New Covenant Bible Church. Also, check out my friends blogs (Tye and Jill) for more pics and thoughts from the ice storm.

Hitting 40 is simply wonderful

Last Thursday (Nov 1st, 2007) I hit my 40th birthday. The day was simply wonderful with a long walk, some work done, and a chance to enjoy the day with just my family.

Today (Nov 3rd) my wife put on a wonderful party where so many people came to celebrate (and give me a hard time) my birthday. I really enjoyed the chance to share stories of my life (like getting hit with an arrow or watching our wedding video many times) with them. It's fun to be in my 40s now and I pray that it will just keep gettting better.

Time away is a good thing

My wife (Lisa) and I got a chance this last week Thu, Fri, & Sat. It was a wonderful time. We had a chance to find 10 geocaches, enjoy some local food (click on picture to see a very short slide show), and got a lesson from God.

The geocaching was just fun and we were pretty tired after a full day of hunting around.

The food was nice and it was the place that God taught me a lesson.

The lesson was this - sometimes my righteous “spiritualness” isn't God's direction for me. We were eating and enjoy ourselves. We had a wonderful waitress and she took good care of us. Two gentlemen came after we were there and they ordered and started to talk with the waitress. In less than 2 minutes he had her "praying a pray" of acceptance of Jesus. I was not happy - "What was he thinking? does he care of this girl? does he know her? is this just another nonce in his spiritual belt?" I made the decision to talk with this young lady and find out a little more about her. I wanted to see if she has any connections to help her with this decision she just made. We got a chance to talk (she took a picture in the slide show for us) and I asked her about the decision she just made and if she had any "spiritual mentors" in her life? She said no and we were able to exchange email addresses. I walked out of there thinking - "There! Now that is how you share Christ with someone." But later as I was out geocahing with Lisa God gave me a quick smack in the face. "Would you have talked with her about her spiritual life if that gentlemen didn't have her pray that prayer?" Ouch! Lesson learned.

Book Report – Confessions of a closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman

Lindsey my daughter brought this book home (you can click on the picture to see how to get it from amazon.com) and I asked her to give me a book report on it. Interesting little read. This is her book report:

This book is about a girl (Justine) who gives up being Jewish for lent and is Catholic. One day she got invited to her friend Mac's house for a sleepover and the next day she would go to the mass with Mac and her family. When she got back her mom was there and she was suppose to get there at lunch time. Then mom went up to her and said the Bubbe (her grandmother) had a stroke. Bubbe is the only one Justine can really talk to. All of Bubbe's parents and relatives had died. But Bubbe was mostly sad about Zadley(Bubbe's sister). When she was first at the hospital Bubbe was in serious care so she couldn't see her and neither could her brother. When she was able to see Bubbe she found out that Bubbe wanted to go back to her apartment but Justine was able to convince Bubbe to come to her house. When Bubbe came to her home for a while she didn't really get better. One day when Justine was at school her mom came and got her to tell her Bubbe had died. In Bubbe's will Justine is to get a necklace that was Bubbe. To help Justine with the sadness Shira (Justine's cousin) came to stay with them for a while. After some time Shira introduces Rob to Justine and they start liking each other. Unfortunately Justine does something clumsy and embraces herself and she runs to her room. Rob and Shira come to her room and cheer her up. Then when it is time for Rob and Shira to leave Rob gives Justine a kiss on the cheek. At the end Justine thinks about Bubbe and Zayde and thinking they must be looking down, smiling.

I asked Lindsey to write the book report because the title was interesting and she really was enjoying the book. When she found out that I would put it in my blog she was really excited. My wife Lisa is reading the book and says it is ok.

I do work

I was watching a funny video from saddle back jr hi ministry about what the jr hi staff does (or really doesn't do) during the regular week - funny stuff. But it did make me think about what I do on my days off. A lot of time I spend time with my boys (like last week) but I do get some things done around the house - like painting (see picture). It's important to me to be a blessing to my family and my days off I need to always be ready to serve them. Oh by the way I don't do anywhere near as much work as our middle flock Pastor Tye does - you go Tye.

Fun day with my boys

I take Thursdays off and try to spend most of it with my two Boys (Nathaniel and Daniel). We got a chance to hit Thomas Park today and it was a great day.

Lindsey starts 5th grade

WOW! It is here and I'm still stunned. Lindsey (my 11 yr old) started her final elementary school year on Tuesday (Aug 21). She was excited and so fun to be around. Her friend and her got matching clothes for the day and they looked great. WELL done Lindsey and I'm looking forward to walking with you through your 5th grade year. May the Lord use you this year. You can click on the picture to see more pictures.

He is 6 now

Today we took a young man who last Oct. made the ultimate decision to accept Christ as His Lord to Pump it Up for his B-Day. Nathaniel Mark Eades is and has been a wonderful blessing to our family. He has brought joy and shared so much of himself not only to us but to others.

He said tonight to one of the workers at Pump it Up, "this is the second greatest place to have a party."

The employee (a boy who will be a senior is sr hi this year), "where is the first place?"

Nathaniel said without skipping a beat, "Heaven is the best place to have a party!"

The senior boy asked my wife later where we go to church at and Lisa was able to tell him about New Covenant and about the sr hi youth group.

Wow! On his birthday Nathaniel shares God's love to someone he doesn't even know. We are so blessed.

- if you would like to see some pictures of the party please click on the picture above -

A life worth living

I’ve spent the last few days with my family remembering the life of my grandmother Ruth Mildred Brubaker/Burgess/Rife and it has been wonderful. A couple weeks ago I shared with IMPACT (the middle school ministry of New Covenant Bible Church) about the idea of suffering. Pastor Bob Westfall (the sr Pastor of NCBC) had preached about suffering called The Unlikely Path to Joy and I wanted to follow up with the middle schoolers. I didn’t start with the idea that I would share about my grandmother but by the time I was ready to bring the lesson to the kids I knew my grandmothers life was going to be used to help the middle schoolers understand suffering. She didn’t suffer in any "negative" way but she suffered through the loss of two husbands (both died before her), a child, and many family and friends she cared for deeply. Grandma was simple but wonderful. She cared and loved in a way that only a grandma could. As I shared with the kids my grandmother’s life the idea that God allows suffering to help them grow, to help them be patient and wait on God, and to help them know that we have a hope and joy that is so much greater than the suffering we go through really stood out to the kids. That - and I’m sure many other stories - made my grandmother’s life worth living for.

He Pooped

I have three great kids but our youngest (4) has had a lot of problems pooping in the potty. I know for most of you this will be just strange but for a father and mother who has been dealing with this now for over 4 years it is an exciting thing. If you would like to see the celebration I had with my son please click on the picture (I did a cartwheel in the middle of our street).

14 years!

14 years ago today Lisa Ann Burger said, "I do" and now there has been 14 years of history (I said, "I do" to). We did our traditional thing of going out and seeing a movie. This year the choice was Transformers. I have a great wife and she actually likes going to these kinds of movies with me (she was talking about seeing Terminator 1 tonight together). I think she just likes to hold on to me when the tense parts come up. I love you Lisa and thank you for 14 years. May the next 41+ years be even more exciting.