This post is to give some detail about my journey for the last 6 years or so.

Where I Came From

I spent 4 years in college becoming a Computer Scientist and came out a degree carrying disciple of Jesus.  A couple of years after graduation I began to look for cool ways to plug into a local church because I was missing the community I had in college.  I ended up joining a small group Bible study at a church and stumbled into youth ministry.  It was a paid part time staff position but very much a full time job.  I continued in my regular full time job in the IT support field.  My first year of youth ministry, I married the wonderful and beautiful Faith.  In my second year of youth ministry, Ephriam was born.  In my 3rd year of youth ministry, KC was born.  In my 4th year of youth ministry I encountered major burn out all the way around.  I had new priorities and responsibilites at home that needed my attention and I was not getting much help or direction in ministry.  I was not spiritually healthy and had nobody else to lean on.  I am sure that if I had pressed through all of that, something would have given somewhere and that would not be good.  After 4 years of ministry, I escaped and started seeking out healing.  Leaving youth ministry was the hardest decision that I ever made, but the best decision that I ever made for my family.

Where I Have Been

We decided to go back to Vineyard Community Church where I felt that we could get back to the basics of following Jesus.  We had been attending ther before and left to do the youth ministry gig.  Knowing how easily I like to volunteer and get involved with church communities, I made Faith hold me to a promise that I would not committ to any extensive church activities for 1 year.  I wanted to spend time just seeking God and allowing my soul, passion, and dreams to heal.  It was very hard because the Vineyard was working on the new Student Union to house all of the student ministries.  It was a student ministry facility that blew my dreams right out of the water.  There is a cafe, basketball courts, garages with video games and auditoriums for both the middle school and high school services.  But I promised to wait for a year.  That year passed and we joined an adult small group.  It felt good not to lead and just participate.  As soon as they had sign ups for volunteers for student ministries, I was on my way.  So this past year I have been leading a high school small group and enjoying getting to know these awesome people.  It has been a little tough because I am much more protective of my time and not wanting to repeat my history of ministry burnout.  But now summer is coming and small groups break until the fall, so currently I am a volunteer on vacation.  Fortunately I get to go to the HS services and hang out with everyone there and I am leading a group for our Summer of Service (SOS) event.  I will be dedicating a whole post to that later.

Where I Am Going

Now that our last small group meeting has passed, I am thinking about next year already.  This year was very much a transition year for me and I am looking forward to really digging in next year.  For the summer, I want to try to connect with my guys for some fun events.  I have ideas of camping, frisbee golf, concerts, Reds games….etc.  I also want to do a better job of connecting with students outside of my small group.  It is easy for the small groups to become very clickish.  I know that I have a limited amount of time with these students and there is plenty of kingdom investment to be made before they make the leap to college and careers.  I believe that there is more to me than student ministry for my future, but I don’t know what that is yet.  For now I am here and I need to allow myself to be used in my current situations.

If you made it all the way to the end then you know a little more about me.  I felt that it would be good to share some of my story with you.  The whole story is much too long for a single blog post.  In future posts, I plan to share the story of finding Jesus and also finding the best wife in the whole world.  If you have questions or want to ask anything, hit the comments and make this place a 2 way street.

This is the story about how I am preparing to move back into my bedroom even though I never really moved out.  Almost 3 years ago princess KC was born.  She had a tough act to follow behind because her older brother Ephriam was the most laid back baby I have ever met.  I am not just saying that because he is my kid.  You can ask anyone who has ever had the privilege of watching him.  Ephriam slept through everything and rarely cried.  To this day, he doesn’t complain much about anything and goes with the flow in whatever we are doing.  Enter child #2 who specializes in drama and tantrums.  She can turn the tears on and off like light bulb.  She is very much different from her big brother.  She was the baby that would wake up at the slightest noise and did not like to sleep in her bed.  The Ragtagmama and I spent many nights trying to sleep while holding a pacifier in her mouth while she slept in the little baby seat next to our bed or the couch.  It was during those several months that I had to move my entire morning routine out of our bedroom to avoid waking up the princess and thus requiring the mama to get out of bed at 5:30 AM.  It was not a good day for anyone if I woke up the baby in the morning.  So at first I started by picking out my clothes and leaving them in another room.  It naturally progressed to leaving everything I needed to go to work by the computer in the basement.  Now it is to the point where my laundry rarely makes it out of the basement because I just pick out my clothes there and leave them for in the morning.

Then came along 2009.  KC has been in her own room sleeping well for a long time now.  She will be 3 in July.  But my routine has not really changed for a couple of reasons.  Laziness being the primary reason.  This laziness then allowed for more clutter to enter my bedroom to the point where I have a hard time finding places to put my clothes away and move around as I get ready for work in the morning.  All flat spaces are covered in papers and other crap that finds its way into our bedroom.  The bedroom has become a dumping ground just like the basement only more accessible.  I am not the only culprit in our house creating clutter, but I will own up to my part.

The Plan

We have really been much more intentional about organizing our house this year.  Now that kids are a little more independent it allows for more time for us to stay on top of things.  But we were up to our necks in clutter after Christmas was over.  We have committed to the war on clutter for this year and it began sometime ago in the basement.  We threw a lot of things away and we are gearing up for a big yard sale.  Must get that done soon.  Our bedroom has been the area that we want fixed the most but we are least excited about fixing.  Over the last several days, we have come up with a plan.  It begins with a major clean out of the bedroom first and I am going to replace my ginormous corner computer desk with a much smaller and less clutterable one that will fit into our bedroom.  The computer is coming out of the basement with the rest of my daily routine and into the bedroom.  Several pieces of furniture will be moved around and my personal space will be combined and organized.  Soon I will be making a trip to IKEA to purchase what I am in need of and the big desk is going out the door one way or another.  This will also free up more space in the basement. Once this phase is complete, it will be a major  step in the right direction.  We still have a long way to go, but it gets easier the more we get it together.  The trick is to maintain it once it is all organized.

Posted via email from Christopher’s posterous

We had our latest Family Night on Sunday and KC decided to celebrate by singing Happy Birthday to Family Night and she let me catch it on video.

Happy Birthday To Family Night from Chris Walker on Vimeo.

Are you dreaming big? Are you holding yourself back?

My favorite part of the song starts about 2 min in.

From May

These two churchpunks are 2 of my reasons why I do everything that I do.  They are part of the reason that I get out of bed in the morning.  Of course sometimes that is because they are jumping on top of me telling me to wake up.  They teach me more everyday about my heavenly father and the love that he has for me.  I remember wondering when I was younger how Jesus could do all that he did for me.  I always felt that I was very undeserving of such a sacrifice but was thankful for the grace that he has shown me.  Now that I am living for my own children, I understand that kind of love that would lay down everything to save them.

Some days can be challenging when life is happening all around me and frustration takes a hold of my attitude.  And my kids are there at the end of every day with the purest form of love and trust that I know.  As far as they are concerned, I can do anything.  It doesn’t matter how rough a day it has been they believe in me.  I am perfect in their eyes although I am so far from perfection.

I love the picture from above.  It reminds me why…….

Posted via email from Christopher’s posterous

I know that I have made connections with a lot of new people here lately and I try to respond and follow in return.  So in hopes of getting a chance to get to know this community better, I am going to fish for some comments.  I try to share my life as transparent and authentic as I can here all for your reading pleasure, but I only get to know you if you speak up.  I don’t want this blog to just be a place where I dump my life story.  I crave community.  So I would like to know something about you.  This way everyone reading the comments gets to know something about you too.  Now don’t chicken out on me.

I really enjoy connecting with people online, so what I would like to know about you is how you share your story online.  If you have a blog or website, please share the link.  If you spend most of your time on Twitter, Facebook, or some other service, share that with us.   If you do not share anything online, but just like to read, share that too.  This is an opportunity for all of us to connect with each other a little better.   So take this opportunity and pimp out your site and profile to this blog community and take a chance to meet some new people.