Ordination Weekend

Last weekend was probably the best weekend I've ever spent with my family since I left for college back in 2003. Not because other trips have been bad; this one was just that good.

We got in on Friday night and were able to have a quality time just chatting with my parents. Then Saturday was the big ordination day. To be quite honest, when I was originally planning this thing, I was shooting for something very small and absolutely no fuss at all. In my head, I was thinking that this was not going to be that big of a deal, just something I needed to do formally or legally to ever serve as a minister in an American church some day. However, it really turned out to be a special thing.

Most of my family in the area got to come as well as those closest to my family at church. It was about the perfect size for what was taking place. There were the typical parts of the service, but probably the two coolest parts were my father-in-law, Mark, giving the charge and my dad speaking. Mark's words were great and encouraged me to not loose focus, but to always remember the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the gospel. It was really encouraging both to me and to others. Hearing my dad speak was something pretty amazing though. I was pleasantly surprised when he said he wanted to say something during the service. He got up and talked about how proud he was of me and also my sister and then asked me to continue to remember his parents (both deceased) and how proud they are of me now too. He also asked for many prayers that Courtney and I would continue to be led by the Holy Spirit as we go. It was an event I'll remember for a long time.

Two other events of the weekend made it stand out as incredible. The first was hanging out with my sister and her husband on Sunday night. They moved into a new apartment recently which is really cool and in a nice part of town. It was great to get to spend some quality time with them and just sit down and talk about real events in our lives. My brother-in-law, Daniel is good about bringing up quality discussions, and it was great to see the wisdom that my sister had in the areas we talked about.

The final event was a 4 hour, 40 mile bike ride with my dad. It was really the first time I had ridden more than 1 mile on a bike since I was about 13. I really did enjoy it and had a great time out on the small roads of southwest Indiana. My dad had an even better time though showing my where his grandparents were buried and where his dad grew up. The ride wasn't too tough until we were at about the halfway point and I realized it wasn't going to get any easier. It was a struggle to keep going, but it was worth it to get to spend that time with my dad. Filling up afterwards with my grandmother's cooking also helped take the sting out of my legs. Great times...