From Sampler to Sower

It’s almost time to start getting wet again…

Ever since I took a group of teens to a free I Tried SCUBA class at a local YMCA, I wanted to become a certified SCUBA diver.  Thanks to my brother and his SCUBA teaching cronies, last fall that goal was realized.  My oldest son Brenden and I were certified last November.

Now that the temperatures in Middletown have hit 60 degrees, at least for a day or two, I’m wondering when I can get in the water next.  (It’s warmer outside now that it was on our certification dives, though I’m sure the water has cooled off a bit.)

One of the primary risks in SCUBA is decompression sickness, commonly known as the bends.  As a chemistry teacher (or anyone who has ever opened a bottle of pop) can tell you, more gasses dissolve into a liquid when under pressure.  That’s true of carbon dioxide in your bottle of Coca Cola, and it’s true of nitrogen in your blood stream.  The increased pressure caused by breathing compressed air at depth causes excess nitrogen to dissolve into solution in your blood.

(more…)

I’m stealing an idea from Josh Griffin at morethandodgeball.com.  Here’s a brief rundown of what went down last week at Water’s Edge.  I always find Josh’s interesting.  Maybe you’ll find ours the same:

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Four: You will pay careful attention to the Sabbath

Sermon in a Sentence: God instituted the idea of a Sabbath rest to challenge the way we understand our place in the world.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5of 10, The message pretty much wrote itself, and the music wasn’t a challenge, but there were multiple video clips to challenge the tech crew.

Message Summary: We flipped the service again this week.  Sermon first, music afterward.  Began by using the Highway Video’s Identity video to ask the question “Where do you find your identity?” Then we talked about how we see ourselves.  Used several “About Me” sections from students’ facebook pages to look at the words we use to describe ourselves.  From there we transitioned into the categories the world uses to identify us.  Here we played a clip from Baraka (a great movie you’ve probably never heard of) to provide visuals while I spoke from the back of the room.

(more…)