Tiffany's Last Stand

Sunday 04/27/08 was Tiffany M's Last Stand on Ultimate for a while. Tiffany left today for "The Middle East" and will be there for two years doing athletic training and service.

Tiffany has not only been a very key recruiter for the ultimate games but also a very competitive player on the field. She is known by all as being extremely aggressive (to the point of not being fair at times), very fast, shrewd (as in always manipulating her way onto the team with the best players), and will even flat out fight her sister at times if it means a win. Let's raise the roof for Tiff as we review her Last Stand.

A very windy day made the game tough on everybody, especially the fast runners that play deep. Tiffany, Jermain, Curt, and Kyle were all staying pretty deep and playing really hard. Jermain's speed had gotten the best of Tiff on more than one occasion. It was Tiff's last game and she needed to walk away with her chin up. On with the stand...


Little does Liz know what is about to take place. Tiff is so sneaky Liz won't even notice. Tiff is about to break.










The Disc draws back, Liz sighs and mumbles, "I hate that!".









The Disc is coming over their heads. Tiff has broke passed Jermaine AND...









makes the catch and a goal to boot. Jermaine excused Tiff's goal by claiming that he "pulled back"??? Ya right, he was just hoping to cool the trash talk after Tiffany burned him : )

Nomads #1: The Nomad Experience

It's Friday early evening and our van pulls up a long gravel drive to Heart of God Ministries. We see log huts with weaved grass for roofs. A bunch of dudes and dudettes with red bandanna headbands seem to be taking control of this village we are entering into. The Village is composed of many Casts. These Casts include The Red Bandannas, The Gray Haired Travelers, the Dread Lock Hippies, The Young Intellectuals, The Young Travelers, The Little Wild Ones, and Those Of Which We Cannot Speak. Being a family of Young Intellectual Hippies without a single dread lock and only slight signs of graying made it difficult to choose a place in the village to lay our tent. We staked claim next to a Young Intellectual Traveler with shaggy hair who's tent was next to his girlfriend. We'll call him Sam B and her name was Cybil (Nuts! I think I forgot her name again!). Our village was named "Gaddi". The Gaddi are a nomadic people who live in the Himalayas of northern India. Pray for the Gaddi people as they continue to struggle as a people while the land of their heritage is continuing to change as more and more Tibetan refugees make their homes in the Gaddi's homeland. Think about the impact that radical Christianity could have among Tibetan refugees and the Gaddi people.

After feasting on some killer Indian food catered by Gopuram (that doesn't sound very villagy... and yet it does), we wondered about the village with a dignified granola like strut. It was awesome to see everyone setting up their tents, scoping out the woods, and meeting new people. Later that evening worship begins. I have to admit that worship was my personal favorite of all of the village activities. Not only did we worship on Friday night, but we also finished the night with meditative worship in Hindi with Aradhna. There will be more to come on Aradhna.

We slept well on Friday night, but have to admit that Saturday morning was a bit over the top. Aside from the temperatures getting down to 40 we also had a boiling attitude among the villagers in the morning. The hot attitude was possibly ignited by some barking from our psychotic wire hair fox terrier at 5 am. We pulled Baxter into our tent to get that situation under control, but our best was just not good enough. At 6am we awake not to the barking of Baxter, but to the rage of a maniac who screams at the top of his lungs shouting, "WOULD SOMEBODY SHUT THAT DOG UP!!!". Jamie and I can't help but wonder if he was shouting at us. 10 minutes later the same man screams, "CAN SOMEBODY BRING ME SOME TOILET PAPER!!! I NEED A PLASTIC BAG...QUICK!!!" At this point Jamie and I are simply stunned. We were so stunned that we began to laugh hysterically in an attempt to forget about his personal assault on our family and the unforgettable reality that this man just might have ruined both his tent and his reputation in one fell swoop. At best this man may have preserved his tent though not his reputation if someone was capable of getting both toilet paper and a plastic bag to him in time.

Sunday afternoon we had a great game of Ultimate Frisbee. There were over 28 players not to mention lounging spectators catching up on some sunshine. The wind was blowing but there were some great games. Kurt from Edmond definitely set the pace for the rest of us...not that anyone caught up with him.

What started out as a typical game of darts at Sunday Night Homegroup ended in absolute surprise when Jamie D pulled off a stunning victory with a single toss closing out 57 points! (Triple 19) Keri, Jamie, and Julie were just hoping that it didn't get too late before they were able to close their games out.

During our Bible conversation Jamie D wanted to know what we thought some of the different gifts of the Holy Spirit looked like in practical use. We discussed Wisdom, Knowledge, Prophecy etc...we were reading from 1 Cor 12.

Everybody Smile!

Not exactly sure what Kenny is doing here...probably eager to answer all questions!







SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!

Marriage Anyone?

This past Sunday night at Homegroup we hit on a spicy topic for all. Why did Jesus say we won't be married anymore in Heaven?

Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

This question and verse certainly opened up a lot of very good discussion on "exactly what is heaven going to be like?" Lots of great questions and seemingly deep thoughts...deep as in "I know it doesn't seem like I'm making a lot of since, but you just aren't digging DEEP enough...YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!" We really did have some rich fellowship around the subject of Heaven, the Resurrection, our Inheritance, "How satisfying will heaven be?", "Will we have needs?"...etc, etc, etc. We also had a rich time of worship and prayer, then...

On to darts. Jamie G came on the court as reigning victor from last week...and well...Jesus did say, "Many who are first will be last." Jarred took the first game and Jamie G enjoyed the pleasure of being...well 5th out of 6!

Revelation 8.3-4

"Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand."

The subject of worship is something that I have been studying in my small group lately and I was very moved by this particular verse because it gave such a clear picture of what happens when we pray. There is actually an altar in the heavens that is present before the throne of God and the prayers of all the saints are offered on that altar. It gives me confidence that even when it feels as though my prayers have dissolved into the air as soon as they have left my lips , that indeed they really are presented to God Almighty. And certainly he takes notice of the pleasing aroma that they bring before Him.

Some of us are taking a break after yet another game of Ultimate. We played at the OUHSC field. Kristen M is awarded with the shortest game play ever. She waddled off the field in a hurry after attempting some barefoot play, saying "My feet hurt real bad!" Adam (white shirt) was no doubt, the MVP of the day with killer flicks and snags all afternoon. Jermaine ran everyone ragged and "Samurai" is convinced that Americans are tricky. Liz showed up with her Chihuahua...he was having abandonment issues occasionally breaking free, prancing like a prince out on the field...my kids were running right behind him.