OBX Bear Factory

This past Sunday, the OBX Bear Factory held a fundraiser for Nags Head Church. Being the adventurous intern that I am, I figured that I would go over there and help out by keeping all of the wild animals in line. There ended up being a great turnout, and none of the kids got eaten.

As you can see, there were a lot of animals to watch out for.

Larry stuffing a seal.

One happy hooded seal owner.

Me and Rocky the Lobster.

Rocky blends in with the bag.

This was the promo video for the event.

Thanks to Larry and Helen Czernik for making this happen!

Matt

Student Life Camp

This past week, I went to Student Life Camp in Lynchburg, Va. I was there with my home church, Emmanuel Baptist, because NHC already had enough male chaperones.

As a Student Life veteran, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from camp. Basically, there are 2 big worship gatherings everyday that led by a drama team, band, and camp pastor. The camp pastor was David Nasser, whom I have heard speak many times at Liberty. I already knew most of the stories that he told, but I was still able to learn many new things from him.

The band was Unhindered. I had heard them before at a big youth event that I went to at the Nissan Pavilion a few years back. They have come a long way since I first heard them. They have a very upbeat, funky sound.

Another huge part of Student Life is family group time. All the students are divided up into groups of about 8-12, and that becomes your family group for the week. Some churches choose to keep their youth group together for this time, and some choose to split up. This year, I had the opportunity be a family group leader of 6 students from 3 different churches in NC and VA.

I had a great time with them, and hopefully they learned something from me during our Bible studies.

Here are some pictures of my group.

I decided to to a youtube search to see if I could find any videos of the worship gatherings, and this one pretty much sums it up. You can watch it if you want to see some crazy camp kids.

Matt

Chris and Cathy's Wedding

Congratulations to Chris and Cathy Mauldin, who got married yesterday at NHC. Here are some pictures from the event.

Waiting for Cathy

Chris looks excited

Josh looks happy as always.

Reception.

Me with the newlyweds.

Matt

4th of July

Check out NHC's 4th of July event from Saturday!

(Thanks to Les for the fireworks footage)

Matt

Lunch Live with Andy, Matt, and Nathan

Watch us live at noon!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nags-head-church-live

Typical Day in the Life of Matt, Pt. 2

Typical Day in the Life of Matt

Hukilau Surf Camp

Yesterday was the first Hukilau Surf camp of the summer. Hukilau is put on every year by NHC pastor Steve Wise and his crew of surf instructors. We had a great time out there, and a lot of kids caught waves for the very first time.

Getting ready.

Learning the basics.

Instruction from Andy and Steve

Learning to paddle.

Les and Carol's granddaughter Morgan.

Waiting.

After I put my camera down and got in the water, we got some great surf and a lot of kids did very well. There will be three more camps this summer, so I will try to get pictures of some kids surfing next time.

Matt

Nags Head Church Podcast

NHC's podcast has been having some trouble for the past few weeks, so I have been working on fixing it and getting it fully updated. I deleted all of the 2008 messages to free up space, deleted and reloaded all of the Jan-May 2009 messages due to issues they were having, and then uploaded the new messages from June 09'.

Everything is working great now, and you can check it out by clicking here.

Matt

Happy Miles Day to My Car!

Yesterday morning I got into my car, and this is what the odometer read:

After nine more miles, it looked like this:

And finally, after 18 years of life, my car reached the big 100,000:

And to top it off, I brought some Cheddar Bratwursts in for lunch, and they were sitting in the passenger seat next to me.

So that was a fun start to a good day. I spent most of it working on getting NHC's podcast working again since it has been having a lot of problems. I should be finished with it soon, and then it will be up to date and working great.

Matt

Sunday FlashBlitz - Happy Father's Day

Happy Father' Day! This morning was awesome at NHC. Here's why:

• I got to wake extra early and get picked up by Chris Jolly at 6:40am! Ok, so this wasn't awesome. We had a fun ride though, and we stopped by Nathan's house to pick him up too.

• Today was my first Sunday playing in the band! Until now, I had helped with Kid's church for every Sunday that I had been at NHC. Nathan knew that I had many opportunities to lead worship at Liberty, so he wanted me to be able to get experience from areas that I am normally not involved with. This week, however, he needed me to fill in on bass, and I was more than happy to do so.

• Rick gave a great message today that was aimed toward fathers. This is an area that I obviously do not have any experience in, but I am always up for learning as much as I can about it so that I will be more prepared when that time comes. Fortunately for me, I have a pretty great dad, so I have a good head start.

• Today was the first Sunday for our new checkin system! I have been working out the kinks for a while now, so it was great to finally see it in action. It worked better than I had hoped for. There was only one minor problem that I know of, and it has already been fixed. I'm ready for next week to see how round 2 goes.

Here are a few of my pictures from the morning.

Checkin Kiosk, ready for action.

Bonnie checking in her children while Andy encourages her.

Our wonderful Guest Kiosk workers.

Backstage waiting to get our groove on.

Leading worship.

Nathan looking excited.

Chad H. and Bonnie

Me playing bass

Soundboard

(Thanks to Rich Coleman and Nick Nelson for taking the pictures of the band)

Matt

Outrigger Kayak Camp

Yesterday morning was NHC's Outrigger Kayak Camp. This is an youth event that the church does every year. It is supported in large part by NHC partner Pam Landrum, owner of The Outdoors Inn & Outfitters in Manteo, NC. She supplies all of the kayaks, as well as her years of experience and knowledge. She took us out on a three hour tour (a three hour tour) through the salt marshes of the Roanoke Sound.

About halfway through our trip, we stopped at a small island and got out of our kayaks. We waded through the water with a net and caught tiny fish, shrimp, and crabs. Pam explained that the vast majority of the seafood that we eat is born in the salt marshes. We then got back in the kayaks, and listened to Andy share a few thoughts from 1 Corinthians 13 before heading back.

Here a few pictures of us getting ready to launch.

After I Kayak Camp was over, I came home for a few hours, and then I went over to Seth and Gina Harris's house with Les and Carol. Seth grilled us up a delicious steak and shrimp dinner. After dinner, we played the Battle of the Sexes board game, which the men won.

It was a great day.

The Outdoors Inn & Outfitters

Matt

Great Lunch

This is a semi-random post, but I had an amazing lunch today. I had a sandwich from the Country Deli in Nags Head, and it was probably the best sandwich I have ever had. It was so good, that I decided to take a picture.

For desert, Carol made some homemade chocolate pistachio biscotti. It was so amazing, that I decided to take another picture.

Then I decided to take a picture of how good I felt after eating the food.

Yeah, I felt that good.

Then Les found a tree frog on his grill, so we took pictures of that too.

For tomorrow's lunch, I'm going to eat the other half of my sandwich, which has been patiently waiting in the fridge for me. Am I excited? You betcha.

Country Deli

Matt

Confession

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have something that I have to admit to everyone. I know that this is going to come as a shock to all of you, but the truth is..... I haven't posted a blog update in almost 2 weeks. I know, I know, you are all stunned and can't believe what you are reading. But it's true. I know it will be hard, but I am hoping that you can somehow find it in your hearts to forgive me.

What's that you say?? You have already forgiven me?? Gee shucks guys you are the greatest.

Well now that we are all on speaking terms again, I guess I should tell you about what has been going on. Things have been very productive at NHC recently. I have really been getting a lot of things accomplished, and I have been learning a lot from the entire NHC family.

My biggest project so far while I have been here is implementing a new system for keeping track of NHC's children on Sunday morning. Here is what I wrote about it a few weeks ago:

At Nags Head Church we are modifying the way that we sign children into the Nursery and Kids Church. The whole process is being moved from a paper system to a computer program that will keep track of everything for us. My big job last week was to set up a new kiosk with a touchscreen, scanner, and label printer, get everything working together smoothly, and design name tags that are printed off each time a parent signs their child in. We partially implemented the system on Sunday, and the full thing will be up and running by next Sunday at the latest.

This project has turned out to be somewhat more complicated than I anticipated in that last post. A few days after I posted it, the computer we were using completely failed. It is basically useless now. Fortunately, Bernie Staples graciously donated an old computer he had, and it works extremely well. The only problem was that the main check-in software did not want to install on the new computer. After a lot of frustration, we finally got it all working. This Sunday will be the official first test of the system. I will try to take pictures of it in action.

I also have been working on the iMac that we use in our auditorium to run our slides and post our podcasts. It has been having a lot of issues, and I have been figuring them all out. I was also able to upgrade the memory in it from 1GB to 4GB, which is really necessary for a computer that is running such demanding programs.

Some other things I have been doing:

• Took down an old basketball hoop in the parking lot. It was rusted beyond use, and it was disintegrating in my hands while i was removing all of the screws.
• Helped build walls in our new Kid's Zone. We have outgrown our old Kid's Zone, and so a much larger area is being built for them upstairs. See pictures here.
• Washed the outsides of all the first-floor windows on the church building. Rick said he could see them shining from the road as he pulled in the next day. I was hoping for more of a shimmer, but I guess shining is okay too.
• Designed a new slide to promote the NHC Young Adults beach volleyball. It is now part of the announcements slideshow that rolls every Sunday morning.

• I have also been participating in the volleyball every Tuesday, and it is a blast! Everyone should come out and play. Note: You don't actually have to be a young adult. You only have to think that you are a young adult.
• Youth group has also moved to the beach for the summer. The first half is beach games/swimming/surfing/volleyball/eating hot dogs/etc, and the second half is lesson time and small groups. It is 5-7pm on Sunday nights at the Bonnet St beach access. All students and parents are welcome.

Thats everything I can think of right now. This would be a lot easier if I wouldn't go 2 weeks without posting. I wonder what I could do about that. Any suggestions??

One last thing. NHC had an ocean baptism last Sunday, and it was awesome. If you haven't already done so, I recommend that you check out this video. It is very worth it, especially 2:50 to the end.

Matt

Sunday FlashBlitz

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I still haven't posted about this past Sunday, so it is probably about time that I do that. Here is my write up for Sunday, May 31.

• At Nags Head Church we are modifying the way that we sign children into the Nursery and Kids Church. The whole process is being moved from a paper system to a computer program that will keep track of everything for us. My big job last week was to set up a new kiosk with a touchscreen, scanner, and label printer, get everything working together smoothly, and design name tags that are printed off each time a parent signs their child in. We partially implemented the system on Sunday, and the full thing will be up and running by next Sunday at the latest.

• I participated in the 9:00 worship gathering this week. The band started off by leading the songs Made to Worship, Your Grace is Enough, and Lincoln Brewster's new song God You Reign. The first time I ever heard God You Reign was when I first visited NHC back in March while on a weekend vacation. The beauty and truth of this song powerfully moved me, and I was glad to hear Nathan and the band present it again.

• Rick brought a message from Exodus 15:22-27 entitled "How to Pass the Tests Along the Journey." Here are a few of my notes/thoughts:

• The Christian journey is tempered with testing. To grow and mature in faith, you must be tested. I know this is true, and yet so often I complain to God when I know He is testing me. There are way too many times when things get hard, and I just want God to get me out. The thing is, I am supposed to be growing as a Christian, and that can't happen unless I thrive through the tests that God throws my way.

• One of my favorite things Rick said: "You can't be a grumbler and complainer and move ahead." Enough said.

• The normal Christian life is one that is growing and maturing and thriving. How many times have we referred to the "normal" Christians as the ones who are content with where they are in their spiritual journey, while the "exceptional" Christians are the ones who are really stepping out and trying to grow. This is completely backwards. Being a "normal" Christian means constantly growing and becoming more like Christ. Anything less is stagnant Christianity.

• God can turn the bitter in life into sweet. Tests are hard. Tests are not fun. However, when we trust Christ and obey Him, we can excel through the most challenging times. When that happens, we grow and mature, and Christ is glorified in our lives.

• The band closed with the songs You Do All Things Well and You Never Let Go.

• During the 11:00 hour, I helped with Kidmo, but first I got recruited to help collect the offering in the main gathering. I got to learn how they do this at NHC, which was different than most churches I have been in. They only use 4 guys to collect from 3 sections as opposed to using 6 guys to do the same job, which I am more used to. Way to be efficient NHC.

• Kidmo was fun, but I can't remember at all what the kids learned. I guess I should have taken notes.

• I found out afterwards that the 9:00am Lil' K, which I helped with last week, was packed once again this week and they could have used more help. I think that I will help there again this Sunday, especially since there are so many boys in that class and they could use a guy helping out.

• After church there was a new member's lunch that I went to, even though I'm not becoming a member (ok you got me. I went for the food.)

That was my Sunday morning. Tomorrow is Sunday again, and hopefully this time it won't take me so long to post my FlashBlitz. Tomorrow evening is Youth Group which will be meeting on the beach for the rest of the summer. I'm cool with that.

Matt

Night Swim

I was bored at the house, so I decided to have some fun outside.

(Click on the pics to make them bigger)

Front of House

Back of House

Pool

I decided to play with the auto timer on my camera