Q Crashing

This is an odd Christmas.  It is the first Christmas in my life where I will not be spending Christmas Eve over at my grandparents house.  Furthermore, it is the first Christmas without my granddad who went to be with Jesus earlier this year.  I got to see some family last week which was great.  My brother and sister in law came to Eugene then we all went up to Seattle to spend some time with my dad and his wife and her daughters.  Again, it was great.  But there is something hard about it every time they come out here to Oregon or I find myself back in Alabama.  It's like you kind of forget how amazing those times with family are and then when they take place it makes it even harder to go back to the reality of them being thousands of miles away.  I loved getting to hug my dad and talking with my brother about things that didn't even matter.  I admire both of these men so much.  It's hard not to have them around.  A day doesn't seem to pass when I'm not reflecting

For some reason I always had this idea that when I turned 30 years of age I would some how magically mature and start the quintessential ministry of my life.  This belief came from the fact that Jesus starts his ministry at 30.  I understand this is failed logic, but it always made me think at thirty I would be doing some of my most amazing ministry,  The natural draw for me was to imagine myself pastoring a large church or leading a huge ministry.  As of yet, that hasn't come to pass.  Consequently, the last two days have been some of the most amazing and fulfilling days of ministry I have had the opportunity to be a part of. Yesterday I took a group of guys from the mission out for coffee.  We just hung out and talked about life and shared where we were struggling with each other.  It was an amazing time of communion with guys who don't have homes at the time, but are in every other way so much like me.  Today an organization called HelpPhoto came in and gave free photo sho