some time ago i saw this little personality test (a shortened myers-briggs thing) on someone’s blog (sorry, i forgot who, and can’t ht to you). finally took the test (it takes about 5 - 10 minutes to take).

“ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions”

“ENTPs contribute an innovative, versatile, and enterprising approach to work. They view limitations as challenges to be overcome and look for new ways to do things. They need to find a niche for themselves in order to be free to maneuver. They prefer the start-up phase of a project rather than the followthrough or maintenance phase. Once the project is designed, they prefer to turn it over to someone else.”

sure. snowmen. shouldn’t be a surprise.

- got to meet with my home church last night after three months. we meet every other sunday night, and my travel schedule has perfectly align (or un-aligned) so that i haven’t been able to be with them for a quarter of a year. we met at our house last night (which was interesting, as we have 7 house guests right now), had dinner, shared about what we’re thinking, feeling, knowing. then one of the guys read a passage from a book about becoming more loving by drawing close to the loving heart of god (rather than just “trying” to be more loving), which we reflected on in silence, then talked about it bit. a few were missing, so i still haven’t seen them. and we don’t meet now ’til january, and the two times we meet in january are once again perfectly aligned with the two sunday nights i’m out of town.

- i grilled cilantro lime chicken last night. it was really yummy.

- in addition to the freese family living with us (great friends who are between homes — we have jokingly renamed our combined family “freestreicher”), jen and jay howver and their two beautiful girls, noelle and chloe, are staying with us for a few nights. it’s fantastic. we gave the howvers our master suite, and jeannie, max and i are sharing max’s room and the futon on the playroom.

- today and tomorrow, we have a crew of people coming into ys for two days of brainstorming on the national youth workers conventions. great peeps — it should be fun. bob carlton, brian berry, april diaz, jim hancock, mark matlock and a few others. we’ll have dinner together tonite, then all go to my house (because there just aren’t enough people there) for after-dinner hang-time.

- i need to be writing. scott rubin and i have a may 1 deadline for the middle school ministry book we’ve contracted. but it looks like i’m going to write up my nywc talk from this year (about a preferred future for youth ministry) as a little manifesto book first. i told them i’d try to have it written by the time i return from the holidays (which is january 3).

- speaking of the holidays: i think my shopping is done. we have a couple stocking stuffers to get for the kids still, but jeannie said she’d take care of that. everything still has to be wrapped.

- holiday plans: we’re having our freestreicher family christmas next saturday morning. then just the four oestreichers are driving up to orange county to go to cirque du soleil (this is a surprise to the kids). sunday we pack. monday (christmas eve) we fly to beeee-autiful deeetroit for a week and a half. five nights at jeannie’s parents, five nights at my parents. i’m hoping for some sleeping in, low expectations, and deep rest.

- i am massively pumped that we have hired a wonderful, gifted, fun, talented, brilliant new middle school pastor at my church (and i got to be a part of it). and i’m massively pumped that she’s a she. christina robertson starts in early january. i’m stoked to be one of her volunteers.

- i haven’t read many books lately, which bugs me. i finished one this past week, which i’ll blog about this week. i’ve also read a couple screenplays for friends, and a draft manuscript for another friend. so there’s been reading, but not of published works!

- saw “i am legend” friday night. ooh. i totally dug it.

- goal this week: clean off my desk.

our day in mexico on saturday was fantastic.

we drove over in the morning, getting lost almost immediately in tijuana on our way to the market for supplies. after shopping, we drove out to a community that spectrum ministries does work in regularly. it was out in the hills surrounding tijuana. very dusty and remote, only dirt roads for miles. but a view of the ocean, and it was a gorgeous, sunny day. about 500 people were waiting for us. we set up games for the children (like carnival games, with tickets and a prize counter), bagged portions of rice and beans, wrote numbers on hands for the blanket raffle, set out the food and formed lines. then the adults worked their way through a couple lines: one to choose a couple clothing items, and one to choose some food items. i loved how spectrum had this set up. the fact that people got to choose what they took added an element of dignity to the whole thing: they knew what they and their family needed most, and were able to exercise care in choosing (rather than just being handed something).

actually, when we FIRST arrived, there was a bit of pandemonium. and it was hilarious to see lucas leys, our spanish director, kick into gear. he gathered the 200+ children around him in a mob and led them in some sort of distracting game or song (i couldn’t actually figure out what he was doing, but the kids were having fun!).

max and i worked one of the carnival games: kids lined up to try tossing three large metal washers through a hole in a board. they seemed to love it, and kept coming back for hours.

near the end, lucas and i oversaw the blanket raffle. we had about 100 blankets to give away, and there were about 150 people with numbers on their hands. the atmosphere was fun, and the mexican women were cheering each other on and giving lucas a hard time (and seriously flirting with him - he was standing on an open pick-up truck tailgate, and they started cheering, “shake your butt, shake your butt!” totally cracked me up.)

we loaded in our vans and stopped at a great baja taco stand (taco stands in baja california mexico are the way to eat. anyone who has taken kids here on a missions trip knows this).

then we were off to the orphanage. this orphanage was amazing. i’ve been to lots of mexican orphanages, but the kids at this one were so happy (and clean). they cared for each other and were helpful. it’s a smaller orphanage (about 20 boys, plus a few girls who are children of the two couples who run the place), and they run it like a family, rather than an institution. various ys staff broke up into groups to play games, face-paint, install a window, prep for dinner. it was so cool to see our team: a couple manly-men tending the grills, three people sitting on the ground patiently face-painting, five other playing some crazy circle game with a soccer ball that lucas taught us (with 10 of the boys), a few chopping food in the kitchen, and a few more playing a different game with the littlest kids. the kids were affectionate, but not in that way many orphanage kids are that shows they never have adult contact.

eventually we served them dinner (chicken enchiladas). then came the kicker. we’d gotten a christmas gift wish from each kid, as well as clothing sizes. we gave each ys staff person $50 and assigned them to buy a gift for one kid. our staff put wonderful care into this, and had multiple gifts — all beautifully wrapped — for each kid. and since we were working off these lists, the gifts were like a dream come true for the kids. a few of our staff had decorated a room for a party (tons of balloons and pinatas and streamers). and it really was a party. every kid was so excited for every other kid, as were the orphanage workers. i watched as one little guy (about 8, i’d guess) pulled some new socks out of a box, smelled them, grinned, then kissed them. but he really went balistic when he pulled out the first base-man’s mitt (perfectly his size) he’d been dreaming of. the orphanage leader (they all call him dad or daddy) is really into baseball, and got a bunch of free tickets this past year to take the kids to see the AAA team in tijuana. so now all the kids are really into baseball (normally soccer would be the sport of choice here). so we gave a lot of mitts and caps and bats and such. there was hilarious good-natured ribbing between the guys and the orphanage leader, as (somehow) different boys are into different major league teams (dodgers, mets, yankees), and got caps and shirts reflecting that.

after leaving the orphanage, we drove to a nice mexican restaurant. we had fun stuff planned (a white elephant gift exchange with a few really nice gifts mixed in, and a competition between the vans singing their own made-up versions of “12 days of christmas” that were more of a reflection of ys). but, to be honest, everyone was totally spent. after a small fender-bender involving one of the vans, and an hour wait at the border, two of the vans crossed the border at about 11pm. i, however, chose the murphy’s law lane, and crossed a half hour later. after returning the vans (yes, it totally felt like old youth ministry days!), i got home at about 12:45. long, wonderful, deeply satisfying day.

if cats, dogs, and teddy bears weren’t enough, how ’bout penguins!?

lotsa santa nativity sets and pieces out there, but this one is a bit disorienting. is the holy family IN santa’s bag? or does santa have an nice applique of the holy family on his bag of gifts? and, what can the letters in santa be re-arranged to spell?

this rubber duckie nativity has to be right up there in the “worst” section of cheesy nativity sets…

every year, our youth specialties staff christmas party is a highlight for us who work here. it’s seriously off the hook. there’s usually a theme and all sorts of total craziness. last year we had a christmas prom, complete with every cheesy stereotype of prom (from the decorations to the photographer to the dj to the crowning of a king and queen). a couple years ago we did a roaring 20s party complete with vegas-style gaming tables, using play money, which was later used to bid on gifts. we laugh our heads off and create memories that are talked about for years to come.

but this year we decided to do something different. we’re going to mexico to serve others.

this morning, our staff and their families will load into vans and drive to tijuana (only 30 minutes from us). spectrum ministries has set up the day for us. first, we’ll stop to buy food, then go to the city dump to serve a meal to people who live there. then we’ll spend the afternoon at a small orphanage (one that’s off the beaten path and doesn’t get many groups coming to visit). instead of a gift to our staff this year, we gave them money to buy a gift for one of the kids at the orphanage. the leaders of the orphanage actually compiled a “wish list” for us, so we were able to get gifts the kids are dreaming of (lots of baseball gloves and stuff like that!). we’ll play with the kids, and give the orphanage workers the afternoon off as we cook dinner and serve it.

then, we’ll head to an italian restaurant in tijuana for our own staff dinner. we have some silly competitions that will take place there, as well as a white elephant exchange (with some surprise gifts thrown in for good measure).

it should be a great, long, tiring, wonderful day together!

when searching for tasteless nativity sets online, it doesn’t take long for one to stumble onto multiple versions of bears…

leaving eden is the anonymous blog of an undercover athiest attending my alma matter, wheaton college. while i still have a lot of affection for wheaton, and value what i received there, i do know that these kinds of environments can feel terribly boundaried and oppressive to some people, depending on a variety of factors (their classes and professors, friends and other relationships, personality, where they are in their journey). i know that while i attended wheaton, i swung wildly from fan to hater, model student to frustrated subversive, there and back and there and back again. i had professors and classes and even chapel experiences that deeply and profoundly fed into who i am today (in positive ways), as well as experiences (one in particular) where i felt extremely mistreated by the system.

anyhow, it’s an interesting blog. and it’s thoughtful — it doesn’t seem to exist to “take down the school”. there’s also an interview with the author of leaving eden on another blog, here (part 1) and here (part 2) that are worth reading.

(ht to andy at think christian)