NicWilliams.net

Here are some more pictures from our 10 year anniversary service that we had a few weeks ago. You can also view them at www.sunsetbaychapel.com

I know your first question has to be how...and your next thought is I want to be just like you Nic. lol. Ok maybe not that last part....So here is the story.

Earlier this week I decided to jump on a program called Mint.com. This program is an online financial organizing program. It connects with your banks and then tracks your trends through graphs. This allows you to see month to month exactly where your money goes and you have to do little to virtually no work to help it along. After you have this done, the program begins to help you set up a budget and emails/texts you when you go over your budget in an area. So far I am loving this program. Best part...It is free.

So after using the program for a few days, I decided we are spending too much money in what I call the entertainment area. This includes cell phones, cable TV, and internet. Now I technically need the internet for school and work; We enjoy the TV; And well we all know we think we need cell phones in life. So I couldn't really see getting rid of any of these items so I decided to call them and ask them for help.

As stupid as that sentence just sounded as I was typing it, that really was my thought. So yesterday came and went and I just forgot about it. This morning I thought about it but got busy. So a few minutes ago I was working on some office things when I remembered it and decided to call.

After going through all the automated junk, I finally reached a real person...At which point I explained to them that I simply wanted the same thing they were already giving to me but that I wanted it for a cheaper price. The lady said "Hold on while I look at your account." I interpreted this as meaning, hold on why I try not to lose you as a customer, then I am going to tell you no to your request, and then I will try and sell you some more things that we offer.

So what happened...The lady came back on the phone and said "OK Mr. Williams, we can do that." I was speechless. In fact the lady had to ask me if I was still there. She said we will give you exactly what you have for $31 less a month. After I questioned her deeply on how I was getting hosed with out knowing, she assured me that all was well and this was legit. The ONLY thing that changed was that she asked me to agree to a one year verbal contract. I thought to myself, well I am in a 2 year agreement with you on my cell so a one year agreement along with that for the other stuff didn't matter to me.

End result, I am saving almost $400 a year and am getting exactly what I was already getting. This has definitely been a good day. So later the suggestion came that I should call my Mortgage Company next....lol....will keep you posted. :)

So I have had an interesting few weeks in student ministry. We have had some great times in our ministry. We also have some wonderful leaders. Today we kicked off our Student Leadership Team and our Bible Studies again. I am little behind on doing this but hey...I have been busy. lol...

We are definitely not growing like I would want too, but it will happen. I have had a lot of churches and other youth pastors call me in the last two weeks. It has been...well...interesting.

The big thing they want to know is how are we doing what we are doing. Like I am some expert. lol. I want to say..."You mean how are we not growing and there are a million kids around our church." lol. But no. They want to know how we have a church of 200 and a youth group that runs between 40 and 60 kids depending on the night. So I guess they define us as a success. I don't think I totally agree.

Don't get me wrong. I love our ministry and am thankful for how God has blessed us. But I am not content staying where we are. I think no growth is decline. I think God has bigger and better plans in store for us. I think we have to continue to reach outside the normal ideals of youth ministry. I think we should wake up every morning burden for the teen who is dying and going to hell. I think we need to stop being busy with things that ultimately do not matter and begin to fill our lives with the things that can CHANGE THE WORLD.

I don't define success by the number of kids I can get to a weekly program.

I define success by the number of lives that are changed.

In that definition...are we successful...yes but there are so many more to be reached.

DO NOT LET A LARGE NUMBER MAKE YOU CONTENT...REMEMBER THE LARGER NUMBER OF KIDS THAT STILL NEED JESUS.

So I was reading a blog post tonight by Steven Furtick. He definitely has a deep passion and desire to reach people for Christ. He is my age and he blows my mind sometimes. I was going to try and summarize the post but instead I want to enourage you to jump to his blog and read it. I will post the link and about half the blog here..

Pastor Steven Furtick

God has been speaking to me a lot about the economy recently.
The sense of what He’s been impressing on my heart is: don’t back down.

Every time I’ve turned on cable news in the last 3 weeks I’ve been tempted to scale down and back away from some of our God-sized, faith stretching initiatives. And I do want to be responsible…exercise wisdom…employ restraint…

But this is NOT the time for the church to huddle up in the bunker and wait for the end of the world. In Joshua 3, God led His people across the Jordan during the flood stage. Practically speaking, it was the worst possible time for them to cross over. But from the standpoint of faith, why not cross over during flood season? Flood season and harvest time go hand in hand. And the higher the waters, the greater the opportunity for God to show off when He brings us through.

Lory's battery on her camera has been dead for months. Just got the charger back, charged the battery, and realized there were photos on it. Here is a picture of my parents from back in May when we went to the Animal Kingdom at Disney.