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braddukes
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Name: Brad
Gender: Male
Interests: Reading, travelling, experiencing life with Jesus, enjoying time with my beautiful wife Debbie, watching my girls grow, reading blogs for hours, new cars, lifting weights on occasion
Expertise: reading :), enjoying people
Occupation: CCC Staff
Message: message me
Member Since:
6/7/2006
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| It's been like months since i've updated this thing....and i just updated Facebook. so now i should do Xanga right?? I will be curious to see if anyone still checks out this site, hehe. I'm at my inlaws near Columbus. just celebrated christmas with my brother & his kids at my mom's house near Findlay. the bummer is that my brother is in the final stages of a divorce with his wife, but in the midst of that God is slowly bringing my brother & I closer & I think also helping Craig to love & pursue his family more. Debbie & I are headed out on a all-day date at Easton this afternoon. Grandma Tweedle is going to watch the girls. :) HOORAY! We're having dinner tonight with a buddy from college. (i know...you may be saying "that's not a date brad")....well, you may be right. So we're "pausing" the exclusive date for dinner to have with an incredible friend & roomate from college, Jeff Brown. He's getting married in January, and we get to be part of his wedding! Hooray. Debbie's doing their flowers & I'm one of his groomsmen. life has been pretty incredible lately. it's had its challenges of course...but hey...that's life! and Jesus never promised perfection & ease of life here. in fact...he promised trouble! but he also promised us a ton of other sweet promises....like that He'll be with us for all eternity. in the midst of our junk & trials. rock on! I'm excited about Christmas, about the Buckeye game after Christmas...I'm pumped for Christmas conference! I get to do staff interviews with Mandi Wood. rock on! so fun. I'm getting a pair of Crocs for Christmas from my mom --she got me a gift card to pick them up. I was enlightened to their goodness from my buddy S Down, who I work with at UT. OK...going to post a picture of my brother & my mom at Christmas. if anyone's looking for a great studly Chirstian man to listen to/learn from....check out Ravi Zacharias! www.rzim.com SO GOOD! | | |
| So i'm bummed...can't find my favorite font anymore! What's the deal?
Anyway..it's been 5 weeks since i last wrote! Yikes! Our 5th CRU meeting is coming up this Thursday, and the last time i wrote...it was the 1st. hence my really good math.
let me just update you quickly. I LOVE MY LIFE. i know i know....is there anything new other than that?? probably not really. i mean...i've had some rough spots in the last couple weeks....Debbie & I have had some road-bumps we've traveled over....but all in all....Ummmm....it doesn't get much better than I got it.
1 stinking amazing wife who is beautiful, and b/c of her beauty I have 2 little girls who are just adorable & continue to make my mind blow at the complexity with which God orchestrates human life. anyone who's been anywhere close to the birth & watching a child grow up....and who is utterly convinced that it "just happens" like sludge becoming a Hummer H2 over a million years....is just out of their mind. Grace is talking so much lately....she'll spontaneously say "Walk? Walk. Go shoppin?" lol....who taught her that?!?!!! someone's trying to empty Daddy's wallet quicker than I can myself by going to Starbucks & Beaners all the time.
Karis is just stinking cute, and i love making her giggle & laugh. and i really love it when she snuggles up/buries herself into my shoulder/neck. it's fun. she's WAY figgity-squirmy. it's largely how i describe her to people..."one of the most squirmy babies i've ever known" sometimes i think she's going to crawl up & over my shoulder & jump off my back like she's on some adventure.
my job....my job? I HAVE THE BEST JOB EVER!!! i love it. sure, i stress at times....it's my easiest sin-tendency I believe. I'm more & more convinced of that all the time. I like to try & play God & run the universe....so i stress out about things a fair amount. But...God often reminds me that He's God & I'm not...and that's always refreshing.
We finished up our 4-week talk series on "No Perfect People Allowed" at CRU....and I was just pumped about the topic itself. I've continued to read the book (same title)...by John Burke. and it's been incredible.
sharing my faith...in the dorms. it honestly doesn't get any better than that. I love taking guys i'm discipling out sharing....i learn, i grow, they learn, they grow, and guys hear the gospel, and bump into 2 men who are sold out on Jesus---which could very well be something that in & of itself completely throws them off their rocker. men...interested in Jesus? into Christianity? SURE THING! Jesus was the manliest man ever. If ever there were a man to admire & wanna emulate...it'd be Jesus. Ok...i'd have a hard time walking to the cross knowing that I was going to take the brundt of the WORLD'S choices & wrongs upon my shoulders....that would be awlful. pretty amazing that He did that for me, and even for the Pope who's now got like the world's population of Muslim's ticked off at him. Oyyy.
time for pictures...ohh...and if you've read Debbie's blog lately...you know we're going to visit our sweet friends the Martinelli's in Caly!! SoCal! i think that's what people call it? Southern California. near the San Diego/LA area. we're going over Fall Break, and we're PUMPED!! the bummer is we have to buy an official seat for Grace b/c she'll have just turned 2 (on Oct 3rd, you can send her Starbucks gift cards to our address if you'd like...lol..j/k. she doesn't drink mochas yet)...it should be a blast. We're renting a car, and hopefully it will be a Dodge Magnum. it's "fullsize" category, b/c well, we'll have 2 kids, and our stuff, and a double stroller. the picture on the rental site said "Dodge Magnum or similar" and when i talked with the lady i put a request in for one....they're fun. I've driven one that my brother had once.
ok, now for pictures. Some of you know Zach Ault. a stud of a man for sure. I love this guy! He & his wife Anne came up a few weeks ago for some weddings, and they spent the night with us. Zach is a man's man who's helped (basically built himself, i helped with a few things) with a shelf in the girls room...and while here during this visit, we stayed up fairly late installing a new light in our bathroom plus he helped me hang some towel rods & toilet-paper holders and stuff. :) He's a man who loves Jesus, and loves his wife like crazy, and is nothing but full of energy & love & a big huge smile across his face, which you see after getting great big bear hugs from the guy. you rock man!
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| So tonight was our 1st Cru meeting....and i honestly couldn't be a happier man. It went so STINKING WELL. God rocks.
there was energy...there were LOTS of people....i'm thinking around 250-300 or so...crazy. and i'm so bad at guessing how many people are in a room. which...i know i know...i could figure out (and ask) how many seats were set up. which i always forget & never really make a point to know.
but now i'm motivated to find out. so Jackie Sutton make this SWEET video....it introduced the staff & was based off of the Amazing Race opener video. SO GOOD. IT WAS SO GOOD!! I was sitting up on stage before getting ready to speak & the video was still going on....and i nearly started crying b/c there was just so much energy & I was so glad that so many people had come to check out CRU.
If you came for the 1st time or 2nd, or 10th, or your 50th...I hope it was a good one. and i'm praying you'd all come back & bring like 4 friends. :)
I love the idea of moving to a different room by the end of the semester b/c we jam pack the Ingman room & can't fit anymore people in it.
God's amazing. i love that He uses broken people for His kingdom.
bd
below is a picture i showed everyone tonight of me riding the bull in NY.
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| Just found one of my favorite fonts! Hooray! It's Papyrus for those who are curious.
We're fast approaching the end of the 1st week of classes at UT. Ministry activity has been buzzing like crazy. i played some basketball with the staff guys this morning.
I'm speaking at CRU tomorrow night for our 1st meeting. i'm pumped for the 1st meeting & to have the opportunity to speak at the first one. We'll be introducing a 4-week series called No Perfect People Allowed.
we've seen 1 guy on campus already trust Christ, and I've got to share the gospel with 4 guys thus far. I LOVE MY JOB!! data entry isn't my favorite thing....but man, let me go sharing. Mmmm mmmm.
sorry it's been so long. i don't have pictures to put up right now b/c i'm doing this on debbie's laptop. and it doesn't have any pictures on it.
peace out! | | |
| Hey gang!
just wanted to give props to the Lord tonight for blessing us with a church we LOVE. We got to CedarCreek in Perrysburg, OH. http://www.aroundthecreek.com Check it out!
They always do great a sweet 3 or 4 week series for their messages...and currently they're doing At the Movies as a series. literally....tonight when we went (yes, they have Sat. evening services, it rocks!)..they had popcorn in fun little bags! YUM. not just popcorn, but really good popcorn.
So strange it was though to be munching down on my bag of popcorn before beginning the worship songs. but hey...all good things are from the Lord. and without God breathing things into existence (such as EVERYTHING around you, including you, and me, and my little girls)...there wouldn't be such things as popcorn to enjoy. so i'm thinking you can worship the Lord & eat popcorn at the same time. it was strange at first, i'll admit but i loved it.
so tonight's message was tied to Superman Returns....and the pastor spoke about how YES, the world needs a Savior, it's Jesus....but that (get read for this)...HE WANTS US TO HELP! Matthew 28:18-20. If you've involved in CRU at all, that verse is practically branded on our arms...which is good, and we should never get sick of it. those words are marching orders! and Jesus wasn't joking when he enlisted those original 12 men to take the message to a world that desperately needs the reality of grace & acceptance & forgiveness that Jesus offers.
He talked about how people professionalize ministry...how most people when they walk in a church expect the staff or the pastor's to do all the work. "They're the professionals" type thinking. "i can't do anything, i'm just joe-shmoe attender" NO NO! God wants everyone involved!!
I really like the one thing he said (i liked everything he said, but can't retype it all here, it'd take me too long)....that "there are no 'Justs' in the body of Christ"....such as "i just clean the bathrooms at CedarCreek" BLAH! whatever!!! i know that i certainly enjoy a clean bathroom, especially if i have to change one of my girl's diapers...and so i for 1 am VERY appreciative of the person who cleans those bathrooms!
Praise God. I love my church. they're outreach minded, they're REAL from upfront about their own faith, and so genuine about loving people & communicating that God is apart of every aspect of life.
Hmmm. i want to put a picture in. i like pictures, and i know some people just enjoy the pictures more than my rambling. :) It's Grace in her Grandma Tweedle's fridge!! sorry it's not flipped right side up.
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