Category Archives: Collecting Experiences

Collecting Experiences, Guilty Pleasure, Life, Stories

Step Into My Garage

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My wife is taking a group of our teens to a girl’s conference this weekend leaving me home alone Friday night and all day Saturday.

What’s a swinging bachelor like me going to do with my new found freedom? Work on my classic 1969 Camaro Z/28.

Unfortunately for me, this classic car is only a 1:25 scale model.

We went to the craft store on Monday and I got the itch to build. I put together a Corvette back in college and I had a lot of fun working on it. My fat fingers make it a real challenge to glue some of the tiny pieces together but I’m up for the challenge.

I have completely taken over the kitchen table. For all practical purposes this weekend this is the garage.
The Garage: aka the kitchen table

The engine has been lowered into position and has been fastened to the frame.
The Chasis

Here I’m letting the glue dry so that I can apply some paint touch ups when I get home.
Big Block

Close Up

I’m pretty upset that when I finish this piece and glue it into place it will cover over the front part of the engine obscuring the view of the fan and fan belt. I’m just sayin’.
Work in Progress

Stay tuned for more pictures of my classic ride.

Collecting Experiences, Conferences, Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership, Ministry, Resources

Unplugged Conference

Unplugged Day 1 is in the books. Registration began at 9am this morning and we wrapped up with dinner on the national mall at around 6pm. What a day it was!!!

There are only about 50 ministers here for the conference which has made for a very personal and informal (in a good way) meeting. I have never been to a conference where we all went around the room and introduced ourselves. Definitely a new experience for me.

Mark began by telling us his prayer for Unplugged. First, he prayed that there would be some divine connections made between us. Without doubt I had some great introductions and some divine conversations today.

Secondly, Mark prayed for some paradigm shifts to happen. Not sure I experienced any shifts today but I did get plenty of clarity. I think that being able to see your paradigms clearly can cause you to shift a little.

And finally, Mark prayed that we would walk away from the conference with some God ideas. I do believe that “1 God Idea is better than 1000 good ideas.” No doubt.

The focus of the conference is to look at The 5 Greatest Challenges That Leaders Face. We looked at the first 3 today:

The Motivation Challenge
The Vision Challenge
The Personal Challenge

I am excited to see what tomorrow holds.

Awesomenessness, Collecting Experiences, Conference, Discipleship, Ministry, Youth Ministry

DC is for Conferencing

I’m making my way to the nation’s capital for the Unplugged Conference today.

I am so stoked. The conference should be a very intimate and challenging two days of conversations and dreaming. I’m looking forward to hearing from Mark Batterson and Jud Wilhite and I’m looking forward to a cup of Ebenezers in the morning.

I’ll be staying with my bro-in-law and will take the metro into Union Station each day. I like taking mass transit too bad there is no subway in my little town here at home.

I’ll post my thoughts and experiences each night. You can also follow me on Twitter. Keep me in your prayers for safe travel, rest, and growth. Thanks.

Peace,
Felker

2008, Collecting Experiences, Discipleship, Faith in Action, Youth Ministry

Workin’ My Way Back to You Babe

Work Camp 2008 is in the books!

We had a great week painting and fixing houses. The weather cooperated with us this year. No running from storms like we did last year. The temperatures were mild and we didn’t No one got hurt and for the first time in a long time our teens got some press coverage for heir hard work.

I have been doing work camps since 1994 first as a camper then as an intern and now as a leader. The way that this WC was organized I led a group of teens none of which are in my youth group. It gives me a great opportunity to mentor and work with teens that I haven’t had contact with and it gives my teens the chance to connect with other adult leaders from around the city.

I am headed back over to our house today to pick up some supplies and to do a small amount of touch ups. I have been doing a lot of repairs around our house so I’m becoming quite the amateur handy man. We’ll see if I can replace the outdoor water faucet at our Work Camp house today. It is feeling like a big maybe.

Have a great day everyone!

Collecting Experiences, My Life, Not-So-Awesomeness, Remarkable

Hail Yeah!

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I think we had a little bit of hail at our house last night. Of course, we had planned on cleaning out the garage this Saturday enough so that we can move our cars inside if we need to. It’s a good thing we’re going to do that!!!

No damage to the house or to the cars. Sandy’s garden full of bright and beautiful flowers… didn’t fair so well. In fact they are gone. They received the royal beat-down from the icy skies. The front yard looked like it was covered in shredded lettuce this morning. All those new leaves were knocked from their limbs! Good news was that the fence that I put up last year stood strong and laughed in the face of the storm!!! HAHAHA!

Enjoy the pics. Anyone else get hail last night?

IMG_9751

Almost 3 inches

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IMG_9743

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Front Door 2

Front Door

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Collecting Experiences, Popular Culture

I Shall Retire to the Nerdery

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Yesterday I went to the store – the comic book store – and I purchased a few issues of Batman.

I paid with my debit card and when the clerk handed me the receipt he said, “I’ll just need your John Hancock.”

In my best Chris Farley voice I said, “It’s Herbie Hancock.”

He just stared at me with a blank look on his face.

Me: “Haven’t you see “Tommy Boy” with Chris Farley?”
Clerk: “No.”

I scooped up my Batman comics and promptly left.

Yes, that’s right. I out nerded the clerk working at the comic book store.

I hope that my humiliation can bring a smile to your face. Have a great weekend everyone.

Collecting Experiences, Ethos

Experience It All

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As time ticked down to the summer before my freshman year in high school I got this idea stuck in my head.

“I want to experience it all!” I would say.

That idea has never really left me even to this day. In fact I would say that one of the foundational tenets of my life is that Life Is About Collecting Experiences.

My desire to collect experiences has led me all over the earth and into some pretty surreal situations.

Some of these experiences include:

Watching the sunrise over Jerusalem
Exploring an ancient drainage system in Turkey
Searching a crawl-space in a Roman amphitheater
Backpacking Europe in my cowboy boots
Walking nearly 8 miles down the highway during a traffic standstill visiting with strangers
Traveling to NO for the re-opening of the Superdome
Sharing lunch with a homeless man in downtown Nashville
Helping hang curtains at big-time rock show (as people were arriving!)

While these are just a handful of the “biggie” experiences, I have collected my fair share of smaller ones. I have had my fill of odd jobs (working at a cheerleading competition), met a few minor celebrities (Henry Rollins and I had a nice conversation in a Houston hotel lobby), and stumbled in to places I didn’t belong (painted Notre Dame helmets).

Today I can add another experience to my list. Today I fixed a watch (sort of).

I, like most everyone, have stopped wearing a watch. Who needs a watch when there is a clock on our cell phones, right? However, there are often times when I have needed a watch but my cell phone was either stowed away or out of reach.

While organizing our closets, my wife uncovered a watch that she had given me while we were dating. It was the first Valentine’s Day gift she gave me 8 years ago this week.

I resolved, then and there, to wear a watch again or at least try to wear a watch again.

With the battery dead long ago, I strolled over to the jewelry counter at the local Wal-Mart. The lady behind the counter politely told me that she wouldn’t be able to change the battery because it was not a watch that Wal-Mart carried. Understandable, I thought. But what is my next option? Without hesitation, she offered me all the watch tools I would need to crack open gingerly remove the back of my watch.

After a few false starts and with plenty of encouragement from Rose, the lady behind the counter, I successfully removed the back. The battery was secured my a thin metal clasp that I gently unhooked with a small tool. The battery fell right out. I replaced the dead battery with a fresh one, re-secured the clasp, and gave the mechanism a good once over before replacing the back of the watch. I returned the tools to Rose and paid for the battery. As I type this my old/new watch is ticking along just perfectly. I feel very accomplished.

Sure, all I did was replace a battery but I had never done that before. It was a new experience for me. Now I know how to open up a watch. I was able to see how it moved and how things worked together. It was definitely a sight I had never seen before. Who knows, maybe I’ll buy an old watch and see what I can do with it. Anythings possible.

When you collect experiences everyday is a chance to learn something new, see something different, and to make the unfamiliar a part of your life.