Well, my 26th birthday has come and gone. No jokes, no frills, no hastles. It was a good day. Now, as promised, the big news.

After living “abroad” for the past three years, my wife and I are returning to the Lone Star State. The three years that I have spent in campus ministry have been exciting and frustrating, wonderful and challenging. I have learned great deal about myself (strengths and weaknesses) and I have learned a little more about where I see myself in God’s plan.

This June, I will beging working full-time as the Youth and Family Minister for a congregation in the D/FW area. We are so excited to be back in my hometown and are very much looking forward to starting this brand, spanking new chapter.

We are in Dallas this weekend checking on job stuff for my wife and we made an offer on a beautiful house (not everyone gets a house for their birthday!) roughly 6 minutes away from the church building. We have been able to see God’s hand at every junction of this change. It has been awesome and humbling.

So, that’s where we are at right now. I am trying to finish strong in May so I can begin strong in June. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us. Please continue to do so.

Peace,
Micheal

BTW, please continue praying for Ellen Martindale. Please, use the prayer pager below at least 2-3 times this week. Let her know that you are praying for her.

I’m on the road today heading to Pennyrile, KY for a youth rally. I’ll be speaking on being Revived: Is There Life After Death? I am very excited about speaking tonight and tomorrow. Keep me in your prayers!

Update:
5:30 pm- I made it safely. My name is up on the church sign (I hope that doesn’t turn anyone away)! Also,

4 words: Wi-Fi in the Sanctuary.

Have a great weekend.

There are only a few more hours left in 2005. For me, 2005 was a year of learning and discovery. Of course learning and discovery can often be a painful thing. Despite the growing pains I experienced it was a good year and I hope that 2006 will be even better.

My prayer for you is that 2006 will be a wonderful year for you and your loved ones. Thank you for spending time with me here. Your feedback and emails of encouragement have meant so much to me. Thank you.

Tomorrow I am heading to Nashville for the National Confrence on Youth Ministries. I will be there until late Tuesday night. Maybe I’ll run into a few of you there.

I hope everyone has a happy new year. Go with God!

Peace,
Micheal

6 years ago today I had the best Thanksgiving ever.

Thanksgiving is trluy an American holiday. That’s why everyone in our group began to get a little nervous as the 4th Thursday of November began to get closer and closer. We were thousands of miles away from home living in Athens, Greece and we wanted to know how we would celebrate this holiday. Nobody missed Halloween and nobody raised a fuss because we didn’t have a fall break but I was concerned. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It isn’t the food. It isn’t the football. I love Thanksgiving because of the fellowship.

Call me an old softy but I love being together with friends and family with absolutely no expectations.

You don’t give gifts on Thanksgiving. You eat together around the table. You don’t have to decorate your house better than your neighbor’s for Thanksgiving. You sit on the couch and laugh with your dad. Thanksgiving is perfect because you get out of it what you put in. It’s real and not contrived.

I was going to be heart broken if we missed out on Thanksgiving. Here we were a group of college students away from home. How would we spend this day giving thanks.

We spent it at a Greek Mexican resturant. Instead of turkey we ate French pheasant. We had mashed potatoes and corn. We had stuffing and green beans. We had it all.

It was the most amazing dinner I’ve ever had. Friends gathered around a table truly giving thanks for each other, for our families, and for our blessings.

Every year since then I have tried to tap back into those feelings of thanks and fellowship I expereineced that night. Who would have thought that a Greek Mexican resturant would help me understand the meaning of an American holiday? Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Lots of things going on here at Kicking at the Darkness // MichealFelker.com. I will be in Nashville over the weekend so there will be little to no movement here on the site. I am working and tweaking on this theme and a couple of others as well.

I recieved my new Relevant Network box yesterday. It was chock full of new books and new music. Be looking for a review or two.

I will be working on a couple of posts while I’m gone. I had promised you an outline of a some of the Catalyst confrence presentations. I will post one this week just as I promised.

I am working on a few new features for the site. I want to have a weekly feature and a monthly feature. With December appraoching fast, I hope to have our first monthly feature ready for publication on DEC. 1.

Any feedback from you, the reader, would be welcomed. You can always contact me at KickingAtTheDarkness (at) gmail (dot) com.

Grace and Peace.

I’m currently testing out a new WordPress theme called Kiwi. Please excuse the mess.

My throat hurts. All those late nights and early mornings caught up to me this week. I all but lost my voice Tuesday and Wednesday. It seems to be better this morning but my throat still hurts. I really miss being able to sing. My whole life revolves around music. Whether I’m in the car, on the couch, walking down a hallway, or sitting at my desk I sing. I hum. I bob my head to the beat thumping in my mind. I want to just sing but sadly I can’t. I sound like screeching brakes. Hopefully, I’ll be over what ails me this weekend. I keep you posted.

I am about to finish my first week of reading the Bible in 90 days. Just a few initial thoughts:

One) Each day’s reading has taken me about 45 min. I have read in one sitting and I have broken up the reading into small bites throughout the day.

Two) Even in college I never read the Gospel’s back-to-back-to-back-to-back so quickly before. I have a whole new perspective of the synoptics.

Three) I find myself wanting to read even more throughout the day.

That’s it for now. Check out Read the Bible in 90 days.

I need to enroll in some sort of remedial typing course.

Earlier today I opened up my preferred Internet browser and went looking for information on the National Confrence of Youth Workers or NCYM. Instead of typing a Y I accidentally typed a W. I was immediately drawn into the wild world of the National Confrence on Weights and Measures! Woo-hoo!

The National Confrence on Weights and Measures will be held in Jacksonville, FL on January 22nd through the 25th. This year’s confrence promises to be even better than the last. A good time will be had by all.

If you are interested in joining the National Confrence on Weights and Measures, here is all you need to know.

Again, I had difficulty sleeping last night. When I was in high school I was prescibed some sleeping pills. I know that sleeping pills carry a high risk of dependence but I did not have to worry about that. My mother only let me take them once. ONCE. Of couse, years later she offered them to me again while my wife and I were visiting my parent’s house. I quiped that they would help me sleep alright, forever!

My late night ritual is as follows:

Toss, toss, toss. Turn, turn, toss. Lay on the couch for 20 minutes. Read for 30 min. Lay on other couch. Turn on TV. Laugh at the 400 Lunesta commercials on between 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock. Go back to bed. Toss, toss, turn.

It goes on like this for 2 or 3 hours. It gets real old real quick. Now I don’t know if I need to go to the doctor because I’m sick or because that little flying butterfly told me to buy Lunesta. All I know is, I am tired.