I really like All Arizona Club...

Peep this fun from All Arizona Young Life Club. We do this once a year and bring over 2500 kids to North Phoenix Baptist Church. Music is sick. Games are fun. The ENERGY is out of the world... I love looking at these pictures and thinking that there is a specific and UNIQUE story to each PERSON you see in here.


God is RUNNING passionately after each one of the people these hands belong to...

This is our Cave Creek crew...

All ARIZONA Young Life Club (2000+ HS kids...)

This is my friend Kyle. He goes to Cactus Shadows. He is listening to my other friend, Jason. Kyle is hearing how stinkin' sweet it is to follow Jesus and although he is concerned about getting home in time to not get grounded, what he will eat in 5 minutes, what girl he is going to try to go out with this weekend, I am eagerly watching Kyle listen and hear who Christ is. I heart Jesus.

Irwin Invite 2008

Young Life's Bball tournament from March 15, 2008... Peep it.

If you like random Christian shirts...(I laugh at them) LOOK HERE!

Puppy Cuddling...

I wonder what it is about puppies that make you smile... But they just do. This is me and Gilbert chillin on our couch... He is so cute and fun.


Then he farted...

Full in '08

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

What is it about the heart of our God? Why does he continue to work his goodness into the midst of pain, brokeness, hurt, anger - SIN...? Why? Why does he love the way he does? Why is it so hard to understand the depth of his love?

2008 has been one of the most difficult years thus far and as I write this it is March 16th... There are 289 days left in this year. Around Laura and I there has been a whirlwind of pain, frustration, bitterness and brokeness and it has hurt. It has cost. It has brought tears. It has brought fears to the service. BUT IT HAS ALSO BROUGHT GLORY!

That is the beauty that God is giving me eyes to see... He allows the pain to show his glory. He allows the brokenness to show his beauty. He allows the fear to show his grace. It is beauty in its essence. I am humbled, scared, thankful, joyful, angry, blessed, nervous, anxious, holding tightly to my Lord... I am FULL and EMPTY.

Praise the Lord.

Puppy!

Things are a changing...
Laura and I have been waiting for a while to get some things set in motion...

We have been waiting to move back into a place that we could call our own and now we have it.

We have been waiting for Laura to get a job and get to step into her calling and she has it...

We have been waiting to get a puppy and now we have him... Check him out!


His name is Gilbert and he is a 7wk old Beagle pup... He is awesome!


He likes me better than my beautiful wife...



Except here... he wants to bite my face off... Guess he doesn't like the 'stache!



Bottom line about my puppy, my apartment, my wife, my ministry is that our God is good. He gives and gives more... "We do not receive because we don't ask"... We have asked and God is giving to us. We are blessed and want to give thanks. Here is our forum.

Is it Joey? Or is it MARIO?

A Beautiful Mess

I just finished reading this book written by Rick McKinley, who is the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, Oregon. He is Donald Miller's Pastor. So you know there is plenty of sarcasm... But also there was a good deal of wisdom in these 190 pages.

The book centers on the idea that the Kingdom of God is a place that is alive and functioning right now and here on Earth. It is not, as some would believe, a place that is a final destination in the Christian faith. McKinley uses Jesus' teachings about the Kingdom to illustrate simple truths such as loving each other as Christ loves us, living our faith daily instead of on Sundays and treating our brothers and sisters across the Earth like our brothers and sisters in Christ in the USA.

Some thoughts on the book:
* Jesus always went to people in the margins, FIRST. Always. Jesus lead those that followed him in believing that serving Him meant "going" to people... By saying yes to Christ, they said yes to being sent. If I choose to say yes to Jesus, I am choosing the say yes to being "sent". McKinley has a simple truth about this following his description of this situation - "And when I am sent, I know what to do - I will love people until they can feel it. I will proclaim Jesus' with words, actions and love."

I love the idea of loving until someone "can feel it". I think that is the most beautiful thing we get to live alongside as being a missionary. In Young Life, I get to watch teenage guys change from holding to a hard-fast, stone cold emotionless front to a caring, loving, serving son of God. It is an incredible blessing.

* God doesn't measure ministry. He is simply inviting us to be part of what HE is already doing...

* The number one task of any missionary is to become versed in the culture of the location they are doing ministry. For me, that means learning both about the city I live in (CAVE CREEK) and the lifestyle of teenagers within Cave Creek. I have learned crazy vocabulary that my high school friends use such as: Swicked, Brea, Ill (an oldie but goodie), Righteous, Bomb, Baller as well as about a billion acronyms...

McKinley goes on to say that the greatest tool any missionary can have is to be relevant. Many folks want to serve Christ, but focus on this fact too much and become too focused on being relevant and not on speaking truth through love. This humbled me and made me think about my approach to living for Christ...
Then he hits you with the simple truth - "Authentic relationships make you relevant...Loving without an agenda will ALWAYS make you relevant..."

Man, that is awesome! So true. So simple. So right on. God will use that simple comment. I never really think of my friendships with kids as having an agenda, but how many of them do? The truth comes back in. Authentic relationships. Love my friends. That's it. Love them. Don't try to evangelize them, but love them. This is what speaks louder than anything I could say anyways...

Anyways, anyone wanna borrow a book?

Colletti's Go to the 1980's!!!

Man, she looks good, doesn't she? This is us hanging at Young Life camp. This is one of the places you can bet the farm on that you can find us. If it is June, July or August chances are we will be at a Young Life camp somewhere; lovin' the Lord and lovin' kids. To date, collectively I think we have spent almost a year of time at a Young Life camp.