Weekend Update #2

This has to have been one of the nicest weekends I have had in a very long time. It had all the makings of being perfect:

• I was able to fellowship with other young married couples (a rare treat)
• I learned to cook something new (I am enjoying this more and more)
• I read a good book (Anne of Green Gables..don't you just love Gilbert...sigh)
• I went to dinner with a girlfriend
• and last but not least, spent some quality time with my hubby

Friday night after work I met one of my dearest friends for dinner, we went to PF Chang's. I do not have very many close friends -the saying "quality not quantity" totally applies to me in this area. I really appreciate the few that I feel I can be 100% real, 100% transparent with. Rev. KH- "Thank you for letting me be me, and not holding it against me..lol".

Saturday Ollie woke me up at our standard time of 6am for his potty break(don't you just love apartment living?). After that I was up so decided to give him a bath - I think this traumatized him a little since he was barely awake.

Saturday night's dinner was a success. Everything somehow just turned out....somehow..lol. I wound up making only the Brisket and Latkes (potato and vegetable) and purchased the Challah bread- I was able to find a grocery store close by that had 3 aisles of Kosher foods. There was such a wide selection of food at the dinner. The best new dish that I tried was called Pupusas. For those of you that do not know, this is a dish from El Salvador. Carlos and Ruth Zamora brought them, and they were DELICIOUS!

Sunday was busy. In my Sunday School class we had around 28 girls. I LOVE spending Sunday mornings with my class - they are such a great group of girls (SS class post to follow soon)! The weekend ended with an AWESOME evening service.

I am usually EXHAUSTED on Monday's. Today is different though. I feel ready to face the week. We are hosting Maximum Velocity this week. I am looking forward to seeing many friends I have not seen in a while. If you are in the area, make sure and stop by. - LW

What a weekend.

The weekend begin with a 3 hour trip to Elk Grove to preach for the Rock Group.  We had an awesome service.  There were about 120 young people. It is always a great opportunity to be with a great youth group with one of my best friends Johannes.  When Leah and I go to Elk Grove, we usually stay with Johannes, Tawni, and little Rori.  We stayed up late on Friday night talking about youth ministry, life, and future.  I always value those conversations.  We woke up the next morning and went to Sargent's Coffee.  What a great place.  Enjoyed an awesome Cinnamon Roll and a white mocha.  Let me just tell you that little Rori loves coffee.  She was posted up @ Sargent's coffee with her iced coffee and elmo stuffed animal.  She is quite the cutie.

Allow me to throw in that one of the best parts of my 24 hour road trip was the time I was able to spend with Jordan Holston.  Jordan is one of the most solid young men of Revivalution Youth Ministry.  He has been consistently living for God all his life.  He is our Music Coordinator for the Revivalution Real Time.  He has some good friends in the The Rock Church, so when he found out I was going there, he came along for the ride.  We had a blast talking about music & funny stories.

We arrived back in San Jose in the afternoon - just in time for me to tag in with our Blue Bomber Crew that had a very successful morning reaching into the neighborhood.  

Later that evening we attended the Young Married's Ethnic Dinner - organized by Sam and Monica Hassas.  Leah will blog about it later...but let me say that there were some crazy looking dishes.  People were supposed to come dressed in their cultural wear, however Sam and Monica were the only ones that did it.  But Sam definitely came through [ See Pic above ].  I stayed true to my Caucasian side and feasted on the fried chicken brought by Brian and Genia Wood and also ate my wife's homemade Jewish Dishes.  It is a little bit of pride that overtakes me - that when my wife brings a homemade dish to potlucks or dinners, that her dishes are always a hit.  Leah is an incredible cook.

Blue Bomber update - We had a wild Sunday morning to say the least, but the end result was we had 182 on the Blue Bomber this weekend.  It's amazing that within 5 months we have doubled our number.  It is our goal to have a consistent 200 on the Bomber by December of this year.  There are many wonderful kids that ride the bomber.  I wish time and place would allow me to share all the great stories.  Maybe I will blog it in the near future. - JW

Off to Sacramento

Got up extra early this morning to run Pastor to the Oakland Airport.  He is flying out to attend the Justin Jones Memorial Service in Houston this weekend.  As I sat in Bay Area traffic this morning, it donned on me how big the Bay Area really is.  It's amazing.  

On my way back from Oakland, I begin to think about my trip to the Rock Church in Elk Grove tonight.  I will be ministering to the ROCK GROUP pastored by my good buddy Johannes Escudero.  There are a few things that the Lord has layed on my heart the past few days, so we will see how it all turns out.

We have been going consistently every Friday Night here at the local Revivalution Youth Ministry, that I gave the young people the night off.  October is going to be crazy busy with a lot of exciting things taking place here.  One of the events is  Maximum Velocity next weekend. Bro Tim Zuniga is going to be preaching, and there are just some preachers you can just sit and listen to for a while...he is one of them.  He is probably one of the most relative Preachers to young people that is out there today.  He is in the ranks of Scott Graham, Calvin Jean, & Wayne Francis.

I really hope to spend some time with Bro Zuniga.  When I first became a Youth minister in 1998, I remember looking for him at various conferences and camps.  I would find him and pull him to the side, and pick his brain for as long as I could.  Midnight Madness Lock In, of which we celebrated our 10th year this year, was semi modeled after a youth conference Bro Zuniga started in Chula Vista entitled "Live the Life".

If you are a youth minister reading this , and you are in driving distance to San Jose on October 3rd -4th, you owe it to yourself to come over and expose your young people to his ministry.

Keep me in your prayers tonight. - JW

Is The Weekend Almost Here???

I live every week to get to the weekend. Even though our weekends are always busy, I love the thought of not getting up and having to go to work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but there is nothing like knowing that I get a few days away from the daily grind.

This weekend I get to have Friday night off. I know to many of you that is normal, but when you are used to getting off work and then usually doing some sort of work at various youth events this is a rare treat. My husband will be preaching at the Rock Church's youth night. He is leaving before I can get off of work, therefore I get a night all to myself.

What to do....what to do...Do I stay home and rest? Do I clean house? Do I spend time with my parents? Do I go shopping? Do I read a good book? Do I go visit a friend who had a baby almost two months ago -who I have yet to visit? Do I try to meet two of my girlfriends for dinner?

Saturday we have a young marrieds event at our church. It is an ethnic night - you are supposed to bring a few dishes that reflect your ethnic background. For those of you that do not know I am Jewish and Mexican. If I was to take the easy route I would bring a Mexican dish (but I am sure there will be a TON of these at the dinner). I have opted to bring a few Jewish dishes. One minor problem is that I HAVE NEVER MADE ANY JEWISH DISH BEFORE!!! Saturday morning I will be attempting to make the following:

• Latkes (a.k.a potato pancakes)
• Brisket
• Shabbat Challah (a Jewish bread)

Please pray for me as I embark on this endeavor :-). I will try and post afterwards to let you know how it goes. I hope all of you in blog land have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time...-LW

Visit to Acts 29 Youth Ministry

As a youth pastor deep in the trenches of youth ministry, I always find it fun visiting other youth ministries. I don't know, even online, I am always checking out and researching other youth websites. Tonight we took a trip to Stockton - Christian Life Center where Brandon Miraflor is the Youth Pastor of Acts 29 Youth Ministry. Tim, Luis, and I arrived in Stockton early enough to eat at some hole in the wall mexican place called Cancun. I remember when I was in Bible College it was the cheapest mexican restaurant in town. We enjoyed the food and conversation - and then made our way to the ever famous 9025 N. West Lane. Acts 29 conducts their High School service in the Gym and the Middle School Ministry occupies one of the Rooms in the KCJH Radio building. It was an awesome experience. The structure, creativity, and communication of the youth ministry staff is impressive. We definitely took alot of notes, and were able to pick the brain of Middle School Youth Pastor Tim Ramonette. I also got a chance to hang with Brandon Miraflor. He taught a great lesson on " The Keys to the Kingdom - beyond Acts 2:38". There was a time of prayer after the lesson. We had a pretty enjoyable car conversation on the way home discussing the good ole' days of NBA Slam Dunks. Tonight was a worthwhile experience, because not only was I able to see an incredible youth ministry in motion, but I was able to spend time with some cool young men from our church. - JW

We have entered the world of Blogging...

It is finally official. The West Family consisting of Jason, Leah, & Ollie have entered the bloggesphere. Please be patient with us as we become adjusted to this new system in our lives. We are glad that you will join with us in THE WESTSIDE STORY -JW

I cannot believe we started a blog! Everytime I have been told (by Monica) that I need one my response has been ~ "I won't start one unless I update it on a regular basis and I really don't have a lot of exciting things to blog about (maybe I should rephrase that to "exciting things that I CAN blog about"..lol).
Anyways, here we are....I hope that we will not disappoint you and will keep you entertained and updated on what is going on in our lives. ~LW