Garth's Blog

Not a Murmur

2012-01-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

IMAG1661.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Daddy and Lena try out a few more urban hiking trails together. The air was chilly that morning, so we both stayed close to home.

Not many people know this, but baby Lena was diagnosed with a heart murmur during her two month checkup. Thankfully, the latest news broke last Friday: the doc told Kathy that all signs of the heart murmur have disappeared!

Our 15 lb. 4 oz. daughter is already 25 ¾ inches long, easily ensuring her place in the 95th percentile of 4 month old babies in the U.S., length wise AND weight wise. She’s a lot of baby to love, and we’ve got a lot of love for her.

Hopefully, Lena won’t inherit Daddy’s appetite. The last thing I want to do is pick up ANOTHER side job to cover the resulting grocery bills.

Lena and I savored some more Daddy-daughter time together this past week. On Wednesday alone, the two of us managed to squeeze in a few frosted urban trails in Washington County, a bodily torture session at L.A. Fitness, lunch, and tons of other running around… all before our E.P.I.C. student ministry shindig that night.

I’ll let Lena have the last word:

Hit the “Play” button above for last week’s short video clip of Lena cooing and yelping herself into an inevitable quick grin.

Good Morning, 2012!

2012-01-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

This is a re-post from January 1, with photos added on 1/18/12 to this and some previous posts.

IMAG1597_edited-1.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

The first sunrise of 2012 over Mount Hood, as viewed from the Delta ramp at PDX Airport

That picture of the beauty of 2012’s first morning was taken after my last picture of the beauty of 2011’s final evening, of Lena taking a bath.

Tired as I was from our (relatively) late night celebration of New Year’s Eve……I managed to stay awake through my super-early morning shift at Delta and hurry home to enjoy Lena on New Year’s Day.

My resolutions for 2012 run the gamut from physical goals (gain a few more pounds of lean muscle, get more sleep) to overall self-improvement (put others’ needs ahead of my own, arrive early for everything, take more time to contemplate God’s Word as I read through it again this year).

All of that aside, the most important thing that I can accomplish this year is to be a loving daddy to Lena. I hope and pray that she will grow up to love God and others, as well as fight against oppression, poverty, injustice, and hate.

But first, we’ll just let Lena do what she does best: Be an adorable baby girl.

2012, here we come!

Lena's First Christmas

2012-01-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!! I still have three more continents to cover in my Top 5 Recent Trips countdown on BlogSpot, but the Top 3 international spots will have to wait until I find time to resume the countdown here in March. 2012 is already off to an unbelievably hectic start, so I’ll need to prioritize my time. And other than God, guess who gets top priority?

Our adorable baby daughter Lena is nearly 4 months old now. The time that flew by between 9/10/11 and Christmas simply vaporized. Here is my best attempt to capture some of the special moments that led into Lena’s first Christmas season:

Dusk beats us to the punch during an urban hike with Lena at the Tualatin Hills Nature Reserve.

Falling asleep with Lena… ...And later, groggily waking up to a surprise appearance in bed with that little cutie. I wonder how she got up there-- by climbing in all by herself?

Picking up Lena's first Christmas tree: We live right around the corner, so I just carried it back to our house in my shorts and flip flops.

Lena gets an early December bath.

Flying home from Munich to bring Lena her first Christmas present, from Germany (No pictures yet, but don’t worry… later this month, I’ll post this photo and some of last month's Germany pictures here on BlogSpot)

Just before Christmastime, Kathy and Lena gaze outside from our living room window. Every now and then, the view is better on the INSIDE!

Lena sits on Santa’s lap… ...and with us at our dessert table in the gym after the Aloha Church of God Christmas Extravaganza.

Kathy plays guitar and sings Christmas carols to a mesmerized Lena.

Family Christmas photo:
The day after I spoke at the WPC undergrad commencement ceremony (my parents showed up to support me), both sets of our parents and Mike & Girl visited our church to hear me preach the Sunday before Christmas. We snapped a blurry family Christmas photo (above) before heading out to Izzy's Pizza later that afternoon.
**********

(Photos taken by my mom) After much anticipation throughout the Advent season, we celebrated Christmas day with Lena and our family at my parents’ house in Vancouver.

To start off the new year on a happy note, here are a few cute pictures of baby Lena from the past month or so:

Sharing our first Christmas with Lena was a blessing like no other. The road hasn't been entirely smooth, but we finally made the leap from celebrating a holy Child's birth at Christmas to welcoming in a child of our own! I can only dream of what lies ahead for Lena in 2012!

Coming later this month here on BlogSpot… photos from the famed Münchner Christkindlmarkt in Munich, Germany last month, the latest E.P.I.C. student ministry update, and more!

Meet WP’s new Alumni Council President- Garth Hamilton

2011-12-24T09:51:00.001-08:00

IMG_5128.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Driving my Jeep in last year’s 82nd Avenue of Roses parade, with WP mascot Knightro in the back seat

(Photo from Warner Pacific’s photostream on Flickr) I had the honor of speaking to the Class of 2011 at Warner Pacific College's commencement ceremony, the morning after we returned from our Cross USA Visiting Spree. Alex Bates, our former student, was one of the graduates!

Here is my article from the most recent issue of “The Experience” magazine:

Greetings, fellow Warner Pacific Alumni. I graduated from Warner Pacific in 1998 with a B.A. in Religion and Christian Ministries. That same year, I married my beautiful wife Kathy (Eason) Hamilton on campus, packing the house in McGuire Auditorium. Kathy and I are expecting our first child, a baby girl, on September 7th.

Coming from a strong family line of WPC supporters (the Perrys, the LaVelles, and the Hamiltons), I was looking forward to attending Warner for much of my young life and my actual experience at Warner Pacific exceeded my expectations. I credit my quality education for preparing me for my ongoing tenures at Delta Airlines, as youth pastor at Aloha Church of God, and as the current WP Alumni Council President.

This is where we, the alumni of Warner Pacific, come into the picture. Our diverse experiences at Warner Pacific, the relationships that we developed there, and the impact that the college has had on our lives all add up to more than a mere history with this school. We are also vital to the future of WPC!

I encourage each of us to reflect upon how Warner Pacific has shaped our lives and how we can use our passions, strengths, and gifting to support the ongoing mission of Warner Pacific. I encourage each of us to stay involved with Warner and to stay connected with the people who share our Warner Pacific heritage.

As God lays upon your heart the various ways that you may be able to serve (or to simply enjoy fellowship with our fellow alumni), feel free to contact me or a member of the WP staff with any creative suggestions. Please familiarize yourselves with the exciting alumni events that are already on the calendar. I look forward to connecting with you soon!

In Christ,

Garth Hamilton
WP Alumni Council President

Last Saturday, I once again had the privilege of welcoming the Class of 2011 into the Alumni Association of WPC at the December commencement ceremony. I haven’t run across any pictures from our latest ceremony yet, but here are a few more photos from May’s commencement:
Speaking earlier this year at the May commencement ceremony was especially meaningful to me. As I mentioned above, Alex Bates-- one of the graduates from our student ministry at Aloha Church of God-- was one of the many scholars who received a diploma. To add to the excitement, her then-boyfriend Ryan Lane also graduated from WP that day… and proposed to Alex last week! She said “yes,” of course. A larger than life congrats goes out to the newly engaged couple, and to the entire of the Class of 2011, who can expect great things in the future as WP alumni.

Another experience that was even more fun the second time around was driving in this year’s 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade. The day before we attempted to leave for our Cross USA Visiting Spree, I took the soft top off of my Jeep Wrangler again to convert it into a chariot for WP mascot Knightro during the parade in May…

…And at last year’s parade…

One last thing: Our WP Alumni and Family Weekend is right around the corner! Registration for the February 8-10, 2012 event is up on the Warner Pacific website. On Facebook, you can also find the link to the event page from our Warner Pacific Alumni group homepage. I hope to see each of our alumni back on campus in February!

Have a merry Christmas!!

Shave the Date

2011-12-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

Before I hop on a plane to Munich, Germany tomorrow morning to check out some Bavarian castles this weekend, I’d like to declare an American holiday: December 1st marks our freedom from the tyranny of beards.

November 30th was the final day of Mustache November, or “Movember,” a nationwide effort to increase awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancers. Throughout Movember, guys could also enlist sponsors as they grew out ridiculous looking mustaches- as opposed to the socially acceptable kind?- to raise money for prostate cancer research.

I suppose Movember needn’t be restricted to men, but any woman sporting a Movember mustache in her profile picture is just BEGGING to be blocked on Facebook.

Alas, a lack of personal conviction quickly deteriorated my most Movember of intentions... ...into an observation of the increasingly popular “No Shave November” movement this year. The results were significantly less noble, but only slightly less silly looking.

In the midst of removing my proverbial Beard Goggles yesterday, I posed for some deliciously down-home pictures of what could have been. I think the trucker hat and the "Gun Show" display really sell it, no? But don’t laugh… I took time away from my busy schedule of shotgun blasting cans in my backyard for this photo session.

Lena, my insanely cute 2 ½ month old daughter, barely recognized me clean shaven yesterday. After all, I’d been growing a beard for nearly half of her life.

Kathy had been holding out hope for a long term facial hair commitment, so I waited until she was distracted with Lena to unleash the razor. Everything went according to plan... Who could possibly resist being immersed in Lena’s wide eyed charms?

By the way, shame on anyone who read the title of this BlogSpot post in hopes of nabbing ideas for a surprise romantic evening. Trust me, this will not end well.

Stick with the roses, Romeo.

Top 5 Recent Trips- #4: Cross USA Visiting Spree

2011-11-26T15:07:00.001-08:00

IMAG0396.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Click the “Play” arrow directly above for a video of me on the field of Dallas Cowboys Stadium making an endzone to endzone touchdown run, all while recovering from a bum leg. I have no shame. Scroll halfway down this BlogSpot post for a second video clip of me getting little too excited to be celebrating in the endzone.

Kathy and I met up at the Portland Airport on Sunday night, May 1st with Copenhagen, Denmark in our sights. Poland was our backup plan, with a possible day or two in Amsterdam on the return trip. How quickly plans can change.

President Obama broke the news across all the TV channels just minutes before Kathy arrived at PDX that Sunday night: Osama bin Laden had just been killed by U.S. Navy Seal Team Six, and a televised terror alert was issued for all Americans traveling abroad. Some extremist Muslim cleric made a retaliatory statement proclaiming that anywhere Americans are spotted in the world, they will be killed. Whatever.

I was unfazed. But with PDX passengers’ eyes still glued to the TV screens, my coworkers at the Delta ticket counter staff that night unanimously condemned my foolhardy plans to leave for an overseas trip that night. Kathy was also growing more than a little concerned. And, on the final day of my Delta swing shift, my own excitement for the Europe trip was ever so slightly dimmed by some sad goodbyes that I had just shared with people that I had regularly looked forward to seeing at PDX in the evenings.

Taking Kathy’s reluctance into consideration, the world-traveling Hamiltons decided to do the unthinkable: Fly standby all over the place for a week without leaving the country.

I was scheduled to speak at Warner Pacific’s commencement ceremony the following weekend, so we’d have cut our trip short and keep moving.

We drove home from the airport that night, prayed, brainstormed a list of dozens of the friends whom we had promised to hook up with “next time we’re in the area,” and sketched out a potential list of U.S. cities for a lightning round of visits. Here’s how the week played out:

Salt Lake City, Utah

After a hailstorm of texts and Facebook messages prior to being seated in Business Class on our flight to Salt Lake City, we missed the opportunity to connect with my friend Joe by a matter of minutes after arriving in the SLC airport.

We scrapped our self-imposed “Maximum 12 hour rule” for alerting friends of our visit in favor of a relatively generous 48 hour notice. The original shorter notice was intended to allow our friends a plausible reason for graciously declining a hookup. Wasn’t that considerate of us?

After getting kicked off a city bus that was headed downtown, we returned to the SLC airport for dinner and hopped on a red eye flight for…

Atlanta, Georgia

The early morning stop in Atlanta was completely unplanned, so we didn’t bother to see if any of Atlanta buddies were available. We quickly decided to continue on to visit Kathy’s brother, Tony in…

Washington, D.C.

After flying from Atlanta to Washington, DC in Business Class, Kathy got her first view of our nation’s capital on a mid-morning stroll through the city. Kathy had already given Tony a courtesy call from PDX airport to give him a heads up about our potential visit to D.C.

Tony met us at Potbelly’s for lunch so we could catch up over sandwiches and chips, agreeing to store our carry-on baggage at his desk in the General Accountability Office near the White House. With lightened loads, we parted ways with Tony and spent the day ticking off a few of our must-see sights, including Capitol Hill, some of the Smithsonian museums, and that little shack they call the White House.

In defiance of the snipers perched atop the White House roof, Kathy nonchalantly tossed our Delta standby itinerary (revealing our names, printed in bold letters) onto the White House lawn. Okay, she claims it was the wind. Either way, we were relieved to see our names evade the No Fly List for our next flight.

Come to think of it, those scrambled F16 fighter planes WERE flying rather close to our Business Class windows (or maybe the windows were just dirty?) as we flew through a fierce thunderstorm into…

Atlanta, Georgia

We had listed for our evening flight into ATL at the last minute, with impossibly short connections to nearly everywhere that we wanted fly that night. We decided to forego hooking up with any Atlanta friends in search of fairer weather.

As we ran for the departure gates in the ATL airport, I called up Kristin Cook, a college buddy from my Warner Pacific days, to ask if she and her husband Philip would appreciate a drop-in at their new place in Dallas. She excitedly threw out the welcome mat for us over the phone.

The Atlanta thunderstorm delayed our outbound flight just long enough for us to list ourselves and slip onboard. We lifted off back into the night to be tossed around by the thunderstorm as we escaped Atlanta to land in…

Dallas, Texas

Philip and Kristen really knocked themselves out on this one. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, they drove 45 minutes each way to pick us up at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, set us up in their decked out guest room, and loaned us their air-conditioned car (!) the next day so we could drive around the Dallas area to our hearts’ content.

On Day 4, after a startling tornado-warning siren wakeup call and quick stop at regional joint Whataburger, we made a beeline for the one stop on this trip that was actually planned: the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

Of course, we sprung for the Dallas Cowboys Stadium VIP Guided Tour. It was the only way to gain full access to the field, locker rooms, the VIP clubs, Jerry Jones’ private booth, and the Press Box.

They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and I won’t even attempt to list all of the shattered “world’s biggest” records in Cowboys Stadium. It was simply astounding, just like my Dallas Cowboys.

Click the “Play” arrow on the video above to see a brief clip of my ridiculous celebration dance in the end zone of Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Can you blame me for getting my money’s worth on the stadium tour?]

Flash-forward…
Lena wouldn’t be born until 9-10-11, so touring Cowboys Stadium was one of the highlights of my year up until that point.
…Resume Flashback

Over BBQ ribs on the town that evening, Phillip and Kristen talked us into staying an extra night at their house in Dallas before flying out to our next spot. They didn’t exactly have to twist our arms. We really enjoyed their company and hospitality, and friends are more important than improv itineraries.

With an unplanned bonus night of restful sleep under our belt, we easily beat the sunrise on Day 5 with a 45 minute drive to DFW airport, a trip to Atlanta-- no time to catch up with our ATL friends this time, either-- a quick layover, and Business Class seats on a morning flight into…

Vegas, baby, VEGAS!

We hadn’t seen our friends Brent and Jennifer Anderson since I was teaching our young married couple’s class at First Church of God in Vancouver, Washington. Jenn picked us up at the Las Vegas airport so we could catch up over breakfast at their upscale house in the ‘burbs. As was the case with the other friends that we visited that week…even the unmentioned ones that we ran into in passing… there was so much of their lives that we had missed out on. Kathy and I can and have traveled to Vegas whenever we want, but the glitz and glam of the Strip can’t compete with quality time with good friends.

Later, hit the Strip we did. It was Cinco de Mayo all day in Vegas, and we made it our goal to revisit as much of Vegas on foot as we Mexi-CAN.
We made stops for lunch at B.B. King’s House of Blues AND at Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo, where the blaring rock music sporadically faded for a serenade by a house mariachi band. Taking in the kitsch of the Vegas Strip was fun, as always.

Later, we made the mistake of delaying our evening plans with Brent and Jenn to watch Treasure Island’s evening performance of "Sirens of TI." Look, I love big explosions and high flying stunts as much as the next guy. But this badly lip-synced, absurdly sexed-up update of Treasure Island's previously fun pirate adventure show left us with the most irritating theme song in performance history clawing at our brains for the rest of the evening. Fans of the original T.I. pirate adventure need not apply.

The highlight of the day, by far, was heading out to the Tuscany Grill that night with Brent and Jenn. The place eventually shut down for the night, so we stayed up late with them afterwards, sharing many of the joys and sorrows that helped make us who we are. We couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to wrap up our week.

Atlanta

Our morning flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta on the morning of Day 6 was one of the few times that we got bumped back into Coach Class. No complaints here, especially with the roomy bulkhead seats. Even though it was our fourth stop in Atlanta for the week, you guessed it, we yet again opted out of finding friends to hit up for a visit. Being more accustomed to long international flights, we were getting exhausted from a week of bouncing around from city to city.

I wanted to rest up for speaking at Warner Pacific’s commencement ceremony the next morning, so we decided to hop on the first flight from Atlanta with open seats in Business Class that was headed for…

Home

A flat tire greeted us in the PDX employee parking lot. I changed more than the tire that day, though. After 15+ years of world traveling, I had changed my whole perspective on flying standby.

I’ll never stop craving my next overseas adventure, but there are so many places to be discovered and rediscovered right here in the United States. Maybe we should consider taking more vacations within our own country.

Nah… That can wait. Let the world traveling resume!

Give Thanks

2011-11-24T21:43:00.000-08:00

It’s easy to give thanks when you have so much. In my prayer life this week, I’ve been trying to live out the Apostle Paul’s instructions to “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Joy comes easily to me, as does regular prayer and giving thanks. Here is a visual of what has been bringing me joy recently:

When Paul wrote the words above to the Thessalonians, he had yet to be pushed to the brutal limits that would test his positive attitude. Those days would come, but Paul had already given himself some guidelines for keeping his joyful, prayerful, and thankful attitude, regardless of the circumstances.

I can relate. Being blessed with such a good life so far, learning to “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances” seems as basic as studying 3rd grade math. It’s not that my life is perfect. There are quite a few things that I wish I could change. However, I am instinctually grateful and choose to give thanks for…

… a loving and supportive wife Kathy, a nearly 2 ½ month old beautiful baby daughter Lena, an amazing immediate and extended family, my middle school and high school students, a caring church family, encouraging friends, the opportunity to serve in ministry, various jobs that help me pay the bills and travel the world, a nice house, a comfortable lifestyle with all the “toys” that come along with it, and most significantly a Savior who loves each of us enough to give up His life for us. The list goes on and on. And I don’t deserve any of these things.

It’s easy to give thanks when you have so much. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Nursing FAIL!

2011-11-13T09:56:00.001-08:00

DSC_0980_Blog.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Apologizes to my future teenage daughter Lena, but I’ve had so many requests from friends that I HAD to cave in and post this photo to BlogSpot. A hungry Lena got confused between daddy and mommy while I was holding her. She latched!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start inspecting the child safety caps on every bottle, tube, and asbestos canister in the house.

I’ll see you all back here at the end of next week as we resume the Top 5 Recent Trips countdown that I teased at the end of last night’s mammoth 30+ picture post here on BlogSpot.

Lena's First Two Months... A Photo Fest!!

2011-11-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

Saturday night update: Tons of photos added!

DSC_0284_edited-1.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Since Lena’s birth two months ago on 9-10-11, I’ve been making an effort to upload a current picture or two of our adorable baby daughter in every BlogSpot entry that I post. Posting only a few times each month unfortunately means that the majority of our uploaded Lena pictures are never made “public” for posting here on BlogSpot.

Before we get started, these are my two most recent photos of Lena, with this last one taken with Granny Lora and Grandpa Tom yesterday as we celebrated her 2 month birthday!

Lena didn’t grow this big overnight, although it seemed that way. So to catch everyone up, here are a few of our favorite moments (in no particular order, and not counting the delivery/hospital pics) from Lena’s first 2 months:

After driving Kathy and Lena home after our exhausting 101+ hour hospital stay, I proudly carried Lena inside our house for the first time…

…and we got ready to spend our first night at home with Lena.

Hitting the town for the first time with a five day old Lena (Bo took this picture of us at Five Guys)

Sneaking in naps at home with Lena

Home visits from family and friends…

…including each of the members of our church family who brought us meals and baby clothes while Kathy was recovering from surgery. Thanks, friends!

Bringing Lena to work to show off Lena to Kathy's coworkers at the Portland Clinic (6 days old)…
…and to my friends from Delta Airlines who listened to the soothing sounds of Lena screaming her little head off at the Portland International Airport

Chilling on the bed, celebrating Lena’s 2nd week birthday

Lena's debut Sunday morning appearance at Aloha Church of God- The proud papa shows off Baby Lena to our church family for the first time!

Waiting until Lena’s 3rd week birthday for her first ever bath

All of our parents coming to Aloha Church of God to participate in Lena’s dedication ceremony, followed by my solo performance of “My Savior, My God”

Lena gets her first tummy time on the floor, to exercise her neck.

On her fifth week birthday, Lena flails around on her padded mat in the living room.

Daddy/baby bonding after coming home from work at Delta Airlines, and on the couch

Our cousins gather to see Lena for the first time at Bo's "A Welcoming Party for Lena" at my parent’s house in Vancouver (photo taken by Bo with his camera)

...And on Halloween night, Garth Brooks takes Lena, his little strawberry, on a tour of our church’s “Trunk or Treat” car displays.

Being the overly cautious parents that we are (um, discuss?), we decided to wait until Lena was at least one month old before taking her on her first ever hike. Since she was new to Oregon (5 weeks!), Lena naturally wanted to take an inaugural hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls.

Since then, we’ve been trying on most weeks to get Lena out on various trails in the area. Our first camping trip with Lena can’t be too far off!

On that note, I was disappointed last week to cancel what would have been Lena’s first international vacation. Our pediatrician deemed it a bad idea to take her overseas before she had even turned 2 months old, so I relented in the interest of Lena’s health and safety. I’m hoping to start traveling with her overseas by early 2012, though!

In the meantime, I’ve decided to resurrect my “Top 5 Recent Trips” countdown here on BlogSpot. Hint: My #4 pick was directly impacted by the night that Osama bin Laden was killed, but we ended up having an amazing time anyway. So check back here during the week of Thanksgiving for…

Top 5 Recent Trips: Part 4!!

Happy 11-11-11 11:11:11 from Delta Airlines!!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

IMAG1371.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

...And happy No Shave November!

1/8/12 Update: For anyone who is curious, here is how baby Lena celebrated the dozen #1s that graced the displays of digital clocks everywhere in that moment:

She couldn't have been more excited!

Our First Family Portraits

2011-11-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

s41079cc153783_18_1.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Today is Lena’s 2 month birthday! Way, way back when she was a mere 6 weeks old, we had our first family portraits taken at Washington Square Mall. I’ve included a few of our favorite pictures and collages here.

A big ol’ thanks goes out to Lena’s Auntie Cheryl for buying us a photo package. We didn’t use it this time, but at least it got us in the door. Besides, family Christmas photos are just around the corner!

Peace out.

The David Crowder Band Bids Adieu

2011-10-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

VIDEO0065 a video by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Hit the “Play” arrow above for a video of the David Crowder Band launching into one of their sing-a-long anthems, “There Is No One Like You,” last week at the Crystal Ballroom.

The era of the David Crowder Band is sadly coming to an end. Tickets sold out early for last week’s final Portland appearance of the DC*B at the Crystal Ballroom. After weeks of hunting down (and bribing friends for) seats for the gig, Kathy and I scored a couple tickets from a top secret source just hours before show time.

At the 11th hour, I booked our first ever babysitter (my mom, who had volunteered to be on standby for that night in the unlikely event that I actually got tickets) to take care of Baby Lena into the wee hours of the next morning. I gave Grandma Hamilton the over-protective new dad instructions about Lena’s feeding schedule, proper fire extinguisher handling, etc., before hopping into the Jeep with Kathy and cruising towards downtown Portland.

A brief snag outside the door of the Crystal Ballroom kept us outside as Chris August (or was it John Mark McMillan?) opened with an acoustic set of his smooth, radio friendly folk-pop. We caught the last couple of songs.

As anticipated, it was the three piece Gungor band who stole the opening show with a sampling of their unusual approach to musical experimentation and song structure. I was pleased that their unconventional musical style (complete with frequent instrument swaps and flourishes of Sufjan Stevens) wasn’t watered down for the Top 40 loving crowd.

“What was up with that Michael Gungor guy?,” David Crowder later mused to the fans. “Did he have musical instruments coming out of his mouth?”

From the opening crescendo of “The Earth is Yours” to the closing beatbox outro of “Beautiful Things” [click the “Play” arrow above for a video clip], Gungor experimented with a little of everything. Even the band’s beautiful (and decidedly weirder) new material translated well to a live setting.

David Crowder finally took the stage for an introspective solo piano rendering of “SMS (Shine).” As the rest of the DC*B began to appear, the gentle melody gradually swelled into a wall of sound that became “Alleluia, Sing.” The rowdy crowd sing along, “There is No One Like You” [See the video clip at the top of this BlogSpot post] typically saved for the final stretch of any DC*B show, set the tone for the rest of the night.

For the next two hours, the DC*B brought a sense of genuine spontaneity to their classics, new material, and even a couple of yet unreleased album cuts.
The most memorable unscripted moment (pictured above) was David Crowder interrupting the band's performance of “You Are My Joy” to address a fan who was waving a sign that asked if he could play guitar on “Everything Glorious.” After some lighthearted mocking (“Y’all are bringing signs now? You’re making me feel like Justin Bieber.”), Crowder invited the guy onstage, handed his guitar over to him, and obliged him with a lifetime of bragging rights.

Crowd pleasing silliness like the “hoedown” segment [click the “Play” arrow above for a video clip] showcased the DC*B’s versatility and provided yet another layer to their unique, worshipful mishmash of rock guitars, violin, synths, and DJ-style record scratching.

Other than the trucker hat that unfortunately concealed David Crowder’s trademark frizz-fro hairdo, the main departure from past DC*B shows was the level of chattiness from Crowder himself. I mean, the man talked. A lot. And rather than being preachy (which he rarely is anyway, aside from passionate pleas for social action), most of his stream of consciousness banter flowed from a heart filled with love for God, gratefulness for us DC*B fans, and bittersweet sentimentality towards his soon-to-be-former bandmates.

*****
Sporting my DC*B fan t-shirt during a recent EPIC Wednesday night session (with Kathy and Lena)
*****

Earlier in the show, Crowder had hilariously feigned offence when his guitar player justifiably heckled him for a forgettable, cringe-worthy joke.

Crowder’s wry comeback, “No wonder we’re breaking up,” drew a startling amount of boos and jeers from the fans.

“Whoa. Two songs into it, and the crowd is already turning on us,” Crowder reeled. “Too soon?”

Lena Hamilton: The Adventure Begins, Part 2 of 2

2011-10-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

DSC_0164.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Above: Celebrating Lena's one month birthday on 10/10/11!

Here’s what you missed from Part 1: Kathy and I had checked into St. Vincent Hospital on Friday, September 9, two days after our due date, to see a doctor about her unusual bleeding. Potentially life-threatening drama ensued. Got that?

Five days in the hospital and over $30,000 in medical bills later (mostly covered by insurance, thankfully), we took home a beautiful baby girl. I could go into detail about every health scare we had in the meantime… but let’s skip to the good part: 9/10/11, the Saturday night that Lena Esther Hamilton was born!
*****
For the first 36 or so hours after checking into St. Vincent hospital on Friday morning, our doctors had been assuring us that it was still reasonably safe to plan for a natural delivery (Plan A). On Saturday evening, though, a doctor eventually warned us that the risk of Plan A was beginning to outweigh the risk of a cesarean delivery. Kathy was still suffering from the unexplained bleeding and had only dilated 6 cm, even after the doctor broke her water and administered pitocin to induce labor earlier that day. More alarming was that baby Lena’s heartbeat dropped to dangerous lows each time Kathy had a contraction. We didn’t know how much more her little heart could take.

“We’ve got to get this baby out of you,” the doctor ultimately counseled us, before Lena’s heart “hits a wall.”

Hearing that our situation was taking a turn for the worse, we didn’t hesitate to authorize the surgery. We changed into our scrubs, split up, and rendezvoused in the operating room.

The C-section surgery itself was quick and “painless,” thanks to the efficient skill of the St. Vincent maternity staff and the anesthesia (and earlier epidural injection) that Kathy was given. I remained at Kathy’s head during the procedure, with full view of the surgical cutting and pulling that was happening on the other side of the blue curtain which obstructed Kathy’s view of her torso. Even as Kathy’s lower abdomen was sliced open, there was an eerie silence. No sounds of a baby crying… just the noise of operating room chatter and instruments being carefully operated.

At exactly 10:18 p.m. on 9/10/11, the anesthesiologist (who had been closely eyeing me for signs of passing out) abruptly shouted for me to grab my camera and stand up. The very moment that I rose to peek over the top of the dividing curtain, Dr. Morrison was lifting our beautiful baby daughter of Kathy’s mid-section. [Photo removed] My hands trembled as I managed to squeeze off a few blurry shots of Lena drawing her first breath. After cutting her umbilical cord, the nurses invited me over to watch as they wiped Lena off and weighed her in at a whopping 8 lbs. 15 oz.!

This is one of my favorite photos ever, and the very first picture of the three of us!! We are all together in the delivery room for the first time after Lena's birth, and Kathy is still lying on the operating table as I hold our newborn daughter. Priceless!!

While the doctors finished sewing up Kathy in the delivery room, I carried baby Lena back to our posh birthing suite so head nurse Jodi could prepare her to be swaddled. For the next 15 minutes or so, I had Lena all to myself. I prayed over her, changed her first diaper, spoke to her words of affirmation, and gently rocked her back and forth as we waited for Kathy to be rolled back into the room. I savored each of these 15 minutes of heaven.

Our family reunion of three in the birthing suite lasted a couple of hours. At some point, I slipped out into the lobby to break the good news about Lena’s birth to our waiting family and friends.

We were soon transferred to the post-partum recovery ward by an attendant who strategically devised our highly classified route to achieve his top secret mission: Transfer the package (us) with extreme efficiency, and evade en route interference (our family and friends) at all cost.
You’ve gotta feel for our excited parents (pictured down the hall, in the deep background), who had been cordoned off like paparazzi while impatiently waiting into the wee hours of the morning to catch their first glimpse of their granddaughter Lena.

Just before 2 a.m. on Sunday, September 11 (Day #3), we settled into our cramped post-partum recovery room. Sorely missing was the spacious design, high ceiling, scenic view, roomy bath, comfy couch and leather recliner of our birthing suite. We practically had to stack pieces of furniture and exhale all the air from our lungs to squeeze in our family for their first middle-of-the-night visitation.

The next few days spent in the St. Vincent post-partum recovery ward were a blur of sleepless nights, exhausting days, invaluable instruction and care from the nursing staff, visits from family and friends, and intimate time spent getting to know our wonderful newborn baby daughter, Lena.

Here are a few of our favorite photos from those last three days at the hospital:

On Tuesday afternoon (Day 5), we were finally released from St. Vincent’s hospital. Our first few joyous days with Lena had flown by. Although being cooped up in that tiny room for one minute longer would’ve certainly led to a scrappy jailbreak, we left with nothing but high praise for the outstanding care of the hospital staff.

With the help of my dad, I loaded Kathy and our newborn baby Lena (now weighing 15 oz. less) into the car and drove the three of us home.

...And so the adventure begins!

Lena Hamilton: The Adventure Begins, Part 1 of 2

2011-10-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

P1020405_edited-1.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

HAPPY ONE MONTH BIRTHDAY, LENA!!! These first four weeks of your life have felt like a few short days.

In a comment on one of my previous Blogspot posts, my cousin Holly suggested that Kathy and I becoming parents would play right into our love for adventure. Taking a look back at the events that led up to her birth on Saturday, 9-10-11, it was apparent even back then that this was going to be one rip-roaring adventure story indeed. Here’s how it all went down last month:

It was Friday, September 9, and Kathy and I were already two days past our due date. We were scheduled to induce labor exactly one week later.

My lunch break that morning at the PDX airport food court was interrupted by a call from Kathy at around 9 a.m. Before she even had a chance to finish explaining about her inexplicable bleeding and strange contractions that morning, my legs had already started sprinting for the elevator. I burst back into my Delta work area downstairs and strung together a couple of coworkers to drive me across the ramp to grab my bag, and then out to the employee parking lot.

Thanks to some “efficient” driving, I was able to get home in no time flat (although leaving the soft top off of my Jeep Wrangler at that speed may have inadvertently jettisoned a couple of loose items from the back seat—my apologies to the environment). Kathy and I threw together some light overnight bags (just in case, right?) at the house and headed for St. Vincent hospital.

The doctor had established over the phone that Kathy was not in labor, so we didn’t sense much urgency in the friendly receptionist who checked us into the maternity ward. After all, Kathy wasn’t even dilated, and her contractions were infrequent.
After being shown to our triage room, we listened to our baby’s heartbeat and were treated to a bonus sonogram of Lena. The baby seemed to be healthy, with one mysterious exception: every time Kathy had a contraction, the baby’s heartbeat would drop into double-digit lows. The doctor seemed concerned about this phenomenon, yet assured us that her heartbeat was otherwise strong. Her tone grew grimmer, however, after seeing the amount of blood that Kathy had lost.

“You won’t be going home today. We’re gonna keep you here for the next few days… until your baby is born,” she calmly but sternly informed us after stepping out of the triage room for a moment.

The gravity of those words had little time to sink in. As if on cue, a parade of 3-4 nurses filed into the room and began hurriedly unhooking Kathy from the various instruments and preparing her for an immediate room transfer.

Minutes later, nurses Amanda (in training) and Susan had us set up in a roomy birthing suite with a comfy couch, recliner, private bath, and a beautiful view of the scenery outside. In the hours that followed, the nursing staff began to be less concerned with Kathy’s bleeding and more fixated on baby Lena’s heart’s increasingly erratic reactions to the contractions.

At random moments throughout the night, a team of nurses would unexpectedly storm into our birthing suite and frantically adjust Kathy’s position, tubing, and Pitocin levels (to encourage dilation). At one point in the wee hours of the morning, nurses Jen, Shawna, and company charged in and ordered Kathy to roll over onto her hands and knees to raise our baby’s heartbeat back up from a dangerously low rate.

It was a long, traumatic night for us, to say the least. Fortunately, we felt comfort knowing that God was in control… and that the competent, attentive hospital staff was monitoring our situation from the central nursing station right outside our door.

The tension increased on September 10, the next day.
Day 2 was peppered with health scares, visits to the birthing suite from our families to offer us encouragement and prayer support, and rare moments of rest.

Kathy’s low dose of Pitocin had been temporarily discontinued overnight due to the stress of the contractions on baby Lena’s heart. In some cases, her heartbeat would spike to an insanely fast 205 BPM, only to drop as low as 60 BPM… while sometimes not registering at all. Lena’s heart could only take so much.

Rather than risk Lena’s life by waiting for Kathy to dilate, the doctor on staff made the decision to accelerate the process by manually breaking Kathy’s water (moments after this photo was taken) and inducing labor. There was no turning back now.

(SPOILER ALERT) At that point, we weren’t out of the woods yet. But as my upcoming BlogSpot post will describe later this week, everything in the maternity ward ultimately turned out alright (as everyone knows by now). Baby Lena was not only born with a strong heartbeat, but she continues to be blessed with good health and a loving family as she begins her second month of life!

To be continued…

My next BlogSpot post will include a bunch of photos from baby Lena's delivery and first days, as well as another current picture. Let the good times roll!

More photos of baby Lena to come!

2011-09-24T02:47:00.001-07:00

Lena Esther with Parents for Columbian Large.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Near the end of our exhausting 100+ hour stay at St. Vincent hospital, Bo took this photo of Kathy, me, and baby Lena as we got ready to take our newborn daughter home with us!

Our newborn daughter Lena turns two weeks old tonight! I’m bummed that my paternity leave from Delta is ending in a few minutes, but I am so thankful for the time I’ve spent this past week or so taking care of Kathy (as much as she allowed me to) and our darling little baby girl.

By this point, many of my readers have been wondering (quite loudly, in some cases) why I haven’t been posting any baby updates, pictures, etc. After all, I DID announce last time that a BlogSpot delivery room recap would be posted here this week.

Friends, I have heard your cries. Lena’s lungs are doing their darnedest to drown them out each night, but I’m still listening. I briefly considered posting a caps-lock down, caffeine fueled rant about the countless hours I’ve spent trying to convince my new Nikon DSLR camera that, among other things, baby Lena’s delivery room photos were NOT taken on September 11th. Rather, I’ll keep my explanation simple:

The pictures just aren’t quite ready to upload yet. They will be soon, though. If these pictures were of anything other than our daughter’s birth, I would’ve settled for less than perfect.

Last night, I realized that I had run out of reasonable solutions to my mounting technical issues. I took a deep breath and embarked on the most maddeningly tedious process of photo adjusting that I could ever imagine. Personally, sitting in front of a computer is not how I prefer to spend my free time. But it will be a relief when I'm finally done getting Lena's baby pictures "un-messed up."

First things first, though. I think I just heard the sound of our little gift from heaven in the other room, asking for some loving attention. Daddy’s coming!

9-10-11: The Day that Lena Esther Hamilton Entered Our World!!!

2011-09-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

DSC_0748.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Last night at 10:18, Kathy gave birth to our first child, Lena Esther Hamilton! Lena is a beautiful, healthy baby who stole our hearts from the moment that we first laid eyes on her. Kathy and I will be staying here at St. Vincent Hospital for the next few days as Kathy recovers from her C-section surgery.

I will continue this BlogSpot post throughout our stay here at St. Vincent (we've been here for 50+ hours so far), uploading additional photos and telling Lena’s story. The hospital’s WiFi network is not playing nice with my computer’s security programs, so I will add each section (including this opening) and a few select photos each time that I am able to connect online.

Thank you, friends, for your prayers and supportive words as we watched God miraculously move to bring our baby daughter, Lena, into this world!

9/13/11 Tuesday update:

For the remainder of our nearly 101 hour stay in the hospital, I didn't find a good opportunity to continue this post as I had planned. In fact, Kathy and I just got home from the hospital and have put baby Lena down in her new bassinet for the first time!! I'll post a brand new BlogSpot post here early next week.

Our Baby's Due Date Is... Yesterday?

2011-09-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Note: Additional photos added!

IMG_3282_edited-1.JPG, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Celebrating my birthday at Cooper Mountain

After waiting all this time for our baby daughter’s September 7 due date to arrive, the day came and went with nothing more than a small scare. When my alarm went off at 2 a.m. yesterday for my morning shift at Delta, Kathy was feeling nauseous and was experiencing irregular contractions. I called Delta to tell them not to expect me at the airport for my shift.

Later that morning, I took Kathy in to see our OBGYN. She assured us that Kathy’s condition and her false contractions were nothing to be concerned about. Before sending us home, our doctor recommended that we schedule a stress test next Wednesday, followed by an appointment to induce labor a week from this Friday. Kathy and I never really expected our baby daughter to be born by her September 7 due date, but hopefully she comes sooner the end of next week! Either way, we’ll be excited for her to arrive.

Our baby daughter’s room is all set up for the big day, and we can’t wait to finally bring her home to sleep in it.

This photo was taken by Christi Kurtz.
We have been blessed with a small army of friends and family who, when all is said and done, will have thrown us a total of seven(!) baby showers.

Our baby daughter will have enough toys, outfits, and diapers to keep her stylin’ with the best of them.

This past summer, Kathy and I have been taking advantage of our last hassle-free opportunities for uninterrupted “us” time, "me" time, and family time before our baby arrives.
Getaways such as flying overseas or driving to our family’s annual Banks Lake camping trip in July have been relaxing, but they are too few and too brief. This year, we even had to cut our Banks Lake vacation short so I could fly out in the middle of the week for Delta Care Team training in Atlanta. But next year, we’ll look forward to bringing our little one along to the lake!

We often hear about how important it is for parents to schedule “date nights” and outings with each other:

We’ll never need to be reminded to head out on the town together, but we realize that becoming parents may make our “get out” time less frequent and more complicated to pull off. Somehow, though, we’ll continue to make it happen.

Personally, I’ve been making the most of my pre-baby life by squeezing in as many hiking, trail running, backpacking, and camping trips as I can manage while juggling family, ministry, work, and social life.

Friends tell me often that, as a father, I’ll have to cut back on so many things that I love to do. I’m totally at peace with that, since we'll soon have a baby girl who is gonna need the best that we can give her. Our lives are about to change for the better!

Birthday Memories- Morro Bay Family Reunion 2010

2011-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yep, today is my birthday. Normally I love birthdays, but last year’s August 12 was spectacularly awful for me… retake after retake of deafening blank bullets on the indoor set of an unexpectedly long 16+ hour TV show shoot, missing my late evening birthday dinner with Kathy (who first got stuck on a MAX train that was held up for a death on the tracks, followed by riding a bus that was held up by a hit bicyclist, followed by an hours long wait for me outside the set for hours, before finally leaving for home hungry and Garthless), and capping off the final minutes of my birthday night with a particularly unfortunate grub run (complete with getting hit by not one, but two clearly unwelcome “romantic” advances) all by myself in downtown Portland. Worst. Birthday. Ever.

My one-week earlier birthday celebration last year, however, was worthy of an honorable mention on my Top 5 Recent Trips countdown. And even though my monthly Top 5 countdown is on hiatus until ~~September~~ November, I couldn’t resist trotting out a few memories from last year’s family reunion in California.

The same week that I returned via motorcycle/bus/train/car from our 2010 Banks Lake trip, my parents picked me up in their RV from work at PDX for the drove down to California’s Morrow Bay State Park for our family reunion.

My mom’s side of the family includes ministers, teachers, and just all around good people (and I dearly love my dad’s side of the family, too!). When you have a family as wonderful as mine, every moment spent together is a highlight. However, a few things did stand out from that week:

Spending the day with my amazing cousin, Jefferson: buying camp supplies in town, munching pizza... ... and shedding campfire smoke-induced tears together as we prepared the tri-tips for dinner

The impossibly scrumptious fire-grilled food

Late night chats by the campfire

Hitting the town of Morro Bay with the cousins, enjoying coffee together, and shopping for threads and shades at the TKD Surf Shop… By the way, thanks for buying me that TDK birthday hoodie, Brian! It keeps me warm on my camping trips and those chilly morning commutes to PDX when I have my Jeep’s soft top off (like this morning).

Watching the scenery blur past me on the Amtrak ride home, from San Louis Obispo to Portland...

… Where the amusing social experiment of seating complete strangers next to each other in a dining car ended up landing me some new friends! The one in the glasses is Fram.

Those are the birthday memories that I want to remember from last year.

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Update- Aug 2011

2011-07-28T08:10:00.001-07:00

IMAG0851.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Summer is in full swing, and our student ministry has shifted gears to demonstrate an even greater emphasis on the importance of serving those around us.

Our E.P.I.C. Wednesday night teaching series, “Made to Make a Difference,” has inspired our middle and high schoolers with stories of young people who have made an impact in their world through their acts of service.

After a few brainstorming sessions, our students have decided that our time and resources would be best used to create and distribute care packages for the needy in downtown Portland. Other ideas for future student-led service projects are also being kicked around, focusing specifically on our local community.

Our fun summer activities so far include:
Garth and Ben climbing Washington State’s steep Dog Mountain, pounding out 2800 feet in less than 1 ½ hours

Holding a special E.P.I.C. session at Garth and Kathy’s house to plan for our upcoming urban service project

Sending in the “hands team” to assist our hands-less diners, to illustrate the importance of food distribution to the hungry

Working at Skyline Memorial Gardens for three days over Memorial Day Weekend as a student fundraiser/ministry opportunity; The “Gate 1” portion of our group is featured in this last photo

Our wildly successful Dessert Auction, featuring Jeff Buckles’ second appearance as auctioneer

Graduation parties for Kenny Degman and others (our church’s own Michaela Cochran is pictured with her older sister, former AChoG student/graduate Bethany Bird)

Celebrating the last day of school with a round of Musical Pies the following week

Going ahead with our anticipated water balloon toss, just as a surprise torrential downpour in July (!) was starting to taper off

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are a few bonus photos for this month:

Kez, Kenny, and Derek battle it out on the PS3: Playstation 3 Move "Sharp Shooter" motion controller vs. the regular Move motion controller

Students work together to build competing human pyramids.

Wow, this pie went EVERYWHERE!

Our younger students get their first driving experience at Skyline Memorial Gardens.

Sorry, but neither the terrifying student driver video clip nor the infamous “ear discharge” photo will be posted here on BlogSpot. For the love of all things decent, please hit me up for those privately.

Listless in July and August (No Top 5)

2011-07-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

IMAG0933_edited-1.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Due to my extremely crowded summer schedule, my “Top 5 Recent Vacations” BlogSpot list is on a two month hiatus. Kathy and I returned late last night from our family’s annual Banks Lake, WA camping/boating trip, and this morning I’m flying out for Delta Care Team training in Atlanta a few hours from now. Pile on top of that our local student ministry, my day job at Delta, Oregon State Campmeeting at Warner Pacific next week, various camping/backpacking trips and day hikes, along with an unexpected (but very welcome) preaching opportunity for a week from Sunday… and it doesn’t seem that I’ll be at home to blog for a while.

My #4 Vacation destination entry(s) will be posted to BlogSpot in September (hint: it’s one final domestic destination). In the meantime, I’ll be sure to post an E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Update before the end of July and a short entry about this week’s Banks Lake boating trip in the next few weeks. Maybe I can use my flight time this morning to round up a few photos!

Video: Our Baby's Heartbeat!

2011-07-10T12:00:00.001-07:00

VIDEO0121 a video by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Click the “play” arrow on the video above for footage of our baby’s heartbeat reading from last week. On Tuesday, we had a substitute OB/GYN who allowed me to shoot photos and video of the procedure this time around.

At 140-150 B.P.M., I am thankful that our baby daughter’s heartbeat is still going strong. We are truly blessed!

It's Gonna Be a Girl!!

2011-07-09T23:49:00.001-07:00

Bonus: This weekend, I've added additional photos, stories, and video to my four previous Blogspot posts (not even including our baby's heartbeat video, to be added tomorrow). Cheers!

IMG_0003_20weeks.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

By the end of April, Kathy and I had waited over four months for what the sonogram picture above revealed: We’re gonna have a baby girl!!

Just the thought of being able to hold her in my arms is enough to make me yearn for September 7th to come early. If you look closely, you can see her holding up tiny hands next to her head. Adorable!

We made it through Easter Sunday without knowing her gender, but the joyful truth came out the following Tuesday.

After the gender reveal, this was another one of our favorite sonogram photos, back from Week 20. Her little feet are forming perfectly... we can already imagine them kicking around those soccer balls.

We celebrated the next evening at Baskin Robbins, after we wrapped up our E.P.I.C. student ministry session at church. The big B.R. was having their annual $.31 scoop day. Call us big spenders, but for big occasions like this you just have to splurge.

We only have 10 weeks of pregnancy left, but my wife Kathy is still getting out and staying active:

She’s still working at the Portland Clinic…

…She’s still hiking…

…She’s still coming along with me for live music and events (See last month's May 30 Blogspot post at http://garthhamilton.blogspot.com/2011/07/timbers-game-kathy-b-day-weekend.html for stories, pictures and a video from our recent Portland Timbers game on Kathy's birthday weekend. She had no idea that we were going!)

….And she’s still staying beautiful!

Here’s a fun story that happened on the Jeep drive home from that short Horsetail Falls hike, pictured above:
Kathy requested a quick rest stop at Multnomah Falls. Bored, I started browsing through the various name-engraved products in the gift shop while waiting, in search of inspiration for baby names. Kathy eventually walked in to find that all three employees had joined me on the impromptu name hunt!

So, did we finally decide on a name for our baby daughter? Maybe. We'll announce it as soon as we're sure. In the meantime, I'm planning to post a video of her latest heartbeat recording here on Blogspot tomorrow!

Tomorrow on Blogspot... A Pregnancy Update!

2011-07-08T22:02:00.001-07:00

IMAG0794.jpg, a photo by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Rather than go straight to this month’s # 4 pick for my Top 5 Recent Vacations countdown, I’m bowing to increasing pressure (via Facebook private messages, texts, phone calls, emails… I kid you not) from my Blogspot fans for a pregnancy update.

Well, there’s no need to get your meticulously preserved MC Hammer pants in a bunch… I’m working on a Blogspot update to post here tomorrow evening. I’m including sonogram pictures, a story or two, and (if I can figure out how to correctly embed a video this time) our baby’s heartbeat reading footage from earlier this week!

Timbers Game/ Kathy's B-Day Weekend

2011-06-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

VIDEO0112 a video by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Click on the “play” arrow above for a video clip of the Timbers fans (yep, that’s us) going wild after Portland scores their second goal, within two minutes of getting on the board with their first, against the New York Red Bulls.

Kathy has learned to expect the unexpected whenever a birthday, wedding anniversary, or random date night comes around. Her birthday this past weekend was no exception, although I have toned it down a bit over the years.

I always try my best to pepper Kathy’s birthday week with little gifts, surprises, and unexpected diversions.
The only thing that my wife actually requested this year was a birthday dinner at La Hacienda Real. I made sure to work that one in among my usual birthday “schemes.” Many, but not all, of my surprise ideas worked out as planned, and I was able to pull off the big finale: mid-field seats to the sold out soccer match-up between the Portland Timbers and the New York Red Bulls!

Kathy assumed that I was done with her birthday surprises/gifts on Saturday, her actual birthday. After church on Sunday, we drove down to her parents’ house in Salem for what appeared to be a relaxed lunch and gift opening party. She may have found it a little strange that I was rushing to get back on the road afterwards (I had made previous arrangements with her parents, who were in on the whole thing).

I tried to play it cool once we got to downtown Portland. We ducked into a crowded coffee shop, listened to a jazz band that was jamming on stage at Pioneer Courthouse Square, and finally grabbed dinner at a Mexican diner en route to Jeld-Wen Stadium. Kathy grew suspicious as the green war painted faces of the Timbers Army fans began to surround us as we walked towards the stadium.
I finally came clean when I realized that the gig was up.

Despite the Timbers 3-2 lead near the end of regulation, we ultimately got saddled with a 3-3 tie when an inexplicable Portland handball led to a game-ending penalty kick by New York during stoppage time. It was a great matchup, though, keeping the Timbers Army on their feet and inspiring deafening cheers right until the very end.

I’m hoping that this was yet another birthday weekend to remember.

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Update- June 2011

2011-06-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

From earlier this month...

Our E.P.I.C. student ministry is gearing up for a strong finish to the school year!
Wrapping up Garth’s teaching series on Christ’s self revelatory “I Am” statements has laid the foundation for our upcoming “Made to Make a Difference” sessions, which will emphasize changing the world through Christian acts of service.

From making memories during wild crowd-breakers like Steal the Bacon...

...Easter Egg Roulette...

...and Sardines...

...to putting on our most successful rummage sale ever...

...This has been a very memorable month!

April’s student “flow person”-led Sunday morning services continued through Easter Sunday and the rest of last month. (Kezin serving as M.C. on Palm Sunday and our church’s Easter morning breakfast are pictured).

Students also had opportunities to serve our community and our church family such as volunteering at our pancake breakfast

and helping relocate the church library to make room for the Food Cupboard outreach ministry.

A personal highlight of this past month was celebrating Alex Bates’ graduation with a Bachelor of Arts from Warner Pacific College. Back in September 2001, when we first accepted the position as youth pastors (referred to as interim youth pastors, at the time) here at Aloha Church of God, Alex was just entering the 7th grade. It was so inspirational to watch her receive her diploma,
and it was an honor for Garth to speak to the Class of 2011 at the WPC commencement ceremony. Way to go, Alex!!

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Top 5 Recent Trips- #5: Banks Lake, WA

2011-06-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 20: Sorry, readers- I'm heading out right now to the set of a TV show that is filming all night in downtown Portland, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to unlock and post the rest of my previously uploaded pictures here. Update: Photos added!

All but two of the recent vacations to be featured each month in my new Top 5 Blogspot countdown series were international trips to overseas destinations. So what makes Banks Lake, and the adjacent Coulee City, so special? Family tradition!

Yes, I know. This is a positively awful picture of us. But hopefully you already know how we look when we're NOT tent camping :)
Back when my sister Summer and I were little kids, Banks Lake replaced Oregon’s Lake Owyhee as our family’s annual summer boating getaway of choice.

Banks Lake has sunshine, hiking trails, and miles of wide open water to speed our boat across for wakeboarding, skiing, knee boarding, tubing, and jet skiing. Avoiding other boats’ wakes in the pursuit of glassy smooth water is never a problem.

And then, there’s always the family fave Steamboat Rock climb:
The immense size of the lake sometimes requires us to alternately cruise our boat or drive a car to climb hot, dusty Steamboat Rock ...or visit the massive Grand Coulee Dam for a laser light show at dusk (photo to be added, possibly Grand Coulee Dam from Crown Point State Park?).

We typically stay in a campground in remote, tiny Coulee City. Aside from the year that I brought a carload of joyously rowdy students by on the drive home from CreationFest in the Gorge Amphitheater, the campground is typically a peaceful, quiet area with a boat launch and a couple of desert county stores nearby.

The streets of Coulee City, a small grain and livestock community, are marked by grain silos and pavement that gives way to dusty dirt roads. There is a friendly, cozy Presbyterian church that we visit whenever we are in Coulee City on a Sunday morning. We kids have also been known to wander into town to catch a show from a regional rock band, or sneak over to Big Wally’s to snag some truck stop stomach-stuffers.

Our family often caravans to Banks Lake or rides over together in my parents’ RV, but our busy schedules (especially now that Mike and Summer have tied the knot!) usually dictate that we take whatever means necessary to get home.
The Hamiltons say goodbye at Coulee City's newly modernized coffee shop with Summer’s then-fiance, Mike Sorensen, as Bo and I prepare to hop on his BMW motorcycle to head for the Greyhound bus stop in Moses Lake.

Over the years, I’ve driven my own car home, carpooled... ...rode with Bo on his motorcycle, taken the intercity bus... ...and/or caught the Amtrack train for all or a portion of the ride home from Banks Lake (the photo above shows a tearful Kathy picking up a happy Garth from the Portland train station last year).

Most memorably, one year's return Greyhound bus ride had me sitting next to an engagingly sincere ex-convict who was catching a ride home after being released from the Walla Walla State Penitentiary. She shared at length some heavy life experiences with me, and then enthusiastically allowed me to share some passages of Scripture that I believed would speak to her heart.

To sum it up, Banks Lake is a refreshing oasis in the middle of a vast, dry, desert-like landscape. Every year, our family looks forward to spending time together during our weeklong Banks boating trip. I’m especially thankful that my parents are scheduled to return next month from their cross-U.S.A. motor home roadtrip, just in time for this year's week at Banks Lake. This is one family tradition worth keeping!

Coming next month on Blogspot… Top 5 Recent Trips- #4!

Coming Next Weekend on Blogspot...

2011-06-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Update-- On Monday night, I’ll be adding photos [Photos Added!] to my May E.P.I.C. ministry roundup (it should eventually show up at the very end of last month’s posts). I apologize being such a slacker! In the meantime, here is a look ahead:

Since concluding my London Blogspot posts last month, it occurred to me how little I mention my travels on this page. My globetrotting has taken me to 36 (or is it 37?) different countries so far, and I often have friends and family by my side. We've made plenty of memories, but I rarely take the time to post those travel memories to this Blogspot page.

Readers may remember this photo from a few years back of Kathy and I sharing a bus to Colonia, Uruguay.

Starting now ~~through October (and yes, the baby is coming in September!)~~ and running until I find time to list all five trips, I'll make an effort to start out each month with a new Blogspot post that counts down my top five recent travels. Let's call it, hmmm, let me think... My Top 5 Recent Trips Countdown! Clever, no? The focus will be less on the destination and more on the experience. In other words, if you're looking for a list of my most exotic, out of the way overseas trips... that will be another list entirely.

Coming next weekend: Top 5 Recent Trips- #5!!

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Update- May '11

2011-05-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

As of Wednesday, June 15, I’m still unable to embed those video clips that are mentioned below. Sorry about that. Enjoy the pictures, though!

On each Sunday morning this past month, a different one of our middle/high school students or graduates has had the honor of serving as “flow person” in an Aloha Church of God congregational service.
Each of these students, Will, Whitney (pictured), Kezin, and Tamarra, made the most of this opportunity to develop their leadership skills in front of our entire church family. It’s debatable who benefited most… the students behind the pulpit or the rest of the congregation who came together to worship in Big Church (as we refer to the weekly gathering of our church family). However, we couldn’t have been more pleased with their gifts on display which, ultimately, are only intended to bring glory to an audience of One: our God.

Here are some other recent highlights:

Partnering with the Aloha Christian School for our Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser: gathering pre-sale tickets, setting up, serving, and cleaning up after the event

Creating and performing skits that illustrate Jesus’ “I am” statements from the Gospel of John. Each of these statements became springboards for Garth’s upcoming teachings on understanding how Christ explained himself to His listeners and followers throughout the ages.

Pi Day/St. Patrick’s Day pie in the face quiz [IMG 7837]

Spring break madness:
Dodging rain while hiking portions of the Wahkeena Falls Loop...

...throwing a pizza and Playstation Move motion-controller party at Garth and Kathy’s house...

...hanging at the local DQ...

...and rocking and worshipping at the Rose Garden!
A few of us headed out to the Rock ‘n’ Worship Roadshow at the Rose Garden, featuring Mercy Me, Thousand Foot Crutch, Jars of Clay (pictured on above, on stage), LeCrae, and more.

[Video0037] Click on the “play” arrow in the lower left-hand corner above for a video clip of students groovin’ and movin’ as Mercy Me takes the Rock 'n' Worship Roadshow stage.

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here is this month's bonus section!

[Video0057] Click on the “play” arrow in the lower left-hand corner for a video clip of a chaotic Sports Champions' Gladiator Duel between Will and Eleanor with Playstation Move motion controllers, at our house during spring break.

[Video0023] Click on the “play” arrow in the lower left-hand corner above for a video clip of Thousand Foot Krutch laying down the heavy stuff as they get the Rose Garden crowd to “Fire it Up.”

And finally, here are a few photos from Garth’s fun and meaningful time of inspirational instruction at the WARM ministers’ conference in Sacramento:

Garth and Joseph hit Hot –N- Now after getting picked up from the Sacramento airport.

Veteran youth leader Les Christie speaks to the troops.

Youth pastor buddies Brian, Garth, Kris, and Joseph try to hold it together as we pose for our outrageously clutzy (but sweet-hearted) Johnny Rockets waitress. Just to give you a taste: that would have been a PERFECT time to cash out your 401(k) to invest in paper towel and napkin stocks!

London with Bo, Part 3

2011-05-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Note: This Blogspot update is an excerpt from the March 2, 2011 entry of my "London with Bo" travelogue (Part 1 was a mobile upload from New York on February 28). My dad and I made a quick trip to London, prior to last month's Royal Wedding.

Despite leaving my house on Sunday, Bo and I were only beginning my second (and final) full day in London on Wednesday. We grabbed a quick bite at Victoria Station before beginning our promotional “bonus day” on the open-bus Original Tour.

Our first hop-off stop was Baker Street, home of the fictional Sherlock Holmes, which was my personal highlight.

Here is the backstory:
In Switzerland a few years back, Kathy and I got caught in a severe storm while backpacking through the Swiss Alps. We came down out of the mountains and checked into a youth hostel in the village of Meringen. My research turned up that Meringen’s foothills housed Reichenback Falls, the setting of the fall to the death(at least, until his much later resurrection) of fictional character Sherlock Holmes at the hands of his nemesis, Dr. Moriarty. I have had a casual fascination with Sherlock Holmes lore since backpacking up past those falls that day. (As I find time, I will search my archives for photos from our adventures in Switzerland to post to www.garthhamilton.blogspot.com).

The modern day Sherlock Holmes museum is located is located at 221b Baker Street NW in London, the street address of the legendary fictional sleuth. Bo and I made a somewhat brief visit to discover a painting depicting Sherlock Holmes’ “death” at Reichenbach Falls in memory of my Switzerland trip.

The cashier girl’s eyes widened as I shared my Swiss Alps story (see above) with her while purchasing the painting. I also picked up a pocket sized edition of the corresponding story. Admittedly, I am already reading “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” using the Kindle app on my HTC Hero phone (to be replaced next week by an HTC Evo 4G). However, scrolling through an e-book will never compare to holding an actual hard copy, IMHO.

Our next stop was the picturesque Trafalgar Square. We witnessed a Trafalgar street performer draw an audience before getting busted by the London Police for his unauthorized performance. He defiantly completed his final act before the cops shut him down, to the cheers of the enthusiastic crowd.

Down the hill from Trafalgar Square, our attempt to view the Prime Minister’s mansion on Downing Street was thwarted by heavily armed guards.

Walking a bit further, we reached Big Ben and Parliament, two of the most recognizable structures in England. The queue for neighboring Westminster Abbey (my 2nd favorite site in all of Europe so far, after the Vatican Museum in Rome) was too long and slow moving for our fast paced itinerary, most likely due to next month’s royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Leaving Westminster Abbey, we crossed Westminster Bridge to walk the docks under the iconic London Eye.

A river cruise ship picked us up from the docks and floated us up the River Thames, past Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.

After ducking under the London Bridge, the cruise ship dropped us off at the Tower of London for our last daylight stop.

We took the scenic route to barely catch the final hop-on tour bus of the evening.

Magical views of the city at night (not done any justice by my blurry photos) greeted us around every corner, and our hearty evening meal was a fitting end to our father/son time together in London.

Bo turned in early at the Cherry Court Hotel. I set out later that evening for the Queen’s Arm, a local haunt, to enjoy some fascinating conversations with some Londoners regarding literature, politics, and culture.

HOMEWARD BOUND: Thankfully, returning home to Portland on Thursday went smoothly. The Gatwick express train sped us from Victoria Station to the LGW airport, roughly 20-30 miles outside of London. I’ll spare the gloatful details of flying over the Big Pond in Business Elite cabin, except to mention that the food was delicious, the two in-flight movies I watched were suspenseful, and the flight attendants were exceptionally hospitable. Bo and I were then seated next to each other on the final Atlanta to Portland flight.

My mom picked us up from PDX on Thursday night, graciously allowing me to crash at their house in Vancouver, WA. She then drove me back to PDX the next morning for my marathon 5 a.m. - 1:15 a.m. shift at Delta.

If this sounds like an exhausting way to end a vacation and begin a work week, it was. But I thank the Lord that I was able to spend this time with my dad, and grateful that I was able to squeeze in one more trip to London before the Royal Wedding.

London with Bo, Part 2

2011-05-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Note: This post is an excerpt from the March 1, 2011 entry of my "London with Bo" travelogue. My dad and I made a quick trip to tour London as preparations began for last month's Royal Wedding.

My dad and I sat in the Business Elite cabin of a 767-400ER, as expected, for our flight from New York to London. The cuisine was characteristically flavorful, from the seared pepper crusted tuna seaweed salad to the garlic and herb shrimp with lemon butter, and each of the courses in between. I read, worked on my netbook, and watched the airplane version of "The Town." I didn’t sleep at all as we flew over the ocean, mostly by choice.

After landing at London Heathrow airport, Bo and I navigated our way through the various shuttles, trams, and underground Tube lines to reach Victoria Station. We walked through the neighborhood to find the Cherry Court Hotel, which was near the top of our list for possible accommodations (Bo had ruled out the local youth hostels that Kathy and I usually stay at overseas). They had a vacancy, so we dropped off our bags and hit the streets of London.

Despite being familiar with London from my previous visit with Kathy, I suggested that Bo and I join a hop-on, hop-off style Original Tour (catching the last day of a “2 days for the price of 1 day” promotion) for an overview of the city. Every 15 minutes a bus loops through the major tourist sights, spouting out canned narration, and allowing opportunities to make stops at the popular attractions and catch the next bus to continue on (or just ditch the bus altogether and walk around).

Throughout the day, we were able to catch glimpses of the iconic London Eye (pictured above) and other famous London landmarks (to be featured in my next Blogspot post) from various vantage points around the city.

We stayed onboard for the entire city bus tour, taking in all of the sights, before hopping a different bus to start the loop again.

Hopping off at Buckingham Palace allowed us to catch the tail end of the Changing of the Guard and pick up some presents at the palace gift shop for Kathy and our yet unborn baby.

It felt great to stretch out our legs in Hyde Park on our walk back to the Victoria district (Bo is pictured in front of the Princess Diana memorial fountain).

A “Free Iran” political rally/protest against Iranian leaders Ahmadinejad and Khamenei made life interesting (and loud) for us as we left Hyde Park. Eventually, we walked our way back to the Victoria district and ended up at St. George’s for fish and chips that evening.

We saved the best for Day Two.

Video: Boogying Down with the North Mississippi Allstars

2011-04-08T17:58:00.001-07:00

MVI_7789_ed a video by gkhamilton on Flickr.

Video clip: The North Mississippi Allstars bring down the house with one of the most danceable songs I know, “Shake ‘Em On Down.” For those of you who missed this concert at the Melody Ballroom a few weeks ago, I feel for you.
The North Mississippi Allstars, recently rejoined by vocalist/slide guitarist Luther Dickinson (after finishing up a final tour with the Black Crowes; see my December 30 post, www.garthhamilton.blogspot.com/2010/12/do-black-crowes-needtobreathe.html) let loose their unique blend of blues/gospel/roots/hip hop/boogie-rock onto their fans for over three hours. We were all waiting for the dance floor to collapse as the band jammed on into the night.

Click above for this video clip: Prior to launching into his signature washboard solo(!), drummer Cody Dickinson took center stage to jam on the guitar with his brother Luther and bassist Chris Chew.

We knew the N.M. Allstars weren’t messing around when they were just starting their final encore just before 12:30 a.m. Getting our money’s worth for the tickets? Check.

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Newsletter- Mar ‘11

2011-03-11T14:44:00.001-08:00

God entering this world in human form, as Jesus Christ, is the most wonderful and profound mystery since the beginning of time. This past month, teachings during our E.P.I.C. student ministry sessions have focused on the reality and meaning of the Incarnation. We have wrestled with understanding Christ as the image of the invisible God, as the light of the world who shines through us, and as the eternal Word of God who lives in us. Thank God for revealing Himself to us through Christ! Here are some of the past month's E.P.I.C. ministry highlights:

Selling cookies and roses for our Valentine's Day fundraiser—a huge thank you goes out to Bales Thriftway for donating the roses!

The annual E.P.I.C. Superbowl party at Garth and Kathy's house

Blindfolded cottonball relay- Students stumble around in darkness to illustrate their need for the Light.

Students scramble their own introductions in an attempt to confuse the group.

Graduate Rosemary Buckles (in the front row) sings in the choir at Warner Pacific College's Homecoming Weekend.

And, last but definitely not least, announcing Garth and Kathy's pregnancy! We're due on September 7^th!

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are a few extra photos:

Graduate Alex Bates excitedly rushes into the youth room to hand us our first early baby shower present.

Battling it out with the Playstation Move motion controller at Garth and Kathy's house

The Gade brothers demonstrate their leadership skills during Scout Sunday

Playing "Steal the Bacon," football-style, in honor of Superbowl week

London with Bo, Part 1

2011-02-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

IMAG0317_crop
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

Last weekend, my dad and I picked London for this week’s quick getaway. Flying standby has its risks, and we were bumped off of our oversold flight to Atlanta last night. After spending the night at my parents’ house in Vancouver, we flew out to New York’s JFK airport this morning to catch our connection to London.

An hour before touching down in here in JFK, our pilot was warned by planes all around us that there was severe turbulence in our path. It turns out that the worst of the rough air was already behind us. I wasn’t worried either way… I had my netbook, my music, and a provocative MP3 message from Mark Driscoll to divert my mind. And as always, prayer was a big part of the equation.

Our layover here in New York should be brief. The novelty of ordering Panini sandwiches with our own in-table iPad (see photo) at an airport restaurant was pretty cool, and I was able to charge my gadgets and call home to Kathy to chat about our soon to be born baby.

Bo and I are hoping to snag seats in Business Elite Class on the London flight. If not, the next flight for London departs two hours later. Good things come to those who wait.

Back to the Ski Slopes… At Last

2011-02-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

After nearly two years of ski-free living (a personal record for me), I ended my skiing hiatus yesterday at Mount Hood Meadows. My dad and I had to reschedule last Monday's ski trip due to typically dismal 2011 mountain weather all week. But yesterday, we made up for lost time.

I was pleasantly surprised to drive through light snowfall on Highway 26 for my early morning drive from Beaverton to meet Bo in East Portland. Fortunately, that was just a taste of what was to come. Mount Hood had received 7" of new snow the night before, as forecasted, and we were greeted at the mountain by a continuous dumping of snowflakes.

A defective zip tie sent Bo and I back to the ski lodge to replace my lift ticket after our first run. From there, we warmed up on a few intermediate runs before sampling the back country.

We dropped in onto the fresh powder of Twilight (our first double-black diamond run of the year), which is a jumping off point for Lower Heather's Canyon. Obviously, this photo was taken at one of the mellower sections. Bo and I spent the rest of the morning making tracks starting from Hood River Meadows, eventually making our way across the various black diamond runs which lead back to the Cascade Express chair lift.

After Bo called it a day, I headed back out for about half a dozen more runs, mostly consisting of the upper bowls (predictably, 1 Bowl had the softest powder snow) and the upper face of Meadows. Things got a little hairy after I unwisely followed a tree trail that dumped me out on an isolated, rocky, and cliff-laden patch of slope. I stashed my camera before hitting the worst part of it and cautiously carved my way down to the marked trail below.

Bo and I couldn't have picked a better day for me to redeem my lift ticket Christmas gift from him. The snow was nearly perfect, and the weather was reasonably calm. Depending on whether or not a local director selects me to act in a TV commercial next Tuesday, yesterday was the ideal warm up for next week's ski trip with my friend Michael in Utah.

We're Gonna Be Parents!!!

2011-02-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

IMAG0278
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

The secret is out… our first baby is on the way, due on September 7th! After nearly 13 years of marriage and 36 countries visited, Kathy and I decided to finally take the plunge. We weren’t expecting Kathy to get pregnant so quickly (considering that we didn’t really start trying until the end of 2010), but we are both definitely ready for this to happen.

With the exception of the three guys in my SHAPE youth pastor cluster, our parents were the first to find out.

As I shared in my sermon a couple weeks ago, my parents were unable to contain their excitement when we shocked them with the news at the Cedar Hills Chipotle. The guy seated next to us (as well as everyone else in our section) overheard the commotion and he volunteered to take our picture. Without even asking if we were Christians, he even shared with us some encouraging words from Scripture. The hardest part for all four of our parents was keeping the secret until we went public with the news.

Then came our big announcement at Aloha Church of God… “We’re pregnant!!” Will Irwin, one of our sophomores, snapped this cell phone photo of Kathy and me breaking the news to our church. Employing a bit of intentional misdirection, I made it sound like our big news was the miraculously speedy results of our church family’s prayers during my recent mega bout with pneumonia, bronchitis, flu, and a high fever of 103.6 degrees. Of course I was genuinely grateful for the prayers, and this was significantly more genuine than the excuse I had previously fed my parents at Chipotle (we used the pretense of needing advice for chimney problems at our new house, also true).

That afternoon, the news went viral on Facebook.

On February 2nd, we had our first ultrasound, allowing us our first glimpse at our precious little one. Measuring only 2.5 cm, it looked like a tiny jelly bean. We heard its heartbeat, racing at 161 beats per minute. Our hearts were beating almost as fast!

To be continued...

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Newsletter- Feb 2011

2011-02-04T10:54:00.001-08:00

As Christians, we have been called to fulfill a mission. God calls us to help Him save His lost children. Most of us can easily think of at least three people who don't know the love of Christ, even within our sphere of people with which we share influence. For the past month, our middle and high school E.P.I.C. students have made an commitment two focus on three people who don't know Christ, pray for them six times a week, and miss zero opportunities to plant, water, or fertilize a spiritual seed.

Here are a few other things we've been up to recently:

Studying the life of Joseph in our Sunday morning E.P.I.C. sessions

Praying for Ben as he prepared to leave for Virginia to attend Liberty University

Hanging out at Wendy's over Christmas break

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus shaving cream beard competition

Appreciating Wendy: The world's best volunteer youth leader!

In Christ, Youth Pastor Garth and Kathy Hamilton

P.S. Don't forget to order your cookies and roses for our Valentine's Day cookie fundraiser!

Mike and Summer’s Wedding

2011-02-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

As promised last month, I'm posting a few photos from October of my little sister's and new brother-in-law's wedding at First Church of God, Vancouver. Any picture with the initials "MM" following it has been contributed by wedding photographer Moneey Munni.

(MM)
(MM) I love this pic of me and Girl before the wedding!

(Photo by Lora Eason) I was honored to offer up the opening prayer as Bo walked Summer down the aisle…

…and then the ceremony kept getting better and better!

Here's a great argument against using Photoshop's "Quick Edit" function (I rarely touch up my photos at all): This edited version looks like a vintage wedding photo from the 1970s! Bring on the leisure suits and mustaches.

(MM)

Afterwards, we all danced up a storm during the wedding reception at the Lupke Center.

And the honeymooners are off to Cancun! Introducing… Mr. and Mrs. Mike Sorensen!!

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Newsletter- Jan 2011

2011-01-11T15:17:00.001-08:00

Do you ever feel you're like you're not good enough, or righteous enough, to be of any use to God? Jacob, son of Isaac, is a great example of someone who was deeply flawed and yet was promised great things by the Lord. Learning about Jacob's life has provided our middle and high school students an opportunity to experience God as He reveals Himself to us in the Bible: a keeper of promises, a designer of perfect plans, and One who loves us unconditionally. Here are a few fun ministry highlights from the last couple months:

Our annual E.P.I.C. Christmas party at Garth and Kathy's house

Freeze!

Pizza and Playstation 3 at Garth & Kathy's house

Patrick and Jackie (pictured with Ben and Will's mom, Janelle) portraying Joseph and Mary in our church's annual Christmas Extravaganza

Two wonderful student plays from our Aloha High School students: "Reckless," and "The Uninvited."

Happy New Year!
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are a few bonus pics for this online version:

Cheering for the Aloha High School Warriors, who captured the Oregon 6A State Football Championship 34-13!

Student pile-ups on Wednesday night

Ben making his debut as the service "flow person" in Big Church

Rocking out to the "Nothing and Everything" tour with Disciple, Red, Brian "Head" Welch, and Silverline (concert photos by Cameron Heilman)

Catching Up With the Hamilton Kids

2011-01-07T10:24:00.001-08:00

IMG_3231.JPG
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

A lot happened to the grown up kids of our family in 2010… Kathy and I bought our first house, Kathy’s brother Tony (pictured below with Tom, Kathy, me, Lora, and Cheryl) continues to excel as a C.P.A. who audits federal spending for the General Accountability Office in Washington D.C., and Kathy’s sister Cheryl is still enabling Marion County clients who are mentally ill to live on their own, outside of an institution.

(Photo by Moneey Munni) But the biggest news from last year was that Summer, my little sis, got married!

A couple of years ago when Girl told the family that Mike Sorensen was her new boyfriend, we were excited for her. It turns out that I had already met Mike at a Yale Lake boating trip with the Bridge singles group from Crossroads Community Church. This is the earliest photo that I have of Mike and Girl together in a photo, both watching from the boat as I water tubed at Yale Lake that day. I came to discover that Mike is a fun, caring, committed Christian who works at his uncle’s classic Volkswagon auto shop.

Mike is also a very talented artist, and our family caught our first glimpse of his water colored paintings on display at the Haystack Gallery in Cannon Beach. I would recommend checking out his artwork at www.michaeldavidsorensen.com. After hanging around town with my parents and some of their friends for a while, the four of us drove south.

Later that day we hiked up a short trail from Devil’s Cauldron (south of Smuggler Cove), across Highway 101 from Neahkahnie Mountain, for a wide open cliff side view of the sea.

The four of us kids try to get together occasionally, like when Kathy and I hooked up with the Crossroads gang for some lively music in downtown Portland after seeing a rock concert.

Mostly though, we just meet for the occasional coffee or lunch with our parents.

Distance and my leg injury prevented me from seeing much of them last summer, but we did squeeze in a couple of back to back family camping trips to Banks Lake, Washington and Morrow Bay, California (I’ll be featuring more photos from these trips in my upcoming Blogspot posts).

I look forward to getting to know Mike better. And of course, I miss spending time with Girl. One thing’s for sure, though… God brought those two together. Mike and Summer Sorensen are a fantastic couple!

Coming to www.garthhamilton.blogspot next month… pictures from Mike and Summer’s wedding!

From Our Newly Expanded Family... Happy New Year!!

2011-01-05T00:00:00.001-08:00

DSC_0196.JPG
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

Happy New Year!!

Do the Black Crowes Needtobreathe?

2010-12-30T19:34:00.001-08:00

I'm a huge music lover. Live music in particular gets me moving in a way that nothing else can. Earlier this month, tour buses from two of my favorite live bands, the Black Crowes and Needtobreathe, each made stops in Portland within a four-day window! I was in rock 'n' roll heaven, so to speak.

On Saturday night, the Black Crowes chose the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as one of the final stops on their 2010 farewell tour. Though their collective world view differs vastly from mine, I've been into the Crowes' music since the 1990s. There was something about their free, decidedly non-modern rock approach to music that got my attention as a high schooler. Then, after seeing them play live with some of my college buddies, I was hooked. In concert, the grooves and swells of their jammed out performances of originals and cover songs manage to be both tight and spontaneous, simultaneously. From that year on, I've caught every local Black Crowes show since 1998, including the one from their aptly titled "Souled Out Tour" a few years back. Their music has soul to spare, and yet I don't hesitate to pray for each of their own souls whenever I feel led.

My conflicted feelings about the Black Crowes have been echoed by Christian rock band Third Day, who continue to be influenced by their sound. In "Blackbird," their thinly veiled tribute/challenge to the Black Crowes, front man Mac Powell tells them that Jesus loves them and sings, "Black bird, how I love to hear your songs/ I could spend all of my time in the shade/ Of the trees and listen all day long." The song, peppered with references to Crowes lyrics (and, when played live, sounds at times like a straight up cover of "Remedy" with reworked lyrics) continues with a paraphrase of Jesus referencing Isaiah 6:9-10 in Matthew 13:14-15: "But you're ever hearing, never understanding/ Ever seeing but your heart has grown calloused/ You're in a storm and lost your way/ Won't you fly to heaven and be saved today?"

The Crowes' lyrics may not always portray a particularly high view of Christ or His followers, and stories abound about perpetuating their stereotypical rock star lifestyle. However, their versatile musicianship and stunning cohesiveness as a band is rarely expressed with vulgarity, and their songwriting is often underscored with pleas for love and peace.

That's a good start.

A few days after the Black Crowes show, my friend Joe and I caught Needtobreathe at the Roseland Theater. Being as they are one of my other favorite live acts, I was disappointed last year to suffer the most intense headache of my life on the very day that Kathy and I saw Needtobreathe previously at the Hawthorne Theater. This time around, I was ready to rock.

Chances are, many people have already unknowingly heard Needtobreathe's songs in films, TV shows, or movie trailers. They're not a household name yet, but Taylor Swift considered them hot enough to personally hand them the opening spot on her upcoming national tour (which begs the question, why would she want to try to follow them in concert?).

Click the thumbnail above to play short video clip of the mic-free, no-amp Needtobreathe acoustic encore at the Roseland Show. I didn't bother to film much of the rowdier moments. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand still long enough to hold the camera steady, anyway. The set list was a crowd pleasing mix of both familiar and yet to be released songs, with a few unexpectedly amped up versions of some their mellower fan favorites. Sadly, their show didn't even come close to matching (in length) the previous weekend's 3+ hour swan song of the Black Crowes, and I doubt that I was the only one in the crowd who was hoping to experience the epic worship of "Signature of the Divine (Yahweh)." These two small complaints aside, though, this was another amazing show from a band that is really hitting their stride!

Musically, Needtobreathe has evolved from the anthem rock of their debut album to their current eclectic blend of southern rock, Americana, and blues/soul. And their live show leaves their studio-recorded material in the dust. Sound familiar?

I thought so, too. Minutes before kicking off their diverse set of electric/acoustic/folk/piano/organ country rock, I couldn't help but smile as the last recorded song of the Needtobreathe pre-show music played… "Good Morning Captain," by the Black Crowes.

A Week of Musical Bliss

2010-12-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

IMG_7346_edited-1.JPG
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

Coming soon... A rundown of my two favorite rock 'n' roll bands to catch live (not counting U2, who skipped Portland on this year's world tour). I pray for one group, and I worship along with the other. Amazingly, I caught both bands' shows in town last week!

E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Newsletter- Sep 2010

2010-09-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Since returning from International Youth Convention in Orlando last month, our students at Aloha Church of God have enjoyed a month of spiritual encouragement from the book of Philippians, fellowship, and laid back summer fun. Among the latest highlights:

Crazy games during E.P.I.C. Wednesday nights

Sharing about IYC Orlando with the students back at home

Campmeeting at Warner Pacific College

Dual fundraisers holding signs for a car dealership, earning money for our upcoming summer activities

Water balloon fight!

Hiking in the Columbia River Gorge

Cruising in the Jeep

Playstation 3 gaming at Garth and Kathy's new house

Our young people thank you for your prayers. We've had a fun summer!

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

P.S. I'm having some difficulties getting our youth camping/boating pictures uploaded. In the meantime, here are some other bonus pics from this summer:

BLAM!! Collision on home plate!

The infamous banana cake, in honor of Garth's birthday

The dominant team goes deep field to win the water balloon toss

Kenny gets pwned by Brandon and Patrick at the E.P.I.C. water fight!!

Student Ministry Newsletter- September 2009

2010-09-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

Note: My latest post for September 2010 is still in "draft" mode (as this one has been), so I'm posting this 2009 entry for a fun look at what we did last year at this time. As soon as I finish uploading recent pics from this summer, I'll publish the new entry. Enjoy!

This has been a fun and action packed summer for our student ministry. We created many memories together, and remembering God's blessings have been a key theme from our teachings this past month. We've been following Israel's story as the Lord led them further from their slavery in Egypt, preparing them for a new life of freedom and obedience in the Promised Land. We can also be free to experience God's promises by relying on the Holy Spirit to set us apart for His calling (as Moses and Aaron were anointed for ministry), acknowledging that everything we have belongs to God (as demonstrated by God's instructions for the Year of Jubilee), and learning to be grateful for God's blessings (in contrast to the Israelite's grumbling and complaining in the desert).

In addition to this summer's day hikes, backpacking/ camping trips, swimming, and boating excursions, we always consider OR/SW WA State Campmeeting to be a highlight. Will operated the camera on the opening night as this year's theme, "A Hope and a Future," was introduced. A group of students also took part in Warner Pacific College Night on Wednesday.

As always, we celebrated the end of summer with laughs and thrills at our annual camping/waterskiing weekend in Washington State. After setting up camp near the town of Couger, we had dinner together and walked down to Yale Lake for a brisk twilight swim.
Back at camp, we explored the area, toasted s'mores, and enjoyed interesting conversations around the campfire.

Garth's dad, Bo, made a surprise appearance at camp the next morning while Garth was leading morning devotions.

After sharing a delicious pancake and sausage breakfast at camp, we launched Bo's boat in Yale Lake and cranked up the fun.

Our toys of choice were the wakeboard, the kneeboard, and the water tube. Bo pulled each of us behind his boat according to our own preference of speed, sharp turns, and craziness.
It was a great weekend of camping and boating, and we look forward to next year!

Thanks in advance for remembering our student ministry in your prayers for the upcoming school year. Details on the launch of our new E.P.I.C. Student Ministry will follow next month!

In His grip,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are some blog-exclusive bonus photos for this month:

Playing Tree on Garth's birthday

Taste testing different blends of joe at Coffee Stop, narrowing down options for the upcoming Aloha Church of God Blend

Not one, but TWO soaking wet water balloon fights.

We had a Slip 'N' Slide contest before we dried off. Derek G.(pictured) easily took the top honors.

And finally... observing communion together on the playground (after one of the water fights) at the end of Garth's teaching

Having a BLAST at Home

2010-07-24T19:13:00.001-07:00

IMG_5778.JPG
Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

I was living the bachelor life at home last week, while Kathy was leading (in my place, as mentioned in my last blog entry) our student ministry’s trip to International Youth Convention in Orlando. Though it provided some good sermon material for that week, was bummed about missing the trip and missed having Kathy with me. My injured leg prevented me from doing anything active (I wasn’t even able to drive until earlier in the week), so there were only a few minor tweaks in my current routine: enjoying some “Garth time,” eating unhealthy foods, having my students over to the house more often, and playing my movies and music louder.

That last part, about cranking up my home theater system, wasn’t nearly enough to drown out the series of loud booms that drew our new neighbors and me together late Thursday night. I thought the first blast at around 10:40 was coming from my rear surround sound speakers, as part of the fireworks display from the rock concert that I had blaring in my living room. The second boom rattled things on my walls and sent me hopping out to the front porch, grabbing a crutch on my way out. I glanced over across the street to see if Dave my neighbor had driven into his garage door or something.

From my front porch I heard the third and final, biggest, deepest boom of all… followed by a cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky. My first thought was that the Intel Aloha Campus was blowing up, one section at a time. Chills shot down my spine at the fear of a major meltdown at an industrial plant that I could see from my living room. We could have been in big trouble if Intel was going down in flames. As Doug, my neighbor, so comfortingly put it, “We’re right in the blast zone.”

The flames were coming from the corner, however, at the Aloha Garbage and Recycling plant, just west of the Intel Campus. Two garbage trucks were destroyed by the flames, reportedly causing over $350,000 in damage. As bad as this was, I audibly thanked God that this was not the more potentially catastrophic crisis that I had feared.

I hobbled across the street to the corner, joining the growing number of gawking onlookers that came running from blocks away.

Police cars and fire trucks had Blanton Street completely blocked off.

Local affiliates from all four networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX showed up on the scene within minutes.
I was interviewed on camera by news crews from KGW and KPTV, and I encouraged them to also talk to my neighbor Brett (pictured), who was the first to see the flames erupt.

Channel 8 and Channel 12 broadcasted my interviews live on Thursday night (I think), and clips from my interviews were repeated at least every 30 minutes on both channels all morning, at noon, and during the afternoon and evening news on Friday. I was floored by the dozens of people who called or Facebooked me (including one guy who I’d never even met, on Monday) throughout the week about seeing those interviews. If only my paid work in print ads and TV commercials was that popular!

Student Ministry Newsletter- August 2009

2010-07-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that our high school students from Aloha Church of God are in Orlando this week experiencing International Youth Convention 2010! At the last minute, it was determined that my recent leg injury from work would unfortunately prevent me from leading our group's trip to IYC Orlando. Now that the students are away, however, (and considering the fact that I am mostly couch-bound), I have some spare time on my hands... to upload a classic blog!
Here's what our students were up to last year at this time:

We serve a God who delivers us from our circumstances and calls us to live a new place, in the Kingdom of God. When God protected the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, God made it clear that following Him also meant a new way of living.

Our student ministry sessions at Aloha Church of God are currently examining God's instructions, including the Ten Commandments, which He gave to His people after freeing them from slavery. We have also discovered how the intention behind Jewish rituals and celebrations such as the Passover, Pentecost, and Purim remains relevant in pointing out our own need to remember what God has done for us in our lives.

Our student-led congregational service was one of our ministry's finest moments yet this year.

After weeks of preparation, we had our final practice the Wednesday evening before the big Sunday. During the actual Sunday morning service, our students served in the following roles: Flow person- Ben; Praise team- Ben and Eleanor; Information table- Jessica; Greeters- Brandon W., Jackie, Kenny; Ushers- Brandon E., Jackie, Juana, Kaila. After Garth preached his sermon titled, "Prison Break!," Will delivered the closing prayer. We were so proud of how well our students led Big Church!

The week after fellowshipping at the Fourth of July picnic…

…A few of the guys backpacked 15 miles (round trip) along the Eagle Creek Trail to a remote campsite in Oregon's Mark Hatfield Wilderness.

After marching their heavy backpacks past (and even under) seven gorgeous waterfalls to the 7.5 mile mark, Garth, Ben, Brandon E., Dean (visiting from Pennsylvania), and Will set up camp and went for an evening swim.

The weather was so nice that everyone slept under the stars after dinner...

...waking up just in time for morning devotions.

A much needed stop for a refreshing swim at a popular cove notwithstanding, the pace was quickened for the next day's hike back to civilization.

Later in July, we picked the hottest weekend of the year (so far) to hold our car wash fundraiser for International Youth Convention 2010, to be held in Orlando, Florida. We took in enough money to set a new car wash record since Garth and Kathy came on board in 2001!

We enjoyed spending time with new student Jessica Hayden, who recently moved here from Salem for her senior year at Aloha High School.

Most of us managed to stay hydrated amid the water fights, car cleansings, and a purse snatching/ recovery from the brave Wendy Peterson.

We are so thankful that God is watching over and blessing our student ministry!

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Work Injury Update

2010-06-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

Warning: The past couple of posts contain descriptions of my work injury, its effects on my week, and an overall tone of self-pity (Hey, I've gotta tell it like it is!). While this may be therapeutic for me, this entry may not be your cup of tea. Depending on your taste, feel free to scroll down to one of my more typically optimistic posts.

Since the painful work accident that I detailed in my post last week, I have been mostly confined to my bed or living room couch for the past week. My left ankle is still a bit tender but mostly healed.

However, my right ankle has now swollen into a "cankle." My right foot often turns beet red or purple, freakishly warm, and swollen to nearly ¼ bigger than the size of my left foot at times (the swelling was reduced when this photo was taken). Kathy almost drove me back to the E.R. tonight, but the on-call doctor didn't share her sense of urgency.

After my initial ambulance ride to the E.R. last Sunday, I scheduled a follow-up with my primary care physician on Friday. He examined the X-Rays and concluded that my injuries were worse than the E.R. doc had diagnosed. The indent in my right leg looked pretty dramatic, and he explained that the membranes inside my bone were compressed (this explains why the pain shoots through my entire leg, not just around my ankle).

To make matters worse, it turns out that my body has an unusually high tolerance for Vicodin and Percocet. The amped up morphine-based medication that he gave me on Friday isn't making a dent, either. Aside from occasional fluctuations, my pain level hasn't dropped since it peaked last Wednesday. I look forward to walking without crutches, sleeping through the night, and experiencing any sort of lasting relief.

My students (and even some adult friends) are still mystified by my complete nonuse of my Playstation 3 during my home confinement.
A couple of my high schoolers stopped by the house and wanted to play my PS3, only to discover that the few game titles I own hadn't even been located or unpacked yet. Aside from time spent with my students, I never have been much of a gamer. When my very active lifestyle is interrupted by illness or injury, I tend to prefer music, books, and prayer to keep my mind occupied. Of course, I'd rather be out doing something instead.

Update: Shortly after I posted this, Kathy found my games. As long as I have students, my PS3 will be in no danger of being neglected.

The bigger bummer is that I am not even mobile enough to exercise, go outside, visit students, or do much unpacking from our recent Memorial Day weekend move in (moving day pics will be posted here soon). As a result of being taken away from PDX in an ambulance last Sunday, my Jeep is still in the airport employee parking lot. I'm in no condition to drive, anyway… Kathy picks me up for each rare occasion that I can leave the house.

I cherished the opportunity to attend church this morning (especially since Michaela was being baptized!), although I didn't have the pain tolerance to stand for more than a couple minutes at a time. Fellowshipping with our church family was the top, if not the only, highlight of my week.

Unexpectedly, some of my ministry meetings and mentoring sessions are being relocated to here in my living room. I am grateful that people would drive a little further to accommodate me, but I try my best to not feel like a burden. I never realized until now how challenging it can be to serve in ministry and yet allow myself to be ministered to.

A Painfully Tight Squeeze

2010-06-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday morning, a freak accident at work nearly crushed my leg and left me swollen, sleepless, and crippled for the time being. For those of you keeping score, a few months ago I moved back down to the Delta bagroom after working the passenger lobby and the airport gates for the first part of 2010. The current setup in the bagroom hosts an unusually high percentage of Delta's on the job injuries at PDX, and this incident is one of the most painful in recent memory. Sounds fun? Well, here's how it went down:

I had been working for over six hours straight (typical for my 10-hour bagroom shift, which starts at 4 a.m.) without as much as a sit down or short coffee break. When my lunch relief arrived to cover my 30 minute lunch break, a wrong number that rang at Pier 1 (the cramped baggage carousel where I currently work) prompted me to walk over to Pier 2 to deliver a phone message.

Following safety procedures, I approached the agent by walking around the end of a stationary string of heavy dollies (flatbed trailers that we call "transporters", much like the one pictured above [Photo added 6/16]) which were carrying baggage containers. Apparently, the string of transporters which I was standing next to were either originally pulled in from around a corner (placing me at the inside of a left turn) or about to be pulled closer to the concrete curb that I was near.

Either way, when the driver suddenly pulled the string forward, the transporters that I was standing next to didn't go past me. They came toward me.

A container knocked me forward, and the metal transporter underneath it quickly pinned both of my feet and ankles against the curb. I yelled for the driver to stop, but he must not have heard me (the driver is a very nice guy and a good worker, by the way). The string of transporters slowed to a crawl (maybe a brief stop?), but then they started moving forward again.

As the pressure increased on my ankles, I realized that my lower legs above my ankles were also being crushed. I screamed again at the top of my lungs to stop, and the string of transporters finally came to a halt. "Back up!" I screamed, with both of my legs pinned between the transporter and the curb. Several seconds passed, and I screamed louder, "Back up SLOWLY!" Someone (the driver?) yelled, "Backing up!" and the wheels finally started turning in reverse.

When my legs were freed, I collapsed onto the high point of the curb, swung my limp legs around the side, and sat up. My left leg was just a little scraped up, but my right leg had a slight indent along the outside, complete with a small puncture wound (miraculously, there was no loss of blood) from where the top of my steel-toe boots gave way to flesh.

I ignored the feeling of intense pressure in my lower legs as people rushed onto the scene and looked on in horror. Presumably in shock, I continued delivering my phone message to the agent, picking up right where I had left off…

As pictured [Photo added 6/15, although there were more graphic Flickr photos that could I have made "public" and posted here], an ambulance drove me from Delta Operations at Gate D-7 to St. Vincent's emergency room. A paramedic took this picture of me, I.V. dangling from my left arm, as the ambulance pulled into St Vincent's E.R. The smile on my face lasted about as long as the I.V.-delivered painkillers did.

The head usher at Aloha Church of God pulled Kathy out of the Sunday service to meet me in the emergency room. Pastor Tim and Janelle also graciously came to visit me (this turned out to be quite a scare for our church, even interrupting our service for a time of urgent prayer for me). Over 2.5 hours was spent in the E.R. while waiting, being treated, and getting X-Rayed. No bones were broken (though they couldn't be sure because of the swelling), but I had a small but nasty puncture wound, a great deal of swelling and discoloration, and a noticeable indent on the side of my right leg. I was eventually discharged via wheelchair, and Kathy drove me home.

I've barely slept since the accident. Even with heavy medication, the pain usually keeps me awake for most (and sometimes all) of the night. The pain kept increasing daily until Wednesday, when it finally leveled off. Whether awake or asleep, I often have memories or nightmares replaying the moment that my foot, ankle, and legs were being crushed. It's terrifying to experience that feeling of helplessness.

I am thankful that my leg was not destroyed. I am also thankful for the prayers that are being offered on account of me. Even though God has not delivered me from this pain yet, I trust that He is working through this situation. Most of us experience suffering from time to time, and I am still waiting to hear what He wants me to learn from all of this. I'm not going anywhere soon. I've got nothing but time.

Meet the New Homeowners! (Part 1)

2010-05-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

I am posting this with my HTC Hero phone from the set of a TV film (in between takes) that is being filmed in downtown Portland. The hour is getting very late and remote blogging is tedious, so please overlook any misspellings or awkward phrasings.

We finally did it! Cinco de Mayo is no longer solely a celebration of Summer's (my little sister) birthday or Mexico's independence.

May 5^th now marks our independence from apartment living. We bought our first house!!

About two weeks ago, which was more than eight weeks after we submitted a bid on our house in Beaverton (in addition to the initial six weeks
of house hunting), the home loan funded and Diana our realtor handed me the keys as I finished my Delta work shift at PDX Airport. Both Shawn our mortgage broker and Diana agreed that buying a HUD house with an FHA loan resulted in one of the most complicated home purchases that they had ever seen. It was worth it, though!

Kathy and I had initially agreed that we didn't want to bother with a fixer-upper, but she fell in love with the house when we first toured it on March 7^th
(and also later that month with our parents).
This house was actually my second choice, but I needed no persuasion other than the look on Kathy's face as we walked from room to room. How could I resist?

With a roomy floor plan and a 1/3 acre lot (check out the back yard!), this three bedroom/ two bathroom home stole our hearts. Both the appraiser and the building inspector whom we hired assured us that the recommended repairs were numerous (my dad compiled a seven page list of action items) but minor. Aside from some weathered exterior siding and considerable dry rot in the master bathroom, the house is solid.

Bo, as I lovingly call my dad, had been meticulously helping us track the financial portion of the transaction ever since we first made the offer on the house.

Once I got the house keys, Bo eagerly accepted our offer to spearhead the lion's share of the necessary clean-up/ repairs prior to our move-in date. Bo has been putting in long hours each day to fix up our house, even while Kathy and I are working our day jobs and serving in student ministry.

After Bo replaced the locks, we started the work by scraping the toxic "popcorn" texture off of the ceilings of the family room and kitchen.

We were covered in white powder and debris at the end of each day.

The following Saturday, we invited our friends and church family over for a clean-up day to prepare for the next round of work. We are so grateful for good friends! Amy, Allen, Bo, Eleanor, Gary, Kenny, Peggy, Tom, Wendy, and our friends Mike and Kym dropped by to help us out for the day, and some of them helped out during the week, too. We scrubbed the windows and walls (who knew that they were actually white underneath?)...

...pulled blackberry bushes (Kym and Gary are outside my window in this photo)...

...killed weeds...

...and started taping off areas that of the rooms that needed to be protected from our painting project the following week.

In addition to all of his hard work, Bo also met with my friend Mike to plan out some of the upcoming plumbing fixes.

Diana our realtor even sent some pizzas over to us for lunch!

It's a shame that we didn't take any adequate "before" pictures… the house had been severely neglected by the previous owner (even before he was evicted), and it originally looked pretty nasty. It seemed like a totally different house (the interior, anyway) by the time we headed back to our apartment that evening.

My film shoot is about to wrap for the night/ early morning, so I will give an update on our priming and painting in an upcoming post. I plan to upload some photos to this post when I get home [Update: Photos added 5/29/10]. There are only two more days until we move in!

Student Ministry Newsletter- July 2009

2010-05-08T19:55:00.001-07:00

[May 8, 2010] I know, I know... Everyone's waiting for me to post photos of our new house (Diana, my realtor, handed me the keys at work this past Wednesday!). I hope to get those pics up soon, but first I decided to raid my archives for a student ministry newsletter from last summer. I'll be posting the rest of last year's ministry newsletters as time allows, and check back SOON for photos of our new house!

Aloha ChoG Student Ministry Newsletter- July 2009

The Class of 2009 has made it! We had several seniors graduate from high school this year, and four were core members of our student ministry at Aloha ChoG. From Aloha High: Kevin Gade, Alissa Degman, and Sam Fleig. From Merlo Station: Emmaleigh Mallery.

Aloha High's graduation ceremony was well attended and highly emotional, and we heard that Emmaleigh gave a wonderful speech at her own graduation. The last time we checked, Alissa, Sam, and Emmaleigh were planning to attend PCC and Kevin was heading for Warner Pacific. We are so proud of them and pray God's blessings on them in their future.

Our graduates, as well other young people who are hopeful of a brighter future, can relate to our new teaching series, "Leaving the Old Place." We've been following the story of God using such an unlikely leader as Moses (and Aaron, to support his leadership) to deliver the Israelites from slavery… not that high school is slavery!

Two of our biggest fundraisers for International Youth Convention 2010 helped us pick up steam for the big event next summer.

The first, our annual rummage sale, was held here at the church on Saturday, May 30. The students worked hard on Friday night sorting the donations and setting up the displays. Then they stayed all day Saturday to assist the "rummagers" and ring up purchases. The sale was well attended and, thanks to the abundance of donations, is tentatively scheduled to make a second run this fall.

Our other fundraiser, the June 14 dessert auction, brought in more cash for IYC. There was quite a variety of treats to bid on, from cheesecake to freshly baked cookies. We got a kick out of watching the King's Kids "bidding" on items, too. To top it all off, Tom Peterson made his sophomore (no, not sophomoric) appearance as our energetic auctioneer.

The next Friday, a few of us took a campus tour of Warner Pacific College...

...Followed the next day by a beach trip for a couple carloads of our students on July 20th.

To our surprise, Seaside was featuring a "Father's Day Cruise-In."

After gawking at the classic cars on display, we toured the shops and wasted some pocket change at the arcade. The sun eventually drew us to the beach, although the air remained a bit chilly.

Some of us were even bold enough to brave the icy cold water!

Our upcoming car wash at the Burger King on TV Highway is scheduled for Saturday, July 25 [2009... This is a past event]. All of the proceeds will go to our IYC 2010 fund. We could use volunteers to help us out for any amount of time during the day. Please let Garth, Kathy or Wendy know if you are willing and able. If nothing else, we would love to wash your car!

In His Grip,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

And for those of you can't get enough of our student ministry, here are some bonus photos:

Our graduates eat pizza, receive gifts, and get prayed for (students are laying hands on Alissa in this second photo) at our School's Out Party.

Derek takes a tumble during a Wednesday night game of soccer at church.

Mickey D's

Ben directs traffic towards our rummage sale fundraiser, all while trying to find his way out of a plastic bag.

Student Ministry Newsletter- June 2009

2009-08-01T00:00:00.001-07:00

Note: I have a few recent student ministry posts that still need photos. As soon as I upload the photos to Flickr, I will add these posts here to Blogspot in the order that I originally completed them. Check back soon!

Aloha ChoG Youth Newsletter- June 2009

Our Aloha Church of God student ministry has concluded our teaching series on "Responding to God," and we pray that the students' responses have indicated life change. We've been inspired by the confrontation of sin by Nathan, the confession of King David, the bravery of Esther, and the obedience of the prophet Isaiah. These last few months, students have been challenged to respond to God's call as Isaiah did by answering, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8).

Here are some highlights of this past month's activities:

The nail-biting suspense of playing Easter Egg Roulette
Cheering on Juan (in the green jersey) as he won a decisive soccer victory over a tough team
Judging the performances of our talented theater students as they compete by acting out various vignettes (Alissa and Tiffany are featured in the photo)
Enjoying some of the latest "summer popcorn flicks" at the movie theater together

It is a blessing that Alex Bates (Class of '07) and her boyfriend Ryan are still actively involved at Aloha Church of God, leading children's church. We also caught up with a couple of other Aloha ChoG youth graduates whom we don't see very often. In this month's special "Where Are They Now?" segment:

Martha Carr (Class of '02) was spotted climbing Saddle Mountain with her mom, Peggy, on Memorial Day. She is currently working hard for her parents as they prepare their newly purchased home.
Lindsay Adams (Class of '05), daughter of Rick and Marva, graduated in May from Warner Pacific College with a B.A. in Elementary Education. She will be marrying her fiancé, Lance Chamberlain, in September!

We are proud of all of our students. They have a well deserved summer vacation just around the corner. Thank you for remembering each of them in your prayers.

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy

Here are a some bonus pictures for this month:

Floor hockey

Easter Egg Roulette aftermath

Weight lifting

A Week of Jeep Smash-Ups

2009-07-15T17:38:00.001-07:00

Ever had one of those weeks? Last month, my Jeep was rear-ended twice (both times while stopped at an intersection) within 72 hours. There were no major injuries, but the damage ranged from a totaled Ford Taurus to a full-on seven car pileup!

My Jeep got hit the first time as I was stopped with a car in front of me at a busy intersection, within a block or so from my home. Even with my Jeep's soft top down, I never heard the Taurus approach my rear bumper. Rather than hit her brakes, the driver was most likely speeding up to make a yellow light. She must have been going at least 35 MPH when she slammed into my rear bumper, spraying antifreeze and small pieces of her Taurus all over the intersection.
The picture above was taken at a later time, after the biggest shards of her car were removed from the intersection. Her Taurus had just enough life left in the engine to sputter around the corner and roll onto a side street to find its final resting place (in truth, she had it towed away the next week).

I thanked the Lord that the lady's small daughter was unharmed, and also that my Jeep only had a couple of scratches and tiny perforation on the rear bumper. Not wanting to leave the nice woman stranded in her slowly flowing river of antifreeze, I waited with her until her sister showed up to drive them both to her child daycare workplace.

The steam eventually stopped billowing out of her Taurus' engine, causing the outside of her car to look slightly less trashed. And although we were unable to pry her hood open, we could both peek inside to see her mangled radiator, hoses, etc. I later made a follow-up phone call to check up on her, and she had already planned to total out her Taurus. I felt so bad for her!

Two days later, a few blocks away from the Nike World Campus, a U-Haul driver lost control of his moving van and rear-ended a Ford Mustang. The chain reaction that ensued involved the Mustang, which rear-ended the U-Haul driver's girlfriend, who finally hit a string of three more cars (with my Jeep trapped in the middle). I braced for impact as the succession of crashing sounds drew closer to the rear of my Jeep. The car behind me inevitably hit my bumper and pushed my Jeep from a stopped, braked position into the van stopped in front of me.

For the climax, the van in front of me appeared to knock the leading car up to the edge of the crosswalk. Rather than waiting to collect myself, I uncharacteristically screamed (my apologies to Kathy's sensitive eardrums) into my hands-free cell device, "I gotta call you back. Someone just hit rear-ended my Jeep AGAIN!!"

As a police officer took our statements, most of the drivers surveyed the string of our seven cars, most of which were now smashed together, and just had to laugh. There was no major damage, and only the U-Haul driver's girlfriend had minor injuries. My Jeep being rear-ended a couple days earlier only made this accident seem more hilarious.

My conversations with the other drivers led me to conclude that none of them were followers of Christ just yet. But we all shared a thankfulness that everyone was okay… and we all agreed that Someone must have been watching over us.

Student Ministry Newsletter- May '09

2009-06-30T23:59:00.001-07:00

Our student ministry group is proud of all seven people who made the decision to be baptized in April. Pastor Tim baptized Shannon, Andrew, Melissa, and Aloha youth graduate Tiffany.

Garth and Kathy had the honor of baptizing students Victoria and Jackie. Each of these believers publically demonstrated their faith in Christ, while obediently identifying with His death and resurrection.

The collaboration with our very own Aloha Christian School for the spaghetti fundraiser dinner was an overwhelming success. We're still waiting for the final numbers, but the gym was packed with families who stopped by to fill up on the tasty pasta, garlic bread, salad, and lemon squares. This year's raffle, consisting of 58 different gift baskets, was also a big draw.

Our students received several compliments on how well they served. Those kids worked hard that night!

On Sundays and Wednesdays, we are continuing a teaching series on "Responding to God." Recently we have dealt with themes of taking risks for the one true God (as Rahab did), battling in God's strength (like Joshua), and staying focused on the Lord in spite of distractions (identifying with the struggles of Sampson's mother, Solomon, Martha, and others).

Other ministry highlights include:

We were impressed (as always) at our students' performances and behind-the-scenes efforts for Aloha High School's presentation of "Cabaret."

Students helped out our church's King's Kids ministry by filling Easter baskets...

...And what an amazing turnout we had for the breakfast and service on Easter Sunday! Praise God that both "big church" and youth group attendance continues to grow!

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are a few extra pictures from our student ministry:

A small but dedicated group of Sunday School students work together on a project.

Believers "stand firm" against resistance.

"Honey, if you love me, please give me a smile..."

Freeze!

Eleanor writes down the group's answers to prayer.

Video: Spring Skiing with Bo & Photos from Jake's Homecoming

2009-05-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am in the middle of filming a potentially 12-14 hour shoot on a movie set here in downtown Portland. To pass the time in between takes, I decided to post a couple of short videos that my dad shot of me skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows last month.

The weather was beautiful. Later in the day, however, the snow started to melt and wreak havoc on my form. If you look closely, you can see me crash at the end of both clips.

I didn't build up much speed for this clip, but the camera was still rolling when I ate snow at the end.
*****

It seems that there is no end in sight for today's film shoot, so I also have time for a post-Memorial day tribute to my cousin, Jake Davis. During his 15 day leave from Iraq, we were able to celebrate his temporary homecoming on his actual birthday.

He took time out for this bad boy pose with his brand new Springfield 45 XD handgun. Who would ever think to put that on a birthday list?

We'll be counting down the next six months with you, Jake. You'll be back in the States before you know it. Thanks for bravely serving our country. We are all so proud of you!

Student Ministry Newsletter- April ‘09

2009-04-18T19:03:00.001-07:00

Responding to God has been the theme of our Aloha Church of God student ministry meetings this season. Our teachings have uncovered parallels between our young people's lives and the biblical accounts of believers such as John the Baptist, his mother Elizabeth, and the Hebrew midwives who feared the Lord and saved the baby Moses' life.

We are all placed in challenging situations from time to time, and the Holy Spirit will guide our hearts to make bold choices that honor Christ.

How will you respond?

Some fun ministry highlights from this past month include:

Off-roading in Garth's Jeep at Brown's Camp, along with some kids from our community.

We had to get roped out of the mud by one of our friends. Thank God that the bumper held up!

A soggy yet scenic hike at Multnomah Falls.

Rocking and worshipping at the Memorial Coliseum with Jeremy Camp, Mercy Me, Hawk Nelson, Tenth Avenue North, and Addison Road during the Rock 'n' Worship Roadshow.

This is a short video of us singing along with Hawk Nelson as they play "The Show."

Being captivated by ACOGY graduate Alex Bates' performance in Warner Pacific College's play, "The Curious Savage."

Thank you all for the prayers for our wonderful students!

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are some bonus pictures:

Statues

Kathy sharing Moments for Missions with our congregation

Observing communion

A goofy shot of Will, Kenny, me, and Victoria in the church parking lot

Helping Allison move

Derek, Brandy, and Ben dash for their seats during Fruit Basket Upset

Boogie-Boarding and Frolicking: Celebrating 11 Years

2009-04-05T19:37:00.001-07:00

Note: I am still trying to figure out how to post a video of me skim boarding. It's painful to watch, and was even more painful to shoot.

Kathy and I celebrated 11 loving years of marriage last month with a fun weekend at the Oregon coast. Her parents' ten year anniversary present to us was a stay at the Nordic Oceanfront Inn at Lincoln City, and we cashed it in.

With no luck necessary, we both took off Friday the 13^th from work to start our getaway. After making a quick stop in McMinnville for coffee, we headed for the coast. I'm not sure why my body looked quite so pale and washed out in this photo.

After checking in at our hotel, we briefly admired the ocean view from our room before heading downstairs to the beach. The sun was shining, but the brisk air was keeping everyone else out of the water.

Never one to be a crowd follower, I donned my neoprene top and dipped my skim board in the ocean. Everyone seemed to be having a good laugh at my futile attempts to master the waves with any shred of dignity, but I didn't care. Bruises and goose bumps are a small price to pay for a good time.

Kathy stayed dry and, well, not quite as cold on the beach. She demonstrated her commitment to animal activism and renewable wind energy by feeding the seagulls and flying her kite.

After a soak in the hotel Jacuzzi (pictured at the top of this post), we drove up to Pacific City for the evening.

Dry suit clad surfers vied for waves in front of Haystack Rock as the sun went down. We dined on an overpriced but tasty dinner, served at a table with a beachfront view of the famous Oregon landmark. Back in Lincoln City, we took a nighttime stroll on the beach and then walked up the stairs to our hotel room for the night.

We woke up early on Saturday morning, grabbed a quick continental breakfast at the Nordic's dining hall, and checked out. I had planned a hike near Beverly Beach for the day, but the weather did not cooperate.

There was a rainstorm in Depoe Bay with wind gusts so strong that incoming Coast Guard ships were unable to dock. It was exciting to watch them try, though!

Newport was as far south as we made it. We abandoned all hope of hiking as the rains began to pound us even harder.

We ducked inside Moe's for fish tacos and the requisite bowls of clam chowder before heading back towards Lincoln City.

Returning through Depoe Bay, we pulled over to browse surf gear, crunch caramel corn, and sip some drinks at the Pirate Coffee Company.

Kathy recommends ordering a grande Spicy Wench, but you can't go wrong with a donut and an Ethically Challenged Sea Merchant, either.

Every weekend at the beach seems to conclude with a stop at some sort of outlet mall, and we didn't buck that trend this time, either. The Tangier outlet stores were our last non-food stop before we headed home, ending an unusually conventional (for us) weekend getaway. Considering that we usually fly overseas for our anniversaries, it was a nice change of pace to remain in the U.S.A.

Eleven years of marriage have whizzed by, and it doesn't seem to be getting any more difficult. In fact, it's a pleasure. Marrying someone as wonderful as Kathy makes it easy to stay in love.

Student Ministry Newsletter- Mar ‘09

2009-03-26T06:32:00.001-07:00

There have been several highlights from our student ministry at Aloha Church of God this past month. Here are a few:

Our students volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank warehouse: We partnered with other volunteers to process 7560 pounds of oats. That comes out to 22,680 meals/ bowls of oatmeal for Portland's needy, or 311 meals per volunteer!
We finished our teaching series on the growth and maturity of the New Testament church.
Garth resumed his high school campus lunch visitations with students.
Schools have to make up for missed snow days, so we made up for our church's December weather cancellations with a "make-up" Christmas week.

On Wednesday night, we decorated faces with shaving cream Santa beards.

Warner Pacific College admission counselor Alyssa Draper was on hand to judge the quality of each carefully shaped shaving cream beard.

After we cleaned up, Alyssa enthusiastically shared about Warner Pacific with our students.

Garth and Kathy's place was the place to be that Saturday night. Our make-up Christmas party wrapped up a week of better-late-than-never Christmas joy.

Of course, we threw a Super Bowl party at Garth and Kathy's the next day.

A couple weeks after Alyssa's visit, Garth took Aloha High School students Alissa, Kenny, and Kevin to Portland for a WPC campus tour.

Thank you for continuing to pray for the growth of our student ministry (and for Garth's dad during his recovery from melanoma surgery!).

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

As always, here some bonus pics:

We pray hard, but we also play hard

Will prepares to flash the applause sign for a sermon illustration

Stacking our trays with delicious food, compliments of Warner Pacific College

Striking a pose during Christian family bowling night at Park Lanes

A Slightly Snowy Update

2009-03-11T23:55:00.001-07:00

Kathy and I were praying for March snow, and it arrived just in time for our hike last Saturday. The snowfall was short lived, so most of it melted away almost as quickly as it had accumulated.

Gail’s Creek Trail was badly damaged from the previous winter storm. Fallen trees and branches were strewn across the trail, and the path was washed out in a few places. We hiked in as far as we could before turning back at the trail closure signs.

I helped Kathy navigate most of the rougher spots, but I backed off for a moment to photograph her climbing over some frozen branches. What a trooper! I plan to upload more photos from this hike in the future.

We actually got a tiny bit of snow accumulation at home on Sunday and Monday. It wasn’t much, but I always welcome an occasional break from our typically mild Northwest climate. Clicking on this photo should enlarge it enough to see the falling snowflakes. This pic was taken from our back porch.

Finally, here is a photo that didn’t make the cut for my last “Arctic Blast” retro blog post.

My dad took this shot of Kathy and I at his house on Christmas morning. I wanted to post it here because Kathy looks so beautiful, as always.

Let It Snow... In March?

2009-03-03T23:59:00.001-08:00

Note: Photos were added here on 3/8/09. Additional winter storm pics can be found on my January 2 post.

The forecast calls for more snow this weekend in the Portland metro area. I hope it starts falling in time for Kathy’s and my hike on Saturday! Either way, I am happy with the snow levels that have hit the Portland metro area this winter.

Last Thursday’s snow accumulation wasn’t too impressive, but waking up to a view of white trees prompted me to make an early Americano run around the corner to Black Rock coffee bar (pictured above, from this winter’s second snow event in January). Whether or not our snow storm earned the news media’s “Arctic Blast” moniker, this has been the best winter weather I’ve seen in my life.

The snow started falling on Friday, December 12. I caught my first glimpse of it while driving home from a class reunion at Warner Pacific College.

On Sunday morning, the snow started to accumulate while we worshipped at church.

On Thursday night, December 18, we met my family at a yacht club on the Columbia River for a tour of the annual Christmas ships parade.

My parents, Kathy, Summer, and I boarded a friend's yacht and gazed out the windows as the other brightly lit ships bobbed past us.

We even ventured outside to the deck, breathing in the chilly air as we weaved through the display of floating Christmas imagery.

By Saturday, ODOT had issued a warning for motorists to curtail any unnecessary driving. Of course, I used every excuse I could think of to drive my Jeep all over town.

The icy ruts were the cause of several accidents, many of them worse than the pile up in this photo.

Sharing the road with only a few other brave souls allowed me to rescue stranded drivers at will, glide through sparsely populated stores, and, most importantly, replenish our depleted supply of Peet’s coffee beans.

Running out of coffee qualifies as a household emergency, right?

Other fond memories of the 2008 “Arctic Blast” include:

Our neighbors building a sharply dressed snowman…

Kathy contemplating life, falling snowflakes, and the future of the Dallas Cowboys…

Our snow covered cars (yes, there is a blue Camry buried below)…

…And spending Christmas Day at our parents’ house in Vancouver.

Student Ministry Newsletter- Feb ‘09

2009-02-25T23:03:00.000-08:00

2009 did not begin quietly for Aloha Church of God's students. We rang in the new year with the Insomnia 2009 all-night party, hosted by Vancouver's First Church of God.

Over 300 middle and high schoolers got crazy at this annual event.

Highlights included two concerts (The Nathan Arnold Band led us in worship through midnight)...

...a message by Pastor Don Doe...

...an inflatable obstacle course, door prizes, an interactive game with Warner Pacific College...

...adrenaline-soaked sleep deprivation (even through 6 a.m, as we snapped this pic while waiting in line for breakfast)...

and a Mountain Dew chugging contest (between Ben and Kenny) gone horribly wrong. Anyone with a hankering to see a photo of Ben's anticlimactic, gut wrenching (no pun intended) finale should request to be added to my "private" www.flickr.com contact list.

We are concluding our study of the church's beginnings with a unit on instructions for spiritual growth, as found in the epistles of the New Testament.

One of the more memorable moments was staging a minor food fight between theater students Alissa and Kevin to illustrate loving (and not so loving) methods of resolving disagreements. This vignette, taped by Derek and featuring a random cameo by Will, also touched on themes of gender discrimination and legalism.

Public service announcement: any foods harmed in the filming of this production will be matched by a donation to the Food Cupboard ministry.

We would like to say a special word of thanks to those who have already helped out our student ministry in 2009:

Wendy: for being the best ministry volunteer leader ever!
Sharon (pictured further below with Pastor Tim, at his installation ceremony): for teaching our students while Garth and Kathy were in Canby at the SHAPE pastoral development retreat, for filling in as our supportive Reaching Servant , and for helping us with our fundraising efforts.
Janelle: for being a guest speaker on January 14, inspiring our students with her own disciplines for spiritual growth.

---and last, but not least---

Pastor Tim: for starting out strong with his pastoral leadership and following the vision that God has given him for our church.

We were pleased to honor him at his installation ceremony on January 25^th.

We got even more bang for our buck when Ben gave his debut rock star performance for his dad during the service!

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Here are a couple of bonus pictures, not included in the church newsletter:

After getting knocked out of a Wednesday night crowdbreaker, Derek cries out to the heavens, "Why?"

ROMANS 16:19 SAYS!!... Well, our student ministry does strive for excellence in what is good. But who knew that praising God could be so hard on the furniture?

Inspiring Update on My Dad

2009-02-19T23:05:00.001-08:00

Note: Check out the photos I added to some older posts this week, including our vacation to South America. Also, my August 2, 2008 blog entry has one of my favorite pictures of Bo and me hiking together.

After being diagnosed last month with Clark Level IV melanoma on his neck, my dad Doug Hamilton (or Bo, as we call him) had a successful surgery last week. On Tuesday, Bo received the news: he is now probably cancer free! Praise God for answered prayers!!

This photo is of Bo and Vive driving away from the hospital, just hours after his successful melanoma surgery! Bo looks great!

Our family has received a flood of support throughout this ordeal. Bo wrote a note thanking the hundreds of people (whom we know of) who lifted him up with their prayers and encouragement. You can follow the link to his note here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddg3vg8n_1pwqq3kgj

If you prefer Microsoft Office Live, you can click here http://workspace.office.live.com/?id=qACQ0MDU0ZTg5Yy04NWFlLTRmNDctYTcwYS0yMTU3NzU2OGRiZmUAe9TW057xCzlNkDFax1KNrip9ezAiWxzZvCJGlwP9BIoru8B9ABJnYXJ0aGthdEBnbWFpbC5jb20AABQXUtM8klh6bToEIk9jj76lw8aDuwAA&cid=40

Here is the condensed version of the story: The doctors had originally told Bo that this reoccurrence of skin cancer had spread so quickly that it may be inoperable. Worst case scenarios projected a surgery that might have left Bo severely disabled, threatening to forever alter his active lifestyle.

Preparing for this possibility, our family prayerfully spent countless hours in the past month on the phone, over coffee, and in correspondence with each other and with friends.

On the Friday before Bo's surgery, my sister Summer and I met Bo for a hike near Washington State's Moulton Falls.

On Tuesday, February 10^th, our family met with Bo at 6 a.m. at Kaiser Sunnyside hospital for his melanoma surgery. After less than 2 1/2 hours, we received word from the surgeon that the tumor was removed, and that the removed lymph node did not show any signs of melanoma. In other words, they were able to cut the surgery short due to the cancer being less widespread than the test interpretations had indicated! Bo didn't even need skin grafts!

The picture at the top of this post sums up how that day, as well as this chapter of Bo's life, came to a joyful conclusion. Summer's note on Facebook recounts the day with loving detail. For those of you not registered with Facebook, I have posted it here http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddg3vg8n_2fqg89mgf

On behalf of my dad and the rest of our family, I want to say thanks to all of you who have kept Bo in your prayers during this time. We are grateful that his pre-operation tests were misinterpreted, yet we also know that the Lord had a mighty Hand in all of this. We are truly blessed!

Student Ministry Newsletter- January 2009

2009-01-02T16:21:00.000-08:00

When I was your age... Kathy and I had to push both of our cars to church in the snow with bare feet.

Student Ministry Newsletter

January 2009

December's "Arctic Blast" snowstorm may have closed down roads and schools into Christmas break, but our student ministry continued to gain traction for the journey.

Students took advantage of the school cancellations to hang out throughout the week (DQ, above, is always a favorite place to take a break from the storm outside).

One memorable gathering at youth pastor Garth and Kathy's apartment inspired some of the guys to record a comically failed "video commentary" for the movie Dark Knight, to be posted on the Warner Brothers website. Trust us, it was bad. We should have learned from our previous week's premiere viewing of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian that movies are meant to be watched, not talked through.

The students on our couch are taking the jump to Narnia together.

As expected, Aloha High School students Alissa, Kenny, and Kevin performed their roles wonderfully in the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In our study of the church's origins in Scripture, we just finished a unit on how the early church adapted to its growth in the book of Acts. We are thanking God for growing our student ministry as well.

On the week that many institutions shut down due to the piles of snow and ice on the roads, we planned a snowball fight at church on Wednesday night… and had a full house for the Bible study! We are excited to see how the Lord will work in our student ministry and through our church as a whole in 2009.

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy

Here are some bonus pics from Flickr that I have made "public":

Brandon taking prayer requests during a Wednesday night meeting

Serving donuts and snacks to our church family

Cheering for the Dallas Cowboys at our apartment

This is us heading home from our apartment after shooting our "Dark Knight" webcam commentary. Obviously, we shuffled seats before the Jeep drove off.

Student Ministry Newsletter- December 2008

2008-11-24T00:43:00.000-08:00

Student Ministry Newsletter

December 2008

Knight Life weekend at Warner Pacific College this year featured the WPC drama production of "Marvin's Room." ACOG graduates Alex Bates and Lindsay Adams (pictured, sitting) were involved in the play, with Alex on the set-up crew and Lindsay giving a terrific "you'll love to hate her" final performance as a selfish, vindictive mother. Garth and Kathy took a few students to Knight Life on Friday night and were treated to a free dinner and admission tickets. Thanks, Warner Pacific!

Aloha High School's own irreverent production of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" had the audience rolling in the aisles in laughter. Students Kevin Gade, Alissa Degman, Kenny Degman, and John Nightingale stood out in a talented cast that brought out a decidedly memorable interpretation of the Bard's classic works.

Our Bible studies have been focusing on the community of the kingdom of God. Each of our sessions have dealt with a different aspect of God's kingdom as it historically developed through Christ's example and teachings. The "upside down" nature of God's kingdom is what sets the church apart from any earthly kingdom. Any greatness that we have as Christians depends on our submission to Christ's authority and our service to others.

Have a merry Christmas!

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy

P.S. For you blog fans, I have made a few more of my Flickr ministry pictures public:

Garth off-roading with some students at Brown's Camp

Eleanor, Kenny, Kevin, and Juana attacking a hockey puck

Sibling rivalry: Buckle vs. Buckle

Sibling rivalry: Gade vs. Gade

Juana and Brandon... Awww, how sweet!

Student Ministry Newsletter- November 2008

2008-10-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Aloha Church of God Student Ministry Newsletter - November 2008

Those involved in our student ministry had many opportunities to live out their obedience to God in October. It was inspiring to witness people trying something different, stepping up to the plate to serve.

During the week that youth pastors Garth and Kathy traveled to Uruguay and Argentina, adult volunteer Wendy took the helm. After teaching Sunday school all by herself, Wendy coordinated the Wednesday follow up to the previous week's pop can drive fundraiser. So many students showed up that we ran out of seats, even with drivers Wendy, her son, and Sharon!

The next week, Aloha High School seniors Alissa and Kevin recruited students and adults to participate in a tentatively named "drama club." The initial meeting was well attended (not everyone was present when this photo was taken), with some future thespians ready to use their gifts to glorify God. We are hoping to see wonderful and entertaining presentations from this group in the coming months!

Last but definitely not least, AHS graduate Michelle followed up her heartwarming August testimony from International Youth Convention with her decision to be baptized by Garth and Kathy in October. Michelle's spiritual growth has been evident throughout all of the years that we've known her, and her obedience to God's Word was displayed yet again through her willingness to share with the student group about her baptism experience.

Much else could be said about our student ministry's increase in numbers (our turnout was obviously a bit smaller on this night),

our wild outreach events (such as following Scriptural clues through a frightening but tasteful "haunted" corn maze), and the intensified involvement of other emerging student leaders. But know this: God is actively transforming the lives of our church's young people.

In Christ,

Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

Uruguay-Argentina 2008, Part 3

2008-10-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

Uruguay-Argentina 2008, Pt. 3

Kathy and I scrambled for cover as the protestors' gunfire erupted in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo, piercing the late afternoon sky with the cry of a revolution. Our hearts pounded as we fled for safety behind the ranks of heavily armed Policia Federal, garbed in full riot gear as they filed out of their armored vehicles…

Okay, so this event in Argentina wasn't quite THAT dramatic. However, this is essentially how it happened, and Kathy and I can recall plenty of episodes like this from over a decade of world travel to nearly 35 countries. My problem is that I get so wrapped up in the excitement of the moment that I often delay updating my travelogue until there are too many stories to recount.

My solution? I usually upload my photos to http://www.flickr.com/ as I travel from hostel to hostel, often adding descriptions and tags later (please contact me if you would like free access to my entire "private" photo catalog). As of today I have yet to upload the final batch from our Uruguay-Argentina vacation, but most of this trip is already documented online in pictures.

As in my previous blog post uploaded from our Uruguayan hostel, I could share our remaining October adventures in South America using the same dramatic flair (the kind of flair that you pin to your Chatchski's polo shirt) as above. Instead, though, I choose to take the easy way out and present to you in sentence fragments the awkwardly titled…drum roll please…

The top 14 most vivid memories from the second half of Garth and Kathy's Uruguay-Argentina vacation!

14. Stopping at a church at exactly 7:00 pm PST Wednesday night to pray for our student ministry meeting back home.

13. Cautiously weaving and pushing through a crowd of protesters outside of a government building in Uruguay's Colonia de Sacramento. Little did we know that this incident would be relatively tame compared to the political activists whom we would encounter in Argentina (see #2, below).

12. A crippled local gentleman who followed us around the Plaza de Indepencia , insisting on taking our picture in front of the eternally guarded tomb of Artimas and every other landmark in the vicinity.

11. Capping off our tour of the cobblestone streets of Colonia with a scrumptious pizza dinner at the waterfront El Torrean café.

10. Traveling by intercity bus, slow boat Eladia Isabel, and finally a taxi from Uruguay to Argentina, only to discover that all of Buenos Aires' youth hostels were booked for the night. Around midnight, we finally sprung for the inexpensive hostel Hotel Europa.

9. Eating our first (and best ever) steak at Bistro Iberia at 1 a.m. Wednesday, resulting in our commitment to seek out delicious steak dinners and/or lunches daily. Another highlight was our humungous steak lunch at Natacha on Thursday, but we recommend that you skip the El Sito cafe. Steak tastes amazing in Argentina, and it's a bargain!

8. Argentine police allowing passersby to threaten, punch, and shove an accused petty thief (sometimes even restraining him!) into a steel door as we watched from across the dark alley. "Street justice" takes on a new meaning when the police give their blessing.

7. Attempting to buy local coffee beans as gifts from the Coffee House, a large Americanized café on Buenos Aires' pedestrian-only Florida Avenue. It required two cashiers, one manager, and a phone call to headquarters for the staff to figure out how to price a prepackaged bag of beans. Apparently brewing premium coffee at home is a foreign concept for some South Americans.

6. The entire city of Buenos Aires going crazy over a national soccer game on Wednesday.

5. Spotting Sun (or a look-alike) from the TV show "Lost" while sipping coffee at the upscale Richmond.

Locals squared off against each other at chess in the Richmond's basement, visible from our table upstairs.

4. Navigating many of Buenos Aires' streets by visually referencing the Capital Federal landmark, which can be spotted throughout various neighborhoods.

3. Looking on as a heated argument en español deteriorated into a near catfight between two women at the gravesite of Eva Peron. The face off was between an opinionated tour guide and a feisty porteña on a pilgrimage, each shoving their own take on the Peron legacy down each other's throats. But this throw down at Evita's grave could never overshadow what we faced across the plaza from Evita's "preaching" balcony a day earlier…

2. …Short bursts of gunfire (as mentioned above, in italics) nearly causing Kathy and I to jump out of our hiking boots as we neared the Casa Rosada, the Presidential building in Plaza de Mayo.

Policia Federal in riot gear were on hand as militant protesters marched around the plaza for an hour or so, frequently halting to discharge their weapons into the sky and shout a heavily accented, "Freedom!"

1. Strolling past a café that was blasting out an elevator music remake of "Sweet Child O' Mine"…with Slash's memorable lead guitar replaced by a flute solo (!). Truth is, I couldn't think of anything cool enough to top that last one for the #1 spot.

Uruguay-Argentina 2008, Part 2

2008-10-14T02:30:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

As I prepare to post this blog from my youth hostel in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, I am pondering one profound question: Did the Dallas Cowboys make that final field goal to force the Arizona Cardinals into overtime, with four seconds remaining?

Kathy and I transferred planes in Salt Lake City and arrived in Atlanta just in time for the first quarter of the Dallas game. Strolling down the concourse, we stopped at each TV screen whenever we saw the Cowboys assemble on the line of scrimmage. Our layover in Atlanta should have been just long enough to allow us to watch the entire game.

Kathy and I had already been assigned seats on the flight to Buenos Aires, and Delta was boarding all zones. I kept stepping out of the boarding line to walk across our gate to the TV monitor. The Cowboys were down by three, with four seconds remaining. Faulk was about to make a 50-odd yard field goal attempt (which was repeatedly interrupted) to tie the score at the end of regulation play. As the gate agent impatiently shouted the final boarding call, I peeled myself away from the game and handed her my boarding pass. After that last ten hour flight plus a day of exploring South America, I still have not gone online to post this blog or see the final score. No matter how that game ended, GO COWBOYS!!

Keeping with my tradition, I waited to open my Lonely Planet travel guide for Argentina (it also covers Uruguay) until we were actually seated on our international flight. I've learned from past experience that leaving a book unopened will allow me to return it to Barnes & Noble if I get bumped off a flight and need to choose a different destination. I skimmed the book while watching a minor Kevin Costner comedy, promptly dozing off as the final credits rolled. A virus I caught in late September has kept me awake all night, coughing, several times in the past couple weeks (including Friday night). Though I am still far from a full recovery, nothing could keep me awake on that flight.

Gray skies greeted us at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport, along with a professional driver named Richard.

He was so helpful in providing visitors' information (and competitively priced) that we hired him to drive us to the Burqebus boat terminal for our ferry to Uruguay.

Richard drove us through the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires to get us oriented for our return to Argentina on Wednesday. We discussed faith, culture, and Argentina's economy. At the port we said our goodbyes, ate some pizza, and boarded a ferry bound for Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.

At the Hotel Colonia, we checked out their complimentary mountain bikes. Kathy's bike had only a front brake (one more brake than mine had), and mine had two low tires and erratic steering. It was quite an experience, but it would be an understatement to say that they were safety hazards on wheels.

We spent the rest of our day wandering the cobblestone streets of Colonia, impressed that structures from the 1600s were still being used by citizens of Uruguay today. We had dinner on the waterfront patio of El Torreon and desert shakes at a nearby café.

I would share more stories from Colonia, but our bus is about to leave for Montevideo. I hope I can access this hostel's Wi-Fi signal so I can post this blog entry. If all goes according to plan, we should be leaving Uruguay late tonight to return to Argentina.

Traveling to Uruguay

2008-10-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

When is good cell phone reception disappointing? I am grateful that I can use my phone to create this blog post, but cell phone service can only indicate one thing: On our second full day of vacation, Kathy and I are still in the United States.

As a former airline employee, I fly for free. The catch is that Kathy and I fly standby and can only get on flights which have seats available. After trying since Friday night to catch an open flight out of Portland, my parents intervened. The MAX train does not run early enough in the morning, so my parents let us crash at their house in Vancouver, WA for a few hours.

My mom was even kind enough to take us to the airport at 4:30 a.m.

We finally made it, thank God! Our flight to Salt Lake City is about to push back from the gate. Our destination? Last night we ruled out Europe and decided to fly to Uruguay, with a stop in Argentina. I'm looking forward to not having cell phone reception.

Student Ministry Newsletter- October 2008

2008-10-11T20:49:00.001-07:00

Note: Photos added to this post.

Due to popular demand, I will begin posting my Aloha Church of God student ministry newsletters on this blog (whenever practical). It fires me up to see how God is working in the lives of these young people. Please join me in supporting these students through prayer and encouragement as they seek after God's own heart.

Aloha Church of God Student Ministry Newsletter - October 2008

We would like to officially welcome Eleanor Buckles into our student ministry. She is now in 7^th grade and already fits right in with our group.

Another thing we are excited about is the arrival of Pastor Tim on October 12^th!

When he and Janelle visited Aloha in early September, we also got the privilege of meeting Ben and Will. Both boys joined us on Saturday, September 6^thto hike up Multnomah Falls with Brandon, Allen, Eleanor, and Alissa. While at the top, Allen almost had a chipmunk eating peanuts out of his hand.
It was fun getting to know Ben and Will and we are so happy that they will soon be part of our student ministry.

Our annual See You at the Pole prayer gathering took place on Wednesday, Sept 24^th this year. SYATP is observed at high school campuses nationwide on the fourth Wednesday morning of every September. Aloha High School senior Kevin Gade met at his campus' flagpole at 7 a.m. with Garth and about 30 AHS students to pray for their school, community, and nation. With curious onlookers gawking, student leaders from various local churches read Scripture, shared, and cried out passionately to God.
Our church followed up with a pizza party outreach that evening.

"Speak, for your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:10) was this year's theme for See You at the Pole. This month, our Bible studies have examined the lives of two men who had this attitude. Nehemiah, a prophet called by God, came before the Lord in prayer before even asking for help in building the wall of Jerusalem. Haggai also listened to God's instructions before undertaking the major remodeling the Lord's temple.

Both of these men listened to God first, and then acted on His word to them. Our students kept this in mind as we removed weeds around the church during one of our Wednesday night sessions.
May we all listen for God's call, and then be quick to obey!

By the way, here is a bonus pic not included in our church newsletter.
After a time of reflection, our students dipped their sins into a bowl of liquid that symbolized the blood of Christ. Our sins have been washed away!

Student Ministry Newsletter- September 20008

2008-10-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've always considered this to be a personal blog, not a ministry blog. However, student ministry is where God has placed me right now, so this is obviously a huge part of my life. I figured, why not start posting our student newsletters here? Kathy and I write these articles every month anyway, and there are probably few people who get to read them who aren't parents or friends within our church family. So without further ado, here is last month's...

Aloha Church of God Student Ministry Newsletter- September '08

Several of our students made appearances this year at the Oregon/Southwest Washington Campmeeting in Brooks. Paul and Autumn Kelley were able spend the entire week on the grounds, while others came up for the Wednesday night service and throughout the week.
The main evangelist was T. Allen Bethel from the Maranatha Church in Portland. He spoke powerfully on this year's theme, "Stand Firm," based on I Corinthians 15:58. The highlight for many of our students was an intimate evening concert featuring former members of Christian rock bands Kutless and Falling Up.

Our annual August camping/ waterskiing trip was replaced this year by the Luis Palau Portland CityFest at Waterfront Park.
Prior to the event, thousands of volunteers signed up for the Season of Service, partnering with many different service agencies from all over Portland. Projects included free medical and dental clinics, homeless shelters, helping communities recovering from flooding, handing out clothes to the needy, and cleaning up neighborhoods, parks, and schools. Two of our own students, Michelle Vellone and Kaila George, gave of their time in an effort to be involved in these projects. CityFest was then a celebration of the Season of Service.
At the two day festival, August 22-23, there were performances by bands including Kutless, Chris Tomlin, Mercy Me, Toby Mac, and Hawk Nelson (pictured above). Each evening Luis Palau brought a message of salvation and the need for Jesus Christ to live in our lives.
Hundreds of people came to know Jesus for the first time.

Garth was preaching on Philippians throughout August, so Kathy had the opportunity to teach during our student sessions. Amid the crazy games...

...and the shaving cream fights,

...we have been learning from the book of Hebrews how to get our "faith life" in shape. The summer Olympics provided relevant illustrations concerning the training athletes do and what we need to do to strengthen our walk with Christ. Athletes train, exercise, eat right, and practice to win at their sport. In the same way, we need to "train" by reading our Bible, praying and spending time with God. When we "eat right" we are aware of what we're feeding our minds. Is it wholesome and nutritious or is it causing us to stumble?
"Exercise" is disciplining yourself to spend time in the Word and praying, then gradually adding more time and regularity each day. "Practicing" is putting into action how Christ has called us to live. By doing all the above, we are strengthening our faith life in this race we are running toward the goal we are trying to reach. Just as Garth preached in his third sermon: "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13a-14).

August photo blowout sale...Everything must go!

2008-08-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

You heard that right... Due to overwhelming demand, I am finally posting a few more photos!
But first...
I need to switch gears for a few minutes as I prepare to preach my four-part sermon series on Philippians this month. So to ease my slight anxiety about my first preaching oppportunity in nearly a year(!), I'm taking a break to answer the FAQs I often get:
Q: Why do you hardly ever post to your blog? A: I'm well-meaning but very busy.
Q: Why can't we view very many pics on your Flickr site? A: Y'all need to send me (or create) your free Yahoo ID so I can add you as a "Friend" to unlock those other hidden pics.
Q: When are you gonna make all of your Flickr pics "Public" so anyone can see them? A: Probably never. I usually only unlock the pics that I post here on my blog, but anyone can access the hidden photos after they send me their Yahoo ID. After all, I don't want just ANYONE to have access to my pics (especially of my awesome students)!
That said, here are a few pics I recently made "Public":

Before I was even called into youth ministry, Monica WAS my middle school youth pastor. At Monty's reception, it was such a blast from the past to run into the best (former) middle school youth pastor of all time!

Speaking of major childhood influences, a bunch of my high school buddies got together in a Portland studio to record a tribute song for the late great Pastor Gerald Marvel. Click on the photo to see who all sang their parts, all masterfully written by Nicole. We miss you, Pastor Marvel!

Kathy, my beautiful wife!

Hiking Hamilton Mountain with Bo (my dad) on his first day of retirement. His local celebrity-studded retirement sendoff was amazing. I am so proud of him!

Out with Kathy's parents to celebrate her birthday.

Mother's Day at Izzy's, with my parents and my sister Girl.

Pigging out at the Men's Advance at Camp Whitebranch.

Group shot of our retreat at Camp Whitebranch. I'm kneeling down in the front row to disguise my towering frame.

And last but not least, here is a freakishly altered shot of Kathy and I heading out with our internet-shy friends Joey and Jenna. They didn't want their faces posted online, but there's nothing that a little nightmarish photo editing can't fix.

That's it for now. I will unlock and post a few more pics after campmeeting, including some youth ministry shots. I'd better get back to studying for tomorrow's sermon...