Back to the Ski Slopes… At Last

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!!!

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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

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

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

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

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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!!

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Originally uploaded by gkhamilton

Happy New Year!!