A homeless man on Burnside receives one of many care packages from our high school students.
Someone asked during Sunday’s E.P.I.C. Super Bowl party why so many months have gone by without a student ministry update here on BlogSpot. Was it Lena’s birth on 9-10-11? The frenetic juggling of new fatherhood, ministry, day jobs, volunteer ops, WPC Alumni President stuff, and the credentialing process? My love of sentence fragments? Yes, yes, and yes.
Blocking Facebook for the past few weeks didn’t free up as much as time as I had hoped, although my head is almost above water. But enough about me… this is about our amazing Aloha Church of God students. Sit back and let these pictures wash over you:
Our annual boating/camping weekend at Yale Lake, Washington—Ben led morning devotions on Day 2
Hiking the Ramona Falls Loop in the Mount Hood Wilderness Area
Shaving cream fight!!
Floating the Nehalem River and engaging in horseplay at Tom’s and Wendy’s property outside of Vernonia
Ultimate Frisbee
"Soul Surfer" party night at our house
Allen and Eleanor helping with the fishing booth while Garth Brooks and Lena, his delicious little strawberry, tour our church's "Trunk or Treat" displays on Halloween night
Crafting shaving cream Afros and pelting them with Cheetos during “Cheeto Head”
Several rounds of hanging out at DQ with some of our Wednesday night E.P.I.C. students
Will, Eleanor, and Wendy serving our church family during “Coffee Talk”
Winter Jam 2011 with Kutless, Red, Newsboys, Fireflight, Matthew West, KJ-52, For King & Country, Patrick Ryan Clark, and more @ The Memorial Coliseum -- See the bottom of this post for a video from Red’s fiery opening performance.
Our all-night E.P.I.C. post-Christmas party-- Amazingly, we were still having PlayStation 3 dance-offs into the next afternoon! See the bottom of this post for a video clip.
And the meat of it all: The teachings! These past few months, our E.P.I.C. Wednesday night sessions have launched these series: “Made to Make a Difference” (social justice/ action), “Crazy Love” (radical transformation), and our current “Soul Surfer” teaching series, based on world champion teenage surfer Bethany Hamilton's inspirational comeback following a brutal shark attack, which faces discovering God’s purposes while coping with trauma, crisis, and tragedy.
For those of you who prefer to gawk at those newfangled moving talkie pictures they have nowadays, here are a couple videos from this past fall:
Video: [Click the "play" arrow above] Red kicks off Winter Jam 2011 with an pyrotechnic-filled run through of “Faceless”
Video: [Click the "Play" arrow above] Eleanor and Kenny bust a move during “Everybody Dance,” as the remnants from the previous evening’s all-night E.P.I.C. post-Christmas party cheer them on.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
E.P.I.C. Student Ministry Update- Feb 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Not a Murmur
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!
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!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Lena's First Christmas
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
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Meet WP’s new Alumni Council President- Garth Hamilton
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!!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Shave the Date
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.