THe Grill

Hello to all, welcome to PG's Grill. I've been out of the blogging loop for a little bit, but looking forward to starting again. This will be a place for me to talk about things that are relevant to life, and also put a positive perspective on a variety of topics.  I am a youth pastor at Trinity Assembly of God. The church is located in Lutherville, Md, and i have been currently living in the area for 6 months. For the next few days, i will be blogging on the topic of transitions in life and what Im learning on this new chapter in my transition.  Stay tuned to see what's cooking next on THE GRILL.

Random Thoughts

I'm a little on the tired side today.

I'm excited about March Madness. GO CAROLINA!! (yup that's my team)

I love hanging out with my leadership team!!

Spring is here!! Which means RITAS is BACK!!

I'm going to Read and finsh a couple of books today.

Fine Arts was a Blast!! Congratulations to all the students for using and developing your gifts!!

Joe Gibbs is back in Nascar.

I'm Thankful for Friends!! They keep me on point in different ways.

One of my students is on a school trip in HAWAII!!! I'm jealous, she better bring me something back. :)

Taking Risks

Hey guys, i apologize for my procrastination. I am obviously back from Thailand and the jet lag monster has been thrown off of my back!! I will do my best to post everyday from here on out. Last night was an awesome night at Fusion. We kicked off a new way doing our youth service. When you start something new, there's always a risk and many questions such as: Will this work? ARe they going to like it? THis is not going to go well? What if people will hate me forever? I must say, even thought there is a potential for all of these things when trying something new, you must still go forward!! That's apart of the thrill!!! It's exciting, and i must say that i LOVE challenges. It's fun to get input, think creatively, just TRY things.

Is there something in your life that you can surely say you are afraid to do? WHat's holding you back from taking the plunge? Fear of failure, regret. Which option will you regret over the long haul jumping or not jumping? When you are fifty years down the road, what stories do you want to tell your grandkids- stories of risk and adventure, or stories of average and mediocre. YOu choose- it's your choice.
In all honesty, it's hard for me to just front and say that i have successfully taken all the challenges head on when they have come my way. I can't say that i've never buckled under pressure. Even in these moments, God has taught me some things about myself and him. The times that i have fully jumpred into challenges and risks though, i've always learned and come over the other side a better person, and most importantly more fulfilled. Even if i've failed, i must say that is also refreshing as long as i was true to God and my hearts desire.

I challenge you to be a person who is a calculated risk taker. Ask God for wisdom and trust in him. He will show you the way. Most importantly as we put our trust completely and fully in him, he promises to be with us. I believe that God wants us to take risks in this life- it's an oppurtunity for our faith to be worked out.

Have a great day and be blessed!!
PG

Sessions 4-6

Well, to say that this week has been amazing is an understatement. It has been an awesome blessing being a small part of what God is doing here in Thailand. These last few sessions, i held a second panel with the missionary kids, spoke 4 messages, and hung out with the students in different locations. The kids were very transparent with me on many different issues ranging from what not to say to a MK (missionary kid) to the joys of being anMk. We ended our last session this morning, and as always saying goodbye was hard. More pics and lessons from the Mk's to come in the near future.

i tell you jetlag is crazy. My body has been in and out of sync. I hope it's not too bad coming home, even though i heard it is. It's been hard to get to and from to blog more frequently than i anticipated. I think it's a good problem vying that i had some great oppurutnities to hang out with the students at the night market and also to visit some cool places in the city.

We are now awaiting our shuttle to get to the airport to began the long voyage back home. Sonja and Laurie added up the hours of our flight home; It will be a whopping 29 hours, counting all of the layover time. Wow, i'm gonna be out once we get home which will be on Saturday morning around 10 to 11am. I have to do my best to stay up so that i can get back on schedule- i have to be ready for church the following day. Just warning you students, I may have alot of red bull and jolt by my side as i teach sunday school. I'm looking forward to telling you guys all about the trip and showing you some cool pics.

Well, the rest of the gang is watching Batman, and i got a little bored so i'm probably going to do some reading. Again, it's been a great experience and i'm humbled again of how God includes us in the great work that he is doing. Big Ups to God!! Thank you for your prayers and support. Continue to pray for us as we head home. Pray that they have movies on this trip. They didn't have them on our way to Thailand. :(

Have a great day,
PG

Sessions 1-3

Hey Guys, been a while i know. We had a full day yesterday filled with sessions. In session 1 i talked about dream chasing, and we had a great opening service. During the second session i put the mk students on a panel and thi sblew me away. I feel like i know in a small way what it means to be a missionary's kid. they were very vulnerable and real- one girl even talked about the fact that she sometimes hates her lot in life. The common pattern in the response from the students was that they hate the fact of meeting new people and then departing. this is a never ending cycle in the life of a missionary. I have an assistant and his name is Olinto from Brazil, but he lives in China. We have hit it off very well. He's a cool dude. We went to the night market with the kids and this was very interesting. I took a few pictures with some Thai ladies. This was very fun, they then tried to maul me into buying some bracelets- then i had to put the crackdown and say a loud and adamant NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they saw that i meant business and backed off of me. Right now Laurie Solhjem is laughing profusely behind me. She is starting to get on my nerves- where is BJ when you need him? LOL!!!!

We all have a block of free time this afternoon. Some of us are going to check out the mall, some will venture to Lotus (the Thai Wal Mart), and some will take a nap. I need to run to 7 eleven to get some lotion. I'm a little ashy and the security at the airport took all of my lotion. Anyways, tonight we will be heading to a dinner theatre. That should be cool. Well, i'll probably have some cool pics for you later on tonight.

Have a good day.
Gavin

Sunday pics

Hey guys, just wanted to send you some more pictures of our times thus far. Enjoy. Our first day of ministry is tomorrow and we are very excited and pumped!!! We just finished an awesome time of praying, asking for God's grace and strength to minister and encourage other brothers and sisters in the Lord. Thanks again for all of your prayers, we appreciate them.

Elephant, Monkeys, and Butterflies

Wow, what an awesome day so far!!! You wouldn't beleive some of the things we did today. Let's just say that my favorite and most exciting part of the day was the elephant rides. Yeah that's right- elephant rides. I believe that i officially have street credit now. Many people push a Escalade, a Rover, or a Benz, but how many people can say that they've pushed an Elephant? It was great, i'll tell you those big donkey animals can move up a mountain. There were a couple times that i called out for Jesus thinking that we were going to fall off the cliff, but the elephant was a trooper. There was one time when my elephant stopped to let's just say take care of some business!! I'm glad that i was in the front of Sonja and Laurie while this was happening. They had a ringside seat-something that i'm not jealous about at all. We then went out to monkey training school. That was'nt for us to be trained, but for us to see some real live monkeys go nuts!!!!! Sonja, our daring children's director actually picked one up. I'm sorry, i did have to chicken out on this one, the monkeys were acting just a little bit crazy. I obsereved and took some pictures. We watched a show of the monkeys where they rode tricycles, played basketball, and i even had one untie my wrist which was wrapped with rope. My heart was beating 100 miles a minute but i got through this pretty good-good job rope untying monkey. We then went to a butterfly orchard where there were many butterflies flying around. They were cute. After that we capped the day off with shopping at the market and then we went to a 3 story starbucks!! Pastor Lane, eat your heart out buddy. We also ate some lunch at McDonalds. It was great- their chicken nuggets taste the same as ours, but their bbq sauce was kind of interesting.

Well we are now getting ready to eat dinner and then go to a prayer service. Some of you may be wondering what kind of missions trip is this? Well, this was our full free day- the rest of the week will be ministry, but i'll keep you updated on this also. Were just getting started.

Well stay tuned for some more pictures.

Peace and a bottle of hairgrease!!

PG