sTw's Blog

Everyone needs a gmail (google mail) account. Use it for a day and you'll see why I love it so much. To get one, you have to be invited by a current user. So if you don't have a gmail account let me know and I'll hook you up.

Some of the sweet things that gmail has:

-Conversations. Must see it to believe it. It's a grouping function that makes conversations over email easily viewable. In other words, you don't have to go to your "sent" folder to see what you said in a previous reply. It's already there. It's beautiful.

-Google Talk. Instant messaging with the world right inside your browser.

-Labels. I can access every online receipt i've ever had in 2 seconds, b/c they've been labeled "online receipts."

-Storage. What is it up to now? 2.7GB. It increases all the time. No other provider can compete with that. My old hotmail I think was around .4GB or something like that.

-Mail Search. Need to find an old email? Find it in seconds with the search function.

-Spam filter. The best I've ever used.

-Ads. The only ads you'll see while checking your mail are simple, non-distracting "text-only" ads. It's not like other email providers that have dancing girls on the side of the page, or "Guess who's rear end this is?" type ads. In other words, the ads are easily ignorable.


Now that you're TOTALLY convinced that you need and want one, email me (sean.stw@gmail.com) and I'll send you an invite. But fair warning... Once you try this, you're gonna hate Microsoft Outlook for the rest of your life. The only thing that Outlook had on gmail was it's calender function, but now gmail has one too. I've yet to try it.




I can't believe I just spent 20 minutes selling gmail accounts. This totally reveals my tech-geek status. Oh well, it was gonna come out eventually. Here's a pic of me fishing ("catching" if you're Justin Head) to counter-balance the tech-geek in me:)

Posted by Sean Walker at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

I made a previous comment about how people asked me all the time if my orange hair was dyed orange.

Whitney: Ha. That's funny.

me: i got asked that all the time in high school

Whitney: Yeah, I always get asked if it's my natural color...and then the ladies say that they would pay big money for this color.

me: haha yep
one kid a long time ago asked me where I got my freckles
he was like 6 years old
i told him i got them at wal-mart
on special :)

Whitney: Ha. I'm thinking you might have more freckles than me.

me: yeah, probably
:)

Whitney: It must be that whole going outside thing. I hear that's where those little suckers come from.

me: haha
i heard that too
not really sure if I beleive it:)

Whitney: Oh yeah? You're still going for the Walmart theory.
?

me: haha, maybe

Whitney: Are they expensive?

me: usually

Whitney: haha

me: but that's why I snagged them when they were on sale
i stocked up on them during the off-season

Whitney: You must have got them in bulk...are you sure you didn't go to Sam's or something?

me: like buying shorts in the winter and coats in the summer, best price seasons :)

Whitney: haha

me: Sams just doesn't have the quality. yeah they have quantity but I went with the step up in quality

Whitney: lol

me: i think my appearence proves that it was a good decision
the Sams ones come off in the shower soemtimes
:)

Whitney: Oh, I hate when that happens. I'm pretty sure Walmart was a good bet.

me: yep :D

Posted by Sean Walker at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

I can't stand when I scroll down my blog and I see no pictures. So here's a quick remedey. Two of my favs...

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

I realized a very important lesson about my personality in the past year. I learned that in my relationships with people, I become what they see in me. You see good in me, I rise to meet your expectations. If you have low expectations of me, then I rise to those expectations as well. I don't know why, but this is who I am. Here's my main example...

I had a soccer coach in high school that I spent probably 2 or 3 years playing for. He was a really good coach. He knew the game well and he communicated what he wanted well. But one of the things that was very obvious to me was that I was not one of his favorite players. He treated the players he personally liked TOTALLY different than he did the rest of the team. It wasn't that he disliked the rest of us, but it was obvious who his favorites were. And guess how he chose who were his favorites, by who were the better players. Now I wasn't a horrible player in high school b/c to even get on this travel team you had to be decent, but by no means was I even close to the best on the team. And I knew that that was how my coach felt about me. That's how he viewed me, was as a "not the best" player on the team. And I'm not throwing a pity party here. This will make sense in a second... SO, I never amounted to much of a soccer player while under his coaching, b/c he never thought I was more than that.

Then probably the total opposite happened to me when I began working at East Bayou under Ron Robison. I was an inexperienced 21-year-old college kid who liked playing with videos that make Middle School students laugh. But Ron saw more in me. Not only did he SEE more in me, but he treated me like there was more in me. And guess what happened... I became more than I was before he was in my life. He invested time into me, money into me, his own life into me and the whole time he didn't see the person that stood in front of him, he saw the person that I could be in Christ. And I rose to the expectations b/c I knew he believed in me.



Imagine what someone can become when you put your faith in them.



I'd rather make the mistake of putting too much faith in someone, rather than making the even bigger mistake of putting to little faith in them.

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

Joe Garner's Blog

Click here

Joe graduated from ULL and worked as a Student Ministry Intern for a while at East Bayou. He's now in DFW getting his masters at SWBTS.

He's basically one of the funniest guys I've ever met.

Posted by Sean Walker at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

One of the reasons that I think I like running so much is b/c it is like my personal testing ground. When I run, I get pretty bored with the first 75% b/c for me it's all about the last 25%. I like to see if I can make it the last quarter. The final 25 is where I am really tested and pushed. It's the final 25 when I want to quit and stop. But that's what I love about it. It's my moment of truth. It's the moment that I prove to myself, "Yeah, when I said I wanted to work out today, I actually meant it."

Today I thought about how applicable this is to other areas of our lives.

Who am I in the final 25 of a project? Yeah it's easy to start a project b/c it's new and fresh and fun. But it's during crunch time when I PROVE that I'm dedicated to that project b/c the fun has worn off and now it's just TOUGH. If I finish, then yeah, I really was commited. But if I quit, what does that say about how I TRULY felt?

This is true in every area of life. EVERY AREA! School. Work. Friendships. Marriage. Your relationship with God. Every area! For example, Getting married is easy. When it comes down to it, to get married all you have to do is say some words and sign some papers. Staying married is a WHOLE different ball game! Ask any couple who's been married more than 20 years. I think our divorce rate in the USA is what it is b/c, in the words of Maroon 5, "Saying 'I love you' has nothing to do with meaning."




Heavenly Father,

I don't always make it through the final 25 of life. Please forgive me. Make me into someone who's just as dependable in the final 25 as in the first 75. Father, I can't be that person without You. Break me. Change me.

sTw

Posted by Sean Walker at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

I just saw an impressive stat.

After Hurricane Katrina 250,000 New Orleans residents evacuated to Houston, TX. Since Houston's welcoming of those evacuees, the city has experienced a severe spike in crime. Of Houston's crime rate in the past 12 months, guess what percentage of it was New Orleans evacuees.

25%

Nice!

Posted by Sean Walker at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

Group Run
Tuesday Night
8-29-06
At East Bayou
8pm
We should have a good group show up, so feel free to invite your friends to come and hang.
Emal me if you have questions. swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

So here's my game plan for DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth)... (Click here if you haven’t read, “The Next Phase of My Life” or don't know what I'm talking about.)

Live it up!

This is it! This is gonna be my "going off to college" experience. I mean HOW EXCITING! (And of course by living it up, I don't mean what the average college student means.) Here's my list of priorities while there.

1. My Walk. My first priority is to make myself available for God to take my personal walk with Him to an amazing new depth. Whether that means breaking my heart every day for 3 years or whatever, I want Him to change me from what I am today to something that is going to honor Him in a way that right now I can't even fathom. This is my first priority while I'm there, is for God to have His way with my time there.

2. Fun. Oh HEK Yeah! One of my best friends Mark is already there and him and I throwing down! We're going to cram as much fun as possible into the time we've got there.

3. Networking. I've already begun networking with professors there who are "THE STUFF" when it comes to student ministry. I'm hoping to build as many networking contacts as possible and to maintain and use them for the rest of my ministry career. I’m the first to observe and admit, “It isn’t always WHAT you know, it’s WHO.”

4. Friends. This is gonna be huge for me! I’m ABSOLUTELY gonna miss my close friends here. They’ve been so HUGE for me. I would be NOTHING without them and the role they’ve played in my life. But I cannot help but get excited when I think about the people I’m gonna have the opportunity to be around while I’m there. SWBTS (southwestern Baptist theological seminary) is a melting pot of people who want to learn and do ministry for God. How awesome of an opportunity to hang with these people and learn from each other! How cool!

5. Exposure. I want to expose myself to as much as possible at school, as monay churches as possible, and to as many jobs as possible. A lot of people are asking me right now what church I’ll work at when I move and my answer is this. I’m intentionally not going to work at a church for the first one or two years. My reasoning is this. I haven’t worked a secular job since

Church exposure is gonna be important for me too. The only church I’ve ever been a member of in my entire life is East Bayou. And in my opinion that’s a plus! But knowing that I want to ministry as a career this might be my last opportunity to church hop. I’m not going to join any church while I’m there. Yeah I might attend one particular church more than others but I want to use this time to expose myself to what other churches out there are doing and learn how they are trying to reach and grow people. DFW is called the “Belt buckle of the bible belt” and I want to see as many churches as possible while there.

6. Oh yeah, a seminary degree too. That'd be nice :) I wasn't a good student in high school but I did better in college. I'm hoping to do even better with my masters degree.

These are my prayers every day as good uses these days right now to prepare me for what He's got planned to happen in DFW.

Posted by Sean Walker at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments

Lyndale Holloway's blog.

Click here

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here's a very cool blog. After you check it out, you'll see why I like it so much.

Click Here to go to "Photographic Memory"

It is my friend Whitney's blog.

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here's another sermon that everyone needs to hear. It is part 2 of series by Andy Stanley called "It Came From Within." This series is about the heart. Proverbs 4:23 NIV - "Above all else guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life." This particular message is on guilt and how we think confession is worse than hiding guilt. It's really good. Listen to the whole series if you can. It's SO worth your time.































Click here to go listen/watch. The date of the sermon is 4/30/06 called "Luring Them Into The Open."

Posted by Sean Walker at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments

Group Run
Saturday
8-26-06
7am
at East Bayou
email me if you have questions
swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

You've got to love rainy days. So awesome!























They are SO GOOD for SO MANY things!

Posted by Sean Walker at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

Matt Damon with a "what did you just say about me?" type of look on his face knocks 3 hard times on the glass window with his 3 buddies standing behind him.

The preppy Harvard grad student, chatting over coffee probably, turns to see who's knocking.

Matt Damon says very slowly and in the most cocky voice possible, "Do you like apples?"

The preppy Harvard grad student replies kind of confused, "Yeah?"

Matt Damon slams his hand against the window and shows the preppy Harvard grad student a napkin with a name and phone number on it and says, "I got 'er number. How you like 'dem apples?"

Posted by Sean Walker at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

How is the loading time for my blog?

I can reduce the amount of posts that load on my home page. I've got it set at I think 35 right now. How's everyone's loading time? Slow? Fine? Just curious.

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

Group run went awesome tonight. Thanks to everyone for coming!

Props to JMoore for coming and pushing himself. And props to Stephen for that MAD pace you ran that last 1.25 miles. Absolutely nuts!

I had a few people ask before hand if we were still running since it was raining. And I don't mind the phone calls, but for future reference, the only thing that will cancel a run is lightning. I'm definitely not running in it and I won't mention any names (JUSTIN HEAD!) that sure as hek aren't running in it. We'll run in heavy run, but not lightning.

Next run is Saturday morning at 7am. I'll post again about it later.

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's so funny leaving a voice mail on some people's phones. After 2 minutes of choices of numbers to push, the lady asks me, "If you'd STILL like to leave a message, then please hold on the line."

It sounds like she's trying to discourage me from leaving a voice mail. It's hilarious.

Posted by Sean Walker at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

Group Run
Tuesday
8-22-06
8pm
at East Bayou

email me if you have questions - swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

Who are you when there is no drawback for doing something wrong and no reward for doing something right? Would you make the same decision if there was a drawback or a reward? Who are you when you do the right thing even when no one will ever know? Are you different when everyone will know? Who are you when you do the right thing only b/c it's the right thing? Who are you when you doing the right thing isn't enough of a reason to do the right thing? Who are you when no one is looking? Who are you when everyone is looking?

Who am I? Sometimes I like who I am. Sometimes I don't.



It's late. I'm going to sleep. Goodnight.

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

That last pic reminds me...

The media department at East Bayou is about to make a big push for people to sign up and serve on the tech team. We're needing more and more people b/c we're doing more and more every week. Just 2 years ago in our service, we were using no colored lights, no countdowns, no roll ins, no videos during songs, just 4 songs and a sermon. Now we're using more and more different types of AVL (audio, video, lights) every week. Just this morning we had probably one of the most difficult scripts ever.

The point is this, We need more help. We need people who are AVL literate, and people who aren't. If you can carry a chair, we need your help. Right now we need stage hands, light board operators, and computer operators. Even if you've never done anyone of this type stuff before, you can join b/c the equipment is EASY to learn. We train all of our techies before they work in a service. It's a blast!

If you're even slightly interested in volunteering, email me and I can tell you more about it. swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

Dude, don't mess with me or I'll ninja chop you! :)

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

Justin and Heath have recently started blogs and I wanted to throw out and invite to everyone else and say that it's rediculously easy to start a blog, and that I'd love to see more people do it. Check out the last link on the right side of this page.

There are some other people I know who have blogs but I forgot their web addresses. If you want me to post a link to your blog I can. Let me know.

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments

This alone was worth getting up for.

Posted by Sean Walker at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments

Justin Head now has a blog. Check it out.

The address is http://jtbarefoothunter.blogspot.com/

or you can just click here.

Posted by Sean Walker at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

Group run mañana!
8-19-06
7am
Back parking lot of East Bayou
Bring your friends
Everyone is invited
Pace and distance you "THINK" you're capable of is irrelevant
We have all types of runners there

See ya'll in the morning!

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

My dad and I in Houston.

Posted by Sean Walker at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments

On a side note, just from observing this week's posts, I'm just full of the uncontextual (not even a real word) posts recently aren't I? :)

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments

"It's not always rainbows and butterflys
It's comprmise that moves us along"

Hmmm?

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

This is one of those secular songs that in my opinion can be sung as a worship song...

"Too alarming now to talk about
take your pictures down and shake it out
truth or consequence say it aloud
use that evidence race it around

There goes my hero
watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
he's ordinary

Don't the best of them bleed it out
While the rest of them peter out

Kudos my hero leaving all the best
You know my hero the one thats on"


"My Hero" by Foo Fighters

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it’s just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life



"How To Save a Life" by The Fray
Was my song of the day and is quickly turning
into my song of the week.

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

Grou run tonight
8-15-06
8pm
at East Bayou
email me if you have questions - swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday night I was asked this question...

"What do you do when your walk with God is just dry?"

This is such a great question. It's a frequent question and a valuable question. I answered the best I could but I'm terribly curious how other people would of answered.

Posted by Sean Walker at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Next Group Run
Saturday
8-12-06
7am
Back parking lot of East Bayou
Anyone and everyone is invited. We have people who run long distances, people who run short distances, and people who walk. Everyone is invited.
Come hang out, it's fun!

Posted by Sean Walker at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

I was at a resteraunt after church tonight and at the table next to ours was a mom and dad and 2 young children. And the young boy in his high chair was turned away from the table looking at something for a second and then he turned backed to his mom and said, "Hey mom!" reall excited like. Then after she said "Yes?" he said so innocently, and unprompted, "I love you."

Why the hek did God take the huge risk of giving us a choice? Why did He take the risk of knowing rejection?

Why? B/c the reward of unprompted love was worth the risk of rejection.

Posted by Sean Walker at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

After church tonight the sky was rocking cool! To the south east was a storm rolling in and was pitch black. To the north west was a rich orange sunset. Then there was like a yellow tint to everything. It felt like I was wearing yellow sunglasses. It was very weird but very cool.

I got a pic of the sunset around 8:10pm.









How cool is that? And it doesn't even do justice to what it looked like live.

Posted by Sean Walker at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

"Working" is the key word here.

Here's what I've got so far...

Wisdom is the ability to step back from a situation and truly see what's going on, and make the right decision.

I don't know what it is but wisdom has been that topic of thought and journaling for me a lot over the past year. Proverbs 1-4 talk about it a bunch. Here's Proverbs 4:5-27. It rocks...

"5-14Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;
love her—she keeps her eye on you.
Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won't regret it;
never let her go—she'll make your life glorious.
She'll garland your life with grace,
she'll festoon your days with beauty."

10-15 Dear friend, take my advice;
it will add years to your life.
I'm writing out clear directions to Wisdom Way,
I'm drawing a map to Righteous Road.
I don't want you ending up in blind alleys,
or wasting time making wrong turns.
Hold tight to good advice; don't relax your grip.
Guard it well—your life is at stake!
Don't take Wicked Bypass;
don't so much as set foot on that road.
Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth.
Make a detour and be on your way.

16-17 Evil people are restless
unless they're making trouble;
They can't get a good night's sleep
unless they've made life miserable for somebody.
Perversity is their food and drink,
violence their drug of choice.

18-19 The ways of right-living people glow with light;
the longer they live, the brighter they shine.
But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker—
travelers can't see a thing; they fall flat on their faces.
Learn It by Heart
20-22 Dear friend, listen well to my words;
tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times.
Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live;
body and soul, they're bursting with health.

23-27 Keep vigilant watch over your heart;
that's where life starts.
Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth;
avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.
Keep your eyes straight ahead;
ignore all sideshow distractions.
Watch your step,
and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
Look neither right nor left;
leave evil in the dust. "


I've got lots of thoughts and questions about wisdom. Not a whole lot of answers though.

Posted by Sean Walker at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Group run went great tonight. We had a full moon to the south east and an amazing sunset to the north west. It was rocking!

I think these are the 2 days we'll stick to get together on, Tuesdays at 8pm and Saturdays at 7am. I'll keep posting reminders and invitations. Thanks to those of you who came tonight!

So our next one will be this Saturday 8-12-06 at 7am at East Bayou. Come hang out!

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

I want for you to write a blog about me today. See for the past two days I have been racing an "INDY" car. That is about the most difficult car to race b/c of the top speed of about 215 mph. Well after about 30-50 races with the same car on the same track, with different morons getting in your way each race, I finally got GOLD MEDAL. I am so proud of myself. I have come a long way from not liking any kind of gaming device. Hence the reason I think that you should write about me. And because I feel that a gold medal is an accomplishment. Here are some pics.

-Scott Andrepont


























Scott, b/c you're so amazing and you accomplished such a feet last night... Here's your post :)

For everyone reading this and not having a clue what we're talking about, just smile and nod. Haha.

Posted by Sean Walker at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments

We have another group run scheuled for Tuesday 8-8-06 at 8pm at East Bayou. Everyone's invited. Come hang!

Email me if you have questions. swalker@eastbayou.org

Posted by Sean Walker at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here's the pics from our run on Saturday...














This is how the morning started at 6:30am












A few people didn't make the pic. (Jessica, Sam, and Suzi)







































And of course we had entertainment afterwards. Justin and Jessica Head's daughter, Janna.














Seriously, does it get any cuter?

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments

And here's the final, and arguably the best part of Hunt for Red July.










After many trials (and many errors over the past week) I think I got pretty close last night to mastering the delicious meal of Blackened Red Fish :) It was rocking good.

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

The group run this morning went awesome. I had a blast. I think everyone else did too. We ended up just hanging out afterwards for probably and hour. We'll do it again next week.

Everyone's invited again, and trust me, no matter your pace or distance, you'll enjoy it.

Posted by Sean Walker at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

A group of people are going running this Saturday morning 8-5-06 at 7am starting from East Bayou. Everyone's invited, really everyone, no matter how slow you "think" you run. We're gonna split up into smaller groups of 2 or 3 according to spead. Come hang out, it's always fun and there's always good conversation. Email me at swalker@eastbayou.org if you have questions.

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

I need to kind of make an announcement but I want to give context to it before I just throw it out there. If you don't want context, then just scroll down to the last 3 paragraphs to see the announcement. If you DO want context, here we go...

The summer of 2003 I had the awesome privilege to work at FBC Indian Rocks in Largo (Tampa), FL as a Jr. High Intern. There I got to learn from THE Middle School guru Gary Hunt, who was/is the Middle School pastor there. Well to say the least, He ROCKED! And I learned tons from him. I had done student ministry work before and always had success with it and had fun with it, and I knew my dad used to be a youth pastor for a long time, and I always kind of faintly wondered if I'd choose a career in student ministry. Well the summer of 2003 is when I made a decision that student ministry is the job/career/calling that I'd choose. In Chrisitaneze terminology, "I got my call to ministry." Following that I worked as a Middle School intern at my home church for 3 semesters and once again had a lot of success and had an absolute blast.

Then I took a semester off of student ministry work b/c I had to take 21 hours at ULL to finish my bachelors. Then following my graduation in May of '05 I considered moving to either New Orleans or Dallas to begin a Masters Degree. Lots of people become youth pastors with out even a college degree, and that's stinking awesome, but I felt like I should get a Master's Degree before I went out and tried to lead an entire youth group on my own for a couple of reasons.

1. (This is the biggest reason) I have no formal Christian education. I know 6th graders who know WAY more about the Bible than I do, and I want the theological knowledge. I want to know that stuff b/c I don't want to just know what I believe, but also why i believe it.

2. Resume stuffer. I think God's gonna have me in a medium to large sized church and most of those churches don't even look at resumes that don’t have a masters degree on them. That’s the only reason I went to ULL, was b/c I had too. I needed it on my resume.

BUT, after graduating from ULL I wasn’t ready to take on 3 more years of school after just finishing a 5 year degree. I wanted a break from the life of worrying about tests and tuition and getting to your 8am class. So, I put seminary off for a semester and said I’d think about going in January of ’06.

So I after deciding that I wouldn’t pursue my master’s degree yet, I knew that I wanted to move out of my parent's house and I needed a full-time job to do that. I had played around with some video stuff at home and for some funny jr. high videos and we were starting to use more video in our corporate worship service. So in May of '05 I took the full time position of Media Director at East Bayou, moved into my own apartment and began my life in the “real world” as all of my teachers from kindergarten on called it.

It rocked. I had my own place. Had an awesome job. God was using me. Everything was cool.

And then comes time to make a decision again about seminary. And I just wasn’t ready yet. Things were going well and the media dept was growing and doing more stuff. And the idea of school just wasn’t attractive yet. I knew I needed to still go, but just not yet. So I spent the spring semester of ’06 continuing work at church and still living on my own. I’d thought about doing the whole commute to seminary in New Orleans and continue to live and work in Lafayette, but I could only go to school part time. And going to school part time would take a minimum of 5 years. And that wasn’t really a viable option.

Right around February ’06 I started really thinking about seminary again and wondering how much longer I’d put it off. Well shortly after that, I got pitched the chance to go from media director to media pastor, which means the chance to go from being a part of the dept to being in charge of the dept. It was an awesome opportunity that I wanted. And so I took it.

But even when I took the media pastor job, I made it clear that this was just a job for this season of my life and that I still intended to EVENTUALLY go to seminary and then pursue a student pastor position.

And here’s why student ministry over media ministry. I’m OK in media. I realize that. I know I’m not great. And I’ve told people in the past that and they say, “No, no, no you’re AMAZING in media.” And while I appreciate the compliment, trust me, I know what I’m capable of in media, and I know what others are capable of in media and trust me, there is WAY better out there. Media for me is an unnatural thing. Yeah, I can get the job done but I have to work really hard at it. For example, Taylor Toce. Taylor Toce is a natural media guy. He can do in 10 minutes what takes me an hour. Literally, not figuratively, 10 minutes! And that’s cool. I know what I’m capable of. Now with student ministry, it is ABSOLUTELY NATURAL for me. What takes others years to get done, I’ve had the ability and blessing from God to do in weeks. It’s not said arrogantly. It’s said observantly. I realize that God has hooked me up and that’s why I want to pursue it, b/c God’s equipped me to do it and to do it well. It’s about Him, not me. Know that.

So I knew I loved my media pastor job but I also churned inside over when I could get back into student ministry. And I knew I had to tackle seminary before I took on a student ministry job.

So this summer, summer of ’06, I seriously considered whether or not I had te guts to make the decision to do it, to go to seminary. I’ve been out of school for a year, and if I started seminary right now and went full time, I would be 26 before I finished my degree. And I don’t want to lose my young years b/c I procrastinated when I was 22 and 23.

So………… Over the last 2 or 3 months I started asking myself, “Sean. Are you gonna do this?!” Kind of calling myself out. And so I went to God and started praying about it everyday and asking Him to give me a clear answer and desire to go if He wanted me to.

And He gave it to me. For the past 3 years I've been scared of the idea of seminary and in the past 4 months, I've grown a desire to go and gotten excited about it. I’ve given the church my notice and I’ll begin paper work this week to begin the admission process. That’s the announcement. I'm heading to Fort Worth, TX to begin classes for my Masters of Divinity Degree. I don't know the exact date I'm leaving Lafayette but it'll probably be some time in November. Classes begin January 2007. I’m leaving the town I was born in and grew up in and moving to TX. It’s a crazy feeling! I mean WOW!

Crazy huh? I know. It's kind of surreal. I'm very excited about it. I've thought about going for a couple of years now and I was never comfortable leaving yet. Now I am. Before I was honestly scared to leave the only place I’ve know and go to a new state, a new town and begin a life with new people, but now something in me has changed and I’m ready. I’m pumped. I cannot wait to go.


God's done some amazing things in my life in the past 3 years. I’m a different person than when I was 3 weeks ago, much less 3 moths ago, and especially 3 years ago. And it’s good. I’m proud of what God’s done in my life and where He’s led me. It hasn't all been easy but it has been good. And now I believe He’s leading me to Dallas.

Posted by Sean Walker at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments

Picture story time... Click on the pic to see a larger version.


This what we did for most of the day Friday, was trying to fix the trolling motor b/c with this type of fishing you HAVE to have one.



This is our 2nd catch of the day, my first catch of the day on Friday.






Justin working his skills with the boat. The water is very shallow, 2-4 feet most of the time so getting a boat around in there takes mad skills.



Sunset on Friday.








Me, with my "just woke up" due cooking breakfast. Biscuits and gravy. It was good. And it was gone.




This is a picture that if taken literally 30 seconds earlier, you could of seen how cool it was. This was a funnel cloud that developed Saturday morning. It went away as quicly as it appeared. This was the first funnel cloud I've ever seen. It never touched ground.


Sorry ladies, they're both already married:)






:)







Justin was making a rue and he dropped a spoon full of it on his foot and burned himslef. Ouch!!!!!





We went fishing on Saturday. We went CATCHING on Sunday. Here's the fruit of our labor on Sunday:)





Scott and I.







And.....flex :)








:)







Justin and I cleaning fish.

Posted by Sean Walker at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

This will hopefully be a rare moment. I'm about to complain/make fun of Apple.

So I call apple to get this problem fixed on my powerbook and the guy on the phone spends 2 minutes explaining to me that I'm out of phone support and I'm going to have to agree to pay some money up front so they can figure out what the problem is. And I said no, we don't need to do trouble shooting to find the problem. And he repeated himself and said yes we do.

Can anyone figure out what the problem is?









I had to interupt him and say, "No. Trust me. We don't need to troubleshoot." Then I told him the problem and he said, "Oh."

Alright I'm done giving apple flack. Their tech support and products have been AWESOME in the past and I'm sure they'll remedy this problem just as quickly as ones in the past.

Posted by Sean Walker at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments