It’s been a while since I’ve been to a youth conference. The last time I went to the Ocean City conference was about two years ago with a bunch of high schoolers. As I briefly shared last Sunday, I had a great time at the conference hanging out with 18 middle schoolers and 3 adults. Once again, my patience was put to test by some of the boys by their constant complaints about everything but I must say that everyone had a great time being away from home for a couple of days. My biggest fear of attending these conferences is the long drive because I tend to fall asleep behind the wheel too easily.  However, thanks to Yohann who kept me company, I was able to stay wide awake the whole ride and actually enjoyed hours of quality talks. I would also like to thank Mrs. Kelly Kang and Mrs. Heejung Park for taking good care of all of us throughout the conference.
As I drove into Ocean City, I was able to witness the aftermath of the recent hurricane and the damage it left in the city. There were piles of sand in the middle of the main road, the boardwalk was completely destroyed, the beach looked horrible and many shops took a heavy hit and closed down. However, we were still able to enjoy the board walk, at least what’s left of it. I realized that I never fully appreciated the amount of work and effort that went in to making the boardwalk nice and appealing to tourists. It was a good reminder for me to think about the victims of the hurricane Sandy who are still struggling to recover from their loss.
The conference was well put together with great speakers and other guests. They had many seminars and workshops for the kids and leaders to benefit from. Yohann and I both were very excited to see the “Million Dollar Man” at the conference as one of the speakers. My grandparents used to watch pro wrestling on television all the time. I’m not so sure why my grandparents loved watching wrestling but I remember enjoying watching it as well. I recall a video game that had featured “Million Dollar Man” as one of the main characters you can choose to represent in a wrestling match. Thus when video footage came out on the screen to introduce the speaker, I was in total shock. Never in my life had I imagined seeing the million dollar man at a Christian youth conference as a guest speaker. Going along with his title, his famous line was “Every Man has His Price.” He claimed that anything and anyone can be bought with a price. As the Million Dollar Man, he was surrounded by money, fame, limousines and there was nothing money could not buy for him.
Then one day Christ entered his life and bought him at a price, and that price was Jesus Christ himself. According to Ted DiBiase (Million Dollar man’s real name’s biography on http://www.milliondollarman.com). He has then taken on new roles outside of professional wrestling. He is a spokesperson for the Sunshine Foundation, an organization that grants wishes for critically ill children, and has founded Heart of David Ministries (for which he travels the world as an evangelist furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ). Also through Heart of David Ministries, Ted shares his prayer of hope all over America in motivational assemblies speaking out against the results of drug and alcohol abuse - warning America's youth about the trap of being addicted to drugs and alcohol. He also encourages them to stay in school, set reachable goals and pay whatever price it takes to become the best that they can be. Ted's speaking ministry is not focused only on youth. He actually has an even stronger message for "macho men" and struggling married couples. He speaks at men's meetings, whole church congregations, and special events. He has started his own small federation which is run as an outreach of Heart of David Ministry. Along with this he is presently considering starting his own wrestling school. 
How amazing is that? I was very challenged and encouraged by his testimony. I felt like God was telling me that what I do is worth the heartache and trouble I go through and that I need to have faith in God that He will bring about His good and perfect will at His time. I encourage the high schoolers and the adults to sign up for the ocean city conference in March. I can’t wait to wait to go back there again!

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
November 25, 2012

While I was on the church website recently I made the mistake of clicking on the archived recording of my first sermon from last May. Ever done that? Ever reviewed a recording of yourself giving a speech or presentation? Ugh!! It's excruciating isn't it to see and hear yourself publicly speaking? You tend to be hyper-critical of every little mistake in your delivery and overall presentation and appearance. As I watched the sermon clip I cringed at how twitchy I was- lots of constant nervous movement, my hands flailing about and I paced back and forth too. With my day job I’m in court all the time and so one would think that form of public speaking would help a little here. I think I’m comfortable speaking generally but it’s enormously humbling when it comes to speaking from the pulpit. Pastor Jamie has even commented that all of one’s nervous ticks become even more evident when preaching.
What made me cringe even more while viewing my sermon was the fact that I spoke with a speech impediment- a lisp. A lisp is the inability to enunciate the letter "s" clearly and it comes out as a "th" sound. Jesus, for example, comes out like “Jethuth”. I know that I had to take speech therapy classes for this when I was in 6th grade. I don’t think it’s as bad now as it was then but I guess I just never realized that it was still audibly noticeable some 30 years later!
The ridiculous thing is that my lisp, which is obvious to everyone else, was new to me. I was so mortified that I even Googled local speech therapists and online speech impediment exercises to try and correct it. I’m so self-conscious now I even try to avoid speaking words spelled with an “s.” It’s embarrassing and I also think some people associate a person who speaks with a lisp with having low IQ. Oh that’s just great. How am I ever going to get anyone to listen to me if they already presume I’m some kind of a moron?!? (Although I assure you I might very well be an imbecile with or without a lisp.)
I dunno but just maybe this little self-revelation of mine is a metaphor for life and our self-image we think we project. When in actuality we’re blind to all these little peculiarities apparent to everyone but ourselves. Boy, I felt so much better about myself living in “blithful ignoranthe.” But as I’ve shared before as part of my testimony, perhaps this is yet another recent instance- albeit public and embarrassing- that God uses to humble and disciple me. I’m better off because of it no doubt.
Pastor Neil preached last week we shouldn't compare ourselves with others but be thankful for who we are. But I can't help it I envy and covet all you people who can clearly pronounce your “s”. I thought of suing every one of you. But then again, it occurred to me that God uses all of us either because of or in spite of our imperfections. Besides, better speech won't draw me closer to God or give me greater clarity of thought in the Word when preaching. My only hope (and prayer) is that the message within the actual spoken Word undeniably overcomes my own human limitations. As Apostle Paul wrote of his own weaknesses, “God’s grace is sufficient for me, for His power is made perfect in weakness.”
During corporate prayer at the Alpha retreat last weekend I spoke a prophetic word of knowledge to another for the first time in my life.  . . and whew, the particular word didn't have a single "s" in it to have to pronounce. Amen to that, God is good!

From Pastor Mark’s Heart
November 25, 2012