Ickyick Characters

The Indiana Christian Youth Convention (ICYC-Ickyick) is a weekend conference for high school students all over Indiana. This year I had the pleasure of hosting ICYC. I hosted as myself of course but with a slight identity crisis.

I kicked off the conference by coming out and indroducing myself as Keith Parker (ICYC President). Keith, who played off of my characters all weekend, told me that I need to find my own identity and to "get a life." "My Life" was the theme of the weekend.

I made a quick wardrobe change and came out as C-Biz-Kit. C-Biz-Kit was a white wanna be thug rapper.(See Malibu's Most Wanted) We played a "rap" game and gave away an iPod. Keith again tried to set me straight as to how I wasn't a white wanna be thug rapper and that I needed to find my identity.

The next morning as Keith was doing the morning announcements, Sweet Home Alabama kicked on and the crowd heard the sounds of a Harley Davidson fire up off stage. I came out as Cleetus P. Hoggreaser. We picked several kids from the audience and raced tricycles around the auditorium for a Nintendo Wii.

The last character I played was the "Emo" Kid. I had the jet black hair, size 8 girl jeans, vans and a nasty disposition. I hated everyone there, it was too loud, and no one had the taste in music that I did. It was a fun character to play. I think I made some emo kids mad but no one noticed cause they always look mad.



I came out on the last day of the conference as myself and did a fun interactive crowd game with them. It was a lot of fun and I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

16 days til my wedding

A Charbroiled Christmas

During the month of December Park Chapel is doing a series called: Jesus, the Story of Christmas. We will obviously be focusing on Jesus' story but we asked our congregation to send us their favorite Christmas story. We took the stories we thought were most captivating and filmed the people telling their story. We will show this videothroughout this series. The remaining stories not chosen to be filmed will be compiled in a booklet that will be passed out closer to Christmas.

I liked this idea and wanted to participate. Here is what i submitted:

My favorite Christmas ever doesn’t start out with everyone all nestled in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. It started out when I learned that my house had burned down. It was December 4, 2000 and I was sitting in my United States History class when my principal came to the door and asked to speak with me. My mom met me in the principal’s office and together we cried there before we went to see our house, the only house I had ever known. Things didn’t get easier as I looked to my Dad and saw the tears in his eyes as we both watched our house burn on that cold December afternoon. Seeing tears in the eyes of a man who had been so strong for so many years for so many people shook me up. This man, the rock and foundation that I could depend on, look vulnerable and weak. I realized later a vulnerable weak person is just what God needs to make the best Christmas ever.

God went on to make it the best Christmas ever by providing a house not only for the night but until April. He made it the best Christmas ever by using my best friend Andrew when he brought us a Christmas tree and decorations for our temporary house. God made it the best Christmas ever when used a teammate of mine who gave me presents that were wrapped and addressed to him. And He made it the best Christmas ever when he used countless other people who made food, bought clothes and other essential items, gave gift cards, wrote letters and cards of encouragement, and prayed on our behalf.

God displayed his power and authority by orchestrating the best Christmas ever for me and my family through the loss of our house. God doesn’t need Christmas trees and presents, ornaments and lights to make the best Christmas ever. He needs his people to have weak and vulnerable hearts toward his power and authority.

555 W. 7th St

is the address to the house Katie and bought a week ago...i have been taking a lot of criticism (all in good fun i hope) from some dear friends of mine about not updating my blog...just so that i can make myself feel better about all of this i am going to defend myself...since november 3rd (my last post) i have been...

November 5th, 12th, 19th-Pre-Marriage Counseling with Dan the Man Curry
November 7th-ICYC Host Meeting (3 hours)
November 8th-Skit Practice (2 hours: none of us knew our lines)
November 10th-Wedding Shower for Katie in F-town
November 11th-Sunday Morning Skit/High School Mosaic* in the evening
November 13th-Dinner with Katies Family
November 14th-9am-2pm Video Shoot/Middle School Mosaic in the evening
November 15th-9am-11am Video Shoot
November 16th-Closing for the house 9am-11am/Move into new house/ICYC
November 17th-18th-ICYC/Sunday evening small group
November 19th-Dinner with Katies Family
November 21st-Leave for Francesville Thanksgiving
November 22nd-Come home from Francesville Thanksgiving

which brings us pretty close to today...anytime i failed to mention a date following the 16th of November you can count on that i have been at the new house fix/cleaning/moving/whatever else needs done there...i am now in the process of putting up outside lights for christmas...on top of all of this i have had to keep up with my normal youth ministry duties...not to mention plan a wedding that is as of today 19 days away...needless to say it has been a crazy time but a real good time in my life...thanks for being interested enough in my life to want me to blog more...i promise to do better...

i will post soon about ICYC and the Hosting i did...i played three characters...C-Biz-Kit, Cleetus P. Hoggreaser and Sebastian the emo kid (i wore size 8 girl jeans for that character)

keep reading


C


*Mosaic is a worship experience were teens can ecounter God and express their worship. This is a once a month service Sunday for High School Wednesday for Middle School. This takes the whole month to plan and there are many elements to make happen

Eat My Road Grit Liver Lips

Eddie: If you scratch his belly Clark, he will love you till the day you die.
Clark: I really shouldn't Eddie my hands are all chapped.

Those of you who are reading this might be saying to yourself, "Charlie, isn't it a little early for Christmas quotes. I mean its not even the Christmas season yet. And you might ask yourself "How does one decide when Christmas time is officially here?" Some people say you have to wait until after Thanksgiving other people not until December 1st. Here are just a few ways that I make that call.

Wal-Mart - Wal-Mart can be helpful and deceiving in deciding when to be officially ready for the Christmas season. Once the garden center has been completely transformed from its summer self into Santa's Workshop, and all the Halloween decor is gone, you can easily begin to shift gears into Christmas Season. Of course that's what they want you to do because the longer Christmas is the more you will buy. So its a tough call. But you can't base it on that alone.

Mall Decor - You have to take in consideration the mall decor as well. Like Wal-Mart they want to prolong Christmas as much as possible but the real good decorations don't make their way out until the end of November. But by the start of November they are definitely making their Christmas presence known. But again you can't base it on that alone.

Party Plans - Setting up dates and times for parties, switching names for "Dirty Santa's," and making Christmas wish-lists for family members to blouse through-browse through is definitely a good sign that the holidays are rapidly approaching. But again you can't base it on that alone.

Christmas Lights - This is most always an easy way to decide when the Christmas season has arrived except in the rare case of "That Family." You know this family. This is the family that has their Christmas lights up the day after Halloween and doesn't take them down until moments before sunrise service Easter morning. Don't be fooled by "That Family's" love of the Holidays. I appreciate their zeal but follow the 60% rule. When 60% of the houses have their Christmas lights up you can flip that switch into Christmas mode. But again you can't base it on that alone.

The Bells - For me the one thing I can always fall back on as an easy rule of thumb is the Salvation Army. When the Salvation Army recruits all my Wheeler Mission friends to ring the bells in front of Target, Wal-Mart and the local malls. I can easily flip that switch.

The reason I bring all this up is because I have flipped the switch earlier than I ever have this year. I flipped it yesterday when I finished Katie's Christmas shopping and wrapped her presents. I am definitely in the Christmas mode today as I will go to Goodwill in search of finding the outfit I will wear for my Christmas Card picture this year. (See Above-Last Years Christmas Card) Upon doing that I will head out to the mall again to snag a couple more Christmas gifts that I am 100% on.

I think the cause of all this is my wedding. Most of you know but I got engaged August 1st and have planned a December 15th wedding. Having roughly fourth months to plan a wedding is not a lot of time, but for Katie and her Mom I have the utmost confidence. They are superheros! No really, they are! The efficiency equally matched with their relaxed "lets get it done" attitude is awesome. They are the opposite of high maintenance and things are getting crossed off the list in record time. I can't say enough about my Mom too. She has been incredible and she is in the same boat as Katie and her Mom.

So for me Christmas means getting married to Katie. So please forgive me all of you who think I am jumping the gun on starting the Christmas season now, but I am real excited. Soon I will do a post about Katie so all of you can get a glimpse of what an awesome person she is. But for now I leave you with this quote:

Clark: It's a years subscription to the jelly of the month club. (Gasps and sighs)
Eddie: Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year through.
Clark: That it is Edward, that it is.