The Shinn Digs

My thoughts feel quite random, but isn’t that sort of what makes a great bouquet? Vibrant colors, flowers of different sizes, shapes and textures. Somehow, the random is put together to make a beautiful piece. I can’t promise this will be beautiful, but certainly random! The bouquet pictured here is my first of what I hope will be a weekly picking from our new “cut flower” garden. I love having fresh flowers in the house, so we decided to do one more (and there may still be another before the summer is through!) garden box. This one is simply meant to grow flowers to cut and bring in to the house or give to someone. The garden is pictured to the left.The last 7 weeks we’ve been a family of six, rather than just four. Our good friends, Matt & Amber Moran, have lived with us while their house was repaired following a dreadful flooding incident caused by the refrigerator! [These machines are dangerous, folks!] Today they moved back into their newly remodeled condo. I must say, I was more than a little sad when Garth moved the two extra chairs away from the dining table tonight. It’s been fun having them join us each evening, though I’m sure their thankful to finally be able to sleep in their own bed after 7 weeks! And our guest room will not stay empty too long … Rebecca’s parents move in tomorrow for the rest of their week’s vacation …

Tonight we had our first salad from our garden! The lettuce, radishes, parsley, and cilantro all were home grown! Oh, and my latest obsession is growing my own sprouts, so there were also some alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts in there as well (you have to sneak in vitamins wherever possible!) My best guess is that right around FCA Camp time (2 1/2 weeks) is when everything will be ready to harvest … nice. At least we’ll have fresh veggies to greet us when we come home exhausted on July 5th! Enjoy the slide show of garden pics!

I don’t have time to blog… but this is too good. For those who are wondering - yes, the garden is progressing nicely. Maybe will post some updated pictures soon. We’ve planted something in just about every square foot possible in our front and back yard without using the car port roof and digging up the yard. More on the garden in a later post.

Reading someone’s blog is like reading an autobiography … it’s their own perspective on their own life or world around them. It’s such a fun way to keep up with people. Today JJ, a dear friend and four-year Huddle Leader veteran at FCA Camp, wrote a post about her visit last weekend to our house. What a treat to read someone else’s perspective on our life! Certainly times have changed! Last weekend we had friends over to swim - not an unusual happening at our home. But when Matt and Amber, our current house guests, walked in the door, their jaws dropped and they both said, “Your life is so different.” I looked out in the back yard and saw about 13 kids under the age of twelve swimming in the pool - not the typical college students which have made up the pool participants in the past. Times have changed! Thanks to all, like JJ, who have bravely entered in with me and experienced the changes and adapted to them!

Let me start out by saying, “No. I’m not pregnant.” But I bet I had you going! (Garth probably had heart failure as he read this … believe me … I would as well!)

No … I’m talking about the Lord adding to our church numbers. You see, as of February 24th, my church, Santa Barbara Community Church, officially merged with Trinity Baptist Church. In this day of church splits, satellites, and other divisions (both good and bad), a church merger is perhaps quite unusual. It’s been very fun to be a part of this process and watch our church navigate the uncharted territory. It’s an exciting time for all of us! This Sunday is the first Sunday we will all be together (in three different services) as a merged church! No doubt, there will be MANY fascinating stories over the next year, but it’s exciting to be a part of this process. For the first time in the history of Santa Barbara Community, we will not be renters … Trinity “owned” their own land and campus, totally debt free! (I put “owned” in quotations because I just went through a Crown Financial Seminar on Saturday, and one of the points was “God owns EVERYTHING” … maybe just semantics, but a great perspective reminder that we are simply stewards of what God puts in our lives). It’s a position (and a possession) our church has never been privileged with, and it’s very exciting to think of the ministry opportunities we might have! Imagine all the meetings, gatherings, Bible studies, worship team practice, etc that typically take place in church life each week … We’ve been used to renting space for such activities for over 25 years!

With the addition of a third service (we will now have a morning service, rather than just two afternoon services), there is some need for more Sunday School teachers. I’ve really missed doing this the past 6 months, so I’m excited to be participating in the 10 am service in the Children’s Ministries program. This particular Sunday, our first as a merged church on the “new” campus, I’ll actually be at all 3 services … 10 am for Sunday School, 4 pm for Child Care help, and 6 pm to be in the service … that’s a full church day, but I’m looking forward to being a part of all the “firsts” in the life of our church!

This is too good to not share (and was the original reason for this blog!) A talented, whacky, funny fella in our church, Chris Mundell, did a video we’ve shown the last few Sundays at church. If you’re church is interested in purchasing the Church Merger Kit (or any other kits), please contact Chris directly! Check out the video!

… as they say, is in the pudding … or pictures … or whatever!

Thanks to Nate for digging through his thousands of pictures to find this evidence! There was no other doctoring of these photos, other than the arrow and the writing … I actually danced!

Not ours … Matt & Ambers! Our friends Nate Thompson & Norm Popp (or should I say Nathaniel Thompson!) were the amazing photographers! Nate said he had so many hits on his web site from our site when I posted about the their engagement pictures that he sent me the code to embed the wedding slide show this time! It’s so great to see the pictures and remember what a great day! [My only disappointment in these pictures is somehow no one captured the historic event of me actually on the dance floor dancing!] Well world … you had your chance and blew it … it won’t happen again! Ok … perhaps I’ll dance two dances on December 16th … one each with the two most important men in my life … Dad and Garth. It’s still up for discussion though!

Enjoy the slideshow … sorry it’s not quite framed correctly, Nate!