Quick Updates

It's been a crazy couple of months and it's hard to believe that 2009 is almost 1/6 gone. Lots of stuff happening in the Haines' world the past couple of months. Here's some quick updates about what's happening in my life.

- I'm presently at Ridgecrest finishing up a great time with Thom and Sam Rainer about their book Essential Church. It's a great book about helping church leaders to understand why 70% of those who were active in the church before age 18 still drop out and what it takes to reclaim them. It's a great research and awesome book that every church leader needs to read. It's principles are transferrable and impact all generations and not just the 18-25 year olds. It's the basis of my doctoral project and it's been a great time.
- Speaking of doctoral work, after about 4 months of agony and trying to run away from D.Min. work, I am now beginning to put together a project proposal to submit to the seminary. My project will be in the area of creating a discipleship strategy to reach 18-25 year olds at Westwood Baptist Church. I'll be buried in a lot of research in the coming months. It's going to be tough, but I must push through. Pray for perseverance and clarity.
- While Alison and I are in NC, we are going to the Biltmore House tomorrow. Never been before and I am looking forward to it. It's been a great trip here with my wife and a much needed time of connection for us. She is still the most beautiful person I have every laid eyes on and I need to do more to invest in her.
- Nathan has started baseball practice. He has moved up to 9-10 year old Minor league this year. This means a transition from Machine Pitch to Kid-Pitch. He's excited, but it's going to take a few weeks to shake the rust off. His team is the Red Sox (woohoo!) and we are playing once again with Coach Heath Pender who we played with two years ago. I'll post season updates later.
- Drew turned 8 on February 2. Hard to believe. He is growing up way too fast. He is an excellent student and sneaky smart. It's amazing how much he has grown in the last couple of years. He got an Nintendo DS for his birthday and has spent much of the last 4 weeks with his head buried in it. He wrapped up Upward Basketball a couple of weeks ago. It was his first time playing basketball. I got the privlege of coaching him. It was a rough start for him, but he made a lot of progress during the season. He didn't score much, but he did real good playing defense. Most of the time he just wanted to know where the snacks were.
- John David is still our "Pete". He loves his school and is getting old too fast. He's not playing any sports yet. He's still not sure he's any good and won't try unless he can do it right the first time. He's learned a lot at school this year and amazes us every day.
- Life at Westwood is busy. Every week my world is occupied with making room in the sanctuary and parking lot. Good problems to have.
- The Red Sox have started Spring Training. While the Evil Empire outbid us for Mark Texeira, I am still hopeful for a great season. The first three spring training games have not been good, but it's just Spring Training.
- I got to take Nathan to his first basketball game at The Hump a few weeks ago to see them play Alabama. He enjoyed it. The MSU Baseball team has started under new coach John Cohen. I hope to get to a couple of games this year. I am also very excited about Dan Mullen and the energy he's brought to Starkville along with a great recruiting class.

That's about it for now. I'll try to be more consistent as well as more meaningful in the days ahead.