Ministry Update: Curtis' Additional Duties

I've done a really poor job of updating on Curtis' ministry at Grace Church of the Islands lately.  As I have previously mentioned on our blog, Curtis has been ministering in Savannah as an Associate Pastor since he graduated from seminary for the past three and a half years.  Most of his ministry has been focused on middle school and high school students, but he has enjoyed many other responsibilities that a small church can bring.  This includes developing and implementing a small group ministry, preaching and teaching, as well as other pastoral duties.  These duties have increased over the last year and a half due to our Senior Pastor's deployment for 4 months as a chaplain (2011) and more recently, because he has stepped down from his position at our church as of August 2012.  Curtis is now the only ordained pastor on staff at our church.  As we await a new Senior Pastor at Grace, Curtis has been gaining valuable experience preaching 75% of the time, overseeing the small group ministry and the youth ministry.  (Thankfully, our church hired an intern to help with the youth ministry since Curtis' responsibilities have changed.)  It has been quite the transition for Curtis to handle all this as we prepare to have a baby in February.  

Curtis Turns 28

On April 18, Curtis turned 28.  We didn't really get an opportunity to celebrate on his birthday, but I think that's just a part of growing up.  So, we waited until Friday and went to Longhorn for dinner and a movie.  Here we are at the restaurant with Curtis sporting one of his new shirts (from one of his favorite shows - Arrested Development) that I got him.  Usually I give him dress shirts to wear at church, but I decided that he needed more T-shirts that he could wear casually.  I also got him an Seinfeld T-shirt (pictured later in this post) and an Office T-shirt.

Earlier in the day, I made a cake for him.  He said he wanted a chocolate ganache cake.  When I pulled out the KitchenAid mixer to get started, Lion-O climbed into the cabinet!  I guess he wanted to help.

And here it is:

It was really, really good!  The ganache icing really made it rich.

On Saturday, my parents came up to visit.  They were glad to get away for a little bit and celebrate Curtis' birthday also.

Here we see that Curtis is now sporting another one of his shirts that I got him for his birthday (another favorite show - Seinfeld).  This one has a special meaning since we actually went to The Original Soup Man restaurant in New York City last year for our anniversary.

I also got to spend some time with my mom...

...and my dad!  Curtis was preaching that Sunday and it was the first time that my parents were able to hear him.  He also was leading a Sunday School class so they got to see him teach, too!

After church, we went out to eat to celebrate Curtis' birthday with the family.  It was yummy!  My parents also bought Curtis some casual T-shirts.  Not only did he get the "More Cowbell" (from the SNL skit with Will Ferrell) pictured below, but he also got a Big Bang Theory shirt.  I think Curtis would say that had a great birthday!