TimSchmoyer.me

TimSchmoyer.me

Tim Schmoyer  //  Husband to Dana, father to Hannah, youth pastor to many, blogger at http://www.studentministry.org

Feb 7 / 5:45pm

What girls do when the Super Bowl is playing

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Feb 4 / 1:14pm

Say HI to Schmoyer baby #2!

We've told immediate family, the youth group and church people. Now we have our first picture of our new baby and are excited to share him or her with everyone else. The due date is around Sept 29, which means there will be almost 14 months between Hannah and her little (currently 4 mm) sibling.

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Jan 28 / 9:33pm

My recommended guidelines and etiquette for @Foursquare gameplay

As more and more of us are playing Foursquare together, I figured it's probably about time to set some guidelines for when NOT to check-in. I appreciate that Foursquare doesn't really enforce much themselves -- I can check-in to a venue in Wyoming despite being in Minnesota -- so it's up to the community to develop some guidelines. After playing for over a month, here are the guidelines I recommend based on what I see as the spirit of the game: to earn points and badges by making your physical location known at venues where friends could join you to socialize.

When you should NOT check-in
  • At work: It doesn't seem quite right if an employee becomes mayor of a venue because they have to be there, as opposed to a loyal customer who comes because he wants to be there. Customers will never be able to catch up. Foursquare needs change the game so we can check-in at work and make our location known without becoming mayor or earning points for it. (This one is debatable, though, because some would argue that having an employee as mayor means that you're more available to customers. I get that for a church, but probably not for a restaurant where you want to promote customer loyalty and return business.)
  • At home: The spirit of Foursquare is to check-in so friends can find you and join you on your "nights out," not your "nights in." Your house is not a venue. It also creates a LONG list of venues local people need to sort through whenever they're nearby and looking for an actual venue. But again, I know some people want to be available at their home for others to come over and socialize, so again I think Foursquare needs to make a check-in for home that doesn't award points.
  • At a drive-through or gas station: If you're just quickly passing through or driving by the venue, a check-in just doesn't seem right. Maybe you need to plan on being at the venue for at least 10-15 minutes if you're going to check-in?
  • At a place you visited in the past: There have been times I tried to check-in at a venue, but was unable to because Foursquare was down. That doesn't mean I can check-in at that location after I leave and the Foursquare network is live again. If you're no longer at the venue or you're on your way out the door, it's too late to check-in.
When you should check-in
  • When you're out in the town at a venue where you'll be for longer than 10 minutes.

Other:
Also, use the search function to look for your venue before creating a new spot. I'm finding that many people who create spots use phones with poor GPS units, meaning the venue is created and located inaccurately and is just not showing up on your phone because of it. Search first so Foursquare doesn't end up with lots of duplicate venues, each with it's own mayor and list of tips and check-ins. Then update the venue address and location info to correct it (available only to superusers, I think).

I'm still figuring out this game and may change my mind on some of these guidelines as time progresses, but this is what I'm thinking as of today.

What do you all think? Agree? Disagree? Others to add?
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Jan 26 / 4:39pm

This kid is blind! Wow. He's definitely not letting it hold him back in life.

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Jan 26 / 3:31pm

Hannah at her first wrestling match. She hates the buzzer. #fb

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Jan 23 / 8:56pm

Poll results: Do you cancel youth group for a football game?

Since the Vikings are in the NFC championship game tomorrow, I've had a couple parents and students ask me if we're canceling sr. high youth group because it conflicts with the game. Some are even a little upset that we're still having youth group. Since I think teens are already given way too many excuses to put spirituality behind everything else, I don't want our church to be part of enabling that. It's not that I'm anti-football or even that I don't think ministry can flex for current events. We cancel youth group for the Super Bowl, but for other games? It just doesn't feel right to me. God always comes first, especially before a football game. Our standards for teens spiritual growth are already so low! I'm sure we'll have a small crowd at youth group tomorrow night, which is fine with me. It's not important that we have a large group, it's important that we do the right thing for the right reasons and bring glory to God through it all. I'll be more than happy to focus on the students who are there.

Earlier tonight I asked on Twitter,
"Would you cancel youth group so people can watch a non-Super Bowl game instead?"
Got a variety of answers. See the screenshot below for a summary. Good input and a lot of different opinions.

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Jan 23 / 11:54am

Our outdoor thermometer is definitely not working

Frozen rain and snow all day. It's not 94 degrees outside.
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Jan 22 / 3:17pm

Woah, I'm going to Haiti in 3 weeks... for real!

Yeah... me... in Haiti... in only 3 weeks from now... WHAT?!

Dana and I were planning to be in Texas visiting her family for vacation from February 9-17. It was going to be a great time to introduce Hannah to all our friends in Texas, where we met, dated, got married, and spent the first 6 months of marriage. I was excited about it! I have the time off from church, airfare is purchased, everything is ready to go.

And then earlier this week I got an email from a friend who asked me if I'd be interested in going to Haiti during that time. I talked with Dana about it and we were both kinda like, "Umm, no, we already have plans." I couldn't admit to this person that it was actually vacation, so I beat around the bush a bit.

But as this week went on I was thinking, "Dude, Tim, how self-centered could you possibly be? You have a possible opportunity to go serve people who are in desperate need, and instead you're going to go on vacation?!" Matthew 25 kept coming to mind, "Whatever you do for the least of these, you do it for me." And James, "If anyone knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (That's the downside of memorizing scripture -- the Holy Spirit uses it to convict you.)

Last night this guy emails me again with more details about the trip, says that it's officially going to happen, and asks me if I'm in or out. After praying for about an hour, there was no getting around the conviction in my heart (doh!). When Dana finished with her girl's bible study in the other room, I talked with her about it and she was really supportive even before I told her I was thinking about actually doing it.

So here I am, going to Haiti to help with water and food distribution and some other things instead of vacation. I'm so stinkin' nervous for some reason, but I know it's the right thing to do -- not necessarily what my flesh, in it's very depraved nature, wants to do, but I'm doing what I know the Lord wants and am both excited and nervous at the same time.

Pray for me as I prepare to go. Fortunately my passport still has a couple months left on it, so I'm good there, but I need like a whole arsenal of shots and immunizations. Fun.

There are some other exciting details about this trip that I can't talk about publicly yet, but hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I'll be able to post full details on my blog at http://www.studentministry.org Keep your eye there in the meantime for why this trip is going to be so unique, who I'm going with, and all the other details.
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Filed under  //  ministry   Tim  

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Jan 16 / 4:39pm

Hannah laughing hysterically at BONK!

This went on for about 20 minutes or longer. I got tired of saying BONK so we stopped. Hannah is so funny!

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Filed under  //  Hannah   Videos  

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Jan 15 / 10:27am

It looks like Narnia at our house

This picture really doesn't do it justice, but it's the best I got. Everything here is frosted and outlined with white. Looks really cool!
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