Ryan Weaver

storyteller//gospelplanter

.: One Story by Ryland…

by Leave a Comment

Fatherhood is the best. Seriously. The best.

image

I love being the father of Ryland Von Weaver and Rance D Weaver.

Fathering (for me) is about raising and sending my children. This is the pain and the joy of fathering. My sons are not mine to keep. And while they are young, it is my responsibility to raise them well… which includes challenging their accepted worldview and encouraging them to test their perceived limits.

On our return journey from Haiti last month, I began looking over my journaling notes and preparing my thoughts to share the story with Remedy Church on the following Sunday morning. I wasn’t planning any huge talk, but the Elders at Remedy had asked Amanda and I to share for a few moments about the trip. I was simply narrowing the scope of what I wanted to share so I could allow Amanda to “freestyle” quite a bit since this was technically a MandaWeaver Photography trip.

As I was organizing my thoughts, Ryland interrupted with a bit of shocking news:: he wanted to share his story of our trip.

On the previous Sunday at Eglise Baptiste Compasion de Christ, Pastor St Cyr had asked our whole family to join him on stage so he could introduce us and say a few words. Before we exited the stage, Ryland asked for the microphone so he could read a few words to the gathered congregation that he had written.

Ryland had pressed into his perceived limits and had done amazingly well.

image

And now Ryland wanted to carry that same message to our local church in Salisbury.

Have I mentioned that I love fathering?

On Sunday, February 1st, Ryland stepped onto the stage at Remedy Church and shared his perspective on our first family journey together in Haiti. Amanda and Rance filmed, and I fired the slides for Ryland as he shared.

Ryland Von is quite the 8-year old storyteller.

Enjoy…

(You can also see Amanda’s photos from Junior & Dominique’s Wedding on her photography website…)

.: photogs & fé disíp…

by Leave a Comment

Our first full day in Haiti as a family contained much photography, laughter, climbing, and teaching at Eglise de Compassion with Junior St Cyr. There were 17 students at the photography seminar… 13 students at the narrative discipleship seminar… and 2 Weaver boys who were involved with each part of the adventure.

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

.: a Haitian wedding…

by Leave a Comment

image

Amanda and I are with the Weaver Boys on our first trip to Haiti as a family. I’m writing this blog from our last stop in Florida before we fly into Port-Au-Prince.

The occasion is a Haitian Wedding!

Our partners and friends in Haiti, Junior St Cyr and Dominique Alexandré, are getting married this weekend. This is exciting stuff.

Amanda was able to snap this photo of Junior and Dominique this past summer.

image

Before the wedding, Amanda has been asked to lead an open photography conference through Manda Weaver Photography tomorrow afternoon at Eglise Baptiste de Compassion. The goal of the photography conference is two-fold:: education and job stimulation.

Haiti is a nation with many challenges… but few are as desperate as the lack of employment opportunities for Haitians. As organizations and governments continue working alongside our Haitian friends in so many vital arenas (child-trafficking prevention, health care, medicine, education, etc.), one of the most important for the future of Haiti is job stimulation and employment.

My friend, Corrigan Clay, has been engaged in the realm of Haitian job creation for many years. This is an area of emphasis for which he and his family have sacrificed much to champion. Corrigan believes that job creation should be the top priority for Americans who desire to partner in Haiti.

Pastor Jean-Alix Paul, one of our Haitian partners through Help One Now since 2010, has been preaching the importance of job creation and education for as long as I’ve known him.

Amanda will extend the training after the photography conference by selecting at least one Haitian photographer who will shoot the wedding with her. Our hope is that the training and donated photography equipment will be used to stimulate the local economy in some small but practical way.

I will be leading a Narrative Discipleship conference tomorrow as well. And as strange as the following may sound to some… this short discipleship seminar is far from the most important element of our trip.

This will be a transformational trip for my sons.

Updates are sure to come over the next few days…

.: able…

by Leave a Comment

It’s 5am in Maryland right now.

I’m waiting on the sun to rise.

I believe that every sunrise, every sunset, every breath, every heartbeat, every moment is an invitation to live my life completely engaged.

I can’t sleep. Haven’t slept much over the past week. I talked a bit about all this with a touch of vulnerability this past Sunday in my sermon at Remedy. But I realize this early morning how inadequate my vulnerability truly was. My messy church deserved a bit more from me.

We celebrate the holiness of vulnerability at Remedy Church.

But the holiness of vulnerability will not extend beyond the level of its own leadership… the elders and deacons and covenant partners.

My dad began the most difficult leg of his 6-year marathon against multiple myeloma this last week. Right now there are cocktails of poison being pumped into his veins through needles. There will be more this week.

I’ve been up since 3:20am with my dad on my mind, with hope in my heart, with words in my head that needed to be written and journaled and blogged and dropped into the keynote for this next Sunday at Remedy.

I just had a minor surgery on my back yesterday… on Amanda’s birthday (#sheesh). My back has progressively gotten worse over the past couple of years. My doctor wanted to have my L-5 injected with a cortisone cocktail to ease the pain on the jacked-up disk and broken vertebrae.

The simple irony was not lost on me::
1600 miles from here
my dad also had needles in his body
and cocktails flowing into his veins.

I’ve been listening to an older NEEDTOBREATHE album (the Reckoning) this morning. There’s a song called “Able” that has been an encouragement to me recently, and especially this morning. The whole album is excellent, but that song is particularly moving. There’s a guy who made a music video of “Able” which captures the essence of the lyrics… and reminds me of the many adventures I’ve lived with my dad… and the many adventures my sons have lived with my dad… and the many which are yet to be lived.

I’ve talked about vulnerability before in this forum.

Vulnerability is not over-sharing or sarcastic self-posturing or attention-seeking by shock-statements or emotionally-vomiting on everyone who has the misfortune of being within our verbal “splash zone”.

This has been a tough sequence of days for me.
Not the toughest… but tough nonetheless.

I’m not able to write the ending to this story.

I’m not able on my own…
nor do I worship a God who would grant such a selfish request.

.: convergence…

by Leave a Comment

image

Some days are unforgettable.

And the convergence of unforgettable days is uncommon.

January 11th is the day my family arrived home in Salisbury. The past 8 years have been remarkable. It would be impossible to communicate our love of the Eastern Shore in simple words… and it would be inconceivable to attempt to summarize the depth of our experiences in this sacred place. I am so thankful our lives have been planted here. I am so thankful my family has shared in the story unfolding in our city. Eight years is but a beautiful beginning.

The second Sunday in January also marks the public birthdate of Remedy Church. We began gathering this amazing church in my home in the summer of 2009, moved into the Regal 16 Cinemas by the fall of 2009, and launched publicly on January the 10th of 2010. After surviving the “Snowpocalypse of 2010” our story has entertwined with so many beautiful people and organizations. Moving our Sunday worship gatherings and church offices into Downtown Salisbury at the end of 2011 has proven to be a landmark moment for our people.

We are so honored to share in this story of renaissance and renewal… as a storytelling family… and a messy church.

This adventure has been unforgettable.

.: bags…

by Leave a Comment

Father’s Day is awesome.

20140620-102337-37417239.jpg

Amanda and I started a tradition before either of our boys were born.

On Mother’s Day, she receives a gift from the boys and I… and she hooks me up with a Mother’s Day gift. On Father’s Day, I receive a gift from the boys and Amanda… and we hook her up with a Father’s Day gift. It’s a beloved tradition in our family.

We celebrate the fathering and mothering in harmony.

The boys love it. Amanda and I love it.

And it’s a reflection of the parenting love of God. God fathers. God mothers. God parents His children in harmony with Himself.

This year, Amanda and the boys combined my Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts to give me the greatest messenger bag ever.

I have been a connoisseur of satchels, backpacks, sling-bags, and man-purses for as long as I can remember. In fact, I still have my first backpack from Kindergarten safely stored in North Texas. It’s a vintage G.I. Joe backpack. It’s amazing. And it has my old G.I. Joe’s stored inside it right now. (I know, right?)

The messenger bag that I received for Mother/Father’s Day 2014 is a hand-made buffalo leather bag from Jack George’s Voyager Collection. Jack George’s was founded in 1987 and is still based in New Jersey. They make great leather products. Here’s a video-biography of their story::

Social

Links

Remedy Church