Well Josh's Blog now has the video for the egg drop up.
He did an amazing job editing the footage (as always!)
Monday, March 31, 2008
d'oh
I will not strangle my roommate. I will not strangle my roommate. I will not strangle my roommate. I will not strangle my roommate. I will not strangle my roommate.
Well hopefully TONIGHT the guys will be coming to hook up our internet.
Well hopefully TONIGHT the guys will be coming to hook up our internet.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
On the Horizon....
Well we should be getting internet at the new house on thursday, at least that's what they told one of my roommates.
The fact that we're in the process of migrating over to central planning, and the fact that I haven't been able to access itunes... (wait, isn't that a good thing?) for the last few weeks has been driving me nuts.
The fact that we're in the process of migrating over to central planning, and the fact that I haven't been able to access itunes... (wait, isn't that a good thing?) for the last few weeks has been driving me nuts.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Amazed....
We used to do a worship song, "Lord I'm amazed by you" and I think that song really sums up this weekend. I'm sure by now all three pastors, (Pastor Daniel, Josh, and Pick) have all blogged about the weekend, but I wanted to add my 2 cents.
So let's start with Saturday, If you read Josh's Blog you know we've been tracking the weather all week. Since Monday all the weather stations were calling for rain. Our prayer was for a warm sunny day. As always God 1, weatherman 0. (More on this later)
Setup ran really smooth and the volunteers. We had over a hundred (near 150, from an earlier account) Lifepoint volunteers show up to help get the event rolling. Boy did it roll. I'm sure either Josh (who was the lucky person designated to be the event coordinator, or Pastor will be getting a call from the city. Last year we had 2500 people and stopped traffic for 2 miles around the school where we meet. No problem, we figured around 4-5 thousand people would show up this year. Depending on your source, (newspaper, radio, etc) we estimate somewhere between 7 and 12 thousand people showed up, traffic was backed up for MILES in every direction. I heard as far as the mall on Rt. 3 from one side, Lafayette Blvd, from another. We had chick-fil-a as a vendor and they kept running out of food! Oh and did I forget to mention that the police had to shut down our entrances? yeah we had THAT many people showing up. In fact we're already talking about where to go next year. The problem is finding a venue big enough, and one that can accommodate such a huge surge of traffic. And while I'm on the subject Mad Props to Tom Spellman and the whole Parking team who were swamped and went way above and beyond normal call of duty.
Then the eggs, I had the awesome privilege of doing all the ground level filming. (So if the video sucks when Josh get's done editing it, then it's my fault). I had joked all year leading up to this event that it looks like Lord of the Rings when the kids rush in to get the eggs, Well, you'll get a chance to see it I filmed several opening runs from the "epic" angle, just say a quick prayer that it turns out all right.
Also filmed some of the other events going on, we had a petting zoo, a rock climb, and a couple other vendors showed up as well.
Mad props to our Volunteer army, who put in, by my estimate an approximate 1,050 combined man-hours on Saturday ALONE. no idea HOW many hours were put in during the planning stages all I know is that it's a lot.
About the weather, next year I'm going to be dangerously specific with my prayer. Mostly clear with long periods of light cloud cover. I think most of us ended with sunburn from the day... here's an interesting bit of personal trivia in the last two years I've had a total of two Sunburns. The most recent was from the Eggdrop, the other was from our Gas buy down.
Then there was yesterday. What an amazing day, I didn't hear a count from the last service, but there was an estimated 30 people who changed their eternal destination from Hell and an eternity apart from God, to Heaven and an eternity with their creator how awesome is that! And that was just from the first two services! We had 674 people attend across three services, it was w00t-able.
Our set list was All Because of Jesus (by Fee) Mighty to Save (Hillsong) Wonderul Cross (Tomlin/Redman) with a performance song Meant to Live (Switchfoot) everything was so on! My whole upper body is killing me now too. I didn't just play, I didn't just perform I was in full blown worship mode and I have no regrets. Finally, Jeremy and Tom sang Mighty is the Power of the Cross (Tomlin) during the invitation, (with Ronnie, on guitar, Bill on Bass and Hannah on Cello) we were going for one of the those "Meet with God" moments I can't speak for anyone else but I know that my eyes were sweating.
And Pastor preached like the building was on fire, if there was ever (there wasn't for the record) any doubt in my mind about his Passion to reach people who are far from God, yesterday would have blasted those doubts away.
God we give you the glory for this amazing weekend where we celebrated the Resurrection of your son Jesus. Thank you for letting us, for letting me have a part in it.
So let's start with Saturday, If you read Josh's Blog you know we've been tracking the weather all week. Since Monday all the weather stations were calling for rain. Our prayer was for a warm sunny day. As always God 1, weatherman 0. (More on this later)
Setup ran really smooth and the volunteers. We had over a hundred (near 150, from an earlier account) Lifepoint volunteers show up to help get the event rolling. Boy did it roll. I'm sure either Josh (who was the lucky person designated to be the event coordinator, or Pastor will be getting a call from the city. Last year we had 2500 people and stopped traffic for 2 miles around the school where we meet. No problem, we figured around 4-5 thousand people would show up this year. Depending on your source, (newspaper, radio, etc) we estimate somewhere between 7 and 12 thousand people showed up, traffic was backed up for MILES in every direction. I heard as far as the mall on Rt. 3 from one side, Lafayette Blvd, from another. We had chick-fil-a as a vendor and they kept running out of food! Oh and did I forget to mention that the police had to shut down our entrances? yeah we had THAT many people showing up. In fact we're already talking about where to go next year. The problem is finding a venue big enough, and one that can accommodate such a huge surge of traffic. And while I'm on the subject Mad Props to Tom Spellman and the whole Parking team who were swamped and went way above and beyond normal call of duty.
Then the eggs, I had the awesome privilege of doing all the ground level filming. (So if the video sucks when Josh get's done editing it, then it's my fault). I had joked all year leading up to this event that it looks like Lord of the Rings when the kids rush in to get the eggs, Well, you'll get a chance to see it I filmed several opening runs from the "epic" angle, just say a quick prayer that it turns out all right.
Also filmed some of the other events going on, we had a petting zoo, a rock climb, and a couple other vendors showed up as well.
Mad props to our Volunteer army, who put in, by my estimate an approximate 1,050 combined man-hours on Saturday ALONE. no idea HOW many hours were put in during the planning stages all I know is that it's a lot.
About the weather, next year I'm going to be dangerously specific with my prayer. Mostly clear with long periods of light cloud cover. I think most of us ended with sunburn from the day... here's an interesting bit of personal trivia in the last two years I've had a total of two Sunburns. The most recent was from the Eggdrop, the other was from our Gas buy down.
Then there was yesterday. What an amazing day, I didn't hear a count from the last service, but there was an estimated 30 people who changed their eternal destination from Hell and an eternity apart from God, to Heaven and an eternity with their creator how awesome is that! And that was just from the first two services! We had 674 people attend across three services, it was w00t-able.
Our set list was All Because of Jesus (by Fee) Mighty to Save (Hillsong) Wonderul Cross (Tomlin/Redman) with a performance song Meant to Live (Switchfoot) everything was so on! My whole upper body is killing me now too. I didn't just play, I didn't just perform I was in full blown worship mode and I have no regrets. Finally, Jeremy and Tom sang Mighty is the Power of the Cross (Tomlin) during the invitation, (with Ronnie, on guitar, Bill on Bass and Hannah on Cello) we were going for one of the those "Meet with God" moments I can't speak for anyone else but I know that my eyes were sweating.
And Pastor preached like the building was on fire, if there was ever (there wasn't for the record) any doubt in my mind about his Passion to reach people who are far from God, yesterday would have blasted those doubts away.
God we give you the glory for this amazing weekend where we celebrated the Resurrection of your son Jesus. Thank you for letting us, for letting me have a part in it.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Still waiting...
So I'm still without internet. It's in process and I'll hopefully have it in another week, for now though...
So this was the last Sunday in our Quake series. Originally when we planned the service we were thinking about doing the John Mayer song Waiting on the world to change, because quake is about making a difference in the community.
Well what none of us in planning realized was that Waiting on the World to change was a huge war protest song, thankfully Kimberli came through with that information and we avoided a rather unintentional major faux pas (is that proper use of term?).
So instead we did "Change the World" by Eric Clapton, Pick finally played like one of his major musical influences and Ronnie of course blew me away with his gift for the guitar. Especially when they only had since Tuesday to prepare for this. I will admit to being almost giddy when I heard him play it during run through. And while I'm on the subject I had the morning off, meaning Jason our other drummer was playing... I felt lost! (More on this in a later post).
We also baptized 15 people today including on Robb from my life group. I have to admit that my eyes had a little sweat in them during that moment. Robb if you read this, I'm proud of you brotha!)
The rest of our Worship set was "Count Me In" by Leeland and "Glorious One" (By Todd Fields? I think). Glorious One is one of our favorites (It IS Pick's favorite) and "Count me In" is an amazing hi energy song. Which we'll do again within a couple weeks. And the sound today was awesome! Clark did our mix and it sounded great.
Sometime after Easter I'll be taking a month sabbatical from drumming to give Jason our other drummer a chance to grow into the ministry. Hopefully during that time I'll be able to focus some of my energies on some new worship music projects.
Oh and I had a phenomenal interview with Pastor Wade Joy from Elevation Church on Wednesday (which reminds me I need to send out a thank you card. anyone who knows me please ask me when you see me to make sure I get that out, thanks!) and got a ton of notes and ideas. Pastor Joy is their Worship pastor and part of his job reads my duties for director of music.
So on a semi side note wishing (and praying) for some healing for Elizabeth (My aux Percussionist) who developed tendinitis bashing the tar out of a tambourine a couple weeks ago (She's been playing one handed for the last 2 weeks!) Also for Anne (One of my vocals/guitarists) who had surgery the other week.
And I'm staring at my calender wondering when we'll have internet at the house and I can't help be think (yes I know rare for me)... Wow Easter is 7 days away, 6 for the egg drop.
So this was the last Sunday in our Quake series. Originally when we planned the service we were thinking about doing the John Mayer song Waiting on the world to change, because quake is about making a difference in the community.
Well what none of us in planning realized was that Waiting on the World to change was a huge war protest song, thankfully Kimberli came through with that information and we avoided a rather unintentional major faux pas (is that proper use of term?).
So instead we did "Change the World" by Eric Clapton, Pick finally played like one of his major musical influences and Ronnie of course blew me away with his gift for the guitar. Especially when they only had since Tuesday to prepare for this. I will admit to being almost giddy when I heard him play it during run through. And while I'm on the subject I had the morning off, meaning Jason our other drummer was playing... I felt lost! (More on this in a later post).
We also baptized 15 people today including on Robb from my life group. I have to admit that my eyes had a little sweat in them during that moment. Robb if you read this, I'm proud of you brotha!)
The rest of our Worship set was "Count Me In" by Leeland and "Glorious One" (By Todd Fields? I think). Glorious One is one of our favorites (It IS Pick's favorite) and "Count me In" is an amazing hi energy song. Which we'll do again within a couple weeks. And the sound today was awesome! Clark did our mix and it sounded great.
Sometime after Easter I'll be taking a month sabbatical from drumming to give Jason our other drummer a chance to grow into the ministry. Hopefully during that time I'll be able to focus some of my energies on some new worship music projects.
Oh and I had a phenomenal interview with Pastor Wade Joy from Elevation Church on Wednesday (which reminds me I need to send out a thank you card. anyone who knows me please ask me when you see me to make sure I get that out, thanks!) and got a ton of notes and ideas. Pastor Joy is their Worship pastor and part of his job reads my duties for director of music.
So on a semi side note wishing (and praying) for some healing for Elizabeth (My aux Percussionist) who developed tendinitis bashing the tar out of a tambourine a couple weeks ago (She's been playing one handed for the last 2 weeks!) Also for Anne (One of my vocals/guitarists) who had surgery the other week.
And I'm staring at my calender wondering when we'll have internet at the house and I can't help be think (yes I know rare for me)... Wow Easter is 7 days away, 6 for the egg drop.
Monday, March 10, 2008
New Desk...
I forgot to mention, I moved over the weekend, and on a side note, I discovered that I am a pack-rat.
And I ended up leaving my desk behind, it served me well, but it weighed a ton and it was a pain to try and move. Thus my new desk.
Speaking of which, my already erratic posting schedule may become more so as we don't have internet at the new place yet.
And I ended up leaving my desk behind, it served me well, but it weighed a ton and it was a pain to try and move. Thus my new desk.
Speaking of which, my already erratic posting schedule may become more so as we don't have internet at the new place yet.
Sun stood still
We just finished out Sun Stand Still Series and started out quake series.
Jeremy preached and did an awesome job, but we had a sun stand still moment. When I got to the church at around 6:40 (which felt like 5:40 for some reason... stupid DST) the first thing I noticed was the setup crew running around (efficiently) and stuff normally setup by this point wasn't yet. Thirty seconds later I found out the lights were operating on emergency power and we didn't have any.
So we pressed on, setting up like we normally would, we were informed we had an industrial generator coming and a few smaller ones as well. In the meantime the worship team began practice in acoustic mode.
Then power came on...
Then it went out...
We were overloading the industrial generator with something, (I still am not sure what was doing it).
I know there was a lot of prayers flying even as we continued and prepared. Let me back up a moment. Pastor talked last week about (see the podcast) about a new way to prayer that sometimes prayer isn't just about being on your knees, but being in motion knowing that God will come through.
He did.
8:30 power came back on, run through was completed and worship was amazing.
What a mighty God we serve. If anyone asked me how the morning went they got a three word answer. Sun Stood Still!
Oh and as far as quake goes...
Josh and his team did an amazing job on the trailer. Kinda makes me sad that quake is a two part series, we only get to use it one more week.
80,000 eggs,
Jeremy preached and did an awesome job, but we had a sun stand still moment. When I got to the church at around 6:40 (which felt like 5:40 for some reason... stupid DST) the first thing I noticed was the setup crew running around (efficiently) and stuff normally setup by this point wasn't yet. Thirty seconds later I found out the lights were operating on emergency power and we didn't have any.
So we pressed on, setting up like we normally would, we were informed we had an industrial generator coming and a few smaller ones as well. In the meantime the worship team began practice in acoustic mode.
Then power came on...
Then it went out...
We were overloading the industrial generator with something, (I still am not sure what was doing it).
I know there was a lot of prayers flying even as we continued and prepared. Let me back up a moment. Pastor talked last week about (see the podcast) about a new way to prayer that sometimes prayer isn't just about being on your knees, but being in motion knowing that God will come through.
He did.
8:30 power came back on, run through was completed and worship was amazing.
What a mighty God we serve. If anyone asked me how the morning went they got a three word answer. Sun Stood Still!
Oh and as far as quake goes...
Josh and his team did an amazing job on the trailer. Kinda makes me sad that quake is a two part series, we only get to use it one more week.
80,000 eggs,
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Unbelievable...
I've had my official church e-mail address for all of two weeks(ish) and used it maybe MAYBE six times and each of those times were to Lifepoint staff or volunteers.
I STILL got spam in my inbox today.
I STILL got spam in my inbox today.
Monday, March 3, 2008
28 reasons....
I've heard of a movie called 28 days later, (which apparently is a zombie movie? has anyone who's seen this let me know)
Anyway if nothing else I thought it was a catchy title, so in an unapologetic effort to capitalize on said catchiness of said title here are 28 reasons I'm thankful today.
1) I have a Savior who hung on a cross and died, and three days later arose.
2) I live in America, for all our problems and all our issues we're still the free-est greatest country out there. (I mean honestly you don't hear how people built a raft out of an old chevy and then floated it to Russia do you?)
3) I have an amazing family that I have a close relationship with.
4) I have a car that works and has working air conditioning, (I, at one point had a car that didn't have air conditioning which made me appreciate it all the more).
5) I live in a country that allows me freedom to worship. At our recent vocal workshop (write up to follow... err eventually) Tom and Jeremy showed a video clip (which was from a movie, but I know for a fact that this is done in reality) of a church in China and when it came time to sing a hymn they sang it silently, and while it was stirring and moving the reality hit me, they can't sing aloud because if their Government finds them, well I won't go there.
6) I have eyes that see, yes I wear glasses and my vision isn't perfect, but I can still see the breathtaking beauty of a sunrise, I can enjoy the bluest sky or the greenest field.
7) I have some great friends who are a joy and blessing, (even the one who has yet to return my phone call, though he probably won't read this) to my life.
8) I have a mentor, (well I have several for different areas of my life, but I have one in particular who's awesome beyond mere word description, he pushes me to be a better me and believes in me even when I don't believe in myself.
9) I've been blessed with a love and slight (trying to be humble here) talent for music.
10) I've got one of the greatest groups of musicians in my praise team. (Another post to follow)
11) I have a job, while I don't always enjoy it, I do have an income source.
12) I have a roof over my head, (soon to be) a different one then the one I had, but a roof none the less.
13) I have a cell phone, and even though there are times when I find them utterly annoying it's so nice to have a way to communicate with people.
14) I have my hearing. I can't even fathom the genius of Beethoven, writing music when the only place he could hear it was in his mind.
15) My amazing small group who knows my weakness for fresh krispy kreme donuts.
16) My sense of taste (and smell), so I can enjoy previously mentioned Krispy Kreme donuts.
17) Drums, and cymbals... Lots of Cymbals (should be spoken like Neo from that Matrix scene, you know the one).
18) I enjoy reading. Sir Richard Steele once said "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
19) I can cook, (and bake) and do both moderately well.
20) I have a pc and I know how to use it.
21) I have fingers, wrists, arms, feet and legs and all of them work well enough that I can play the drums.
22) Despite my horrible grammar (ask ANY of my English teachers) and even worse spelling (hmm that gives me an idea) I still enjoy writing and apparently have people who enjoy reading what I write, warm fuzzies.
22.5) Auto Spell-check.
23) I have a country that doesn't pull a "big brother" on internet use. (cough cough China, where they'll throw you in jail if you try to look up (insert and remotely affiliated term of Christianity here) on the internet.
24) The second amendment, and I have the remains of a can from 100 yards to prove it.
25) That I am a part of a radical movement of God in my community and I just pray that we can in our own talents and ways make the name Jesus even more famous, that we can impact lives and change forever, the eternal destination of those around us from an eternity apart from God to an eternity with him.
26) Clean air to breath. (Been to L.A. nuff said)
27) Clean water to drink. (See above, the funny story is the first time I visited my family in LA as they picked me off at the airport, their first words exchanged after being greeted was a warning to only drink bottled water, my response was, "So nice place you live, can't breathe the air, can't drink the water... anything else I should know?").
28) I've made it 28 years (thus far... actually 28 years plus 3 days) and I couldn't be more thankful.
Anyway if nothing else I thought it was a catchy title, so in an unapologetic effort to capitalize on said catchiness of said title here are 28 reasons I'm thankful today.
1) I have a Savior who hung on a cross and died, and three days later arose.
2) I live in America, for all our problems and all our issues we're still the free-est greatest country out there. (I mean honestly you don't hear how people built a raft out of an old chevy and then floated it to Russia do you?)
3) I have an amazing family that I have a close relationship with.
4) I have a car that works and has working air conditioning, (I, at one point had a car that didn't have air conditioning which made me appreciate it all the more).
5) I live in a country that allows me freedom to worship. At our recent vocal workshop (write up to follow... err eventually) Tom and Jeremy showed a video clip (which was from a movie, but I know for a fact that this is done in reality) of a church in China and when it came time to sing a hymn they sang it silently, and while it was stirring and moving the reality hit me, they can't sing aloud because if their Government finds them, well I won't go there.
6) I have eyes that see, yes I wear glasses and my vision isn't perfect, but I can still see the breathtaking beauty of a sunrise, I can enjoy the bluest sky or the greenest field.
7) I have some great friends who are a joy and blessing, (even the one who has yet to return my phone call, though he probably won't read this) to my life.
8) I have a mentor, (well I have several for different areas of my life, but I have one in particular who's awesome beyond mere word description, he pushes me to be a better me and believes in me even when I don't believe in myself.
9) I've been blessed with a love and slight (trying to be humble here) talent for music.
10) I've got one of the greatest groups of musicians in my praise team. (Another post to follow)
11) I have a job, while I don't always enjoy it, I do have an income source.
12) I have a roof over my head, (soon to be) a different one then the one I had, but a roof none the less.
13) I have a cell phone, and even though there are times when I find them utterly annoying it's so nice to have a way to communicate with people.
14) I have my hearing. I can't even fathom the genius of Beethoven, writing music when the only place he could hear it was in his mind.
15) My amazing small group who knows my weakness for fresh krispy kreme donuts.
16) My sense of taste (and smell), so I can enjoy previously mentioned Krispy Kreme donuts.
17) Drums, and cymbals... Lots of Cymbals (should be spoken like Neo from that Matrix scene, you know the one).
18) I enjoy reading. Sir Richard Steele once said "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
19) I can cook, (and bake) and do both moderately well.
20) I have a pc and I know how to use it.
21) I have fingers, wrists, arms, feet and legs and all of them work well enough that I can play the drums.
22) Despite my horrible grammar (ask ANY of my English teachers) and even worse spelling (hmm that gives me an idea) I still enjoy writing and apparently have people who enjoy reading what I write, warm fuzzies.
22.5) Auto Spell-check.
23) I have a country that doesn't pull a "big brother" on internet use. (cough cough China, where they'll throw you in jail if you try to look up (insert and remotely affiliated term of Christianity here) on the internet.
24) The second amendment, and I have the remains of a can from 100 yards to prove it.
25) That I am a part of a radical movement of God in my community and I just pray that we can in our own talents and ways make the name Jesus even more famous, that we can impact lives and change forever, the eternal destination of those around us from an eternity apart from God to an eternity with him.
26) Clean air to breath. (Been to L.A. nuff said)
27) Clean water to drink. (See above, the funny story is the first time I visited my family in LA as they picked me off at the airport, their first words exchanged after being greeted was a warning to only drink bottled water, my response was, "So nice place you live, can't breathe the air, can't drink the water... anything else I should know?").
28) I've made it 28 years (thus far... actually 28 years plus 3 days) and I couldn't be more thankful.
The future of remotes?
And other way cool technology not yet available to you.
A real "Hand's free" remote.
Of course right along that is something out of the bionic man.
Or how about 3d without the goofy glasses?
And for a mere four grand (or there abouts) you too can have a R2D2 unit with full 2d image projection.
Finally for those "old School" music lovers Sony has something to help bring back some life to the original portable disc format of music. (Now if only I could find some needles...)
A real "Hand's free" remote.
Of course right along that is something out of the bionic man.
Or how about 3d without the goofy glasses?
And for a mere four grand (or there abouts) you too can have a R2D2 unit with full 2d image projection.
Finally for those "old School" music lovers Sony has something to help bring back some life to the original portable disc format of music. (Now if only I could find some needles...)
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