By The Tree and Disciple Now

We went to a wonderful concert last night. Our youth department at church had a Disciple Now weekend this weekend. Friday and Saturday night the music was provided by By The Tree. Our church has been partnering with By The Tree for Discipleship Now weekends and other conferences for a few years now. They are always incredible. They have such awesome hearts. It was very heartwarming to see my two kids worshipping the Lord with about 200 other young people as By The Tree played last night. Praise God! Bethany added another poster to her band photo and signature collection. And Matthew, who has been a little bored in his walk with the Lord lately bought a By The Tree CD and has been singing My Glorious all day long. I completely understand, that song puts me in a mood for worship also. What a great weekend!

2 Points!

Thanks to Rob at the Orangejack Blog for sharing this website. That girls has real courage. What an incredible shot! Link.

Help Has Arrived

Most of you are tired of hearing about how I am inundated right now with lots of things going on in my life. I know you are tired of hearing about my new full-time job, running the ministry (I have been doing a rotten job of running it lately to the point where I don't think I have lead it, but just run it), going to 5th grade basketball games, attending elementary school and middle school district band and solo contests (Matthew received a 1st in his French Horn solo and Bethany received a first in voice solo, flute solo, and flute duet), and trying to prepare myself emotioinally and spiritually for the possibility of planting a church, and working on my dissertation. I am not whining, but I am overwhelmed with great things happening right now.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a proposal for an Internship at the McKendree College Baptist Collegiate Ministry (The Gate) that I direct. This week I was notified that the funding proposal I submitted was approved. Andy Rains will be the first intern at The Gate. He will start as soon as possible. Andy is a great man of God who is one of the most dynamic students I have met. He will be tasked with turning The Gate's facility from a place to host our Wednesday and Thursday night Bible study to a place where college students enjoy hanging out. I have another proposal submitted that includes outreach money to remodel our building to make it more comfy and to set it up to host a monthly concert. So far, so good. Please pray for us and specifically for Andy as he becomes an even more important part of what we do.

Sorry To Have Ignored You All

I apologize for not being very diligent in posting to my Weblog lately. Between all the time spent away from home with my old job, transitioning to a new job in a completely different field, the McKendree College Student Ministry spinning up again after Christmas break, and trying to work on my PhD Dissertation I have been maxed out for the last month. Hopefully things will settle down and get a little more routine (but not in a rut) for me.

Take care and God bless you all.

It's Hard To Hit A Moving Target!

I spent 21 years serving my country in the US Air Force. I enjoyed most of my time there. I am very proud of my service in the Air Force. But, in the 2 years I have been retired from the military I have changed jobs 4 times. I am only running an average of 6 months per job, and I am very embarrassed about it. None of the changes are due to being fired, but are self initiated changes looking for the "right job".

I did it again. I start a new job on Monday with another company. The company is Science Applications International Corporation, also known as SAIC. They do lots of military related IT. I worked for SAIC for 5 months right after I retired and I would still be with them if not for a personality conflict between my boss and myself. Now I am taking a different job with them. They are a wonderful company to work for and it will be very challenging work. I will be the Program Manager for Air Mobility Command's Expeditionary GeoBase Program. This means that I will be in charge of coordinating information needs between AMC and all the airfields overseas that we fly to or think we will fly to in the near future. I have really enjoyed working for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, but this new job is something I have trained for most of my life.

Anyhow, now one will ever accuse me of being part of the status quo, because I haven't stuck around long enough to qualify! Hopefully, this will be the right job, although in the back on my mind I know I will end up in full-time ministry and I only view whatever job I am in currently as filler time until the Lord tells me the time is right.

Wednesday Night At The Gate

Tonight will be the first time I have had a chance to be at our college ministry (The Gate) since Halloween! It has been a long absence that I have hated and I am ready to get plugged back in. I miss worshipping and hanging out with my brothers and sisters at The Gate and it will be good to get back there.

Back from Louisiana

It was a long 2 week trip with lots of hard work, but I am back! I'm sorry that I haven't blogged much over the last couple of weeks, in fact I haven't blogged much while I've been gone the last couple of months. I'm back for a while now and that will change. I don't have any pressing trips on the calendar, so I will be able to enjoy being home for a while. Thanks for those of you who were praying for me while I was gone.

Blogging From Louisiana

Well, on my quest of continuous business trips I made it to Shreveport, Louisiana, Bossier (pronounced Bozyer) City actually. Not a bad place. It is pretty and about 20 degrees warmer than back home in St Louis. Bossier City it is going to be sunny with high of 44 and a low of 27. It is a little colder here than I thought it would be. I didn't even bring sweat pants or a sweatshirt to exercise in! I spent some time at the local YMCA exercising yesterday. Back home in St Louis today it will be a high of 21 and a low of 5.

At least the Holiday Inn here has a fast, free internet connection in each room.

Whenever I'm on trips I normally try to attend Calvary Chapels, but there aren't any here, so yesterday I attended First Baptist of Bossier City. It is a huge church (8,000 members) that did a great job of integrating media, drama, music, preaching, and community into the service. The preaching was pretty traditional, and the rest of the service was well integrated. I learned a lot.

It's Official: The Rams Were Put Out Of Their Misery

They struggled all year long, and just when we began to believe in them the Rams died. Actually, they sucked! 47-17. I guess I've turned into a Colts and Vikings fan for the rest of the season, and they will probably both fall tomorrow. At this point in the season I normally turn to hockey and cheer for the Blues, but that season was over long ago.

Life on the Seesaw

We have had a very blaah winter. So far the weather has mainly been in the 40s with a lot of rain. We had 2 inches of snow a week or so ago, but it melted the next day. It makes for a very boring, long dreary winter.

The last 2 days though have been pretty exciting. Last night we ate dinner on the back deck. The temperature was 70 degrees and the sky was overcast. It was a real nice day and we could have worn shorts comfortably. I went home for lunch today. The weather has changed dramatically! It is 30 degrees and there are 2 inches of snow in my front yard. I can't believe how quickly the weather changed. It is beautiful, exciting, and anything but the same old routine boring.

God tells us the same thing. I have been studying the book of Revelation pretty hard the last month or so. In the letter to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-16 God tells us,

14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

I know it is a stretch to compare being a luke-wearm follower of Christ to my local weather, but as I was driving through the snow on the way back to work today I was thinking about how much more beautiful and exciting it is to live in a place where the weather is always changing like here in St Louis, rather than the standard, warm, ho hum weather I grew up in back in Los Angeles. Maybe a lame comparison, but one I can claim in my simple mind.