relevant expression: November 2007

christmas program

It is here. This is the time of the year where it gets really crazy and fun at the same time. There a lot of things that are happening that are "extra" things, but they are really fun.

Our Christmas Program is in a couple of weeks. We are going to be doing a lot of cool songs with all of the musicians. The band is going to be doing a Transiberian Orchestra song. http://www.trans-siberian.com/intro.html I really looking forward to it.

This program will be a pretty big deal at our church, so I am really praying that God will have His hand in the whole thing.

I hope you can make it.

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weekend post

We had such a great thanksgiving. We spent it with my wife's family. There was so much food, and a lot of football watching. It is so great to stop and think about all the things that we are thankful for.

This past weekend at church was another blessing. Rob Steen, the blue team, and a couple of vocalist led the entire weekend. I was not there for the Saturday night service, but I was there for both Sunday morning services. I had the opportunity just to watch them, and worship as they led the church. They did such a good job. It is such a blessing. Our church is so blessed to have so many talented people. Our audio and media techs are great as well. Thank you guys for a great weekend.

The songs they did were...
-Because of Your Love (Paul Baloche)
-Hosanna (Paul Baloche)
-Everlasting God (Brenton Brown)
-Majesty (Delerious)
-Amazed (Jared Anderson)

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thankful

There is so much to be thankful for. I am really thankful for my family. I have been blessed with a great wife. Heather does so much for me, and I do not deserve her. I will be married to her for 10 years next July. That is crazy. It seems like we met just yesterday. Some might say I married up.

I am also thankful for my 3 great kids. I don't deserve them either. For some reason, God has seen fit to place them in my care. I fail them a lot, but my prayer is that I can be a great father to them.

I am thankful for the family and friends that God has placed in my life. I have also been blessed with a great church and community.

Things are not always perfect, but God has blessed me beyond all measure.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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a new hero

I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. There were a couple of teams we routed for. The Indiana Pacers, Indiana University(Hoosiers), and the Colts.

The Colts have always been a decent team. Last year was just an awesome year. I have always really liked Peyton Manning, but the thing that really got me was the attititude of Coach Tony Dungy. He is a very open Christian. He always gives credit to God and Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

He came out with a book after the Super Bowl. I recently purchased it, and it is hard for me to put it down. There are three reasons why I like it so much.

1. He is a sold out christian. There is no doubt that he loves God, and it is not just words for him. It is actions.

2. He loves his family, and puts his family first after God. That is huge.

3. He tells about his football career, and that is really interesting. He also tells through out the book how God has taught him lessons throught the good and the bad.

There are so many things that I have learned from him as a person, leader, father, husband, and most importantly a christian in his book.

The one thing that stuck out to me (there were many), was a biblical principle. "Whoever wants to be a leader among you, must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. " Matthew 20:26-27

That is the model that Jesus set for us. This is what I want to be and continue to work on.

I would really encourage you to read this book. Here is a couple of links that you might like.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AYNi51v4cfU

http://www.mycolts.net/tonydungy

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this weekend

We had a great weekend at church. It is so cool to be able to sing with the praise choir. They bring so much life to the services, along with the band. It is a honor to be able to minister along side with such a great group of people.

It is so awesome that we have great bands, sound techs, and media techs as well. God has really blessed us with many talented people with great hearts.

We are also so blessed to have a church that continues to grow in their expression of worship. I know that you don't have to sing, clap, or raise your hands to worship, but it is so neat that our church is actively engaged in the music portion of our worship services.

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fight club

I am really looking forward to our new sermon series fight club. The first week is going to be on spiritual warfare. I know in our church, satan is really ramping up his attack on the families of our church. I am praying that God will really show us his will through all of it.

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and we became a family

My wife posted this in her blog. I thought it was so good, I thought I would post it as well.

About this time three years ago we became a family! It is so crazy that it has only been three years-it seems like we have been together forever! It is so awesome how God brought us together!So here is our adoptions story:After a long road of unsuccessful infertility Doug and I decided to go the adoption route. We were both pretty ignorant in the area of adoption so it was pretty scary at first. The only adoptions we were really familiar with were international adoptions, so of course that is what we were going for at first. So, Doug started getting info. from a million agencies online. One night we just spread them out on our living room floor and prayed that God would show us what agency to use. We chose a little agency in Akron, Ohio called A Child’s Waiting, because they did all types of adoptions and we still weren’t sure what we were doing.So, a few weeks later we had to travel to Akron for two weekends for an adoption seminar. As we drove the two and a half hour drive we were still unsure if we picked the right agency, but our God is so good! Barbara Walters was there doing a special on our little agency. The training was pretty eye opening to say the least. We were now pretty sure we were going to do the type of adoption where the birth mother (usually a teenager) picks the family. On the last day of our training they showed a video of siblings and how they are often separated. Needless to say our hearts were broken. As we walked to the parking garage that afternoon we didn’t say much, but we both knew exactly what kind of adoption we were going to do-SIBLING!So, the process started a Home study-Whew that was fun! A 25 page document about Doug and I! After a couple of months all of our paper work was done and they started sending our Home study out on different sib. groups we were interested in. They would call us and say you have two hours to make a decision on this group and we wouldn’t hear anything for weeks! It was really hard! We said no many times to sib. groups, and got our hearts broken a few times in the process. It was definitely an emotional roller coaster!During one of those really down and broken hearted times I remember our agency contacting us and having us look at a picture of three little ones in Oregon. (It was so crazy that they were in OR as I was born and raised there!) They were 3 year old twin boy, girl, and their 6 year old brother. The minute I saw the picture of all three of them sitting in an old rocking chair I fell in love with them. We talked to the foster mom that they they had been with since the twins were born and she had nothing but great things to say about them. They were much older then what we were interested in, but I just couldn’t get them off my mind. Doug was still very cautious, but I was totally into them! We were one of a thousand people that put our Home study in on this group. After what seemed like an eternity we were selected to be part of the final group of three families. During this whole process our agency was still sending our info. out so we had to keep deciding if we wanted to be in the process for other kids-it was crazy!So, the big day Oct. 5th came, and of course Doug had a meeting so I sat at home waiting for the phone to ring. It finally did AND we found out we were going to be parents!!!!!! I can not tell you the excitement and thankfulness that Doug and I felt!The next 20 days were filled with a lot of planning and shopping! Imagine going from 0 to 3! I can remember going to Target the first time and our total was over $800! That was just one of our trips! The kids received our scrapbook and video and were told we were their forever family. (Their Foster Mom told us they watched the video about 20 times a day. We also were able to talk to them on the phone everyday. We were “Mom” and “Dad” from the beginning.On Oct. 25th we flew from our home in Ohio to Oregon to meet our babies! I can remember driving up to Sandy’s house (foster mom) and seeing two little noses stuck to the window. I guess they had been standing their forever waiting for us. This may sound crazy but the minute I held them in my arms it just felt right, natural, and like we’d always been together. About an hour later Trev’s bus arrived, and he jumped right off the bus into my arms yelling, “Mom!” It was amazing!We spent the next week in Portland getting to know each other and having a BLAST! We were able to experience so many “firsts” together. We were then able to take the kids to Baker, OR where my family lives and spend 4 days with them. The kids again experienced so many firsts like 4-wheeling, horseback riding, sporting activities, etc. My whole family absolutely fell head over heals in love with them. When we left Baker my mom, “Grandma Kiki” asked Trev what was the best part of the week? He answered, “Best part of the week this is the best week of my life!”Well, the rest is history! God truly put us together to be a Forever Family! It is so obvious everyday that we were meant to be together. I honestly feel like the most blessed woman ever to have three such amazing kids! They are truly my precious gifts from God, and I honestly thank Him everyday for allowing me to be their mother. Every painful minute of infertility and adoption was erased the minute we were together!Oh yeah- their Dad is not too bad himself! I am not sure if we would recommend the 0 to 3 thing to anyone, but we would definitely do it all over again! Even though Doug almost died in the adjustment process. We became a family in November and in January Doug got mono REALLY bad. He was extremely ill for nearly 6 months. I guess this is when God showed me what being a single mother was all about. Parenting is much easier and enjoyable as a team!Whew! That was a long and emotional post!!!

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hello world

Well, I have entered into the blogging world by my self now. I have been wanting to do this for some time, but I have been so busy that I haven’t. I am making myself now. I think it will be very good for me to do this for many reasons.
1. This will be an outlet for me to share my thoughts on different things. With the ministry at Broadway growing, it is harder and harder for me to share my life with the people in my ministry as much as I like. Since this is troubling for me, and I don’t like that I don’t get to connect with them as much as I would like, I am going to be taking some steps this year to try and connect better with the awesome people in the worship ministry. I am hoping this is one of the ways that will help with that.
2. This is a great way for me to share my thoughts with many people. It also helps me to reinforce what I believe.
3. I am really bad at grammar and writing. I am hoping this will help me improve in that area.
Alright, hold on. Here we go.

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