Wide Open Series At Faith Church

This past Sunday, we started a new series called, "Wide Open" at Faith Church.  The outline for the three week series is: "Understanding, listening to, and following the Holy Spirit".  We are learning more about Who God is and trying to become more wide open to the Spirit of God in our daily lives.  If you are in the Greater Lansing area, we'd love for you to join us at one of our campuses!  Locations, directions, and worship gathering times can be found at: www.lansingfaith.org

I am reading portions of three different books (one each week) to help prepare for this series, in addition to searching through a ton verses throughout the Bible.  I am learning so much and just hope that I can pour out some of what is being poured into me during this series.  The three books are:

Forgotten God by Francis Chan (week 1)
The Power of a Whisper by Bill Hybels (week 2)
Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson (week 3)

Flooded... Twice In Two Days!

The Thursday before Easter, Jennifer woke up around 3:00am because she thought she heard some noise in our house.   I stepped into our basement to discover it was flooding from a failed sump pump.  We worked until after 6:00am trying to pull back carpet and get as much of the water out as we could.  Jennifer was amazing to stay up and help me since she was 7 months pregnant at the time.  Also, one of our neighbors saved us by coming over in the middle of the night with a back-up sump pump, shop-vac, and fans.  The next day was a pretty long one and we hadn't gotten much sleep because we still had to wake up when the kids woke up.  Then, it got really crazy...

We woke up on Friday morning to the sound of rushing water.  We went downstairs into our kitchen and saw water streaming down from the ceiling.  We were so confused at first.  The water problem was in our basement, right?  What is going on here?  I ran upstairs and saw that a toilet had been overflowing while we were sleeping.  We were so tired from the day before that we didn't hear the sound of the water until it was too late.  We started cleaning up the water right away, but the damage had been done.

Finally, yesterday our ceiling in the kitchen started to get repaired as you can see in this picture.  They will have to come back next week to finish doing the texture and paint on the ceiling of most of our first floor.  The basement padding and carpet has been pulled out and our stuff is piled everywhere, our wood floors in half of the first floor are partially torn out now, and our bedroom carpet is also being torn out.

Through all of this I have been so impressed with how amazing Jennifer's attitude has been.  She is now 8 months along in her pregnancy, trying to get the little girl's room set-up, and living in a construction zone.  I am so impressed with her and how she is handling everything with such patience and endurance!

Tony Dungy On Leadership

In his book, The Mentor Leader, Tony Dungy writes an excellent description of how he seeks to lead his team.  Tony Dungy was the head coach of the 2007 Super Bowl champs - the Indianapolis Colts.

"As a mentor and a leader, I have found that I cannot move the ball forward with positive, nurturing leadership until I engage with those I am blessed to lead.  Once I've engaged with them, I am able to educate and equip.  Throughout the process, it is essential to encourage, empower, and energize in order to finally elevate the people around me" (Tony Dungy, The Mentor Leader, page 166).  Tony goes on to explain these "e" words in the following pages of the book if you are interested in reading more.

Grand Canyon Trip 2011

This past week I traveled to Arizona with Jennifer's dad (Ollie) and brother (Brent) to hike the Grand Canyon.  I had hiked to the bottom of the canyon for the first time back in 1999 with my dad.  I knew the canyon was beautiful, but  I was reminded of how amazing the views truly were during our hike to the bottom!

We had a great crew of guys for this trip.  I went with two out of Ollie's three brothers (Gary & David), Kirby (Jennifer's cousin), Ollie, and Brent.

The views were simply amazing!  We hiked to the bottom and back in one day.  It took us about 9 hours including breaks and we covered somewhere around 16 miles total.

Brent made the trip extra fun for everyone as he was constantly finding something unique to do like playing in a waterfall he discovered or doing push-ups on top of a high rock.

When we got to the bottom of the South Kaibab Trail (which only took about two and a half hours), we crossed this bridge (below) that stretches over the Colorado River.  We took the Bright Angel Trail on the way back up.

I took the following picture for my dad.  When we went to the Grand Canyon as kids, my dad took a picture like this that I still remember...

Below is a brief video summary of our hike to the bottom of the canyon...

Another highlight of the trip was visiting one of our favorite places to eat... In N Out Burger.  We also enjoyed playing in the water at one of Brent's uncle's house.  It was so fun to see the palm trees and enjoy the sunshine!  It was a great trip and I'm so thankful that I was invited to go along.  However, I really missed Jennifer and our kids, so it was great to get back to the Midwest!

Life Change

I love to see God change a life!  At Faith Church, this is what we're all about... seeing lives changed for Jesus Christ!  This video shares a powerful story about how the people of Faith Church came alongside Stephanie when she really needed it.

There is no other group of people better positioned to help people in their time of greatest need (in any community) than the Church!  Right on!

Coming Summer Fun

Summer is coming!  Last year, Jaylon was pretty surprised when Papa helped him catch this huge fish at their house.

Speaking At Winter Blast 2011

I love speaking about Jesus any time that I get the chance!  It is especially exciting to watch students respond to the message of Jesus Christ because of the way they so often passionately give their lives to Jesus!  We saw 27 students make a commitment to Christ at this Winter Blast at Grace Adventures!

Grace Adventures brought in a great up-and-coming band, Finding Favour, and they did a phenomenal job.  I enjoyed meeting and serving with these guys.  The picture below is with their lead singer, Blake NeeSmith.

The staff at Grace Adventures put on a black light show that included glow-in-the-dark bowling.  I also enjoyed playing in their basketball tournament and doing some night tubing.

I've been a guest speaker at Grace Adventures since around 2001 and have really enjoyed the relationships I have built with some of their staff.  They have a great team of people at Grace Adventures that love God and love to serve people.  I highly recommend this camp if you are looking for a Christian adventure summer camp or winter retreat.