Last night Abbey and I were able to attend the grand opening of the Rapha House Gallery Grand Opening here in Joplin. It was incredible to see the work that has gone into the gallery and different stations set up for you to go through and pray through.
If you are unfamiliar with Rapha House, they are an organization that is dedicated to rescuing young girls from slavery and setting up safe houses for the girls. This past summer, MOVE partnered with Rapha House and made a documentary shot in Cambodia, BAHT, to raise awareness of this terrible movement that is taking place around the world. View the trailer of BAHT below. Yesterday, BAHT had two different viewing during the grand opening.
Rapha House is also our mission at believe this year and the experience station at believe will be a smaller scaled version of the entire gallery.
If you live in the Joplin area or you are in town for a visit, I would encourage you to go by spend some time walking through the gallery. I am going to take my small group of guys from my church over there sometime next semester. If you would like to know more about Rapha House and the amazing things that are taking place, either send me an email or contact them directly at rapha@arm.org.
Last week I had the privilege of going to California and sitting in on the network meeting of Junior High Ministers in Southern California. The primary reason I went was to talk about the Anaheim believe coming up in January, but I really enjoyed the meeting and learned some things that I know will be helpful at my church and my small group back in Missouri.
First off, Kurt Johnston, the junior high minister at Saddleback, did an amazing job leading the meeting and also sharing his experience about believe. He has been one of our speakers for the last couple of years and I truly admire him in his leadership and genuine humility. If you are a junior high worker, or even have a small interest in youth ministry in general, you should follow his blog here.
Some of the main topics discussed was how ministry has changed or is changing with the state of the economy, working with unchurched kids tied together with working with the parents of the churched kids, measuring spiritual growth in students and assimilating volunteers and the volunteer process.
In my small group I have the senior minister's son, one boy who's parent's don't go to church and another boy who lives in a foster home and is up for adoption. It was interesting to hear how they mix the churched and unchurched kids and the goal of "outreach" events.
Also, since I was in college, I have been a volunteer/sponsor/small group leader for 4 or 5 different churches, and everyone of them has done things really well (and could improve on somethings) with volunteers.
I also met the youth minister from Rock Harbor, which is the same church that Steve Carter (one of the Believe speakers) is going to starting in January. I honestly had not heard of the church till Steve told me he was going there a few weeks ago and since then I have seen or heard about the church a few times.
While I was out there, I also went and took a tour of our venue, the Hilton of Anaheim. I did not realize it until I turned off the highway, but I had actually been there about 4 years ago for a Youth Specialties conference. This location is a drastic improvement from the previous 3 years (Palm Springs, Pomona, Ontario) in Southern California. Also, there is going to be a California Pizza Kitchen and Jamba Juice inside the hotel. Looking forward to January 30-31.
It is always nice to go to the Northwest. I somehow seem to make it up there 2-3 times per year on different trips. This was the first Believe that actually took place on Halloween. We didn't really know what to expect and not sure how many costumes would be worn. I think we did lose a few students to holiday and events at churches such as "Trunk or Treat" or "Hallelujah Carnival". But what do you expect when church is giving away free candy?
Another "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". Matt Gilchrist and I went to the Byways Cafe and enjoyed some hash and organic blue corn pancakes.
Boise Bible College was the sponsor for this event and provided volunteers.
On Friday I was able to sneak away and my main venue contact got me into the back of a Dave Ramsey seminar. It was part of his Entreleadership series and I heard him talk about Adding and Subtracting from a Team, Delegation, and Making Decisions. That hour and a half was better than any book I have read over the last 6 months.
On Friday, the band didn't wear costumes, but they did all wear ties. Very strong resemblance to The Supertones.
Had a great conversation with Steve Carter, and his new direction. He has been a blessing to Believe and to me personally. I am excited for him and his opportunity back in California.
We ate Red Robin twice. Probably two times too many.
This was the last Believe event for Krystle Fernandez, who has been apart of the Believe Staff for 2 years. She has done an amazing job and as a result she has been promoted to a position that oversees the bookstore for all high school events at CIY.
This was our second time to Omaha in the year of 2008 (our first event in Omaha was in May). We moved the Omaha event to the fall because we heard it worked out for schedules of those attending. We did have to move venues from the Qwest Center to the Omaha Civic Auditorium because of the dates we needed. It is a much older venue, and there was good and bad things to compare to the Qwest Center.
According to some of the staff that worked there, we were the largest production in the history of the room we were in (I don't think we have heard that before). We had to rig (hang equipment from the ceiling), and I guess nothing had been rigged in the room in over 4 years.
Josh Walker, our Production Manager, and Amy Girton, the Stage Manager, had a bet going all weekend to see who could save the most food money throughout the weekend (one of the rules was they had to eat something every meal). The winner would win whatever money the loser had left. Josh lost.
A few of us did get to go to another "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." We went to Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room and it was stinkin good. Our whole staff tried to go the night before and we were turned away. They only have seating for about 20 and they only take reservations. While we were eating lunch, I think we saw him turn away about 30 different parties that didn't have reservations. Seriously, YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE LINK AND SEE THIS RESTAURANT'S WEBSITE. I could teach that guy a thing or two about missed opportunities.
Steve Carter, the speaker for the weekend, left the hotel, followed a crowd (which he thought were kids for Believe), and ended up at college hockey game. He then realized he was at the wrong venue.
Nebraska Christian College sponsored the event, and they provided a ton of help. One of the volunteers actually collided (head to head) with a student by the basketball goal. The picture of what happened to the volunteer is below.
The Adult Meeting Room was kind of a mix between a high school cafeteria and church fellowship hall.
Jared Hall did play bass for one song. Picture below.
The union staff that helped with load in and load out was by far the best union staff we have ever worked with.
There wasn't a single door in the entire venue that actually had a lock. If you wanted something locked up, you needed a chain and a padlock.
After tear down all our staff went to Spaghetti Works for all you can eat pasta. I think everyone ate way too much.
This was the first time Believe had been to Chicago in about 7 or 8 years and it was good to be back. There was no baseball game involved this time, but at least we were in the same city as Cubs. We also had the highest attendance ever for a "new location."
A few of us tried to go see "Call and Response," but on the way there we found out it actually started a day later. Disappointing.
So, instead we ate at Giordano's and had some great pizza.
Stayed in the probably the nicest hotel all year, which was also connected to the Convention Center. This is always nice because you can roll out of bed and walk downstairs and be in our room. Or you can go take a nap at lunch.
There was a tv in the mirror in the bathroom. Really cool.
Yes, I had a fruit trap and some cool Japanese candy in my room.
Scott Rubin and Jason Raitz, two of our speakers stopped by to see us and the event. It is always great to see those guys.
The Village of Schaumburg has "quiet hours" and Friday night we cut it close to violating the "village rules."
Why would Chicago ever have two airports, and have them located over an hour apart? And why would we have staff members flying into each of them. Definitely bad planning on my part.
One flat tire, on the way home. Changed and back on the road in 20 minutes. I think we could work for a pit crew we are getting so good at this.
This was our second year in Arlington at the Arlington Convention Center, which is about a thousand times better than our previous location in downtown Dallas. The convention center is right off the highway right across from Six Flags (no, we didn't get to go). Here are some highlights from the weekend.
We didn't get to go a baseball game, but we do have to drive right past The Ballpark at Arlington every time we went to and from the hotel. Scott Rubin made the joke that a requirement for a Believe venue is it has to be within walking distance of a major league baseball stadium. I only wish that was true.
There was a Quik Trip located within a mile of the Convention Center. I went 5 times. Doesn't get better than that.
One of the other rooms in the Convention Center had some guys dressed up as the Founding Fathers of our country. I was barely able to get the picture (see below).
Jeremy Weldon (the Foundation Red drummer) and I began an ongoing game of knock-out with the basketball and basketball goal that travels with Believe. After Arlington, I was winning 2-1.
Some of the students had to recruit Brent the Stunt Guy to scale a wall to get down their hackey sacks they had thrown up in a window sill.
3 of the band members, Michael, Jeremy and Chris, took the lead in tear down and truck pack this week. It still had a long way to go, but it was awesome seeing those guys take ownership in that area.
Saturday night Auburn lost to Vanderbilt and then the Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs. I almost gave up sports.
We had two flat tires on the trip. One on the trailer. One on the van. One on the way to Texas. One on the way home.
Well, the Fall portion of the Believe Tour is over. After 5 events in 6 weeks and over 2,000 students, it is good to get a little break. It was an awesome fall and the God moved in amazing ways. Over the next 5 days, I will write a post about each location and include some pictures (if I have any from each event). I'll start with Baltimore.
Baltimore - This was the first time in Baltimore for Believe, and the first event of the Tour. It had it's challenges of a new venue and new location, but overall it was a great event.
A few of the staff and myself were able to go to a Baltimore Orioles-Tampa Bay Rays game the night before. See the picture and few people there were. Yes, the game had started and was in the second inning.
This was our longest set-up of the year, as we had an extra day for rehearsals.
One "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" location, Chaps Pit BBQ, was visited. I had "The Bulldog." The actual location of the restaurant was located in a very interesting area of town. I will leave it at that.
Some of the girls were able to visit D.C. during some of the rehearsals.
One of the youth ministers was mugged outside of the convention center on Friday night. He had to navigate explaining to his students the difference between showing compassion to a homeless man and a man stealing your money.
On the same note, one of our production staff was also scammed and lost almost $100 the day before the event.
After this event and one incident, Isaac Schade will never talk to venue personnel again.
First event with the basketball goal, and the students loved it.
After Friday night session, a large group of staff went to Cheesecake Factory and got back to the hotel way late that night. I think that was the last time our staff went out eat after Friday night session.
It rained like crazy on Saturday and during the last two sessions water was coming in from underneath the doors of the exhibit hall.
Truck pack was horrible.
The trip home was by far the longest one-day drive we will have all tour. Something like 19 hours. It's all downhill from here.
I almost gave up sports for the rest of the calendar year 2008. But then the Rays decided to show up in the ALCS.
For the last two weeks, every team I cheer for has been not playing to potential and losing. There are so many things that have gone wrong with sports over the last two weeks, I made a vow after the Red Sox came back in Game 5, that if the Sox somehow won the ALCS, I was not going to watch another sporting event in 2008. Here is a small portion of everything that has gone wrong:
The Cubs got absolutely destroyed in the NLDS to the Dodgers. They played amazing in the regular season and then didn't even show up in the playoffs and lost 3 straight. The Cubs are horrible.
The Auburn Tigers are pitiful. They have lost their last two to Vanderbilt and Arkansas. Granted, Vanderbilt is not looking too bad this year (haven't really played anyone yet), but Arkansas is horrible. Auburn fired their offensive coordinator and they have no offense. They beat Miss. St. 3-2. That's right, 3-2. A two run home run and a RBI double. Soccer scores are higher than that. The only thing left I care about with Auburn this year is that they beat Alabama (and chances of that are slim).
It is currently the worst college football poll in the history of anything. Texas is ranked #1, and Alabama is ranked #2. I absolutely despise Alabama (being an Auburn fan), and I can't stand anything about Texas (being an Oklahoma fan, which I inherited from my wife). I have said the only time I would ever cheer for Texas would be if they played Alabama. I hope the world comes to end before that ever comes to reality.
My church softball team is 0-6 and we lost 2 games last week with scores of 24-4, and 34-6. Tonight starts the tournament. I am not expecting for us to go to far.
If the Rays had lost the series to the Red Sox after being up 7 runs and only 7 outs away from the World Series, I was swearing off watching sports this year. Fortunately, it did not happen. I can watch sports.
This past week I have been down in Tampa, Florida visiting my parents and what do you know, the Cubs are in town playing the Rays for a three game series. The plan was that Abbey and I were going to go the first game of the series with one of my roommates/teammates from college and his wife, skip a night, and then go to the series finale on Thursday with my parents. Next thing you know, my parents came back early from a trip, so my mom decided to go on Tuesday with us. Then my dad made a comment about going on Wed, and next thing you know we had tickets to all three games.
It was incredibly disappointing because the Cubs lost all three games, when they had won the 3 previous Cubs games I have attended this year. I then came to the conclusion that I am good luck for the Cubs, but better luck for the Rays, or I am good luck for Ted Lilly only (he pitched in the 3 previous Cubs games I attended, but not in any game in Tampa). What was also disappointing was that Kerry Wood never got in any of the games. Wood is Abbey's favorite player and in the 5 games she has been to this year he has not pitched in any of them. He warmed up in the first two and Abbey got her picture with him in the first one (see above).
The only thing that is kinda redeemable about the series is that did lose to the Rays. I was cheering for the Cubs the whole time, but I am pulling for a Rays/Cubs World Series.
GAME ONE - Tuesday - Rays 3, Cubs 2
- Our seats were great. I bought tickets online the week before the game and we had the best seats in the entire section. We were on the first row (there was a party deck between us and the field), and we were 25-30 feet away from the Cubs bullpen mound.
- I was able to see Scott Kazmir, one of my favorite players, pitch and he did really well besides a high pitch count.
- It was a great game and the Cubs made a rally in the 9th and almost pulled it out with a suicide squeeze. Evan Longoria made a great play and the game was over.
- It was great seeing Todd and his wife Rachel. Todd was one of my teammates at Milligan. They live in Ft. Meyers (where Rachel is from) and they are also big Cubs fans.
- At the end of the game, I was involved with breaking up a fight. There was a punk kid (20ish) Rays fan sitting a few rows behind us and he was past obnoxious the entire game with his cowbell. He would be standing up ringing the bell the entire game and people would be yelling at him the entire time. Once the game was over, a drunk old man Cubs fan went after him. I along with another guy were able to wrestle the Cubs fan off of him, and told the Rays punk to put down his cowbell (he would continue to ring it in the guys face). When we left the game, the Sheriff had the Cowbell guy, another cowbell guy, the cowbell guy's girlfriend (who I guess chipped her tooth), and the drunk Cubs guy. Don't know how that one turned out.
GAME TWO - Wednesday - Rays 5, Cubs 4
- This game also came down to the ninth with the Cubs trailing by 2 runs. Soto hit a home run to bring it within 1 but the Cubs could not get another run across.
- Carlos Zambrano left the game injured, and now he is on the DL.
- My dad was wearing a Cubs hat, but was cheering for the Rays. The next night he wore Rays gear.
- What is really cool is that Abbey is turning into a huge Cubs fan. Last night she had me pause Sportscenter because she wanted to see the Cubs highlights (even though we watched the whole game). She want to hear the analysis and the postgame report.
GAME THREE - Thursday - Rays 8, Cubs 3
- It was incredible to hear the stands cheering for the Cubs instead of the Rays. Cubs chants could be heard throughout the whole stadium. When the Rays pitcher would throw over to first base he would get booed. When they announced the Rays lineup one day, they got booed. When we sang the 7th inning stretch, all you heard was, "Root, root, root for the CUBBIES!"
- The Cubs made it look like they were going to win but taking a late lead, but then Carlos Marmol had his worst outing of the year walking two, and then hitting two.
- We arrived early to hopefully get an autograph (Abbey really wanted one from Kerry Wood), but probably because they had lost the first two games, nobody signed autographs. Highly disappointing.
One thing that did come out of all three games - Abbey hates cowbells.
This fall, Jr. High Believe will be headed back to Chicago for the first time in over 5 years. Believe will be at the Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center the weekend of Oct 17-18. Schaumberg is a suburb of Chicago and is located in the middle of the Chicago metro.
We are excited about going back up to that region and can't wait to see what God is going to do in the lives of jr. high students in the great city where the Cubs play. Nate Head, from Southland Christian Church, will be the main speaker, and (like every believe) there will be the cast of Jared Hall, Eric Timm, drama, Foundation Red, and a special artist The Rubyz.
Anyways, I will be up in Schaumburg next Thursday (the 26th) and down in Orland Park next Friday (the 27th) hosting a couple of free lunches (really good food) to talk about this specific event to youth leaders and to get feedback for the future of Believe. If you know anyone in the Chicago area that might want a free lunch, have them shoot me an email (chase@ciy.com) or tell me who they are and I'll call them.
This past Sunday night I was able to tag along with Robin Sigars to go to one night of Jr. High Camp at Camp Cyokamo in Alba, MO. My home church, Carterville Christian Church have a group of jr. high students out there this week and if my schedule had worked out, I would have loved it to attend the whole week as a sponsor - but I was glad to at least be there for one night.
It was nice to see some guys who I have know a while - Ryan Bennett and Drew Henderson from Sunnybrook Christian Church in Stillwater, OK, and Matt Harenza from First Christian Church in Carthage, MO.
There was somewhere between 250-300 students packed in a little auditorium and let me tell you it was LOUD. Occasionally people will complain about the sound level being too high at Believe, well, they need to go to camp. The band was from Owasso, OK and they did a really good job. Robin spoke, with one of his main examples about jumping off a cliff with his sons.
The theme for the week is "More than a game" and it has a Olympic feel to it. Many different churches were walking around with big country flags and I know there are many different "Olympic" stlye games planned for the week.
I really enjoyed watching the students worship. Actually I really enjoyed watching the students doing motions to some of the songs. No, actually I really enjoyed watching the students doing their own made up never seen before motions to some of the songs.
The second book I read from the MOVE station is It's Not about Me, Teen Edition by Max Lucado. I'll be honest, I haven't read a Max Lucado book since I was a sophomore in college 6 or 7 years ago. From what I remember, his books were easy and quick reads. So, you can image what I was thinking when I picked up a "Teen Edition" book he has authored.
There are 14 chapters in book divided into 2 sections, God-Pondering and God-Promoting. The first half (God-pondering) is truly about recognizing who we are in God's plan, dealing with our internal and external struggles, and grasping that God's hand is never changing and His love is great. The second half (God-promoting) is how to put this into action. The chapter that stood out to me was chapter 8 and the way we live is a reflection (like a mirror) of the light of God.
Lucado did a good job of truly making this a teen book. There is an example in every chapter on every topic (set-up similar like a news story) of a student in high school or college. There was a lot of scripture, and the concepts were easy to understand and foundational.
The part that I haven't decided is good or bad, is that he used various different translations, but many times the passages that were drawn out were from The Message.
The way I would suggest a high school student to read this book is like a devotional. There are 14 chapters and at the end of each chapter there is a question and then space to journal. The chapters are fairly short with lots of examples. This would also be an easy book for a small group to go through together.
On a side note, there was a mention of the Summer Olympics in one of the chapters, which made me look forward to watching some of the games this summer.
This past Wednesday we held the first Jr. High Believe Speaker Summit. Johnny, Josh Walker, and myself met with Scott Rubin, Jason Raitz (both from Willow Creek), Steve Carter (from Mars Hill in Grand Rapids) and Nate Head (from Southland in Lexington) to discuss the next tour's theme, sessions topics messages, etc. The only speaker who was not able to be there was Kurt Johnston (from Saddleback). All of those guys spoke on the tour last year, and one thing we wanted to do this year to improve the program is gather them all before the tour to help give direction to the tour.
One thing all of them asked for - we were able to give them feedback on last year - things that went well, things that didn't, things that helped them as speakers, and ways they can improve and be more effective in communicating the messages.
Next tour's theme is "Speak" and it is primarily based on Jeremiah 1 and the life of Jeremiah. I know everything is not set in stone, but after that meeting the sessions and the topics/main points for the messages were all but done. Also, we made incredible progress on what "the call" for the students was going to be next tour.
Getting 4 of the 5 tour communicators together was valuable beyond words. All of them have been in junior high ministry for a good amount of time, so bouncing ideas off them on what a junior high student needs and how a junior high student will react was also important to the program. It also gave Johnny a chance to explain to them all the elements involved and what the purpose is behind all the different elements.
After the meeting I personally became more excited to see what God has in store for next tour.
On Tuesday, I was able to attend my thirds Cubs game, forth Major League game of the year. It also happened to be the third time I have seen Ted Lilly pitch this year. This was by far the best seats I have had at a ballgame in a number of years and it was also my wife's first time to Wrigley.
Johnny and I were heading up to Chicago for a planning meeting with all our Believe speakers on Wednesday. There was originally 4 of us planning on going to the game - Johnny, his 9 year old son Riley, one of our speakers Nate Head, and myself. As of 24 hours before the game we didn't have tickets and Abbey wasn't planning on going on the trip. I received a call from a friend and he had 2 tickets 12 rows behind home plate for us if we wanted them. The catch was they were expensive. I wasn't going to ask the other guys to pay that much, so I told Abbey she was coming (which she was really excited about because she didn't have to be at home alone for 2 days).
We saw a great game - the Cubs won 10-5, and Ted Lilly recored the win. This is the 3rd Cub win I have seen and also the 3rd Ted Lilly win I have seen - I seriously think he needs to start flying me to all his starts for good luck - what could it hurt? Anyways, below are some of the memorable moments that happened during the game.
- Riley telling his Dad, "To pay the man." Riley was extremely worried about missing the game and not getting tickets. Nate and Johnny were trying to get the best price by negotiating with the scalpers, while Riley is behind them making deals of his own.
- Riley enjoyed his first major league baseball game and now he is a Cubs fan for life!
- Although Nate got to sit by himself most of the game, he was able to come down to where Abbey and I were the last couple of innings.
- Kerry Wood, Abbey's favorite player, warmed up 3 times, but never went in the game. He was warming up during the bottom of the 8th when the Cubs were only up a run, but then they scored 4 and Wood sat down. Then in the 9th, Jon Lieber (the Cubs pitcher they brought it) put two guys on base with one out. Kerry Wood started warming up. Braves hit into a double play and the game was over.
- We saw Candace and Jared Baker, some of our friends we haven't seen in a few years. Candace is the daughter of the Robin Sigars, the minister (and our good friend) that married Abbey and I. They just happen to be going to the game that night as well.
- This made me really mad - Abbey really wanted a Kerry Wood jersey shirt after the game. We went to 4 or 5 different places and none of them had one. BUT - one place had a Jim Edmonds jersey shirt. Jim Edmonds will always be a Cardinal and the fact they are selling his jersey and not Kerry Wood's in downright stupid.
Every summer I try to read as many of the books we are selling at our high school conference, MOVE. This past week I picked up and read the first one, Battling Unbelief by John Piper. Usually, when I think about a Piper book, I know I have to brew a pot of coffee and read about one page per day. And then I have to read that same page again 4 times. But honestly, Battling Unbelief was a smooth read (I wouldn't say easy) and I was able to get a ton out of it.
The book is an excerpt from one of his larger books The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace. Piper walks through 8 different applications on to live by faith in knowing there is future grace and how not to let these 8 sins continue to make us stumble. The 8 things we need to battle are anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust. Below are a few things that stood out to me.
Battling ANXIETY The thing that stood out to me in this chapter was when Piper is faced with anxiety about a range of topics, he has scriptures of the promise of future grace memorized. And then when he is anxious about _____, he quotes the scripture to himself. Example - When he is anxious about decisions he has to make about the future, he battles unbelief with the promise, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." (Psalm 32.8)
Battling MISPLACED SHAME Piper describes two different kinds of shame: misplaced shame and well-placed shame. Misplaced shame is the shame you feel when there is no good reason to feel it - or, shame for something that's good, that doesn't dishonor God. Well-placed shame is the shame we feel when we are ashamed of something because our involvement in it was dishonoring to God. The part that resonated with me was hearing about inflicting shame. I can look back over the past year and thing of a few specific examples where I made someone else feel shame that I never should have inflicted.
Battling IMPATIENCE Last week, I gave a devotion to our MOVE interns about how God can call you to "not move" at a particular time. This chapter showed me that our faith in future grace will allow us to walk with God and to wait in his place, and go at his pace.
Battling BITTERNESS This chapter really made me think. It states that faith in God's judgment is another form of faith in future grace. We need to overcome vengeance and bitterness by trusting God to settle all our accounts justly.
Battling DESPONDENCY This is not something I have really ever thought about, but after reading the chapter I know it has been true in my life as I am sure it has been in every Christian at some point. Despondency is becoming dejected and/or depressed about our spiritual lives. We have to fight this by preaching to ourselves and believing in future grace.
There are many things I got out of this book and many things that make me think (Piper has a tendency to do that). I also know I will keep this book on my shelf and refer back to it in the future.
I am currently in Seattle/Portland area for a few days to help promote the Oregon Believe that is going to take place this October 31-Nov 1 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR. Yesterday was a travel day to get to Portland for a lunch today. So, I planned it and was able to go the Mariners/Angels game in Seattle yesterday. This was my second time to Safeco Field in Seattle (I went last year with my wife on a similar trip).
I met Nathan Cookston, a junior high minister from Smokey Point Community Church, and we went out to lunch and then he went to the game with me. For pretty much the whole game I learned all about his church and what his typically week, month, and year look like for his junior high ministry. I also learned all about what his kids are dealing with and how he actually got into Junior High Ministry. It is interesting to me to hear about similarities and differences in students in different parts of the country.
It is an incredibly nice stadium and the game actually turned out to be a pretty good game. I don't follow the Mariners that closely (besides Bedard and Ichiro - they are on my fantasy team), but I do know they are terrible. What I didn't know is how terrible they are with such an expensive payroll. I read an article in USA Today this morning about how the Mariners will probably be (unless something crazy happens) the first team in history to lose 100 games with a payroll of over 100 million dollars.
The Mariners gave up 3 runs before they recorded an out in the first inning, but only lost the game 5-4. There were two plays at the plate - one where the Mariners' catcher got ran over by Torii Hunter and the other where the Mariners' runner coming home Betancourt got knocked down and humiliated by the Angels' catcher. I guess after the game the Mariners' coach John McLaren took all the food, beer and towels out of the locker room and laid into the team. Then he later let it out on the media.
I am glad I am a Cubs and Rays fan - at least this year.
This past Believe tour, we had the privilege of having Evan the Keytar Player play in the band and raise awareness for the "Save The Keytar" Movement. What most people don't know is that Evan is a real live junior high kid from Webb City, Missouri and that he has his own band (if you want to call it that - it is more 3 friends that do crazy stuff) called Artsniff and the Amazing Llamas. The members of the group are Preston (goes by Artsniff), Alex (goes by A-Buck), and Evan (also known as Monkey Luke). Alex and Evan are the llama tamers. Don't ask - I don't know.
Artsniff and the Amazing Llamas are the best thing that ever happened to You Tube. I actually think You Tube was created for them. You can click here and it will take you to their You Tube Page. Below you will find a couple of my personal favorites of their videos. I will give you a little background on a few videos, because I stayed up with Evan in Michigan at a hotel and watched pretty much all the videos. It was like having the director/producer/creator/actor sitting beside you watching a movie.
"Be a Friend" - The boys shot this at church and it was played during one of the Sunday youth services. This is about the only serious video on the page.
"Moving Forward in a Backward World", "A Day at the Park", and "Reversafiction"- These videos are reverse engineered. If you want something to mess with your head a little - watch these. Evan (or Monkey Luke) did everything backwards and then they played it forward. Seriously, watch it - then you will understand.
"Time Line" (featured above) and "Trevor Birthday Remix" - Classic Artsniff. The three boys sitting on the couch making up raps.
We have been recording videos with Evan over the last couple of weeks for our promotional DVD, and one of the videos is Artsniff and the Amazing Llamas on the couch with a rap they made up specifically for Believe. I can't wait till the video is done.
I finally picked up Moneyball by Micheal Lewis. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple years and I've always wanted to read it but never actually sat down to do it. I think it was a combination of Fantasy Baseball heating up, I just got done with a Business Statistics class, and I saw the movie 21 about card counting in Vegas. Once I started, I was done in 3 days.
I do recommend this book even if you don't like baseball. It is the story of a general manager, Billy Beane, of the Oakland A's and how he looked at Major League Baseball differently than the other general managers by relying heavily on statistics. Billy Beane used an analysis called Sabermetrics, which ignores some traditional stats and looks for stats that actually have a difference in the outcome of the game.
The book walks through how Beane got into baseball, dives into the detail about the "history" of Sabermetrics, and the season of 2002. The Oakland A's had a salary of $41 million, roughly 1/3 of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox and still had to find a way to be competitive. For Billy Beane and his staff, to be competitive and have an incredibly low salary, he had to look at the game completely different.
One of the most intriguing chapters of the book is about the draft and being "in the room" when all the decisions were made about who to draft and when. Because the A's valued different statistics and qualities in players their draft was unpredictable and highly questioned among the rest of baseball.
If you like baseball, if you have an interest in statistics, if you want to look at something completely different than everyone else in your field, I encourage you to read this book.
On Monday, the MOVE Interns arrived for the summer. For the last 4 or 5 years one of their first tasks has been to make a journal they would use for the summer....and I am the person responsible for teaching them how.
No, I am not the artsy type and I don't spend a whole lot of time sewing (although I did win a Home Economics award my senior year of high school - it was really because I made Sweet Tea and Brownies every day), but this is the 2 hours every year where my arts and crafts talents shine.
When I first came to CIY, I worked for our Discipleship program, and one of the session was teaching anywhere from 100-400 high school students how to make a journal. I did this 10 times and it was probably the most frustrating 10 moments of that year. Anyway, because of my experience with Discipleship, Ryan Claborn, the internship director, asked if I would teach the interns how to make journals.
It can be a little complicated, involving foam board, paper (obviously), glue stick, kraft paper, a tapestry needle, thread, push pin and ruler. I won't go into the details of actually making it (hey, I had to explain it yesterday to 25 college students), but every year when it is over I am glad I had the opportunity to teach them because it gets me thinking about journaling more.
When I was an intern in 2002, I kept a journal of different events that took place that summer. I came into the summer not having a clue what to expect. It wasn't until last summer when I picked up the journal from 2002 that I truly appreciated this discipline. I was able to look back and remember not only moments I had forgotten about, but also look back and see situations that shaped my life. I'll be honest - I'm not good at it. I can be lazy. But, I want to be good at it. I want to look back in 5 or 10 years and remember even more events that shaped my life.
Thanks to yesterday, I have a brand new journal. It doesn't have a ton of pages in it, but I have a fresh opportunity to keep up with my journal.
Turing into an annual tradition, yesterday, Abbey had her 4th grade class from Carterville Elementary School over to our house for an hour and a half of fun. This is the second year Abbey has been teaching and near the end of the school year (one week left) she will invite the class over on a weekend to hang out.
There were a total of 12 (out of 17) that came over and they had a blast. We grilled hot dogs (only about 6 were eaten) and had chips, cookies, root beer and fruit punch for the kids. Two people were playing guitar hero pretty much the whole time, except for the last 10 minutes when they finally turned on Dance Dance Revolution.
It was also funny to see all the girls want to play football and really just run around in the back yard. Also, Abbey's class absolutely loves relay races. So, we got out two baseball bats, divided up the team, made them spin around with their head on the bat and then try to run to the other side of the yard. One girl almost ran into the trampoline (that would have been bad for so many reasons), and one boy fell down twice pretty hard. Then we played Duck-Duck-Goose. I think the last time I played Duck-Duck-Goose I was in 4th grade.
I think only two boys actually knew my name and one of them really wanted me to play him in DDR and the other really wanted me to pitch to him outside with the baseball and bat. I opted for the baseball, but promptly quit when he about hit our neighbor's house.
I know it has only happened twice, but I love this day every year, because these are the kids who have spent almost every day with my wife for the last year. It is incredible to see how much she loves the students and how much they love her. These are the kids Abbey tells me stories about every night and the lives that she has invested in and influenced for the last year. It is also fun and educational just watching the 4th graders interact with each other for an hour and half being stupid. You can learn so much by simply watching them play guitar hero, talk about playing guitar hero, tackling each other during football, and drinking root beer.
Oh year, next year, no more fruit punch. I sure hope that doesn't leave a stain on our carpet.
Well, 13 events, 870 churches, 16,000 people later the 2007-2008 Believe Tour is over. Last weekend we were in Omaha for our last Believe event of the "Connect" Tour. This was the first time Believe had ever been in Omaha, and it turned out to be a great event. Time to plan for next year!
Highlights from last weekend:
- Nebraska Christian College sponsored the event and provided volunteers. Their volunteers were out of this world - they were great and they helped us so much. I know our load out saved over an hour because they were there.
- We were in the Qwest Center, which has the 7th most ticket sales annually over the world. Glad we could be a part of that.
- We ate at the Old Mattress Factory 3 times (only because it was close), and we were incredibly disappointed every time. But because it is so close we will probably eat there 3 more times in November.
- Seth's (our lighting engineer) family came from Colorado to see him put on a light show.
- During the last song, a few of our tech staff took apart Monte's drum set during the song. It was a great moment to finish off 3 years that Monte has traveled with Believe.
- It was good to Nate Ernsberger, Christ In Youth's representative from Compassion. This was the first Believe he has been to this year.
- Krystle and Yancy got to enjoy their favorite hotel, The Hampton Inn. (Which was incredibly nice because it has only been open since November)
- Everyone chipped in to give Evan (the Keytar player) a Ipod Nano. He had his previous one stolen (or he lost it).
- Nate Head, our speaker from Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, did a great job and got to reconnect with some of his students when he worked in Missouri.
- Johnny's birthday was on Sunday, so we celebrated with a Hannah Montana cake during the group time on Saturday. (See picture below)
- After talking to many people that attended the event, we are moving the Omaha believe to November of this year (instead of the spring) and we are excited to go back.
Last night, Abbey and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and I was blown away by our encounter with the check-out lady. A few weeks ago, Abbey purchased 2 reusable bags from Wal-Mart (pictured above). These bags take the place of having to use plastic bags every time you leave Wal-Mart. Let's just say that is our little effort to keep the earth green (this is another blog post for another day).
Anyways, as we are checking out, Abbey gives the two bags to the check-out lady, and instantly Abbey was her favorite daughter that she had not seen in 10 years. It was incredible. Check-out lady then went on to tell us all of the things that she does with her bags, by pretty much taking them everywhere when she goes shopping (Macy's, Kohl's, ANYWHERE!). Then she told us about how she gives her Mother's Day gifts, Wedding Gifts, Graduation Gifts, Baby Shower Gifts, Anything Gift in one of the bags. I was already about to explode with laughter watching the situation unfold, until she asked THE QUESTION. She asked Abbey if she has been able to tell a difference in cutting back using plastic in her life. Abbey kinda smiled and said, "No, not really, haven't really paid attention to it." The bag lady responded by saying, "I have cut back plastic in my life by 90%!"
Seriously. I am currently taking a Business Statistics class and I know how much can be involved with coming up with specific stats. You don't even have to take a class to be blown away by that statement. How in the world did she know she has cut back 90%? What does that mean? 90% of total weight plastic? Does plastic bottles count? What plastic counts and what plastic doesn't count? And how in the world can you say such a specific statistic? Does she only use the Wal-Mart plastic bags every 10th time she comes to the store?
I had to walk away half laughing, half scratching my head in amazement, and half speechless. Oh, I know, you can't have three halves - that stat doesn't make sense - but YOU have no idea how I came up with it. Clearly it doesn't matter.
This past Saturday Abbey and I went the Cubs/Cardinals game in St. Louis with Jennifer and Grant. It was a great day and we had a great time in St. Louis. It was even better that the Cubs won. Although they only won one of the three games this past weekend, they won the game we went to. We went to Grant's Farm on Sunday (which I had never heard of) and it was a pretty cool place. We saw Chinese deer.
Highlights from the game:
- Once again, my favorite player, Ted Lilly, was pitching again for the Cubs. He won his second game of the year. He needs to pay me to come watch all his games.
- I talked to a guy who had his chest painted white with red lettering for about 20 minutes. He thought the season ticket holder who sold me my tickets should get his privileges revoked.
- This was Jennifer and Grant's first Cubs game, and they saw a winner.
- There was a drunk married guy two rows in front of us that was doing everything he could to pick up drunk women in the row in front of us. It was incredibly annoying.
- The Cubs can hit. They ripped the cover off the ball on Saturday and scored 9 runs.
- There was a good amount of Cubs fans. We were not alone.
- Parking was pretty cheap. Only $5 compared to $30 at Wrigley.
- The new ballpark is really nice (this was my first time to the new Busch) and definitely a step up from the old Busch.
- I could have bought a "Cubs Suck" shirt after the game. I passed.
- Our seats were great. We were 5 rows up in the bleachers and I was seated right next to the grass in center field. With the right hit ball I could have caught a home run.
This past Sunday, a few of our staff had the great opportunity to attend Elevate, Willow Creek Community Church's Jr. High Service. Scott Rubin and Jason Raitz, two of the current Believe speakers both work there and it was great to see one of their "typical" weekend services. I think they enjoyed introducing Evan to numerous people who have seen his videoes.
The part that I was most impressed by was the fact although they are one of the largest churches in America, they still have to set up and tear down everything every week. The junior high meets in the gym which is used for about 75 other things every week. So they have to set up all the stage, curtains, stage props, chairs, tables, ping pong/pool tables, etc.
There are so many churches that have to set up and tear down every week because they meet in a temporary space such as a movie theater, night club, school, etc. because the space is only temporary. This is the same for the Jr. High Ministry at Willow.
This past weekend was the first ever Believe event in the state of Michigan. We received a ton of great feedback on people that were excited to see us in the state, and we had the highest attendance ever for a first year new site location (All of the above made Andy Hansen giddy). The event was held in Holland, MI at Hope College in the DeVos Fieldhouse. Christ in Youth also holds two of their high school Move events there in the summer as well. Arena seating has such a cool feel (seats going up), and is drastically different from the convention center feel (seats on the floor).
Anyways, here are some highlights from the weekend:
- Steve Carter, from Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, did a great job. The evaluations we received appreciated not only the speaking time to the students but also the adult training on Saturday morning.
- The venue got crazy cold on Saturday morning. The temperature dropped outside, which we thought was the only reason it was so cold inside. After lunch we found out that it was our hazer which made the Fieldhouse cold (the exhaust fans had to be on when our hazer was on, and with the exhaust fans on the heating flame could not stay lit). Hope Staff said they would have this problem fixed by the time we are there next year.
- Great Lakes Christian College sponsored the event and combined with Northview Christian Church in Coldwater, MI, they provided one of the strongest volunteer forces yet. We had over 30 people that stayed and helped with tear down.
- Evan the Keytar player got in a paint fight with Doug the bass player and got black paint on his green jumpsuit.
- Seth, our lighting engineer, got to enjoy his favorite restaurant, Red Robin, numerous times.
- Major props and thanks goes to Ron, Mark, Monte, Seth, Tony, and Matt for spending hours last Wednesday to cover all the windows in the Fieldhouse with black plastic. No one who attended the event had any idea how much time they spent and what a difference it made.
Hotel Tip #1 - If you are going to charge $10.00 for breakfast buffet and $3.00 for orange juice, put a sign somewhere.
Yesterday, our staff was getting ready to leave for the venue, and we were going to get breakfast on the way until one of our staff told us they had continental breakfast. So...we all went in the room, grabbed some plates, sat down and eat. No big deal right - until she brought us our bill. Fortunately, my bill was only $4.50 (oatmeal and yogurt), but some people like Seth, had to pay $3.00 for a glass of OJ. I know you live you learn, but there were no signs and there were no menus.
If you are a hotel - first, don't charge for breakfast, and second, if you do charge, tell people you are going to charge them before they eat.
I guess because I have not spent that much time in Michigan, I didn't realize you can't make a left turn anywhere! All you can do is make a Michigan left, which supposedly cuts down on traffic accidents. My theory is Michigan drivers are worse than the rest of the country and this is why they used to have so many accidents when drivers tried to turn left.
This past Monday, a few of us went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch while we were in Chicago. This was my first time to ever eat there and I loved it. Krystle suggested it told me what it was like and we gave it a shot.
I never would have picked this restaurant on my own for one reason - I hate tomatoes. I don't like them on my salad, I don't like them on my cheeseburger, I don't like my chili to have too many tomatoes. I am not alone - tomatoes is an item that a lot of people despise.
From just reading the sign, I would have thought everything in the store had something to do with tomatoes. You would have been wrong - there were not too many things with tomatoes at all (which was a good thing).
So, the point is either (1) when you start a business, don't title your company something that is going to turn people away, or (2) a good reference is better than a bad name.
This afternoon, Josh, Krystle, and I were able to go to the Cubs/Mets game at Wrigley Field. Anyone who know me know I am a die-hard Cubs fans. I also have not been to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field in 10 years. The last time I went Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were chasing home run records and Kerry Wood was a rookie.
We had a blast. Some of the highlights from the game:
- It worked out that my favorite player, Ted Lilly, was pitching today. He also won his first game of the season. I feel like I had something to do with that.
- The "Chicago Dog" was everything I expected it to be.
- Krystle tried to negotiate with a guy over $2 for parking. She lost.
- I really wanted to buy the "Cardinals Suck" shirt, but instead I just bought a normal Cubs shirt.
- Kosuke Fukudome is not only the real deal, but the city of Chicago is doing everything they can to make money off the guy. You should see how many Japanese headbands there were to sell.
- In the eight inning Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam. I don't know if I have ever seen one in person before.
- Krystle was the only person in the entire stadium (no, really, she was the only one) who sat down during the 7th innning stretch and didn't sing "Take me out to the ballgame."
- Josh wouldn't let a van pass us on the way out (it was a one lane road, and the van was trying to pass us where parked cars usually are), and then we heard a barrage of colorful words yelled at us. We were really close to turning on the siren on the megaphone.
- We had great seats for a great price. We were about 15 rows from field near the Met's bullpen.
The Cubs are hot and have a record of 14-6 and sitting in first place. Go Cubs Go!
I work at Christ In Youth, with the Jr. High Believe Program. I have been married to my wife, Abbey, since November of '05 and we live in Webb City, MO.
Last night Abbey and I were able to attend the grand opening of the Rapha House Gallery Grand Opening here in Joplin. It was incredible to see the work that has gone into the gallery and different stations set up for you to go through and pray through.
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