Chicago Believe

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.

Arlington Believe

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.

The Fall is over....I'll start with Baltimore

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.
  

the day I almost gave up sports

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.

Cubs v Rays (x3)

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.

The Windy City....Chicago Believe

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.

Go CUBS!

Jr. High Camp

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.

It's Not about Me - Teen Edition

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.

Believe Speaker Summitt 1.0

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.

Braves v. Cubs

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!

- The Braves scored 3 in the first inning off a home run, and then the next pitch Ted Lilly threw a fastball at the batter's head. He was warned and so was each bench. If you remember the last time Lilly got ejected it was in the first inning against the Braves.

- 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.