Merry Christmas and have a Safe New Year-2006

It has been a long week, and this weekend was filled with excitement. I have been able to hang out with my new family Afif, and a great couple Nick and Jen. We all got to experience two fun filled nights together like no other. The first Christmas service of FC and of course they loved it. Second, we spent Christmas Eve afternoon, and all evening together, laughing, joking, asking questions, running around town, wrapping presents, and getting to know a little of each ones lives growing up. FC put on a total of 21 Christmas services, 11 just at the main Grapevine campus where I go. I was able to see the show 3 times, and I brought a total of 12 friends, for the very first time to Fellowship. I could move right now out of Dallas, and head to my next location, (which is a secret) but I am going to stick around for little bit longer to continue one great ride. A ride that I have had the opportunity to allow God to work through me and others so far here at the greatest thing going for the local church-Fellowshipchurch.com. Log on to "WATCH" just a glimpse of the Fellowship Christmas experience. ALSO A CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL to read, your greatest 30 minutes is only a click a way. iii Please note my web page will be going through "reconstruction". I hope your looking forward to meeting me back here soon in 2006.333

CCC goes head to head with Willow Creek

My home church finally lands a new younger Senior Pastor from the biggest mega-giga church in the nation. It is about time, and way way too long over due. Congrats Our Lady of 680!!!! Published ThursdayDecember 22, 2005 Omaha megachurch gets new pastor BY ANGIE BRUNKOW WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER A pastor from one of the most prominent megachurches in the country has accepted an invitation to serve as senior pastor at Omaha's Christ Community Church. Mark Ashton, who has served at Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church for the past six years, will take the helm at Christ Community once he wraps up his commitments in Chicago. Christ Community leaders expect he will be in Omaha by this spring, possibly earlier. The hiring brings an end to a round of major leadership changes at Omaha's megachurches. Westside Church, at 156th and West Dodge Road, picked a new senior pastor two years ago. Salem Baptist, near 31st and Lake Streets, picked one this past summer. Christ Community has been without a senior pastor for more than a year. The Rev. Bob Thune, who had been senior pastor for 22 years, announced in July 2004 that he was leaving Christ Community to become senior pastor at Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, Calif. Ashton, 38, may be a bit of an unusual pick to replace the senior pastor at a church this size because he doesn't have a formal seminary background. The Chicago native graduated from the University of Illinois with bachelor's degrees in economics and marketing and has done some graduate study in apologetics. But his on-the-job experience impressed leaders at Christ Community, a church that draws roughly 3,000 to its weekend worship services and is located along Interstate 680 south of West Dodge Road. "He's a next-generation leader," said Roger Atwood, one of the church elders. "We recognize his commitment to present the church in relevant, helpful ways, which is what Christ Community has been about throughout our history." At Willow Creek, Ashton worked as pastor of spiritual discovery and as the associate evangelism director. As part of the job, he developed and taught "The Biggies" series, a forum that invites nonbelievers and believers alike to ask the big questions. Before that, he served a number of years as a staff member of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, working with student groups at the University of Illinois and speaking at many Midwest colleges. Ashton, who is married and has four children, has published a number of Bible studies and booklets about Jesus and the evidence for Christianity, including one called "Absolute Truth?" He has earned credentials to serve as a minister in the Christian & Missionary Alliance, the denomination that Christ Community belongs to. Ashton emerged as a strong candidate during the past six weeks. He and his wife, Kelle, visited Omaha last weekend, and Ashton preached at four services before heading back to Chicago. In its search, the church developed a profile for senior pastor. They wanted someone who placed a high value on people and relationships and who would lead the church in interacting with the community and continuing existing partnerships, such as the church effort to support Omaha's public school teachers. The search committee shared the profile with Ashton. "Right away he looked down through it and he said, 'That's me; that's my life,'" said Randy Hager, Christ Community's spokesman. "There wasn't anything that didn't match." Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom

the Fellowshipchurch.com story continues...

FC Today FC offers a wide range of activities and ministries for all stages of life. FC's "Home Team" ministry, modeled after the popular cell group system, allows newcomers to meet individuals with similar interests and geographic locations, which would not be otherwise possible due to its size. FC operates a bookstore and coffee bar (The Source), which features mainly FC-logo merchandise and Ed Young's sermons and books. One of the unique features of FC's facility is its outdoor baptistry. (FC does not have an indoor baptistry, a common feature in church architecture among churches which practice baptism by immersion; whenever FC does perform a baptism indoors it uses portable jacuzzis on either side of the stage.) Built like an amphitheater, it is located within a lake on the Grapevine campus (the lake serves as a flood control pond for the property). However, it is physically separated from the lake (to keep whatever may be swimming in the lake out), and is heated similar to a jacuzzi. Notwithstanding that Texas weather is notoriously fickle and at times violent, only on a handful of rare instances have scheduled baptisms been cancelled due to inclement weather. Another fountain on the campus (closer to the building) was the initial outdoor baptistry, and is used most often during winter months to allow individuals to more quickly enter the building after being baptized. FC meets four times each weekend at the Grapevine campus: at 5:00 PM and 6:30 PM on Saturday evenings and at 9:30 AM and 11:15 AM on Sunday mornings. The three satellite campuses meet on Sundays only, at 10:00 AM and 11:30 AM at the Plano and Uptown campuses and at 9:30 AM and 11:15 AM at the Alliance Campus. In addition, FC Grapevine hosts a monthly mid-week service, Emergent Service, which meets on the first Wednesday of each month (the satellite locations do not have mid-week services). Special "age appropriate" services are held for preschoolers and children through 5th grade. FC's Christmas and Easter services are among the area's most popular, and in order to accommodate the large crowds nearly a dozen different services are held over a 3-4 day period. In 2004, FC was able to rent the American Airlines Center for its Christmas services due to the NHL lockout which made the facility available; however, for 2005 it reverted to having multiple services at its campuses (11 at the Grapevine campus, five at Plano, three at Alliance, and two at Uptown). In December 2005, Associated Press reported that Fellowship was one of several American megachurches that would not be holding services on Christmas Day, which in 2005 falls on a Sunday. At least one D/FW area talk show host (Mike Gallagher on KRLD) criticized Fellowship's decision not to hold services that day.

Fellowshipchurch.com Our Story-unfolded

Fellowship Church From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search Fellowship Church (FC) is a Christian megachurch located in Grapevine, Texas, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. FC is purportedly one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the United States, with an estimated attendance exceeding 20,000. FC's pastor is Ed Young (the son of the equally-famous pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston), who has pastored the church since shortly after its opening. FC is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. However, since it is part of the "seeker church" movement as well, it does not publicize its ties with the SBC and is not actively involved in SBC affairs. History FC started in 1989 as a mission church of the First Baptist Church of Irving, Texas, and was initially known as "Las Colinas Baptist Church". Approximately 150 members of First Baptist Irving relocated to the new church. FC initially met in a rented facility next to the Irving Arts Center and across from MacArthur High School, both of which would figure in its history. Shortly after its opening, the membership hired Ed Young as its Senior Pastor. Young quickly convinced the church to adopt the "seeker church" style made popular by Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church. One of the church's first actions was to de-emphasize its ties with the Southern Baptist Convention and change its name to "Fellowship of Las Colinas". Another move was to use contemporary music during the services, and to offer services on Saturday evenings. Most notably, FC adopted the concept of "age appropriate" teaching--children 5th grade and under are provided separate services at their level of maturity, and parents are encouraged (but not required) to send their children to those services. (FC purports that several families, after initially being hesitant to return to FC--mainly due to its size and non-traditional approach to church--did so after finding out their children loved the activities.) The strategy proved highly successful, and FC quickly outgrew its original facility. Thus, it moved across the parking lot to the nearby Irving Arts Center. During this time, FC tried the concept of "simultaneous services"--one group would meet at FC's facility while another would meet at the Arts Center. The FC music team would play at one site while Young preached at the other, then midway through the services the teams would switch places. The concept proved unsuccessful and was quickly dropped, but continues in "FC lore" as from time to time Young mentions it in his sermons as an example of how FC is willing to try new ideas in order to reach people. Meanwhile, FC began to look for a suitable site for its permanent facility. FC discovered a 160-acre site on Texas State Highway 121 north of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which was being auctioned by the Resolution Trust Corporation. FC submitted a bid and was the successful bidder; however, it had to quickly borrow $1.675 million to make the payment. Approximately two years later, the announcement was made that Grapevine Mills Mall would be built literally across the street from FC. Unsolicited offers came in for portions of the FC property, and eventually FC sold a 23-acre parcel on the north side of the property for the exact amount it had borrowed earlier, thus allowing it to begin construction debt-free. Meanwhile, FC outgrew the Irving Arts Center before its permanent facility was complete. It thus moved across the street to MacArthur High School. (As part of the lease agreement, FC agreed to install an upgraded sound system in MacArthur's auditorium.) In order to maintain the "age-appropriate" services for preschoolers and children, this required an enormous logistical feat each weekend--volunteers would have to unload several trucks early on Saturday morning (the building was unavailable until then), install temporary partitions and furniture in several areas, then after the final Sunday service tear down and reload all the items onto the trucks, and make the school building ready for use on Monday morning. In April 1998, FC finally completed and moved to its current facility and adopted its present name. Young's father and Hybels spoke at the dedication service.

Funny Joke, bad timing...So I think?? Ed+U2=??? Four news station at FC

Well, my friends (not all of them) really don't have all there bulbs screwed in real tightly. I had probably one of the worst jokes played on me this Saturday night. I will not name any names, but two out of the 3 thought it would be funny to play a joke on me. The joke went something like this. They called me and told me one of my friends was in jail, and asked me if I could go bail them out. Of course me being the nice best friend that I am to these two people, I immediately jumped off on one freeway and headed on another to downtown Dallas. Long stupid joke and story later, they called laughing, and they just wanted me to come over really bad to hangout. I had already made plans, and really was not in the mood to be messed with, especially to that extreme. Fellowship never ceases to amaze me, this weekend services were really good, and Tianne Moon did an awesome job taking us through a journey into the GREAT UNKNOWN with the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Ed + U2 = Fellowship worship experience is like no other. Derrick Bennot of the student ministries of FC and his band lead worship, and he and Erik Orsen rocked out the crowd with the special before the message "original of Species" by Ed's favorite secular rock band U2. We had all 4 news stations at the last service this weekend taping, and doing a cover story about mega churches not being open on Christmas Day. The church keeps reminding themselves, and others they are doing 21 Christmas services, 11 just at the main campus in Grapevine.

Crowds go crazy to see Bono. The Great Unknown..??

People went nuts to see and hear Bono. He was in the Big O' for two days, and here is another good reason as to why he stayed for the 2nd day, and what we can learn and do is this subject for doing good in our humanity in this journey we call life. Bono mixes music with a message BY CHRISTINE LAUE AND DANE STICKNEY WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS RELATED STORIES » Entertainment News & Notes: U2 campaign seeks support » U2 trivia quiz » Rainbow Rowell: Kanye not just the 'too' part of U2 bill » Review: U2 rocks Omaha with atomic force One night in Omaha wasn't enough for U2 frontman Bono. A day after U2's concert, Bono was still in Omaha, attending a board meeting for DATA (Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa) at the Joslyn Art Museum. With Bono, from left, are Erin Thornton, Doug Varley and Susan Buffett. Following the band's sold-out Thursday night concert at the Qwest Center Omaha, Bono remained in town Friday to meet with board members of DATA, the group he co-founded in 2002 to raise awareness about and spark responses to the crises plaguing Africa. Omahan Susan A. Buffett, daughter of Omaha investor Warren Buffett, serves on the board of DATA, an acronym for Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa. The Buffetts and Bono have become close in recent years as they've worked for similar causes. Bono, Susan Buffett and her brother, Howard Buffett, were among about 16 people who met Friday in the Omaha Steaks Conference Room at Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge St. Bono, wearing his signature tinted glasses, scrawled notes on a white legal pad as the board huddled at a table decorated with red poinsettias. Extra security guards hovered outside the boardroom door and museum. "We were thrilled to have Bono there," said Michael Yanney, chairman of Joslyn's board of directors. During Thursday night's concert, Bono foreshadowed the meeting. While soliciting support from the crowd for the ONE Campaign to combat global AIDS and poverty, Bono said he was taking part in a Christmas party Friday in Omaha. Also during the show, he dedicated "Original of the Species" to Susan T. Buffett, the late wife of Warren Buffett. Bono is one of the celebrities who helped launch the ONE Campaign. He also visited Lincoln in 2002 to raise awareness of the African AIDS epidemic. The rock singer was in Omaha in August 2004 to sing at the elder Susan Buffett's funeral. Bono also thanks her in the liner notes of the 2004 CD, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." According to the DATA Web site, the board of directors also includes David Lane of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Jamie Drummond of DATA; Morton H. Halperin of the Open Society Institute; Ned Jannotta of GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC; Richard Kiphart of William Blair & Co; Trevor Neilson of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS; Edward W. Scott Jr. of the Center for Global Development; Bobby S. Shriver, DATA chairman; and Amre A. Youness, private investor. World-Herald photographer James R. Burnett contributed to this report.

In life, no one knows what's just around the corner. We all face the unknown. But we're not the only ones. As we look forward to Christmas and this weekend, Fellowship will take a unique look into the life of Mary, Jesus' mother. And we will discover her responses to the uncertainties of life, we will see some powerful ways we can respond to our own GREAT UNKNOWN.

Hey OMAHA, want to invest in lives????

Today, I am in the middle of my mourning, and also loving my life. I always got encouraged by my mom, and God has blessed with a great friendship realm. Sometimes, I just sit and laugh at the friends who God has put in my life. The one that probably gives me the biggest chuckle is my best friend Matthew Smith. He is the Executive Director of a non profit organization. He is one of my closest attempts to see, feel, hear, and get great encouragement from a walking Jesus, (other than my dad) here on this journey we call life. We have been through a lot together ever since 94' when we hit it off, and time has continued to keep us bonded together. His faith, hope, and love for his friends and the community of Omaha has and will remain strong. He sacrificially gives all he has to pouring out his heart to the less fortunate of the Omaha community in this small way of showing them Jesus.
Here is a great way that you can support, encourage, and give through your time, talents, and resources. Mosaic Community Development is a nonprofit organization that helps out in the community with a "Creative Educational Center", serving food to the less fortunate "Life on the Brick", teaching "English as a Second Language", and encouraging people going through "Life Transitions."

444Volunteer Spotlight
Thanks! from Matthew Smith ED
As our name indicates, we are a ‘mosaic’ of people who selflessly and generously give of their time and resources to serve and be amongst the poor and disenfranchised of our city. This month we wish to highlight our volunteers as a whole instead of one individual. We do this to recognize the significance of each piece as it composes a whole mosaic movement that touches lives. At the heart of MCD is a desire to be with those who are forgotten by society and demonstrate the love of Christ in a relational capacity. All of our volunteers are committed not only to providing a useful service that benefits the community, but more importantly they take time to value those they encounter in service. Our mosaic of volunteers loves to hear stories of those served and share their own. It is in this effort to be with those who are suffering that we serve in the most significant ways.

Happy birthday MOM

This is the 3 days of the year that I dread... My heart is saddened of the past events... Time has not been on the side of letting her go... People change, people forget, people get re-married... I try and let my mind think to the past... I am filled with emotion.... I begin to cry... I will never forget my mom... I wake up to this day with my dad in my ear... I am relieved he is still here on earth... I am ok wishing my mom a very Happy 68th Birthday... as she is spending her day with Jesus, and her parents in Heaven. My life will go on, I will still remember the joy she brought to alot of people...

Not Home Alone-ready to party??

Well, I got home from work on Sunday night for the second week in a row, where we did not have one table come in for dinner at My Martini. I left at 9pm, and was talking to a friend on the phone, and I was like, "Oh my god Cheryl there is someone in my house". Of course, I unlock the door, and the first thing I see is bellows of incense smoke, tons of empty be-vo bottles on the floor, and 3 sets of very surprised eyeballs staring at me. Well, Afif and Jen left my place about an hour after I left for work, Jen picked her man Nick and decided they wanted to hang more and called up Afif, and he said, " I am driving by Randall's house", and Jen said, "so am I, let's just hangout there and wait for him at his place." Good times had by all, and Afif and we finally got to meet this hockey player stud that Jen just adores and always talks about. So here is my question, Why are hockey players so big, this guy was huge, and I watched my p's and q's, cause he would squash me like a bug.

Simply put, Let me clear some rumors...Got Land??

This weekend Ed, was there in form, but not person. The Billy Graham Foundation taped Ed and staff for a couple of days and will be putting it on prime time television this January. The church is really looking forward to this , since it will give us more exposure. This weekend, was really low key, and the castle themed set was taken down, and you could tell they were getting ready for the big Christmas Extravaganza.Fellowship Church.com, and will be on prime time news in January, I will let you know when. The weekend worship was good, but a very slowed down, somber approach, and the message was a small excerpt of part of that video. The church was really excited, because it will give a lot of exposure to FC on national television.

I am getting ready to revise my whole web page, and add some new stuff, take out some old, and just plain revamp. Well, the reason why none of my FC bloggers have been updating is because some big wig put the kabosh on that. They can blog personally, but I guess too much info got out and they can not blog on a business stand point any longer. Last weekend, Ed had two big announcements, someone invited him to a board meeting to sit in on, as the meeting started, it was really a surprise, and someone anoymonoushly gave us 1,400 acres of prime land in east Texas, and we will be building a conference center, and camps for our kids. Also, we finally found a permanent building for the Uptown Campus, in North downtown Dallas for $8 million, for only 40,000 sq feet. Personally, I think it is too small, but we will have to wait and see.

From the December 2, 2005 print edition
Real Estate
Fellowship Church buys building in Arts DistrictChristine Perez
Staff Writer
Condo developers are doing their part to find new uses for vacant office space in downtown Dallas. Now a booming Grapevine mega-church is doing the same.

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Fellowship Church has snapped up a 44,300-square-foot office building on 2.1 acres in the Arts District for its new urban campus. The church paid Levco Enterprises $4.3 million for the property at 2809 Ross Ave., near Boll Street on the eastern edge of downtown Dallas.
The new satellite location will seat 1,300 and include 20,000 square feet of children's programming space, a bookstore and coffee shop with street access. Dallas-based Beck Group has been tapped to design the interiors. Susan Gwin with The Staubach Co. and Damian Rivera with Capstone Commercial put the deal together.
With attendance topping 20,000 in Grapevine, the church made a decision last year to expand into other parts of the Metroplex. It opened a 110,000-square-foot campus in Plano in January, as well as a temporary location at North Dallas High School in Uptown. In March, it opened a third satellite at Alliance in Fort Worth.
The campus locations operate as fully functioning churches with their own staffs, bands and programming. Sermons by senior pastor Ed Young are filmed on Saturday nights at the Grapevine campus and shown on theater-sized screens on Sunday mornings at the satellite locations.
Terry Storch, pastor of Fellowship's Uptown campus, said the Arts District location made a lot of sense.
"We are a creative church inspired by the arts," he said.

Your in the people industry...

Yea, I know but it sure does suck sometimes. Today was a very hard day, everybody was like trying to give me advice, and I was not asking for it. This Spanish man was having a really bad day, and was just not letting anybody know it, but me. He walked in, greeted him, I read the drink menu, let him know he could stay at the bar, or go to the counter, and where he could even eat it. So, at the end of his miserable attempt to eat, drink, and be merry, I just kept on pissing him off. He said to me, "You know you are not a very nice person, and I told him I wanted to know what I did wrong, and he said, " you are just not a happy person" I did let him know I was in a great mood, and the other guest at my bar, told him to leave me alone, and then he decided to leave.

Christmas Day/New Years Day-church or no church?? 3 miles + 2 1/2hours= stress

Well, today if my car was a padded rubber room car, I would of fit right in. I work and live just 3 miles from both jobs, (today DFW). I left work at 355pm and got home at 630pm. I got rear-ended not 5, not 6, no not even 7 times, but the magic number ladies and gentlemen for today is 8. YES, you read right, eight times, I got bumped in the butt. (Right now I am laughing, why do I do this to myself, but I guess, in the end, I don't mind a good laugh on me). shane don't even One guy kept on bumping me 5 times, and by the 5th bump, I got out of my car, and went and kindly asked him, "are you trying to get my attention or what," he had no clue what I was talking about, so I asked him, if he could start using his breaks, cause "you have bumped into my car 5 times", and he said, "I sure didn't know I did that". So I switched lanes, and of course someone else decided to be a dumba**, and bump me 3 other times. By this time, I was literally coming unglued-LITERALLY. I finally realized that I was sliding as well, and this nice red mustang let me use his bumper to stop with, and all that took 2 1/2 hours to drive 3 miles. I was running through my popular reads, and came across this article in the Omaha World herald...Enjoy Published Wednesday December 7, 2005 Churches dark on Christmas Day? THE ASSOCIATED PRESS This Christmas, no prayers will be said in several megachurches around the country. Even though the holiday this year falls on a Sunday, when churches normally host thousands for worship, pastors are canceling services, expecting low attendance on what they call a family day. Critics within the evangelical community said they were stunned by the shutdowns. "This is a consumer mentality at work: 'Let's not impose the church on people. Let's not make church in any way inconvenient,'" said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. "I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing." Locally, a spot-check of Omaha churches showed that several may offer more Saturday Christmas Eve services, but are still having at least one Sunday worship service. "I guess we know our people and know what the crowds will be," said Pastor Tom Fraley of Trinity Church Interdenominational. Trinity will have three Christmas Eve services. Normally, they have one Saturday service and three Sunday services, Fraley said. Christmas Eve services normally have a higher attendance than Christmas Day, he said. "I guess people vote with their feet," he said. Other large Omaha churches offering multiple Christmas Eve services include King of Kings Lutheran Church, with six Saturday services, and one Sunday service, and Westside Church, with two Saturday services and one Christmas Day service. Nationally, the megachurches closing on Christmas also plan multiple services in the days leading up to the holiday, including Christmas Eve. Most normally do not hold Christmas Day services, preferring instead to mark the holiday in the days and on the night before. However, Sunday worship has been a Christian practice since ancient times. Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994, and only a small number of people showed up to pray, she said. "If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said. ***Among the other megachurches closing on Christmas Day are Southland Christian Church in Nicholasville, Ky., near Lexington, and Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, outside Dallas.** North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., outside Atlanta, said on its Web site that no services will be held on Christmas Day or New Year's Day, which also falls on a Sunday. A spokesman for North Point did not respond to requests for comment. The closings stand in stark contrast to Roman Catholic parishes, which will see some of their largest crowds of the year on Christmas, and also have a tradition of midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and mainline Protestant congregations such as Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches, where Sunday services are rarely canceled. Cindy Willison, a spokeswoman for the evangelical Southland Christian Church, said at least 500 volunteers are needed, along with staff, to run Sunday services for the estimated 8,000 people who usually attend. She said many of the volunteers appreciate the chance to spend Christmas with their families instead of working. "If we weren't having services at all, I would probably tend to feel that we were too accommodating to the secular viewpoint, but we're having multiple services on Saturday and an additional service Friday night," Willison said. "We believe that you worship every day of the week, not just on a weekend, and you don't have to be in a church building to worship." World-Herald staff writer Jason Kuiper contributed to this report.

whyiTRUST...Weekend lowdown

Saturday and Sunday was my two not normal days off. I got home from working at my Martini @ 1am, slept, and awoke by 8am Saturday morning. Here is my weekend in review. I took a hike at Lake Grapevine, washed my car, met friends for breakfast, went to the bank, grocery shopping, cleaned my apt, shaved my head, and all by 3pm when my buddy Afif and Jen came to hang for the rest of the evening.
Sunday I went to church, and was on my way home when Afif called, and wanted to know what I was doing? I said, "heading home and chilling." I pull around the corner of my complex and I see this black Eclipse sitting in front of my apt, and I am wondering in my head, now why would that be there?? Afif decided after all he was not sick and did not want to stay home by himself, so of course we watched football all day & night. We did have a good time.

This weekend was the conclusion of the whyi series. Ed discussed why it is he and others have a hard time trusting others and God, because of his humanness. Trust is a God thing, and a good thing to have, and how all of us have been wired for faith, it is just a matter of trust.

Papa & Dalke UPDATE

Papa is just about out of the hospital, and he is doing much better, he had a heart attack the night he was in the hospital, but is recovering better.

I was able to catch up with John & Kate McNutt who are best friends of the Dalke's and John told me had passed on my regards. They have been staying with a family from the church and getting ready to rent a place for a while, till they figure out what to do next. The Red Cross has been very helpful in this time of need If you would like to donate any funds you can contact the Rolling Hills Bank here. The fund is called the Dalke House Fund, and it has been set up for assistance.

Please continue to pray for them, and Papa. Thank you