LifeGroup

Tonight we visited a LifeGroup at Mosaic. Met some great people who are growing in lots of very different but powerful ways. The common theme among most everyone was this... "Just take the next step in the direction you think God is calling you."

Good times...

Things that make me sad

I see this place on my way to church...

Things that make me happy

All Nighter

Wow... I haven't done this since college. It's 6:17am and I haven't been to bed. Tonight... last night... whatever... Sunday night at 8:30pm until Monday morning 6:00am the pastor and I worked putting the finishing touches on a very important fund raising video for the church... getting just the right photos, timing, music, everything. It's done! The final DVD is burned.

I love having a pastor who is passionate and driven to move things forward and gain ground for the kingdom. I'm being stretched so much already here in Little Rock. It's great!

Nothing to say today...

I feel like I've got nothing to say today... that's always a good time for thanksgiving.

I'm thankful today for:
- Our new home
- Being at Mosaic Church with kinds of different and wonderful people
- My great fam
- Life
- Salvation
- Grace
- The love of Christ
- My laptop

That's the best I can do at the moment... feeling pretty depleted this weekend... need to replenish...

Good talk with Alex tonight

We went to the Good Friday service at Mosaic tonight. We talked a little about the possibility of the Lord's Supper and that always raises some stuff with Alex. A little while into the service I decided to see if Alex wanted to go to the back of the room and talk. He did. So we talked about these things...

How old is God?
How can Jesus be God's son and be God?
How do I know God is real?
If I reach down my throat will I feel the hair of the Holy Spirit's head?

I asked a bunch of questions and told him some things about Jesus' death, his payment for our sin, his resurrection, his prep of our forever place in heaven... on the best 6-year-old level I could manage.

We talked about how God is good and we are not. He lit up, said "yeah", and started singing "God is Good, I know he is, he's good all the time." (Thanks Aunt Meri for ministering to my kid)

He says he's prayed for Jesus to save him... but he sometimes says that Jesus is saving him from crocodiles and from falling into the ocean.

We didn't end up having the Lord's Supper at Mosaic tonight, but I'm glad it made us have this talk. I think Alex is close to embracing what Jesus did for us if he has not done so already in his 6-year-old way.

Please pray for him to increasingly trust in the love, grace, and power of Jesus.

Too bad

I'm really bummed that this great blog is going away due to hateful threats. Check out that last post of hers. It has some of her favorite graphics she's made to illustrate points. Really great stuff. Hope she comes back online sometime soon.

Ouch!

We have an eMac as well as my MacBook Pro. I've been on the glossy-screened MacBook for 2 hours editing video. I'm now checking email on the eMac and MAN, this eMac tube CRT screen is ugly!!

News and Thoughts

--- Today I went up to church to work on a video project they have going (even though I'm not really supposed to work until I raise 75% of my monthly support). I've got to be careful not to run into doing stuff at church to the neglect of finishing my fundraising.

--- Sunday at Mosaic was awesome. The message was about how we've really only waded out ankle deep in the love Christ has for us and in the love that is possible in the body of the church. The love of Christ is an ocean to swim in. A story was shared with great authenticity about two of the staff members who, through hard conversation and spiritual revelation, are mending their relational and racial differences. Powerful.

--- I spent part of today working on a freelance video project for the same company I've been working for.

--- The kids had another good day at school.

--- I saw the following on a blog that I read:

CHARACTER - The INTENTION to do the right thing.

COMPETENCE - Knowing HOW to do the right thing.

INFLUENCE - Their ABILITY to deliver and execute the right thing.

Here's what I commented on that blog:
That's good... as long as the "INTENTION" mentioned is a true and action-oriented intention so strong that it moves us to work hard toward COMPETENCE and INFLUENCE. I think that INTENDING or being WILLING to help (at least in the conventional weaker sense of "willing") doesn't reveal as much character as becoming and being ABLE to help do.

What do you think?

Great Day

The kids did great today on their first day at a new school. Good teachers... made friends... Great day.

School today

Em and Alex are in public school today. Em was a little nervous. Alex was slightly nervous but excited. I think they'll both do great. Em got the teacher we hoped for and Alex's teacher seemed great too.

It's weird, after homeschooling, to have them gone from home for 7 hours a day.

Palm Sunday

Scott Hodge has a great blog. Here is a great post on Palm Sunday.

Sick Kiddo

Emmaleigh is sick today. She hardly ever gets sick. I hate to see her suffer. I guess she and Deb will stay home from church tomorrow. I think my parents, sister and her kids will be coming to Mosaic tomorrow... so I'll go with them.

Hopefully she'll be OK for starting school on Monday!

Back to work

After days of packing, moving, and unpacking I'm back to the office (a.k.a. the nearest coffee shop) working on video. The nearest coffee shop with free internet that I've found so far is 5 miles from my house. Too far.. but at least there is one... and the coffee is better than my nearest "office" was back in Texas.

New house funnies

I told our three year old to put her dishes away after breakfast. With glass in hand, walking puzzled across the kitchen she asked, "Where's the counter?"

Moving Pictures

Things are going well.... Just unpacking the many boxes.

Here are some pix from the move.

New update on our move

We're in Little Rock. The trip was easy and our stuff is all in our new rental house. Thanks Mosaic guys for helping us unload the truck!!!

Our house sale in Texas funded today... so that's a done deal.

Everything is great! Thanks for you prayers.

More soon... with pix.

Quick update on our move

Finished packing the truck last night. We were planning to drive out to Arkansas today, but we didn't hardly sleep at all last night. We were too wound up and stressed.

So today we were EXHAUSTED. We signed our closing papers on our house today, but decided to stay with our friends Richie and Sarah another night and we'll head out Tuesday at 7:30am after some rest.

PRAYER!!
There's a small delay in the funding of the house from the buyer. Please pray that it's no big deal.
Please pray for our safe travel and that this huge truck isn't TOO much of a beast to drive.
Pray for Debbie... she doesn't like to drive and she'll be driving the minivan Tuesday.

Thanks!

Off for a play day

We're just about done packing inside the house. The bunk beds are even apart and downstairs. Just a few more boxes to pack, some cleaning to do, and a truck to load Saturday and Sunday. So... we're taking a break and heading out for a last play day in Dallas with the kids.

Where to live?

After much research by my wonderful wife looking at schools, areas, prices, etc, we had really two options on where to live in Little Rock.

Option 1 - A nice but affordable rental town home in a fancy mostly white neighborhood just down the street from Fulbright, the 90% white best school in Little Rock. We were shown around the school by a volunteering grandmother. We asked her... "We hear this is the best school in town... what do you think?" She snootily answered, "Why do you think my grandson is here?"

Option 2 - A comfortable, affordable rental house near my parents in Otter Creek with a backyard that backs up to the playground of Otter Creek Elementary. Otter Creek's school test scores are pretty low compared to that of Fulbright. The school and surrounding area are increasingly diverse.

As much as we liked Fulbright from a pure education standpoint, it just wasn't us. It's not that we don't want to give our kids every opportunity to succeed. We just don't think a fancy, uni-racial, educational powerhouse approach is needed to foster the version of success we desire for our kids.

When we told our 8 year old daughter that Fulbright is 90% white, she said quickly and with her own conviction, "That's not good." We don't want to force the work of multi-ethnic ministry on our kids. But, I think they are already catching the dream anyway.

Another meaningful moment on our house-hunting day was at Popeye's Chicken near the fancy Fulbright school area. Thankfully, some have the ministry of reaching and helping the well-dressed businessman who was eating there. Our hearts, though, are to encourage, raise up, and minister to the girl behind the counter who probably drove in a ways to make 6 dollars an hour ringing up chicken orders.

We picked Otter Creek. It's the place we belong. It's not intense diversity culture shock, but enough diversity to stretch us. It seems to us personally that we have to immerse increasingly with all people in both life and school to feel like we are doing what we are called to do with multi-ethnic ministry.