The Death of Xanga

I Love Bono

myfacebloga

facebook, myspace, xanga, blogs, etc... are we a bunch of trend followers or what?  we also leave behind the old to pursue the next best thing.  I'm glad that once you get to God, there is no next best thing.  The chasing is over.  Speaking of the next best thing...Lost is the greatest television drama ever.  I am in love with it.

Just killing time...

Following Gretchen's lead...this looked like fun to fill out.

Four things you may not have known about me.....

1. I love to read good books.  I never read in high school or college...I hated reading, but I now I like it.  Current book I'm reading: Searching For God Knows What, by Donald Miller

2. I pretty much think every day about leaving youth ministry to pursue a career in music.

3. Every day when I fill up my water bottle, I countdown from 10 in my head until the bottle is full. 

4. My wife gave me a haircut last night...it looks nice

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Sales Associate at Meyer Music

2. Lawn Maintenance at Tender Lawn Care (This is the job I got to pay for my wife's wedding ring.  A whole summer of work for one little ring!)

3. Barista and Assistant Manager at the Soundbite cafe 

4. Stock boy at JBI Distributing Warehouse

Four movies I have watched over and over:
1. Finding Nemo

2. The Incredibles

3. Zoolander
4. Groundhog Day 

Four places I have lived: 
1. My parents house in Grand Rapids

2. 711 Clancy St. (my 1st apartment)

3. 1039 Innes (my 1st house)

4. Ontario, CA (back to an apartment :( 

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. LOST
2. Deal or No Deal

3. American Idol
4. Law & Order

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. The Smokey Mountains (Honeymoon)
2. The Mexican Riviera near Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
3. Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park

4. Grand Rapids, MI (It's really weird to go on vacation to the city you grew up in, I don't know if that really counts as a vacation, but we use almost all our vacation time to go there.)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pizza with lots of toppings

2. Chicken and Pasta with Alfredo or Garlic Cream Sause with Roma Tomatoes, olives, and other delicious Itallian toppings.

3. In 'N Out Double Double Cheeseburger

4. Steak and Potatoes 

Four people you would love to have dinner with if you could: (dead or alive)
1. Jesus 

2. My Family in Michigan
3. David Crowder
4. Donald Miller, so we can talk about some of his books that I’ve read.

Four things/items (not people) you couldn't live without:
1. My Taylor Guitar

2. My other Taylor Guitar
3. My Bible

4. Oxygen (duh!)

Praise Update

It snowed this morning!  In Ontario, where I live it didn't stick to the ground, but one of my students who lives in Claremont, which is about 10 miles closer to the mountains, she sent me a pix message this morning showing snow on her lawn at her house!  I thought that was pretty sweet.  It supposed to be about as cold as it ever gets in CA this next couple days.  Highs around 50, and lows overnight dipping down into the mid 20's!  I think it's great.

In other news, I praise God for the faithfulness he's shown to my church.  We were facing some financial shortcomings, and there was talk about cutting staff.  My job was one of them that was on the chopping block.(you Sunshine people especially know how difficult this is)  We sent out a letter to congregation saying we were trusting God to provide and we were not going to differ any money that we've committed to helping ministries around the world, and we were going to still send that money and trust we'd still have enough left over to pay the bills and make payroll.  In order to do this, we needed to collect about 260,000 dollars in the month of Dec.  Now the highest amount of money our church has ever collected in 1 month is about $190,000.  So we needed 70 grand more than our highest month on record.  I thought it would take a miracle to meet that goal.  Amazingly, God gave us more than we could ever ask or imagine.  $325,000 came in the month of December, shattering our old record by $135,000!!!!!!!!  And it wasn't all from big donors, it was everyone just giving a little more and stepping up and having faith!  So there are no more talks of staff cuts, and we can pay all our bills and still have money left over.  I really can't believe it.

"Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding..."