props

Hello, everyone!

I'm taking the day off today, to just relax and spend some quiet time with God. I just wanted to take a quick second to give a shout out to my tech team at the Journey! These guys have full time jobs and yet, they always find the time to get everything done! You guys rock! Thanks for your willingness to serve. We couldn't do it without y'all.

Peace!

soup sandwich

Ever hear of one? Well, if you can imagine it... visualize it... you think of a big mess! Welcome to the Journey! Man, I tell you what. I it's not one thing it's another!

As most of you know, we at the Journey provided all of the sound and lights for West Elementary's production of Annie Jr., the musical. Many thanks to all who helped out with it. I had the pleasure of working with the kids all week. It was awesome. I have to tell y'all, if you missed the play, you missed one heck of a show! These kids are some of the most talented kids I've ever worked with. The little girl who played Annie could start on Broadway tomorrow, no kidding! 

So, back to the soup sandwich. The breaker box, in the gym at West, is older than me! (let's just say that it's more than 25 years old!!!!) Every Sunday, we have a breaker, #7, that constantly trips. The lights get hot and kick the breaker. No biggie, right? We just send someone back there and flip it back on. Well, with ten minutes to go, during the final night of the performance of the play, we started smelling something burning! Not good! It had finally had enough. It burned itself out. Well, this caused a slight panic in the faculty of the school. We finished the show, but immediately evacuated the building afterwards. The fire dept. showed up, checked it out, ran a camera up the line, inside the box, and determined that the fire was gone, but that the gym would need to be shut down until an inspector could come out and assess the situation. Tanslation: The Journey is now homeless!!!!! Soup Sandwich! 

So, at 10:30 p.m., I get a call from John Griffin, after finally getting home and settling in, telling me that we cannot meet in the gym in the morning for church! The next thing I know, we have a big, fat, phone tree going on, trying to figure out what we're doing in the morning, which is less than seven hours away! 

Long story short, We ended up in the cafeteria, completely transferring everything, except the permanently installed lights (that weren't working anyway cause of the breaker box!). 

You have to understand that we at the Journey are not phased by this! You see, stuff like this happens to us all the time. And to be honest, it was kind of to be expected this week. Here's why.

There's something really cool that's been going on at the Journey lately. I truly believe that God is doing something there. Last week, we had four people come forward, unscheduled, and get baptized. It was an awesome Sunday. This is just one example of the lives that are being changed around here. The only way I can explain it is, we have started expecting God to show up and do it! Plain and simple. We serve a God that doesn't stand still. He is always moving, working, and we just want to be a part of it. And we realize that it's being done through none of our own doing! We've adapted the mentality of, "Get out of the way, and watch God work." Our only job is to show up, be willing to serve, love the people He brings into our body, and watch the amazing work at hand!!!!! And our enemy cannot stand this!!! And if you don't believe in spiritual attacks, you have not experienced God. I can promise you, when you allow God to start working in your life, and in your church, you will experience them left and right. Paul talks about it all throughout his writings in the Bible. But don't worry! You don't have to take it! If you are a follower of Jesus, you have your own arsenal! 

Like Erik said today, in his sermon, Christianity is not about religion. It's about relationship. And though relationships can be messy, the one He brings is the one that can bring peace and stillness to the chaos that can be the Soup Sandwich!!

Blessings!

A Long Week

Well, the day off came and went. Really fast, too. What's up with that? Why is it when you finally get a day off to do nothing but lie in bed, watch TV, and eat junk food, the whole day goes by in like two hours! Work days seem to go by, as if they lasted 30 hours! 

Anyway, this week, the Journey will be helping out West Elementary to present Annie Jr., the musical. I've got to tell you all, these kids are ridiculously talented. The little girl who plays Annie could, seriously, do it professionally. But it's not just her. All of the kids are great.

So, what's going on in the world today? Not much. Politics are getting way out of hand. Gas prices are up. Stock market's down. The world's going crazy, huh? Yeah, it just seems to get worse as the days go by. 

In a world where everything changes by the minute, it's nice to know that we serve a God who is the same today as He was yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow! And if you don't know Him, then you don't know what it means to live the life that you were created to live. 

My prayer for all of you is that you would learn how to live that life!

-Blessings