the day after

Late night after returning home from Boston, I pulled up to the house with Jimi, unloaded my luggage, threw on my knit cap, ran down the stairs, out the door, and went for a jog. About 2 miles into the run as I was winding my way down Wake Drive I realized how amazing it is to live in a safe place. Without giving it any thought I left my house after 11 at night and went running through my towns streets and cutting through back roads and alleys. This is something I couldn't have done 24 hours earlier while I was in Boston. The thought of my safety never even crossed my mind last night, yet while in Boston we were in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. Just hours before we arrived a high school boy was shot on a city bus two blocks from the house where we stayed. Only a few weeks ago my friend who we crashed with had been jumped by 5 guys while walking down a major street. It would have been a stupid thing for me to leave the house by myself and go running. I'm not even sure what to do with this just yet, but I do know that I am truly blessed to live in a place where safety is a given and I want to help bring that atmosphere to the inner city.

COVER UP YOUR KNEES GIRL!

Boston was soul stirring, I'll need to chew through my thoughts tomorrow when I'm not so tired. One thing is for sure, my heart beats in rhythm with the city and the many followers of Jesus we partnered with.

on top of that our team was an A Squad!
I'm passing out now

on the east coast we ride until we die

I'm off to Boston with the Boston 11 in 6 hours, be in prayer for our trip. we're believing God for big things, I can't wait to uncover more of his faithfulness and power on this journey.

shivers

this is going to be good - you could end up watching this multiple times...
wow, must get back to work.
Revenge of the Sith Trailer

marathons and wedding bells

running is always a reinvigorating activity as much as I hate it at the time. I got out today after slacking off for a couple weeks and going for a run definitely changed my day. I really need to make this a consistent habit. I'm hoping to be able to run the Columbus Marathon in October. I think the most exciting thing about being able to run it would be the fact that it means I'll have disciplined myself in something, which is really a challenge for me outside of spiritual habits. Sometimes, I have a hard time taking care of myself, physically, financially, or just running errands or cleaning up because I get caught up in ministry. However, when those areas of my life are in disarray it profoundly impacts my personal walk with God and ministry. I need to remember this.

also, last night I felt more honored than almost any point in my life. Liz, my good friend from MD, who was basically my sister in middle and high school asked me to officiate her wedding ceremony in June. It is an incredible thing to be invited to help lead one of the most sacred moments in someones existence. Just to be part of this process gets me excited, nervous, and joyful. I can't wait for June 11th (although it means I have to miss Kyle's wedding, forgive me Kyle, but at least I'm not Jimi and missing everyones weddings). The wedding will be back in my hometown of Brunswick, MD, so I'll see a lot of old friends which will be great. Maybe its my pride, but honestly, it is kind of cool to have the chance to go back home and be officiating a wedding. I think for me it helps validates the fact that I'm no longer just a kid. Although, in some ways it would be nice to have the first wedding I officiate not be for someone who is so dear to my heart. That just ups the pressure., but thats the way I like it.

check out this pic Pastor Brian took in Sri Lanka.... while you do say a prayer for the people there, we can't forget them.  

full

wow, this was a whirlwind weekend.
It was great to be able to truly surprise TJ for his 18th birthday. Enjoy the XBox my friend. Hanging with the crew from North that have been part of my life for the 4 years I've lived here was special. Its wild that they are all graduating this spring. A great season in my life is winding down. Speaking of that, the Destructo Machines Grand Finale is Monday, 4:30, in the Sports Barn at Easton. If you want to see a great indoor soccer battle you need to be there. This is Senior Night for a lot of the crew. It'll be intense.

Perhaps even as intense as the Jack Parker/Billy D concert at Brewsters which was a great collection of Zep, catchy pop riffs from the mid 90's, and badly sung love songs by Billy. Maybe 2 of the funniest and most authentic guys I know. Somehow I always feel at home with them, I've always appreciated the way they are just who they are in spite of what anyone may think, whether good or bad.

I really appreciate Pastor Brian (despite the fact he erased the episodes of 24 I haven't seen, if anyone has them recorded, for the love of all thats right, let me know!), he came out to Panera and shared with our adult volunteer team this morning his perspective on evangelism. It is just simple and healthy. I've been to thousands ofevangelism trainings but today I came away feeling empowered and comfortable with the role I play in the process. Sometimes I feel like we really intimidate people with all we throw at them when really they just need to be aware of God's story, how that story has impacted their life, and to be discerning of the right time and place to share pieces of both those stories within authentic friendships.

Thanks to any of you who were praying for the message at CT this week, I was real excited about what God laid on my heart and the interaction I was able to have with folks afterwards. This was definitely a meaningful message for my life, hopefully some others felt the same.

Countdown to Boston Trip: 4 days:9 Hours

East Coast here I come!

PS - I got to eat New China twice this weekend, always a blessing.

the main attraction

tonight my good friend Jack Parker is playing an acoustic set at Brewsters, the little coffee shop next to the theaters at Stoneridge. If you don't have plans at 8:30 you should head over there and support a brother. the man has skills.

this gave me a chuckle 

a new journey is beginning

the beauty of hope

so I get the cool chance to read Jim's script every Friday when I prepare the powerpoint for him and I just finished reading His message for this week. The title is "holding on to hope," hope is definitely one of my favorite words. it is a word that hasn't lost its power to me. Sometimes I'm frustrated because words like love, hate, and faith are overused and they become watered down and thrown into meaningless conversation. But somehow "hope" hasn't lost its edge.

Anyways, the last couple of week's messages for CT have been hard for me to prepare and deliver because I haven't felt like I could find the message within the text for our crew there. I felt that I was just teaching it because I needed to to keep us synced up on the Journey to the Cross. Not that there weren't many great truths within the passages but my heart wasn't driven to shout the message out. I was delivering messages not proclaiming God's Word from my heart.

But, this week I'm amped up. The passage is all about rejoicing in the great hope we encounter in our relationship with God. Hope has given me new hope and I can't wait to see what unfolds as I finish preparation tomorrow. I feel like our community at CT will really be able to relate to Romans 5:1-11 so I'm really looking forward to engaging with everyone this Sunday night! You can definitely be praying that God guides my time tonight and tomorrow because I'm very excited right now. Oh yeah, back to Jim's message, it definitely left tears in my eyes and I kept muttering "wow". God's gonna do something at Heritage this weekend. (again)

pure laughter

the funniest thing I've heard today...
"jimi, if you can pee and create an alcoholic drink...."

I'll leave it to you to figure out the entire context, but these words just came from Kyle as we are all sitting here celebrating Tim's 21st birthday. conversations like this make me appreciate my roommates all the more.