My Celebrity Look-A-Likes

My Life

As we all continue to live day-to-day in our busy routine, it's good to just step back and stop and look at the big picture of all that is going on. It is beneficial to get a fresh, new perspective on life every once in a while. Our lives are like the city streets of Chicago where it is busy and loud and congested at times and when you're on the streets you can't see what the whole city looks like. Then you hop in the elevator and take it to the 95th floor of the John Hancock building and you see the city from a new perspective. You begin to see different buildings and how everything has been laid out. There is some order and organization after all, we just hardly ever see it.

I think that is what our lives are like. The majority of our time is spent on the busy streets (work, family, school, etc.). It's loud and busy and feels pretty congested at times. So we need to pull back every once in a while and take time see the whole picture. To go back to the basics and ask ourselves why we do what we do? Who has God created me to be? To pull back and realize that there is some order and plan to our lives. God has designed us on purpose to carry out a plan only we can carry out.

At GCC we have started a new series call My Life. We are going up to the 95th floor and asking some basic questions for the next 5 weeks. The topic of week 1 was My Heart. It was about realizing that what we do matters. We are called to do the right thing. I am. You are. Not that guy over there or the next person in line. You. Me. We need to intential about what we do and take advantage of the time we have now. What we do matters. Are we living that way?

You can check out the weekend service HERE.

Tamil Nadu

This is the name of the area in India where we (GCC) does all of its international missions work. We work with indigenous Indian church planters to plant churches and train pastors. I just wanted to share with you what has happend there in the past five months:

• 7,659 people have received a Bible
• 176 cell groups have been formed
• 19,025 new converts completed a core class
• 13,928 left their old way and accepted Christ
• 7,475 were baptized
• 1 new church per week was planted

Uh....Amen? And I am excited because I get to co-lead a missions trip there in August of this year. Good stuff!!!

Our Executive Pastor blogged an article about this too (actually his was first). You can read it here.

Coming up for Air

I just realized that it has been over a week since I last wrote. That is the longest drought yet. So here is a quick update until I have time to write more.

Ministry - The pace of things at the church are starting to quicken. I am enjoying the responisibilities I have and the people I am working with. We are getting closer to setting our date for the Mexico trip to do research for the family missions program.

Hayley - We finished registering for our wedding last weekend. That was a fun process but draining at the same time. We are both glad to be done with it (for the most part). The wedding gets closer everday but it still seems like a ways off. We are ready for it to get here.

Personally - I am learning a lot lately about myself. I am trying to figure out what my strengths and where or how I can position myself to play to the strengths that I have. It is a process that isn't always easy or fun but I know it is worth it. I miss all of you from back home. I am looking forward to what God is going to do with me this year.

So that is it for now. Hopefully I can take another breath soon. Until then...

2nd Saturday!!!

The first 2nd Saturday of the year was today and it was a huge success. About 400 volunteers showed up the help serve at either MC3, Feed the Children, State Theater or Minority Health Coalition. I attended FtC. We packed 2,400 boxes of food that will feed 9,600 people for a week and we did it in under 3 hours. What a way to start the day. Here are a few pics below.

Five Star Website

Check out the new Five Star website here.

Schmucker: Week 2

Last night was my second week doing Five Star at Schmucker middle school. This is one of the largest middle schools in the state with about 1,200 students. 62 of those students are currently in Five Star with about 10 on a waiting list. My role last night was to lead the games that take place for the first 45min on the night. We played Human Blob where each team has to make whatever shape I tell them to make using every member of their team. The second game we played was "Miss'em". "Miss'em" is actually dodge ball but we are not allowed to play dodge ball for some reason so we renamed it.

During the second half of the night Seth spoke on having Excellent Thoughts. I filled in for one of the absent coaches and after Seth spoke I spent some time with the 6 guys at my table asking them questions relating to the message. I had two students who tend to have negative thoughts. I didn't want to push them too much but they actually opened up. One kid said his dad left when he was 5 and only talks to him twice a year (birthday and Christmas). He doesn't even know where his dad lives. The other kid said he doesn't know either one of his parents because he was given up for adoption when he we like 2 or 3.

So it makes sense that they would have negative thoughts. Who wouldn't in a situation like these. And these stories are just two of hundreds in Five Star. We are making a difference in the lives of hurting kids. We are showing them that they matter and that they have a purpose. Next week I get to speak on Excellent Words. Looking forward to that.

Playing to My Strengths

This past weekend Hayley and I went up to Jackson to spend some time with Joel, Scott and Julie. We watched the Superbowl last night which ended up being a really fun game to watch. I was cheering for the colts the whole time so it was good to see them pull it out. Gotta love Tony Dungey and the demeanor and character he brings.

Anyways...the night before the Superbowl, Joel and I spent some time watching Marcus Buckingham DVD's. Marcus is a guy who talks a lot about determining what your strengths are and learning how to spend the majority of your time living in them. He says that in the work world today, less than 2 out of 10 people feel like they are actually doing what they really love or feel like they are really good at. So how do we become one of those 2 in 10?

This is something I have been asking myself. I am on a journey right now to discover what it is that I want to do with the rest of my life. What are my strengths? What do I just really love to do? I ask that question because what I'm good at and what I like to do might two different things. So what do I just love to do? What doesn't feel like work? I'm not real sure at the moment. I feel like I am good at alot of things but not great at anything. Maybe that's ok. I guess those people are needed too. I sure would like to excel in something though.

Joel and I talked about this to figure out what I might be good at and after thinking about I came up with these things that I enjoy. I like to be efficient and organized. I'm good at putting things together. Computers always seemed to come pretty naturally to me. I love sports.

That is a little of what I have discovered. More on this later.