Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sunday night mind purge

- I spent all of Monday at the office working. I mean - all day. After working on a bunch of tasks that were really important but dull and unexciting nonetheless, I went home for a little while to read and relax and then met with Josh & Nicki all night to refine the NE campus launch schedule a bit, prune the budget a bit, and talk about some things that we need to get done soon if we want to keep our schedule.

- On Tuesday we didn't have staff meeting so I spent pretty much the whole day at the office again, working on spiritual gifts and personality tests, working on a ministry plan to present to potential financial partners, and then I got to the point where I was ready to read for awhile but instead of doing that at the office, I decided to drive to 'Bucks over in the Northeast and read there instead of just sitting at my office reading. I'm planning on going there once or twice a week so that I can start getting to know the people there and so I can be in the community I'm going to be ministering in.

- After that, I decided to drive up Trans-Mountain to the vista points because I had never done that before and wow - it's BEAUTIFUL up there when you're a mile high! Check out these pics I took with my iPhone:

Photobucket
It's kind of blurry, but if you look to the far left, you can see the elevation sign that says 5,280 feet above sea level.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

- Wednesday was another all-day-at-the-office-day except I took an extended lunch break to meet up with a couple of long time friends, Bryan Macias and Jordan Mueller. Man, I just love those guys, and I'm so excited to see how Bryan has really caught a passionate fire for missions work. He's probably gonna try to storm hell with a water pistol some day for the sake of the Gospel - and I think he'll win.

- Thursday I took a half-day off and met a friend for lunch, then went to the office for a couple of hours and mostly worked on the ministry plan I started earlier in the week. Then I came home and spent the evening reading and watching some TV.

- Friday was the first day of Spring. It was also my day off, so I slept in, then went for a long run (and I was pretty sweaty because boy is it getting warm!), did some house cleaning, then cleaned myself up and went to get some lunch. I came home and watched the movie Max Payne (which was pretty weird and not all that good), then got ready for some friends I was having over to play card games. That was a good time - I'm glad I had them over even though it ended up being only girls that showed up.

- For pretty much the whole day on Saturday, I went with our youth bands and my two staff members to a "More than Music" worship through music workshop, which wasn't nearly as practical as I thought it would be, but was very inspirational and challenging. If nothing else, there was great value in doing something together with the purpose of bettering ourselves. Afterwards, I took a few youth and Rick to the North Hills area to look at where we'll most likely be meeting and see some of the community there.

- Every time I go there to the Northeast now, I feel so much like that is where I need to be. It's such an unexplainable feeling. It's like the feeling I have when I go to Mexico. It's like ...this is where I need to be, this is what I was created for.

- I woke up a little late Sunday morning so I just barely made it to the 9:30 am service. After a spring break where we had no activities and I didn't really see anyone all week except for Lydia and Troy at the office, it was good to be back with my Del Sol Church family. It's also kind of hard because every time I've gone to our worship celebrations, I feel like I'm one week closer to not being with them anymore since it's one week closer to the launch of the NE campus. So strange how feelings can be so conflicting.

- Walter really brought it today with a great message on fear. I think that because of the state of our country and especially here on the border with the violence just a few miles away in Mexico, lots of people are afraid. Here are some things God said through Walter that stuck out in my mind:
// Fear is the number one reason that keeps people from obeying and trusting God.
// Fear is always a self-imposed prison.
// Fear makes us live live we serve an impotent God.
// You'll never know God is trustworthy if you don't risk for Him.
// You can't be fear-free if you haven't experienced God's forgiveness.
// Love is the antidote to fear. (1 John 4:18)
// Faith expects the best and moves ahead; fear expects the worst and tries to hide.
// Feelings of fear might not go away, but with faith you can press on.
// The solution to fear is not a principle; it's a person - Jesus Christ.

- For the first time in a LONG time, I didn't go to lunch with anyone after our worship celebrations. I came home, had lunch, and took a brief nap. Then at 4 pm I had a meeting with an incredible couple to ask them to pray about the wife becoming our kids' ministry director for the NE campus. I had just met these people a couple of weeks ago but I've seen them for awhile and they have an incredible reputation because of how they've served at DSC. They were highly recommended by several people who know them well and who I trust, so that's why I decided to approach them even though I didn't know them. Let me know just say WOW - these people are amazing.

- The more I get to know people at Del Sol's East campus, the more amazed I am at our volunteers. I can't imagine how much money we would pay out each month if we paid all these volunteers what their work is worth. I'm just guessing, but I'm sure we would pay a couple of million dollars a year if they were paid workers instead of volunteers. Man, I'm so amazed and humbled by and grateful for our volunteers. They're just about the greatest people in the world, I think.

No comments: