Prophet and Salsa Guru

You may know that Clem Ferris is gifted prophetically, but did you know that he makes the BEST salsa? When Clem and Mary Jane started their church in Florida, the Sunday night gathering was around their famous salsa. What a way to plant a church, huh? Maybe Clem could write a book, Church Planting With Salsa. A new fad will sweep the church.

Clem definitely knows how to "kick it up a notch".

Tea Time

Gabriela loves to have tea time. She is the cutest little girl. She enjoys every little detail about our time together. I so enjoy being with her and having a little special "Daddy-Gabriela time" as we call it.

Her vocabulary has been exploding. She is definitely the spunky joker - a little bit like her brother Joseph. In fact, some time we call her Josephina. Her other nicknames include "Bre" (short for gaBRIEla) and "BreBomb" (this is how she introduces herself as she has a hard time saying Gabriela).

What a gift from God.

Fun Weekend

Last weekend we went to the mountains for two nights with Clem and Mary Jane Ferris. We had a delightful time. We drove along the parkway, worked out at the gym, talked by the fire, and ate great food. Unplugging for even two days is so helpful.

David & Mary Lee Lobach were in Blowing Rock at the same time, so we met them for dinner. The three ladies were Mary Jane, Mary Lee, and Mary Nana. There's a great restaurant called Vintner's in downtown Blowing Rock. They have a very nice wine cellar. You can go down and pick out your wine before dinner. Clem was the wine expert and helped us out.

Blowing Rock really is a great getaway place. Stop into Vintner's the next time you're up there.

Cuba Para Cristo!

Tomorrow, I head to Cuba with Kendrick Jr. and David & Martha Rich. We'll be gone for 8 days. We'll be spending time in Havana with Alejandro Nieto and his church. He's a pastor of the largest church in Cuba and overseer for over 100 churches that have been planted out of his church. The amazing thing is that he's spent a large portion of his ministry helping churches in every denomination in Cuba. The picture is of my good friend Roberto Lopez.

We're going to Las Tunas to meet a pastor by the name of Bernardo. He overseers a region for Alejandro's network of churches, Liga Evangelica de Cuba. Our purpose is to see how we could partner with Bernardo to reach his region. My desire is to send short-term mission teams to work with Bernardo.

This is Kendrick Jr.'s first mission trip. I'm very excited for what this trip will do in his heart and life. It's his first time out of the country. He's really looking forward to it - although I don't think anything can really prepare a person for seeing a third world country. The poverty of the people and the passion of the church are truly amazing.

Here are a few prayer requests:
1. Divine connection in heart and vision with Bernardo.
2. Clarity for continued work with Alejandro
3. Open doors and divine appointments to share the gospel. We'll be passing out gospel bracelets and sharing the gospel at every opportunity.
4. Safety in travel and smooth entrance of medicines and aid.
5. Health and physical protection (especially Kendrick Jr - the trip will be strenuous)
6. Anointing to preach in the churches and strategize with leaders.
7. Peace and blessing upon Nana and the kids at home.

Thank you for your love and support.

We've decided upon our family vacation for 2004. We're heading west with the Lobach family. The plan has been in transition for the last week or two, but here's the latest. Fly into Salt Lake City, rent two RV's (one for each family) and then head north to the Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park.

Our family has wanted to do this trip for a long time. I worked in Glacier for two summers during college. I haven't been back yet, so I'm excited to show Nana my favorite hikes and trails. Lots of great memories from those two summers.

Our kids get along really well the with Lobach kids. Gabriela cannot say "Lobachs", so she calls them the "Robots". The Lobach kids decided that we need a nickname also. So the title to our photo album will be:

Robots and Guitars Go West

Michael Fletcher Seminar

Today I attended a seminar by Michael Fletcher on his book Leadership Transitions for Growth. It's a great book on how to breakthrough the 100/200 barrier and the 700/800 barrier. Michael has done a lot of reading, and he has experience breaking through the 700/800 barrier. He has weekend attendance of about 2,200-2,300.

If you are in leadership in a local church, you really should pick-up a copy of his book. His book isn't on Amazon.com, but I found you can order it from his church. MannaChurch.org

Good-bye Muffin - We love you!

Today Nan's cat, Muffin, passed away into cat heaven. We've been taking care of Nan's three cats: Sweetness, Magnolia, and Muffin. Muffin is the grandmother of the other two. Actually Muffin was Nana's cat originally. She was 18 years old. Muffin has disappeared for about three weeks and reappeared a couple days ago. She died from old age. She barely ate the past two days.

We buried Muffin out at Mark & Susan's farm. As we drove out to the farm, we told our favorite stories about Muffin. It was 41 degrees and raining as we buried her. Quite a scene.

Contact Manager

Steve Kurtz is making me interested in switching from Entourage to a contact manager. I have found two contact managers for the Macintosh (The two biggies for PC's are Act! and Goldmine).

I downloaded and tried Now Up To Date first. It was a serious disaster. Definitely not the program of choice. It wasn't intuitive and wouldn't sync propertly with Address Book.

Next up: Day Lite. It's a much better program (better features and much more intuitive). Unfortunately, I've run into a couple problems. The first is a small but seriously aggravating to me. In the month view of the calendar it doesn't show the time the event starts. You just get a listing of events on each day. I e-mailed the company: "maybe on the upgrade".

This morning in the shower, I had an epiphany (simple but profound). Enter your appointment as "10a Meet w/Jim". I'm feeling so good and proud of myself until I try doing a weekly repeat and the program crashes. Argh! No solution from the company yet.

Is this a sign that I should just stick with iCal and Entourage?

Great Weekend!

We wrapped up our weekend with Sam Storms. It was great! Sam brought an incredible impartation of his heart and gift. We had a Friday and Saturday night "Pleasures Evermore" conference with him. Saturday morning, he met with the elders and wives of the church. Sam opened up his life and shared intimately how God has worked in his life and marriage.

Sam is the real deal. His character matches his writing and speaking gift. It was a pleasure having him at Grace Church. He inspired us afresh to enjoy all that God is for us in Christ. I believe that God will hook us up with him more in the future.

You can listen to his messages from the weekend at www.gracelife.com.

Nana and I have been taking some extra time this month to spend with God. I've been reading some good books. I finished A.W. Pink's The Attributes of God. I started Marsden's new biography on Jonathan Edwards. I'm reading Mike Bickle's new book After God's Own Heart. I plan to use Mike's new book with two mentor groups this spring. Other books I've been working on: The Knowledge of God by A.W. Tozer, Fish! by Stephen Lundin, and Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Bossidy and Charan. I've also been reading some financial books as I'm revamping our family finances. All that to say, I've done very little internet time this month.

Sam Storms is here! Last night was the first night of the Pleasures Evermore conference. Jim Reklis, Nathan, and I had dinner with Sam at P.F. Chang's. He's a great guy. I so appreciate his heart for God and respect his theology. I've used his book Pleasures Evermore many times for mentoring. He announced this week that he's moving back to Kansas City to start his own ministry: Enjoying God Ministries. What a name, huh? Sam has been a professor at Wheaton College for the past four years.

Had To Mention It

A first on my birthday: I went running in shorts and a t-shirt. When I got back, I had a water gun fight with Kendrick Jr., Joseph, and their neighbor friend, Marcus. I'm still adjusting to the warm weather, but I'm getting use to it. :-)

Note: It's hard to see the guns, but Kendrick Jr. and Marcus have monster guns. Joseph has the water hose. I have a tiny pistol that dribbles squirts about 5 feet. Guess who lost?

Tomorrow morning I leave early for Kansas City to attend the "One Thing" conference. It's a young adults conference that Mike Bickle puts on. Nathan Fancher and the Mali guys will be playing on Monday afternoon. Chad Aleshire is flying down from Minnesota. I'm looking forward to meeting with God and enjoying friends.

Back at Last

I've taken quite a break from blogging. It's been a busy month. :-) Surprise. After the Thanksgiving weekend, my parents were here for a week. We had a great time with them - celebrated K Jr.'s birthday, my mom's birthday, and Christmas.

Good stuff happening at Grace Church. I preached on Dec. 14th. You can listen to the sermon online at www.gracelife.com. I've also started a new position at Executive Pastor. Some new responsibilities.

Nana and I thoroughly enjoyed "Lord of Rings: The Return of the King". It's a great movie. We saw it on opening night with David & Marylee Lobach and Mark & Lisa Daley.

Tonight Kendrick Jr. and I went hunting - first time since before Thanksgiving. We shot a nice sized doe. The whole process was the smoothest ever. Nana and I set a record for butchering time. God has blessed my recent outings - 3 for 3.

Those are a few brief updates from here. I'll be back!

Kendrick Jr.'s 9th Birthday!

Blowing Rock, NC

Reporting to you from the mountains of North Carolina. Today, Kendrick Jr. turned 9 years old. We were disappointed that we could not climb to the top of Grandfather Mountain. Kendrick's birthday wish was for snow. God answered!

It started snowing real lightly this afternoon. When the sun went down the snow picked up and it stayed! The kids were so excited. We watched Tim Allen in "Santa Clause". At 9 p.m., we took to the hills. It was great! All six of us zooming down the hills of the golf course.

Rest of the day? We had pancakes and Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast. I took the boys into Boone to buy Kendrick Jr. a new jacket. We also bought sleds and visited an arcade. Jerry, Nan, and Josh came over for dinner, raspberry pie (K Jr.'s request) and presents. Fun day. Kendrick Jr. was concerned that he wouldn't enjoy his birthday in the mountains. It turned out great. He'll have his friends birthday party next Saturday.

We still have a couple more days here. God is good!

Winter in North Carolina

My kids are ready for winter. Joseph got out his skis, boots, and poles tonight along with ski jacket and bibs. He's ready to go!

Aliesha is all packed and ready to go to the mountains. We'll be in Blowing Rock for Thanksgiving weekend. As you can tell, the kids are hoping for snow. It's been in the low 70's the past few days. The Sugar Mountain web site said that it began snowing today. They were actually open for a couple days in the middle of November, but the rains hit.

We had a fabulous GCI conference for leaders last weekend. It was very encouraging personally, but also inspiring to see what God is doing around the world. I had the privilege to meet and begin to develop a friendship with Daniel Matei from Romania, Nobu Toyoda from Japan, Davidson Scott from Sierra Leone, Felix Nyika from Malawi, and Kyle Holland from surprise... Holland. These are incredible men who are making a significant impact in their nations.

PF Chang's opened a store in Durham yesterday. Nana and I went out for the opening night with Brian and Amy Ruff. PF Chang's is a great restaurant. It was a favorite of ours from Minneapolis.

Nana ordered the Ginger Chicken with Broccoli. That was the winner at our table. The lettuce wraps are a great appetizer.



Joseph and I went hunting last night. We shot another buck. It was a long shot with my shotgun (rifled barrel and scope). I'm guessing 150 yards, but I didn't step it off.

So after our PF Chang's dinner Nana and I came home to butcher a deer. Nathan Fancher was kind enough to come over to help. We were up until midnight which is late for old people like Nana and me.

Venison in the Freezer

Saturday was the first day of gun season. A 4 point buck came by my stand. He got to about 40 yards. I should have been a little more patient. I shot through some brush and missed him. The buck was startled and then kept coming. He didn't know where I was. Next shot was right through the lungs.

We butchered the deer that night. Fresh venison marinated by Nana and then grilled on the deck accompanied by a cold beer, hmmm....

The season goes through the end of December. I'll be going out tonight with Joseph. Hunting will be my reward for enduring the dentist - replacing a filling and putting in a new one. Blah!

Proud Parent Moment

I had the coolest conversation with Kendrick Jr. tonight at bed time. He and Joseph sat in during my sermon this past Sunday. I think they heard Jim Reklis' promotion of Sam Storms Pleasures Evermore book during announcements. Kendrick also knows it's one of my favorite books. So he came home and wanted to read Pleasures Evermore.

He read the first two chapters and really wanted to talk with me about it. The other kids went down for bed as we sat by the fire and chatted. I was amazed at his understanding and his questions. His insight and explanations of some of the concepts were stunning to me. It seems so simple, true, and logical to him.

How encouraging to a parent! If he could grow up without some of the religious baggage I'd be so thrilled. Oh for a generation of young people passionately pursuing a beautiful loving God for their pleasure and His glory. May it be!

On Sunday, Nov. 2nd, the News & Observer ran this article on the pursuit of happiness.

The Pursuit of Happiness by Jon Gertner.

I am always very curious about this topic, because of my belief in Christian Hedonism - that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. A Christian's duty is to pursue pleasure/happiness/delight/satisfaction in God for His glory and our joy.

The article is written on studies being done by Daniel Gilbert, a pyschology professor at Harvard. The studies find that people are not good judges of what will bring them happiness. People overestimate the amount of happiness an event or thing will produce (a new car, new job, new home, etc.). He asks this question, "Which week is more fun: the week before Christmas or the week after Christmas?"

The studies also find that people overestimate how unhappy they will be when considering negative events.

God is the best judge of what will bring us happiness. In fact, He is the greatest happiness.

Want happiness? He's the Source of all happiness. When God has first place and He is the premier pleasure of your life, then everything else is so much more delightful. Sunsets are more beautiful, wine more tasty, and relationships more satisfying.

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.

1Tim. 6:17 "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy."

Enjoy More!

Long time no blog. I'm back.

My good friend Chad Aleshire and his new "friend in Christ" Stephany came for a visit. We had a great time hanging out here in Chapel Hill. We went to the mountains for two nights. We stayed in Blowing Rock. We went to the top of Grandfather Mountain, had a picnic, and hiked around. One evening we found a private viewing of a gorgeous sunset as we enjoyed crackers, cheese, olives, and wine.

Vinter's is a great restaurant downtown Blowing Rock. They have their own wine cellar in the basement of the restaurant. You can go down and pick out your own bottle (normal store prices) and enjoy it during dinner.

Yesterday, I preached at Grace Church on "God Has A Plan". By Sunday afternoon I am wiped out. It really takes a lot out of me to share on a Sunday morning. I give it my best wanting people to catch a glimpse of God and His great love. You can listen to the sermon online at www.gracelife.com

I included two video clips in my sermon. One was an interview of Mark Daley, III. God's done some really cool stuff in his business as they received an award for being the company with the best corporate culture in the Triangle. The other clip was interviews of students from the GCD class on Vocational Ministry sharing their story of finding God's will for their life.

5 days until gun season opens in North Carolina for deer. I didn't get one with my bow, so now we'll try with a gun. Hopefully more on that later.

Bingo Night at Small Group

We had fun night at small group. Besides great pizza and treats, we played bingo.

I was experimenting with some different shots on my camera. Snapped a little motion shot of Aliesha here.