I know that I am waaaay late when it comes to actually posting these, but that just goes to show that I have thought about them for a long time. 

1. Read at least one book a month (leisure or required)

2. Memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount (by the time I get my half-sleeve, which should be sometime around the end of March…I gotta get crackin on that!)

3. Take more pictures than last year.  This won’t be hard because I didn’t take hardly any at all. 

4. Be healthier (Let me explain.  I want to be able to eat less fast food/fried foods, work out 3-4 times a week, go to the doctor more often…like getting my migraine issues worked out, hormones getting balanced out, run at least 2 5Ks, drink more water and less soda, read/blog/journal more for my mental health, etc.)

5. Learn to make more things from scratch (i.e. baked goods, delicious recipes, etc.)

6. Crochet at least 2 baby blankets, learn to crochet hats, socks and other things, and also learn to KNIT!

What are your goals?

JR. has spoken at BCNaz in EPIC 4 times in the past several months.  He has also been on stage several times sharing corporate prayers, getting interviewed about the Bridge, and then also to speak in either EPIC or Blended or both.  He actually had 4 speaking engagements in a 6 week period of time.  It is something that energizes him and enjoys very much…as well as being really good at this particular skill.  He puts a ton of energy in them and prepares (usually) for weeks as well as writing out a transcript and practicing several times, receiving critiques and constructive advice.  Below are links as well as my interpretation of what they were about.

earth

http://songoforpheus.xanga.com/audio/a273e3722619/

this was an interesting one as it followed the “heaven” message.  jr. was nervous since this was his first sermon and he thought people might think he was a hippy liberal tree-hugger.  but he got a lot of feedback and it was interesting.  we were challenged to take care of the earth that God entrusted us waaaay back in the garden of Eden.  and that right now, with all of the waste and wasted resources, God probably wouldn’t look at the earth and say, “this is very good” much like He did when He created it.

shalom

http://songoforpheus.xanga.com/audio/c243b3818635/

This was a challenging sermon he gave two days after Christmas questioning what our motives are during the holiday season and also if we are living with shalom in our lives (as the angels claimed Peace on earth during Christ’s birth).  It was tough for me to hear because we had just spent several weeks traveling and working and didn’t really get to rest well during our break from the Bridge. 

anger/wrath

http://songoforpheus.xanga.com/audio/259fc3819365/

this was a sermon that picked apart some of the Sermon on the Mount (by far, my FAVORITE passage in scripture).  It dealt with the verses that talked about being angry with a brother, name calling, and reconciliation before being able to take communion or being a part of the community.  He showed that the word used there was “wrathful” and picked apart various things about how we use our words to encourage and build up, but also tear down. 

future/plans

There is no link because it was at element…but it was really cool.  He asked us to draw three different pictures.  One of our futures.  One of our picture of God.  One of our relationship with God.  It was really hard but really good.  It made you think since the concepts were so abstract.

lust/adultery

http://songoforpheus.xanga.com/audio/7319b3818626/

JR. found out he was going to be preaching this sermon about 36 hours before he gave the talk.  Our associate pastor, jason, got snowed in Arkansas and was not going to be able to make it back.  He prepped all day Saturday and decided to add a creative element of an “adultery smoothie” which contained a raspberry yogurt base, with cocktail onions, mock turtle soup, horseradish, and mustard flavored sardines or anchovies or something.  It was disgusting.  Absolutely disgusting.  But it drove the point home because not only did he explain it all really well…but also drank it on stage.  He didn’t vomit though, so that was a blessing.  By the way, I forgot to mention that JR. and the EPIC team have added a few creative/interactive elements to the service.  JR. offers critiques and questions through texting and then saves some time at the end of the service to take some of those questions.  They also have been de-briefing the sermons on EPIC’s new blog: http://epicpraise.com/ JR. and Anthony have been dialoging about the sermon and more practical tips to think about and practice during the week.

love. your. enemies.

coming soon on february 21st at BCNaz!

Element is the name we settled on for the retreats for the Young Adult Ministry for the Southwest Ohio District of Nazarenes.  We hope for these events to be annual at least, but if we can do more than one event a year, we would also be happy. In November or December the Young Adult pastors of the larger SWO Nazarene churches got together to plan this kickoff event with the goal of building connections and networking the different young adults throughout Ohio.  There are several students from different churches that go to the same universities and things like that, so the goal was for them to meet and hang out and get to know one another.  The planning meeting was definitely interesting for me to attend the first time (having done several planning meetings for VISION and MizzouBSU stuff). I don’t want to use the term “disorganized” since it was the first time these guys were getting together to talk about it…and considering they are all super busy and laid-back personalities I was curious to see how it would all take place. 

I am proud to say that we had the biggest young adult group go on the retreat and we had to take two church vans to transport everyone. 

We went to a retreat center in Western Indiana called Higher Ground, which is very similar to Windermere for you Missouri folks.  The retreat lasted from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday.  Originally JR. was the main speaker and was planning on just doing a Sunday morning worship gathering type and that Saturday would consist of lots of free time, playing games, and then a coffeehouse atmosphere in the evening with a band playing in the background, etc.  That is what JR. ended up doing, with a little bit of a creative session on Saturday night, but for the lack of structure it was interesting because I felt like we were doing something wrong (only because I am hypersensitive to that since VISION is overly structured and a machine that works really well).  It was a lot of fun and we got to meet several people from different churches.  Not only that, but a hodge-podge of people from our church came and all got to hang out.  It was really fun and I was grateful for some time to get away and connect with those people.  Hopefully in the future (per the students/attendees request) there will be more teaching, possibly a longer weekend, and some more cheesy icebreaker games so that we mix and mingle more considering we don’t always do a good job with that. 

Speaking of VISION, I wanted to share about our experience back in Missouri for the first time in November for re:sound.  It was sooooo much fun and we both had a wonderful time getting to see our old community and partaking in the goodness that was re:sound.  We again, with a few hiccups every once in a while, are perfecting the machine even more and it never ceases to amaze me how awesome and hardworking all the people that pour in the energy to put on these events.  The weekend was about discovering your voice and then using it to impact the world.  Not only that, but examining our words and how they can both build up people and tear people down.  It was a very successful weekend with some solid teaching, fun games, good discussions, and interesting family groups.

Also…just on a side note, we are coming back for VISION:barren in March!  It is less than 6 weeks away which is terrifying but also SUPER exciting!  We will be exploring times when it seemed like God was absent, like when the Israelites were in the desert or when different women in the Bible were struck barren and why.  It is going to be quite the roadtrip!  For those of you that have been on a VISION event…which has been your favorite and why?

and again, more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

i just had to include this one because of its hilariousness.  HAHAHAHAHAHAH

here are some students and Da M.A.C. heading into large group!

ahhhhh, nametags….

rocking out to the AWESOME VISION band!

one of the main speakers, scot burbank and clay, a student from parkade, making a relationship smoothie (ick!)

me and storm in her office before the weekend has begun!  i am obviously excited!

Da M.A.C.’s concert on Saturday night with his hype-man “Mr. BIG” because his rep BE IN G-sus (because Jesus is a G, apparently)

Since we have been in Ohio, we have made some really great connections to people all across the board.  There are two in particular that we have spent quite a bit of time with (mainly because JR. and I practically live at the cafe, and they do also so we get to hang out a lot).  These two people are Jordin Kear, the operations manager at the Bridge and his now fiancee, Jenna Asbury.  Obviously we met at the beginning of our journey here, but it has seemed almost as though we have known each other for much longer than that. 

They were engaged in December and are in the process of planning their wedding to happen in August.  JR. and I were both asked to be in the wedding party:  I am a brides/groomsmaid and JR. is officiating.  Jordin explained to us that he felt like we as a couple had been the closest friends that the two of them had while dating and wanted to reflect that in the wedding party.  I am super excited to be in another wedding!  They have a bunch of fun and creative ideas to make their wedding unique.  The colors are a light blue/aqua color and chocolate brown.  All of our dresses are super fun (you will see a pic at the bottom) and the boys are wearing brown slacks, dress shirts and aqua suspenders!  I am super pumped about that…they are gonna look awesome!  It has been really cool to see how they have grown together as a couple and it reminds of just a few months ago planning our wedding.  I know this is a short entry and kinda girly, but I thought it deserved a full blog update.  For those of you that attended our wedding last July, what was your favorite part?  That is something we have asked several people and love hearing how different all the responses are. 

Here are a couple of pictures to enjoy:

part of the way jordin proposed to jenna…isn’t that presh?

jenna and i at david’s bridal.  that is the dress…but obviously in a different color

even though you can’t see jordin’s face…this is what he can do as his stupid human trick…even though it is not stupid!  he can put a medical latex glove over his face just covering his nose and can blow it up until it pops.  it is PHENOMENAL!

So the reason why this is the title of the blog is quite interesting and random.  You know how I wrote that blog earlier about how it is a small world?  Well it is all about connections and how we are all connected as people.  This is something I have experienced on all kinds of levels in all different types of communities.  Well…we have had the opportunity to experience it even more in a church the size of Beavercreek and in the surrounding suburbs of Dayton.  For example, several of us went out to lunch after church one day and waited in a loooooong line to finally discover we were not going to have a place to sit to eat our deliciousness from the newly opened Five Guys (which by the way, Jenny Craig sits in the middle of a Chipotle and a Five Guys in a strip mall…those dieters are doomed!), and all of a sudden a man that none of us had met before came up to JR. and said, “hey JR., our table is about to open…if you guys want you are more than welcome to take it.  In fact, why don’t you eat the last of our fries too while you wait?”  Obviously it was a man from our church but he was kind enough to spot us and help us out. 

Another example more relevant to this post is about a wonderful lady named Wendy who attends BCN and is also in charge of all of the marketing for the two local Chick-Fil-A branches here in town.  She is awesome and expressed her interest (and the general manager’s interest) in partnering with the Bridge.  So…for winter quarter so far we have sold chicken biscuits and chicken minis every morning and have slowly but surely gotten busier and busier.  Not only that but we have also decided to go out on campus with Jordin in the pink gorilla suit (already notorious at WSU) and have the Cow from Chick-fil-a come out with him and pass out coupons or something!  Wouldn’t that be fun?

Another interesting tidbit is the culture of Chick-fil-a and how they do business.  Not only are they not open on Sundays, but they are also required to say “my pleasure” after serving a customer.  During the warmer months, they have a more interactive drive-thru approach.  They have real life people standing outside with headsets that greet you with a warm smile and take your order from a clipboard.  It is fascinating.  Especially because no other fast food chain does that (to my limited knowledge). 

Anyways, I know that is a more random thing going on here, but hey, its relevant, and it is a blog. 

Do any of you readers out there have a fun connection story?  Or a tale of how it truly is a small world after all?

Last Thursday the Bridge had an opportunity to raise money for HOPE International and the work they are (and already have been) doing in Port Au Prince and the surrounding areas impacted by the earthquakes.  We gathered up several performers that frequent the Bridge (mostly students at Wright State as well) and had a variety show/benefit concert.  We didn’t charge for the event and just put donation buckets around the stage.  The coolest part is that we not only were able to share about how awesome Hope International is, but we also were able to raise over $400 to give to the microloans…so that is money that will continually pour into the community over the long term.  Super exciting! 

The reason why I called it a variety show is because of the random acts that performed.  We had an Irish dancer, a folk singer, a few acoustic rock bands, a comedian, a couple acapella singers AND two hip-hop artists!  (and as I blogged yesterday…one of which, was Da M.A.C.)  It was packed the whole night and I am pretty sure at one point we had over 95 people in the cafe (which is over firecode…but shhhhh!  don’t tell anyone!).  Every seat in the house was taken, there were people sitting on the floor and standing all over the place.  It was such a good feeling to be a part of that experience.  It brought the community of the Bridge a little bit closer and I am grateful for the generosity of the students. 

JR. was fortunate enough to attend a HOPE International trip to the Dominican Republic last May and was able to witness first-hand the impact they are making on the communities that are in crippling poverty.  These organizations are not only putting a bandaid on a wound but they are teaching and empowering the people to learn how to help that wound heal and to even make their own bandages.  It provides them with a sense of dignity and pride that they may have never felt before.  I encourage you to check out their website and not only check out what they are doing but also to find a way to give to the organization whether it be for Haiti, or the Philippines, or Rwanda, or Russia, or India, or the Ukraine.

And as I ended last night with a few pictures, I figured I would add a few pictures to this one just to give faces to a name.

the stud MC for the night (rocking out his HOPE shirt from Catalyst!)

standing room only

probably illegal…lol!

learning an irish jig

JR. and his friend Matt buying towels from a microloan receiver in the Dominican Republic

The school that started from nothing and was built by the community, not by donations from any American teams.  Also, one of the best schools in the country.

Okay, so here is the first of many updates this week.  I am sure that not many of you knew this, but our wonderful brother and friend Michael Lacoste, now alumni of the University of Missouri-Columbia, came to visit us for a few weeks during the month of January.  He arrived on a Saturday and was immediately impressed with the size of the Dayton area (he was able to see a lot because he got quite lost!  For some reason, mapquest and google maps have a tendency to send people our direction from Missouri on a wild goose chase through downtown Dayton, and there is a MUCH simpler way to come.  Two highways:  Interstate 70 for about a billion miles and Highway 675 straight to our place…and you are only on 675 for 10 minutes or less!)  Anyways, so it was wonderful for us to be able to live in community with one of our closest friends. 

He was an immediate hit around the BCNaz Young Adult crew (surprise, surprise) and was able to make some good connections here, plus become more motivated to get his music out in the world.  While he was here, he not only performed at Open Mic Night every week, but also put on a concert at our first annual SouthWest Ohio District (SWO to people around here) Young Adult Retreat (called Element, which I will discuss with you all in further posts) AND performed as the headliner at our Hope For Haiti benefit concert last week at the Bridge.  We stopped by one of the local Christian bookstores and left them 6 CDs of Immaculate to do some consignment with them, he was accepted by a booking agency, is performing at Cornerstone this year, AND sold more than 20 CDs while here in Dayton!  We are super excited for where this could lead. 

Not only was he around to do his music thing, but was also able to encourage and serve both JR. and me during his stay.  He quickly became my shopping buddy and would listen to me about anything I had on my mind.  One thing that stuck with me in particular was when we were talking about the cafe and how I had been working mornings.  He asked if I considered myself a morning person and I confessed that I only was because I had to be and sometimes feel like a total slacker if I sleep in.  I asked him what he would say about himself and said that he has always been a morning person and is able to get up out of bed excited for what the day has to offer.  He is always so positive and taught me a huge lesson about being grateful in the small things; the everyday things that we take for granted.  He also did a wonderful job at keeping his room clean and doing the dishes and taking out the trash if it needed it!  I was so thankful for that!

Another thing we were able to talk about (JR. more so that I was, but still hopefully it was helpful) was what was next on his plate.  Right now he doesn’t have a plan for a specific job to pursue and really would like to get his music out there, but also understands that it is a process and might take some time.  We had many conversations about confidence, self-esteem, putting ourselves down, and pretending to be confident when we needed to be so that it would show we were willing to take risks.  We were constantly re-affirming his talents and abilities and encouraging him in whatever way we could.  If you are reading this and are a Da M.A.C., I would ask you to do the same.  Pray for his future, tell him he is doing a great job, whatever it takes to help convince him of his awesomeness!  And, if you haven’t checked out his new stuff….I would highly highly recommend it.  Jordin (the operations manager at the cafe) made his ring tone and text message alert to Christ Beatz and my favorite song off the new album is definitely Til I Collapse with Christ Beatz and Champion running a close second.

here are a few pictures from his stay and also from his new album!  check him out!

what a stud…he is so hardcore!

smile!  trust me, when he isn’t acting gansta, he is always cheesin it up!

the BCNaz group at Element

performing at element

van ride after element with addie and clarissa

Today marks the celebration of us being in Dayton for 6 months!  It is incredible to see how far we have come, and also how fast time can fly!

In honor of the fact we have been here for half of a year (and since we have not posted any blogs in AGES!) I am going to write 6 blogs over the next 6 days.  I know, I know…most of you probably don’t have any hope in me and think it is probably an empty promise, but it is definitely something I want to make a priority.

I have had some good conversations with a few close friends lately and have felt that lack of connection to several of our other close friends…so I feel this can be a step in the right direction.

I hope you all are doing well and I look forward to catching up with you in the next week or so!

*manda*

I turn 29 on Friday, October 23.  Bottom line:

1. I don’t need any more stuff.  And there are people all over the world who live in crushing poverty.

2. Microfinance is the single best way to end systemic poverty, to teach people to pull themselves up out of generations of poverty.  Bar none.

3. HOPE INTERNATIONAL is an amazing organization that is making real, significant change in the Two-Thirds world right now.

What can you do?

CLICK HERE to give right now to support HOPE.  You can give as little as $1.00.  Or as much as you want.

Please give in honor of my big 2-9.  I’d love to raise $2,900 this week.  That would be 29 families lifted out of poverty in the next six months; 58 by my 30th birthday.  Nearly 60 families whose lives would be utterly transformed.

Once you’ve given, PLEASE TELL MORE PEOPLE!  More details below:

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s the whole story:

I’m turning 29 this week on Friday, October 23.  My wife, Amanda and I moved to Dayton, OH about 2 1/2 months ago (a week after getting married) to work for Beavercreek Church of the Nazarene.  It’s been amazing so far (short version).

In fact, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how outrageously blessed I am right now.  And then, about one month ago, I read Tim Sanders’ blog about a guy named Ken Hertz who gave away his 50th birthday to CharityWater.org.  Ken raised over $50,000 by asking everyone he knew to donate to Charity Water instead of giving him anything.

I’ll all about copying a great idea, so I decided to give my birthday to HOPE INTERNATIONAL.  HOPE is a micro-finance organization, which basically means that they give very small loans (usually $50-$200) to persons in the two-thirds world.  I won’t bore you with the details (though you absolutely should research this for yourself), but here’s the bottom line:

Microfinance is the single best way to end systematic poverty in the world. That is not an overstatement.  I had the opportunity back in May to travel with a group to the Dominican Republic to witness first-hand what HOPE can do.  HOPE’s programs lift people out of poverty and give them dignity.  Their motto is “A hand UP, not a handout”, and they live this out.  This is a grassroots, hardcore, 110% committed company whose staff and president utterly embody the values and vision they’re communicating to their clients.  I got to watch what they do first-hand, and I can tell you that they are utterly transforming entire communities with what they’re doing.  This really works.

Check out their site, decide what you want to give and then CLICK HERE to give!

Thanks so much everyone, for helping to make my 29th Birthday my best yet.  Please spread the word about HOPE!

I know it has been ages since I have posted (there have been lots of things going on, and we all know I am not the most tech-savvy person…nor the best blogger, but i am trying people!)  but that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been anything to blog about.  In fact, there have been plenty of things, I just haven’t had the time to get around to it.

So in this post, I want to share with you a story about how small the world can truly be. 

Several weeks ago, JR. and I went to Clarissa and Elizabeth’s house to meet up with a girl that had visited BCN a couple weeks earlier and requested more information about the Young Adult Group (side note – we are trying to think of a name to call this group –the 18-30 year-olds- and we haven’t come up with anything yet.  Thoughts?).  JR. had been in communication with her and she said that she was involved in a ministry on Wright-Patterson’s Air Force Base (right next to where we live) and wanted to see if there was a way we could partner/help with stuff.  She is married and her husband was shipped to Korea for a month or so…so she had a little bit more free time to meet with us. 

As we are waiting on her to get over to the girls’ house, we are chatting amongst ourselves when she shows up.  As soon as she walks in the door, I immediately recognize her.  Her name is Jean Taylor and she was a stellar cross-country and track runner my freshman year at McCluer North High School.  I was on the track team my freshman year, and idolized Veronica Bible and Jean.  I was deciding on whether or not to say something to her when I finally got up the guts to ask her a few questions.  I asked her if she graduated from McCluer North in 2000.  She looked at me like I was a bit weird and said, “yeah, why?”  I then explained I was a freshman her senior year, which was probably the reason why she didn’t recognize me.  (It’s always easier to remember people that are older than you rather than younger in high school, IMO.)  So anyways, we reminisced and chatted about different things and how crazy it had been since she had left and about good ol’ Flo-town.  It was fun.

Then…another random connection from this summer then turned into more randomness.  I went with JR.’s Parkade Youth group on their mission trip/camp as an adult sponsor to Philly.  The camp is called M-Fuge, and lasts all summer long with the same staff and different youth groups from all over the country come for different weeks.  It is an intensive mix of teaching/small group material plus a missions focus around the city.  Each youth group is assigned a staff liaison to help with whatever they need.  We were assigned Tonya, and since we didn’t really have anything we needed from her, we decided to see if she just wanted to eat dinner at our table the last night to chat about whatever and relax.  She agreed and met us in the dining hall.  We started chatting and told her how we were getting married the following month and then moving to Ohio.  She not only was from Ohio, but also from a SUBERB right next to Beavercreek!  How wild is that? 

Well, she came to visit us at Bridge the other week with two other staffers from M-Fuge (Ashley and Billy) and then added us as friends on facebook.  On facebook, we realized we had a friend in common named Peter.  Peter, who we randomly met through our friend Elizabeth (from her work who also went to the zoo with us in August) is a part of their small group with their church and happened to be in Bethlehem at the exact same time in 2005-2006!  Wild huh?

This has just made me think more and more about how we are all connected, especially as the greater Body.  Speaking of being connected, I am going to try and do a better job with staying connected with you all.  I apologize and hope you are all doing well!

*f-manda*