Due to extenuating circumstances (does that sound official enough?) This page has been woefully neglected. Actually, I've been preoccupied with Media Talk 101, travelling, family, relocating and a bunch of other things that have kept me from updating this on a regular basis. Please except my apology and the fact that this little notice is present shows at least some signs of life yet for this website. ~Phillip
Thursday, April 6th, 2006: 2005 In Review
Surprise, surprise! A new journal entry! It's not really fair to think that it has been a year since posting an entry because I was attempting to use a blog program for awhile but it got spammed big time. Instead of salvaging the posts I had made I simply deleted the entire thing. Here is an attempt at the year in review: This year has been a year of God's bountiful grace and care for us. There were times that we were overwhelmed financially and the Lord answered our prayers. Not only did He meet our immediate needs but He also answered a prayer that seemed unlikely to be fulfilled. Since I resigned my position as a full time youth/associate pastor I have prayed that somehow we could become debt free in order to be more free to minister to others with our time and resources. This year the Lord allowed us to become 100% free of debt including our mortgage on the house due. This was due to some unexpected and unsolicited gifts from generous individuals as well as the generosity of churches and other ministries who have freely contributed to our ministry as we have offered ministry without charge or obligation. I cannot thank God enough for His ministry to my family and I who are not worthy of such beneficence and have been humbled by this mercy.
I spent most of January 2005 doing local ministry and catching up after spending over three months on the West Coast with my family. We got home just before Christmas due to a delay because of a major RV breakdown. I had a weekend trip to Pennsylvania to speak at a family camp during January as well and happened to be terribly sick and nearly lost my voice. Shortly after that we packed up the motor home for a two month trip which started in Indiana then Tennessee, Texas and Alabama. I did a ton of True Lies Youth Talks seminars interspersed with music ministry at coffee houses and churches. During the Spring I did local ministry and prepared to lead a summer camp. I also had the opportunity to give media seminars at a music festival in Southern Illinois. Summer was a blur with two camps and a music ministry trip with a couple of friends to Texas over the 4th of July. In late July we packed up the RV again for a two month trip to the East Coast beginning with a stop in central Ohio to visit Phil Chalmers (the director of True Lies) and for some music ministry in the area. Our next stop was a national youth conference in Pittsburgh, PA where I gave media seminars as a part of youth worker training. It was just prior to this that I (along with 30 other speakers for True Lies) found out that it would be the last year for a True Lies speaking team. Through prayer I was led to start Media Talk 101 as a non-profit ministry designed to teach media discernment www.mediatalk101.org</a> . We continued on to several ministry dates in Easter Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York. We were able to meet up with several friends on the East Coast that we haven't seen since living in New Jersey over 12 years ago. When we returned we had a stop in Wisconsin before heading home and an unscheduled breakdown while driving through Chicago, yikes! We only had a few weeks to get ready for a trip to Minnesota and then to Oregon for six weeks. During that trip I began to write a book in conjunction with the organization of Media Talk 101. As soon as we returned home I had to drive out to the East Coast again for some scheduled media seminars. The rest of the year was dedicated to finishing the book and working on developing a seminar for Media Talk 101. The book was finished in late December after working night and day on it then came another month of seminar preparation along with developing basic promotional materials. That led us into the new year and another scheduled trip to Alabama and then Florida for two months. We have just returned and are settling in at home for Spring and early Summer with local ministry and more Media Talk 101 development. All of that info was pretty dry and boring but I needed to catch up so can start fresh.
Wednesday, April 20th, 2005:
I decided I would cut a corner here and paste the last newsletter that I had sent out to those on our mailing list. Some of it might be a little redundant but it also includes a nice contribution from Mary.
Thursday, April 6th, 2006: 2005 In Review
Surprise, surprise! A new journal entry! It's not really fair to think that it has been a year since posting an entry because I was attempting to use a blog program for awhile but it got spammed big time. Instead of salvaging the posts I had made I simply deleted the entire thing. Here is an attempt at the year in review: This year has been a year of God's bountiful grace and care for us. There were times that we were overwhelmed financially and the Lord answered our prayers. Not only did He meet our immediate needs but He also answered a prayer that seemed unlikely to be fulfilled. Since I resigned my position as a full time youth/associate pastor I have prayed that somehow we could become debt free in order to be more free to minister to others with our time and resources. This year the Lord allowed us to become 100% free of debt including our mortgage on the house due. This was due to some unexpected and unsolicited gifts from generous individuals as well as the generosity of churches and other ministries who have freely contributed to our ministry as we have offered ministry without charge or obligation. I cannot thank God enough for His ministry to my family and I who are not worthy of such beneficence and have been humbled by this mercy.
I spent most of January 2005 doing local ministry and catching up after spending over three months on the West Coast with my family. We got home just before Christmas due to a delay because of a major RV breakdown. I had a weekend trip to Pennsylvania to speak at a family camp during January as well and happened to be terribly sick and nearly lost my voice. Shortly after that we packed up the motor home for a two month trip which started in Indiana then Tennessee, Texas and Alabama. I did a ton of True Lies Youth Talks seminars interspersed with music ministry at coffee houses and churches. During the Spring I did local ministry and prepared to lead a summer camp. I also had the opportunity to give media seminars at a music festival in Southern Illinois. Summer was a blur with two camps and a music ministry trip with a couple of friends to Texas over the 4th of July. In late July we packed up the RV again for a two month trip to the East Coast beginning with a stop in central Ohio to visit Phil Chalmers (the director of True Lies) and for some music ministry in the area. Our next stop was a national youth conference in Pittsburgh, PA where I gave media seminars as a part of youth worker training. It was just prior to this that I (along with 30 other speakers for True Lies) found out that it would be the last year for a True Lies speaking team. Through prayer I was led to start Media Talk 101 as a non-profit ministry designed to teach media discernment www.mediatalk101.org</a> . We continued on to several ministry dates in Easter Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York. We were able to meet up with several friends on the East Coast that we haven't seen since living in New Jersey over 12 years ago. When we returned we had a stop in Wisconsin before heading home and an unscheduled breakdown while driving through Chicago, yikes! We only had a few weeks to get ready for a trip to Minnesota and then to Oregon for six weeks. During that trip I began to write a book in conjunction with the organization of Media Talk 101. As soon as we returned home I had to drive out to the East Coast again for some scheduled media seminars. The rest of the year was dedicated to finishing the book and working on developing a seminar for Media Talk 101. The book was finished in late December after working night and day on it then came another month of seminar preparation along with developing basic promotional materials. That led us into the new year and another scheduled trip to Alabama and then Florida for two months. We have just returned and are settling in at home for Spring and early Summer with local ministry and more Media Talk 101 development. All of that info was pretty dry and boring but I needed to catch up so can start fresh.
Wednesday, April 20th, 2005:
I decided I would cut a corner here and paste the last newsletter that I had sent out to those on our mailing list. Some of it might be a little redundant but it also includes a nice contribution from Mary.
Dear Family and Friends,
We have just returned from a two month trip that the Lord truly blessed. God opened many doors for ministry allowing me to share with nearly two thousand youth and adults through the True Lies Youth Talks ministry. With each presentation my zeal to continue sharing this message grows as I am constantly exposed to "Christian" youth who have saturated their lives with teen media which continues to harm them spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. The good news is that many of them are responding to the challenge to follow Christ and develop strong convictions based on that relationship. I have also heard several testimonies from parents about the impact that the seminar has had on their children.
As many of you know we have also added a new facet to our ministry by linking up with the mission organization Gospel for Asia. During our stay in Texas I completed the initial training to become a volunteer as an area representative for GFA. As we travel we will be offering their free book "Revolution in World Missions" as well as seeking opportunities to share with churches and individuals about the work God is doing in Asia through GFA and how they can partner with them in taking the gospel to the unreached people in the 10 different countries that they are currently serving. We are praying that God will allow us to be fruitful in our efforts to raise awareness and support for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are obeying Christ's great commission in their own countries. I recently received a call from the volunteer department at GFA about a high school girl in Texas who received a book from me and after reading it was so moved by the message she had a desire to get involved and was ready to be trained as a volunteer for GFA to share with others how they can be a part of God's work in reaching the millions who have yet to hear the gospel of Christ. If you have not read "Revolution in World Missions" please let me know and I will make sure that you receive a copy of it.
It is amazing that when I resigned from serving as a youth pastor over a year and a half ago it was with the intention of pursuing a full time itinerate music ministry. Through all of this God continues to open doors in churches, coffeehouses and homes to share the music that has been drawn from the well of my soul for the church and for the lost. I continue to get invitations to lead times of praise and worship through song and I have been both blessed and stretched through each experience. I have been reading a book on worship that I highly recommend called "Unceasing Worship" by Harold Best. It is inspiring and full of insightful teaching on a level untouched by many other contemporary authors on the subject of worship and the church.
God bless You ~ Phillip
From the Editress:
Did you ever just know you were supposed to go somewhere? Last summer I asked Phillip if we could go to Texas in February - just hoping to escape part of the cold midwestern winter. Within a couple weeks our paths crossed with someone from GFA and we had an invitation and a reason to go to Texas. The rest of the plans fell into place.
We truly had a wonderful, adventurous trip. It was little sad to see it end. Living out of an RV has its challenges, but in some ways it simplifies daily life. Now that we're home we have to deal with a lot more "stuff". However did we survive 7 weeks without all of our stuff? Some quick trip highlights:
DALLAS, TX - Visiting GFA and meeting K.P. Yohannan and the staff was inspiring. It was quite an honor to meet Brother K.P. Elisabeth said to him "I pray for you every night and I sent you a card and a check (for the tsunami children) did you get it?" He smiled and assured her that he has a special file for all the cards he receives from children.
We had a a great time camping out in Lewisville, TX,(suburb of Dallas) at a beautiful lake - we had lots of time to read all of the great books we picked up at GFA. One day I was doing laundry and thought I could make it back from the laundry room to our RV while carrying 2 (small) baskets of laundry. (not a very good idea). As I struggled along a nice family offered to help me. We chatted and it turns out they were from Kentucky and were in Texas to volunteer at GFA too. We had a great time getting to know Byron, Anna and their children.
SAN ANTONIO, TX - We had a wonderful stay in San Antonio thanks to some good friends who blessed us with the use of their vacation home. We also had a great weekend with new friends at their ranch outside of San Antonio. They were a wonderful family who truly showed love to strangers. We had such a memorable time.
MOBILE, AL - We had a great time visiting with our former Pastor from Chicago and his wife, family and church. We experienced lots of southern charm in Mobile and enjoyed great coffee at the Ugly Mug Coffee House. We spent an afternoon at the beautiful gulf coast. Elisabeth says the white sand is much nicer than the California coast.
NASHVILLE, TN - We had a great time visiting with friends and Phillip played at writers night at the Alabama Grill.
Since returning home, we decided to start a Tuesday evening GFA prayer meeting, set up like the ones they have in TX (they encourage children over 6 to stay and pray). Elisabeth, who attended 2 Tuesday night prayer meetings insisted we break up into groups of 2. She began to pray fervently and quietly and C.J. , with his hands folded prayed his favorite prayer "thank you Lord for feeding us Amen". Shortly after that we convinced her that we could be one group. They enjoyed singing and praying and they are looking forward to next Tuesday.
As many of you know we have also added a new facet to our ministry by linking up with the mission organization Gospel for Asia. During our stay in Texas I completed the initial training to become a volunteer as an area representative for GFA. As we travel we will be offering their free book "Revolution in World Missions" as well as seeking opportunities to share with churches and individuals about the work God is doing in Asia through GFA and how they can partner with them in taking the gospel to the unreached people in the 10 different countries that they are currently serving. We are praying that God will allow us to be fruitful in our efforts to raise awareness and support for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are obeying Christ's great commission in their own countries. I recently received a call from the volunteer department at GFA about a high school girl in Texas who received a book from me and after reading it was so moved by the message she had a desire to get involved and was ready to be trained as a volunteer for GFA to share with others how they can be a part of God's work in reaching the millions who have yet to hear the gospel of Christ. If you have not read "Revolution in World Missions" please let me know and I will make sure that you receive a copy of it.
It is amazing that when I resigned from serving as a youth pastor over a year and a half ago it was with the intention of pursuing a full time itinerate music ministry. Through all of this God continues to open doors in churches, coffeehouses and homes to share the music that has been drawn from the well of my soul for the church and for the lost. I continue to get invitations to lead times of praise and worship through song and I have been both blessed and stretched through each experience. I have been reading a book on worship that I highly recommend called "Unceasing Worship" by Harold Best. It is inspiring and full of insightful teaching on a level untouched by many other contemporary authors on the subject of worship and the church.
God bless You ~ Phillip
From the Editress:
Did you ever just know you were supposed to go somewhere? Last summer I asked Phillip if we could go to Texas in February - just hoping to escape part of the cold midwestern winter. Within a couple weeks our paths crossed with someone from GFA and we had an invitation and a reason to go to Texas. The rest of the plans fell into place.
We truly had a wonderful, adventurous trip. It was little sad to see it end. Living out of an RV has its challenges, but in some ways it simplifies daily life. Now that we're home we have to deal with a lot more "stuff". However did we survive 7 weeks without all of our stuff? Some quick trip highlights:
DALLAS, TX - Visiting GFA and meeting K.P. Yohannan and the staff was inspiring. It was quite an honor to meet Brother K.P. Elisabeth said to him "I pray for you every night and I sent you a card and a check (for the tsunami children) did you get it?" He smiled and assured her that he has a special file for all the cards he receives from children.
We had a a great time camping out in Lewisville, TX,(suburb of Dallas) at a beautiful lake - we had lots of time to read all of the great books we picked up at GFA. One day I was doing laundry and thought I could make it back from the laundry room to our RV while carrying 2 (small) baskets of laundry. (not a very good idea). As I struggled along a nice family offered to help me. We chatted and it turns out they were from Kentucky and were in Texas to volunteer at GFA too. We had a great time getting to know Byron, Anna and their children.
SAN ANTONIO, TX - We had a wonderful stay in San Antonio thanks to some good friends who blessed us with the use of their vacation home. We also had a great weekend with new friends at their ranch outside of San Antonio. They were a wonderful family who truly showed love to strangers. We had such a memorable time.
MOBILE, AL - We had a great time visiting with our former Pastor from Chicago and his wife, family and church. We experienced lots of southern charm in Mobile and enjoyed great coffee at the Ugly Mug Coffee House. We spent an afternoon at the beautiful gulf coast. Elisabeth says the white sand is much nicer than the California coast.
NASHVILLE, TN - We had a great time visiting with friends and Phillip played at writers night at the Alabama Grill.
Since returning home, we decided to start a Tuesday evening GFA prayer meeting, set up like the ones they have in TX (they encourage children over 6 to stay and pray). Elisabeth, who attended 2 Tuesday night prayer meetings insisted we break up into groups of 2. She began to pray fervently and quietly and C.J. , with his hands folded prayed his favorite prayer "thank you Lord for feeding us Amen". Shortly after that we convinced her that we could be one group. They enjoyed singing and praying and they are looking forward to next Tuesday.
God bless you again, ~ Mary
Monday, April 18th: I was absolutely shocked when I noticed the last journal entry was back in December. One problem with my inconsistency is that when I finally get around to working on the journal so much has gone on that it's really difficult to know where to begin. We recently returned from a two month trip that started in Indiana then down to Tennessee and then on to Texas for several weeks. After Texas we spent a week in Alabama then back up to Tennessee, one stop in Indiana and then back home. One of the highlights of this trip was the opportunity to spend time at the Gospel for Asia headquarters. We became acquainted with GFA last year while travelling in Oregon and believed God was calling us to get involved. We decided to sponsor a native missionary in Asia through GFA and our longing to do something more led us to Texas to learn more about GFA and how we could get involved as volunteers. Along with the music and youth ministry we are now providing books and other free literature from GFA and are also looking for opportunities to share with others about the work that God is doing through this missionary organization. I feel bad to end this lame entry so soon but I am very tired and am not feeling very inspired to continue.
Tuesday, December 14th: I'm guessing that maybe once a month is a more realistic goal for this journal since that has been my pace. I am at a Starbuck's in Malibu and will be meeting with some other men from Calvary Chapel soon for a time of fellowship. It's hard to believe that we have to go home this week. It has been three months since we left for Oregon and six weeks since we came down to Southern California. I have spent the last week building a skateboard halfpipe for a single mom here in Malibu for her two younger sons. It's been good to get some exercise and work with my hands. It's been several weeks since my training weekend for True Lies Youth Talks in Ohio. It was a fantastic time getting to meet the new speakers as well as the veterans. The training was helpful and we were equipped with the new presentation for the year. I've had the opportunity to share three more seminars with youth and adults since the training. It's hard to put into words the overall impact of the last three months in my own life. It has been rewarding, faith building, inspiring and at time's it has been tiring, trying, and stretching. I am becoming more convinced that intimacy with God is the result of faith/trust. If you planted a tree called trust it would produce the fruit of intimacy. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." I think many times we wrongly assume that intimacy with God comes as a result of the level of our expressed love for Him. To often we equate love with feelings so the problem is created because we believe we must feel in love with God and when we do we might call it intimacy. This is why many equate singing songs of love to God as intimacy if they indeed sense that they feel in love with God as they sing. But what happens if we're out of sorts, in a bad mood, inconsistent in our feeling in love with God? May times we panic, doubt and worry which are all "trees" that do not produce intimacy with God abut actually work against intimacy with God who is looking for those who will trust Him. Faith on the other hand pleases God and faith is not a result of works, which means intimacy with God is not a result of works. We cannot do great things to gain intimacy. But once we have intimacy through faith then all that we do becomes an act of worship which comes from heartfelt adoration of the One who first loved us, when we sing, when we give, when we pray, etc. I have heard many people talk about a "honeymoon" period with God when they were new believers. A time of intimacy and zeal. I used to think this was a result of the newness of the relationship and partly because a baby naturally needs greater care and protection than an adult. I now think there is also the important element of childlike faith that trusts and believes with the sincerity of youth. As our live continue on, we are exposed to more and more things that have the potential to cause doubt or tempt us to become too sophisticated, too knowledgeable, more independent and all these things chisel away at our initial trust. Sometimes we experience disappointment with God and we are tempted to distrust Him. All these things test our faith and it either grows or it diminishes and as it diminishes, so does the intimacy we once experienced. This to can create panic and distrust, furthering the cycle. I believe that God intends to test our faith in Him as He did to Israel as the were delivered from Egypt. They had been entrusted with many proofs of God's faithfulness and yet they continued to doubt Him and when they chose to disbelieve they consequently were also jeopardizing their intimacy with God.
Wednesday, November 10th: Tomorrow I fly out of L.A. to Ohio for the annual True Lies Youth Talks speaker training. I'm looking forward to meeting the other speakers and True Lies staff since I came on board late last year and participated in a make up training session with the founder, Phil Chalmers. I have seen this message polarize youth as they are faced with truth and either close the eyes of their hearts or soften to the message of developing convictions based on what God has made clear to us in scripture. After a year with this ministry I am more convinced of the need to boldly share what is true and expose the lies that are being sold to teens though media.
I'm sitting at a "Peet's Coffee" in Valencia, CA and I just spilled some coffee on my paper so I am creatively writing around the big blotch on this page, though I don't think I'll try to visually convey this when I finally type it into the computer.
I have been reading through the Bible at a very slow pace this last year and I am currently reading the gospel of Luke. The slow pace is not necessarily due to thorough study but due to my inconsistency of discipline. I have also been reading a book by K.P. Yohannan called "The Road to Reality: Coming Home to Jesus from the unreal World". His message is reminiscent of those from the late preacher A.W. Tozer, though K.P. Yohannan's approach is not just the state of the American church culture but also upon the role we could be playing in world missions. We would like to think we are the Christian superpower of missions but reality show something different. Here's a quote from "Road to Reality"
"First of all, in the United States, we know about Jesus. Even if His beautiful name is used as a curse word of joke, virtually every American has at least heard the Christmas story. Most have heard the Gospel repeatedly. How different this is from my native Asia. For nearly six years I wandered from village to village and street to street in north India as a native missionary evangelist. Everywhere I would ask the same question, 'have you heard of Jesus?' I cannot tell you how many times we would hear the reply, 'Sir, there is no Jesus Christ living here. Maybe he lives in the next village. Why don't you try there?' Millions of people in Asia have not once heard the Gospel, have never seen a Bible, a tract or a Christian video. Hundreds of millions have never heard a Christian radio broadcast or even met a believer - let alone spoken with a trained missionary evangelist. Hundreds of thousands of villages are without a Christian witness, and there are 11,000 unreached people groups in the world still without a church! Most of these are in Asia. Many times, when I quote these gigantic numbers to audiences, I see eyes glaze over. These numbers have been heard so many times they have lost their impact. But remember, we're talking about real people with lost souls. These are not monkeys jumping up and down, or fish in the sea, but people who are born and die, love and hate. They suffer loneliness, guilt and pain just as you and I do. May God open our eyes to the reality of the nearly three billion people who are still unreached by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As our global population exceeds six billion people, we face a situation where there are more people living on earth today than have lived in the whole history of humankind. Compare this crying need overseas to the present situation in the United Sates alone. More than 1.5 million Americans are ordained ministers, leaving about one preacher for every 187 persons. There are more than 600,000 churches, 6,100 Christian bookstores and over 4,000 Christian radio and television stations. Also, we have countless Christian schools, colleges and seminaries. More than 95 percent of the total church budget in the United States is spent at home to maintain programs rather than to reach out in mission. Of the five percent that goes overseas to mission, less than half of one percent is used to reach the lost. Only one percent of overseas North American missionaries is concentrating on going to the unreached people. To understand this inequity fully, imagine the 55,000 seats in the Houston Astrodome represented the population of the world. If 171 hot-dog venders represented all the missionaries we send overseas, 170 of them would be offering food to only the first 25,300 seats. One lone vendor would have to go to the other 29,700 seats! And it's worse than that. When they had gone through those first 25,000 seats once, they wouldn't go on to the other rows full of hungry fans! Instead they would go back over the first seats again and again and again. That's what is really happening in Christian missions today. And the situation here at home is the worst scandal of all. A tiny slice of the world's population, living in the United States and Canada, is getting stuffed with the Gospel over and over again while most of the world is still waiting for a fist bite."
We were blessed to get the opportunity to stop at "The Land" on our way down to Southern California. "The Land" is a place of discipleship for young people reached with the gospel through the ministry of "The Prodigal Project" in San Francisco, CA. This ministry reaches out to street kids with the gospel and then runs a year around place of discipleship up in the Redwoods on a property that was donated to the ministry which consists of some community buildings for worship & for dining and then various cabins for living.. The blessing comes from seeing and interacting with these young adults who are being transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. They have amazing testimonies and many of them radiate the love of Christ. The director of the "The Land", Derek Scholl, is a friend of our who we met years ago when he attended the Great Commission School of the Bible with my younger brother. Derek is a passionate follower of Jesus and a faithful steward of the gifts and callings entrusted to him.
Thursday, October 14th: This is a new attempt and a new approach to keep this journal going. In the past I've just sat down at the laptop and typed away, but that has several drawbacks so I am now sitting down in "Cornerstone Coffee" in McMinnville, Oregon, writing on a real piece of paper, drinking some good coffee and listening to Simon & Garfunkle on the house speakers. We've been in "Mac" all week as I have enjoyed the privilege to be a guest teacher at "The Berean School of the Bible". This is a school where the first year students study through the entire Bible, book by book, while living in Christian community. This week I was assigned to teach the book of Numbers and it was a very stretching task for me. In the past, when teaching through a book of the Bible, I have had the luxury of teaching week by week, a chapter or so at a time with the rest of the week to prepare for the next section. Not so with this. I was to teach 36 chapters in three days, with three, one hour sessions each day. I believe it was received with a similar enthusiasm in which it was taught, as the Lord gave me grace to exercise the gift of teaching. In the time that I've been sitting here I have seen a half dozen people studying the Bible in this coffehouse. This is definitely the place to be. This week, many families took the pastor's challenge on Sunday to invite our family over for a meal so we have been blessed with wonderful fellowship and full tummy's. I almost hate to leave this oasis of Christian community.
Wednesday, September 22nd: We began our trip to Oregon over a week ago and had our first stop in John Day, Oregon which is in the Eastern part of the State. I led worship and sang some of my own songs at the Strawberry Mountain Christian Fellowship which is an outreach of Calvary Chapel. The pastor and his wife, Ira & Carolyn, invited us to stay in their home and it was truly a retreat for us. It was like staying at a bed and breakfast. They live in a log home overlooking the Strawberry Mountains. They fed us like kings and we shared a wonderful time of fellowship in the Lord. After our stay there for a couple of days we headed for Madras which is my home town. Along the way we stopped in the town of Fossil which has a public fossil dig. Elisabeth in particular was enthralled with the whole event and found several fossils of leaves. I had a pretty good find and dug up a fossil of a small reptile. This weekend I will be leading worship and sharing some original music at Freedom Christian Fellowship in the morning and then presenting a True Lies Youth Talk at the Conservative Baptist Church of Madras. I've been spending most of this week working on updating this web site with information on the new CD.
Monday, August 30th: I guess I should have signed off for Summer with this journal. Right now I am trying to finish up my new recording "Beyond the Threshold" while trying to get ready for our West Coast trip in two weeks. Things are a bit nutty right now but I'm having a blast and God is granting me peace. I hope to have more time to invest in this site once we hit the road. We will be spending almost six weeks in Oregon and then we will be heading to California for almost a month.
Tuesday, June 15th: I can finally get back to all the things that have been neglected while preparing for and attending summer youth camp. I had the privilege to be the guest speaker and program director of a camp I have participated with for the last six years. Our theme this year was Mission: Possible and I talked on seven subjects: How is it possible to be born again? How is it possible to trust in a God that I don't see? How is it possible to be forgiven and to forgive others? How is it possible to follow Christ? How is it possible to hear from God? How is it possible to share my faith with others? How is it possible to be useful to God in this world? As a part of the program there is a strong emphasis on memorizing ten scriptures for the week and it was a blessing to see so many campers and volunteers take and complete the challenge. I'll try to post some pictures from camp in the near future. There were at least 4 campers who received Christ and many shared testimonies on the last night of camp as well as poured out their hearts to each other for ministry and prayer. It was well worth all the late nights of preparation and neglect of other things (like this web site) to see young lives impacted for Christ during a week of camp. On another note, I received the news this weekend that the Cornerstone CD compilation project is going to include my song "Blessed Are" on the CD for this Summer's festival. They plan on distributing copies to the 30,000 people in attendance.
Sunday, May 9th: It's mother's day today so I called my mom to say hello and chat. I rarely send cards so I have made it a habit to call on holidays and birthdays. We had a nice talk and I even slipped in some conversation with my dad before I got off the phone. I often mention them in my ministry and how they faithfully prayed for me and reached out to me when I was struggling during my teenage rebellion against God and man. It is great to see how devoted they remain to God and to their local church. My dad is an elder and my mom serves as the volunteer secretary. Mom's have a tough job as I get to learn first hand seeing my wife Mary faithfully serving our children sacrificially from day to day. Mary is still not feeling up to travelling about much yet so she opted for a quiet day at home instead of going out for dinner so I did what I could and cooked a roast in the crock pot. It turned out all right and I served it with rice and some mediocre gravy. The real treat was the chocolate chip cookies that I baked in lieu of a cake since I'm not very experienced with baking cakes but my family loves my cookies. We took a nice walk altogether after dinner and though it was very warm and humid we were spared from any rain coming from the dark and ominous looking clouds creeping in from the North.
Saturday, May 8th: We named our daughter Grace Marie about a week after she was born. We thought it was fitting since she was born on Easter. We now have two children in diapers so my diaper changing responsibilities have taken me out of my comfort zone. I rarely ever changed diapers before but now it is a necessity so I do my best and try to keep a positive attitude while I develop a desensitized olfactory. I have been doing my best to continue with my recording of "Think About These Things" which is very close to mixdown and mastering. My hope is to have a complete album finished by the end of Summer. I spent last weekend at a music festival because I was giving a "True Lies Youth Talks" presentation as well as promoting the True Lies ministry and I should probably take more time than I am inclined to at the present to share some of my thoughts that are swirling around in my head regarding the arena of Christian music. I have a lot of questions and concerns on one hand and a sincere love for a diversity of styles and presentations on the other. Right now I don't have the energy or clarity in my mind to write anything worth reading on the subject so I will have to stick to subjects more condusive to 12:06 a.m. like, I should be in bed getting some sleep instead of updating my journal page.
Sunday, April 11th: At 3:45 in the morning I was wakened by the phone and I knew right away that this was it. Mary's water had just broke and the arrival of our new baby was imminent. I got up and called our friends who would be watching our other two children and they decided to come to the house and let the little ones sleep. It was about 4:45 by the time I was packed up and ready to drive to Chicago which I did in record time. At 7:10 a.m. I pulled up to our friends house where Mary would be having the baby. We had planned to have a home birth with a Chicago area practice called "Home First" where the Doctors and nurses come to the house to deliver the baby. When I met Mary she was having strong and frequent contractions but it was not "heavy labor" yet. Shortly after I arrived, Lori Beth, our Doula (Greek for "servant") showed up and began getting things in order for the birth. It wasn't much longer before Mary's labor kicked into high gear about the time that the Doctor arrived. We were blessed to have the founder of this Chicago area practice, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, attend our birth. Many of the Home First Doctors are Christians and were celebrating Easter at their respective churches and so Dr. Eisenstein volunteered to be at this delivery as well as his oldest daughter who is a nurse. When the Doctor arrived Mary was dilated to 5 cm and she decided she would labor in the birthing tub that we had rented. It must have worked well because in about two hours she was fully dilated and ready to push. At this point it was only about 6 minutes and three contractions later that our beautiful little girl arrived on Easter morning at 10:44 a.m. The entire labor was less than 7 hours! Praise the Lord! She weighed in at 8 lbs. even and was 19 inches long. Mary is doing well. For photos of our little beauty, click here.
Saturday, April 10th: It's hard to believe that I have not updated this until now but I guess I have a good excuse since I have been playing Mr. Mom for the last month as my wife Mary has been in Chicago and I have been watching the kids in Mt. Carroll. We have been waiting for her to go into labor as we await the birth of our third child. The due date had been set at March 25th so we wanted to make sure she would be in Chicago a couple of weeks before due date (just in case) and now she has gone two weeks past that date and we are all anxiously waiting to meet our new addition to the family. Mom and Baby are both doing well and it will surely be any day now. I have been recording the song "Think about These Things" which is based on Philippians 4:8 and I have also started writing a new song called "Your Love Remains" which is about the unfailing love of Christ. I hope to have some great news to write about soon.
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Monday, April 18th: I was absolutely shocked when I noticed the last journal entry was back in December. One problem with my inconsistency is that when I finally get around to working on the journal so much has gone on that it's really difficult to know where to begin. We recently returned from a two month trip that started in Indiana then down to Tennessee and then on to Texas for several weeks. After Texas we spent a week in Alabama then back up to Tennessee, one stop in Indiana and then back home. One of the highlights of this trip was the opportunity to spend time at the Gospel for Asia headquarters. We became acquainted with GFA last year while travelling in Oregon and believed God was calling us to get involved. We decided to sponsor a native missionary in Asia through GFA and our longing to do something more led us to Texas to learn more about GFA and how we could get involved as volunteers. Along with the music and youth ministry we are now providing books and other free literature from GFA and are also looking for opportunities to share with others about the work that God is doing through this missionary organization. I feel bad to end this lame entry so soon but I am very tired and am not feeling very inspired to continue.
Tuesday, December 14th: I'm guessing that maybe once a month is a more realistic goal for this journal since that has been my pace. I am at a Starbuck's in Malibu and will be meeting with some other men from Calvary Chapel soon for a time of fellowship. It's hard to believe that we have to go home this week. It has been three months since we left for Oregon and six weeks since we came down to Southern California. I have spent the last week building a skateboard halfpipe for a single mom here in Malibu for her two younger sons. It's been good to get some exercise and work with my hands. It's been several weeks since my training weekend for True Lies Youth Talks in Ohio. It was a fantastic time getting to meet the new speakers as well as the veterans. The training was helpful and we were equipped with the new presentation for the year. I've had the opportunity to share three more seminars with youth and adults since the training. It's hard to put into words the overall impact of the last three months in my own life. It has been rewarding, faith building, inspiring and at time's it has been tiring, trying, and stretching. I am becoming more convinced that intimacy with God is the result of faith/trust. If you planted a tree called trust it would produce the fruit of intimacy. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." I think many times we wrongly assume that intimacy with God comes as a result of the level of our expressed love for Him. To often we equate love with feelings so the problem is created because we believe we must feel in love with God and when we do we might call it intimacy. This is why many equate singing songs of love to God as intimacy if they indeed sense that they feel in love with God as they sing. But what happens if we're out of sorts, in a bad mood, inconsistent in our feeling in love with God? May times we panic, doubt and worry which are all "trees" that do not produce intimacy with God abut actually work against intimacy with God who is looking for those who will trust Him. Faith on the other hand pleases God and faith is not a result of works, which means intimacy with God is not a result of works. We cannot do great things to gain intimacy. But once we have intimacy through faith then all that we do becomes an act of worship which comes from heartfelt adoration of the One who first loved us, when we sing, when we give, when we pray, etc. I have heard many people talk about a "honeymoon" period with God when they were new believers. A time of intimacy and zeal. I used to think this was a result of the newness of the relationship and partly because a baby naturally needs greater care and protection than an adult. I now think there is also the important element of childlike faith that trusts and believes with the sincerity of youth. As our live continue on, we are exposed to more and more things that have the potential to cause doubt or tempt us to become too sophisticated, too knowledgeable, more independent and all these things chisel away at our initial trust. Sometimes we experience disappointment with God and we are tempted to distrust Him. All these things test our faith and it either grows or it diminishes and as it diminishes, so does the intimacy we once experienced. This to can create panic and distrust, furthering the cycle. I believe that God intends to test our faith in Him as He did to Israel as the were delivered from Egypt. They had been entrusted with many proofs of God's faithfulness and yet they continued to doubt Him and when they chose to disbelieve they consequently were also jeopardizing their intimacy with God.
Wednesday, November 10th: Tomorrow I fly out of L.A. to Ohio for the annual True Lies Youth Talks speaker training. I'm looking forward to meeting the other speakers and True Lies staff since I came on board late last year and participated in a make up training session with the founder, Phil Chalmers. I have seen this message polarize youth as they are faced with truth and either close the eyes of their hearts or soften to the message of developing convictions based on what God has made clear to us in scripture. After a year with this ministry I am more convinced of the need to boldly share what is true and expose the lies that are being sold to teens though media.
I'm sitting at a "Peet's Coffee" in Valencia, CA and I just spilled some coffee on my paper so I am creatively writing around the big blotch on this page, though I don't think I'll try to visually convey this when I finally type it into the computer.
I have been reading through the Bible at a very slow pace this last year and I am currently reading the gospel of Luke. The slow pace is not necessarily due to thorough study but due to my inconsistency of discipline. I have also been reading a book by K.P. Yohannan called "The Road to Reality: Coming Home to Jesus from the unreal World". His message is reminiscent of those from the late preacher A.W. Tozer, though K.P. Yohannan's approach is not just the state of the American church culture but also upon the role we could be playing in world missions. We would like to think we are the Christian superpower of missions but reality show something different. Here's a quote from "Road to Reality"
"First of all, in the United States, we know about Jesus. Even if His beautiful name is used as a curse word of joke, virtually every American has at least heard the Christmas story. Most have heard the Gospel repeatedly. How different this is from my native Asia. For nearly six years I wandered from village to village and street to street in north India as a native missionary evangelist. Everywhere I would ask the same question, 'have you heard of Jesus?' I cannot tell you how many times we would hear the reply, 'Sir, there is no Jesus Christ living here. Maybe he lives in the next village. Why don't you try there?' Millions of people in Asia have not once heard the Gospel, have never seen a Bible, a tract or a Christian video. Hundreds of millions have never heard a Christian radio broadcast or even met a believer - let alone spoken with a trained missionary evangelist. Hundreds of thousands of villages are without a Christian witness, and there are 11,000 unreached people groups in the world still without a church! Most of these are in Asia. Many times, when I quote these gigantic numbers to audiences, I see eyes glaze over. These numbers have been heard so many times they have lost their impact. But remember, we're talking about real people with lost souls. These are not monkeys jumping up and down, or fish in the sea, but people who are born and die, love and hate. They suffer loneliness, guilt and pain just as you and I do. May God open our eyes to the reality of the nearly three billion people who are still unreached by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As our global population exceeds six billion people, we face a situation where there are more people living on earth today than have lived in the whole history of humankind. Compare this crying need overseas to the present situation in the United Sates alone. More than 1.5 million Americans are ordained ministers, leaving about one preacher for every 187 persons. There are more than 600,000 churches, 6,100 Christian bookstores and over 4,000 Christian radio and television stations. Also, we have countless Christian schools, colleges and seminaries. More than 95 percent of the total church budget in the United States is spent at home to maintain programs rather than to reach out in mission. Of the five percent that goes overseas to mission, less than half of one percent is used to reach the lost. Only one percent of overseas North American missionaries is concentrating on going to the unreached people. To understand this inequity fully, imagine the 55,000 seats in the Houston Astrodome represented the population of the world. If 171 hot-dog venders represented all the missionaries we send overseas, 170 of them would be offering food to only the first 25,300 seats. One lone vendor would have to go to the other 29,700 seats! And it's worse than that. When they had gone through those first 25,000 seats once, they wouldn't go on to the other rows full of hungry fans! Instead they would go back over the first seats again and again and again. That's what is really happening in Christian missions today. And the situation here at home is the worst scandal of all. A tiny slice of the world's population, living in the United States and Canada, is getting stuffed with the Gospel over and over again while most of the world is still waiting for a fist bite."
We were blessed to get the opportunity to stop at "The Land" on our way down to Southern California. "The Land" is a place of discipleship for young people reached with the gospel through the ministry of "The Prodigal Project" in San Francisco, CA. This ministry reaches out to street kids with the gospel and then runs a year around place of discipleship up in the Redwoods on a property that was donated to the ministry which consists of some community buildings for worship & for dining and then various cabins for living.. The blessing comes from seeing and interacting with these young adults who are being transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. They have amazing testimonies and many of them radiate the love of Christ. The director of the "The Land", Derek Scholl, is a friend of our who we met years ago when he attended the Great Commission School of the Bible with my younger brother. Derek is a passionate follower of Jesus and a faithful steward of the gifts and callings entrusted to him.
Thursday, October 14th: This is a new attempt and a new approach to keep this journal going. In the past I've just sat down at the laptop and typed away, but that has several drawbacks so I am now sitting down in "Cornerstone Coffee" in McMinnville, Oregon, writing on a real piece of paper, drinking some good coffee and listening to Simon & Garfunkle on the house speakers. We've been in "Mac" all week as I have enjoyed the privilege to be a guest teacher at "The Berean School of the Bible". This is a school where the first year students study through the entire Bible, book by book, while living in Christian community. This week I was assigned to teach the book of Numbers and it was a very stretching task for me. In the past, when teaching through a book of the Bible, I have had the luxury of teaching week by week, a chapter or so at a time with the rest of the week to prepare for the next section. Not so with this. I was to teach 36 chapters in three days, with three, one hour sessions each day. I believe it was received with a similar enthusiasm in which it was taught, as the Lord gave me grace to exercise the gift of teaching. In the time that I've been sitting here I have seen a half dozen people studying the Bible in this coffehouse. This is definitely the place to be. This week, many families took the pastor's challenge on Sunday to invite our family over for a meal so we have been blessed with wonderful fellowship and full tummy's. I almost hate to leave this oasis of Christian community.
Wednesday, September 22nd: We began our trip to Oregon over a week ago and had our first stop in John Day, Oregon which is in the Eastern part of the State. I led worship and sang some of my own songs at the Strawberry Mountain Christian Fellowship which is an outreach of Calvary Chapel. The pastor and his wife, Ira & Carolyn, invited us to stay in their home and it was truly a retreat for us. It was like staying at a bed and breakfast. They live in a log home overlooking the Strawberry Mountains. They fed us like kings and we shared a wonderful time of fellowship in the Lord. After our stay there for a couple of days we headed for Madras which is my home town. Along the way we stopped in the town of Fossil which has a public fossil dig. Elisabeth in particular was enthralled with the whole event and found several fossils of leaves. I had a pretty good find and dug up a fossil of a small reptile. This weekend I will be leading worship and sharing some original music at Freedom Christian Fellowship in the morning and then presenting a True Lies Youth Talk at the Conservative Baptist Church of Madras. I've been spending most of this week working on updating this web site with information on the new CD.
Monday, August 30th: I guess I should have signed off for Summer with this journal. Right now I am trying to finish up my new recording "Beyond the Threshold" while trying to get ready for our West Coast trip in two weeks. Things are a bit nutty right now but I'm having a blast and God is granting me peace. I hope to have more time to invest in this site once we hit the road. We will be spending almost six weeks in Oregon and then we will be heading to California for almost a month.
Tuesday, June 15th: I can finally get back to all the things that have been neglected while preparing for and attending summer youth camp. I had the privilege to be the guest speaker and program director of a camp I have participated with for the last six years. Our theme this year was Mission: Possible and I talked on seven subjects: How is it possible to be born again? How is it possible to trust in a God that I don't see? How is it possible to be forgiven and to forgive others? How is it possible to follow Christ? How is it possible to hear from God? How is it possible to share my faith with others? How is it possible to be useful to God in this world? As a part of the program there is a strong emphasis on memorizing ten scriptures for the week and it was a blessing to see so many campers and volunteers take and complete the challenge. I'll try to post some pictures from camp in the near future. There were at least 4 campers who received Christ and many shared testimonies on the last night of camp as well as poured out their hearts to each other for ministry and prayer. It was well worth all the late nights of preparation and neglect of other things (like this web site) to see young lives impacted for Christ during a week of camp. On another note, I received the news this weekend that the Cornerstone CD compilation project is going to include my song "Blessed Are" on the CD for this Summer's festival. They plan on distributing copies to the 30,000 people in attendance.
Sunday, May 9th: It's mother's day today so I called my mom to say hello and chat. I rarely send cards so I have made it a habit to call on holidays and birthdays. We had a nice talk and I even slipped in some conversation with my dad before I got off the phone. I often mention them in my ministry and how they faithfully prayed for me and reached out to me when I was struggling during my teenage rebellion against God and man. It is great to see how devoted they remain to God and to their local church. My dad is an elder and my mom serves as the volunteer secretary. Mom's have a tough job as I get to learn first hand seeing my wife Mary faithfully serving our children sacrificially from day to day. Mary is still not feeling up to travelling about much yet so she opted for a quiet day at home instead of going out for dinner so I did what I could and cooked a roast in the crock pot. It turned out all right and I served it with rice and some mediocre gravy. The real treat was the chocolate chip cookies that I baked in lieu of a cake since I'm not very experienced with baking cakes but my family loves my cookies. We took a nice walk altogether after dinner and though it was very warm and humid we were spared from any rain coming from the dark and ominous looking clouds creeping in from the North.
Saturday, May 8th: We named our daughter Grace Marie about a week after she was born. We thought it was fitting since she was born on Easter. We now have two children in diapers so my diaper changing responsibilities have taken me out of my comfort zone. I rarely ever changed diapers before but now it is a necessity so I do my best and try to keep a positive attitude while I develop a desensitized olfactory. I have been doing my best to continue with my recording of "Think About These Things" which is very close to mixdown and mastering. My hope is to have a complete album finished by the end of Summer. I spent last weekend at a music festival because I was giving a "True Lies Youth Talks" presentation as well as promoting the True Lies ministry and I should probably take more time than I am inclined to at the present to share some of my thoughts that are swirling around in my head regarding the arena of Christian music. I have a lot of questions and concerns on one hand and a sincere love for a diversity of styles and presentations on the other. Right now I don't have the energy or clarity in my mind to write anything worth reading on the subject so I will have to stick to subjects more condusive to 12:06 a.m. like, I should be in bed getting some sleep instead of updating my journal page.
Sunday, April 11th: At 3:45 in the morning I was wakened by the phone and I knew right away that this was it. Mary's water had just broke and the arrival of our new baby was imminent. I got up and called our friends who would be watching our other two children and they decided to come to the house and let the little ones sleep. It was about 4:45 by the time I was packed up and ready to drive to Chicago which I did in record time. At 7:10 a.m. I pulled up to our friends house where Mary would be having the baby. We had planned to have a home birth with a Chicago area practice called "Home First" where the Doctors and nurses come to the house to deliver the baby. When I met Mary she was having strong and frequent contractions but it was not "heavy labor" yet. Shortly after I arrived, Lori Beth, our Doula (Greek for "servant") showed up and began getting things in order for the birth. It wasn't much longer before Mary's labor kicked into high gear about the time that the Doctor arrived. We were blessed to have the founder of this Chicago area practice, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, attend our birth. Many of the Home First Doctors are Christians and were celebrating Easter at their respective churches and so Dr. Eisenstein volunteered to be at this delivery as well as his oldest daughter who is a nurse. When the Doctor arrived Mary was dilated to 5 cm and she decided she would labor in the birthing tub that we had rented. It must have worked well because in about two hours she was fully dilated and ready to push. At this point it was only about 6 minutes and three contractions later that our beautiful little girl arrived on Easter morning at 10:44 a.m. The entire labor was less than 7 hours! Praise the Lord! She weighed in at 8 lbs. even and was 19 inches long. Mary is doing well. For photos of our little beauty, click here.
Saturday, April 10th: It's hard to believe that I have not updated this until now but I guess I have a good excuse since I have been playing Mr. Mom for the last month as my wife Mary has been in Chicago and I have been watching the kids in Mt. Carroll. We have been waiting for her to go into labor as we await the birth of our third child. The due date had been set at March 25th so we wanted to make sure she would be in Chicago a couple of weeks before due date (just in case) and now she has gone two weeks past that date and we are all anxiously waiting to meet our new addition to the family. Mom and Baby are both doing well and it will surely be any day now. I have been recording the song "Think about These Things" which is based on Philippians 4:8 and I have also started writing a new song called "Your Love Remains" which is about the unfailing love of Christ. I hope to have some great news to write about soon.
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