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Don’t see a video here? Click this link to view. The above video (from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr Page) is from images captured by GOES-13 satellite from May 20-25, showing the view from space of the storms and recent devastating tornadoes which have plagued the country. It is incredible to think that something which looks so beautiful from a distance could cause such carnage on the ground. This is another good remember to pray and provide for those effected by the recent storms.

Five years ago at the edge of the Grand Canyon (near Mather Point, for you Canyon fans), I told Sarah that I would love her forever and asked if she would marry me. She said yes, and I still can’t believe it! Happy engageiversary, Sarah — I will love you forever!  

It’s Saturday evening and I’m still here. So, either I missed “The Rapture” or Harold Camping was wrong. One of the most disconcerting aspects of this whole ‘judgment day on May 21′ fiasco for me, though, has less to do with the false prophecy of Camping, and more to do with the pride of others–including myself. I found it too easy to mock, point fingers at, and deride the guy and his followers who so vehemently claimed today was The Day. Yes, this whole thing might hurt the credibility of faith in Jesus a bit, but those of us following Christ are already following the Way of Foolishness (cf. 1 Cor 1:26ff). We would be wise to heed the last words of that linked passage: that we boast not in our own wisdom or right-ness, but boast in Christ alone. So, here is my boast: I pretty much suck and have nothing good in me. Despite this, the King of (more…)

Checking to see if this will show. JXG

Yesterday, Sarah and I started into our fourth year of married life together.  In our first three years we lived in two states and three homes, have endured issues of health and future, changed career directions, known great abundance as well as financial hardship, dug deeper into understanding God’s leading in our lives, purchased our first house, adopted our first puppy, replaced various pieces of our first house because of damage caused by our first puppy … the list could go on and on and on.  But I would not change any of it. I’m excited about what our fourth year will hold and am thankful for the incredible blessing of heaven in whom I have been given as a wife and co-journeyer.  I am a blessed man indeed.

I know this is ‘the day after day three,’ but to keep with the pattern of my previous posts, this will focus on what happened our last day at the Assessment Center.  I’ll write an entry or two on overall reflections soon. Our final day began with the presentation of our group project.  As we had been preparing the project for presentation to the assessors, they were meeting in order to draft our written assessments following their reviews/scores (and subsequent votes) on what kind of ‘light’ each couple had received.  The project opened up the opportunity for the potential planters to interact with each other and get a little bit of insight into the process of understanding a community and a small part of the detail of planting a church.  That process was one of the significant ‘takeaways’ for me from the week’s events and helped instill an even greater excitement about the potential of being a planter myself. Following (more…)

It’s just about 2:30AM, and I’m getting ready to call it a night. After a full, rich day of interviews, interviews, and more interviews (including one session with a Christian counselor), we had time for a quick seminar and some exercises, which included a pretty hefty group project.  I’m just finishing with my portion of that project, and while I won’t go into too much detail (because, after all, it is 2:30 in the morning), I can say the whole experience thus far has been well worth our time investment and, I believe well worth the financial investment of the district.  The self-discovery and opportunity to be connected with passionate, missional-minded people which are available in this setting are not things to be taken for granted–no matter what kind of ‘red-light,’ yellow-light,’ ‘green light’ evaluation we get tomorrow, Sarah and I will have counted it a great privilege to be here. Even at this late hour, I can genuinely say (more…)