Random Thoughts

1. We have had some beautiful weather in OKC and I look forward to 60's and 70's next week.

2. The NFL free agency has been crazy! Tons of players are changing teams. I'm sad to see Marvin leave the Colts but it's time. The last two years he seems fragile and drops a lot of passes. I appreciate all he has done but it's time to move on. I'm very glad we resigned Jeff Saturday.

3. Working out in the morning has been great but it definitely has given me a bigger appetite. I gotta make sure I eat healthy when I'm eating more.

4. I've officially switched from working at Starbucks to Vintage Coffee. The outlets at Starbucks don't work so I can't keep my laptop charged so I'm done. Vintage offers free wifi, it's less crowded, the outlets WORK and their drinks are pretty good.

5. We are getting closer and closer to moving into our new facility at People's Church and it's very exciting. I can't believe it's almost here and I'm humbled to be apart of what God is doing at our church. It's amazing! If you are ever in OKC you have to visit People's Church!

6. I also can't believe it's March tomorrow, I feel like time is flying by faster and faster. I love my family, my job so I guess it's true when people say "time flies when you are having fun."

7. I'm currently watching Titanic only because it's at the best part when they run into the iceberg, I could careless for the rest of the movie.

Epic Tonight

We had a great night at Epic. 8 salvations and 100 students, praise God!!! I talked about "How Far Is Too Far?" and thought it went very well. The students were engaged in the experience and I pray they will honor God physically when they date. I also have amazing leaders who help make Epic a huge success. Thanks guys and a big thanks to David Kinsey for filling in on the drums last minute and being ready in season and out. You did great. Also a huge thanks to Sherry Cunningham, Sherry is a new leader and was responsible for 8 students coming to Epic for the very first time, that is awesome! I love my team and I love what I do. Next week we are doing a Love Lockdown Uncensored where we will answer all the students questions about dating. It's gonna be awesome, don't miss it students!

Weekend Update

1. Friday night was a chill at home and watch tv night. I enjoyed my time with Jamie and Jace at home. Honestly if I had the choice of going out with Jamie and Jace or staying at home with them, 90% of the time I would prefer to stay home. I guess it's the intravert in me. Jamie also made some amazing pork chops and homemade mac and cheese! Her mac and cheese is one of my favorite dishes.

2. Saturday Jace spiked a fever, I hate it when he gets a fever. Our little guy who is normally full of energy just lays around with a glazed look. I hate it!

3. Jamie also competed in the OKC Star Finale, she didn't win but did a great job. I'm very proud of my wife and she has an amazing voice!

4. Jace's fever finally broke late Sunday morning, thank you Jesus. He please continue to pray for him. Thanks.

5. Sunday afternoon I revisited my day's in high school and played some laser tag with other college and twentysomethings from People's Church. It was a lot of fun and I took first place in our second game. yes I did it mainly by dominating some kids but none the less I won. Matter of fact our group dominated the kids, we all finished top ten except for Umo, haha.

6. My hamstrings are also sore from laser tag, to much crouching to get some good shots. Yes I'm out of shape and getting old, but it was still fun!

7. Sunday night I attended the Edmond Epic House Party and had a great discussion about dating. It was good times with our students and always fun to swing on the Thun's big swing!

Cram Night

Last night we had our first Cram night of the year and it went very well. We had 151 students and we had 24 students give their lives to Christ, Praise God!!! We had great performances from Hype; they did some amazing dance and stomp routines, check them out at gethype.org. We also had some funny games thanks to the Ellen show. The students had a blast and we hope to see them all back next week when we finish our dating series and answer the question: "How Far Is Too Far?"

Mad Money

Pastor Herbert has been preaching a series called Destinations. This series has been amazing and here is a way it has challenged and applied to my life. Jamie and I are chipping away at our debt every month as we have made a plan to be debt free in the next year or two. So far we have canceled one debt and are working on the others. We have budgeted out all of our spending except for our eating out and Starbucks. Because of this we have canceled some debt but not as much as we could have because we are on the wrong path in this area of our spending. Starting this month we have budgeted in Mad Money. Our Mad Money is the money we are allotted to spend on eating out, Starbucks, snacks, basically all non essentials. With this new budget for our Mad Money we will now be able to cancel more debt each month and reach our goal of being debt free as quickly as possible. We were on a path that was taking us the long way to our destination so we made the change so we can be on a path that put us on the most direct path to our destination. I challenge you: What path are you on that is taking you the opposite way or prolonging you from reaching your destination? Whatever it is, change it and get on the right path. You can do it!

Weekend Update

1. Friday night I went to John Marshall's bball game with a few of my leaders. John Marshall dominated and I had a great time hanging out with great people.

2. Saturday we didn't do much but relax at home since we went out for Valentine's day on Thursday. On Thursday we went to see Taken, it was a great movie. At the beginning of the movie I had the thought, "it would be nice to have a daughter", by the end of the movie my thought was "I'd be perfectly fine with all sons", haha. After the movie we went to Friday's and then back home and hung out with Rachel and Chase Allred who hooked us up with free babysitting. Thanks guys!

3. Saturday night my good friend Jason Patterson came over and we watched the dunk contest. The contest was awesome except for Dwight Howard's last dunk. I firmly believe he would have won if he did his last dunk in the first round and the 12 foot hoop dunk in the final round. He blew it! Next year will be amazing if Lebron is in the contest.

4. Sunday, Jason did a very good job preaching at People's Church and afterwards we went to lunch at Outback. That Outback special was good but it tore up my stomach...sorry Jamie, Jason and Jace.

5. Sunday night we watched the All Star game which was pointless, I probably won't ever watch it again, but I did enjoy Shaq's dance with the Jabbawokeez! It was the best part of the game. However, I threw up when they gave co-mvp's to Shaq and Kobe, give me a break. Those guys were either being fake last night or fake with their previous drama, either way I thought it was lame but probably a smart move for the NBA's marketing. I'm sure we will see Kobe and Shaq in T-mobile's "who's in your 5" commercial very soon.

Jace Update

Jace's favorite words right now are "no" and "mine", haha. How did this happen? He is still cuter then ever and now we are working on "yes" and "share", LOL. He also has his favorite room which I think is every child's favorite room, their parent's bedroom. If our bedroom door is open Jace makes a b-line for it, it never fails. The funny part is that when he goes into our room the first thing he does is grab my wallet and pull out my credit cards, this is not a good sign! He's already saying "show me the money". Once he's done with the wallet he goes into the bathroom to open drawers and pull out stuff. He can't do this in the kitchen because we have the child proof stoppers on all the cabinets. Needless to say we try to keep our bedroom door closed at all times, ha. He also loves his tooth brush, he brushes his teeth everyday. Everyday he gets more personality and everyday we love him more and more.

More Change

Lately, I have been waking up early and going to the gym to workout. This is something I have always wanted to do but have always failed. I've always been a night person that stays up to 1 or 2 am, but recently I have been tired around 11 pm and falling asleep before midnight. Weird! Since this has been happening I haven't been working out late at night like I usually do because I'm too tired, which is now getting in the way of reaching my goal of 200 pounds. I'm still at 210 if you are wondering. Eating right got me to 210 but I know working out is what I need to do to get to 200. I don't want to work out after work because that cuts into family time so last Wed I rolled out of bed, worked out and really enjoyed it. I did it again last Friday and on Monday this week. I skipped Tuesday because I went to bed too late, but got right back on track Wednesday and Thursday. I've also found that I have more energy during the day and my devotional time has improved in the sense I'm more alert instead of sleepy in the morning. I'm loving the change and thank God for my new sleeping patterns and hope to keep them this way.

Highlights from Epic

1. First off, 4 students made commitments to Christ tonight. Thank you Jesus!

2. Met some new students from Putnam City Original, Seeworth Academy, Star Spencer, US Grant and Edmond North. I love the fact that we are reaching students all over OKC, God has expanded our territory and we are going to continue to reach students all over OKC.

3. Jamie did an awesome job leading worship. Her and the band tore it up, great job!!!

4. We had some awesome videos for our announcement real, Daniel Green hooked us up with videos for our Rules, our Love Lockdown Uncensored and Epic house parties, thanks man!

5. Tonight I shared stories of two nasty break ups I had in high school and what I learned from them. These were horrible break ups but it's cool to look back and see how God has helped me through them and how much I've grown from these situations. He's also blessed me with a beautiful, on fire for God, amazing wife. Thanks you Jesus for Jamie!

6. If you missed tonight, check out the message on Epic's podcast on iTunes. Search Epic Student Ministries, tonight's message is titled "The Breakup".

7. Next week is our Cram Night where we cram as many students as possible into our auditorium. We are featuring performances by Hype, a hip hop dance crew, and giving away 2 Nintendo Wii's! It's gonna be awesome, don't miss it!!!

Great High School Bball Game

Last night I went to Oklahoma Christian Academy's bball game vs Earlboro to watch one of my students, Hans Thun. Hans is stud and had a great game. He even had a breakaway dunk! The game itself was intense, the opposing team had a 2 point lead and was trying to run out the clock with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, yes that's right with 5 minutes left, dribble, pass, dribble, pass. At first I thought this was lame and found myself thinking bad thoughts about this team's coach but it really was a good strategy. This team only had 3 good players, one just fouled out and another had 4 fouls, the last thing this coach wanted to do was put his bench in. Hans' team started to foul to put them at the line, tied it up, Earlsboro's 2nd best player fouled out and OCA forced overtime. In OT Han's team pretty much dominated although they did let the other team hang around and have a chance to hit a 3 to tie, but they pulled it out with a 70-67 win. On a side note, if OCA would have made their free throws this game would have been over with in regulation. They missed a ton in the 3rd and 4th quarter. This game was awesome; it had my heart pumpin, stressin and I even got light headed twice when I jumped up to cheer. OCA defeated the number 5 team in the state in their division. Great game OCA and Hans!

Thank You Jesus

Yesterday my sister shared with me that she committed her life to Christ last Sunday at a church in Indy. Thank You Jesus!!! I have been praying for my sister to give her life to Christ since I got saved which is almost 10 years. She has faced some difficult situations in her life and it was amazing to hear about her journey that led to her making this decision. She had a joy in her voice and an excitement about God that I have never heard before. In March she is going to dedicate my niece and nephew and she is going to attend a new believer's class. God is sooooo good!!! I want to encourage anyone who is praying for a loved one to come to Christ, keep praying and keep believing, never give up hope! God is faithful. Thanks to everyone who has prayed for my sister in the past and again, thank You Jesus!

Random Thoughts

1. Friday there was no school at John Marshall so we didn't have impact. I was bummed but I got a great head start on my message for Wednesday.

2. Speaking of this Wednesday, the message is gonna be off the hook. We are talking about "The Breakup", how to avoid it, how to deal with it and how to do it. I'm so pumped for this message it's going to really help some students who are dating and for others when they start dating!

3. I love People's Church, Friday night we had some worship time at our Crazy Leadership Dessert and during that time I just thanked God for bringing us to this church and I'm so excited for the future. I'm humbled and honored to be apart of what God is doing at People's Church. I love it!!!

4. I think I'm going to watch the entire Pro Bowl on Sunday, I rarely watch it unless I am there live, which I've been fortunate to be apart of 4 times. My step dad had the hook up with free flying benefits and great tickets!

5. I heard the Indianapolis Colts may get Albert Haynesworth, I would be a very happy man if that happened.

6. I'm not a tennis fan but I will never miss a Federer vs. Nadal match, they are awesome!!!

7. The weather in OKC has been amazing, Friday I wore Flip flops and Saturday I wore my Birkenstock sandals.

8. Speaking of my Birkenstock's, I had a guy make fun of me because I own a pair of Birkenstock sandals and crocs, but I don't care because they are super comfortable.

9. At the Crazy Leadership Dessert I ate a piece of Cheesecake Factory Carrot cake, I actually only ate half because their pieces are huge! I looked up the calories and found out that one piece of that cake has 1560 calories. What?!!!!!! I will never eat a piece of that cake ever again, that is ridiculous!

Epic was Awesome Tonight

Epic went really well tonight. Worship was off the hook, the videos were great, we had smooth transitions, we had a lot of guests and 12 students made commitments to Christ. Praise God!!! It was part 1 of our Love Lockdown series and I think this series is really gonna help students with the issue of dating. Tonight I did a tag team sermon with my wife and it went awesome. Jamie did a great job and really challenged our girls on the topic of modesty and what message they are sending with their clothes. I spoke to the boys about being respectful with their actions and their words and told them to don't look and lust, bounce away! Then I shared with all the students that the number 1 quality they should look for in a person they want to date is that they love Jesus. It was an awesome night and I'm excited to share pt. 2 next week called The Breakup. Students bring your friends!!!

Glasses vs Contacts

Lately I have been wearing my glasses because my contacts have been bothering my eyes. I normally hate wearing my glasses because they mess up my depth perception and I hate seeing blurry outside of the lens. They are also hard to fall asleep to the TV in and they slide off during workouts. I try to avoid wearing my glasses at all cost. The plus to my glasses is I can wear them as long as I want and they won't hurt my eyes. The funniest part about wearing glasses is I get a lot of compliments about looking smarter. Currently I've actually enjoyed wearing my glasses so I might officially switch over, plus I guess it makes me smarter. Either way I would be blind and a hazard to this world without my glasses or contacts. Thank God for this technology and I have no idea how people with bad eyesight functioned before glasses and contacts.