Updates and Thoughts

1. Jace is finally over his sickness, thank God! This whole week he has been spiking fevers of 103 and 104. I hate seeing Jace sick and I'm so glad he is feeling better. Today was his second day of being back to his normal, playful and happy self.

2. Jace is also growing up like crazy. He has a little attitude and gives a high pitched yelp to let us know when he is not happy. This seems to happen after naps and he is not too fond of the car seat anymore. He also wants to grab his drinks and food by himself. If you try to give it to him he get's upset. Most of the time when he has fits and shows some attitude it just makes me laugh, lol. He also has added some words to his vocabulary. He can say book, ball, I love you and tonight he said basketball.

3. Friday night we finally went out for Jamie's b-day and had an awesome time. We went to our favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory and went to see Paul Blart Mall Cop. The best part of the night was being able to go out by ourselves. Thanks Kayla for watching Jace!

4. The new season of 24 is back and is amazing! This is my favorite show! We have also been watching American Idol and Lost. So far Idol has been hilarious, the people who think they can sing and are horrible just blow me away. I wish I could hear what they hear. Sometimes I have to believe they are doing it as a joke because there is NO way they can honestly think they sound good. Currently I'm pulling for the blind guy, I think he is pretty amazing.

5. I enjoyed being apart of history by seeing our new President being sworn in this week and am praying for President Obama as he leads our nation. May God give him great wisdom and discernment!

6. I'm bummed football is almost over. After the Super Bowl I will be counting down the days to the NFL draft and March Madness.

Wednesday Night

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else in ministry but last night I had to put myself in check because I was trippin over the downs way more then celebrating the ups from our experience. The downs were we had some technical issues which happens from time to time. The ups were we had 5 first time salvations, Praise God! Forgive me Lord for my tainted perspective and I praise you for the changed lives last night.

When I got home I turned on the tv to watch my recorded shows. Typcially on Wednesday I'm up til 1 or 2 am because my mind is wired and thinking about the experience. Well last night, I only watched one show and then fell asleep watching PTI, that never happens!!! I guess the mud I put on my arms last night during my message must have wiped me out! If your wondering about the mud check out Epic's podcast on iTunes for free. To find it search "Epic Student Ministries" on iTunes.

Mentoring

As a student, a lot of my spiritual growth came from relationships. Actually, throughout my life I have grown and been challenged spiritually from mentors in my life. People I'm close to and who hold me accountable. This is why at Epic we have a connection team. These are leaders whose focus is to connect with students every Wednesday night. However this can be challenging when you have 80-90 students coming per week and 150 coming a month which leads to us having different groups of students every Wednesday night. After having a conversation with my friend who is doing a mentor type program with there youth leaders, we are now pairing each one of our connection team members with ten students to focus on and mentor. Instead of us all trying to connect with all the students, which is difficult, we are now making sure every student has a mentor and that our leaders will go below the surface in their relationship with 10 specific students. I'm very excited for this change because I believe it will help us make sure that every student has a mentor and it will give us a better idea of where every student is at in life and their relationship with God. I'm enjoying this student ministry journey and learning every week. It can be challenging but it is definitely worth it!

Jamie Smith

Today is my wife's birthday. She is the love of my life and I don't know what I would do without her. Here are some things I love about Jamie:

1. She is an amazing wife! She supports me, loves me, cares for me and is always there for me. These last 4 1/2 years have been amazing and I love her more and more each day. I'm the luckiest man on earth to have Jamie Smith as my wife.

2. She is an amazing mom! Her love for Jace is out of this world. She takes great care of him and there is no doubt that Jace loves his mommy. Jace is the luckiest kid in the world to have Jamie Smith as his mom.

3. She has an amazing voice. My wife can flat out sang not sing but sang. She tears it up and is an amazing worship leader. I'm truly blessed to have a wife with such an amazing voice.

4. She has an amazing heart for ministry. She has a heart to reach the lost and make an impact for God's kingdom. Jamie's love for God is one of the most attractive parts about her and I'm very grateful to have her as my wife and ministry partner.

5. She is amazingly beautiful. Her integrity, loyalty, boisterous personality and love for people makes her beautiful on the inside and she is beautiful on the outside. My wife is fine! She is mighty fine!

I feel like the luckiest guy on earth to have Jamie as my wife and I don't know what I would do without her. Happy Birthday babe. I love you and thank God that you are my wife.

Weekend Update

1. Saturday I was sick to my stomach almost all day and it stunk! I hate being sick but I'm thankful it was almost gone by Sunday morning.

2. I think Jace caught what I had and is now running a fever. I feel horrible for my little guy and it breaks my heart to see him sick.

3. This is the first time our whole family has passed the sickness along. Jamie was sick Thursday, I got sick Saturday and Jace got sick Sunday.

4. I enjoyed both football games on Sunday. I was pulling for the Cardinals and the Ravens. The Ravens lost so I hope the Cardinals win it all.

5. Jamie and I were going to go out to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday Sunday night but since Jace was sick I picked up some Chipotle and a strawberry cheesecake ice cream cake for her birthday.

Blogging

I've really enjoy reading blogs and am honored that people would read mine. I read others and am impressed at their writing skills. I have never been a writer, matter of fact in high school and college I loathed writing a paper. My grammar is bad and my handwriting is even worse, ha. I would much rather study for and take a test. I have never had a journal. I tried a few times but never followed through. With blogging I feel like I've done ok but it doesn't come easy to me. Many times I brainstorm, write, read, edit, read, edit, read, edit and then sometimes even erase and start over. Every once in a while a blog will flow easily from my mind to my fingers to the computer but most of the time I find myself having writer's block and struggling to write down my thoughts. I envy those who love to write and who are amazing at it. Hopefully it will come easier as I continue to blog!

Dreams Do Come True

Throughout life I have had dreams come true and some I'm still believing to come true. Some of my dreams that have come true are seeing the Colts win a Super Bowl and becoming a dad. Some dreams that still haven't come true are going to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium or seeing my whole family living for Christ. It's always special to cross a dream off your list and last year I got to cross another one off mine. It has always been a dream of mine to be apart of a diverse church. Being from a military background I have always grown up with diverse friends and cultures so when I knew God was calling me into full time ministry; it instantly became a dream of mine to be apart of a diverse church. I've seen a lot of segregation in churches and that has always bothered me so it was a breath of fresh air to walk through the doors of People's Church. To be honest I have never been apart or seen a church with our diversity. We are diverse culturally, by age, social status and church background. We are literally People's church, a place where any person can come and feel welcome. I love the diversity of our church and my dream came true when I joined the staff at People's Church. Thanks God for making my dream come true! I hope that all of you always keep dreaming and never stop believing for your dreams to come true.

Catching Up

I'm not sure what happened but it's Friday and I haven't blogged since Tuesday. Here are some highlights of my week:

1. First I want to thank God that my grandma's cancer has shrunk some but we still need your prayers. She is going to start 7 weeks of radiation to try to shrink the cancer some more. The more the cancer shrinks the less evasive the surgery is. I'm believing for the great physician to completely remove her cancer. Thanks for your prayers.

2. I took my little guy into get shots and a check up this week. He was a tough and did great with his shots. We also found out he has a double ear infection. Praying for healing.

3. We had a great turnout at our Ignite National Title Game Party at Perri's Pizza and Cafe. There were a few gator fans but mostly OU fans. We had a great time connecting and eating some good food.

4. Tim Tebow is a beast, nuff said.

5. I think I may be the only person in the world to have lived in the city of the losing team in the College Football National Title game for the last three years. I guess Ohio State fans are glad I'm gone and Oklahoma fans want to kick me out, haha.

6. I'm thinking about learning french again. I was fluent as a kid when I lived in Belgium and lost it when we moved to the states. I can pick apart some conversations but can't speak it very well. I'm so close though and may go for it.

7. I've been blessed to hear from all the people who were challenged by the part of my message this past Sunday to Don't Wait Til Tomorrow to Be Healthy Physically. Congrats and keep it up to everyone trying to live healthier and lose weight. You can do it!!!

Highlights from 2008 Pt. 1

An Unexpected Destination

Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 16: 9 says In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

These verses define our arrival to an unexpected destination in 2008. In the midst of knowing that God was transitioning us to a knew place of ministry; the one thing Jamie and I didn't know was were. And to be honest Oklahoma City was never on our radar until I had my first conversation with my senior pastor, Herbert Cooper. Days before Pastor Herbert called me we felt like we were an airplane in a holding pattern waiting for a place to land. We knew we would land somewhere we just had no clue where or when. Upon arriving to OKC to interview with People's Church we noticed it was windy, they have red dirt and everyone was very friendly. Going to People's Church we had no idea what to expect but when we entered the church and sat in the experience where Pastor shared his "I have a dream" message we knew this is the exact kind of church we wanted to be apart of. Thankfully this is where God landed us, His timing was perfect and He has answered many dreams we've had just by putting us here. I will blog about those later in the week. It was an unexpected destination, but a perfect destination. The Lord has determined our steps and made our paths straight as we put our trust in Him. Joining People's Church was one of our biggest highlights in 2008.

Maybe you are looking for answers or a place to land; I hope the scriptures above encourage and help you.

Weekend Update

1. I had the honor of preaching at People's Church yesterday. The experiences went great and people committed their lives to Christ in all 4 experiences. Thank you Jesus! The message was titled Don't Wait Til Tomorrow. If you missed it or would like to listen to it check it out at www.peopleschurch.tv and don't wait til tomorrow, ha.

2. My Colts lost, I was bummed for about 30 minutes then I got over it, went to the gym and went over my message some. In the past this would have bothered me for days and I really would've been annoyed by people razzin me but I've learned that there is way more to life then the Indianapolis Colts. Again thank you Jesus!

3. Jamie had all 4 wisdom teeth taken out this past Friday. I feel horrible for my wife and she has been a trooper. She has handled getting 4 taken out much better then I did getting 2 taken out. I hope I've done a good job taking care or her and Jace. With her being out of commission it makes me appreciate even more all that she does. She's an amazing woman and I love her to death.

4. Now that the Colts lost I have no clue who to cheer for. I might just wait til the Super Bowl and pick a team then. Currently I think I'm leaning towards the Eagles but it's a definite toss up.

5. I'm hoping OSU can pull off a big win against Texas tomorrow for a few reasons. 1 - I like OSU, 2 - I don't like Texas, 3 - the Big Ten looks horrible and will be the arm pit of the conferences if they lose tomorrow.

6. My grandma goes in for her scan tomorrow to see if her cancer has shrunk and if they can remove it. I'm praying and believing for a good report.

7. This Wednesday we are starting a new series called Epic 2009 where we will talk about Epic's focus this year. I'm super excited to share the vision with the students and believe this year will be the best ever!

8. For the rest of this week I'm going to blog about highlights in my life from 2008. I hope you enjoy.