When I first saw Jen, she was the girl with the big hair and glasses in my eighth grade class. We were both 13. We didn’t offcially meet till 10th grade. I was introduced to her as "The kinda girl you could marry…" I took that advice. 🙂

I just finished typing the entry below about this past weekend, and just wanted to get this in here while I am thinking about it.

Today is Jen’s 29th birthday. I love Jen’s birthday. It’s a day all about Jen! What could be better?! 🙂 I love everything about Jen. It still amazes me that God let us do life together. Today we get to celebrate her life. We’re going to do a day of fun stuff and presents and cake and everything… even dinner at Skyline Chili!!!

All this is just to say, I think I am way too blessed to be spending this Jen’s-birthday as Jen’s husband. Thanks God for Jen. Thanks that I get to do life with her. Thanks for all that she means to me. Thanks for all that you have made her to be.

Wish I could say more. She is deserving of more. I get the rest of my life to do that.

Today, I say Happy Birthday.

And, I love you, Jen.

More than you can know.

Happy Birthday! 🙂

Well, we made it… and you may be able to tell that it has been a bit crazy since we arrived here in Clearwater… I have not been able to put anything up here in a few days. I really wanted to spell out all of the craziness of last Saturday night – the night we arrived here – but I was so beat from that on Saturday, and then Sunday I had a headache – a nasty one – ALL DAY! Wow. Crazy. More on that later… but first:

Saturday

We arrived in Clearwater at around 3:15pm or so… and headed straight to the church to set up for Sunday. We finished that up and headed to our time share for the week! (I think I have mentioned that already, but that was an amazing gift from God straight through some amazing friends of ours. They gave us a FREE week at a time share they own! Wow! That is awesome!) We were quite excited to get in – and also looking forward to doing LAUNDRY! We had just spent this last week in a hotel! 🙂

So, as we are coming in, we notice that this beach-front stuff is not exactly built for trailers… 🙂 We wondered where we might park such a thing. Then, we found the place, but were not sure where to check in… and there really was not anywhere to turn the trailer around! So, that was an adventure. 🙂

Well, when we got to the check-in spot, THEY WERE CLOSED! It was 5:30pm and they were closed. (They had closed at 5!) Doh! There was a late arrivals door with our keys and welcome packet in it… but it was locked. We needed a code to get in. 🙂 Oh well. So I called the phone # and tried to get the on-call person – but I had to leave a message there!!!!! WHAT?!? So… we just hung out and wondered when we would ever get a call back.

Only about 5 minutes passed, and a lady approached our van – it was the on-call person! Whoohoo! We were in! She helped us out, and then we headed over to start moving stuff in.

As we were unloading, we met a couple from Rochester! They own a unit here. The guy’s name is Bob… (I don’t remember the lady’s name…) Bob told us a couple interesting things – 1) we can not have a trailer on the premesis and 2) "Hope you like to get up early…" because of the construction that would start by 8am on Monday morning. 🙂 Thanks, Bob…

So we contined to unload – we have LOTS of stuff to unload. And we unloaded more than usual, as we were planning to leave our trailer up at the church we were singing at on Sunday. That issue was messing up our schedule as well. There really was no place to leave our trailer overnight here, so we thought we would have to make the 45-minute trip up there again… and that was going to take a huge chunk out of our night (that was getting shorter by the minute…)

The MAIN thing we really needed to do was LAUNDRY! As soon as we had unloaded the majority of the items, Jen started looking for the laundry stuff to get that going. When I came up with another load, she said – "I don’t think there’s a washer and dryer…" That was not what we wanted to hear. We were all wearing yesterday’s clothes already… 🙂 Sure enough, we looked around — no washer and dryer.

We found out there was a laundry room on the 4th floor of the building. So, we took a bit of time to figure out logistics of getting that up there, waiting for it to be done, taking the trailer back, getting food for the week, and all the regular preparations I needed to do for the next morning also! We finally decided to try and leave the trailer at a mini-golf place that is adjacent to our complex here. So, since we were kinda counting on that, I got the laundry together and headed up to do it.

When I got there, I found out that I needed quite a nice amount of change to do this job. And I had to purchase detergent as well, so that added to the cost. 🙂 So I pulled out my wallet and looked around for the change machine… no change machine. WHAT? Yes. No change machine. That was unfortunate, as we had no quarters. And have I mentioned that we were already wearing yesterday’s clothes… 🙂 It was definitely time to do laundry!!!! 🙂

SO, I got all the quarters I could out of our van. That seemed to be enough. But when I went upstairs, I found out one of the quarters had been squished or something, and didn’t work in the coin slot for the machine!!! SO, I found one of the units where the lights were on and asked them if I could exchange a quarter with them 🙂 That was nice. They were friendly. So far we had not really found that.

I finally get my quarters, and put them in the detergent dispenser…. nothing. I read it again, it was only $1.00. IT said if the column was empty, the money slider would not work. After several moments trying to figure out what to do, I decided to try it again. 🙂 I put in another $1, expecting to perhaps get 2 pouches of detergent instead of one. Nothing. ARGH!!!! This night was not going well…

I had to do laundry, so, I headed out on foot (cause it was too difficult to maneuver the trailer) to see if I could get some change. First, I had to find some cash, since that was pretty scarce as well. 🙂 I managed to find out where a 7-11 was, and headed out to get some laundry supplies there. They had it! (That seemed like the first success of the night!) I got some detergent and some change… i was good to go! I also OK-ed leaving our trailer at the mini-golf place… so things seemed to be going in the right direction!

When I got back to the laundry room I loaded up the washers and found out i did not have enough to dry the clothes!!!! This was starting to get a bit annoying… 🙂 So, I decided to go get some change from the mini-golf folks. On my way over there, Bob returned. He let me know that I needed to move our van. IT was in a fire lane. 🙂 Bob is very aware of the rules. And he wanted us to be as well. 🙂

Well, I finally got the change I needed, put the clothes in the dryer, and we seemed good to go. One more thing though – we tried to go see the pool before we left to go get food for the week… and we couldn’t find it first… then we couldn’t get in (even though we found out later it was open)!!! What a night!

The last bit o’ fun for the evening was our trip to WalMart. It was a good distance away, first of all, so that took a bunch of the drying time we were trying to fit into. THEN, when we got to WalMart it was PACKED. This was 9:30 at night! Then the lines were really long… we didn’t leave there till 10:15pm. The laundry was done at 10. 🙂 I was pretty sure the perfect ending to the night would be that our clothes were all gone when we got back!!!

Well, we got back at 10:45 and rushed up to get the clothes before the closed the laundry room at 11pm. There were there! And clean, that was good too. 🙂 After unloading all the groceries, I finally got to rehearse for the next morning and print the stuff I needed to. Late night…

Good thing we got that extra hour. 🙂

So… it was quite an adventure. I forgot to mention, the place is under construction, so when we opened the door, there was a HUGE paint fumes odor. 🙁 We left the doors open for hours to air it out. And lots of stuff was missing… so we had fun trying to find all that too.

In the end, we are SO thankful that we get to spend this week here in this place! We just got to start it off with a bang! 🙂

More later…

Perfection, for us, is not attainable. We can never be perfect. There are many scriptures that might suggest that, (Paul says in one instance that he strives to present everyone perfect in Christ – Col 1:28) but in the end "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23)

I am still trying to learn that for myself. I think that I try hard everyday to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5) and to be Holy as God is Holy. (1 Pet 1:16) But grace demands that I realize my shortfall. I can never make it on my own to perfection.

"God saved you by His special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast."

So we know that perfection can not be attained by anything that we do. So why do we keep trying? Moreover, why do I try and get my boys to be "perfect"?

Because we love Him. Because God gave everything for us, so we want to give all we can for Him. Because we know the closer we live to what He says, the better our lives are going to be. Psalm 119:32 says "I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free", which says I can RUN when I am following the path of God’s rules because I know I won’t trip or get caught on anything. When we position ourselves in God’s light, his path, his way… life is better, life is more free.

That is what I want for me. That is what I want for my Father. That is what I want for my boys. But I am learning as a dad of only about 5 years now, that perfection is not attainable. Not for me. And not for my boys.

That is hard to admit, hard to accept. But it’s true. I pray that I can save my boys from as much hurt as possible, but I know that their True Father loves them more than me and He knows when to allow mistakes and wrong choices in order to bring bigger growth than "protection" might bring.

Perfection is not attainable… but it has been given to us:

Heb. 10:14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Rest in grace. Strive for holiness. Accept his gift of perfection. And dole out healthy portions of grace to those in your life.

That is perfection.

Just thought I’d let you know what’s happening down here…

We got to lead another chapel service for the Mandarin Christian School in Jacksonville, FL yesterday – very cool. We really enjoy doing those, except that they start at EIGHT-THIRTY!!! Argh. Oh well, they are still great. 🙂 The school helped us by covering the cost of our hotel for two nights which was unexpected and a huge blessing to us! God has been providing in very cool ways like that this trip!

After that there was still a whole day to live… 🙂 (We don’t usually start our day till somewhere after 10am…) 🙂 So, we found some thrift stores and some treasures (some of them are for YOU!) and finally made our way to Jacksonville Beach for a half hour of fun at the Atlantic Ocean. We could not remember having ever been there… so… that was fun. 🙂 (we probably have been, but, now we can say for sure) 🙂

Then we made our way back to Starke, FL (where we were last sunday) and hung out with our friends the Nicols here. That was very cool. We leave tomorrow morning for Clearwater!

Just a funny thing I found out on the New Covenant Ministries website (http://www.ncmjax.org)… we were on their radio station LIVE on Wednesday night! ha! That’s funny. Maybe God was reaching even more people than I thought through a man named George. Very cool.

Alrighty… more later…

(check the basic website calendar – many updates)

SO… here’s our crazy story.

Last night, on our way to get some dinner (we were walking from our hotel to a restaurant around the corner) there was a man named George who was carrying a gas can, who approached us asking for some money to get gas. We listened and offered to help… and before we could do that, he mentioned the fact (as a reason to trust him) that he is a Christian. Ian said, "We are too!" 🙂 And we chatted a bit about what we do and he mentioned his church… and gave us his home number to call his wife and go to their church wed night. We said, cool. Thanks for the invite… and that was about it.

But, he was really serious, so, we called his wife today around noon, and she said some interesting stuff. She said something like "Did you witness to him?" and "He is running from the Lord". And just other funny stuff like that… anyway, she was very kind and very glad that George had met us and that he had us call her. We talked a bit about her church and us coming tonight and she said we should call her pastor about coming tonight… which was interesting 🙂 We were not really thinking about singing there, but she said we should talk to him…

So we did. We called, and got to talk to him for 3 minutes or so… and he ended the conversation with… well, come on down, and have someone point me out to you, and… bring your guitar. 🙂 HA! So… we ended up singing on a night we were not supposed to, because we met George.

Better than that… they were SO welcoming, and so fun, and so spirit-filled, and so loved Jesus and so excited about what God is doing all around them… and worship music was just fun… it was so great to be there!!!

They had us sing two songs, and share some stuff about the songs… and their band played with us! They were awesome! AND we closed the service too! ha! It was so great. So impromptu. So God. A divine appointment indeed.

All because of George.

Please pray for George. I am not sure how or what to pray – but we were asked to pray for him. I will tonight. And thank God for connecting us to him. Oh yeah, they are also going to send us some money to support our ministry! Ha!!!

All because of George.

(and his Father.) 🙂

Just a few photos from our first week in FL. (in a QuickTime slideshow, very cool!)

Click Here

Our God is a great big God…

Our God is a great big God

Our God is a great big God…

And He holds us in His hands

This morning we got to do a chapel for about 200 plus K-4 kids. And that song above was the central theme for what we were talking about. And as we were presenting it, I just realized… this is so simple for them. God is big. God loves me. Life is great!

Why do we make it so hard? Why do we have to ask over and over again if we are doing the right thing? Why do we have to wonder if God hears us… if God will do for us what we are asking… if God will protect us? Why do we ask Him with doubt in our minds?

Because we have grown up in the world of skeptics. Because we far too often listen to ourselves rather than the peaceful, quiet voice of our Shepherd. Because we have been "burned" by the Church or even by God himself in our minds. God did not answer a prayer in a way we wanted Him to.

"Unless you become like this little child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Jesus wants us to learn a lot from the K-4th graders. He says we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless we humble ourselves and become like them. We are not as smart as we think… not as experienced as we think… not as in control as we think…

But He is.

Our God is a great big God

Our God is a great big God

Our God is a great big God

And He holds us in His hands.

"You really believe it"

I wanted to write about this a while back, but never got a chance to, so today, you get a 2 fer 1.

One of the most interesting, rewarding, eye-opening, cool experiences we have had since we began traveling and presenting Jesus through music was one small encounter I had with a young guy somewhere. I say young… he was within ten years of me either way. Does that count as young?

We were tearing down I think after we had presented some sort of thing that we do (most likely a worship concert) and we were chatting, and he said, "You know what makes you different… you really believe what you’re saying."

That one hit me immediately. You know how some statements hit you after the fact, when you get to reflect on them… this one slammed me right away. I thought all at once, how cool that he would say that about me, and how sad that something as simple as that would make me stand out.

I do believe it. And I live my life according to that belief. And I present a worldview through music that is based on an all-powerful AND all-loving God at the helm of the universe – AND my life – and every day is lived looking for how we can serve Him and know him more.

Don’t you?

As mentioned in earlier blogs, we are going through Experiencing God right now and that has been a good refresher to me that God is working all around me, and I need to make sure that I am watching and listening for Him and adjusting my life to Him when I see Him and when He reveals Himself to me. Don’t miss that. It’s not just words in an old book. It’s not just trivia. It is life-affecting reality.

You know what could make you different? Live like you really believe it.

Daddy

One more… I was outside typing this, and was coming back in, but decided to stop by the window of our hotel room before I did and peek in and say hi. When Ian saw me he waved hard and smiled. And when Alex realized just who it was that Ian was looking at, I could see his face BEAM and he joyfully exclaimed, "DADDY!!!!". How cool is that? We have great boys. It is great to have boys. Looking forward to one more. (Even if this boy is a girl!) 🙂

Here’s an awesome photo of our boys, just cause they’re awesome. Ian is 4, Alex is 2. Appropriately, you see them here in their carseats! 🙂

Some of you think that we are crazy. That we are away from home entirely too much. "How do you do it?" is one question we are asked a lot. Well… sometimes it does get wearisome but… most times it’s OK. We don’t mind it, cause we know we are coming home, and there is a bunch of great stuff to do out here while we’re gone. And a bunch of great people to do it with.

Today, I had a brief but intense longing for home. No, not our awesome yellow house in Palmyra… our real home. We were getting ready to start our 1-hour play-worship in our made-from-dirt play house we call a church… and I just thought of how incomparable this is to home. One day we will all be together in the actual presence of God. We will all be without blemish, without faults, without failings… We will be complete. As we were meant to be.

No more failings… no more reminders of them. No more hurt. No more longing. We will be home. No longer travelers.

No more squabbles over music style. No more programs. No more buildings. No more potlucks (well, maybe we’ll keep those…)

Just Jesus. Us, and Jesus.

For a moment, I had a glimpse of that. And I longed for that.

Soon enough. Until then, we travel.

I just realized that I have not done a very good job here of reviewing the days that have been… that has been one of the main functions of our journal page in the past. When we travel on extended tours, we would keep a record of the various things that happened each day. Well, this time, since I have this BLOG already, was just going to do that record here… BUT, that is not what I usually do with the BLOG, so… it’s gonna take some getting used to.

OK, I think I’m used to it.

Review of Week 1:

We have been in FL for one week now (got here last Saturday, 10.11.03). In that span we have done 3 performances… leading worship at Mary Esther UMC (good – looking forward to more in the future. cool how Holy Spirit hooked us up with songs that worked well with what the speaker was talking about) and doing a concert for the homeless in Pensacola again (met a guy named Lance whom we got to talk to at length, and got to give him some warmer clothes to wear) and then we did a concert for Crestview Christian Church (for whom we wrote a song – This Journey, listen below…). All in all, the performances went very well.

In addition, we got to spend some quality time with our family in the area. Two of my cousins live in Navarre… right on the same street as my aunt and uncle! (where we were staying) SO… that was awesome. Got to hear about that chiropractic method (mentioned below) and got to see a football game (Russell, cousin Laura’s husband) is a football coach at Fort Walton Beach HS. They won. Went fishing with Ian a bunch. 🙂 Introduced cousins Ron & Kara to Skyline Chili… mmmm.

AND in the middle of all that…

10.18.01

TODAY was our ANNIVERSARY!!!! We did get to finally go to the beach today. That was nice. And had a good day reliving some fun times in our marriage so far. 6 years is not all that long, but God has blessed us in many ways over those 6 years.

I love Jen Campbell. So much I gave her my name. 🙂 I’m glad she took it. 🙂

Early morning tomorrow – leading worship in Starke, FL in the morning, then a worship concert in Jacksonville, FL tomorrow night. More review later. 🙂

Things that I like to do for fun:

on my own

eBay

Buffalo Bills

Old Computers (TI-99/4a, Apple II, other)

Old Game Systems (Nintendo NES, etc)

Web and graphic design

computer programming

with others

go fishing with ian

watch game shows with jen

get loud with alex

go thrifting (shopping at thrift stores)

cook dinners for folks

do random nice things for friends

hang out with friends

watching ian learn (homeschool)

playing board games with family & friends(see the BLOG archives…)

doing most anything with my awesome wife 🙂

talking to the baby through the belly… 🙂

There’s a lot more probably, but… just thought I’d share…