I'm trying to catch up on everything that happened within the last month really, but that would take too much time.
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I would say one of the highlights by far is the fact that my roommate, Darian, got baptized. That was so huge! It was so crazy to see what has happened over the last couple years and see how 2|42 has had such a huge impact on this life. As soon as we make his baptism video i'll upload it and you can hear his story for yourself, it's amazing. He's a very educated guy and is knowledgeable about a lot of the world religions and different beliefs out there. He's been searching and searching. It's amazing to know that the person of Christ can stand against any worldview or claim or degree after degree or any intellectual arguments. Christ is definitely unique.
I did the video taping of his baptism and I'll never forget video taping his words and hearing what has happened, not only through my but through 2|42 as well. It's awesome and humbling and encouraging to be used by God for another's benefit.
We baptized him at Lakewood Church in Howell, which has a baptistry but it does not have a water heater. Keep in mind when I pulled up to the church there was already about 2 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. COLD. I'm glad I didn't get in there, haha. But seriously. Darian wanted to get baptized outside at Kensington Park but choose not to because of the weather. The water actually probably would have been warmer.
So the day before the baptism Darian told me he would rather just do it at Lakewood so I called Dave and we scheduled it for 3pm on Sunday. Too Bad Financial Peace university was having Class that day at 3. It worked out well though and It was really cool for the people in the class who don't attend 2|42 to see how we baptize and actually show them live change does happen in Church. Who knows, maybe just that brought some people coming to 2|42 and maybe next year we'll be baptizing them? Who knows?!
But yes, it was awesome to see Darian get baptized and I look forward to what he'll be doing in the future and where God leads him next. (Darian: Watch those Ravi Dvd's!)
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As a lot of you know we're launching a campus in Ann Arbor in March of 2009. If you want to know more info or keep up to date on that you can visit . . .
www.242community.com/a2
A lot of my time last week was spent doing the Ann Arbor Prayer walk. Steve O' Dell and I (Connections Person/Teaching Pastor/Cell Group Guy/All around happenin' guy/man's man) made a prayer walk. Which you can download from the A2 site.
Steve did all the writing of the content and I basically did all the recording of the staff, all the mixing and engineering, put music along to do, edited the music and what have you. All the technical stuff. Steve wrote some really amazing stuff and really, if you want to pray for Ann Arbor and you don't live near A2, just download it, listen to the directions, listen to the music and just Pray that God will build his church in Ann Arbor. Seriously though, go ahead and download it, put it on a CD or burn it to an iPod. What? Burn it to a CD or put it on an iPod or other applicable media player.
Isn't this the HTML code for break? I think it is. Or CSS or whatever it's called.
Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. One of the reasons why I love working for a church is that you basically, within reason, can make your own hours. You just need to make sure that your job is done and down with as much excellence as possible.
The last 3 years I didn't get to go home for Thanksgiving because I always had to work. And Christmas, I was only home for about 2-3 days after or before. And when you're driving 6 hours one way it doesn't make for a relaxing trip.
This trip I left Monday morning and came back on Saturday. It was glorious. I've never spent that much time at home since I've moved to Michigan. My parents were like, "Wow, you're still here!"
It was an amazing Trip, I didn't see a lot of my friends but I did see a lot of Tara's friends. I also took her parents out for "Dinner". And my "Dinner" I mean Dinner. I don't know why I wrote dinner in quotations but I'm too lazy to push the backspace button and delete it all. So I'd rather explain myself then go back erase all of that.
No, what I mean is, I took Tara's parent's out to one of their favorite restaurants, Johnny Carino's, and asked them if they would be my Mother and Father-in-law.
I WAS SO NERVOUS!!!
But it went really well and they graciously accepted and were Thankful. Rick her dad, as soon as we stopped having small talk and the conversation started to get a little heated (heated is a bad word) started to get a little serious, he just ate his food, listened to me while smiling the whole entire time, hahaha. He knew. Her Mom, Marge, honestly, I don't think she had a clue.
When I finished saying, "Your daughter is smokin' hot and ME MARRY TARA NOW!"
Just joking.
When I finished saying, "I love your daughter very much and she is my best friend . . . You know what, I don't even remember what I said I was so nervous. I didn't even touch my food. It just pretty much congealed in front of me.
But after I asked them, her dad just responds, "I'm okay with that!" It was cool. He mom said something supportive too but I was just more surprised at her dad's zeal. When leaving her mom hugged me and said, "I'd be proud to have you as my son-in-law." It was very awesome. I was afraid they would both say something about how I don't make any money and how am I going to support her and yeah . . . . I just need to keep on praying that God continues to build 2|42 and that God has a place for me here in full time ministry. Not only because I'm passionate about Youth and Leading Worship but now because I need to support a family.
Excuse me while I go pray face down to the ground before Jesus . . . . . .
But seriously! Please pray for the future of 2|42 in the middle of a economic crisis. Please pray that people in Michigan keep on supporting 2|42 (and I, and everyone else) and that we would be the church that gives to everyone as they have need.
So step one is done and step two is asking her to Marry me. Does anyone have any ideas? I pretty much know already what I'm going to do but I'm always open for advice!
But Thanksgiving was good.
Also, if you haven't checked out the StuCo Myspace definitely Check it out and add yourself to it if you have myspace. It's been going really well and the students are really connecting to it. Brad's been making some awesome video's, haha.
This week in StuCo we're encouraging (and the weeks up until Christmas) to tell their parents to not get them as many gifts and instead use that money to Support Rain Catchers. Rain Catchers in a Ministry run by Bob Keesee, who attends our church, they go down at least 2 times a year to Haiti to build devices that catch rain so the people can have clean water. Amazing. Advent Conspiracy, check it out.
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