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What a season...

Well to say the least, this Fall has been crazy! I have so much to write about, but so little time to do it. But here is a snippet...

It has been soccer season for the last few months! I love soccer! My kids have been on the same team for a few seasons now. Caroline's team a few season ago were taking their lumps. They were lucky to sneak in a win. You find that with time, kids grow and improve. This season, they went 10-0 and won the tournament. Caroline had a great season. She scored a few goals and played some great defense! She was so much fun to watch this year. Very proud.

Maddie's Select team has been together for 3 seasons now. They are a solid team. Maddie has been planted in the Goal Keeper position this season.. she hates it. She takes every goal she allows so personally. So she basically came to the conclusion..if I have to play this position, i might as well play it well. Maddie has become a really good keeper this season. She has really stepped up her play. Her defense in front of her is great, which is always a big help. She allowed 4 goals for the entire tournament, which was the least amount for any keeper in the division. I only know this because our division made for a fantastic tournament. U12 Girls Red! Highly competitive! Very evenly matched teams. The fact that we had 3 ties this weekend in 4 games, sort of describes the parity. The girls tied the Tournament Champions in the final match 1-1. We finished 2nd in the league and in the tournament! We lost the first game of the season 6-0 and never lost again. 10-1-3 to finish up. Great season for the Capitals! Maddie has an opportunity to be a stifling keeper is she continues to learn the position, work hard and love to play keeper with a deep passion for the game of Soccer! I love soccer, but I really love my girls!

life is so busy...

Ok, I have fallen off the blog bandwagon this year. I can make a ton of excuses about why I am not updating but I have only one that I will share here... I am tired.

I will say that I love to blog. I like putting my thoughts down, so I can go back later and reflect on where I was at that moment in my life. I have just ran out of time to blog. I don't work in a job where I have time to take breaks and dispel the thoughts in my head, most of the time my head is spinning.

I have had a few things happen recently that are worthy of some blog posts. I am reluctant to wait any longer before the thoughts leave my head, so here is a summary and maybe I will get time to go into greater detail.

Cool things this summer:

We took a trip to Nashville. We enjoyed a leisure walk to the Parthenon. It almost ended with divorce and 2 kids hoping for Dad to get a taken out by a drive by shooting... thank you Nashville Transit Authority for the ride back to the hotel. All in all, a nice little getaway.

The band had an opportunity to open up for Big Daddy Weave. This was big for us. We had a great time, and i feel we did our best to represent for our friends, families and our community. The Paramount Theater was amazing! The crowd of people who came out to support us was very exciting and a bit humbling to say the least. The Jason Lovins Band were fantastic and really went out of their way to accommodate the band. We felt very welcome on the stage of the Paramount...2 songs later and a Standing O...i am sure can thank "the mfer's" for that one! (Note to self: from this day forward NEVER refer to the fans and friends of "the mfe" as "mfer's" :) )

A few weeks ago, Jen took a trip to NYC! A girls weekend away from the family. I got to spend a ton of time with my kids. Just the three of us...sort of. In the life of Marty, you often have "other" family members that tend to frequent our presence when Jen is away. Maddie, Caroline and I had a great weekend... with Luke, Trent, Jordan, Carter, Val, and Jon Mark. What can I say, I tend to travel with an entourage. We spent the better half of Saturday cleaning out the new Band Van...code name Vanzilla! We played at Firefest which spent most of the day trying to recover from all of the rain. We nicknamed it Smolderfest, due to all of the rain. We finally played around 6:30 before Day of Fire took the stage. We grabbed dinner with the gang and then crashed at my house to organize the van. Kids only 2 hours late for bedtime...CHECK.

Sunday was a day to ourselves. Swimming all afternoon. Good times. The storms came again. So we camped out on the screened porch and watch the rain. it was dark. No lights on so we could watch the lighting. I started telling stories about doing the same thing with my Grandparents as a kid. I watched many a storm from my Grandparents porch. For the next hour or so, I told Maddie and Caroline story after story about their Great Grandparents. They sat and listened so closely. It was dark, we could not see each others faces. I think I cried through most of the stories. The girls cried too. They wanted to know all about them. Every detail. This moment was so precious to me. I will never forget what Maddie said, "Dad, I didn't even know them, but I love them so much. I can't wait to see them in heaven." Caroline chimed in, "I love them too. I miss Grandma Perky." It took me a minute or two to recover from those words. I too, miss Papaw Lewis, Grandma Rosemary, Pap and Grandma Perky. I have faith that one day, Maddie, we will get to see them in heaven, too.

brought the light...

It is a dark and lonely road, I travel out here all alone.
Facing fears and battles deep within my soul in need of great relief.
But You came into my world, still you came into our world.

The narrow path seems impossible, to many demons the truth fore told.
Blinded my my every sin, my anger rages deep within my soul.
But You came into my world, still you came into our world.

But in the distance a light shines, overtaking the darkness in my mind
To know that Jesus you are near conquering all my tears, all my fears.

You brought the light, shine it bright in me.
Raged a fight, for my soul to set me free.
Bore the pain, the nails and the night.
You stepped into my world and brought the light.

- Marty Ford

I find myself in this place as much as the next person. It comes from the heart and a moment of worship that I had with my God that may have been the most intimate moment ever. He reminded me how powerful His light is and that light can not be overtaken by darkness. We hide in the dark place, but still the light shines. Shining hope, mercy, love and grace. We often forget that those things... hope, mercy, love and grace are still available to us. I have friends going through some real crap in their lives, and because they are... so am I. It is part of being in community and we share in this thing called life. I am blessed. Jesus brought the light, may we reflect it.

Caroline turns 7 years old today.

I can't believe that my baby is now 7 years old! It is amazing how fast she is growing up. Caroline is such a cool kid. Her smile is infectious and has this terrific giggle. I am so proud that she has her own mind, and defends herself with her sister. I love the fact that she still runs to me when I get home from work and she gives me great hugs. I know that she is growing older so fast, but I am in no hurry for you to grow up. I hope you have a wonderful day, Caroline! Happy Birthday!

Love,

Dad

today I have an 11 year old..

My daughter Maddie turns 11 years old tonight just after 6:00PM. I can remember the day she was born very vividly. I remember how excited I was about the fact that we were going to have a child. I remember how nervous Jen was that morning about the whole process of birthing a baby. To top it all off.. we had no idea what Maddie was going to be... a boy or a girl. We had refused to find out, we enjoyed the surprise. She had so much hair! She was so cute. I was afraid I would break her.

She is starting to grow up now. We have had 11 great years of growing, laughing, playing and just amazed by what she has been able to accomplish. The next 11 years will be full of many things that I can't even begin to predict, except for one thing. I will always love you.

Happy Birthday Maddie!

I am so very proud of you.

Love Dad

one crazy weekend...

Well, we just had one crazy weekend. It started on Thursday night when the guys and I met for a meeting to work out the details of the band. We discussed our future, where we were going, what is our purpose and what do we need as a band to continue to do this thing...whatever this THING is. We grabbed some dinner, sat down for a lengthy discussion, prayer and then maybe the best practice session ever.

We worked up some new songs and then crashed at 2AM. On Friday, the girls went to my parents. Jen and Anna went shopping. Luke, Trent, Jordan, Carter and I sat down for the first ever song writing session. It was a grueling process. I felt many emotions through out the evening and into the morning. We ended up just crashing at 4AM. The result... our first decent worship song. I am sure this is not the finished product, but its got some legs.

Jen awakened to Luke, Trent and Jordan asleep on the couches and the house looked like a bomb blew up in Guitar Center. Guitar and drum gear everywhere. We rolled out of bed and then prepared our selves for the travel to Bainbridge for the Worship the King event. We were the headliner...ok that is a stretch but we were scheduled to play at 9PM. We left my house with gear loaded around 1PM...a mere 8 hours before our schedule appearance to lead the people of Bainbridge United Methodist Church to the throne of God in worship! Here is where it gets interesting... Luke pulled out of my drive way and on to the route suggested by the GPS to take to Bainbridge, OH and it happened...
our bands first breakdown. Luke car had a flat tire.. on a large hill... with a car crammed full of guitars, amps, pedalboards, cables, etc. As I jumped out of the Jeep to help, I dropped my iPhone onto the cold hard pavement. This seemed insignificant at the time, but as the situation progressed... having a phone is pretty important now a days in situations like this.

After we transfered the gear to another vehicle, I changed the tire, while Trent and Jordan directed traffic(we were not only on a steep hill, we were on a blind curve in the road) and we were back on the road..with plenty of time to spare! Until 500 feet later... FLAT TIRE number 2 this particular road trip. Jordan and I ran the first tire back to the house to inflate, then another tire change and we were now back on the road again.

We finally arrived at our destination about 1 hour and 45 minutes later. This sort of put a crunch on setup time and practice time. We had decided to run through our new song...you know..give it a good "road test". We were ready at 4:15 and then it was time to wait... and wait....and wait and wait some more. The thing is..I am sure we are like any other band. When you get ready to play..YOU WANT TO PLAY! So patience was a virtue we had to really work on for the rest of the evening. As each band played, we became more and more antsy. The line up was great! Megan's band from Shawnee played, the girl singing with her rocked "Trading my sorrows". It holds a special place in my heart, was the first worship song I ever learned to play :) Megan and Rusty sang a few of their favorites for us. Rusty had the coolest hat ever! lol! Matt Blouser played his 12 string and shared his obvious passion for Country Music and the Gospel..that boy has got some twang in his voice! I think there is a huge need for more talented people in that genre... (Christian) country music. I think there is a difference between that and pure gospel/southern gospel music. It is all gospel music.

Paul and Mike were great guys who played 2 sets.. they bookended the fellowship and food break with Christmas music and some few original works. Great spirit and worship. It is obvious that they love to play music and sing. They sang a song that our friend Caitlin wrote the lyrics for when they were in Delaware, OH. Awesome!

Our good friend Jesse Houser put together a band with his mom, Shirley, his brother, Jordan, his friend Derek and his college roommate. I will forever refer to them as the Jesse Houser Extravaganza! Who knows maybe it will stick? I have known Jesse for a while now and had the pleasure of watching him grow into his own as a worship leader. He use to play bass, drums, guitar or whatever else we needed him to play in the worship team at Salem Community Church. I was impressed by how much stronger he is vocally. They did a great job and really got everyone to a place of worship. It was a great set. Everyone was singing.

Now I want to interject here a little story. A few years ago, we were asked to play at a small music festival in a parking lot of a church. This was back in the old school MFE days. We were to play very early in the line up. The headlining band had brought their own sound gear. We were told that all of the bands on the main stage would be playing through their gear. When we got their..the headlining band had not been told this bit of news. Needless to say, they were not happy and it was not that much fun. They gave us a bunch of attitude. I tried to be very thankful and appreciative of their efforts. They were honestly just frustrated. They setup, they had to run sound for us, they had to play, then they had to tear down. Honestly, I could understand if they were not prepared for the situation. I did promise my band that if we were ever in that same position, that we would remember that moment, and be gracious. At BUMC, we setup, ran sound, we played and tore down. We were happy to serve the other bands. It honestly makes for a better experience for the audience. Faster change overs = less waiting and more music. Everyone is happy! I was blessed in hearing them play their music. We know what it is like to be the opener, with no one to listen to you play and we know (on a very small scale) what it is like to be the headliner. We as a band know we will find ourselves at any of those positions in between moving down the road. We pray that a band that we share an evening with walks away going...I love those guys, they are doing this for all the right reasons.


At this point, the crowd of people had been there for 4 hours! Most crowds would have been tired and ready to go home. NO, not at BUMC! They were ready to go to the throne! Really they needed a bathroom break but Scott spoke about how Christmas was all about consumerism and that we needed to get to the central idea of Christmas...Jesus. Which worked perfectly for our intro. Speaking of intros... i think everyone in the MFE..we love intro's! I think about ways of opening worship that really gets people prepared to sing, to let go, to worship. I have so many ideas in my head, and very few of them involve pyrotechnics, stunts or giant animitronic demons (although that thought of Luke battling a giant fire breathing demon with his Tele would be pretty cool). I enjoy watching other bands start their worship services and just learn what makes a good start and what doesn't. I will be the first to admit that Sunday morning worship is a little different than what we do on a Saturday night, i think people are more prepared for a concert like worship service in those Saturday night environments(that is a whole other blog post). We decided to kill the lights and show the Advent Conspiracy video..powerful..thought provoking and tied in great with what Scott had to say. So...video ...lights come up..into the first song! I know..maybe a little bit of a rock star moment. We were so keyed up form all of the events of the day, awaiting our turn patiently, writing a new song in which we were going to test out on the BUMC'ers and honestly, worship was just what our band desperately needed.

I felt like each song set up the next song. The evening kept growing, getting bigger, displacing more energy. God had prepared us for moments like this. The moment where you go from hoping you can bring people to God to BRINGING people to God through worship. A whole new level. Now nothing about this set was perfect. We still played the songs and made mistakes, but I am not sure we have ever brought energy to worship like that before. I was proud and humbled at the same time. It was surreal and a rush at the same time. I am a different person because of worship on Saturday night. We might be a different band because of worship at Worship the King!

Song #5 in the set list was labeled "New Song?". We were now at that point in the worship. Do we play it? Do we cut it? Will people like it? Will it be worshipful? Will God be pleased? About 50 other questions flew through my mind in the split second before I looked at Trent, Jordan, Luke and Carter for affirmation that we were going to test out the new tune. And so we went for it.

Take off your shoes is a song that came from a few conversations, a ton of study, and a special piece of agape for my friend Eli (he is the next lay director on Chrysalis and the weekend theme is Exodus 3). He asked me to be the music director for the weekend. I thought how cool would it be that the theme song for the weekend was actually an original song! I wanted to surprise him, but I honestly was too excited about what little bit of the song I had already written to keep it from him. The song is about a burning bush experience. Moses, you or me, it doesn't really matter. It is a song about doubt, doubting myself and God's plan. It is a song of understanding my past mistakes, our pain as a people of God. It is a song of obedience, God's call in your life. We try to justify, even attempt to tell God he has the wrong person. A song about no matter where you are in life, you still are invited to Holy Ground. God still wants to commune with you there. He is a God of confidence and strength. He is a God of love and He is big! He is I am!

I think God's call to Moses in the bush was more about the fact that Moses actually saw the bush then it was that it was about the bush burning. My friend Steve confirmed my thought the other night. We probably walk past burning bushes everyday and never seem them. The most important thing is that when God calls out, we answer with "here i am!" That is so hard to do.

The song went off with out a problem, except for Luke's mic being muted. We had only played it once in practice. We found great worship moments in the song. It actually messed the whole band up. We were really sloppy on the next song because we were still reeling from how well everyone worshiped to "Shoes".

In our minds the night was a success for everyone involved. The church collected lots coats and shoes. We worshiped, a lot! We shared in communion. We were attacked all day , but we could not be touched that night. God was present!

One last thing, we have a video clip from Saturday night, I hope you are blessed by it. Thank you for all of you who support what we do. We love you.

Worship the King video...

here is what is cool about this...

Last night Maddie turned on the TV just in time to watch the Grammy Nomination Show, we caught the end. Taylor Swift was singing a medley of songs then it happened...

John Mayer and BB King appeared on the screen and for me (a total guitar freak) time stopped for a minute. A little dramatic? Maybe, but here is what is cool about this moment. John Mayer is to the point of being giddy while playing with BB King. Even though I think John is a better guitar player at this point, he is not a guitar icon..yet. John Mayer, known for his pop sounds and crazy facial expressions, has been redefining himself as a guitar player over the last 3 or 4 years. You can here it in his music. You can see it in his projects, he seems to be on a journey to share the stage with some of guitar legends and musicians that obviously influenced his music.

You know you have made it when someone can walk into a record shop(do those still exist?) and can hear a riff from the music playing and know who is playing. BB King's style and sound has that recognizability (i think i just made up that word). John Mayer is quickly gaining that notoriety for his guitar skills even though he has a song writing style of his own already. Enjoy the next few minutes of guitar bliss while I stay up way to late working on my own guitar skills that are being heavily influenced at this very moment by John, BB and Lucille.

those MFE guys are at it again...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

a break down of NYWC thorugh my eyes and ears...

I had a great week last week. I few days in Nashville for the National Youth Workers Convention. My previous post highlighted a few of the first couple of days. Saturday was sort of a blur... I fell asleep by taking 4 Nyquil drops I purchased from the hotel store. I was fighting a cold, I had no voice, and I needed to be ready to sing for Big Wednesday (that is a whole other post). I woke up at 10:30AM! I rarely get to sleep like that, but the Nyquil knocked me out. The Buckeyes kicked off at 11AM so I skipped the General Session and stayed in to watch the blowout. It was great to have a win like that against the Wolverines. I headed over to the Convention Center about the 3rd Qtr when the game was well out of hand. I sat in on the Tech Session which was cool to see how they work their magic during the convention. It was a ProPresenter lovefest which was very frustrating. At this point Jordan and Carter were the only 2 people I had ran into from our RVCC contingent. I spent the entire day alone. It has been along time since i have had that sort of isolation. It was good for the soul.

I grabbed a bite to eat around 4PM, by myself. I went to another session then made my way to the general session. Lincoln Brewster led worship and he reminded me just how bad of guitar player I am. Francis Collins spoke on being a Christian who believes in Evolution. It was an interesting talk, but he was pissing people off left and right. I sort of enjoyed that :)

After the General Session, I headed over to the hotel to drop some of my things. I hung out with Alan for a few minutes then headed over to grab a bite to eat with Jenn and Eli. We had a great chance to catch up. After dinner, (12:45AM) I stood in line to see a friend of mine from our home town who moved to Nashville to take a chance on his music career. Lewis was playing at the Stage on Broadway. The rest of the Waverly contingent was already there...they went over around 10:30PM. I told the door man that I was Lewis's cousin and he let me in ahead of about 75 people in line. The place was packed and Lewis was rocking the place. I stood about 5 feet from the stage and watched. around 1:30AM a guy grabbed me by the shoulder and asked that I help him get to the stage. It was John Rich of duo Big and Rich. He had a friend with him (Dierks Bentley) and they got up on stage with Lewis and sang a few songs. It was alot of fun, but I was out way too late. I got to bed by 3AM and i woke up with no alarm at 7AM and was over to the convention by 8AM for a seminar and the General Session with Shane and Shane. It was great stuff. I took my Baby Taylor to have the guys sign it and they remembered my from a few weeks ago when we met them at Mt Vernon.

Sunday was a crazy day and we drove home after the last General Session that night. I am glad we stayed for to hear Danielle Strickland. Her talk was fantastic. I crashed int eh back of the van and made it home by 6AM.

There were lots of great moments at NYWC, but after I break it all down my favorite moments were:

6. Crowder autograph

5. Danielle Strickland talk

4. Shane and Shane encounter

3. Lewis Copeland in his element.

2. Francis Chan talk

1. Robbie Seay Band Worship on Thursday night. They really impressed me. A great band. Very tight. It was my favorite worship of the weekend. They played 2 new songs that I have to find the charts for. I have scoured the internet, but can't seem to track them down. Carter and I went up and met Robbie, he was a great guy. He was very down to earth. It is encouraging when you get a chance to meet people and they don't disappoint you.

It was a fun weekend.

at the National Youth Workers Convention...

I have been at the the National Youth Workers for the last day and a half. My family should be here, but they bailed. I am totally messed up from Francis Chan this morning. He thoroughly brought the goods with his talk. "You are standing in my pile of crap and you are ruining it!" "You are unflavored salt!" This resounds in my soul... i guess you had to be there...

Crowder Band rocked the house as usual. I hung around afterward to get Dave's autograph on the Baby Taylor guitar. The signatures that make it on the Baby Taylor are people who have changed my life with their music. Third Day was the only people for the last 4 years...until today. Crowder got a kick out of Maddie's Halloween costume (she dressed up as Crowder).

Tonights General Session was interesting. Three speakers. Tony Campolo warned of the Fall of Babylon(USA), Andrew Marin talked about how we are to love gays and lesbians, not convict and judge them. Shane Claiborne reminded me how much more like Jesus he is than I. lol

The Crowder Band had a complete meltdown at the beginning of "Neverending" and was quite entertaining.

It was a day that both challenged and encouraged. By the late night session, I was in the mood to laugh so we went to watch JarodHall.com for some illusions. Great stuff.

I am going to go hang out at Gruhn Guitars in the morning then off to the General Session and catch the Buckeyes game. Go Bucks!

See you on the flip side.

Marty

Picture in need of a caption...

WOW... need a caption for that one... thanks Alan for the photo.

loving God...

My friend John said to me today, "People really struggle with a loving God." WOW. Profound. I never really thought about it that way. People actually struggling with the thought that our God loves everyone. I guess I have always taken that for granted. I have always believed that God loved me. It is what I was taught growing up. Jesus loves me this I know.... Why do we struggle with accepting the fact that He loves EVERYONE! EVERYONE? Yes, everyone!

We say that God is love, but struggle to believe it.  How can God love a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Nazi, a homosexual, an adulterer, a sinner, or me? It is easier for us to look past our own sin and point at others and say they are unworthy of love. I see that as hate. I will admit that my opinion on this matter 10 years ago would have been drastically different. If I even had an opinion about the subject back in those days.

We are talking about God's love here, not about eternity or heaven. Two entirely different discussion points.  We want so much for God to love who we want Him to love and condemn those who practice things we do not understand, disagree with, or outright disgust us. It is easier that way. I think people struggle with God loving everyone, because we, honestly, are a competitive world. We compete for friends, jobs, sport, material things, and even God's love. We have all done it... attempted to elevate ourselves over others to make us look more important, increase our social status, appear smarter to co-workers and even more loved by friends, family and God. A life of competition like this puts us in a life pattern of some form of hatred. Call it extreme if you will, but I think the root problem is hate.

I do believe this form of hate is not blatant, but exists in the sub-conscience. Years of programming has forced society to this place. I am watching a generation that is over coming this in powerful ways and that excites me. I know that I have grown a tremendous amount since my collision with Jesus. My thoughts and ideas of how our God loves is still being molded by books, friends, teachers, pastors, youth and adults alike. But no witness is more shaping than how God loves a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Nazi, a homosexual, an adulterer or a sinner through ME. We are all the same, loved by God...only the decision is the differentiator.

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I forgot to post this....

Some might say the next Billy Graham... or at least it is Mr. Graham's pulpit. Happy belated Birthday Mr. Graham.

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this hit me pretty hard....

I am following a worship leader from ATL via LA named Carlos. I really dig this guy. I have been thinking that he and I are similar guys, would probably be good friends if we worked together or went to the same church. He went and posted this on his blog. This hit me pretty hard. He was describing me. I am embarrassed to admit it. I know most of us can look at that list and say...yeah that is me, but man.. Los hit the nail on the head. It messed me up to the point that i struggled to sleep last night.

You are not alone my friend. Similar to the core, to the point that i think way to much about my appearance, hiding my visual flaws and my style as a worship leader. Just saying that turned my stomach. Just know you are not alone in this trap and you don't know me, but I am praying for you Los. Even though we have faults and failures, God still uses those of us who are obedient to His call.

Transparent.

David Crowder Band responds....

Luke and I talked about doing this for the 5th QTR on Friday night.... but looks like Crowder Band beat us to the punch... thanks YS_Scoop.

again with the name thing....

Thank you to YSMarko yet again with the name thing...

My pirate name is:

Captain Harry Cash

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

just call me Stick...

Thanks to YSMarko for pointing this out.  The Sarah Palin Baby name generator

So if Sarah Palin was my mom...

Martin Lewis, if you were born to Sarah Palin, your name would be:

Stick Freedom Palin

My friend Eli is related to me... his name is Plank Castle Palin...

Good to know she uses Long John Silvers names for Chicken Dinners...Chicken Planks and Chicken Sticks...

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a field trip....

On Friday, we embarked on a little field trip.  Our goal was to drive to Chicago, visit our friends Mason and Valerie at Wheaton College. Steve Good, Val Francis, Eli Ruggles, Carter Good and myself climbed into the Good mobile and set off for our destination. We enjoyed great conversation along the way.  We had to stop for lunch at Panera Bread in Dayton.  We stopped to replace the windshield wiper blade that was subsequently ripped off of the van just north of Indianapolis (thank you NAPA). We stopped 10 miles later for Starbucks coffee. We missed a toll booth (we all smiled at the camera, the bill soon to be mailed to the home of Steven M. Good). We finally arrived at Wheaton.  We toured the dorm and met Andrew, Mason's roommate and few other guys from Fischer 5 West. We grabbed dinner with Mason and Valerie.  It was great to catch up and here how excited they both were about life at Wheaton. Mason continued to explain all of the history of Wheaton and special events like the Kingdom Run. Sounds like they are having a great time.

After dinner we went back to the Chapel where we took in a Phil Keaggy Concert.  This guy is unbelievable. I have seen Phil a few times and he continues to amaze me with his creativity and humbleness. He played 15 minutes shy of 3 hours.  I don't think this is typical.  It is obvious that he LOVES playing the guitar, but more important, he took a moment to share the gospel.  That was very cool. After the show, we went back to the Stoop for some ice cream and more touring. We finally crashed about 1:30AM.

We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel where we ran into Larry Thomas. He played the Soup Nazi in a Sienfeld episode. He was wearing a t-shirt that said, "Master of my domain". Steve and I recognized him and a quick trip to the W confirmed our suspicions. 

We met up with Mason and Valerie for a tour of the Billy Graham Museum.  It was a cool exhibit until I violated copyright laws by taking a picture of some cool art on display (my apologies to the artist, I have no plans to sell them). It rained the entire time we were there. We decided to not take the train downtown, but to take the kids to Target to stock up on supplies. We grabbed lunch at Giordonos, a famous chain of Chicago style pizzerias and then back to the dorm to say our goodbyes.

We started back to Ohio and it was pretty quiet in the van. I think everyone was tired.  After a while, Eli propped his laptop up on the dash of the car and we watched half the 4th season of the Office. Even though Steve assured us he was not watching, I believe the propping up of the laptop on the front dash is illegal in all 50 states including Puerto Rico, but that doesn't keep the Office from being hysterically funny.

We arrived at my house at midnight on the nose and I crashed. All of this is worth visiting kids from our youth group. It is great to see them enjoying life, and hoping that maybe your experiences that you shared over the last 3 years may help them make great choices. I love these guys like they were my own kids, and honestly...i sort of felt like they were the last few years. I have so many more to go visit in due time. I love them. I hope they feel it.

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