This is what happens when i stay in my office for lunch....

You Are 30 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Is this me?

You Are An ESFP

The Performer You are a natural performer and happiest when you're entertaining others. A great friend, you are generous, fun-loving and optimistic. You love to laugh - and you like almost all people equally. You accept life as it is, and you do your best to make each day fantastic. You would make a good actor, designer, or counselor.

What's Your Personality Type?

I am not sure what to think if this....

I rolled over in bed this morning, and grabed the remote to the TV. I love my alarm clock! For the last 30 minutes, I had been listening to my alarm clock....it is an iHome2go. It was playing my favorite playlist on my iPod at the moment... the Gory Revealed cd. Go to my post about the tour here. I can't stop listening to this cd (a great video at the bottom of this page), great songs, but even better lyrics. I love that the songs get back to the Word, they are pulled straight out of the text of the Bible. They attempted to write songs from other books, not just out of the Pslams.

I turned on the TV to watch the news and I was distracted immediatly by the program that was on the Versus Channel (I fell asleep watching NHL playoffs). There were 2 people sitting in front of the camera, asking that I call their 1-800 number and receive my FREE, Now LARGER, Miracle Spring Water. They were sharing testimonies of people who had been healed, received money, got a new car, and many other things after drinking this Miracle Spring Water. I stared in amazement as the coverage moved to a service where the gentleman that was just talking about this free water was healing a woman who has MS. She started dancing!

I do not mean to sound skeptical, I have witnessed healing before in my life. That is a whole other story that I will not blog about, but will tell you the story if you ask me too. I was tempted to call the number, just to get my very own packet of miracle spring water. What made this spring water different from the water coming out of my tap at home? Did they pray over the water? Do they have a special spring that runs directly from heaven? Did they find the foutain of youth (Only the penitent man shall pass.....penitent....penitent...a penitent man kneels before the Lord)? I found it hard to understand.

I looked back and noticed that Jesus used water all of the time. He used water to sustain His life. He drank IT! He walked up to John the Baptist and asked to be baptised in IT! The wedding party was going so good that they ran out of wine....so He turned IT into the best wine...and saved IT for last! He and the diciples were out in the boat, Jesus was knapping, and a storm blew in and everything was crazy. The guys were scared, so they woke Jesus up and He calmed the storm and seized control of IT! The fisherman were all out in the boat, struggling in the water and Jesus walked acrossed IT! (This is a stretch...) Jesus spit IT into the eyes of a blind man and he could see!

There were lots of miracles associated with the water. Maybe there are still lots of miracles being performed with water. I think that there are still lots of miracles that are happening in this world. I think Jesus performs them everyday, still today. I am not sure that it has anything to do with the water.... Luke 8:46-48 NIV

46But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Faith is IT!

I had a religious experience today.....

While the kids were off at Junior Jam and since I was embarrassing Maddie, I took the opportunity to search google maps on my Treo for a guitar store that would be close. Google came through with the Mandolin Store in Washington CH, OH. It was 20 miles away so I jumped in the van and headed out. I went to the first address and the store was no where to be found. I checked there website and found the new address just a few miles away.

I walked into the Mandolin Store...WOW! I was blown away by the selection of Mandolins. They also have an extensive collection of guitars, banjos, dobros, etc. I was greeted by a hand full of men. They were all sitting around shooting the bull. They reminded me of the Coffee crew that use to hang out in the Wagon Wheel Restaurant when I was a kid in Kingston. These guys were all bluegrass musicians. They were all selecting instruments to tune up for the jam session I could sense was about to start. I was admiring all of the Mandolins. What a great selection. My parents bought me one for Christmas last year. I love playing it. It is hard on my fingers, but the tone is worth it! There was a Breedlove Mando that I fell in love with, awesome tone, it had a wide neck and was a joy to play. Being a smart musician...I put the Mandolin down, since I am much stronger on the guitar in an impromptu situation. I grabbed a really nice Collins OM Spruce and Rosewood guitar and tuned up. I was playing around and one of the older guys asked me a few questions and then they were off. So i jumped in! I would not normally do this, due to my insecurities of my playing ability. The beauty of Bluegrass Music is that...it is either in the key of G or in the key of A. I have those covered!

Wow, was that so much fun! After about an hour of jamming, the guy who had been singing up to that point asked me if I sang. I told him...Not Bluegrass! They chuckled and said, "Is there any other kind of music?" I said, how about Hank Williams tune..."I saw the light". One of the guys said, "we never heard of that one, but if you jump in there, we will follow you". I knew he was lying but I played along. It was awesome! We had a bass, 2 guitars, mandolin, banjo, and a dobro. After about another hour...I had to leave. I could have stayed there all day! It was a religious experience! We were complete strangers, all of us sitting there, in worship. One with the music.

So I give a shout out to the gang at the Mandolin Store! Thanks for making a great day even better. I will be back to do that again! Very soon! Hopefully my bluegrass chops will be much improved and maybe I will even pick up a Mandolin the next time!

Junior Jam was chaos...

I took a van load of RVCC kids to Junior Jam today and it was Chaos...pure craziness! I loved it!

I hope the kids had a great time. The Cedarville Students were like a bunch of Jesus's running around being goofy and crazy to entertain all of those kids. What a cool ministry! They danced, they sang, they played and they got to experience God in a cool new way! Thanks!

i promised more...

Let me first start by saying that last night was fantastic. It was intimate. It was acoustic. It felt very much like sitting on the front porch and worshiping. It had this bluegrass undertone through out the night that made me feel like worship was getting back to its roots.

Mac Powell is still the man. Great vocals. Great song writer. He and David Nasser have partnered to bring this Glory Revealed Tour to life. Nasser wrote a book about making the Word real and the focus. He asked Mac to help him out with worship songs that can be introduced into the church that are simple and strong in the Word of God. Mission accomplished. I could see us introducing every song off the cd into worship at RVCC.

Mac knows talent and this tour is no exception. He has brought in some great Christian musicians to help out with the project. The night sort of rolled between all of the artists, everyone with a mic, most with instruments. They seemed to pass everything around. I think four different people played bass. It was like a big Gaither sing along, only I liked the music. No disrespect. There were lots of harmonies, lots of layers of instruments, and no egos! It was like all persons involved enjoyed taking a back seat and singing harmony. Not anyone person was in the spotlight the entire time. I appreciated that so much.

Shane and Shane are amazing. You always know you have worshipped when they are involved! They sang "Yearn", which is one of my favorite songs (I am still scared to sing it in worship..it is so high). The coolest part was watching the other artist worship during that song...it was real, it was humble, it was worship. Trevor Morgan was playing bass most of the night. He is probably the most underrated artist in Christian Music. I first heard him in Estes Park a few years ago and was blown away. He is a great guitar player and has a fantastic voice, influenced by Dylan a little, but better ;). My wife's favorite would have been Tim Nuefield, of Starfield. He sang "Son of God" which has quickly become a favorite at RVCC and it was fantastic with a little banjo and mandolin in the mix. Candi Pearson-Shelton was fantastic. I wish Anna would have been there to witness this girl's worship, amazing!

My favorite song of the night had to be from Shawn Lewis of Hyper Static Union. He sang a song called "Waters gone by"! This kid is talented! Great vocals, songwriting, guitar, bass and banjo! He sang a great high harmony part on Brian Littrell 's "Welcome Home", and honestly that was the one dissappointing moment of the evening. Brian Littrell sang two songs about half way through the evening. HE DID NOT PLAY THE GUITAR! He picked up a guitar, slung it around his neck and did not play it. He even had a guitar change! What? My OCD took over! LOOSING MY MIND! I will admit that he can sing, and he actually did a nice job singing harmony on a lot of the songs, but this was just a distraction for me. I could not get over it. I told Jen a long time ago that he was not playing the guitar in his music video and he confirmed it tonight. My advice to Brian....do what you do best, I will respect you as an artist regardless of whether you can play an instrument or not. Remember your voice is as much an instrument as a guitar or piano. Even Mac did not pick up a guitar the entire night, you did not need it to make the song good!

This was a different evening due to the fact that they were video taping for a DVD that will be available this summer and for playback on television. There was only one retake the entire night, so I was impressed with that fact. All in all it was a fantastic night of worship and I was blessed by the experience. I have some new songs to learn. I have some great images to remember and had a really cool time with my friend Trent. Thanks for the Dew.

For more about the tour, go to www.gloryrevealed.com

so Trent and I went to see Mac and the Shanes...

so this was very last minute, but Trent and I just arrived in Lancaster to see the Glory Revealed Tour...and above is a picture from our seats. Trent scored us the front row by using his mad skills...more to come ...