I met some wonderful people today at the Dallas Life Foundation.  Ten of us from the church went to volunteer our time and energy to serve food, wash dishes, and minister to the people living there.  One of them that I met was named Calvin Holmes.  Calvin and I shared lunch and conversation and I learned a great deal from speaking with him.  He was born in Denver sixty years ago and has lived a full and interesting life.  He joined the Army at the age of seventeen and was stationed in Louisiana where he began to experience prejudice for basically the first time in his life.  He can vividly recall some trying moments of living through a time of racial tension and unrest.  Calvin said that he has worked at nearly every job under the sun, including carpentry work, truck driving, working at a print shop, and being a cross-country bus driver (from which he is now retired).  He intends to go on vacation to Denver on the first of June and, if I understood correctly, he hopes to not come back as most of his family still lives in the area.  We discussed music as well… he said he is a “big fan of Madonna’s music.  Calvin accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior several years ago and he said that he doesn’t worry about much any more.  He described it as not just “cleaning out his closet, but really getting in there and dusting it all out.”  He also said that he thought “a person’s character is reflected in their eyes.”  I think he’s probably right about that for most people (does that change the way that you look at a person when you speak to them?).  One thing I can say about Calvin is that he has an awful lot of light bursting out of him and it was a sincere blessing to meet him.  Calvin also introduced me to a guy named Will.  Will loves comic books and drawing and music and just has a general passion for life.  I believe that his ultimate desire is to draw for an occupation… he’s been studying for that purpose.  I’m looking forward to speaking further with Will about a few things.

I also met an awesome family… the Bishop’s and Woerner’s (and Joseph… whose last name I didn’t catch) basically originate in the Maryland area near Baltimore and have also lived in the eastern Tennessee area.  Their son, Michael, had his last name (Bishop) tattooed on his right arm… they seemed to be a very tight and loving family.  Once again, there was light and life just absolutely flowing from this family and I look forward to speaking with them again.  I am working out details to do a concert/service at the DLF on a Monday night in the near future and I am very excited about the ministry that the foundation is doing.

Woud you pray for each of these people with me?  Father, thank you for Calvin Holmes and the life that he lives in You.  Help guide Calvin in your truth and in your path and help him to continue to shine Your light into the lives of everyone that he meets.  I pray that you will bless him in his endeavors and that you will make clear the direction that you desire for him to take in his life.  Thank you also for the exuberance and passion that I saw in Will today.  Help him to take his gifts and use them for Your purposes and for Your kingdom.  Bless him.  And thank You so much for the loving family that I met.  Keep them steadfast in Your will and as close or closer than I saw them today.  Bless them, guide and direct them.  Give each of these people a sense of peace and comfort.  Thank you for allowing each of them to change my life in a positive way just a little bit today.  Thank you for the grace that covers all of us and bonds us all together through the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus.  It’s in His Name that I pray for these… Amen.

I could not be happier to let you guys know that I am now employed once again!  Highland Terrace Baptist Church in Greenville, Texas, voted this morning to call me (us) as the Associate Minister of Music.  The church is comprised of around 1,000 active and attending members.  They have three morning services… the first and third services are musically more traditional while the middle service is contemporary.  I am being hired mostly to lead the contemporary service, but will also be in charge of youth music, upkeep of the church website (eventually), and filling in for the other music minister when he is gone.  The church has made it clear that they want to encourage me to continue to write and record and I will probably begin singing in different places again in the late summer or early fall.

We will miss Arkansas as both mine and Kimberly’s familys are all there, but we believe that God has brought us here for a wonderful purpose.  Pray for us that our house sells… and sells soon.  The church has been gracious thus far and has said that they will help us in any way they can during this transition process, but we would love to go ahead and begin buying something here.

God IS faithful!

It has been over two months since my last post… WOW!  For those of you that actually read things here, I would like to apologize.  I actually made a decision to keep quiet here for a bit and “lay low” during my search for a new church position.  Anyway – that all seems to coming to a close as Kimberly, Micah, and I are going in view of a call this weekend.  I would love to tell you all more about it, but I would rather wait until we know something definite.  So, pray for us if you get a second.  I will be back to the bloggin’ soon enough.  I also have a new album in the works… just have to get straightened out financially again. 

God is FAITHFUL… God IS faithful… GOD is faithful!

Dean kinda lovingly scolded me recently for my lack of posts that have been happening lately (Thanks, Dean!). It is good to know that someone actually cares whether or not my thoughts are being written down… and for those of you who care… they have been… just not here. I’ve been writing a lot of music lately. It sometimes gets to the point where I get inspired and I have a hard time doing anything else until the song(s) is finished. For instance, I started working on a song this past Wednesday afternoon with the intention of singing it Sunday morning. I did finish it (at 1:30 in the morning on Sunday and then finished the track for it about an hour later) and for those of you that listen to the music here, it is MUCH more upbeat than most of the songs that I write. This is something that I have been striving to work on because some people… even my friends… begin to assume that I am a sad and mopey person that is constantly deep in thought. The thing is, I AM sometimes sad and mopey and I am often deep in thought, but I am just as often making ridiculously stupid jokes and listening to rock ‘n roll or sports talk radio or NPR or Radiohead or The Beach Boys or Sufjan Stevens or Penderecki… anyway – you get the picture. I’m afraid that my catalog of songs is not reflecting my complete personality. So, I am trying to change that overall picture… I promised a new song probably two months ago and have really struggled with the recording side of things, have had strep throat, and have had life altering decisions in front of me ever since. It is coming at some point… as well as two or three others… my most recent song is ready to go other than having my vocals recorded, but that is always my biggest problem with the equipment that I have (or don’t have).

I planned on posting on Mark 2:1-5 (the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man) recently but that is what my most recent song is about… so the song will come with the post. Anyway – my apologies to those of you who read, listen, and/or comment on this site… I will try to be a bit better about things.

The Gospel Music Association’s 32nd Annual Music in the Rockies event held in Estes Park took place between July 30th and August 5th, 2006. This was an incredible event and now that I have had a bit of time away from it… I will begin giving my impressions about the week at the event and give some details of other things that I did during the week.

I actually flew into Denver on Saturday morning and spent most of the morning scouring every grocery store between Denver and Boulder for Act II Sweet Corn on the Cob microwave Popcorn… alas, to no avail. I had planned to buy as much as I possibly could (as it is not available in Arkansas) and was going to ship it to my home. I gave up my hunt for the morning (I would later resume it full force and still come up empty) and gave my friend Hermes a call. He and his wife Jacolyn were going to be moving to Texas the next day and I thought it would be good to have lunch with them… so we went to the Spicy Pickle (absolutely delicious as always). I then spent a few hours going to different bike shops in Boulder (this is something I miss horribly) and bought a few of the newest energy bars and goodies to try out. I stayed with my friends Georg and Betsy Pingen on Saturday night and we caught up on things that have been going on in the past year. They are also expecting a baby very soon and were gracious enough to give Kimberly and I an outfit for our little Micah as they had a duplicate from a baby shower. Betsy gave me a copy of her book, “Did Your Grandfather Steal My Christmas Present?” (one of the most intriguing titles I have ever heard) and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

Sunday morning, I led the music at East Boulder Baptist Church where Kimberly and I attended during our time in Colorado. It was a great morning of getting to hear about the work that is going on for the Lord all over the world. Lunch at Old Chicago for some great pizza brought back some memories for me… most of “the gang” from Sunday School was there, but it just wasn’t the same without Brad and Patty Nix and Shane and Casey Ewen.

I took Highway 36 from Boulder up to Estes Park and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the cyclists between Boulder and Longmont. By the time I got to Estes, the traffic was crazy and I started worrying that I had overestimated how much time I would have to get registered and settled. I was right, but it was mostly because of the insanely long lines for registration and then lodging check-in.

General Registration: SERIOUSLY… if you are going to the event next year show up early! This was supposed to take place between the hours of 1:00-5:00. I finished my registration and check-in at about 6:15 which gave me very little time to get done eating and get to the evening worship service. It was also just a little warm at the time and I had not changed out of my Sunday morning attire… big mistake!

Sunday Evening Concert (sponsored by Bible League): Chris Tomlin (here is his blog) is the real deal, folks! He did a great job of helping us worship corporately and prepared us for a very powerful message from Louie Giglio. The gist of the message was asking us what our worship services would be like if our church members stepped through the door to God’s Kingdom and stood in His presence before ever stepping through the door to the church building. They probably wouldn’t care too much what type of music was being sung or if there was any music at all… since they were already in an act of worship… it would just continue with other people around. Life application: Are we waiting for the church service to begin to start worshipping? I was exhausted at this point and went on back to my room… I still regret that I missed getting to hear the David Crowder Band. Maybe one of these days…