Back in the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddle...

My GOSH, it's been a long time!

To my ONE faithful fan (you know who you are!), this one is for you...

Much has gone on in the past few months. First off, I had computer and camera problems for a good while which did not allow me to upload any pictures or do anything crazy on the computer. I am not a techy dude, by ANY means. But, I did get it fixed (FINALLY) and we are all better now.

On Monday, we had our 1st Annual ALL AREA Young Life Club in Killeen. We had folks from Belton to Copperas Cove and everywhere in betwixt. For a grand total of about 129 people!!! It was the BEST YL Club that I have EVER been a part of in my 8 years in Central Texas. That is NO exaggeration. Seriously. I wish you could have been there. There was So much Energy and Heat from all those kids! My Lanta...

Below is a pic of a Belton YL Leader crowd surfing during the first song of the night! I knew it was going to be WILd night when I saw this happen. Don't think I wasn't worried about his foot going through the roof. I was prayin'...


This is Sasha, one of our new UMHB Leaders at Harker Heights High School, and some of her girls getting into it and singing their hearts out!


Monday night was Fantastic! What a great way to end the semester.

Taylor and I are good. We have been married almost 2 1/2 years. That's really hard to believe. We have gotten to be really good friends with two other couples in town. We went to Cancun with them in January and we get together every Thursday for food and some Bible Study. It really is a wonderful time. We are very thankful to have friends... and GOOD friends to ADD!

This is a picture of Taylor and me at Dave & Busters in Austin. We went there for Tad's 33rd birthday. It was a fun night... I hadn't been to a Dave & Busters in like 20 years!


In addition to our marriage, we have to include our two 'kids'! Bourne and Bauer (out cats) keep us entertained at all times. They are a mess and keep us laughing day and night. Here is Bourne taking FULL advantage of the 'Bird Bath' in our backyard! More like a 'Bourne Bath!' He runs the roost...

And lastly, some REALLY big news from Taylor and Johnny Russell!

Are YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ready for this?

NO, we are not pregnant, but we are MOVING! That's right, the Russell's are moving to Tyler, Texas, to continue to work for Young Life. We are very, very excited about the move. Taylor has never lived anywhere except Killeen her entire life minus the 8 years she was at college! Wink Wink. Just kidding, she was only at Texas A & M for 6... or maybe it was 4 1/2! Anything over 4 years seems like 6 or 8 to me... Only the diligent can complete a Bachelors Degree in 4 years FLAT!

So, lots of things are changing for us. We have our home on the market and we have an offer on the home below in Tyler... It is a Contigent Contract, meaning that if our home sells in the next 30 days, then we will move forward with the below home. This is the view from the front yard and my mom's favorite picture of the house (which doesn't have the house in it at all!).


So there it is. That's our life in a 7 minute nutshell. We report to our 'duty station' in Tyler on 1 July. We will go to camp with Tyler kids, not our Killeen kids. We feel like God is all over this decision in our life. It has really been fun to be a part of it and experience God at work! We told our YL kids and leaders that we were leaving on Monday. That was ExTrEmElY hard for me. I wept. Taylor wept. Kids wept. It was a great night...

Bless You...

YL's Day of Prayer...

Today is an International Day of Prayer for the Mission of Young Life. We are calling it RWOK ... Reaching a World of Kids! Young Life almost has as many acronyms as the United States Army! Well, not THAT many.

As a Mission, we are wanting to reach twice the amount of kids that we reached last year. Our goal is 2 MILLION kids! Isn't that INSANE?

Check out these quotes:
'Prayer does not fit us for the Greater Work. Prayer IS the GREATER WORK!'
Oswald Chambers

'For whatever does not grow out of God produces smoke, not fire. But, that which is born of God overcomes the world! If we are going to produce real fire, it is going to begin with God... on our knees!'
Karl Barth

We need you. Would you pray with us today?

Club last night was OTC! There was more laughter last night than I have seen in a LONG time! I will send pics later as well as hopefully post a video on YouTube for you to chuckle at.

Please pray with us... Because High Schoolers are WORTH IT!

Ash Wednesday...

Ash Wednesday... What does it mean and what shall we do, if anything?

I will tell you for 20 years I celebrated Ash Wednesday / Lent and it has more effect on me today than it ever has. In life, sometimes we do things not really knowing why... Parents are at fault for that a lot of times. Churches are at fault for that a lot of times!
An Episcopal Priest (yes, he's a Christian and heterosexual) told me on Sunday that if 'we don't know why we do something, then we shouldn't do it!' He is very intentional with his congregation about the history of the church and why the church does what it does. I LOVE this...

'Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.'
1 Peter 5:6

'...then your heart becomes proud, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and the house of slavery.'
Deuteronomy 8:14

LENT (an old English word for SPRING) is the season each year in which we approach the crucifixion (Good Friday) and the resurrection (Easter Sunday) of Jesus Christ. It begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts forty (40) days, not counting Sunday because Sundays already commemorate Jesus' resurrection. Historically, as the Lenten season developed, 40 days was settled upon because Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness of fasting, prayer and solitude with His Father in preparation for His ministry on earth.

Lent is a time for sacrifice and self-examination, for increased self-awareness and God-awareness, for spiritual refocus and renewing of our conversion, for seeing our own need for Grace and for opening our hearts to be more captured by Jesus' love!

Some people 'give up' something or 'take on' something. For instance, my wife may say that she is abstaining from eating chocolate or something else that is normally a daily part of her life. This is a discipline intended to make us aware of how earthly things can have power over us and to remind us that our true pleasure is in following Jesus.

The decisions of 'giving up' or 'taking on' are unique and personal to you and are between you and God. For goodness sake, if they are not helpful or become too great a burden, please stop them with no guilt! Lent is meant to be enlivening and deepening, not another legalistic rule of proving to God your worth or affection for Him.

In the Ash Wednesday service, which begins Lent, ashes are placed on one's forehead as the words are spoken, 'Remember, man is dust and to dust you shall return.' It's purpose is to humble our hearts and remind us that life, and our life, passes away on earth. All of life is a gift from God (1 Corinthians 4:7). Putting ashes 'on' is an old sign of repentance and humility (see Job 42:6)

Humility is RIGHT! I remember going to Ash Wednesday services growing up and my parents making me 'wear' those ashes on my forehead out to dinner. Often times I would 'forget' that they were on my forehead and 'accidentally' wipe my forehead because it was 'itching.' I would happen to 'accidentally' wipe the ashes off my forehead before we went in to eat. I just didn't know. I was probably taught, but I never understood. Now I understand. Now I believe. My upbringing means much more to me now then it did back then.

Our Contemporary churches could learn a lot from our Liturgical churches in observing the tradition of Lent... But let's NOT forget WHY we do what we do!

I hope that you do 'give up' something or 'take on' something in your daily life that causes you to think about, rely on and trust Jesus more. Deny yourself...



If you desire to WATCH my sermon from 31 January, the video is now on the web! Pretty crazy how that happens... www.begrace.org/media.