From Across the Pond

I love meeting new people, especially those who are who are from other cultures or who are very different from me, so the past couple of days have been a lot of fun. Blackwell invited me to the lake to hang out with some of his family and some of their friends from Europe. Talk about an eclectic group – some southerners, a bunch of Brits, an Austrian, and a Kiwi. (New Zealander)

We had a blast on the water, eating, playing games, and talking. They are an amazingly warm and friendly bunch of people. These families have been vacationing together for years, but within minutes of meeting all of them I felt like one of the crowd. I was able to teach several of them to wakeboard, and in return I learned a few British words and expressions, such as “rubbish,” (literal trash, not the figurative way we use the word) “he’s a bit of a nutter,” (he’s a little crazy) and my personal favorite, “knot.” (sphincter) (Don’t ask)

Thanks, guys for a fun couple of days. I had a great time with you all. I look forward to keeping in touch, and now I have an excuse to come visit Europe!

Crash

Yesterday afternoon during the storm I heard a big crash and a thud. One of those kind of noises that when you hear it you instinctively know something is wrong. I couldn’t see much out the window, but once the storm let up this is what I saw from my front porch.

Although the tree looked completely normal from the outside, apparently it was completely rotted and hollow on the inside.

There were also 50+ bats that were still huddled up (and squeaking) in the fallen tree. Guess they never heard of Wayne Manor, huh?

iPhone App Store

After browsing around the new iTunes app store a few times earlier this week, I finally decided to upgrade my phone’s software and try out a few applications. I had previously jailbroken my phone and installed several different applications that way, but decided that there were none of them I couldn’t do without.

After about 3 days of the upgrade and using the app store, I have noticed a few fundamental differences between the “hacked” apps and the official ones. On the positive side, the official apps seem to have more depth and quality, especially the ones that cost a few bucks. Many of the old hacked apps appear in the new app store, but most of them have been upgraded a bit. Evidently getting approved by Apple and charging money for an application raises the bar a bit. On the negative side, the new app store has very few system customization or utility applications. I guess Apple doesn’t like people messing with the nuts and bolts of its software.

Having said all of that, so far for me the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. I have found a few free applications that I like and a few paid ones as well. Here are my favorites:

1. Crash Bandicoot Kart ($9.99) – A true 3d cart racing game that uses the iPhone’s tilt sensors to steer. (the effect is similar to driving games on a Wii)

2. Enigmo ($9.99) – A difficult to describe but very cool arcade/strategy game that requires you to get a stream of water from point A to point B using various pieces of equipment. Definitely my favorite game so far.

3. Pandora (FREE) – If you haven’t tried this music streaming website on your computer, you should. That I can now enjoy it on my iPhone with headphones or even plugged into my car stereo is simply awesome.

4. Bible (FREE) – over 10 different translations including the Message, searchable, with Matthew Henry’s commentary. All for free on your phone.

5. Brain Challenge ($9.99) – More than just another puzzle game, Brain Challenge seeks to improve your logic, math, memory, visual recognition, and focus. It gives you simple “flashcard” type problems, and measures your speed and accuracy in answering them. It keeps track of your results over time so you can see how much you improve.

Serendipity

No, Grant and I did not watch chick flicks tonight. But we did try and make frozen hot chocolate. It was decent, but not at all as good as the real thing. Will have to work on the recipe.

Meeting Space Update

Thanks for the prayers, phone calls, and texts about the meeting this morning. Things went pretty well. There are a lot of details that would have to be worked out in order for us to use the space, but they all seem to be manageable. As we are working through those details, please keep praying that God would make it very clear what He wants us to do.

Meeting Space?

Tomorrow morning Dustin and I are looking at and hoping to work through lots of details on a possible new location for Midtown’s worship gatherings. As many of you know, we have been looking at every piece of property and building imaginable in the downtown area for the past 6 months and nothing has worked out so far. With only 5 weeks to go till USC students are back for the fall semester, it is definitely “crunch time.” We are praying that God will make it very clear tomorrow whether He wants us to be in this potential space or not, and would appreciate your prayers as well.

Scary Technology

Online maps are getting downright scary. Check out the pic below of my house from Live Search Maps. (its the one in the middle with the brick chimney on the side) Even in this scaled down capture you can see my jeep and the Midtown trailers in the back yard. And as if that wasn’t crazy enough, you can look at any location from 4 different directions!! Try it out – click the pic to go to the site, then click on one of the directions on the compass.

Starting tomorrow I am going to look up and wave for the camera every time I go outside!

Free Chains

If you have been following this blog for a while, you may remember that a year ago I asked you to vote for an idea that some friends and I had submitted to an American Express contest. We didnt win, but we did end up starting a non-profit of our own (www.worldcauses.org) to help attack poverty, injustice, and epidemic disease around the world.

The organization is just getting going, but God has drawn our hearts and opened some doors for our first initiative, Free Chains, which is a campaign to end child sex trafficking. Whatever you do, please take a few minutes to check out the site and consider what you might could do to help out. Again – one of the main premises of World Causes is that a lot of people doing very small, simple things can make a HUGE difference.

Birthday Thanks….

…..to all of you who helped make my birthday yesterday the best one I have had in many years! Here are the highlights:

- my annual “pre-birthday” call from Susan
- more emails, text messages, and facebook messages than I could handle
- a very encouraging blog from Justin (be sure to read the comment after it)
- some great phone calls from family and friends
- dinner with friends at Bonefish, including Bang Bang Shrimp and Ahi tuna
- the best birthday card I have ever gotten, from Scott and Kim (see video below, and wait for the music)

Go Camp

What do you get when you cross kickball, slip-n-slide “bases”, and water balloons? Just another late night game at Go-Camp!

Go Camp is a camp our church puts on each summer devoted to teaching students how to show Jesus’ love to the world around them. In addition to some students from Columbia, several youth groups from SC and GA are attending again this year. Each day, students serve in various ministries and roles around the city of Columbia, then each night gather back at the campus of Columbia International University for teaching, worship, and of course the famous late-night games!

So far this year’s camp has been great. I am looking forward to hearing all of the stories over the next few weeks that come from what God is doing this week at camp.