I’m pathetic. (Please stop applauding)

I’m not a big chapel guy. I had to go when I was in college (due to going to a Christian university, Southwest Baptist University). I began sinking away when I was in seminary, hiding in my cubicle to get work done. Now that I’m at LifeWay, chapel has become one of those “go a few times a year” occurrences once again.

I have to give props to LifeWay, though, as they really do a pretty good job of getting some good chapels together (thanks to my friend, & co-Gladevillian, David Hassell). Today was case in point. Mandisa (yes, that Mandisa) was in chapel this morning performing & sharing her story of participating in American Idol. I was tempted - very tempted to skip my normal Friday routine, at least for a bit, and head downtown to hear her. Added draw is that they were selling pre-release copies of her soon-to-release CD at deeply discounted rates to LifeWay employees (she used to work at LifeWay FYI).

I thought about it, but couldn’t do it.

I admitted to my lovely wife that I’d drive downtown & break my normal Friday routine in a heartbeat to see Mandisa. What I couldn’t bring myself to do was dress up just to drive downtown for a 30 minute chapel.

I know - I’m pathetic.

I’m going about my typical Friday morning routine: wake up a little later than usual (b/c of not having to commute to downtown Nashville), eat a leisurely breakfast, drink my first (of many) cups of coffee, check email, take a shower, and head to Panera to work (that is, working from Panera, not working at Panera as a friend put it to me). I order my bottomless cup of coffee, throw iTunes into shuffle mode (it’s a U2-fest this morning), and sit down to catch up on a little news via the Internet before diving into my work.

I was reading a friend’s blog and followed a link to a Christian satire site (”Cable Company Goes TBN 24/7 for Delinquent Customers” - hilarious [thanks for the laugh, Ginger]). It got me in the mood to hit some of my favorite satire sites that I haven’t read in awhile. Enter The Whittenburg Door.

The Whittenburg Door was founded by the late Mike Yaconelli (Youth Specialties) and some friends. Great, poignant, Christian satirical site. The following article was recently posted on the site/magazine by Joe Bob Briggs. He’s a comic and movie reviewer. The article was originally published in The Dallas Observer on June 7, 1990. It’s a great read…

Continue reading "What The Homeless Really, Really Need and Why They’ll Never Get It" »

I've completed the bulk of the transfer to our new backend. After five years of using Movable Type to power our site, we're now running on Expression Engine. I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting a good content management system for a website. The Threads website is running off of it, and we're beginning to move more & more LifeWay sites over to it. We're also moving the Gladeville & up/rooted websites over to it.

Some things still haven't transitioned yet. The following are some quirks that I'll get going in the next couple of weeks as I have time...

• Archives/Site Search - search is working okay, but I've got to get in & fix the search results page
• Old Images & Movie Files - I'll slowly be going back & remapping these to the new system
• Category Listings - I've got to re-wire the category archives & clean things up a bit here

One of the amazing things that I love about my work with LifeWay is that I know the things I work on here are having an international impact. Threads is far reaching beyond just the United States - helping churches all over the world reach out to young adults for Christ.

I've been blessed to carry on a conversation with a new friend from Taiwan this week. She somehow found me on Facebook (still not sure exactly how), and proceeded to send me a somewhat-broken message (her English isn't the best) through my profile there. We've been able to talk about what young adult ministry looks like here in America vs Taiwan. It's been interesting to see both the similarities & the differences.

Continue reading "A Conversation From Taiwan" »

Some new video links to news segments on the Coffeyville flooding:

• "Residents Can Return Home" (Fox23.com)
• "Going Home Following the Floods" (Fox23.com)

Wanted to post these links that my friend Alec sent me on the Coffeyville Flood before we signed off for our transition break:

• Coffeyville Residents Bused Through Flood Damaged Neighborhoods (KOTV Tulsa Video)
• Cleanup Continues in Coffeyville (KOTV)
• Man Found Dead in Coffeyville Thought to be First Fatality of Flooding (KansasCity.com)
• Coffeyville Refinery Owner Goldman Sachs Feeling Heat as Kansas Oil Spill Rescuers Begin Showing Signs of Illness (NewsInferno.com)
• Flood Recovery Assistance (FOX23 News Video)

After much debate, I'm finally in the process of switching the engine that runs our site over to a new one. I've pretty much been using Movable Type for the entirety of existence for TheEdigers.com (& BabyEmerie.com before that). For the last six months or so we've been using a new system with ThreadsMedia.com called Expression Engine. I've been so blown away with its flexibility/ease of use that we're in the process of switching our church website over to it - and now our family site as well.

What does this mean for you? Not much, except that we won't be posting anything here for the next week or two until the switch is complete.

Just testing out some video for the iPhone. This may/may not display right on your browser...

We had a great time on Independence Day! It was one of those 'lay in the hammock & read/play in the pool with the kids/take an afternoon nap' sort of days that you wish you could have more often. We took a brief fireworks break in the afternoon. Most of the fireworks we buy are of the nighttime variety, so the big 'show' didn't begin until about 8:30pm.

Emerie is still a little unsure of the noise level :-) She also wasn't too sure about the smoke. Got some great pictures of her trying to hold her nose and play with a sparkler at the same time!

Head on over to our Flick pages to get a glimpse of some of the festivities...

• Flickr Photos: 4th of July 2007

Here are more pictures & video from the flooding in southeast Kansas where I'm from. These are from the town of Independence, just north of Coffeyville.

• Aerial video of flood waters (YouTube)
• Various pictures & video from the area (Independence City Website)

Also, looks like the flooding/oil leak news has found its way not only across the country, but even in England - the BBC picked the story up today. Here's a list of news stories on it from around the country/world: Google News search for "coffeyville" and "flood"

From a blog post I just put up on the Threads website today...

Can I just say that my kids are excited about the fact that tomorrow is Independence Day? Emerie, who really still has no concept of time, has been asking when 'fireworks day' is going to be here several times a day for the last week or so (at least). The 4th of July has got to rank up there in kid-popularity along with such holidays as Christmas and Halloween.

I remember as a kid stretching the bounds of what was 'appropriate firework enjoyment.' I would sit on my front porch with my sling shot in hand & punk in mouth. I'd stick a firecracker in the slingshot, pull it back, light it with my mouth & shoot away. Needless to say, those errant ones in the batch (the ones that seem to go off almost as soon as you light them) caused many a burned finger & holes in my shirt.

As a teenager I participated in more than one roman candle fight. I'd stand in grand western 'showdown' fashion with another buddy some distance apart. We'd light our roman candles and proceeds to run around and try and avoid being hit by the flaming balls flying at us from the other person.

Yeah, I know - REALLY smart, Chris.

Really, it wasn't that bad. Just ask Aaron McGuire, David & Dustin Cantrell, or BJ Powell if my firework 'stunts' were worthy of note. They'd just laugh as they duct taped 100 sparklers together to light & launch.

So, in my feeble attempt at helping you enjoy a safe and happy Independence Day, I thought it might be nice to share these words of wisdom from The National Council on Fireworks Safety - with comment, of course:

• Use fireworks and sparklers only outdoors. - Really, I had never thought about that one. Hmmm... Come on, are people really that stupid? Ok, maybe they are.
• Only persons over 12 years of age should handle sparklers of any type. Too many young people get burned by sparklers every year. By keeping sparkers out of youngsters, we can reduce these injury rates. - Kids without sparklers? Come on - these are like one of the few things my kids can do on the 4th of July. Just supervise them and make sure that they're not drawing pictures in the sky too close to their brother or sister, Aunt Bertha who used an entire can of hairspray to get her hair just right for the festivities.
• Obey local laws. If fireworks are not legal where you are, don’t use them. If drought conditions mean a ban on fireworks, follow the law. - Just plain smart. If you're in an area that hasn't gotten a lot of rain (I know this doesn't apply to a great majority of our family & friends living in the Midwest), play it safe.
• Only use fireworks as intended. Don’t try to alter them or combine them. - Aaron/David/Dustin/BJ did you get that one? :-)
• When all else fails, use common sense. - Here, here.

So, as you enjoy the holiday, remember one thing... don't be one of those people - you know, the ones that you see on the news because they thought it would be cool to tie a roman candle to the tail of the neighbors cat only to have it run into their car and set the upholstery ablaze.

Andrea has had this date circled on her calendar for awhile. Tonight you can look at the night sky & see Venus & Saturn lined up together. It doesn't happen very often. We were worried that we weren't going to be able to see it because we were due for a full moon.

We went out on the deck with the telescope & were able to see them both! The coolest part is that when we got the telescope focused in, you could actually see Saturn's rings! It wasn't very large, but you could definitely make out the rings protruding from the bright circle in the telescope lens. Too cool!

I snapped a shot with our camera through the telescope lens. Amazingly, it actually grabbed a halfway decent shot. You really can't make out the rings (unless you squint really hard :-) ).

My hometown and the place where Andrea & I served on staff for nearly 7 years was hit with a catastrophe over the weekend. As has been all over the news, the rain volumes which have been hitting states like KS, MO, OK & TX have caused widespread flooding throughout the midwest. Coffeyville is now no exception.

I talked on Saturday afternoon with a friend of mine who is a city commissioner and he began to tell me about the swelling river that runs alongside one side of the town and what they were frantically doing to try & get it shored up to hopefully prevent a breach in the levee. Thousands of sand bags were being created as the day wore on, the night began to set in, and the expected water level to rise above its containment sometime during the night.

The worst happened - the waters not only came over the edge, the levee also was breached and water came flooding into the east side of town. People had already been evacuated earlier in the day, but the water covered over many houses, businesses, etc. as it washed over town.

One of the worst parts is that the local petroleum refinery had a leak and crude oil emptied into the river waters as it flooded into town - causing irreparable damage to hundreds of homes. The leak caught the attention of news agencies - CNN even broadcast from the town last night. We were fortunate to be able to TiVo one of the segments...


Alec also had a chance to go up in a helicopter yesterday and take some photos of the damage. Click the picture below to see his online gallery of images...


Our prayers are with our friends in Coffeyville and the many hundreds of people who have lost homes because of the flooding. Please pray for these - many of whom were in low income situations already. Pray for First Southern Baptist Church as they house more than 100 people and provide food & shelter for those suffering during this time. Pray that God's love would be shown brightly through their good works and that God would use this catastrophe for His glory.