The always interesting roller coaster of life has been quite ride the last few weeks, and unfortunately that ride has steered me somewhat clear of free computer time. Hence, no blog posts. Regularity again soon, at least that’s what I plan.

But for right now, I want to encourage you to take a look around these two blogs! Really, if you respect me at all, you’ll go check them out. They are awesome guys that I’m honored to be able to call my friends, and they both have quite an interesting perspective to offer. So go take a look.

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Alright, you may or may not know this, but with some recent tech troubles, JP Brumfield’s blog has been out of service for around a week now. Not to worry, calm down, comfort your children, it’s back online.

Take a second and go show him some love, I hear he’s got some pretty awesome posts brewing, so you should definitely check out his blog.

jpbrumfield.com

He is my favorite Italian ever. He was our interpreter this week, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with a more genuine love of God and People. Praise God for worldwide family!

Ok, I have more of a real post in the works, but before that, check out the blogroll, alright? I’ve just added my parents (Danny and Darnelle), Kristin Cheramie, Trice Head, T-barry… I think that is all. Anyway, give them some love! They all have really cool perspectives. And my parents might share stories about me ;)

Well I suppose we’ve all realized by now that the Submerge07 blog wasn’t quite the buzz we had perhaps hoped. But, that is alright. It was mostly because of the lack of down time (good thing) during the week, and also because the little down time we had was spent at the beach or shopping.

Regardless, it was an awesome trip! And it was still well documented, we just never posted any pictures. But I plan to figure out an easy way to do that soon.

For the techies, I just switch my laptop over to Ubuntu Linux running a Windows XP virtual machine. It’s much nicer, it works with my hardware much nicer. However, I’m still learning the in’s and out’s of it all, so I have had trouble doing mass uploads of photos to the web. (Any suggestions are welcome)

Also, quick little blog testimony…
I told you about the speeding tickets that Elton and myself received on our way to camp last week. Anyway, this week we spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find a way to have the tickets reduces in some way that wouldn’t affect our insurance as much (or at all). However, after finding all of our options and deciding the first step was to pay the fine for the tickets, we called with our citation number and were surprised to find out that our tickets were not in the computer system at all! It has passed the deadline for the officer to submit the ticket so as far as we can tell, we don’t have to worry about it anymore. Granted, I’m still going to keep checking, but you get the drift. Praise God, awesome stuff.

In other news, the L.A. Mission Team will be leaving a week from tomorrow (we leave on the 16th). I’m really excited about the crew that we have, and I know God has some awesome things planned for the people we come in contact with, and just as much in our group.

Things should be getting back to normal this week, and I will at least post from my phone during the L.A. trip.

As much as I love traveling, it’s always good to be home.

Also, much love to Dan O. for the constant blog encouragement. Be sure to check out the new and improved DanOhlerking.com!

Check out the new blogger in town.

Good ol’ Doug Musso is the new kid on the block, and I think he’ll have some good stuff to say, so check him out and show some love!

Alright, first I want to apologize that I do alot of shouting-out lately. I understand that it can be taken as a lame excuse for blogging, but I assure you, I’m not trying to pass it off as such. I’m amazed daily at the amazing people that I am blessed to work with and know on a daily basis. That being said… Sweat me.

First off, go check out my boy Ryan Miller aka MILLERACHI! I haven’t known him for long but I know he’s got some good stuff to say, so check him out, he’s a new blogger! Give him some love.

Ok, this one is half-way a shout-out, but really I need to brag on someone.

Most of my readers know or know off Jason Laird aka Tweezy. For those of you that don’t know, he is the high-school pastor at HPC. He’s slightly throw’d off for Jesus, if you know what I mean. (it’s a good thing, don’t hide your kids)

Like I said, I’m blessed to be able to call him a friend and leader in my life. But he did something last night that really impressed me. It wasn’t some huge sermon (although if you were at Refuge then you heard his slamming message which was, not ironically, what I’m about to talk about) But no, this wasn’t anything super spiritual. We were sitting in McDonalds after a meeting last night (yeah, we roll to MD’s for meetings at HPC) and the good Doctor Tweeze was heading to the door on his way home. I mentioned to someone that he had on a pretty rockin belt and buckle. Anyway, he heard his name but not the comment. As soon as I told him that I was just complimenting his belt, without thinking he pulled it off, handed it to me with a quick “love you man” and headed on his way home.

If you have ever doubted his sincerity, I implore you to rethink that opinion. I know that it’s not a huge deal, but it speaks volumes about his heart, and more importantly the DNA of the church! This freak will give you the clothes of his back (or waist) if he thinks it will even slightly make a difference in your life! That is what it is all about! Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

We have the solution that the world is in desperate need of. We have this solution in our Savior. Do you value it as such in your life? I know I go many days where I certainly don’t. Revolution will not take place until the revolutionaries believe that they have something worth changing the world for! Are you willing to do what it takes? Are you willing to sacrifice everything and count it all joy? Do you believe in the value that you hold? Do you believe it enough to give it away?

Alright, it seems everyone is doing this these days, but I certainly don’t want to recieve to much flack about this ( so shut it, seriously). A decent amount of my blog viewers are non-HPCers. This is for you.

This is a compound shout-out.

First of all, I have to give some love to Kaycee Smith. For those of you that don’t know, she is one of the interns at HPC in the Elevate program. However, that’s not why she is recieving attention right now. Since she created her blog, she has had around 120 visitors to her site. in the 3 days since I’ve been added to her blogroll, I have consistently had 12 visitors a day that were refered to my site from Kaycee’s blog! You do the math. Anyway, I enjoy her blog, so you should check it out!

This next blogger really caught me off guard. It has quickly earned a place in my top 10 most viewed blogs. He’s got an awesome writing style and you definitely need to check it out! Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce to you… Rob Gros.

Now this blogger has become one of my best friends in the last year. I love his heart and passion for worship and God. Last night I was able to catch a glimps of him and a friend leading worship at a local youth group and I was blown away. If you are looking for a young guy with some awesome insight on life, please check out Jamie Phillips.

And now, a story.

I am a student in the field of Mass Communication and media at LSU. One of the things that we are constantly having reinforced into us is the fact that we are, in a sense, gate-keepers of information. Whether it is an editor of a newspaper, a producer of a movie, or a book publisher, there is a gate-keeper who decided whether or not to let that information past them. Very few things will ever be heard about on a wide-scale level if there is no media used to push it. This position as gate-keepers is one that is often not as high of a priority in the media realm as it should be.

One of the growing concerns amoung media ethics experts is the issue of bloggers. There is no gate-keeper. No accountability to a large extent. Someone can slander another’s name, and there are no restrictions or consequences.

However, this is not the case in my life. I would like to thank Michael Griffis and JP Brumfield, you guys are my gate-keepers. Not so much in a controling way, but I know you hold a high standard in blogs, and it makes me keep the content up.

I salute you. Griffis, blogger for the people. JP, blog prince of blogorhea.

Ok, you really need to read this awesome post by our highschool pastor, Jason Laird aka Tweez. If you read further down in his blog you will see more info about what we half-jokingly refer to now as the HPC_Bridge Campus.

“HPC_Bridge Campus”

I love this. This is why I feel at home at Healing Place Church. This is why I think This is one of the most amazing groups of people on the planet, not because of anything they have done other than allow themselves to be used to show His love at the most basic levels.

Seeing a need and meeting it. That is what Jesus did. He didn’t spend His time building a following, He wasn’t worry about finding the nicest sandals. He served. That is what church is about, that is what being a christian is about. I love it!

Here’s a clipping from the post…

“5 days ago there supposedly was 7500 homeless people in B.R. well, as of today there must be 7497…..may not seem like a big difference but ask marc, chief, and alex….its a big difference to them…”

That is what it is all about. Changing the world by serving one.

Way to go Tweez, thanks for allowing yourself to be God’s hands and feet and touching lives at the most basic level. You inspire me ;]

Nothing much to say tonight, crazy weekend already, plenty more to go!

BUT, you need to go right now and read this post by Gabi LeBlanc from earlier today. It is so true, and it really makes you evaluate how you view your faith. I know it did for me. Good stuff Gabi.

Anyway, go check it out!

I’ll see you at HPC this weekend ;]