Introducing... My Favorite Nephew: Mark III

So I have landed in the great state of North Carolina, and its beautiful out here, let me tell you. This will be a relatively short blog, but I just wanted to let you know that I have gotten a chance to meet for the very first time in my life, and certainly in his, my baby nephew, Mark the 3rd!!

He is seriously a heck of cute baby!! Oh, and we have great chemistry already. How do I know this? Well, a few things: 1) When I say to him: "Is that my man" or "Is that my little guy?" he gets all excited. 2) He smiles at me a lot, and 3) He loves to lay on my chest and play with my hat and face.

Now, after a careful analysis of the information given, I am sure you will arrive at the same conclusion as I have...and if you haven't, I submit this picture as further proof of my belief!!

I seriously love him!!! I just wanted to let you all know that Spring Break 2007 is going WONDERFUL so far. I got to lay back on my Big Brother Mark's couch, and we both kicked up our feet and it even had one of those back massager's (spelling!) and we just talked about our upbringing and how good it was to see each other.

Okay, I said it would be brief. So I will end very quickly. My nephew and I, we are already becoming best of friends!

Oh, and one more important detail:

I am using the font of Georgia, for your information (fyi...for you abbreviators) because my current residence is in Atlanta Georgia. I just thought you would be excited about that...

More Pics of My Favorite Nephew and His Favorite Uncle Chris!!

What a Waitress Taught Me About God...

The difference between a great dining experience and a bad one can be relatively small. The waitress or waiter can make a big difference depending on how warm and friendly they are. The timing of the refills are important too. The decor sets the mood for our dinner. The smell & taste of the food and I'm sure another 15 things that make up a great dining experience.

I was at a hole in the wall restaurant that has great food. I had ordered already, and the food was coming soon. The smell of food was so good and the light jazz in the background really made me feel “relaxed.” We had ordered our drinks, and I got my usual ice water w/ a lemon. We ordered and our dining experience was on its way!

Now I have to confess, when it comes to drinking water, I’m kind of a camel. I can handle my water. I was in the middle of talking and sharing something important with some people, and the waitress came & dropped off a freshly poured ice water. I didn't even have to ask. It was just there when I needed it. This made the experience there so much more amazing. Isn’t it so nice to always have a full glass of whatever your drinking when you’re out w/ friends? You know what I mean?

As I took a sip of my freshly poured ice water w/ a lemon, I looked up at her to say thanks. She was a sweet old Italian lady mind you, and because I was telling a story we weren't going to be able to totally exchange pleasantries regarding my freshly poured water with ice, but she did something else to let me know she had her eye on me...she winked.

Yesterday morning while I was in church during the music part of worship, they played a song which is a personal favorite of mine. It’s called "Hallelujah" and Hillsong recorded it. This song, however, always reminds me of one of my favorite people in the whole world, Samantha...she's also called Sammie.

I hadn't spoken to Sammie in a while, and during this song I instantly had a picture of her come to my mind. She was in our youth ministry back home and is seriously one of my favorite people on earth. She brings the fun, the passion, and the joy of serving Christ and just being a family. Basically, she’s down. Hallelujah was her favorite song, and I was now thinking about her.

After I got done with Children’s Church, guess who calls me on my phone?? So Samantha & I are chatting it up and it dawns on me: "I just thought of her during the song this morning!" We end up talking later on, when she calls me back...and the person I was talking to was her cousin Tierney. Tierney has been an instrumental part of Sammie’s growth as a young lady who loves the Lord. I told Sammie this and she was like: "whoa, that's so weird!!"

Then, in between laughs and talking, I get a beep & the girl who had originally invited Samantha to church and was very close with Samantha while they were attending the youth ministry. When I told Sammie that Amanda was on the other line, she said: "Daaang, this whole day is like, connected."

Connected. Put together. It seems like something else is going on. In a safe way, similar to how it feels when a mother watches her child play outside…close enough to protect him, far enough to let him develop his own self-esteem and confidence.

Connected.

Is it pure coincidence? The skeptic says yes, and I would say no. I can be and feel very skilled at being a healthy skeptic...at finding reasons God "isn't" involved in some things...but do you want to know what I think was happening?

I think that in the middle of living in difficult times, Samantha found herself in need of someone who was carefully watching for whatever needs she might have. He was making sure that all the little details of her days were taking care of. He wanted to make sure the "living experience" was as great as it could be. The decor of the day was set. Even the right song was carefully selected to set the mood for the day. The "waiter" Himself was assigned to take care of all necessary arrangements, and when it seemed as if He wasn't paying attention to the needs of this awesome young lady's life...that's when Jesus winked.

I believe He "connects" certain things in our day to let us know that He is walking with us even when we can't see Him. I believe there are just certain days, maybe not everyday, but certain ones that cause me to sit back and just say: “Hmmmmm,” “Whoaaaa,” or as Samantha said: “Daaaaang!”

God used ordinary people lives to do make sure His loved ones get winked at by God. This makes all of us very important in the day to day affairs of people's lives...everyday.

I am so relieved to know that when I’m hungry and in need of someone to be keeping their eye on me, that I can count on Jesus to do this. And when I look up to notice what I have just watched Him do, He looks at me and says: “I got my eye you, son.” Then He winks.

All Chained Up

I was in a church service this morning, and was enjoying the music portion of the worship service. I chose my usual seat, up in the balcony, away from as many people as possible so I can sing as loud as I want to, and not really feel like any one except God can hear me. It helps me to concentrate on just Him.
I walked down the back steps, and tried not to draw any attention to myself. I had a plan. I wanted to be involved in a fun ministry I knew was taking place at the same time as the service I was in.
I walked down the hall, said hi to a man who didn't want to smile at me, and then, I heard the rumblings of what I was looking for...I could hear the sounds of children's voices having fun. It sounded like they were trying to shout directions at the same time to someone up front. I finally was able to see what they were all doing.
They were all split up into teams, and since blue is my favorite color, I decided to sit with blue. They were in 3rd place out of 4 teams. There wasn't much I could do, but I was determined to try.
I was sitting with some of the students I knew, when the Pastor asked me to come up and help him. The room was dark, with only the light with the color of the team you were on shining on each team. They had fog machines going, so it was, well...foggy.

He was sharing about how bitterness can wrap up your heart and hurt it. He then proceeded to wrap chains around me and put 4 different locks on them.
I couldn't move. The chains were heavy as well. I began to realize I was being set up.
I had gone into this room looking to help with loving children. They share such a big part of my heart. They are what we all long to be....free and innocent. They aren't worried about being cool yet. They aren't afraid to let go and just be goofy. They aren't trying to fit in, they aren't trying to figure out God, or ministry, or how to find their future someone, what job to take, where to go to school. They are children, and they are free.

The set up continues. I begin to recognize that the heart I have can get chained up inside when I am not careful. I can allow the careless choice to remain bitter to eat away at my strength and innocence, and to 'weigh' me down. When he unlocked the chains, I was no longer bound. I could walk freely. I could go wherever I wanted to. I could sit by who ever I wanted to.

I realized that sometimes we think we are free to do "what we want," when really, we are doing the opposite of what someone wants us to. We aren't free, we are still chained up. We have made ourselves believe we are free, when really, we woul have a very difficult time stopping our current choices.
I want to be really free. I want to be free to be innocent, and to go where I really want to be able to go, which is wherever the Lord would have use of me. I want to be free enough to go into a childrens church, get chained up, sit next to some boys and encourage them to listen, and free enough to see that while I'm going where God has use of me, He is teaching me about the freedom to be there in the first place.

Testing, 1,2, Take 2 on the Blog!

Okay, so this is my second attempt at trying to keep in touch with everyone. I hope this time it goes much better with you replying and keeping in touch, but if not, I'm really going to try to put stuff out here no matter how many of y'all want to hollah.

Here is a visual illustration for all of you visual learners...my little nephew Mark the 3rd, showing us all New Beginnings, which is what this blog is.

I miss you all so much and hope this helps a little with you being able to feel close while we are physically far a way right now.

I'm going to catch you all up w/ the next post...but for now, subscribe to this post and that way you can get emails telling you when there's is new info here. I miss you all so much and hope to hear from you soon.

In Process,
Pastor Chris