Evident Church Mailer.

Oh yeah! I forgot that I wanted to put this picture up! I think its awesome! Its our Winter Mailer! We sent this out to thousands of people in the area and it just tells about who and what we are at Evident Church. I just wanted to share this with all of you.

There's a cool story behind it too! Josh designed this mailer (good job Josh) and actually knows the girl in the picture! Its the daughter of a friend of his! Haha! Isn't she just the cutest thing ever! I laugh every time I see this. -In a good way. So there, I got the picture up! I just wanted you all to see it.

A New Year.

For starters, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!
I have high hopes for 2009. I'm so excited to see where God takes me in my new life here in Detroit. I'm excited to see where God takes Evident Church too! I've only been up here for nearly a month, and I feel like I've already grown in so many ways! God is good. Its my prayer for this year that He shapes and molds me into something awesome, and that I will be willing and open to be and do whatever God is calling me to. I'm looking forward to it.

I've started a new book.
Its called Death By Love written
by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Even just the cover is cool; and there is some sweet artwork inside as well! But, for real, what I've read of it so far has been awesome! I bought it yesterday with Matt at Barnes & Noble (we're planning on reading it through together and talking about it). But I opened it up last night planning on reading just the Introduction... I got sucked in. I ended up reading all of the Intro, chapter 1, and the beginning of chapter 2! I want to tell you all about it, but I don't want to give anything away! Haha! I strongly recommend buying this book though! I'm really excited about it. Just from what I've read, there are some deep truths that I've been able to pull out and apply to my life.

"This book is brutally honest about sin and suffering, and wonderfully hopeful as it points us to our true Savior." -Timothy Lane

"Practical and Powerful. It applies the sufficiency of Jesus to the real-life challenges we face in the church every day." -Dan Jarrell

This book gives an eye opening perspective on the story of the cross. I've never read or heard the story told this way, and It really spoke to me. Seriously. Buy it. Read it. You won't regret it.

Anyway... Its late, and I should be heading to bed.

Highlight of My Christmas.

So I'm home for Christmas.

Home. Its funny how, I don't apprectiate Home until I've actually moved away and found my own home somewhere else. And in all reality, this "new" home of mine isn't really home at all. It doesn't feel like Home; it doesn't have the memories of Home; it doesn't have that familiarity of Home that makes you feel like everything will be okay; it doesn't even smell like home... It's lacking the Home-ness that is required for it to be called MY home. It takes time for a place to become a home. Home doesn't feel like Home until its been lived in, until its built up a good portfolio of stories and memories. Home has squeaks in the floor; dents in the walls; stains in the carpet. A toilet downstairs with a broken handle; a room upstairs that is always either way too hot, or way too cold; a dining room thats always being remodeled; a broken dishwasher, water spots in the kitchen ceiling because the upstairs toilet overflowed 2 years ago... *Sigh* ...thats Home.

So the highlight of my Christmas though, was last night... Seth, Cameron and I stayed up through the early hours of the morning playing Super Nintendo! We broke out the SNES! Haha! That system controlled our lives when we were younger! 1994. We got the SNES with Donkey Kong Country for Christmas in 94. That game revolutionized gaming. Haha! We loved that game, and to this day, we still remember all the secrets and tricks of every level! We may have been a little rusty at actually playing it, but it was still loads of fun! For a couple of hours at least, we got to re-live our childhood. Just hearing the music of the game brought back so many memories! So fun.

Updates. -And a Cool Story to Finish It Off...

Well I'm living in Detroit now. Macomb, MI to be exact. Its one of the northern-most suburbs of Detroit, so I don't live in the ghettos or anything. Its actually really nice up here! I really like it! And if Jodi ever reads this, she'd be proud of me that I said "up here", since it doesn't matter where I'm referring to, I usually tend to say "down there", or "down here." I've got the correct phrasing down now though. But anyway, I'm still on the job hunt. I have applied at a lot of places actually, and have followed up and went back and checked the status of my apps; and still haven't heard back from a single place. Its a little discouraging. Just gotta keep praying about it. God will provide.
Aside from looking for jobs, I'm actually staying really busy with my worship position at Evident Church. -And I'm REALLY enjoying everything that I'm doing in regards to worship! Its a dream job. Really. Hopefully someday, this can be my full time job. A Career as a full time worship leader. But yeah, thats the gist of things for now...

My cool story is that I almost died last week. I'm positive it was a God-moment. He saved my life. Haha. I was driving home from Archbold, on a back-road outside of West Unity, coming up on a hill in the road. Its big enough that it covers up a whole vehicle until you're pretty much on top of or over the hill. So, like I said, I was coming up on this hill, going the speed limit (really, I was. 55mph. Better gas mileage that way), when I got the chills and had the sudden urge to slow waaaay down. So I slowed down to a near stop right before the hill, when a big electric company truck came rushing over the hill ON MY SIDE OF THE ROAD! Not just left of center, but completely in my lane. If I hadn't slowed down when I did, I'm confident that I would have had a high speed, head-on collision with the truck. Once I realized what I had just escaped, my heart started beating like crazy and I got all shaky. I was kinda in shock in a way. I just thanked God over and over again! Haha! It was great.
But thats my cool story. God's not done with me yet.

Peace Out.