05.27.07
All We Need is You
My Savior My God
On Our Side
Everlasting God
Word of God Speak

05.20.07 (Bluegrass/Acoustic Band)
I’ve Always Loved You
I Saw the Light
Not to Us
Everlasting God
I Exalt Thee
I Love You Lord
I’ll Fly Away

05.13.07
How to Save a Life
The Time has Come
Not to Use
Father Let Me Dedicate
Your Love is Deep

05.06.07 (cool date huh?)
All we Need is You
You Never Let Go
I Stand in Awe of the Presence (How Marvelous)
How Great is Our God
Word of God Speak

04.29.07
All Creatures of Our God and King
Ready Now
Everlasting God
Enough

04.22.07
All we Need is You
Everlasting God
Blessed be Your Name
Jesus Paid it All
Word of God Speak

04.15.07
Blessed be Your Name
Everlasting God
How Great is our God
You Never Let Go
Sing to the King

04.08.07 (Easter – also the week we started using PlanningCenterOnline)
Let God Arise
Jesus Paid it All
You Are my King
Christ the Lord is Risen Today (re-arrangement by Alex McLean)
Sing to the King

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

A famous part of Christ’s teaching. I have heard and given many messages on these verses. My old youth pastor used to say something like spend about 10 years teaching before you try and teach the parables of Christ – probably wise. I am not even going to get into it. What is fresh to me this time are those last few words: verse 16. It would seems that being the “salt of the earth”, and the “light of the world” is tied closely with our “good deeds”.

Now I am not talking about the faith vs. works argument, that’s so last decade. What strikes me is that quote, “people don’t care what you have to say until they know that you care” (or something like that). The point is that so many times Christians want to tell others how to better their lives, or change, or break a habit, or whatever – but they miss the crucial point of letting “your good deeds shine”. A lot of times relationship is the key to evangelism – getting to know people, showing them you care, spending time with them, allowing God’s Spirit to work in their lives (and yours as well). Then when you’ve built some level of trust, God brings opportunities for you to speak into their lives. I am not saying this is how evangelism must work, I am just saying that this is an effective way that it does work – especially in my life with my personality.

Another bad photo taken with my Q (have I mentioned how awkward it is? it takes like 4-5 seconds to change to camera mode!).

Well I was inspired from myworshiprevolution.com and partook in the drawing personality test. Here’s the results:

The results of your analysis say:

Your friends and associates should generally find you a dependable and trustworthy person.
You are a direct and forthright person. You like to get to the core of the issue right away, with few signs of hesitation.
You like following the rules and being objective. You are precise and meticulous, and like to evaluate decisions before making them.
You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.

I’d say it’s pretty much right on. Try it out for yourself here

Oh yeah the quality is poor because I took them with my Q.

Day 1: We left around 3:am on Friday morning (it’s not because we are insomniacs, it’s so we can have a few hours of peace while driving. We made it to our destination in about 7 hours which wasn’t bad at all. We checked into our hotel, which Jen hooked up – an amazing room at a great price! (she’s so good at that). We cleaned up, and headed east to Napa (one of our favorite destinations). On the way we stopped at Carl’s Junior where I had the pleasure of enjoying one of the best hamburgers ever: The Grilled Teriyaki Burger. Now I am in no way a big CJ fan – but this burger was amazing! I highly recommend it.

So onto Napa. We got there easily and went to one of our favorite wineries where Macy promptly decided that she was having a bad day, Miles decided to join in. Then I got attacked by pollen and had a huge allergy attack; awesome. We drove thru Napa though and saw some beautiful country while the kids slept. Then back to Sacramento… ha ha, on a Memorial day Friday out of the Bay Area! What were we thinking! A one hour drive turned into three with two very unhappy kids. But we made it back and actually had a great day.

Day 2: We woke up and had breakfast with my mom at our hotel – that was fun, the kids love hanging out with their grandparents. Then we went across the street to check out my parents hotel, the kids ran wild in their room for a bit. Then back to our hotel where we jumped in the pool for a couple hours before getting ready for the memorial.

The memorial was great. It was good to see family from all over the US and Canada. My dad MC’d, Emily, James & Travis performed a song, a piper played, lot’s of people spoke about grandpa George, ‘and there was much rejoicing’. The kids were great – everyone loved them. Then we hit pizza afterwards where Miles played video games with his ‘bag of money’ from my dad (hey dad, I could use a bag of money!). Miles made a new best friend with my cousin Mario, who played video games with him for the entire time. So afterwards we hit the pool again with more family – it was great to reconnect.

Day 3: I wanted Jen to see Santa Cruz, so I thought we would just shoot over, maybe a couple or three hours… oye! There is one highway to SC, the 17, and it was jammed with two accidents – it took us forever. We didn’t get to SC until 3:pm. Everyone was a little grouchy from being in the car all day, but we made the best of it. We hit the boardwalk where Miles and Macy got to enjoy some rides together, we got pretzels, drinks, took pictures, saw the sea lions (which Miles loved!), walked the pier, and had a really fun time.

Then we headed down to our hotel in Marina – another deal Jen hooked us up with. The drive to Marina was a couple hours but the kids were sleeping so it was nice. Jen and I just enjoyed hanging out and talking and taking in some amazing scenery. We got to the room, got some groceries at a local Albertsons, and just hung out before turning in for the night.

Day 4: This was one of our favorite days. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, then we hit the beach. It was cool and overcast at first, but then the sun came out and it was awesome. The kids just loved running around and playing, of course Macy wouldn’t venture off the blanket (she doesn’t like sand on her feet). We spent a couple hours there just enjoying the beach and each other.

Now it was off to Santa Barbara – another one of our favorite destinations. This was the most beautiful part of the drive down Highway 1. We kept seeing places that we wanted to stop, but the kids were sleeping so we decided to just make good time while they slept. We ended up in Cambria, which was awesome. We stopped for lunch at the West End Bar & Grill – they had fish & chips! Then we walked up and down the main stree, got some ice cream, which Macy decided to accessorize herself with! Check the pics.

Back on the road for a couple hours down to Santa Barbara. We looked around for a good deal on hotels, there weren’t any, so we just picked one we had stayed in before. We jumped in the pool for a while and then hit the sack.

The next morning we ate at the hotel and then headed into town. We rented one of those four wheeled bikes, strapped the kids into the front and pedaled around Santa Barbara for an hour or so. Macy loved it, Miles complained for about the last half of the trip. We returned the bike and walked into downtown for lunch – a half mile hike of which most I was carrying a 40lb boy! We ate at a really cool little restaurant, just enjoying each other.

Then we hit the beach for a couple hours – this was a blast! Miles was up and down the beach, jumping in the water, throwing rocks, collecting shells, and just being a boy. Macy actually decided to test walking on the sand, but only with her shoes on. We had such a great time, no crowds, no distractions, just our little family hanging out – we were blessed.

Then it was onto home. This was easy too, just a nice drive through LA. The only hiccup was that I really wanted one of those Teriyaki Burgers from Carl’s. I can say with certainty that there are absolutely no Carl’s Juniors off the 10 freeway! We missed two on the 15 before getting to Magnolia past the 91 where we finally stopped. The bummer was that that Carl’s must have forgotten to send their employees to ‘Teriyaki Burger Making School’ – it was awful, what a letdown. But if that was the worst thing that happened then I’ll take it.

So all in all it was a great trip, full of new memories with Jen & the kids.