10) The word "Amen" can be used as a synonym for the following: Yes. Thank You. Umm. Uhh. Also. I don't know what to say right now. Is it almost time for the reception. Next. Go Reds. (I had never heard amen so many times in my life).

9) IKEA is only fun when you get Swedish meatballs at the halfway point. We went to get some baby stuff. Jill also had wanted to get some curtains on sale for 10 bucks. But we went on Saturday and they were only on sale on Sunday. So I went by myself on Sunday, also not as fun. People looking for sale items are crazy.

8) In a related topic, I always pick the longest line for check out. Or the person in front of me always has a major problem or meltdown or they can't read prices on things. And I have the problem of being too nice. I just wait. I could switch lines and get done earlier, but there is always this point where I think, "I've been in this line long enough, I'm gonna wait it out. They have to almost be done. Seriously."

7) I did Twitter this but, they make Swedish fish in multiple flavors. I had only seen them in red, and they were awesome. But orange! Man, incredible. On closer examination of the packaging though, the fish are not made in Sweden but CANADA! I thought I was eating authentic IKEA swedish fish only to see that they are in actuality Canadian fish.

6) I have a carpenter bee pandemic at my house. They are everywhere. Sure they don't have stingers, but man they fly inches from your face. They think you think they have stingers. If you just stand there long enough they give up. But anyway, I bought this bug killer stuff called SEVIN. It's a dust that a professional bug killer told me would kill carpenter bees. All you have to do is blow the dust up in the carpenter bee holes and and thy will get it on their fur when they go in the hole and it will kill them. They did not tell me that the stuff was eerily similar to the pathogen that infected Jack Bauer. This poor bee was going out of it's mind. And it was a slow agonizing death. They bee forgot how to fly. And it just writhed on the ground in pain for seriously 2 hours. It actually made me feel bad. But that bee wass eating my porch railing, so he got what he deserved.

5) I have determined that painting is the best type of home improvement. It has immediate impact. It's easy. When I get started, I just want to keep painting. I asked Jill If she wanted a yellow house. She told me to put the roller down.

4) I have a spot in my heart for the Orlando Magic and a spot in my brain for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I can't explain it, but if both teams could win, it would be awesome. I'm almost wishing Boston had beat Orlando so I could whole heartedly cheer for the Cavs. Game One I say to myself, I want the Cavs to win. They lose. I didn't watch game two except Lebron's game winning shot. But the other night I wanted the magic to win, and they did. Seriously I am conflicted.

3) Benjamin Button's case definitely was curious. But it showed me that every one wants to make the most of the time they have, even if it moves backward. Plus Brad Pitt is cool. And the special effects that made brad look old, and put his head on a body double was incredible.

2) Kennedy is growing up way to fast. Waving was enough for me for one week. But then she proceeds to crawl and pull herself up to her feet. I can't handle it. Seriously, too much for me. When she can walk I am going to freak out.

1) I learned my friends Darrell's dad is not doing well. He has bone cancer. He's had it for a couple years now. Some days he's good. But lately things have gotten bad. He has some cracks in his vertebrae. I told Darrell I would be praying for him and his family. But I immediately said, "I know that's not a tangible thing to make you feel better." I was sad by that. I know prayer is the answer, but it doesn't make me feel better. The fact is that cancer is still there, hurting his dad's body, and the families emotions. It made me think about my friend Kristi's blog that I read last week. She had been struggling with the fact that babies in Uganda die if their mothers can't produce milk. She was trying to figure out how God would let that happen. Just like how I can't understand why God let's good people get cancer, painful bone cancer. But Kristi said something, and it stuck with me. She said most of the suffering in the world that humans face is self-inflicted. The problem for Kristi is kids and babies dying of malnutrition while I have so much food that I get sick from eating so much, like at a Chinese buffet. And that just reminded me of the fact that our world is fallen. We are selfish. And while bad things happen, they are not because God wants them to happen. These things are a result of our sins. And the other thing, when I cry out to God in my pain, he hears me. He hears my prayers for Darrell and his dad. He knows the pain just like us. He sees everything we see and more. So I told myself that prayer is a big deal. I get to talk to the creator of the world and He listens. He hears me. He knows I'm not happy about the world being fallen. He knows I want everyone to understand what He is and what He's done for us.

I thank God for all the things he taught me this weekend. And I will continue praying all the more earnestly for God to pull us out of our fallen world. But truthfully, I know God wants all of us as Christians to make the world into the world He intended on our own, because that is free will.

Thanks.

I think the God has given us a mission. It's a simple one, Love in such a way that it points people to God. Live in a such a way that people see there is something different about you. What Jesus modeled to us was the love to go to the poor, outcast, marginalized. We must do that as well.

It's easy to say that mission. Really easy. But how do you do it? That is where strategy comes in. I went to a breakout session about missions, and I got excited about the idea of strategy. I see a lot of churches, doing a lot of good things, all over the world. I see this as a good thing, for sure. But I also see a better way of doing missions. What do we try to do with a normal person we meet? First we try to build a relationship, right? I think missions is exactly that. An on going relationship with a community. I know what you are thinking, "how is this different than what you were talking about? Our Missions Minister has a great relationship with everyone of our missionaries all over the world." I'm not doubting that. But I'm challenging us to more.

Here's a metaphor. Imagine an airdrop, like something the UN would do with food or medical supplies. They have identified a need, let's say food. And so they send a plane to country X and drop boxes of food with parachutes to the people that need it, and bam, they are eating. But pretty soon the food runs out, and they have to do the exact same thing again, and again and again. And let's think of who is involved, a pilot, and the crew of people that push the food out of the plane. I think that this is what our mission trips are like now. A certain person is pumped and passionate about a certain cause or need. They are the champion. And they rally a small crew of people around them. They say, "let's go fix this problem. Let's drop this them food and clothes and medical supplies." So they do, and then they leave. When they get back and people ask, "How was they trip? What did you do?" The answer is, "Great, we dropped some food and clothes and medical supplies and played with some kids." The question is then, What was the result? Well, we dropped off food and clothes and medical supplies and played with kids.

Now let's imagine a different way. So let's look at a bridge. A bridge connects two place, that would not normally been connected. Things can travel both ways across a bridge. And most importantly, building a bridge is a major undertaking. It takes a lot of time. It takes all kinds of different people, architects, planners, skilled laborers, scuba divers, unskilled labors, and the list goes on. But once the bridge is built, travel is so easy. And a bridge only goes from point A to point B. It doesn't go to a lot of places at once. I think a better strategy of missions is a bridge building strategy. If we as a church became committed to one thing and the whole church was involved. Children, youth, students, young adults, senior citizens all working together to build a bridge. Every trip you take, every project, every fundraiser, all for the same place. Your adults take a trip to visit your bridged community, your youth go visit the same place. You have to bet that when those kids get back, when the question comes up, "How was the trip?" it also includes, "How was John and Paul and kids at that place." Then, the missions effort unites the body, rallying them around the same causes. And now results are measurable. It could be, "this trip we dug a well and ran piping to allow the water to be transported. next time we want to build a school and help them set up a field where they can grow rice and vegetables." And then also things like, "Sue couldn't even talk last time I was there and now she sings beautiful songs."

When there is a strategy, not just a mission, amazing things can happen. Imagine if instead making a small impact in 10 place, we made a lasting impact on 1. Make your impact go from a mile wide and an inch deep, to an inch wide and mile deep. Invest in one place with all we have, and really make a change. Imagine if we could tell someone else that we are here all the time to walk with them on the journey. And we can't be so prideful to miss the fact that they have a lot to offer to us.

The reason this was at Orange was because could we imagine the way something like this could rally a family. The guy leading the breakout told a story. He said a man and his wife were planning a trip to Africa for their family. But it was during his three kids spring breaks. He didn't want to take the fun away from his kids. He wanted them to make the choice. As the trip drew nearer, the dad came and reported that all the kids were in. They were going to miss a cruise with friends, trip to the beach, and other fun things. When asked how he "convinced" his kids to go, he said, "We have some kids we support in the place, and I just had to tell the kids that if they went, they would get to see Simon." This is a way that missions can draw the family together. They can all rally around the same thing and grow together as the serve and become more and more selfless.

Jill and I plan to get Kennedy a Compassion Kid very soon. We want her grow up seeing that there are way more important things in life than possessions. We want to start rallying around the same thing now, so that when she has the opportunity to go to the beach or to continue a relationship that changes the status quo, then we want that.

I want to challenge you. All 12 people who read my blog, (Hi Mom!), let's start making a difference. Let's not do something that is easy. Let's do what's right.