March 16th, 2008 israel
Dawn and I spent the weekend in Anderson, South Carolina visiting the community and NewSpring Church. I have been following NewSpring for about the last year or so. Tony Morgan and his wife Emily graciously hosted us on Sunday showing us the lay of the land and the campus at NewSpring. Here are some of my first impressions:
- Pulling into the parking lot we were greeting by a number of waving and welcoming volunteers who directed us to our personalized parking spot
- Everyone on staff was overwhelmingly nice and inviting (Dawn said the whole community of Upstate was this way)
- They spare nothing when it comes to their production environment. I couldn’t believe the equipment they had at their disposal
- An extremely hip and laid back campus from a decor perspective. A place I would be motivated to work in.
- Tony shared with me the secret that Perry (NewSpring’s Senior Pastor) will be sharing next week at their Easter Services. Congrats Perry!!!!
- Worship was great even though it was an “unplugged” day.
- The message was inspiring and motivating even though Perry took the day off. It certainly inspired me to think about who my three should be.
- I wish we could come back next week, but the commute would be a challenge (who doesn’t want to do 9 hours one way for an hour+ service)
- Good conversation with Tony on where the church is headed in the coming months
- We learned that our accountant and Tony and Emily were friends in college
- We came away with a fresh perspective on what God can do when we are obedient and listen to his voice
Lots more to share. I need to unpack my thoughts from the day. Good thing Dawn and I have 9 hours of window time tomorrow.
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March 15th, 2008 israel
Dawn and I drove up to Clemson’s campus. Stopped at the stadium. Couldn’t get inside, but I was able to see Howard’s Rock through the gate.
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March 11th, 2008 israel
Jay Mohr was just one of the celebrities spotted while in LA last week. I hope to post more later this week on my trip. What they say about LA is true. It is an entirely different world there.
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March 5th, 2008 israel
My nephew, Zach, recently went with a mohawk in an effort to cheer my brother’s basketball team on. I wonder how Noah would look like with a mohawk?
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March 5th, 2008 israel
“If we all live long enough, we will all die.”
-Chuck Temple, Pastor, Vineyard Christian Fellowship
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March 5th, 2008 israel
Don’t know where I picked the following up, but they have stuck with me the last few weeks.
“Success is a series of good decisions. People who are the most successful tend to make tremendously good decisions.”
“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.”
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March 5th, 2008 israel
**UPDATE**
I was reminded that I should provide a shout out to my brother Caleb, who told me about this book. He heard about this book from my other brother Aaron, who also has read it (mad shout out to as well). Caleb now has my copy of the book, which I expect to be promptly read and returned.
**End Update**
Just finished up To Own a Dragon by Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz infamy. In this book, Miller writes his struggles as man who never knew his father. Miller and I are about the same age. Because of this, I didn’t get a great number of epiphanies from it. We both seem to be on a similar journey and about at the same spot in it. I found it an easy read and it reinforced many of the lessons I have learned in the last 5-10 years. It is good to know that God is consistent in his message. I would love to have the opportunity to sit at a coffee shop and talk with Miller; comparing notes on where he has gone, what conversations him and John MacMurray have had since the book was conpleted, and what God has taught him through that process.
As I read the book, the one thought I continued to have is where was this book when I was 18 or 21 or 30…..I think the book could have matured me in a number of ways much faster. So in that respect, I think it will be a valuable resource in the future to refer men to as they deal with this wound in their life.
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March 2nd, 2008 israel
“As I look at humanity, I can only describe the human personality as one designed for relationship with something from which it has been separated.”
- Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon
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February 28th, 2008 israel
Being in technology, I get a number of documents in PDF format. Each time I have to open Adobe Acrobat I might as well walk away and come back in 5-10 minutes. Add to that the nuisance that is the Adobe Updater and you have a great example of bloatware. I know I am probably late to the game on this, but I just discovered Foxit Reader. I love it. I have uninstalled AA and will hopefully never look back.
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February 27th, 2008 israel
Last year about this time, Dawn and I started focusing on getting our finances under control. We both have some goals for a family and for our lives. In order to accomplish them we needed to stop some bad habit and start some good ones.
A couple things that we started doing was using an electronic envelope system to help with budgeting. This is a variation of the classic envelope system. We use a program called Mvelopes to do this. Another thing we did was moving our checking and savings to INGDirect. Now instead of just having our money sitting and earning the bank interest and us none, we actually earn some decent interest on our money. I also have a separate account at HSBCDirect that we use for longer term savings and a rainy day fund.
Let me know if you interested in either institution. I can get you some free money and earn a little extra myself.
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