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radical: taking back your faith from the american dream

June 8, 2011 in dennis, random with 2 Comments

I have been reading Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. I keep thinking of Colossians 3 as I move through the book.

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4.

This feels like a powerful message. I have friends that live like this for which I am so grateful (you may be one of those friends), and I want to be one of them as well. Much easier to say than do. God help us.

Have you heard or read the book? Let me know.

 

this is crazy, we are crazy

May 31, 2011 in dennis, family with 0 Comments

In eighteen days we are suppose to be standing (or sitting) in a court room in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ready to take our turn answering questions of a judge about our intention of adopting Meseret and Kamise. It would be normal for a trip like this to have your plans in place and your tickets acquired  at least a month out, but not us, not for this. It really is crazy.

We received a some what alarming call from our agency telling us to put a hold on our plane tickets. We might need to change them. It seems the adoption process is being evaluated by both Ethiopia and our government. The bummer for us, however, is that we will have to wait in the mystery of when we get to travel and meet our little girls.

So did we put our tickets on hold. No. Why? Because we had not bought them yet. I know that is crazy. We just did not have the funds yet to purchase these ($2,200 a piece) tickets so we have waited and watched to see what God would do. This is crazy and we are feeling crazy.

All we know at this point is that God led us into adopting Meseret and Kamise, and it will be such a privilege to guide these two souls into life with Christ and through this life while we wait for His return. How and when that happens we haven’t a clue. Yes, this is crazy, and we are feeling crazy.

If you haven’t been close to an international adoption before you might wonder what are the costs. It has been an education for us as we continue to move through this adventure. I will include a graph (below) of how much and where the money goes. We have a progress bar just to the right (you may have to scroll down to see it) that shows how much of the funds needed that we have found, and visually you can see that we have a ways to go.

Pray for us. If the Lord leads you to play a part in brining these girls home wonderful, just click on the “Join us…” link under Quick Links and there are instructions how you can do that, but we need your prayers more so please pray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

big break

May 23, 2011 in campus ministry, dennis, random with 0 Comments

“This is one of the best things we do.” I have heard many staff say this about the conference we hold over what is known as spring break. The conference spans four weeks starting in late April and ending in the later part of March. Inside a weeks time the staff and students are challenged to grow deeper in their walks with God, and they develop in their ability to articulate the gospel with other college students that have come to take a break from their studies. It is an honor for our team to contribute to this experience and a lot of our energy goes into making this the best experience possible.

I shared in a post a while ago the promotion video we did for the conference. I thought I would chase that post with other posts of things we designed for the conference. However, pursuing this adoption, which Lisa and I have also posted other messages about, is diverting a lot of my time and attention. So that did not happen.

We created t-shirts, programs, background slides for speaker notes, worship slides and general information slides. We even created a temporary tatoo all themed with the conference message of “Get Salty”. It was a blast to work on, but what excites us even more than that are the results. Although many of the results go unmeasured or are impossible to detect, we do keep track of some of the things we think are important and are some what trackable.  I want to share those with you so you might celebrate with us in what God has done in and through our staff and students lives.

Click on picture for larger image

 

If you partner with Lisa and I thank you for making it possible for us to contribute to this conference. It will be a joy to meet so many of those that were introduced to Christ during these conference weeks when we gather in heaven one day.

 

adoption labor

May 11, 2011 in dennis with 1 Comment

It feels like it is 2 am in the morning and Lisa just hit me in the ribs and announces, “I am in labor!” My mind goes a hundred directions at once and for some reason basic tasks don’t go as they should. I put my shirt on backwards, I stumble around trying to get my leg in my pants. If this were being filmed the audience would either be shaking their heads in disbelief or laughing their heads off. That is exactly what I feel.

Lisa opened her email yesterday and there was a message from our adoption agency with the subject “court”. She opens the message and reads that the Ethiopian government has given us a court date of June 17! She called me just as I was beginning an appreciation breakfast for our staff who interned with us this past year. I did not have the time to process this with Lisa at the moment and headed off to the breakfast. My mind was swirling.

My mind continues to struggle for focus. All that seemed surreal before has now become so tangible. I am excited, terrified, and humbled.

We have two girls in Ethiopia that we need to get home. One of our realties is that we need to find $38,000 before our court date or we shave some of the numbers off if someone has airline miles they would want to donate. Do you want to help us? Are you part of God’s provision for us to bring these two girls home? If you are you can click under Quick Links on the right side of this page on the the words Join Us….

20110510-052717.jpg

big break 2011

April 17, 2011 in campus ministry, dennis, theLAB with 0 Comments

So many things are happening or have happened I can’t keep up with the posts. I will make one entry today about Big Break where I will share the results of this conference, and then later this week show some of the media we created for this incredible gathering.

We call it Big Break. It is a week long conference for students to learn how to experience the gospel in more practical ways while at the same time teaching them how to share the gospel with other students who have come to the beach without a thought of hearing or thinking about the message of Christ. I am biased, but it is one of the best things our ministry does in terms of programming.

We host it in Panama City Beach, Florida. The students pile into a beach front property for a week. We have morning sessions that are loaded with worship, teaching and training. In the afternoons the students fan out all over the area and initiate conversations with other beach going students. In the evening the students gather again and share stories that reflect God’s spirit moving in and through them. Many students come to Christ, and it makes for a great celebration.

So what happened this year? We had just shy of 3,000 students attend the conference over a four week period. Those students initiated just short of 13,000 spiritual conversations. Out of those meetings 5,084 lead to the gospel being shared, which resulted in 486 students trusting Christ! We are so happy for these new Christians.

So I will close with the promotional video we put together for this conference and later this week I will post other media we worked on for Big Break 2011.

nametags

March 26, 2011 in dennis, theLAB with 2 Comments

As a ministry we are most about people reaching people with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So even in our conference nametags we want to communicate a social intimate gathering. We emphasize the first name and we carried the theme of “Refresh” through even here.

more info

March 25, 2011 in dennis, theLAB with 0 Comments

During the conference the leaders wanted to make available additional resources. To do that we created a simple letterhead that carried the brand of the conference forward. Remember my post about coherence? We tried to do that with everything we produced for this important event.

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