What an awesome day at C3. The Shane & Shane/Josh Wilson/Bloodwater Mission Benefit concert was an unbelievable hit. No rain, lots of people, great family fun and great music. What else could you ask for? Thank you God for keeping the rain at bay, thanks to all of the C3 Volunteers who helped make the day a success. Thank you to Uncle Louie G’s, Barnies Coffee for setting up and being a part of our event and thanks to Avalon Park POA for the use of your awesome facilities. Thank you Shane & Shane and Josh Wilson you guys were great. Thanks to all of you who gave a donation to give a village clean water in Africa! C3, YOU ROCK!

If you are in Orlando tomorrow evening do not miss the free Shane & Shane, Africa Benefit concert in partnership with Bloodwater Mission! It’s going to be a great C3 Church community event! See you there!

Happy Birthday America on the day we celebrate our independence. God bless the U.S.A.! God bless all of our troops around the world! God bless all of our leaders! God bless our citizens! God help us never to forget to thank You for your protection and blessings You so graciously have given America.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

I’ve really not felt inspired to write about anything lately because I think that every time I started to compose a blog it just felt like I had said it before so I decided not to write anything. Well today I feel like writing!

The one thing I want to say today is that God is in control and you can trust Him. Even though Starbucks is closing 600 stores, bankruptcy talk coming from GM, oil closing at over $143 for an all time high, politicians running for the President of the US with no clue what to do about todays problems in America, how can a person take all of the bad news without going crazy? Focus on the good. God is in control and you can trust Him. I know it sounds like “sunday school” but you can do it.

God promised that He sees the small sparrow that falls from the tree and cares and if He cares that much for a seemingly small insignificant creature how much more does He care for us. So God will take care of us. Do we worry? Yes sometimes, in fact I catch myself thinking about the economy and how will things go in the future but then I have to let the facts (God’s promises) overcome the feelings. God promises to supply our every need according to His riches. God tells us to cast our every care on Him because He cares for us. God will never leave or forsake us. God is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. These are only a few of the great promises God has given us to overcome the weight of all of the pressures of life in 2008.

So in this crazy world where things seem to be falling apart look to God. I will focus my eyes to hills where my help comes from because it comes from the Lord. Rejoice and again I say rejoice. There is hope because God is in control.

It’s Saturday night and I am getting ready for a busy Sunday. Tomorrow I am meeting with our entire Connections Team to give a little pep talk as we are in the throws of summertime. I am so blessed to lead such a fine group of people on the Connections Team that sacrifice week end and week out to make the C3 experience possible. I am looking forward to talking with them face to face and just to let them know how much I and the entire staff appreciates them and their commitment to reaching people.

I am also getting the privilege to help with the baptism brunch tomorrow immediately following the Sunday morning services. I will be baptizing a work associate and friend of Andrea’s tomorrow that just recently gave her life to Christ. Tania is a great friend of Andrea and I and I feel blessed to be a part of her new walk with Christ.

Well that’s it for the end of the week update. I need to go pick up my beautiful wife who I took to work today. It’s always great to spend as much time with my wife as I can. I love her “to infinity and beyond”.

See you tomorrow C3!

It is crazy how fast time just flies by. At this point last week Andrea and I were getting ready to get out of O-Town for a few days. Of course last weekend flew by fast as we were enjoying cloudy skies in Ft. Lauderdale. We have been back to work since Monday and sometimes it seems like you never even took any time off. O well that is the nature of the beast.

I am looking forward to this Sunday as we wrap up our “One Prayer” Series and then the following Sunday with C3 taking over Avalon Amphitheater with Shane & Shane.

After service this Sunday we are doing a Baptism/Brunch for all the new Christians who have committed to being Christ-Followers. I am so looking forward to celebrating with all of my new brothers and sisters who have given their lives to Jesus.

It’s going to be another crazy few weeks C3′ers. God is doing incredible things in peoples’ lives. I am just glad I get to be a part of the movement of God in East Orlando!

Alright that wraps it up for Wednesday. Have a great rest of the week!

Andrea and I are spending a few days with friends at their condo on Ft. Lauderdale beach. It’s always good to get away for a few days of vacation. Have a great weekend guys and we’ll see you all next week! And thank you to everyone who came to Andrea’s B-day party at the skating rink. What a great way to start our mini-vacation.

Today my beautiful wife turns 30 years old. What an unbelievable blessing that arrived thirty years ago today. I love you honey. You are the most beautiful woman in the world! And you don’t look a day over 22!

Where can I begin? This is a question that one should probably never start a blog with but it’s kind of how I feel right now in the moment. Today is, of course, Father’s Day. I really try not to think on things that pull me down too much in an emotional state, but for me this day has that effect. It’s because on this day as much as I would love to celebrate my dad and love on him I can’t, because he is not here.

I know people will probably think or say you should think about what a great dad you had and celebrate him that way. Yes, I would definitely agree with you that I had an unbelievable loving, caring, compassionate, Godly man in my dad. Yes, I should thank God for giving me such a great father here on this earth for the time I had him. And many, many times during the year or even daily when there is no reason at all, I do thank God and look back fondly on the memories of dad. But, today I really can’t celebrate because the person that this day is for is not here. It’s a huge hole of a day for me.

If you are a child of a parent that has gone on to heaven you really can relate and know what I am feeling. Because Father’s Day or Mother’s Day isn’t really a day for Fathers and Mothers it’s a day for the children of Fathers and Mothers. It’s a day when kids can kick back with their dads and say stuff like, “thank you Pops for being my Dad” or “I love you dad” or “I hope you enjoy today father, we are going to Longhorn in honor of you!” Those are but a few phrases that I will never again get to say because my dad is no longer here. The opportunity has passed for me.

It is something that everyone, eventually will have to deal with. It’s part of a circle of life and I know I’m not alone but days like today really hurt my heart. So if your dad is still alive take at least a little time with him and cherish each conversation, each meal, each interaction because all too soon the opportunity is gone, never to be recaptured again.

All I have now are pictures and memories. So Father’s Day is a big ole’ hole of a day for me. What I would give for one more hug, one more smile, one more time of seeing him work on a car or raise his hands in worship to God. What I would give for just one more moment with my dad. So I’ll just say it too my heart because that’s the only place where dad still exists on this earth, Happy Father’s Day, Thanks for being my dad, I love ya daddy.

Love on him while he’s still here because those moments will get you through the days when there is nothing but a big hole because he can’t be with you. Thank God that death can’t take away my memories and heaven has dad until one day I’ll see him again. That day will truly be a Father’s day in more ways than one and Father’s day will no longer be a hole for me.

Don’t miss this!