Messy Church

Today was a day of back to back conversation. The sadness index is pretty high around these parts. Between physical illness, terminal illness, and marriages under fire It becomes more tenable to believe that we are all participants in a war. In some ways it seems like God might be at work in the shadows. It seems like he shows up beyond what I expect sometimes- but things still seem pretty bleak.

On a brighter note- I was playing some video games with Ian on the mac- one game in particular was a remake of my childhood favorite on the Apple IIe, “Miner 2049er.” I had never beet the game- and i have been obsessing on it since 1983. I found a remake for OSX and showed it to Ian. I was having a real hard time beating it so Ian decided to stand behind me and pray that God would help me win. He is such a sweet little booger. (I did beat the level) Tonight we all read Daniel chapter 2. The kids are really having fun with this. I’m so thankful for Adrienne helping me to stand the course on reading the Bible to Ian and Kathleen.

Late tonight I went to see Stealing Bismark at my favorite venue Cafe Bourbon Street (home of Taco Ninja.) Stealing Bismark is made up of my Brother in Law, Jesse Hickman, The Best man in My Wedding, Zach Pappas, Old Friend and Groomsmen, Chris Kay, and all around good guy Zach Haffner. Check Out their myspace page.

I was truly blown away by the openers from chicago, The Skies We Built They are playing again tommorow at Bernies. Check out all there songs on myspace if you are so inclined. The myspace songs sound mellow- but I was completely overwhelmed by the show. Have you found this blog Andy Whitman?

John McCollum is picking up preaching duties at Central Vineyard this week. Giving me a little breather after four weeks straight. Thanks buddy.

Where to start- not that anyone really cares. I don’t think anyone knows I moved this blog. I probably will try to make sure i can get a little consistent about posting before I let word get out.

January has been a good month- but the past two weeks have been frought with busyness. More about growing pains than entering a crisis lifestyle. I’ve preached for 4 weeks in a row with a lot of other stuff going on as well. This monday has been the first relaxing day in a long time. I’ve had 2 weeks of writers-preachers block. Last saturday I was up tilll 4:00am Sunday morning putting my talk together- but I was happy with how things turned out.

I had a BIT to much espresso to carry me through two services- and I was bouncing off the wall afterwords. I went home and listened to a couple of Free Design albums, and then Mark Snow and John Reuben came by and we listened to on of my top desert island records, Neutral Milk Hotel’s Neutral Milk Hotel’s
“Aeroplane Over The Sea.”

That night our friend Ram came by and we watched the 2nd part of the The “Up” Series“, “7 + 7″ or “14 Up” as it is also known.

Today I hit Yeah Me Too for coffee and conversation, running into friends Jim MacDonald, Bob Lackey, Bob Wood, Chris, Jovan, and Fred the Mailman. Afterwords Adrienne and I went to Jeni’s in Grandview and talked ice-cream and folklore together.

I just had a craving to listen to “Pet Sounds” so I’m going to log-off, get my son, and go to the basement and but my new mono copy of the Petsounds record and relax.