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It’s Sunday morning–usually a pretty crazy affair, especially when I’m leading worship @ my church. Sickness causes considerably more craziness. Nate came down with a summer cold late last week and isn’t sleeping too well. That means, you guessed it, everybody’s tired. I prayed a prayer of desperation as Sam and I headed out the door for early morning worship practice (the rest of the family was staying home), “help!”

What a morning! Practice went off without a hitch and worship was amazing (the Ballston worship team is the greatest!). We were doing the song “Everything” by Tim Hughes–powerful! During the sermon, as I was reflecting on the favor of God, I got a text message (sorry Pastor Mark). It was from a former Chi Alphan who had 2 extra tickets to that afternoon’s Nationals game. Can you say quality time? Sam and I made a quick change @ home after church and headed for the ballpark.

We had great seats! Right on the first base line…and in direct sunlight. It was hot! At one point Sam was lying on the ground between the seats trying to find shade. “Daddy, I’m really, really thirsty and really, really sweaty!” But despite the conditions (don’t call child protective services, the clouds gave us shade through most of the game) we persevered for 12 innings of baseball. Man, were we rewarded! Nationals’ second baseman, Ronnie Belliard (batting a dismal .210) hit a walk-off home run to end the game! And to top it off, Sam got a chance to run the bases (after braving a phalanx of mascots). Below are a bunch of photos from our incredible day. The moral of the story? I guess a bad start doesn’t determine the outcome of your day…and prayers are powerful things.

Every summer American University gives us an unprecedented opportunity to meet new students.  All incoming freshmen are invited to take part in one of 6 New Student Orientations held throughout June and July.  During lunch on the last day of each of the sessions there’s a student club fair.  We’ve got a table and it’s an incredible place to meet students!

Most are Christians looking for a place to express their faith, but that’s not always the case.  During the last session a student was browsing the tables with her mother when she asked me what we were all about.  After I explained Chi Alpha, she said, “Why not?!” and proceed to fill out an information card to get on our email list.  As the student was filling out her card I asked her mother if she attended a church in her hometown.  She didn’t because the last time she tried to attend a church, she was turned away because she was divorced–that was over 15 years ago.  “Maybe it’s time to try again,” she said as she finished her story.  I’m praying that Chi Alpha is part of the healing that will lead both a mother and daughter to faith.

Please pray for these opportunities.  Pray that we make a good first impression, that we would connect with Christians who are looking to grow in their faith, and serve Jesus on campus.  Pray also that we might capture the attention of those who are being drawn to Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  His voice gets a lot harder to hear during the craziness of the new school year.

It’s been 13 days since my last post. There’s good reason for that. The weather in DC has been amazing! I’ve been outside as often as possible. There were a couple of trips to the pool, some visits with friends, and a lot of running–gotta work off the winter (and spring) weight!

All of that time pounding the pavement got me thinking. As my thoughts turned away from my labored breathing they led me to think about this exercise–blogging. More specifically, it led me to think about how blogging effects relationships. Now, I’m not a huge reader of blogs, but I do keep up with a couple and what I’ve read lately has given me pause. I was reading one entry in which the writer (someone you do not know and will remain nameless) shared some qualities about him/herself. I as finished the blog, I couldn’t help but think about the selfishness that was wrapped up inside this person’s thoughts. The entry became a kind of self-disclosure–a confession without sorrow or desire to change. It’s the inherent danger of blogging I guess. You’re honest, but not in a way that invites sincere feedback. I’m concerned about where it could lead us. Instead of being open to hearing loving correction from a trusted friend over a cup of coffee, we can justify our faults as just who we are.

Last summer I read the book Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner. In it she describes her journey toward Jesus and the spiritual disciplines that develop that relationship. One of those disciplines was confession. Winner describes making an appointment with an Episcopal priest for the purpose of confessing her sins. The experience was transformational.

I’m feeling the need in my life for confession. I need relationships with people who will challenge my narrowness of thinking, who will lovingly point out my faults and point me in the direction of change. It starts with honesty, and not the virtual kind.

Where will this take my blogging habit? It probably won’t change all that much. I enjoy having an outlet like this to share my thoughts with friends, family, and ministry partners. I’ll just make sure I discuss some of my entries with a friend first. I think it will open the door for me to grow as a person–and it’s also another great excuse to fire up the espresso machine!

I was walking through Friendship Heights yesterday and I ran across this sign. Note the strange use of the quotation marks. When someone was in the process of laying out this 20 foot wide sign for a parking ramp, they made room for the punctuation. What exactly are they trying to say? Maybe they’re pointing to an area that only some people would (insert air quotes) call parking (end air quotes), or maybe it’s to quote someone who once used the word parking. Any “thoughts,” leave a comment.

Our latest newsletter is ready to print.  Take a sneak peak before it hits your mailbox.

The Pre-K classes @ Stoddart Elementary put on an early Father’s Day presentation. I took this video on my phone (I keep forgetting that video camera). Sam’s the one bouncing on the back left.

The travelogue from New York continues.  Needing to grab some batteries for our wireless microphone, I found myself in West Nyack @ the humongous Palisades Center Shopping Mall.  They have an Orange County Chopper Shop (you know the guys on the Discovery Channel who build motorcycles while shouting @ each other) on the top floor.  Now I have no plans on buying a motorcycle, but I found the one that I would want if I did.  Check it out.

I’m finally getting a little time to write down some thoughts that have been running through my head for the last month. Part of what has been keeping me going through the crazy end of the semester was coffee. As I’ve been continually refining my brewing process, I found it increasingly difficult to get a good cup and still be able to pay my rent. So after talking it over with Jen (did I mention how wonderful she is?) and leveraging some birthday gifts, I took the ultimate plunge. The apartments @ 4000 Massachusetts Ave now has an in house coffee roaster.

I know what you’re thinking…roasting usually produces a lot of smoke. This is what kept me out of the game for a long time. Every time I was with my coffee-roasting brother, I was breaking the 10th commandment. His freshly roasted coffee beans made a quality of espresso that I could never reach. I was missing a key element–no back patio or garage to keep the smoke out of the house (and setting off the fire alarm!). I finally found the answer! The Nesco Professional Coffee Roaster. It actually has a catalytic converter (think car exhaust system) to significantly reduce the smoke. Here are some shots from my first attempt.

I’ve tweaked my process a little bit over the last month and I’m getting amazing results!  Does this make me a coffee snob?  If it does, I don’t think I mind the title all that much (at least my tongue doesn’t).  If you find yourself in DC, I hope I can share a cup with you.

In my previous post I mentioned that I was away from home for a few days @ Incite, a XA staff training conference for the Northeast. Incite just happed to be held @ Nyack College in Nyack, NY, just 25 miles north of Yankee Stadium. The schedule also had a little free time that coincided with a game (there were geniuses on the planning committee). Play ball!

I found 24 bleacher tickets on stubhub.com for $8 a piece and we had ourselves a group outing. After our half-day on Wednesday we piled into vans and headed across the Tappan Zee Bridge into the Bronx. We found parking right next to the stadium (after our 15 passenger van was turned away from 3 other lots) and since we had a couple of hours before game time, we headed into Manhattan in search of espresso. We found it @ Joe’s: The Art of Coffee. Randy, XA director @ Georgetown did the research off of Bill Walsh’s coffee blog. Bill gave it his highest rating and we agreed. It was the best macchiato I’ve had in awhile. After dinner @ the University Diner (just happened to be one that my Uncle Dave took me to years ago). We hopped back on the 4 train to Yankee Stadium.

We found our seats, 2 rows from the top in the bleachers (must be in the front row!) and settled in for what turned out to be an incredible game. Derek Jeter passed Mickey Mantle’s record for hits and Mike Mussina passed Bob Shawkey for 7th place on the Yankee strikeout list. There was also enough timely hitting (including Wilson Betemit’s 2 hr of the season) to give the Yankees a 5-1 lead. The less than reliable, Yankee reliever Kyle Farnsworth had a 1-2-3 8th inning and Mariano Rivera was his usual dominating self striking out 2 and enticing a weak grounder to the pitcher’s mound to end the game. To top it all off, I when I went looking for a hot dog, I found a foot-long with brown mustard! Good friends, great coffee, 2 records, a hot dog, and a Yankee win–almost a perfect day. My last visit to Yankee Stadium will be one I’ll remember for a long time

I just got back from a 5 day Chi Alpha staff development conference we called “Incite.”  Steven Garber, the author of The Fabric of Faithfulness joined us for two days and talked about putting faith and vocation together.  We had great presentations on developing student leadership and international ministry and God met us during our worship times together.  But the best part of Incite wasn’t listed in the program; it was the time spent with people who understand.

Campus missionaries are a strange bunch.  The things we do, the schedules we keep, even the way we’re paid–it all requires a little explaining.  For a little while I was surrounded by people who didn’t need an explanation.  As I shared my stories, they nodded their heads in aggreement.  When I talked about my struggles, I knew they had been there.  When they gave encouragement, it meant just a little bit more.

So thanks Northeast Chi Alpha!  I walked away from those 5 days with more knowledge, great tools, but most of all the insight that I’m a part of a great team doing amazing things for Jesus.