My Worship Revolution

As part of Art for AIDS this coming Saturday night we asked some of our friends who are artists to display some stuff and sell it with a portion of the proceeds going to Santa Cruz AIDS Project.
There will be a couple pieces up and all of them will be for sale via silent auction.

The first artist we were able to get for the event is a friend of my friend Christal.
His name is Lukas Wenger.
He’s a photographer.  Primarily landscape photography.
And you may have to try and outbid me for one of his photographs.
I checked out his stuff online and his stuff is money.
You can check out his website here.
Here’s a shot from Natural Bridges to give you an idea.

There’s a lot more on his website and it’s amazing.
He’s donating 100% of the profits from 2 pieces for us.
Super generous and we’re super grateful.

It’s gonna help create some great atmosphere Saturday night and raise some extra money for AIDS Project.
Get you tickets and come get a piece to take home with you.
If you bid more than me.
And swing by his site and get something anyway.  It would make a great Christmas gift and support a local artist.
See ya this Saturday!

Only 4 days till Art For AIDS!
If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet, grab it now.
More info at www.createhumanity.org.

Thought I’d throw up a series of posts about some of the talent contributing to Art For AIDS this weekend.
A good friend of mine who is part of Missio Dei Community is Dan Lingenfelter.
He plays drums for The Wild Rovers, an Irish band based here in Santa Cruz.

They’re the featured band for the concert.
I’m stoked that they’re playing for the event.  I’ve seen em several times at the Poet as well as The Catalyst last St. Patty’s Day.
Not only is the music great, but they are just one of the most fun bands to listen to.  It’s perfect for holding onto a drink, being loud, and singing along.  Unfortunately, I hear they probably aren’t doing my favorite tune that night.  “Have a pint!!”

Which reminds me…I need to email Kuumbwa and find out if Guinness is on the beer menu at their bar.

Enjoy out a couple of tunes from the widget below and then come hear them live on Saturday night!

Rachel and I have been home without the kids for 4 days now.  And we have a week and a half left.
I’d be lying if I said I’m not enjoying the freedom at times.
Last night we went to the AIDS vigil together, and just decided to grab dinner after.  Then we could grab a movie or just go home.  No planning needed.
Weird.
And nice.

But last night we also talked to them on the phone.
As we sat in Kianti’s, I cupped one ear to block out the sound as Caleb told me all about drawing a picture in the snow today of him and Micah and mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa.
He asked me when we were coming back and told me he missed me.
Micah got on the phone and said Lord only knows what.

I sat there for a moment and thought about the fact that while it’s fun not having the kids for a couple days, I would MUCH rather be stuck at home with the kids not falling asleep when we tell them to than to not have them at all.
I can’t imagine life without them anymore…and don’t want too.
I LOVE being daddy.

I miss our kids like crazy already.

During Pastor appreciation month, somebody gave us a Ralph’s World CD for the kids.
All you have to do is turn it on and Micah’s eyes light up and he starts to really boogie.
He was a little camera shy when it started, but he warmed up real quick.
It’s not a short video, but I didn’t wanna take time to edit any out.  Besides, kept me entertained the whole time.

Once again, I miss this little guy like crazy.
And yeah, I kinda miss that house too.

Each year, Dec. 1st is recognized as World AIDS Day.
It started in 1988 as a way to raise awareness and remember those who have passed as a result of AIDS.

In case you haven’t heard yet, I thought it would be a good time to share about an upcoming event we have with Missio Dei Community.
In just a week and a half we are hosting an event called Art For AIDS.  It’s at Kuumbwa Jazz Center.  It’s a night of comedy, music, and art, and all ticket and art sales will go to benefit Santa Cruz AIDS Project.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

It’s gonna be a blast and you don’t wanna miss out!
Over the next week or so, I’ll put up some posts to share more about the event and the artists involved.
But today in honor of World AIDS Day, the first 20 tickets sold with the code aidsday2010 wil get 20% off their ticket price.
Click here to buy some tickets.
For more info, check out www.createhumanity.org.
And of course, check out the Facebook page, too.

Also, as another cool resource for the season, check out this Advent calendar that specifically focuses on the issue of AIDS around the world.
See ya at Kuumbwa Jazz Center  on December 11th!

As promised, I snapped a few quick pictures while I was in the house this morning.
The story of what happened, in case you missed it, is in the post below.

Living room when you walk in front door:

Rest of living room:

Kitchen
You can see where they went throughout the house poking holes in the ceiling trying to find the fire:

Bathroom:

Hallway (where fire started):

Kid’s bedroom:

From back room, all the stuff from kids room in the yard, including burnt to a crisp bunk bed:

Several of you saw on Twitter what happened at our house tonight (last night now?) and said keep you updated. Hard to do in 140 characters, so thought I’d write a quick post. I’ll post more tomorrow with pictures.

The quick info if you missed it – our house caught on fire.

Our next-door neighbor invited us over for dinner.  We went over and enjoyed the evening with them.
About 5 minutes before we were planning to leave, James comes running through his house yelling, “Something’s going on at your house!”
He had smelled the smoke from his kitchen and looked out.
We ran out to see smoke coming out and hearing smoke alarms go off.

I heard Rachel tell me that James said not to open the door.
So naturally…I went straight to the door and flung it open.
We have (had?)a floor furnace I HATE.  When it runs, the metal grate can seriously burn the kids.
I had thrown a rug over it cause I thought it was off, but apparently the thermostat was low.  I figured that was the case so I thought I’d get the rug out and all would be good.

House was full of smoke from floor to ceiling.
James was behind me with a fire extinguisher.
I buried my head in my shirt and went in to put out the rug.  I got most of it out, but not all.
Ended up emptying 3 extinguishers.  Including a fire I noticed behind the Lazy Boy.

Right after that, the fire department showed up.
They went in, took care of it, and said it was contained.  The damage was contained to the hallway for the most part.
But they were also trying to get under the house to make sure it wasn’t going on under there.
And lots of smoke was still coming out for a while.  I knew something more was up.

Eventually we see them climb on the roof and start poking holes.
Suddenly TONS of smoke is pouring out and we start seeing some pretty big flames.

Long story short, the fire actually started under the house.
Apparently the wood down there got pretty dried out over the years.  The rug helped keep some heat in and that’s all it took for the wood to start burning.
It burnt under the floor back to our kids closet.  There was some remodel in there in the past, and there was some pipe that went up and wasn’t enclosed.  The fire traveled up that into the attic.

For the most part our stuff is OK.
The kids bedroom was pretty much engulfed.
That one is way gone.
The rest of the house is a mess.
Hallway is pretty much toast too.
Holes poked in ceilings, etc.  Like I said.  I’ll post some pics tomorrow.

Most important thing…Rachel and the boys are fine.
Not sure how Caleb’s gonna take his room being totally gone.
We’re at our neighbors house for tonight, and were already planning to head south for Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, we can’t host the Monday Night Football party we had planned tomorrow night.
Now we’ll need to figure out where to stay for at least a couple months it looks like.
Fun stuff.

So that’s the update for y’all.
Truth be told, I’m a bit frustrated with it all and with life right now, but hopefully some sleep will improve that a touch.
Just this morning at Twin Oaks we talked a little about God churning our hearts in difficult times to prepare us for what He has and to see God glorified through it all.
So it’s another opportunity for God to work in our lives and for us to be satisfied in and with Him.  Period.
Doesn’t make it any more pleasant.  Ready for 2011 I think.
We’ll see what happens from here.
And as I promised, I’ll try to take some pics tomorrow.

It’s after 1am.
I ‘m going to bed.

A friend sent me this quote today from Gabe Lyons’ book The Next Christians.
It’s from an anonymous letter to a Roman scholar, Diognetus, in the 2nd-3rd century at a time when followers of Jesus were under serious persecution.
As you read, ask this question: Is this the experience of people outside the Church today?

The Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life…. Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike…. and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth.

They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like every one else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their own offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed.

They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all men, and by all men are persecuted….. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance.

To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.”

From Gabe Lyon’s book The Next Christians, page 185, 186, quoting Cyril Richardson’s book Early Christian Fathers, pg. 175. Note: From the primary document “The So-Called Letter to Diognetus: The Mystery of the New People

So…is this how most people perceive Christians today?
Why or why not?

It’s been interesting reading Facebook statuses the day after another CA election.
The “red” friends.  The “blue” friends.
I think I’ve become more maroon, but that’s aside from the point.

I have a lot of frustrated red friends today.
(Actually, I noticed a lot of the blue friends were only slightly happier, if that.)

But here’s the deal.
I just drove to Starbucks.
It’s November.
I drove right by the beach on my way.
Shorts.
Flip flops.
Windows down.
Sunroof open.
Gorgeous day.
Just sayin…regardless of who’s in what office, I love California and I aint goin anywhere!

So let the positivity flow friends.
Do share, what do you love about California?

Halloween is approaching this weekend.
And for the first time since 2003, I won’t be slinging hay around a church for Halloween.
I’d be lying if I said I was bummed about that.  I don’t have a very good relationship with hay anymore.  I’d say it’s love/hate, but I’m not sure where the love comes in.

Lots of churches take the opportunity of the cultural holiday to bless their communities and provide a safe environment for families to celebrate for Haloween…errrr…Harvest.  I get it, and for those doing it, that’s cool.  Go for it!
For me, several years ago my take on that approach started changing a bit, though.  I was always the, “let’s produce a big event” guy.
But something started getting to me about Halloween.
(And no, it’s not that I decided Halloween is evil and we shouldn’t participate.)

All year long, many of our churches encourage people to stop spending all their time at church and get to know their communities.
We encourage people to get to know the people that live around them and actually get involved in their lives.
Still I’ve had church people admit to me that they have no clue who their next-door neighbors are.  Like many in our culture, they go to work, come home, drive into their garage, close the garage and go inside til the next morning when they open the garage door long enough to drive out and go to work again.
Then, on the one day a year that most of our neighbors come knocking on our door, we ask people to leave their house and come to the church, which nowadays is often in a completely different community.

So the question is, if we are going to be at home, how can we be more intentional about being there.
Oh, and the answer ISN’T give each kid a piece of paper telling them what you believe and that they should believe it too.
Here’s a couple ideas:

• One friend told me about a neighbor who would make Root Beer Floats in the front yard and it always ended up with a bunch of families milling around having floats together.
• It’s a bit cold where we live for floats, so Rachel and I are hoping to have some hot cocoa and/or cider along with candy to warm people up and give em a chance to stop and drink for a few before moving on.
  Speaking of, anyone have a hot water heater with a spicket or a big thermos container I can borrow?
• Throw a Halloween party.  (Actually, can’t wait to go to our neighbors party earlier in the day. It helps having awesome neighbors and they know how to throw a party!)
• Simply ask if they’re from nearby and introduce yourself as you hand out candy.
• Just have a few friends from the area over to watch a festive movie with or have some drinks and play games with each other while you wait for trick-or-treaters to show up.
• You could make your house into a cool maze for people to go through.  I always loved those houses as a kid.
• Ante up and give out full size candy bars.  You’ll probably end up with all the neighborhood kids coming to your house before long.  That being said, we aren’t planning to do that one!
• What if churches split up the money they use for the big event and gave it to home groups to do something fun at a nearby park or a house in their community?  I’ve heard of a couple churches doing this and it sounded like a pretty good compromise between the two.

What can I say?  I’m an extrovert and love opportunities to get to know people and make a few more friends.
What other ideas can you add?
What are your plans this Halloween?

I think the wife and kids passed on their sickness to me.
Just in case you haven’t seen this video, it’s a lottle like our house this morning.