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This guy blends stuff. It's apparently to show off their apparently very capable Blendtec blenders. He's blended all kinds of things...from golf balls to glow sticks to marbles to pens to an iPod. Now he explores the very important and relevant question, "The iPhone...will it blend?" Click on the picture to check it out.
I visited HighPoint Church this past weekend, and I've got to say I was impressed. I'd been meaning to visit HighPoint ever since my friends Tory & Elizabeth Farina planted it last year. They're portable and meet in a theater, which is
working quite well for them...and it's pretty cool too.
Their setup was well done. The people were friendly. The worship was rockin', and the message from Pastor Tory was exceptional. I've known Tory for several years, but had never heard him preach before. I was really impressed, and the message was particularly meaningful for me. The word is that he's that good every week!
It was great to see my good friends, Neil & Rhonda Schafer, their kids, and so many others working as a big happy team to make all of the stuff of a portable church happen with excellence. If you live in the area of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, or are passing through, I'd highly recommend checking out HighPoint. It's a great church with great vision and lots of good things happening. For more information, service times, directions, etc., check out myhighpointchurch.com.
Click HERE for more pics.
If you're an Assemblies of God minister, I want to strongly encourage you to check out the Future AG blog prior to General Council next month. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's worth your time as we look at the future of the Assemblies of God in light of the resignation of Brother Trask.
The Future AG blog is a temporary site for Assemblies of God ministers to openly discuss the future of the AG. With the election of our next General Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent coming very soon, this site was designed to give AG ministers a forum to dialogue about the characteristics, experience, and values needed in our next generation of leaders.
Props to the guys for making this happen...and congrats on the massive number of hits! Nicely done.
Well, of course I stayed for a few days to spend some time with Al & Steph after speaking at their church. It was kind of cool because they had stayed at my house the week prior (before the wedding they were officiating in Minnesota), and then I went to their place while they were gone, preached at their church, and then stayed with them for 3 days after they got back. Hanging out with them and their daughter Alex (to whom I'm Uncle Troy!) is always a blast.
On Sunday afternoon I had gotten a call from Joe Denbow, a friend of mine I hadn't talked with in a while. It was an out-of-the-blue kind of call. He didn't know I was in Wisconsin and I didn't know that he was going to be less than 30 minutes away that week, so we made plans to connect while I was there. Joe is the pastor of student ministries and music at New Life Church, a church plant in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. (Click here for the page on him and his wife, Jolee.) Joe was just over in the Waupaca area for the first week of senior high camp. It was really cool that he just happened to call, and that we got to grab some lunch and hang out.
I ran across this online church service planner. It looks pretty slick and seems quite capable...definitely worth checking out for the collaboration, organization, communication, and tracking that it offers.
Website: http://www.planningcenteronline.com
Demo: http://www.planningcenteronline.com/home/tutorial/11_minute_overview
Planning Center is the brain-child of a gentleman named Jeff Berg who served for 6 years as the Director of Creative Technologies at Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, California, before leaving to fully dedicate his time to Planning Center. That definitely gives some credibility to this service compared to something written by an "outsider." (According to Planning Center's website, Willow Creek and North Point both use Planning Center.)
I'm not a big gamer. I guess I feel like I have plenty of ways to waste time without playing a lot of video games. Maybe it's just that I'm not very good at them, or maybe I'm not good at them because I don't spend hours and hours playing them. I prefer to believe the latter.
Anyway, here's a little game you can play in just your web browser that's fairly simply and pretty cool. Give it a shot when you're online and have a few minutes to kill. Be warned, though! You just might get addicted.
It was a really nice surpise to hear that my uncle and aunt, Keith & Teresa, were passing through on their way from Alaska back to Oklahoma and had a long enough layover for a visit. My mother and I picked them up at the airport and took them to eat at Chevy's near the 
Mall of America. (I love the crispy chicken floutas at Chevy's.)
We had good food and a great visit. I miss my family a lot, so I cherish any chance to see any of them and spend time with them. Most of my family lives in Oklahoma, and I need to make it there to see them much more often!
[Pictured: That's Mom with my Aunt Teresa, and me with my Uncle Keith. Keith is one of my dad's four brothers -- can you see the family resemblance?]
