July 2006

Mandy and I continue to be amazed by the doors God is opening as we embark on this adventure out to California. I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of the guys out there today, and it was very encouraging. The best part was just finally getting a chance to talk over our decision with them and let them hear a little of our hearts. And it is great to start that connection process.

We know that we are going to get crazy looks from people when we tell them what we have decided to do. That they are going to brand us as irresponsible or foolish. But the more my wife and I talk about those things the more at peace we are in the midst of this whole ordeal. And we are really okay with however this thing goes. I mean, we really believe that God is doing some BIG, like monstrous, something that we are going to have to keep opening our hearts up to - which is hard.

(edited)

Hard but exciting. I have edited this section of my original blog post because it was filled with stinking thinking, as my father-in-law would say. I am very confident that God will not give me anything more than what I can handle. That he has gifted me, especially when it comes to learning quickly, and I hope that I can get the opportunity to serve and be a apart of the Saddleback community! I am so excited as to what God has prepared for me and my family.

And even as Satan temps my mind with wanting to go down the road of doubt and second - guessing, I refuse to let that determine what God can do with my life.

Okay, I am a big time geek. Especially when it comes to internet sites that are on the cutting edge, or as it is often called Web 2.0.

Well one of my favorites is a kind of site that is called a virtual desktop. It organizes a lot of your information in the same place. It is Netvibes.

What is cool is that it is a free service and it has lots of different kinds of content that you can add, and now even gives you the ability to have tabs, so you can have dedicated areas. Until you play with this you really won’t know what I am talking about, but after you check it out come back here cause I am going to list my tabs and how I have organized my information on the site.

My Tabs:

Utilities: This has Gmail, Weather, Writely, Box.net, and Webnote pad.
RSS Interest: Here I organize the RSS feeds from websites I frequent that I have an interest in. So far I have: 43Folders, Moleskinerie, Lifehacker, Engadget, Gizmondo, and Techcrunch
Blogs: All blogs have RSS feeds, and since Netvibes lets you add your own feeds, I have all the blogs that I frequent loaded up here.
Meebo: If you haven’t heard about Meebo, it is a Web 2.0 site that lets you log into and live chat with people from you instant messenger program of choice, through the web browser. Well, you can now add a Meebo Tab, and have all your im’s automatically load up.
Next Actions: This is a page where I organize all of my next actions (to-dos). I have them organized by context (in truly minimalist GTD style) as Work, Home, Errands, and Contact.

Well, if you didn’t get enough links from this blog post, then you simply won’t be satisfied. But what you can be satisfied with is how sweet Netvibes is!

Well as it would obviously happen, the week that Mandy and I have decided is right for us to announce our resignation both the Senior Minister and Chairman of Elders (a trusted friend) are on vacation. -ugh!

I didn’t realize the elder was gone and sent him a message saying we needed to talk. He called, but he is in the country side in Kentucky (what the heck kind of vacation is that?) and doesn’t have great phone coverage. I didn’t want to talk about this sort of thing over the phone, but we couldn’t really talk well, and his curiosity was already up. So, he asked me to email him.

I was going to post the email here, but I don’t think I will. Once I put an official resignation letter together, I will post it just as a documentation and reminder of this process we are going through.

Anyways, I haven’t heard anything yet from sending the email early this morning. But a huge weight has been lifted off of Mandy and I’s shoulders as we are still grasping on to God, but are now fully dedicated to this move. It feels good to know that you are moving on something you can’t possibly do on your own. That God has to be in it, otherwise it will fail. It is scary, but awesome to see God’s providence and blessing on us during this time.

Pray for us as we now get into the messiest part where we will start having the hard conversations with people about us leaving. This church has a lot of hurt from previous Youth Ministers. So, I am at peace in this process, but aware that there will be some people who don’t react well to this.

Well, Mandy and I have been going like crazy to get our life together for our big move. It is really crazy to think of where we will be by September. It will be a totally new experience for us. And the more we continue to push on this door, the more we can see the peace of God in our lives, and his providence. But the pace is picking up very quickly, and at this moment we feel like we are in the middle of the free-fall of this transition.

I think Mandy has been through about every Southern California property on Rent.com. But we think we have found a really good possibility in Corona, CA. Since we were already having to move out of where we are living because our church sold our house with it’s facility, we had already been looking for some places. And the place we have found in Corona is about 400 dollars more, but way nicer. So, that kind of evens out in our book.

The hardest part is finding a job for me. Mandy has been all over jobster.com and monster.com. I would love to work at the Apple Store in Irvine, and have already turned in my application to Apple online. The great news is that my brother just got hired in St. Louis at the Apple Store and he has talked to his regional manager and she is willing to give me a recommendation to the Irvine Store after a phone interview.

The pace of things are definitely picking up, but there is still one hard step left. My next task is writing a resignation letter, and handing that in with a 30 day notice. I don’t think they will be surprised. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be hard, and that people won’t say some stupid things. But I am convinced that I am going to leave with as much rapport and grace as I can.

Keep me in your prayers!

Mandy (my wife) and I have been on the edge of a big decision over the past couple of months. And yesterday we made the decision. Ro Paxman, CEO of Scrap Girls is a mentor and friend of Mandy and I’s and she has referred to this place in our lives like being on the edge of a cliff. That you can’t see to the bottom to know exactly what will happen when you jump, and that it is definitely scary to make that first leap. But that as soon as you do is is exhilarating, exciting and usually results in more than you could have imagined.

3-4 months ago my brother Matt asked me the question we have all posed to each other at some point. “So, if money where no object, what would you do in your life right now?” My answer without hesitation was, “Move to California and enter into the Saddleback Internship program.” Since then I have not paid much attention to that answer because I didn’t think we could afford it. But now, that is blooming into a passion and desire for both Mandy and myself.

So yesterday we jumped. We made the decision that we are going to leave where we are now, and that we are going to move to California and become involved with Saddleback Community church. Our hope is that we will be able to save the amount of money we need to for me to do the Internship at Saddleback, and just as important, that I would get accepted as an Intern. I have had a strong desire to learn at the next level, and while this isn’t like going to seminary, I feel that the relationships and practical experience will be more valuable than any of that.

This leaves us with some hard discussions to have with our current situation, but I will seriously doubt that us moving away will surprise them. And despite the frustrations and conflicts I have had here, my stated reason for leaving is going to be to pursue Continuing Education. Because that is the truth, my priorities have changed and at number one is making sure that I am working at a place where learning and skills development is a high priority.

Please pray for us as I will be looking for a job and living situation in an area where the cost of living is 3-4 times higher than what we are used to. I have already applied at an Apple Store in Irvine, CA and I think that I have a very strong chance of getting a full time position out there. But with everything in mind - we still believe the risk we are taking is more that worth the rewards and blessings.

For the past few months Mandy and I have both felt like we are in the middle of a chaotic fog. That life was spinning around us and we didn’t know which way to go on a couple of big life decisions. We felt like, as close as we tried to get to God, we still were having a hard time discerning his will.

The other times in our life that we have encountered this sort of “haze” the only option that has ever brought us clarity is to start seeking our the will of God in the “open doors” available to us. To seek out other possibilities whether it be a different home, another baby, or a new job/ministry. And as hard as it is to try and make a move like that while in a fog, God has always stepped up and made things clear; but only after we took the first step.

Well, now we are in the middle of a situation like this but the stakes are much higher. We have taken a step towards a door that is huge, and it has a lot of risk for us. It has to do with the possibility of becoming involved with a new ministry opportunity, but at a much different and much further place away from where we are now. And because our current church has just sold their property, and the place we live in with it, we have to be out of our current home by the middle of September. The good thing with the risky step we have taken, is that if things materialize we won’t have a home to sell or a contract to step out of in going there. The bad thing is that there was a very good place we could have gotten in our current area that we have let pass; because we are still pushing forward with the big door.

Risky and Dangerous!

The scripture that keeps coming to mind is “and let us not lean on our own understanding…” Sometimes stepping out towards the door God is pointing you to doesn’t seem to make any sense. And that is the case for us now. But whether or not things materialize, I would rather look for another home then always have doubt about what God wanted to do with my life and with our family.

Following in the steps of Jesus is not safe, it was never intended to be. Not that it isn’t hard, and depressing and frustrating at times. But that you have to believe in God’s favor for your life, you have to go towards the dreams and desires that he has placed your heart. You have to step out in faith and give it a shot, because you never know where God wants to use you, even if it doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.

I started watching Rocketboom after I heard Steve Jobs mention it as a video podcast/blog during one of his Keynote addresses in the past year. It is a great little daily diversion that is an internet/grass roots version of The Daily Show. At least that is the easy way to describe it.

Anyways, the personality that has been a huge part of the success for the video podcast/blog has been the “anchor” Amanda Congdon. Her quirky sense of humor and grasp of the internet and its community is what I believe helped Rocketboom become as popular and large as it has become.

But via the Link above, she has been “fired”!!! There are all kinds of opinions about whether or not this will be a good thing or not for Rocketboom and Congdon. I think it will be bad for Rocketboom to lose it’s personality, and good for Congdon - potentially.

If she can land a job somewhere in the entertainment biz, then I think she will continue in her popularity. My votes are in her corner.