Archive for August, 2008

There is no better city in America to conduct “man-on-the-street” interviews than Vegas. You get the craziest people from literally all over the world on the Strip. We spent some time yesterday filming interviews for our upcoming “This Ain’t Ur Momma’s Jesus” series. We asked questions about Jesus and how people would respond if a modern human made the same claims as Jesus (I can forgive sins, follow me, worship me, I am sinless, pray to me, etc.). We got some great answers (sad but great for the video). I guess this is one of the advantages of living in Vegas – very few Sunday School answers on the tough questions!

- Played some golf on Friday. It was a “love it” day for me. I had a good round.
- Our GP Fantasy Football Draft was on Friday night. Fun time. We have 16 teams in the league which limits you to a few good players. It should be an interesting year. We also have a few good trash-talkers which helps.
- I hung out with the kids on Saturday morning. Zac and I wore out some Wii.
- Saturday afternoon we went to a GP Kids party in the park. One word for you — HOT!
- We ate some Mexican food, ran some school errands, and hung out with some friends on Saturday evening.
- We continued our series on Strategic Stewardship on Sunday (called Route 66). People are responding well to the series.
- The first Sunday we gave away three $25 gas cards in each service. Yesterday we gave away three $25 cards that people have to then give to a total stranger. Next week we take it a step further. Great creative concept that has been very effective.
- I believe most people don’t understand properly the biblical concept of giving.
- One more week on stewardship and then we move into our Fall series – This Ain’t Ur Momma’s Jesus.
- Our next series will be off the chain.
- Our kids started school today.
- Kayleigh, our oldest daughter, started middle school. HUGE adjustment for her. I dropped her off this morning. My heart ached watching her walk into a jammed school where she does not know a single person! She was very strong considering the circumstances. I am proud of her.
- Let me go ahead and put this out there: I have no problem confronting a 6th grade boy (and his parents) if he makes any moves on my girl.
- Ragan starts 3rd grade today and is very excited. Her best friend at school is in her class.
- Zac starts 1st grade. Please pray for his teacher!
- All 3 of our kids are now in school all-day. Wow. I am getting old.
- Not a lot happening this week. Finally a bit of a slow down week. I will enjoy it for today. Things could change any second!

Don’t watch this video if you do not want to see someone get knocked out. This video reminds me that sometimes you just need to act and stop dancing around like an idiot. There are times to talk and there are times to just shut up and act.

There was a lot of buzz surrounding the Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday night when Rick Warren hosted presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama.  I thought both candidates were very articulate and handled themselves in a professional manner.  I do think McCain was more “to the point” on his answers and less evasive. I also think you could see the vast differences in their beliefs on some important ethical issues.

I am not one to think the USA is doomed based on the party affiliation of the president. I think God is much bigger than the president of the United States and our mission as a church does not change regardless of who is in office.  I think both candidates have their strengths and weaknesses. And I think younger evangelicals are become increasingly more concerned about social issues other than the big 2.    Not sure what that means for this election.

Both candidates spoke of a personal faith in Jesus Christ. I have no reason to be skeptical of either one’s words.

I do find it a bit redundant that every election the candidates always talk about its time for a change in Washington and how we are standing at a crossroads in our history.  It would be interesting to see how many times this type vision has been cast in the last few decades.

Politics is a hot button topic.  At GP, we have people all over the map politically.  We choose not to make it an issue at Grace Point and focus on our role as Christ-followers within our culture to be Jesus to those around us.  Politicians will come and go yet the gospel remains constant.

Thots after the weekend…

- On Friday, we had an all-day staff meeting at Lake Las Vegas Resort to plan for the Fall and next year. Very productive day. God has given us a great staff.  We laughed as much as we planned.

- Our spouses joined us Friday night at the resort for a nice dinner – 3+ hours long.  I did get a little impatient at the end but survived. Once again, we laughed A LOT.

- On Saturday morning, I had to speak at a graveside service for a couple in our church who lost a baby in the womb at 25 weeks. Their faith was so clear in this loss.  Great testimony for all of us.

- Spent most of the day Satuday just hanging with the fam – playing Wii, watching the Olympics, and watching a movie.

- Michael Phelps is a machine. I still can’t believe he “outstretched” in the one race to win the gold.

- The Olympics are fun to watch.  Lots of great competition.

- Can’t really get into some “sports” in the Olympics.

- How do they get the horses to China for the equestrian events?  This was a question I had for several days. Found the answer here.

- Found out when we arrived at the high school on Sunday that they were hosting a basketball tournament. The joys of not having your own facility. Our teams did great handling the situation.

- Started a series on stewardship this past Sunday.  Our people received the teaching well.

- We had The Vine on Sunday evening which is our mid-size gatherings that we have every 4 months to try and connect people to small groups.

- Had a little incident with a Barney Fife type “marshall” Sunday evening who wanted to make sure the volleyball courts closed exactly at 10 pm.  Wow – authority travels straight to some people’s heads.

- School starts in one week! Seems like my two youngest just got out.  6th, 3rd, and 1st grade – here they come!

- I look like a lizard as a large portion of my skin flakes away from too much sun at the beach.

- Football season is close! Fantasy draft this Friday night.

That’s all for now.

After a week on the beach, I have some major catching up to do. Here are some random thoughts of my week/weekend…

- Things I did NOT have last week: meetings, appointments, phone calls, a schedule, a need to get up early, no time for a nap, an air-conditioner that would not shut off, things to do immediately.

- Things I did have last week: time to relax, the sound of waves crashing, time with my family, 2 mindless suspense novels, a boogie board with plenty of waves to ride, wireless access (I can’t completely disconnect), over 8 hours sleep on more than one occasion, fun, too much sun, sand in every crevice of my body, salt water in my eyes, uninterrupted down time.

- Got to love vacation!

- Good weekend that included: a birthday party with some friends, watching the Olympics, listening to our Family Ministries Pastor Ty Neal do an outstanding job, some volleyball, and the reality that it all starts again early Monday morning.

- All-day Staff Planning Day on Friday.

- Need to get a week’s work done in 3 days.

- And finally, today is my oldest daughter Kayleigh’s 11th birthday. August 11th 1997 was one of the happiest days of my life. Kayleigh is beautiful, intelligent, fun, and very patient as she has helped teach us what it means to be parents. She is my only child that is part of the “learn as we go” reality that comes in parenting your first born child. I love you K-girl. Daddy is so proud of who you are and who you are becoming.

We are enjoying our final few days of vacation. It has been a relaxing get-away.  We have spent so much time on the beach that we finally had to take a break yesterday and do something normal – we went to the movies.

When you live with a kid like Zac (and a dad like me?), funny things happen all the time. Our vacation has had several of those moments. Here’s one I thought I would share…

A couple of evenings ago we took an evening stroll down to the Oceanside pier – a popular place when the sun is going down. Zac, being Zac, decided he would climb up the rail a little to look over. Somehow in the process his left flip-flop fell over the side of the pier and into the ocean.  He was upset because they are his favorite shoes.  We watched it float around for a few minutes until the repeated crashing of the waves took it out of sight.  I had to explain to Zac why I couldn’t jump over the side of the pier or swim out 150 yards into the ocean at night after a flip-flop and try and throw in some cheesy lesson about not climbing on the railing.  There he stood with one flip-flop not understanding at all why his shoe was shark bait.

We continued our walk down the Oceanside pier which is quite long. It probably took us at least 20 minutes to make the walk and get back to the point where the shoe went over.  Zac had to take one final look to make sure the shoe was really gone.  Of course he did not see it but he would still not lose hope.  I had to promise him we would go and look around under the pier and see if we could find it.

So we went under the pier to search. Perfect time for a practical joke so I planted the remaining shoe in a strategic place and announced “there it is” before Zac quickly caught on to my ploy and called me out.  We had a good laugh, looked some more, and headed back towards the condo.  Zac kept talking about the flip-flop and the different ways he could find it.  I kept telling him it was gone forever to give up on it. He would not.

Suddenly – there it was.  Sure enough, about 50 yards down the beach there was a flip-flop.  It was dark so we could not tell if it was his. Plus tons of people were walking past. And yet there it lay.  Zac took off running, reached the flop and turned around with this huge grin on his face – he had found his lost flip-flop.  It had washed ashore and was laying there on the beach waiting for its 6-year-old owner to be reminded that there is always hope – even when the obstacle is the size of the ocean.

It was a hilarious moment. I laughed and laughed in amusement and disbelief.  I’m not really one to read spiritual lessons into everything that happens in life but I sure did learn a lesson about a 6-year-old’s naive hope and faith – a lesson that all of us grown-ups sure need to learn on occasion.

Enjoying our vacation time.  The girls had a blast at American Girl … Zac and I? Not so much.  I will post some pictures later of our experience.  Our beach condo is awesome with great access to the beach.  It is the “busiest” week of the year here in Oceanside but it has not been too crowded.  I look like a lobster.  I have enjoyed not having any obligations and spending some time relaxing and reading (although my mind never stops).  Oceanside has some awesome waves. The kids are having a blast on the boogey-boards. I have ventured out further than I am supposed to be on a few occasions to catch the big waves. I don’t think the surfers care for you being out there in the way.  Oh well.  4 more full days of fun to go!

We spent all day Friday at Raging Waters outside of L.A.  It was voted the third best water park in the country by the Travel Channel and I am not sure why.  Actually outside of the LONG lines and some major areas where they could improve, it was a fun day.  Here are some of the highlights, my thoughts, and areas that could use some vast improvement…

- We arrived about 20 minutes early and stood in line to get in.  No real organization to where you are supposed to stand. Once the gates open, we get about half way to the gate and an employee informs me you have to stand in another line if you have online tickets.  Yeah!

- Once we got in the park, they didn’t open the major slides until 10:30! Why? This does not make any sense to me. So we stood in line again outside the area of the park where the slides are located. And you guessed it … they were at least 10 minutes late opening that gate!  Here’s an idea: if you advertise that the park opens at 10 am, open the park at 10 am – not 10:40!

- I am not sure who has less patience – me or Zac.

- Kayleigh and I were the first two people to ride Drop Out – the 7-story free drop water slide. She is my child who will ride everything and anything. Fun ride.

- You have to walk down this giant hill to get your mats to ride the racing slides and then back up to ride the slide! Hasn’t anyone told this park about conveyor belts?

- Zac was a little freaked at the top of the racers and hesitated to ride. After a firm encouragement from his dad (I basically threatened his life), he got on the slide and the next thing I know he is flying down the hill before he was told to go. It was hilarious.

- Family raft rides are a lot of fun.

- Zac was afraid to ride The Dark Hole because you could not see in it (thus the name).  I had to ride it first and give him the assurance he would be okay.  It is funny to see a kid that will ride roller coasters that most adults will not ride be afraid of a simple water slide. He eventually rode and loved it.  He told me later he was just waiting until after the family ride – yeah right.

- A kid saw a snake while we were standing in line and freaked.  Line chatter said she might have gotten bitten by the snake but I am not sure. Either way, every security guard and EMT was on the scene. Needless to say it freaked out my middle daughter Ragan but she made it.

- In my opinion, EMT guys working at second-tier water parks do not have the grounds to be “too cool” to answer simple questions and ignore people.

- After standing in line close to an hour on this same ride, my daughter Ragan refused to ride! No amount of coercing or vain threats could make her ride. Mommy missed out.

- West Coast amusement parks attract a diversity of people.

- Saw a lot of cool tats yesterday and some not-so-cool tats.  I would say at least 50% of West Coast adults under-40 have tats.

- Should someone actually say something to those people who are wearing bathing suits that they should not be wearing (for a number of different reasons)?

- Why does amusement park food cost so much and taste so pathetic?

- Kayleigh scraped her heel coming down some steps and took a CHUNK of flesh out of her foot. It was nasty. She had to go to First Aid and get her foot bandaged.  She was tough and kept going.

- They need to set up an octagon ring to help decide who gets what beach chairs.

- A day at the water park will make you a little tired!

- When it comes to customer service, cleanliness, professionalism, excellence, and trying to do everything they can to make your experience positive, you simply can’t outperform Disney!

- After standing in line for many hours, getting some sun, losing patience on more than one occasion, riding a few water slides, and having a blast together, we are ready for day two. American Girl Place – here we come!

Tomorrow morning early we will leave for the California coast. We are getting up early and driving to Raging Waters – voted the 3rd best water park in America by the Travel Channel and then heading to the American Girl Place in LA on Saturday morning (Zac and I are really pumped about this one). From there we will drive to Oceanside just north of San Diego and spend a week on the beach! Can’t wait to rest, relax, read, and hang with the fam. I am ready from some disconnect.

Here is the view from our condo…