who are you?

Finally found someone that would go under the ink for COH

I know what your thinking, why would a church be promoting, even advertising getting a tattoo?

We aren’t advertising getting a tattoo, just tattoos.  In case you haven’t been to the mall lately, and looked around a bit, statistics show that close to 40% of the people 18-25 years old have some kind of body art.  That represents a huge part of our local population.  Tattoos are mainstream and people are interested in them.  I have made it a point to look for art whenever i am in public, and I have seen some incredible art work.

If you are still fuzzy on why we would be talking about tattoos at church, I would love to invite you to join us the next four weeks at COH.  As I like to tell people that have questions, “Come check it out” your free to stay or not.  You can find more info about COH on the web, you may have come from there already.  If you aren’t in Maricopa you can listen to our Sunday morning messages via itunes, or your own media player via our web page.   www.cohmaricopa.com

I read that yesterday Michael Jackson turned 50 years old.  That makes me feel really, really, old.  Its hard to believe that Mr. Moon Walk can soon sign up for AARP.  Whats worse is that I can remember when Michael was part of the Jackson 5.   Growing old, its like  - A B C, its at easy as 123….,

Wow!  Can you believe what has happened during the Presidential election?  First we have Clinton and Obama going head to head for the Democratic election.  We have our first African American Presidential candidate.  And now McCain picks a women for his VP.  I just finished watching Palin’s acceptance speech, and I like most of you have no idea who this person is. 

What an amazing time to be alive in the USA.  It doesn’t matter if you lean left, or right, its still a good felling to know that our country is heading towards change.

It should be fun come November!

It here! College Football has returned, and not a minute to soon.  I will be firmly planted in front of my TV most of Saturday watching my favorite sporting event.

Still looking for tickets to the Sun Devil game on Saturday night?  Who has my free ticket?

Well we can all go back to our normal lives.  The 2008 Olympics are the the books and its on to London.  I like most of you became very involved with what was happening in Beijing.  And of course I rooted for the red, white, and blue to win everything.  I became team USA! 

I wonder just how committed we are as a country to the USA.  Just being in Kenya I can say that looking at our country from abroad gives you a glimpse into the diversity that makes us so great.  I wonder how many athletes and coaches we have that are from a country other than the USA.  Even our flag carrier was from Sudan.  That diversity is what makes us great!  But have we lost our unity as a country?  Do we really bleed Red, White, and Blue?

Last week I went looking for some USA Swag.  You know, a team USA shirt, something cool to wear on Sunday morning.  Funny thing happened, i could not find any anyplace.  I found lots of other countries stuff, but no USA.  I finally asked a store manager what the deal was.  His answer really took me back.  The reason there was no swag?  There is no demand.  The fact is, as a nation we really don’t care.  At least we don’t care enough to buy a shirt, or a hat, or a jacket.  

Do you care?

Okay, one last look at my trip to Kenya.  I put some pictures together with my current favorite song. Hope your not to tired of looking at my pics. I promise this is it.

Viva la Vida!

Its kind of ironic that I find myself in the middle of a series at COH talking about practice.  The reason you say?  Today I will be day one of my marathon training!  Yes, you heard me correctly, marathon training.  I have the makings of an endurance athlete.  I have ran 5 half marathons, numerous 100 mile bike races, many 10ks’s, and hiked rim to rim in the Grand Canyon 7 times.  I always wanted to run a marathon, but just figured I would do it later.  Well later has arrived in my life, and if I don’t get it done soon, I won’t be here to try. 

My goal is the PF Changs Rock and RollMarathon in Phoenix on Jan 18th. http://www.rnraz.com/home.html I actually ran the inaugural half marathon a few years back.  I will be training with Team Chances www.chancesforchildrenaz.com and running with Team Maricopa!  I am not really looking forward to the training.  I know the countless hours of running that lie in my near future, the sore legs, the blistered feet, and everything else that comes along with practice. 

I hope to see you at the finish line on Jan 18th in under 5 hours.  That’s my goal, and you read it here first.

It was great to be back at COH today, as they say there’s no place like home.  After speaking at two different churches the last two Sundays, it felt really, really, good to be in front of the home crowd.  I am amazed at how this group of strangers just a few years ago, have  become my family. 

We had a great Sunday morning, an awesome lunch with the staff and their families, and we will finish off the day with some softball tonight with the COH team.  A great first Sunday back at home.