The steam has settled, things are now straightened out, the battle has been won….I think.  I just completed a 45 minute back and forth struggle between myself, an article of clothing and an iron.  I HATE IRONING!! Its terrible and pointless, I need to stick to T-shirts or just wearing new shirts with the creases already in them.  anyways…

On a positive note, I arrived in Dallas today for the C3 Children’s Conference at Fellowship Church and had the pleasure of touring the FC Kids area at the Grapevine Campus.  It was truly unbelievable.  I cannot wait to see what kind of awesome knowledge these peeps are going to dump into my brain this weekend about Children’s Ministry.  I am pumped to get back to our kids at the Gathering and take KIDZPLAYCE to a “whole nutha level” (insert hand stair step motion).

Mr. Ed Young spoke tonight to kick off the C3 Kids Conference and the C3 Creative Church conference.  It was amazing and I know that God is going to do some awesome things this weekend in the lives of many church leaders from all over the country and the world.  We got some pictures tonight of all the kids areas but I will post some of those tomorrow for ya.  Morning comes early.  out.

Remember that in this thing called life, while being a disciple of Jesus Christ and fighting in this battle, that we have already won.  We are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory.  Use that energy booster today. sleepy

That’s my dawg Darius at the Boys and Girls Club up in Lexington, KY. 

So this past Tuesday I had my first experience at the Sevierville Boys and Girls Club.  It was interesting to say the least.  Lets see, the first question I received upon walking through the door was from a young man named “Rhino”, a 5th grader who appeared to be a High School Senior, hints the nick-name.  Anyways, Rhino rolled up on me with his “boyz” like we were about to star in the new Step Upmovie coming out this weekend and proceeded to interrogate me beginning with the question “What are you doing here? Serving community service or something?” Just imagine the the voice of Dolly Parton mixed with 50 cent and that’s as close as I can get to what this boy sounded like.  Nothing wrong with a little country ghetto, heck Rachel (my beautiful prego wife) could be the spokes person for the whole country ghetto nation.  He was blown away when I told him I was actually a Children’s Pastor.

Well, Rhino continued to ask all kinds of questions ranging from where I went to school, what I did for a job and most importantly, “Is that your real hair?”  I think the last one had to have been asked at least 9,000 times, but you know what, it makes my day every-time I get that question.  Most people do not understand why I have my hair in Locs (aka dreads, dreadlocks, mopheaded) whatever you want to call them, but that is the answer right there.  I am pretty sure I got to talk to 75 percent of those kids at the Boys and Girls Club that day mainly because of my hair.  This hair, as crazy as it looks, gives me an opening to talk with these kids, to show them I care about them and that they are important.  And best of all it gives me a chance to share the love of Jesus Christ with them, not only while I am teaching them during KIDZPLAYCE on the weekends, but also when I see them out in the community.  Kids are great, and I am so blessed that God has placed me in a ministry where my job is to hang out with kids, love them, teach them about Jesus and disciple them through these very early years. 

I had a blast my first day at the Boys and Girls Club in Sevierville, and I look forward to chillin with all the “Rhinos” and all the other kids this coming week.

out

Okay, so you see, what had happened was…..I had a tiny bit of (SBB)  -  Sevier Blogger’s Block, but the good news is, I’m back!  At least my mom will think that this is good news anyways, I think she sent out a memo to every person in my family to read my blog. Then I made her look bad by not posting in like 1,200 hours which is also equivalent to 5o days.  So, to my mom, and the other 5 or 6 people who read this blog I say sorry for being a slacker and not providing you with the randomness that goes on inside this dreaded haired head of mine. 

Now, where was I?  O yes, the lost kid crushed in the dumpster during our Christmas @ The Gathering event.   Well, I have not been on the local or national news in the last 50 days and I am currently still directing the Elementary department  here at the Gathering, all of this should tell you that the child I could not find when I last left you in December has been found, in one piece, no cuts, bruises or broken bones.  After hearing he was last seen burring himself under a plethora of cardboard boxes in the dumpster, and myself digging through the plethora of cardboard boxes and not finding him, I did freak out a little bit and picture myself in the O so fashionable black and white striped jumpsuits of the Sevier Co. Jailhouse.  From here I went into “Mother lost her child in Piggly Wiggly” mode running around searching every crack and crevis for this child, including all the places there is no way the child would be or let alone fit into (i.e. ice coolers, under computers, or doing what they were supposed to be doing). 

After about 10 minutes of frantic searching I finally leaned up against the life sized toy train we had parked in the middle of parking lot to gather my head and come up with some kind of story to attempt to explain what had just happened.  I just new I was going to be in the dog house with some-one’s momma, lose my job and be on the front page of the Mountain Press the next morning.  That’s when I heard it, the O so sweet sound, those three little words that seemed to restore my hope and my future.  As if I were five years old again, playing hide and seek with all the older kids in the neighborhood in search of that one last kid I just couldn’t seem to locate, I heard, ”They’re over there.” (insert pointing finger towards Giant Sock Monkey)  At the head of the train, sitting in the conductor’s chair ringing an annoying bell for the enjoyment of all the little children sat a life sized Sock Monkey.  I sprinted over ripped off it’s head (nicely) and there they sat, the missing cardboard box kid. 

They were safe, I was safe and I could breathe again.  I had searched for 10 minutes but it felt as if it were 5 hours, I looked everywhere, asked everyone if they new the kid or if they knew where I could find them.  I searched for this kid as if my life depended on it, and when I found them it was awesome, I felt safe again, life was all good. 

Over this past month I have been doing a lot of thinking, about a lot of things and about a couple passages in Matthew and Luke dealing with parables of the lost sheep, or lost coin.  Then I thought to myself, if I can search for this lost child as if my life depended on it, why can I not search after Christ in this same way, or better yet why can I not search after those who don’t even know Christ yet and show them His love.  Around here I love that we do not just sit back and satisfy our own spiritual appetites, here, we make it as hard as possible for people to live without the love of Christ.  I often times hear people complain about “Seeker” churches, should we not all be seekers?  Lord I pray that I will forever seek after you and your will.

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