Mexico Day Five (Wednesday)

Today we took the kids from Manatial de Amor out to a national park for a good old hang out day. Some of the kids went in the pool that the park hide, while another half of the group (mostly older kids) went on a 'hike' which was mis-advertised. It was essentially the closest you could get to rock climbing without needing a rope, and at times, DC and I did kind of want a rope. I was on the mountain almost all day so I have no pool shots, but I do have a bunch from the mountain. One of the local girls ended up needing a lot of extra breaks while climbing so DC and I stuck with here which was just fine with us. It gave us a lot of extra time to take pictures. Tomorrow is our last day doing a work project so be praying for the endurance of our kids. Let's finish strong and give it everything we got tomorrow.

Mexico Day Four (Tuesday)

Great day today. We got up and worked around campus for a few hours, then after lunch the kids from Manantial De Amor came over for a pool party that included some donkey burgers for dinner. The kids left after dinner and the boys of the teams took on the staff boys in a little game of basketball which we, of course, one. Now we're just hanging out, John and I are playing euchre and every one else is playing kick the can. Good things. See you all tomorrow.

Mexico Day Three (Monday)

Today was an amazing day. Just in a word to say how great our team is...I really wanted to put the camera down and work on something that would work me harder because the attitude of our team is..."I want to work." So DC and I both put our camera's down at one point and dug in with all we had. Good stuff today. Then tonight at Taco's Fede was a special moment. I have never laughed as hard in my life as I did tonight at Dinner and during debrief. I am LOVING this team and this trip. Let's press on!

Mexico day two..

Today consisted off...
-Campus Tour
-Matt and Julie's new house
-Hanging with kids and serving lunch at the Cadereyta
-Katia's quincenera......er, uh fifteenth birthday party
-Euchre domination

Mexico has begun...

We left the church in good time, we got to the airport with no problems, I thought I lost my wallet (I didn't), we called some hawks in the airport, Mexicana airlines played a trick on us, we started the euchre festivites, I hated the flight (as always), customs was a blast, Back2back has like twenty more buildings than the last time I was here, team time was amazing, we're getting ready for bed. It's gonna be a great trip.

Ok, we can go now..

In the midst of our break neck summer student ministry pace, I managed to find a little bit of time (ok I cheated a bit and skipped the mexico packing party) and headed down to Indianapolis to see my favorite band with one of my favorite people.  I love the Dave Matthews Band and I love Andrew.  He spend the summer as a worship intern at a church down in San Antonio and it's great to have him back.  It was good to catch up on his life, as well as his new perspective post internship.  Dave was in rare form tonight playing for almost a full 3 hours, and playing three or so more songs than he usually does at normal concerts.  If that wasn't enough, Tim Reynolds is with him for the entire summer tour so that was up another notch, and the sax player from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is covering for the injured Leroi Moore.  And let's just say...he's good.  Here was the set list from tonight.
Don’t Drink the Water *
So D--- Lucky *
Eh Hee *
Water/ Wine
Two Step *
Proudest Monkey *
Satellite *
Corn Bread *
Dancing Nancies *
Dreaming Tree *
Sledgehammer *
Stay (Wasting Time) *
Lover Lay Down *
Drive In Drive Out *
Jimi Thing *
#41 *
So Much To Say *
Anyone Seen The Bridge *
Too Much *

__________________

You Might Die Trying *
Louisiana Bayou *

I have to say that Dancing Nancies was not only my favorite song of the night, but very unexpected, as were a few others in that list. Andrews has seen Dave a staggering 24 times in his life and he says he's never heard him play as long as he did tonight, nor has he ever heard him play some of the songs he played tonight. Good things.
Anyway, I'm off to serve the God who created Dave Matthews, how cool is my life. See yal in a week!

Weird baby names in the news...

I noticed in the last week that there has been a bit of fuss in the news over people naming their children bizarre names.  Finally, a judge in New Zealand did something about it in the case of a girl named Tulula does the hula from Hawaii.  Read the story here.  There was also an article in blender magazine not long ago where Coldplay frontman Chris Martin defended peoples decisions to name their childtren...chewbacca (the exmaple that he used.)  You can read the highlights of his statements here.  What he said was all well and good until you realize that it's not naming a dog or a band, it's a human being that is not your property.  Your kid still has to go to primary school Chris.  Let's hope young chewbacca is as big as chewbacca otherwise he's gonna get a beatin.  Just my thoughts.

I have a new Lens, my life is awesome.

I just got a new Canon 24-70mm 2.8L USM lens. It's my personal favorite lens on earth. The church has one that I always feel bad about stealing, and now I have my own. There was some debate about whether to do that 24-70mm at f2.8 without Image stabilization or the 24-105mm f4 with image stabilization. But my thought was, I have a 70-200mm lens so I don't really need the extra zoom length, and even though it has image stabilization, there difference between a f2.8 and f4 in a dimly lit auditorium (where I always take pictures) is dramatic. So I'll be loving this lens, especially for studio glass. A lot of the studio guys I know that shoot canon have this lens and use it a TON. At any rate, our photo's will soar now. Bring it on Mexico...
...now if I could just get my iPhone to show up.

Chicago Mission Trip

I'm out here in Chicago this week with GCC's middle schoolers doing some great work for the people here. We spent our first two days here with just the student ministry staff just to get our brains wrapped around the new fall programs. After those two days my head was definitely spinning, but I know where we're going now and I can't wait for the fall. Anyway, so we've spent the last few days with the kids and I have been absolutely amazed by their attitudes and willingness to dive in and work. I don't know why it keeps surprising me though because they're becoming more and more that way as time goes on. Enjoy the photo's, I don't have a lot because I've been doing mostly video. DC has a bunch more, as does Rob Wegner.

I'm posting it again...

...because it was just that good.

Hillsong Conference 2007 Opening
Uploaded by ajchz

Camp Adventure Videos are all here...

Here we go with the rest of the videos from an AMAZING week at Camp Adventure. Enjoy!

Monday Rewind

Wednesday Rewind

Commitment Night Recap

Communion Recap

Blob Highlight Reel

Camp Adventure Videos are coming...

I'm in the process of converting all the camp video's for youtube, but I'll get it started in reverse order. Here's friday's video.

Tracy Nissley Interview

We did this interview with Tracy for one of the last lifelines and I forgot to post it. She's awesome!

Movie Review: Hancock

It was completely not what I expected...and I loved every second of it. The previews did a good job of hooking me without giving away what the movie was actually going to be about. Check it out, I give it two thumbs up.