Chris's Musings

Tonight, I did something a little crazy. I missed fusion (the singles gatherings that my church holds for community)...  a fusion group that I really enjoy the people at... and attended a small group leaders' training event at my church.  Okay, that's not quite crazy but what was crazy was this was the session designated for the MARRIED group leaders.  There's a good reason for this, and it's because when they were holding the sessions a couple of weeks ago for me and my fellow singles group leaders, I was out in L.A. running some crazy race (one that I'm very happy about running in case you missed any of the medal pictures :-) ), and this weekend was the only one available for me to pick from. And I was the ONLY single person in the room. Actually, that was a great thing for me tonight.  First off, being newly unattached after dating a really good girl for five months, being in an environment where no one was even remotely working the room was neat and relaxi...

Usually at this point in time, I am packing myself up from LDR to head home after a stomach-satisfying breakfast at the Donut Hole in Sandestin... but alas I did not make LDR this year (can't wait to hear how it was), so I ran in the US 10K Classic this morning (which has the opposite effect of eating at The Donut Hole :) ) I finished the race in 59:59 (yes, I sprinted to finish in under an hour), despite chilling at a few water stops and getting stuck behind a bunch of walkers and non-starters at the beginning (at least that's my excuse for not doing better :) ), and enjoyed grabbing some Publix swag, listening to some music from this local band that was playing at the afterparty, and checked out the chiropractic tent and to my surprise got my neck adjusted.   But the most interesting thing to me was that when I was going back into the main area from the concert stage, there was this guy trying to get past security that obviously wasn't part of the race crowd.  By look...

During my recent mission trip to Kenya, we conducted our devotional studies over the book of Nehemiah. Finishing up, I presented our thoughts on the final three chapters as we left the Ngaamba community for the last time. What was interesting about studying Nehemiah in Kenya was the parallels that the story of Israel rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem had with the story that was being written during our mission trip (not to mention, we were helping our friends in Ngaamba build a wall).  A community of people galvanized by a godly leader, hardship, resolve... the whole deal.  It's a very inspirational story... at least until you get to chapter 13. In this finale to the Nehemiah story, Nehemiah has to eventually leave Jerusalem to go back to the service of the King.  He serves there for a while and later asks permission to return to Jerusalem, and he does not find the people in a great spiritual position... the priests and temple are not being supported, Jews a...

I am 15 days away from hopping on a plane to serve in Kenya.  I am both excited, nervous, and expectant all at the same time. Excited:  I have never been to Africa before.  It's an entirely new culture, an entirely new environment, and as my shot record will show an entirely new set of germs.  I love newness. Nervous:  One of my biggest prayer requests I shared during my support/dinner party a few weeks ago was that God would "prepare me to be unprepared" for what I would experience.  It's been a long time since I will have "tasted" poverty like I'm expecting to see in Ngaamba.  And honestly, I don't even think the trips I've had to Piedras Negras with the Aggie BSM in college (Piedras is on the Texas border) will even prepare me emotionally for the conditions I'll see there.  I pray that God will break my heart, that He will stir me, and that I'll never be the same after this trip. Expectant:  Maybe this has something to do with ...

There are two aspects of this mission trip that I don't look forward to.  I mentioned the first one in my last post :).  However, since I'm going to a country that has strange (to us Americans) diseases, I went out for the second less desirable "trip prep" deal last week... the immunizations :) You're probably either thinking: He's crazy.... or, He really loves God. Because I really hate needles. It's mostly the second, but voluntarily taking needles would probably require a little bit of insanity too :) this would be me before shots (happy) This would be during shots (freaked out)

Today, for the most part, has been all about Kenya.  My team met for the third time today and I'm excited that we are really gelling as a group as we start to enter the "home stretch" in our trip preparation.  We are having our team retreat two weekends from now and I'm looking forward to hearing everyones' stories. It was also a day where I filled a number of envelopes and mailed out letters.   Today was a 410 Bridge support deadline... which I hadn't met at the time I'm writing this blog (no fun).  Ah, yes.  All of us that have gone on mission trips know the feeling of the support raising exercise.  I am one of those that don't like fundraising, I'll admit.  However, during every trip the group that sponsors us both strongly encourages us and requires us to do this, so here I go again :-).  Honestly, I do get why I do this... meaning the painstaking work of raising funds and prayer support for being sent out on these missions.  And I want...

I'm about to turn 29 again in a week.  I can't tell you how many times I've turned 29, but I can tell you that I'm turning 29 again in a week ;-) It seems to me that birthdays and New Years are good times to reflect on your life over the past year and assess where I am, where I want to be, and what I would like to change.  It also marks another year of growing into maturity and wisdom, which I hope that I can look back at the last 29 and say that I grew wiser and closer to Christ in the process. But I never want to "grow old."  I think that there's a difference there.  Growing up is maturing, learning how to make wiser choices, reflecting more of who God designed me to be.  Growing old is settling, thinking that I've learned it all, experienced it all, and have no more need to grow.  This is pretty undesirable for me... and honestly I can't imagine that it'd be very desirable for anyone. For starters, we are living in a world created by a...

This morning, I was out with my small group at Lenox Mall helping Atlanta Union Mission raise awareness and donations through doing a free gift-wrapping service for shoppers at the mall.  I will say that it was interesting having a gift-wrapping crew of 4 guys and a 7-year old boy there, but volunteer talent sometimes doesn't bring much talent. My role, once we got started, was to stand at the main booth and drive traffic toward the gift wrapping area.  In my station, there was a sign on the back with these words:  "Hope for the Hopeless."  I thought it was a good slogan for a ministry that rescues homeless people from the streets and puts them on a path to recovery and hope. I had a lot of conversations with folks this morning, a lot of those looking for the food court, but the most interesting one I had was a guy that took some offense at this sign's words.  He said basically that if they have hope, then they're not "hopeless."  He started to talk ...

I've got a relatively big prayer request... today in my inbox came a note from GlobalX (the Buckhead Church missions department) saying that I had been selected for a trip this year :-). Awesome stuff. Knowing the deadlines for applying for the trips and the two trips that I applied for, here comes the prayer request. I am now expecting to get a call from the leader of the Estonia English Camp trip in July... which I was praying about and considering and now am SERIOUSLY praying about as I know that I've been selected for this team. The other trip that I applied for was the College Ministry Launch trip that I went on last year in Estonia in September... which is/was my first choice. Does God have other plans for me? I've done the college launch thing for two years in a row now, counting Croatia in 2006... could God want to stretch me in doing something new? I love Risttee Church and the ministry that they are building there... God is doing some great things through them...