After the birth of Josiah on Saturday 03/21/09, I attempt to get back into the swing of things. This is the story of Tuesday 03/24/09. Little did I know just how fast the "swing" was moving.
TUESDAY MORNING: Josiah is not a team player in the house quite yet. What I mean is, he is not working with us, we are working for him. In the Bible Josiah was eight years old when he became King of Judah. In the Deason house Josiah was eight hours old when he became King. He chooses to negotiate the majority of his policies in the early morning hours of the night. Tuesday morning I got very little sleep and woke up at 5:30am. I got ready for my 6:30am meeting here at the house with a student. The meeting was great, but I was so tired and delusional that I forgot to drink any of the coffee that I woke up early to brew. The awesome stories from the students Spring Break trip to Ecuador was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat.
TUESDAY LUNCH: I couldn't wait to meet up with my friend Jason for lunch. We met at Lee's Sandwich Shop at 11:30. I got a call before lunch from another student asking if he can join us and we make a party of three. I had a great lunch with the guys and we all said goodbye as we headed out to the parking lot. The alarm on my car was not dissengaging. UUGHHH! I called the toll free number on the back of my alarm. To my utter chagrin I got nothing more than a computer automated answering machine. I decide to call Best Buy where I bought the alarm and didn't do so well on this front either. You see, the installer was out of the shop and the only assistance that they had available was their floor salesman. I am convinced that this kid is still working on his first full set of whiskers on his upper lip. I decided to take a shot in the dark and assume that the battery in my car was dead. I call Tommy Wilkerson and ask if he can come give me a jump. The plan worked and I make it to my 2pm meeting with Mike Barnette at the BCM.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: After the meeting, my car is once again...dead. Houston, we have a problem. John Wilkerson gave me a jump this time. I go home and begin to work on some strategeries. I host an Ultimate pick-up game every Tuesday at 6pm and I need to decide whether I should use our van or take my chances by driving my Celica up to Auto Zone and bank on the only proble with my car being a dead battery.
TUESDAY EVENING: I decide to take my chances and drive my Celica up to the Auto Zone and buy a new battery. I'll just change out the battery right there in the parking lot. This shouldn't be a problem. I jump the car myself this time, using our van and go to Auto Zone. I see a group of Latinos working on their pimped out Olds and a group of white guys wearing dirty baseball caps and flannels working on their truck. The truck that they were working on did not even have a hood! Too cool. Both groups look like they not only knew exactly what they were doing, they also looked right at home in the Auto Zone parking lot. I buy a new battery and proceed to start my car, only to find that I have no power at all coming from a brand new battery. I have fifteen minutes to get to the Ultimate game that I am hosting and no chariot to ride in. I call Jana who I know is normally one of the few players that actually shows up on time. What's with Ultimate players anyway? Jana picks me up and gets me to the game. After two punishing hours of Ultimate, that I can't even tell you why I do it, Jana gives me a ride back to Auto Zone. I have no idea how I am going to fix my car. I don't even know what's wrong with it.
TUESDAY NIGHT: When we pull back into the Auto Zone parking lot, I was relieved to find some immediate comradory in the parking lot. The guy with the dirty baseball cap and flannel shirt who was driving a pickup without a hood pulled in right behind us. He was very quick to greet me. He said "Are you still here? Is your car broke down? What's wrong with your car? What is it doing?" I explain to him what was going on and what I have done this far. He is confident that the problem is with the alternater. By then we are in the store and he starts hallaring out loud pointing his finger saying, "Did they check the alternater after you changed out the battery? They didn't check the alternater, did they? You make them check that alternater and give me a call. I'll come up here and change out that alternater right here in the parking lot. I will come toooo you and get this fixed. You buy the part and I'll just charge you labor." What could I say. Everybody in the store was responding like Hank Aaron just hit another home run. Everybody is nodding their heads with excitement as if an angel just lit up the night sky around us. The Auto Zone guys take a minute or two to get over their rear chewing by this guy and get outside, by golly, and check out my alternater. Sure enough, Chris is right. I buy the part, give him a call, and he pulls up in his pick up truck without a hood. Chris and I talk money to begin with. I will owe him $40 after I am convinced that he has properly replaced my alternater. At about 10:15pm we close the deal. I go home to the palace of King Josiah, and keep Jamie up for an hour or two telling her about my day, just before Josiah keeps me up for another hour or two telling me how he is going to govern his kingdom in MY HOME! I finally get to sleep about 2:00am.
WEDNESDAY MORNING: Up at 5:00am so that I can meet the guys for our 6:30 prayer meeting on Wednesdays.
BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN: This may sound crazy, but I really did have a blast getting back into the swing of things.
We had our fifth baby at 3:30 this morning. We are thinking either Chubby Checkers or Shorty Britches for a name...just kidding. We will be praying today for a confirmation from God on the name. UPDATE 03/24/09: His Name is Josiah. My prayer for Josiah is that he will be a man of convictions and bravery, even at a young age. Josiah was the name of a King of Judah that was eight years old when he stepped onto the throne. It was prophesied of him before his birth that he would be used to judge and destroy the work of rebellion and idolatry in the very place that Israel celebrated their rebellion. Josiah was used as an instrument of restoration and purity in the Kingdom...a man of bravery and conviction. Jamie and I both feel very confident that Josiah will have a great calling and purpose in the Kingdom.
HE CRIED TWICE: He cried two times. The first time he cried was right after delivery. He settled down quickly. The second time he cried happened when Phoebe ran into the room grinning and pushing people out of the way like she owned the place. When she got to the bed, she climbed up and got all in his face thinking that she was being so sweet. As soon as he opened his eyes to take a peak at the sensory overdose that he was experiencing, he burst out screaming again.
THE KIDS ARE EXCITED: Right after the baby delivered I went in to see the girls. Phoebe was fast asleep, but labor had woke up Abbigail and Abbiyah...these two were in bed together smiling their heads off and asking what we had. They knew exactly what had happened. Forest didn't have a clue until Kari B woke him up to bring him down. Forest is extatic! He and I both wanted a baby boy soooo bad. Forest laughed and laughed and kept saying "He is so funny", "This is so awesome".
JAMIE A HEROIN FOR ALL GENERATIONS: Jamie worked very hard in labor. The baby had his fist up under his chin making for a stubborn delivery. Jamie was in hard labor for 4 hours 30 mins. She did great! Nobody could imagine how brave and committed Jamie is when it comes to delivering our babies. She moved from tub, to shower, to exercise ball, to bed, to birthing stool, to dancing with me, and back to the bed for delivery. Jamie worked hard for this baby from the beginning with aerobics (hillarious), strong diet, iron via nasty slimy green chloraphyll drink, and prayer. Jamie worked even harder to finish. Thanks to everyone for your prayers...we know without question that Jesus Christ spoke life into existence according to His plan and sustains this life through the word of His power.
THE DREAM TEAM: The mid-wives were great. I was glad to have had Michelle here to deliver the baby. She has been a part of all of the kids birth and has now delivered three of the five. Her assistant Kristen has many friends in common with us through relationships in the church. We heard a lot of great stories from Michelle between contractions...she is such a ham...we love her. Michelle is to childbirth what Kung Fu is to fighting. Even Michelle is reckoned a gift from God in our home. She has been a part of five births in our family without one single emergency in any of them. She coaches Jamie along in the process from the beginning. Michelle and Kristen both kind of made fun of me because I made a spreadsheet on the computer in our room, and was keeping track of time between contractions. They may have laughed when they saw me doing that, but I am certain that this proved to be invaluable!
I am coaching Ultimate for the week of Spring Break with 1st-6th graders at Northwest Baptist Church. Chris Corbin is coaching Tennis and Jose Hernandez is coaching soccer. Champs Camp is a week long sports camp that is engaging 250 kids. Less than half of the kids are from families at NWBC, the rest are from the community surrounding the church. NWBC is hoping to establish relationships with these kids and reach each of these homes with the transforming work of the Kingdom. I can't wait to see what comes out of this week.
I know that this picture is totally lame...I'll try to hijack a cool one from someone else who was here last night. Don't let the lame pic keep you from reading a kickin' story.
Last night a group of us from Campus Church, along with some other churches in the community, met at The Refuge downtown for a great night of worship.
THE REFUGE: The Refuge is a missional community of college age adults living in a small apartment complex being renovated from the inside out. Tim Ulrich, the director of The Refuge, is leading a band of "Freakazoids" (I feel honored to numbered among the few) into a fly by the seat of your pants, while listening to God speak, aproach to ministry in the downtown area. I love it.
BRAD KILMAN: Brad Kilman lead worship last night. Nobody but Brad and I could have known how much last night meant to me. Brad is an official member of a group that doesn't exist called The Upper Room Circle Of The O.G. (TURCOTOG: Ironically this anacronym is an ancient Guatemalan war chant that never existed meaning...Those that met in the upper room.) I have some great memories with Brad in the early 90's as we along with other TURCOTOG's did life, prayer, worship, outreach, and community together. The experiences that we all share from that time are experiences that are significant enough to ruin anyone who happened to show up.
OLD STORIES: God was moving through this group of college age kids in ways that we never could have imagined. Truly a time that we would all acknowledge...the Gospel was proclaimed in Word and Power...the result was transformed lives. Worship would naturally turn into times of weaping repentance for some, undignified shouting and dancing for others, and a rich intimacy with Jesus and each other. Man we had fun serving together. We would do monthly services at the Jesus House (the most ghetto shelter ever! For real, it was ran by dogs and drunk vagrants. It's changed quite a bit now), intercessory prayer, group evangelism, playing music on street corners downtown, on and on.
NOT THE GOOD OLD DAYS FOR ME: These are great memories for me and others, but not the last memory for any of us. From that point forward any one of the TURCOTOG's who ever really was a TURCOTOG merely found a birthplace of big expectation of joy and work in the kingdom. It's funny looking around sometimes and seeing what some of the gang is doing now. Many of us have had or are experiencing very hard stuff, either of our own doing or the consequence of knuckle heads who have hurt us (put me in the category of being a knuckle head of my own making...I'm doing less damage these days). I love seeing the faces of the Old Gang and acknowledging the joy and work in the kingdom that we all shared in together, but even better than that, God is continuing to work through us in different ways and we continue to see God raise up new faces of a new generation who are experiencing the power of God in their work also.
Alvin Reid (a professor at South Eastern Theological Seminary) is doing a great job exhorting a bunch of pastors to live out a passion, understanding, and hunger for this generation of young people. This generation will be transformed by emracing the truth and wonder of Jesus Christ...not institutions and programs but purpose and wonder. He called us a bunch of knuckle-heads...WAIT A MINUT!
