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!
This is the last of the giant doors produced at my long time occupation in millwork. This was the last door that I had designed and built on my shop floor before leaving my "fishing net" to pastor Campus Church full time. Now I feel like a dork for bragging...but bear with me...I liked doing big ol, heavy ol, tricked out ol, hardwood doors.
Besides every joint in my body falling asleep because I was sitting on the floor for so long that I was like "ouch my joints are asleep and hurting"...every body else was having a good time except for the people that were like "quit moving around so much you moron" then I was like "put 'em up or shut up man"...well, I mean, I thought it and every body was like "woe!" and I was like "yea!"...besides all that I had a great time.
She's that kind of girl...virtuous in every way...the kind of girl that makes you say...I hope she comes my way!
