styrofoam

Jose Lombardi

Back on our missions trip to Guatemala this summer, I made a promise that I would tell the story of Jose Lombardi. Jose was one of our interpereters the past 2 years in Guatemala, and when I asked him how we could help make his dreams come true...he simply asked me to tell his story. Here it is.

Jose lives in Guatemala City and is in an accelerated learning private school on the edge of town. He speaks fluent Spanish, English and French and will graduate 2 years ahead of schedule. Once he graduates (next year) he wants to go to Paris to study Aeronatical Engineering and work for Boeing. After working there...his ultimate dream is to bring Boeing back to Guatemala and build planes in Guatemala City. His heart for the people of Central America shows through when he talks about how he could bring Guatemala out of poverty by providing jobs to thousands of people.

Some people talk about reaching their world for Jesus by evangelizing, street witnessing or working in the ministry. Jose wants to be the one who brings prosperity to his country first, and witness later. He feels that so many times, missionaries blow in and blow out of his country...and leave when the real work needs to take place. By providing a good source of income, it will open the door for him to tell them about Jesus.

I firmly believe in Jose's dream. His voice changes when he talks about it and his eyes have a look of determination. This has been his dream since he was a very young child...and he is working on his pilot's license right now. Jose inspired me to re-think what some of my long term goals are...and whether or not I truly beleive in them.

a few thoughts

Here's what's rolling around upstairs...

1. Touched by an Angel should have ended with a knife fight between Della Reese and that scottish Angel.

2. While the lowercase "f" is cute and cuddly, the uppercase "F" is mean and rude.

3. The Kenny Rogers Roasters episode of Seinfeld is my favorite.

4. Those knife and fork sandwiches from Bob Evans are too big to pick up.

5. The color red makes sense.

6. Starbucks coffee has a hint of dirt flavoring. But man, what a good cup of dirt.

you're a winner

I don't want to unscrew the cap of my favorite carbonated beverage, and find some combination of letters and numbers that don't mean anything. If I'm going to get all anxious to see if I'm a winner...the last thing I want to do is go online to find out. We need instant gratification. I've never, and will never, go look up a code online to see if I've won. Part of the reason I instinctively buy the pop with the "you could be a winner" on it...is to find out if I'm a winner. It's a huge letdown to find out that I'm still going to continue searching out my "winner or loser" status.

OK, Lowes.....

I went to Lowes to get a few items today and it has caused me to ask a serious question.

"When will it be enough?"

Seriously. I bought some heavy duty stakes and some bungee cords. Less than 10 items and I got a receipt that's longer than my own femur. Is all of that really needed? And you, Circuit City...you're next.

I'm not going to call in to your survey line for a chance to win 10,000 dollars. So quit printing the emancipation proclamation on my receipt. If we want light reading, we'll go to the library.

catalyst 06...the aftermath

Coming back from Atlanta and diving back into work has been a bit frustrating. I wish we could just go become a hermit living in a hut in the Black Hills of South Dakota and spend our days pondering the things we've learned. Instead, we have to go back and get thrust into ministry that takes all our attention. My prayer is that the things we learned at catalyst will get so infused into our hearts that it becomes second nature to rise to the next level and apply God's principles as leaders.

Here's some photos from the conference (and judging from the angles...Ratcliffe and I were on opposite sides of the conference). The Marcus Buckingham project with Nooma has been pretty sweet to watch. Go check out "Trombone Player Wanted".

sleep deprived

For the past 2 weeks, we've been working on two huge projects.

1. We re-modeled our main auditorium stage. This was a massive undertaking that started Wed night and had to be completed by Sunday AM. Needless to say we worked 24 hours a day until it was done. The best part was watching Chad and I rip out the HVAC ductwork from the wall and nearly killing us both. Ask Santone for the video. He was recording our near death experience on his phone.

2. We re-modeled a room in our youth building and worked with electricians to get it ready for our a big Wed night service we had. Painting at 3 in the AM is no fun and your sense of judgement goes right out the window. I painted over my video ipod...and didn't really care.

None of this is as bad as the time I worked on our house for 88 hours straight while Gina was in the hospital with our newborn Cassidy. That time, I was hallucinating and seeing wolves. This time there were just chest pains every morning.

Side note: If you haven't listened to John Mayer's Continuum......go now.