Malibu Presbyterian Comes Through For World Impact

I got this email today from World Impact:

Greetings Paul,

On Easter Sunday, 2008, Malibu Presbyterian Church honored a $500,000 commitment to help build a center for inner-city teenagers in the middle of five gang turfs in Los Angeles.

What makes this gift exceptionally noteworthy is that one day after Malibu Presbyterian Church made this commitment, their church burned to the ground during a California wildfire in October.

Before raising the money to rebuild their sanctuary and church facilities, Malibu Presbyterian Church honored their commitment to the youth in urban Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined me in accepting the check and thanking the congregation for their memorable demonstration of Christian love. Los Angeles Councilwoman Wendy Greuel read a Proclamation from the City of Los Angeles thanking this wonderful congregation.

I encourage you to visit www.worldimpact.org. There you can see a report from one of the television stations that attended the services, read an account from the Daily News and a noteworthy article from Westmont College.

Information and pictures about the Teen Center are also available, along with instructions on how you can give to help complete the funding for this inner-city Teen Center.

Thank you and God bless you!

Man, that is so cool! We messed up humans sure mess a lot of stuff up, but occasionally, when we're faithful to the Spirit's leading in our lives, we do things that really put our faith into practice! I may not agree with all things "Presbyterian," but nice job Malibu Pres!

Worship Leading "Moments"

One of my favorite bloggers, Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries, offered a free registration to the Sovereign Grace Worship Conference to the person with the most embarrassing story of something that happened while leading worship.

Here was the winner:

The most embarrassing thing I did as a worship leader took place while I was living in Lima, Peru during college. I was helping at a local church leading music and teaching, learning Spanish at the same time. While standing in front of everyone, I told everyone “Todos pueden sentirse.” Translated it means, “You all may feel yourselves.” I should have changed sentir to sentar [meaning you may all sit down]. The sad part is, that wasn’t the only time I made the mistake.

There were other hilarious entries, including an audio recording of one instance where a drummer hit some button he was not supposed to (perhaps on a sampler of some kind??)

Listen for yourselves

Click HERE for the full post.

Armi Ja Danny

"Oh you're absolutely fine, your lips are taste of wine..."

Thanks Lisa, for posting this!

Hanson and Dunkin Donuts Coffee

If you read my last post, you know that I've been having kind of a sluggish, lethargic week this week, and it's these two very random things that have invigorated me to make it through to the weekend: Hanson, and Dunkin Donuts Coffee.

First let's talk about Hanson. Who doesn't remember "Mmmbop" from the 90's. Even now I bet the chorus is running through your head, and it will continue to do so for the rest of the day; you're welcome.

Anyways, Hanson has a new album out entitled "The Walk," of which I first heard in a weekly Christian music review email. It talked about the significant spiritual content of this album. I was slightly intrigued. Then I stumbled across it on Rhapsody, and thought "maybe this will be funny." I gave it a listen, and from the first track I was very impressed.

Think of The Fray meets Jonny Lang. I don't think I can describe it any more than that. Check out their Myspace to hear some of the tracks from the album. Check out "The Great Divide" for sure.

Now, about Dunkin Donuts. I know it's an East Coast thing, so I want to seek some wise counsel from any of you East Coast-ers on how to properly enjoy this coffee. I picked up a bag from Target (in the same way as the Hanson album, more out of curiosity than anything), and upon brewing my first pot, the smell was absolutely contagious!

I enjoy both black and cream/sugar coffee, so I've had a cup of each so far, but I'm sure with something as cultish as this, there's some super secret way to make it, or mix it, so if any of you have experience in this area, please share!

One Of Those Weeks...

Nothing too interesting going on. I went up and joined the Crossroads Student Ministries group up at Pine Mountain for a winter retreat on Saturday.

I was lucky enough to have Ryan Foglesong and David Zimmer go up with me to help me lead worship for the morning session. The chemistry is amazing. I named us "Racing Patience." (inside joke)

Since then, I've been feeling really lethargic, and kinda sleepy all the time. I hope I'm not getting sick again, as I've been sick quite enough this season, and would like to be done with it.

Maybe I'm just dehydrated.

My brother showed me the new website from Darin McWatters (everybodyduck!), and discovered that he does a pretty ridiculously funny podcast called "Revved Up."


Other than that, life goes on. :-)

O-mazing Grace

If you haven't seen this video before, you've missed out. I saw it a long time ago, but I just watched it again, and it warmed my heart just the same.

ADHD

One of my favorite bloggers, Al Mohler, posted an ad from a Nebraska newspaper asking for kids to observe in an upcoming ADHD study.

His blog post was titled "What Kid DOESN'T Fit This Description?" and I think he hit the nail on the head!

Here's an excerpt:

The number of children -- especially boys -- diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed in recent years. While some boys may well have some kind of genuine problem, the vast majority appear to be diagnosed as, well . . . boys. As physician Leonard Sax, author of Boys Adrift, explains, a diagnosis of ADHD lets everyone off the hook, so to speak. The boy is told he is not responsible for his behavioral problems, the parents are relieved of anxiety over inadequate parenting, teachers and bureaucrats have a new pathological slot into which boys can be filed, and drug companies get to sell pills. Everybody wins.

Click HERE for the full article.