Itsara

Our good friend and short term roommate, Shannon Ross, has just left today for a nearly-6-month stint in Bolivia helping a new orphanage start up and working with it in its early stages. Much like Cindy, she has a huge spot in her heart for orphans and missions (and of course we’ve been hitting her up to come out to Thailand with us after she gets back – we’ll see). Anyway, if you could pray for her I know she would really appreciate it. You could also pray for her relationship with her boyfriend, Mike, as they will be apart for this time. And pray that God would further reveal some of His larger plan for her.

She has been living with us for the last month, so we’ve gotten to know her much better. It has been a pretty hard day today with her leaving because we realized that when she comes back we will likely not be here. For us, I think, it was the first hard-hitting goodbye we’ve had to give (of many to come, I know). We hope that one day she can come out to see us and maybe even join us, but it’s gotta be God’s will and not our’s. At the very least, maybe she’ll be able to give us some tips when we start our own orphanage.

The good news is that she’ll be online. She has her own weblog that I would encourage you to read and leave a comment for her, even if it’s only to say you’re praying for her (and even if you have no idea who she is). I know she’ll love seeing that whenever she’s able to hit the net again in a few days. So go ahead, bless a sister you don’t know. It’s what this Family’s all about, right?

UPDATE (9/30/04): Shannon has arrived safe and sound and excited in Bolivia.

Last week, our church had a week of prayer and fasting. We met at the cross on top of Mt. Soledad every morning and night, and also at the snakehead at UCSD at noon, during the week to pray. Not for anything specifically, though obviously the topic of San Diego and our country’s leaders (and potential leaders) came up. A lot of the meetings ended up praying against complacency as well (and there were different people at each meeting, so maybe God’s trying to tell us something…).

Also, different people at the church fasted from different things and in different ways. I didn’t do food this year, though I did fast from this weblog (hence the lack of posts). I didn’t even check the statistics. I know this sounds like a stupid thing to fast from, but it turns out it was exactly the right thing for me.

Anyway, one night a friend told us she had an image for us. (more…)

The link I’m about to give you is largely unrelated, however some respect and gratitude needs to be given to one Rick Brady who, on his weblog Stones Cry Out, has graciously given me my second birthday present (my first being a laptop from my parents). Rick gave it to me when, perhaps in a moment of prophetic epiphany, he called me the next C.S. Lewis (you’ll have to scroll to the end of the post to see it).

As I said, the post itself is mostly unrelated to things that interest me (but it interested me enough to read it and comment, so I guess I’m just lying to myself). It’s actually on his theory of weblog posting for small and medium-sized bloggers, which normally wouldn’t interest me at all except that the newness of this webblog is still with me, so I read it. And my comment (to which Rick responds) is actually in response to a seemingly unrelated quote within that post about the whole CBS/Dan Rather/Bush memos thing. Which again I don’t care about, but I do care about the Christian reaction to it (hence my comment). You can read it if any of that sounds interesting.

Anyway, Rick, thank you for the birthday present and the link. You have earned my respect (from your response, not from the present) and laughter (from the present, not from your response). I’ll see what I can do about philosophizing with regards to Christian mercy. I’m sure it’ll come up sometime.

My birthday is coming up in two weeks. For those of you who have not yet decided what to get me, I have made a short list. I swear I don’t know where the stanzas came from. They just sort of appeared.

WHAT I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY
I want to never be stressed about worship again.
I want a copy of the original-edition Star Wars trilogy on DVD.
I want to finish reading “The Hobbit” to my wife.
I want Venom to star in the next Spider-Man movie.

I want to write a fiction series that people can get lost in.
I want to develop a computer game that has a small and lasting following.
I want to draw as well as the artists from Blizzard.
I want to shoot webbing from my wrists.

I want a council of Star Wars fans to
remove George Lucas from his seat of power,
restore the original versions of the trilogy and release them on DVD,
rewrite the prequels without pathetic comic relief,
and while they’re at it create a solid trilogy of sequels.

I want to write a book that changes people’s lives.
I want to meet the king of Thailand and talk to him about religion.
I want the Church in America to be sold out for Jesus instead of Bush.
I want someone I don’t know to refer to me as “the next C.S. Lewis.”

I want to raise a family of world-changers.
I want to be sold out for Jesus.
I want to change people’s lives.
I want to have no fear.
I want to change the world.

We’re finally nearing the end. I apologize for the length of this story, but really only out of politeness. In all honesty, (a) you don’t have to read it and (b) if I can make even one person think more seriously about missions or doing something equally crazy for Jesus, I win. (more…)

I don’t normally do this – what am I talking about, this is only my seventh post. I don’t “normally” do anything. I read this web comic called Penny Arcade (some of you know it), and the post today caught my attention. The writer of the comic is introducing the new son of his partner (the artist), and makes an interesting observation about life:

“Consider that we might live absolutely encompassed by marvels and wonders. I am suggesting that we are up to our asses in signs and portents that we are quick to omit or can’t interpret.”

It’s a good point. Often we run around looking for miracles and wondering why they don’t happen. Maybe the problem is with our perception rather than with reality. Read the whole post to see where he’s coming from. I will warn you though that he is sometimes crude, often funny, and always a geek – just in case any of those things offend you.

So now you know how I got interested in missions after growing up opposed to it and how God changed my worldview of missions and evangelism to something I could be excited about. I’m going to quickly fast-forward from 1998 to 2003, but here’s a few highlights from the interim:

• 1998 – Cindy and Adam start going to Coast Vineyard.
• 1999 – Cindy goes to Thailand and connects with YWAM, Im Jai, and an awesome local named Emmi.
• 2000 – Cindy and Adam get married.
• 2003 – Adam becomes the worship pastor of Coast Vineyard.

Now it’s the summer of 2003. (more…)

Last time I told you about how God took me from ignoring missions entirely to going on a month-long trip to China in 1998. It took a hot girl to make me pay attention, but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear God say, “Whatever works!” You may already know some of the huge impact that this relatively short trip in China had on me – I still talk about it to this day. But in the interest of staying focused, I will try to keep to the points that matter to the larger story of how we got to Thailand. If I spout my thoughts and philosophies on this weblog for any length of time though, you’ll be sure to hear more about this trip later on. (more…)

This is going to be a long story, because I’m going to give you more or less the whole thing. So I’ll split it into parts. In order to relate the full story of how this move came about, I’m going to have to take you all the way back to 1997 (cue “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”) before Cindy and I started dating. At this point, we had told each other that we liked each other and were talking about whether or not we should even start dating. (more…)