Jesus at Microsoft

I need a website. It's today's business card. Problem is, I don't know how to do HTML, but I'm encouraging my 11 year old son, Josiah, to learn. I'd throw in a trip to the Red Robin if he could do a website for me. He says he'll keep the offer in mind.

So, the other day I "myspaced" an old friend of mine who was a tall, lenky, bright kid and about seven years younger than I. He was full of charisma. I hadn't had contact with him for at least 10 years. By some cosmic roll of the dice, he shoots me an email about 5 minutes later. We exchange numbers and talk for awhile. He's attending a church in Redmond, however, asks how he can help with the new church plant called "Emmaus Church." After sifting through the cursory events of our lives, I come to find out he does web design...how odd.

My friend, Sean (we will call him), proceeds to inform me that he can get a domain name pretty easily, which will be made public soon (I had been thinking for months and not come up with a satisfactory domain name and emails me the perfect one in about 30 seconds), and will host the site for free. All of this takes place over lunch at the palacial cafeteria at Microsoft. To make things even better, Bill Gates will actually make a donation to our non-profit church because Sean is volunteering five hours a month! So, at the end of the day, Microsoft is paying me to let Sean do a website for Emmaus Church!

This church planting stuff is a challenge and when I was starring at how high the mountains were, Jesus made himself present to me on the plateau at Microsoft. Who knows what the future holds, but as long as God continues to bring off-the-map kinda people into my path like Sean, I'll know God is in this whole thing.

Colic Blog

Colic blog: A Blog is Born.

I told myself I'd never blog. I promised myself. I contracted with me, myself, and I. Why? It's not hard to get comatosed by the countless ramblings of people with too much time on their hands (note: subtle Styx reference), or people who incessantly express their every thought ad nauseum. In my previous state of assurance, the only exception was if a monetary profit could be traced back to the musings of a blogger. Or, at the very least, even if there could be some non-monetary benefit recording one's thoughts, then it would be worth it. But, I think I've changed. I've been delivered. I see the light. I blog. I'm not going to cry about it anymore.

Why the conversion? Because I see what I've missed by not recording the events of my life and my journey as a church planter. And, I've been negligent in giving God public glory for what he's done in my life and how far he has brought me and Emmaus Church. He deserves both the glory and the blame!

So, here it is...in true fashion....my first blog. Did I write anything that would make anyone want to come back? Probably not, but, hopefully I'll deliver something of value that will honor God in the blog entries to come. After all, at best, my story is a subset to his story.