Germany

I just got back from my first ever trip overseas, so i thought that it had to be worthy of blogging about. Sorry for the lack of pictures (those are usually the best blogs), but Crystal took all the pictures and she still has the camera with her, so no wories, pictures will be posted soon.

Germany was a great experience, but Crystal was so busy, that we literaly went from place to place during the day and never knew where we were going to end up each night. It was not the most organized trip once we were there, but we decided that we were just going to have to be "go-with-the-flow" if we wanted to maintian our sanity. I honestly did not experience much jet-lag either way, I think I had the perfect flights going both ways and I am very thankful for that.

Crystal and I were able to go to Paris on Wednesday and it was really a great day. We took the night train from Stuttgart, Germany to Paris, and we had a first class room to ourselves, so we had a nice little set-up of bunk beds that we were able to sleep on. We went right to sleep and woke up the next morning in Paris...I wish I could travel everywhere that easy. We got to Paris and for some reason I do not think the French really like us Americans. There were a few people that were not too impressed that we could only speak english. We spent the whole day on the subway going from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, to the Arc de Triumph, and then to the Louvre. Because it was kind of raining in the afternoon, we spent about 3 hours in the Louvre looking at art and artifacts and we even saw the Mona Lisa. It was a pretty amazing place to be. In the evening we went to the Eiffel tower again to see it all lit up, and it was awesome. (Pictures to come).

Although it was a busy trip, it was a really fun experience. Germany is really a beautiful place and all of the Fall colors were in full effect. The german beer was amazing, and the food was actually really tasty. I really do think though that the best part was getting to know some new friends in the Wieland's. Ralf Wieland is what I call Crystal's German manager, and we were able to spend a lot of time with he and his wife and their little girl. They were so hospitably and took such great care of us, plus they were just so much fun to hang out with. I will miss them for sure.

One of my favorite things about the trip was just the old arcitecture Europe had to offer. Places I had seen on tv, but never actually seen in person was a lot of fun. It was a great trip.

Wall Art

Just thought I would share this painting I did on my soon-to-be-here nephews nursery wall. The photo is a little grainy because it was taken with my iPhone instead of a regular camera. They have this picture on the bumper that goes around the crib, so we decided to put it on the wall as well.

Rocky Mountain Camping

Not a bad view to wake-up to....
Lower Sand Creek Lake....full of Cutthroat Trout!! Beautiful.
At the trailhead of Music Pass. At 11,500 feet high, it took most of our energy just to get to the trailhead, but the view was worth it.


The campsite.
Beautiful Cutthroat Trout...AKA...Dinner.
Waterfall flowing down into the lake.
View from the hike up.
Glass.
The Trail.

Crystal's New Project

I was taking a look at the website for the film company Crystal has recently began working with and thought I would share it with you all. When you have some free time take a look at www.egm.tv to get a better grasp on what Crystal is up to these days. The company she works for is a division of Bearing Fruit Communications called "Ethnographic Media." As you look around on their website you will get a feel for what they are doing.


The specific project Crystal is working on is her own project called "Columbine Everywhere." She is heavy in the research and writting phases of the project which is scheduled to begin filming on 3 continents (maybe more) in the Summer/Fall of 2009. Anyway, i was just looking at the site and thought I would share it with you all.

Giving it All Away

I am not sure who actually stops by this blog, for all I know it is only about 3 of you, but it does not matter, I still enjoy putting random things out on the web for anyone to see or read. It is a comfortable way to feel kind of exposed and for some reason I like that. I have a few things brewing today and so I figured I would put it out there.

In our community we have a phrase. The phrase is "Go and give it all away." The phrase implies that we are filled with some good stuff that we should not keep to ourselves. The phrase also has to do with the simplicity of church planting. It has to do with the simplicity of gathering people around you and loving on them. We have something that we cannot keep for ourselves. As I was thinking through this I was remembering how much my life was different before we moved to Oklahoma 3 years ago. It was a good life, but it was no a full life. Something was missing, in fact looking back there were a lot of things missing, but I did not know that at the time.

We came to Oklahoma and we walked into a community that had a lot of good things and desired to give those good things to us. To lavishly love on us. A community that cared to walk with us through the details of life. A community that wanted to keep us accountable, and pushed us to see us walk in our giftings in the Kingdom. To develope those giftings and become more confident in them. Simply said, we walked into a community that "gave it all away," and continue to do so. It has forever changed my life and my perspective on community and on the Church. It is so good, and I am so thankful.

I say all this becasue what it boils down to is gathering people and loving on them. It entails all the stuff I listed above and so much more, but it is all so easy. I also say all this becasue this is what I want my life to be about now and forever. I want to see transformation in the Church simply through gathering and loving each other in communities. I want to see the Kingdom of God become bigger through people giving their hearts and lives to Jesus through these loving communities. I want to see the Holy Spirit move in amazing ways.

And to see all of this is not hard, it just takes obedience and a certian level selfless-ness. We have some good friends, Andy and Jessica Biddy, who are moving to NYC to do just what I am talking about in this post, to plant churches. And by that I mean they are going to gather people together to love on them and walk with them in the love of Jesus, and they will let Him lead. They will form communities built on loving each other and going after Jesus. It is so easy and so radical, but I know from experience that it is so life giving. I have a passion to see this happen, and I have a passion to see lives changed.

I have no idea if God will call Crystal and I to "Go and give it all away," in a specific place (ie. NYC, San Fran, Chicado, Istanbul, Rome) I have a feeling He will and I am very excited about that, I want that. I do know that I am called to that lifestyle here in OKC and I am learning more and more about it. I want to walk with people and love on them because I have felt the change in my life and I want to give that away. So.....Let's do it.

New Art

This is our new peice of art that we bought for above our fireplace. We have never bought "Art" before. It is a hand painted peice, it is not a re-printing, which I think is very cool. It is BIG, it is 5 feet wide by 3 feet tall, and does a great job of carrying out our objective of covering most of our pink fireplace. I have never been a huge art gallery guy, but I really love this painting. It has levels. We have been given pictures before and framed some of Crystal's pics, but this is the first time I have ever bought something to hang on the wall since my Michael Jordan posters as a kid. I like it.

Baby Hawk

This bird was found at my brothers house the other day. We know the parents live in one of the taller trees in the yard, but this little guy must have fallen out of the nest, becasue now it is hanging out in the front yard just walking around. I think it has made a make-shift house under some bushes, but the little thing can not yet fly. We know that it is a hawk, but we are not positive on which kind it is. Based on pics I have seen, it may be a red-tailed hawk. Either way, to get this close to a hawk is really rare. If you are wondering how it eats like I was, you may notice the meat under it's claws in this pic. The mother caught and killed a squirel and gave it to the baby. You have to love wildlife!!

Fly Fishing in the Snow

I just got back from a few days of Fly Fishing at the headwaters of the Colorado River near Granby, Colorado. Everytime I go to this river I come back with stories and this trip was no exception. I went with Crystal's dad Tom, who has been Fly Fishing in Colorado since he was a kid and each day started bright and early when he would wake me up at about 5:45 am. (you know what they say "Early to bed, early to rise, fish all day, make up lies.") Anyway, the first day, Saturday, was by far the coldest day I have ever been on the river. There was a period of about an hour where it snowed on us as we were standing in the middle of the river tossing around our flies. Freezing!!! The only thing that kept us warm was the fact that we were catching fish like crazy. It was a good first day, I ended up catching about 20 nice trout by 1pm and Tom tripled me and caught about 60 or so, (the guy is good).

The second day started at the same time, but we only went out for about 3 hours. The first hour on the river is what we as fisherman dream of. The water was low and we knew the fish were pooling up in some deeper holes. Luckily I was with someone who knew where all the deep pockets were. Right as we approached the river Tom pointed at a hole and told me to give it a shot, that there were probably some nice Browns laying down in there. Fisrt toss and the strike indicator was gone, after about a 20 second fight I was holding a big, beautiful Brown trout. How does Tom know this stuff?? I continued to fish the same hole for another 10 minutes and pulled out another 5 fish, all good size fish. It was amazing, and it was worth getting up at 5:45 both days.

Here is one rainbow I took a pic of with my phone. It was a beautiful time on the river.

Colorado Trip

Beautiful.

Crystal and I at the river.

I sat around this river by myself for about 2 hours throwing rocks while Crystal and a friend went on a hike.

Graham

Graham and Uncle Pete