Marc Escalante, part 2

I've written about Marc before. He's one of the men in my discipleshp group. I'ts exciting to watch someone grow in Christ right before my eyes. Doesn't happen that often.

Last Monday night, Marc told the story of what he and his wife did over Thanksgiving weekend. They went through their closet and found about 8 jackets that they no longer wear. But instead of going down to the Goodwill and give them away (Marc said they'd only sell them there and they wouldn't get to the right people), He and Cheri went to San Francisco and drove around looking for homeless people to give them to. Cheri thought he was crazy but went along with it anyway. Even though they were out of jackets, there was still one man without one and he needed one. So Marc took his own jacket from the backseat of the car and gave it to him.

This indeed is the love of Christ being shown in a concrete way. May we all follow this example.

Thanksgiving

About the biggest news that came out of our trip to Christa's paretn's house for Thanksgiving is that we had an ultrasound (again!) to find out about the baby. It's a girl!!!! Christa actually got some of those newfangled 3-d ultrasound pictures that show a whole lot more. We can actually see her face (she looks like Caleb, by the way. Big cheeks and everything). Her name will be Regan Patrice Miller. The middle name is still up for negotiation a bit, though. To tell me that we were having a girl, Christa bought a little shirt for her that said "daddy's Little Girl".

There's a sense in which having aother kid becomes more and more real every day. Her due date is Feb 9-coming up a bit more quickly every day. Christa is beginning to buy some girl clothes for her. We're rearranging the second room so both Regan and Caleb can be in there together. It's getting more exciting by the moment!!

Spam on the blog

SPam is not really my favorite thing (lunchmeat included). But this blog got 'spammed'. Only once, but it may happen again. Someone posted a comment on the blog that they had a great opportunity to make money and provided a link to some website. You just can't get away from this stuff!

Dustcloud in the house

Sometimes a kid will do something for which he should be disciplined but it is difficult to do it through the tears of laughter. Such was the case with Caleb today.

He was playing in his room and Christa was downstairs. It was unnaturally quiet for a while. So Christa went upstairs to check on Caleb. He had taken a whole bottle of baby powder, unscrewed the cap, dumped it all on his bed and was jumping up and down on the bed creating little dust clouds all over the room. Christa said it was like asnowstorm in there.

There's never a video camera around when you need one

Meeting with Marc Escalante

One of the great things that came out of our men's retreat last weekend is that Marc Escalante wants to get more involved in small groups and also wants to get plugged into a ministry. I think this is a big step for him. He's always been a bit on the periphery of the church and hasn't really been plugged in. I'm excited that he wants to move forward.

He's also committed to be in my discipleship group. He will grow, no doubt about it. We're meeting for lunch today so I can explain some of the committment aspects of the group, go over the worksheet and the other things that the group will be doing. Marc is one of those men who will grow like a weed once he gets into Scripture on a regular basis and begins to focus on God more in his life.

We're meeting at Extreme Pizza in hercules. Home of the best chicken pesto sandwich you'll ever have! Everone around me always knows when I've had one

Genesis 18:1-15

My men's grop has renewed its journey through the stories of the patriarchs. This last Monday, we looked at that most famous dinner party with Abraham and 3 surprise guests, who turn out to be God and 2 angels.

Upon reflecting on the story, I realized that this indeed was the God that I wanted to follow. This is the God who desires intimacy with His people, who shows up for an impromptu dinner party. Often people can look upon God has being distant, judgemental, maybe even capricious. My God shows up for dinner unexpectedly, engages in deep fellowship and ends up serving me instead of me serving him.

Caleb at it...again!!

Every parent dreads the time when the child breaks something more than just a cup or a plate. Today was Caleb's turn. he put a DVd into the VCR (which already had a tape in) It was impossible to pull either one out. I finally just yanked the tape out, but the back of the tape broke off. I was able to retreive it using some pliers. The DVD, meanwhile, didn't end up so good. IT was toast. I have no idea of the VCR works or not. Kinda scared to put a tape and see what happens.

Could be worse, I guess. There could be a peanut butter sandwich in the CD-Rom n the computer.

Guess what was in Caleb's pocket

Last week, Christa and Caleb were at Ross. After they got home, Caleb said that he brought home a toy mouse from there. Christa looked for it, but couldn't find it and figured that he just made it up. Well, she found it today in one of his pockets. Yes, my little 3-yr old shoplifted.

So I get to go with Caleb back to Ross tonight and return it. I'm going to make him say that he took it home by accident and that he is sorry he took it. M ight be tough on the little man, but I think it needs to be done.

Focusing on 2007

I'm beginning to hone in a bit on some goals and things that I want to accomplish in 2007. Specifically, what do I want my Scripture focus to be and what other ministry-oriented things do I want to laser in on.

For Scripture, I'm going to take the year and study Matthew. It's been a long time since I've spend significant time in one of the gospels. I miss Jesus. It will also be a good exercise for a future men's group, to spend a year taking them through this. But I'm looking at it as a way of re-meeting Jesus. I've spend a lot of time the last couple of years in the Old Testament. Time for a switch. I want to study and read it methodically, systematically. Learn who Jesus is. Sit at His feet and learn fro Him.

Another focus will be on prayer. To gain a greater understanding of prayer-not just by reading but by actually doing. My prayer life often (more than I would like) gets relegated to lists of things to do over with God. I want to learn how to communicate with God more effectively and richly. In short, I want my life of prayer transformed.

One last thing, and that should carry me through 2007. Working on my leadership skills. How can I become better and more effective at leading others? Reading some books and putting ideas into practice will be paramount in this.

Just today I emailed DAve Fasold and asked him where he thinks I need to improve my leadership. After all, I've been on staff at Bay Hills almost 2 years now. Where does he see I need to improve? I also asked hm for some suggestions on books about leadership.