Central America on Sunday

Praying for Josh and the students and leaders from Redeemer Covenant Church as they head for Guatemala on Sunday! It's gonna be a great trip. You can check out Josh's blog at Shuatemala and follow the trip at Guatemala Mission Trip 2012.

I Love My iPhone

Posting this from my phone. Pretty cool.

More Stomp, More Holler

I'm excited to share some videos from Stomp & Holler. This is a new children's rhythm and vocal music program I'm running (along with my wife Luanne and our friend Jeff Porter) here in Tulsa. If your K-6th grade student is interested in joining us, we'll be back February 8. Cost is only $10 for 10 weeks of instruction and a t-shirt! We're working on performance opportunities for these kids too, so if you know a place we can perform, let me know! We wanna take over Tulsa!

To start, here's one of my favorite raps... the ever-popular "Guacamole":



Here's Jeff leading a De La Soul (!) routine:



And a Congolese (I think) song:



Here are the little ones doing a "mini-stomp" routine with Miss Luanne:



And finally, here are our two big finale numbers, Katy Perry's "Firework" and P!nk's "Perfect":





Hope you enjoy these kids as much as I have! Subscribe to our Youtube channel, and "Like" us on Facebook!

Words Matter

Here's my latest post for the Covenant's Worship Connect blog. Check it out!

I've Found My Sport

I never thought of myself as an athlete. I don't watch sport on TV. I don't read Sports Illustrated. I would much rather read the entertainment section of the paper than the sports section. I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and the company. I spent most of my teenage and adult years hiding out whenever a football game would break out on the lawn or guys would start shooting hoops. It's just not my thing. I don't like it. I don't want to do it. I feel stupid and awkward.

But at 40, I've finally found my sport.

Back in February, after having lost almost 70 pounds, I got this crazy idea in my head. I wanted to run. Some friends encouraged me, I bought some shoes, I found the Couch-to-5K running plan, and I was off!

I ran my first 5K on May 14: The Full Moon Run. Luanne and Josh joined me, and it was a really exhilarating experience. I finished in 28:10.

After that came the hottest summer of my life. I tried to stay indoors as much as possible, and I was pretty discouraged in my running. But the moment the weather cooled off, I was back out there, training for my next race with the Bridge-to-10K running plan.

On October 1, I ran the Tulsa Zoo Run. It was a 10K, and I ran it in 57:20.




























I love this sport because it's not a team sport, and it doesn't have to be competitive. It's just me and the road... and the next goal. I push myself to see if I can go the next distance. If I can run 3 miles, why not 4? How about 6? And if I can run 6, then surely I can run 7. And you know what? It's true so far... Just this morning, I ran 8.5 miles, my farthest distance yet. Now I know I'll be ready for my biggest challenge so far... the 15K (9.3 miles) Tulsa Run next Saturday.

Running is bringing a lot of joy into my life, and I am a grateful man... I'm healthier than I've ever been in my adult life, and I'm loving the challenges and the disciplines of this amazing sport. Next up, a half-marathon... and then I think I'll be on track to run a marathon sometime next year! Miracles...

Stomp & Holler

Oh I'm having fun with this one...

With the miraculous PS22 Chorus as my model, I'm running a new program at Redeemer this fall. It's called Stomp & Holler, and it's a blast.

It's a pretty simple idea... a community rhythm ("stomp") and vocal music ("holler") program for 1st-6th graders. Kids are divided into two groups based on their ages/grades. I work with all the kids, singing pop songs like Katy Perry's "Firework" and P!nk's "Perfect." These songs have no overt religious content, but they are positive and family-friendly.

My wife, Luanne, leads the 1st-2nd grade "stomp" program, doing simple rhythm exercises and games. The older stomp kids are led by Jeff Porter, whose bio is pretty impressive:

Tulsa-based percussionist Jeff Porter has been playing and studying African music for 14 years. He studied in Cuba in 2000 and has spent a total of 8 months studying in Brazil.

He has studied with many teachers including Michael Spiro and Alex Acuna of Weather Report.He has recorded on an album with the horn players from Paul Simon's band from Graceland and legendary vocalist Emmylou Harris, and he has performed with many different bands including The String Cheese Incident, The Motet, Tea Leaf Green and many more.

His goal is to bring the spirit of the music to as many people as possible because it is really fun!

He teaches mostly by using paint buckets, body percussion, and singing, but if people get super nerdy about learning all of the traditional instruments, he teaches Congas, Bata, Pandeiro, Djembe, Shekere, and Cajon!

Jeff's a great guy, and I'm really glad he's on board for this project. Check out some of his work with his percussion ensemble, The Claptet:

Jeff and I kind of did a "test run" of this program back in the summer up at Mark Twain Elementary School, where Redeemer was doing "Dreambuilders" - a rhythm and arts camp for that community. I guess this is the next step in the progression! Who knows where this will take us. I have a dream of taking these kids to see the touring production of STOMP when it comes to Tulsa in the Spring. In the meantime, we're getting the word out, running a good program and seeing what happens!

Here's the flyer that's been put up in stores and coffeeshops all around - and even distributed through all the local elementary schools:

And here's the amazing group that got me excited about this in the first place...

40

I turned 40 yesterday. Mom and dad are here from Indiana, and I enjoyed a relatively quiet day with my family. I'm grateful for my life and for the people who love me. I'm grateful for the last 13+ months of a new, healthy lifestyle.

I awoke to find that Luanne and the kids had recorded a song and uploaded it to Facebook. Enjoy!



My dad, my dad is having a big birthday
My dad, my dad is having a big birthday
My dad, my dad is having a big birthday
And this is what we say...

He's 40 years old
Not quite so young anymore
Feeling older than a dinosaur
He's walkin' through the old man door

My dad, my dad oh this is what you get
For all the times you said you're younger than my mom
My mom, my mom she's so happy today
And this is what she'll say...

Mom, Dad and I took Emily to the orthodontist, waited for her for an hour at Starbucks, and then took her out to lunch at Qdoba.

After we dropped her back off at school, we went to the Gardner's Books tent sale, and I spent $12 and got 10 books at 2 CDs.

I spent a long time reading all the birthday greetings on Facebook. I felt loved. And then I made myself a developer and gave myself the new Facebook "timeline" profile a few weeks early.



When Luanne and the kids all got home, we had dinner at Genghis Grill and then came home for cake and presents. No, I didn't have cake. I had "cake" made from popcorn, cottage cheese, peanuts and a banana (my normal healthy snack foods). Check out my wife's creativity:



And then, to cap off a great day, I went for a run. I finished 6.2 miles (10K) in a little under an hour, and I am grateful for the ability and drive to do this at the end of my 40th birthday! (Although I have now learned my lesson about eating Genghis Grill and then trying to run a 10K within an hour...)

Thanks be to God for all the blessings he has poured out on me! I am grateful.