Prep Gathering

We met with our launch team in the facility this Sunday. After a great time of worship and communion together we walked through all the areas the facility we will be using, trying to see it with the eyes of a visitor. We literally started at the entrance to the parking lot and walked through what we wanted people experience their first time with us. It was a great time and there were lots of great ideas and observations. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us next.

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More Party Pics

I've posted more photos from the party at kaleo.cc. Thanks to Kevin Morrison for the camera work.

really big fingerprints–really big trees

Eric and I went up to the Sequoia National Forest North East of Bakersfield today to hang out, get away from the busyness and enjoy God. My hope was to take lots of pictures, however the "fresh" batteries I put in the camera this morning were actually dead. Not that it mattered, we had a great day anyway. God provided a mostly foggy, drizzley fairly cold day, with times of the brightest blue skies you can imagine shining through breaks in the clouds. The colors were amazing the rain makes the Sequoias an impressive burnt orange and the greens of the pines, the yellows of the aspens, and the yellows, ornages and reds of the maples looked amazingly vivid in front of them. At over 7000 feet you don't so much look up at a cloudy sky as you walk through it–so when the cloud your in rolls into the valley below you, perfectly clear skies appear until the next cloud pushes over the peak above you and envelopes you as it rolls through. I know pictures wouldn't do it justice, and I'm sure my words won't either. I wish you all could have been there. The sequoias themselves are so impressive. I'm posting a pic of our last trip up there with my folks. You can't really get an idea of how large they are until you're there but I think this shot begins to capture it. I love the surprises God throws into His creation that make you gasp.
I don't have words to express my gratefulness to God for the beauty He has provided.



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God's Timeline

I was challenged by a friend last week as I was lamenting how far I felt we were behind schedule, to make the best plan you can and then hold it very loosely. (thanks Ben) As often as I've said that in the last two years to other people about our situation you'd think I would own it by now. But no, I was getting too caught up in the plan, calendar and budget to hear God. And so it is with a much lighter heart that I've made some changes. Next weeks preview gathering is going to be a prep gathering. (Read more about it at kaleo.cc) Although it seems to be a slow down in our plans I think it will be great. It just feels right. After letting it go I realized that part of the reason for holding on to it was my own pride. After all if I said we were going to have a preview on the 21st I'd better deliver right. But of course that leaves God out of the picture and me with way too much weight on my shoulders. It's probably true that if your feeling stressed out your not letting God be God. After all didn't Jesus tell us that His burden was easy and His load light and since He also told us that this world would hold troble for us I've gotta assume that He intends to carry the weight. Well I'm looking forward to a much lighter week ahead, in fact Eric and I are going to take Tuesday and head into the mountains for a day of Picture taking, goofing around and enjoying God. I'll post photos later this week.

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Killer Party

The party went terrific. Inspite of several missed opportunities in our communicating it to the public we still had probably 250 or more people. I'm not sure we could have handled too many more.
I am grateful to God for covering my misteps, and to all of the volunteers from CCV, Life Journey and Northeast Christian, and especially our launch team, Mike and Sheri Williams and the pastors and wives of our partner churches You guys rock! We've had a few people ask us why three local churches would help us plant in their own backyards. I just have to say it's a Kingdom thing. Here are a few pics I'll post more soon. Thanks to everyone who prayed and Courtney for the post event call.

Kevin and Jill Our Childrens Min. leaders.

Eric in Kaleo's required preaching attire. : )

A crowd in the gym for a game.

The truck and bounce house.


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The House

The bounce house got here today. Eric and I couldn't wait 'till the party tomorrow. We had to put it up the moment it arrived, you know to "test it" before the party. Anyway we let the neighbor kids play on it for a little while before loading it into the ice cream truck. We can't wait to see it in use at the Family Night Out tomorrow.
Speaking of the party here's the flyer we sent out.


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Kaleo.cc

Kaleo.cc goes live, temporarily anyway. I put up the temporary home for Kaleo on the web. As of tomorrow we will have printed materials out with the kaleo.cc web address so it seems pretty important to have something up. For some reason the website is one of the last things I've been able work on. I think part of that is because I think many people choose wether or not to visit a church based on it's website—partially because as a designer freedom to do almost anything can be suffocating (odd but true) —and because when it comes to big ticket items for Kaleo I've been very hesitant to spend money. If the decision can be put off in hopes of finding a better value, or a less expensive solution, I'll probably put it off. I hope this is because I want to be a good steward and not because I lack the faith that God will continue to meet our financial needs. Anyway until I hand it off to a professional this is what we have. www.kaleo.cc

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Mrs. Fields bans Christmas from their products

Today I got an email from the American Family Association (AFA) stating their offense at the fact that the Mrs Field's company was not offering any products with the word Christmas on them and asking me to write the company expressing my own offense and threating to boycott their products.
I just gotta ask, Really?
Does the AFA really think I'm going to be offended by the fact that a corporation does not celebrate the birth of Jesus. More importantly do they think encouraging thousands of Christ follwers to send threating (or just mean spirited) letters to the company will help people discover, recognize, love and submit to Christ as their savior?
What is the Goal of this campaign? If thousands of "christians" write letters, and the Company is bullied into putting the word Christmas back on its packaging will God be glorified? How will these letters be received by the real humans at Mrs Field's who read them. Will it draw them to our incredibly loving God or will it move them away? Will it help them understand who He is?
So here's my proposal. Lets write the employees Mrs Field's and tell them they make great cookies and that as Followers of Christ we are sorry if they receive offensive letters from those claiming to be God's representatives. Let's tell them that God loves them and that He longs to have a relationship with them. Tell them that we are not offended by their actions but that we recognize their good intentions. And that we hope, if they don't already, that those who read our letter would come to a point where they personally celebrate Jesus birth because they recognize it as a gift from God.

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