Category: Personal News

Last night Paula and I had next year’s Chi Alpha officers over for supper. It was great (both the meal and the company)!

We laughed–a lot. That’s a good sign.

Left to right: Nate, Shaowei, Nathaniel.

Whew–I spoke three times today and participated in a religious discussion group! I’m a little drained. Worst of all was that my first engagement was two hours away, and I only had about two hours between my first and second appointment (which was back here at Stanford)! We really had to book it.

Fortunately, we’re at the end of a busy season. Last weekend I was in Springfield helping to script a miniseries (no, really) that Chi Alpha is going to burn onto CDs and distribute to college students all across America. I got back and went to preach in Modesto that Sunday. Monday Paula and I drove up to the Lake Mendocino sectional fellowship, and today I had all those speaking engagements… *whew*

That makes it almost two months that Paula and I have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. It was really starting to affect my speaking: I’d say that none of the presentations I gave today were A‑quality. They were all B‑range. Soon I should be able to recharge and do better.

I feel kind of guilty. I should be a better model for my students, but this season of hectic activity was pretty much necessary… *sigh*

Oh well, at least it’s over (I think).

I had a great birthday, thanks everyone! 

I was one whipped puppy after what felt like a month on the road (actually, it wasn’t too far shy of a month). Tomorrow Paula and I head to Sacramento and Wednesday I fly to Vegas for a quick speaking engagement and then I’m home!

Anyway, we had a group of friends over to celebrate and we had a great time. I think one of the parts I enjoyed most was watching the ladies-only round of Halo on the XBox. It was pretty funny–I think only one of them had ever played before.

Speaking of XBox, I got XBox Live for my birthday. If any of my friends are curious my GamerTag is GTD. The only Live game I own is MechAssault.

I think that’s about it… I’ve caught up on the over 500 email messages (mostly junk) that I had waiting for me, so if you haven’t heard back from me yet it’s possible that I deleted your message by mistake.

I just returned from the Northern California/Nevada District Council of the Assemblies of God. My hectic travels are nearly completed now (I do have to fly into Vegas next week, but it slows down after that for a while).

If you’ve emailed me in the last three weeks I almost certainly haven’t replied. Sorry about that, but I really haven’t been able to keep up with my email deluge. I should be getting caught up over the weekend and by the early part of next week I should be done.

I might take tomorrow off, though. It’s my birthday!

We’ve returned from Springfield–it was a nice flight (even if our flight path was a little odd–east from Kansas City to St. Louis and then back west to San Jose).

A severe thunderstorm tore through the Springfield area and both Kansas City and St. Louis were quite overcast when we left, so we were really looking forward to returning to sunny California.

We got here and everything was wet. Evidently there had been some pretty heavy rains just a little while ago.

I just found that funny.

Once again, I find myself sitting in the Mudhouse (Springfield’s coolest coffee shop) typing away on a laptop (borrowed, this time, from Stefanie Chappell–future Chi Alpha missionary to the Washington, D.C. area).

I’m sitting here with Paula, Joe Zickafoose, Sarah Herman, Stefanie Chappell, and Noble Bowman, and Stefanie is urging me to blog something personal. To, in her words, “let out my deep feelings.” 

Hmmm…

I am deeply happy to visit Springfield, and I am deeply happy not to live here anymore. Satisfied, Stef?

By the way, if you live in Springfield and Paula and I haven’t gotten together with you yet, call us soon–we’re leaving Friday morning!

Wow–what a whirlwind of activity! We’re seeing everyone we possibly can, and we’re having a great time doing it

I’m still not accessing my email all that frequently, but I’m checking as often as I can. If you don’t hear from me, don’t assume I’m brushing you off.

District council starts tomorrow…

Paula and I are sitting in the Mudhouse in Springfield, MO typing away on our laptops. We flew in a little early for the Southern Missouri District Council and we’re connecting with old friends and colleagues.

So far it’s been great–we’ve gotten together with Levi Augur (an alumnus from our ministry back at SMS), his parents (who graciously allowed us to stay at their house), Joss Walter (the first pastor to ever book us for a service), and Rich Avila (another pastoral-type person we know). We’re staying with Joe and Jayne Zickafoose, who are currently preparing to go establish university ministry in Scotland. It’s great!

While we were in the air our students back at Stanford organized and led the weekly worship service by themselves. I can’t wait to hear how it went–Paula and I are very excited at the level of passion and ownership they’re displaying!

My wife just informed me it’s time to go grab lunch, so I’m signing off. I may edit this later to add more details and correct any spelling/grammatical errors.

Last weekend I promised my dad that I’d put some personal news on the site, and I’ve been not doing that ever since. Sorry!

Last weekend was pretty neat: Paula and I got to share in two churches: Cameron Park Christian Center and Lakeview Assembly. They were both quite cool in different ways. It wasn’t even that much driving–they’re within two hours or so of one another!

The work week was pretty busy: the students returned from spring break, and I really felt that I needed to talk about the war head-on. What good is faith if it doesn’t inform your everyday view of the world?

At the same time, I don’t think it’s my job to tell people what to think; rather, I’m to help them learn to think in a Biblical way. So I opted to talk about the subject of warfare in general, what we should think about it, and what we should do in a time of war. All that to say, I had a lot of prep work to do!

I put my notes on the group website so they could follow up on some references I made.

As usual, we went to the Stanford Coffeehouse afterward and stayed up for far too long talking.

Wednesday I made a TON of phone calls. My ear still hurts (not really).

Thursday Paula and I decided to have some students over for a home-cooked meal and we stayed up entirely too late talking (notice the pattern).

Friday I was sick (no doubt due to the aforementioned pattern).

Which brings me to today. I got sunburn on my ears. I hope they don’t peel too visibly while I’m preaching tomorrow–I bet that would be distracting.

This was a pretty amazing day–I bought a djembe for our ministry, I was formally invited to guest lecture in a grad class about “The Role of Religion In the Ideal Society”, I had a neat answer to prayer, and I met a remarkable person.

First, the neat answer to prayer: I’ve been visiting a guy named Tom at Stanford University Medical Center. He has a trachea tube which prevents him from speaking, and so I had to work out a chart that allowed him to spell out words to me using gestures. Today he asked me to pray that he would be able to speak soon–as we finished praying a doctor walked in a placed a special attachment on the end of his trachea tube that allowed him to do some vocalization! He still can’t talk fluently, but he’s on the recovery trail.

Second, today Paula and I went to pick up a student’s father at San Jose International Airport. He’s going to be in town to see his daughter and do some research. Anyway, I realized this morning that I didn’t really know what Dr. Abegg looked like, so I googled for Martin Abegg and shortly realized that he’s the reason the Dead Sea Scrolls were published after decades of secrecy! For more info, read the fascinating commentary by Penn Jillette (yes, the magician of Penn & Teller fame) or the article The Dead Sea Scrolls: Making The Good Book Even Better?

Anyway, he’s a great guy and we had a wonderful time getting to know him better.

And I just thought this was going to be a day like any other…

More on that guest lectureship in a grad class soon–The West Wing beckons…