politics schmolitics

#1 Focus on the Family has been widely criticized for a video they made that asked people to pray for rain so that Obama's acceptance speech would be rained-out. When the criticism came-in, they pulled the video and Dobson said it was only a joke. But Stuart Shepherd, …

HIV Adoptions

Found an article from cnn.com that was interesting. Beth & I did not request to adopt a HIV-positive child, but we recognize that testing there isn't always accurate. I'm really glad for the medical advances and for the people willing to love children who are infected. …

A New Olympic Event

We were sitting in our living room and Levi wanted to play a game with me. I told him that I would, but that I wanted to see the race that was about to start. I told him to watch these guys run & jump over the hurdles.

He got really focused on the and really …

Holiness vs Harmony

We've been going through a series at Highland Park called "The 2 Sides." Each week we've looked at two Biblical words that seem to live in tension. Lane wrapped-up the series with a sermon called "Holiness vs. Harmony."

Honestly, I don't know if I've ever heard …

Adoption Update

Today we received the following from The United States Citizenship & Immigration Services: "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application For Advance Processing Of Orphan Petition." Impressed?

Basically we were approved to bring an orphaned child into the …

Hurricane

Cole & Levi are loving all of the "new" toys (ones they don't have at our house). We spent today in Galveston at a really great water park-type place. It had tons of nice sand, pools, a view of the Gulf & water slides. We had a blast there. We went today because a …

Reclaiming Preaching

Reclaiming Preaching

By Brian Jennings

I recently sat down, opened a magazine, and read the following quotes:
"If you could change people's mind about something, what would it be?"
"Until you know the truth you're trying to convey to an audience, your work …

New Batman Movie

Tickets have been selling-out like crazy, so we got ours a few days ago and then got to the theater over an hour before showtime so we could get good seats. I can't imagine sitting on the front row & trying to watch the three-story screen.

The word "dark" is …

Prayer for Move Conference

I'll be at Christ In Youth's Move Conference next week with 41 other Sr. High students & sponsor from HPCC. We have a number of students who desperately need to discover & live-out God's love in their lives. God has done some miraculous things already to pave the way …

Book Review of Dinner with Skeptics

I had never heard of Jeff Vines, author of Dinner with Skeptics. He's spent over twenty years doing missionary work in Zimbabwe and New Zealand. In New Zealand he took part in numerous televised debates with agnostics & atheists. He is now the Sr. Pastor of Christ's …

Identity

I'm already learning a lot & excited about what this study is going to bring to my life & hopefully to the lives of many others. One of the related themes that I'm thinking about a lot is how God desires us to DELIGHT in him. It's so easy to settle for APPRECIATING or …

Natural Falls State Park

We all loaded up in the car & drove a little bit over an hour to National Falls State Park near Siloam Springs, Akansas. Raynisha met us there and we spent the next three hours hiking, climbing, catching bugs, looking and picnicking. The best part of the trail leads to …

Chicago Trip part 1

I have all the pics of my Chicago trip up in the photos section. I've only had time to scramble this week in trying to get ready for camp, so further blogging will have to wait. http://www.virb.com/brianj33/photos

cool

I'm leading a mission trip here. We've worked really hard all week, and today is relax day. It's been a good week. More later.

Wedding in Florida

Last weekend I was in Florida to do David & Elizabeth Laughlin's wedding. It was a great time. It was so fun to be part of their wedding, because their hearts beat for Jesus & everything falls in place. Highlights over the weekend included...
-Riding go-carts with the …

Vote for a Schmuck - really

My good friend Ryan sent me a pic on his cell phone of a billboard he had just driven past.
"Vote for Frank Schmuck" it read. It turns out that it's not a joke. If you live in Arizona, you can vote for a Schmuck. I figure that no matter who we vote for, it will be …

Water Pipe Break

A city worker was working on a water pipe that had a small leak. He got a little too aggressive and created a replica of Ol' Faithful. I wish I had a better zoom on my camera because he had a very sheepish look on his face. You can see the pics by going to "my pics" and …

Adoption Part 2: The TB Tests

Cole went first to be brave for his little brother. He told me that it hurt and some tears wanted to come out, but he wanted to be tough so that Levi wouldn't be scared. Beth told me that he didn't cry at all. Levi cried a little bit, but still did OK. When I was …

Project Elf video

I hit a few technical snags in the editing process, which were frustrating, but I was really happy with how it all turned out. The video I have online is pretty grainy because I had lower the quality in order to fit it all on there, but I hope to fix this later.

The …

Myanmar disaster

I can't imagine the horror of that situation. I believe that World Vision is a trustworthy organization that responds well to disasters like this one. I'd encourage you to go to their website to see how you can help. www.worldvision.org