This afternoon, J-Dawg, Jeffro and I rolled out to get a bite for lunch. When we roll, we roll right. We took that RV! The church has an RV and you have to drive it from time to time to keep it working within normal parameters, so we went to Chili’s in style and I stretched out the legs on the way back! As if the ride wasn’t enough, we went to Chili’s to meet everyone’s favorite former service director, ChrisTOPHER Craft. He is the man! I love you Bossman!
I need to be clear. Chris Cole really is a great guy. In the land of St. Fran, we love to make the funny jokes. And little Chris is often the recipient of the worst end of them. The best part is how incredibly well he receives it. Chris laughs every joke off like he made it himself. The worst part for him is. . . well, how well he takes it. He makes it way too much fun to mess with him.
I just wanted to be clear with everyone that the previous post was truly in good fun. Chris, you are a great sport and I love picking on you bud. Little Chris, he’s just a big doober, yes doober with a “d”, with an incredible musical gift and a great disposition. I contemplated deleting the previous post for fear of people not understanding that it was all in fun, but it is way too funny if I do say so myself and I simply couldn’t. Chris wouldn’t want me to anyway. But seriously, girls be careful. I hear he has a crush on Pastor Timmy’s 2 year old daughter, Brooke. Another inside joke, now on the outside.
That’s right ladies. Jason Ryder revealed HPC’s most eligible in an attempt to make you all aware of what incredible guy you should be looking into. Well, I am here to help you as well, only I am here to show you what you do not want. Allow me to introduce HPC’s Most Ineligible Bachelor:
Chris Cole. Yes, he is as creepy as this photo indicates. This guy is not exactly what one would call a winner, but he is available. He plays acoustic guitar for us in St. Francisville. He even plays at the MAG and other venues in town from time to time. As a matter of fact, he will be there at the MAG this Saturday night. Avoid it all cost.
Even when he is sleeping, he’s a bit creepy. I’d call his a face only a mother could love, but I bet she has a hard time!
He does need a friend and someone to cling to like a leach, so if you are desperate or just looking for a missions project, Chris may be the man you are looking for.
I read this phrase last night and found it to be very intriguing. Even falling, stand the mighty. A little poetic maybe, but it definitely caught my my attention. Here are a few thoughts I had as to what it might mean: So often we find ourselves masking insecurities with strength, appearing mighty yet our hearts are in constant free-fall. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just like when I began pursuing my wife. She stood firmly in opposition, all the while falling in love with all things Griffis. Sucker!
One of my first thoughts and perhaps my favorite was of 300. Though facing imminent death, the Spartans stood fearlessly strong. As in all of the great “death of a hero” scenes, they die/fall standing strong either in battle itself ala Boromir from LOTR, the actual last Samurai and Maximus in Gladiator, or in principle standing for your cause in the face of death like William Wallace. FREEDOM! As they fall, their stand actually gains strength. I really like that thought.
In my opinion, true strength is found not necessarily in the not falling, rather in the getting back up. As Paul encouraged us, when there is nothing left to do, just stand. Should you fall, rely on God’s strength and just get back up.
That's right. It's official. I am completely transcontinental! I earned my final continent dot. God bless you Africa! Thank you for your interest. I only pray that I can maintain your interest and readeration. Is that a word? Either way, I press on and pray for my missionary friends to spread the Father’s love to all of you in the Motherland.
Sometimes it’s just glitter or a glitter coated set of drums. I just remembered that I had forgotten to show all of you our new drums in St. Fran. I’d like to give a special shout out to my boy, brother Easy Money Earl, for making a way where there seemed to be no way. Well, the baby Jesus gets all the glory, but Easy had a part in it. Also, a special shout out to the Beytmobile and Trace for lugging around there drums every week until we got our own. And of course, none of this would be possible without the faithful giving of the awesome Frannyville HPCers. It is an incredible blessing to no longer have to sweat having a set of drums. Did I mention that we got some new drums in St. Francisville? OK, cool. Oh yeah and they sparkle.
I do! Yesterday was the first well spent day off for me in a while. And when I say spent, I mean it. I was useless by the time I got home and I am a bit sore today.
Yesterday, I helped my good little buddy DJ Howard do a little landscaping for his awesome new company Southern Green Lawns, LLC. (If you need your lawn taken care of, let me know and I will get you in touch with DJ. Top tier work for a reasonable price, guaranteed!) I only pray that the yard we started yesterday is not a typical one for him. That’s right this was a two-day job. Poor DJ has to finish it up alone today.
We were in a very nice neighborhood, but the lawn was something out of the twilight zone. The front was pretty bad, but the back was frightening. The homeowner warned us, but I was not prepared for the weeds four and five feet high overtaking the rose bushes, the day lilies and everything else in sight. There was a great bonus in the sense of satisfaction as we made dramatic progress, but WOW! It was awesome to get to see DJ at work and get a bit of understanding of how tough it is to be out there day in and day out making everyone else’s lawn look amazing. The saddest part is that once you are done, you don’t actually get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. DJ should invest in a portable hammock and spend at least 30 minutes enjoying the yards. Anyway, I’m pretty sure my weeding skills blew DJ away. We had a lot of fun and DJ even let me drive the mower, but I must say it’s nice to be back in the office.
Oh yeah, as an added bonus DJ trimmed my front hedges. What a guy! As a thank you, I decided to break his favorite rake.
That’s right, not that it does anything special now, but I am the proud new owner of both:
Griffis Is My Homeboy and
Michael Griffis domains. Right now they just link you back here, but in the future . . . who knows? Hopefully, I will have my shirts available online at the homeboy page.
What shirts, you ask? Why these of course:
Valiant effort indeed, but alas we didn’t have enough to compete with Jason Ryder. Today is a sad day for blogging competition, but a glorious day in that we are in our final moments of triple digits. Jason may have beaten us to 1000, but we will march on in the fight to alleviate boredom and insomnia. For, I will continue this journey called, “Much aBlog About Nothing” and do just that: blog about nothing and everything at the same time. (Not the Nothing from “The Neverending Story” that would just be weird) I humbly thank you for watching during this journey to 1000 and I implore you to stand by my side (or just sit at your computer) and continue to read and when there’s nothing left to do, read. Amen.
This years Amplified outreach took all of our students to inner city elementary schools. I had the privilege of joining a group at Belfair Elementary. We painted poles and doors and laid mulch around the trees, shrubs, and freshly weeded flower beds. We had an amazing time and as you can see we left the courtyard looking great. These tasks seem fairly simple and may not mean much to many of us, but I was amazed at how much it meant to the students.
That morning several students were coming in for a Saturday LEAP test training session, and while we received instructions from the school’s janitor a few girls began painting the poles. As they were paintingn, one little guy from Belfair arrived and was so excited, he ran to the gym door and yelled to some of his friends, “They’re painting our poles!” Honestly, I was taken aback by how much it meant to him. These little touch-ups really meant a lot to those kids. Somebody actually cared enough to come and simply paint their poles. How cool is that to think that such a little thing can mean so much and make such an impact on those kids lives. I hope we do some follow up work with those schools. I spoke to Joe, he’s over maintenance for the schools in that area, and he told me that the principal wants to schedule another outreach there, but this time she wants to schedule some of her students to be there to help out and gain a little more pride in their school. What an incredible opportunity that will be. Sign me up!
Here you go guys. My leftovers are yours.
At 11am on a Friday an INTERNal alarm goes off in our Elevate interns: Time to clean out the office fridge. I walked by the break room about 11:20 and it was too late. I reached around the hungry interns and "the determined to clean the fridge" Robin to see if my buffalo chicken fingers were still there . . . beep, beep, beep. The microwave began to mock me as the familiar aroma of wing sauce filled the air. I was too late. Brooke, seen above, had already laid claim to my unmarked to go box. Brooke and Barton do not miss a beat when it comes to a potential free meal. They each walked away with 4 meals to get them through the weekend. Good job guys. Check back for the follow up blog with next weeks surprise menu.
Tonight we got a little pre-amp. A taste of what's to come this weekend at Amplified '07. Pastor Chad Daniel and CFNI band Obed Edom served up an incredible appetizer of the amazing things that God has in store for us. I cannot wait to see how God changes all of our students, leaders and especially my heart. If you haven't yet made plans to be there, I dare you to change your plans and let God invade your heart and rock your face in such a powerful way that not even your closest friends will recognize you. Get Amp'd!
The heat is on and I need your help. My good buddy J-Dawg and I are neck and neck in pursuit of 1000 blog hits. He's got the lead with 850 to my 832 right now. So help me help you. I will keep the blog fresh and flowing with frequent updates, you just come back to read. I will keep it interesting and update you on our status daily. Let's make it to 1000 together! Go go gadget blog viewers.
For those that don’t watch, Friday Night Lights is one of the best true dramas on TV. That being said, they also have incredible theme music. That music was provided by an amazing quartet called Explosions In The Sky. The band consists of a drummer, two electric guitars and a bass or third electric guitar depending on the song. Purely instrumental, very rock and roll and completely amazing. These guys are so ridiculously talented and were in the Big Easy last Thursday Night. That’s right, yours truly was there and it was amazing. These cats are seriously talented and passionate about the music they create. If you are in the least bit interested, check them out by clicking one of the album covers. Enjoy!
Heroes is on that dreaded 6 week break! 6 weeks, but I am betting it will be well worth the wait! Seriously, LOST better take advantage of the down time. After last weeks joke of an episode about Hurley’s need for an alternator, they have a long LONG way to go to get my attention and loyalty back during Heroes break. Lucky for them, we won’t have Heroes to compare them to.
Heroes has been amazing! Last week may have been the best episode of television in the past few years. This week they send us off for a 6 week stint with another great episode. I’ll spare the details of a recap for those that do not yet watch. You should all begin to watch right away; downloads are available on i-Tunes. For those that watch, I want to know what you think is coming in April. Here are a few thoughts I have: Peter obviously has more powers than Sylar, including now all of Sylar’s. So, Petey is going to overtake Mr. Sylar and heal his own head wound. Thanks Claire! Peter is bad to the bone and by far the most powerful and intriguing hero. I believe we may lose Suresh though. Now that he has figured out the genetic code, he may not be necessary anyway. Hiro has the sword, with that all kinds of cool stuff is now available. We will apparently see his future slicked hair self soon. Back to the future anyone? Claire is going to start getting a lot more answers I believe. Hopefully one of mine will be answered too. Namely, I wonder what power Peter and Nathan’s mom has and how long she has known where Claire was? This shows just keeps building. 6 weeks away then 6 hours left. What is going to happen next?
Let’s just pray that LOST will take some tips and give us some TV worth watching in the meantime. Aaaaaand We’re Clear!
PS. If you like the picture above, go check out:
Heroic Wallpapers
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