I don’t know if you know that Star Wars Ep III opens tonight a 12:01 AM (technically, the first minute of tomorrow). Yes, I have my ticket already, and yes, I’ll be in line for several hours prior to this event…I’ve heard it is 2 hours of perfection!!! We’ll see-I can’t wait!!!

Choir practice seemed to go well last night. It is a little weirder being in the main sanctuary as opposed to Rose’s Chapel-the sound is much different because the room is huge-but I’m sure we’ll get used to it! It was great to hear from my people that all of the hard work and sacrifice were worth it to have the APU UCO at our church. Many people gave up several hours of sleep, money, and a lot of other stuff to house and support these folks…Thank you MPC for all of that! AND for the encouragement in wanting to have them back again next year!! That was nice to hear…

It warmed the cockels of my heart during choir practice last night when, as we were learning those 4 pages of “All Glory Be to God” and we got to the tenor part where they sing “Alleluia” while everyone else is holding a big fat whole-note (right before the key change and the altos take the melody)…when I first sang the tenor part to them, one of the guys made a fist with his hand and said “yes!” in utter excitement and joy of singing that part. That was super cool for me, cause that’s the kind of exuberance that I would have as a tenor in a song like that, (if I were singing, not directing) and it was encouraging to know that someone was really enjoying themselves…

STAR WARS!!!

Oh yeah, and PETCO park should NOT come before your choir committment. Not in a thousand years. Pretty much anybody can serve food at a ballpark, and not just anybody can sing–AND whoever is skippin out on choir–you need to set an example of committment to ministry, otherwise we just perpetuate the kind of half-hearted involvement we have all over our church. Maybe I’m biased, but Choir should come first, NOT PETCO, especially if you’ve made a committment to choir.

—-Bible Verse—-

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

-1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Chloe from 24 is like the female version of Napolean Dynamite.

Star Wars is only 41 hours away!!

This book is stunning. An incredible read!

Great church service today!! I love having the orchestra sound like it did today! They were jammin! Wahoo!! Now, just a couple of French Horns, another Trumpet, and a couple of trombones that don’t have to double out of the Midway Praise Choir–PLUS a section of strings and some percussion and we’ll be set!!

SNL last night was hilarious!! WIll Farrell may be one of my all-time favorite comedians. I gotta hand it to that guy!

Kicking and Screaming was hilarious!!
Two enthusiastic thumbs up!!
It is nice to see a comedy that is truly funny, and not overdone…Will Farrell is the best!
+
A great movie for the kids! (PG)

Wow-still reeling from the APU concert at Midway on WED night. It was an incredibly stressful day, probably because I was not as prepared as I should have been to accomodate the group. But, inspite of my unpreparedness, the concert went off without a hitch (except that I forgot to pray before the offering…”hey, we’re going to take an offering. Um..ok…”). I hope that you all had a great time housing the choir and orchestra members, and were blessed by the concert. I most certainly was!!!

It is not every day that I GET TO CONDUCT APU UCO!! Wow-that was a thrill !!! I wasn’t nervous, I thought, but I noticed that my hands were shaking mid-way through the song…I tell you, I was honored. Thank you Rod!! I’m still replaying those few moments in my head over and over again…and the really cool thing is that some people from the choir said that I reminded them of Al Clifft. Which, I must say, is props to Al for teaching me so well.

My Thusday just flew by. It was over and I barely thought I had lived it…I was up since before 6AM, but by the time 11PM came around, I barely felt like Thursday even happened.

Weird thing–I knew at least 4-5 people in UCO. Which is strange because it has been 4 full years since I graduated, so ANYONE I knew should be long gone…but there was a sister of someone, a friend of my little brother, a couple of kids that I knew from playing piano at their high school, and good ole Scott, who is a super-fantastic guy…and so on…
Wish I had heard one of your arrangements scott!!! Oh well, get it recorded or something.

Another weird thing…so the APU UCO had been in Mexico for 3 days prior to coming to San Diego, and so before they leave our church THUR morning, they are having a time of sharing. I overhear one girl’s story as I am putting the piano cover back on, and she is talking about this lady she met in Mexico that ministers to women in prison that has red hair and whose name is “Happy”. I was totally like, I KNOW THAT PERSON!!! I GREW UP WITH HER KIDS AND HER FAMILY AT MY HOME CHURCH!!–in Twain Harte, no less…She was totally talking about Happy Dean!! How crazy!! So weird…but you know…six degrees of seperation…I’m finding that thing more and more true as time goes on…

Less than a week until the end of all that is Star Wars…but for now, I’m gonna see the new Will Farrell movie!!

Kendra will be the next Apprentice.

Incredible choir practice last night!! The songs we’ve been practicing are really coming along! I was really encouraged about the rehearsal…

I tend to agree with Simon Cowell about 99% of the time. He’s is one of my peeps (said with best ghetto accent…). Some people despise him, but I think that’s because they don’t want to hear stark, honest truth. I really respect people that don’t blow smoke at you when you ask their opinion, and are SMART about it. Now, there are those people that just criticize and complain because they think they are better then everyone, and that’s absolutely stupid–but Simon isn’t one of them. He’s honest, and he’s been around the block…anyway, I respect his opinion, and most of the time, he’s verbalizing what I am thinking but am unable to put into words at the moment.

I still would like Carrie Underwood to win American Idol. I am unispired by Bo’s one-trick performances. Lots of people love him, but he does the same ole little song and dance every week, and it is annoying me. Stop carrying around that silly mic stand and get out there. Pick some songs that have more than a 5-note range! Geez! That guy doesn’t have much flexibility on the vocs…GO CARRIE!!

Ephesians 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

We broke this one down somewhat (Daniel style) in practice last night, with the final idea that everypart of the body is necessary. Not a new idea-we’ve all heard it before, but I wanted to relay it to our choir body. EVERY PERSON in choir is important. EVERYONE!!!!

Psalm 95: 1-7a

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

Choir did a fantastic job this past Sunday! Thank you Lord for answering our prayers and sending more men!

btw-big concert on Wednesday…Azusa Pacific University Choir and Orchestra will be here at our church for a concert at 8PM. Yipee!! It should be fantastic!!

I saw Kingdom of Heaven Friday, followed by a tasty dinner at Cheesecake Factory (thanks to a gift card from George Baldwin from Lillenas), and then watching Spanglish at home…

Kingdom of Heaven: a good epic, but not on the level of Gladiator or Braveheart. This one was closer to Troy-great filmmaking, but poor character development. Great to look at, but really slow and sometimes hard to follow. The most difficult part was trying to figure out what the lead charactar really stood for…on the other hand, it was a good movie to stimulate thought and discussion about Christian beliefs and behaviors. We had a few good talks about the mistakes of the church and how similar attitudes to those displayed in the movie still permiate the church today all around us. For me, that result of seeing KOH was worth it. It made me think.

Spanglish was sad, but quite good. I did not know Adam Sandler had it in him to play a role like that. I was impressed! What a good movie that was…

That’s all for now…recently I’ve been trying to turn off the computer and just focus on God for my devotional time. It’s been a good change…I’ll keep you updated on stuff and should be back soon with devotional thoughts…

I’ll tell you this–the book listed above is fantastic!! I can’t barely put it down, and that’s a lot for me…

What a fantastic chior practice last night! Praise the Lord for more men! We had a good three new guys last night–good guys! Couple that with a good 3 news guys we had last week, and we’re talking some good addition to the MPC! They were sounding better than ever! I’m excited by that! Praise the Lord, Tim is back!

Now all we have to do is pray that enough people sign up to house APU UCO coming next week…pray!!!

I hope Carrie wins American Idol-I don’t really care about anybody else.

Star Wars Ep III Soundtrack came out yesterday. I bought it on iTunes, but Mike says I need the real CD ’cause it comes with a bonus DVD…ok.

I’m going to read my Bible now. I would blog about it, but for right now (a couple of days) I’m going to just read and reflect without jumping on the computer…but I’ll come back soon…this is just something I need to do right now.

Kids choir was fantastic! Great job!

Helped Derek & Amy move some more yesterday, and I will tell you that I am not looking forward to moving out of our house when that has to happen again…wow, moving is tedious! Not to mention, a little slow with 2 kids–anyway, we were glad to help out when we could…

Got the classic SNL episode when Patrick Stewart hosted from 1994. A couple of funny sketches!!! I love seeing old episodes of SNL from the past 10-12 years or so…it’s fun!

On to one of the most famous passages of Psalms (beside #23)

——-
Psalm 91:1-2
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God , in whom I trust.”
——–

What a beautiful scripture, so rich in description, so peaceful to say or read. So what does it mean to dwell in the shelter of the Most high?? You tell me, I want to hear what you think…