My Wife is a 47yr Old Man, Burgler, & Sleeps in Kids Beds

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Weekend Review

There's so much that happened this weekend, check it out:

1. We sold our first baby to Tracy's co-worker. It was a sad day but at least we know our beloved 20" iMac is in good hands!

2. In addition Craigslist helped us sell our leather chair and glass desk. Now we have an empty 3rd room that we are hoping to make into a mini home gym.

3. On Friday night we had a Middle School gathering at Buffalo Lanes. Thanks to a couple of AMAZING parents organizing this for us, over 30 middle schoolers had a blast doing bowling olympics and eating good greasy bowling ally food! Take a look at our night here.

4. On Saturday we went up to Champs Sports Bar to watch the Noles kick the mess out of Chattanooga, with our FSU friends. Granted it was another cupcake team, but hey we're (2-0), are ranked back up in the top 25 at #24, and out scored our opponents 115-7. Many College Football analysts are saying that Florida State shows promise of the Noles of old and this is the year they reclaim their role in the national spotlight and on top of the ACC. (You don't know how bad I want this to come true!)

5. Sunday morning I taught about community in a different way than the normal stand up and talk for 20mins. Steve gave me the idea of teaching in stations and sharing a meal together. So the short version is, we had our students split up into three groups and rotate through three different stations (Catchphrase - fun together, Scripture reflection - study together, Ice Breaker & questions - discuss together) that would be a small preview of what a Life Group is -doing life together! At each station they received a piece of their meal (spoon, bowl, cereal, and milk) and at the end we shared a meal together. It went well and are off to a great start with Life Group sign ups! Check out pictures here.

6. Sunday afternoon our Children's Ministry had their Kidspace production. It was an amazing event and I am so proud of our high schoolers who are involved. Over 650 parents and kids came out to enjoy the outside activities and show. This is something that impresses me so much about Crosspointe and makes me go, "wow I can't believe I work here!" Mad props to Kris and our Children's ministry team, you guys ROCK!

7. I've come to the realization that my Fantasy Football team is horrible and that Carson Palmer is way overrated! I'm off to a whopping (0-2) start and doesn't look like it's getting any better. This Azian Cacauzian is a lil upset about that!

It's a Small World

Yesterday I kept my personal commitment to meeting new people in the area, particularly Florida State Seminole fans, and Tracy and I headed over to South Point to the Game Watching Party between FSU and Western Carolina. We get there and to our surprise there was a packed room of fellow Seminole fans! Since thunderstorms were in the Tallahassee area the game ended was delayed 2.5 hrs, but while waiting I thought I saw a familiar face. Come to find out a friend of mine from high school and who graduated from Florida State, works in the area and was checking out the game. I never thought I'd see someone I went to high school with up here, especially since I lived in Jacksonville, FL during that time of my life. So besides the game starting up late it was a fun night getting to see my friend and getting to know some other Noles fans better! Oh btw FSU beat WCU 69-0!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

We had our Crosspointe League Fantasy Football Draft Party tonight and I must say I am very pleased with the team I drafted. This year we switched over from ESPN to EA Sports Fantasy Football and it was a great move. First off you can download the EA Sports Draft Package from the Xbox Live Market Place and we conducted our draft on Don's Xbox 360. It's so cool, it follows your draft pick and shows video highlights from Madden 09 and commentary on your pick and then loads your roster on the EA server after the draft is done. In addition it shows a draft board so you know who's been taken and by whom and even gives you the option if you own Madden 09 to upload your Fantasy Team and play games as them! How cool is that?

So without further ado with the 11th pick (out of 12) in the Crosspointe Fantasy Draft, I present to you team "Azian Perzuazion" for the 2009 NFL Season (This roster is bound to change throughout the year especially after week 4 b/c who really needs two kickers?):

Round 1: Terrell Owens WR - Dallas Cowboys
Round 2: Frank Gore RB - San Francisco 49ers
Round 3: Laurence Maroney RB - New England Patriots
Round 4: Carson Palmer QB - Cincinnati Bengals
Round 5: Greg Jennings WR - Green Bay Packers
Round 6: Tony Gonzalez TE - Kansas City Chiefs
Round 7: Nate Burelson WR - Seattle Seahawks
Round 8: Lendale White RB - Tennessee Titans
Round 9: Vince Young QB - Tennessee Titans
Round 10: Jerry Porter WR - Jacksonville Jaguars
Round 11: Ben Watson TE - New England Patriots
Round 12: Adam Vinateri K - Indianapolis Colts
Round 13: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defense
Round 14: Duece McAllister RB - New Orleans Saints
Round 15: Mike Nuegent K - New York Jets

Maybe I should change my team name from "Azian Perzuazion" to "Azian Domination"! It's about time it's football season!

D.C. Video

This past Sunday morning members of our Washington D.C. mission team shared their stories and experiences with their friends and peers. It was a great morning and we had another stellar performance from Richard singing his transformed "worship" version of Ben E. King's classic, "Stand By Me." I am SO PROUD of all of them and their hearts to serve the homeless and marginalized of our Nation's Capital.

If you would like to read the D.C. trip through the students' eyes they can be found in the July Archive or just click here!

Here is a video recap that one of our students made of our trip. Enjoy!

The Tables Turned

I now remember what it feels like for "new" people to first step foot into a new environment with people they never met before. As for me I'm usually on the other side of the table being one of the pastors at a church welcoming and meeting "new" people who is checking you out for the first time.

The awkward moment came for me this afternoon after I dragged my Florida Gater (ask Dellie Hinton about the spelling) fan of a wife to the 2008 Triangle Seminole Club Kick Off Picnic. As you can tell from my last post or if you know me well, I am huge Florida State Seminoles fan and I thought this would be a great way to meet other Nole fans in the area. With my personality and me being more of an extrovert I didn't think I'd have as hard of a time meeting new people in this environment as I did.

Tracy and I arrived about midway through the event during the middle of a talk by guest speaker and former Florida State Running Back, Nick Maddox. There were about 40 or so adults and another 20 or so kids and they all seemed to know each other pretty well. So to say the least Tracy and I stuck out like sore thumbs, except I was wearing a FSU Football shirt (and no Tracy did not have on her Gator jersey). It reminded me of being a visitor in a church, everyone notices that you are "new" and are not sure whether or not to talk to you, so instead they decide to stay in their comfort zones and talk w/ the people they know. It's usually not until the leader, (a Pastor in a church setting) the President of the Club in this setting, comes up and welcomes you that other people start doing the same.

The first people to greet us was Jim the President and Margret the VP and they thanked us for coming to check them out. This whole idea didn't hit home to me until after I met another "new" person doing the same thing we were doing and introduced myself and told her what I do. I mentioned "now I know how visitors feel when they first come to church." At that particular moment Tracy turned away and smiled b/c I was oblivious to the fact she had no idea what I was inferring to and asked for me to explain. To say the least it helped me realize that I've grown accustomed to hanging around other Christians and not spending enough time getting to know others who may not believe.

So come Saturday, Sept. 6th when the Noles kickoff their season at home against Western Carolina, I look forward to watching the game on the big screens at Chammps Americana Grille at South Point Mall (the official Triangle Seminole Club game watching spot) and share some wings with my newly found Seminole friends! Go Noles!

You Nole It!

With college & pro football season just around the corner the amount of joy and excitement that is bursting inside of me is inexplicable. I know this may sound bad, but the other night Tracy asked me if I wanted to watch the Olympics with her. After about 10mins or so she could tell that I was bored and asked if I wanted to watch something else and I told her, "I would much rather watch NFL Preseason Football." The Olympics are cool and all but it's missing the best sport ever created!

Here's a neat little tidbit, on ESPN.com this past month they had a competition on which college football team had the coolest helmet and to no surprise, the Seminoles of Florida State won hands down! You can see the full article here. I can't wait for it to start! Here's a little treat for you:



80,000 strong you can't go wrong! Man this gives me chills. GO NOLES!