graduation, the daily show and true crime

hey sports fans,

may's been a busy month with some travel, graduations and honing up on my golf game for our first annual church on the move invitational.

i am proud to announce the gradudation of my middle son, dillon, from lincoln christian high school. i was honored to speak at his baccalaureatte last sunday night. dillon is extremely talented in many areas including music production, gymnastics, and making his point, [think he could be a lawyer] but what i am most proud of is his unwavering commitment to Christ in his daily activity. he has refused to compromise when others around him caved in at different times. he plans to work for a year here in tulsa and then attend "full sail" production school in florida to study music. i love you dillon!!

check this out... the daily show with jon stewart called us the other day and wanted to send one of their correspondants to do a "story" on oneighty. although i totally disagree with most of jon's opinions on politics and culture, this show is absolutely hilarious most of the time. [occasionally gets vulgar] whenever they interview people with thier correspondants, they slickly edit the interview to make their "mark" look like a complete idiot. anyways, knowing they were setting us up to be thier next pawn, we politely declined.

now, under the section of youth pastors and true crime. one of the things i've been asked to do a lot lately is to fly into a church and consult with the leadership on how to build a thriving youth ministry. we work through their leadership structure, analyze their meetings, make facility recommendations and deal with any other crisis issues they are tackling. my latest consulting venture was with a large church and growing youth program in washington dc. [must remain anonymous for following reason] the youth pastor is a undercover drug agent!! the guy is amazing. he poses as a major drug buyer in many of the big cities up and down the east coast. he's got some hair raising stories... so in the middle of our consultiing meetings, he's taking calls from snitches who are setting up his next bust which went down as i was on my way to the airport. here's the best part - he shows video of the busts to his kids at youth services to illustrate the wages of sin. i don't know if this is legal, but if i were a teenager, that would definately get my attention.

heard something good from bill hybels a few days ago. get your "greetings and goodbyes" right. when arriving at a home, a meeting, your office, go out of your way to properly greet people and let them know they are important to you. then when leaving, warmly share your goodbyes. he said people remember your hellos and goodbyes more than anything else.

so, let me say warmly, respectfully and cordially... goodbye. i really do appreciate all you are doing to touch the lives of kids and pray your summer is one of both refreshing from a busy spring and preparation for a productive fall.

late,

blaine

oh canada!

i just returned from my homeland of canada and had a great time. i was on a multi purpose mission including spending time with both my brother-in-law, david and my sister-in-law, joanne. i am sort of like a big brother to them, especially since both of thier parents have passed away. we had good visits.

i also managed to cram in several games of hockey with my canadian comrades, go to a lacrosse game, visit all my old haunts including my old neighbourhood and my high school. i played lacrosse growing up and it is an amazing game to watch. rougher than any sport you've ever seen!! i spent some time with the athletic director of my old high school talking football and he was kind enough to give me one of our old football jerseys - cool! oh yea, the last day i went skiing at sonshine village in banff. for those that don't know i used to compete in freestyle skiing during my teenage years. it was a beautiful spring day and yes, i did attempt some old tricks including a fairly respectable 720... plenty of air, completed both rotatations, off axis by about 10 degrees, took a decent tumble.

i told you in my last post that my son jeremy went to denver with his buddy to see u2. check this out. he had written a note of encouragement with a great scripture from the book of psalms to pass on to bono should the chance arise. of course, it did! [the faith of a child] he had a chance to spend a minute with him before the concert outside the arena. when bono read the note he told jeremy, "i love this translation." [speaking of the message bible translation] anyways, the concert was incredible. i plan to go see them when they come to dallas.

well, gotta go. thought for the day... remember your first love. think back and recall what you were like the first few months after you really gave your life to Christ. how you prayed, read the word. witnessed to friends, looked forward to church... let's get that back! whatever has crept into your life that has tried to steal that passion - get it out!

your friend,

blaine