Almost There

I'm 60% of the way through a week that's got my head spinning with different responsibilities and opportunities, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to unload some of them here, and also look forward to Sunday.

• Monday night was an "Open House" of sorts for a group that I've been working with for about the last six months or so called Beautiful World.  We're looking to create a collective of men, women and children around the US who will serve as advocates for impoverished communities around the world.  We're asking those advocates to take on one creative fundraising idea for the year that will raise money (obviously) for a specific community, and will also raise awareness among their friends and families of the tremendous needs around the world.  Right now we're working with two communities:  Lamothe, Haiti and La Chureca in Managua, Nicaragua.  This August I'll be taking a 10 day trip to La Chureca with about 6 or 7 others who are part of the Beautiful World team.  Looking forward to what God is going to do in my own heart and life through that trip.  If you're interested, check out the site for more information!
• Tuesday night was worship practice, with our special guest Mance, running the sound for us and hopefully getting our sound cleaned up.  I know it's been a little muddy lately, so hopefully having Brian come in and tweak the board will get it to sound more crisp and clear.  He also stuck around to jam with us, which was great.  I have to say it's been so much fun getting to play with these guys every week - I'm honored to be working with good musicians who also get that we're there not to play for ourselves, but for God's honor among us.
• Last night was my first manager's meeting for Jacob's instructional league team I'm coaching this year.  I've actually never coached before, so even though it's really basic, I'm actually quite nervous about it.  It should be a fun year, a good bonding experience for Jacob and me, and hopefully an opportunity for him to learn the game I love!
• I'm really looking forward to this next series on Sunday:  Conversations with Jesus.  It's a title I've used a few times before, and in the past I've just taken a conversation right from the Gospels and looked at what Jesus is saying to a specific person in that conversation.  This time I'm going at it from a different angle - a more topical angle - and I'm trying to draw together different scripture references to formulate what I think Jesus would have to say in certain kinds of conversations; the kinds of conversations that happen all around us, even if we're not aware of them sometimes.
• Last week I started writing for the next book we'll be using in our character development partnerships.  It's going to focus on the beatitudes from Matthew 5.  I'm using one of my old sermon series as research, but I feel like I had a fresh take on it as I considered what I wanted to communicate, so it's going to require a lot of new writing, and rewriting.  I've got a bit of a deadline, since the last book is about 7 chapters, and so if the partnerships hit one chapter a month, I've got until July to get it done!

So, with that said, I guess I should get back to work - which today is going to involve a trip to Starbucks, a hot cup of java, a good pen and my moleskine writing journal.  That, my friends, is a good day.