Anna Kate @ 12 days old :)

I was blessed to be able to be home and take some pics of my beautiful new niece today :)  Hope you enjoy.

So... maybe it's been a while :(

       To my disgrace, I have not for quite sometime revealed any sign of my life over the past few months!  I ended with making muffins and oddly enough I just finished making some again :)  Though today instead of making them in my kitchen in Denver, I'm doing it in Dothan, AL.  Thankfully, I was able to come home after the birth of my first niece!!  Anna Kate :)  She's beautiful (of course) and I'm so blessed to be able to spend some much needed time with my family, since I typically am only home once a year for about a week.

       Well, Since my last update I've been to 10 states across the midwest and the south with my Mobile Team of 7 students.  We were able to share the love of Christ in churches, schools, and coffee shops everywhere we went and saw so much happen!   Youth would come up to us after we would lead a service (which would consist of worship, challenging videos, a short word, and prayer/ intercession times) and reveal to us their desire for missions and how God had been speaking to them during the service.  It was beautiful to see their hearts breaking for what God's heart breaks for!  We simply wanted to go into the churches of this nation and bring an excitement about what God is doing in our own lives in the hearts of those students.  There were many instances where we saw breakthrough in the lives of the youth and also saw several come to know Christ for the first time!!

       About 3/4's of our way through we were in Chattanooga, TN and had our trailer full of sound equipment broken into.  Simply within 30 minutes of leaving the trailer we had $15,000 of instruments and equipment stolen!  The very next morning we were supposed to do the chapel service at Bryan College (my alma mater).  Throughout the process we were so hopeful that God would provide for us and were more determined than ever to continue on with the work that we had been called to do.  At every stop God provided instruments for us to play and in many cases more than what we needed!!  Two of my guys were given guitars during the trip!  It's been an amazing journey to see God's faithfulness and see Him use our not so great situation to bring life and hope into the hearts of others.

Kim and I leading worship at Calvary Chapel Chattanooga

Leading worship in Austin, MN

SPAMTOWN, USA  :)

Matt Sztyk (our bassist) and I talking to students post service

Me and Yvonne Alvarez :)  Our host mom in Chattanooga and one of my dearest friends!

     While on our trip we stopped to help a few people along the way.  Here, we're at a public elementary school in Chattanooga, TN volunteering to help the teachers.  Their turn over rate for staff is 50% annually and most teachers don't have enough time to prepare for each day so we were able to give them a helping hand.  The statistics for poor literacy are also very high at this school, so every extra moment the teachers have to teach is a gem!

We were also able to help several people with their homes that were either unable to do it because of illness or were simply just part of the Christian family that need a some help.

 The past seven weeks have been an amazing growing experience for me as a leader, worship leader, and speaker.  A part of my life long desire is to be able to effectively communicate the love of God and His desire to see His children walk in the fullness of His life and glory!  On this trip I was able to continue on in that journey through speaking to youth groups all over the nation.  Thank you so much for you prayers and support throughout this time, it's been such a joy.