Bono's Prayer Breakfast Speech

I thought it was interesting that Bono spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. I found this link to the video and thought I would let you enjoy for yourself! It's about 25 minutes...

Daydreamer Concert @ Three Trees Coffee House

Daydreamer Concert @ Three Trees Coffee House
Originally uploaded by jeffflint.

This was from the concert last Friday night at a local Christian coffee place in Bellingham. It was sweet. This concert did what I want concerts to do for me. It makes me want to practice my guitar and it makes me want to go be creative. Thanks, guys!

Last night, we had a Home Group party at my house for the college students. Most of them are taking finals and so it was a good study break for them. It was cool because a lot of the people who don't usually come to Home Group could make it to this. (Funny how a party can do that...) I don't know if the students just don't like the things I teach or it's not practical enough for them, or what, but hey - they know it's there for them to help them grow in Christ.

I want to plug my friends who play in a local band called Daydreamer. Check out their website and listen to some of the song clips that they have. They lead worship at a local church here and I play racquetball with their lead guitar player. Their lead singer is a guy who I started taking guitar lessons from when I first moved to Bellingham, but our lessons times starting turning into more of a coffee/chat time. They are great artists and I am pretty excited about this new album of theirs...

Just a quick update post - thanks for reading!

Back from the trip.

We returned from Orlando, FL on Tuesday night after a fun two days of frivolity in the magical world of Disney. I had to wear a button that said it was my birthday and all the employees had to say happy birthday to me and Joel. I have posted the pictures from the trip that we took with our camera. I think my favorite is the Buddha man at Epcot. You'll see what I mean.

The coolest part about the trip is that my entire family went down there, too. Mom, dad and sis meet us there and celebrated our 30th birthday. Joel had no idea and I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he walked into baggage claim and everyone was standing there waiting for him.

I had a little bit of it figured out, but I didn't know that my parents and sister would be there. B and I were waiting our shuttle bus and I decided to call dad to see where he was. He had actually been down at baggage claim waiting for us, but since we didn't have any checked baggage, we went straight to the shuttle bus. He said on the phone - "Don't get on the bus! Don't get on the bus!" Just as the bus was pulling up to take us to the condo, mom, dad, Julie, Joel, Jodie and Jordan walked up and hugged us. Julie even made a sign that said Happy Birthday Jeff! (I still have it, Julie)

Anyway - Bethany and Jodie did an incredible job of surprising us and making their husbands feel really good about turning 30. We are lucky guys, bro.

Flints, Out!

Tomorrow we are leaving for my birthday trip that Bethany has been planning for a while! She won't tell me where we are going, so it is a total surprise to me - but I know that it is somewhere sunny because she bought a new swimsuit this week. I also hear that it is a pretty long plane trip, so that is an indication of how far we are going. Hmmm... It will be nice to get away for a little bit. We leave Saturday and come back Tuesday.

There's always so much to do, though, before you leave, isn't there?

The big 3-0. My friend Mark has already hit that this year, so how is it buddy?

This post is from the Dashboard of my new iMac.  That way I can post things like crazy here!  I like it.

A Good Day

Yes! I got my computer back from the Apple reseller here in B'ham. We got our refund check from the IRS. And we are having dinner with our friends Jason and Alli tonight. Not a bad day. Oh and I got some work done, too.

Here is a pic of my dad and sister at the Freescale Marathon in Austin, TX. They are awesome.

What is up with that?

I am on my little laptop at church because my iMac (the new one I got three weeks ago) has a screen problem. I had to take it back to the store because the screen would not "un-blacken." I called the Apple support and they had me do all sorts of tests and experiments to try and wake it back up, but the screen would have nothing do to with that. That kind of stuff drives me crazy - new things that are supposed to work, but don't and then you have to wait a week to get it back. Too bad they just can't give me a new one or a loaner for the week. I am a little worried about data preservation, too...

B and I have been getting into American Idol this year, and in the "my two cents" department, that Katharine McPhee girl last night has an incredible voice. It is effortless and easy for her. It was the same for three of the other girls - two of whom were 17 and 16. Good stuff!

My dad and sister ran a half marathon together this past weekend in Austin. I forgot the name of the actual race, but they both finished and did okay on time. I am incredibly proud of them to do the training and the work required to make it through without too much pain! (abnormal pain, I guess.)

A week and a half until the big birthday trip!

At the Regent Library

I am here at school in the library doing a little studying (okay, I am surfing blogs...). I found a guy in Bellingham who is in my class and we have started to ride together to help defray some costs. It works out well, and he plays basketball after class so I can do a little studying in the library while I wait for him so we can go home.

It was a pretty busy weekend with the our college student presenation of our Murder Mystery dinner banquet. It went well, though kind of long and a little boring. We tried to adopt one of those "How to Host a Murder" murder-mystery for a large group, but it did not work well. There is just too much information and not enough interaction with the large group for it to work. Everyone was pretty ready to go afterwards! The students made spaghetti and green beans and root beer floats. I am just glad it is done!

I filed my taxes and we are getting a pretty good refund at the end of the month, so that will come in handy to get some new garage doors!

In other news, Bethany is taking me on a surprise birthday trip for my 30th birthday the first weekend of March. We are ready for a little vacation! She won't tell me where we are going, but I still have time to figure it out...

Well, the Seahawks lost today - it looked pretty lopsided to me, though.

I am back from Arlington. I am sorry that I didn't get a chance to see my Mansfield friends - it was a busy time... We had some of our people stay in Mansfield. Our Washington people were pretty amazed at the brick houses, how big they were, and how little they cost compared to the home prices up here.

I am really liking this new computer! It is simply beautiful. and fast. Right now, though, I am having a problem with my iPod communicating with it. I unplugged it while it said "do not disconnect" one time and it has never been the same since. I am going to have to send it in. I called the Apple people and they said that for me to talk to one of their people, it would cost $49 to connect. That is crazy. They said I could pay $59 for a year's coverage with S&H expenses covered if sending it is necessary. Well, it is necessary. iPod is the means by which I am listening to my audio course for Regent. This new machine is worth it, though!

Now, we just need a new laptop at home... :)

In Arlington

Since Saturday, I have been in Arlington, TX on a leadership training week. 5 members of my church and I were flown down by FBCA so that we could chat with their leadership, shadow them during the services, and pick their brains a little bit about why they do what they do.

We are pretty tired, but we are enjoying ourselves immensely.

I got to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday with all my family at Cantina Laredo on Sunday night. His birthday is actually on Feb. 6, but since I was down, it was fun to get everyone together.

It is a pretty fun trip because I get to show the Washingtonians the area where I grew up (kind of...). We went to the Ft. Worth Stock Show on Monday and watched the rodeo, which was a blast. We hit the Whataburger and Chik-fil-a and Dickies for fried okra. We hit the Sonic for some good treats this afternoon. We don't have any of this up North, so we have to get them all while we can!

I Have Returned!

I have kind of been waiting for my return back to this spot mainly because the hardware with which I have to access this site has been severely lacking. I am at the church right now and to access this blog from that computer was archaic. I was using an old iMac G3 400MHz computer running OS 9.1. And at home, we are running a PC with XP that is going out on us.

Well, today, my friends, things have changed. I am now on a iMac G5 Intel Duo Core 2GHz 250GB Super Drive 20" beauty that is just awesome. Holy cow, it is sweet.

It will take some time to play around with the new system to learn all the cool stuff about it, but I am looking forward to it. See you around here more often! I will probably spend more time at the office, now...

There are some new pics over at flickr. Just click the dealio over on the right. It should take you there.

Update to the Wish List 2005

Bethany just got me the Bissell Flip-it tonight so that we can really clean the floors for our choir party tomorrow night at our house! That thing is awesome.

One more thing...

This Sunday is the final big Xmas presentation I am doing at the church. On the 27th, it was the big community sing-a-long, last Sunday it was the Kids Xmas musical, and this Sunday it is the Choir Cantata I am directing.

The Kid's musical was very fun. The kids were hilarious and they remembered most of their lines. It is amazing how much kids can remember when they want to. They all knew each other's lines, too and when to say them. The lead kid in the play was a kid named Nicholas who was pretty amazing at singing and acting. The funny part was that out of the 18 kids in it, only 3 were from our church! Pretty good outreach in an artsy town like Bellingham. There is a sequel to the play (this year it was called The First Leon) and next year it is called The Next Noel. The kids are ready to go for that already!

Oh - and I have to finish up two papers for seminary by next Friday...

My parents are coming up for a visit today and will stay until Wednesday. It is bitter sweet because my brother has a huge viola solo in their church's big Xmas show, and my sister is running another marathon on Sunday. Remember, you are a Kenyan! I am thinking about you guys and I know that you will do well!

Well, B and I just had her parents in town for a week for the Thanksgiving holidays. We had a really nice time to relax and hang out. There weren't any huge trips planned, which was nice because we could just enjoy each other's company. We had our friends Jason and Alli and a guy named John over for Turkey day. I cooked the turkey this year and it didn't turn out half bad! It was really good and there are lots of leftovers, which I'm happy about. I also made a pecan pie that didn't turn out too well. I think I had too many pecans in it and not enough of the goopy good stuff. It was just a good day to hang out with family and friends, watch some football, play some video game football and eat.

Today we had our first advent service at church. B and I sang a duet called "A Strange Way to Save the World." 4 Him did it originally. It sounded nice and the whole service worked well altogether. One of our church members wrote a great poem for each sunday in advent based on the Scripture text for that day. They are pretty deep and thought provoking.

This afternoon our church sponsored a big community Christmas sing-a-long at the Mount Baker Theater. 1200 people came and another 130 people sang in the choir and played in the orchestra. I got to do a little of everything. I played in the orchestra, I played in a rockin' guitar trio with two of my friends who lead worship at another church in town, I sang in a men's gospel quartet, and I played bass trombone in a brass quintet. I also directed the children's choir from our church on a couple of the songs we are doing from our musical this next sunday. The guitar trio was probably my favorite because playing with those two guys is a treat and they can play!

I had to coordinate all these groups and get the orchestra their music and the choir their words, so it was a big undertaking by everyone involved. I am just glad it is over! I enjoyed just hanging out and watching some football tonight. I think my fantasy football smoked my opponent this week.

Crazy Cat

Jester has found a way to the top of our closet! He is actually sitting on top of the closet door here (1 inch thick...) in this picture, then he steps on the clothes hanging up in the closet and pushes himself up to the shelf. He likes the sweaters up there and enjoys being sneaky...

Since it's been a little while... Last week at our church's Harvest Festival, almost 100 kids came through the play the games and win candy. That is huge for our church. God is doing something with our church, and we are just riding the wave. It was one of those things that you are glad to have done after you did it, but were kind of annoyed that you had to do it in the first place. It turned out alright, though.

About Kyle Lake at UBC in Waco - what a tragedy. My heart goes out to the scores and scores of people who are affected by his death. I read Ben Dudley's blog every now and then and to think that Kyle was DCB's pastor, too - in our human-ness, it is a horrible thing. Yet, it God's "God-ness" it is a beautiful, ironic mystery.

In other news, we have started a Kids Xmas Musical with some of the kids from the Summer Academy (VBS-ish) event we had this summer. Let me get you straight on this - our church has only about 15 kids if they all came at once. At the Summer Academy, we had 60 kids and for the Kids Xmas Musical, we have 19 kids. It is crazy! Hopefully, some of these families will feel the draw to be a more permanent part of FBC.

I am at Regent right now getting ready for class, but I wanted to update you on stuff!

Corn Maze Madness

Today I went with our college group to a corn maze field shaped like a salmon. We had to find posts scattered throughout the maze with different shaped hole punches. It was pretty fun and our team beat everyone else. There were some shortcuts taken... The hilarious part was that the field was so muddy that your feet slipped everytime you stepped and everyone was falling and getting their clothes muddy and wet. We went to a pumpkin patch afterwards and picked pumpkins that we are going to carve tonight.

Tomorrow our church has our harvest festival and a guest preacher. It should be pretty fun.

We got tix for our Christmas trip to TX this week! Dec. 25-31 - quick, but fun. I think am most looking forward to seeing my neice, Jordan during that week. It has been a year since I have seen her! B's parents come for Thanksgiving and my parents are coming for our Choir Cantata in December - yes!

Social Weekend

This weekend Bethany and I had a good time deepening some good friendships that we have made up here. Friday night we spent the night with our Matt and Jamie who got married this summer. They live in Mill Creek (near Seattle) and B had to take her science kit back to the Fred Hutch Research Center this weekend, so we just stayed with them Friday night. We had great steaks and a good time just chatting and catching up. We woke up slowly on Saturday, had breakfast, and then said our goodbyes and headed to Seattle and back to Bham.

That night we ate dinner with our friends Jason & Ali for the second time that week! It is nice when friends don't keep score about how many times you have eaten at their place vs. your place. We spent the evening making dinner and talking about all sorts of stuff. After that we dropped in on some friends from church (the Porters) who were having a get together at their new house. Good times, good times...

Sunday was a good day - good worship service, good message, good music... We had a baptism, a solo in Japanese, and 20 kids hip hop dancing. It was different for our church, but we put a lot of old hymns in the service to pad the blow! I got to be a bit creative and play a John Mayer intro into "Revive Us Again." That was fun.

Sunday night, Kim and Joe came over to watch "Alias" and "CSI" we recorded on Thursday. They are fun. Our VCR is getting a bit archaic, though, so we need to get TiVo... ("need")

Today I am at Regent and just not extremely motivated. I know I will be after this class, however, because the professor is just that good.

Rear-ended Again!

This time I was driving the church van from a pastors meeting we had in Anacortes. It was one of those two four lanes country highways that have traffic signals every so often. The cars in front of me were slowing down, I braked well in advanced, the lady driving the Minivan Taxi service did not brake well in advance. I actually saw it coming in my side mirror, but didn't have time to say anything to the other four pastors in the van. Can you imagine losing five pastors in one car wreck? (some more than others, I'm sure...) That would pose some issues with the churches, I think!

BUT - we're not dead, so everything is fine. No one even got hurt. Her van is toast, though!

Two times in one week!