eltonsnews

'The shadows prove the Son shines' Switchfoot

2005-11-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

Picture it... it's Tuesday morning...
...This fella (Tom) walks into the local barbers to get his hair cut.

Miraculously there's no queue and so he sits smugly into the chair, checking himself out in the mirror, the black cape is swung around his neck (if he had a hat he'd be Zorro!) and him 'n' the barber start chattin' about life, moanin' about how expensive in Ireland is, the stupid frog sculpture the Council put up, the messy bonfires, 'the young people, oh the young people, back in our day'...and last night's soccer match (ManU lost 1-0) 'n' somehow or other...
....they start talking about the G word - God!

The barber wastes no time giving his opinion... "Tom, to be honest with ya... i don't think God exists."

"Whay do you say that?" asked Tom.

"Sure, just walk down the streets and you realise there's no God...you know yourself, the beggers, the old folks & the sick people who are suffering - the bad stuff like rape, murder... sure, the list is endless like..."
...Sure how could a loving God allow such things like?"

Now Tom thinks about this for a while... i mean, come one like!... You don't wanna go startin' an argument with the bloke who has a pair of sharp scissors next to your head, right? or worse the bloke who in the heat of an argument could get distracted 'n' give a funky-cut alá David Beckham!!!
So he thought to himself... "nah, i'll say nothing. YET..."

Anyways, before he knew it, the hair was done and out the door he went.

As he looked across the street he saw a begger on the street with dirty long greasy hair. Suddenly he walked back into the barbers shop and with a cheeky grin and a twinkle in his eye said 'Ya know what, i DON'T think barbers exist!"

Rememberin' the banter he'd had with Tom, the barber laughed and said "What?" "Sure, what am i standing here doin' right now!!! Didn't i just cut your hair?"

"Hold on now..." said the fella "If barbers existed, sure there wouldn't be fellas like that begger outside with hair in a state - like that!!!"

"Ah come on will you..." replied the barber "Barbers DO exist - the thing is people like that fella won't come to us!!!" "Sure, what can ya do?"

"Exactly, my friend!!!" exclaimed Tom, "God does EXIST! What happens is, people won't go to him and don't look for him!!! That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world my friend!"

"Cultural Training" @ The Imperial Fez

2005-10-22T16:10:00.001-07:00

As a treat for all us hardworkin AOGN staff, Kent (who has Turkish roots) took us out to a North African-style restaurant that reminds him of home... So off we went to famed 'Imperial Fez,' a Morroccan restaurant. As you can see, it was a little, how shall we say...Different! An experience!!!
We sat on the floor (no chairs) and had a 5 course meal, African-stylee. The kebabs were gorgeous 'n' the sweet T was decent too. Hmmmmm! We had to eat everythin' with our hands (hence the towels hangin' on our shoulders) 'n' we did a very fancy hand-washin' ceremony too.
Kent even got a free hat out of it... which looks interestin on him!!! :-)
Not sure about the belly-dancing though...not my cup of T i guess (but then i'm Irish...i'm the only 1 who drinks T!!!)
Was great to spend that last night in the US together with the lads. We had great cráic!
PS: as the band 'Genesis' sang...'i can't dance, i can't talk, the only thing about is the way i walk..."

Me head spinnin'

2005-10-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well 1st... i'd like to welcome all those people who've had trouble accessin my blog! Somehow, some oul' KJV Bible Prophesy toutin' website (Amazin' Bible Studies) tried to divert people to der website using my blog address... Get yer own ye punks!!! Ever heard of 'Thou shalt not steal?'

Cataylst Conference rocked! We did the labs today. i went to 3 of them... Alex McManus of Mosaic Church in LA said some intrestin stuff, talked about the Emerging Church, the church of tomorrow, raisin' the leaders of tomorrow, mission, reaching the World 'n' bein' a risk-taker. Revolutionary stuff!!!

Darren Whitehead (i wonder did he go to Hillsong?) is the youth & young Adults pastor @ "Willow'"(Creek). (It makes me laff when people try to make a churchy-name sound funky!!! D only good 1 i've herd was "Naz" 4 Nazarene.) He talked about der youth group, 'aXis' & what der doin' dez days. Soundz class. Got sum kool ideas off him.

Finished off d day listenin to Donald Miller & Leonard Sweet... 2 very intrestin fellas! Dey look @ things in depth 'n' make sum fantastic, funky + frightenin' observations about the church...

Wrecked tired!!!

2005-10-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

And i thought that trip to Romania for Liviu's weddin was deadly...
i'm recoverin from a 15 hour drive, called a roadtrip in the States, from Lawton in Oklahoma to Atlanta in Georgia. That's like drivin' from Shannon to Italy non-stop.

Went playin b-ball in Cache with Ryan 'n' some of his buddies! Was swelterin' in the hall! Wrecked after it!!!

We went to a Mexican restaurant today... d only Mex grub i've liked so far... Chipolte. Hmmm

Also went to a GIANT shopping 'mall' (centre) called 'Mall of Georgia,' where you'll be happy to hear, i bought LOADS of presents for all me littl' bros 'n' sis' back home...

Excited 'bout goin' to d Catalyst Conference tomorrow... We booked early so we're a few of the
lucky thousand to be goin' to the Catalyst 'Labs' tomorrow... i'm goin' to d 1 on d Emerging Church.
Check out the speakers...
Louie Giglio (Founder of Passion...produces Matt Redman's/Chris Tomlin's albums...massive heart 4 God)
Bill Hybels (Willow Creek...18,000+ church in d Windy City...has done several leaders conferences in Ireland with EAI)
John Maxwell (famous for his book - '21 Irrefutable Laws of leadership')
Erwin McManus (Pastor of Mosaic Church.)
Andy Stanley (youth pastor turned pastor who has built an amazin church-Northpoint. Matt Redman records his live albums here...goin' der Sunday)
Donald Miller (wrote 'Blue like Jazz'....waxes lyrical on Christianity like no other.)

Should be intrestin!!!
Right now though... i need to sleep!!!

Funky Fundraisin

2005-09-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here's an intrestin way of fundraisin' for Ur ministry...

Dis is Matt McKay... he's d leader of d Kids' ministry over @ Lawton 1st Assembly (of God)...

He's hopin' 2 raise $50,000 for kids ministries by LIVIN UP ON A BILLBOARD FOR 8 DAYS!!! (Billboard = Advertisin sign)

Can U imagine it lads... me sittin 'n' sleepin' up on top of D Shell!!! Hey... @ least i'd have a whole floor to myself!! :-)

Yo dis is krazy, i'm gonna try 'n' get a pic of it 'n' post it up here!

As we speak, he's 5-days into his 8-day stay 'n' he's raised 12 grand already! As for me doin' d same thing ...gimme $50,000 4 d youth 'n' i'll do it... no probs! ;-)

Halloween Camp Wk-end

2005-09-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Just got dates 'bout Equippers Christian Youth Camp...
Dates: Friday October 28th - Monday 31st.
Lads, dis'll b an awesum opportunity 2 get away 4rm it all, connect wit God, get in2 His presenz in Word, in worship 'n' in prayer + connect wit Uth 4rm all ovr Ireland.
Dis is a MUST people! Wudn't it b kool if we ALL got 2gether 'n' hung out 4 d wk-end?!!
Cum on let's do dis!
Cost is 60.
So start savin' NOW! We'll do a fundraiser if we hav 2! 'Cuz Xposurez d followin weekend!

???

2005-09-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

LCS

2005-09-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Spoke @ Lawton Christian School (nicknamed D Crusaders) dis mornin'... 'cuz it's a Christian school, they have "chapel" or youth-church after lunchtime.
Was kinda nervous... der was a good few of 'em der!
Kent did an intro, we showed d SportQuest promo video 'n' den i got to speak. i did a little quiz to warm up (scroll 2 d bottom of dis blog 2 take d quiz)...then spoke on the 'Man from Macedonia' in Acts 16...

D Quiz...U got a kool Irish hat if U got d question right but showered by cool water if U didn't. i got to drench 2 people...deadly... but 2 people escaped!

i'm speakin @ First Assembly 2nite. Will be speakin' on 'Man from Macedonia' again...

Will b hangin out wit loads of d Crusaders @ 1st Assembly's youth 2nite (dey got a massiv youthgroup)... gonna encourage 'em 2 cum ovr 'n' visit us. 2 girls, Christine 'n' Margaret r already thinkin' about it!

Quiz:
1. What percentage of Ireland is leprauchans? ??%
2. What is the most popular sport in Ireland? Here's what the LCSers guessed ... Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, Golf. No mention of GAA!

3. How many counties in the island of Ireland? A) 32 B) 25 C) 60
4. What country is to the west of Ireland? A) USA B) Iceland C) England D) Germany

AOGN Camp 'o6

2005-09-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Yo...
Not just good news but Great News...
Athlete's of Good News Sports Camp 'o6 dates have been announced...

3-Day Training Camp aka T.C (hopefully in UL): June 28 - July 1st
StreetReach: July 3rd-7th (a whole week of it! Deadly!)
SportsCamp: July 10th -14th

(Unfortunately, T.C is gonna clash wit Summr Fire...bummer! Wil chat wit Gav 'n' c if we can work sumthin out.)

Workin on StreetReach right now. Really wanna do a SK8JAM 2. Am tryna hook up wit sum krazy-Sk8r/BMXers dudes here in d States 'n' get 'em over to Ireland!
Imagine... Jer, Mikey (see my earlier post) 'n' d Waveuth bhoys, Pax, all d Uprising lads 'n' FunBobby...

We're thinkin of doin' a FREE camp dis summer!!! Wicked or what?
Please pray for me as i try 'n' get TC organised 'n' try to get an amazin' line-up of J-Freakz to lead d sports @ Camp...
Off d top of my head, i'm thinkin of d usual suspects - Jer Evans, Shaun Payne, d Westbrooks etc. Any suggestions for GAA & Soccer?
Please feel free to email me wit ideas for TC, StreetReach, Camp...

PS: Bernardos, Der-mit 'n' Al, i need yer help bhoys!

Xposure Announced!!!

2005-09-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

Sweet home Oklahoma!

2005-09-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

Do any of ye remember Danny singin that? That guy is da funniest!
Anyways, i've arrived safely here in Oklahoma. i somehow managed to get front row seats on both flights here! :-) The air-hostesses started singin' over the system! (...No! Not 'cuz a me!) Was gas though! Totally didn't expect it...

Have met up with all the Athlete's of Good News gang here. Joy, Kent, Laura, Michelle, Ryan & Seth all say hi! Ryan misses ye bad.
i'm staying @ the Petersen's (the best Christian guest house ever!). i'm stayin' in their sons room and sleepin in the mosst comfortable bed ever.

By the way for those of you who think Lawton's boring, think again... it has the world's lagest tyre factory (Goodyear)... :-0 ...so der!!! ;-)

Speakin @ Lawton Christian School (LCS). Would love to see one of ye boys come over here for a year and play b-ball. One of their fellas is hopefully gonna go onto play Division 2 College next year.

Will be speakin @ 1st Assembly (of God) Church tomorrow night. Would appreciate yer prayers guys. Nervous but excited. Both places will be packed full of people and U know me, when i'm nervous i talk fast 'n' ye (let alone Americans) don't catch everything i say!!! At the same time, it's a chance to share my passion and vision with loadsa people 'n' hopefully encourage them to join us in doin' His work.

We leave next Monday to go Catalyst Conference... check out the line up of speakers! Savage or what? :-)

Coolest thing i've seen Stateside

2005-09-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Canyon View

2005-09-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Went to a rockin church today called Canyon View Christian Fellowship!!! It's a "small" (American sizes!!!) AG church of 700. Really connected with God in the worship. Awesome sense of God's presence in the room. The jacks in their church were bust so we had to use porto-loos! Naasty! Also their church has a coffee break between the end of worship and before the message. Hmmmm... interesting!!!

The Pastor of Vineyard Church Cincinnati, Steve Sjogren, spoke... One of the best speakers i've heard. He spoke from the heart about the church reaching out into the community 'n' showin kindness. He shared from the Word (Romans 2:4/Matthew 28:19) 'n' from his amazin personal experiences. He died 'n' God miraculously brought him back to life.
Man, he was SO funny - he's dry 'n' a littl' sarcastic!!! He's a LOT of experience in helping churches get involved in their communities and show people the love of Christ.
He's touring the world @ the moment, speaking to pastors/leaders and i'm hoping he gets a chance to come and speak in Ireland. He seemed pretty interested. Will try 'n' hook him up with EAI.

Was cool... he prayed over me @ the end of the service and he had some very encouraging words for me.

Check him out... www.stevesjogren.com

Check 'em out... www.cvcf.com/

Check out my new bird!!! ;-)

2005-09-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hey...
Her name's Boujou, she's 17, great figure, a beautiful blonde and a vegetarian who likes flying!
Check the next post to see a foto of me with my new girlfriend!!!

;-)

2005-09-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yeh, i know... what a sad joke! Agreed!

Anyways... the beautiful blonde bird is 'Boujou' ...Mark & Alisha's (the people i was stayin with in San Diego) 17 yr. old pet Cockatail. As you can see - it took a lot of flitterin 'n' flappin to get her to step onto my hand and up onto my shoulder, but you know us Irish ...

...everyone loves us!!!

Sponsor the drunk Irishman!!!

2005-09-25T21:28:00.001-07:00

Yo Jake, i think we need to change this foto!!! :-) Stoner or what? :-)
What's worse is Noel is lookin over at me...
www.buildchurches.org/

It's Friday... 'n' i'm missin ye!

2005-09-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

It's Friday... and i'm NOT going to Jamzone! This sucks!!! Miss ye all like mad! Hung out with JackE 'n' her family today in Chino Hills. They've a cool house. 2 pools in the back!! We had lunch @ In'n'Out. Hmmmmm...
JackEs 'stoked' bout some of ye emailin her...shez dying to hear from some of you... especially Mouse, Emily, Shane! She misses ye like crazy!

Speakin with JackE 'n' Dermot (online) makes me realise how much i miss HOME. Scottsdale/OC/the US...it's amazin'... but it's not where God is calling me to! By the way, if ye havent heard from Dermot for a while - it's 'cause he's just got a deadly new job with 02. He's still doin youthwork out in Caherdavin 'n' Moyross... 'n' hopefully we'll be seein' him 'n' his crew out @ JZ some time this year.

Meetin' up with a BIG sponsor tonight for dinner. This fella's helped out the Irish church a lot. Lookin' forward to talkin to him about our vision for JZ 'n' for the youth of Shannon.

Tomorrow, i'll be chillin' with JackE in San Diego 'n' den speakin' @ 4 churches over the weekend. More details to follow...

Miss ye...
It's NOT about WHAT we do - but about WHY we do it!!!
'1-WAY! JESUS! Ur d only 1 dat i cud live 4!!!'

Pax217

2005-09-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

How cool is this... i got to meet some of the lads from 'The Best Christian Sk8r Band Ever' ...Pax217! We went to hear 'em down in Cork @ X-Fest (Cork City Hall) 2 yrs ago 'n' dey ROCKED. Here's a foto of 'em... D bad news is PAX is NO MORE :-(
As of Oct. 14th they've split up! Tragic!!! Da cause: Life!

Lead vocalist, Dav Tosti is gonna be a dad soon 'n' is workin wit TripleX-Church. He's not sure what he's doin music wise. Neither is Jesse (guitar). Josh (bass) is kickin off a new band. Bobby 'The Chef' (DJ) is cuttin up tunes on d decks 'n' doin youth ministry @ a local church.

Now before ya ask... YES ... i begged 'em to come over to Ireland again 'n' ROCK!!! They seem willin' to come over ...so how about we get 'em over for SK8JAM:2!?!

i think we should run a campaign to have 'em re-unite!!! So let the chain-email petitions begin people!!!

Went to visit one of the sound-guys @ Crossroads Church tonight. Their sound-desk cost over $150,000 and their total sound system was over $600,000!!! You'd need to work for NASA to figure out how to use their desk :-) Seriously, it was like lookin into d cockpit of a fighter jet... flasing lights,dials,cables,switches,buttons, screens etc. etc. ...and no wonder they spend all that cash on sound gear (and lighting)...Deliriou5? was in town last week leading worship there! Wicked man!!!

D ultimate combo... Pax217 jammin' on Crossroads' soundsystem! HEAVEN!!!

Youth of a Nation

2005-09-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Me and Jake have been workin on a strategic plan to build Irish youth ministries...

BuildChurches will be launchin a youth resource website, built by Jake.
The site will feature a youthwork map of Ireland, a calendar of events, the infamous 'Fish-Tank' (a messageboard for youthworkers), links to useful websites and resources.
We were thinkin of callin it ihateteenagers.com but some people are a little iffy 'bout that 1!
We could do fatherfurlong.com (d annoyin' noisy young Priest from Fr. Ted aka Graham Norton) or something boring like, youthpastor.ie/ (Yer mothers id like that 1!)

Hey, email me 'n' tell me what ye think?

Coastlands Bible College

2005-09-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Shared some stuff @ Coastlands Bible College this morning...
Reminded me a lot of I.B.I ...small inter-denominational Bible college ...small and cosey classrooms ...passionate students ...lots of interaction.

i shared something God put on my heart ...Acts 2:1 ...'Jesus' church was born on the streets!!!'

Thanks to Brett for givin' me the opportunity to share. He's an interesting fella... he's been the young adults pastor @ Saddleback, an A.G pastor 'n' pastor of a Calvary Chapel (Church.) How kool is that?

Met this one Norweigan chick @ the Bible College! You should hear her say "Ole Gunnar Solesjkar!"
...Wow! ;-)
They taped me sharin @ the College so if ya wanna hear me - check out their site and see if you can find me on there!!!

www.ccbcu.edu/

American Attitude...

2005-09-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

Says it all... no wonder Americans succeed!

big CHURCHES

2005-09-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

Visited two huge churches 2day! The first was Saddleback church... home of Rick Warren & Doug Fields, the fellas that wrote Purpose Driven Life, P.D Church and P.D Youth Ministry. The church is enormous! They've 80,000... that's right... 80,000 members!!! The auditorium houses 30,000 comfortably! It's like having church in a football stadium! It's like someone bought the U.L Arena and turned it into a Church! The screens are massive!

They've an entire building for their Sunday School classes and there's over a thousand teens in their youth group! They meet up in tents (Summer Fire stylee) on Sunday 'cuz the youth and adults can't all fit in the church stadium, i mean audiorium! :-) i got talkin to Andy from Simplyyouthministry and he filled me in on how their YM works... 'it's all about small groups'... must be a looooooot of those in Saddleback!

i got a chance to sit on a conference for a little while, where they were discussing the latest crazy-but-cool idea to come out of Saddleback. It's called PEACE.
Plant churches
Equip servant leaders
Assist the poor
Care for the sick
Educate the next generation
The idea is to plant 365 churches globally. That's 1 church a day! Wow, what a vision!!! Their focusing on totally new ground (Africa/Middle East) so don't be expecting a Saddleback in Shannon anytime soon! Warren believes that when people become Christians there'll be World Peace! Hmmm! (What about Northern Ireland... anyways) Go for it man!

Went to the Crystal Cathedral today. It was founded by a famous tele-evangelist of the 80's, Robert Schuller. Again, their church auditorium is HUUUGE! You could fit the whole of Shannon in there! It's all made of glass, hence, the whole crystal thing! (though it must take the entire church to clean it) They had runnin water 'n' fountains in the middle of the church! They're BIG into art... cool statues and they do a lot of plays 'n' dramas re-enacting the Christmas, Easter and Creation stories.

Went to some Christian bookshops today. As with the Irish ones, they're expensive, though not as expensive as their Irish cousins. As with all American stuff, they're BIGGER than the Irish ones (U couldn't swing a cat in the one in Cork! Please note, no animals were harmed during this experiment :-) Bought some cool stuff for the youth worship team and a blingin' b-ball jersey.

Went to In 'n' Out Burger 2day. It's a McDonald's style restaurant run by Christians, that JackEs 'stoked' about (is that a fat joke?)! It's a great example of how God blesses those who seek Him and His Kingdom 1st... they pay their staff really well 'n' treat them well (how many fast food places do that?...Not many! ...None!) ...they have Bible verses on the bottom of their cups (why on the bottom?) and they've only 3 things on their menu... But...
their food is the best ever! The burgers are unbelievable! Everythings fresh! Their chips rock as well! Freshly cut potatoes! And all for 5 bucks! Too good to be true!

Me thinks we should open an In'n'Out @ JZ some day!

elton><>

Chek dez out ...

2005-09-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

Wave~Uth

2005-09-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Whassup?
Visited Wave Uth... ...D closest thing i've seen 2 JZ so far. It rocked. Sk8park. BMX park. PS2. Xbox. Relevant preachin. Evangelistic. In yer face. Kick-ass. Dey'v got an amazin youth pastor in Gary... he's got a huge heart 4 d local youth 'n' he's doin it, JZ-style, wit a limited budget. All d ramps wer built by d lads demselves!!! (Reminds me, Henny 'n' Ben ...much respekt brothers!) Was amazin do, all d older lads set up evrythin 'n' den sk8d/BMXed. A couple of 'em r pros! All d junger lads looked like Moley! ..long blonde hair dressed in baggy pants 'n' sk8r Ts!

Met up wit Peter from Derry whose doin an internship der. Sound man. Also met another intern, from England, called Natalie. Dey had sum intern over from Cork, called Anne, 2 yrs ago! If U kno of her whereabouts... names on a postcard please! Wud like to chat wit her 'n' c wat she picked up 4rm her time in d States!

BIG shout to Gary, Mark, Natalie, Peter 'n' all the Cornerstone kru. Ye rock! Hopefully we'll see ye along wit Mickey (dat kid is sick on a BMX...chek out d foto), Rich Mulder & Co. in Ireland asap! Sk8JAM 2 is born!!! (PS: all we need is PAX 2 top it off!)

Let's do dis!

TBN

2005-09-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Visited TBN people!
For those of you who don't haven't a clue what TBN is... its the Trinity Broadcasting Network... the place where they record some of the GODchannel stuff! Lot's of Gold, stucco artwork, statues etc.

A little taste of heaven i guess!?! ;-)

Yo Wise, they even had a gold piano man!!! One day you'll be playin one of them upstairs bro! Check it out...

Didn't bump into Benny (sorry Danny!) or the Copelands...

elto><>

Look who i bumped into...

2005-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Look who i bumped into...

Cowboys & Cowbhoys

2005-09-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

The American cowboy meets an Irish cowbhoy ;-)

Welcome to OC

2005-09-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to OC Elton...

... Random thoughts... sing with me - 'Our God is an awesome God' ...missin' Shannon? Nope!!! ...reminds me of Baywatch 'n' Pamela!!! Errr... focus elton, lets not go there!

Thank You!!!

2005-09-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

big THANK YOU to the Carlson family!!! Mark, Karen, Erik, Molly + Maisey 'n' Milly (the 2 most annoyin' but loveable Bassett-Hounds in the world)... thank you for an enjoyable stay!

Gilbert is great... went to the Mall (i.e. Shopping Centre), the Berean Bookstore, Lifetime gym (played b-ball there for an hour), Fry's, as well as a host of restaurants... IHOP, Iguana Macs, Wendy's, some Mexican place (?), and Taco Bell (the best value fast-food place alive) and avoided all the Mormons!

Also couldn't resist jumpin in the outdoor pool! How cool is that? A pool in your back garden!!!

Dropped in on the (Phoenix) Suns Pro-basketball (NBA) team shop. They've just signed an Irish fella , Pat Burke. He's 6'11" (or 2.10m for you European types)!!! Pat's the first Irish-born NBA player. So i proudly ordered my Pat Burke jersey! :-) COME ON IRELAND! Check out the fotos!

Along with Mark i went to Alice Cooper's restaurant in Phoenix called ?. Did ye know he's a Christian!!! Seriously! How whack is that? All the waitresses had to wear Cooper style black-tear-drops make-up. Talk about OTT!!! Sad!

God bless ye for yer hospitality 'n' generosity lads!

big THANK YOU to all the Hi-lands gang - U know who U are [A-Z]: Andrea, Brian, Chris, CJ, BIG Dave Spenser (CIA), Dave, Ed, Erik, Jarron, Jason, Jim, Josh, Karen, Kev, Les, Mark C, Mark Y, Marshall, Matt, Mike, Mikey, Molly, Pam, Sean, Tim.
? you've the best accent ever! Geeee-TAR!
Dude, how many Yules in Hi-lands???

Ron Carlson RIP. (Without your passion & vision this wouldn't have been possible)

In the desert...

2005-09-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Me and Mark headed out to the Superstition Mountains! As you'd expect from Arizona, it was HOT... extremely HOT... the car was like an oven... basically we were stuck in the middle of a desert!!! Some of the scenery was spectacular. No too much to see! Lots of cactus plants! Apparently some Dutch adventurer hid a huge amount of gold somewhere in the mountains! Lost treasure!

Oddly enought...there's a BIG 'oul lake in the middle of all the desert and everyone was out there for the day... fishin', waterskiin', powerboatin', eatin', chillin'. Would love to have gone waterskiin' ...

Went to a little village (called Taco) and got my foto taken with some of the locals!!!

Hi-landz Youth

2005-09-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

Visited Highlands church youth the past 2 nights... FX & Studio51. Studio51 is a lot like JZ 'n' is led by Kev (see foto), Arizona's answer to Gav Cassidy! Kevz whaacky 'n' wild ...has an amazin heart for God 'n' for youth. They did some hilarious games... 1 of 'em involved lipstick, hair-gel 'n' a catwalk! i can't say much more, we should do it at JZ some night. HaHAHaHA! (evil Podge laff!)

FX was like NuB. More Bible study, preachin, small discussion groups. Their youth pastor, Josh, is a sound guy. The youth worship leader is this total Californian 'surfer dude' called CJ. He looks like Kurt Cobain when his fringe hangs down over his head!!!

They don't do much, if any, Hillsong United over here... Tragedy! They're more into 'David Crowder Band' 'n' 'Chris Tomlin'/'Passion.' Mark's son, Erik, is the most amazin' guitar player so i got him a 'More than life' CD 'n' enocuraged him to go to the Hillsong Worship College down under. Their youth-band is really talented, though more music-focused than worship-focused, in my opinion.

They're thinkin' of possibly coming over to Ireland next summer, which would be kool.
Scottsdale kids are loaded 'n' spoilt so we're gonna do a desert-like SOUL-SURVIVOR (dun-dun-duuuunnn) wit 'em! HaHAHaHA (Another evil Podge laff!!!)
(...see the scary bush-filled barren green-grass foto below!!!)

...Not the type of deserts ye Scottsdale Sun-Devils are used to!!!

That'll put the fear of God into 'em!!! We'll put the fear of God into ye ALL! ...Wuhahahahaha!
Bring it on!
Chek out Hi-lands youth stuff ...www.highlandschurch.org/Ministries/JrHigh