Happy Birthday Nanny.

Today is my grandmothers birthday. For you who haven't met her, I call her Nanny because when I was a little kid I couldn't say granny and I said nanny.

I always thought it would be cool to have your birthday on Halloween. I mean you can have a dress up party every year. Thats fun. I wonder what she will dress up like tonight. I thought of several, but there were my top 2.

1.Pamela Anderson
A blond wig, some skimpy clothes, you got it.

2.Fidel Castro
Fake beard, Cohiba, done.

If you have any suggestions for what my Nanny should dress as for her birthday let me know.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANNY!!!! I hope its great, I love you.

Chris

Reentry. Open House. Splash Report.

Reentry
We are in reentry now after tour. Its a week with teachings and other activities to finish off the year for the team members. Its nice being home, but its strange knowing that I will never see most of this team again. We have traveled a long road together and its sad to think its done.

Our banquet is on Friday and that really marks the end of it all. Its going to be a fun party, I might wear a tie.

Open House

We are having an open house on Sunday. I really hope this house gets interested buyers soon. I am stressing a bit about it because we won't be able to afford to keep it and not live in it. Please pray the selling goes smoothly.

Splash Report

Todays swim workout was the first time I really felt comfortable in the pool. I swam a little over a mile, woohoo!

I did a set of 1000m Freestyle. Then I did 600m Open Water Simulation freestyle (the tri is in a river, so not wall to push off every 25 meters). When I reach the end of the pool I don't touch the wall, I just turn around and start again. Its tough, but good for building the endurance without relying on the wall. Then I finished with a medley of swim strokes to cool down. It was a great workout. Cheers.

Chris

Tri Report.

I have been training for this thing for 4 weeks now. The first 2 weeks I over did it and my body suffered, so the 3rd week I worked pretty well and did a mini tri (half the distance of the one I will do) and that went well. However, this last week I was lame (Este Swartz would say "frozen cheese"), I swam and biked at the gym 1 day, then we went to a town with no gym and I only ran 2 times. Lame.

So now we are back home and I did another mini tri this morning. It was a little longer than the last one and I felt really strong throughout. Here's what I did (It took me 1:06:58 including transitions).


Mini
Swim 400m (1/4 mile)
Bike 13k (8 miles)
Run 3k (1.9 miles)

Real
Swim 600m
Bike 20k
Run 5k

So things are going well even considering my crappy week this last week. Got to get serious for the next month so I can do a good job on the 2nd. I think I'll make it. Cheers.

Chris

End of the Line.

Well, we are home from our last tour cycle of the year and probably ever. It was nice, we got to tour the Cape and meet a ton of great people. I believe a lot of great ministry was done and I also believe that many lives were changed, thats super cool.

I am having such mixed emotions concerning the end of our touring life. On one hand I know its what we should do and that we can have a great ministry impact not on the road. Plus, we can start setting down and starting our family and that is so exciting for me. But, on the other hand I love touring and performing. I love playing music and playing in a band several nights a week. Plus, it was great to get to speak for so many teenagers all around southern Africa this year.

We already made the decision, earlier this year, to not tour after this year, so this isn't a matter of moving to America, it's just that traveling and being on stage has been such a huge part of my life for the past several years that the idea of that part being gone is a little scary I guess. Its what I know. Its what I do.

I don't know much about office work and sick days and holiday time and all that stuff. I think I will adjust fine, its just different, new, foreign, more normal.

I really am super stoked about working at UCYC, it was a dream to be there a few years ago and now we will live there, thats cool. I just am a little emotional about settling down I think.

These emotions are purely selfish too, and I understand that. Ray is done on the road. It was a stretch to tour this year, but she enjoyed it, however, she is done for good. I know it will be good for her to have a more stable routine of life. To have a home that we actually live in will also be great for her.

So overall I know its great for both of us, just a little scary. Its been a great season in our lives and I look forward to a new season approaching. I'm done rambling. Cheers.

Chris

Give It A Tri.

For years I have wanted to do a triathlon and there are so many short ones now that it doesn't seem crazy to train and complete one.

So I have been holding a little secret from you guys. I am planning on doing a triathlon on Dec 2, its why I started swimming earlier this month. I didn't want to post about it because I wasn't sure if I had enough time to actually train and be able to do it. But, I think I will be fine by then.

Its in the Energade (its like Gatorade, except it tastes better) Trithlon Series. Here's the distances.

Swim: 600 meters (.37 mile)
Bike: 20 Kilometers (12.4 Miles)
Run: 5 Kilometers (3.1 Miles)

Its short, but I am still looking at that 600m open water swim with a little hesitation. However, there is an open water swim near my home the weekend before that I will probably do for practice.

I have been training for 3 weeks now, so today I wanted to see how I am doing. So I did a short practice tri at the gym and I completed it. I did half the race distances and felt fine after I finished. That was a huge relief, I now am for sure going to do the tri on Dec 2nd. WooHoo. Cheers.

Chris

For Real?

I went over to one of our students houses this morning and I was told that their host family has a pet chicken. I thought this was rediculous, however later I was in the kitchen getting some coffee and in the door from the garden comes a little chicken. Chirping like it was greeting me. It was awesome.

So I asked the mom if I could hold the chicken and she informed me that the chicken enjoys being held. She also said it also like laying in bed with people and pooping on her husband.

Then she stooped down, picked up the chicken (which they hadn't named yet so I [I actually think it was Ray] gave it the name Kentucky for KFC) I was a little nervous because the whole time I was expecting this nice, cute, sweet chicken to start pecking my eyes out and leaving me a bloody mess on the floor as it danced around my convulsing body in some sort of ritualistic act of domination over the human race. Whatever. But, it didn't, it stayed sweet. So here are a few pics of Kentucky and me.


This is right after they handed the chicken to me. Notice my look of uncertainty, its not fake. I wasn't trusting this evil chicken at this stage.




After getting used to the chicken I let it climb up to my shoulder and figured it was time for a pirate face with a chicken. During the taking of this picture it dawned on my that pirates always wear an eye patch as either a result of the bird perched near the injured eye or as a form of protection from the object of death perched near their eye.



And here is one last picture of us reenacting the fight scene from Traveling Mercies Revalatte where Ian and Noah get in a fight over Noah's insensitivity to Jill's grandmother dying. I think we pulled the emotion of the scene off beautifully. It you are interested in purchasing a script so you can possibly find several hundred dvd's hidden deep in the storage area at Northview Christian Church in Buford, GA.
Cheers.

We are 17.

Ray and I are hooked on One Tree Hill right now. We love watching TV series and a friend gave it to us to watch because he thought we would like it. Its fun high school drama. Embarrassing, but fun. Cheers.

Chris

Sport.

On tour we don't have shows on Mondays, but we have team events like prayer and sport.

Today for sport we had a race up a mountain road. It was a long, steep road and I hate to say, I didn't win. It was so much fun and it was beautiful. If you ever get a chance to come to the Cape in SA, do it. Sell a kidney and come visit this gorgeous place. I am sad that our time in SA wasn't spent here. I will post pics later. Cheers.

Chris

A Wedding, A Coach and A Cape.

A Wedding

Today is my buddy Chad's wedding. I am so sad I can't be there. I don't really enjoy going to weddings, but I would have loved to go to this one. It's fun when you know a bunch of people and it would be great to see so many old friends.

Congrats Chad and Rachel (not my Rachel [aka Ray Ray, Rach or Ray]), but another Rachel that I don't have a nickname for yet. Let me think of a good one and then I will go with that. I think Thomas would be a good nickname for her. Its firm yet gentle, like her husbands heart. Whatever. I just sad that I am in a little tiny town in central South Africa and not partying with the friends. Have fun everybody.

A Coach

I felt like I was needing a little extra push in my dreams of being a great swimmer, so I hired myself a coach. Her name is Sanri, she is a 1st year on our team and she's like a fish.

It's a great set up. She helps me swim better and I don't pay her anything, perfect.

She went to the pool with me the other day and she helped me with my stroke so I look more like a swimmer and not a splasher. She said that I was doing a lot better than she thought I would. I would hate to see what she expected.

With her help today I had my best workout yet. I swam 600 meters nonstop and then swam another 400 meters after that. 1000 meters in my second week swimming. Not bad.

A Cape

We are off to Cape Town in the morning, its a long drive, but it is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have seen, so its totally worth it. I am stoked to perform down there. Its a great perk of traveling ministry, we get to see some great places. Cheers.

Chris

Oh Hi Oh.

My buddy Chad (who through the years has had various nick names including; Brown, CB, BC, Bean Town, Town, Beazy, Beanzoid, Zoid [note that he is neither from nor in my memory ever been to Boston]) is getting married to a wonderful woman named Rachel this coming Friday. They will be wed in Ohio somewhere and I am bummed that I can't make the wedding.

I did get a little fright the other day though when I read on Fox News this headline,

Ohio Couple Marries in Wal-Mart

The reason it scared me a little was I thought that I missed Chad's wedding day and he scrapped the nice church wedding for a wedding in his local Wal-Mart.

Don't worry, it turns out it wasn't him so I am happy to say that I still have friends with a little class. Not to say that people getting married in Wal-Mart don't have class (I would hate to get sued for saying that). Because I think that more people should get married at Wal-Mart. I mean how many times have you gotten dressed up and realized that you only have one dress sock. You could pick up a fresh pair of socks on the way to the ceremony. Plus, I can never think of a proper wedding gift. So you could go see what the others bought and then go shopping on the way to the reception. You could swing through Electronics and get a camcorder or Sporting Goods and get a new tackle box or Home Furnishings and get a nice futon chair printed slip cover.

I am loving this idea, then you could get some beers (PBR) to take to the reception if you don't like the punch. The more I think of it I think there should be a law past that nobody can marry outside a Wal-Mart. Life would be so much easier then.

Congrats Chad and good thing you are getting married before I get this Wal-Mart wedding law past. Cheers.

Chris

Good Week. More Splash. 3 More Left.

Good Week

Our "week" of tour that just ended turned out to be a fantastic week. Its started a little sketchy for several reasons.

1. We were in a township area so the crowd was going to be different and the logistics were going to be a little different than a normal week.

2. We only started on Tuesday. This however kind of rocked because we got a couple of extra days tacked on to our holiday.

3 We didn't have host families. We stayed at a small pre-primary school. The guys stayed in a big room and the girls stayed in a big classroom. This was actually fun. Ray and I only slept there 2 nights because we had a meeting this morning, so it was fun bunking up with the guys.

So these variables made that week different. Plus that fact that there was no stage, we had to use bare minimum lighting and it hailed Wednesday night and ice came through the tin roof where the guys were sleeping. For real.

But at the end the week was great. We performed 3 shows and there was a lot of great ministry done with the students. I was so excited to see how a week that could have been a disaster turned into a great week that the team will remember. Cool.

More Splash

I hit the pool again today, since we are back home. Its such a great workout. I swam just over 1/2 mile in my workout and didn't feel as bad as I did the first day. However, when I got out of the pool and hit the shower and did start to feel light headed and woozy, but I think thats just part of it. The shakes finally went away and hour or so later so it all good.

3 More Left

Ray and I have 3 more weeks of tour left, I can't believe it. The road and performing has been such a big part of my life since college that I am having a hard time grasping that fact that there are only 3 more weeks. Cheers.

Chris

Splash Splash.

I have always wanted to swim. Its such a great way of getting fit, so today I hit the pool for the first time in years. I think I would have drowned it hadn't been 5 feet deep everywhere. But, for my first time it was good. A couple of observations though.

1. I bought a swim cap this morning because its the rule at the gym that you have to wear one. I got a red one, but in the lights at the gym it looks pink, how lame.

2. I don't know how to swim properly. It felt fine, but I sure to the people on the treadmills it looked like I was splashing around like a trout on a fly line.

3. I definitely don't look like Michael Phelps in my swimming shorts. Where he is toned and hard, I am more...lets say....lumpy and soft.

I just imagined the guys working at the gym saying, "Hey, should we go save that fat drowning man in the pink cap?" Cheers.

Chris

PS
I wont be blogging for a few days because I won't have my laptop with me. I will miss you.

Home. Tour. Mud.

Home

We had a real estate agent come today to start the home selling process. It was exciting and strange at the same time. This if our first home and its strange to get rid of it, oh well. He liked the place and we are meeting Saturday to finalize the selling price and get the listing up and going. Hopefully someone will come and look at the house and love it so much they will give us 10 times the asking price just because they are so impressed with our choice of wall paint and the artist way we decorated our garden with mud rather than the typical flowers and grass.

Tour

We leave tomorrow for our last tour cycle. We are touring in a township this first week which is exciting. We are trying to branch our ministry out to different parts of South Africa and the black community is an area we are trying to reach. Its going to be a different week in regard to schedule, but I am super excited about the direction our ministry is going and that we can be a part of it.

Mud

Its been so nice having rain the past several days. Makes for nice evenings; watching a dvd curled up on the couch eating grilled cheese and tomato soup as the rain falls on the tin roof over our back porch, nice. However, as stated above, it also sucks because our back yard consists of a little grass and a lot of mud. And the dogs love nothing more than running around in the mud and tracking in on the new mopped floor.

One funny mud story.

The other day I was in the back yard after a rain and I heard a strange sloshing noise next door, like a dragon was drinking out of a pool or something. So knowing there are no dragons in this part of the world and that our neighbor doesn't have a pool I peeked over the wall to investigate.

The 2 German Shepherds next door had dug a hole and where going crazy playing in the mud pit. It was awesome. They were filthy. I wanted to hear our neighbor's reaction when they got home and saw the mud covered dogs, but I didn't. I was probably curled on the couch watching a DVD and eating grilled cheese with tomato soup. Cheers.

Chris

Run Away.

My friend/boss, Flaps, has posted a great post about run aways. We are looking at this subject for a new show that will be taken to America with our team there. You can read it here.

P.S.
A slang term for chickens feet here are runaways. You will see people grilling them on the side of the road and for R2 or R3 you can have a runaway. Warren and I had them in Soweto, Mmmmmm nice. Cheers.

Chris

Spring Cleaning.

Ray and I have been doing some spring cleaning this week and the house is lookin' sweet. We cleaned under furniture, the shower is spotless, the bedroom got rearranged and we even cleaned the security bars on the windows.

I was thinking about spring cleaning and how we are cleaning our home after a long dusty winter and I thought I will start a little spring cleaning in other areas of my life.

Body

I am lazy sometimes. I like working out and feeling pumped, but I just can't stick with it. So for my spring cleaning of my body I am going to start eating nice and healthy. Cut out the crap and clean up my diet a bit.

I have begun eating and enjoying salads and veggies. They are actually good. (I apologize to anyone I made fun of for ordering a salad at a restaurant, that wasn't nice of me.) I went so far as to yesterday make a veggie pasta for lunch. I am trying to add vegetables to my meals whether a salad or a vegetable medley as they call it at most chain restaurants. Its good for me and my sex appeal.

I am also starting to run again. Slowly. I was running, lets call it jogging, a few years ago and I loved it. However I hurt my knee on a frozen lake in Minnesota and just never got back in to it after I healed. So now, I'm back.....slowly and no Flaps I don't want to run Comrades with you, you sick man.

Spirit

I have been so slack in my Bible reading lately. I think about and pray to God fairly often. I ponder our place in this world, my calling, how I can love more, but I have not been studying the Bible like I would want to.

Obviously if I want to know more about God, his character, his will, his design for the world, then I would have to read this source that has been given to us. I realize this all sounds elementary and childish, so why do I struggle with this? I suppose it boils down to laziness or a feeling that I know the bible because of my BA from JBC. I don't know. But, part of my spring cleaning is going to focus on really getting into the Bible and enjoying the history, poetry, wisdom and character of God.

I wish you a wonderful spring (southern hemisphere) and fall (norther hemisphere) and would encourage you to find areas that need 'cleaning' and go for it. Dust off and start fresh. Cheers.

Chris

Rain. Team Placement. Guinness.

Rain

It has been looking like it might rain for a few days, but it just hasn't. Then last night it finally rained. FYI,it hasn't rained in months and months. I am so excited because now my backyard might have grass again.

Team Placement

Rachel is on the Audition Committee this year and has seen a ton of auditions for next years team. We started the other day with placing the teams and they are working on it again today. Its a ton of work trying to get the teams equal with talent and other reasons. I also love seeing people who came last year or this year and have proven themselves and are put in leadership positions. It's great to see these members grow.

Guinness

Guinness, our first born, loves Damar, but I think she misses being the only dog. The other day I took Damar to get fixed and that night Guinness ruled the house. So now she does something funny. In the morning when we go feed the dogs, Guinness, who loves food, lets Damar go eat and then tries to get alone time with us. This morning Ray went out to feed them and then here comes Guinness back in the room for a little personal time with "her people". Its clever. Rachel says she prioritizes. Cheers.

Chris

Eye See, Eye See.

Ray and I are home and kind of off this week. We are taking care of some things that have needed to get taken care of.
1. Killing the ants. I think the problem is worse than we thought.
2. Hanging the nice glass shelf in the bathroom. Which I did yesterday and broke a drill bit off in the tile. Ugh. Looks nice.
3. Take Damar to get fixed.
4. Pick up fixed Damar.
5. Get my new glasses. WooHoo!

So today I went and got my eye exam and in 5 or so business days I will have my new glasses. For you who didn't know, Guinness broke my glasses in a wrestling match at the beginning of the year. So I was wearing my spare pair that I got in 2000, then they broke, they just broke one day in the middle, like Harry Potter's in the first book. However, I don't think repairo was going to work. So I have been wearing contacts everyday since, which I don't like.

A few weeks ago we realized that there is a "savings plan" on our health insurance and we have enough "saved" where I could go get glasses and it costs nothing out of pocket, cool huh? So I get super cool new glasses. I am so stoked because I hate having to wear contacts. It's nice to have, but I miss glasses. I will post a sexy picture when I get my new glasses, in about 5 or so working days. Cheers.

Chris

Damar At The Vet.

Took Damar to the vet today to get fixed. Guinness freaked out when she (Damar) got to go on a car ride and she didn't. However, I do think G will enjoy have us all to herself tonight. She loves attention.

I will fetch Damar sometime tomorrow. Hope all goes well. Cheers.

Chris

Dogs.

Guinness hugging Marisa

We love our dogs. They are a part of our household. We Got Guinness, the black one, when we first got here, she has been with us this whole time in SA. Damar, obviously the other one, we purchased earlier this year as a friend for Guinness.

The issue we are facing now is what to do with them when we move to AZ. We want to ship them over so badly. We don't think that we can find a great home for them here. They are extremely spoiled with love and they aren't the same when we are on tour, they really love us. I always thought dogs were dumb, but I see the emotion these dogs have, its silly sometimes actually.
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The only reason we wouldn't take them with us is money. It's about $4000 to fly them to America. Thats a fortune for us. If we were rich it wouldn't be an issue, however we are not.

On the other hand, we don't want to leave them because they are super attached to us. Plus people hear don't really take care of their dogs well. They don't let them sleep inside and many people only feed them table scraps. I just would feel that leaving them with bad owners would be not living up to my responsibility as a dog owner. Rach thinks they would die from grief, maybe its true.

What to do? What to do?

We need advice. Whats your thoughts on this matter. Its a lot of money, but they are a part of our family. Please let me know what you think. I need help. Cheers.

Chris



Ray on the couch with Damar.

Rich Mullins. 10 Years.

I was 17 years old and I went to visit Florida Christian College on a recruitment weekend. During that weekend Rich Mullins performed a concert as part of the festivities. I remember vividly thinking this was going to be so lame because my youth minister, Allen Gonzalez, like his music. And of course whatever your youth minister likes is lame.

So we gathered at the venue and Rich Mullins came out to play. He was wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and was barefoot. I liked that. Then for the rest of the night I was captivated by music I have never heard, stories told in a way I have never heard a story told before. He was funny, deep, serioushttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif, entertaining and inspiring. From that moment on I was intrigued by Rich Mullins. His story is almost mythic in its Christ-likeness. Of course his fans don't know everything. We don't know how grumpy he was late at night or how bossy perhaps he was in rehearsals and sound checks. However we have a wonderful collection of songs and the testimony of his friends and family so I think in my mind I will keep him on his little pedestal, he looks nice there.

2 years later I was a sophomore at FCC and wasn't feeling well and stayed an extra day on campus before driving to Tallahassee for Christmas break. That night I was bored and my friend Nate Bush (side note- Nate helped me blossom into the coffee drinker I am today) let me borrow his new Rich Mullins CD called The Jesus Record. It's a 2 CD set where one side is a bunch a demos that Rich recorded before he died and the other CD was a nice recording made by his band, the Ragamuffin Band.

I never listened to the Ragamuffin Band disc, but played the Demo disc over and over. That night a couple of things happened.

1.I fell in love with this guys music. I laid on the floor and wept at the lyrics that were being sung on this disc. Its a whole album about Jesus and its beautiful.

2.I fell in love with the acoustic guitar. The way he played was so nice and different than the punk rock or ska I was listening to the time. I loved it. I still say it was that night that inspired me to become a better guitar player.

Well, RIch died September of 1997, my freshman year at FCC. And his music has shaped me in a way that few things ever have. If you have never listened to his music I highly suggest you find some. Some of the 80's stuff is funny for me, but the lyrics will touch your heart. if you can get your hands on the Jesus Record and play through the demo disc a few times I know you will see what I am talking about. I wish I could thank him for inspiring me so much. Cheers.

Chris