missionary2america's Xanga

God is Like Coke??

Wed, 14 May 2008 23:22:33 GMT

Chimney Rock and Beechnut. I'm gonna miss this intersection ...

This one is funky ...

So !! We have a new game. How is God like Coke?

Do people listen to you?

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:42:58 GMT

Do they? Why? I just came across a short article about this. I think it's dead on and well stated.

Click here to read the article.

The one thing I think it left out is that everybody has "bad communication" days, which begs the question: how often is too often to have a bad communication day?

- Tom

Baytown

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:54:06 GMT

For a few years now Stephanie and I have been trying to figure a way to live close to a church we can plug into and be very active in, but still not be too far away from my Houston customers, and still be in an area where the internet services required by the hosting part of my business are available. We couldn't afford to spend too much on a house either, but wanted something with space to have people visit regularly and have plenty of room to hang out. We also wanted plenty of room for Stephanie's family from Louisiana to visit, including her sister and her four children!

It's turned out not to be an easy set of requirements to meet. But we've located a house in Baytown that meets all those criteria, made an offer we could afford, and incredibly, it's been accepted. A close professional inspection revealed the house was very well built and is in fantastic condition. It's less than 10 minutes from the "Refinery", the Vineyard Church in Baytown. Here are some pictures of the house ... (not very good pictures - the house is much larger than these pictures can adequately show - but here's an arial view that helps). It has three huge bedrooms, a large dining room, a large living room, and a large den, on a large corner lot with plenty of room for parking, and plenty of room for a garage-office-apartment some friends are going to help us build.

The very sad part of this move is going to be seeing the lifelong friends we've made in the Lake Jackson area, less often. Even with a 1-hour drive to church, many of our Lake Jackson friends have become our dearest (making it very much worth the drive, but increasing the heartache of leaving town every Sunday afternoon, knowing we probably won't be able to see them during the week). We've looked at getting a house in Lake Jackson several times, but realized it would be a very risky move for the hosting part of my business, even if the specialized internet services it requires were available out there, and even if we could find something with plenty of space, that we could afford.

But, it's not goodbye. The friends we've made in Lake Jackson are lifelong friends with very dear places in our hearts. They will still be seeing us and hearing from us, and I hope they will all know that distance is not going to change that.

This Sunday Evening at 6PM - 15 very unexpected minutes of fame?

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:29:32 GMT

This coming Sunday evening April 27^th at 7:00/6:00 p.m. CST, an Extreme Makeover Home Edition airs on ABC as the design team helps one of our Vineyard pastors in Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can read more about Gerald and Liesa Martinez and their story in the attached document including a note written by their Area Pastoral Care Leader Mark Morgan. Feel free to pass this on and join us as we support this family and rejoice with them.

http://www.extremeatreus.com/index.shtm

Happy Earth Day

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:27:46 GMT

Happy Earth Day, my friends.

First, a game ...

http://www.greenmountainenergy.com/earthday/game/earthdaygame2.html

... a couple of sales pitches ...

Are you using renewable power yet? You can get it from www.greenmountain.com.

Buying a car? Consider a Prius, a Highlander Hybrid, or a Tesla.

... and the bottom line ...

What do all these things have in common? They cost a little more, give you a little less, and make a little difference. Which is why most people aren't doing them. Who wants to pay more money, get less, and make an intangible difference? But in numbers, it makes a difference. How bad does the situation have to get before we change the way we consume? Food for thought.

You've gotta see Jessica Cottar in Little Shop of Horrors

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:46:46 GMT

If you haven't yet, you've got to go see Jessica Cottar in Little Shop of Horrors. Seriously. It's definitely in the top ten of my entertainment experiences this year. Her and the whole cast and crew have obviously put a ton of work into this show and it's paid off.

If you know me and how I'm into technical details, I'll tell you they had a lighting malfunction toward the end of the show and they had me so engrossed in the whole thing I didn't even notice -- someone told me about it afterwards.

I'm pretty sure this coming weekend is the last weekend. I don't think you want to miss it. Details here:

http://baytown.littletheater.org

Rabbit

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:17:27 GMT

A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves.
"What are you doing in there?" she asked.

The rabbit replied:
"This is a Westinghouse, isn't it?",
to which the lady replied "Yes."
"Well," the rabbit said,

"I'm westing."

Merry Texas Christmas

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:56:02 GMT

This morning I have "Alle - Alleluia" from Merry Texas Christmas running through my head over and over again. Must be the merry Texas angels singing it over me, there must be something good coming my way today. Or something not so good that I'm going to need a lot of help dealing with - lol.

Self Discipline

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:06:54 GMT

Strange ... I used to have what looked and worked a lot like self-discipline -- and maybe it even was. But so much of it was based on brokenness in me. I actually had unhealthy reasons for eating healthy, working out, rarely consuming alchohol, treating people nicely, hard work, and persistence. Most of the unhealthy reasons were about fear, sources of value (for myself and others), and unhealthy inner vows made in childhood.

For the past few years I've been involved in CrossCurrents and Living Waters ministry, and seeing my internal workings that closely for that long has brought about some changes in me. This is great - I don't want to go back to who I was inside - I can't go back - but it has some unexpected and unfortunate side effects. I've been eating less healthy, working out much less (at least until a few weeks ago), drinking 4 nights a week, working hard only in response to obvious requirements (as opposed to constantly seeking work to do), stumbling over myself and doing odd things as I (often) get confused about how, exactly, to treat people right in certain situations, and often allowing my cynicism to meter out my persistence.

In fact the one thing that's gone "right" in this process as far as external behaviors is that I've quit smoking, and I think it's for good ... as long as I don't fall back into it under the influence.

Well OK, there's one other thing I'm happy about -- there were whole groups of people I would ignore before, for the broken reasons listed above, that I now find myself building relationship with. I love them ... and I have lived my life in a kind of poverty without them.

Still Waters Run Powerful, Deep

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:35:16 GMT

A good friend of mine has started a blog that you simply must go read and subscribe to, if you subscribe to any blogs at all. I won't waste any more of your time here today; get going, get reading. Get it done now.

http://bethhoover.blogspot.com/

- Tom