Tonight is the Night!!!

As I’ve posted before, a few of my friends and I will be hosting a screening of the movie “A Closer Walk” at 7pm on March 30th at Pollack Tempe Cinemas. The screening will be free of charge and anyone who is interested in seeing this film is invited to attend.

For those of you who may not know, “A Closer Walk” is a movie directed by Robert Bilheimer, an academy award nominated documentary film maker. As the films website states, “A Closer Walk is the first film to depict humankind’s confrontation with the global AIDS epidemic,” and it does so in a powerful and heartbreaking manner.

Our hope is that you come and learn about how HIV/AIDS is impacting millions upon millions of people throughout our global community. Also, we hope that this film might help compel us to step into this issue with a heart of service and justice.

Here is a list of my friends/bloggers who are all a part of making this screening happen: Justin Narducci, Zack Newsome, Kelli Newsome, David Mulhern, Jamie Mulhern, Brandon Willey.

Click here to view a trailer for the film and click here for all the info for the event.

We hope you can come to the screening and be a part of this event with us.

The Heart of the Issue

I know that the Immigration issue has been heating up to a boil recently, but click here to educate yourself on where this issue will really hit close to home for us all.

Ugh

Here’s even more proof of how lame Christianity is. I can’t wait for the “Christian” version of MySpace!

The Most Beautiful Green is in the Desert

Yesterday I was at my daughter’s soccer game and it so happens that a friend of mine that I haven’t seen since high-school has a daughter on the same team. We were catching up on what we are both up to since high school and he asked me a question that kind of struck me. He asked, “So what do you do in your free time?”. That’s not an odd question to ask but what struck me about it is that I didn’t really have a very good answer. I was at a loss for coming up with something that seemed remotely interesting. I told him that I read, go to movies, and hang out with Holly and Ava but beyond that I had nothing really. I began to think, “Yeah, what DO I do with all my free time?” Most guys would probably have lots of interesting answers like golfing, fishing, hunting, boating, paint-balling, motorcycle riding, etc. Other than regular family stuff, I had bupkis. Maybe it’s because I travel quite a bit and when I’m home I really want to take advantage of hanging out with my family. I love hanging out with my wife and daughter because they are both so much fun to be around but I also feel like that’s not the only reason why I didn’t have a good answer for my friend.

Maybe it’s also laziness or lack of intention to get out get active. Admittedly, I spend entirely too much time watching t.v. or surfing the web or doing something else that’s probably a total waste of my time. When actually stopping to think about what it is I do in my free time, I know there is some hefty chunks of time in my life to work with. The disappointing taste in my mouth is that I’ve neglected to really venture outside my everyday pattern of not doing a whole lot. I’ve decided I need to break out and live with a more intentional effort of doing something more interesting with my free time.

One thing I’ve decided to try out to spice up my free time is hiking. Today I went out and hiked the San Tan Mountain Regional Park that’s only about 20 minutes from my house. I spent two hours hiking by myself and it was really an amazing experience. We’ve had a decent amount of rain lately and that has really created a beautiful desert landscape.

I was pretty surprised at how much I enjoyed my time hiking and I’m really looking forward to heading out again to check out some other trails. I really enjoyed the solitude and the quietness of it. It’s probably the first time in my life where I burned 1500 calories(according to my heart-rate monitor) and ended up feeling more refreshed and energetic than when I started. I’ve done a little research online on Arizona hiking and I’ve realized that there’s a staggering amount of trails just in the Phoenix area alone, not to mention the rest of the state. I need to get crackin’. If any of you are from AZ and are into hiking, I highly recommend Todd’s hiking website. It’s an incredible database for all things “hiking” in Arizona and Utah.

So I have to ask: What do YOU do with your free time?

Click here to check out some photos from my hike.

Desert Snow

In a post a little bit ago I mentioned we needed some precipitation in a bad way here in the Phoenix area. Last weekend it came down in a huge way. Not only did we get a ton of rain all day Saturday, but we also got a bunch of snow on the surrounding mountains. Today, my daughter and I ventured out towards Four Peaks (pictured above) to find a place to play in the snow. It was an amazing day and we were once again reminded just how beautiful our home can be. Where else in the world can you capture a photo with Saguaro cacti in the foreground with snow covered peaks as the backdrop?
Check out some of my photos from the trip here.

A Closer Reminder

As I’ve posted before, a few of my friends and I will be hosting a screening of the movie “A Closer Walk” at 7pm on March 30th at Pollack Tempe Cinemas. The screening will be free of charge and anyone who is interested in seeing this film is invited to attend.

For those of you who may not know, “A Closer Walk” is a movie directed by Robert Bilheimer, an academy award nominated documentary film maker. As the films website states, “A Closer Walk is the first film to depict humankind’s confrontation with the global AIDS epidemic,” and it does so in a powerful and heartbreaking manner.

Our hope is that you come and learn about how HIV/AIDS is impacting millions upon millions of people throughout our global community. Also, we hope that this film might help compel us to step into this issue with a heart of service and justice.

Here is a list of my friends/bloggers who are all a part of making this screening happen: Justin Narducci, Zack Newsome, Kelli Newsome, David Mulhern, Jamie Mulhern, Brandon Willey.

Click here to view a trailer for the film.

We hope you can come to the screening and be a part of this event with us.

Jump for Joy

The backyard just got a little bit more beautiful!

40 Days of Purpose (without Diet Coke)

I am participating in the Western Christian tradition of Lent this year for the first time. Inspired by my podcast parter, John Chandler (and that Jesus guy too), I will be giving up two things: soda and bashing of the Bush administration. This being my first lent, I started to think that I should start off slow. I thought maybe I could refrain from flossing or working out at the gym, but as it turns out, I’m pretty good at avoiding those things anyway. Instead, I think I set the bar pretty damn high for myself. I love Diet Coke and I love to belittle conservative politicians. I love it even more when I’m doing both at the same time.

Not sure why I’ve never done this before…..oh yeah. That’s right! It’s because doing something like this just seems plain ol’ nutty to evangelicals. I mean, trying to align your posture a little bit more like that of Christ Jesus is just a distraction from making sure we are inviting our friends to the sunrise service at our church on Easter morning. You know, Easter….the first of two annual commercials for our church. Just make sure you don’t put anything weird on your forehead next Wednesday. Your friends might think you’re weird and then they for sure won’t come to check out your church on Easter.