needing prayer...getting excited...and more

How time flies when you're having fun, they say...and the time is almost here for Chris and me to travel to a 'safe' country in the Middle East to help teach/impart into a group of ex-Muslim house church leaders from perhaps the most fruitful Muslim field on earth. We're excited!

We leave next Wednesday afternoon (10/4/06 - all time references will be Chicago time) and the conference begins about midnight on Thursday and concludes early Saturday morning. We then fly to the capitol city where we'll minister for the most influential evangelical leader in the country (because of the time difference, those services will conclude about 4am Sunday in Chicago). If you're reading this, I'm unashamedly begging you to pray for us and these very strategic meetings.

It's funny I know, but this Sunday night I'm going to attend my first-ever NFL game, driving to Soldier Field to watch the Bears take on the Seahawks, and I'm excited about that, too. It'll be a father-son bonding opportunity with my youngest son, Brent, and we're both pumped about it.

The reason I say it's funny is because I'm also excited about the current "Expotential" series and the launch of our Shorewood campus - and I realized today that I'm just as excited about that as I am the trip to the Middle East next week OR the Bears game this Sunday - life is good, right now, so I'm enjoying my journey. Hope you are, too-