3am

at 3am i wake up. once i was up, i was up. i dont know whats wrong with me. i got 3 hours of sleep. then i drove to georgia and did a show. im not sure why i just dont sleep when i am supposed to. i try. i really try. about the time i was sleepy enough to actually fall asleep the alarm went off at 6am. hggithciioawer;qeoxigtwjqepxjhht

pray for our staff

ok my friends, i need to get your help. i need everyone to help pray for our staff. our staff is great. they have the biggest hearts on the planet. they work very very hard for very little pay. they have sacrificed so much for the sake of building the kingdom of God. the bad news is, they have been taking a beating lately. some big things have been happening that have really made it tough for some of our people. it is time for us to pray for them. they are such a part of the team. they mean so much to us. i wish i could snap my fingers sometimes and make everything alright but it doesnt work that way. pray especially for gresham, our president of the organization. he has had the toughest month ever while working with u for the past 8 years. he has been thru alot in the past 8 years but now is the time for us to pray for strength for him.

i will leave out the details, but i know you guys will pray. thanks

i dont know

im not sure what happened today. i usually blog right before i go to bed but last night i forgot. i think maybe i remembered and said i will get to it later. i dont know how i was going to get to it later when i was laying in bed. whats wrong with me? i think maybe i am loosing my mind. or maybe someone has taken it hostage. maybe it is the aliens. i havent seen them around here since june. i never know if they have a plan to take over my brain and use it to take over the world. its not like me to not post a blog so i am certain that aliens have something to do with it.
maybe i should buy some alien repellant

standing room only

our new dvd is available now. it is called "standing room only". it is only available to you guys right now by special request. here is what you do.
email kim@verticalministries.com tell her that i said to give you the friends and family discount. she will take it from there. she will ship it to you for a small fee. remember to ask her nicely, and she will take care of you.

shannon gets it

attention all single guys. here is a bit of wisdom that you should all think about. sometimes guys get the wrong idea of what girls/relationships are all about.
here is a perspective from a girl who i think is awesome. her name is shannon. she works with us on our team. this is copied from her blog. enjoy. and, oh yeah, please give feedback. i wanna hear everyones thoughts on this one



Saturday, August 25, 2007
Intimidated

Here's another question I have been pondering... Why are people, guys in general, intimidated by girls who are independent?

My dad raised me to be an independent lady and to know how to take care of myself. He taught me all about my car and how to deal with situations, among other things. Girls who can hold their own or can carry on a conversation about football seems amazing to me. It's almost like a plus.
Needy, clingy and superficial girls doesn't seem appealing in my book! So why is that what most guys turn to?

Here's some advice to the all decent but clueless fellows out there...look around! Girls that care more about there shoes than their future isn't going to get you far in life. Think about what you really need in life instead of what looks pretty on paper. I bet your option will look a lot different!

its hot

everything is brown> my grass is dead, my trees have lost their leaves< and there is no water in the creeks. we have had the hottest year on record here in tenessee. aunys parents are in texas and have green grass. it is very unusual for that to happen. we ave had several days with temps around 108. it has never been that hot here.
even though it is very hot, i dont mind it. i hate cold weather. when it is hot i just think, "at least it is not cold". i know some of you are thinking that i am weird but i think you are weird for liking cold. some say that when it is cold you can always put on another layer. when its hot you can always...go to the pool

rednecks on the river

today lucas and i had a mission to find a swimming hole near our house. it has been so hot lately, we thought it would be a good day to swim in the river. we drove the back roads wearing just shorts and flip flops the windows down and the music up. we found every bridge possible and looked for a decent place to swim. you would not believe some of the rednecks we found under some of those bridges. we saw one family that was drinking beer with their teenage daughters.
anyway, we finally found a place to swim. it was in the river under one of the many bridges. we only stayed for a few minutes. we drove for hours to find the place even though it was about 4 miles from the house. i think the search was the fun we were really searching for. we could have gone to a friends apartment and swam in the pool. i guess im just a redneck too.

10 years later

i never realized what God had planned for me. 10 years ago i couldnt even get close to understanding the depth of his plan.
this week at freedom experience in kentucky we saw God do a work in a city. the entire school has been talking about jesus. thousands of people are thinking and talking about God this week. the city was truly impacted.

read this story from aunys blog.


One of the local ministers, Gary, who helped put this FX together had a neighbor whom said that "Satan is my god, so don't try to get me to come to your church!" Gary didn't approach his neighbor very often after that because he was sorta scared of him.

This week, the neighbor came over to Gary's house and asked if he was involved in what was going on down at the school. Gary said that he was and asked him to come. When Gary picked him up the last night of FX, his neighbor was very hesitant to come, but did anyway.

I have two minutes during a video before the water coffin to collect two girls and two men to help us. I couldn't find any men that were right for the part anywhere! I saw Kim and recruited her to get two men to help us with the water coffin. She, unknowingly, picked Gary's neighbor. Gary thinks that his neighbor really stayed and listened to the message because he helped out onstage.

At the end of the night, Gary's neighbor told him that he was saved. He also told Gary that he would be at his church Sunday! Now, Jesus Christ is his God!


me again

10 years ago, if you would have told me that i would be doing outreaches for cities in the way we are seeing now, i would have thought that it was crazy. i am amazed at what God has done. its only been 10 years. whats next?

10 years ago-21 days

10 years ago God began to deal with me as i was working at the sawmill. i was asking him to allow me to reach people in a creative way. i wanted to make an impact on the world. i prayed passionately for months. i began to hear Him say learn magic and make a show. He said he would use it in a creative way to impact people. He then lead me to fast. i took the first 21 days of august and fasted. i didnt eat for 21 days so i could really pray and hear God. i knew i was in over my head when it came to performing illusions so i was desperate to hear God. during my fast i began to hear the details of what he wanted from me. i heard God crystal clear. i knew that there was no denying what He was calling me to do. i quit my job and soon after, i began to do shows. here we are now, 10 years later. the vision God gave me then was amazing, but i had no idea how big it really was. i base it all on what i experienced in those 21 days.

10 years

i cant believe it but, it has been 10 years. i have been doing magic now for 10 years. God called me to do this as i was working in a sawmill in 1997. i prayed every day for Him to show me what to do with my life. He showed me this out of the blue. i had never done illusions before. i had never even been to a magic show before. it was so wild but i knew that He wanted me to quit my job and begin to travel with a show and do ministry.
God has taken me thru an amazing journey. auny and i have seen many ups and downs. our trailer and all of our gear was stolen, then our new truck burned, we had another trailer stolen a few years later, and other set backs that we have had to overcome. the best part is the victories. we have done about about 2000 shows and appearances in the past 10 years. millions of people have heard the gospel thru our live show and our tv shows. i have performed on 4 continents, for multiple people groups, and have seen many, many peoples lives changed. i am definitely not bragging about myself. i am just reflecting on what i have seen. look what God has done in this short time. look what God can do with a dirty little sawmill worker. what can He do with you?

i am so glad to be celebrating 10 years of doing full time ministry. i am praying for 10 more. please pray for us as we continue this incredible journey. wow, 10 years

the talent

God saves people. It is not the performance. We sometimes put too much value on people,but we have to remember that it is God who changes people.
With that in mind I want tro brag on our team. We have the best people in the world working with us. From Group One Crew, eleventyseven, outcast bmx, to tim byrne. We have some great talent on our team. Tonight, that talent was at its highest. I was amazed

the devil

Satan hates us. He hates what we do. He hates everything about us and what we stand for. We are sometimes reminded of this.
We are doing a freedom experience this week in kentucky. Satan has shown his ugly head. We need as much prayer as possible during these times.
Things started out great tonight. We saw over a hundred decisions tonight. It was rad. God showed the devil once again. God is much bigger than the devil

it begins

Freedom experience begins today. Our first one for this fall. We need so much prayer. Tim is stuck in chicago in an airport. Manwells voice is going out, and the rest of us are going as hard as we can. We are in kentucky this week. We hope to see /od change lives and impact this city.please pray for us as qwe begin the biggest part of our year. This what what we work for all year long. It is called the freedom experience, and it begins right now.

www.freedomexperience.com

hello

goodbye

pray today.. yep, today

i need al the prayer i can get. i am going to have a big day. i am going to be filming all day today. i want to get it right. we only have one shot at getting it right when it is a live performance. please pray for me to get rest and for me to have a smooth day. pray that it goes awesome.

dvd/dvd

i have an announcement to make. next week you will be able to purchase our new dvd. this dvd is called "freedom experience- STANDING ROOM ONLY". it is a behind the scenes documentary on the strategy and happenings of freedom experience. if you have not been to freedom experience live then you will now get a taste of what it is all about. if you have been and want to know what all is going on backstage, then now you will get to see it all. more on this later.

also, we are beginning a new video project this weekend. we have been working hard for a long time now to create a new show. very few people have seen this show because it is brand new. we decided that we need to show the world what this new show is all about. so, we will begin production this weekend.

there ya go, all the dvd news.

2 corinthians 12:9-10

this one is crazy.
here is a crazy concept to think about. the verse says "My strength is made perfect in weakness...for when i am weak then i am strong...".
read this verse and let it sink in. there are people who are reading this today who need to read it and meditate on it. God will use this to change people today.
you dont need me to interpret it. just read it for your self.

restful night at home

today i slept in. it was nice to not get up and go to an airport or something. i did an interview by phone at 11am then started my day at home. lucas and i worked on designing a set for our new show. then auny came home and we just hung out. she cooked dinner for me and then we watched a movie together. it was the first time we had been at home together and done something like that in a few months. it felt weird to be at home for an entire night. i almost felt like we were missing out on something. the dinner was great, the movie wasnt. but it all made for a restful night.

colorquiz.zom

have you tried this? it was pretty accurate for me. i was kinda surprised that it read me. lemme know what you think about it. i think it is interesting and somewhat amusing.

do you have big hands?

this morning as i was at the airport about to board the plane when i hear my name called over the intercom. i told auny, shannon, and our friends from family force five that i would probably not be flying home with them today. i ran down to the ticket counter and then to the tsa desk to find out what the problem was. they said that their scanner detected a problem with my bag. i have one bag that is filled with 50 pounds of broken glass(for the glass walk). they needed to inspect it but were scare to touch it for fear of getting cut. i talked them into letting me empty out the glass so they could check for bombs. we poured the glass out and they looked thru it. no bombs, yay. they were like "why do you have all this glass?". i said because i walk on it. then i stood on the glass with a bare foot and they were like "whoaaaa...!!!". then they said "do you have big hands?". sounds like a funny question huh? well i knew what they meant. you see, i was on the same flight as family force five. in their show they have a guy who wears these huge "hulk" gloves. they look like big hands. i explained that they were my friends hands then they let me go. i rushed back to the gate and was the last one to get on the plane. i sat down and they all asked me "what was going on?". i said they asked me if i had big hands. the family force five guys were like "wha..????". then i explained the whole story. we all laughed for about 20 minutes. then we fell asleep. the end

brock the desert

we were at rock the desert today. it was awesome. we packed so many people into our performance area. it was crazy. tim byrne was with us first. he skated and got the crowd amped as usual. when i took the stage, the crowd was so ready. we did the show then ended with walking on glass. the crowd went nuts. we rocked it. we have decided to rename the festival to "brock the desert". nah, im kiddn.

rock the desert

We are in texas for a festival called "rock the desert". Google it to see all te fun stuff that is here. West texas is happening right now.

still havent figured it out

to be honest, i have not figured this thing out yet. here is what i am talking about.

we have been on the road for 2 months. we have stopped by the house for a day or two a couple of times but only for a short time. we havent had time to spend quality time with friends for 2 months. when you are gone for that long it is hard to just take up where you left off. we had so many friends that were pretty tight with us before we left. now that we are back, we have realized that their lives have kept going. life goes by with or without you. it is just a weird thing. i havent really figured out how to live a normal life and still have this life on the road. i guess you cant really have both.

barry bonds does it

barry bonds hits the big home run. this was 756, making him the home run king. he broke the all time record for career home runs. it is an amazing accomplishment. i am sure that he is freaking out right about now.

my question is this. does he deserve it? i am not a sports expert at all. i barely even know what team he plays for but, does barry bonds deserve to be recognized as the home run king? i am not sure that i have an answer. there are claims that he has been using "performance enhancing drugs". i dont know if he has or not. i do know that there was a n nfl player that was suspended from the team for using similar drugs. if lance armstrong was caught with drugs then his trophies would be pulled immediately. i am just curious to know what my audience thinks.

should barry bonds get the credit for being the home run king? or should it not count?

the power of God- its supernatural

if you havent read aunys blog for today then here it is. i have copied aunys blog here below and i also copied a comment from aunys great friend gin. read it all, you will be amazed. if you are not sure about whether there is a God who loves us, a God who is omnipotent, then read this.


from aunys blog


The strangest thing happened last night. There's a group of girls that meet every Monday night. Of course, I haven't been able to attend in the last two months. Well, I texted the leader and told her to pray for me because I was on the verge of spiritual burn out.

I experienced emotional burn out two years ago. It took me 6 months to get over it. Last year, I had physical burn out with exhaustion which I was able to get over very quickly. However, the ulcer that I developed at the same time took 6 weeks to recover from. I still must be very careful about what I eat and my stress level in order for it not to flare up again.

What I have been going through for the last couple of weeks is totally different. I haven't really prayed in a couple of weeks. That scared me. I normally feel the Lord's presence in some fashion everyday whether it's during the invitations at our shows or in the quiet time I take with the Lord. I felt nothing---just numbness toward Him lately. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

Last night, I felt so much better. I knew that the girls had prayed for me. My thought was, "We'll see if it lasts till the morning." This is the kind of cynical thinking I've been having lately...very unlike me.

During the night, in the wee hours of the morning, I felt the Lord's presence for the first time in weeks. (You may want to sit down because this gets sorts weird. The Lord can be weird sometimes---just different than we expect.) He was leaning over my bed healing me---restoring me. It reminded me of a mother leaning over her sick child. With such tenderness, He renewed me. I didn't see Him, but only felt Him. He is the Comforter!

While I was looking for another verse just now, I stumbled across this one: "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you." Isaiah 66:13a

Posted by AUNY


gin said...

During the night, in the wee hours of the morning, I was awake praying for you to be restored physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I know this is beginning to sound like I make this stuff up, but I promise I'm not.

I'm in tears right now because of the way your description perfectly mirrored my prayer. I'm not surprised, though, because I was praying things that sounded weird to me, so I knew it didn't come from my head, but God's heart...He was praying through me. It never ceases to amaze me!

8:22 AM

6 shows, 2 days

whoa, i just did 6 shows in 2 days. uh what?

i am in iowa right now. i plan to go back to minneapolis tomorrow and spend a little time there before we fly home. we have all day thursday off before we have to fly to texas.

what are you good at?

one of the reasons i do magic shows is because i am good at it. im not being arrogant, i am just saying. i realize that i am good at doing magic shows. otherwise i wouldnt get paid to do them. if i was not good at it then i would have to find something else to do. i would find something that i was good at and do it. thats how the world works. i want to be better at what i do. that is why i work so hard at becoming better. i am always growing, and i have a long way to go.
the point i want to make is this. i dont think that many people sit down and think about the things that they are good at. it is a good exercise to determine what you are good at and then focus on it. it may be the one thing that no one else can do. maybe you do something better than most of your friends. the question is, what can you do with it? what does God want from you?
what are you good at? you may just find what your real purpose is.

comment me. what are you good at? lets hear it

dumb trip

So far this trip has been lame. We flew to minneapolis then it took us an hour to get our luggage and car. Oh, and we almost didn't get to fly in the first place. They were nervvous about one of our bags. Anyway, once we got our car our luggage wouldn't fit. So we got another car and started our drive to iowa. We were told it was a 2 hour drive but nope, nearly 4 hours. We got to the hotel and the lobby was closed. I found a number on the internet via blackberry and called. They answered and said I needed to go to another hotel and check in. Ok whatevern I finally got into the room. Its 1am. I have 3 shows tomorrow. Ugh

soon

soon you will be able to see our new dvd. it is coming soon. very soon.

flying friends

every time we fly to california we share a plane with the newsboys. it is kinda funny but we always seem to be at the same event on the same day when we go to california. ok not every time but, the last 3 or 4 flights to california were with the newsboys. it is funny to see peoples reaction to them. anyway, its funny who all you see on planes. paul coleman carries my luggage for me now.

kyle loza wins gold at x games

I couldn't be more proud my my friend kyle loza right now. He just competed at x games 13 for his first time ever and takes home a gold medal. A little while ago kyle attepted somerhing that had never been done before. He jumped his motorcycle in the air and rotated his body a full revolution. Then got back on the bike to land it. The new freestyle moto trick is called "the volt".
I was with kyle when he was practicing this insane trick. I am amazed that he pulled it off. He is so excited tonight as he goes away with a gold medal.

I couldn't be more proud of kyle. He rides for "riders for christ" he is using his freestyle moto talent to show his faith. Go kyle.

If you missed it then try to watch the highlights on espn all weekend

spirit west fest

I just finished night one at spirit west coast festival. Awesome night. They were so packed into the performance area. Over 3000 people came to watch.

I am using my blackberry now to post because we have been going since 6am and it is now about 2am I think. We be tired but it was worth it. It was a great night.