shoe shopping

i needed some shoes so we went into the mall today. barbara really wanted to go so we took her but while i was there we looked for shoes. anyway, we found some. i always seem to find a good deal on clothes and always on shoes. maybe i dont buy things unless they are on sale. i found some shoes that fit and they were buy one get one free. it didnt take me long to find another pair that fit for that price. 6 minutes of shopping is all it took for me to find 2 pair of shoes and a great deal. i hate shopping almost as much as auny does. when we do shop we know how to do it. shop the sales rack and only buy it if it is half price or better. and most important, do it quickly.(or auny gets bored...then cranky...)

any shopping advice out there for the rest of us?

thats what i call a party

we started right after church. we all met at our house for bbq, burgers and chicken. then we headed outside for a chat with billy the funny neighbor. (barefoot billy, see previous post). anyway, we then skyped a missionary friend in brazil. we got a chance to hear their story and love on them a little bit. then we headed outside for the big surprise. we have been keeping this a secret for a long time. we finally unveiled a 320 foot zipline. it was amazing. it was very scary. very scary. i dont even know how fast it is but it will make you scream. its like having a roller coaster in my backyard. wow, it is awesome. imagine climbing a ladder up a tree 20 feet in the air. then jumping off while sitting on a seat strapped to a pully. flying down hill for 300 feet before swing almost upside down for a stop at the end. unbelievable.
then we ate more food after a quick nap during a movie(nacho libre). then more zipline fun, a littl motorcycle riding, and fireworks. then we ended the night with a huge bombfire. we sat around the fire and talked for hours. actually people are still here talking. very cool day. it has been one of the best days we have ever had. i love my house. we are able to have so much fun here. we had another "party with a purpose". we raised another $250 for our friends in brazil. (www.ebersoleonline.com) thats what i call a party!!!!!

home feels good

we are home for a couple of days. it feels nice to catch up with friends and see our house. we are going to have a party sunday afternoon. the party is gonna rock. i have a surprise for everyone. it feels good to sleep in my bed after being gone for a month. home feels good right now

God bless haiti

i had a roomate who always joked around and said God bless haiti. i dont know why he said it but it seemed random enough for us to smile from time to time. anyway..
last night we found a way to bless haiti. we did a chocolate tasting for a group of about 80 adults. they were youth pastors and leaders, none of them were rich guys. from that small group of people we raised $1267. up until 2 hours before we did the party(with a purpose) we were going to help the Hands and Feet orphanage build a kitchen. as i talked to the guys there they said that they had an immediate need that was more important. the price of food has gone up so much that they couldnt afford to feed the children today. there are about 20 mothers in an "orphan prevention program" who are bringing their kids to the orphanage each day to get food. they are doing this so that they dont have to give the kids up. they cant feed them so it is either give the kids away so they will eat and live or keep them and watch them die of starvation. this program is allowing them to feed the children and still care for them. the problem is that milk is so expensive right now. they need about $25 per week for each of the 20 kids. they need this money today to buy food today so that they will not die today. i believe we came to the rescue.

lets pray for haiti. lets ask God to really bless haiti. for more info on how you can help go to www.handsandfeetproject.org

cast your nets on the other side.

remember in the book of luke when jesus told the disciples to push out into the deep water and cast their nets on the other side. peter said, "because you said so...". then the nets broke because of so many fish. amazing. "because you said so" is such a powerful statement. read luke 5.

today after i gave that message there was a boy who came up to me and told me his fishing story. earlier today this boy and his father went out onto the pier to fish. they caught 2 fish the first 2 hours. then a lady came by and asked if she could have any fish they caught because she had been fishing all night and caught nothing to feed her family. they said "ok God, lets catch some fish for this lady". they casted into the water and began to catch fish. for an hour and a half they caught fish. in all they brought in 57 fish and gave all of them to the lady.

sounds like God likes fish. ha.. i guess todays post was like a daily devotion for ya. hope you enjoyed it

chocolate tasting at superwow

last week we did a chocolate tasting for the adults here at superwow ft walton. it went so well that we decided to do it again this week. we are going to have a "party with a purpose" for a group in haiti. my friend mark stuart from audio adrenaline has an orphanage in haiti that is in need right now. haiti is the most needy place in the world right now. people have no idea how bad it is. it gets no media attention. right here in our backyard we have an incredible opportunity to come to the rescue of people who are dying. people are starving to death as we speak. mark tells me that people are actually eating dirt. the parents are adding water to dirt and making mud pies for the kids to eat.
the orphanage is desperately trying to build a kitchen in order to feed people. they need appliances. we are going to provide as many as possible thursday night with another chocolate party. please pray for us as we try to meet this need.

the storm

wednesday morning at superwow is a highlight for us. we do our newest effect called the storm. it is a piece of magic that is straight from the miracles show. we are doing a storm theme this morning with the message. it is gonna be great. i am very excited. i am also going to include stephanie smith and have her give a little of her story. she has been thru a storm or two. i think that this is going to make a huge impact on people. please pray for this group to have an encounter with God this week. things are going smooth right now but i wanna see things really break thru.

stephanie is a girl...not a boy

stephanie is a girl. no really, she is a girl.

anyway, our friend stephanie smith has started a new blog. you should check it out because there is a very funny video of us on there. by the way, she is traveling with us this summer. she is alot of fun. and, she has a record coming out very soon. stephanie is a girl


go to www.stephanieisagirl.blogspot.com

downhere the band

after reading spencesmith.com i realized that my friends from the band downhere are doing something crazy. they are giving away their cd for free. for free. i have the cd and it is great. go get your right now for free. this is awesome
http://www.musichristian.com/downhere/download/

you have the right to remain silent

i decided to let a friend borrow my big semi truck to take a few trips this summer. his bmx team is using it to pull a trailer full of ramps. i didnt realize that they had a show in canada or i would have avoided this mishap but regardless this is what happened.
lucas gets a call to do a show for the franklin graham crusade in canada. when they got to the border of canada they were asked if they had mace or guns. lucas said no but with a little hesitation. they searched the truck and found my gun. it was the gun i use for the bullet catch at one of my shows. i leave it with some of my gear so that it is always with us when we do the big shows. after they found the gun they got really serious and told lucas to put his hands on his head. they put the cuffs on him nd read him his rights. after holding him for a while they found a reason to let him go. it was a loophole i guess. i havent heard all the details yet. im waiting for him to get back to the states. he said he was calm and answered their questions. somehow they worked it all out. they kept the gun and let them pass into the country. im sure they were relieved and so am i.

lessons learned.
friends dont let friends drive with guns.
dont take guns to canada
(or airports by the way)

and we laughed

auny has been feeling bad for a while now. she had something irritate her allergies and it has been making her sneeze alot. she hasnt gotten much sleep at night and that keeps her from getting totally well.

last night we decided to go out and have some fun. she feels better when she is having fun and laughing. we decided to go to an outdoor mall type place in destin. there were maybe 17 of us total. we decided to buy an airhorn and have some fun. everytime i hit the horn we would all freeze, then when i hit the horn again we would go back to normal. people around us were shocked when they saw it happen. then people began to watch and laugh and have fun with us. we even had people joining in. it was crazy. we also decided to play follow the leader. we had people join in and add to the line. at one point we had about 40 people in line walking around doing funny things. people were clapping for us and gathering around to watch. i think people were so entertained by our stunts that they didnt go into watch the movies. they stayed outside with their kids and watched us perform. we took a few pictures of it as well as video. oh, and we decided to get as many people as possible into a photo. one time we played a trick on some people. we had them get into the picture with us and one by one we secretly walked away. by the time the said cheese no one was there except them. we were gone. it was so funny. you can watch the videos at aunys blog.

auny had fun and felt great afterwards. we laughed so hard last night. now go watch the videos.

donde esta el chocolate??

donde esta el chocolate? where is the chocolate?
here is what happened
this week as we were doing a conference in ft walton florida called superwow. they asked us last minute if we would do a chocolate tasting. we wanted to raise money for some evangelism tools for a missionary in brazil. we had our friend emily overnight a box full of chocolate so we could do this. well, at an hour before the chocolate tasting started we had not yet received the package. uh oh. no bueno. the tasting was to start at 645pm. at 600pm we realized that the package was delivered to the wrong place. we couldnt find anyone to unlock the building and get the package. finally at 630 we found someone to go open the other business and get our box. as i was speaking about the mission project the box showed up. the girls prepared all of the chocolate while i talked and at the very moment i was done they were ready. we did the tasting for about 75 adults from churches from all over the soiutheast. we skyped our friends in brazil. joel and michawn ebersole and their family were able to talk to us thru the internet. it was perfect. they shared about what they do and we prayed for them. then we raised money to help them with thei project. we raised exactly $600. i am so happy. we were able to bless this mission effort just by having a party.

check out joel and michawn at their website www.ebersoleonline.com

send them an encouraaging comment here. they will read the comments right here. support this family as they reach people that need to hear the message.

burned feet

normally when i go to the beach i have to be aware of the sun. i often put on sun tan lotion to protect my smooth skin. today i really burned my feet. it is not what you think. i had plenty of sun on the top of my feet to give me a nice little sunburn but that is no big deal. what i did is something i have never done before. i was walking to the beach without sandals and had to cross a series of hot black top parking lots. then i had to walk across a boardwalk. by the time i got to the beach my feet were burned on the bottom. i didnt think much of it at the time. i knew that it was hurting so i put the pain out of my mind and kept going. now i regret not listening to the pain reflex. tonight i had to do the glass walk on stage. it hurt much more than usual. after the show i looked at the bottom of my feet and found that i had blisters. it does not feel good at all. i am actually having trouble walking. haha. its kinda funny, me limping around for almost no reason. all i did was walk across a parking lot and now i am living with it. i am remembering that parking lot, and remembering not to walk across it anymore without the sandals.

mom, i know

pray for auny

auny has been sick for over 2 weeks now. she had something irritating her allergies and it turned into an infection. she is over the infection but still very sneezy. she cannot sleep at night and therefore very tired all day. i want you to help pray for her. she is a very valuable person to my ministry. we need her at maximum level. also, she just needs to feel good. we like auny when she is smiling and happy but lately she has been off. lets pray for auny until she is well. spread the word

barbara

Barbara joined us today in the sunshine state. She flew in from mexico today. I think this is gonna be a great week. To have her here with us hanging out will do her and us a lot of good. Pray for her as God works in her life in the next 2 weeks. It is going to be a special time for her to grow and learn about faith.

lets go to florida

we leave at 6am to go to florida. we will be there for 2 weeks at the ft walton convention center. we are doing an event called superwow. it is a week long camp for teenagers. we are doing 3 superwow camps in the next few weeks. this is a very special time for us. it is one of the few times of the year we can spend a lengthy time influencing teenagers as well as adult leaders. pray for us as we do these events. it is a very taxing time on me and auny.

if anyone wants to bring a group to superwow then come on. there is room for more

lima beans

Last night we were in ohio. The name of the city, lima. I thought that they had probably heard every joke in the world about lima beans so I decided to ask them about it. They said that they actually have a lima bean festival. They have a lima bean mascot. There were many farms growing beans and therefore they were home of the lima bean. Funny but true. The next time you eat lima beans you now know they are famous in ohio

ohio

we fly out of houston to go to ohio in the morning. we have a show at a festival. i think the show is outside. we usually do inside stages but a few times a year we try to do an outdoor show just to keep us on our toes. it is so much more difficult for me to do things outside. i have to deal with distractions like wind and rain. the humidity is huge and the sunlight is another tricky thing. pray for us as we try to take our message to a group in the midwest.

forgive

i have had some difficult situations to deal with in the past few years. i have been wronged more than once and feel taken advantage of time and again. i dont mean to sound like i have been picked on all the time and "poor me", but i have had a couple of things that were very tough to deal with recently. i have chosen to forgive and move forward. there is freedom in forgiveness. i could be bitter and angry and let it cripple me and my relationships for the rest of my life or i could do something that is hard at first but better in the longterm. there is so much wisdom in this verse. read it for yourself. "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against
one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

Colossians 3:13


it basically comes down to a choice. forgive and live in freedom or let it eat you up with bitterness. sometimes its easier said than done. but it is still the truth

cutting back

i have been hearing a ton of talk about cutting back on driving because of the high fuel costs. with the gas prices so high people are being forced to conserve. in some ways it is a good thing. people are starting to think about the fuel they consume and trying to find ways to lower consumption. i think that we are going to have to deal with higher prices for a long time. the days of 2 dollar gas are over. heck i remember in college it was 76 cents per gallon.

they are talking about trying to have business work only 4 days instead of 5. i have heard that schools could even go to 4 day weeks to save energy. 4, 10 hour work days are much smarter than 5, 8 hour days. i heard today that the sheriffs office will not allow the police cars to drive around on the shift. they are going to have to park it and watch. some people are hoping to cut back church services on sunday nights. some people are getting bikes and motorcycles and others are finally carpooling.


i want to hear your ideas for how to save gas. what are you thinking? any creative ideas?

parents house

i have a few days off before i fly to ohio so i snuck over to my parents house. it is only about 2 ours away from aunys parents house so it is very convenient. i dont get to see the family very often so this is great for me. i plan to eat some good fod and spend lots of time on the back porch. i even plan to go fishing with my dad. its gonna be great. there is huge benefits to having some cajun cooking parents. i will share with you what those benefits are as soon as i get to eat. one thing is for sure these people in louisiana know how to cook.

world market, they have good chocolate

i dont know if i have mentioned this or not but, i like chocolate. i really like chocolate. more than most women actually. for most people there is a limit on how much chocolate they eat. some people can take one bite of rich dark chocolate and be done. not me. i can eat chocolate for 45 minutes and not even slow down. i dont know what is wrong with me but i love that stuff.

after my long week in oklahoma i wanted a reward. we stopped at World Market in dallas and loaded up on chocolate. we got some from ecuador, which is my favorite. we also got some dark chocolate with sea salt, which is my favorite. we also got some mexican chocolate with cinnamon and chili pepper, which is my favorite.

the turn

wednesday night we saw the turn. up until that point we had a very slow start. i am not sure what the deal was but i knew God wanted to do more but things were just not happening. churches usually pray for us on wednesday nights. that is when we see breakthroughs and that is when we feel the power of God like no other time. we forget what day it is sometimes then realize people are praying. after a day of prayer for this event we saw God breakthru to these students. it was amazing to see what happened. many were saved and many more had their eyes opened. thursday morning was the highlight of the week when people everywhere repented from sin. people realized the major problem of sin. i talked to students who were completely changed by the spirit of God. it was great to see.

overall, it was a tough week, but it was all worth it. thanks for coming to the rescue and praying with us.

big black cloud

I am deep in no mans land in oklahoma. The nearest city is nothingville. I have no internet access this week so I am using my blackberry to send email to emily so she can post it. Hope this works.

As I drove up to the camp in oklahoma I felt it come over me. It was like a big black cloud that rested on me and weighed me down. I felt an oppression that was very ugly and I knew it was gonna be a long week. As soon as the service started I could tell that people were not ready for God to work. I stopped at the beginning of my set and walked off stage. I knew that something wasn't right. I returned a minute later and explained. I felt that people were not ready to see God move. I said that I wasn't going to waste their time or my message. We prayed and dismissed. I wasn't sure how this would go over but I knew I was doing what God wanted. Well, it got their attention. People came back today with eyes wide open. We prayed last night for a breakthru. We got it. There is a new spirit here. We have been battling and will continue. We could use your prayer