What’s up gang?! I am proud to report that I am now coming to you from a Macbook Pro! 1A was having a lot of trouble with two of our computers. Since media and technology falls under my Worship Arts Department (I sometimes wonder if Creative Arts Department would be more appropriate considering the span of “non-spiritual” hats that I wear!), I was responsible for finding a solution. With 1A’s vision for the near future in mind, I wanted to suggest a step toward increased efficiency, quality, and longevity… so, naturally, I recommended an Apple. ;) – I was able to find everything we needed and so much more at a very fair price. Thanks to the foresight and agreeable assistance of the board of trustees and lead pastor, 1A is now set with a good foot toward our plans and I’m thrilled to be a part of the early steps of this process.

In other news, my dad, along with several volunteers from the congregation, is working on the construction of a youth facility on 1A’s campus. The enclosure of a pole barn behind the main building will provide a new structure to house the Student Ministry and Royal Rangers meetings. Thankfully, the completion of this project will finally open up an unshared workspace for me. Working out of the so-called “Sunday school office” has sufficed for the last couple of months but I am ready to get back into my own office. Also, I look forward to the efficiency that can be gained by restructuring the Sunday school office to be more of a volunteer base camp. Several of the volunteer department directors lack ample personal equipment to fulfill their necessary and desired tasks so opening up the space by removing clutter and equipping it with a couple of desktop computers with word processing and printing capabilities will be a great win, I think.

In older, as yet unreported news, I have my own place here in Perry, now. I’m leasing a two bedroom, one bathroom house from a family friend for the next year or so. Features of the home include a car port, sizable deck, boat/RV port, laminate wood flooring throughout, and great location. I am just a couple of blocks north of downtown Perry, less than a mile from work/church, and only a few minutes from restaurants, supermarkets, and family. I’ve settled in nicely and made the house my home with the help of my incredible girlfriend, Jackie, and other friends and family. I am probably proudest of my living room, furnished with a cool green ensemble that I purchased from my “Tallahassee parents”, Piney and Michelle DeVeas. It’s tied together with a neat, abstract area rug and accented with art and decorative shelves that Jackie contributed to the cause. My flair for all things creative led to a very functional, yet very minimalistic, clean, trendy setup. It’s a place of structure and comfort that really has become home to me over the last month.

Snippets of other information might include that I am playing church league softball with 1A, my FSU diploma finally arrived, and I am thrilled to finally be making headway in paying down my credit cards and still staying afloat in my bills with ample recreation. In this economic atmosphere, I feel blessed to have a job at all, much less the rewarding, challenging one that I have. God is great.

In a final note for this edition of CBB2B Catching Up, I am really happy with the way things are going with the 1A Worship Arts Deparment. With the addition of this Mac running Pro Presenter 3, presentations are going to be better and simpler than ever. Sound has improved tremendously since my arrival through new equipment purchases (drum enclosure, drum mics, in-ear monitors, etc…) and tweaking and direction from the great Steve Vickery of GenesisChurch.tv (whom I often refer to as “my sound guru”). ;) – On top of that, the 1A Band (Max, Rebekah, and I) has had increasing efficiency and effectiveness from week to week. I almost feel that a plateau is inevitable, and while I know that it would allow time to prepare for what comes next, I am not ready for the changes to slow down! I would love nothing more than to go ahead and add two to three more people to the the 1A Band, begin recording and editing audio and video, train more service team members for the multimedia and sound teams, and get marketing and web presence up overnight! — But I don’t want to go with what I want. As much as I love the initial progress that I have seen and want to see it continue, uninterrupted, I know that the plateau that I sense approaching would do us some good. I’m just praying for God’s will to be done and for my acceptance of it when it is revealed.