Marathon Man

Well, half marathon that is!

I couldn't sleep tonight and while preoccupying myself, I realized I've got some serious catching up to do on my blogging! So here's the first of several entries that highlight what's been going on in 2013.

It takes a lot of discipline to blog regularly, but even more discipline to train for a 1/2 Marathon. By the grace of God I did just that and entered the Rock-N-Roll 1/2 Marathon in New Orleans back on February 24!

My good friend Scott Holmes (pictured with me here) ran with me and we finished with the remarkable pace of a 9.5 min/mile! (Remarkable for me that is - Much better than I had hoped to do!) Daphne Gaspard, Laura Menard and Jaclyn Garcia also participated and Donna and I enjoyed getting together with everyone in NOLA to hang out before and after the race.

Upon returning home I took some time off from running but I've recently started training again and I hope to run a full marathon in 2014. Running is great for me, it was a lot of fun to compete and the discipline required to train helps me stay disciplined in other areas of my life - Like blogging!

Welcome Home Lindsay!

Finally, the long, drawn-out nightmare is over! 

For those of you who don't know, my nephew & Crossroads' Youth Pastor Jordy Davidson married a wonderful Canadian girl named Lindsay back in November 2011. Lindsay had been living in the States for several years on a Religious VISA. She was able to get her Passport renewed on that VISA and get her Marriage License on that VISA, but in July 2012 when re-entering the States after taking our youth on a Missions trip, Lindsay's Passport was flagged and she was deported on the spot! Needless to say, the U.S. Immigration system is severely wacked! How can a guy who bombs marathons travel back and forth between the U.S. and Russia carefree, but a Canadian girl with a Religious VISA married to a U.S. Citizen who is a Youth Pastor gets flagged and deported?  Don't get me started! 

We've spent the past NINE MONTHS trying to get this girl back into the country!  Imagine being married for eight months and then BOOM - You're separated for nine months!  This couple has shown such character and has demonstrated such faith through this whole ordeal and I am so proud of them!  

Last night a crowd gathered at the Lafayette airport to welcome her home! We are so glad to have our Lindsay back! I can't wait to see how God is going to use this couple as they lead our Youth Ministry TOGETHER reaching teenagers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Article From Lafayette's Independent Magazine!

CROSSROADS CHURCH WORSHIP CENTER

GOLD: ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTS SOUTHWEST

Worship is a multi-purpose word

Evangelicals are multitaskers. Sunday services. Wednesday services. Prayer meetings. Concerts. Conferences. Designing a worship center — at 42,000 square feet no less — that serves as sanctuary, meeting hall, concert arena, café and convention center is a tall order, hence the INDesign Gold Medal for Commercial Architecture awarded to Architects Southwest for their work at Crossroads Church in Lafayette was well-deserved.

Like the INDesign Residential competition, our judges were stingy with the commercial designers, too, handing out just two Gold awards.
The modernist worship center at Crossroads is at once stately and impressive yet austere and elemental. “The objective was to create for them a building that represented their new way of thinking about religion and Christianity. And the building transcended style,” says Architects Southwest’s Steve Oubre, who adds that designing religious buildings begins with sound. “Any time you deal particularly with religious buildings acoustics are very, very important.

“Dealing with crowds and the flow of people is always complicated, and in this particular case the need to have more than one entry way into the building but still have an understandable path for people to work their way in and out of the building was important.”

	Steve Oubre

The 42,000-square-foot worship center at Crossroads Church, Oubre explains, had to meet a multitude of tasks, especially accommodating a 1,500-person congregation with flexible seating in a 9,200-square-foot space that must also readily transform into a flat floor space for other uses. The designers — five from Architects Southwest contributed to this project — also created spaces throughout the facility that, through the use of natural light and materials, magnifies the intimate, spiritual setting.

But Oubre maintains that his firm was just a conduit for the final product: “One of the centerpieces of our work is that it isn’t our work, it’s the work of our clients, and we are the vehicle that carries that work forward,” he says. “This is every bit their building; they participated in discussing their needs and their desires and we were just the medium to bring it across.” — ABiz Staff

Uganda

Last week I took my first trip to Uganda. You may recall that our family visited the neighboring African country of Kenya a little over a year ago which turned out to be one of the highlights of my life! That experience set the bar high for Uganda, but this wonderful African nation did not disappoint! What a warm, welcoming group of people I came in contact with!

My friend Scott Holmes has an orphanage in Uganda. Crossroads has contributed to assist in the expansion of their facilities. I got the chance to see the work in progress and visit the existing home as well. I was delighted to see what God is doing in the lives of these precious Ugandan children and the adults that care for them. Grace Home has 50 children that they are currently taking care of. They house, feed and educate them and provide them with healthcare. In addition to these children, the home also provides an education for another 350 children who would have no access to school otherwise. Simply amazing! The new facility will house 150 children and introduce Christ to a village that is primarily Muslim!

My primary purpose in visiting Uganda was to tour the Watoto Children's Home that my daughter Robin will be working at starting from June - November of this year. Watoto is an incredible ministry rescuing and caring for children who had been sold into human trafficking. Robin will be working in their nursery. Dad was thrilled to find a home that is run with complete excellence, taking every precaution to ensure the safety of those that volunteer with the ministry. I've got to be honest, I wanted to gather up all 48 of those precious babies in the home and bring them back to Louisiana with me!