the update that i said was coming last weekend

whats up friends and family!!!  thanks so much for continuing to read this blog even though its been a whole week since i wrote last.

well, here are some of the highlights from the last 10 days....

---an encounter in north philly--i got to hang with a friend who does ministry up in north philly on the peurto rican side of north philly...we had a great time walking around talking and dreaming about what God is doing and is going to do in the city.  nes runs a flag football league for kids....they currently have 150 kids in the league and i visited the weight room they have.  it was pretty cool....so yeah, while i was there i also got to meet the pastor of his church and that was a real honor...well, as we were speaking and we were talking about the middle school called stetson which right across the street....police start flying all over the place and the pastor was saying how he felt with the economy and all that the city was on the edge...well, turns out at the middle that a boy had stabbed a girl there in the neck with a knife...this is middle school, yall... the violence that kids live with is incredible here....please pray for that school and for the new principal there who is trying to establish some boundaries and discipline and not everyone is buying in....pray that God brings peace to this kids who are surrounded with war.

---church planters meeting---last week i had the opportunity to hang with a friend of mine from college named jim...he is a church planter for the pca church...we hadn't seen each other in like 3 years....so he and i connected and he was like i'm coming to philly to go to this church planters meeting for all the pca and south baptist churches in the philly and surrounding counties...so he invited me to come along....and it was GREAT... see, i had some reservations about going because i'm obviously not a church planter...but i do want to plant kids in churches....this blew me away....i had been given a bunch of contacts of pastors that people thought i should meet...and you guessed it...they were all there!!!  well, actually, most of them were.  the group asked me to share and they prayed for me.  it was amazing.  they have invited me to come each month to their meeting and i'm going to be there...i meet one pastor whose wife is from roanoke and he is serving a russian jewish community mixed with muslims in northeast philly....he said his service is in hebrew, russian and english...how cool is God's kingdom.

---small group aka cypher group---well, i joined a small group at the church i've been attending...thats been cool.  oh, they call their small group cypher groups.  i'll explain some other time.  we meet in west philly.  turns out the guy that runs it for the west philly group lives like 30 seconds from me.  so that is cool, we had some mutual friends and i djed a show he performed out back in the day.  he is a rapper in the group everyday process.  but yeah, we meet each wednesday night and we talk about last weeks sermon at the church....its a cool concept.  and the group has married people, single people, old people, and young people in it.  the church assigns the groups based on where you live.  its a good time.

---friends---well, i have 2 i think...my roommate and then mac the guy from the cypher group. we have hung out some.  please continue to pray for me and getting a network of friends around me...(i do have other friends...but i'm saying those that are more my age and that i would go to the movies with or something.)  this week...ive been watching all my bruce willis movies at night.  i had no idea that i had so many...i watched the new die hard, 16blocks, armageddon(classic).  tonight i'm going watch bandits....rick my roommate invited me to go roller skating with some of his friends for a birthday party....but for those of you who know me.  you know, roller skating is not the place for me to make the first impression...lets just say....i normally leave covered in bruises...bc i can't stay up..i wipe out constantly.

--this week--please pray as we have a key meeting with a potiential committee member...it will be monday at noon...i think this guy is a scout for the nfl...kinda cool...(on a side note...look for me monday night...my committee chairman has season tickets to the eagles and they are playing on monday night football and i'm going with him....so let me know if you want me to make a poster or something with your name on it....chris dowdy has already put in his request.)

--pray that more money comes in...right now, alot of people have said they are going to give but not alot of people have given.  

--pray for me to continue to meet the men of the peace..

thanks so much....love you guys...

grace and peace

oh yeah, NO MORE GUN SHOTS AT THIS POINT!!

GRACE AND PEACE