The B Word.

Wow, I havent written in a while. To much stuff just going on by! Right now I am sitting in the breakfast nook at the In-laws house in Fort Myers Florida. The woman folk are getting ready and we are going to go and do some Christmas errands.
This Blog entry has no huge purpose, just wanted to say I am blessed.
Sometimes, you can preface bragging by saying the words 'I'm blessed.' I hear it all the time, 'Oh man I am so blessed, I bought a ferrari' okay I don't necessarily hear that statement to often. But you know what I mean.
But I am saying I am blessed, cause God has looked out for me so much. I am blessed with a woman that loves me way more then I deserve. I am blessed with her family and they treat me like there own. I am blessed beyond measure with my own family. I am blessed with not only a job that I love, but people I love working with (Tucker not Jeff). I am thankful for a church that cares about the staff and goes above and beyond. And yes I like the material things I have received, but without those, I am still blessed.
I know there are many who are struggling during this time of year, financial problems, family problems, and I am not trying to rub it in their faces, cause I know those days and I know they will come again.
But to sum this year up in one word it is by far the word blessed.

Life.

Man, it is crazy to see how fast life moves and how crazy its twists and turns can be. I am not referring to anything to specific. But I can say that over 3 years ago I moved to Blacksburg, expecting to be here not really that long. I obviously was open to what God wanted to do with me, but just did not expect to fall in love with this New River Valley area and people!

If you find yourself questioning what you are doing and where you are doing it at, just know that trusting God always, always, always pans out! He has ordained your steps, and all you have to do is follow them (proverbs 20:24).

Thoughts.

Well it has been a little while since I have posted, not trying to neglect, just been busy with things here at church. It has been somewhat of a whirlwind since Aug 26th. We went to 2 service hoping/knowing we would run out of room and we wanted to make it more comfortable for our guests. Well, that was a bust, no not in the way you are thinking. We continued to be packed in the 11am service and now the 1st service is pretty much full. Yes, we are incredibly excited and pumped to be celebrating Christ with this group, but now we are left with a conundrum...what do we do next? God is bringing us people left and right, and we know that it is only going to be through Him that we can minister to them all and we don't just want to stay in this spot, but we are not sure how to grow farther. lol 3 services? New worship place? Just crazy to think about what God is doing.
We are not in the numbers game. And we all know that next week we could have 50. Thats what makes our staff and pastor so great, we don't care. We want to do our best to minister to the people that come. If more come awesome, if less come awesome. From a worship leaders perspective, it is so awesome to see so many worshiping on Sunday mornings!

It is easy to exclaim how God is so faithful when you are in the midst of growth and excitement in a church, but regardless of that God is faithful. If we closed Northstar tomorrow, He remains faithful. If a loved one died today, He remains faithful.

God, thank you for this time of blessing, and thank you for seeing and planning my steps before I knew them.

Take a second.

I know it is the beginning of the semester, every one I know is busy, but take a second to watch this video, and know that the same creator God that made this, wants to talk to you today. So let Him.

Time Lapse Tour of Yosemite National Park from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

American Idol.

Well after being asked numerous times about trying out for this show, and after my cousin founded a facebook group petitioning for me to do just that, I did. Tyler Tokie and Chad Brown - this was for you.
No, I did not even make the first cut, no I am not heart broken (my wife, maybe a little). But I knew this was a game show going in and thats how I treated it. It was fun, but sadly not as many crazy people as I had hoped for. I took some videos which you can see below, but they are all a little shaky because you are threatened to the nines not to take any film.

This is the morning of the registration line. It was crowded. Oh and pay attention to the black guy with the cubano hat on when I pan around, his name was Jimmy and by far the best person I heard sing, and he got through to the next 'stage'... could I be the first to have posted the new 'idol'?


This is on Broadway street in the middle of downtown Nashville. Pretty cool, packed with people and 6 in the morning. It was interesting because it all depended on when you registered, so since we registered early we didnt have to stand around and waste all day Friday or Saturday. So to those still auditioning or planning to, register asap and then show up at 7 on the day of. Promise its worth it.


One of the crew guys was having us yell stuff like 'welcome to music city' and then cheer and stuff, here is a video of that going down...


Finally inside the stadium again more yelling stuff...


more of the same...


they turned out the lights and did this, thought it was pretty cool...


Okay so here is a quick clip of the audition process, they set up 12 tables in the middle of the stadium, call you down in groups of 4 and have you sing to 2 producers. awkward. sometimes they have you sing for 20 seconds sometimes you sing like half a song. everyone in my group sang for like 30 seconds, i sang 3 different songs (signed sealed delivered, yearn, i'll be) so i thought I had a good chance, but notta. oh well...




So I didnt make it, but it was very interesting, and I have to say I would have loved to be the 'judges' behind the table who got to pick and choose and listen to everyone. Although I bet it would have been hard to keep a straight face at times.

Chipotle Vs Moes

So since our little town of Blacksburg is finally getting a Chipotle, I wanted to dissect why this burrito chain is so much better than Moes Southwestern Grill, which if you are not from the area, is directly across the street from the new Chipolte.

First. I am an aesthetically driven person. What I mean is that I put value in the looks of something that is pleasing to the eye, probably over value to be honest. But when something is well designed it is an immediate trap hook for me. In my mind, until proven wrong, when someone places the energy to make something appealing, it's most likely quality. So as we compare these two restaurants, immediately there is a huge gap, that Moe won't close. You can start with the tables, they are steel top in Chipotle, they look like my highschools at Moes. Then just small details that round out the restaurant, the chips served in little brown bags, the black and white pictures and even the font used on the menu. Chipotle has it's own original style, where as Moe just stole all the cliches that come to mind when you think of 'texmex.'

Second. The menu. I already mentioned the way the menu looks but Chipotle has a very limited menu. At first when you hear that it could come across negative, but it is far from it. They have a limited menu because they are pros at a couple of things. Burritos and Tacos. If you make something so well you shouldn't have to add things to your menu to attract people, your food should be the advertising. Moe and Chipotle have two different business models. One is trying to sell food to you, one is trying to make great food you want. Doesn't sound that different, but they are completely different.

Third. Moe's food goes thru me faster then water from a firetruck.

Chipotle wins.