With a title like that, I know this post will be good.

So, already, from the time I've gotten here, I have:

• Enjoyed the wonderful mild temperatures (not too hot, not too cold).
  
• Been invited to go skiing (hehe, only in Colorado)
  
• Had good Mexican Food (don't have that back East)
  
• Drove past a herd of cute baby Bison with their parents (Don't you do that everyday?)
  
• Started to write a speech that I'm giving tomorrow (just like college)
  
• Plan on seeing the Flying W Wranglers and the VonTrapp singers (that should be an interesting concert)
  
• And doubled the number of kids at home (everyone else is either married or in Central America)
• Last but not at all least: been able to spend some time with mom and dad (love them).
  

And this is just having been here for 12 or so hours (and the majority of those were sleeping, hehe).

SUMMER UPDATE:
LOG: This last year work has had me travel to: WI, SC, GA, CO, CA, MN, FL, WI, and CO. Oh and lots of DC. (Still going to: GA)
Weddings have had me at: AZ, VA, TX, VA. (Still going to: MI & OK).
Also on calendar: Southern VA for King's Dominion, IN and MI for church conference (and possibly VERY EAST VA for a day with the ponies.

I am in Texas today. But the power of prayer struck me while driving though the heart of Dallis. A dear friend (who I'm not going to tell you his name, because he was just elected student body pres. and I don't want to hurt his political career ), called me and prayed with me right then on the phone. That is just one example of the support of friends, who keep God and the center.

It reminds me of the song by Casting Crowns that reminds us that we are the body of Christ:

But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way

It is true that we are the body, and I am blessed to have friends and family who are His hands and shoulders, who point me to God and lift me up to the Throne. Prayer is powerful. Both praying for others, and praying with others.

This is a challenge that I think all should take to heart.  I read this today from Prison Fellowship Ministries:

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BREAKPOINT DAILY TRANSCRIPT
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Out of the Pew
Becoming a World Changer

April 17, 2008

If your church disappeared tomorrow, would your local community even notice? Would it be missed? What vital, world-redeeming tasks would be left undone?

You might ask yourself the same haunting question: If you were to exit the drama of life stage right this very evening, what difference would it make? Think about this question for a moment, while I tell you about the life of one man who did make a difference because he changed the course of history.

If you are a regular “BreakPoint” listener, or if you have seen the wonderful film AMAZING GRACE, then the name William Wilberforce is familiar to you. Few men have changed history as profoundly as this British statesman. His deep commitment to live out the Gospel led him to wage a monumental, 18-year campaign to end the British slave trade. This was at the end of the 18th century, when the British Parliament was virtually owned by slave-trading interests. It was David versus Goliath.

Yet this one man made a difference. If Wilberforce had never lived, Britain’s slave trade might have gone on decades longer, at the cost of thousands upon thousands of lives.

But it was not just the slave trade that he impacted, as I wrote in my new book, THE FAITH. Had Wilberforce never lived, some 60 charities would not have been founded or aided by his efforts. Crucial prison reforms may never have occurred. You never would have heard of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The British and Foreign Bible Society would not have spread the Gospel. In short, had Wilberforce not lived, his community and humanity would be much poorer for it.

So back to you and your church: Are you simply minding your own business or just caring for the needs within the four walls of the church building? Or does your Christianity have legs and arms, as well as heart and mind? When Wilberforce first converted to Christ, his life-long friend William Pitt -- the youngest Prime Minister in English history -- reminded him, “Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple and lead not to meditation only, but to action.”

To follow Christ’s teaching means to bring that teaching to life. It means that you and I need to be change-agents. That is why I want to encourage you to check out a new book, BE A WORLDCHANGER: LIVE TO SERVE, authored by Pastor Walt Kallestad and Bob Beltz, who helped develop and produce AMAZING GRACE. In it you will read stories of world-changers past and present. You will see the connection between William Wilberforce’s campaign against the slave trade and Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

A five-week small-group study, “Be a World Changer,” is included in the book. And you will find film clips for the small-group study guide on the AMAZING GRACE DVD. The study culminates in helping to get you and your small group actively engaged in serving the needs of your community through a “Serve Day.”

All of us would do well to take Pitt’s words to Wilberforce to heart: not just to meditate on Christianity, but to live it out in the world -- and to change the world in the process.