Thoughts and plans

I have so random thoughts that I just wanted to share with you all and give you a quick update on somethings going on.

This weekend I am heading to Sweden for a training\conference. This is for the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit that will be coming to Estonia for the first time. Our church was asked to help put this event on. Two of my brothers in law are running the event and so they have asked me to help take care of the technical things for the conference and this weekend is the training on what needs to happen. I guess leaders from all over Europe will be traveling in for the 1.5 day event. I will be away from the family for 3 nights, 2 of which are on an overnight ferry, so pray for Reena. Its the first time I am away and she is a little apprehensive.

Not sure if you listen to much music or follow the current worship movement, but there has been a pretty big controversy that has come up. On the latest Hillsong CD and DVD a song and story was featured of a pastor from Australia that wrote a song about god being his healer in the midst of a 2 year battle with cancer. It just came out that its all been a lie and the guy has been faking it and his wife and kids thought he had cancer. This is really sad for everyone and especially the family and the church and the people who have been manipulated by this situation. Not sure of all my thoughts, but its really pushing me to make sure we have high integrity in what we say and do here at Risttee. This isn't new. People have been embellishing numbers and testimonies in churches, but I still can't figure out why. The question that keeps coming to mind is, "Whose approval are we seeking?" This situation is a clear example of seeking the approval of man and I want nothing to do with that stuff. In closing, its a fantastic song, one that I still listen too, but we have to remember worship in music is defined by the heart of the one singing in the audience not the leader or band in the front.

Nora is growing so fast and if I ever charge the batteries in the camera I will have some pictures. She is smiling a lot...for REENA but not for me yet. I am pretty bummed about this, but I am sure it will come. I keep thinking, when she looks at Reena she sees dinner, but when she sees me she just sees someone so amazing that it causes her to do nothing but stare blankly!

Alex is now showing more and more bumps and bruises and we have no idea where they come from or how he got them. I guess that's what happens when you take life at 100mph.

Oskar is growing in his language and is talking more and understanding almost everything. He likes to hear a word and then ask what it is in Mommy or Daddys language. So cool to see his minding starting to work.

Lastly, we are starting a new series about the vision of Risttee in a few weeks and I am totally pumped. I have been working for a while on it. I meet with some people yesterday about it and we hope to do a lot of different things to make this a very special series. One person said they hope that this series the stuff won't go in their one ear and out the other. Not sure that's what I wanted to hear, but I appreciate their honesty.

Finally, I watched some of the Democratic convention last night. It was pretty interesting, but at the same time incredibly boring. But Michelle Obama was a good speaker and I was impressed. You could tell she had spent some time in church, cause she was getting her preach on a little. Can't wait for the rest of the speaches and then the Republican convention next week. I just love television news and then OSU football is back this weekend, its going to be awesome and I hope I have internet there to enjoy the game, but I am pretty sure I am on the boat, so I probably won't see anything.