I had thought I turned the corner yesterday, but I didn’t make it that far around the corner! As I was getting ready to go to bed to wake up and go to class and practice today, the fever and chills returned with avengeance! I have never done drugs, but my delirium between conscious and unconscious was probably the closest I have ever felt to what doing drugs would be like. I had some crazy dreams and which resulted in laying sweating in bed awake last night. So I woke up this morning called the doctor and he had me in and out within the hour with antibiotics! Gotta love that! Most of the day I’ve slipped in and out conscious, but I’m feeling a little better. However, the sad news is because of this, I’m more than likely not playing on Saturday in Dresden. Which is a huge bummer. I’ve been really excited about this game, but for only being two days before a game and still feeling the way I do it wouldn’t be healthy. And it also took all the energy I had to get out of my flat and go to the doctor; my head was spinning after walking up three flights of stairs! Praise God, I finally appear to be on the mend. Thanks for the prayers.

In Batman Begins, we hear this quote repeated several times throughout the movie, “Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.” I love it because it is true to life and very, very true to American football! When we fall (or in this case, get “jacked up”) we learn to pick ourselves up and stay after it. See the evidence of below…

Yeah, that’s me (#2). On the first punt of the game, I got caught and he certainly “jacked me up!” Quedos to #20 of the Wildcats for not giving up on the play and “jacking me up!” This is why I like to deliver the blows and not receive them. No fear, I survived the play and I’m happy to say that the image you see above does not speak of the outcome of the game either for myself, or more importantly my team.

We ended up beating the Kirchdorf Wildcats 28-7, after a sluggish start. You could tell it was our first game of the season as our newly installed offense and defense were bit sluggish. However, we turned that around in the second half and came out and scored 21 points unanswered points. We saw glimpses from a lot of the young guys that are playing and that was fun. Actually, that was my favorite part; watching some of younger guys make some plays and watching us “older” guys do what we do, even if that meant have the rust banged off by the hammer of our opponents shoulder!

Personally, I think my hammy and ankle are fine. (Thanks for the prayers.) I did say to my parents last night, “I’m definitely feeling this more than ever felt it before!” It didn’t help that as I went to bed on Saturday night I felt a cold coming and I think it hit during the game. At the beginning of the second half my strong safety, David Horina, set me up a jump ball and I intercepted it, running it back for 70 yards or so. I’m grateful there was no one chasing me, because even with running free, I was gassed. And I mean gassed! I fell to my knee and thanked God for the opportunity and that I didn’t have a heart attack right there trying to breath through the congesting! The cold has only got worse since I got home, I actually have stayed home today resting trying to shake this with ny-quil, echenasia, zinc, and air-borne. Haven’t had too much success with that yet. Right now I’m leading towards taking another sick day, but that is tough because I don’t want to miss Czech class. Pray that I get well soon and that my “older” body feels more normal tomorrow! Blessings!

I was hoping to get an update entry up today, but I ran out of time. But for all of those who were worried if I made it back (Hi Dad!;-)) from Budapest, no worries, I have. It was a great week and I hope to get an update up soon, but I have another 6 hours ahead of me in a moving vehicle tomorrow (and then back, all in one day!)! Yah! Kind of. We have our first game tomorrow against the Kirchdorf Wildcats in Germany. The shocker for me was, I found out that the game was away last night, 20 minutes before our walk through ended. So I’m about to retire early for the evening, because we have to get out of here early tomorrow morning. I would ask you to pray that I would, first and foremost, give Christ a praise worthy performance tomorrow but also pray for my health. My hammy is feeling almost 100% but it isn’t quite there and my ankle is just hanging around making me wonder about it. Thanks for the prayers! Go Lions!

Or more accurately Budapest, but I like to drop the Buda or sometimes the pest and call it “The Pest” or “Big Buda”. Anyway, this week I am going to a 4 day conference to learn more about an evangelism strategy (and/or method, and/or a way of living of sorts) called, “Story of the Soul.” I’m excited to learn more about it and see how it plays out. To give you the gist of it, it is a way to help believers, and non-believers alike, see God showing up all over pop-culture, and thus helping people see God through the language of our day. I’m pretty stoked to go, learn, interact and etc over this and see how we might be able to see this play out here in Prague. Another bonus, is getting to hang out with some great staff peeps and former staff peeps that will be leading and participating in the conference! Here is a quick video run down of S.O.T.S..

So my love language is touch. What can I say? It’s true. Well my director and great friend, Billy, doesn’t have the same love language as me. So when we were having a Crusade long-term staff social this past Friday and we had to hold hands from a game I was very happy! Billy not so much, but it was fun! Here is a pic that my fellow-staff friend, Erin, snapped. A picture does say a thousand words!

Notice the interlocking fingers! Seriously though, it is said that we each need a Paul (someone pouring into us), Barnabas (a peer of sorts, who encourages us), and Timothy (someone that we pour into) to us and Billy has been and will continue to be a Paul and Barnabas of sorts to me for some time. This is true man love as we see expressed throughout the Bible! Here’s to redeeming man love!

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:12-15

I’m also lobbying for a little Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26 action, but my staff team isn’t going for it.

All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Oh well, small steps right… Blessings to you this Sunday!

Okay, so we all know I don’t live in America. I try to keep up with American news and pop-culture, to a degree, since in some ways it is in the driver seat of the world’s news and pop-culture (how I wish this weren’t true). With that said, I have been reading things about Ben Stein’s Expelled: The Movie on friends blogs and I was clueless until today, on my day off where I could sit and surf a bit. The trailer in itself is stimulating and though provoking:

I really want to see this! I have no idea when it will come out over here in Europe, and since I have no idea when I will be back in the States I’ll have to wait. (My life seems to be a constant lesson on patience! Even with these little things, and especially with the big things!) I’m deeply intrigued by this trailer and how it might, or might not, shake things up back in America (or for that matter it may have already shook things up and I’m clueless), but also on this side of the pond. This could be one of those few times where us as Americans driving the world’s news and pop-culture could make a positive, thought provoking dent on the world. This film would be great hear in Prague to dialog over, because there is absolutely NO possibility in the minds of most Czechs that the origin of this world and universe is by random chance. Communism definitely had its hands in shoving this down the throats of all those that lived behind the curtain. So with that being said, I’m intrigued and Mr. Ben Stein please get this released over here ASAP!

The third installment of The Prague Lions: Paper Lion story is now up. It’s entitled, Hits and Misses from Third String. If you don’t know what I am talking about see past blog entries by clicking HERE and HERE. Blessings…

This week I received a box from my father with a variety of items I purchased and had sent home. My father is great at getting me the things that I get sent back home, Thanks Dad! But anyway, I had bought some resources from a Christian organization for use here in Prague. I was looking forward to seeing the products, as I have used similar resources in the past with satisfaction. (NOTE: I am purposely keeping the resources and the organization/company anonymous.) When I had opened the box and removed some football stuff, workout stuff, mail and etc. I grabbed what I was looking forward to use and upon checking it out disappointment and discouragement filled my heart a bit.

“Why?”, you ask.

The reason why is simple – conveying information for the sake of conveying information. All too often, I see Christians (including me at times) fall subject to this epidemic of mediocrity.

So I want to issues a challenge of sorts,

Dear Bride of Christ (the Church), including pastors, lay leaders, Christian organizations, Christian artists, Christian thinkers, and Christians at large please, please don’t fall to this epidemic of mediocrity and miss the point. Our God is the greatest Creator of all time! He is more amazing, more creative, more awe-inspiring than Masaccio, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Titian, Tintoretto, Bellini, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Ghiberti, Giotto, and Raphael all put together. He is the Creator God. He is the one who fashions us as a potter fashions a pot. He is the brilliance beyond any artistic brilliance we see, because after all each and every human being, whether believer or not, is still created in the image of the Creator and thus have an amazing potential to create beauty! Please dear Christian, have a big view of God that inspires you to go beyond mediocrity! Beyond merely conveying information! Don’t settle. Use your God-given potential and ability to rise above the mundane! I can’t imagine what would stir in the hearts of sincere skeptics if we rose above this epidemic! I think we would be following in the steps of the Master Artist Jesus!

Okay, I going to get off my soapbox, known as the blog world, now. I just have been fired up all week about this and to be honest, saddened as well. A dear Creative Christian friend, Mike Gorter, sent me an email some time ago with some great thoughts in this very same vein over at the Mosaic Alliance, here are the links; Observe 1: Secrets of the Heart; Observe 2: The Conversation; Observe 3: Our Dad vs. our Dad’s; Observe 4: Beyond Words; and Observe 5: Everybody’s Doing It. My favorite entries and sections came from 4 & 5, here is one great section from Observe 4:

I have that approach with the art I create for Mosaic, minus the interest rates. There’s an aspect of spiritual art where we feel we have to understand and explain everything or else no one will get it. Most fliers I see, especially for churches, are plastered with INFO, INFO, INFO, INFO. The film industry for years, however, has been getting people’s attention and drawing them into the beauty of their films with some of the most intriguing and eye-opening posters where the words and information are the smallest things on the page.

How about you? What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Do have any other links we could add to this list? Or books for that matter? Sound off…

Last weekend I was doing some surfing, trying to get some things done for work and I stumbled across a Philip Yancey article entitled God at Large from Christianity Today back in 2001. It might be old but it hit home as I read it. The subtitle of the article is a telling tale in itself, “A look around the globe reveals a God as big as we want him to be,” (I don’t know if I like this subtitle, but I don’t want to waist time on it.) but what got me was the term “divorced” that Yancey used in reference of the Czech Republic, but largely Denmark, in this article. In the article Yancey is attempting to communicate how God is moving across the Globe and doing that he uses descriptors like, “honeymoon”, “mature marriage”, and “divorced”. Here is what he had to say about Czech and Denmark:

Other nations have settled into a “divorced” phase. I also visited Denmark last year, a nation which vies with the Czech Republic as having the lowest rate of church attendance. Church steeples pierce the gray skies, but only tourists bother to go inside. No one could tell me a single place where I might find anything related to Denmark’s most famous Christian, Søren Kierkegaard. In the national museum, a placard explained that the cross, formerly the religious symbol of Denmark, is now regarded as a cultural relic.

Yancey could not be any more correct. When the protestant elite lost the Battle of White Mountain, on November 8, 1620, the spiritual climate was forever changed here. See Czech, at least Bohemia, considered themselves protestant and the Habsburg dynasty was a Catholic dynasty that forced catholicism upon the Czechs. I’ve read that the population of Bohemia (western Czech) was cut in about half in 30 years after the lose at White Mountain. With this said, I think this could be where the “divorce” that Yancey spoke of happened between the Czech people and God, or religion for that matter. They viewed themselves as a Christian country, and what not and God left them hanging, in their minds. (Us Americans need to beware of the warnings throughout history when countries viewed themselves one way and things didn’t happen how they thought God should allow them to. God is God and his ways are higher even in defeat. Look at the crucifixion! Lose but God still won!)

I have hope though. Jesus can heal anything. Just as I have heard stories about divorced couples getting back together after Jesus transformed their hearts, I pray for the same would be true between this country and Jesus. It reminds me of Hosea 2:14-23, and causes me to pray this for this country:

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Yes Lord.

Last Saturday, I had the chance, neigh the opportunity, to baby-sit the Crossan children (my director and his wife’s kids) and I had a fun time. I have to be honest with you, since I grew up the son of a mid-wife I have a bent for children. I love them. Not to many together at one time, but you give me about 2-3 together and I love it! I long to be a dad. Someday, Lord-willing, that will come (Someday, Mom! Not anytime soon!), but until then I will practice with other’s kids! Really, it is great because I get to see how friends are parenting and I get to where the parenting hat here and there as I baby-sit. Okay, I don’t know why I went there…

So the Crossan’s have a set routine, and the kids know every detail of it and how it needs to be done – 1) Each child gets a book of their choice, 2) They get 2-4 Bible stories, depending on the Bible they are reading, 3) They pray, and 4) There are songs sung. I managed through the first three with little to no problem, although I did realize they were probably getting a bit more than usual out of me, because I can be a softy. Oh well. But I was thrown when they asked me to sing. “Why?” Well, I’m not up-to-date on my kids songs. So I went with the safe bet, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” No problem, handled it like a champ. Until, Levi looks at me and says, “Sing it another way!” Another way? What does this mean? How do I sing it another way? Like another genre? What? These are the questions that went through my mind quick. My palms began to sweat, I got a little nervous and I had no idea what to sing. Then it came out, the “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” Remix! That’s right, I rapped “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” complete with hand motions and all.

It was priceless to see their faces. Abigail and Levi, I’m sure have never seen Billy break out into a rap (although, I think I would pay to see Billy rap anything!). What made it even better was the next night when Abigail asked Billy to sing it like Mr. Zach! Booyah! Love it! Love you Crossans!