Hawk's Nest

Just picked up Chris Tomlin's new CD, 'Hello Love.'  

Now, this may sound a little weird for someone who has led worship singing for the past several years, but this is the first CT CD that I've ever purchased.  I guess I've just never really been 'grabbed' by his stuff.  Sure, he's written some great songs, and we do sing several of them here at churchfreo, but his music hasn't really been something I would choose to listen to in my free time. 

Well, last week, I heard 'Hello Love' had been released, so I went online and had a listen - hoping to snag a track or two we might be able to sing at churchfreo.  Asfter listening to a  sample of each track at Zune Marketplace I ended up buying the whole CD, and have pretty much worn it out for the past week. 

Now, from some of the reviews I've read, 'Hello Love' is pretty much typical Tomlin - but since I haven't been a big fan, that doesn't mean much to me.  And I don't know that I can give you a descriptive critique of the CD...all I can say is that it moved me.  Pretty much the whole thing.  One song, in particular, had me crying like a baby while doing curls at the gym.  (Yep...got some strange looks for that one.  Tried to play it off like I was just sweating a lot...from my eyeballs. )

The song is called 'Exalted.'  

Exalted, He is exalted.

On high, He is exalted.

For great is the Lord.  Let all the nations say.

Exalted, He is exalted.

Blessing and honor, glory and power, unto the Lord be praise.

Sing out the chorus resounding before us.

Holy is his name.   His name.

Yahweh.  Holy is Your name.

Nothing earth shattering...except this is exactly the way I want to live my life!  Remembering constantly that He is at the center of my being.  And that He is to be praised.  (It also doesn't hurt that the last bridge is sung by a choir, acapella, in 4 part harmony.)

Now I'm not suggeting that you shoul all run right out and buy it, but at least borrow a friends and have a listen. 

In other news, cool things are happeing at churchfreo.  We've just finished several weeks of looking at the early church in Acts - and wondering what it would look like to live/do 'church' that way.  Where Church is something we are, not somewhere we go.   And God is at the center of our lives, not just at the top of a priority list.  And as followers of Jesus, we're called to truly love those we come in contact with.  Not just tolerate...love.  Hmmm....

In the next few weeks, well be taking a look at the 'Kingdom of Heaven'.   Jesus seemed to talk about it being 'at hand' a lot.  And he compared it to weird things like yeast, and sons, and mustard seeds, and hidden treasure.  And how it belonged to the poor in spirit, and the persecuted.  And whoever was least would be great there.  Most of the time when Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven, he was using present tense...not future.  Could that mean the kingdome is here...now???  Man, what could that look like??

Should be fun.

Oh, and summer is definitely coming!  Have I mentioned how clear and beautiful the water is here??

And the sunsets.

As it gets warmer, the dive season is really starting to crank up.  People know the heat is coming, so they are making plans to spend as much time in the water as possible.  And obviously, when you are in the water, you need a good mask, snorkel, fins, etc.  That's where the fine folks at Dolphin Dive Fremantle come in.  And no, we don't dive with dolphins - (unless we're really lucky) - that's just our name.

A couple of entries ago, I posted some pix of me working on our dive shop's boat, The Sea Lion - and I promised I'd post some pictures of the finished product.  So here they are

A 'being worked on' picture:

And just before she went back in the water:

Here are a few shots of the Sea Lion being launched - with really cool big machines.  The mechanical engineer in me was almost giddy.  (Did I just use the term giddy?!?!?!)  Oh, and that's Mark, the owner of the company and the skipper, doing a little dance in front of the boat.  I'm still not exactly sure what is wrong with him...but it's no little thing.  ;)

Here's Mark and his little brother Craig checking out their handiwork in their flashy, orange jumpsuits.  I think the conversation was going something like, "Mate, I sure hope those freaking straps hold!"  

So, whether we're ready or not, the dive season is getting ready to go into overdrive...or overdive if you like.  It's a rough life. 

So, it's finally getting warm here!  Spring has been cold, and rainy, but I believe summer is starting to show itself.  Today is the first day I've worn shorts to work and haven't frozen my, um...well, that I haven't been cold.  For those of you north of the equator that are a bit confused at the moment, remember that I live in the opposite hemisphere as you - hence the seasons are opposite.  This has taken some getting used to (picture sunny, 110 degree Christmases and rainy, 40 degree July 4th's), and right now I really don't care what month it is, I just want some sunny, hot days.  The old saying, 'Be careful what you ask for...,' definitely applies here, because come mid-January, I'll no doubt be complaining about how freaking hot it is. 

churchfreo seems to be hitting a bit of a new season as well.  We've been in our current location for about 8 months, and are really starting to be seen as part of the community.  People continue to stop by and check us out - foot traffic is definitely picking up as it warms up - and God has seen fit for the community we are in to look on us favorably - which doesn't seem to happen to much with churches around here. 

Wednesday night, one of the guys who has started coming, Nick (who works in the restaurant next door), and I were chatting/praying/playing guitar - and after a time of prayer about a tough situation in his life, and one in mine, he made a truly telling comment.  He said he was attending churchfreo because they had the best worship leader on the planet.

OK...not really.

He said that he'd been to all sorts of churches throughout his life (and he's had an interesting life), big churches, small churches, skinny ones, fat ones, etc, but that this was his home church because at churchfreo, there were no mosques.

"Mosques?," I replied - caught a bit off guard, my mind frantically shifting gears to keep up with the new direction of the conversation, and how I was going to address this comment.

"Yea, you know," he said, putting his open had up to his face, "mosques."

(pause...cricket...cricket)

"Oh...maaaasks." I replied, quite relieved I wasn't going to have to tap into my limited knowledge of Islam, and blown away yet again by how much we all value genuineness.

And if we all value it so much...why do we all wear so many 'mosques'?  hmmm..

I've been pondering this for the past couple of days, and I think I may be on to something (with a little help from Donald Miller).

More on this later.

....and evidently so is the Wolfpack.  Knocking off the #15 ECU Pirates doesn't quench the heartache of losing to two (who will remain unnamed) SC teams, but it does dull it a bit.

I'm not going to base a whole lot on one win, but I have a sneaking suspicion that our new coach and this little freshman quarterback are just getting started.   Check out the game recap below.

WOLFPACK STUNS #15 ECU 30-24 IN OVERTIME

A pressbox-overturned replay gave NC State a game-tying touchdown with 72 seconds remaining in regulation and a senior Andre Brown scored on a 10-yard run in overtime to give the Wolfpack a 30-24 victory over No. 15 East Carolina.

On East Carolina’s third play in overtime, NC State defensive end Shea McKeen sacked East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney and stripped the ball out of his hands. Teammate Willie Young recovered the fumble, giving the ball to the Wolfpack for its chance to score.
Brown set up his score with a 16-yard high-hurdling run, and followed with a 10-yard run for the winning touchdown in front of a sell-out crowd of 57,583 at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“When the defense goes out there and play like they played, getting that turnover in overtime and making those two stands inside the 5, I didn’t want to rely on the kicker, to be honest with you,” Brown said. “I wanted to go out there, put that boy in the end zone and get out of here.”

Freshman quarterback Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes for the Wolfpack (2-2 overall) and the defense held ECU to just three points on a pair of fourth-quarter goal-line stands.

“For the first time since I have been here, we finally played 60 minutes of tough, hard-nosed football,” said Wolfpack second-year coach Tom O’Brien. “It paid off in the end.”

Wilson moved the offense all afternoon, out-gaining the Pirates 384-383. He received help from dual-threat running attack of Brown and junior Jamelle Eugene, who made his 2008 debut after missing the first three games because of an ankle injury. Brown rushed for 73 yards on 12 carries, Eugene had 25 on nine carries and Wilson had 26 on 12 carries.

“I think one I am learning about Russell is that he plays a lot better sometimes than he looks in practice,” O’Brien said. “There are things we have to learn about him. Certainly today, he made plays and extended plays with his feet.”

The Wolfpack’s defense again played well, even though it lost its top performer, sophomore linebacker Nate Irving, to a lower-leg injury in the first half. He attempted to come back in the second half, but played only a few downs before the medical staff held him out for the rest of the game.

“The thing I like about us right now is that we are playing hard,” O’Brien said. “We are learning how to do that. Right now, with all the injuries we have had, that’s the only way we can win football games.”

Just a quick post to let you all know that it's not all fun and games working for a dive company.  As some of you may realize, it is wintertime here (the whole opposite hemisphere thing), so this week our boat - The Sea Lion - was taken out of the water for its yearly cleaning/maintenance etc.  So I spent some fun, fun time this week scrubbing, sanding, painting, scouring, grinding, clearing, bailing, and all sorts of other awesome, refreshing jobs.  Here are some pix:

Here's me holding up the boat.....WITH MY ARM!!!  After I've just finished scraping and scrubbing the entire hull (of the 75ft boat) with a freaking brillo pad:

And a close up of the nasty, dirty face - that no one told me about - and which I didn't figure out I had until I got home and looked in the mirror!

Day two with my fresh orange jumpsuit - in the bowels of the beast removing old, nasty, scummy, mucky, year old seawater mixed with diesel fuel.  Made for a nice high though.

Can't remember what I was delving below to do here.  Must have been something exciting.

And my partner in crime, Craigy, working on removing the GenSet

All in all it was a pretty grueling, but fun few days...and next week I get to do more of the same.  I'll post some pix of the finished product as well.