Breaking Ground

I know I haven't posted in a while, but for good reason to be explained soon! For now, we broke ground on our house. Here's a couple pics for your viewing pleasure.

The Beard

So No Shave November is coming to an end. Katie wants the nasty beard gone, but I'll give you a chance to give your input. Let me know what you think.

Flying Rats

So I just got home from Segue and was looking forward to watch Amazing Race on the DVR and I plop on the couch in the living room. It was pitch black in there and as I push the power button to turn on the tv and the room begins to light up. All of a sudden I see a rat jump from behind out plasma tv sitting on the mantle onto our coffee table and then run into the corner of the dark living room. I do the manly thing and let out a noise that I can't explain and found myself standing on the couch. I wish I could tell you that I went and caught the rat with my hands but instead I ran into the bedroom and called Katie. I'm thinking about having a sleep over at Chris' house because there's no way I'm going to be able to sleep knowing we have flying rats in the house. The question that I'm wondering is whether I will miss the spraying skunk or the flying rats more when we move out.

I'm That Guy

A couple quick updates and then to my main point:

1) My hair's still falling out day by day :(

2) We closed on our lot and should begin construction on the new house next week! Photos to come!!!!

So it's been a while since I've last posted but there's a good reason! Myspace. So I switched over to Facebook for the most part, but myspace has recaptured my attention. You see, God is doing some incredible things through Segue (www.seguesa.com) and we are so many new people coming and God is stirring something very big. One of the things that always peaks my attention is how to reach people in a new way. These online communities are facinating me. We have actually seen over 100 visit Segue because of our Facebook ads. So I'm giving Myspace a try. While the ads on myspace dont seem to work, I'm trying the band technique. Bands always go on and mass invite friends and it seems to work, so I'm becoming that guy. I've always been annoyed when I have no idea who these people are and how they found me, but they did and I always take about 20 seconds and check them out. I've been internet stalking people for the past week mass inviting people between 18-29 in San Antonio. It's become a challenge for me to see how many friends I can get and how many views I can get. Anyways, I just thought you should know why I haven't blogged. I'll let you know if it works or not, either way I've become that guy.

1 Month 2 Live

So I said I was going to begin posting every Saturday and since then I haven't posted on a Saturday. Maybe I'm busier than I thought. This past Saturday we had Fall Fun Fest at the church which consumed my Saturday. It was a great day though other than my 20 minutes in the dunking booth and a good time getting to hang out with Ronnie Gibson who was in town this weekend to speak to our students at Sunday School. My main purpose though in this blog is to create my list of things I would like to do if I had 1 Month to Live. We are discussing this on Wednesday nights at Pulse and it really is thought provoking. Well, here's what I'd do:

-Spend as much time with Katie and close friends and family
-Travel with Katie to the incredible places she has seen in the world as well as take her to Honduras
-Eat a lot of ice cream, steaks, lobster and sushi
-Meet some heroes like Nolan Ryan, Billy Graham, Rob Bell

That's about all I can think of right now. I'm definitely not one of those guys who wants to go skydiving or anything like that. The question really makes you think about what's important and how much time I invest into things that really don't matter that much. I always wonder too if I'd rather know how much time I have to live or if I'd rather just die without knowing. I think I'd rather know.

The Weekend

So I promised that I would keep up with this and I am and will. I also said that I would start blogging on Saturdays and I didn't on the first Saturday following that post. This is for good reason though. Here's what my weekend looked like:

Thursday Night: Lindsey Kane/The Afters Concert (by the way Lindsey Kane is leading worship at Segue on December 1st)

Friday Morning: Golf at Landa Park with the Boss Man

Friday Night: Natasha Bedingfield and New Kids on the Block Concert (Katie's Birthday present... I was the only Dude in the whole place)

Saturday Morning (7am... just showing how dedicated I am): Habitat for Humanity with the Students... everyone should do this whenever they can, it's a great experience!

Saturday Night: Spurs game with Gabe

Sunday: Church

Awesome weekend and now I get to start my week with Segue!!! I'm a blessed man!

My Hair

Oh yeah, I did think of a good blogging topic the other day. My hair. Many men go through the depressing reality of losing their hair before they're ready and it's very sad. I estimate that I have 6 months left. On this blog I think I'll be sharing the thoughts of a survivor of premature male hairless. It also doesn't help when your closest coworker and brother in law have the thickest hair in America!!! It hurts!!! Pictures to come soon.

Saturdays

I think if I'm going to be consistent with this I'm going to have to just pick day as my blogging day, so as of right now I'm choosing Saturdays. I tend to wake up much earlier than Katie and run out of things to do on the internet in about 15 minutes because all I typically do is email and no one emails on Fridays. Anyway, not I must figure out what to write about once a week.

We just started a series at Pulse called "One Month to Live" and luckily Chris is teaching it. It really has me thinking about the question though of what would I do if I had One Month to Live. What would change? I wonder where would I go, who would I see, what would I do? It's a huge perspective changer because where we spend our time clearly defines what's important to us and I know so many of the things I invest my time into have such little value in the big picture. Chris challenged everyone to make a list of what do you want to accomplish in your lifetime. Jeff Mangum, on Monday nights at Segue, has brought the same challenge several times and challenged the American Way. He talks about how there just has to be more than going to college, getting a job, having kids, retiring, playing golf, moving to a nursing home and dying. There has to be more to live for!!! While there all of these things are great and I look forward to these phases of life, I desperately don't want to fall into the trap of getting to the next step. Anyways, my thoughts are spinning in a way that can never be clear on a blog.

Some selfish worldly news: Katie and I bought the lot and should begin building our dream home in just a couple weeks.. and I'm getting my motorcycle back after a failed first attempt to be a motorcycle rider. I hate fast drivers and roller coasters so I doubt I'll ever be a huge motorcycle guy, but I look forward to getting around our area on it until Katie makes me quit. If you want to look at our floor plan for our new house you can go to www.japhetenterprises.com and look at the Cypress Model. There are a few minor changes, but that's basically the house. Logan and I went and marked our territory on the lot yesterday... it was a very male bonding exercise. I hope that doesn't offend the 2 people who read this.

Another side note as I'm learning to blog. It seems people don't actually use their real names for blogs and they are much more creative. I'd love any suggestions, I usually steal all of my creative stuff from someone else.

Two Days in a Row

The main purpose of this post is to prove that I'm serious about this thing. After two years of faking like I was going to blog, I'm really going to do it this time. There are 4 things on my mind:

1) Noah... we studied Genesis 6 this morning in Sunday School and Noah's character and obedience to God. There are so many things I've missed in the Old Testament stories I've heard since I was a child. I'm really looking forward to this year's Student Life Bible Study walk through the Old Testament. I'm also amazed at how incredible our Student Minstry Sunday School teachers are! It's going to be a great year!

2) Our house!!! While it makes my head spin that we just signed a loan that's scheduled to last 30 years, it's really exciting! It's a very mental thing for Katie and I to buy this lot and build a home (with the best builder in America, Jeff Japhet). It blows me away to walk through this home that is better than any home I could have ever dreamed of and this is our first home! I guess we're skipping the Starter Home process... maybe moving 7 times in the first 3.5 years of marriage was enough experience. I'm overwhelmed at how much God continues to bless us! I have to also add that the house has a game room that I will still refer to as my man room which means the Bachelor pad leather couch and Big Screen stays!!! Can life get any better?

3) The Texans... while life is so great why do the Texans have to be so bad! I just got over the Oilers loss to the Bills and now this!!! I guess I sold out on the Rockets for the Spurs maybe I should just give in and sell my football soul to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys like everyone else. I might as well become a Yankees fan in the process. Speaking of Baseball, how about those Rays?

4) Finally, tomorrow is Monday! That means Segue! If you haven't heard about Segue, you should go to www.seguesa.com and read about it. Tomorrow night Justin Graves is leading worship and Jeff Mangum will be there as always bringing the Word!!! If you've never heard Jeff, you've got to download one of his podcast from Segue here Can't wait for Monday? Neither can I!!!

Crossroads

So I've yet to follow through with my commitment to update this regularly, but I am going to continue to try. I've gotten pretty consistent with Facebook and Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/nilssmith ) and hope to become consistent with this. I feel like I have a lot to talk about regarding life, ministry, our new house, etc.

Tonight I want to talk about Crossroads though. We just finished a series called Crossroads at Pulse and it's really got me thinking. We talked about those moments in life when we have to make a decision and it's clear that we can choose God's way or the world's way and so often it's much easier to just choose the world's way. I've thought about the struggles I had in high school when the world's way of dating, my language, cheating, etc. just fit me. I felt like I was just a better non Christian than I was a Christian. I guess the reality is that I still am. While my struggles have changed, choosing God's way with my finances, my attitude, my time, etc., continues to be much easier to choose the world's ways. While the decision to follow God's ways can be a struggle the joy that follows in pleasing God with my life is ALWAYS worth it! I hope that as you come to the Crossroads in your life that you can also choose God's ways and experience the joy in pleasing our Heavenly Father.

Stories

So I decide about every 6 months that I'm going to start blogging. I'm very uncomfortable blogging, but I guess I need to get over it and start figuring this out. Everyone who knows me very well knows that I get a new idea daily that most of them go nowhere, but I love to talk about them. I just got back from New Orleans last week and I got a new idea while I was down there. I listened to all of the stories that people shared and the hope that they have and I was blown away. I thought afterwards that the world needs to hear these stories, but likely only a handful of people ever will. My desire is to help people tell their stories... well, tell God's stories. The Bible is full of great stories of how God moved through His people, but the truth is God is still moving in and through His people and those stories need to be heard. I am mentored by Hardy Clemons (known by some as the Baptist Pope) who tells me story after story that other young ministers need to hear, but only I will hear them. The world needs to hear these stories. My desire is to create a website that allows the world to hear these stories of God moving in and through his people. I would love to hear stories from little children, teenagers, parents, grandparents, the elderly, etc. I'd love to hear your thoughts/ideas of how this can be a reality.