2008 Roundup

At the beginning of 2008, I never dreamed…

• I would walk the streets of Krakow, Poland.
• See Auschwitz.
• Baptize Taylor James.
• Preach in a Polish Baptist church.
• Get published in a book for childrens charity.
• Attend the Arkansas Baptist State Convention voluntarily.
• I’d own a flat screen TV.
• Carolyn would be diagnosed with breast cancer.
• My family would receive sooo much love and prayer support.
• Journey would gain so many new families and friends.
• Journey would also lose a few more folks.
• I’d reconnect with Tim Smith at Exponential in Orlando.
• Olympics in China!?
• Attend another Passion event in Dallas with Carolyn – and have to stay in the hotel with the flu.
• Help develop an informal church planters network in Arkansas
• See Sam go to his first week-long kids camp – by himself
• Teach a seminar on using the internet for godly influence at Glorieta, NM
• Watch Adelyn place first in just about every race she swam in.
• See the UAM BCM building begin construction!
• Attend the last worship service for the BCM in their old building (built in 1954).
• Meet Ed Stetzer.
• Become a Twaddict.
• Get beat in the first round of the fantasy football playoffs.
• Shop unsuccessfully for a Kia Rondo.
• Get a moped stolen from me and have money provided to purchase a new one.
• Fall more in love with my wife than ever.
• Resurrect the old joke about seeing the fortune teller (don’t ask; you have to present to fall for it.)
• See gas go over $4 and under $1.50 in one year. That’s retarded.
• Be prayed for consistently and dramatically and intensely by so many folks from all over the world. (That’s a blog post forthcoming in and of itself.)
• Witness “The Catch” in Superbowl 2008.
• Have some strong aversion to words like bailout, change, and pork.
• See such radical change in national leadership and history made at the same time.
• Live in our house without power for five days due to a hurricane
• Watch Carolyn get her own iPhone and become one of those users she used to lash out at.
• Witness a near-worship service on one of the last shows of American Idol ’08.
• Get to play in foot-deep snow in the middle of March in Arkansas!
• Find a new home for Fancy the chihuahua, get a new dog… have a cat run over… and get a kitten for Christmas… whew. Pet Replacement Year.
• Learn so much about Christ, life and intimacy with God through hardship.
• Preach in Newark, Arkansas.
• See dozens of college students coming to our church.
• Marry one of my former students… (I was the officiating pastor… I’m not from Texas…)
• Admit that PCs are better than Macs… then I woke up in a cold sweat. What a nightmare.

What did you see happen that surprised you? Blog about it and leave a comment and a link!