STOP, DROP, AND ROLL

jeanette and i were driving back from ft. smith tonight, which is about 20mins. east of us and we ran into this huge super cell storm. we were on I-40 and there were times that i had to slow down to 40mph. that was some of the heaviest rain that i have ever driven in. as we were slowed down, i looked over on the side of the road and saw animals starting to line up in pairs...it was really weird. we are officially in tornado season up here and, although sallisaw doesn't normally get tornadoes, there are a lot in the area. which is really weird for us. we're not use to living in tornado ally quite yet. it is nice that we're not the ones getting the tornadoes though. i honestly don't know what i'd do if one did happen. all i remember is the tornado drills at school when we use to STOP, DROP, AND ROLL.

What a Weekend...

wow, what a weekend indeed. we had operation freedom friday night and had 55 teenagers there along with about 20 parents and volunteers. we had some crazy, stupid fun. i swear the adults had as much fun as the youth did. operation freedom lasted until 9pm and then we had Jeff and Kim Livsey, who were interviewing for our Children's Pastor position, come in at about 10:30 that night. after showing them around, talking with them and getting to know them a little we finally left for home at about 1:30am.

naturally, after getting home, my lovely wife wanted to keep me up until 3am asking about every detail from the minute she left the church to my arriving at our front door. we woke up bright and early saturday morning to the sound of the sun rising (it seemed like). then took Jeff and Kim around town showing them rental properties and the rest of Sallisaw. after eating lunch, we had meetings with them and church volunteers until about 5:30pm and dinner at Dr. Rick and Karen Robbins home until about 9:30pm. after which we wisked away to the prom at the high school to have some fun. crashing in bed with my mind still going about 90mph i finally reached REM sleep at about 2am.

Jeff and Kim did both children's services sunday morning, which i sat in on, and did a phenomenal job! we finally got home from church at about 2pm and i immediately crashed until about 6:30pm. after spending all weekend with this couple, jeanette and i have two new great friends. they are amazing people and i really do hope that God allows it all to work out with them coming here. i personally believe that we already have the most amazing church anywhere in the area and they would compliment our church and our way of doing ministry excellently. i am just so excited about all that God is doing here at the Journey Church! I am Living the Dream...

Operation Freedom Part:2

i just had the time of my life tonight. we had a video scavenger hunt that the teens had to go and rescue one of 6 yard gnomes from someone's yard. then, they had 2 pages of objectives that were on a point base value that ranged from 50 points to 1000 points. there were objectives from the gnome working behind a register at a fast food restaurant to driving a car as if in a high speed chase and even dumpster diving for hidden treasure. we had about 55 teenagers show up and their final task that is worth 1000 points is to have their entire team at the same service on sunday morning with their gnome! i had so much stinkin fun tonight! i can't wait to go and watch all of these videos now.

Operation Freedom

we are doing this event tomorrow night that is going to be so much fun. it's called Operation Freedom. this is a very top secret hush hush event. nobody has a clue what it's even about yet. we've been announcing it for about a month and everyone is about to explode in anticipation. due to the secresy of the event, i can't give you any details until after tomorrow night but, i can give you one clue, the whole evening revolves around a roaming gnome. this is going to be so much fun. i can't wait to tell you all about it!

Duct Tape

i've heard people say that duct tape can fix or hold anything together. and, over the years, i've found this to be quite true. so, last night at my youth service we decided to put this to the ultimate test. we took 2 teams of 5. 1 team of guys and 1 team of girls. and, we gave them each a roll of duct tape and told them they had to duct tape one teammate to the wall and who ever stayed the longest won. AND, IT REALLY WORKED!!! i could see how, if they hadn't been rushed by me that they could have taped them good enough to stay up there for quite a while. i was truly amazed by this. so, if you and some friends are ever bored and want something to do but all you have is a roll of duct tape. HOOK IT UP!

Pocket

Today is a very monumental event for some dear friends of mine. Pocket Full of Rocks is releasing their new album "Songs to the King" today. Pocket has forever changed how I approach the Throne of God in worship. If you want to hear a CD that will not only inspire you, but also change your life; then go get this CD today. If you purchase it at Wal-Mart, you will also receive an amazing Bonus DVD that was produced by Unblind Productions. Unblind Productions is one of the most creatively gifted production companies out there. I know you will enjoy this DVD.

MySpace

If you're under the age of 25 and don't have or at least know what a MySpace is by now then you've been living under a rock for some time now. To be quite honest, I fell under that category until just here recently when my friend Brock Gill and Pastor Jeff introduced it into my life. In getting on there, I was completely blown away. MySpace isn't just another website, it's a completely different world of it's own. It's amazing the people you will find on it as well. I found friends that I haven't seen or talked to in years. Just to give you an idea of how big this phenomenon is growing, as of today (3-7-06) there are over 61,000,000 profiles set up on MySpace. Each one is of an individual or an orginization of some sort. People are actually starting to call the generation that is growing up now, the "MySpace Generation".

Ten years ago people were saying "You can tell what kind of person a teenager is by looking at their bedroom.". Now they're saying "You can tell what kind of person a teenager is by looking at their MySpace page.". MySpace is the 7th most hit English speaking website in the world. This truly is sweeping our generation. I've heard of a lot of people slamming MySpace, particularly Christians, talking about how worldly and sinful it is. But, just like anything, it's only as worldly and sinful as the person who is using it. I choose to use MySpace as a way to stay connected to old friends and connect with new ones and network together in ministry with other people who share the same passions as I do. I encourage you to go check it out at www.myspace.com and decide what you think about it. If you set up a MySpace page, go to www.myspace.com/mattcaler and add me as a friend. I look forward to seeing you in the virtual world of MySpace!

Excited

Well, we've been back in lovely Sallisaw, OK for 6 months now and are just so blessed to be here. God has been doing so many things in our lives, ministry, and our AMAZING church. The church has more than doubled in the last 8 months and we are now looking at hiring a new Children's Pastor/Master's Commission Director in the next month or two. It's so cool to see all of the extremely well qualified people who are all chomping at the bit to come to little 'ol Sallisaw and be a part of what God is doing at the Journey Church.

This is particularly exciting to me because, I feel like we're going to be adding another family member. Our staff, as well as the entire church, is so tightly knit together that it truly does give you that sense of family. All I know is, they better have a great sense of humor and be willing to either play XBOX LIVE or golf with me. Those are the most important questions they're going to hear coming out of my mouth. Pastor Jeff has all of the other stuff covered, but I just want to know that they know how to have fun! We'll see how it all pans out. I'll keep you posted. You can be sure though, when you hear back from me on this subject, you'll be hearing about somebody who fills those specifications.