We Finally Made It!

Halfway There...Kinda

Andrea here in Minnesota at the airport on layover.

Where Did May Go?

It seems like I keep getting lost in time and I can't keep up with the blogging. May was insanely busy and I think June is going to be even more packed. Here's what's been going on and is coming up for the Powell's...

FIELD TRIPS TO JOURNEY CHURCH
One fun and insightful thing we got to do is take the Hannaford Praise Team (musicians and techs) on a field trip to Journey Church, a couple year old church plant in Bozeman, Montana. Journey has been very effective at reaching people in Bozeman so we wanted to find out what the buzz was all about.

We took two trips and attended their Saturday evening services. Their worship guy, Brandon Edwards was gracious to set up meetings after the services to let our people ask questions and interact with theirs. It was pretty cool. Journey does a great job creating environments that make people actually "want" to go to church.

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
On May 1, the National Day of Prayer, we were invited to provide music for the city-wide prayer event on the Montana Capitol Building steps. We assembled a small team of musicians and singers and did about four songs including my favorite, Chris Tomlin's America. It was a very moving event.

BATTLE CRY CONFERENCE
In the beginning of May, I was part of the Battle Cry conference held at the Helena Civic Center. I was the worship team leader of a group comprised of guys from five different churches. Battle Cry was put on by the local Promise Keepers group, LCMI, with help from the Promise Keepers organization.

It was awesome worship. Hearing hundreds of men sing worship songs is quite a different experience than your usual Sunday morning church worship. Andrik came, too, and did an excellent job running the video. In addition, the entire conference was video taped and was aired on the local PBS station. DVDs can be ordered here.

MONTANA FAMILY FOUNDATION WEBSITES
I've also been very busy using some new web skills for the Montana Family Foundation (MFF), a para-church org that is like Focus on the Family, but for Montana. One of the things they do is create those voter guides that report how candidates stand on different issues. What's new for me is that I've had to learn ASP, a web programming language that can dynamically generate pages from databases. Whew! I never thought I'd be doing something like this. MFF has three websites that I've been working on, you can check them out here:

•  Montana Family Foundation •  Montana Voter Guide •  Montana Family Action

MOTHER'S DAY
For Mother's Day, we mixed things up a bit and moved things around on the stage. We put the singers up front and the ladies led the worship with Andrea as the main singer. We did a pretty funky version of Israel Houghton's "You Are Good." Okay, compared to Israel Houghton and New Breed, our version was rather vanilla, but it was pretty funky for us. I actually enjoyed this movie honoring moms - it make me laugh.

ANDRIK WINS MEDIA AWARD
Andrik created a poster for a club he co-founded at his middle school. The poster was entered in the M.Gen Fest here in Helena. The M.Gen Fest was "designed as part of the media literacy curriculum recently implemented into middle- and high-school classrooms throughout Helena. This interactive event will highlight how students have learned to critically analyze and understand media messages and techniques that impact all of us." Andrik's poster won 3rd place. Whoo-hoo!

Fun & Full Friday

If my week at church was busy, my Friday day off was no different. But it was fun! Andrea and I hit several garage sales today. Got a remote control AC outlet and Andrea bought a beautiful ceiling fan for $8. Also a few other things.

Andrea and I kept our usual Friday lunch date at Jade Garden. It's our favorite restaurant here in Helena. When just us two go, we share a sweet & sour chicken meal and keep the cost to about $15.

The ceiling fan was missing a couple parts so we got them at Lowes for about $7 more. That's about $15 for a $100 wireless Hampton Bay ceiling fan. Right on!

Since the last quarter at school has started, Andrik has been struggling in English class. He missed a couple of assignments and got a poor grade on a spelling test. His grade has been a D+ in the class! I hated to do it, but we restricted privileges until he is able to bring it up to a B. So after we picked the kids up from school, our weekly email came from his teacher. I told him he wouldn't be able to bring up up in one week. Guess what? I was wrong! He now has a B+ (87%).

We all went to the cinema and saw the Nicolas Cage movie Next. It was pretty good, but I don't like this trend of not ending movies. Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Eragon, and Next really don't have what I feel are satisfying endings. They all just leave you hanging. All in all though, I enjoyed Next.

When we got home, Kellin and I were playing catch in the front yard and we decided to let the dog out. We've been trying to teach Shadow to stay around and not run off when he's off the leash. The minute we let him out, he bolted at full speed. He usually comes back pretty quick so we waited. He didn't come back. We ended up having to chase him all around the neighborhood for about 2 hours. we were exhausted and I can't tell you how mad we were at the dog!

After the dog incident, I encouraged Kellin to try to ride his bike again. Kellin still can't ride his bike without training wheels. We took them off about 6 months ago, he's fallen a few times, and now he's afraid to ride. Well, after some encouragement, I got him on his bike and gave hims some pointers. Picture Kellin with knee pad, elbow pads, a helmet, and then me following him as fast as I can to keep him from falling. Anyway, went up the street and then back. He seemed to get the hang of it and by the end of the day - He's riding his bike now! I then fixed the bike Andrea bought at a yard sale a while ago (the chain came off). I adjusted for me and then Kellin and I took a ride until dark.

When we came inside, Kellin ate dinner and I began to install the new ceiling fan Andrea bought earlier. It took a little while, but now we have nice fan in our bedroom. The amazing thing? I didn't loose my scalp, any fingers, or electrocute myself. Thank God for simple success's.

Finally about 11:00, I sat down to watch my taped Friday shows. Both Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis were enjoyable. I'll miss SG-1 when it's gone :-(

All in all it was a fun, full Friday.

Andrea On HGTV!

Okay, maybe not really - but I made you look. Actually, she's been working hard doing decorating work for various people in our church lately. When she hits the thrift stores and yard sales, she's buying for three different people right now. She's been quite busy, but is doing a great job!

We did actually submit three photos to HGTV's RateMySpace.com. Now Andrea has her own space with photos and a description. Check it out her first submission here as long as it is still available!

You May Be Surprised!

If you were to walk into our Worship Center on a Sunday morning, you may be surprised to see a short brunette worshiping "enthusiastically." It may even look like she's dancing! That would be Andrea. Passionate about music since early childhood and passionately in love with Jesus, Andrea has embraced her calling to both lead worship and enhance the visual aspects of worship through decorating.

When she is not busy being a mom to her two boys and wife to worship pastor Eric, she can be found at a local thrift store or garage sale seeking our her latest treasure to create a "masterpiece."

Although Andrea enjoys leading worship and decorating, it is the quiet moments with the Savior that she longs for most. Savoring the opportunity to slow down and reflect on Who really matters in life, Andrea encourages each of us to meet with the King and come away "changed."

Happy Birthday Andrea. Love you lots!

Happy Birthday...

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Andrea
Happy birthday to you

The Big Weekend is Over!

I mentioned before how this weekend was going to be quite busy. Well, it was - and here's an update of the goings on...

• First, the Hannaford Women's Retreat was Friday-Sunday. That means that we, in the Powell household, were sans-Andrea. Andrea left Friday afternoon. This means Dad gets to make meals, wake kids, etc.
• At the same time, I was continuing to prepare for and participate in the worship team for the local Promise Keepers conference. We had a final rehearsal on Friday and then the event was slated from 6am to 5:30pm on Saturday.
• If you're keeping track that means Andrea was gone AND I was gone all day at a men's conference. So my mission was to find someone to watch the kids - and I was hoping they could spend the night on Friday to eliminate a lot of trouble before sunrise on Saturday morning. So I had to find someone to have the kids over one the same weekend when many dads from Hannaford have their wives gone as well. Well, I finally set it up. It would work pretty much as I planned except having to leave the conference early (after the worship was finished) to get the kids.
• Dropping off the kids, I was blessed to receive another "Kellin-ism." He was jokingly told that for dinner, He and Andrik were going to have either Broccoli or Monkey Brains. Kellin replied, "I don't know about Monkey Brains, but I don't like Broccoli."
• On Saturday during the conference, it started raining, then sleet, then snowing. And then snowing more. Worship went well. It was great to see all these guys from different Helena churches gather in one place. It was also great to see and hear them engage in worship, singing out loud, and really connecting with God. After slipping out on the afternoon speaker, I walked 50ft to my car and ended up covered in snow - it was really coming down.
• Due to the logistics, after returning home with the kids, waiting a couple of hours, I needed to return to the church of the PK conference and retrieve my equipment (keyboard, etc.). Although there was a little snow here at home, the landscape was completely white at the conference venue. Eventually, we made it home and settled in for Saturday night.
• We woke Sunday morning to a wonderland of near spring snow! We were late leaving the house and found all the roads (and freeway) laden with snow. No snowplows were out on the freeway or downtown. I later found out that it wasn't just me, but I wasn't mentally prepared for the snow. I think it caught me off guard. I really had to re-adjust when I nearly slid into a truck just out of our neighborhood. Finally we arrived at church, without breakfast. It was still snowing. I'd say we got almost 12 inches overnight and it was still coming down.
• Sunday worship went well, but was quite different than usual. Because of the Women's Retreat, I planned a special team of just guys. And I tried to pick some songs that would suit the guys' vocal ranges. All in all, it was just a little out of ordinary.
• Between the services, I took the kids across the street to McDonald's for some quick breakfast. The snow was still coming down and it was built up one the streets. I got stuck on the somewhat steep entrance to McDonald's. With no traction, I finally had to back up back into the main street and find another way in. It wasn't just me having problems, either. After we got our meal in the drive-through and parked in the lot, we saw another truck slide up on the curb in the drive through and almost take down a tree.
• Finally when the services were over, it stopped snowing and things started to warm up. With all the weather, I was starting to think that I might not see Andrea until Thursday as she and the other ladies fought the mountain snow. She got home about an hour later just as I finished shoveling snow out of the driveway.

It was a busy, but wonderful weekend. I have a few projects that I have been putting off until the "big weekend" was over. Now I can get to work on those. I'm also excited to make some progress in the two books I'm reading, Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis and David Crowder's Praise Habit. So far, they are both great! I can't wait to tell you about them.

Until next time, peace...

Someone I Know...

I'd like to tell you about someone I know. She holds my interest. There's a lot of captivating things on her mind and when she talks to me, I feel as though I could listen to her for hours and hours and never get bored. When I'm around her, I actually feel encouraged and empowered to be the person God meant me to be.

I admire her sense of style and her sense of color - it far exceeds my own taste. What's more, I agree with her a lot. We have a lot of things in common. She's has a passionate spirit. She seems to know what I'm thinking most of the time. But, really, there is something about her - I'd have to say I'm really attracted to her. I have thoughts about her that I probably shouldn't mention in this blog.

Above all, she's devoted to God (even more than she's devoted to me). She struggles with things at times, but don't we all. She seems to struggle a lot less than I do. She's so quick to forgive - a lot quicker than me. She's the first person through whom I ever saw Jesus.

Lest you worry, she's the only "hottie" in my life ... and I'm married to her. I'm pretty sure I never did anything great enough to deserve her. Today's our 13-year anniversary and I think I'm the luckiest guy on earth.

Thanks for listening...