The stinky kid...

So in Springfield, I help out with Fusion Student Ministries at Central Assembly. It's a fairly large youth group of well over 200, and it's still growing. It's a great youth ministry. But my job, as it has been for the last year and half, is to be the sound man for an AMAZING worship team. And the sound booth isn't your parents' run-of-the-mill system... it take three people to run the show up there... fully moving computer controlled lights, projection system, about 3-4 videos a week, and my responsibility, the sound board and control system that takes up half of the booth.

I love working up there, interacting with an amazing staff, and getting to be a special part of Fusion knowing that they rely on my efforts every week. However, this means I don't get as much student interaction that I would hope for, although it's nice being able to view this ministry from almost an outside perspective as I run sound.

But this past Wednesday, the students had to sit in a church meeting, so of course volunteers are needed to supervise the youngins to make sure they are respectful. So as I was sitting there, two boys, both named Dillon, came and sat next to me. They were about 10 or 11 years old, so I introduced myself and started a conversation with them. The two boys were pretty cool kids, and were a little reckless sitting there, but what I love about jr. highers is that they think anyone older than them is super cool. So of course, I felt like the bomb.

But then I noticed the kid sitting next to me... Dillon #1... was kind of smelly, his hands were covered in dirt, his jacket smelled, and he was just overall a little messy... but the smell is what got me. I greatly dislike smelly people... really. I am always overly self-concious about how I smell, and so I think other people should be aware of their odors too. haha. But Dillon #1 was so excited to be there and brought his friend, Dillon #2, to church so that he could check out our sweet youth group and all the Xboxes, Wiis, and Playstations we have in our atrium.

Add to that, the kid in front of us chose this as a great opportunity to make fun of all the little kids around him because he wanted to make himself feel better because his family life wasn't all that great.

It's funny how God teaches you things in the most unusual moments. There I was, listening to the Senior Pastor turn in his resignation because he was voted in as the new General Secretary, surrounded by stinky, friend of stinky, and crazy kid, and I learned about the unconditional love of God. Not every kid that will come into my future youth group will be sunshine and roses. But it takes love and willingness to look past the outward appearance, and to truly love on the children of God.

Thanks Dillon(s), I'll see you guys next Wednesday.

57:7

So this weekend, 57:7 is in the middle of its first "gig."

Usually when bands get together, they have to work their way up to the top, achieving better shows and venues. But fortunately, we're a little different. This is because 57:7 has been in existence for a while (I remember seeing them at camps whenever I was in high school) and we are a ministry team. Let's just say, this is probably as big of a deal that 57:7 is going to get this year.

I say all this to mention that Saturday, the 8 boys drove down to Branson and stayed the night so that we could begin the first of three services this morning (Sunday). "What are the services for?" you may ask. Well friend, 57:7 has the amazing opportunity to lead worship at the National District Youth Directors conference. And for those of you who are not in the A/G, it's a pretty big deal with all the head honchos in attendance from the National Youth office. This is an awesome chance for me to meet and talk with these individuals who have given their lives to youth ministry and have gone through the same things I am going through and are pursuing the same goals that I have.

This conference is riding on the coat-tails of the National Childrens Ministry conference that Heartsong played at Thursday and Friday mornings. So by Tuesday, I would have spent six half days in a row in Branson, Missouri.

Heartsong is also about ready to kick start our weekend ministry endeavors this next weekend starting with a church plant in Willard I believe. So that'll be fun getting to do that again and I am excited to see what's in store for Heartsong this semester. In May, Heartsong will be going to Amsterdam and Brussels for an entire month, and I still cannot believe all these opportunities that are being put before us.


Oh, and answer to last week's trivia question about the Tower of Terror... the premise behind the ride is that the elevator shafts malfunctioned and parts of the building were blown off the front, as you can tell by the scorch marks on the front of the building. BUT, the "original" Hollywood Hotel sign is still there even though it is in the place that was supposedly blown off (notice the perfect condition sign with the burn marks behind it). Designers later changed this flaw for other variations of the ride for the other Disney parks around the world.

My strictly Disney World post

As of today, January 31st, my poll states that out of the 7 people that voted, the most demanded topics to be addressed in this blog are my day to day life and Walt Disney World. I haven't had the chance to really geek out yet about Disney World... so here we go.

This past Christmas I traveled with my brother, mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida which, besides home, is my favorite place in the world.

This was my first experience going there during Christmas time, and let me tell you that it is really the best time to go... if you know how to get around the crowds. You can see so many things at Christmas time that you can't see the rest of the year... like the amazing lights that are everywhere.


I don't really want to make this a summery of our trip, because we did SO much in just one week and there are so many pictures. But I do want to share a few things that you probably don't know and I found interesting. Maybe if you like these topics I can share more in the future.

First....
My brother Casey took this picture and labeled it with the simple caption, "what... is... that...?"

So I took it upon myself to do the homework to solve this problem, cause I too was quite curious.

If you look at the wall in front of this... thing... there is multi-colored graffiti that says "Top Secret FX-Gen-R8R Do not look up!"
Obviously, it is an effects generator from the broken up lingo above. This is supposedly controlling the effects for the Muppet Vision 3-D attraction. It may seem a little out of place, but in fact that entire section of the park was supposed to be completely Muppet themed as though Jim Henson's muppets totally took over the park and in turn, spray painted that graffiti.
As well as the Muppet Vision 3-D show, there was supposed to be a Muppet Movie Ride where, similar to The Great Movie Ride down the road in the imitation Chinese Theater, it would take you through a tour of movies... that the muppets have tried to create with the Great Gonzo as the director.

Also, the restaurant Momma Melrose was supposed to be "The Great Gonzo's Pandemonium Pizza Parlor" where animatronic rats would deliver your pizza as you're surrounded by chaos caused by the rest of the Muppet cast.

Unfortunately, an earlier merger proposal between Disney and Henson fell through and they were unable to completely dedicate a section of the park to the Muppets. However, in the past few years, Disney has acquired the rights to the Henson corporation, but it is very unlikely that they will redesign this back section of the park because of the popularity of Momma Melrose and the amount of work and money to close down and redo it all.

Second...
In the Epcot ride, Mission: Space, there is a hidden tribute to the retired ride, Horizons.

Before Mission: Space, there was a ride called Horizons in that same location. Horizons was there from Oct 1983 to Jan 1999. Each ride in the Future World section of EPCOT that existed when the park opened had a logo to represent the ride. Horizons' logo is seen in the center of this picture represented by a road disappearing into the horizon. After the ride permanently closed in '99, the building was torn down and the current Mission: Space building was created and opened in Oct 2003.

Third...
I will be HIGHLY surprised if anyone can tell me what is wrong with the exterior design of this ride, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. (Hint: It involves the back-story behind the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" becoming this ride). This error by the imagineers was later fixed for later versions of this ride for other parks. Leave a comment if you think you know... and if people actually guess, I'll reveal the answer in the next post.




Well, there you go. There's my Disney-nerd coming out for a little bit. Every once and a while I'll share some other useful things that I hear about. Hopefully you find this stuff interesting, because I do. And it makes traveling down to Disney World a lot more fun if you know little random facts to impress whoever you are traveling with.

Let me know if you enjoyed it so I know whether or not to write more.

So my life is busy. Yeah... profound, I know

But for real, it seems as though I always have another practice to go to or another service to play for. But I'm not complaining one bit though... not at all. It may seem like an inconvenience now, but I know that when I look back at my college life when I'm in the real world, I'm going to see all the missed opportunities that I could have had, had I not been lazy.

• So bring on all the Heartsong fund-raising work... because in May it'll be worth it when we're in Amsterdam and Brussels ministering to the people there.

• Bring on the 57:7 practices... because I do not want to be a distraction on stage when people are trying to worship at youth camps.

• Bring on the extra services at churches that I play for... because it just shows me that I need to set more time aside for worship instead of constricting it to only 30 minutes a day in chapel.

God help me if I don't take advantage of these opportunities to better prepare for ministry.

My life is busy... and yes, I like it.

Anyways...
Friday night, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound came to Springfield. (They're a Southern Gospel quartet if you didn't know) And I got to see them with my dad who came down, James, Barry, and the Denbows. It was an AMAZING concert and reminded me why I like Southern Gospel music.


So in a little over a month from now, James and I will be making the trek up to Naperville, Illinois to spend our precious spring break with the Escamilla clan... and we can't be any more excited to go up there!!! And it's not just gonna be a week of hanging out, but also we get to help Pastor Michael out with his outreaches that he oversees at the church. It'll be great to see the Rabbi at work again and to hang out with Lynnelle, one of the coolest people ever!


Oh, and your comments would be appreciated... even if you don't have a blogspot or anything you can still post anonymously.

GVB, Spiritual Emphasis, and Postmodernism

Well, post number two... let's see how it goes. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the blog. Before I start my discussions, notice the poll to the right of the page. I want to know what YOU want me to write about out of those choices. And I'll be nice and let you pick more than one at a time. Ok... show time... (And if you don't care about Southern Gospel music... then you may skip this next section)

Today I discovered something so drastic and shocking, that I felt the need to inform all of you... but it's in two parts. And I promise I won't write about Southern Gospel often, but I thought I would share this.

• First, the Gaither Vocal Band is coming out with two volumes of a reunion DVD (I did know of this before today) with all the previous members of GVB, including: David Phelps, Mark Lowry, Michael English, Guy Penrod, Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, Marshall Hall, and many others in a week. I am super excited about this DVD collection and will spend many hours geeking over some great Southern Gospel quartet music.

• Second (and this is the shocking part), the Gaither Vocal Band had a DRASTIC change in its line-up recently. Fellow Southern gospel fans should hold on to their seats.... but Guy Penrod and Marshall Hall are no longer part of the historic Gaither quartet. This is a huge shock because the power-house of a singer, Guy Penrod, has been with the group since 1995 and has been a favorite in the Gaither Homecoming line-up. Supposedly he is now pursuing a solo career.
  

But along with the heartache of losing one of the best singers in gospel music, the Gaither Vocal Band is now PACKED with an all-star crew of 5 singers. Yes, that's right.... 5. The new line-up is Bill Gaither singing bass, Mark Lowry is back singing baritone, Michael English returns as the lead, Wes Hampton remains the tenor, and (big surprise) David Phelps is back again singing tenor as well.

This is like Survivor: All-Star, but better!

Mark Lowry hasn't strayed too far from the Southern Gospel field after leaving the group doing his own concerts, but his humor and warm baritone sound will be welcomed back. Michael English left the vocal band originally on bad terms because of his adulterous affair in 1994, but after being fully restored and accepted by gospel music, his unique and powerful voice will fit well. David Phelps was a shocker to me because he just recently left the group in 2005 to pursue a rather successful solo career that stretched to a much farther fan base than his previous musical venture. But now he will join the group once more (with slightly curlier hair) and will continue his solo career as he sings next to the man who was once his replacement, Wes Hampton. I am greatly looking forward to seeing this group dominate the stage next time they come to Missouri.
Ok, enough Southern Gospel music!

So this week has been spiritual emphasis week at CBC. That basically means that we have shorter classes in the mornings and then night services on Wednesday and Thursday. And they are ALWAYS amazing. I had the privilege of playing bass for each service with the various worship teams, and it is great looking out and seeing my fellow students just worshiping with everything in them. And we only have one speaker that is doing each service, which is pretty sweet because he doesn't have to cram everything into one message. This week, the speaker is Mark Batterson. I also bought his two books.

Also, for my Sociology of American Youth class, we had to discuss our views on postmodernism and how we define it. I always laugh when I talk about postmodernism, because in a postmodern society, their viewpoint is that there is no absolute truth, but it's a contradiction because saying there is not an absolute truth is an absolute truth in itself! Get it? Confusing, I know. But I'm looking forward to this class because I do believe that it may be one of the most helpful classes out of all the ones I have to take.

The First

So here it is... finally. A legitimate blog from Michael Scott. Kind of reminds me of xanga... and that died...

But I figure that my opinions occasionally matter... somewhere... and I figure that I do occasionally have something serious to talk about or a random piece of knowledge about Disney World that I KNOW you want me to share.

So I compiled a list of topics that could be addressed in this blog:

• Lemonheads -I love 'em and I believe that they were in fact inspired by God... much like the Bible.
• Music -I listen to it and I play it... often. Actually, music takes up a severely large portion of my life. Especially this summer with Heartsong and 57:7 tour.
• Walt Disney World -Ok kids, let's face it. I love the place. Ask me any question about it and I will spend hours looking for the answer because I'm a nerd like that.
• Youth Ministry -It's my major, so I have to know something about it, right?
• Theological topics -I do get serious at times, so I'm hoping that I'll be addressing this often, especially during tour.
• Mizzou Tigers -I'm a huge fan... let's talk some college football.
• Cookie Cakes -What else can you say about them? Amazing.
• Baseball -I'm not nearly as informative as my brother at reallyquitemanic.blogspot.com but I may see something there that's worth sharing.
• Food -Contrary to popular belief, although I'm skinny, I do in fact eat a great deal. Taco Bell and McChickens may find their way into this blog every once and a while.
• My puppies -They are in fact the cutest dogs ever... no lie.
• My use of the words "Dandy" "Swell" or "Nifty" -Those are popular word choices of mine.
• My friends -Without them, there would be fewer humorous stories to share with you.
• TV shows -Scrubs and The Office may be referred to on occasion because they are my favorite shows. Oh... and I tear up when I watch "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
• College Life -Many of you have not lived at a Christian Educational Institute... so here's your chance to live vicariously through me.

So there you go... those are some possible topics that may or may not be used in this blog. Also, please note my lack of a creative title to this blog as it is in fact my name. Yes... original, I know. That could change... or not.