My church

I moved to Tampa in May 2010. I have lived here for almost 2 1/2 years. I moved down to help plant a new church in the area called Covenant Life Church. Our mission statement is to glorify God by becoming a gospel-centered community that works for the gospel renewal of Tampa and all nations.

North Africa Highlight Photos

Here are some highlights from our trip:

While we were in D.C. waiting for our flight to Paris, I got to meet President Obama. The Secret Service wasn't really excited about me putting my arm around him, so this is the picture right before I got pinned to the ground and pounded on for a few minutes.

Thus is the typical inside of a home in North Africa. That's Ed, one of the faculty on our trip, working on his computer.

If you think that people in America have a problem with watching too much TV, well this is a typical site throughout North Africa.

This is a view of approximately a tenth of the city from a large hill sitting basically right in the center of the city. So imagine in all the buildings there are maybe 4 people who know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

This is an Armored Ground Cricket. They are about the size of a small cell phone. These bugs were all over the place in this one village we visited. We were told it was poisonous, but I still got one on a stick and held it up to my face. Later, someone else said that it wasn't poisonous. So I guess I wasn't that dumb after all.

This is a picture of our team: Adam, Dana, Kanon, and me (L to R).

So it's taken me about 3 hours to get these pictures up so I will try and put some more up later.

North Africa Trip May 20 - July 6, 2009

I had the wonderful opportunity again this year to participate in a trip with my school to interact in a Muslim context where there is very little gospel presence. This summer I had the opportunity to travel to a country in North Africa where less than 1% of all its citizens are believers. In fact, the city where we spent most of our time has only 1 believer for about every 62,500 people. That same percentage would mean that in a city the size of Raleigh, North Carolina, there would only be 6 believers! Hopefully you understand now how desperately this area needs the gospel.

A group of 12 students and 2 professors went on this trip. Each group was divided into 4 students. My group consisted of myself as well as 3 other students - Adam, Dana, and Kanon. The first week we spent in a larger city where we worked with a team that concentrates on working with students who are attempting to learn English. The second week we travelled around the southern part of the country working with a team that uses water projects (i.e. wells for an entire village and water distribution systems) as a means to develop relationships for sharing the gospel.

During the first week of our trip me and Adam were able to meet with a few guys we had met through English language study and spent about 5-6 hours with them. We began by having juice at a local cafe (it was too hot for the traditional tea) and ended up walking around the city for a few hours then having dinner and walking some more. It was a great time all around. But during our time at the cafe we were able to communicate that we were students studying religion and were then able to talk about our beliefs for almost 2 hours. Most of the time consisted of them communicating why Islam is better, but it was still a valuable time as we were able to share with them about the truth of God's Word and to love on them well. I have even been able to keep up with one of these guys through email since we have returned home.

This was an awesome trip. I really had no real interest in spending time in this area of the world, but was simply attending it for an opportunity to travel and tell people about Christ, but also for the 3 hours credit. But because of this trip, God really pricked my heart for this area and for these people, and I would not be surprised if He were to call me there for a significant period of my life.

My 2nd Ever Reverse Surprise Party

This past Thursday, August 21st, was my 27th birthday. It was about as boring and uneventful as most of them. Not near as uneventful as my 19th when Jason Palmer convinced everyone that I was lying about it being my birthday, but it was pretty stinking close. But part of the reason why it was so eventful, even though Thursday nights are when my small group from church meets, is because everyone in my small group was eagerly setting me up for a surprise I would never get!

I know as most of you are looking at the title you are saying much like Jleigh Holloway, "So where did you get the idea for this party?" And like I told her, "Well this is actually the 2nd time I have done this." And on that note, a little history lesson:

The year after I graduated from Appalachian and was still living in Boone working with Campus Crusade, I had a party pretty much similar to this one. One day I was sitting around with my roommate Andrew Stover, his then-girlfriend Sheila, and a friend who was rooming with us for a few weeks named Parke Ladd. Sheila asked me, "What should we do for your birthday?" And much like Jay Pop looked at me when I told him the idea a few weeks ago, she said "That's so stupid. You already know it's a surprise." But once I got those three on board I had the best party ever.

Which brings us to the present. So two weeks ago I was watching Michael Phelps swim for 8 golds which made me think, "Hey what was I doing last time Michael Phelps was going for 8 golds in the Olympics? Oh yeah, throwing myself a surprise party." So I quickly got Jay and Torrey Popovich on board and the plans were in the works.

For those of you who don't know the basic concept behind a reverse surprise party, which I'm sure most of you don't since it's worked so well twice now, the idea is that you get someone in on being the "official" planner/inviter. This person or people then convince everyone that they are setting up the birthday boy for a great surprise, while the birthday boy is actually calling all the shots. The first time I did this, the surprise was pretty lame because it was just me jumping out behind everyone yelling, "Surprise!" One thing I always thought was that if I could do that party over I would make a video to set up the surprise. And what do you know, I could do the party all over. And here it is....

At the end, the house seen is the Popovich residence, just a little hint to the guests of where I would appear. And the final clip is me standing in their upstairs loft exactly as I stood when the video hit its conclusion. Sorry for those of you who weren't able to experience the surprise in person, but maybe if I have inspired at least once of you to pull your own surprise party someday, it was all worth it!

Reverse Surprise Party Awards

After my 2nd ever reverse surprise party I had to give some awards for all the great festivities...

MOST LIKELY TO RUIN THE SURPRISE: Lily Grace Holloway, a year old who continually tried to walk up on my hiding spot.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR/ACTRESS: Jay and Torrey Popovich. Thanks for your help guys!

BEST MISSPELLING: Courtney Brady. Though I have to admit, the HAPPY BITHDAY cake was delicious!

BEST SNACK: Jon Davis. I could eat little sausages wrapped in bacon all day long.

BEST SNACK (NON-MEAT DIVISION): Courtney Brady. Hey you don't need an R to be delicious!

WORST TIMING FOR A FACEBOOK MESSAGE EVER: Jennifer Martin with her comment: "hey are you throwing yourself a surprise party again?"

THE REAP WHAT YOU SOW AWARD: Justin Perry. I suppose if you give someone coupons for a Christmas present, you should definitely expect coupons for your birthday present.

BEST SURPRISE: Well since I was the only one who surprised anybody, I guess that award goes to ME!