We found out what we're having!!!

Everytime I have started to post since we found out we were pregnant I have wanted to write about us being parents. Then I could never come up with the "right" words to say. It's also been hard because we didn't really know if we were having boys... or girls... I have also tried hard not to think about it that much before we knew because when I get excited about something it's hard to stop thinking about it...

well it's possible I still don't have the right words but... excitement will not allow me to wait any longer.

I am more excited than I have ever been about anything. I am thankful to our God that He would allow us this blessing. I am thankful for how well my wife is handling everything. She is a trooper and I couldn't be more proud of her.

On the other hand at times (though only for brief seconds - probably because I am not smart enough to worry a lot) I am more afraid than I have ever been.

I know the next few months and years could bring more laughter and tears than any we have ever seen. I am so thankful to experience them.

Thanks for all of you who will share in this with us...







oh yeah....












and one other piece of important news...





















We're having a boy... and a girl...


WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doctors say everything looks perfect so far!



We love you. Please keep us in your prayers....

-Jason and Diana

Songs From Sunday

Here is the setlist from this past Sunday

Spring of Life - Kristian Stanfill

At the Cross - Daniel Renstrom - please check out Daniel's stuff

Amazed - Jared Anderson (Desperation Band)

How Great is Our God - Chris Tomlin

Doxology - Thomas Ken

It is an honor worshipping with our church each week. I pray it moves us to realizing who God is, how he loves us, and compells us to become who we were created to be.

peace and love,

-Jason

The Plague of Beetles

Last night Treeline was playing at a church out in Knightdale and towards the end of the night we started noticing all these beetles everywhere. I guess they were more like June-Bugs... like Japanese beetles I think. Seriously.. they were flying around... you could see them in the lights, on the ground... really strange.

Later I was talking to their youth pastor and i referenced the bugs and he said... "yeah, someone left a side door open next to the stage. There is some kinda light out there that attracts all these bugs and they just came in."

I thought - man, someone should be responsible keeping that door shut.

Later still that evening Chapps (drums) and Stanton (sound) referenced propping a door open with an amp stand. Awesome.

"We're Treeline... we'll leave your doors propped open for the beetles to come in"

Sweet.

We're playing there again Saturday night and Sunday night. This time we'll keep the door closed.

-Jason

Am I on the wrong toilet?

So... this morning I was listening to the radio. I don't know the station or I would give them credit - my creative credibility apologies. Anyways, the DJ was reading a letter that someone sent in and it went something like this:

"We have a very independent 3 yr old and it has really been getting difficult for us to deal with. Then.. this happened. 2 weeks ago we were at an unnamed home improvement store looking at new washer and dryers. We all of a sudden noticed our 3 yr old missing. We looked up and down the next 2 ailes and then found our 3 yr old sitting on a model toilet with her pants at her ankles. When we found her she smiled and said, "mommy, where is the toilet paper?

As you can imagine we very embarrassed."

So - I am not sure why the guy was reading the letter, perhaps something like "send us your embarrassing moments" time or something.

BUT - I, for some reason, immediately thought to myself... I wonder how many times in life I'm sitting on the wrong toilet (figuratively ;). I mean to this girl, she thought she was in the right place. It looks like a potty... opens like a potty... sits like a potty... it's obviously a potty. The truth is though - her limited understanding lead her to "the wrong toilet."

I got to thinking how many times in my life does my own knowledge, expertise, or pride put me on the wrong toilet (outside of that 1 year in college ;) I mean, we walk into things all the time because we think we know best or have it all figured out. It just made me contemplate the importance of yielding my "independence and self-reliability" to our Father.

My heart tells me he closer than a couple of aisles away and desires nothing more than to offer wisdom as soon as we are willing to ask and accept.

Ever feel like you're on the wrong toilet?

Proud of our community

Last August Corey and I went to Kenya for a couple of weeks to experience some things that a friend of ours, Joseph Wamutitu, had going on there in hopes that we could find some ways to partner with him from here in the West. Joseph has started a children's home (Africa Hope Center) for children who have lost both of their parents to HIV/AIDS, started and oversees a number of churches, as well as a school just outside of Nairobi.

Well this weekend we brought Joseph into town and had him spend some time with us to further this process of working together. A team has been working for months now to plan for his time here to make sure it was valuable both for our community and for Joseph. Now that the weekend is past I have to say I am so proud of the work that went into it. Joseph was able to spend time with some key people from within and outside our community, we had a fund raiser kickball tourney, he got to teach on Sunday morning at our church, and we had this huge pot luck lunch on Sunday afternoon for folks to talk with him individually if they wanted. I know we will not know for a while if positive movement comes out of this time we spent together but I am so proud of how hard men and women worked to make it worth while now.

It is an honor to serve within our church. I dont use a lot of religious language in my day to day talking but I know God was glorified through this weekend. I know bodies were working because they are compelled by the love that Christ has for them and for the world. I know it's not a good idea to be proud or to boast but I will boast in how God seems to be working our community to serve those around us. I am proud. I pray this is only the beginning of a long and beneficial relationship with Joseph and The Africa Hope Center.

Peace and Love,

-Jason

ps - check out his website. He does have child sponsoring available through the site if you are interested. If you have questions you can email him from there.

You should see this movie

I know it's not brand new or anything but Diana and I just got around to watching it. The Movie is titled "Once" and it is amazing. I will post the trailer at the bottom.

I can't do the plot justice here because it is so well done and there is a lot going on regarding hope, friendship, and music but I will give a brief overview of the main story. The movie is about a street musician/singer/songwriter who meets a woman who is a classical piano player. They enjoy each other's company and end up writing music together and I will not give away the rest. If I say too much it could take some of the "good" out of watching the movie.

The music in this movie is brilliant. The first time they begin playing a song together I lost it. I started crying like a baby. The melody.. the harmony... the lyrics... soooo moving. The movie really is moving. Great plot, adorable characters, super funny, and full of hope. My only suggestion is to watch it with the sub titles. It is filmed in Ireland I believe and it is hard to understand through the Irish dialect. Once you turn them on you don't notice anymore so it's not that difficult.

I also know the band's name responsible for the music is The Frames - and this guy Glen Hansard is way talented. They happen to be playing in Raleigh on March 15. I tried to get tickets but it looks like it maybe sold out already. If anyone has any word on tickets - let me know.

Enjoy the trailer and song below. The song is "Falling Slowly" and it's the one I referenced above. Lyrics - "Take this sinking boat... and point it home... we've still got time..." SO GOOD.

Enjoy!


Trailer




Falling Slowly


Love and Peace,

-Jason

Songs from this past Sunday

Songs from March 2

Here is Our King - David Crowder

Unchanging - Chris Tomlin
Highest and Greatest - Tim Hughes
Oh The Glory of it All - David Crowder
Follow After You - Jason Gore


The idea and direction of the morning was to approach our time of worship as reflection and then response. We take time to reflect on who God is, what He has done, what he is doing, and what He is going to do... and then our response is to worship. Our hope is that our worship doesn't end in singing but in a response of following after Jesus and living out God's Kingdom with our lives.

Peace,

-Jason

A Public Service Announcement

If you take your dog to the public dog park, please do not allow your dog to hump other dogs. If your dog does hump other dogs, please make them stop. If they continue to hump and growl at other dogs when other dogs try and get away, please take your dog somewhere else. Further more, please do not get mad at my dog for growling at your dog when your dog is humping my dog and suggest your dog is just playing. Humping when both parties are not compliant is not called fun, it has another name. Please do not change the subject when I ask you nicely to not let your dog hump my dog (esp. if it's to say - "you should't bring your child to the dog park" - when the city of Raleigh says you can bring children to the dog park. Besides, this has nothing to do with you letting your dog hump my dog.)

For now that is all.

-Jason

ps - This did not happen to me today. I promise.

pss - Today is oppisite day

psss - The "kid" she was referring to is Jeff's son Matthew. Matthew likes to go to the dog park with Tanner and I.





*This message has been brought to you by The Partnership for "A Place Where People Use Common Etiquette"

Songs from Sunday

I was reminded this weekend (twice) that I have been failing to live up to my commitment of posting songs from Sunday morning here. Since I am studying Mathew 5 and specifically what it means for your "yes to be yes" I feel convicted. ;)

Here you go:

Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin

Salvation is Here - Hilsong United

Spring Of Life - Kristian Stanfill

Til I See You - Hilsong United

Teaching

True Love - Phil Wickham

Happy Day - Tim Hughes

Hope you're having a great week!

-Jason

Songs from Sunday

I was reminded this weekend (twice) that I have been failing to live up to my commitment of posting songs from Sunday morning here. Since I am studying Mathew 5 and specifically what it means for your "yes to be yes" I feel convicted. ;)

Here you go:

Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin

Salvation is Here - Hilsong United

Spring Of Life - Kristian Stanfill

Til I See You - Hilsong United

Teaching

True Love - Phil Wickham

Happy Day - Tim Hughes

Hope you're having a great week!

-Jason

Just click the link

This very funny. I recieved this link by a good friend; Mr. Scott Wenger.

Craigslist Ad

I feel like me and this guy could be friends.

-J



(*I am not agreeing that everything written on his post is right or good ;)

I have recieved many emails

I have received many emails regarding Jeff's comments in his message yesterday about people thinking he spends his time "sitting in coffee shops all day..."

It is a touchy subject for me and so I have released a statement to show my feelings on the issue. You may watch it below.



Thank you for your support,

-Jason


after thoughts
*This is obviously a joke. I have received only one email and it was comical. I merely wanted to show this video and saw this as a comical way to do so.

**On a side note - I respect Terrel Owens and Tony Romo for their hard work as NFL Players and the pressure they face from the media regarding their personal lives.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2008!!!!

I usually get excited each year about this time. I usually get some things organized and make some promises to myself that a lot of times stick and I believe also benefit my life and I hope those around me.

That got me thinking about how we celebrate New Years each year with such excitement. (Other than an excuse to throw a big party) I believe there is usually great anticipation when it comes to the New Year because we all have a sense of things needing to be renewed. We all feel the need for and are looking for change. I was thinking about that this morning and how it’s great that we have, in the gospel, the promise of all things being renewed. It was exciting for me to think on that this morning and I hope you can rest in that wherever you are and with whatever may be going on in your life… we have the promise of new life starting right now in the Way of Jesus. Praise God!!! I hope that sense of the gospel can flow out of my life and into the lives of others around me that are constantly looking for "new life".

May 2008 be a year of hope, peace, and love being renewed in the life of you, your family, and friends.

-Jason

Songs from this past Sunday

Hallelujah, God is Near - Robbie Seay
Everlasting God - Brenton Brown
Better is One Day - Matt Redman
In Christ Alone - Stuart Townsend - arrangement

From the Inside Our - Hillsong United
All We Need - Charlie Hall


This week my buddy Corey taught. He did a great job focusing us on the new possibilities that are present with Jesus being born and a new Kingdom being present. What I loved most was Corey's authenticity and rawness (the rawness may have had something to do with it being the first time he ever taught in this type of setting ; - I hope hope he never loses it)

have a great week.

Happy New Year!

-Jason

Some of you might not see the irony in this, but...

Chris Collinsworth and Gumbel are announcing the Patriots/Giants game. One of the just mentioned that since this was such a big game, Tom Brady brought his video camera to the game.

Pretty funy...

-Jason

I know it's not funny if you have to explain your own joke - but - For those of you who don't keep up with sports as much as others...

I thought to myself... the last time someone in the Patriots organization had a camera at a football game they got in a lot of trouble...

Songs...

So recently I have gotten a few requests for the names of songs we are playing on Sunday mornings in our times of worship. I will attempt to keep this updated on the Monday or Tuesday after if you're interested.

Last week had these songs in our time of worship:

All Because of Jesus - Steve Fee
Famous One - Chris Tomlin
Joy to The World - Isaac Watts, The Psalms of David

Message/Teaching

Jesus Paid it All - Alex Nifong/Kristian Stanfill
Glorious One - Steve Fee

If you're looking and have trouble tracking any of these down then let me know and I can point you in the right direction.

Peace and Love,

-Jason

A good weekend

So most of this isn't world changing but.. it was a great weekend nonetheless.

1) Friday Diana and I went to a surprise Birthday party for one of her co-workers. That was alot of fun meeting some new people that are outside of the "everyday" group of people I see all the time (no offense Jeff ;) - afterwards we went to target and walmart and did some christmas shopping. We also got to buy some gift cards for some people our church is gonna share some love with over Christmas. Pretty sweet!

2) Saturday morning we held our journey group (discipleship group) info session at Visio Dei and had a great turn out. I am excited to see how God uses this to help our church become more like Jesus. I am honored to follow God with this church and the people who make it what it is.

3) We built a shelf/table in our new shed. I cut wood, drilled, hammered, leveled, measured... you know... man stuff (with diana's help ;)

4) We went and saw Beowulf at the IMAX with Brandon and Julie. Always fun watching Beowulf ripping off Grendel's arm.

5) We had an amazing worship gathering Sunday morning. Jeff's message was great and the time of worship seem very connected, exciting, and authentic.

5a) Outside of Easter last year and a time when we showed a video with Bono speaking on the crisis/s in Africa... it was our largest sunday worship gathering as a church since we started a little over a year ago. - If you know me at all then you know I am not a complete "numbers guy" when it comes to measuring ministry effectiveness (infact it bumms me out thinking of ministry in those terms)... but I will say for where we are in our life cycle as a young infant church... this is awesome! There is something captivating about the gospel at it's core and so it should draw people towards itself and it's exciting to feel apart of what God is doing.

6) I got to play football with a bunch of friends Sunday afternoon. The team I was on lost one game and won the second. I did get to play QB for the second game and had many unlce rico moments during my 5 TD no interception performance ;)

7) This week marked the end of the regular season for fantasy football. I play in two leagues and due to some random shift in the planets I won both of my divisions and will move forward to the playoffs.

So as you can see... many exciting times... lots of fun... a great weekend. I hope your was as wonderful.

love and peace,

-Jason

The Big Surprise... (and a miracle)

*warning - post is a tad bit longer than normal... i do make no apologies as it is rather life changing :)

Well... it's been coming for a while. Some of you may already know about this but if not... I mentioned about a month ago I had some surprises coming over the next few weeks. I, however, have been a bit lazy in the blog world over the last few weeks so alas, here we go.

The Story:
About a month ago my mom sat myself and my brother (Brandon) down and proceeded to tell us a story. She told us with a calm yet nervous tone that when she was 16 she in fact became pregnant and had a baby boy. She then told us that due to family circumstances she was forced to give the baby over for adoption. Due to the times then and family circumstances my mother lived out her pregnancy at a "camp for unwed mothers" and due to this - no one knew other than my mom, her mom and dad (my grandma and grandpa), and my grandma's sister (my great aunt). My own mom's sister didn't even know she was ever pregnate (she was told she was going to stay with her aunt for a while). SO CRAZY RIGHT!!!!

Then she proceeded to tell us that a couple weeks ago she received note in the mail saying "I have wanted to know who my mother was for 36 yrs and I believe I have found you." He had a lot of paper work and stuff to show he was in fact her son (and our brother.) It continued to say that he had no desire to break-up her family or cause trouble to her if this was a bad idea. He did say that if it wouldn't cause any problems then he would love to meet her and any other family he may not know about.

So, she then told us that she had been in communication with him for a couple weeks and in fact met him the day before. She began to smile as she told us a little about him, his wife, and his three beautiful children.

This was (surprise) an emotional moment for my mom, me, and my brother. Brandon and I were both in tears but it wasn't sadness or anger. It was almost a sense of surreal and "wow, we have a brother... what does this mean..." and "now it makes sense why my mom loves us so hard and always has" and "mom seems as though she is free from something that she has carried around for years"

Here is where things get crazy... He (who will now be referred to as Rob - my new, older brother) and his family lives in Apex. They used to live in Cary less than a mile from where my mom and Rick live and where Brandon and I spent our high school and college years calling home.

They also attend Hope Community Church which is the church that my family and I served with for 9 years before we set-out to start Visio Dei in downtown Raleigh. Rob was not going there while I was on staff as they just started going there about 4-5 months ago but it's still crazy.

The story gets even crazier as we have some mutual friends and his adopted family is friends with some of our family... all the while we never knew.

So... I have now met Rob, his wife Kelly, and their 3 beautiful children. He seems to be an awesome guy. I am partial to think this makes him a great guy but i feel as though I can see similarities in him of both myself and Brandon in the way he carries himself and in his appearance. He has Brandon's nose and my hairline and he looks a lot like our grandpa (I really wish he could have met him Papa Gene.)

I would go on to talk more about him but I usually try and keep these posts as short as I can and this one is already relatively long. Long story short... he seems to be driven, hard working, cares about his family, and takes pride in what he does.

Here are some pics from our meeting of their family (which is really our family;):


The entire fam

Momma and her boys (mom, Brandon, me, and Rob)

Rickey and his new grand babies...

Mr. Rob Council (my new, older brother)

Rob playing photo time with his son matthew (Mathew is awesome.. wide open all the time. It's possible he is related to me ;)

Just a picture I took of my mom that night... my mom is pretty

I love this picture. In case you don't know it is my beautiful wife and sister-in-law (Brandon's wife Julie)



So the story is crazy. It honestly feels like we fell into a movie that should be coming out at Christmas time. My mom feels as though she is more free than she has felt in her entire life. I asked her if she thought about this much while we were growing up as a family. She told me "only everyday for 36 years." I am not sure how all this works from here. I am thankful God has allowed me to meet a guy who feels like he belongs in our family. I am thankful my mother can sleep at night knowing her child is alive, safe, and healthy. I am certain there is an element of deep reconciliation and redemption in all of this that I will probably not find words for. Whether or not I can explain it.. I certainly feel it and am thankful i get to experience it.

this is all for now...

Shalom,

-Jason

My buddy Chris...

is over in Africa right now. Feel free to follow along on his blog here. Chris is a great friend, pastor, blogger, father, and husband (he is not the last to for me at all - just a good example.)He has been gone since last Thursday and is kinda all over the place while he is over there. Please keep Chris and his family in your prayers and thoughts over the couple weeks. I am thankful for his willingness to be a part of a change that needs to happen in our world.

peace,

-Jason

Medium sized miracle

OK - as promised... the next item of big news. In the last 16 days I have now only had 3.5 cups of coffee. If you really want details - its been 2 cups of coffee and 1.5 lattes. I went the first 7 days with none at all and then have enjoyed a few over the last week.

I put a halt on things for a few reasons.

1) I was drinking as much as 3-5 cups a day. I fealt very dehydrated even though I drink a lot of water. Honestly - i felt as though i had very self-discipline in this area at all.

2) I sing a bit and i felt the constant singing while being constantly dehydrated was really taking a toll on my throat and voice (this feels better over the last couple weeks)

3) It just cost money to buy coffee and i was buying it a bit "carelessly"

So - that is the medium sized miracle. I assure yout here is a much larger "miracle" coming later in the week.

Stay tuned

-J