Haiti

A sermon I preached recently at my old church Life Church Miami.



www.theglobalorphanproject.org

Video Inspiration...

Saw this and thought it was awesome.

Enjoy

So I spent 5 days in Honduras...

It was an awesome trip. We shared the Lord with more people than any 5 day period of my entire life. If you only want to read about the adventurous stuff then skip down to the part on ROATAN.

Best Quote: "You are the WORST pastor EVER!"

Most Random Moment: Hitching a ride on the back of 2 large black ladies scooters.

Major Economies: Tourism, Prostitution, Drugs, PEPSI

Most Memorable Moment: The VERY last part of the trip.

Check it out.

Why Honduras? $112 plane flight, that's why. I went with one of my best buddies in the whole world Mr. Barrett Keene. He is a GREAT travel buddy and the most outgoing person I know; without him, I must admit, I would have been totally lost. So we landed in San Pedro Sula and right away a local from Florida spotted Barrett's Florida Gators shirt and struck up a conversation. After a little while he was kind enough to change some of our Dollars for Limpedres. Then we hopped on a bus to La Ceiba. (*side note* I really like the way the locals say La Ceiba, it just kind of lazily rolls off of their tongues as if it is one; exceedingly buttery word.) At the Bus shelter we met a girl that looked about 16 with her newborn baby that she would randomly leave alone as she walked around for 10 or 15 minutes. On the bus we met a guy named Jorge, a local who for the last 15 years has been living and working in Boston Mass. The majority of our conversation with Jorge went like this.

"Hey, you guys are here to have some fun, you work hard so have some fun you know? Like girls, beer, drugs whatever you are here to have some fun so just have some fun."

After a brief conversation is was clear that Jorge measured whether something was good or bad by whether or not it was considered legal or illegal AND whether or not you could get off of the hook with a $10 bribe. When we told him that we held ourselves to a higher moral standard than that of a 3rd world country's justice system; he looked at us a little bewildered. Anyway after about 4 hours we arrived in La Ceiba right as the sun went down and within minutes found ourselves in downtown La Ceiba looking for random hotels and hostels to stay at.

LA CEIBA

Everyone was just hanging out in the streets of La Ceiba when we rolled up. A Pepsi truck pulled up and was giving away free bottles at a random street corner (*side note* Pepsi owns EVERY piece of advertising space in the entire country, even on tiny country roads in the middle of nowhere you see little, tin pepsi signs stuck in the ground or the sides of buildings painted with the pepsi logo, it's RIDICULOUS). Within a few minutes we bumped into a kid names Louis, an 18 year old that helped guide us to our hostel and informed us that all throughout the week La Ceiba was celebrating CARNIVAL, and that there were a series of parties in different parts of the city every night and then one HUGE party on Saturday. After checking into our hotel we headed out for food and to find the party. As we walked toward the carnival we were offered drugs or prostitution at about 10 minute intervals. The carnival was basically a series of really bad street food carts and cheap jewelry stalls interspaced with a few stages that local bands would perform on. We were the only white folks within miles and judging by the staring and extra attention we received we were probably one of the few that they had seen in a while. The stages gathered the most spectators as the local bands would call girls up onto the stage to shake their butts for the watching crowds receiving applause when their dance became more provocative. Some of the girls dancing on stage could not have been any older than 14. Next to the stage was a small cafe that was turned into a dance club for the kids that didn't want to hangout with their parents. Basically it was a place for a bunch of pre-teens to rub against each other while they danced in a shockingly offensive and sexual way. We met a young homeless kid on the way home named Alexander that spoke VERY good english and helped him buy some food. We saw him again in the morning. The city was old and dirty and no one seemed to notice, despite rampant drug abuse and promiscuity, the people of Honduras are some of the nicest and most hospitable I've ever met.

The next day we got up and caught a ferry to the Island of Roatan.

ROATAN

Wherever Barrett goes he ALWAYS walks around and introduces himself to EVERYONE. He has an amazing gift of making friends very quickly and it is important for the rest of the story that you understand that we met pretty much everyone wherever we went.

We shared a taxi from the ferry to West End with a young couple that Barrett met on the way. Once we arrived at our hotel we were checked in by a really sweet 19 year old girl named Gardena. While I was in the shower Barrett went to ask Gardena if he could use her computer to check his email. As he sat down Gardena came and sat across from him and started asking questions about Jesus. I'm not sure how she knew that we were christians but apparently we let her know in one way or another. She was struggling with the idea that becoming a christian meant that she would have to part ways with her friends because they wouldn't accept her any longer and that christians were not allowed to have fun and decided to ask Barrett about it. Over the course of the next few days we talked to Gardena a number of times about Jesus and assured her that christians still did fun things like dance in bars while on vacation in Honduras. She gave me her email address before we left.

After showering we headed into West End. West End is basically a single street filled with bars restaurants and clubs. On our way I was feeling a little depressed after our night in La Ceiba and was talking to Barrett about how sad it was that the church had failed so badly in its worldwide mission, and just then we rounded the first corner and a little beat-up old church came into view. They were having a children's choir practice out in the middle of the street. An older than dirt, nun lady with a straw hat was deciding which Coldplay song to play on her acoustic guitar as a warm up. We stayed in the back and talked to the head pastor named Joe who was a missionary from the states and travelled all around Honduras setting up ministries and was using the Choir as an outreach. We also met a local girl named Charlene who was 25 and helped transport the kids to the church every week for practice. After practice the head pastor invited me to the front to pray for all of the kids and answer questions. There were about 25 kids in all it was very humbling.

About 10 minutes into our walk Barrett noticed a group of people outside a restaurant that he recognized from La Ceiba; there were 4 American-Hondurans and one white guy named Ben in their group. We struck up a conversation and 15 minutes later found ourselves having dinner with them. They were from New York and hilariously fun. We went dancing with them for a few hours and I got a chance to talk to Ben about his work in business relations and my work as a pastor. After this we were walking home when Barrett heard a group of girls singing "Baby Got Back," in a Karaoke bar, 45 seconds later Barrett was on stage dancing and singing with them.

The next day we met a couple of girls from Canada and bumped into them again that night on a floating bar run by a guy that called himself Captain Jack Sparrow, who I'm pretty sure was a drug-dealer and a pimp. My conversation with one of the Canadian girls went like this.

"So what do you do?"

"I'm a Worship Pastor."

"REALLY!? You don't look like one."

"Well, what should I look like?"

"Ya know probably more muscular?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, if you're going to be a Kung Fu Master."

"Wait, no I said, W-O-R-S-H-I-P Pastor not Kung Fu Master!"

"Oh... Well you must be the worst worship pastor in the entire world! What are you doing in a bar in Roatan!?"

After that we spent the next hour or so talking about Jesus and the bible. Most of our conversations seemed to go that way. All Barrett or I had to do was tell people that we were christians every time they tried to buy us a drink and people would start asking tons of questions. I think that Roatan is a stop off for a lot of travelers that are searching for answers. People were really receptive. They couldn't believe that Christians actually did fun things like dance in bars and tell jokes and laugh and hang-out and meet people and all without the assistance of an alcoholic beverage. We met a guy named Drew and shared with him about Jesus, a bartender named Nena who invited us to a locals club the next night who we talked to a little about Jesus, two Honduran locals named Dessa and Edys that Barrett talked to about Jesus in Spanish, another two locals that ran a taco stand that Barrett spoke to about Jesus and a kid named Ricky that we met as he was heading to church. The crazy thing is that we didn't initiate any of the conversations about Jesus, we simply met people and as they got to know us they were genuinely intrigued about our faith and asked a bunch of questions.

The next day we walked to another part of the island called West Bay. It's much more family oriented and generally cleaner and had much nicer beaches. On the way we accidentally strolled through a hotel and bumped into a girl that Barrett met on the Ferry from La Ceiba. It turns out that she was also on our return flight home. That night we got the chance to talk to Gardena (our Hotel girl) about Jesus a little more before heading out for the night. We decided to try to walk to the locals club that Nena invited us to but had no idea where we were going and just started walking. As we went we bumped into Charlene (from the missionary church) and her friend on their scooters who told us that we were going in the completely wrong direction but would be more than happy to give us a ride. These two girls were not the smallest of women. So Barrett hoped on the back of one scooter and I on the other and grabbing a fist full of love-handles we headed right down the main strip waving to all of the people we had met all week. We must have looked hysterical, two white guys riding on the back of two local black ladies bikes. Once we got to the club Charlene introduced us to a couple of her friends and we saw Nena and her friend Tirza and after a few minutes realized that we were the only white people for miles AND we were talking to every girl in the club; not purposefully we just happened to know them. I don't think the local guys were very impressed with us but we figured they'd get over it or end up kicking us out (Hopefully in a friendly way).

Most days Barrett would spend the morning and an hour or two at night at the internet cafe finishing a research project for his doctoral, (*Side Note* it's pretty cool that with todays technology you can do a research project from a Honduran beachside internet cafe). On our final day we decided to meet back at the Hotel at 12:40pm to pack and catch the last ferry back to La Ceiba at 2pm. Our flight was at midnight so we had plenty of time so long as we didn't miss the ferry. So I left Barrett and got lunch at a little beachfront cafe and after a few minutes started talking to the owner about being a worship pastor. He then whipped out a couple of guitars and a Djembe (african drum) and we had a jam session on the beach... SUPER COOL. I had no idea what time it was when I left and met Barrett on the road who was in a bit of a panic as it was already 1:15pm and I had completely blown off our 12:40 meeting time. After a mad dash we managed to get to the ferry right as it was leaving port. PRAISE GOD!

THE RETURN

We got to La Ceiba but seeing as the HUGE carnival was the night before all of the private buses going to San Pedro Sula were sold out so we had to opt for the local transport buses which may or may not be filled up, no one really knew until the bus arrived. We ran down the street to a little bus station and noticed that they were selling tickets out of the back of a police car and had locked the front door of the bus station. It turned out that someone was shot inside of the station and the police wouldn't let anyone in as they hadn't yet moved the body. BEFORE WE CONTINUE let me say that there was not a single time that I ever felt threatened or in danger in Honduras the people were VERY friendly and I'm sure that this, although very stereotypical sounding, was an isolated incident. The bus came and we barged our way onboard while towing a lovely lady we met named Delsa behind us. The bus was not bad at all and we were able to sit and talk to an american girl named Thaya that was teaching English in San Pedro Sula for a year during the 4 hour ride to the Airport.

LA PALMA

Delsa, (the lady we helped onto the bus) told us to get off at La Palma as it was closer to the airport. We did and found ourselves on the side of the road at nighttime in an unknown town... Not an ideal situation but we figured seeing as we had time we would start walking until we found a place to eat or a taxi whichever happened to come first. The locals obviously didn't see many gringos very often but were quite hospitable. We found a little restaurant and met a REALLY sweet waitress who spoke no english and in a very smitten kind of way slipped Barrett her phone number before we left. Then we got a taxi.

ALMOST HOME

In the mad dash to catch the ferry, Barretts debit card went missing, I felt really bad and partly responsible. We got to the airport with about 3 hours to spare so we hung out and saw few people that we met in Roatan. I had purposefully kept my iphone hidden during the entire trip but needed to get it charged so I could call my sister once we landed. I spotted an outlet on the other side of our gate next to a couple of local Honduran guys. So I figured I would take my bible and go and read while my phone charged. As soon as I sat down one of the guys asked me what I was reading and instantly another conversation about Jesus started. The two guys were brothers that were also coincidently from Roatan and were fleeing Honduras trying to get away from their problems and find jobs in Miami. They had an aunt in Aventura and lived in a part of Roatan called Sandy Bay. they both had newborn babies and wanted desperately to start a new life and leave their past behind them. They were desperate for change. After about a 30 minute conversation about Jesus I asked them if they wanted to receive Jesus. They both said yes. So we walked around the corner and I watched as two strong, proud, Honduran men broke down and wept before the Lord. 20 feet from the entrance to a bathroom with airport announcements blaring in the background two men named Jeff and Kenny repented of their sins and came to know Jesus as their Savior. It couldn't have been a more perfect end to our adventure. I gave them my phone number and an invite card to our church. When we got to Miami my sister helped by giving them a ride to Aventura to meet their Aunt. I hope to see them again soon.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

While in Honduras I read a GREAT book called, "The Purpose of Man." by A.W. Tozer. I think every church leader should read it. In fact I think every church leader should read ANYTHING by A.W. Tozer it doesn't matter what, you really can't miss. Anyway here is a quote from the book that fit my experience perfectly.

"All we see now is a church all mixed up and sore, distressed by schisms, and rent asunder by heresies. We see her backslidden in one part of the world, in confusion in another part, and we shrug our shoulders and wonder, What is all this, and who is behind all this? The answer is, He is Lord of the ages; He is laying it all out, and what you are seeing now is only the steam shovel working, the truck backed up with bricks, that is all. You can only see workers in overalls going about killing time..."

"... No matter how much of a mess it appears, God has a way of working everything out for His glory. He is Lord of all wisdom, and history is but the slow development of His purposes."

Pray for the girl at the bus stop with the baby.

Pray for Alexander the homeless kid in La Ceiba.

Pray for Gardena and Pastor Joe and Charlene.

Pray for the Canadian Girl named Marissa.

Pray for Drew and Nena and Tirza and the taco ladies and Dessa and Edys and Ricky.

Pray for Jeff and Kenny and their new relationship with God.

Pray that we would trust in God and that we would worship Him as our utmost priority.

These are just a few of the countless stories and mini-adventures we had while in Honduras. Feel free to ask me about others and to explain where needed.

Oh my...

I faound this on vimeo. It is a compilation of all of the amateur remakes of Star Wars strung together to make up a few scenes from the original movie. It starts out in a pretty normal place but quickly departs from any kind of coherent thought turning into a pretty hilarious mash-up of ridiculous. Anyway for whatever reason I found it quite humorous.

Observations...

KFC just released their new "Double Down," chicken sandwich. Basically it's 2 fried chicken breasts with bacon and cheese in the middle. THAT'S IT! You can forget the lettuce and mayo, and please stop wasting your time with any other ridiculous condiments like BUNS. We want fried chicken and bacon mothered in cheese that's semi-handheld.

Here are a few other crazy sandwich ideas from the website www.thisiswhyyourefat.com

Hillsong...

Hillsong does it again. They have cultivated such an amazing attitude of worship within their congregation...

I went to a Hillsong conference last year and checked out a few of the band break-out sessions. I was amazed at the depth of knowledge that EVERY member of the band held in regard to the Bible. Their relationships with God were amazingly deep and real. You could tell that they spend a phenomenal amount of time everyday reading the bible and praying and that their worship was simply an outpouring or "overflow" of their time spent with God.

Seek first God and your relationship with Him and genuine heart-felt worship will naturally flow.

This is one of my favorite songs right now. Check it out.

Articles...

I wrote this article a couple of months ago and had it submitted to a few christian publications. I have not heard back from any of them so I assume that they are not interested. Anyway check it out.

Leading Worship Not Just Music.

By Jake Barreth (Worship Pastor of www.lifechurchmiami.org)

I used to live right across from the University of Miami. It was great because I could hang out with all of the college students and enjoy campus life without ever having to take classes. I would attend Bird Road Baptist Church and one of my roommates, Joel, was the worship leader there. He was a great worship leader and had such a deep and personal relationship with music that he wouldn’t hear music so much as he would feel it. He was from New Zealand but won a scholarship to come to the United States to get his masters degree in music percussion. He would say things like, “New Zealand is the best!” and “Peter Jackson for president,” and “bloody stupid Americans.” I met Joel, funnily enough, while going to watch one of the Lord of the Rings movies at a local theater and invited him to church that week. Anyway I would usually play lead guitar or bass for Joel while he led worship. In the two years that we were roommates I learned more about music than in any other time in my entire life.

One Sunday Joel was leading worship and the whole service seemed to crescendo to an ear blisteringly loud and amazingly worshipful moment, every vocal chord in the sanctuary was strained to its fullest volume in sincere and heart felt worship toward God (Joel was SO great at leading people through music; like I said, he felt it more than he heard it and that made a big difference.) Everyone was proclaiming the name of God at the top of their lungs, our worship was massive and with each cymbal crash our music resonated louder and louder, it was as if we were being wrapped up inside the music; as if a blanket of Goosebumps and warmth and power surrounded us. What happened next was one of the most powerful worship experiences of my life. The music rose higher and higher and louder and louder with every beat; the energy was almost too much to bear and at its peak Joel signaled the band and with a mighty CRASH…

There was silence.

Joel didn’t speak… and I didn’t breathe. For a good 2 minutes there was no music, no preaching, there was nothing but silence. I looked out from the stage and saw hands raised and heads bowed and through squinted, tightly closed eyes the faintest glimmer of a tear like a hot spark fell down the cheek of a young lady. Another glimmer caught my eye and I saw another spark hanging in the corner of an eye owned by an old wrinkly man; and there, another spark on my pastors chin, and another and another… There we stood. Together. Worshipping God in silence. The power of the silence was amazing. After a few minutes Joel prayed and the band played one final song.

That day we went to one of our favorite Cuban restaurants for lunch. I asked Joel about the music. I said something like, “How on earth did you come up with that moment of silence?” in-between mouthfuls of rice and beans he said, “Sometimes the best songs are the ones you don’t sing. Silence is an often-overlooked tool in music.” After a few more minutes of chewing on fried plantains Joel said, “Sometimes I try to plan an entire worship service around a single moment. It might be a prayer or time of meditation or a certain chorus that I feel God has really been laying on my heart. Today it was silence. Everything that we played and sang before and after that moment I chose as to enhance that particular moment of silence.” We spent most of the rest of lunch in silence while I thought about what he said. In the car on the way home Joel rounded out his thoughts in an offhand remark stating, “Worship is all about God; it’s about bringing God our most sincere, heartfelt offering of praise. Today we reminded people that it’s all about God, not music.”

I couldn’t have put it any better.

I think that as worship leaders if we genuinely pursue the heart of God for every worship service first, and then use music as a tool to bring the message that God has lain on our hearts then we begin to lead people in worship and not just lead people in music. God is searching for people who will worship him through genuine praise, and as worship leaders it is our responsibility to do everything within our power to help a congregation achieve this. I think this verse sums it up pretty well.

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”

-John 4:23

Florida...

This picture was taken with my iphone's crappy little camera and has not been edited in anyway AND it was taken in mid december.

Everywhere Else: "Home is where you make it!"

Florida: "Are you kidding???"

BOOM...

quick update. I know I'm a terrible blogger. My blog does not follow any kind of order or train of thought. It is mostly fantastically boring (unless you're from Luxembourg in which case you probably find most things interesting). I will try to be better motivated at writing stuff.

UPDATE! I ran the FULL marathon like a beast. Praise God that my knee felt great the entire time and that my breathing was pretty good considering I was overcoming a cold. I raised over $700 for Haiti and they gave me a medal and everything! My time was 5:13 which, although not very good for an experienced marathoner, I was quite happy with. As I crossed the finish line I asked the girl handing out water bottles if I won. She sort of smiled at me but behind her smile I could tell she was thinking something like, "listen jerk I've been standing here for 5 hours waiting for your slow butt to waddle across the finish line so don't get fresh!" I'm not sure if people still say "don't get fresh" but I think they should. I also think they should say things like, Rad and Bodacious and Super-Duper and guys should call girls Dames and Dames should call guys Scalawags and everyone should listen to jazz music all the time. Anyway I felt as if I accomplished something and now I need something new to accomplish. I'll be thinking about that.

Bodacious,

Jake

What an idiot...

OK so a few months ago I unveiled my plan of running a half marathon in January and I needed to find a charity to run for. I'm running to raise money to buy supplies for Haiti and over the last two weeks the I've raised around $500. Danny Pena has stepped up as the interim worship leader while I'm gone and everything was looking good when...

1. I caught a cold on saturday and have been hacking up all kinds of interesting things and I cant breathe.

2. I injured my knee before christmas and took a month off from training to recover so my total training time will end up being 6 weeks.

3. My dad had a heart attack on Monday so it's been a very stressful week worrying about him. (He's doing great and will make a full recovery praise God!)

I blame the devil. I guess he doesn't want me to run the race so I figured, "Screw him I'll sign up for the full marathon instead. How do you like that sucka!" So yeah thats the plan.

The race in on Sunday at 6am. Start praying.

Later,

oh if you want to sponsor me please email jake@lifechurchmiami.org

Chasing Sunsets...ch 1.

"I once rode a bike from Miami to Key West."

I figured that would be a really cool thing to say and apparently so did a great friend of mine named Barrett. So we decided that over New Years we would embark upon the 160 mile bike ride from my house near the University of Miami to Key West and back. Here is kind of how it went.

After spending a few days in Tallahassee paying my respects to Bobby Bowden Field at FSU and spending a few laughs with my other most favorite person in the world I headed down to Plant City, Florida to pick up Barrett and begin our adventure. Barrett is one of the most amazing people that I currently know. He is completely fearless and inspires everyone he meets. People fight for his time and focus and friendship as if he's a rockstar rather than a guy getting his PHD and used to teach agriculture in middle school. He truly is a man that knows a thousand people but calls only a few friends. I am blessed that he calls me a friend and that I consider him a brother. I can count on him for anything.

I had been fighting holiday traffic the entire way and was relieved when I exited off of I75 near Zephyrhills, Florida. It was pitch dark and I wondered why in the world they didn't have any street lights. Almost intuitively my phone rang and Barretts voice came spilling out of it.

"Jake, where you at man?"

"I just exited I75 so I'll be there in no time."

"Awesome! Man I'm excited to see you. Hey I'm going to Carrabas to pick-up some dinner what do you want me to get you?"

"Ummm whatever man, how long is that going to take I just took my exit so I'll be there really soon."

"Don't worry I'll be back before you get here,"

Although I didn't say anything I doubted highly that Barrett would arrive home before me but after 45 minutes of driving through tiny country towns on REALLY confusing, speed restricted country highways I arrived in Plant City and pulled up the driveway to Barretts parents house. This was the first time that I had ever met Barretts friends and family. They are about as relaxed and welcoming as a family could ever be. Barretts sister was staying with them for a few days with her son and daughter who stole the hearts of anyone to pass through the door. Barretts Mom was a gracious loving, quick-witted lady who, upon my arrival, reconfigured the household sleeping arrangements to account for one more. Barrett treats his Dad like he was his best friend and just one of the guys, they camp together, watch football together, counsel people together, hangout with all of Barretts friends together, tell dirty jokes together, they have a very cool relationship. After dinner Chad came over. I've never met Chad but Barrett speaks of him a lot and told me to contact him for training tips when I decided to run a marathon. Chad and I have emailed each other a few times but it was great to finally meet the man behind the facebook profile.

Chad is a pretty amazing guy. A little over a year ago he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a pretty aggressive batch of chemotherapy yet continued to train for and compete in a number of triathlons during it. About a year after his cancer went into remission Chad completed his first Iron Man Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. An Iron Man consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a full 26.2 mile marathon. Chad completed the Iron Man after nursing 3 flat tires in a time of around 15 hours. Can you imagine pushing your body to its extreme for over 15 hours? Most people are bearly awake for 15 hours in a day! Like I said chad is a pretty amazing guy. He is not tall or bound in muscle or has the looks of a male model. He's a gentle, well-mannered, kinda average guy but when asked about the Iron Man or his battle with cancer he just kinda of shrugs them off as if to say, "Yeah, I went through that but it's no big thing." Talking with Chad for a few minutes I realized that Chad genuinely believes that he can achieve whatever he wants. There is nothing that can hold him back. But he doesn't boast it, he quietly yet confidently knows that it is true but chooses to keep it to himself.

The three of us sat on Barretts sofa talking about God and life and marathons and biking from Miami to Key West. We asked questions like, "Where would you look for scripture to help you decide whether to take your dying grandmother off of life support or not." or, "If a gay couple get married, adopt a child and 15 years later one of them comes to know Jesus, would you tell them their family and their love for one another is OK or not OK?" and, "How does Urban Mayer's leave of absence effect the Gators 2010 recruiting class?" We laughed and joked for a while and we got real serious for a while. Barrett and I laughed about how unprepared for our trip we were but how it really wasn't that big of a deal and should be relatively easy. We still hadn't decided where we were going to sleep on our trip but Barrett was bringing a tent and figured we could always camp behind a building or by a bush somewhere, which to him seemed completely reasonable, but to me was a little uncomfortable but made the whole thing far more adventurous so I was OK with it. We sat and talked and grew together as friends. Good conversation has a tendency to mature friendships quickly. As time went by Chad decided to stay the night rather than drive home so I stayed in the kids playroom on an inflatable mattress while Chad slept opposite me in a child's safety bed. After stumbling over a few Thomas the train toys and over-sized puzzle pieces I found my way to my bed and while staring up at a poster of all of the disney princesses I couldn't help but think of our conversation and of Chad and Barrett and what remarkable guys they are. I fell asleep feeling inspired. Not by books or songs or bible verses but inspired by people. People I know. People I call friends. I remember thinking, "These are Barretts friends, these are the people who he surrounds himself with." And, "Why don't I know people like this?"

A Million Miles...

I read Donald Millers new book about a month ago and then went to hear him speak about it in Orlando. "A million miles in a thousand years," is the new book and it's super great! I would HIGHLY recommend it to YOU. Donald Miller is the guy that wrote Blue Like Jazz a few years ago; anyway his new book is a kind of experiment in which he takes the basic principles of what makes a good story and applies those same principles to his life in an attempt to turn his life into a great story.

It might sound strange but just shut up and go read it.

So, one of the main focal points of the book is the principle of conflict. In every good story the Hero wants something and must overcome conflict to get it; the story isn't about getting the girl or making-out with a debatably hot, effeminate vampire or Daniel Larusso winning the All Valley Karate Tournament using a super secret chinese bird kick move thats REALLY HARD TO LEARN!!! But only for about the first 5 minutes after which you'll pretty much have it down; it isn't about winning or loosing, the story is pretty much always about the conflict itself. Conflict causes us to change, it molds us, for better or worse, and the process of change is what all the best stories are REALLY about.

Donald also talks about his "practice stories" or, in other words, little adventures that caused him to face and overcome an area of conflict in his life; searching for his long lost father was an example of one; climbing the inca trail to Machu Picchu was another. He writes about overcoming each conflict and how it changed him little by little. The Donald at the end of the book is completely different from the Donald at the beginning. His "practice stories" change him and prepare him for ONE BIG STORY.

It's very inspiring.

SO...

Jake's practice story #1.

I made a list of goals once while trying to impress some friends of mine and one thing I lied about was wanting to run a half marathon. I do a lot of running and I have run 13.1 miles unofficially in the past so I'm pretty confident that I can complete a half marathon without a tremendous amount of training SO, practice story #1 is to run a FULL marathon. The point is to overcome conflict and the thought of running 26.2 miles scares the living crap out of me!

The ING Marathon comes to Miami on Jan 31st. Now I doubt highly that I can get in shape to run a full marathon by Jan 31st BUT I bet I could run the half marathon on Jan 31st and keep training to run a full marathon in like March or something. I will be looking out for Marathons for March time in various parts of the country so please help me find one.

1 more thing. The whole point of Donald Millers book is that no matter how exciting or amazing your story seems to be, if you are not living for a cause greater than yourself then you are not really living a very great or inspiring story and most people probably just think of you as a self-centered ass.

I am running a Half marathon AND a Full marathon, but for what? I need a cause. I've decided to find a charity and get people to sponsor me. I'm not sure which charity yet, I'm still looking for one and I'm open to suggestions, my only criteria for consideration is that the charity must directly benefit children. Oh and I also need your money.

Practice Story #2

To Save Us All... A worship project by Jake Barreth. Coming Summer 2010...