Dirt Bike Riding

A few days ago, we went dirt bike riding together at some trails near our house. Brock went up some very big hills. It was fun!









Pray for us tonight. We have another Miracles show in Memphis.

Not Your Typical Baby Shower

Last night was wonderful. It was a smaller group, but we still had 17 in attendance. We made our own pizzas and I made a couple of fruit pizzas for dessert. At the beginning of the night, we went on ichat with Travis and Delaine. They are the ones whom we were giving the shower for. It was so special to be able to talk with them. They were almost tearful at some times because they were so appreciative of what we are doing for them. They were really encouraged that strangers on the other side of the country would provide for them. Travis kept saying that this was "all God." I liked being a part of something that is all God.

After we prayed for Travis and his family, we continued making pizzas and people got online to order gifts for the baby. I had four computers set up to order. After that, we all watched movies since Travis is in Hollywood. I had four different movies set up in four different rooms of our house. It was fun!

Moms and Anniversaries

Speaking of anniversaries, we acknowledged a different anniversary the other day. Tuesday was the second anniversary of my friend, Lindsey's mother's death. She died of cancer two years ago. The night before she died, she called Lindsey to come to the hospital and entertain her, because she was bored. When Lindsey got there, someone happened to be shooting off fireworks outside her window. She had a perfect view of the fireworks and thus had her entertainment. Therefore, on Tuesday, we lit some fireworks in Lindsey's mom's honor. We made a "toast" with our firecrackers to Lindsey's mom's life and the life she created with Lindsey. It was special.

To all of you mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day. You are all very special especially to your children!

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Contest

Yesterday was wonderful. We took it easy in the morning. "Walk the Line" was on TV and we watched it as we were leisurely getting ready. Then, we headed over to our new favorite lunch place which happens to be only 5 minutes from our house. We had some fabulous seafood there. Then, we went shopping a little around there at some of the new shops that are popping up near us.

After that, we went and watched "Iron Man." It was better than we thought that it was going to be. I always enjoy super hero movies because they are fairly clean and fun, and the good guy always wins.

Then, we grabbed some sushi and went to Aux Chou. It's a dessert place that we love in downtown Franklin. They don't have fondue there like the Cocoa Tree did. However, last night Brock made special arrangements with the chef and she provided us with some great fondue! It was so good!!! It was so sweet of Brock to set that up for me.

Okay, here's the contest: When we came home, we went through all of the photo albums that we've collected over the last 9 years. We've traveled all over the world and I enjoy taking pictures to archive everything. If you can figure this out, we will give you one of our new dvd's when it comes out next month. How many photo albums do we have?

9 Years

Today is our 9 year anniversary. We've been so busy that we haven't really made any plans for today except that we are taking the day off. It's the first day we've had off in probably a month! We worked really hard to be able to take off now. In fact, up until 10pm last night, Brock was working to finish up stuff so that we have the day off.

Since we've been so busy, we are simply going to play it by ear today. We may not want to go anywhere and just stay in all day. We may want to go and play. I don't care what we do just as long as we are together and not working.

I think that it's sorta cool not to have any plans. That way, we don't have any expectations either. When you have high expectations for a certain day, that's when you are most likely going to be disappointed. Certain anniversaries are better than others...it just depends on the time in your lives. All of you that are married out there. What do you do for your anniversary?

Baby Shower Online

Imagine that you and your family consisting of two little girls and a beautiful wife are living a great life in Alabama surrounded by friends and family. The Lord asks you and your family to uproot and move to L.A. to be an evangelist to Hollywood. Would you do it? What a culture shock! That's what a friend of ours did a few years ago. Travis is influencing the influencers with the gospel in Hollywood.

We felt as if the Lord was telling us to do a party with a purpose for him, so Brock gave him a call. We found out that his wife is going to have another baby...Surprise! They have two beautiful daughters and thought they were done. Well, the Lord had other plans for them, and now they are having a boy. Brock said that we could give them a baby shower as our party with a purpose. Travis told him that this was totally God because they don't have a strong community around them like they did in Alabama...at least not one that gives baby showers.

So, this Sunday evening, on Mother's Day I might add, we are going to have a baby shower for Travis and Delaine at our house. We are going to purchase items from Target and have them shipped to them. If you want to be a part of this, simply go to target.com and click on the baby registry. The mother's name is: Delaine and the father's name is: Travis Crim. The baby will be born in California in July. Make sure that you send it to their address that's already in the registry.

The Miracles Show

Last night, we performed the show of our life. The Miracles show went so well last night. The crowd was wonderful. Our staff (meaning Brad and Kyle) were excellent. Brock did a great job. This time, the show really clicked. I got to see some friends that I grew up with in Daytona. Several people were saved...what a great night!

I say that this is the show of our lives because I feel like the Lord called Brock to do the Miracles of Jesus TV show. Then, I feel as if He called us to do this show. Who else in the world could do an illusion show about the Miracles of Jesus and discuss some of the things that they found while filming the TV show? Brock's the only one. That's why this show is extra special.

A few times throughout the show, I got emotional. Just thinking about Jesus and His crucifixion and resurrection is enough to move me to tears. Add our show and such an amazing crowd (1,000 in attendance) and I was overcome by emotion. I felt as if this show is our offering to the Lord.

Brokedown

We were only a few hours into our trip when smoke began to pour out of our truck yesterday (pickup truck pulling a trailer). We pulled off at the next exit which had absolutely nothing in sight...no buildings or people...just an abandoned car and some woods. We immediately began to call AAA. However, we had such bad phone service. Brock began to walk away to see if he could get service. He could, but then, halfway through his appeal for help, the call would drop.

It did not look good. Brock could get a text out, so he twittered everyone telling them to pray for us broke down on the side of the road. Then, something happened. A AAA tow truck drove up. Now, there hadn't been one car that drove up since we pulled over. Then, the one vehicle that comes happens to be from AAA. Coincidence??? I don't think so. The man was going to pull someone out of the ditch close by. He dispatched AAA telling them our location and such.

About an hour later, someone came to tow us. We could see that we had busted the radiator hose which is an easy fix. No auto repair guys were opened on Saturday near the small town where we broke down. Therefore, the guy towed us to an AutoZone. They didn't have the right hose, but the nice man found a flex hose that he made work. Two hours and $47 after we broke down, we were back on the road. That's not bad considering what it could have been and has been in the past. Pray for our show tonight.

Trying to Make it to Tuesday

We drive to Maryland this weekend to perform our second Miracles show. That means that we load our rented trailer today. Then, we drive the twelve hour drive tomorrow, set up, do the show, and tear down Sunday, and drive home Monday. Honestly, I'm not ready to do all of that yet. I'm still trying to recoup from FX and filming the dvd. Plus, before that...well, it's been a crazy month.

I'm at that point where I feel like I'm in a daze sometimes. Other times, I feel sick but nothing feels bad. I just feel weak. The main thing is that I don't really want to be around people. Whenever EVERYONE around me is getting on my nerves, I know that it's me.

I'm still doing all the right things, I just don't quite have the right attitude at this moment. I'm not motivated. However, if I can just make it to Tuesday...then, we have some time off. Please pray that I make it until Tuesday.

DVD Shoot and Anxiety Dreams

The dvd shoot went better than I expected. The weather was perfect. Several people came out to do it. It was really fun! The best part was that I didn't have to be in it at all. Also, someone from our office, Jacob, was heading it up. Therefore, I was just there to assist in any way. The responsibility of it didn't sit on my shoulders. That was great because live show is my thing...filming is not.

The day started out badly for me because I had two anxiety dreams. The first one consisted of me doing a chocolate tasting really quickly. I had to do it in like 5 minutes. I woke up in the early hours of the morning feeling like I had run all night. Then, I went back to sleep and had a very typical dream for me: we were doing a show. For some reason, I couldn't get our props or music or anything together. Every time I'd try to use logic to problem solve, but everything in the dream wasn't logical. It's like I was thinking realistically in an unrealistic world but didn't know it. Also, the audience was just sitting there for 30 minutes doing nothing but waiting on us to get our act together. In real life, I hate dead time...30 seconds won't do much less 30 minutes! I finally woke up frustrated, tired, and humiliated.

This made me tired and a little cranky at the beginning of the day. I need to figure out how to not have these dreams anymore. When we are working hard, I can have them a few times a month. It really throws me off especially on days when I need to have good rest. Any suggestions?

Home/Hotel

Last week, we stayed in our hotel for almost a week. Our hotel becomes like home for us especially if we stay for a long time. This hotel had a hot tub and great indoor pool. One day, we had a pool party for Jordan, one of the bmx guys. It was his birthday. That was fun!

We worked out in the gym almost everyday. One day, a few of us realized that they had changed the flooring and added mirrors to the gym. We were admiring the changes when Steph said, "I feel like this is our home or something." We were all like, "They put in new mirrors and a new floor!"

Home sweet home...kinda. I'm home now, and I can tell you that there is a difference. Pray for us today. We are filming our dvd in Alabama. Pray that everything goes smoothly.

Videos from Freedom Experience in Kansas

Coming to the End of Yourself

Two things happened yesterday during the last service. Brock was speaking at the church that brought us in for the Freedom Experience. It was the last of 11 shows since Wednesday. It had been an amazing week yet an exhausting week, too. At the closing of the last service, Brock said, "I guess I'm done!" Everyone in the church began clapping. Then, they rose to their feet...a standing ovation! This moved me to tears.

Also, while Brock was having everyone pray toward the end of the service, I began climbing the stairs up to the sound booth for the last time. We'd done four services there over the weekend, so I'd climbed the staircase many times before. As I was walking up, I felt the Lord tell me to pray for the people sitting on either side of the aisle as I passed by them. The strangest thing happened! I barely had enough strength to physically make it up the stairs, but I felt the power of God literally radiating off my body to the people as I passed by. This was a new experience for me!

Later, I shared with Brock what had happened. I couldn't believe that I could be that drained, yet the Holy Spirit could still use me at that point. Brock made a very profound statement about it. He said, "When you live in the extreme, that's when you live in the supernatural. When you come to the end of yourself, that's where God is."

Freedom Experience in Wichita

Our prayers were answered! It was a miracle that the weather was nicer yesterday and the gym wasn't hot. This isn't the first time that the weather was altered during an FX. In Florida one time, a hurricane passed through, but it stopped when it got to Palm Coast where we were doing the show. Then, it picked back up again. Even the weather men were scratching their heads about that one!

The show went great! Over 500 people gave their lives to Christ over the last two nights in Wichita. What great success! The Lord really showed up in a big way. Thanks for your prayers.

Keep praying for us this weekend. Brock has to speak in two services here in Kansas tonight and two services in the morning. We are completely worn out, so this is going to be tough.

FX in Wichita, KS

After doing two days of school assemblies, we had our first night of Freedom Experience last night in Wichita, KS. The school assemblies have been going well from what I can tell. We have four different teams out doing them. CZ, the rapper, and Tim Byrne, the freestyle skater, are on one team. Stephanie Smith, the new GoTee artist, is on another team. Casting Pearls, the Christian rock band, is on another, and Brock as well as Lindsey, who eats fire, is on another team. One of the bmx riders goes with each team to do a little flat land riding at the schools. It surely worked, because the place was packed out last night. In fact, 150 people couldn't get in the doors. I have no idea what to do tonight about the numbers!

It went well last night considering. The gym that we are performing in has no air conditioning. It was so hot!!! That's not very good conditions for anyone. By the time Brock began to speak, people were beginning to get rowdy. However, there were still hundreds that gave their lives to Christ last night!

Pray that the heat doesn't cause people to leave before they hear the message tonight. Also, pray that the crowd isn't so rough and many come to know the Lord.

My Favorite Part of Our San Francisco Trip

My favorite part about our San Francisco trip was when we caught a cab over to this ice cream place called Bi-Rite Creamery. We were told from one of the workers at a chocolate shop that this was the best ice cream in the world. She told us that we needed to order a Sam's Sundae.

We did this on Friday afternoon at about 4pm. It was a beautiful day, so we weren't surprised to see a line out the door for ice cream. We ordered the Sam's Sundae just because we were told it was the thing to get. I wouldn't have ordered it otherwise. The ingredients were chocolate ice cream, olive oil, sea salt, and whip cream. Sounds gross, right? Wrong!!! It was the best ice cream I've ever eaten. Maybe it was the type of ice cream and olive oil. I don't know, but it was amazing! I don't even like ice cream, and I dug into this stuff!

We sat on a bench outside of the ice cream place with other ice cream eaters. As we ate our ice cream, we soaked up the refreshing sun and watched the locals do life. There was a field across the street where children were playing soccer. Someone dropped their ice cream on the sidewalk, and we watched dogs run to it to lick it up as their owners tried to continue walking them. Then, we saw a tow truck towing off a car parked on the road beside us. Then, we saw another one and another one. We noticed a very small sign hidden behind a bush that said that this was a towing zone between 4 and 6pm. Brock would tell everyone who parked beside us that they were about to get towed. They would thank him and move their car. We saved about 5 or 6 people from being towed! Good times!

Muir Woods and Alcatrez

We took a tour of Muir Woods where we were able to see Redwoods. The Coast Redwoods are the tallest living things in the world. They can get over 200 feet tall and over 14 feet wide.













We saw a black tailed mule deer there.

Then, we went to a cool little town along the bay called Sausalito.






Then, we went to Alcatrez...







It was very interesting to hear about all of the escape attempts and such. You toured the former prison with your own headset with 4 former inmates and 4 former guards as your hosts. It was very well done. The most interesting thing to me was that when we got there, we thought that it wasn't such a bad place. You had a great view of the bay and San Francisco. That's what one of the inmates on the tape said was the worst part. You could see what you were missing in life. In fact, you were only 1 and 1/2 miles away from it, yet you could never taste it. From what I gathered, losing your freedom is the worst part about being in prison.

Chocolate Tasting at GMA

The chocolate tasting that we hosted for the leaders of Compassion International went extremely well! I didn't know how it would go. It was at 9:30 in the morning which is definitely not the best time. We think that it would be better at night. However, everyone loved it! There were a few people there who were planning on going home and hosting one. There was a young couple there just out of college that decided they were going to start having parties with a purpose in their community. Lots of people had some great ideas about it.

Also, there was a girl who was working at the coffee shop where we hosted the tasting. Brock felt like he needed to ask her something. He did. He asked her what she wanted to do with her life. She said that she wanted to be a nutritionist in Africa. Brock's question was, "Then why aren't you doing that?" She gave some reasons like she needs to go to school for it and doesn't have the money. The school that she wants to go to has been "processing" her application for over a year! Brock said that these are all tiny obstacles that shouldn't deter her from her dream. Nothing is impossible with God. It was a great encounter, and she said that she needed to hear that. Please pray for Mandy.

Then, we went to the place where all of the GMA festivities were going on. We plopped down on a bench in the middle of it for about 3 hours. We just sat there and everyone came to us. It was fun to visit with some old friends. What a great day!

Big Week

Pray for us this week. This is GMA week. Although we're not doing as much this year at GMA, we still have a big day tomorrow. We are hosting a chocolate tasting for some of the Compassion workers tomorrow morning. Then, we'll be around all of the GMA festivities. Tomorrow night, we have a dinner with the Compassion group.

Tuesday, we fly out to Witchita, KS. We are doing a Freedom Experience there Wednesday through Thursday. Since I'm going to be super busy, I'll post the rest of the San Francisco blogs over the next couple of days.

Expelled the Movie Weekend

We went to see the movie tonight and the 600 or so seat auditorium was about 80% full. That's very good! There were a few hecklers in the theater. At one point, police officers came in. Some people left during the film. However, most stayed for the entire documentary and everyone clapped at the end of it.

There was a group of students from a local high school who were passing out fliers to a follow-up debate that they are going to have on May 1st. A church in Louisiana rented out the whole theater tonight. Florida and a few other states are already trying to pass laws to allow more freedom for science educators. So, good things are already coming from this movie. Please, please, please support this film.

It's sorta cool that we are participating in getting the word out about this movie. You see, a long time ago, Brock came up with a t-shirt design. Since then, people have used it for bumper stickers and other such things. You may have even seen the t-shirt at some point. The t-shirt read "Darwin Lied" with "Genesis 1:1" underneath it. I wrote a one page paper about it to pass out to anyone who bought the shirt in order to educate them on the subject. It's cool how this is coming full circle.

Expelled the Movie

Go see "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" this weekend. It's important to see it opening weekend to let everyone know that we support the message of this film. "Expelled" is a documentary hosted by Ben Stein (you know the dry eyes guy and the guy who said, "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller..."). It exposes the no tolerance policy of creationism in the scientific world. It's very interesting, and every Christian should support this film.

Our group is going tonight to see it together. I hope that it's not sold out...well, actually I do!

The Miracles Show in Bentonville, AR

This show that we did last night was so complicated that we rehearsed for two days a couple of weeks ago. Then, we got into the building the night before our show and began to set up. Well, we didn't get finished setting up until 10 minutes before the show began last night.

At one point during our setup, I texted a few people to pray for us at 6pm last night (that's when the show began). I received texts back immediately telling me that people were praying. Then, I received a text from one of my girls at home and she said, "Funny you should ask. A group of us are planning to get together and pray for you tonight at 6pm." Then, I felt very encouraged.

The show went so well for a new show. Thirty minutes before the show began, we were throwing breakers and equipment was breaking. I thought, "Oh no! This is going to be like the first few Freedom Experiences!" They were close to disasters, but it wasn't. In fact, everything went very smoothly and I know that it's because of prayer.

This show is very different for us. It's not as high in energy, and it's a little more serious throughout. However, we talk about Jesus the entire time. The focus is on Him the entire show. There is something so special about that.

I was so tired last night that I slept in my clothes! I haven't done that since I was a kid! We all worked so hard. I feel like the Lord is telling me that He's pleased with all of the hard work and our obedience. That's a wonderful feeling that I wouldn't trade for the world!

Pray for the New Miracles Show

Pray for us tonight. We are performing our first Miracles show in Bentonville, AR. I feel a lot of pressure to make this show great because we are representing the Miracles of Jesus! Wow! There's a lot of technical stuff involved in this show as well. However, we have our friends, Brad and Kyle, to help us. Plus, we've seen a lot of opposition for this show. We need your prayers. I feel like the Lord wants to do something big!

Chocolate, Chocolate, and More Chocolate

We toured this chocolate factory. That was interesting.


This was our favorite chocolate place that we went to...


it had over 350 different chocolate bars in one store.


The owner at this place talked with us for a long time. He was fun and interesting. We gave him one of our dvd's and he popped it into the store dvd player while we were there.


This place let us try some cool truffles and we bought some single origin chocolates from all over the world.


This guy is a famous chocolatier in San Francisco.

















In all we went to 11 chocolate shops. It was fun!!!

San Francisco

We had a wonderful time in San Francisco. The weather was great! It was bright and sunny, 70's and 80's degrees (that's warm for that area of California). The people are very diverse. We ate at the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at. It was so good that we ate there twice!

Videos from the Party

Chaos Birthday Extravaganza

I'll show you pictures and tell you about San Francisco just as soon as I have the time to upload the pics. We just got home last night. Now, we are getting ready for church. We are going to the early service because we're going to have a birthday party for our friend this afternoon. I think that the party is going to include nap time, because with the time change and getting home so late, I'm so tired.

This party (like all of our birthday parties) is going to be crazy! Stephanie's birthday is Tuesday. However, we are going to celebrate it today. We are going to a friend's house for appetizers after church. Then, at some point, Brock is going to blow an air horn. Then, we are all going to run to our cars and drive to another friend's house for lunch. Steph is going to be very confused at this point because everyone is going to know what to do except her. Then, we're taking her to Starbucks and our house for cake and ice cream. Also, at each location, she's going to have to put on something crazy like a wig, birthday tiera, and a tutu. It's going to be fun!

The Gift of Hospitality

A little over a year ago, I took a spiritual gifts test with my girls. Included in the top few gifts of mine was the gift of hospitality. I thought, "How can this be used?" I knew that back in Bible times, people would stay at others' homes as they were passing through town. That doesn't happen too often now. Then, I thought that maybe it meant making people feel comfortable no matter where you were...even if it wasn't in your home. Either way, I asked the Lord to use and develop this gift.

The last couple of weeks I've really seen how the Lord has done this very thing. We had our second Party with a Purpose on Easter. Then, we had a band of three guys, a "road manager," 3 different girls on two separate occasions stay at our house within the last couple of weeks. Plus, I hosted a chocolate tasting.

It's exciting to see the Lord use you in different ways. I especially like it when He uses the gifts that come naturally to us. Who knew that He could use such a fun gift for His glory? What are your spiritual gifts? You don't have to feel like you're bragging. The Lord is the one put them in you!