invisible children

we brought about 40 students and leaders down to Tulane and slept in cardboard boxes to be apart of the vigil to bring awareness to the northern Uganda crisis. we had a great time. Friday nite we watched the invisible children dvd to show the students really why we were going to N.O. and i couldn't hold back the tears....to see these precious children have to leave their homes and sleep piled on top of each other in the hospitals and train stations in the city just for safety..wow, it smoked me. we are so blessed but we cant stop at our blessing we must be active in and with our blessing! to check out more about the n.Uganda crisis go to invisible children also, look at the above pix how weird JP looks kinna standing there in stalker mode by his lonesome....what a weirdo hahahahah below is me and my beautiful bride jennifer......hola

next generation servants

today we brought a bunch of students to prescott middle school for one of our justice projects....basically we rolled up to this school that has very very limited resources and very very great needs....we brought a lil hpc t.l.c.....painted their gym,locker rooms, and the biggie...we totaly did a extreme makover to the teachers lounge b/c it was struggling and next week is teachers appreciation. what an oppurtunity to serve our community and show the love of God. mad kudos to lori fotenot for throwin this gig together...also mad props to the students. change the world by serving one.

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FRUSTRATED

We’re tired of repetition
We’re tired of empty words
We can’t just sing our songs
And watch our cities burn

We’ve prayed our prayers
We’ve shared our stuff
We’ve given charity
It’s not enough……cuz


Justice is what they cry for
Justice is what they need
It’s time we stop just singing
And rise up on our feet

And cry….

This is the generation
With passion and frustration
Our hearts ablaze and burning bright
To take what’s wrong and make it right


Inside our hearts we know there’s more
We’re tired of doing what we’ve done before..cuz
We haven’t been dared to touch the poor
But we hear them knocking outside our door…..they’re saying


Justice is what we cry for
Justice is what we need
It’s time you stop just singing
And rise up on your feet…..

And cry….

This is the generation
With passion and frustration
Our hearts ablaze and burning bright
To take what’s wrong and make it right

God is into feet

“How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”-Romans 10:15

Marsal @ the car prep

at first i just planned on dropping by the car prep(a day when the men of the church rally together to serve the widows and single moms by servicing their cars) i was making my rounds just checking everything out and then i got drop kicked by the GHOST....ya, you see the above picture? it's my boy Marsal washing a car. Marsal is a bit limited in what he can do physically but not too limited to serve. WOWZERS! OUCH! i stood there with a donut in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other as i stared at a young man who made no excuses to get out of serving. how often do we search for excuses not to serve cuz we just don't feel like it or were just not up to it? needless to say, i dropped my donut and got to washing... Okay, let me rephrase that...i ate my donut and got to washing. lol

from homeless to hairless

can you take a wild guess who this strapping young playa is? thats right...it's my boy marc...off the streets lookin so fresh and so clean! this is a pix i took right after i gave your boy a fresh new hair cut....thats right, you didnt know that tweez could roll with the clippers.hahaha if you need a fresh new fade just let me know. in just one week marc went from homeless to hairless. i love it

the homeless come home

this weekend has been a good weekend! Thursday we started our mens breakfast for the homeless under the bridge and on Friday we were able to get one of the guys in a program and off the street....his name is alex a.k.a george michael . and on friday i had the privilege to bring alex to his new home and on the ride over he told me that he hadn't slept in a bed in nearly 6 years. well, you should have seen the look in his tear swelled eyes when at his new home they handed him his new,fresh sheets and covers and then pointed him to his new bed. slammin!

then sunday morning two more guys joined us for church at the annex and then at hiland.... (cheif and marc) cheif had never been to church and by the end of the 2nd service he couldn't stop crying....slammin! long story short...last nite me and craig went back under the bridge and just held cheif as he cried and asked all these tough questions about life,God and tragedy.you see, cheif's wife died and then 2 of his kids died in iraq serving in the military this year and thats when he hit the streets.

so last nite he just broke down crying and so me and craig just held the brotha and prayed and cried with him. while he was crying he said," i guess ive never really mourned the loss of my family and now its hitting me." i now have a new understanding of the bible when it says to mourn with those who mourn....i didn't have answers...so i just held him,mourned and prayed. then this morning we helped him get
cleaned up and on his way home to Arizona with his family...

then on top off that we got marc off the streets and into his new home at the ascension house in B.R... all GOD! "all of heaven rejoices when one that was lost comes home!"-luke 15:10----5 days ago there supposedly was 7500 homeless people in B.R. well, as of today there must be 7497.....may not seem like a big difference but ask marc,cheif, and alex....its a big difference to them....not to mention all of heaven is rejoicing. CHANGE THE WORLD BY SERVING ONE

THE CLUSTER KING

in case you cant tell what this red blob is, it is pastor dino's cluster map....ya, thats right...you wish you had friends like that. he's averaging like 1500 hits a day.....he even has hits out in the middle of the ocean...whats up with that? i guess theres a bunch of pirates with blackberries catch'n a peep at the godfather's world. HOW MANY HITS ARE YOU AVERAGING? DONT LIE SUCKA!!!!

hpc bridge campus

my boys....[left to right ] cheif,me,mark....ushers at the hpc bridge campus

hpc under the bridge

this is one of the coolest cats in the world....his name is marc and he lives under the i10 bridge. mad props to all my homies at the hpc bridge campus

i DARE you to read this post.....

"Today's generation is the first generation in decades to have a lower life expectancy than that of their parents"

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said Wednesday it would designate $500 million over the next five years to help combat the "epidemic" of obesity in American children. This will be the largest private donation to be pledged for this widespread health threat.

"If we don't turn this epidemic around and halt the rise in childhood obesity, we're going to have the first generation of kids who actually are sicker and die younger than their parents," stated Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Childhood obesity is compromising the health of one-third of American youth. About 25 million children aged 17 and younger are classified as obese or overweight. This obesity problem is costing approximately $14 billion each year in medical expenses, according to the RWJ Foundation. BUT on the other hand.....

According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year. Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger and
Every year 15 million children die of hunger.
heres something i bet you didn't know...
To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year...and
for the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years. did you know that
Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children died from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could have been prevented for the price that the world spends on its military in two days! how is it that we have these two extremes...25 million fat kids are eating themselves to death while 15 million kids are starving to death? what if instead of committing $500 million dollars for the next 5 years to solve the problem of kids eating themselves to death we use that $$$ to solve the problem of kids starving to death?

easter 07

this is a pic of pastor dino bringing the raw gospel at one of our easter services....during one of his prayers at a sevice he quoted 1corinthians 2 where paul said "i came to you NOT with eloquent words or persuasive speech but with a demonstration of the power of God..." and thats exactly what the rizzonator did....he preached the powerful gospel and tons of people gave their hearts to Jesus! we saw 8,054 come to our easter services....God is awesome!!!!!

till the cows come home

tonite 50plus people gathered at the annex to watch the passion of the Christ and then afterwards we moved into a time of worship... the only way to descibe the night is 'holy moment.' it started at 9:30pm and it didnt stop till 2am.....what a great way to head into easter...God is gonna rock our faces off this wekend!

road to easter

tonite was strong....different flow from what we normally do on wednesdays but it was slammin...families and friends taking communion and praying together. what a great way to head into easter. oya...thursday nite at the annex 9:30pm to watch the 'passion' and then live worship at midnight...gonna be sick!

dirty lil criminal

last night me and my wife got to just chill at home and watch a movie...o ya we have a dog named Felipe(a vicious mini schnauzer)...well while me and jenn were cuddled up on the couch our little Felipe came running up to the couch, looked at both of us with this sneaky look on his face...and then he sneezed and a bunch of this white stuff came flying out his nose all over us....very romantic i know! curious what the white slimmie stuff was i looked around the house and to my surprise the little criminal had got into a little toilet paper...so i had to do what any great master would do....I BEAT HIM ALL OVER THE HOUSE....HAHAHAHAHAH "dirty lil criminal"

fried heaven

at the begginig of the year i made some pretty outlandish commitments.(no fried foods, in the gym 4 days a week, pray every morning from 5-7am, really relax on my day off, etc.) well, here we are a couple of months down the road and the only commitment im still going strong on is the relax thingy. hahaha.
isnt it funny how commited we are at the begginig of the year? our new year resolutions and goals to be better, skinnier, healthier more spiritual people! we come out the tracks with a fierceness to attain what we've deemed to be life transforming and for a few weeks or maybe even months we wake up earlier stay up later and deny ourselves of the indulgencies of the previous year......but it only last for a bit doesnt it? we dont just abruptly stop either, rather we DRIFT away from our commitments. i've thought about this a bunch the past 2 weeks....not enough to quit eating fried stuff but i have paid it a thought or two. i guess it really hit me when i had a dream the other night of me coming to my office and stoping by the prayer room and opening the door only to find the lights off and the room empty. at that moment God reminded me of this same room only two months earlier at the same time packed with young people(including myself) praying,crying and begging God to pour out His presence on our church so that the lost would come to Him. then as i remembered that moment God spoke to me as i stared at this quite, empty room and He said," dont be upset when your altars look like your prayer rooms...EMPTY" ouch!!!! i couldnt go back to sleep....i remembered my mission and so i had to get up...i had to return to my commitment, i had to pray. God gave me the backhand....im gonna get back to my commitments but im still gonna eat fried stuff cuz this is louisiana and thats how we roll...yeahya