Our Birthday Party!

Promise & I both have November Birthdays. This year I turn 29 and Promise turns 25. It’s here Silver Birthday and so she takes the priority in the celebrating this year. 🙂 Truth be told, I hope she always takes the priority!

As we’ve talked further about ‘what we want to do for our birthdays this year’, we’ve decided that we wanted do something with the celebration of life beyond our receiving. Trust me, we will celebrate, but, we want you to help us with the ultimate celebration this year.

We want to give our birthdays away this year. We want our birthdays to bring LIFE to some that may not celebrate another Birthday if we didn’t give it away to them!

We continue to discover the extreme need in the world for sustainable life giving resources. We’ve heard from our friend Scott Harrison and his team at Charity: Water that millions of people don’t live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn’t have access to clean, safe water. That reality has shaken us to do something. We need to not be okay with this happening while we’re alive.

So, this year, we are celebrating our birthdays like never before!!

We are asking for $25 from everyone we know – and every penny of the money raised will go directly to fund freshwater wells in developing nations through Charity: Water, an organization that we know and trust. Even better, every dollar is “proved” when the projects are complete, and photos and GPS coordinates are posted using Google Earth. How cool is that right?! We’ll get to see our work and giving come alive!! Now THAT is a cool birthday present.

Our goal is to raise $5000 by Promise’s birthday, 11-23-10.

Please consider helping us. We need 200 friends to give $25 to reach our goal. This is so attainable and we want to ask that you wouldn’t wait and consider it, but, that you’d join us now in helping dying people live by giving them clean water this year!! This is a party, this is a celebration, this is our heart…more birthdays for more people!

Click Here for our Charity: Water page.

A Year of Reflection :: 1 Year Anniversary

Today, a year ago, began the most important day of my life (next to deciding to follow Jesus). It was a warm, sunny, exciting and holy day. It was a day of covenant, love, family, good food, an amazing day, lots of friends and a new beginning for me and my new wife, Promise. As I reflect back on our wedding day all I can think about is how much God is absolutely in love with us.

Promise, you are my best friend and this year has been confirmed that in every way. You’re the best listener, coach, homemaker (it’s true), artist and follower of Jesus that I know. You are an amazing lover and I couldn’t ask for anything more. I love the way you hug and kiss me. I love the way you talk to me, encourage me and show me your love. I love the way you love me in every way.

Some of my greatest memories of this year are getting to travel ALL over with you. Making a home together. Watching you launch out on your own as a freelance artist. Praying with you, like we’ve never prayed before. Learning what we’re good at and not good at around the house. Serving in Kenya and seeing your art come alive with those kids. I like making coffee with you in the mornings and settling in with you at night. I love how much you love breakfast. I’ve loved enjoying weddings, holidays and trips with our families this year. Crying with you, holding you and hoping with you for all kinds of different things. It has been so good already!

I can’t believe a whole YEAR has passed and how much better I am because of it. Because of you. God is truly good!

I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but, my original plan was to ask you to marry me in San Francisco. I wanted to have you go on a wild scavenger hunt for clues that eventually led you to a plane ride to meet me in San Francisco to ask you to marry me! Instead, we had a memorable desert engagement and I think it worked out just fine! 🙂 I just wanted you to know that even though it’s not the warm tropic beach to celebrate our 1 year, it holds a memory for me and now for us. What an amazing weekend I have had with you here in San Francisco. We have some GREAT memories already and I can’t wait to make many more.

Now if only I can love you more intently and show you Christ in me this year in new ways. Wow, that would be my desire. I love with you with all my heart and I can’t believe I got such an incredibly beautiful woman to call my wife. You are absolutely stunning and make any picture we’re both in worth looking at…WOW-EE!!!

I love you with all my heart and am looking forward to all that God has in store for us, my sweet love.

Happy Anniversary to you, Promise Tangeman-Wurzell. You are the one I waited for and it was worth the wait!

Ryan Axtell :: This Valley :: CD Release

I just wanted to take a second to remind you how blessed I am to have Ryan & Danielle Axtell as friends of mine. I’ve been so honored to have been able to walk alongside Ryan during these past months as God has given and taken away with the loss of their first child. Ryan has never ceased to amaze me with his capacity to follow Jesus into ‘This Valley’. He has been relentless to dig in to find out how God could use this tragedy for His glory. Ryan and Danielle have traversed this trial with honor, integrity, humility, authenticity and yet anchored in the hope we have in Jesus. I only hope I can do my ‘valley’ with that level of respect and honor!

That being said, I could think of no greater thing than for all of us to come out Thursday night, April 15th 2010, to support Ryan and Danielle with the release of ‘This Valley’ his brand new CD. Out of ‘This Valley’ birthed songs rooted in the word and telling the God story in their lives. Ryan has worked vigorously on this project and the album sounds AWESOME!! The release is tomorrow night at 7pm in the auditorium at Cornerstone Chandler. Nyke our Camber Pastor will be interviewing Ryan about the still birth of their first child and all that has come with this hard season for he and Danielle. It will be a powerful time to share in music, story and community. Bring your family and friends to come enjoy this night!

If you can’t make it out to Arizona for the show, but, want to purchase his new Album CLICK HERE!!

My amazing Promise designed all the artwork for Ryan. I think she did a KILLER job and, yes, I am totally biased! 🙂

Your Love Never Fails

I’ve recently come to love a song called Your Love Never Fails. It’s such a solid reminder of what the Bible proclaims to us about Gods love. These are some of they lyrics I’m just loving to lead right now. You can catch a great version of this song on Jesus Cultures worship album called Your Love Never Fails.

This video has a sweet little part in it from this past weekend. I got in a pinch over the weekend and called in a favor from an old friend to come play guitar. My friend Mike Eldred is a blues king and can shred him some leads. He’s also the Director of Custom Guitars at Fender, small fish. HA. This past weekend was no exception to his shredding and at the 3rd service during Your Love Never Fails I couldn’t hold back the WOW. HAHA. The guy can just shred and we got lost in it for a minute. We’ve got some AMAZING players here at Cornerstone and they bring exactly what we need every week, but Mike just has this Blues shredding capacity that we really don’t use week to week. So…enjoy his serious shredding and this awesome tune.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the song too!!! Have you heard this tune? Do you like it? Not?

Carlos Whittaker :: EP

Today, my good friend Carlos Whittaker’s EP is available for your download and listening pleasure. Carlos, Heather and their family have quickly become some great friends of mine and Promise. We are so excited for Carlos in this new adventure of taking his music to the streets. He’s got an amazing heart for God and people. I think you’re really going to enjoy this worship project. The songs have singable melodies and remind us of Gods love for us and propel the listener to love God more!

At the end of the day when you meet Lil’ Los (Losiah) you won’t be able to resist dowloading Carlos’ new EP. Knowing he’s training this little guy up to know and follow Jesus…well…it’s worth every dollar of the download! Go get the EP on iTunes or wherever and support this amazing new artist and a friend of mine!

Prayer Won’t Be Enough…

This morning I watched a picture montage of the tragedy that is Haiti today. I watched as THOUSANDS of people stood in line in the HOT sun waiting, hoping and fighting over bags of beans, rice and oil. Many of them waited for hours just to be told that there wasn’t enough and the aid group had given out all the food they had. The already hungry people of Haiti are now even hungrier in the aftermath of the earthquake. I was struck with the reality that as Christ followers, when it comes to those in need, prayer alone will not be enough.

I had a couple interesting and diverse comments from people on a Twitter post I put out on the subject. Some agreed, some totally disagreed and said that prayer is sometimes all you can do. Personally, I could not disagree more with that statement. I would love to hear your thoughts on prayer and the needs of the poor. Do you think that it, alone, will be enough from what you know about what Jesus commands us to do?

Below is my response to the person that may disagree with me on this statement. I think Jesus sets the record straight on how we ought to engage those in need. I want to make clear that I am a FIRM advocate that prayer is an essential component to following Jesus, but, on it’s own it will not meet the needs of the poor. Here is my response:

Twitter: Watched a piece on @CNN about the lack of food in #Haiti. It’s not enough just to pray we must mobilize what we have for those in need!

I look at Matthew 25 where Jesus delivers his poignant and final sermon on ‘The Sheep and The Goats’. As you read that passage, NO WHERE, does Jesus mention that if we ‘pray’ for the least of these that it’s somehow serving their needs. Interesting, because I think Jesus (of all people) knew and understood prayer and the power of it. I find it interesting that these were His words in His final sermon:

Matthew 25:34
34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

When he says those things, the questions come:

44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He makes this next BOLD statement regarding 34-36 to answer the question and it’s interesting that He never ONCE mentions prayer. He mentions physical, tangible ways in which we serve Him when we serve others. The outcome of ‘when’ we do these things comes in this next verse:

45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

He then talks about what happens to ‘the goats’ or those that did not live these things out:

46″Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

I’ve heard it said that Matthew 25 is not so much concerned about the ‘ROOT’ of salvation, but, about the ‘FRUIT’ of salvation. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, you cannot LOVE me and NOT engage in the plight of the less fortunate.

Again, I observe, PRAYER alone will not be enough to meet the call of what Jesus asks of us to develop as the fruit of our salvation. I’m not saying dismiss prayer, but, I am saying we better do more than just pray according to Jesus. My prayer is that Jesus would give me the courage and heart to serve the way He wants me to serve. I hope it’s your prayer too.

I’d LOVE your thoughts on this post. What do you think?

Sweet Kate – The McRae’s and Brain Tumors

This is sweet Kate McRae. She’s an amazing 5 year old girl and is now fighting for her life against a brain tumor. Promise wrote a beautiful blog about her. Check it out.

Wedding Day || In Depth w/Promise…

Click the picture below and go read Promises thoughts on our wedding. I think she did an awesome job explaining and articulating how special this day was for us. Make sure to leave a comment over there too!

Wedding Eyes…

I imagine we’ll be done with wedding stuff at some point in the near future, but, there are still some more stories and pictures to be shared. We haven’t gotten all our pics yet, but, wedding photographer, Daley, sent us this over a photo over the weekend so I thought I’d share it with you and our friends Jon and Ashley Bugg gave us a a few too. Hopefully you’ll enjoy. More coming. Marriage is a beautiful thing, just look at the eyes!

A Gift, A Miracle…

DISCLAIMER…there is a video at the bottom of this post that YOU HAVE TO WATCH. This post is a good read too!!

Today is Ash Wednesday and it’s been a great day so far. It’s been a full day of reflection, discussion and conversation about this mysterious God that I’ve put my life towards (ash on head and all!). It started by going to Ash Wednesday Mass at my dear friends Parish called Mt. Carmel in Tempe. The homily was confronting. The priest talked about how we are so afraid to be alone. He called us ‘cell phone junkies’ and called us out on the reality of how desperately afraid our culture is of being alone, even those of us in Christ. We don’t know how, we’re scared to, we’re resistant to, we’re afraid of and we fill our lives with so many things that keep us connected to people so that we won’t have to be alone. Introvert or Extrovert we all have ‘things’ that we do that keep even our minds occupied. I was confronted by the Holy Spirit in time of reflection, during church this morning, to prioritize more time to just soak in His presence and commune with Jesus. Is this just me or are you with me on this one?

My fast for lent is going to be from soda/coffee drinks. My resolve is that I will drink water only for 40 days. I’m excited about it because I actually will have to choose water in my day multiple times and it’s in those times that I just want to remember who is my true drink. Jesus. He’s the one I’m after and He’s the one I’m staking it all on! I want to know Him more and I’m thankful for a season of fasting that will lend itself to the gift of knowing Jesus more intimately. I’m amped to have an opportunity, throughout the rhythm of my day, to willingly choose something that will serve as a reminder of Jesus sacrifice for me, for us and for humanity. Thanks be to God (as they say in the Catholic Mass).

I returned back to our church campus here at Cornerstone just to run into beautiful tears. Our amazing Kenyan sister, Caroline, is living here in Chandler, AZ with our Pastor and his wife as she pursues her Masters degree at Arizona State University. What’s never been said very loudly is that Linn and Lisa Winters (our pastor and his wife) live one of the most generous lifestyles that I know. I could make a list of 10+ people (including myself) that they’ve take into there home in times of need and just to be a blessing. Caroline is next on that list of people that they have been gracious to as she lives with them now and for the past 4 weeks Linn and Lisa have been ‘just figuring it out’ with their 2 cars to make sure Caroline has transportation to get to ASU. Relentless giving. Very cool!

That being said, I came back to the church this morning and Caroline came in gasping for breath, filled with tears and, honestly, I couldn’t tell if something bad had happened or what. She then went on to explain what I then made her sit down with me to video record this very special day and what it means to her. So sit back for a minute and listen to this beautiful woman as she talks about a faithful God and tells a story of unique and profound blessing. PRAISE BE TO GOD!! Music courtesy of Robbie Seay Band – Hallelujah, God is Near and Matt Maher – Unwavering.

I’m curious…what would you be willing to give up during Lent?

To learn more about Huruma Childrens Home – CLICK HERE.

To see a previous blog post I did on Mama Zipporah during the time @ the loss of their beloved Papa Isaac – CLICK HERE.