Snow!!!

January 7 - Though not exactly a regular occurrence for Georgians, for us neo-Georgians this white fluffy stuff quietly floating down from the skies above was a unique and special experience! Remember California is a desert and Australia is a tropical island (not exactly, but I think you get my point). In case you didn't know what it was!
Ken & Pam's home as it started to snow!

If you were wondering, Slinky is doing fine!

Ken & Pam's home in the morning after the snow fall!

Deron's truck

Looking outside our bedroom window

Just a beautifully framed pictureOur van... just chilling!

Ken & Pam's home in the afternoon on the day after the snow fall!

Just down the street from Ken & Pam's place Looking up Ken & Pam's street - Pipsissewa! Try saying that several times, fast!

Jasen celebrates his 20th birthday!

January 6, 2010 - Though the 5th was actually Jasen's birthday we celebrated it on the 6th. Here is the cake that Shellie created (and it was really tasty!). Jasen loved sharing the fun with his little cousins!
Jasen is learning that gift cards are pretty good gifts!

Jasen opening up his treasure chest full or more surprizes!

Haley can't believe how much is stuft into the treasure chest! Yay! Yummy coffee!

Pam gets a group hug from her grand kids. Oh how wonderful it is!!!

Grandma does enjoy being in the midst of the family activities!

The cake on display! Blow 'em out!

Passion 2010

January 2-5 - Over twenty-two thousand college age people converged in Atlanta for Passion 2010. It was four days of passionate worship stirring passionate action. Steve and the boys had the privilege of participating in this powerfully awakening experience. Here we are waiting outside in literally freezing temps for the doors to open for the beginning of the conference. Proof that Steve actually was there!
Seated inside Philips Arena and waiting for it all to begin.

The passion logo on the very high def screens!

We were led in worship by Matt & Beth Redman several times!

They actually privided us with lunch everyday. Can you imagine serving 22 thousand lunches and having everybody back in their breakouts (workshops) in about an hour!!! Though we are pictured outside here, we decided it was way too cold and so we joined the masses inside!

Did I say it was cold? This was taken in the afternoon while we were on a walk through downtown Atlanta! Water frooze as it came out of the drain!

Back inside checking out the "Do Something Now" exhibits. The Passion leadership team believes that Passion conferences should touch the cities they come into. So they checked with the local shelters to see what was needed. With that knowledge every person was encouraged to bring a pair of socks and a towel. By the end of the four days over 12 thousand towels and 72 thousand pairs of socks were piled up to be distributed throughout Atlanta!

Hillsong United (from Australia) lead late night concerts on two of the nights. We were able to get into the first night! It was an awesome time of worship lead by Joel Houston.The week went by like an intense blur!!!

One time Charlie Hall led us in worship

Louie Giglio is the leader of the Passion Movement. He is a great communicator and leader. A man with a huge heart not just to see a generation singing great songs to Jesus but to be a part of the generation that is awakened by Jesus and touching the world around us! Passion's heart is to bring worship and justice (mission) together and see the world changed. Andy Stanley encouraged us to focus on character (who we are going to be) instead of what we are going to do or on building friendships. What it looked like with some many people eating lunch. This is just one corner of several areas like this! And by the way, the food was really good!!! We spent a bit of time wandering around the "Do Something Now" area. The Passion leadership had set a goal of raising 500 thousand dollars for various mission and humanity projects. In the end teh students well over did that with more than $650,000 given. Remember these are university students we are talking about! The a business man rose up and matched that total, so over 1.3 million dollars went directly to these and other moission projects!!! Here Jasen is standing in front of one of the projects - digging wells and providing clean water to places where they don't have any of that precious liquid readily available.They raised money to purchase several of these! Two of the mornings we had some angelic protection. On one morning a guy in an SUV behind was chatting on his phone and didn't see we had stopped on the freeway. He slammed on his brakes and ended up nearly besides us. We probably would have been severely injured and missed the rest of the conference! On another morning as Steve was backing into a parking space (on level 5) we came close to hitting a wall but did not realise it until we were out of the van. Literally it was by a hair and there was no mark on the side of the van! Steve could not have done that close of backing if he had tried!!! It was as if an angel had put his hand between us and the wall!

Did I mention it was cold ALL week?! They tell us that it is not usually this cold in Georgia! One day we found ourselves in a line (and this time we were at the very front of this one) and Steve heard someone near by yell his name. He recognised the voice and turned saw Jason Howard a few people back. When the doors were opened they got seperated, but miraculously God brought us back together inside. Imagine looking for somone 14,000 people in the Philips Arena (the other 8,000 were in the Georgia World Congress Center)! Jason is a worship pastor from Pittsburg. We met Jason several years ago when he was going to school at Hillsong in Sydney Australia! This was a wonderful reconnection!!!

Just a few of the people present!

Cell phones as candle lights!
Chris Tomlin led most of the worship and may I add, it was awesome!!! We had so many great speakers. Beth Moore was awesome. Our favorite was Francis Chan. Here John Piper got us focused on the beauty and centrality of God's glory!

Down in the sub levels near the "Do Something Now" area was some creative art expressions, where people wrote simple messages. Steve is standing in front of one.

And Steve actually found Jason & AJ Howard the next day and got their picture. Waiting for our last session to begin!

Nothing else needs to be said!

Worship unleashed

The theme and final message

Official photo of Philips Center full of student worshippers as published on the 268generation Facebook page. It was a great opportunity for Steve to hang out with Deron, Jasen and Prestin and over 22,000 other young adults on the eve of our new life and ministry in Georgia! To God the Father be the glory!!!