Teething and Retreating

Well, as the title states, the beautiful little princess MaryMayes is teething right now, so sleep is a luxury around here. It is so cute to see her chew on the teething rings and anything she can fit in her mouth, but mommy and daddy have a hard time watching her in pain.

As for the retreat that I (Brett) got to speak at, it was awesome. I just got back today (Wednesday) after arriving on Sunday afternoon. As i mentioned, I spoke six times and the theme of the conference was on discipleship. Honestly, this had to be one of the most interesting events I have ever been a part of because of issues surrounding my preparation and my speaking while I was there. Going into the retreat, I battled the stomach flu for two days (and it took 4 to get any sort of appetite back), I had a bout with vertigo the day before and the day I was supposed to leave, and I had a 101 degree fever on Thursday before leaving. When I was there, as I began to get my appetite back, I started losing my voice and got a sore throat and chest cold. The last day of speaking, I coughed and my voice cracked the whole message. It was a very interesting series of events.

The retreat went well, there were about 50 students and 8 volunteers on the retreat. It took a while for the students to warm up to me (or get used to me), and by the final night God was doing some very cool stuff. God led me to speak about the Passion of discipleship and to share from Philippians 2:6-11, then to show a couple clips from the passion of the Christ, then to meditate on Christ and what he has done for us as they listened to a very powerful song by Todd Agnew titled, "My Jesus." I underestimated how powerfully the Holy Spirit could move, and he moved in ways I have rarely seen. It was intense and three students ended up making decisions to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Here are the words to "My Jesus" for you all to enjoy and dwell on if you have time.

My Jesus by Todd Agnew.

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Why do you look so much like the world?

'Cause My Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars,
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
or do we pray to blessed with the wealth of this land?
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sands?

My Jesus bled and died for my sins,
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars,
He loved the poor and accosted the rich,
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that You follow,
This picture of the American dream,
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side,
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet
holy

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion,
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins.
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part?
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him.

‘Cause My Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these.
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable,
So which one do you want to be?

'Cause My Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet,

But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
And I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd,
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud...

I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus

Not a posterchild for American prosperity,
but like my Jesus

You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus
but I'm not sure what that means to be like
You Jesus

'Cause You said to live like You,
love like You but then
You died for me

Can I be like You Jesus?
I wanna be like you Jesus
I wanna be like my Jesus


Here are some pics...

MaryMayes rockin here new ruffled outfit.


shake, shake, shake...


Them booty ruffles are too stinkin cute!


Brett speaking at the GSPC youth retreat.


Some of the students from the retreat.


Daddy and MayMae just loungin.