Hey Everyone – I just wanted to update everybody on what happened when I went to camp and why I came home.

Saturday Night – I started getting chest pains throughout the night and could not sleep. (I stayed up and googled a bunch of things and that did nothing but put a lot of fear in me!)

Sunday – I “sucked  it up” during the day Sunday, but at night the pain got really bad and I ended up going to the ER. They took several tests including: urine, blood, chest x-rays, and a cat scan. They ruled out all of the big things (i.e. heart attack,  clot, etc.) They concluded that I tore some muscles that I don’t normally use in my chest, gave me some pain killers, and sent me home.

Monday - In the morning I felt good… late afternoon into the evening I felt horrible and ended up going to a different hospital to get a second opinion.  I also wanted to see if I could fly home.  They checked out the results of my tests and confirmed again that it looked like torn muscles. (The pain was so bad I could barely walk… they confirmed that it could feel comparable to getting shot – it did!) Then they gave me Morphine (that stuff is crazy! I won’t even say anything else about it). That enabled me to sleep through the night and fly home in the morning.

Tuesday/Wednesday/Today - I flew home and stayed  with the Steidel family. They took great care of me! I felt better those two days than I did any other  day. Right now, I feel pretty good – there is still minimal chest pain, but overall I feel like I’m recovering quickly. The challenge is resting and doing nothing as opposed to going to work, running, etc.

So it seems that I’m on the quick path to recovering… I’ll keep you all updated via Twitter.

Thanks for all your prayers and support! I love you guys!

Bubs

I’ve been traveling a lot over the past couple months… Hopefully in the future I’ll find some people to guest blog while I’m gone, but while I’m gone, I do want to take as much time to unplug from technology as I can and really focus on God.

Here are some blogs I’d highly recommend you read on a daily basis:

ZackBlair.net

The Rath Faction

Nathanhurst.net

Bradcooper.us

Michaelhyatt.com

Swerve

Seth Godin

Here are some links to past posts I’ve written that were popular and that I believe will add value to your life… So here you go:

• Free from Sin, Addiction, and Bondage

• Alcohol, Purity, and Our Culture

• Setting and Attaining Your Goals

• People that Have Changed my Life and People that I’d Love to Have Lunch With

• God’s Plans

• Kingdom Minded

• Ask Anything Fridays

• What Makes a Great Teacher

• Catalyst West Coast

• Overcoming Insecurity

• The Best of 2008

• All About Me

• Ministry Highlights

• Ministry Lessons

• Marathons

O man! Imparation was amazing! Every year our church has an Impartation conference. The guest speakers this year were Duane Sheriff, Doug Jones, and Keith Moore. All three speakers give away all of their messages for free on their website, and Duane and Keith give away free CD’s for all of their messages. I highly recommend you take advantage of those resources. To hear the messages from the Impartation Conference – Click here.

Usually I’d just go over the highlights of my notes with you, but I don’t have them on me right now, and I’d rather just share the things that stuck with me in my heart. So here you go:

• “If you never have abundance, how can God use you?” – Keith Moore

• “It’s not what you have, it’s how you got it.” -Keith Moore

• “Your prosperity will stop where your preparation ends.” – Keith Moore

• “Where knowledge stops, faith stops.” – Doug Jones

• “Once our beliefs are obtained, they must be maintained.” – Doug Jones

• “Faith comes by hearing and accepting what you hear as truth.” -Doug Jones

• “If a subject is difficult, you’re not close enough to the truth.” – Doug Jones

Those were some of the highlight statements… I guess if I had to say what I took away and that I’ll apply from the conference it’d be this:

I need to have scriptures for everything I’m believing God for and the more scriptures I have, the better. I need to make my own confessions based on the truths that God has established in MY heart.

God wants me to increase and have abundance so I can be a blessing to everyone around me. It’s God’s will that not one person in our church should lack! Dream big, believe big, sow big, reap big. I need to get used to having an abundance and give all the glory to God.

It was an amazing conference… It would take me all day to write everything that I learned and want to apply… You need to go and listen to the podcasts right now!