pic for Erick

Pretty awesome pic from all the kids in Upstreet to their awesome friend Erick in Kenya. The child they sponsor through Compassion.

all those colors are the thumbprints from every kid who loves and supports Erick in Upstreet.

gonna be awesome that my kid will be a part of this.

ERICK BASE KIRIA!

on Monday, Crystal and i made the tough journey to the village of Tharaka to meet Erick! Erick is an awesome 8 year old boy that some awesome kids in Charlotte, North Carolina sponsor!

we are just blessed enough to be the representatives of those Upstreet kids to Erick and do our best to convey their love and friendship to him. later will be the difficult task of trying to share this amazing experience with all of them!

We got to spend the whole day with Erick in his village and even at his home.

1st we visited the Compassion project office for that village. They took us through a very detailed and organized file on Erick. it was very very impressive. we learned that his family's total income is about 1000 kshs per month... that's about $14 a month. less than $0.50 a day. wow. so, the $38 per month that the Upstreet kids send to sponsor Erick is HUGE!!!

the visit wasn't exactly what we expected because Erick didn't speak much English or even Swahili so we had to use a translator for most things.
he was pretty shy at first too. that's not surprising at all because Crystal and i were the 1st MZUNGUs he's ever seen! (white peeps) i'm sure he might have even been a little scared at first.

but he definitely opened up way more as the day went on.

we played on the playground at the CDP (child development project). me & Erick rode the merry-go-round together.

we visited and hung out at his home for a long time. they were honored by our visit and made a big deal of it. they served us Ooji (sp?) which was NASTY! i managed to down the whole cup though. i don't even want to describe what it tastes like.

Erick has a new baby brother! & 4 total kids in the family, and his grandmother lives with them. both his parents were very nice and so grateful to all the kids who sponsor Erick. they must have told us "thank you" like 20 times.
the grandmother found out Crystal was a nurse and asked Crystal if she could pull some of her teeth that have gone bad. didn't expect that one.

we got to visit the church Erick goes to = AIC Karou (African Inland Church). Erick's pastor hung out with us most of the day too. he was a really nice guy. he's been the pastor for 3 years at the church in this village. we all had lunch at the church together.
we learned from some of Erick's letters that he likes to play the drums at church. i saw the drums sitting there and asked him to play for us. he laid down some sick beats for us and i got it on video. he was excited to play for us.

he took us to his school and then even brought us into his classroom and introduced us to his classmates. he even showed us his desk. he was SO PROUD and excited.
we met his principal and talked with her. because of our visit Erick got to skip school. i know the Upstreet kids will like that.

most Kenyan "homes" are on a "compound" where a big family probably lives. there are usually at least 2-3 "buildings on the compound + some type of "shamba" (farm). There's usually a "kitchen" as a separate building - just mud walls and a fire in the middle where they cook their food. Erick's home had one of these.

Then Erick's family had an actual house that they slept in - mud walls and 2 tin sheets for a roof.
we hung out in a half-built house. the sticks were up and the tin roof & next the father will build the mud walls. he said he is building this for the boys to sleep in because currently 7 of them sleep in the 1 house which is about 10x10. not a lot of room if you like to move in your sleep.
*We found out that they're able to build this extra home probably because Erick has been sponsored these past few years. That saves the family a lot of money on school fees, clothes, medical care for Erick, etc...

We were able to bless the whole family with a ton of practical gifts! i don't even remember them all but 1 of Crystal's spiritual gifts is definitely GIVING, so she went shopping and HOOKED THE FAMILY UP! = bed sheets, towels, hand towels, knives and spoons, cooking utensils, cooking fat (very popular), tons of rice and maize, biscuits (like cookies that Erick shared with everyone), cooking flour, and tons of other stuff.

the Upstreet kids wrote a LOT of letters to Erick and we gave him the big stack. he was so excited. Then we gave him a big framed picture of the whole Upstreet group (+ 2 smaller copies). He LOVED this!

after the family gifts we showered some gifts on Erick. = a Spiderman backpack for school (or whatever he wants to use it for), a big bag of candy (smarties, pixie sticks, suckers, etc... which he passed around to everyone), a game of Jacks, coloring books, a big box of crayons, lots of stickers that Crystal picked out for him, a whole bottle of bubbles & we blew some together!
+ we hooked him up with a Ridge Church t-shirt and a Camp Upstreet t-shirt.

we prayed for him and his family at their home before we left. we also got to give Erick his 1st every Bible! that's pretty awesome.

i'm sure i'll have a lot more thoughts later. getting a little car sick writing this while riding on these Kenyan roads though...

Inside North Point (& me)

You may have noticed a few links on the right side of this site for a long time now = "Inside North Point" and "Inside North Point Kids". The websites are designed to "help church leaders go further, faster."

This site is an awesome resource! On the main Inside North Point site you can find Andy Stanley's very own Leadership Blog. Brilliant as you might guess.
+ there is also a menu at the top with pages for Kids, Missions, Service Programming, Strategic Partners (what Ridge Church is), Adult Ministries, and Admin.

Kendra Fleming is the phenomenal leader who is the multi-campus Children's Director at North Point. She writes the content for the "Kids" section of this site and it is AWESOME stuff! If you're involved in working with kids you need to frequent this site!

For some reason, a few months ago, Kendra asked me about writing some articles for the Kids site. I warned her that I might not have anything helpful to add, but I wrote some articles recently and sent them to her. The writing process was actually really helpful to me. It helped me think through different processes that are effective for us that we just do instinctively. I think the process will help me be more strategic in the future.
Kendra said they would be publishing them over the next few weeks HERE.

The 1st of my articles went up yesterday and you can read it HERE. Drop a comment on the site if you think it sucks or if you found anything helpful in the article.

I plan to also post each of the articles here on renown after they show up on Inside North Point Kids. So, you can read each of the articles here too. Be looking out for them. I'll put this 1st one up later today or tomorrow.
i just hope they're helpful... it was helpful for me to write them!

passion to learn & grow

i have an addiction to learning and growing and becoming a better leader and better at everything God has for me to do

i love being a part of a learning and growing organization - Ridge Church.

and i love the privilege to learn from and with our awesome "parent" church - North Point Community Church. Probably one of the greatest learning and growing organizations on planet earth!
i count it an awesome privilege that we were planted by North Point and are a strategic partner because we get to learn so much from them + get to participate in some awesome things.

Today I got to hang out at North Point and grow along with them at their children's staff retreat. All the Waumba, Upstreet, and Kid Stuf staff were on their 2010 retreat.

But check out who they get to learn from on their staff retreat! i got to sit in on 3 sessions with Reggie Joiner, Jon Acuff (of "Stuff Christians Like" fame), and Mrs. Children's Ministry - Sue Miller (originally from Willow Creek & now with ReThink).
It was a really awesome day of learning! worth getting up the 2nd day in a row @ 4:30am.

Thanks to North Point & the leadership for setting the bar high & being committed to being a learning & growing organization! and because of my passion for learning and growing, I'm just thankful to get to listen in...

Upstreet Party & "The Impossible Shot"

The Upstreet team at Ridge Church is THE most awesome group of peeps ever to work with elementary kids! They are unbelievable. Seriously. I can't even begin to explain it with words. They blow my mind.
Our team pulls off some amazing stuff every single Sunday. We're part of something revolutionary. Kids are experiencing God in Upstreet and their experience is fun and awesome and exciting... just like God is. This is possible because of the amazing Upstreet team!

The world is going to be a radically different place in the future because of these volunteers. Because they're pouring their lives into the next generation. I'm so stoked about it & LOVE that I get to serve with them.

*This past Saturday we had a little party with the Upstreet team. We had a LOT of fun. It's always fun when we can just hang out together!

A little Ladder Ball broke out throughout the day in the back yard. I'm going to show you just a short clip of a Ladder Ball game but I have to set it up 1st.
**I guess it was like Small Group vs. Large Group? Angie Brown is our Upstreet Small Groups Director & the one brave enough to host this party at her house + Anne Bixler, one of our Small Group Coaches made up the blue team. The red team was our Upstreet Large Group Director, Danielle Banks + Natalie Osborne, an Upstreet production guru & creative genius!

It was NOT a close game. At least for most of it. The "small group" (blue) team went up 20-7. and you only play to 21! Each player gets 3 tosses in each round and you can get 1,2, or 3 points for each throw depending on which rung you land on. So the blue team literally just needed 1 point and the game was over.
BUT very SLOWLY but surely the "large group" (red) team crept back into it. Even as they were on their "comeback" you still just knew there was no way they would win.

This video begins as Natalie and Angie each have 2 more shots. the score is Blue=20 & Red=18.



It was a memorable moment! Did you see Natalie? She was the one jumping up and down. The sheer joy of victory. As Sam said... it should be on Sports Center! Definitely Legendary.
It was a fun party & a great chance to say thanks to an awesome team for all their sweat and hard work. They're the greatest.

I can't wait til Sunday...