Forever Yours

Wow, it's been a long time since I put anything up here. I've been really busy with the church plant, but am having the time of my life.

LaRissa and I went to a concert Sunday night with some really good friends. The concert, which was in the Superpages Center in Fair Park, was Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey. It was phenomenal, even if it was the hottest day so far in north Texas.

Cheap Trick is one of those bands that you forget about and you don't really remember any of their songs. They were a great opening act, though.

Heart, fronted by Ann Wilson, was incredible. Wilson has definitely still got it. Her vocal talent does not seem to have faded any whatsoever over the years.

But the highlight of the evening, by far, for me was Journey. Journey is my favorite band of all time. They have so many incredible songs and are just amazingly gifted musicians. Neal Schon, lead guitarist, was a child prodigy who played in Santana when he was 15. He has only grown better with the years.

Deen Castronovo on drums, Jonathan Cain on keys and guitar, these guys are the real deal. But the real jewel is the new front man for Journey. Arnel Pineda is a little Philipino with a huge voice. Schon found Pineda by searching for Journey cover bands on Youtube. Pineda's voice is almost a dead ringer for legendary Journey lead singer Steve Perry.

Perry left the band several years ago because of either a hip injury or because he lost his voice, depending on what story you believe. Pineda has more than filled Perry's shoes. He is energetic, exciting, and man has he got some pipes on him.

An interesting side note, the Philipino contingent at the concert was pretty strong.

Journey did some of their great old stuff. I got to hold my wife, sing to her, and kiss her to classics like "Open Arms" and "Faithfully." They are smart enough not to mess with a good thing. I also like that even their new stuff is very much in keeping with who they have always been as a band. Driving rock ballads and anthems with incredibly strong vocals and harmonization. The new song "After All These Years" is an immediate favorite for me and has become the new "our song" for LaRissa and me.

Great, great show. Be sure to catch it if it comes your way.

Momma, I'm Coming Home!

Yaaay! Exponential has been great, but I am so excited to be headed home to LaRissa and the kids. Daddy's coming home.

Link to Church Planting Blog

I have had a request (thank you Becky) that I place a link to my church planting blog in my links. So, let it be. It's called "Blazing the Trail." Check out the sidebar.

The Last Sermon

I'm working on my last sermon as pastor of Hagerman Baptist Church. I will be preaching it on Sunday. After that, I will be devoting myself full-time to the plant in Anna.

Wow! What do you say in your last sermon to a church you have been pastoring for the last seven years?

Thank You, God, and Thank You, Hagerman

Sunday night, Hagerman threw a launching party for my family and the families who are going with us to plant The Crossroads. We were truly blessed by them. I am so thankful for what God has done and is continuing to do at Hagerman. They are praying for us and want to be closely connected and involved with us in planting in Anna. Praise God!

Happy Birthday to Me

This weekend, LaRissa and the kids took me camping at Eisenhower State Park for my birthday. We had a really awesome time without any major disasters, which is usually what happens when we go camping.

We got to play games, lay around and be lazy, and do some hiking! We hiked a little over a mile on the Fossil Ridge section of the trail around the park. It was some of the best hiking I've been able to do in Texas. There is actually quite a bit of variation to the trail, and it goes along the shores of Lake Texoma on some really cool bluffs. The ground is literally littered with fossils from the ancient ocean floor, mostly smaller shells, but I found one that was this really big chambered nautilus fossil. Super cool.

The trail is well-marked and the hiking was perfect for taking kids along with you. Just some moderate stuff, which is a good thing since I wound up hiking the whole thing carrying Abby on my shoulders.

Monday Movie Review

Larissa and I watched The Sentinel last week. We have had the movie sitting on our chest of drawers for weeks and just haven't had a chance to watch it. I'll make this short: It was nothing memorable.

It had all the right elements: a great cast (Michael Douglass, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, and Kim Basinger), good points of intrigue (secret service agent having an affair with the president's wife, falling out with his best friend because friend suspected him of having an affair with his wife, assassination attempt against the president), and decent effects, but it just didn't all come together. The storyline got in its own way at times and character development was really weak.

Bottom line: Don't waste your time or your dime.

The Cake-Mix Doctor

We have been using Chocolate from the Cake-Mix Doctor for about a year now to make birthday cakes for our family. They are incredibly delicious cakes. We just make the "cookies and cream cake" for Katie's birthday this weekend. We also got The Cake-Mix Doctor for Katie for her birthday.

New Kemp Family Fave

If you haven't checked out Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network, you need to. It's a favorite at our house. Guy Fieri, the host, is just a really fun, likable "guy".

Katie's Birthday

I can't believe it. My Katie turned eight years old this weekend. She is such a sweet, loving, happy little girl who is a joy to her father. We celebrated by taking her, her brother and sisters, and a friend to Frisco to spend some time at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, pick up some new books at Barnes and Noble, and eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Happy Birthday, Tinkerbell!!

More Robert Frost

I guess Frost is my favorite poet. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was the first poem I ever memorized. Some think it was at a time when Frost was contemplating suicide. I prefer to simply think of it as contemplation of life as a journey, another good reference for "Walk the Trail."

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Monday Movie Review

A couple of reviews for you:

This weekend I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks together with the family. I had low expectations for the movie, but I can honestly say it was the funniest movie I have seen in quite some time. You don't have to think. Just sit back and enjoy. Plus, if you grew up in the '80s and were a fan of the animated Saturday morning series, it will take you back.

Horton Hears a Who: Probably one of the best adaptations of a Seuss book you'll see. Visually, it was really cool. Very reminiscent of the illustrations in the Seuss books. Plus, I love the basic theme of the story: a person's a person no matter how small. A good starter for talking with your kids about the value of every person, and particularly to talk about where that value comes from.

10,000 B.C.: I was trying to kill a couple of hours the other day while I was having the car serviced, so I went to see this. It did serve that purpose. The movie was decently entertaining with some cool visual effects. However, it was nothing memorable and had no real storyline connected to the redemptive story.

The real problem with the story was that the history and the geography were just all off. As a history major, this bothered me to the point that I had a really hard time paying attention to the plot. The story takes place in 10,000 B.C. (as the title may give away), but in the movie, Egyptians are building fully developed pyramids. All wrong. Additionally, the main character seems to begin his journey somewhere in Europe or northern Asia, but somehow winds up in central Africa, approaching Egypt from the south. Oh well, that may be confusing to you. I know it was to me. Suffice it to say, it killed a couple of hours for me, but I would not recommend this one as anything worth your time.

National Poetry Month

April is national poetry month. Now, the theme poem for Walk the Trail is the walking song from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." But, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" really is an incredible poem that comes in at a close second.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

Pray for the Peace of the City

Each year for the last four years, twice a year, mission teams from our church have traveled to Juarez, Mexico, to help with Vacation Bible Schools, to assist new church plants, to help with evangelistic worship services and to deliver blankets and toys to offer relief to impoverished families at Christmas time.

An advance team from our church was preparing to travel to Juarez this weekend to make preparations for our annual summer trip, but they received word yesterday that they should not come. Our summer trip has been cancelled due to violence that has broken out in Juarez.

Rival drug lords are engaged in warfare to gain control of the city's drug trafficking network. One hundred people were killed in the month of March alone. Police who have tried to gain control of the situation have been killed. Two thousand Mexican troops are currently on their way to Juarez to try to regain order in the city. More information is available here.

Please be in prayer for the peace of Juarez. Pray for the police and militia trying to regain order. Pray that the responsible parties would be brought to justice. Pray for the citizens of Juarez. And please, please, be in prayer for the churches and for our friends who are in Juarez.

Another Snow Photo

We actually had a white-out in north Texas. It snowed eight inches in about three hours time. You can see in the picture that the snowflakes were the size of silver dollars.