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| Just thought I'd throw up a picture of the complete gang of Koch kids...
Cora slept 7 hours last night, and tomorrow is her 1 month birthday. Life is good! I'm so glad to have the flexibility of our summer schedule to get adjusted to the newest one!
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| Well, since it's been almost a year since my last blog entry, and since I was tagged by both Andy Brandt and my wife... it's time to show my face again for a brief moment!
4 Jobs Ive Had
- Dishwasher
- Lumberjack/logger
- CAD/CATIA computer designer
- Pizza Cook (At Cottage Inn! Yum!)
4 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over
- Gladiator
- Last of the Mohicans
- The Patriot
- Hitch
4 TV Shows I Love To Watch
- 24 (Just finished Season 1 and trying to exercise restraint to not watch Season 2)
- Alias
- The West Wing
- Lost
4 places I have lived (From most time spent to least):
1) LaPorte, Indiana
2) Marquette, Michigan
3) Ann Arbor, Michigan
4) West Lafayette, Indiana
4 Places Ive Been On Vacation
- British Virgin Islands
- Ko Tao, Thailand
- Orlando, FL
- Huntington Beach, FL
4 Favorite Dishes
- Filet mignon
- Practically anything from the Cheesecake Factory
- Broiled whitefish
- Barbequed spareribs
4 Websites I Visit Daily (none daily... how about 3-5 times/week?)
- Reefcentral.com
- Foxnews.com
- Chicago.craigslist.com
- Xanga.com (though you'd never know it!)
4 Places I'd Rather Be
- Rome, Italy. Just to see what it's like
- Virgin Islands
- Banff, Canada
- Anywhere with my family
4 Exciting things coming up for me:
- A new baby (due July 3!)
- Spring and Summer. I love warm weather and seeing the sun
- My new fish come out of quarantine in six weeks (they're in quarantine to make sure they don't carry any infectious diseases...)
- Our Fellowship Dinner (April 29)
4 things I'm trusting God for:
- New faithful and teachable leaders at the movements I'm coaching (Columbia, Elgin, SAIC, and College of Lake County)
- New staff and STINTers in Chicago
- My children to grow up loving the Lord
- That I would love Him more each year
4 people I bet will do this (i hope i'm right, cause I wanna know)
- Hasn't everybody already done this? Except the people below?
4 people that I don't think will do this, but I hope they do:
- Mark Covel
- Ana Arias
- Brittany Daily
- Andrea Oberlin | | |
| Quick request regarding last night's post:
If you have developed a vision statement for your life, ministry, or job, I would love to see it. Post it, leave a comment, or shoot me an email... I'd be grateful! | | |
| Finally, a break in the silence. I actually finally have something worth blogging about (I think!).
Last night was our monthly Servant Team meeting, where we meet with all of the Campus Crusade student leaders from around the city. We discussed the topic of vision. It’s been a lot on my mind lately, as I sense a need to have a vision for my life and for the things I do each day. Plus, it’s just essential to continually cast vision before students, day in and day out.
Been reading a couple of books about vision: Visioneering, by Andy Stanley, and Built to Last. Both are awesome books. The second book had some pretty great examples of vision that companies have used to help propel them to succeed. Have a look:
Ford, in the early 1900s, said this:
“I will build a motorcar for the great multitude….It will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one—and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces… When I’m through everybody will be able to afford one. The horse will have disappeared from our highways, the automobile will be taken for granted… [and we will] give a large number of men employment at good wages.”
Isn’t that amazing? This blows me away... It all came true! This challenges me to dream in a way that is both God-sized and God-purposed.
Have a look at some other (very poignant) vision statements:
- To become the most powerful, the most serviceable, the most far-reaching world financial institution that has ever been. (City Bank, predecessor to Citicorp, 1915)
- Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft, and bring the world into the jet age. (Boeing, 1950)
- Crush Adidas. (Nike, 1960s)
- Yamaha Wo tsubusu! (We will crush, squash, slaughter Yamaha!) (Honda, 1970s)
(Gotta love those last two!) This book is great… it also discusses Winston Churchill in his famous 1940 speech. “He didn’t just say “Beat Hitler.” He said:
I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
Good thoughts for vision. They inspire me. I’m praying that our team and our students will dream and believe the Lord for visionary things here in Chicago. We all have some ideas, but to make these ideas concrete will be a huge help as we trust the Lord for this city. Maybe I'll post more thoughts about this sometime in the near future…
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” –Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect.
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| Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore...
Back when I was a kid, I would go with my Dad to some woods next to our house to gather firewood. We'd find an old, dead tree, cut it up, then carry it to a big wood pile next to our house. Sure, we knew lots of people did this.
Fast forward 20 years... Now I live in Chicago, and it's cold outside! We burned our last logs on Saturday night, and a fire tonight sure would be nice. So, what is a Chicagoan to do?
Well, there are two options. First, go to Whole Foods and spend $4 on six measly pieces of wood that will last about 1/2 hour in the fireplace. (Okay, so how much profit is in a whole cord of wood??)
Second, my preference: the answer is (almost always) look in the alleyways. Last summer I managed to get a decent sized amount of wood when our neighbors downed a tree and left it on the side of an alley. We burned the last of that stash this weekend, so yesterday we went cruising some alleys for more. We didn't have to look far... only a block away is my next target: a tree that was probably cut last summer after a storm. I can hardly wait to get out my chain saw (can you say POWER TOOLS) and do some damage (hopefully not to myself).
Yeah, you gotta love life in the city. | | |
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