the last day of the conference was great. very much confirmed what we're doing at RH and led us to some great conversations about how we can improve ourselves and our contributions. at the last meeting, Louie Giglio spoke about being culturally transcendent and was amazing. here are the pics!

today was another great day at the conference. Donald Miller ("Blue Like Jazz") spoke tonight and was fantastic and entertaining. the whole conference so far has been a great confirmation of everything that we're doing at ROCKHARBOR.

but the best part of the day was lunch. i met up with David and Jen for lunch and had a great time eating pizza and catching up. in many ways, i think that our lunch was an answer to prayer. we talked a bit about our old team from Yorba Linda for a while. we had an AMAZING team that was, unfortunately, never allowed to find it's potential. (honestly, if things had gone a little differently, that dream team would, absolutely and unquestionably, be setting the standard for children's and family ministries in this country.) anyway, we realized that we have an amazing resource in each other and that the fact that we all met and got a glimpse of our potential as a team may allow us to do some incredible things together in the future. so, we decided today to be intentional about that and get the team together again sometime to brainstorm for the future. (watch out... there's a good chance we'll be taking over the world soon!)

Michelle's pretty excited that we're probably going to be having lunch with Reggie ("Reg" if you know him) Joyner tomorrow. actually, we all are. it could be a great opportunity for our team.

off to bed!

the conference didn't start until tonight, so today we went on some adventures through Atlanta. first, we headed out to Coca-Cola™ World. (don't worry... i felt conflicted about the whole thing and am still a devoted Pepsi™ fan since they make the Dew™.) nevertheless, it was pretty cool! after that, we went for a walk through the Centennial Olympic Park (and it's fountains!) and then went to visit the CNN building. after that, we hit up happy hour at McCormick and Schmick's (or something like that) where a 1/2 pound burger was only $1.95!!!! (amazing!)

after that, we headed back to the convention for the opening session. it was pretty freakin' amazing! i mean... the A/V setup alone was as cool as almost any concert (except U2) that i've been to in the past few years. the worship was great and Reggie Joyner (Reg if you know him!) gave a fantastic new application of the prodigal son parable. (i'm sure i'll be blogging about that at a later date.)

afterward, i met up with Jen Stowell in the lobby of the hotel and we made plans for lunch tomorrow with our old friend, David Robles.

overall... a fantastic day! check out the pics below...

-mb

Tyler, Tommy, Michelle and i met up with Debbie on a layover in Phoenix and headed out to Atlanta for the Orange Family Ministries Conference. we're already having a ton of fun. (and i'll be adding pictures later too because Michelle has more on her camera.)

dad's ITP came back last week and hit a low yesterday. (personally, i think that God is punishing him for bringing the mustache back.) so, he went back into the hospital. this morning, me, Brett and Dakota went to visit him.

today, we all went and did chapel at Prince of Peace school in Costa Mesa. (dumb name for a school.)

we had fun though!



and then we went to lunch with the kids.

i don't know what happened to the picture from this day. i'm not giving up on finding one though.

i got a new printer today. that's pretty much the highlight of my day.

i spent most of the day lying down with an icepack on my back... it hurt real bad!



this is where i spent my time... right there on the couch!

today was my first Sunday back after my sabbatical.



tonight, we had a birthday party for Megan and Nolan at my parent's house. even though my back was in HUGE amounts of pain, i had a lot of fun. (and had my first exposure to vicodin!)

my weight loss has reached the point where i had to get me some new jeans! my 36's were just hanging off me so i had to downsize to 34's.

today was the last day of sabbatical. we met with Stacy Scott and debriefed our sabbatical. at the end of the meeting, she gave us our final envelope with our last assignment. the assignment was to take the $20 bill inside our envelopes and go do something for ourselves. the rules were that we had to do it today and turn in our receipts on Monday.

so, Stacy decided to surprise me and took me up to the Huntington in Pasadena. it was beautiful! even with my back in the pain that it's been in (i hurt it on the retreat), it was a pretty awesome day.

i went to my final capstone class tonight and then to dinner with Katie and Emily afterward.

on the way home, Stacy called and let me know that she was with Chino and some friends at Disneyland. i wasn't going to go, but then i decided to surprise her. she had said that she was going on Pirates and so when she go there, i was waiting for her.

okay...

so after my last blog about the stations of the cross, i had a thought. (i hope it's not sacrilegious.)

what if Jesus had been killed another way? what if He'd been hung? would we have nooses hung everywhere?

what if He'd been poisoned? would we be wearing little vials around our necks?

i think our songs would be different too.

just a thought.

it's been interesting having this retreat at a Catholic mission. obviously, i'm not Catholic and have never been able to understand Catholicism much. out of curiosity, i looked into it at one time. i wanted to understand where all of the rituals, rules and traditions of the Catholic church had come from. (since i couldn't find them anywhere in the Bible.) it was interesting to find that many of them were adapted from other mystical religions because Constantine (who adopted Christianity for the Roman Empire) didn't want to make it too hard for people to convert. so, they kept things like rosary beads, a hierarchy with bishops and a pope and certain prayers and just changed the names and meanings to fit Christianity. (obviously, the very simplified version... but still pretty accurate.) anyway, that was always hard for me to swallow as it seems like the perfect example of taking a simple relationship and offering of salvation and turning it into religion with rules and traditions that actually have nothing to do with the relationship that was originally offered. however, it's true that God can take anything and use it for good. i've seen that in the last day here.

one thing that the Catholic church loves is its iconography. this is where we get the prevalent image of the cross. (we don't even question it. but we don't put up little electric chairs or bullets to remember others who have died. for some reason, displaying the method of torture and death when it involves Christ is considered normal and even spiritual.) the Catholic church took this instrument of death and turned it into a symbol of sacrifice and beauty. it's also a symbol of remembrance.

this morning, we were given a piece of paper with the 14 stations of the cross listed on it. each one had a short description and something to think and pray about. around a field, behind the mission, there is a road with the 14 stations of the cross. we were asked to walk the road, stopping at each station to read and pray. i was a little averse to this at first. i was wrong to be.

God took something out of someone else's religious background and used it in my life in a real way. the stations of the cross had/have me dealing with and processing issues of sacrifice, forgiveness, loss, injustice, failure, the needs of others, kindness and selfishness. it really became a time of intense self-reflection. it also highlighted a few things in my life that i need to deal with and work through with Him.

anyway, if you get a chance to do something like that... something that feels out of the ordinary or a little unfamiliar, don't pass it up. God can use it to change you in amazing ways.



also, we had breakfast and saw the largest rose i've ever seen in my life.

today we started on a retreat for our sabbatical. Stacy, Laura, Mike, Andrew and i met Nick Taylor down at Mission San Luis Rey for a great day of spiritual guidance and free time. it was an awesome time of getting to know each other, share our lives with one another, pray and have some solitude. in the afternoon, Nick led us through a great spiritual direction exercise.



in the evening, we were told that we could do whatever we wanted, but we had to do it as a group. so, we decided to go into downtown Oceanside. we walked on the pier and had dessert at the DQ.



the cool thing was, we had the entire mission to ourselves at night. (and it's a pretty big place.) it felt pretty spooky, so we went for a midnight walk in the graveyard where a black cat followed us around the entire time. it was awesome.

weighed in this morning...



then i went over to Stacy's and hung out with the kids for a bit...



and then i decided to go to the park and read my sabbatical book reading. so, i jumped on The Hornet (my Vespa) and headed down to the park. it was beautiful there.

each sabbatical group is being assigned another church to visit on during their sabbatical. we were assigned the Crystal Cathedral's contemporary service. however, by the time i picked Stacy up, two of the other members of our group had cancelled on us. so, we decided to drive up to Simi Valley and visit our friend Jen at Discovery Church.

we had a lot of fun getting to see Jen in her new job up there and hang out with her all day. (that's her on stage there.)

i woke up this morning and had unusually curly hair. Stacy thought this was entertaining.



afterward, we went out and took a ride on the new Sea-Doos. it was pretty amazing!

last night, after everyone came over for The Office, Stacy, Ashley and i headed out to Havasu.

unfortunately, it was so windy that we couldn't go out and use the new Sea Doos today.

so, we played Uno, went to Walmart and watched movies. (we ate at Mudsharks again too!)

a few quick updates to the site today...

- a new picture on the home page!
- some updated info in the random facts section
- the ROCKHARBOR family curriculum that i write/edit is now available in the downloads section. (the new april edition is up now.)
- new blog about my first day on sabbatical. i'm a little behind on the daily photos updates, but they're coming soon.

thanks for stoppin' by!

-barnes

one thing you have to understand about the sabbaticals is that they've given us some great ideas and structure for our two weeks. however, Nick (our pastor in charge of the sabbaticals) made it clear that he wanted us to make the most of our sabbatical time and that some days, that might mean doing our own thing. i say this only to say that if i don't follow a theme for a day or something, it's okay!

anyway, today was a day of rest for us. we were encouraged to really rest... whatever that means for us. well, i ended up doing a little shopping and then some housework. but, in all honesty, for me it was restful.

i have this corner in my place that had two benches to sit on and nothing else. i've been looking for some stuff to fill out the corner and, today, i found what i was looking for.



after i put up the shelves and the painting... we met Michael and Michelle for dinner at The Chophouse. Michael had a really good week that is going to work out well for me as well. he was promoted to the position of Department Chair for the Christian Education department at Biola. (the part that is good for me is that he wants me to teach and help him design a few classes next year!) pretty sweet!

today had me worried. our assignment was to meet in the green room at RH today at 10.30am. i thought it was going to be some stupid icebreaker games or a project to work on. but i was really wrong.

when we got there, our Lead Pastor, Todd and two of our Elders were there. they simply wanted to pray for us and anoint us and our sabbaticals. it was pretty awesome. then, our group went to lunch together at Boudins.

afterwards, i went to the mall and looked for bedspreads. liked a few. didn't buy any.

day two was all about getting things in order so we can rest for our sabbatical. so, i did laundry and cleaned the house.



also, i've been collecting these special edition Mountain Dew™ aluminum cans. they had famous artists do their own designs and they're kinda hard to find. anyway, i started collecting them a few weeks ago and completed my collection today. (check them all out at www.greenlabelart.com)

today was day one of my two week sabbatical. people have been asking me a lot about this sabbatical and what it's about. so, here's the deal...

one thing that ROCKHARBOR is really intentional about is their traditions. of course, everyone has traditions and they can often become traditions simply for tradition's sake. however, in the case of RH, their traditions are always very purposeful. one strong tradition that RH holds is pouring into their employees (and volunteers for that matter) and making sure that they know that they are valued. this comes out in a number of ways. some of those are traditions in themselves. for instance, every year at Christmas, the staff is taken to Disneyland and given either a deluxe annual pass or the cash equivalent as a Christmas bonus. last Thursday, the girls went on their annual girls retreat. this year, a limo picked them up and took them all to a day spa. (apparently, the guys have never had one only because, from what i'm told, they haven't had a girl to plan it for them. i'm told that we will be breaking that tradition this year!)

anyway, one opportunity RH has created in the vein of this tradition of valuing the staff is our sabbaticals this year. over the course of the next few months, everyone on staff (from the top down to the receptionist) will get a two week guided sabbatical. now, at first, i was kinda skeptical. (i think it was the word "guided" that did it.) stuff like this tends to have ulterior motives. but i was mistaken. from what i've already seen (and heard from others who have already completed their sabbaticals) it's a very intentional time of rest and growth.

here's what i know so far...

today we met at ROCKHARBOR for our sabbatical orientation meeting. there are five people in our group including myself and Stacy. we were told that we will have 8 free days and four group days during the sabbatical. we are not allowed to step foot on campus, respond to e-mails or phone calls that are RH related or work in any way that would be considered RH related.

each day, we have an envelope that we open. the envelope will have our instructions for that day. most of them will be a simple scripture reading, a focus for the day and a small reading in the book we were all given. on our group days, our envelopes will tell us where we will meet and what we will do. the sabbatical will end with a two-day retreat next week.

the great thing though is that the structure that they've provided is loose enough to make it our own time but structured enough that it won't simply be a vacation. (after all, we are still be payed for this!) i'm excited about it and i'll keep you updated on what we've been up to every day.

- barnes

ps... here's my weigh in for this week...

i left a little surprise on Stacy's computer screen.

this morning was my friend Larry Bender's surprise retirement party. Larry and i went to India together in 2005 and really helped to launch the India campaign that Yorba Linda Friends is still pushing hard. (i think they've built over 15 schools and sponsored around 1,000 kids or more. it's a pretty cool deal.) anyway, Larry has really been instrumental in keeping that going and he's a pretty cool guy.

also, my friend Jay Hoff brought his baby who i've never had the opportunity to see. so, it was nice to finally meet her.

make fun of me all you want, but i frakkin' love Battlestar Galactica! and i'm not the only one. Friday night was the 4th (and final) season premiere and we had a little get-together. so, after Jonas' 30th birthday party, Stacy and i headed back to my place to meet Tommy, Keri, Timmy, Amber, Trevor and Tyler for the show. and it was awesome. and Tyler dressed as Dwight from The Office. that was awesome too.

for years i've been saying "BMW should make an M3 sedan!" well, today, it arrived. i stopped by Crevier BMW to see one. they're pretty awesome.

our Elder board goes on retreat this weekend to cast vision for the next few years. today, everybody got a paper with the name of an Elder couple to pray for this week leading up to the retreat. it put mine up in my cubical with my fortune cookie fortunes (and my "Office" quote magnets).



the kids came over with Erin tonight. so cute. just love them.

so, for some reason... i walked to work this afternoon for our kids worship rehearsal. it's 3 miles and i made it just under 45 minutes.