Alyssa is officially a blog head!

Go give her some love here.

Not the day to have the air go out!

Alyssa and the kids were dyin' all day. I came home and we went to Alyssa's parents for the evening to sit in the pool. Just got home...it's 8:30pm and 88 degrees in the house. Good times. Can't complain too much...a lot of people don't have air. We hardly run ours but this week has been ridiculous. It's the humidity that's really crazy. When did Riverside become Miami?

On course for 10,000 views in 4 days!!!

Who the heck reads this thing and where did you come from? I'm givin' out free knuckle sandwiches to the 10,000th hit! Seriously...I have no idea who anyone is that reads this thing. Hit me up with a comment...Reveal yourself.

Word!!

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Great show this Friday

Everyone should come out, it's gonna be a great show. Click on the flier to hear some of the bands!

Ceasar, Cheryl, and Pat

I met three wonderful people this morning. Ceasar is 55 and has been homeless this entire year. He had been married for 14 years and his wife started having strokes. She had to go through assisted living and wiped out all of their money. He started living on the streets and his wife ended up dying 4 months ago. He's been staying with Cheryl, (looks like she weighs 60 lbs) who seems about the same age and is a veteran to the homeless life. Cheryl has dementia and Ceasar found her wondering around a year ago and became her friend and they have been together ever since. Ceasar got a bike a few months back that he slipped on and broke his back in three places. He walks very gingerly with a cane. Pat is a lady probably in her sixties that has two dogs: Max, and ? (forgot the second one). She sleeps out of a Bronco that she parks at Shamel Park. Ceasar and Cheryl usually live in a racoon den in Fairmont park. Ceasar says the racoon's don't bother them anymore but they steal a lot of their food. We sat together this morning at Shamel park and talked about life and the needs that they have. They were all great people and a lot of fun to talk to. Ceasar saw me walking around the park and asked if I sleep there too. (I guess I looked the part) They needed socks, fingernail clippers, a comb, and razors. They also had a bike that they had taken when another homeless guy exposed himself in the park and the police arrested him. The man had a bike and when he got arrested the police officer told Ceasar to keep it. They're afraid that he will want the bike back when he gets out of jail. I told them that I had a bike and he asked if I would trade so that the exposer dude couldn't take the bike back. I got the bike for free from Steve and Karen a couple of weeks ago at our garage sale so I told him he could keep it. (Thanks Steve and Karen!) Crazy morning. Pray for Ceasar, Cheryl and Pat after you read this if you're the prayin' kind!

Saying goodbye to Bill

Stole this pic from Jon.
This last year Bill and I became really good friends. He is leaving on Thursday to take a position at a church in Salinas California. In January Bill and I went to a conference at Mars Hill that changed both of us in significant ways. I'll never forget the first time the music started at the first service we attended. I looked over 15 seconds into the first song and Bill had tears streaming down his face. (something powerful was happening to both of us that was hard to explain.) That weekend we had conversations about life, church and the Bible that I still remember today. Most of them were over soup and a sandwich from Panera. I am really sad that it took this long to really develop this friendship with Bill. It's a little intimidating entering a friendship with a pastor that knows more about the Bible than anyone you've ever met.
If you're reading this Bill (he does that from time to time)...I'm really going to miss you! I love that you are following God's call to the least and oppressed. May God's kingdom be more visible on earth because of your determination to align yourself with Jesus' teachings!
Bill, I want you to know that I love the scriptures today because of the conversations we have had and the work that Jesus has done in my heart over the last 3 years. You have taught me more about the Bible than any person I know, (that includes my buddy Rob and mr. Wright...and that's saying something!) Thanks for taking the time to listen to me and my generation even when we are angry and talking without filters. Thank you for showing me what a filter is and letting the word of God marinate in your heart before you speak. Thank you for loving your wife and your kids and your neighbors and the poor. Thanks for being my friend! I look forward to the calls, visits and emails, and blog posts...you've gotta start a blog!@! Talk to you soon...

Who needs Olan Mills?

Alyssa can even get the dog to pose!

Beach Sabbath

Every year we take the metrolink with Alyssa's family down to San Clemente for the day. It was awesome. Zeke still refuses to touch the water but we're getting closer! Great day of rest and hangin' with family.

I think this made Alyssa nervous

The Scarn Ultimatum

Thanks Ian...this was awesome!

What a difference a month makes...

She is eating like that is the one thing she was put on the planet to do! She weighed 11 pounds when we brought her home at 7 months. Now she's a tank!
The last pic is featuring Sofia's two signature moves. The..."hey check out my forehead look" and the..."whaaaaaaattttttttttzzzzzzzzz uuuuuuuuuuuuuuupppppppppppppp look."
Cutest kid ever!!!

Why does pictionary always have to go there...

So last night some of my life group peeps got together for some Pictionary (my team won btw). Within the first 3 drawings we have some amazingly inappropriate guesses coming from our team. I don't care where you live...get three guys on the same team for Pictionary...someones gonna be drawing...two dudes are gonna yell, "penis...wiener...rocket!" Why am I still in jr. high? My team ruled last night. Guestures was equally fun. Someone ask Jon what his wife did during the first round to get people to guess the word "chest." Good times!

Yet another reason people run from churches...

I get this guy wrote a book with a bunch of church sign sayings. "Our church is prayer conditioned" is a classic though. I've gotta start using that! It's how we beat the summer heat :)

Take a walk out your front door

I would have to say that the single best thing I've done with my life in the last year is walking around my neighborhood almost every day for about an hour. The one hitch is you have to get going about 6:45am so you can slip out before the kids wake up and it's not 128 degrees yet. I've been able to cancel my gym membership ($27 a month) because God has created an amazing treadmill that just so happens to be wherever I walk. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that! I don't pay for Weight Watcher meetings ($14 a month) anymore because if I can stay disciplined in walking I'm not gonna get fat again. Plus I get to walk under the amazing acorn trees that we have in my neighborhood. I get to hang out with God, Rob Bell, Mike Erre, my buddy Nate and occasionally U2. I get to pray for my wife and kids and neighborhood, friends and world. I get to wave to everyone in my neighborhood. I've built a relationship with this really cool homeless couple (Michael and Michelle) that sleep in between the tables at Shamel Park. I bought Michael a battery for his cell phone last week and now he is able to get calls from his lawyer about his disability case. This morning I ran into this guy named Steven...he's about my age and he has this huge garden in his front yard. I told him I wanted to turn into a farmer and he told me about his onions, pickled cucumbers, tomato's, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, pumpkins, potato's, and squash. He was really cool. Then as I'm walking back to my house I stop to talk to my next door neighbor Isaac. He has a wife (Linda) and 5 kids (Holly, Sharlet, Gracie, Jack and Jacob). He saw my article in the paper and wanted to talk to me about being a pastor. He has a big catholic family that is trying to "convert" him. Those are the words he used. Great morning, great walk, great conversations! Get outside and walk...it will change your life!

New blog peeps

Evan Lo put up a blog with tons of pics from his trip. I enjoy the one of Kyle taking a poop!
Shannon Smith is a cool dude that stops by Rev Rock often so I thought I'd give him some love. We listen to and read a lot of the same things. Good blog!
The Jesus Manifesto is a blog by Mark Van Steenwyk. I pimped his blog a couple weeks ago. Good stuff.
Ryan Sharp and his wife Holly lead the band...The Cobalt Season. Great music and great ideas.

Busy Sabbath

Yesterday during my day of rest I got over to my friends Steve and Karen's house at 7am to start painting in their new house that they are moving into. Went home for an hour to be with the fam, went back to painting when they took a nap. Came home, showered, went to church for a young married game night (that I planned on my Sabbath...go figure), got them started then left to go to dinner with my parents and our close friends from Texas (the Gores). Got home...watched some Survivorman (he has to do when there are only reruns of Man vs. Wild), and crashed.
So needless to say it wasn't much of a day of rest. But I have plans to chill today so I'm looking forward to that. Bill Risinger is teaching for the last time at the Grove today...I'm really bummed that he's leaving but I'm happy for him because I know it's really where God wants him to be!
How was your day of rest?

Why???

are there annoying people in the world who's sole purpose is to oppose other people's view. Here's a video that Ian sent me of a guy that is trying to slam Rob Bell's "Bull Horn Guy" Nooma video. He's advocating for the whole Kurt Cameron approach...you're a adulterer, a cheat, a fornicator, and you're quickly heading toward the burning place...but hey I've got great news.
Tell me what you think.

This was in my inbox this morning...

Men’s Steak-Out: The “Steak-Out” is on October 5th at 7:00 p.m. It’s a great event to invite a neighbor or an unchurched friend to. This year we are having a special speaker, former professional WWF wrestler Ted “the Million Dollar Man” DiBiase.

Duuuuuudddddddeeeee....if we could get "Randy Macho Man Savage" and "George the Animal Steele" at the church I could die a happy man!

Longbrake's in town

Well this January I went to the "Isn't She Beautiful" conference at Mars Hill in Michigan. I had only been blogging for a short time and I ran across this guys blog that went to the same conference. He took a lot of great notes and I've been reading his blog ever since. He's from Fort Wayne Indiana which is weird because that is where Alyssa (my wife) is from. He's on a huge road trip that is taking him to Mars Hill school up in Seattle. He's been staying with and hanging out with friends and a bunch of people he's met through blogging on his journey to school. (sometimes the internet is awesome!) A friend of his (Will) was along for this leg of the journey. I have been at camp and they leave tomorrow but they came by the office and we talked for a few minutes. It was nice to put a face with the blog. Safe travels Joshua. Thanks for blogging and sharing your world with the world. Good luck in seminary. Don't go gettin' all weird on us now!

Camp was really good

Having some time in breathable air with the back drop of beautiful trees, good friends, cool students and a chance to shoot people with large amounts of paint balls was great fun. I really enjoyed my time at camp and felt like I made the most of my two days up there. We were talking about the story of Sampson in our morning times with our campers. So of course I thought it would be a better idea to share the story of the whole world and then see how the story of Sampson falls into that bigger story. I find myself frustrated at times with the way I learned the Bible growing up. It was similar to what we got at camp. Look at the story of Sampson and figure out how that makes sense to me...living in Riverside, CA in 2007. We tend to read the scripture through our lens as opposed to understanding what the stories actually meant to the people at the time, and then seeing if it makes any more sense to us. So I learned a lot of isolated stories within the Bible but had a very hard time making sense of how they all fit together. Yeah Sampson had long hair and his wife jacked him and he ate honey from a lion but why in the world is that story in the Bible? God allowed this judge to screw up and hook up with a Philistine (forbidden) and break every agreement of his Nazarite vow because he needed someone on the inside that could take down this great nation as God was establishing Israel as his treasured possession.
I proceeded to ask my group of 10 high school seniors (all Christians) if they had read the scriptures from end to end and none of them had. We talked about the problems with only having bits and pieces of the story and not understanding the story as a whole. I told them it's difficult to tell people you are absolutely convinced there is no better way to live than to follow Jesus when you're not even sure what all the scriptures have to say about him. I'd say it's similar to being whole heartedly behind a political candidate after watching 4 minutes of them on a youtube debate without really knowing what their history is and what they are all about. What do you think about that? Have you read the scriptures end to end?

Off to Summer Camp

So I'm gonna head off to high school summer camp tonight. I'm coming back on Tuesday because leaving the kids and Alyssa at this point for any longer than a couple days would not be good. But don't worry...I'll be pumpin' out blogs from my iphone in the woods! (that was a joke) I'm going to soak in God's creation for a couple days, and hang out with some really cool high school kids. While I'm gone go check out Aaron Ivey's blog. I just added him to my blog heads. Cool guy.

Adoption is front page news

Our article on adoption came out today in the Press Enterprise on the front page. You can see it online here. You can check out the video here. They interviewed the Hasemeyers and a few other people about adoption. It turned out to be a really cool piece. I'm really excited to see the push that the media is giving to adoption. The picture in that the Press took has Alyssa with her eyes closed! They took 100 pictures that day and that's the one they choose...classic. Anyways, I'm glad we could draw attention to a cause as great as adoption.

Zeke and Sofia

We teach modesty early!

Anthem show!!!

Come out and support some great local music

Willow Creek in Rancho Cucamonga

Seriously...who got away with naming a place Cucamonga? That had to of gone through some kind of board and at some point everyone said..."yeah, that sounds cool!"
Anyways, I found myself today at a satellite video leadership conference that Willow Creek puts together. Sometimes it's hard for me to wade through the production and money that it takes to pull off what they pull off but they had a lot of great things to say about leadership. It's cool because they have pastors and professionals speak so you get a lot of perspectives. The last guy to share today was Marcus Buckingham and he was great. He talked about developing your strengths instead of focusing on your weaknesses. He talked about parents that have a kid bringing home report cards with 2 A's, B, C, and an F. When polled most parents said the grade they focused on was the F. He said if you find out what they loved about the subjects that they got A's in and how they studied for those classes and encouraged them in the things they were great in that it would help out in the subjects that they were struggling in. I can't explain it all but I got a lot from what he had to say. He talked about how our personalities tend to stay the same from a young age. We can change our values and our behavior but our personalities are pretty steady. He talked about his 6 year old that is super competitive and he will probably be competitive his whole life. He said the goal isn't to tell him what's wrong with being competitive but to channel that aggressiveness towards something positive. Sorry...probably had to be there but I thought I would just share a couple things.

The best ever!!!

Sorry it took me so long to post. I had to take it all in for a little bit.

Scattergories was legendary last night

Ok...so our Life Group got together last night to hang out. We ate my aunt Lindi's enchiladas which are out of this world...then we sat down to play Scattegories. It came down to the last list and we were looking for languages that started with the letter R. Cliff pulls these two crazy words out of nowhere that both start with R (double points). Cliff has been coming up with awesome stuff all night so Cheston yells out, "I'm calling shenanigans on that one!!!" Cliff says, "it's a language that the gypsies use in Romania." Everyone starts cracking up and Ian googles it to see if it's true and he nailed it. So if you ever need a life line to call during Scattegories...Cliff is your man...he was amazing. We had a great time, and I snuck out the win over Karen. Good times. Have you ever played this game...it's awesome!

Proud parent moment

It's 8:46am...Zeke just finished his Cheerios and he asked to watch the U2 DVD. He ran to his room to get his tambourine and drum sticks so he can play along with Larry. He calls the Edge..."Edges." We don't promote TV with our son but how can you say no to that request. It's a good morning! Thank God he never got into the Wiggles!
ps. Don't be jealous of my 24 inch tube TV with the built in VCR and DVD. I think I won it at a golf tournament for getting closest to the pin on a par 3.

Wing stop did me in

So I went to Wing stop today with Sam, Ian, Mike, Brian, Daniel and Tyler. I am a huge lover of all food hot. So I tell the owner to give me a five piece meal of the atomic wings (the hottest ones they have). He says, "you ever had em' before?" and I say nope. He says, "you wanna try one first?" like I'm a little wuss, and I say nope. Then he says, "well you can't bring em' back if you can't handle it" and totally punks me in front of everyone. So of course I get them back to the table and pound all five. Little did I know that they found a way to package the devil into a boneless chicken wing. I seriously think I burnt a hole in my stomach. Tonight I had counseling with Scott and Christina for their wedding and we went to Panera. I just ordered a loaf of sourdough bread to absorb the acid party going on in my stomach. Word to the wise...the cajun wings are plenty hot at Wing stop. The atomic wings can be melted down to de-grease a car engine or strip the paint off your house. Anyone else ever go for the atomic wings? Did you ever recover?

Expect updates...755

I will be the annoying guy that tracks this story till he breaks the record. Get over it!

Week 5: Sabbath

The Sabbath is officially back in the Lance household. For those of you new to the blog, I've been recording what my day of rest looks like each week for the world to see. It's a way to stay accountable to the simple life that I'm striving for and a way to share with my friends what it looks like for me and my family to rest. The first thing I've done is shut my phone off on Saturdays...everyone should turn off their phone's for a day...it reminds you how unimportant you are!
Here's how it started:
Both kids slept in...it's like they knew...it was awesome!
Went to Farmers market with Steve and Karen (our weekly ritual...see pic). Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf after while listening to Hobo Jazz serenade us.
Alberto's for lunch. Not sure why but I've had hankerin's for Berto's lately.
Fatty nap.
Hours of controlled chaos in our backyard. Zeke and the neighbor kids (Dakota, Holly, Sharlet, Gracie, and Jack) having a great time.
Alyssa made a great dinner that we ate outside with the kids.
Bath for Sofia, fed kids, put them down.
Watched the movie Running with Scissors (very interesting...weird)
Went to bed. Great day of rest!

Beware of farmer Dan

We bought the stacking composter today. Next comes the veggie garden and the clothesline in the back yard. I give you permission to stop us when Alyssa starts wearing bonnets and I start playing hacky sack and hand drums!

The truck dilemma

So I think I'm keeping my truck. The problem is I'm trying to become as eco-friendly as possible these days and my truck gets about 1/2 a mile to the gallon. It's a huge monstrosity and I feel very bro-tastic cruising around town in it. But I've come to the conclusion that having a big truck is really nice to have around. I just moved my brother last month. I knocked down a room at Bill's house today and took everything to the dump. I'm moving a refrigerator for Jon next week. Plus Jon and Kathy and Steve and Karen are moving this month. I put about 1,000 miles a year on the truck so I just dropped the insurance to the lowest coverage...bought some used tires today for $100 bucks (because I was on the verge of killing someone on the road with my bald tires that you could see the steel radials cutting through!)...and I'm offering the use of my truck to any of my friends that need help. So don't go out and buy a huge truck that you can't afford...mine is paid off and you can use it whenever you need it. That will help with my rationale for keeping it around. I figure I've used every friend I've ever had in the 7 or 8 moves I've had to this point in my life. It's my turn to start showing the love. I'm also committing to only using the truck for emergencies when I have to take the kids and Alyssa has the car, or I'm using it for what it was made for...hauling and dumping! That means I'm buying rain gear for my Vespa and you will see me on that bad boy even if its 107 outside. If it gets to 108 I'm takin' the truck. I've got my limits.

I read this guys blog

Mark is sharing at the Willow Creek Conference coming up. Not sure how this will go over there. What do you think about this idea? I don't think it works in everyone's context but I dig it. I think I like Mark because he's not afraid to wear four different shades of green the same way that I'm not afraid to rock four different shades of gray.

Start spreading the word

These next two shows should be amazing!!!

Love him or hate him...

he's the best baseball player to ever put on a pair of cleats. Bonds has been my favorite baseball player since he was on the Pirates playing with Bobby Bonilla and Andy VanSlyke. All you haters out there need to come to the understanding that there has never been a sweeter swing of the bat. And yes for all of you that are thoroughly confused. I was a jock for years before I turned into a music guy. I really hope he breaks the record in front of the Dodgers...how epic would that be!!??