Xtreme Bloggin’ Baby!!

Whassup everyone?  Just got back from takin’ 9 awesome kids to Xtreme Summer ‘08 down in Panama City Beach (PCB) from tha VL (Vinings Lake).  Lemme start with tha hottest news of all – 5 of ‘em got saved!!!!  Now, go buck bout that!!!  My wife Jennifer and I are so blessed to be involved with tha youth at VL as there is currently no vocational youth leader.  God has really been workin’ within tha church and our lives as we allow God to use us as He sees fit.  Pete, our pastor, was tha camp Emcee.  He was hilarious all week and really made tha thing fun.

Okay – Lemme just say that drivin’ to Xtreme…is way too long.  Next year I’m prayin’ we’re so big we need a bus, baby (can I get an “Amen?”).  Anyway, Monday night was tha first night and they served Chicken Parmesan.  It was actually pretty good.  My man Johnny Hunt spoke that first night.  I love how exegetical that man is in his preachin’! (some of ya are goin’ to wikipedia right now to look that up, ain’t cha? – Go head!).  Oh, in case you don’t know who Johnny Hunt is, he is the president of tha Southern Baptist Convention, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA and and a man who just plain loves God.

Tuesday, we got up and headed to breakfast.  It’s all cereal and danishes. Hey – I’m alright!  I’ll just grab two danishes – NOT SO FAST!  The lady told me that they only had one danish for everyone.  LOL!  Crayzee’s gonna starve.  Maybe I could get some juice to fill me up – nope.  No juice.  So I thought about it and figured that compared to last year’s accommodations down the street, this place (Edgewater Resort) was like heaven, so I moved on. 

We had some great worship with Will Goodwin and some great words from God through Tony Nolan (TO-NO as I like to call him).  That was tha night that 5 of tha 9 we took gave their lives to God through a relationship with Jesus!  Uh-huh, can we give up some praise to God?!  We went to Kitchens’ Ice Cream when it was over to have a big celebration for them 5 new souls.

Wednesday mornin’ I cooked up breakfast for tha fellas in my condo – cuz that’s how we roll, baby!  Eggs, bacon, bagels and juice!  Then we went and listened to a devotional from Johnny Hunt again (Did I mention how awesome this guy was?).  That day we went to Shipwreck Island and had some water fun.  That evening Pete, who is the emcee and is also a great friend and my pastor, allowed me to get up and rap a song I wrote called “That Cross.”  I was really prayin’ that God would use that song to reach some people and I believe it did.  It seemed to be well received by the youth – and adults.  Praise God.  Then we got to watch BarlowGirl bring tha house down.  The drummer had me trippin’ cuz she was rockin’ them drums and singin’ at tha same time without missin’ a beat.  They rocked.  Then we got to hear Johnny Hunt again before he headed off to Costa Rica.

Thursday I cooked breakfast for tha fellas again…cuz I’m like that!  Tha first session was the always funny, continuously joking, yet serious when needed, TO-NO (Tony Nolan).  It was awesome as always.  Pastor Pete took our group to lunch cuz that’s how Pastor Pete rolls!  He’s got a great heart for God and others.  Then we went to tha pool, where my own son, Josh, cut his head by tryin’ to get a ball off tha rocks.  Tha paramedics said he was okay, though.  Poor rock.  Throughout the day and the night before I had people tellin’ me that they loved my song, asking for pictures and stuff.  Pete was cool enough to allow me to minister again through another song called “Water Walk.”  It was cool to know that people liked tha song but the most meaningful comments were the “That song was really good and I can tell that you really love God, too” type of comments.  I just want people to look past tha music to tha message and tha God that can change them.  Anyway, I did “Water Walk” that night and it seemed to get another great response.  Then we got to hear NewSong.  Their lead singer couldn’t make it but they had a couple friends who do praise at some churches in tha ATL come help ‘em out.  It was really good.  Then, Pete spoke and some more people gave their lives to God.  It was awesome!  Thanks Pete!!  Afterwards, our clique headed to Subway for some grub and then went lookin’ for Ice Cream and ended up as Sonic, where we happened to run into Pete and his family along with Dave Riddle (the worship leader at Vinings Lake) and his family.  

Friday morning was another great session with TO-NO and we grabbed sum chow at Five Guys Burgers and Fries before the joyous ride back home.  When I stopped to pump sum gas my wife missed 2 calls on her cell phone.  I called tha number back and it was some guy askin’ if this was “Crayzee Joe.”  He then told me that my songs really ministered to him.  That was worth it.  Just take the autographs away and all that hype, it’s all about reaching people and glorifying tha King of Kings, baby.  Although, I did get a little freaked out about how he got my wife’s digits until my son told us he gave some girl her phone number.  We did some crazy video blog attempts on tha way home, but Jessica and Ashleigh kept gettin’ all up in my zone. 

Well, praise God for an amazing week and the opportunity to be involved with these students and the ministering He allowed me to be a part of.  Let’s see how many of us can take tha challenge of TO-NO and go get “ONE!”