Orange Conference 2008 p2

Day 2 of the Orange conference has been great. Francis Chan, Kristian Stanfill, Donald Miller, Nancy Ortberg, Jennifer Tamborello, Donald Miller, Kid Stuf to the max.

Over the next week or two, I'll be blogging and sharing my notes and thoughts from each session attended. I take take great notes, too.

I'm a tired man. I hope I can sleep well tonight.

BTW - My room at the Sun Suites in Duluth, GA smells and is very noisy. It's a "leave your socks on" kinda place. I don't like the place but for $50 a night we are saving a bundle on lodging that i will get to spend later on taking volunteers to another conference experience.

Orange Conference 2008

I'm in Atlanta attending the Orange Conference. If you came here through twitter 'cause I'm following you now, it would be great to connect, meet and network.

I used the twitter tracking feature to find quite a few people that are attending Orange. If you send 'track orange' to twitter, you'll get every twitter message sent to you that has the word 'orange' in it. (you wouldn't believe how many people twitter about orange juice, orange julius, orange liquor and some orange computer thing)

BTW - I'm a children's ministry director at a reasonably large church in Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Our team is working hard to transition the ministry into an orange ministry using 252 and My First Look. For four years prior to my two years in this position I was the CMP at a fast growing church - from 1800 people to 4000 in 28 months. I've done some conference speaking, including the 2006 Purpose Driven Children's Ministry Conference. I really appreciate and value having a strong network of other leaders - that's my purpose for connecting.

Enjoy Orange!

Rider's Log 4.18.08 - On the Road Again! Milliken

This was my first ride on the road bike since last fall. I easily forget how much faster a skinny tire road bike is than a fat tire mountain bike. It was a blast to be out there again.

65 miles. 3:47 ride time. 17mph average.

Rode with Roger (62) and Bruce (55?) through farmlands east of 1-25 from Erie exit north past Ft. St. Vrain into Milliken. We ate a light lunch at a total small town dinner in Milliken and then rode back along the same route (Rd23). I felt great for the first three hours. The fourth hour was tough because it was by far the most effort I've put into the bike since last fall. My legs were screaming "STOP!" but I didn't. I let the two "old" guys drag my butt back. They are very strong riders and drafting is amazing. I imagine my time would have been 45-60 minutes longer if I would have been out solo.

Check out this bald eagle webcam along the route. http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/eagle.html There are eaglets in the nest right now and you can see them on cam on on the daily snapshots if the cam isn't working. We saw these birds out in the air when we rode past. Phenomenal.

Rider's Log 4.13 and 4.15

Both days about 17 miles up and down the Big Dry Creek Trail and three lung busting shots straight up the City Park Hill. (last summer i was doing 10).

April goal: 200 miles. So far: 34.

Wednesday Afternoon Snack Choices

I wonder if I can eat the snow peas and not the cherry pie goodness.....

any bets?

P.S. The cherry pie is WAY better than gold fish crackers. (you know who I am talking to)

Twitter

According to Wiki...

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-bloggin service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterific or Facebook.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, text messages on their phone, email or through an application.

It's called micro-blogging. A great way to be connected with people around the country or in your own neighborhood. I've been doing it for a bit, like it and have connected with other people in my profession around the country. You can read my updates over there on the left or follow me http://twitter.com/johnincolorado

Julian Xane Phillips

David and Stacy Phillips are long-time friends. My wife and I have been been hanging out with them and serving with them for about 14 years. I love them both. Currently David is living in the basement of our home while he continues to work in Colorado so that he can keep Colorado residency and, therefore, his medical insurance at a reasonable rate. Each week he commutes back to Phoenix or, recently, Palo Alto while Julian prepares for a kidney transplant. Julian is a miracle baby. I smile looking at his picture because he is so unique and special; and, I remember the emotional impact of being at his bedside at Children's Hospital while he looked like a Matrix baby because of all of the tubes and holes he had in him immediately after he was born. Learn his story and you'll learn the kid is a survivor. Please read their story, read the updates and watch a video or two of Julian so you too can smile BIG when you see his picture. Also, please consider donating to help them cover their medical costs. - John

From their Children's Organ Transplant Webpage:

On Wednesday October 13th, 2004, Julian Xane was born to Stacy and David Phillips at the Estes Park Medical Center. He was 6 lb. 4 oz. 19" long. Julian was born with Potter's Syndrome, type 4 variant; the urethral valve, which normally allows urine to exit the bladder, was blocked, distending the bladder and severely damaging his kidneys. Most Potter’s babies die within hours of birth, but due to the hard work by the doctors at the Estes Park Medical Center and The Children’s Hospital (Denver) NICU, as well as healing hand of God, Julian survived and is thriving. His life is a miracle, and has even been acknowledged as such by the doctors who worked on him after his birth. Julian’s current diagnosis is End Stage Renal Failure, and his combined kidney function is in the 10% range – severe enough for dialysis, with the long term goal of a kidney transplant.

So here we are.

With the cost of an organ transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. COTA is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. At present, an estimated $100,000 is being raised by a team of friends and volunteers on Julian’s behalf. If you’d like to make a donation to Julian’s COTA fund, please click on the “Donate” tab above.

Please pass this web address along to those who may be interested in Julian’s story or in making a donation. Check back from time to time, as we’ll be using this web site to keep people informed about upcoming fundraising events, as well as the new home for Julian’s blog and photo album.

Thanks for visiting.

Stacy, David & Julian Phillips

Read their blog and get updates! Julian is pre-op for surgery as I write. Follow on Twitter @dphillips