A few days ago I noticed the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light came on in the bus. Right at that point I should have taken it to the garage and had it checked out. I didn’t do that. Instead, I checked the oil and water, filled the levels and thought I had corrected the issue. Friday comes and I hop in the bus and head to Oak Orchard in Delaware for the weekend. The ride down seemed fine and I did not notice any different noises or problems. After the show on Sat night as we began to pack up for the trip home, I started the bus to cool it off for the ride and I could hear the belt starting to squeal. Right at that point I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew if the belt broke, I would be stranded. My only thought was to get back home to PA. So, off I went. I listened for the sound of the belt getting worse and hoped it wouldn’t. But as you might have guessed by now, it did. As each mile passed and the belt screeching got worse, I began to pray “God, please just get me some where that I can pull off safely. It was right about then that I felt the belt break and everything got eerily quiet. The battery light came on; the check engine light came on, the temp gauge started to move and in a few minutes had reached the RED zone. That’s when I saw the sign that said Chesapeake Service & Rest Center 4 miles. “God please let me get there,” I said. I kept rolling and kept praying. Even thought is was 2:30 in the morning on I-95 driving a bus that was in serious trouble, I didn’t feel alone. I was talking out loud and felt as if I had a passenger riding with me. Then I was at the entrance ramp to the truck center, I had made it. I also realized at that point I had NO BRAKES or STEERING. I got stopped and turned the bus off. The smoke and steam rolled out from under the hood and chassis like it was on fire. The attendant at the truck stop came out and said “are you on fire”. No just really overheated. The serpentine belt had broke. “Ah” he said, “you aren’t going anywhere now” I laughed and said, “you’re right”. He went on to say, “you seem to be taking this all pretty well” I thought about it for a second and said, “It could always be worse”

I called my wife Ruth and she seemed to be waiting for the call. She answered right away and said, “I’ll leave right now to come and get you”. After watching the sun come up, I lay down in my bed at 6:00 AM Sunday morning and was glad to be home. Later that day we would go back to the rest area and get the truck towed back to good ol’ PA. The tow truck driver said, “you know, it’s good you broke down when and where you did, cause if it had been somewhere else it could have been much worse” Right then it hit me! Our next trip was New York, 4-½ hrs. away. The entire band would have been with me. We would have missed the show, let people down, the band’s name would have been trashed and we would have lost a lot of time and money not to mention still having to tow it home and get fixed.

God was doing the planning. God got me to the rest area instead of breaking down on a back road in Delaware. God made it possible to get home. And God knew that even though breaking down at 2:30 in the morning is not much fun, it was better now than later! GOD KNEW!

As for me, I learned to pay attention the lights on the dash. I learned it can always be worse. I learned that we are never really alone. And most of all, I learned that if we “Let GO and Let GOD” things work out for the best even though we may not see it at first.

I’ll get ready for our next show, our trip to New York and “another story from the road”.

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Love Rachel & Josiah

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Recently I just finished reading “The Shack,” written by Paul Young (if you haven’t read it yet, I do suggest taking a look at it). As a quick summary for those who have not read the book, the main character, Mack is dealing with a “Great Sadness” that is greatly affecting his relationship with God. Mack is drawn to “the shack” where he encounters the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in face-to- face interaction. Throughout the rest of the book, Mack expresses his anger and questions why God has caused him to experience this “Great Sadness” that overshadows his life.

Many questions that Mack poses toward the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are similar to questions inside of me; questions that other’s answers have never completely satisfied me inside. In one scene of the book, Mack questions God as to why he is disappointed in humans when we fail time and time again. God responds saying that he is never disappointed in human failures; he hurts to see us fail and live in pain, but he is never disappointed. In fact, it is almost the complete opposite. Because God knows all, He knows every single time that we will fail before returning to him. So if He knows that we will fail 47 times before turning towards him, he is not disappointed, for he knows that there is only 46 more times until we decide return. We are just one mistake closer to being in communication with God again.

I’m not saying that this is necessarily correct (it is always good to question what we read and hear); I am just saying that this has caused me to see God in a new light. I have always felt that every time I screw up, God has been extremely disappointed in me, and it is almost as if the guilt weighs on my shoulders. But what if God is never disappointed in us? What if he almost celebrates because we are just that much closer to him? What would that mean in our lives to live without such a guilt, such a shame? For me I feel free; I feel a burden lifted. Without this guilt and shame, I feel a joy and a love that only God can give, and it arouses a desire in me to live life to its fullest. May we take this joy and love and spread it among our community, spread God’s unfailing love to all that we meet.

Though the mountains may be shaken and the hills be removed, my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)

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actionchurch received a very nice email from a “friend” in Hong Kong. It seems people worldwide are interested in helping us out! We not only want to hear your ideas about new places to meet, we want to know how to make actionchurch better. Is there something that you think you could help with, or a new way to do something. Let us know what you got!!

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And now, an email from our “friend” Mr. Chan Lee:

*For those who didn’t get my sarcasm… I’m just joking. We AREN’T doing this.

“ Dear Friend,

I bring you greetings. I am Mr. Chan Lee, I work with BANK OF CHINA, HONG KONG. I have a Business Proposal of $17.3M for you to handle with me from my bank. I need you to assist me in executing this Business Project from Hong Kong to your country. I need to know if you will be able to handle this with me before I explain to you in details. Should you be interested please send me the required information below;

(1). Full Names
2).Current Residential Address
3). private phone number,
I will want you to reach me on my private e-mail:
(l_chan28@yahoo.com.hk). Finally after that I shall provide you with more information.

Regards, Mr. Chan Lee ”

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Yes, you are looking at the branding for our one week series we are doing.  Yes, I will be hand drawing each slide related to the sermon that you see on the screen. Yes, you will like it, and Yes, it will be mind-blowing.

Come on out tomorrow to actionchurch to join in our discussion of faith & doubt.  I (Josiah) will be talking a little about some of my doubts, and Don will be cleaning up the damage that I leave behind.  (Haha, yes that is a joke…)  Everybody doubts. I’m no Bible scholar, but when Jesus was in the garden asking God if he really had to die I wonder if he was doubting just a little bit… http://read.ly/Matt26.39.NIV I promise you Don won’t be answering things like you always hear, and there probably won’t really be any total answers…   (That’s kinda what doubt is, not having answers…)  The Pledge is back on stage this week, ready to rock some new songs for you and your mom!   And of course, who doesn’t want to see my, “art”?!

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Josiah's sofa he will be bringing^

A couple weeks ago at the Relay for Life, Don and I were brainstorming about what the Chill series would look like. It was late, or early, depending on which way you look at it. And maybe we were still fighting off the brain freeze we had from having way too many free snow cones. We decided that the best way for people to “Chill” was for them to be sitting in their own chairs. Nothing against our sweet setup of chairs and tables, but I know some mornings at actionchurch I wish we could have “Bring Your Bed To Church” day…

So this Sunday, bring your favorite chair to “chill” in. If you want to bring something more on the outrageous side of things, and you out shine everybody else, I will buy you lunch. *Sectional sofas are always a great idea… Or if you just want to bring that extra comfy recliner, or rocking chair that is just as good. We have got the A.C All-stars on stage, and Don will be talking (not from his jacuzzi) about another way we can trust God and just chill.

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I work in a small office, which is located in a much larger office area. There are three of us in my area. We nicknamed it “Area 51” because no one really knows what we do all day in here.

We talk about all kinds of stuff and on this particular day, we were talking about music and singing. It was at that point, one of the ladies I work with told me she was singing at her church on Sunday. Now I am all about music. Listening, writing, performing, helping out and supporting others. So, I told here I would stop by to hear her sing.

I got there a bit early and took a seat in the back of the sanctuary knowing that I was going to slip out right after she was finished singing. I wanted to just blend in and not draw any attention to myself. At least that was the plan. As people came in they seemed drawn or duty bound to come back to me and welcome me to their church. The first lady was very nice and welcomed me with a handshake. She was quickly followed by three other gentlemen, two other ladies, an Elder and the guest Pastor for the day, all who asked my name, was this my first time at their church, where did I usually go to church and how glad they were to see a NEW face in the crowd. By now I was a bit on the defensive side. When I told them I went to actionchurch, they were unaware of the name. When I went on to explain, “It’s the church that started in Fat Daddy’s Bar” they looked surprised and didn’t know quite what to say. I followed up by saying “mysterious ways Hun”!

Just about then the music started and everyone went to his or her seats. As soon as the first chord rang out on the guitar and piano, everyone stood up; hands rose in the air and began to sing along with the words on the screen. Side note: That would be cool at actionchurch, a room full of people singing “Momma Told Me Not To Come” in unison. Anyway that went on for 5 songs in a row. These folks were really getting into it. Then I could hear a man talking in a different language, “could he be speaking in tongues?” I thought to myself? One young woman was so inspired she began to do an expressive dance in the side isle of the sanctuary. All of these things were very powerful and very sincere! For me it was all just a bit overwhelming. I was thinking, “am I that out of the spirit or what?”

After the last song, and while everyone was still standing, I slipped out and headed toward my car. It struck me that worship can be very different from church to church and you can have a very different worship experience in each church you attend. The point to all this is not to bash any church or to put their worship style under a microscope. It’s simply this; we never know how someone is feeling when he or she walks into actionchurch. Are they excited, scared or nervous? Do they know anything about the bible? Does a rock band opening the service and a guy in jeans and a T-shirt delivering the message put them off? We Don’t Know! (Only when he’s wearing an Argyle sweater!)

So before we kill them with kindness or completely ignore them for fear of coming on too strong, try to remember your first time in a new church and how you felt. Maybe a smile is enough to say It’s OK no matter who you are or were you came from!

So you see there really is no “right way” to worship! You want to learn more about who you are? Visit other churches, worship with them and take a walk outside your comfort zone. You may find something you were missing or you may click you heals together three times and say, “there’s no place like home”.

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I was recently introduced to a band/artist by the name of Frightened Rabbit. I really have been enjoying their music and the raw honesty of the lyrics. A specific song, “Heads Roll Off” (Check out the lyrics) jumped out at me. This “jumping” happened mostly because I am a Christian, and when us Christians hear the word “Jesus” our ears perk up.

So I was there doing the dishes and thinking about the lyrics. And there were a lot of good lines, but this one stuck out. What if, like this man wrote, “Jesus was just a spanish boy’s name.” I had one of those moments where a sense of dread washed up my body from the inside out. And after a couple seconds of that fear running around, I had this thought…

Living out Jesus’ ideas & teachings is only going to help my life, not hurt it.

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Over the past couple months I have begun to read through the Gospels. Now that I have come to Luke,the third of four accounts of Jesus’ life, I feel as though I am reading the same things over and over again. I know that each Gospel varies slightly in accordance with the author’s perspective, yet these differences are sometimes so minimal that they are hard to notice. Today though, a slight variant stood out…like a Mac Product

I started at Luke 23, at which Jesus is brought before Pilate before His crucifixion. Pilate is insisting that Jesus innocent, yet the the crowd is persistent in saying that He is not.

Luke 23:5 – But they were vehement. “He’s stirring up unrest among the people with his teaching, disturbing the peace everywhere, starting in Galilee and now all through Judea. He’s a dangerous man, endangering the peace .”

I stopped after the last line and reread it- “He’s a dangerous man, endangering the peace.” I have read this passage before and simply disagreed with what the crowd was saying about Jesus, thinking that they didn’t know what they were talking about. You see though, the crowd is completely accurate in saying this, Jesus is dangerous! He does not promise a peaceful and oh so sweet life; as a matter of fact, many times Jesus does endanger the peace.

Just like actionchurch discussed in Part One of  My Name Is Joe, God does not promise to protect His followers from trouble, but instead uses the hard, challenging, and sometimes seemingly hopeless or peace-less times to ultimately heal us, make us a stronger person. At the time, a current situation may seem dangerous and hurtful, yet it is in these times that we are being molded into something we can not yet perceive. God does have a plan to turn bad things into good, and when we trust him to guide us, we have nothing to fear. So Yes, Jesus is a dangerous man, endangering the peace, yet I trust that He has a greater plan and will use any situation for something awesome!

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I hope: my awesome title caught your eye, my awesome picture made you excited for spring, and my awesome sarcasm oozed out of the title. : )  Don and I were shoving chinese food down our throats the other day. (Yes, we were cheating on you Panera Bread) And we were talking about our current series (My Name Is Joe) and how character  is what really got Joseph anywhere in his life.  And blah, blah, blah, we talked more about character, and how it has played out in our lives, it was a typical lunch meeting…  It quickly occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten my fortune cookie yet, so I grabbed it viciously because Don is known to just take food that he sees and eat it.  And I read my ironic fortune…

“Ability will enable a man to get to the top, but character will keep him from falling.”

This is an official thank you to the world of chinese food, for NEVER failing us with amazing food & making our lives ironic.

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