Today at Bigstuf we did something that had never been done before. We showed pictures of kids from Kenya up on the screen and basically said hey, if you want to sponsor this child, come on up here right now and grab this packet. A girl came up and we said, “hey, stay here for a minute and let us show you something. We showed pictures of the area where her child, Ibrihim, lived. We showed on the screen the inside of a typical 10×10 tin corrugated house. then we said. Hey, lets see if we can call Kenya and tell the lady at Compassion, Susan, that one of the kids in that project just got sponsored. We hooked up with Skype and there was Susan on the video screen. We talked to her and introduced her to Leanna who just sponsored Ibrihim. Then we asked if Susan knew Ibrihim. She said yes. We asked her when was the last time she had seen Ibrihim.
She said, I see him right now.
Needless to say the crowd of people were very excited and Leanna just didnt even know what to do. It was incredible! Little Ibrihim answered questions that Leanna asked him. He likes studying English best in school. (so does Leanna) He wants to be a Dr. when he grows up. (so does Leanna). He had never seen a computer before that moment. We turned the camera to the audience and let him see them applauding for him. He had never seen that before either. 1500 kids across the planet clapping signifying that they would pray for him as he grows and as he and Leanna become friends and introduce each other to new aspects of God and his grace and wonder.
God is working all over the planet and bringing us together. Today was the beginning of hope for Ibrihim …and for Leanna in many ways. We discover God by serving others.
When i get a copy of the video of that call, i will post it here.

The night air was heavy. You could barely see the street lamps, especially the ones 13 miles away. Just a few of the townsfolk were out that night, and those seemed to walk briskly toward their appointed destinations. And even though the small town had no sidewalks, you could hear the footsteps echo as though they were walking on hollow boards. By nine that evening it seemed like a ghost town and the wind whispered between the buildings of the main streets sounding like a demon in a Charles Schultz movie. One lone figure cast a shadow down 37th street. The shadow was clear even though there were no lights to cause it to exist. Had you been there, you would have recognized the outline of that shadow as a tall man, with a trench coat and hat, and as he moved you would have seen a slight limp as he favored his right leg. As he hobbled down the deserted barren street, he seemed to glide (with a limp like smoothness) as he turned and entered the only building whose lights were still on.
He immediately realized something wasn’t right. The room, although well lit by gas lanterns surrounding the room, was completely dark, except for where the light was. It reminded him of the church he grew up in. As he glanced at the floor he saw footprints. It had rained earlier that day, and the mud tracks were, from his experienced eyes, about a size 10 1/2 D. He followed the tracks across the living room, down a long narrow hallway, and into a dresser drawer. He cautiously opened the drawer. Two pair of socks, one black, one orange and gray striped. Underneath the socks next to two books, one by Tom Selleck and one by Franis Chan, was a macbook air. He spent most of the evening dog earing pages in the Selleck book and then picked up the computer. As he opened it, the eerie light from the screen showed the man’s tired green eyes. But those same green eyes, one red from lack of sleep and one that reminds you of sheepdog, opened wide as they read the screen content.
It was a note from a friend that said, “be sure, as you start your blog to “learn the rhythm of your audience.” Never post more than two serious ideas in a row. People want to laugh. He thought for a moment. “Maybe i should write a mysterious novel with no point whatsoever” Would people respond? Do they even care? What did he mean by ” the room reminded him of the church he grew up in”? Is this some kind of theological statement? Didn’t Charles Schultz write peanuts and Charlie Brown? What is going on here?
At that moment all the lights in the city came on …and it was completely dark.

Ok, first,,,if you are reading all the comments and you are wondering “what the heck”? thanks to Tony Morgan for your randomness. I will admit the first two had me wondering.
Next…If you are reading this and you haven’t read the two post before this…you gotta go back.
This is about Jack and you need to see his video before you go any further.
Jack showed up at camp. And had the biggest applause of 1500 kids you can imagine. After the session he got hugged by a thousand people and…for an orphan from Kenya….this….is AMAZING. He didn’t have the words and frankly there are none. I am posting the video. Had to edit it some but the rest of the story is this. We announced that Jack had come to the US because some people knew his story and wanted to pay to get him a prosthetic arm. We didn’t think he could get both because of paralyses in his left shoulder. We found out right before camp that, indeed it was possible but…no funds. It was going to cost $10,000 for his other arm. After he left the stage, our Daraja Childrens Choir of Africa surprised everyone and came out and brought the house down. You will see them on the next post. By the time they finished their first song…ALL TEN GRAND HAD BEEN RAISED! Jack’s life changed and students and adults wept. I have chills just typing it. You keep reading these blogs and I’ll keep sharing stories cuz…the stories are comin in every day about what God is doing and its time that blogs start being a place where we laugh and cry and see God. Just my thoughts.

If you haven’t looked at the post and video previous to this one, then you need to go back.
Going back one post will take you to a video you should see. Think for a second about what life would be like if you didn’t have arms or hands.
As jack said, he felt like a baby because he could do nothing for himself. Miracles are about to happen in Jack’s life. I am waiting for a video you need to see of Jack coming to camp. As soon as i get it, i will post it and you can see some of the rest of his story.
This, to me is why any blog would be worth while. It is the story of life. Sad, strange, unpredictable, full of joy and hope and weird and awful. It is all of our lives. Jacks story is one of hope. Keep following it.
lanny

I’m in Panama City most of the summer and we get to present some incredible stuff to over 18000 people this summer. One of the things we presented this morning was the video i am putting on here.
Jack is a young man we met a while back. You will see his story but we are excited that Jack met jesus and found a home at the Bigstuf House where people started loving him and where someone here in the US decided to get involved in Jack’s life. I am going to keep you hanging for a few days but just know that Jack showed up at camp this morning after we showed his video. I will tell you what happened next post. Watch this.

Just a quick post today with my first video. I did this national rally for the chick fil a folks back in the spring.

I hosted the rally along with the bigstuf band and jon williams. They wanted their rally to be more than just talking heads and teaching so we decided to “ehnhance” it. I was totally impressed with Truitt and the whole staff of CFA because they are not ashamed to talk about their faith boldly to all of their employees.

Truitt was fun when i interviewed him. I may show you that interview on one of the posts. But meanwhile. As i said before, this is gonna be a diverse blog. Sometimes in depth issues…sometimes….eat mor chikn videos. Enjoy.

Hope i know how to embed this thing on here.

I just read a bunch of blogs. I started with Reformergent. Intersting.  Reformed and Emergent.

Then that referenced the contextulation conundrum, which then took me to emergent village, where i read a blog that kinda looked at the difference between  ermergant and emerging.  I have time for that discussion…..

that took me to brian mclarens blog which took me to Amahoroo….which seems like it might just have some cool useful info in it about how to make a difference in the world especially in Africa.

If you know me , you know i started a international  organization that allows people to think differently abouthow they get involved in Kenya…so i am particualarly intersted in who is doing what to make a difference in the world that is worth the time.  

I get a bit ticked off when i see guys writing to argue about who is right and who is wrong.  I loved that CS Lewis hung out in a pub frequently agreeing to disagree while the probed each others thoughts to discover now and then that their thoughts could actually change and that meant their beliefs could change and that what they once thought was truth….wasn’t.  they would probably order another ale and snicker about the fact that the future would offer them sentences like, “Can you get your twitter on your blog?” 

I almost feel guilty about spending any time at all on a blog.  Time, the most incredible gift he has offered.

Ok….i have blogged twice now and you have yet to see any creative vdeos.  Let me get that setup and then put down your twitter box, move your world of warcraft contorller over, and tune in.     But, just for your viewing pleasure i have been working on getting the backbone to say some stuff i have been thinking for a long time.  Below you will see the actualy xrays of my last surgery where i got me a brand new disc below and two new titanium screws holding boron plate to keep my disks together so i wouldnt bend right.

You may read all the theology in to that you like.

Ok….its the first broadcast of lanny donoho’s what if….blog.  Look, he’s not even using correct punctuation!

Here’s my goal.  I don’t think anyone really cares about what I did today, or what I ate for breakfast or how I felt about my job.  But, my imagination runs wild sometimes without my permission.  That could get interesting. I periodically play around with a lot of organizations that some of the world is interested in. I hang out with folks that the world…(or at least the Christian world) knows.  Sure, I make people laugh now and then at Catalyst, Bigstuf, Orange, North Point Community Church, Youth Specialties. …and hey I could name drop for a while.  But….what if….

What if this blog had stuff in it that told you some of the inside stories of how things work in church world?

What if …I started talking about how all the other Christian bloggers are just too freakin serious about who they are and what they do.  Why the heck are some of us tearing apart others of us?  Maybe I should chat about you.

What if lanny donoho had a blog?  Would he be funny doing stuff like he does at Northpoint Community Church and Catalyst?

Would he be cynical or sarcastic about the church in general and all the crap that goes on in our bubble?

Dang,,,,would he use the word crap when he knows that church people are gonna read it.  Would he chat about cool stuff he does with his friends like Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, or Jeff Foxworthy?(they say if you drop names like that in your blog, more people drop by)  Would he act like he is good friends with Donald Miller and Francis Chan….I mean…they” hang out” now and then at conferences.

What if he could point you to stuff on youtube and the web that you hadn’t ever seen before?

What if he really does know some creative ideas and technological concepts that you could use?

Would he give you great books to read that you haven’t heard of?   Would he create off the wall sentences citing cymbiotic knowledge of Darwinian descent meant to ostracize the foolishness of idiots on their own blogs who descend tirelessly on other Christians just to provoke meaningless controversial debates?  Would he read sentences like that one and say to himself…”I don’t talk like that, but dang, wouldn’t it be cool if I could just rattle that off and impress people.” 

Why is the thing called “What if”?   Is lanny gonna ponder the depths of truth that cause others to fear and tremble, thinking that they will be judged by their peers… Are they peers?  Does the word peer mean equal or does it meant to look at?   Is everything connected.  What if he connects the dots?   This…is a new kind of blog.  Tell your friends.  Wake the neighbors.  Kick the dog.  It’s time to start something here.  You’ve only read the opening, where I dropped names and acted like I am smarter and more popular than i am in reality.

This is just the beginning.  You will learn more from this blog than Neo learned when he took the blue pill.

Stand by.

ps…what if lanny got that camel up there to actually go thru the eye of a needle?