and so danohlerking.com was born

today's the day it became official. i've had the domain danohlerking.com for a couple years, but today it went live, coinciding with my move to wordpress for my blog. i've been on blogger (danohlerking.blogspot.com) for almost two years - july 8, 2005 was my first post. but now, 400+ posts and nearly 700 comments and over 30,000 hits later, it is time.

it's like usually what happens in life, after a while you discover a newer, better way. it happened with my computer preference. i was a diehard pc dude until one day i actually opened my eyes to the world of mac. i've never turned back.

and so the story enters a new chapter. hope you enjoy the read.

p.s. - you'll notice i'm a big fan of sharing link love. please take a minute to update my link on your site to http://www.danohlerking.com. if you link to my blog and i don't have you listed, let me know and i'll get you added right away. thanks!

also - i want to give david russell a huge thanks for opening my eyes to wordpress a long time ago but i was too chicken to jump in till now. and a gargantuan thanks for fazha for patiently dealing with my pestersome instant messages during the switchover seeking his counsel and expertise.

kids worshipping

my seven-year-old son just joined the worship team at kids church at hpc. yeah, i'm proud. proud enough that despite lincoln's insistence that i not come in and shoot a picture of him, i obtained one via the stealthy services of jeff king. (if you want real photography done, get his wife to help you out. lorri is great at it. jeff is good at the stealthy blur, though.) thanks, jeff, for the pic - it speaks volumes to me.

he's smiling. he's loving it. he's the short one in the middle. he's seven and he's on stage singing praise to God.

yeah.

thanks amanda, for doing what you do along with the rest of the kids church crew. this picture tells me you're doing a lot of things right for my boy and for hundreds of others who we as parents entrust with our kids a couple hours each weekend (plus some).

why we do a webcast on sundays

check out this thank you note we got yesterday from an online viewer:

Just a thank you to HPC for providing this resource so that we can still attend church on those occasions when we can't be there physically. I chose to stay home and prepare a special meal for my father so that he can enjoy something at his regular meal time of 12:30pm that he rarely gets at his assisted living apartment complex. Was relieved when I recalled that I could join church via the webcast and be able to do both things today in honor of both of my fathers.

it's just a cool reminder why we do a webcast from healing place church on sundays. it's worth it.

thanks ty, david, robert, rob, toby, adam, jarred, chris, wendell, dan, brad, josh and whoever else has a hand in gettin' 'r done every sunday.

she's why i'm a dad

our five kids are the greatest kids in the world. i post about them all the time - possibly to the point where i should be concerned you're getting sick of reading about them.

so, here's a rare deal - a picture i found of my wife that i think actually touches on giving you an idea how beautiful she is. i love you, vicki.

kid post ahead...

video of my kids trying to run at jump-n-jive the other night:

india

cool update form a friend of mine in india:

It was good to meet you at the Church last month. Thank you for allowing me to share with you. How is Pastor Dino doing?

I do hope that everything is well with you. I had a safe trip back to home by the grace of God. It was good to see my family and to be in the Church after few weeks.

I thank God for His provision and protection while I was in America. In the ministry we see challenges always. But we also see the hand of God moving on behalf of His people. Here is a miracle that just happened last week. One of the ladies in our church, who is a strong believer and a Sunday school teacher. Her husband has been an alcoholic for many years. He spends all the money for alcohol with out taking care of the family. She has been praying and fasting for him for many years. Last month he stopped drinking alcohol. Last week he was climbing a tree. Somehow he fell down. It was a 40 feet tall tree. And there was no one. Nobody knows how long he was lying in the ground. Some how he was able to get into his house and his wife saw mud in his face. He didn't say a word. He lost his conscious. Then they toook him to the hospital. I went to the hospital and prayed for him. After one day he was recovered. None of his bones were broken. Every one was astonished. But we knew that the enemy wanted to destroy his life. But our God wanted to spare his life. Now he comes to the church. His wife and two kids are very happy that he is coming to church.

Schools were opened after summer vacation. Many of our Church kids were in need of school supplies. Last Wednesday, I was getting ready for the meeting. Immediately I sensed that God is speaking to buy some books for the children in our church. Sushan also felt the same way. We bought some books that night. After the service one of the ladies came and told she was in need of some books for her son. But she did not have any money. She prayed to meet her need. But God heard her prayers. God helped us to bless more children with school supplies.

At our Children's Home we have 20 girls now. They all are going to the school now. God helped us to buy new uniform clothing, books and other supplies for them. Two weeks ago we were able to put the roof for their dormitory building. Now plumbing and electrical works are going on. After that we will have to do wall plastering, floring work and rest rooms, etc.

In this place between our property and the street, there is a canal. Most of the time it has waters and difficult for the girls to cross it when it has more waters and also difficult for the vehicles to get in to our property. We have been praying for a bridge for many years. God answered our prayers and after much difficulties we got the permission from the authorities to built a bridge. We started the initial works. We have to finish it soon.

This Sunday we will be starting a new church in Nagercoil. Last few months we were having a prayer meeting in that place. Now the people wanted Sunday Service.

Please continue to pray for us. May God bless you. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Blessings

Tom

God's doing stuff all over the place.

a glimpse of God's perspective on the poor

my brother-in-law ben showed me this verse while i was in africa with him a few weeks ago. i can't seem to shake it. i know it's scripture, so why should i even try to shake it? probably because it's a tough one to accept.

ezekiel 16:49 tells what God sees as the ultimate sin of sodom. you know, the city that we all remember for its debauchery and vulgarity and all? well, here's what ezekiel 16:49 says:

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

ooof.

nathan keller's pics from africa

check out this page on sugarland family church's site with pics from nathan keller's trip to africa with us a few weeks ago. cool stuff.

nathan's a really awesome dude. he has more to do with hpc being what it is today than most people know. and he's making a tremendous impact on africa - not to mention sugarland texas. if he ever gets a blog i'll be sure to post about it. he's a guy with a heart worth connecting with.

love ya, nate.

my life

ok. i'm seriously adrenalized about this. i'm working on a trip to swaziland this august with the express purpose of capturing the stories of some of the children and workers that are involved at the children's cup carepoints in swaziland.

we are calling the project "my life." what we have realized over the past several months is just how many stories there are to be told and how little we've been able to really communicate those stories so far.

we are doing this project to give voice to the real-life, everyday human story of those who live in the world of an AIDS infection rate of 42%, extreme poverty, overworn resiliency and downright impossible odds.

we're hoping to have a crew of three of us to go and spend time shooting video, interviewing kids, going to the places they live, learning what they call life. the my life project will connect you in a fresh way to the real world of africa.

we still need to raise about $8000 more by july 1st to make this project work. if you are able and willing to help, just send me an email here or give online here and be sure to designate your gift to "the my life project."

thanks.

added a few new blogs to my sidebar

like there aren't enough there already...

i found a few new ones that are very worth tracking. interestingly, three of my new links are to blogs by ladies):

• kerri weems (from celebration church in jacksonville, florida) check out this post in particular.


• gina witcher (from catalyst france - she and her husband ken are heading to paris to plant a church) check out this post in particular.


• sandra chesterman (from oasis church - she's a new missionary with children's cup in swaziland) she just started this blog - should be an interesting journey to watch.


• and lad chapman - another new missionary with children's cup in africa - he and his family are headed out in january.

happy reading. let 'em know you're reading - encourage them by leaving a comment or two.

this pic just really means a lot to me

those of you who know her know why. one day i'll post some more about her, but for now, i guess this post is more for me than for anyone.

levi

my favorite seven-year-old nephew (i'm safe - vaughn's still six for a few more weeks - then i'll have to have a tie)

levi is someone that i believe God has been bragging about up in heaven. he's one cool dude. he's my sister's boy - and has lived in africa most of his life now.

love ya, levi.

jay miller - never quit dreaming

jay miller and my son lincoln

there's an awesome story developing you should read on jay miller's blog. in short, this friend of mine who pastors a slammin' church in lafayette, louisiana - he's 38 - and he's playing in his first year of organized tackle football on a semi-pro team that is two games from getting championship rings from the southwest football association.

yeah, he's nuts.

but for every single one of us who are in that late-thirties early-forties age range that ever wondered if we could do something we're too old to do, jay is a huge inspiration. if you ever dreamed of doing something but you think it's too late to go for it, you gotta read his blog. it'll fire you up.

i took my boy jd and reggie (one of his friends) and lincoln and ty van rensburg to their playoff game last night and watched them trounce the new orleans bulldogs. my 7-year-old asked jay for an autograph (lincoln is quite the autograph collector) and jay signed it and put "never quit dreaming" at the bottom.

what a great message to give my kid. what a great message for all of us.

jay - thanks for the message your life is giving me and my family.

two games to ring time.

fear the chicken

greg surratt (pastor of a really awesome church over in the carolinas, seacoast church) speaking to healing place church this morning: "on september 22, get ready. fear the chicken. south carolina gamecocks are coming here to baton rouge."

oooh i'm afraid. very afraid. i guess when your team mascot is non-flying corn-eating poultry, you have to talk big.

geaux tigers.

love ya greg. wish you coulda been here geoff. sorry you had to go to hawaii instead to do some "consulting." yeah, right.

great reminder as we head towards father's day...

i pulled this from a post over at richardexley.typepad.com - a really great writer - not just a blogger, but a real-deal writer. you should read the whole post, but if you're too lazy to click the link, here's the part that really made me think:

It is said of James Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was fixed in his mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together.

After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept to see what he had said about the fishing trip. Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence: "Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted."

For the elder Boswell, it seemed a day wasted. For his son, it was a day to be remembered, one that shaped him for the rest of his life!

The younger Boswell's experience reminds us that life's most valuable lessons are seldom learned in the times of formal training. Rather, they are passed from one generation to the next during a shared experience, a mutual project, or a special camping trip. At the time we are seldom aware that anything rare or lasting has happened. It is only later, when we look back, that we realize that something of real significance has occurred.

In light of that, let me encourage you to take time to do fun things with your children. Remember many of life's most profound experiences are unplanned. They are simply the product of time spent together in an atmosphere of love and trust.

oof. that's so true - not just for parenting (as terrifically applicable as it is) - it works for relationships of all kinds i believe. whether in at home, at church, at work, at school - how you relate to your work, to your responsibilities, to your walk with God - all of it. much more is learned and taught in the day-to-day than in the classroom.

they said it can't be done

i actually watched a pot of water come to a boil today.

new childrenscup.org is live

The new home of Children's Cup on the web just went live a couple hours ago. We've tried to make the information on our site more accessible by moving to this new format. Much of the information has been updated for you, and one of the benefits of the new format is that we'll be able to keep things up-to-date much more easily than ever before.

Be sure to check out the media gallery. We're uploading pictures into our picture gallery like crazy right now. We've also added a ton of information about our CarePoints - with updates on them going live as soon as they are available.

We also want to welcome some new members to the team. Christy Merrill is just about a month away from joining the team in Swaziland, and Sandra Chesterman will be heading out in September. Then Lad and Crystal Chapman and their boys will be joining us in January.

Praise God for the new great things He is doing. We've been praying for an increase in our capacity on the ground in Africa and God has provided these fantastic people to help carry the load.



Please help us spread the word about the new CHILDRENSCUP.ORG. If you're willing to post a banner on your blog or website or in your emails, here is a link to a graphic you can use. Email us at info@childrenscup.org if you have questions.

Be sure to stay tuned to this site for frequent updates about Children's Cup.

A special huge thank you goes out to David Song for his hard work creating the new site for us - thanks, David!

wanna get close to Jesus?

you may have already seen this, but i just saw it again tonight. worth reading again and again.

The poor are where God lives.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.

God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered.

God is with the mother who has infected her child with the virus that will take both their lives.

God is under the rubble and the cries we hear during war time.

God, my friends, is with the poor.

And God is with us, if we are with them.

-Bono

Wanna get close to Jesus? Go help the poor and hurting.

children's cup t-shirts are finally in

$20 gets you looking like me. (okay, you'll need to eat a lot more food a lot more often and carry a diet coke or coke zero everywhere you go, too, but the shirt is part of the look, too.)

here's how to order yours: we are working on getting set up to take orders online, but for now, just email us here and let us know you want one and we'll take care of getting you squared away by email.

plus, you'll be happy to know you're helping a very worthwhile cause - children's cup. (duh)

here's the children's cup website post about the shirts - click here.

tweez got a nose job

i love this dude.