CLEVELAND CLINIC -DAY 0-2

DAY 0 - A GREAT WAY TO GET STARTED

Christmas eve was done, Christmas day was done and we had one more task . . church on a snow day. While it was a last minute with sick people and stuck people and new people and tired people, it was the best thing that could have happened for my 12 year daughter Olivia. We were on our way to admit Olivia to a 3 week stay at the Cleveland Clinic's Pediatric Pain Clinic.

Olivia was surrounded with great friends, well wishes, cards and gifts and most importantly prayer. Terri and I were so appreciative of having the church pray for our daughter before we left.

The 8+ hour trip included my first trip over Jellico Mountain in the snow. I am certain that is what a movie set is like when the director is yelling "more snow and ice, I need more snow and ice!!!". It was frightening, but we made it safely to Cleveland.

It is cold in Cleveland. Very windy and lots of snow on the ground.

And every street kinda looks like "A Christmas Story". (Can't wait to go see the house).

DAY 1 - Olivia and Terri went for the intake. This was the roughest part.

The Cleveland Clinic Shaker Campus is like something out of a Stephen King movie. It is in a older part of town with a few abandoned schools and buildings around. The facility is several decades old . . . gated with several buildings pieced together. It has a compound feel. It's a cross between a 1950's school and hospital.

Inside it is warm and friendly. The staff is very welcoming. The place feels very safe.

Olivia was so anxious. Her nerves made her sick to her stomach. Terri was able to stay most of the day. Day 1 was was lots of history and info and a little bit of therapy.

Terri and Luke and Audrey are able to see Olivia every day at 5pm. We brought her some food. She had not eaten all day (not interested). SO many people gave us Subway cards, which Olivia loves. That is going to be a great help.

There are only a handful of kids at the clinic with Olivia. They range from sports injuries to serious trauma. Many of them have RSD. There are 3 college age girls that Olivia is bonding with right away. They are so encouraging. I believe that they will be a lifelong resource and friendship for Olivia. They called the nurse when Olivia was crying (and the nurse apparently got in the bed with her). They snuck her a cell phone so that Olivia could text Terri. They all with here every day for the rest of the week. Then next week new kids come in, and hopefully Olivia can be a friend for those kids to lean on.

The first night leaving was emotional but peaceful. With a little help, Olivia was able to go to sleep in peace and get some needed rest.

The Ronald McDonald house is awesome. Nice rooms for cheap and all you have to do is clean up after yourselves. Different groups come in to make breakfast, lunch and dinners. There are always pies and cookies and stuff for everyone to eat. What a great blessing for people going through incredibly difficult times.

We met a couple that had been there for 11 months while their 8 year old had a heart transplant. Another couple was there since Thanksgiving for a 6 year old cancer patient who had a hematoma on the brain. Then met two kids who had "been evicted" and whose brother had just been released. Terri and I want to get involved in our local RMH. There are people in real need there, and it is an easy way to serve.

DAY 2 - She has wi-fi in the room and her ipod . . . wifi +ipod = facebook. We set her up on FB before we left, worried about it getting out of control. It was the best thing we could have done. So many well wishes and prayers and encouragement. She is able to send us a quick post in the morning as to how she is feeling, then she is off for the day. Around 4 she can get back on. I am certain she is sneaking a check during the day, and that's ok. There are so many people pulling for her it can only be a good thing for now.

Lots of therapies on day 2 - physical, occupational, water, emotional. She said the day went by really quickly. She even has to do homework. She says the food stinks. So we found a WHOLE FOODS . . . man I wish we had on of these. It's like a Fresh Market on steroids. We also found a 2 story TARGET with the crazy cart escalator. We look like the Clampett's after seeing a swimming pool for the first time. Bunch of hicks.

A few players from the Cleveland Browns came by with gifts and t-shirts for the kids. Too bad Olivia's dad is a musician and has taught her nothing about football. Still pretty cool though.

At the end of day Olivia said she was sore, but that it was good pain. She loves to work out and she was back to her happy self. We ate hummus and guacamole and veggies and wendy's chili together.

We are so grateful for the gifts, cards, emails, fb posts and prayers. Olivia is being encouraged by so many people. Terri and I are hopeful and grateful.

Peace

Location:E 105th St,Cleveland,United States

One year . . . one incredible year

To say that the past 12 months have been "incredible" does not do justice to the the way God has lead, intervened, comforted and moved in the Jones family.

Incredible meaning "beyond belief"
We could not have known what God has in store for us one year ago . . . a year of a new growing church community, new house that works for us, new school where the kids can thrive, new jobs that are pretty darn cool, new friends, new LIFEgroup, new stuff, new adventures, new things every single day . . . hard to believe it could work out so well, and yet we know He knows the plans He has for us.

Incredible meaning "strange and different"
having an area code that spells VOL, new diseases to learn about and deal with, new situations that we never had to deal with regarding family and neighbors, learning a new ways to grow a business, saying no to some things, knowing my son will be deployed . . . strange can be a growing experience.

Incredible meaning "amazing"
Hanging out with dolphins in a boat with the family, singing with thousands of worship leaders praising at once, hearing new compositions on tv, cheering a once down and out 12 year swimmer to finals, the first roller coaster with a 5 year old (going upside down over and over again), the excitement of camp for an 8 year old, playing with a dream band, jamming at the bijou, leading so many methodists in praise, working with a farmer who plays guitar, skyping with my marine son from his barracks, and then hearing his news from other people :) . . . truly amazing things.

Incredible meaning "marvelous"
6 beautiful kids and 3 grandsons, one more grandkid on the way, Reuniting with old friends, calling one for advice when I need it - no matter how weird the question, seeing my awesome wife happy and busy and reconnected, meeting the dude I saw in those church videos, hanging out in the iphone 4 line, mending the fences, hearing Peyton and Charlie and David and others talk over my music, tricking out my studio in my basement, growing one year older . . . . yeah . . . .

That's all incredible . . . . and that's just what I can remember.

All random events? . . . no way. God gets the thanks for all of the above and all that I forgot about, and all the rest to come.
Peace

Paul

DAYS 2-3 NWLC

DAY 2-3 MWLC

DAY 2 started out with Shannon Wexelberg leading a room full of worship leaders on solo piano. Takes guts to do that, and she did it like a champ. A true heart shines through when the worship leader is in it for God alone and not for personal gain.

Quinton Shultze reminded us all of the worlds oldest profession . . . stewarding. He recalled Adam’s reaction to the parade of animals God placed in front of him to name, and the delight and amazement of that moment . . . and related it to He-Man underpants. Brilliant.

“Leading others into experiential worship “ workshop was once again a reminder to me that my time at Ginghamsburg was invaluable for worship planning. Every church has a worship method and needs to discover how to dream it, refine it, evaluate it and make sure it remains fluid. There is a big world to draw from. God places ideas in front of us every moment of every day. We have to stay aware and awake and be prepared to collect those moments and draw from them when we plan worship.

I had to miss the songwriting session with Chris Tomlin . . . because Sunday is coming, and there is music to be planned. I understand that it was a good session, and that he announced his engagement. Sorry I missed that.

Louie Gigilio was up next. He’s just crazy good. As he said, this crowd of leaders was different than his usual college age crowd, but he was still at ease.

I have two great sentences from his talk.
-“we are the door holders saying, ‘there is something fantastic waiting for you, come on in’ “

-“don’t push your dead grandpa in a wheelchair through the service”.

You had to be there.

DAY 2 evening was the best night all around. Jonathan Lee . . . I am buying the cd. Awesome and strong leader. Laura Story . . . funny and courageous leader. Chris Tomlin . . . frankly I have seen him many times and thought his reception was lukewarm at first. There is a reason he so is contagious. By the end of the evening I did not want it to end. He can lead a room full of leaders into the presence of God whether ripping Sing Sing Sing or slowly building Our God. Loved it all.

DAY 3
A full day of workshops.

Top online tools . . . man I am getting old. I thought Facebook and Twitter were it. I am going to start a social networking site called fannoogledadoodle.com. I think it will catch on. It was great learning about the gazillion resources for church to announce, educate, discuss and share.

“Liturgies that breathe” may not have been the best choice after lunch . . . drowsy. But a guy with something to say about most any subject can keep you awake.

The best workshop for me was last one . . . “leading worship between the songs”. This was penance for all the ridiculous things I have personally said between songs. And if you are a worship leader and are reading this . . . you have done it too ☺.

Highlights included leading from your strengths and temperment, leading from your gifts, and “duh” . . .practice it. Silly me.

The last evening music session. . . . hard to put into words. Frankly a rough start, which was still a learning lesson for me. Programming is KEY. Know your audience and where they are emotionally, acknowledge the timeline (being aware that this was the last session), don’t let your tech team get tired on the big last night. Buzz killing, and don’t let it become your personal talent show. I know, harsh words, but I almost left during the first hour.

Calvin saved the day.

Then Starfield came on and tore it up. I am a new fan.

I love Israel, and was excited to finally see him in person., When I saw that the drumset had no cymbals, then saw the small percussion set up, I started to get disappointed. Then they started. Loved it. Reggae version of Mighty To Save. Say So. You Are Good. Just Wanna Say. FOG. Moving Forward. Yeah . . . it was killer.

I met some very cool people that I know I will keep up with forever. Had KC BBQ and sushi. Won a set of Senheiser earbuds and got a PCO t-shirt. Learned many things, felt many things and encountered God over and over. A great trip

On to the last METHODIST ROUND TABLE.

Peace

Paul

DAY TWO - National Worship Leaders Conference

DAY TWO
The first full day of events of the conference.

We start with worship lead by Billy and Cindi Foote and Matt Papa. Good low key worship for tired people. Heartfelt and genuine.
Marcos Witt is a dynamic speaker and a grammy award winning musician. So funny. Great spirit. Nothing held him back. Great message for for worship leaders on finding your own voice, and not just being an imitator, laying down our crowns and becoming as low as possible . . . if you can find a lower floor, get on it to get lower so that God can be lifted even higher.

Attended 3 workshops:
-FLOW in WORSHIP. This was more of an affirming time for me, with no ah ha moments. I still believe contrived flow can be distracting. Choosing a song for flow sake is a big no no in my book.

-MIDNIGHT OIL guys . . . visual communication. Being at Ginghamsburg for 4 years really drove this home for me. Although I had heard of Len and Jason for many years, it was a treat to get to hear them speak their thoughts and experience on communicating the gospel with metaphors via the LRAGE screen we all have in the middle of the room. Funny guys, insightful and a great resource for churches.

-Songwriting with Matt Redman - funny drummer and Chris Tomlin jokes and great insight on songwriting. Your whole life is about collecting the material for the songs. Always collect, always look out for inspiration. Don't accept normal. Have a purpose when writing.

The worship session in the evening was a mixed bag. Began a bit slow. Then Tenth Avenue North lit it up. Those guys are powerful worship leaders, even if they look 12 years old. Matt Redman is always a treat. How do I say this . . . even on the songs that we have FRIED in worship, it is fun to hear him live offer them up.

FULL DAY TODAY . . . . Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, Experiential worship.

PEACE

Paul

Day one National Worship Leader Magazine Conference

The first day of the worship leader conference is done. It started early this morning with a pre conference seminar called Stewards of Technology. It was a mixed bag of thoughts and presentations. It is true that we should not use every piece of new technology that comes along without asking the questions "is this healthy for our church" and " will this bring people closer to God or become a distraction". Frankly I kept being distracted with thoughts of how i had just seen facebook become a powerful tool in the passing and remembering of a 22 year old man. A powerful tool for sharing stories, relating feelings, helping healing and witnessing to others using this man's life has to be shared with the people of faith communities.

I also get that a tool meant for good can go bad. I kept thinking that somewhere an unfiltered session of "tweet the pastor" during a service, shown LIVE on the screen, has probably turned ugly. I have seen a pastor's blog meant to share thoughts and powerful God stories to show good turn ugly with hate speech. Yeah . . . We need to think through it before we use it. But don't let the negative turn us away from finding the positive.

Matt from Houston agreed to take me to the apple store in kansas city to get a folio for my new iPad. I had been a resister, but after typing on it like a fool during the workshop . . . I love this thing. We also took a spin through the local guitar center. I think it is the same guy that goes from music store to music store cranking the gtr amps up and mindlessly trying to shred like the poor fill-in chef at a japanese steak house, hoping to be discovered in the aisle next the $200 guitars. Oh well.

(shh. . .media shout for mac. We will know more tomorrow. )

A meeting of the top attended methodist churches for contemporary worship was next on the list. It was an honor to be there with people from Granger church, Frazer UMC and Ginghamsburg church. Kim Miller is always fun to be with in meetings. We had some good KC BBQ and then launch into a discussion of designing a Methodist track for the 2011 conference. I kept thinking about the man who came up to me at the last annual conference we played who said that his church barely had 100 members but wanted to start something just like this at his church. But they have limited resources and support. Where should he start? What should be an energizing question can be troubling at the same time. He needs resources, not just iTunes and ccli charts. To hear a room for of music leaders say it's not about music was encouraging. It is not about adding some drums and a backbeat and some electric instruments and saying "hey, now we are contemporary. Everybody stand and sing" As Kim said. . . . It is about the worship and the story. This will be an interesting week with this group.

Phil Wickham opened up the worship set - just him on guitar. And i could feel the collective "oh no" before he started. I have always thought of him as the feature song guy. I was wrong. This guy is a powerful worship leader and his songs are going into our rotation.

Here's a tip . . . At a worship leader seminar with vendors from Shure, Media Shout, lighting companies, etc . . . .have your tech A-team ready to go. The preachers mic not being on. . . that's ok . . . We even see that on american idol. But messy lyrics and abrupt lighting cues and the poor guy's keyboard not being hooked up . . . . Oh well. We all prayed for the tech team . . .after the pastor's mic came on.

The 2nd worship team was from Grace Chapel. They were awesome. A 3 song set of healing music. Loved every song, and had never heard 2 of them. New Songs for the list. Heard a message about the pit and the privilege to be in it. Amen brother.

Keith and Kristyn Getty finished out the evening. A bagpipe joke, an impromptu riverdance and some pretty cool Irish licks made it fun. The highlight for me was a room full of several thousand worship leaders singing In Christ Alone. I called Terri and held up the iPhone so she could experience it with me. Moving.

Day two tomorrow.

Peace

Paul

RSD

R.S.D. Three letters that I had never heard used together until my daughter was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy last week. We were told many weeks ago that it was a dislocated shoulder. Then Olivia's burning pain in her arm would not go away. Her arm was constantly hurting and it was taking all we had to get her calm and rested.

RSD is uncommon in adults and even more rare in kids. Read about it on the interent. It is one nasty disease. It is permanent and lifelong. It can cause the loss of the use of the affected limb. "Chronic pain" are not words you want ever associated with one of your kids . . . and this one is a whopper. I would feel sorry for any adult with this, but for a kid . . . unimaginable until now.

Olivia has swam competitively for 6 years. So this was going to mean no more swimming, as water was like fire on her skin. Terri and I were devastated. RSD does not heal, it does not cure itself but it does go into remission. Olivia's pain was growing worse and her quality of life was diminishing each day. Every day and night there were tears and growing concerns.

As we got the disgnosis, we started to ask around if other doctors and friends had heard of this disease that we had never heard of. Yes . . . the pediatrician had read about it, but never saw a kid with it. No one on facebook replied when I asked about it. But a man at church had a grown daughter with it. You can find it on the interent . . . . but wading through the horror stories is too painful.

Lots of people prayed for Olivia. We did. Our pastors did. Our worship team did. Scores of others too. Olivia started talking about other sports she could do rather than swim, but with tears in her eyes. Moving the arm hurt. Touching the arm hurt. Leaving the arm still hurt. On a scale from 1-10 she said it was a 45.

There is hope - when caught early, and in kids, remission is possible. And some medications can relieve some of the pain.

Olivia saw the doctor today . What we thought was a visit to teach us how to manage a lifelong pain turned into hope. Olivia said her pain is 90% gone . . . the doctor looked surprised. He said as soon as the pain subsides, get her in the water and get her swimming again. Olivia told us she had a dream the night before that the doctor said she would never swim again. Olivia said she is blessed to be able to swim again. The relief in her eyes was a Godsend.

Olivia will have RSD her entire life, and will have to be careful with injuries. She will have to learn the signs and act fast when she feels it come on. But there is hope that she can live a normal life and keep on swimming.

For those people with RSD, a disease I had never heard of until 1 week ago . . . you are in our prayers.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Peace

Paul