Spirit West Coast

Hands raised in Worship.
Originally uploaded by jessica bo-bessica.

Hey Hey... So, I did take my camera this weekend... But, I would be lying if I said that I am the one who took any photos. My camera never made it out of my bag. I didn't have the heart. And, plus, there were plenty of others with cameras. So until the kids from Desert Son get all that together: I offer this photo (I think it was taken during Audio A's set Sunday afternoon).

Thanks to this Flickr user for taking great shots and being on the ball about getting them up on the web!

I had a great time this weekend. It was a very much needed escape for a nice, restful, exciting, unexpected weekend. God really spoke some incredible words into my heart while I was in California. I wish I could have taken you all with me... But, I am glad that we didn't have to cook for you all on our little propane stove and our [very] greasy grill.

Events that occurred this weekend will shape who I am. Thank You for Spirit West Coast Del Mar.

[update] I was so excited that I found such a sweet shot of SWC that I almost forgot to tell you to check out Stacie Shopp's brand spankin new blog here. She will be taking care of me while I am working with the team in Moscow. So far, she has a great post (with lots of pictures) about IT's International Leadership Forum that she is just finished with. I am so excited to be working with such an awesome team in Moscow!

Da Vinci was what!?

First: I want to give a nod to Matt Lynn.

Thanks for the link to this article, as well as your most recent thoughts, friend.

I just finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I have read all of Mr. Browns books... And the only reason I waited on this one is because they were not offering it in paperback yet... ;)

I only have one thing to say, It was a great book. It was, as his other novels are, great fiction. I have not seen the movie yet, I would like to... But its hard for me to picture Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon... Especially with longer gray hair... Now, I only have one question about the book... I found several strange things: every book has the authors name, and usually the title of the book on every page as you read it. In the case of the book I acquired, "Dan Brown" was on the pages on the left, and "The Da Vinci Code" was on the right. Every page had standard page numbers except the start of chapters... Okay... That said... There were at least two occasions that I noticed the title was different, there were two occasions that I noticed that Dan Browns name was changed, and two occasions that I noticed that the page numbers were not even numbers... Once was an SOS, on a chapter page (one that should not have had a page number at all), and one that appeared as ***, in place of a page number... Very strange. I thought that they would tie in with the story somehow, and they probably do... But there was no direct reference in the text that meant anything with these symbols. I'm sure there are entire websites devoted to solving this secrets and more. Strange. Intriguing. Bravo on a page turner Mr. Brown.

I saw the movie Closer tonight. What a waste of time. Great cast, and good dialogue (minus the excessive usage of the F word to define almost every action imaginable, including usage as an adverb, verb, noun, article, direct object, and indirect object)... But what a trashy plot. I suppose that it is real life for sexually promiscuous individuals... What a sad reality. If you watched Closer, and thought that it was a portrayal of your life, you should seek professional help, because I fear that you may be a pathological liar parading as an optimist, or you are a depressive who uses deception and shocking truth to define your depression. Clive Owen was absolutely sinister.

This weekend I will be at Spirit West Coast in Del Mar, California... Maybe I will use that digital camera of mine... :)

Plane Tickets, and the eList Launch...

I purchased plane tickets today!

This is really happening!!

I also sent out my first eList update tonight. If you did not receive one, send me a note, or make sure you are signed up by filling out the form in the sidebar.

You can also view the email online here.

I will have my itinerary online soon... More later, I gotta work coffee in the morning.

Goodbye Desert.

God is amazing.

As of today. Sunday May 7th 2006. I am +100% of my required budget for six months and have begun the visa application process.

If you are keeping score, God moved from "I'll go when I have the money." to "I am leaving mid to late June." in about 30 days.

Incredible. This has truly been amazing, and I haven't even left Tucson Arizona yet.

Please pray that money continues to come in so that I may minister as long as possible in Russia. Also, I will be purchasing plane tickets this week and should have a departure date written in (sand)stone soon. Pray for the travel visa, I will be cutting it close for processing time. They will have my passport for part of this process (the part at the end) and I obviously can't leave the country without that. So, if they decide to take a while... I could stay past my expected departure date.

If you have tried to sign up on the elist over on the left, I had to reconfigure some things, I am still working out all the bugs. It worked fine, but there was not an auto responder set up... So I was manually sending out the confirmations... Which was fine... But time consuming.

I think it is configured properly now, but, it will take time to reload on the server side, so if you do not receive a confirmation in just a few minutes (up to 30 minutes), then try again tomorrow... :D

** UPDATE ON THE ELIST **
It is still not configured correctly... I will send you a note within 24 hours if you sign up, because I love you. -Chris

You can always send me a note here too. chrismwarren at gmail dot com.

The Latest on Russia

I know I have kept many of you in the dark in regards to Russia in the last two weeks or so. I apologize for that, I just didn't want to tell you one thing and have to retract my statements later.

Things are coming together fast. Realistically, I am looking at leaving within 6-8 weeks. If I can pick a date off a calendar, I would pick June 21st.

Budget: Thursday, I received updated budget information. For me to go for six months, my budget is roughly $8,400. My insurance information will change it a bit, but I won't know the final amount of that for a few more weeks. Plane tickets are still roughly $1,200. As of May 5th, I have $7,300 committed. That leaves $1,100 remaining to round out my budget for six months. I was also told Thursday, that I may not proceed in purchasing plane tickets until I have 100% of my budget pledged for. There are obvious reasons for this policy, however, if I am going to leave by mid-June... Its getting a bit close. It takes 6-8 weeks for Russian travel visa processing.

After waiting for as long as I have, a few weeks seems trivial. Please pray that I continue to have a peace about His timing. If you have thought about giving, now is the time to go ahead and do it, now is the time to push me over the mark so that I can be released to leave this summer and minister in Russia.

Keep praying guys, its working.

<< Make sure you join the eList to recieve the latest newsletter... delivered right to your email inbox, and saving me 37 cents.

Join my eList!

I have loaded a new design, as you may have noticed.

Some of the pictures poke off the side of the layout and viewing it in Internet Explorer at a resolution of 800x600 may cause problems for you. But it should look good for 98% of you.

I promise a detailed update on my situation in regards to Russia soon. There are still a few details that need to be worked out, but things are starting to come together in a positive way.

Please join my elist! Use the form on the left to send me an email and get the latest info. If you have ever sent me an email, you are probably already on the list. An update will be going out soon!

Let me know what you think about the changes, and if you have any problems viewing it, let me know. I'll work out all the bugs. I love you guys.