Well. Today was our last day meeting in the Lakeland Family YMCA. It’s been a great home for Access church for the last two years. It was definitely a special day at Access. I believe that second service today was one of the most powerful worship experiences we’ve ever had as a church. People really pressed in to the presence of God and responded in a big way. Let’s keep that going! As always, the band played great! Check out the set list and a short video of our time at the Y.

Rain Down – Delirious
You Are My Passion – Jesus Culture
What Does It Sound Like? – Bethel
How He Loves – John Mark McMillan

The YMCA – A Look Back from Access Church on Vimeo.

Kristin’s hair has always been crazy thick. She sheds more hair in a couple of days than I have on my head at any given time. That said, every time I get in the shower and see the rat-like ball of it staring at me I try to do something to remind her to remove it from the shower. Generally I’ll just sit it on her side of the counter or something like that. She thinks it’s funny. Today was exceptionally creative if I do say to myself.

The other day in staff meeting Pastor Jason was talking about God as our provider. We’re taking a huge step of faith as a church and believing that God is going to provide and continue to build His church.

When I was a freshman in college I was trying to get enough money to fly to Colorado and attend a songwriting workshop. I had a free plane ticket, a friend I could stay with, and plenty of money to buy food. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough money to cover the registration for the workshop. It wasn’t much. But I didn’t have it. The deadline for registration was getting close and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it happen. One day I opened my school mailbox and had a letter from someone back home. There was a short note that said, “Not sure why but I know God told me to send this to you.” It was a check for the exact amount of the workshop registration. To the dollar. The memo line of the check just said “seeds”.

A few months went by and I found myself low on cash again. I had gotten sick and made a couple unexpected purchase. A few visits to the walk-in clinic and some antibiotics purchases add up fast. In the midst of all this, another check. This time for a very large amount. Enough for me to live off of for months in college. Again the memo line just said “seeds”. This happened time and time again throughout college and early in our marriage. The timing was always unbelievable. This person had no way of knowing when I had a need. It was God. It had to be.

Fast forward a couple of years. Kristin and I had been married for a while. I was working a full time job and doing pretty well. Then we had a huge problem with our only vehicle. We could have paid for it but man were we going to feel it. I went to the mailbox of the apartment complex we were living in. I had already dropped the car off for repair. I’m sure you know where this is going. There was a check from the same person for more than enough to cover the car issue.

Each time this happened it strengthened my faith in so many ways. It reminded me that God is in control. He’s the Provider. It’s what He does. He provides. It reminded me that there’s absolutely nothing that we need that he doesn’t see and care about. But the memo line also always stood out to me. It always simply said, “seeds”. The one word meant so much to me. It made me realize that these checks were more than just a nice person “helping out a poor college student”. This person was communicating that they were investing in me because they believed in me. If you believe in someone…Let them know. It doesn’t have to be money. Just let them know.

The Access band is alway good. But some days they just completely out-do themselves. Today was one of those days. Both services were great but second service was just right on point. Everyone played great, the sound was great, and the congregation was engaged. I’m really grateful that I get to lead with these guys every week. They’re not just great musicians. They’re also great friends who are passionate about leading others in worship. Here’s the set list from this morning and hilarious video Mike made to remind people not to get left behind in the move. Also, be sure to swing by Jason’s blog to hear his thoughts about the day.

Love Came Down – Brian Johnson
Furious – Jeremy Riddle
King of Wonders – Bethel Music
Show Me Your Glory – Jesus Culture

Michael Misses the Move from Access Church on Vimeo.

I was sitting on a bus in Moscow waiting to catch a flight to Siberia. We had been in the air for nine hours so we had no idea that we were actually one of the last international flights out of JFK in New York City. Our interpreter has run in to the airport to confirm our flight time and get a few things for the team. He said that the TV and radio were both saying that the World Trade Centers had been bombed and that they had “fallen down”. Everyone on the bus was sure that he had misunderstood. We tried to explain what the World Trade Center building were, how large they were, and how there was no way that they had “fallen down”. We walked in the airport to find out that we were wrong.

As we were sitting on the runway waiting to fly out of Moscow to and into Siberia I borrowed a satellite cell phone and called my brother back in the States. He tried to explain what was going on but it was pretty much impossible to grasp. After our brief conversation I tried to fill in the rest of the team on the idea of three planes being used as weapons. We flew on to Siberia and sat in our hotel rooms watching the footage of plains flying into the World Trade Center buildings. We could onlu understand occasional words. “George Bush”, “New York City”, “Pennsylvania”, “Osama Bin Laden”, “Condoleezza Rice” and “Al Qaeda”.

Every morning I would go down to the front desk of the hotel we were staying in. The hotel manager spoke no English but each morning she would hand me a ripped piece of newspaper with the names of Russian TV shows. She would circle the ones that were news shows so I would know what time they would be talking about the attacks back home.

Eight days later we weren’t completely sure we were going to be able to fly home. After a long mechanical delay we finally boarded a flight to New York City. The flight from Moscow to New York was packed with people who had been stranded after international flights were temporary grounded. I still remember landing in New York City. There was still a dark debris cloud pierced by the giant work lights at ground zero. The plane cut through the debris, landed, and the pilot said “Welcome to the United Stated of America.” Everyone on the plane cheered. We were all so glad to be home. The security at JFK was heavy. We flew on a completely empty flight from New York to Atlanta where we were greeted by our friends and family.

To this day it still feels weird to remember 9/11. Being overseas it was like we knew it was real but we were so sheltered that it’s hard to know what it must have been like back here in the States.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?