Lifechanging - in a much different way

You know you live in a good city when all the life changing events take place in the mall parking lot.  Two weeks ago we were lucky enough to attend a David Crowder Band concert in the Northwest Arkansas Mall parking lot at a makeshift amphitheatre which actually made for an awesome concert experience with even better friends.

While that experience was one of the most impactful worship experiences of my life, our past weekend was certainly life changing - just maybe not in as dramatic of a fashion.

We decided that we couldn't pass up the chance to attend the 2011 Fayetteville Wingfest.  It is a conglomeration of the region's best chicken wing places all located in the mall parking lot in a 'festival' type atmosphere.  In all honesty I was just kind of longing for a good old fashioned west side church festival and this was about as good as I was going to get.

We went with Wormer and two good friends of ours from P&G (Dan and Kate).  The main 'action' of the night took place right away as we were talked in to trying the chicken wing that has won the "Hottest Wing" category for the last 5 years.  As you can see below - Nicki had her camera at the ready and documented the downfall of me eating the wing and then suffering its wrath.  It was, without a doubt, a life changing experience - meaning:  I will never eat that hot of a chicken wing again!

All in all we had a blast - it was yet another "Fayetteville" experience - and another chance to hang out with new friends at a new event.

Preparing for the festivities - this was less than 30 seconds before my life changed forever...

Note to self:  if they have to give you a glove to eat the chicken wing so that you do not get it on your hands...don't eat the wing!

The bite....

The recoil....

The aftermath...eyes red, swollen, mouth on fire, headache....yep...life changing indeed...

Your guess: did I just get done eating wings or finishing a bag of cheetos?

Jack was there to comfort us when we got back to the house...

We are off to the Freygang/Young Wedding 2011!  We can't wait to get to Akron to help Jen and John celebrate their wedding festivities.  It will be a great chance to catch-up with friends and family we haven't seen since we left, and of course a chance to grab a bite to eat at some of our favorite NE Ohio establishments.

Most People Would Fly...

When you grow up on the west side of Cincinnati, you expect to spend your existence living within a 15 minute drive of your parents.  This includes attending the same church, having Sunday dinner, and celebrating every holiday together.  It also, at least in my case, comes with certain extent of taking the distance for granted.  You never really think of what it would be like to have your parents come 'visit' you for a weekend in another city.

Nicki and I had that exact set-up with my parents, even though we had moved it just a bit to the northeast of Cincinnati.  We saw my parents every Sunday at church.  We may not have had Sunday dinner every week - but we usually ate one meal on Sunday together.  We saw each other at holidays and a random dinner together at Paxton's on a week night.  It is those nights we miss so much about living in Cincinnati.

With that backdrop, my parents made their first visit to Fayetteville this past weekend.  They made the 11 hour trek over a two day period - and arrived on Friday afternoon.  For any of you that know my parents, no trip is made if it doesn't include playing golf - so they were able to build in a round in St Louis on the way out, and the way back.

Quite honestly - we couldn't have had a better weekend.  As I said to my parents many times - it was as if the city of Fayetteville was showing off for them.  As you will see below, we kept them busy, but we also took the time to have real, genuine conversation.  In the past we have lived our lives together in two hour increments (dinner & drinks, church & breakfast, etc.), that made it all the better to have the time to sit on our back patio and just catch-up late in to the evening.

We experienced everything NWA had to offer - including an incredible David Crowder Band concert (where my mom even caught a drum stick), breakfast at Rick's Bakery, the Farmer's Market, the Walmart Museum, the Bentonville Arts Fair, dinner at Bordino's, and even better a wonderful weekend closing grill out with some wonderful friends we've made here in Fayetteville.

All in all, it couldn't have been a better weekend.  It was as emotional as it was surreal, and enjoyable as it was relaxing.  We may not live ten minutes from my parents anymore, but somehow or another we already feel closer to them.

Given our "VIP" status my mom was able to snag a drumstick thrown in to the crowd - you know those Contemporary Christian concerts - they tend to get out of control...

An entire blog entry could be written on the experience of the David Crowder Band concert - being surrounded by awesome friends and family while listening to such incredible music created a night to remember...

No trip to Fayetteville is complete without the traditional Saturday morning visit to Rick's and the Farmer's Market.

We stumbled upon the Bentonville Arts Fair as we completed the tour of the first Walmart and the newly reopened museum.

We celebrated at a Saturday night dinner at Bordino's with perfect weather and great company...

The Engers

We had the most wonderful weekend with four of our favorite visitors...The Engers!  Jeff, Katie, Emily and Zoey made the drive from Kansas City to experience Fayetteville.  A HUGE benefit of us moving to Arkansas is that we are so much closer to KC than we were in Ohio.  Here are a few pictures of the fun!  Emily is without a doubt absolutely adorable...we already started practicing Niiii in hopes that Nick or Nicki will be her first word :)

The Boys

Two Men and a Baby

Farmer's Market - our Saturday morning routine

Nick's first Razorback Hat

Lunch at Farrell's

  

A God Thing

As many of you have seen on the blog, or in talking with me or Nicki, we have been fortunate enough to have some amazing experiences thus far in our time in Fayetteville.  Through the first two months of being here God has reiterated his plan for us and helped us feel comforted that this move was indeed the right move for us.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to serve at the P&G sponsored Duracell Power Relief Truck and the Tide Loads of Hope truck in Joplin, MO.  A category 5 tornado ripped through Joplin last Sunday, and has been reported to be the worst tornado since the science of reporting tornados started in 1950.  Given that Joplin is only about 2 hours away from Fayetteville, we felt it was the very least we could do to go up and help run the operations P&G was sponsoring.

To say the town is devastated would be a dramatic understatement.  I/we have no experience with being in the aftermath of a disaster, but I can tell you I don't hope to ever see anything like it again.  The pictures you will see below are from basically the center of town - where there used to be a bustling hub of stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, etc. and a number of subdivisions.  The best example I could come up with would be like taking Fields Ertel and wiping out every commercial and residential building for a 12 mile stretch.

The feelings and emotions seeing something like this brings about are almost too much for words.  I am, thankfully, a novice in dealing and communicating such emotions but I felt it was worth explaining the scene we witnessed in Joplin on Sunday.

It would be easy to focus on the devastation.  As you can see below, it would be hard pressed to blame these people if they felt as if there is no hope and no explanation for what has happened to them.  But that is not the town we served - the town we served was full of hope, ready for the work ahead of them, and most importantly, when it seemed the best and easiest thing to do would be to turn away from God - they are taking a firm outward spoken stance and turning directly in to God and all he has in store for them.  Quite simply there was a palpable presence of God's love everywhere we went in Joplin.

We heard countless stories of people thanking God for this experience and what it has taught them.  There were numerous stories of survivors turning their lives to Christ through their interactions with faith based volunteers.  It was clear not one person was concerned about themselves - everyone was concerned about the well being of others.  The entire situation was one of selflessness.

I've often heard the human spirit is much stronger than one can know in times of extreme disaster or need - and what we saw in Joplin more than proved that statement.  There are years and years of hard work and perseverance ahead of the citizens of Joplin - but I left with no doubt that they are not alone in their fight and it is a fight they will win.

On the way up to Joplin I told Nicki I was not confident that I would have an appropriate response if someone who lost everything they owned asked me why a good and loving God would do something like this.  After the experience we had I left with a confident answer:  it is times like these when God's love is at its strongest, His word is spread the easiest, and people are drawn to Him in the fullest.  While there are literally storms in this life, it is the calm after the storm where God can be felt and the story is completed.

This flag, along with a cross of an altar of a Catholic church which remained standing amidst the rubble  have become symbols of the resolve of the citizens of Joplin

From what we were told - everything you see here used to be a neighborhood.

This is a gas station right at the beginning of the storm's path

Amazing to see the interior rooms of almost every house remained standing after the storm.

Another area where a neighborhood used to exist