Hawaii Bound

I leave on Friday (at 4am) for Honolulu, Hawaii! I am taking our High School Worship Choir on tour for a week. We are partnering with Kalihi Baptist Church in an effort to reach the families of two housing projects for the Kingdom. We will do a total of 5 concerts, and 2 separate Backyard Bible Clubs for 4 days at each. It will be a busy week, but we've worked in plenty of touring, too. I can't wait!

Life @ the DMV

Things I've seen today @ the dmv:

1) A lady wiping off the eye exam test before using it. And I thought I was bad.
2) A lady made the examiner wait while she brushed her hair before having her picture taken.
3) A baby that souns like a goose.
4) A man with a tatoo on his calf of the rebel flag and a "white power" banner. Are we in Cali or Bama?
5) An old man who tripped twice, was disoriented, and looked like he had been resuscitated in a back room. His license was renewed. Look out.
6) A woman wearing tights with a t-shirt. That's all. It looked like two polar bears were in there fighting to get out.
7) A man came out of the testing room to tell his wife he had "dominated that thing". The next time he emereged from the room he proclaimed that the guy grading the test didn't know what he was doing. He failed. I laughed.

Random Happenings and Thoughts...

1) Ella (our 3 yr old) asked me this morning if she could be our new baby's mama when it gets here.
2) The group "Voices Won" just recorded a song I wrote called "He Came To Me". It is set for release sometime this summer. I'll let you know when. This group is nominated for New Group of the Year in Southern Gospel Music. (They'd better win!)
3) David Carradine died today. My dad was in the last film he made. Maybe that will catapult my dad into stardom. Maybe not.
4) Our Worship Band will be doing "Give Me Your Eyes" later this month in the Cont. Worship Service. Great tune!
5) We had crazy lightening in Cali yesterday. It struck the mountain near the church and started a fire. Random.
6) The Immanuel Choir is opening our Patriotic Celebration in July with a Neil Diamond song.
7) Downloaded Travis Cottrell's new project "Jesus Saves (Live)" today. It is great. Go get it on itunes!
8) Great stuff coming our way, Immanuel. God really challenged us at Staff Retreat and we are ready to implement the vision. Get ready...and get on board!
9) I wonder what I should do for lunch today. Hmmmmm......
10) My office looks like two mail trucks had a wreck on my desk. Disastrous!

Major Announcement

So, I told you I would make a major announcement this week. Coming January 27,we will have a new Bumgardner baby!

Staff Retreat '09

The Immanuel Ministerial staff is in Palm Springs this week for our annual staff meeting. Before you get any ideas, know that we are working like crazy. It's gonna be a good week. I love planning, strategizing, and finding the most effective ways to build and grow our church by reaching as many people as possible for the Kingdom. And, yes, I put all of that into one sentence on purpose.

We are already talking about how to make the biggest impact by streamlining what we do as a church. I'll give you more info later. Just know that the future of Immanuel is looking bright!

Stay tuned this week for some great info. Also, I'll be making a HUGE announcement right here between now and Wednesday. But, you have to check back to know what that is!

Danny the Hampster

Yep. You guessed it. Caleb's friend, Paris, gave him a new hampster for his birthday. Paris was spending the night when Alex (our first hampster) bit the dust. He was as upset as Caleb. So, he was very thoughtful and got Caleb a new one.

Caleb named him Danny, and Danny is a running fool. He is on that wheel non-stop. Welcome to the family, Danny. If all goes well, you'll be around to love and play with our kids for a good two years or so ;).

Happy Birthday

Today is my boy's 9th birthday. He is so excited. We're going to be partying @ John's Incredible Pizza Co. For those who don't know what that is, it is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids. There are rides, video games, and a pizza buffet.

It's Party Day! Happy Birthday, Caleb. I love you so much and am so proud of you!

American Idol Review

Adam Lambert has an amazing voice. That is no secret. But, I feel like he was picked as the winner a long time ago. I just don't believe I would buy his album.

Kris, on the other hand, has consistently been churning out great arrangements every week. He is a true musician.

Who wins? In my book, the 2009 American Idol is.......................................Danny Gokey!

Congratulations Danny! We all knew you deserved it.

A Run Down of Thursday

1) Took day off. Went to Disney Land
2) Set a personal best score on Buzz Lightyear ride. (Take that, Cottrell!)
3) Ella dressed up like Minnie Mouse all day.
4) Saw a lady who had written her phone number on the necks of her 3 children. Debated calling it, but didn't.
5) Watched some fiddle show twice, just because.
6) Twittered a lot. (twitter.com/jeffbumgardner - Follow me!)
7) A guy w/ a wife and 2 kids cut me off getting on the tram and Jody and I had to take 2 different ones back to the car. I could have taken him, but the kids were there. You know....
8) Ate Mexican on the way home and had a hair in my nachos. I twittered about it and got over 15 responses. That almost made it worth it. Almost.
9) Going to the office tomorrow. So excited about Sunday.
10) Going back to DLand tomorrow night!

Mother's Day Review

Our services yesterday were packed full of things to honor Mom. In fact, we had so many things happening that I was worried we couldn't fit them all in and give our Pastor enough time. But, we did! It worked well and Pastor Rob was up with plenty of time to preach. And, it was one of the best mother's day sermons I've ever heard. He did a great job hitting people where they are.

On a personal note, my 8 year old son, Caleb, sang in the contemporary service yesterday morning. He did awesome! I am so proud of him. It is amazing to see your child worshiping the Lord and singing His praise. After we put him in bed last night, we could hear him down the hall singing that song to Himself. Awwwwwww. Tear.

Mother's Day @ Immanuel

Tomorrow is going to be an amazing day @ Immanuel. We have 27 babies being dedicated along with their parents' commitment, the music will be sweet, we're featuring one of our mothers whose story was submitted to us via aboutmymom.com, along with several other surprises and an amazing message from our Pastor. You will be glad you came and brought your family.

I can't wait. See you tomorrow!

National Day of Prayer

We are praying today for our country, leaders, etc. Join us at 12noon in the chapel at Immanuel.

Life's Lessons

I had a great blessing from the Lord today. We are seeing principles we've tried to teach our son his whole life coming out in his actions. It is amazing to see these things starting to become part of who he is.

Today, we had parents of a kid in our neighborhood knock on our door. We have just recently gotten to know them. They came over just to tell us how much they enjoy Caeb coming to their house to play. They told us that he is the most polite kid they've ever met. Yesterday, he had been invited to stay @ their house for dinner. The friend's mom said "when he got up to leave, he approached my husband, shook his hand, and said 'thank you for dinner, sir'". I was so proud that I had to....well, I had to, blog.

Traffic School and Little Known Facts

So, I finally attended traffic school for that ticket I got for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. I still say that I stopped. But, $500 later and completion of online traffic school, it is in my past. Taking the course online, they attempt to make sure you are paying attention to everything you are reading and learning. So, they throw in abstract statements throughout the course. If you are not reading all of the material you will miss it. However, I just googled the answers to the abstract questions. Below is a list of the most interesting things I learned from my online traffic school course:

1) Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room at a dance
2) you can gain 1/10 of a calorie from licking a postage stamp
3) Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy
4) Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots
5) The most common name in the world is Muhammad
6) The shortest complete sentence in the English language is "I Am".
7) Most advertisements for watches have the preset time of 10:10 on the watch face
8) Tigers have stripes on their fur and their skin
9) Sharks are the only fish that can blink both eyes

Pretty interesting stuff, huh? But, as I googled, I also found discrepancies with these facts. Some disagree with the findings. It's a good thing they were multiple choice.

Money

I'm headed out to meet with a financial adviser this morning. He will probably tell me to get some finances, and THEN come see him. I'm not sure how much he can advise me to do with no money. But, whatever...