1. iPhone set up count : 2 - i know, i’m bummed. i thought there would be more this week.

2. 155 days until my wedding.

3. next weekend, the staff from Freedom is going up to Charlotte to meet with the staff from Elevation. we get to sit in on their staff meeting and get some one-on-one time with people in each of our areas. i think i get to talk with this guy.

4. tomorrow is JR’s birthday. stop by his blog and wish him a happy birthday. i’m proud to call JR my pastor. and now that he’s doing P90X with the rest of FreedomChurch (minus me), our church can beat up your church - so bring it!

EXTRA :: reading this got me all jacked up for college football season!

this past Sunday, the FreedomChurch stage got a make-over. i should have taken pictures but i was running ProPresenter on Sunday morning so i was stuck behind the pipe and drape all morning - not a good excuse i know, but still…

anyway, we got some platforms which extend the stage and we also got two intelligent lights. for those of you that really want to know, they are American DJ Spot 300’s.

now we’re looking at controllers for our lights. the controller we have now (Elation Magic 260) will create scenes for our lights but the lights are unable to move during the scene.

any body have any suggestions on a controller?

last night, Callie and i were sitting on the couch (after our 2-mile walk) and she turned on the TV. she started watching something about the Bachelorette. i was not interested so i got out my computer and started checking emails and junk like that. all of a sudden, i remembered that last night was the Home Run Derby (presented by State Farm) on ESPN. i waited until Callie was done with the Bachelorette and quickly turned it over to the HRD. we watched for a little bit and then turned over to one of our favorite shows - Hell’s Kitchen - but soon switched back to the derby and witnessed one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

last night, Josh Hamilton hit 28 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby. yeah, twenty-freakin-eight home runs! and they weren’t just barely over the fence. he was hitting balls 500 feet! total, he hit 28 baseballs over 12,000 feet - that averages out to 428.6 feet per home run. and to give you a reference, deep-center in Yankee Stadium is 408 feet. his longest home run of the night was 512 feet.

while that is very impressive, Hamilton’s story is equally impressive. all night on the telecast they were hinting at his story. this guy was the first overall pick in the 1999 draft. however, he never saw playing time until 2007. Hamilton was addicted to crack and was in rehab eight different times before he got clean in October 2005. he discovered a relationship with God and loves to share his story with anyone who will hear it.

this guy has a great story and i’m glad that he can go on national television, put on a display of power like he did last night, and then turn around and give all the glory back to God.

this is an article from ESPN the Magazine from when Josh was a rookie in 2007. the story is told from his perspective and it is incredible. if you’ve got time today, please go read it.

don’t have much time to write but i read a quote this morning that was awesome…

“the pessimist complains about the wind. the optimist expects it to change. the leader adjusts the sails.”
- John Maxwell

chew on that.

1. two of Callie’s friends got engaged last night. makes me think i’ve started a trend.

2. upgraded to iPhone 2.0 firmware last night. no problems yet. i LOVE the App Store.

3. i also LOVE the guys at LifeChurch.tv. here’s why ::

a. they give away resources for FREE
b. they are crazy good at coming up with new and innovative ways to reach people
c. they created this YouVersion thing that i am absolutely obsessed with
d. they are giving away a YouVersion App for the iPhone (which i’ve already downloaded)

and as a side note, i was listening to Craig Groeschel’s One Prayer message from the Elevation Church podcast this morning (confusing right? i know.) and i have a whole new idea of what “CG” does all day. i think he just goes into work and makes videos. seriously, in the 30 minutes that it took me to drive to work, CG had three videos in his message PLUS a special video personal welcome opening to Elevation Church.

i wonder if his wife (and six kids) get tired of hearing “so we went out and made a video today…”

4. we got FreedomChurch bumper stickers in this week! i put mine on my truck slightly askew - but i like it that way. come to Freedom on Sunday to get yours! FreedomGroups are launching on August 24. sign ups will start next week!

*EXTRA* FreedomChurch softball won the league championship this past Tuesday night. JR told Coach Rick when we were talking of starting the league that if we were gonna have a softball team that we had better win the thing. and so we did.

tomorrow the 3G iPhone is released. i don’t suspect many of the attorneys at work will be waiting in line to get the new iPhone, but i do suspect that come Monday, i’ll have a pretty busy week.

personally, i’ve already downloaded the new version of iTunes (7.7) and downloaded a few of the Free Apps from the App Store.

there are talks that you can download the Apple 2.0 Firmware upgrade from an Apple server and do a bunch of work manually to get it on your iPhone, but i think i might just wait until it can be updated through iTunes tomorrow.

who’s getting the new iPhone?

last night FreedomChurch softball won the league championship in just their first year of existence. the team went 7-1 in the first half and 7-0 in the second half. the final game for the championship last night against Park Street was a classic.

for the first time ever, was FreedomChurch down after the top of the first inning. Park Street jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and FreedomChurch was able to answer to make the score 2-2 after the first. Park Street used up both of their allowed homeruns in the next few innings to open up a 7-3 lead. but the boys in orange and black stormed back into the game in the 5th inning of a 7-5 game with six desperately needed runs.

it was not without controversy.

when Ian Schneider came up to bat in the 5th inning there were runners on first and second. Schneider hit a single which advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd. however, Matt Roberson overran third base and had to quickly jump back to the bag. Park Street’s third baseman applied the tag but the home plate umpire and the 2nd base umpire disagreed on the calls. FreedomChurch asked that the umpires come to a decision and the call was that Roberson was safe. after that call, Ryan Roberson came to the plate and delivered a 3 RBI double.

the inning finished with the score 11-7 in favor of FreedomChurch. Park Street made a comeback but fell just short and the game ended with the final score 11-10.

i can’t wait to get me one of these.

i’m a little hesitant to put this out there because it’s not quite ready yet, but i’m going to anyway.

in an effort to keep this blog about things that are FreedomChurch, FreedomGroups, and other stuff of my life not particularly pertaining to my upcoming December 20 wedding, Callie and i have launched a wedding website.

it’s not quite done yet and might not be for a few days but it’s up and running. to keep up with all the wedding developments, check out http://ericandcallie.com . i’m not even lying - we have our own domain!

1. happy 4th of July!

2. it’s 169 days until Callie and i’s wedding. get excited!

3. went and watched the fireworks in Kennesaw last night. saw a lot of people from my old church last night. it was good to see all of them again.

4. LET FREEDOM RING starts THIS SUNDAY at FreedomChurch! if you’ve ever wanted to know what FreedomChurch is all about, you need to come to one of the next 5 weeks at FreedomChurch. be there or be square!