Photo Booth

Last night I was showing my parents my nice, beautiful, sleek, fast, wonderful new MacBook that my wife bought for me. I decided that I wanted to use Photo Booth to shoot a quick video of around their house. After I shot the video, I was having some problems of Photo Booth wanting to shut down. Well, no need to worry because Apple, Inc. has the #1 rated customer service. So the next morning (this morning) I called 1-800-MY-APPLE, and we quickly discerned that the problems were not with Photo Booth but rather with a 3rd party application that I had "Migrated" from my iMac in my office. What did we do? Well, we trashed the 3rd party application (I don't even know why I had it to begin with), and walla...problem solved. Oh, here's the video that I shot...I'm sure you're stoked to see it.

Family Time

Today, Kaydee and I left, to Springfield Missouri, to visit my parents for the week. I always love coming here and spending time with two of my most favorite people in my life (obviously Kaydee being my most favorite of all). Having this time often reminds me of how important it is to connect with family. My parents always tried to instill in me a mindset that would help to keep me focused in life; that being keeping an order of importance and focus in life: God, family, and then work. Getting caught up in the business of life, work, etc., it's very easy to neglect family, but times like this give me an opportunity to get my focus in check. I appreciate the gift of family that God has given to me, and I look forward to this week with my wife, parents, sister, and brother-in-law. There are many things in life that come and go, but family is always here to stay.

By the way, I appologize if this thought has been scrambled. As I wrote this, I've carried on conversations with my wife and mom, and loved on a dog (Emily, we got her for my mom's birthday). It's hard for me to multi-task in such ways.

My Current Read

I'm about to venture into this book, and I'm looking forward to it. Have you read this book? If so, give me your thoughts. Let's create a discussion. After all, it will help to keep me accountable to read it.

Drumming

I've been drumming now for 17 years. For the first 10 or so, I would practice for hours a day. I would practice working on technique, time consistency, skill, dynamics, speed, incorporating my drum line skills onto the drum set, and more. Something else that I would do to practice and to expand my horizons with my instrument was to play along with CD's; rock, rap, Christian, country, punk, slow songs, fast songs, jazz, anything that I had. I would listen and listen to the drummer, trying to pick up his/her technique, dynamics, virtually everything I could. My goal would be to play that particular song just as the recording drummer did. This video reminds me somewhat of myself.


Ex-Girlfriend from Chris 'The Falcon' Han on Vimeo.

Love Song

A friend showed this to me; I wanted to share it with all of you. It's called Love Song.


Love Songs from Chris 'The Falcon' Han on Vimeo.

"Bond. James Bond."

I'm a huge 007 fan. It started from an early age, actually, with my dad being the source of my fandom (I don't think that's a word, but I couldn't resist). As I was growing up my dad and I started a tradition that once a year (usually every fall) we'd go through the entire 007 series, starting with "Dr. No," and up to the current. Now that I'm married and my wife and I live in another state, it's important to me that I keep up this tradition...occasionally calling my dad to let him know what movie in the series I'm on. In honor of the recent 007 that's hitting the theatres today, I started my 007 series. It took me about 2 or 3 weeks to get through, but I just finished the latest "Casino Royale" a few days ago. My wife and I are going to a nice theatre on Saturday to enjoy the "Quantum of Solace" experience. This place only allows 21 year olds and up (because they serve alcohol...don't worry, I'll have a pop...shaken, not stirred, instead). They have two chairs linked together that equal the size of a love sofa, seat warmers, and servers that serve you food during the flick. You purchase your seats in advance, so there's no waiting in lines because your seats are waiting for you when you arrive, and everyone there are serious watchers, so there's no cell phone annoyances, loud discussions, etc. All of this does require a little more out of your pocket, but for me it's worth it. So much so, that I passed up free tickets to see a sneak peak early Thursday evening. I'm excited to see Quantum of Solace. I'll enjoy every part of it (good or bad), even the approximate 10 times that my wife will tell my during the flick, "James Bond is such a womanizer."

Habits

What does the word "habits" bring to mind? I know that several (including myself) tend to initially associate "habits" with a negative connotation. In my life I have several habits. All are the cause of choice. Some are good, and some are...well...not so good. I even have habits with my personal time with God. I remember in college, my professors would always announce to us that the habits we develop during our time in college are the habits that we will face throughout our lives. And were they ever right. During my college days, I kept myself so busy with this and that that the last thing on my plate was my personal time with God. Now, I face a struggle of habit; saving my personal time with God for the last part of my day. However, I often find myself either skipping it because I'm too exhausted, or just going through the motions of spending time with God. Consequently I've decided that I must change my habit, and develop a new habit. The new habit is making God the first priority of my day. I know for many this is not revolutionary, but for me this is. For me to thrive with God, God must be first! Not only in words and certain aspects of my life, but in action and all aspects of my life. I'm so thankful that we " [...] continually work out our salvation [...]" (Phil. 2:12, NIV). For me, one area of focus is destroying a habit of giving God something other than first place, and instead developing a solid new habit of putting God first in my days.

For a great read on "habits," I'd like to recommend the book series "Habitudes: Images That Form Leadership Habits & Attitudes" by Dr. Tim Elmore.

What A Night!

Wow, my first official blog. I started this process, in one sense or another, approximately two years ago, and now here I am. But explaining the slowness of my blogging career getting off of the ground isn't the reason for my writing today. Instead, I want to share the amazing student ministry service that I had the privilege to be a part of last night.

Last night, CSM (Core Student Ministries) kicked off its first ever One Big Night. We combined our middle school and high school groups; had an awesome skit, videos, worship, give-a-ways, wrap-up to a six week long contest, special speaker, etc. You know, all of these things that are familiar to student ministry. One of the events of the night that we experienced, was also what many student ministries probably experience...a Stand! "What do you mean?" you may ask. At the conclusion of the message we saw an incredible response of several teens making a decision to stand for Christ; some were for the first time, some were a re-dedication, or some were for a deeper commitment. But as a leader, I find myself constantly asking the question: how do we become the catalyst for these students to help them transform their "service experience" and decision into a way of life? I don't know about you (whoever reads this), but as a leader in student ministry, I don't want to see experience without genuine change. I think, what I'm learning is that the conclusion of this question varies with each leader and student ministry. I'm learning that I can no longer see a successful student ministry somewhere else, and try and clon that ministry and expect the same results. Instead, it's going to involve me spending my own time (and a lot of it), asking God, "What do you have for us?" "What do you want CSM to be?" "How can I be the leader you want me to be for the students you've intrusted me with?"

I pray that God will continue to help me become a catalyst to help our students transform their genuine "service experiences" into their everyday life. I'm thankful for CSM, and for the work God is doing in and through our students, and I'm excited about the future of CSM. Faithfully Reaching, Relating, and Revealing God's plans for our students.

signed,
always learning! always growing!