Final Four

The final four are in, with George Mason's amazing victory over UConn... awesome!

Here's my pics:

Mason over Florida (wishful thinking probably, but it would sweet!)
UCLA over LSU

Finals:
UCLA over Mason

More than likely I will be dead wrong, but that's what's awesome about college ball, you never know what will happen.

The times they are a-changin

Check out these photos of glacial recession based on old photos... it's increadible the climate change that is occurring so rapidly

http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=626&gid=42

Keepin it real

It's been a while since I've blogged, and it seems like there is a ton of stuff I want to write about, from the Final Four, to Wal Mart's organic push, to the immigration reform protests going on... Lot's of stuff. Since I only have about 5 minutes though, I'll keep it short and just give you guys a quick update on the last two weeks.

Spring break was good, it was still a busy week, but we had a good time as a family, and got to spend time with Debi's family some. My sister Autumn came in town after not being in the country for the last few years. She's going to be living in Orlando, but came to visit for a few weeks here before moving back there and adjusting to life back in the states. It's great to see her, and Merit loves her. The team from Kenya got back, and it seemed like everyone had a very encouraging time on the trip. The thing they shared was most surprising was how much the saints were already doing over there, which wasn't what they had expected to see. Praise God for laborers all over the world! The second half of the semester started up this week, and we had a good Bible study at Clark Hall. I'm enjoying that time, as it's pretty laid back and conversational. We had a HG servants retreat this past weekend, and had a great time. I love the other brothers I serve with, and am so thankful for them. It's pretty rare that we all get to be together for more than an hour or two, so that time was really precious and I was encouraged to be around these faithful men. This weekend was our women's retreat, which Debi was speaking at. She was really nervous, but I think she did very well. I stayed with Merit and we had a good time together just the two of us. We got a lot done around the house...

Anyway, that's a quick summary of stuff the last two weeks.

On a different note, special thanks to my friend Tammy for turning me on to www.pandora.com. Check this site out if you are looking for new music, it's like having your own radio station.

New and Fresh

This is a picture of us with Neil and Terry in Boston, just off of Harvard square. Merit got cut out by the guy taking the picture.

Boston Visit

I don't have the time to write a long post about our Boston visit right now, but wanted to throw up a few of the impressions I was left with from the Lord.

We stayed in the Back Bay area of Boston, which was very nice, and very convenient for us. We were able to get around easily, and had a great time together as a family. Debi and I were able to walk a couple of campuses and pray for the students there. It was spring break, so classes weren't in, but even with that it seemed like we saw students everywhere. The entire city is crowded with young people, everywhere you look, which is exciting.

I would say the best benefit of this trip though was getting to meet Mike and Melissa Marjakowski, and Terry and Neil Richarde. Mike and Melissa are the cousins of Sarha Carbollo in Orlando, (the Lord is leading Sarha to join up with us on the plant). Neil and Terry are ministering with Grace Street Church, which they helped plant in Boston 5 years ago.

Talking to Mike and Melissa was really good for Debi and I, as we have been wondering what life in Boston is like, what the people are like (is there really a huge cultural gap?), and how we would fit in being from Texas. Having lunch with them was really awesome, as it just felt so encouraging and helped to get past some of those fears of us not being able to relate to New England natives. They are an awesome couple that the Lord is using there, and it was a blessing to spend time with them. They also gave us some great insight into the needs of city, and helped to answer some of the exact questions I've been praying for answers for. Anyway, it seemed to both Debi and I like the Lord was very much involved in connecting us with them. (We didn't even know they were there until I had talked with Sarha last Monday night, and by Saturday we were having lunch at their house!)

We had lunch with Neil and Terry on Sunday before we came back to Denton, and it was great to meet with them and get the perspective of people who have been a part of planting a successful church in Boston. They were very encouraging to us, and were excited about the possibility of more laborers in Boston. Since they have been through a very similar experience to what I would expect us to go through (they moved from California to Boston with a large family), it was awesome to get their insight and advice. The Lord has really blessed their faith, and it seems like is doing great things through their church there. We didn't get to go to the service that night, but hope to the next time we make it up.

Anyway, by far the best part of the trip was us meeting these two couples, and both Debi and I came back with a real feeling like the Lord was very much involved, and is moving on this plant. I'd love to share some more of the specifics, but I'll close it off for now.

More Pictures

In front of MIT (for some reason it was in B&W)

With Mike and Melissa

By the river with the city in the background

Pictures from Boston

From Top:
- Josiah and Merit at the Northeastern Student Union
- Debi and Merit in fron Northeastern
- Merit playing at the Boston Common playground

March Madness

Bracket is up!

A&M made a 12th seed, but will have a monster first round game against the Orangemen... Ok, I have a lot to blog about our Boston trip including some pictures, but I wanted to throw in a quick note on the tournament.

Long abscence from blogging

"What's going on with the Rogers?" you may ask...

The past few weeks have seemed jam packed for some reason. Part of it is because I'm trying to get Lightyear up and going, which is proving to be very stressful. Another part is because I've been dealing with some internal trials and struggles that have really been weighing me down. Yet another part is because Merit's been sick for a few days, and that's been tough.

Lately, even when she's not sick, Merit has been waking up around 6:30 in the morning. That's made it hard for me to have a good time alone with the Lord, which is what I normally do at that time. I've been trying to read while Merit's eating breakfast, and then get some prayer time in while carrying her around the living room... but, it's been tough. I have that feeling of really missing a good friend...

As a result of a lot of the trials in my life I've felt very discouraged lately. I know that the Christian life is not about performance, but part of the fact of leadership is that people do judge you on your performance as a leader. (I know because I often judge other leaders on their performance... something I'm working through with the Lord.) When I look at the past six months it just seems like I've failed as a leader in many areas in my life... and it seems like I keep getting reminded about my failure daily. My daily prayer has been that God would help me to keep getting off the mat and fighting.

On another note, Debi, Merit and I are going to Boston Thursday. We'll be there for the weekend and hope to spend some good time getting a feel for how it will be to live in the city as a family. Hopefully we'll also get to have some conversations with other spiritual laborers there who can help us discern the leading of the Spirit about a church plant. I'm really looking forward just to spending a few days alone with Debi (and Merit too, but mostly Debi) in the city we honeymooned in.