in case you missed it...

I like posting the little videos of our work in Mexico, Kenya, Los Angeles and of course in Riverside. It's fun to track how many people watch them each day- a few recently breached the 1,000 views threshold- my total video views are approaching 20,000.

Chump change on the net. Yahoo put together the above video summarizing the years top viewed internet videos- billions of views in the US alone... BILLIONS! I don't watch many internet videos other than the ones I make, a little egocentric but who's got the time? Apparently millions of people in the US alone... so I enjoyed catching up on what the rest of the nation had clued into last year. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Any time you want to check out my videos on YAHOO, just go to this link and you can see them all. They chronicle much of our work together and always bring back great memories of life changing times around the world. God is too good.

blessings,

Eric

all I want for Christmas

Debi and Christina - Christmas, 2007

Christina "Petunia." That's what Debi always called her when she lived at Siempre. Her young mother was in the crisis of her teen years when in tears and heartbreak she left her only daughter with us... signed away her birth certificate, entrusting her to our care.

We all fell in love. Christina's a very special kid: cute, charismatic, loved by everyone and always quick with just the right word to say... the kind of kid who could be president of Mexico some day. When her mom showed up pregnant again, now married, and wanting her back over a year later, heartbreak- and hope -moved throughout the household.

Debi and I spent our Christmas day driving across Tijuana at sunset with Alejandro and his family looking for Christina's new home, fearing the worse, hoping for the best. God answers prayer. Her mom, now 20, is fantastic and is married to a hard working young man. There's a new little brother- a cute guy -and the family recently received the gift of a home built especially for them, a cute litte 400 sq ft bungalow, by a local Christian ministry. Christina had all she wanted for Christmas... all any abandoned child wants for Christmas... to be home with her family- safe, secure and loved.

Her step dad's paying for school, she loves her new teacher, she's gaining weight, and before we left her grandmother and uncle stopped in with Christmas gifts. It was all Debi and I wanted for Christmas- to see that she's doing well, that she's safe, warm and loved. Sitting at the border for almost two hours waiting to get back into the states, we didn't complain- some things are worth the wait.

Siempre, it means always... when a child's given into our care, we plan for life... and when something wonderful happens... something we're not prepared for, like a mom getting her life in order and desperately needing her daughter back- we want to be ready -to continue to lend support and love as a family begins to build new hopes and dreams. We left with warm embraces against the cold night, well after sunset, Christina's family thanking us and inviting us to return whenever we could. It was just what we'd wanted for Christmas- just to see that all was well -with our own eyes, and God gave us the desires of our heart.

I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and received more than you ever imagined in the day. May these final days of 2007 be filled with miracles and wonders as we prepare for the year to come.

blessings,

Eric

just a taste

An incredible time on the streets Sunday night serving with Jackets for Jesus on skidrow. It was our 19th Christmas in the heart of the city and God blessed it in ways we could have never imagined that first frightening night on the streets almost 1,000 Sundays ago. God's taught us so much, we've made so many amazing friends and we've been given the opportunity to serve that no one deserves. God is too good.

A couple hundred of us celebrated in the serving last week while nearly 900 men, women and children received backpacks filled in love. I only got a couple shots on the streets... some video before the packs were in the truck... this is it... just a small taste of our evening. enjoy!

Eric

Buy a Kid a Rug

Here's a link to buy braided rugs at K-Mart for $20- off.

The plan was to go get two $9.99 rugs and walk out with a couple cents in my pocket... didn't work. But the rugs are cool and buy 3 for $30- and you'll only pay $10- or get the bigger one for $24.99 for Alejandro and Aracelys and pay only $5- bucks. Or go buy one for yourself.

Our first year of our children's home in TJ we learned that carpets don't work: dirt, fleas, punch... you name it. But winter time tile and concrete floors can be cold on kids feet when they jump out of bed. Saw this coupon and thought we could all pitch in and take a bunch for free. K-Mart's on to cheap guys like me and it's not free... but pretty cheap. Check it out.

keep a kid's feet warm for Christmas!

blessings,

Eric

always on my mind...

Denton Family Photo - September 10, 2004 - Dad's 90th Birthday

Opened one of those long Christmas letters from old friends last night and sat down to read up on what's been going on with their family in the last year. They're forever frozen in the mid-nineties in my mind... yet life has moved on... they've lived in several different states, added three children to their family and earned enough stories to easily fill a three page Christmas letter that must have been difficult to edit: knowing what to add and what to leave out. Each year their little missile keeps us feeling somewhat connected, though we're now miles and newly added experiences apart.

Learning to play the guitar, the two of them once sat in my office, long before kids and new careers and he played the guitar as she sang an old song I'd been fighting the chords to find. His fingers laid them down with ease and deliberation- showing me each move, allowing me to follow along. She lifted her voice in grace with words that haunt my heart from that sweet Willie Nelson ballad: Always On My Mind.

Reading their new adventures, learning the growing lives of their children, absorbing their stories of intentional living for Christ- one lovely moment together wouldn't let me go- a singular segment of time I doubt they'd remember... and the faces of so many I'd loved filled my heart... bits and pieces of the song came back to me, "little things we'd said and done. I just never found the time- but you were always on my mind... you were always on my mind."

We've been blessed, they're two among so many. I'm closely related to most the folks in the photo above, many whom I haven't had contact with since the photo was taken three years ago. Add to that the great number of family not in the photo and multiply it by the amazing number of people who've loved us like family- who we rarely see any longer and like the friends in the Christmas letter are now far from us and it still doesn't even number all those we see day in and day out, week in and week out, who we love so deeply and love us wonderfully, yet we never find the time... but you are always on my mind. We're so blessed.

At the bottom of our friends Christmas letter, not hand written in, just part of the print that went to everyone, the closing salutation read simply, "missing you." It struck a chord. I knew exactly how they felt... to everyone we love, missing you. To all those who've loved us and keep us in their thoughts and prayers: missing you. To family far and near this Christmas, missing you... to those no longer with us: Uncle Glenn, Uncle John, Gary, Gerald, Ed, Villora... so many more each Christmas... missing you... but you are always on my mind.

To live with intention... I think one of the first changes I'd make is to begin to find the time; to hand write that note of love, to make that phone call, to stop in and visit, to sit down together for a meal, to break the barrier that's kept us apart, to reach across the schedules and miles, "while today is still called today" and reconnect in love. "Little things you've said and done" like playing guitars and singing together in the office... have not, could never slip by unnoticed.

I went to bed with so many of you on my heart. Woke up at 2:30 and needed to write... the picture of my family is just the beginning of so many we love... so many as we approach Christmas who are in our thoughts deeply... so many of our friends captured in two simple words for this season: "missing you."

Missing you this morning. Praying that God sweetly surrounds you with His presence and comfort and that you know you're loved... that you're not alone this Christmas.

missing you,

Eric

ps
song of the day... not too tough to figure out... try playing it on your guitar. Wish I could hear Scott and Terri sing it again.

Late Night Thoughts On Going Fast

LOVE the Blue Angels. When I was a kid- in the '60's -they would occasionally practice out of Los Alamitos Naval Air Base off Katella. We lived on the border of OC in Long Beach and by the time those guys were up, they were out over our house. Don't know if it was because we grew up on El Dorado Golf Course and there was plenty of open space, but somedays they'd fly all day long, working on routine after routine to the great delight of every kid for miles around. We'd climb up on the garage roof and howl each time they broke the sound barrier- every house in the neighborhood had cracks in the plaster walls and it wasn't all that uncommon for a window to break. Vietnam was in full gear- 500,000 young Americans at war -body counts beyond heartbreak... Skip from around the corner was killed... nobody was worried about keeping the Blue Angels in check. They were artists at work.

Now I live not too many miles from March Air Base in Riverside, CA. We've watched the Stealth fly in and out, seen Air Force 1 sit on the tarmac, caught the Thunderbirds numerous times and were even buzzed by the B-1 once, pilot tipped his wings just as they fell back and he exploded from what seemed to be a couple hundred feet off the ground into orbit... all very cool. But nothing to compare to summer days with a bunch of kids coming into our yard, onto our garage roof- no houses to block the view over the park - and standing in awe as the Blue Angels went by in formation... I swear we could see the pilots waving... it was huge when they'd tip their wings down toward us kids... each of us imagining we were in the jet. When the sound barrier would shatter the skies we'd cover our ears and cheer. May be one reason I've got such lousy hearing.

When I fly it's in the comfort of a comercial jet: bad food, movies and my laptop are expected. The only time I flew out of Los Alamitos Naval Air Station was with a friend who took me soaring. We were powerless, silently sailing in the wind for less than ten minutes before touch down. It was sweet... but it sure wasn't the Blue Angels. Last time I remember hearing the sound barrier being shattered, I was with my family at Edwards Air Force Base for a shuttle landing. It's two signature booms shattered high thin clouds, leaving ripples in the sky like a stone in a pond. An image that's always stuck.

Kids, hanging out in the summer, we never equated the Blue Angels with the war. It didn't occur to us that the smog that filled the skies of Long Beach and burned our lungs on bike rides might be filled with jet exhaust. And the impact of shattered sound barriers- well that was just cooler than cool -who cared if it knocked down a house or two. We weren't exactly environmentalist... we were dreaming of going fast, flying high, wing tip to wing tip in tight formation with our friends. Hopefully we've matured a bit in the last four decades. But watching this video that crossed my laptop, old memories flooded through me like cleansing rain and the kid inside me wanted to go fast again... or at least stand on the roof and howl with my buddies at the guys living and flying our dreams.

Late night thoughts on going fast... on looking backwards... on glory days... The guys flying the jets were probably just ten or twelve years older than me, if that. Somewhere, if any of them are awake tonight, they're looking back on that summer with a view from the skies and I can't help but wonder if they smile, or even remember the kids who looked up in wonder from the old garage roof and cheered them on. Thanks guys. We were wishing it was us. Sometimes I still do.