Mike King

Plaza Life

For a long time we've had a goal to live in Midtown Kansas City somewhere near the Country Club Plaza.  We've been trying to sell our home in Blue Springs so we could move into the neighborhood that has become our community.  We work in this area, go to church in this area, and play in this area.  We have been looking at Condo's, homes and Lofts for a couple of years.  Recently, several bargains have surfaced given the present state of our economy and the real estate market.  So we bought what is technically a second home (better interest rate) which will be lived in by our daughter Jessica and two of her Youthfront/Jacob's Well girl friends.  We have been staying there some until the girls get moved in after Youthfront camp is over.  It is great to get up early and be in a favorite coffee shop within three minutes, drive to the office in four minutes and get to church in four minutes.  Making the drive from Blue Springs is going to be harder than ever before, especially with the current gas prices.

Stress Test to Sleep Study

It has been a couple of years since I've had a complete physical so I was due.  On top of all the normal things one goes through with a physical it seems the older I get the more new tests are required.  I started out yesterday with a Stress Test which I've had before but this may be the first time I've taken one when I wasn't in a really good physically fit condition.  I passed OK but I used to impress the test giver.  I'll be back. 

I ended the day by checking into a Sleep Clinic for a Sleep Study.  A couple hours before I checked in I started feeling like I was preparing to check in for jail time.  Weird.  Vicki said that it was because I would be totally "not in control" for twelve hours.  I think she was on to me. 

After checking in and getting all hooked up, I had two hours to kill before a 10:00 PM bedtime.  10:00 PM???  I haven't gone to bed at 10:00 PM since I was in grade school, if that.  I tried to chill out watching American Idol... which actually worked.  With an hour to go before bed time I finished reading N. T. Wright's Surprised by Hope.  This was not a good choice because the last chapter is so good it left me totally energized, inspired and awake.  It took me nearly an hour to get to sleep.  It isn't easy going to sleep hooked up from top to bottom. 

Yep, I have some sleep issues.  I'm the King of Snore.  Hopefully, help is on the way.

Publishing and Partying

I spent a significant part of two days in meetings at Barefoot who we (YouthFront) are working with on some Publishing Projects.  They were really good meetings but by Friday night I was pretty drained.  I entertained the idea of not going to the Khrusty Brothers show at Crosstown Station.  The fact that our friends Don and Lori Chaffer (Waterdeep) were opening for the Khrusty Brothers' show gave me the added energy to go.  I'm really glad we did.  This was the first time we've gone to that venue which is located very near the Sprint Center and the Power and Light Entertainment District.  The place was filled with our friends, the music was great and we had the energy to last until 1:00 am.  The KHRUSTY BROTHERS Rule.  Pitch Magazine, noted for sniffing out hypocritical religious goings on, just did a very favorable feature article on The Khrusty Brothers.  Read it here.

A couple of things

A couple of things have helped me to a better place than where I was a week ago.  One was hanging out with my friend Ian Cron and the other was taking some down time over the weekend.

51 and ok

I've taken a week off from the blog world.  I've had lot's of offline contacts with people who wanted to know if I was ok after the post I made a week ago.  Yes, I'm alive.  Today I turned 51 and I had a great day.  Lot's of good stuff going on in my world.  Vicki and I hung out on the Plaza for several hours enjoying the weather and doing the things I love doing.  51 isn't so bad.  I have nine whole years before I hit 60.  Wahoo.

April, Baseball, Final Four, Spring and First Friday's

Ahhh, April has arrived and Spring is here to stay.  The Royals are in 1st place, KU plays for the national championship and the day after tomorrow is First Friday's in the Crossroads District.  Life is good.

First Day of Spring

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  It was also the first day I wore shorts (in Kansas City) this year which worked out nice because the temperature was in the 70's.  It was such a good day not only because of the weather but because I had several projects I needed to work on which involved non-interruption so I hit three different coffee shops.  My only interruption was time out at McCoy's for KU's first round victory. 

Fall to Winter...

On Monday and Tuesday we had temperatures in the mid 70's.  Vicki and I enjoyed a long run in Burr Oaks Nature Park in shorts and a t-shirt.  Not bad for late November. 

Today we are enjoying a 40 degree drop in temperature and YES... SNOW.  Yahoo.  My run this morning (minus my wife... too cold) was invigorating... running nose and frozen face.

It feels like Christmas and I'm off today so I'm beginning my holiday season.  Here are a few pictures. 

Transition from fall to winter...

                                                    

 

                  

                                          

         

   

                                        

   

      

                                        

   Time to put up the hammock...

                                              

 

                               

                                  

  I talked Vicki into decorating for Christmas early because we will be traveling for three weeks during the holidays.

Bono moment

This was brought to my attention by Tim Samoff.  With him, I add WOW.  This is definitely worth the six minutes and 50 seconds it takes to watch.

Very cool experiences lately that I haven't had time to blog about.

1.  Last week 250 United Methodist Pastors came to a Wednesday night re-enactment of our Jacob's Well Sunday gathering.  The cool crises involved the electricity went out on the whole block.  We responded with the lighting of candles and unplugged music from Mike Crawford and Rachel Bonar.  Tim Keel spoke by candlelight followed by the celebration of the Eucharist.  The electricity came on as we finished communion.  Mike proceeded to lead a couple more songs - energy plus.  Tim responded to questions from the pastors facilitated by Susan Cox-Johnson the District Superintendent.  This was a truly remarkable and life-giving experience.

2.  Tuesday we held an all day dialogue on short term missions.  Along with several of our YouthFront staff, we had all of our Croc, Mexico staff in town.  We also invited all the youth pastors who partner with us in Croc.  Dr. Terry Linhart from Bethel College who is involved in several research projects focused on short term missions, adolescent development and spiritual formation.  This was a very helpful and thought provoking day.

3.  Today we introduced our staff along with several key youth pastors from the Kansas City area, denominational leaders, and publishers to the one day Enroute Training Seminar.  Matt Wilks was flying in to KC from Canada to team teach this with Chris Folmsbee.  Matt was detained at the border by Homeland Security because of the recent frequency of his traveling schedule.  We have an Immigration Attorney working on clearing this up.  We have too much coming up to have Matt grounded.  Chris carried on solo and did a great job.  This is way fun and very fulfilling.