Well, life has been kind of a roller coaster lately.  The last time I posted it was the day after an AWESOME Sunday morning where we sent our wonderful Hispanic minister to Fort Worth with blessing and praise!  We spent that Sunday morning worshipping in two languages and it was beautiful.  Life has been busy, busy since then.  It almost seems like a short eternity ago since we had that Sunday.  I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights.

Sunday, September 20^th was a great day in my life.  I’ll start by talking about how my wife is the coolest wife ever!  This Sunday marked the first of three Christmas gifts I’d been given from the previous Christmas.  Sunday, September 20^th was the grand opening the Boss Hog Bowl (New Dallas Cowboys Stadium) in Arlington, and I had a ticket!  My lovely wife got tickets for me, and I was able to attend the opening game of the inaugural season in the new Cowboys stadium.  The place is immaculate, simply immaculate.  It’s unlike any other sporting venue I’ve ever seen.  Sadly, the Cowboys lost that game to the New York Giants 33-31, but it was still an awesome experience to be there.  Pretty much I have the coolest wife ever.  I also attended the 2^nd game of the season on (Monday night September 28^th) when the Cowboys played the Carolina Panthers.  They won that game.  I still have one more game left, and it’s currently scheduled for Sunday December 13^th against the San Diego Chargers.  Hopefully they’ll win that game as well.

Speaking of the Boss Hog Bowl, our small group from church also toured the stadium.  It was awesome.  Our tour guide was an architect that helped design the whole place.  Check out my wife’s blog to look at pictures from that day.

Our youth group took on a new project.  We are currently trying to raise $4,800 to dig a well for a community of people in India.  We are accepting donations of any amount at https://championsforindia.org/legacyyouth but $7.77 is enough of a donation to give one person clean water for the next 30 years.  I plan to write another blog dedicated to just that project with statistics and information.  Check back for more info on that.

Our junior high group had a retreat the weekend of October 16^th & 17^th.  It was on the theme of being called by God.  We studied different characters from the Bible that God called to do difficult things.  Our main verse came from Isaiah 43:1 where God says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.”  We talked about how God calls us, by name, to a deeper relationship with Him.  We talk about how God calls us to be Jesus in this world, and the implications of what it means to be Jesus.  We went to Buffalo Ridge Ranch in Whitney, Texas (the camp was formerly Iron Springs Christian Camp) and spent just one night there.  We woke up Saturday morning in silence (which was quite a challenge for middle schoolers) but we spent that morning in silence as we prepared for the morning, and spent the morning reading scripture and praying.  We spent several times during the day in class time, but we also took a break to go to the swing and spent some time swinging.  It was a fun retreat!

Well that pretty well sums up the major events of the last (almost) 2 months.  Hopefully it won’t be two months until I post again.

Thanks for reading.

This past Sunday was a phenomenal Sunday!  We were blessed to have Manuel Calderon give us the vision of the Siempre Familia Iglesia de Cristo.  Manuel has served at Legacy for a short while as our Hispanic outreach minister.  He and his family are awesome, and we are incredibly blessed to have them.  The elders at Legacy have charged Manuel this past Sunday to be a local missionary for the Fort Worth Hispanic community.  The Calderons and a team of Hispanic missionaries are working to make an eternal difference on the Hispanic community living in the Fort Worth area.

We had the privilege of worshiping with the members from the Siempre Familia Iglesia de Cristo this past Sunday.  In fact, we had a bilingual worship service!  It was so awesome to gather around the table and hear the scriptures being read in Spanish.  It was moving to hear the prayers being lifted up in both Spanish and English to the same God – our God!  It was awesome to hear 1000 people singing in both Spanish and English.  It was especially awesome for me because I was leading the singing that morning.  I was blessed to be able to lead alongside Javier Leon (one of the missionaries for the Siempre Familia Iglesia de Cristo).

If you were here Sunday morning you know how awesome of a day it was.  It was a realization of the greater body that is the Lord’s Church.  I think as humans we often forget that the body of Christ spreads beyond whatever language we speak, or whatever skin tone we have.  The Lord’s body is world-wide and is made up of every people, nation, tribe, and tongue.  What a blessing it was to be reminded of the reconciling power of Christ’s blood, that all languages and people were created and are loved by the same God.

We also started our morning with a baptism.  Annika Burns, one of our sweet 7^th grade young ladies, was baptized this past Sunday morning.  She is a sweet young lady with an even sweeter heart.

We also witnessed the baby blessing of Caden Jake McCormick.  Collin and Marisa McCormick left Legacy right at a year ago to work in Germany, and have lived there for the past year.  While they were over there they were blessed with a baby boy.  Collin, Marisa and Caden were at church on Sunday and we were able to bless them.

I must say that I’m an awful blogger.  For those of you who check my blog on a regular basis, you know what’s coming.  I’m sorry.  I don’t mean to be a lazy blogger, I just don’t know what to say when I sit down to do it.  I’m trying to work on that skill, so bear with me.

Well, today I am at home because our dog Buddy is having what I believe to be back spasms.  When he walks he does so with a limp, and he keeps his back legs lower than the rest of his legs.  It started last night when Taylor got home from church.  She called me in a panic because Buddy was crying and couldn’t get comfortable.  We gave him some baby aspirin last night and put him in his bed and he laid perfectly still and went right to sleep.  This morning he seemed to be doing ok, but was still limping.  We gave him another aspirin and I stayed home to take care of him.  I took him outside to go to the bathroom and he seemed to do fine (he hiked his leg and all) but when we came back inside he tried to lay down and cried in every position he tried to lay in.  So I put him in his bed and called the vet.  We have an appointment at one.  Hopefully he’ll be better soon.

Last night I taught the youth group class.  Normally I lead singing and Jason does the lessons, but we reversed the roles last night.  In three weeks, we are going to kick off a mission project, and we wanted to get the kids pumps primed.  We are going to be partner with an organization called, “Champions for India” and we’re going to bring a fresh water pump to a community of people in India that do not have fresh water.  I’ll post more about that later.

Anyways, last night we talked about seeing the harvest that is in front of us.  I put several of those optical illusion pictures up on the screen and asked the teens what they saw.  Was it an old lady or a young lady?  Two young couples or two old couples?  People talking or pillars?  You get the idea.  I talked about how in all these pictures there are actually two things to see, but that you have to train your eyes to see both of them.  Then I put up a picture of a pile of trash.  When I asked the kids what they saw they said, “trash.”  I said, “You’re right!  But to someone else, like the homeless, this pile of trash is actually home.”  We looked at several pictures of teenagers that, on the outside at least, looked like they had it together.  At a first glance they were just everyday teenagers, but then we looked deeper and saw the hurt they were experiencing.  We learned of the struggle to smoke pot and drink.  We learned of the problems of being in a sexually abusive relationship.  We learned of the hurt of parents getting a divorce in the midst of being the all-state quarterback. 

Jesus asked Simon a profound question in the middle of Simons dinner party that was being disrupted by a prostitute.  This prostitute had come in and was making a scene during this party by weeping over Jesus feet, and wiping his feet with her hair.  Everyone in the room was offended except Jesus.  Jesus then turned to Simon and said, “Simon, do you see this woman?” 

What?!?  Do I see this woman?  I can only imagine that Simon was thinking, “Of COURSE I see this woman Jesus!  Who doesn’t see this woman?”

But that’s not what Jesus was asking. 

Jesus was asking Simon, “Do you see this woman?”  Jesus wanted to know if Simon saw this woman like Jesus saw her.  There was a tremendous opportunity for Simon and he was more concerned about his own life, his own party, his own agenda…to notice the lost soul standing right in front of him.

When Jesus was sending out the seventy-two in Luke chapter 10 he said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

Do you see the harvest?  Do you see the harvest?  Do you notice those who are around you that are searching desperately for truth because their lives are in total chaos.  Do you see the hurt and the marginalized?  Do you see the harvest ready to be reaped or do you just see people who probably wouldn’t care anyways?

 Open your eyes and see the harvest.

We are here and in full swing at camp Cornerstone.  Last night we had the joy of listening to Bean and Bailey perform.  They were quite funny.  Gary Southerland (our speaker for the week) has been bringing us powerful messages about being authentic in our relationship with God.  Every time I see our kids they have smiles on their faces and seem to be having a blast.  I’ll be sure to post pictures soon.

Thanks for the prayers.  Our teens are making new friends, connecting with old friends, and growing closer to each other as well as to God.  It’s a blessing to watch.  Keep them up!  We are feeling their effects.

I’ll post some pictures tonight.

Have a blessed day!

Lance

Well we are through the first morning and we are uber excited about our groups and the classes. So far the teens have been assigned to groups and are still in the “getting to know you” phase of camp. Gary Southerland from Jacksonville, Florida is our speaker. He is doing a great job. Keep praying for us.

I’ll post pictures soon!

God Bless.

Lance Parrish
Sent from my iPhone

We have arrived safely to OC. We are checked in and getting ready to start our week. Pray for us that we have a great week! Check in for daily updates.

God Bless!

Lance Parrish
From my iPhone

Welcome back to the blog! I have failed you in writing posts since Mission Trip, and now we find ourselves on the road for Cornerstone. We are stopped in Gainsville for Lu ch and will be on the road again at 12:00. I’ll let you know when we arrive to camp. Check in all week for us all week.

God bless.

Sent from my iPhone.

Well, here I am three days after getting home from San Antonio and I still have yet to catch up on sleep.  Let me give you a short run down of how my Friday went through the weekend.

Friday – we woke up in San Antonio and we were at Sea World by 10:30 A.M.  We hung out at the park until 4:00 P.M.  We left the park by 4:15, and we were on 1604 heading East to I-35 by 4:30.  At 5:30, we were still in San Antonio on the North side of town on I-35.  We stopped in San Marcos for dinner, and we left dinner at 6:40 P.M.  As we left Round Rock and headed towards Belton I started to notice something different about the van I was driving.  I was driving the church’s 15 passenger van that we took with us on the trip and I was hauling the trailer.  The van started vibrating really badly.  So badly that the images in my mirrors were distorted.  I’d had this happen twice before in my life and I recognized the feeling.  I called to the other vehicles following me and I told them I was going to pull over and check the tires, because I suspected that I had a flat tire (possibly on the trailer).  We pulled our caravan off on the side of the highway on a side street near Jarrell, Texas and we inspected the tires.  All the tires looked ok, so we decided to keep going down the highway just being extra careful.  We got about 3 minutes down the highway and the next thing I knew, the tread was coming off the front drivers side tire and we were in the center lane.  Fortunately I’d been in two vans prior to this occasion where we’d blown the tread off the tires.  Once when I was in high school, and once as an intern.  I’m grateful for those experiences because it allowed me to know exactly what to do.  I pulled the van over to the side of the highway, and we swapped the tire out with the spare from the rental van.  This delayed us an hour, but I’m TOTALLY ok with that since the Lord protected us and no one was injured or harmed.  We arrived to the church parking lot at 11:55 PM and I was home by 12:30 AM.

I hopped into the shower and pulled my suit out of the closte because I was on my way to a wedding the next day (or later that day).  Taylor’s roommate from college (Erin) was getting married and Taylor was in Garland waiting for me to come over there.  I finally got in my truck to head to Garland at 1:30 AM.  I was scheduled to arrive (according to my GPS) in Garland around 2:15 AM.  I took 183 to Loop 12 to I-35 to 635.  When I got on 635, I was right next to the Galleria when all the traffic on the highway came to a dead stop.  All east bound lanes on 635 had been stopped due to an accident and the law enforcement wouldn’t let anyone through.  I sat on the highway for at least 20 (maybe even 30) minutes in park (literally).  No movement.  Middle of the night – wanting nothing more than to get to my wife in Garland.  The ambulance and fire trucks finally showed up and they opened the floodgates and the sea of incredibly frustrated (and possibly slightly drunk) people rushed down 635.  Not even a mile down the road to the 75 exit another wreck had occurred and the police hadn’t even responded yet.  It was INSANE!  I finally arrived to Garland by 3 and was asleep by 3:30 AM!

Needless to say it’s taken me a couple of days to feel like I’m back to my old self.  Sadly, I think I’d rather be on Mission Trip than back to the day-to-day life.  I had SO much fun and our teens did SO well!  If you kept up with my blog while we were gone, you already know that.  I wish I could take them all back and have week 2 with the kids at Urban Connection.  I hope we get to go back next summer so that we can do it again.  I made one simple charge to our kids – to love the kids like Jesus would love them.  Simple, yet daunting.  My hope was that it would be simple enough that they could succeed, yet challenging enough that it would cause them to grow and be challenged.  Our teens rose above and beyond their call!  I’m so proud of them!

Thanks to all those who went on the trip, especially all of the adults who worked so hard to make the trip possible.  I appreciate each of you and I’m very blessed to have such wonderful support.

Well….time for bed.  Good night everybody!

Despite Satans beat efforts we finally made it home. We hit the church parking lot at 11:55 PM on Friday evening. We were exhausted but thrilled to be home.

By the way. The “flat tire” was actually a blown tread. We were delayed because we blew the tread off of the front drivers side tire (while hauling the trailer). God blessed us with safety and no one was harmed. Thank you, Lord!

We had a blessed and fun week. Thanks for checking the blog. Check in again. Hopefully this will give me incentive to write posts more often.

Good night!

Lance
From my iPhone!

We have a flat tire. We are going to be later than we anticipated. We are all safe. The Lord protected us. We are putting the spare on now and will be on our way soon.

Lance