Hey Gang,

Just getting back from a truly amazing trip to South Africa. I have much to write about and reflect on, but for now, I’m just going to get some pics up. I took thousands. Literally. So I’ll just hit you with the greatest hits and break it down into small parts.

These first pics are from a place called The Lion Park, where I had some pretty cool experiences.  If you ever find yourself in Pretoria, for about $75.00 US, you can spend an hour with an adult cheetah.  Go for a walk, feed him some tasty raw beef treats and obviously, take hundreds of pictures.

This is Masai. He’s an adult male.

Like most cats, he loved to be petted. His purr was LOUD. Dude sounded like he had a built in subwoofer. In some African cultures, the purr of large predatory cats is thought to have healing powers. I didn’t get healed of anything though. That I know of.

“Please God. Please. Don’t let him chew on my face.”

Is he photogenic or what?

I’m pretty sure he was getting ready to sprint here, but the trainer distracted him with a beefy treat. Cheetahs have binocular vision and can see things miles away.

“Awwww… Who’s a good boy? Who’s a big scary kitty cat?”

He’s tall when he stretches out! Cheethas actually don’t climb though. Their claws are not retractable, which is what helps them attain their incredible speed. Like permanent built-in cleats!!

Thanks for checking out my pics. I’ll be posting some more, bit by bit. As always, comments are welcome!

Can’t believe I almost forgot this amazing Kingdom stuff:

1 – Pastor Todd Bishop and the staff at The Point Church brought in a catered lunch for the entire staff at True North to congratulate us and welcome us into our new home. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

2 – Northport Baptist Church has changed its name to Island Christian Church and has planted two new campuses: Port Jefferson and Holtsville.

Did I miss anything?  Holla back!!

So last Sunday I did something that brought me some very quizzical looks from a lot of people. Last Sunday I brought Pastor Dan O’Leary up on stage with me during all 4 of our Sunday services at True North. During announcements, I told our congregation that many of them needed to pray about maybe leaving our church to join Dan in what he’s doing at Arise Community Church.

If you weren’t there, Arise is a brand new church launching this fall in the Mt. Sinai – Rocky Point area. They had their first preview service last week and 80 people showed up!!!

Anyway, it was a strange thing to say. Pastors are known for being a territorial bunch, protective of their flock and wary of anyone who might in any way decrease their attendance numbers. So why am I encouraging people to leave True North and check out Arise?

Read More…

Video from the opening song from our Opening Day services.

Props to Rob Merkle for the footage and editing kung-fu!!

And thanks to Nico, Bekki and all of you who helped make it an amazing day.

Enjoy.

True North State of Mind from True North Media on Vimeo.