So if you haven’t yet heard, this past Wednesday changed my life.  Two days ago I asked my amazing girlfriend Rocio Quinones to marry me.

And she said yes.

Sweet.

Here’s how it all went down:

A little over a year ago Rocio and I had our third date at this little place in Decatur called Taqueria Del Sol. After we ate we walked down the street toward Java Monkey and I asked to hold her hand for the first time.

Wednesday was a repeat of almost everything…but this time, when I asked for her hand, I asked to have it forever.

I knelt down, told her how I genuinely believed that she was a gift from God to me, and slipped a ring on her beautiful hand.

After she’d said yes, I pulled out a letter I’d written to her years before. Before I had met her.

And here’s what it said:
Dear one,

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing today (August 18, 2007), however impatient you are in waiting for me, thanks. Thanks for waiting…thanks for being patient with my seemingly meandering path to find you. It has not been for lack of looking. I’ve traveled much …

[caption id="attachment_1161" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="----Bart, Kim (far right) and three of the KC pastors (Chris, Golden and Eric) they are serving----"][/caption]

I met a tribe leader. Seth Godin would define a tribe leader as someone who is leading a group of people by serving their needs. In and around the geography of Kansas City, Bart Nill, and his assitant Kim, are tribe leaders for pastors in the area of stewardship.

How has Bart won over their trust? He genuinely cares about them, and tries his best to help them achieve the goals and vision God has given them for their local congregations. Bart regularly meets with pastors in groups of 4 and pours his life out for theirs.

And they love him for it.

It’s really incredible to watch. Bart invited me to an event the night before Crown ignite! was held in KC. He was presenting the case for the ministry to several friends and supporters. Several of his pastor friends were there.

More than anything else I was struck by how much they loved this guy. I mean, I really believe that they would take a bullet for him. And when …

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="----Young Haitian men, carrying water to those in need----"][/caption]

When moments of disaster strike close by, near in geography or near to our hearts, it’s fashionable to give and talk about how much we should be doing for the people affected by the disaster. It’s hard to find reasons not to give our time, money and effort towards our hurting human family just a short distance away.

We feel good about ourselves when we retweet something, share a post on facebook, publicly question why our governments or big companies aren’t doing more. We tell ourselves that Haiti needs more advocates like us on their side. We might even silently compare ourselves to others who aren’t doing as much as we are to advocate aid for the tragedy. But the main reason we all aren’t giving more, is that we simply don’t have more to give.

According to Barna Research, the average American gives a shade over 1% of their income away. According to this article on MSN, 43% of Americans are spending more than they make each year.

But what if you knew the earthquake was going to strike Haiti. What …

[caption id="attachment_1117" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="----Just a small glimpse at the total devastation of Port au Prince, Haiti----"][/caption]

Back in 2005, Haiti gave the US $50,000 dollars in support of Katrina victims. That is almost DOUBLE (as a percentage of total GDP) what the US is giving to Haiti to help with the earthquake. Not to mention the loss of human life in Haiti will be 25-50 times that of Katrina.

But doesn’t the US’s $100 million sound a lot more generous than Haiti’s little $50,000.

Yup.

But not to everyone…

I’m reminded of a story about Jesus. One day he decided to carefully watch who was putting what into the “donation coffers” of his day. He sat quietly while the big, important, high income people made a pompous showing of their gifts, being careful to let everyone know just how much they were giving.

Then came this little widow, perhaps embarrassed to drop in her two small coins. This was too much for Jesus. His exuberance bubbled over into a little speech.
“This poor widow has put in more than everyone else! …

[caption id="attachment_951" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="----John's $950 Saturn is $10,000 cheaper than his truck and gets double the gas mileage----"][/caption]
I had lunch with John today. We did a little financial check up on how his debt reduction was going and talked about how we could maximize his efforts to continue his journey out of debt.
I told him how his story (see his full story here) has by far been the most popular thing I’ve written about on this blog.
He was thrilled at potentially giving someone else encouragement in their “journey out of a self-dug hole”. I asked him if i could share details.
“Absolutely.” He said.
Perhaps the coolest thing about his journey is that nothing miraculous or spectacular has happened to him along the way. He’s received no inheritance, hasn’t won the lottery, and hasn’t been given a single penny from Ed McMahon and the fine folks at the Publisher’s Clearinghouse. In fact, the value of his house has gone down $10,000 and he …