Hi guys and girls reading this. There are many of you who are starting to check it out, and I think it is so cool. People all around the world are starting to tune in to Steve’s USA Blog! It’s just so neat. Anyway, I’m going to have a long rant, because I’ve been doing so much and there’s a lot of things I’d like to say this time – so you won’t be disappointed, just maybe slightly shocked in a good way – I promise!

Well, here I am in Dallas still, hanging out with Holly and some of her mates.
It’s been a blast, and I’ve learnt heaps too I think.

This is Dallas, TX.

Where do I start? Well, ‘working’ - or just being there at Holly’s work, I know how they roast coffee and flavour it too! Sure, I mentioned that I think in the last blog. But it’s still interesting.

Here’s a photo of the raw coffee and the roaster.

I’ve also been to Babes. No it’s not a dirty house with lots of bad women. It’s a restaurant which is a sort of all you can eat southern greasy chicken place. You order your meat, what ever that is, chicken strips, chicken friend steak, chicken something etc. and then the side dishes come as unlimited. Mash potato, beans, creamed corn, ‘biscuits’ - which is like a scone sized damper, dip and gravy. It is so fattening, but oh so good.

Babes Chicken House

Last night I went to a show with Holly, which if you know her music, it generally isn’t my favourite type. I like it, but not overdone. I guess the best way to put it is emo, hard rock, screamo. Basically really loud. Now I’m all for loud, and that’s cool.

The Music

Meeting some of Holly’s friends, I’m sort of like the boring looking one – without funky hair, or non-skin tight jeans, fancy shoes, hats, or tattoos, or piercings. But I don’t mind. It’s cool. It’s a refreshing change and good insight in to a world that I don’t usually get to see all too often.
At the concert, I was kinda expecting the place to be full of people like that – but it wasn’t really. A lot, but many teenie boppers – I guess it’s because it’s was a Christian club place.

Since going there and hanging out with these cool people – no it’s not freezing – it’s just a word; kind of like Doc in Back to the Future, “why is everything so heavy? Is there some sort of gravitational force in the future?”. Anyway, I’m crapping on now.

Now, I’m not for tattoos at all. I just want to point that out. But I’m not entirely against them. Why you say? To be quite honest I don’t think it is a salvation issue. We were listening to these hard rockin’ bands last night, and in the middle of a set of songs they were like “we are doing this for the glory of Jesus our Lord and Saviour”. And it dawned on me, that this is their kind of worship music. And if I’m going to be condemning them for who they are and their music talents and likes, well, I’m no-one. This is their God given music, that they love and praise Jesus with and for. I knew that this sort of thing was in America, but I’ve never really seem it for real. So, it was a nice experience. I think that all too often ‘we’ - as the church are too quick to ignore, stamp out, get frightened of and just don’t know how to relate to people that are different to us.
I was chatting afterwards to a couple of the guys and they are totally normal. They just play their thing. Oh, and if you are curious who the bands are? I found out this after I was talking and at the end of the night – they are the current support acts for Pillar, yes I said Pillar. Tyler Read and Showbread.
http://www.myspace.com/tylerread lead guitar - Chris
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2889593 Keytarist - John
It was so much fun, and they were saying “oh, you should come out with us and just hang.” But the trouble was, we’d been up since 4am with Holly’s work, and she is also getting over a cold/illness thing. So we would have, but they were staying about an hour away. Holly is good at the band scene, I’ll give her that! I mean how often is it you get to be on the guest list twice for a band you hadn’t heard of?! But they were very good.

Now, having grown up in the church, in the ‘clean scene’, it very easy for me to fit in to that. Now by that I mean the part that says, yes we all have it together and we are good Christian people. The nicey bit. But lets face it, we all struggle in different things, and areas, and let’s be honest right here, it’s not often talked about in church from the pulpit. I think we need more honestly coming from the front, saying – “yes, I mess up in this area, and Christians aren’t perfect, but we all struggle. It’s a normal thing, but the difference is Jesus is #1 in my life, and he is the one that makes a difference”
Why am I starting up about this? Because I think that churches don’t do enough to meet people at their need. It’s a big call, but if we were, then the churches would be over flowing.

At Holly’s church, they are telling people not to come, because they can’t fit them. They have 4 services on Sunday some n Saturday, which I’ll go to tonight, and often, the Sunday evening service has a video message, because the preacher is just so busy and over committed. Why aren’t churches like that at home? Relevant, relational, caring and meeting them where they are? Not trying to conform all to you must wear this, look like this and speak like this. I think we as a church need a change at times.

What would my church do if 10 tattooed guys walked in and said I want to know more? Who would go and say hi? I think for most people, it would be very uncomfortable. Why? Because we love being in a ‘nicey nicey’ place. We like our box, and if you don’t fit, well you don’t get welcomed as much. How come we aren’t doing outreach to them? Are they the untouchables? What about all our young people? I think recently, we’ve done a good job at scaring them off, quite simply.

Check out this video by Casting Crowns and you may see where I’m coming from.

Casting Crowns - Does anybody hear her

So I’ve gone heavy this time. But I think we need a wake up. I’ve learnt heaps over here being on my own at times. And in a way, I can understand how it was for my friend Nicole to go to Russia on her own and be alone for such a long time. You only make it with Jesus by your side.

Tonight I’m going out again to an art gallery – not really my scene, but it’s still going to be fun I think. It’s cool experiencing new stuff. You should all try it! J

I just went out for ‘breakfast’ - at 1:00pm with Holly and her room mate Mckenzie.

I’ve seen many fun and interesting things on this trip. Here’s the funny pics.

Well, here’s a picture of the crazy road system!

The world’s ugliest car.

How many isles do they need for Target? Is 32 too many?

Do you want cheese with that?

Big googer. Do you really want to eat this?

So, does the saying “You are what you eat” apply here?

Um, derr…

For dad.

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