Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Teens impact Peoria and its only day three


I am writing to you all on Day 3 of Mission Peoria to keep you updated.

It has been an incredible week so far. Over 160 students and adults are here (our biggest crowd ever) from 11 different churches. Most are from the Peoria area, but there are kids here from churches as far away as lake Zurich, Tinley Park and Rock Island. There are even two teens from England(!!) who are here on vacation staying with their cousin who happened to have signed up for Mission Peoria ..... so they came along too.

Each morning the students have been in 3 different district 150 schools (Manual, Woodruff and Peoria High) doing service projects (laying mulch, weeding, painting). The maintenance staff and media that have visited are all amazed by the fact that all these students are taking a week out of their summer break to do this; that they’ve paid to be here; and that they’re smiling while they do it!! They are all a great testimony to Dream Center and Jesus.

http://centralillinoisproud.com/media_player.php?media_id=20181#

In the afternoons they are running 6 different baselines (kids outreach programs) around the city. From the South Side to Taft to Morton Square Park, we have seen 100’s of children come out to play games, ride water slides, get their face’s painted and hear a fun presentation of the gospel message. One of the groups showed up at Martin Luther King park yesterday on the south side. We have never run a baseline here before. Slowly kids started to trickle in from the surrounding community as the word got out of what we were doing. By the end of the afternoon we had 70 kids at that one baseline!!

http://www.week.com/news/local/26072834.html

Each evening we have been holding services for the Mission Peoria students in the sanctuary at RCC. Through intense worship and powerful messages we have already seen God challenge and change the hearts of these students. It’s hard to say that I have a favorite part of the day, but I do love watching teenagers who have been working hard and giving out all day go running to the altar in the evening to dance and sing and worship God.

If you are in need of a spiritual boost, and would like to get a little taste of what Mission Peoria is all about, please feel free to come along to one of our evening meetings at RCC tonight and tomorrow. The meetings begin at 7:15 and normally wrap up at 9:00. There are plenty of adults there, so you won’t stick out :) If the message or music don’t move you, the response from the teenagers will.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support this week (especially with the office being a little more hectic than usual with teens running up and down the halls). Please continue to pray. Friday night is our final big outreach where we will bus all these kids into the Riverplex and Aubrey will present the gospel. Then Saturday morning we will be giving out 2500 backpacks to families from all over the city. Then Sunday we plan on all going to bed and sleeping for 24 hours straight!!(after church of course).

Written by Dave Jane

Thursday, July 24, 2008

No Blood clots, just screws

So here is a quick update. Due to massive pain and swelling I was rushed to methodist hospital to check for blood clots. In the end we found out I had a bit of infection but no blood clots, Thank God. I snapped this as the doctor left me on my own in the room with my camera phone. As you can see, there is now 2 screws in my leg(they are the white bits you see in the leg) Hope I don't set any alarms off now at airports.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Knee Surgery #3

One of my loves in life is playing and watching football (soccer). As I am writing this I actually watching a pre-season Liverpool game. I must admit, I am football crazy. From my youngest memories that I can remember, I have been kicking a football around. 14 years
ago I was involved in a horrific football tackle in Australia. I ended up having surgery on my meniscus back in England just weeks after the incident.
A few years later, after moving to America, i was coaching the PCS soccer team here in town. While showing a football move to the players I fell to a heap on the ground and my meniscus had moved and I ended up having my second surgery.

Over the last 2 years we have done an indoor soccer league at DCP but we felt it was time to take the guys to the great So now jump forward with me 14 years. I am now married, i have 3 kids, i run the Dream Center and life is very hectic. So what do I decide to do? Put a Dream Center soccer teamoutdoors and play in the outdoor league. The guys(and girl) had a great time and we ended up 4th in the league but we then went on to win the playoffs with some controversy that made the NEW YORK TIMES.(thats another story on its own)http://jmpradio.com/pods/gd/Ethicist%20072208.mp3 - podcast from wmbd today
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20wwln-ethicist-t.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=dream%20center%20peoria&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


So 2 games before the final, I went in for a challenge and all of a sudden heard and felt my knee click in and out about 5 times and I ended up on back in terrible pain. I knew it was worse than the previous injuries. I ended up tearing my ACL and also messing up my meniscus again.

Last Friday I went in for surgery and for all you nasty people who love seeing surgeries, here is a link to an animation of what they did to my knee. http://youtube.com/watch?v=q96M0jRqn7k

So how am I now. Well its been 4 day's since surgery and I am still in alot of pain and discomfort. Still trying to work from home as it is a very busy time of year at DCP with Mission Peoria and BackPack Peoria next week. It has been tough as I am so medicated, i am not sure what i am telling people or email people. Rehab will take two and half to three months. Right now I am still iced up and the knee is very stiff. Last night while taking a night trip to the bathroom I took a fall and hurt the knee again. It should be ok, just added to the pain.

So am I done in playing football? Well, all i want to be able to do is play football with my kids, thats it. This has been too painful to go through again. Plus my wife has been amazing in taking care of me but it is just not fair to put them through this again. I think I may try refereeing, i hear its good money.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Healer - Worship and faith collide

What you are about to see will effect the way you worship next time, I promise you. I saw this last Thursday on youtube when it only had 30 or so hits. Its now been a week and its nearly at 15,000 views.

So what is it. Well let me take you back a few years. 14 years in fact. I was about to go on ACE teams and help set up the program in Perth, Australia. Just before I went we had an Australian guy called Danny Guglielmucci stayed at our house and preach in our church. He was brilliant. One of the best youth speakers in Australia.

Anyway, I took off for Australia and a month into we were working at a youth convention with Youth Alive and guess who was speaking, Danny. So we spoke he told me I was stalking him as he had just stayed with us in England just a few week's earlier. Anyway, a few weeks later, I got hurt playing soccer (still happening today) and I had to fly home to England for surgery. While home, guess who is back speaking in the next town over from us... Danny. Now he was getting worried about the stalking.
So a few months after this I flew back to Australia and I am now asked to help at a Hillsongs conference held in Perth. You got it, Danny was there preaching. I saw Danny 4 times in 5 months
in England twice and Australia twice. Crazy.

Well everytime he spoke he talked about his son, Mike, and how he was an amazing evangelist at school and he would have prayer meetings in the field at school and would have hundreds of kids show up to cry out to God and other kids turning their lives over to Christ.

Mike, Danny's son, ended up being one of the top speakers in Australia and was behind the Planetshakers movement over in Australia.

Just 3 months ago Mike was asked to be apart of the new Hillsongs cd/ dvd recording. Why? because in late 2006 Mike had been diagnosed with Terminal cancer.With in minutes of hearing the news Mike went and wrote the song you are about to hear (if you click on the link) It will show a side of worship that I have never really seen before. Seeing people(over 20,000) crying out to God for help and comfort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4xsWldmqAo

I also attached the "story behind the song" that has Mike, Darlene Zchech, Brooke Fraser and others talking about the song and the recording.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_ny8hMgRY&feature=related


I warn you, have tissues available. The song will stick with you for days, and so it should. Its where Worship and Faith collide.