Seth McRae

Monroe Campus Hog Roast

 
Want to say thanks to everyone who came out to this years Campus Hog Roast...always an unforgettable time!  Gary's impression of Michael Jackson's dance moves made it all worth it.  Also want to give a shout out to the Confers for hosting the event, the Wilhelms for keeping us well caffeinated, and Jeff Ludwig who did an amazing job as DJ...you guys rock! Anyway, great time...from the hog roast, to the music, to the bonfire....can't think of a better way to kick off the holiday season.
 

Ten Ways to Kill Vision in a Church.

Recently read this on Perry Nobles blog...resonated with me so much, just had to share it. TEN WAYS TO KILL VISION IN A CHURCH:

#1 – Pray really small prayers…seriously, don’t ask God for ANYTHING big. He DID put an interstate highway through a sea, demolished the walls of Jericho and brought the dead back to life…but I’m sure He doesn’t do things like that anymore! :-) #2 – Celebrate the past WAY more than you anticipate the future, thus becoming a museum and not a movement! #3 – Allow those who have never actually done anything for Jesus dictate to you what they believe you can and can’t do for Him! #4 – Listen and repond to every critic. #5 – Wait until everything makes perfect sense before you make a decision. #6 – Spend more time on blogs than you do in your Bible. #7 – Become more agenda driven than GOSPEL driven! #8 – Actually believe that EVERYONE must be 100% happy with every detail. #9 – Vote! #10 – Become angry/jealous over what God is doing at other places and become hyper focused on all of their problems, thus overlooking your own!

Turkey Bowl 2009

Austin Hits the Streets of Madison.

Last Night.... Holli, Austin, and I made our first family road trip...to where else but Starbucks and a few shops along the way. 

 

Tis the Season

Had my first Starbucks Peppermint Mocha...got the 24/7 Christmas tunes going on the radio...yep, I can officially say it is that most wonderful time of the year. Man, I love the Christmas Season. So out of curiousity... what marks the start of the Christmas Season for you?

2009 Best Coffee in Green County.

So for the two people that have been waiting, here is my 2009 list of the Best Coffee Shops in Green County:

 

#1 - THE JAVE HOUSE (Broadhead, WI) The new kid on the block, but without question my new favorite hang out minus the drive.  Friendly staff, great coffee and food, and top notch environment.  The only negative is the ever-changing hours of operation.

RATING:  Four Cups

 

#2 - CHOCOLATE TEMPTATION (Monroe, WI) Once I was advised that I need to stir the chocolate in my mocha, the taste vote went way up.  Without a doubt the positives of this place is an amazingly friendly staff, and extra large coffee sizes.  The negatives would be a lack of wi-fi, and coffee not as dark as I typically like, but I do like more of a tar texture…just me.

RATING: Three and a Half Cups

 

#3 - PERKS (Monroe, WI) Great environment inside, amazing food, and one of the better cups of regular coffee in the county.  Tend to have a lot of issues with wi-fi, and  close too early…just seems to be missing something.

RATING: Three Cups

 

#4 - KOFFEE BEAN (Monroe, WI) They have one of the better mochas in the county, convenient drive thru, great staff.  On the negative, wi-fi issues on a regular basis, environment not quite as warm and creative as I'd like.

RATING: Three Cups

 

Being a Northwest guy my Coffee Ratings are based on comparison with my personal favorite Starbucks…which of course holds the perfect rating of 5 Cups  (5 Cups - Perfect Coffee // 4 Cups - Good Coffee // 3 Cups - Above Average Coffee // 2 Cups -  Might as well go to McDonalds // 1 Cup - Gas Station Coffee)

Josh & Emily Dickens Update

As many of you know a dear friend of mine was in a serious car accident last week...as we had as many people as could round up praying for him and his wife. Thrilled to report they are okay...here is an excerpt from his blog today:

The story, as much as I remember it is pretty short, but definitely God-filled!  We were in Port Angeles last weekend because we wanted to surprise her mom for her mom's 60th b-day so we rode up with with the sister that lives in Vancouver like we do just to save money.  And because we had no car and were just kind of stuck on Saturday her mom let us borrow her little toyota (I don't know if you've seen pics of it after the crash) on Saturday as long as we promised to just go to where we were staying and come back up the the parents' house the next day.

So we got in the car that morning and picked up juice for punch and we headed up to her parents' house - they live about 5-10 miles outside of town up here so we just took the the junction off 101 to 112 and I guess we were coming up on Power Plant Rd out there and (I don't remember this exactly I've pieced it together from other people and from articles I've read) and I remember I had glanced at Em for something and when I looked back at the road I saw this car sideways right in front of us.  Accord to the state troopers we had 20 feet of response time.  At 55 MPH, you do the math - that's nothing.

So I don't remember the crash itself but I heard that the car behind us (not right behind but the next car to come around the corner there) was her sister Kristina and her husband Travis so they called the rest of family and the other two cars behind them were more family anyway.  The car right in front of us was an off-duty fireman and when he saw the whole scene unfold he called in the incident immediately! Yeah, God had placed all these people around us to keep us alive and he held both our bodies because we should not have survived the crash at all just looking at the pics of the car.

I remember coming to in the car a little bit and thinking that it was a terrible dream and that I wanted to just wake up in bed next to my wife and start my day good.  I vaguely remember my father-in-law standing outside my window asking if I was ok though.  My vision and mind go black here for a little and I remember coming to again a little and seeing my Emily next to me with her head in her chest moaning a bit and I wanted so bad to help her but I couldn't move a muscle.

All of a sudden I realized that the police, fire department and ambulances were all there - they got there in just a couple minutes!  I heard a guy tell me that there was going to be a loud noise and I watched as the jaws-of-life worked to get Emily's door open and it seemed to take forever! but once the door popped off they got her our of the car and away to the hospital.  I was still in the drivers seat and really foggy.  The guy next to me just told me to not move toward the door and they got my door off and cut me out of the seatbelt and clothes that were pinned in the car and put me on a back-and-neck board.

In the ambulance the EMTs were checking all my vitals and trying to get me hooked up to the IV and they just had the worst time trying to do that.  I recall that they had to keep trying and trying over and over.  It was beginning to really irritate me but I couldn't do anything about it!  Once at the hospital they moved me in to the ER and got the IV going and put me on oxygen and piled warm blankets all over me because I was freezing cold.

They did as much as they could and then had to wait for the machine to do a CAT scan on me.  My wife was in there first and the doctors found that she had a broken neck, lower back, and lots of internal bleeding.  They decided to just leave her, get her stable and as sedated as possible and life-flighted her to Seattle where she's been under the best care and is making rapid day-today improvements!  I'll tell you about the 'best' one a little later on.

So Steve (Father-in-law) came and talk to me a little and let me know what was going on and said that he was going to stay with me until my parents go to P.A. that night just to make sure that I was OK.  The doctors did all their stuff and were going through all my results and I was still on the board and really uncomfortable and it felt like I couldn't breathe or anything!  I asked for a pillow but they couldn't get that for me until they heard from the doctors that it was okay to move me.

A little while later the doctor came in and was impressed because I have two broken bones in my body - my nose and my eye-socket back behind my sinuses.  I didn't have any internal injuries except for a partially collapsed lung!  They began treating me as best they could and testing my right eye with the broken bone behind it and that is still in a touchy place and there is a possibility of surgery needing to be done, but both specialists that have looked at me have said that they would be happy with letting it heal naturally because it's not a terrible or threatening break.

Once Emily was in Seattle they rushed her in to surgery after a team of 10 specialists were assembled and ready to go.  They got her opened up and patched her up as much as they could and had to remove her spleen. But she stopped bleeding and started getting to a more stable status but she was still really tough-and-go at that point.  My parents had shown up and Emily's family was in Seattle with her at that time.  I heard from my parents who received a call and the report was that she was out of surgery and doing ok but that her lungs were gathering fluid.

I had the worst feeling ever right then because I was scared that I was going to lose her and I didn't want that to happen so soon after being married.  I prayed to God all night that He would hold her in His hands and that He would give me a sign that she's going to be OK.  I asked God to show me she was going to be alright by healing her lungs and keeping all the fluid out of there.  I asked God to keep her strong.  The very next morning the report from Seattle was that the doctors were amazed that her lungs were clear and that she was a strong fighter and was making rapid improvements overnight! My faith has never been stronger and I have never had a more clear answer from God in my life!

Since then, Emily has undergone a couple more stages of the same surgery with the doctors finishing closing her up just a couple days ago.  She's been breathing 'without' the respirator the last few days and she's been a miracle every morning because the doctors are amazed that she's getting better as rapidly as she has been.

I have encountered a mild set back as I have been on a chest tube on suction to get my lung to re-expand.  It did and it was looking good so they took the suction off and left it on water-seal for the day but it collapsed back down a little so they've got me back on suction over the weekend now and hopefully that'll give my lung enough time to heal so that i can get the chest tube taken out and on my way to Seattle early this next week.

So that's our story as much as I remember and know right now.  Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts, we truly appreciate all your love and support in this time of need.

To read more, or send notes of encouragement check out my friend Josh's blog at www.stainedcrimson.com

 

Austin Paul McRae

I Got This.

"I got this." Have you ever said those words? With the baby on the way my life recently has consisted of putting together cribs, bassonets, even a swing that resembles a ride at Disneyland. Of course, all of them advertise being easy to assemble...and they are for your average rocket scientist or mechanical engineer. For me on the otherhand, "easy" is the last word I'd use to describe the construction process. In fact, I have a few other choice words I think might actually be a better fit like..."are you kidding me".... "Do these instructions come in english?".... "I've got a better idea of where part B should go." Anyway, I was putting together one of these "easy to assemble" items when my wife graciously offered to help. Now you'd think that after about two hours of headaches and tylenol, I'd be looking for a way out...and yet sitting in the middle of a mess of shrapnel, parts, and confusion...what came out of my mouth was not a desperate plea for "help" but rather "I got this." So the battle of man versus machine continued...as my wife walked away like a rescue ship drifting away into the sunset...with the piercing words of "well, I offered." Sometimes I wonder if we don't do the same with God. We get so caught up building our careers, our bank accounts, our ministries...and so often there comes this point where we know we need help and yet "I got this" is what comes out of our mouth. Truth is I think one of the things God's been working on my heart is trying less and trusting more. That God wants to bless my life and your life not because of our good efforts but because of His sheer goodness. That we serve a heavenly Father who loves us, and is for us, and wants to help us...if only we'd have the courage, and the faith to put down our tools, to pause from our busyness and simply trust. I like how Galatians 3:3-5 puts it...."After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."

new series at csm monroe