Check It Out

This is awesome. You have to go read this. We are celebrities (in our own minds)!!

http://www.voicesofok.org/?p=294

AND, you need to go here to listen to the song that's about to be all over the radio!

www.myspace.com/daviddunn

Blinded

Life Church in OKC just did a series called Can You See Him. The point of this series was to get you to look back at the low times in your life and see God's presence in those times. When we are going through those times, it is hard for us to see His hands because we are blinded by the suck (for lack of better words). In relation to my life so far, this theory holds true. I have gone through different struggles or lulls over past years, and through each and every one, I can look back and see how it was or has been resolved with a positive effect on my life. The outcome of some of these instances may not be how I initially planned or I might have been better off prior to the instance, but some how or another, it left an influence on my life that has either taught me a lesson or made me a better person. For some reason, I feel like I am currently in one of these times. I can feel God at work in my life, but I have no visual of Him. I know that in the future I will look back in awe of the wonders God was doing in my life, but right now, I am trying to figure out what He is trying to do. Almost every time I shut my eyes, I plead for guidance and strength, but it seems like all I receive is more confusion and frustration. I really don't have anything that I can complain about, but there is something inside of me that does not feel normal. There are millions of people in this world that would love to trade places with me, and yet, I can't find contempt in this situation. I want to do more, but I feel dormant. I feel helpless, almost useless. I want to be used; I'm tired of my own complacency. I can do more; I want to help. Something needs to change, but what?

Abs Diet

Over the past couple of months, I have been eating healthier and working out all the time. My trip to Hawaii inspired me to get my body in shape, so I convinced Dave to do this diet and work out plan with me. Its called the Abs Diet. This is a pretty well known diet, so I figured it would probably be suffice for our needs. After Hawaii, I continued to follow the diet, but not as strict as the first 3 weeks. I decided to stick with the Abs Diet because the food that it allows is generally the same thing that you would eat anyways. The hardest part of the whole diet is that I've had to increase my normal 1 to 2 meals a day to 6 meals a day (this is where I am not as strict as before Hawaii). The food categories are called the power 12 and they spell out the acronym A-B-S-D-I-E-T-P-O-W-E-R 12. It goes like this:

Almonds and other nuts
Beans and other legumes
Spinach and other green vegetables
Dairy products
Instant oatmeal
Eggs
Turkey and other lean meats
Peanut butter
Olive oil
Whole-grain breads and cereals
Extra protein (whey powder)
Raspberries and other berries

Since the beginning of this diet, I have lost 15 pounds. The unusually awesome thing about this diet is that once a week, you can blow off the diet and eat whatever you want to satisfy your cravings. It's a very easy and inexpensive diet.

Migraine Headaches

Migraine is a neurological syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, headaches, and nausea. I want to kick my head ache in the face. My head has been killing me for the past 2 days. I can't think of anything right now other than this headache, so for today, this is all you get.

Overflow: Lights Out

After helping Doug for close to 2 years, I finally started a college ministry of my own. It is called Overflow: Lights Out. The name Overflow is the name of the service that Doug runs, and it also coincides with the name of another college service in Stillwater (OSU) that is running a similar ministry. It's called Lights Out because we do the whole service in the dark. It is 50 minutes of Dave singing worship music. This gives you the opportunity to concentrate on nothing but God. There are no distractions; you can't see anyone else in the auditorium, and even better, they can't see you. We encourage people to sing along with Dave by putting the words to the songs up on slides, but no one is expected to follow along. It is a great time to lift your hands without worrying what anyone else thinks of you. You can lay on the ground or in the pews and no one knows; its a way for you to feel comfortable with worshipping however you want. My job is to go shake hands at the beginning, handle any abnormal complications, and encourage students to come back and bring friends. It is challenging at times because college students are very fickle, and loyalty is a big issue with this age group. It is hard to build numbers without being able to be on different campuses advertising everyday. But with a concept that can appeal to anyone, you hope that it will build itself through word of mouth. And prayer; lots of prayer.

A Weekend Miracle

So, you might have read my previous post that gave you an update of our weekend having a storm cloud over (pun intended). There is no way for me to express the sheer awesomeness of the events that followed after I left that post. Dave has to be one of the luckiest/blessed humans on the face of the earth. No one, and I mean no one, other than Dave (and myself) benefited from this weekend's bad turn of events. So to pick up where I left off, the concert was moved to a church. This cut the expected 10,000 people attending the event by 90%. Dave was intended to play at 2:30 but his show got cut because when they moved the concert to a church, they only had time for 5 bands to play, and Dave was not one of them. He was, however, still scheduled to lead a worship set at the very end of the concert for those who wanted to stay around after the headliners (Run Kid Run and Jon McLaughlin) and semi-headliner (Ben Rector), so he had to stay as well but half his band went back home. This left us (I say us because I was introduced and acted as his manager all weekend) with a guitarist/vocalist (Dave), keyboards, and bass; perfect for an acoustic set. You might be thinking, "I have no clue who Run Kid Run or John McLaughlin is so this must not have been a very big show." False. Run Kid Run is one of the biggest bands on the Christian music scenes, and they are my favorite band. They are equivalent to Greg seeing Dave Matthews, Ferg seeing Bon Jovi, or Mom seeing Paul McCartney. John McLaughlin is also one of the largest up and coming secular artists in the industry. Not only was his song "So Close" that he wrote for the movie Enchanted nominated for an Oscar and performed at the Oscar's, but you have probably heard one or two of his songs; for instance, Beating My Heart (his newest) or Beautiful Disaster. To hear these songs, click on the title of this blog and go to the "audio & video" section of his web site and look these songs up. So to sum it up, this was kind of a big deal. Anyways, Run Kid Run's plane was delayed for over an hour due to bad weather conditions, so this left them without a second headliner act. Side note: the church activities building the concert was moved to did not have electricity so the air conditioning was not running, and it was very hot and humid for the 1500+ people that ended up cramming into this room that was no bigger than half a basketball court. They finally came to Dave and asked him to fill in for Run Kid Run who was running late, and Jon would play after him and Run Kid Run would just play when they showed up at the end. This put Dave in the time slot when the most people were in the building because that was the time originally advertised for the headliner to play. Dave got to open for Jon McLaughlin, we were pumped. When Dave got on stage, he was immediately accepted by the crowd because he played the Aggie Fight Song. With a combination of Dave's amazing vocal abilities and his entertaining stage presence, he was easily the best and most popular performance of the whole concert. College Station loved him; they were begging for more, even though the headliners were about to play. After Dave played, Jon got up and gave an awesome performance, and last, Run Kid Run closed out the night. Why was this all so good for me? Because we hung out with Jon McLaughlin and Run Kid Run all night in the band room. They were awesome guys that just sat around and talked and made jokes with us all night like we were equals. If I passed anyone from Run Kid Run or Jon McLaughlin on the street they would say "Whats up, Chad!" What would you give to spend a night with and have Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, or Paul McCartney to know your name? All in all, Dave became a celebrity in many people's eyes, I got to hang out with my favorite band, and we had a blast every step of the way. How much luckier can you get?

The Weekend

So Dave and I drove to College Station this weekend for a big concert that he's playing. If you live anywhere in Texas right now, then you know what the weather is like, and you know that there is no way that he is going to be able to play this outside concert. Which really stinks because I really came to listen to my favorite band play, Run Kid Run. The actual fact that Dave was going to play a show with my favorite band and Jon McGlaughlin, is impressive. It's too bad the rain has come and washed all of our hopes of this happening away. Anyways, it is kind of neat being here again. I do have a lot of memories about this place and it's nice to be back because it is a neat town, afterall. But anyone who knows me can guess one thing I'm not missing here...

hugs and smooches

This is the Story of a Girl...

So one Sunday morning (October 28, 2007 to be exact), I walked into church at about 11:15 for a 10:50 service. Everyone at church can tell I'm Baptist because they know they can always find me on the back row, so naturally, I sat on the second from the last row. The worship was well under way, and as we neared the last song, I noticed this beautiful singing voice behind me; it easily put American Idol to shame. To avoid being obvious, I didn't turn around. After service, I looked to see the source of this melodic voice, and to my surprise there stood Bonnie. Quick background on Bonnie: we first met about two months before this church service at Overflow. When we met, it was for about two seconds, and I introduced myself as Clyde because I had heard her tell someone else her name. I left her believing that my name was actually Clyde, and before talking to her again at the church service, that was the extent of our acquaintance. After church that Sunday morning, a lot of us went to Pei Wei to eat. I bought her lunch by accident because the cashier thought we were together, and by time Bonnie realized what was going on, I insisted on buying her lunch. Afterwards, she and I stood in the parking lot for over two hours talking. We, somehow, found a way to talk to each other everyday until my birthday, Nov. 5. On my birthday, she invited me to her dorm room on UCO campus where she had decorated her room for my birthday. She had even won a chocolate birthday cake in a cake-walk (still not sure what that is) on campus earlier that day. As weeks passed, we spent more and more time together, but Bonnie would never date me. She had decided that she wasn't going to date during her first year of college, which I respected. I tricked her onto our first "date" by going to see the Bee Movie; I told her it was just two friends going to see a movie (regardless of what she says, it was a date). There were many other "just-two-friends-going-to-do-somethings" over the following months. May 11, 2008, marked the beginning of our actual boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Bonnie has an obsession with the number "11" so on May 11, at 11:11 PM, I asked her to be my girlfriend. If you think this is romantic, you are wrong; simply due to the fact that we were in a Wal-Mart in Muskogee, Oklahoma at that time. Special isn't it? Anyways, we now celebrate two anniversaries when the time comes around: Oct. 28 for the start of our "friendship" and May 11 for the start of our relationship. Either way, I couldn't possibly write enough about how blessed I am to have her around.

My Church

When I worked for Hershey's, we would always meet at Panera Bread in Edmond because of the free WiFi. Across from the Panera was a big church that sat up on a hill, and there was a sign near it that said Faith Church. At this time, I was living in a hotel because my apartment was brand new and the complex was not ready for me to move in yet. On Wednesday night, I was bored out of my mind because I did not know anyone, and it struck me that I should just go to service at that big church that sat up on the hill. I figured that everything would be fine because a sign near the church said, "Faith Church" and I like non-denominational churches. When I pulled into the parking lot, there was an older couple that had just got out of their car, and they invited me to come sit with them during service. The man asked all about me as we were walking into the church, and his response to one of my answers through me back a bit but not enough to make me dwell over it. He asked what denomination church I attended, and I replied Baptist. He just stared at me for a second, and with a confused look on his face, simply said, "Well, OK." The church setting was all too familiar, not in the fact that it was a contemporary Faith Church that I had imagined, but it looked just like the church that I had grown up attending. It had a lot of dark wood, there were a lot of elderly people (to which I just shrugged off as the Wednesday night loyalties), and there was a big, extravagant pulpit (a lot of contemporary churches are shying away from using a pulpit). It never clicked to me where I was or what was going on until they started praying. The preacher bowed his head and all at once, the auditorium erupted with noises of everyone praying out loud at the same time; some were in languages that I had never heard. Then it hit me, I was in a Pentecostal church. Upon further inspection of the Faith Church sign, it was meant for the driveway located in front of the sign and I pulled into the drive way behind it. I started cracking up because I realized I had turned into the wrong driveway and went to the wrong church service. I left marks on my sides from where I was pinching myself so hard to keep myself from laughing so loud. Luckily, my laughter was drowned out by the speaking in tongues of people near me. At this point, I started planning my exit strategy. Everyone was so eager to meet me, and learn everything about me because I was such a "sharp looking young man." When they asked for my phone number so they could keep in contact, I gave them my email due to the fact that "it was so hard to get me on my cell." As I was getting into my car to leave, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw this lady dragging a big bald man (Doug) to my car. I got out of the car, and she introduced him as the young adult pastor. We talked for a long time, and he ended up telling me that they played basketball on Monday nights, so I started going to basketball because I had nothing else to do in this town. Eventually, Doug convinced me to go to his college service, and that is when I realized that the college group was a non-denominational group. Doug and I eventually formed a good friendship, and I have been his assistant ever since. As of today, I go to their Sunday morning service, and for a while, I even joined the choir. It really is a good church, but you don't have to worry about me converting any time soon.

Who Else is Here

After this post, I think I am done with the "something-something Here" blogs, which is a good thing for me because that means you are caught up with my surroundings. There still might be stories of how I met someone, but you now understand the core of Why I'm Here. I think it's funny how God places people in our lives. They could have been near us our whole life, but I feel that God has a plan for when our paths cross.

For instance: meet David Timothy Dunn. Dave and I went to the same college at the exact same time, for the same amount of time (2004-2007). We played basketball against each other numerous amounts of times but neither one of us have any recollection of the other in college. We met through a mutual friend (getting to him in a second) in Edmond, and less than a month after meeting, we were living together. He is a musician who is about to put out his second album, and he leads the worship service that I oversee. Dave and I have the exact same personality, and you would think that we have known each other since birth if you were ever around us at the same time.

That mutual friend I was talking about is James Middle-Name Carbary.Although James looks like a giant in this picture, he is not; he is a normal person (with a real middle name, I just don't know it). I met James through Bonnie at the college service that we attend on Thursday night. James is an extremely good friend of mine, and like Bonnie, James is one of the most contagiously up-lifting, spirited people I have ever met; I love this kid to death.

Along with Dave, I also live with Philip Michael Mason.Phil was one of the first friendships I formed when I moved here. He was the bartender at the Deep Deuce Grill (where I now bartend because of Phil) when I first came to OKC. When I started working for the grill, Phil and I were spending a lot of time together and we naturally formed a friendship because we have very similar personalities and the same sense of humor. Phil is probably the funniest person I've ever met.

Not really a way to wrap this one up, so there you go; that's Who Else is Here in OKC.

What I'm Doing Here

24 hours. That's all God gave us for one day. He lets us choose what we do in that day, but as much as we beg and plea, He doesn't change the amount of time in a day. Its funny how our wishes for time can change on a daily basis. For instance, when we are having a bad day, we yearn for the day to just be over with. We want God to take away a couple of hours just so we can start anew and forget the troubles of the day. Or when we have something really exciting going on the following day, we are ready for the current day to end so tomorrow can get here sooner. But when we are having the time of our life, we want more time. When we have a million things to do before tomorrow, we want more time. Every time my brother falls asleep/takes a shower/plays golf(granted he's playing well), he wants more time. As for me, when I look at What I'm Doing Here, I could definitely use more time in the day. Ever since I started attending my church, I have helped Doug with anything that he needs, which eventually lead to me becoming his assistant. Soon, Doug and I starting a Coffee Talk service on Wednesday nights for the adults, and it also presented an opportunity for me to lead a small group on Sunday nights. Recently, he has given me my own service on Tuesday nights after his service. It's an all worship service, so I really don't have to do much except some behind the scenes maintenance. On Wednesday nights, Bonnie and I also attend a college small group that is sanctioned by a different church. After I left Hershey's, I started bartending at the Deep Deuce Grill. I bartended during college so I knew it was a great way to make some good money, and it is by far the most enjoyable job that I have ever worked. While I was bartending in OKC, I was hired on with my current employer, National Oilwell Varco. This started a Monday through Friday 7-5 work week on top of everything else.

So to sum all of this up, I currently hold a sales position with National Oilwell Varco, I bartend a few nights a week (sometimes I leave the office and drive straight to the bar which makes a 7:00 AM to 12:00 AM work day), and I am still very involved at the church with different ministries. When I do get the occasional hour or two of free time, I am spending it with Bonnie or at the gym. I could use about 5 more hours in a day.

What Kept Me Here

After I left Hershey's, it seemed I was back to square one. Only this time, I had a lot more invested into Oklahoma, so I was not as willing to just pick up and move to Canada. I love the life that I have started for myself in Oklahoma, and I am not very keen on the idea of leaving it all behind (atleast not anytime soon). Over the previous years, I have gotten really involved in Edmond and Oklahoma City, and I have made a lot of good relationships. Two of the relationships that I have made at the church would have been enough to keep me around on their own.

The first is Douglas Paul Young. Doug is the young adult pastor at the church and one of my new closest friends. He is, without a doubt, the main reason I stayed with my church. The story of how we met is an entire blog in itself and will be told another day. Doug was kind enough to take me under his wing when I arrived to Edmond, and he was gracious enough to counsel me through a lot of habits that I still struggled with from high school and college. He also struggled with similar problems and knew how hard it was to overcome them, so he never once judged me for my actions but showed a love for me through every conversation that I now use in my own ministry (a description for this kind of love will also be told in another blog). He was an encouragement of my faith the entire time I was restructuring my life, and he still continues to be an accountability partner in my current Christian walk.

The second relationship was Bonnie Louis Whitaker (also a story for another blog). At the time I left Hershey's, Bonnie and I had already been dating for over five months, and she was becoming one of my best friends. There has always been something special about Bonnie that has intrigued me from the beginning of our relationship. It's not just the fact that she is beautiful, but she has a certain spirit and charisma around her that is extremely contagious. It's hard to describe her uniqueness in a few sentences, but those who have ever met Bonnie for more than an instant know exactly what I'm talking about. What ever it is, she makes me want to be a better person, and regardless of how we end up, I am blessed for our time together.

There are many other friendships and good acquaintances that I have created in Oklahoma and hopefully many more to come. When I reflect on What Kept Me Here, its not the fact that I am occupationally happy, or that I love Oklahoma (I think my last blog made that clear). It's the relationships that I have found and the people that surround me that make me happy, and being happy is enough to keep me around.

A Response to Sibling Celebration...

In the spirit of Sibling Day, I thought I would share 3 things I remember most over the past 23 years with my brother (things that do not end in him trying to sell me or give me away or convince me I was found on the side of the road in Mexico):

These are in no particular order, just the first things that come to mind....


1. Eating an onion for a 4-wheeler
Mom and Dad told us that if we ate an onion from "The Crow's Nest" they would buy us a 4-wheeler. Greg ate an entire onion except for about a 2 inch ring which I tried to choke down; his stomach was, and always has been, stronger than mine when it came to eating. We had to get an extra bottle of ranch because every piece of onion was covered in dressing. They had already bought the 4-wheeler before the whole onion thing.

2. Video Games
If there were ever two kids that could define the statement of "raised by video games," it was us. We would spend countless hours in front of a television playing Nintendo. It didn't matter what game (Mario Bros, Contra, Zelda, Techmo Bowl, Techmo Super Bowl, and the list goes on...) we would not stop playing until we beat it. I remember there was a special way to save Zelda, and if you didn't do it right, you would lose all your information. One time I did it wrong, and Greg and Ferg made me stand there and hold down the buttons until they were finished playing.

3. Fighting
I don't think a day went by when Greg and I didn't get into some sort of physical altercation. We fought over any and everything. I think our last actual fight was my Freshman year of high school, his Senior year. I would always start something on one end of the house and then take off running to the other end of the house having to guess which room mom was in. If I guessed wrong, he would have me cornered. To avoid this, I would be screaming bloody murder for mom to answer as I ran through the house (I think most of the time she wouldn't answer on purpose because she knew I deserved it) so that I could hide behind her.

Whatever the case, God has blessed me, not only with a brother, but a life long friend; to which I am truly thankful for.

How I Got Here

Oklahoma. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would have an address in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. To be quite honest, I never wanted an address in this state; it never crossed my mind as an option. When I was about to graduate college (before Jenna; one week counts) and find a job, I had no ties or attachments so I could go where ever I wanted. All I had in my portfolio was a Texas Tech degree and an over sized grin; the world was a game board and I was the brightest color of all the game pieces. Then, Oklahoma happened. Really?!? How about San Diego, Chicago, New York, or Miami? I've lived nowhere my whole life, its time to venture to the city, right? Apparently not; all of the companies that are located in the "city" don't recruit at Texas Tech. It was looking like I had to throw the city-life dream out the window. No problem; I would settle for Las Vegas, St. Louis, Boston, or Ontario (Canada, I know). Then, I got an interview with a very nice gentleman wearing a name tag so desirable it should have been made of chocolate. Actually, the name tag pretty much was chocolate because it said Hershey's - Jerry Niblett. Are you kidding me? People actually work for a candy company? Was this even an option? Does your last name need to be a good idea for the name of a candy bar? He liked me too; so much that he wanted to offer me a job in Phoenix. Phoenix! I love Phoenix! They have... uh.... oh, the Suns! The Suns are in Phoenix. I was pumped! I went out and bought a Steve Nash jersey because I was so excited. But I decided not to accept the position right away; I told them I needed to think about it. My "think about it" time was spent researching apartments and places to live, places to shop, places to hang out, everything there is to do in the area; all in Phoenix. I was moving to Phoenix. I love Phoenix, I've always dreamed of living in Phoenix! Well, during the time that I was taking to make them sweat over the idea of losing me and wanting to offer me more money, a salesmen in Jerry's territory (Texas panhandle and Oklahoma) quit. Since this over sized grin left such an impact on Jerry, he wanted to hire me for the position. He insisted that I should come work for him. I, being left with a gilt-ridden conscious and a sense that I owed this guy for pushing me threw all of the interviews, accepted the position in Oklahoma City (it was either OKC or Amarillo). I moved up here, Jerry was my boss for less than a month (he got promoted and moved to California), and I was stuck in Wal-Mart. I lasted close to a year in Wal-Mart wearing a Hershey's name tag before I jumped ship. It was either jump or get thrown off soon; they ended up cutting 3,000 jobs across the country over the next two months. So that is How I Got Here. But why did I stay in Oklahoma? The answer to that question is in another blog to come.

Why I'm Here

The set up for this blog is going to be different. Most people start at the beginning of their life and work their way to the present situation. This might make you think, "OK, to be different he must do the opposite of that." Well, you would be wrong if you had that thought. I'm going to do this completely random. I see this most appropriate because stories and thoughts don't come to us in chronological order. Instead, they hit us like the changing of the weather (if you lived in Oklahoma you would know that this means extremely random). However, to avoid complete confusion, I will give you a somewhat relevant reason of Why I'm Here. I'm sure over the past couple of years, changes and situations in my life has brought some pretty odd (but good) questions to mind. Questions such as "Why in the world is Chad in Oklahoma?" or "Why is Chad going to an Assemblies of God church?" or "Why is Chad not selling chocolate anymore?" or "Why was Chad even selling chocolate in the first place?" We will get to all of those questions eventually, but right now, those are not the question at hand. The question is Why I'm Here. This is not an easy question to answer, but at the same time, it is a simple answer. The answer is so complex that this computer does not have the memory to hold the explanation, but the answer is so short and sweet. The answer to this question is so confusing, and yet, it's so clear. The answer is so calm and gentle, but at the same time, it's so exciting and exhilarating. The answer can be so frustrating, and at the same time, be so comforting. The answer may be the misconception to some as hate, but the answer is nothing but the purist of love. Hopefully, you have figured it out by now. Hopefully, you aren't hanging on by a thread at this point, and trying to guess the end of this blog. If you are, I'm sorry. Because I'm not going to give you the answer. It's not because I don't want you to know the answer. Actually, it's the exact opposite; I long for you to know the answer. If it were my dying wish, I would wish that everyone knows this answer. But all the same, it is the answer to why I'm here, and it's even the answer to why you are there. My point to this is not to confuse you, but for you to look at your own life and current situation and ask yourself "Why am I here?" I hope that our answers coincide.