We’re so excited that Alex gets to lead the quickly growing Doral campus, and can’t wait to see what God does!

Check out this video of Pastor Troy Gramling introducing Alex and Erin today!

1. Work out every morning
2. Save $100 a month for Christmas Gifts
3. Save $100 a month for a vacation
4. Design a 2009 Every Wedding Sample Album
5. Update Photography Website and Branding
6. Create Email Lists based on wedding month
7. Maintain a clean room
8. Set time aside every day for devotional
9. Learn Adobe Aftereffects
10. Read one Christian book a month
11. Read one Design/Business book a month
12. Donate unwanted/unused clothes & books
13. Replace carpet in my room
14. Mat, frame & hang 11 x 14s sitting in my room
15. Buy Adobe products I use
16. Go on a mission trip
17. Go to FRC at least 1 day a week.
18. Shoot 12-15 weddings
19. Relegate fast food to only once a week.

Committed – Tempted 3 from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

This is the funniest, coolest, most AWESOME video I’ve ever seen in my ENTIRE life! When I grow up and get married, I want to be just like you two! <3 <3 <3

If you don’t know them, this is Heredes (@heredes) and Marcy (@marcyr) – friends  of ours from Flamingo Road Church.

Why?

• Because there are orphans and widows in distress.(James 1:27)
• Because there are people who are hungry and thirsty. (Matthew 25:35)
• Because there is a need to go into the world and make disciples. (Matthew 28:19)

What?

Our goal is $500k above and beyond our weekly tithes.

When?

October 10 & 11, 2009 at all campuses

How?

1. Begin to pray about the amount of your “G Offering.”
2. Participate in the “G Offering” the weekend of October 10 & 11.

(Child Care Available!)

This weekend, the Flamingo Road Photography Team, a kinda-new subdivision of Potential Studios (:D) will be photographing Beach Baptism!

As a photographer who loves capturing emotional moments, Beach Baptism is one of my favorite events to cover. There is nothing like watching the life-change that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ go through as they go into the water, and back out.

The joy that takes place is too hard to explain, so you know what? Just come join us!

If you haven’t taken that next step in your walk with Christ, this weekend is the perfect time to do it! There will be partying and BBQ down here, but that’s NOTHING compared to the partying that will be going on in heaven .

So- come see for yourself!

Beach Baptism from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

I tend to write about what’s on my mind, and with the past day’s news, the thought of kids has been on my mind a LOT. When I was younger (and much more selfish and self-centered), I always thought I didn’t want kids, at ALL. None. I was going to travel the world, and enjoy life.  It was too much of a risk and too much of a challenge to be responsible for raising another little person who would depend on me for EVERYTHING for at least 15 years. And then, after that, the effect of my “teaching” would last that little person the rest of their lives. Whoa. It was HUGE. Too much responsibility for me to fathom.

As I’ve gotten a little older, my mind changed, as I suspect it does for most people, although the idea of raising children correctly has gotten no less scary.  I once asked my mom how she did it (barely being an adult when she had me at 20), and she said something so WISE (as she usually does). She said “You grow up at the same time your kids are growing up. Everyone grows at the same time”.

Yesterday, there was a fight, and subsequent stabbing and murder of a 17 year old boy by another 17 year old male student at Coral Gables Senior High School down here in South Florida. It started out as a “normal” fist fight between the boys in between classes (according to news reports), however, it quickly escalated, and in front of the student body, one student pulled out a switchblade and stabbed the other in the chest, killing him. The boy who was killed was a recent Cuban immigrant, and had arrived in this country only 5 months ago. His mother is still in Cuba, and his father is in Spain. He was under the care and supervision of a 20 year old cousin here in the United States. Can you imagine what his parents will feel when they learn that their son has been murdered?? Its incomprehensible to me.

The even scarier thing is that here in Florida, a law was passed a few years ago, that if someone is killed in the act of self defense, they cannot be prosecuted for any kind of homicide. I suspect that the legal arguments will revolve around which boy was “defending” themselves, and eye witness accounts of who started the fight. This is just my armchair legal opinion, as I’m certainly no criminal defense lawyer, but law does interest me so if I were a lawyer, the first thing I would try to establish was who started the fight, and who was defending themselves.

Legal technicalities notwithstanding, I can’t imagine the pain these families are going through. Both families… the family of the boy who did the stabbing I am sure is no less devastated, and my prayers go out to all of them.

I guess my point, in the end, is with the rise in teenage violence, there are so many things that can’t be controlled at home. Even if you do everything right, there’s a chance that something like this could one day happen…

Can any parents comment on how you deal with this? Please share some wisdom with those of us who don’t have kids, but one day might….