Shaun gives away CD’s when people sign up and pay to sponsor a Compassion child the same night of the show. Tonight we had several volunteers, mostly middle aged women helping out at the table explaining how to fill out the paperwork and telling people of their experiences sponsoring a child. I realized that all the packets that we had set out on the table had been passed out and people were slowly filling them all out, so I decided to bring the box of CD’s out from underneath the table and set them on top, just to make passing them out easier. Sounds simple enough. Grab box, set it on the table.

I grabbed the box form under the table and pulled it up to set it on the table not realizing that the other side of the box was caught on one of the volunteers calf-length skirt. I pulled the box up and set it on the table, skirt attached and now, at waist level. The volunteer realized that I was fully exposing the back of her pretty quick and slapped her skirt down. I’m sure my face turned a few shades of red…

“I’m retarded”, was all I could say.

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I can’t live a lie anymore. I feel like I need to be honest with everyone that is reading this. There is no Barney. I know it comes as a shock to most of you. I don’t have a friend named Barney that desperately needed his passport to go on a cruise leaving in two days now. It’s me. I am that Barney. I’m sorry for any problems I have caused, and hope that none of you ever doubt what I say is true. And although this entire paragraph is ridiculously sarcastic, I did want to give you an update on my passport situation.

They are here. We went out to lunch, where oddly enough, we ran into David Crowder and his wife, Toni, and when we came back to the house there were three Fed-Ex envelopes. Three. One, my birth certificate. Two, my passport. Three, Cooper’s passport, which by the way is really funny to see a 3 month old baby with a passport photo. Thanks for everyone’s encouragement.

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See that green arrow there? That just happens to be the resting place of “Barney’s” passport. After six emails to the New Orleans Passport Agency Office with no response, two email sent directly from the Passport Task Force in Washington D.C., still with no response, the passport sits in the office waiting to be processed. “Barney” is scheduled to leave in two days, but he doesn’t think it will make it in time. Something tells me that “Barney” may have just lost a little more faith in the efficiency of the United States Government.

Luckily, “Barney” has a sister in California that was willing to make some calls, and go into some offices and manage to round up another copy of his birth certificate as well as all the papers needed to prove his citizenship. Those papers now have been sent overnight to him, and it looks like it may work out… assuming he doesn’t forget said papers at home this weekend.

Thanks for all the advise from everyone and thanks to “Barney’s” sister for pulling it all together, as well as anyone else involved.

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Today Shaun and I went up early to GMA week for a few interviews and some viral video taping. The interviews went well. The taping, not so much. We got a few funny moments caught on tape but quickly realized that there were less “famous people” there than we originally had thought. After a meeting at a publisher for Shaun’s book, I met up with my parents and thought I would show them around a little.
We walked around the hotels a bit, then around downtown. Eventually we made it back to the hotel where we met and talked to Jeremy Camp for a bit. (His arms really are gigantic) and saw the Third Day guys walk in. I haven’t seen them in a few months so it was nice to catch up with them. They had met my parents before, but the look on my mom’s face after Mac gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek was priceless. I told her Mac was a “kisser” but she still thought it was a big deal.

After that her day was complete so we went home just in time to play in the cul-de-sac till dark. Tomorrow… I rest.

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“Americans adopt more children from Russia than from any other country except China and Guatemala. But now the government has suspended the work of all foreign adoption agencies…

Last winter, another patient in a central Russian hospital noticed a room of abandoned babies with their mouths taped shut to stop them from crying. Her cell phone video shocked the country when it was played on national television. Reports of babies tied down in their cots are common. Many believe that’s because hospital staff are seriously overworked….

Read More

What options are there?

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My dad and I went to BB Kings Blues Bar, downtown last night for a GMA showcase. MercyMe played for about 45 minutes, but included Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” and U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”. After MercyMe player Phil Wickham played a few songs that will be on his new record. Two words. Freaking Good. After that we left because I needed to be up at 7:00 AM, so Shaun can pick me up to head back up there.

Shaun has a bunch of interviews today, and a few other things that I have nothing to do with, but there will be some moments that must be captured on film. And yes, they will be captured on film. Most likely we will have some downtime today and be able to blog.

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So… let’s pretend there is this guy. We’ll call him “Barney”. Let’s pretend “Barney” is supposed to leave for a hypothetical cruise to say… Jamaica. Let’s also pretend that “Barney” needs to leave for this hypothetical cruise in… let’s say… four days.

Still with me?

Okay. Let’s also pretend that “Barney” turned in his Passport application back in the first week of February, but has yet to hear anything back. “Barney” has called the Passport Agency several times and found out that his hypothetical Passport is in the process of being…. well… processed… in New Orleans. “Barney” has requested three times that the “process” be expedited to make it possible for him to attend his hypothetical cruise, but for some reason the three requests haven’t been responded to.

Let’s take it just one step further.

Let’s also pretend that “Barney” is supposed to be working on this hypothetical cruise… working for someone else… that has to go on the cruise. Let’s say he is in charge of…we’ll call it, some sort of “performance” and “Barney” is the only one who knows all the details about the trip and schedule.

If you were “Barney”, what would you do in this situation that “Barney” seems to have found himself in?

Hypothetically of course.

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Last night Shaun and Becky and Kristin and I had the opportunity to attend a Compassion Dinner in Nashville. The dinner was a “thank you” to over 300 people in the music industry that work with Compassion, so it was fun to see a bunch of friends, and point and look at huge Christian rock stars too. Wess Stafford, the president of Compassion, and Bebo Norman spoke about the amazing work that Compassion is doing and is planning on continuing to do. Talk about a pep-talk. Hearing the passion behind a man who has been involved in an organization for thirty years blew me away.

Although it wasn’t a “formal” dinner we did dress up a little, which I don’t do often. Shaun even wore a tie. Sitting at dinner I went to put my phone in my inside jacket pocket, and felt a card. I pulled it out and realized that it was a card from my uncles funeral… in January…. of 2004. 2004?! Seriously?! Was that the last time I have had to wear anything nice?! I told you it was rare.

It’s GMA week here, so this week is pretty busy. Mostly just catching up with people for me, but still pretty busy. Tonight MercyMe and Phil Wickham are playing a showcase downtown, so that will be fun to see. Then later this week we are trying to facilitate the greatest arm wrestling match of all time. Stay tuned…

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Here are two more pictures of Blue shooting the confetti at the end of the MercyMe show the other night. (Thanks for sending these to me Jeff.)

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