African Children's Choir (performers from

"American Idol Gives Back" )

comes to Flagstaff

Last night CCoF and Trinity Heights brought in the African Children's choir to perform a concert here in Flagstaff and I had the awesome opportunity to host the event. I had first seen the group, as did millions of others, on "American Idol Gives back" just a few weeks ago as they sang with several other well known performers to raise money for www.savethechildren.org The group performed an amazing show lasting over an hour including worship songs, some of their favorites and alot of energetic choreography. It was a privelege to watch them perform let alone share the stage with them. You can check out their site at www.africanchildrenschoir.com This is an very powerful and effective ministry changing children and the culture all over Africa.

Blogging in Baltimore

Last weekend I got home from an amazing trip to the Baltimore, Maryland where I spent almost four days with my college friend Dale and his family. After a few years of dating he decided to finally tie the knot with his fiance Kim. What an amazing place! It was great to meet Kim's family and visit the area let alone be at the wedding. I spent almost 9 hours total in the plane going back and forth, over 4 hours in the car and the first night at the airport making sure I was on time for my plane which left at 6 in the morning. The fun never stops. While traveling to and fro I started to do some blogging and realized that I am way behind and have alot to catch up on so Im writing the worlds longest blog to try and get up to speed with everything going on since our move to Flagstaff four months ago. (pictured: Dale and I on location of the wedding in the Severna Park, MD area)

My New Toys

So in the past few months I've managed to get two new toys that I spend alot of time playing with. One is my new Palm Treo. I can describe it in one word. No make that two. Insanely cool! Who would have thought you could take a a video camera, a phone, email, word, excel, publisher, a photo camera, text messaging, outlook calendar, internet service and all kinds of other bells and whistles and shove it all in a small device you could hold in palm of your hand and take anywhere you go?! If you havent seen one already just go and check them out. I'll warn you ahead of time though that they are addicting.

The other awesome toy is my new Martin acoustic guitar. As it is quoted in the Bible, " can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Well the answer is ... (other than Jesus) Yes something can. Straight from the Martin Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. This guitar has a great tone, and tuning and all natural wood finish for a great sound. Im actually using it in the studio right now on some new songs which is my next big news to share......

Back in the studio

After literally over 3 years I'm finally back in the studio working on CD #3. As of right now Im slowly approaching being 1/3 of the way done with the project. This CD has a whole new sound with alot of new creative approaches to the vocals and instrumentation. I'm excited about how far I have gotten and continue to work on the writing as I am combining some lyrics I've written over the past couple years and half that is being written along the way. Im working in a studio here in Flagstaff owned by one of the keyboardists on my worship team here at CCOF. Please pray for God to do amazing things as we continue on this project. We hope to be completed by late August, first of September.

No its not a rumor. It's true and something that my family and I are very very excited about. Effective February 5th I will be filling a new role as the Worship Pastor at Christ Church of Flagstaff. (For those who have no idea where that's at its 90 minutes north of where we are now in beautiful Northern Arizona!)
I wanted to say thank you to all the worship team, staff and congregation there who have already been flooding us with emails and messages encouraging us and helping us in this transition. We can tell already that we will have alot of great relationships and are excited about our new "family" there at C.C.O.F. ! We have been praying for an opportunity like this for a long time and are looking forward to serving there.
I also wanted to say thank you to those who have been supportive of us in our role at PCC through the difficult times and challenges. Its awesome to see how God works and answers prayers and its obvious that if you remain faithful to Him in all circumstances that He will be faithful and provide. (Two of my favorite verses that remind me daily of these two things are Psalm 77 and Psalm 40:1-3. Check them out!!) For all our other friends and family checking out this blog who arent familiar with CCOF check out their website in the works at www.ccof.net
We will keep you posted as things progress!!

Back in AZ
Well we are back home after a 14 day journey across the state of Michigan. It was awesome to visit my family in Buchanan, Kathys in Grand Rapids, my brother in Jackson and even our incredible visit with so many of our friends in south Detroit. Thank you Meadows family for having us over to your wonderful home and for the opportunity to have so many great friends over that we havent seen in two years!!! On top of that it was great to visit the old college group and friends there in Woodhaven. Great to see you guys!!! We were in Michigan for the whole two weeks and there was absolutely no snow... until... of course... the morning we left. It finally started. We boarded the plane in Detroit and it snowed like crazy. Just in time for us to leave. During our flights to and from on our vacation as we flew into Chicago, IL, South Bend, IN, Detroit, MI, St. Louis, MO, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, OK, and of course Phoenix there was nowhere with more scenic snow than the view over New Mexico as the mountains and terrain out the plane window. Ethan woke me up, "Dad look there's snow!" I looked out and there it was, snow all over and as far as you could see up into the Colorado area and even on the San Francisco peaks in Flagstaff out in the distance. We didnt get to ski or sled but it was pretty cool to see coming back. We had to come back to the southwest to get the snow. Who would have thought.

The Earnst Family Visits the

Gerald Ford Museum

Grand Rapids, MI

Top Row: Ethan and Corey Signing the Guestbook inside the Gerald Ford Museum

Second Row: Kathy Signing and the memorial wall

Third Row: Grandma Parker signing and Ethan putting out flowers

Fourth Row: Kathy being interviewed by Channel 13/ABC

Fifth Row: Kevin at Memorial, Kathys interview

Bottom: Corey and Kevin filmed while observing Memorial wall

While visiting family in the Grand Rapids area we had the opportunity to stop back by at one of our favorite museums and be a part of the Gerald Ford Memorial where he was burried today. After signing the guestbook in the lobby we went out to the curb and got picked to interviewed about our visit to the service and spent time observing the items left along the wall. ( a home recording of the interview will be on youtube soon).

Corey's Baptism in Buchanan, MI!!

Corey made the decision to become a Christian a couple months ago so on New Years Eve in front of my family, Kathy's family, friends from our old church in Detroit and my home church he gave his confession and was baptized. It was a little over twenty five years ago that my dad baptized me there so it was a great moment for all of us!!!

Christmas Craziness!

(pictured above are my marsh- mallow snowmen toasted in an open fire)

It's the day after Christmas and we have made it back to Michigan finally to visit family. The only down side is there is no snow. Its cold but no snow. Christmas eve after a 13 hour day at church I came home and tried to wind down. This included lighting all the candles in the house and turning on some of my favovorite Christmas shows to watch while packing for our trip. Yes that is plural. Christmas vacation in the living room and the "Christmas Story" in my bedroom. Both shows that I hadnt gotten to see yet this season. Now I could enjoy the rest of the evening I had left while packing and getting the house ready for us to be gone two weeks.

The full day we spent travelling here seemed like 3 days rolled into one. (As if 5 services at church on Christmas eve wasnt enough already!) If you were to see us hanging in the airport (in either Phoenix or Chicago) you would notice we taking advantage of the time with our gifts and gadgets.
*Ethan was taking pictures on his new digital camera and transferring it to the laptop
*Corey was playing music on his new MP3 player,
* I was surfing the internet for music for my Ipod
* and Kathy was texting friends and drinking my Starbucks Coffee.
We are so high tech. Or pretend to be anyway.

Now we are at my parents house where my mom has been blessed with the gifts of every musical toy you could imagine:
*A 3 foot nutcracker bear is in the corner singing "The Little Drummer Boy"
*A little magical piano is playing while magnetic snowmen dance on the top,
*A mechanical Santa claus is banging on his minarature piano ("Santa Claus is coming to town") *And a family of mice sits on top of the TV singing " All I want for Christmas if my two front teeth".
(someone stop the madness!)
And yes they are all playing at the same time. My niece and Ethan make sure every few minutes to keep them going whenever the song is over.

And the technology savy Christmas continues as :
*Mom and I compare our new Ipods and ipod accesories and of all shapes and sizes,
*Corey and Tyler play Lego Star Wars games on Uncle Todd's laptop and
*Ethan designs cars from the Cars Movie on my laptop.
*and my niece Alisa is now joining the fun on grandmas computer playin her new game.

It's official. The days of the tinker toys are over. The noise is getting louder.

As for me even though every minute of my life has been filled with noise and business since a couple days before Christmas all I can say is that it is definitely good to be on vacation and enjoying the holidays with the family. Even if I can't hear a thing. In the meantime I will be praying for more Peace on Earth. Or at least for peace within the hearing distance where I am sitting right now.