Time Warp Tuesday --- The Princess Spoke

When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I moved into an efficiency apartment in a complex located in the North Hills. I lived there for a year before Steve and I found a place to be roommates a little closer to the city. That first year I had a family from India living next door. I had only met the father a few times, but he was very intelligent and worked in some type of product development field and was on work trips more often than not. His wife stayed at home and rarely came out of their apartment. She did not speak English at all. They had 2 kids..."Guy" and "Princess". I don't remember what their real names were, but that is what they always told people to call them.

Guy was 9-years-old and Princess was three. Guy talked a mile-a-minute, but Princess never uttered a sound. She also had a blanket she carried with her everywhere. It was a bit long, so about 2 feet of it would always be dragging on the ground behind her as she walked. They would both knock on my door several times a day (sometimes together, sometimes just Guy, and sometimes just Princess). Guy would always want to go out and play catch, watch TV with me, etc. Princess (since she never talked) would just walk straight in (dragging that blanket behind her), hop up on my couch, and just lay there until either I would have to leave or Guy would come and get her.

As time went on, Guy and Princess would want to go with me wherever I went. If I said I was going to the mall, Guy would say, "Let me ask if we can go too"...and it didn't matter where I was going the mom would always say "Yes". I only had a truck back then so we would load in with Princess in the middle and guy in the passanger side (who knows how many laws I broke without a child-seat for Princess, but back then I thought they were only for newborns). So we would walk through the mall, grocery store, church, wherever with Guy talking his mile-a-minute, and Princess lagging a few feet behind dragging her blanket.

Must be a cultural thing, but this soon turned into, "Mom told us to come stay with you while she goes to the store" or "Mom said to leave Princess with you while she takes me to get my haircut". Not that I ever really minded as Guy was a great kid, and Princess was like watching a cat that just sits there and never makes a peep. About a month before I moved, Guy, Princess, and their family bought a house. As they loaded up the truck to move, they were both crying thinking they would never see me again.

Four years later as I was teaching at North Hills we had a Open House for the 7th-graders. Guy would now be in 7th grade and as I was walking down the hall that night I heard, "Mr. Mike, Mr. Mike!" and turned to see Princess (who I was used to seeing lagging behind everyone) now running ahead to give me a hug. The Princess had spoken! And although I didn't have Guy in class, he would come by my office to say hello and chat throughout the year.

Magical Monday --- Tighty Whities

Above is a video of one of my newer tricks which creates the illusion that I am stealing someone's underwear (sorry for the bad quality...the lighting at this show was really bad and I had to brighten the video 5X just to see it). I went through many creative ideas of how to best utilize this trick...and currently it is used as the finale to end my show. I tie it in with another one of my tricks (rope thru the body). After cutting myself in half with a rope, I call on a volunteer to be cut in half in the same way using a scarf. But the kicker is, instead of being cut in half, their underwear (which happens to be tighty whities) comes off.

So I was ending my show recently at the county fair with this trick. Normally I use someone that is at least a teenager (as you can imagine how embarrassing this could be for a child), but there was a little boy about 8-years-old that was sitting up front the entire show that I knew would be perfect for the trick. So after he watched me cut myself in half with the rope, he did volunteer to come up and let me attempt the same to him with the rope. When the underwear came flying out there was the funniest look of shock on this kids face which made the audience erupt in laughter. As I turned to put the trick away, I heard everyone burst out in even more laughter...but didn't see what happened. What could it have been?

Turns out the little kid pulled out his waistband and took a peek to see whether or not it was really his underwear!

Family/Friend Friday --- A Long Trip

Back in the summer of 2003 we went on a week-long trip with all of Jen's family to Kentucky to see the Corvette museum, Louisville Slugger plant, Churchill Downs, etc. It was about an 8-hour drive from where we were living in Pittsburgh, and we decided to carpool with Jen's sister Joni (the birthday girl this week!) and her boyfriend (now husband) Ron (pictured above).

Joni and Ron like to pick on each other back then and Jen thought 8-hours of bickering back and forth would put her over the edge. I told her not to worry as I would keep one eye on the road and one eye on them. Unfortunately the night before our trip I got wet sand kicked in my eye playing beach volleyball and ended up with an abrasion and infection and only one good eye (which I figured I had better keep on the road).

So we implemented one rule for our trip...It was known as "Rule #1"...NO FIGHTING! It worked out pretty well on the way down. As Ron would try to badger Joni, we would just say "Rule #1" and that would be the end of it. It is kind of like saying to the kids, "I'm going to count to 3...", but hey whatever works.

We made it all the way to Louisville, KY without any major fighting or bickering. We needed to eat dinner and stopped at a local Shoney's (now Joni's favorite restaurant). Our highlights from our 11:00pm pit stop was our waitress with only 3 teeth, the nice long hair in my ranch dressing, and the blood that came pouring out of Ron's chicken when he started to cut it. The favorite part for Joni was the women's restroom in which someone obviously had some issues in there that was never cleaned up. All said and done we got 10% off our bill (yeah, that was worth it!).

Hope you had a great birthday Joni, and hope Ron was able to take you back to your favorite restaurant!

Theological Thursday --- Me Church (Part 1)

'People are so often caught up in their activities that they tend to worship their work, work at their play and play at their worship'. --- Charles Swindoll

In the Hebrew, worship is literally translated as "bowing low before in reverence". As Chuck Swindoll notes in his quote above, many have turned their worship into their play time and have lost the aspect of reverence for their King. Biblically, there is definitely a time to work, a time to play, and a time to worship...but certainly not a time to get the three of them confused.

In this two-part post about the "Me Church" (where people attempt to make their personal preferences absolute truths...such as the church should only sing hymns) one of the first areas that take people down a road they shouldn't be going is the music part of worship. The point of any worship is to bring glory to God, not to give you an emotional feeling, make you have fun, etc (although these things are not wrong...it should not be your purpose or goal). You should be able to worship with a 20-piece band or with no instruments at all. The point is bringing praises to the one who paid our debt and taking your focus off of yourself.

But it can get worse....we can get into a habit of making the church all about us in all aspects (not just the music). More about that next week. In the meantime, if you are one of the people who prefers to make worship more about you then about God, here is a product you might enjoy...

What's Up Wednesday --- September 24th

1) This week (Monday) was Jen's sister Joni's birthday. I'll be sure to add a story on Family/Friend Friday this week.
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2) The "Intro to Theological Education" class I am an instructor for at the seminary is wrapping up this week. Tonight is our final regular class and then I meet individually with each student over the next week.
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3) The show at the county fair went great...there was a decent sized crowd and the kids were really into it.
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4) The outreach show I did on Sunday also went very well. The head pastor (who also works at the seminary) called yesterday to let me know the kids and adults are still talking about it and want me to come back ASAP. The check they gave me was $250 more than I asked for, so that is a good thing too!
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5) Friday night is our staff party for Grace Brethren Church. I attend all the staff meetings on Tuesdays and am considered a pastor there so Jen and I will be going. We look forward to playing some FRICKET!
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6) Saturday night we are attempting to go to the fall "barn dance" at Malabar Farm. It is a square dance (Jen's idea) and we have to coax 3 other couples from our building to go.
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7) I kicked some butt in fantasy football this week! (I thought I would add this and rub it in a little since it was my brother I beat, and I know he checks this blog every once in a while).

Time Warp Tuesday --- Trivial Pursuit

When I was growing up, my family liked to play trivial pursuit. My dad would win every time, but we had fun trying to beat him (it is amazing how much useless knowledge he has!). I couldn't tell you 99% of the questions that have been asked over the years as you hear them and forget about them fairly quickly, but two moments stick out for me...

The first one happened when I was in 4th grade. The "brown" category was always the hardest. My mom and dad were playing against my brother and his girlfriend. I was on my mom and dad's team but being only in 4th grade I was more of the kid who is just on a team to give me something to do...I wasn't supposed to know any of the answers. My team needed the dreaded brown piece to win. A question came up about the underground railroad for the slaves. We were studying slavery that week, so my ears perked up and asked them to repeat the question. My mom said, "Come on, you don't know that one Mike...I'll give you $1,000 if you do". Moments later I blurted out Nat Turner (the correct answer) to win the game. I am, however, still waiting for my $1,000.

The next one happened when I was in high school. It was me, my mom, and my dad each playing for ourselves. My dad pulled a card to ask my mom a question in the science category. He read, "What is Pi" (the mathematical number used in circle measurements). My mom responded, "What kind of pie?" to which my dad said, "Strawberry banana". My mom said, "Oh, then flour, sugar, strawberries, bananas..."

Magical Monday --- September 11th, 2001

September 11th affected us all whether it be a job loss, a hit in the stock market, loss of a loved one, or a renewed appreciation for family and friends. The week before September 11th, I filled in as the after school detention teacher and received 1/2 day of comp time that I was using that morning. So I got to watch all the events unfold at home...ultimately the kids were sent home from school that day so I never had to go to work.

Several of my magic shows over the next few weeks were canceled as well. One show that remained was a birthday party the following Saturday for a 6-year-old boy. There were about 25 kids and their parents. The show was a hit and many of the parents thanked me for bringing some fun into a very sobering week.

After the show the boy's mom asked to talk with me. She said business had been really bad that week and she didn't have the money to pay me right now. I asked her what she did, and she was a dancer at a downtown Gentleman's Club and the events of the week were preventing men from coming to see her strip (hopefully they were at home with their families where they should be!). She asked if there was any way to delay payment or any other arrangements we could make such as several front row passes to her club.

Ultimately I have no control over payment for my shows. That belongs to the agents at my entertainment agency. This did however give me a great opening to share a little of my testimony (without being judgmental towards her) and why I didn't go to places like that...out of my love for my Savior! She opened up a bit and shared a little of her faith background and we parted ways by me giving her the name of the "nice agent" to work out the payment and that I would be praying for her.

About 2 weeks later I got a call back from this girl who thanked me for our conversation. She decided she was going to go back to college and find a better line of work. What ever happened with her...I don't know. But God does, and this may have been a great example of how God can use a tragic event (this wouldn't have happened otherwise) for His glory!

Family/Friend Friday --- 10 Years

This month will be my 10-year reunion at Lock Haven University. Early this week I told you a story about my friends at Grove City College and the great relationships I had there, but when I transferred to Lock Haven, it was very different. There was a lot more drinking, partying, and a complete lack of Christian values...so I didn't have nearly as many friends there (and I would go to either DuBois or Grove City on the weekends to visit my friends there).
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I did have 1 great friend at Lock Haven. Her name was Kirsten and she was in the Phys Ed program with me. While others were out partying, we would always watch Three's Company, Friends (they actually had new episodes back then!), rule the tennis courts (we never lost a double's match together), or play one of my wacky made-up games like Bruiseball or Powerball(so those of you that hate my made up games and modified rules you can blame Kirsten for always encouraging me!). She is now a teacher near Hershey and lives with her husband and occasionally jumps on to read this Blog.
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The best story I can remember with Kirsten came from our Adaptive Physical Education class. The professor thought it would be a good idea to make the entire class spend 24-hours in a wheelchair to get an idea of what it was like. Kirsten was my partner and she would help me out, and then we would switch the following day. As soon as we got out of class that day, she agreed to help wheel me back to my apartment.
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Now, if you've ever been to Lock Haven you know there are only 2 choices...you are either walking up a hill or walking down a hill....there is no level ground. So we get to one of the hills that leads to my apartment and we are slowly making our way down. All of the sudden, Kirsten "accidentally" lets go, and I am off to the races (I am still not sure if it was really an accident?!? --- Maybe she'll leave a comment and explain). I wish I had a video I could show you of what happened next, but this one off of Youtube pretty much sums it up:

Theological Thursday --- How Big is Your Bible?

For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23A), but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23B).

Thomas Jefferson (one of the Founding Fathers) was a deist. Basically, he believe that God created the world, but let mankind run its own course. God created a world, wound it up like a watch, and sat back to see how things would work out. God was not intimately involved with man until they got to heaven. In this theology, there is no place for miracles to occur, because everything is subject to natural law. So upon Jefferson's death, his Bible was discovered to have been severely cut up...Jefferson had clipped out all portions of the Bible that involved miracles, because as a deist, he did not believe they could happen because God was not involved.

But how big is your Bible? Look at the verse above (Romans 6:23). So many people today focus on the "B" part (God loves us and has given us the gift of eternal life) and ignore the "A" part (that we are still sinners and deserve death). Much of the shift in the world today (that gets tagged with the term "postmodern") is that no absolute truth exists. What is right for you may not be what's right for someone else. How dare I say that you sin! A sin for me may not be a sin for you. This line of thinking cancels out any chance of hell existing and diminishes the reality of sin and the need for confession in our lives. Unfortunately this has creeped into many churches as well. In truth, we know that every conversion story in the Bible involves a time of realization of the ugliness of sin! That's what truly leads us to part "B" and the need for a Savior. Don't let that truth fall out of your Bible!!!

As I reflected on this, I wondered, "What would my Bible look like if I took sin out of it?" As hard as critics of Jefferson's version of Christianity have been, I think taking the sin out of the Bible would leave us with way less than taking out the miracles. Consider: If you remove sin from your Bible, you are only left with 4 chapters (Genesis 1 & 2, Revelation 20 & 21)...everything in between is either directly or indirectly connected with sin.

ALL SCRIPTURE is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16)

What's Up Wednesday --- September 17th

1) Tomorrow night I will be doing a show at the Ashland County Fair at 7:00. Jen's parents will be stopping in Ashland that night as they head toward Louisville, KY for the Ryder Cup (golf) this weekend.

2) This Saturday we have the seminary alumni picnic for all current and past students. They are having a children's theme this year and I will be doing balloon animals.

3) I will be doing an outreach show on Sunday for the church of one of the professors here. It is in a little Amish town called "Millersburg" and with the advertising of a magician coming, they have a lot of people signed up to be there that do not go to the church.

4) The "Intro to Theological Education" class I have been doing in the evenings has been going really well. I have been teaching small groups 3 nights a week from 6:00 - 8:00. The class ends next week.

Time-Warp Tuesday --- The New Cell Phone

Recently Jen and I got new cell phones. We had our old ones more than 4-years and even when we got them they were "bottom-of-the-line". So we are loving our new phones even though we probably don't know 80% of what they can do. I am just happy I can finally play the Monday Night Football theme song for my ringer.

Getting new phones reminded me of something that happened the day after I got a new cell phone back in Pittsburgh. The Bible study I was part of (FOCUS) was having a get together at someone's house on the North Side of downtown. There wasn't much parking there, so we were told to carpool. So I rode down with a girl named Jody in our group.

Once we arrived I stepped out of the car and checked to make sure I had everything (wallet, keys, etc) and realized my brand new cell phone was gone! So I started frantically searching the floor, the street, under the seat, etc in attempt to find it but was unsuccessful. I was sure the phone made it into the car with me, so where could it have gone to?

By this point I was very flustered and asked Jody for her cell phone. I called my roommate Steve and said, "Can you call my cell phone...I lost it and want to try and hear it ring". Jody started laughing hysterically and I had no idea why. Steve called my phone and it did ring and I found it in the little storage space built into the door.

Jody continued to laugh uncontrollably and really didn't see what was so funny about the whole situation. When I inquired she asked, "Why did you use my cell phone to call Steve to tell him to call you...why didn't you just call yourself???"

Yeah, I kind of missed the boat on that one. If you are ever in an emergency...don't call me!

Magical Monday --- Kids Say the Darndest Things

Back when I lived in Pittsburgh I did a magic show for a 2nd grade class at an area elementary school. The class had been reading and doing lessons and worksheets on magic because it was an interesting topic for the class. To end the series of lessons with a bang, they hired me to come in and do a show and answer all of the kids questions about magic and being a magician.

So I did my show and asked if anyone had any questions about magic, and of course pretty much every hand went up. I got many of the usual questions such as: How did you do that one trick? How much money do you get paid? Where did you learn to do magic? How much do you have to practice? Do you have a rabbit? Etc, etc, etc.

But one little boy's question caught me a little off guard. He raised his hand and asked, "What do you think about Bush's plan to eliminate Social Security?"

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I know the picture with this post today doesn't exactly fit, but hey, it's funny!

Family/Friend Friday --- Grove City Bob

My freshman year at Grove City College introduced me to a lot of great people...especially the guys on my floor in my dorm. One of my best friends today (Chris) and I met as he lived only a few doors down. When I knew I would be transferring to a new school to change to a major not offered at GCC, I used to drag my mattress from room to room and spend the night on the floor of some of my best friends there (and the joke continued for years that "I was the guy that slept around").

At the end of the hall lived a guy named Bob. Everyone on our floor left their doors unlocked except for Bob. He was very particular about his stuff...especially his bed. You didn't dare sit on his bed or lay anything on top of it. Bob also had this huge "treasure chest" that he put all his spare change in since he was a child that had several hundred (possibly even thousand) dollars full of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies.

Bob was also known to leave every night at 8:00 for the library and return at 9:00 (almost to the minute!). So one day Bob goes to the bathroom and his door is open. So I hurry and take a piece of duct tape and cover his lock so the door will shut, but not lock. So at 8:00 that night as he headed to the library, a couple of us got together to plan on a joke we could play on Bob.

It started as, "Why don't we rearrange his room" to "Let's switch his room with someone else that's not here". Finally the suggestion came to do something to his weak spot, his bed. That led into a handful of change from his treasure chest being stuffed into his pillow, to several handfulls being placed under his sheet, and as one thing led to another, the entire chest was dumped and piled onto his bed (probably a good 2 feet high!).

We all stood by the window and just like clockwork, at 9:00 we could see Bob and his girlfriend walking toward our dorm. We all went to our rooms to act natural...and listened with great anticipation of what his reaction would be. I didn't hear Bob say a word, but I did hear BOOM, SLAM, POW, ETC. What was Bob doing???

Well, since Bob was sure he had locked the door, he thought it had to be his roommate that did this. So he was flipping out and throwing his roommates stuff all over the floor. Next thing I knew he 1-handedly pulled every drawer out from his roommate's dresser, walked over to the window, and dumped out all its contents (and we were on the 3rd floor!). So all of his roommate's stuff was all over the floor, and his roommate's clothes were scattered on the ground 3 floors below, and to top it all off, Bob's girlfriend was standing down there waiting and watching all this.

Next Bob takes off running to (as we were told later) kill his roommate for doing this (even though he had no clue where he was). As we watched out the window, his girlfriend stopped him and got him calmed down. Lucky for us, we would get to see a whole new show when his roommate returned to see what Bob had done! hahaha

Bob and that girlfriend of his did end up getting married. Oh, and if you ever run into Bob today, call him "pastor" as he has a church in Illinois.

Theological Thursday --- What Do You See?

Last Thursday's post included an awareness test and asked the question of where your focus is. I said this week I would post something that could potentially change the way you view the world. We want our focus to be the same as Christ's, so lets look at what Scripture has to say:
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When Jesus landed and saw the crowd, He had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 6:34)
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So what exactly did Jesus see? What caused Him to have compassion on all these people?
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We rarely show videos in church...but this one can really touch your heart and give you an idea of what it is like to truly take the focus off of yourself and the problems in your world and look into the world of others as Christ had done on a consistant basis. I attend the pastor's meeting every Tuesday afternoon at the church to go over the weekly messages, events, issues, etc...and this video (by far) caused one of the biggest responses we have ever gotten.

Set a day aside to try and be intentional about seeing into the hearts and lives of those around you...it just might change your life...(and don't forget to leave a comment to share your thoughts on this)...

What's Up Wednesday --- September 10th

1) Congratulations to our neighbor Joe (pictured above) who will have his own local radio show ("The Joe Show"). You may remember him from a few months ago when I posted a video of him jumping in the snow in just his swimming trunks. I referred him to this job (which he is still unsure if he even gets paid for) and when he stopped over he was so excited to say, "I can't wait to have you on to do some magic"...Um, radio probably isn't the best venue for magic. Anyways, I am sure he will entertain all 6 listeners in his 10:00 PM - Midnight Monday night slot.

2) Jen's doctors appointment and tests came back great! Her cancer has been gone for a little over 3 years now, and we are so thankful that God has provided healing for her!

3) Kristie (the girl with cancer in our class) had a 2nd brain surgery yesterday to remove the other tumor in her brain. This surgery wasn't as major as the last and she is at home already recovering. Please pray that this is the last of the cancer for her as she has been fighting this for almost three years.

4) This week is my "Pastors of Excellence" Program. There are just over 100 pastors here for their 3rd retreat called "Spiritual Vitality" where we focus on their spiritual life and keeping them connected to Christ. They are definitely keeping me busy!

5) I am also teaching an accelerated class as an adjunct professor on small groups here at the seminary. I started Monday night and will meet 3 nights a week for 3 weeks (I will be teaching tonight and tomorrow night). This is also keeping me very busy...especially this week on top of the pastors program.

Time Warp Tuesday --- Family Visit

Not much time for a post today (you'll hear more about that tomorrow)...so watch this video Jen made of her sister's family...Julie (Jen's sister), Keith (brother-in-law), and their 3 kids when they came to visit us over Labor Day. We had a great time together and Jen and I loved the time we got to spend with them. You can also visit Jen's Blog @ http://www.jcatanzarito.blogspot.com/

Magical Monday --- Impromptu Lines

The hardest part of adding comedy to any show is being able to come up with impromptu lines and jokes...but they are also the funniest. It is one thing to have several jokes and lines memorized for a show, but when you can make people laugh from "on the spot" comedy, it takes it to a whole new level. I first learned about this at a David Copperfield show I went to. He was introducing a trick and a baby in the audience started crying. David said, "So sit back, relax, and please, SHUT THAT KID UP!!!"...and the audience erupted in laughter! However I soon lost some respect for him when I watched his next TV special and as he introduced the same trick, a baby started crying...and, you guessed it...he said, "So sit back, relax..." The baby crying was just an audio recording so Copperfield would appear to have some impromptu comedy in his act. What it shows, is that even the top professionals know the value of this type of comedy and will even "fake it" to have it in their show.

Later on, I met a guy names "Amazing Johnathan" (pictured above). He was my favorite magician and his act was 2% magic and 98% comedy. And he is funny!!! Mainly because most of his comedy is impromptu with volunteers he brings on stage. I met him when he was a professional at my level (traveling around doing fairs and colleges), but now he is a headliner at several vegas hotels and casinos.

So how does this play out in my show? I have 3 tricks in my act that I try to leave space for some fun and laughs with volunteers that are not planned. You must leave some space, or it will never happen. Some magicians will say word-for-word the same thing EVERY show without fail. But I think that leaves out a component that can help make them more respected (just don't cheat like David!).

My favorite memory of an impromptu line in my show was at a corporate event I was doing. I was going to slice a volunteer's head off with my head box. I had one of the swords in my hand and asked for the CEO to come on stage with me. As the audience cheered him on, he made his way up front. I reached out to shake his hand, but when he raised his...he did not have a hand, he had a hook. You could tell it was a tense moment as everyone got quiet and wondered what I would do next. So I looked at his "hook", glanced over at my sword, looked out toward the audience and said, "Oh, I see you've helped me with this trick once before". Of course the audience laughed for a LONG time, and several commented on that moment after the show. Of course I was invited back the following year as well.

Family/Friend Friday --- Grandparent's Day

This is my grandma June. We just call her "Gran". This Sunday (September 7th) is Grandparent's Day, and I am so happy I have Gran for my grandma! She lived right across the street from us growing up. Since my mom cannot cook, I would go over there quite often for dinner...and every Saturday morning for pancakes or eggs and every Sunday for a big lunch after church (my favorite was always her chicken and stuffing). She also makes the best perogies in the world (which I am still waiting for Jen to make!).

One of my favorite memories happened about 10 years ago. For my birthday, she came with me and my mom to Atlantic City (she had never been to a casino before). Back then, the slot machines actually took real money...you'd throw in a quarter, and if you won, somewhere between 2 and 1,000 quarters would shoot back out (in today's casinos you buy "credit" on a little card you insert into the machine and at the end of the day you take your card to the cashier and they give you the money that you have left on it). Back then you could throw all your coins into big buckets they had laying around, take it to the cashier, and they would throw them into a money counter and give you bills.

So when we get there my grandma doesn't really want to gamble, but decides she will try her luck for a little bit on a nickel slot machine. So I leave her there and head over to the card tables and tell her I'll be back in an hour or so. After about an hour passes I start heading over to check on my grandma and I can see her in the distance throwing nickels in the machine as quick as possible and looking very annoyed. When I got there, her tray was overflowing with nickles (and these are HUGE trays!). I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "I trying to get rid of all these nickels, but they just keep coming back out...I don't want to carry all these home!!!"

She didn't realize she could cash them in. She is probably the first person in casino history that got mad every time she won. I helped her load up several buckets and take them to the cashier. She had over $200 in nickels (that's over 4,000 nickels!). I asked her how she won so many, and all she knew was she put in $5.00 and pulled the handle and they just kept coming out.

This was just one of many great times we've had together.

Theological Thursday --- Where's Your Focus

See how well you can do watching the ball for the white team ---

Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. "A ghost!" they said, crying out in terror. But Jesus was quick to comfort them. "Courage, it's me. Don't be afraid." Peter, suddenly bold, said, "Master, if it's really you, call me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come ahead." Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. (Matthew 14:24-20)
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Notice how Peter got it right when His focus was on God, and things began to fall apart when Peter began to turn his focus elsewhere. All of us have our focus on something. Is yours on:
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1) Yourself and your circumstances?
2) Others and their circumstances?
3) God
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When we focus on ourselves and the problems we have in life, we can lose our heart for others and our passion for God. When we focus on others we can get so caught up in service that we neglect our relationship with our Savior. It's only when we have our focus on God that we get a proper perspective and can see the entire picture (and have a heart for our relationship with Him and serving others)...and just like Peter do things we never thought possible.
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Why is our focus on God so important? It helps us see what Jesus was able to see...which can change your entire outlook on life. Make sure you check back next Thursday to see another video that will impact the way you view the world...
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P.S. Did anyone see the moonwalking bear the first time?

What's Up Wednesday --- September 3rd

1) The Fellowship of Christian Athletes retreat that I assisted with wrapped up last Thursday. Things went very well and the feedback forms came back with very high ratings. This group will go through 5 more retreats over the next 18 months with us.
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2) Just as that retreat wrapped up, the pastors come for retreat #3 next week (Monday - Wednesday). It has been very difficult to plan two retreats at once and has been a little overwhelming at work for the past few weeks, but it will be nice when next week ends and we do not have another retreat until December!
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3) Jen and I will be going to Cleveland for her appointment with the cancer doctor. Please pray that everything remains clear on all of her tests and that her doctor says the same thing as always, "You are doing super".
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4) Jen's sister Julie and her husband Keith + kids did make it for a visit on Sunday. We got to go to the big (sarcasm) Ashland parade as well as a tour of Ashland (5 minutes) and a tour of the seminary, time on the playground, some FRICKET, a picnic, etc, etc. We definitely had a great time with them (although we were exhausted by the end of the day). Since I will be so busy next week at work, I will probably post a video early next week (I'll make it this weekend and it will save me from having to write out a post).
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5) I did perform in the Ashland Community Event downtown on Monday as well. I was there to promote the county fair which I will be performing my entire show on the 18th. I decided to do my rubber chicken routine (see Monday's post) which I do not usually do unless it is for a group that knows each other well (this audience was mostly all strangers since it was open to the public). My hunch has always been that the trick would go over much better with a close group using one of their leaders as a volunteer (as they end up holding toilet paper with a plunger on their head). As suspected, the routine went over "average" with a group of strangers, but it was a great event to give it a try! (plus I didn't have to give away any of the tricks I will be doing at the fair).

Time Warp Tuesday --- The Shot

Track was always my best sport growing up, but at some point in my life, I also competed in baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, karate, tennis, football, and wrestling. This post is about something that happened during one of my basketball games on the JV team when I was in 10th grade.

I had played basketball through elementary school and on my Junior High teams (7th - 9th grade). In elementary school, I was the best player on the team...when I moved up to junior high and combined with all the elementary schools, I was no longer the best player, but I got to be a starter and played a lot of minutes each game. My specialty by far was shooting. I could beat anyone on the team in HORSE or "Around the World", but my ball handling and defense was never very good (so I would lose at 1-on-1). My main job for the team was to try and hit a few 3-pointers every game.

When I got into 10th grade and was on the JV team, everything changed. The 5 starters were all 11th graders. The 5 second-string guys were 3 more from 11th grade as well as 2 of my classmates in 10th. That put me on the 3rd string, and I NEVER got to play. The first and second string would rotate in and out throughout the game, and if it became a blowout, the coach would throw in the 4th string guys (our team was way to big!). So as I was used to scoring several points a game, I had only 2 points (probably from the only time I actually touched the ball) the entire season heading into the final game.

So for the last game, several of us who were used to getting a lot of playing time when it was just our grade were pretty upset with the entire season (in 11th and 12th grade I gave up basketball to run indoor track). So I made a promise to the other guys who were upset that if I got in the game and if I got the ball, I was going to shoot...didn't matter where I was on the court or how many guys were guarding me...I would shoot.

So our pre-game pep talk from our coach went something like this --- "OK, it's our last game. Some of you hardly got to play this year so we are going to give everyone lots of playing time today". So is wasn't long into the game that I got in. The other team was playing a "press" (guarding us so we couldn't get the ball up to our side of the court) so I purposely avoided looking for the ball so I wouldn't have to either end up a liar, or have to launch a full-court shot.

I hear the coach yell, "Mike look for the ball". I turned, and here came the pass. I was maybe 2 steps in from the half court line. Since it was a press, immediate 2 guys ran over to guard me. I kept my word, and launched a shot over top of them. With the perfect line and distance --- SWISH --- 3 points!!! However, since it was a shot I should have never taken to begin with, the coach wasn't too happy and took me out of the game for good.

But hey, what a way to go out huh?

Magical Monday --- Henrietta

Henrietta (pictured above) is my "Magical Assistant". I have been doing a comedy magic routine in my show with a rubber chicken since 1999. I entered our routine into the "Magician of the Year" contest through the International Brotherhood of Magicians in December of 1999. The following is the story behind the creation of this original routine and how the competition went:

Shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh in 1998, I joined a local branch of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. This club really made me take my magic to the next level (as it is VERY difficult performing and impressing other magicians). One of the things I loved about the club is its mission to spark creativity. We met monthly and would always be given an idea we had to work out for the next meeting...things like, "invent a new trick using a pair of socks" or "create a trick using just 2 cards". I have always been very creative with ideas, so I quickly gained a lot of respect with the tricks I created (and some of the guys still use them in their shows!).

We would have a "Magician of the Month" contest every 2 months. You would compete against about a dozen other men and women and be judged by the magicians. Every year I was in Pittsburgh I won one of these awards. At the end of the year, all the monthly winners (6) would compete for "Magician of the Year" in front of the public. As the competition in 1999 rolled around, at that point in my career, I was far less skilled than the other winners, so I needed my creativity to pull me over the top.

I had been at a conference a few months before the big year-end competition, and learned my most valuable lesson about magic...it is FAR more important to entertain than to amaze. This has be so true! People rarely remember how I blew them away with an awesome trick, but always remember how I brought their boss on stage and stole his underwear! I have seen awesome magicians far more talented than me do terrible shows, and magicians with hardly any magical ability put on a top-notch show. If I had to put it in numbers, a successful show probably consists of 20% great magic and 80% great entertainment.

With that in mind (and knowing I would be judged by the public and not other magicians) I used my creativity to come up with a routine that would make people laugh first, and impress them with my magic second. So came the e-bay purchase of Henrietta, and many "trial runs" with the routine until I had it perfected and it was the hit of my show (which it still is today). At the end of the night, I became the club's youngest (age 25) "Magician of the Year". I also won again in 2003.

Tomorrow I will be performing this trick for a Community Event here in Ashland and promoting my show at the county fair later this month. Below is a short clip of the routine...