NorCalUrban

A couple of friends of mine started this new music online community. It's a neat idea. Check them out here. If you do a band search for Bob Dylan or Ryan Adams you can find me. Interesting idea... Still waiting for my free tee shirt.

Yesterday we participated in the Reload conference for the Bay. Reload is a urban youthworkers training event hosted by the Urban Youthworkers Institute. Check them out here. The Bay Area represented! We had over 400 leaders in attendance - the largest in the country! Dimas Salabarrios from the Bronx was the main speaker - he was awesome. I was able to plug in some of our local partners - Andy Hartwell, Katie Fantin, Doug Fort. All of them did workships. Pastor Bains somehow landed Dimas to speak at St. Samuel COGIC this morning. This event was a ton of work - but worth it. When I was standing in the back I thought about the other similar events that we've tried to do over the years. Marvin Jacobo and I attempted to do a training event in Modesto in the late 90's, Angel Ruiz tried one in 2000. Both were fine - but never took root. What a blessing to have this event in our region. We're praying for unity and revival in the Bay. I'm off to Grand Rapids for BCM tomorrow...

Emily and I came to Fresno today to speak at / learn from the folks at One By One Leadership. Check them out. I've know about H. Spees and the folks here for a while. They have amazing vision and heart for the city. Real inspiring!

Updated article about the slain EPA police officer here. The memorial service is scheduled for Thursday at noon at HP Pavillion in San Jose. The picture is the slain officers wife and another family member.

Interesting night last night. Around 6:00 pm I called Pastor Bains. He was in Monterey at a church conference and was hastily preparing to return. Pastor Bains is head of the EPA police chaplaincy. Shortly thereafter the news reported that the officer that was involved in the shooting was killed. A 14 year old police explorer who was doing a ride along with the slain officer witnessed the homicide and called the report in. Last night there was a tremendous amount of police activity in the area as a manhunt ensued for the killer. Police helicopters were in the air until the wee hours of the morning with spotlights searching for the individual. This morning the TV news reported that the gunman was captured. Read the article here. The Merc seems to have the best article about the incident. The officer is survived by a wife and three children. Please pray for the officer's family. Also Pastor Bains and all the chaplains will have an intense week ministering to and counseling the poli...

Breaking news... an EPA officer shot. We don't have many details yet. Things are a little different feeling for me now, since we've been interacting with the PD on the violence summit. Please pray for our city and the officer's family.

Read the article here.