Google+ is fantastic. Don’t know what it is? You will. Google has finally knocked social out of the park. If I can convince my friends to join it up, I will never be foreced to put up with Facebook ever again.

Why is Google+ better? Hangouts: you click a small button that says “hang out,” you’re prompted to let your friends know you’re hanging out and badabing you have a private video chat with up to 10 of your friends that YOU invited. Photo galleries: and imagine this, they actually WORK. Status updates: that you can point TO the people YOU actually want to update… I don’t have to bomb EVERYONE on my friend list that my dog just learned to tap dance, I can send it to just my friends who appreciate tap dancing dogs. 

What in Google+ could still use some work?  Google, if you’re aiming for a ubiquitous internet experience that will bring my interests to me and keep me in your products, you’ve nearly done it….  But, Sparks, let me put RSS feeds into the Sparks section.  I don’t just want what you have curated for me, and yes this will canabilize Google Reader, but Google+ is going to do that anyway, this will just keep some of the good stuff of Reader available.  Second, were is Google Voice integration?  Show me my text messages, its not even on the nifty Google Toolbar that you’ve put at the top of all of your other products.  The tighter G+ is integrated with Android and Voice, then that is one more reason I’ll have for liking my droid more than my ol’iphone.  Allow me to mute certain circles in the stream.  I may be intersted in seeing my Friends AND Family most the time, but not Work on the weekends.  Let me mute my Work Circle and all the other circles that I don’t care to see right now. 

Thats it for now.  Thumbs up kids.  If you don’t have an account leave me comment here and I’ll shoot you an invite (which google will dole out when they actually have openings

I’m back.  I’m here.  I’ve slept in my bed.  I’ve eaten out of my cupboards, and had drinks out of my fridge.  My car is quiet and smooth, my air conditioning is cool and comfortable.  I’ve kissed my wife and shook my Dad’s hand.  I’m back to “my” life and my dog’s tail is wagging.

But I’m not home.

I’m not entirely certain that “home” exists anymore.  A 12 year old girl has ruined that idea for me.  If home is were the heart is then I’m currently ripped in two, the size of the remnant is not relevant, only whom holds the pieces.

God has done heart surgery on me, so far its taken a tripple bypass to keep me from flat lining.  Three times I’ve been to Mexico, to work, to play, to serve, to love the orphaned and the abandoned kiddos through a great organization called Back 2 Back.  A few days after my return I read an article from Jamie The Very Worst Missionary about poverty tourism.  Its very easy to take these trips, do a little work, shoot some photos, play some soccer, shed a few tears and call it a mission.  The truth is if you didn’t let those “experiences” tear your callused heart to bits, then you were nothing but a tourist.  If you didn’t let yourself be moldable why did you bother?

These trips leave me with a flood of emotions, desires, questions, quests, all kinds of things.  Taking the advice of a staffer down there though, I’ve locked in on a few of those things, to get down to business with a few of the big key take aways.  1.  Advocate.  If you are a goer then go, if you are a sender then send well and send often.  God is not served by Human hands (Acts 17:25).  If you don’t have a burning desire to get dirty, then help someone else who does. Pray for them, finance them….pray for them.  Find a way to be a part of what God is doing, get off the bench.  2.  Support.  There are a handful of amazing people within the specific organization (B2B) that my church has partnered with.  Those people need funding to continue what they are doing, providing care for today and hope for tomorrow to the orphaned hearts of Monterrey Mexico…  So a small handful of us are going to try to do some fund raising stuff for them, so when you start hearing about those events, tell your friends  3.  Love.  That little girl I mentioned earlier that wrecked my world, well, she needs my wife and I, and we need her.  She is teaching us what it means to love a person we can’t see or hardly communicate with.  But God is using our relationship to further HIS good pleasing and perfect will.  In supporting her, encouraging her, loving her, and praying for her, she will continue to see that God’s plan for her was to make her more like Jesus, not leave her feeling alone and unloved.  There are 148 million orphans in this world.  If we all loved on even just one, this world would turn on its ear.  Don’t just mail a check, dig into their life, and share yours with them.

The biggest takeaway from this trip though, is something Suzanne Price said while down there.  That she was anxious to take what she had learned back to love, serve and seek the orphaned hearts around us.  You don’t have to look far to find someone who could use a hand, a minute of your time, or a word of your encouragement.  All week I joked with people on the trip about hiding under a bushell basket (children’s church song), but in truth, are you?  Hey now, all you sinners….put your lights on.

I shot my cousin Sarah and her Fiance Ben today. They are engaged and getting married in August. Had a riot. I was super rusty at first because I hadn’t shot engagement stuff in a while so my poses were awkward but we got rolling after a while, just had to shake the dust out of the creative side of my brain.

They were a lot of fun to shoot and hang out with, but when isn’t it fun to shoot family