Thanking a Mom on Mother’s Day
I can honestly say it’s not been easy, especially for my wife, Carol. She and I have been married for 28 years, all of which I have been in ministry. We have raised 5 children, have 2 grandchildren, and had our special needs sister Lois living with us for12 years.
I have averaged 180 days a year on the road in ministry. I think I can relate in just a small way to what a soldier deployed to war must feel [...]
5 Days, 4 States, A Broken Bus, Countless Blessings
It was Wednesday, March 28th. We found ourselves in Yankton, SD, for the Newsboys tour where I’ve been the keynote speaker. The president of Mount Mary College, a Catholic University, brought in the tour as an inaugural event for the campus to say, “I care.” Free tickets were given away to the surrounding community. The show was sold out two weeks in advance. But the night of the show, the audience contained many people who, from my perspective, were not [...]
Story from the Bus
John Dougherty, my road manager, just told me that bus call is at 1:00. That’s 1:00am. It’s when the driver’s coming to get us back on the road. It’s time to start the convoy. Convoy? Yes, it’s actually a convoy… Two busses, a 16-wheeler semi, a van and three huge trailers headed down the road. In addition to all the gear, they’re packed with four bands, a road crew, drivers, a speaker and his team: 35 people in all.
At 1:00 [...]
18 or 81?
Two years ago at Lifest, I had the privilege of working alongside Luis Palau, one of the greatest evangelists of all time. He shared the gospel at our Sunday morning worship service in front of 23,000 people, where two thousand hands were raised to receive Christ. When he came off the stage, I was celebrating what God had done through this man and simply said, “Thank you! What an awesome job!”
“Bob,” he said. “I have something for [...]
Hope Has No Borders
I recently returned from Anchorage, Alaska, where I did several school assembly programs and outreaches. I wanted to introduce you to two people I met…
Miles is 17 years old and is at a school called SAVE, an alternative school for those who are not expected to graduate from high school. Most are homeless, or as they call them in Alaska, couch surfers. Students will stay at different friend’s houses, moving from couch to couch, yet have no [...]
A Confession From the Road
I have a confession to make. I’ve been critical of the church. As a traveling itinerant evangelist, I have been all over the United States and abroad, and I’ve fallen into the trap of seeing what’s wrong with the church. When I hear that less that 2% of America’s youth are in church on a given Sunday, and I hear story after story of people who have walked away from Christ because they’ve been wounded by the [...]
More or Less
If you’ve been in touch with this ministry at all you know that I have a burning passion inside me. People have described it like a fire similar to the one talked about in Jeremiah. It’s in my bones and it can’t be put out.
I always want to do more for the Kingdom. I always want to see who we can touch. But sometimes I feel God saying, “Less is more.” I know that we can do [...]
Power of One 2011: A Huge Success!!
The doors open and a sea of people flock to the front of the gym, all scoping out their ideal spot for the concert. Anticipation builds as the activity on the stage increases. Slowly, the overhead lights dim causing a new wave of excitement to ripple through the crowd. As lights illuminate the stage, four dark silhouettes are barely visible through the fog and haze. With the first strum of a guitar, the sell out crowd erupts into screams and [...]
Called to Love: No Disclaimers
I just finished an assembly program with 400 junior high students. There are some days when I feel the pain of the kids that I speak to more than others. Today is one of those days. I can’t stop crying. I can’t stop hurting. It’s like I feel what they’re feeling, and I sense the hopelessness of their questions, “Why not just die? Why not just end it all?”
In my assembly program I talked about bullying and showing respect. A [...]
Junior High Kid Lost
I suspect that every parent can remember the moment and knows the emotion of being in a crowded area, suddenly realizing that you don’t know where your child is. Ours was at Disneyland when our kids were small. My son, David, disappeared. It was only five minutes, but it was among the most agonizing five minutes of my life, filled with fear, panic and despair.
My mind raced with irrational thoughts of my son wandering away and falling into the moat [...]