Today was just one of those days. From a production standpoint, it was horrible. I didn’t do ANY of the things I actually set out to do. That is proven by the simple fact that I’m writing today’s blog at 9:30. I wanted to write when I woke up this morning and that didn’t happen. So why was this day so great overall? Well, for those of you in St. Louis, you know that it was simply gorgeous outside. I ended up spending the day with my 3 girls. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the park on a blanket. Then we came home and pulled out the grill for the first time this year. Welcome back, grill. Anyway, it turned out to be a great day.

The thing that struck me as odd and wonderful was that when I was so focused on trying to do what I wanted to do, I ended up doing things that caused me to pay more attention to God and His details in my life. I noticed that my daughters are growing up so fast and even though I’m with them pretty frequently I’m still missing stuff. I noticed that my wife is an extremely gorgeous pregnant woman. This was evident with our first two girls, but it’s been almost 6 years. I noticed that I can focus on things when my brain isn’t so scattered. I noticed that my wife has been working terribly hard to get our house ready for this new baby and it’s coming along quite nicely. I noticed that it’s next to impossible to keep your car clean when your driveway is under a power line. Overall, I noticed that God is truly wonderful and this life is truly a gift. He doesn’t have to give us anything that He gives us on this earth, but He does anyway. That, my friends, is wonderful to me. I didn’t deserve the beautiful day with my family that I had because I spent most of the morning try to get out of it. But I was given the chance anyway. I’m glad I took it.

So, today’s my birthday. The title represents my actual birth. Yes, that makes me 29 years old today. Most would venture to say nothing really special about 29, but this is still the day that the Lord has made. I am rejoicing for that. I’m thankful for yet another year. 28 was rather up and down, but I’m thankful for it nonetheless. Now as I wrap up this day, I’m sort of gearing myself up for the upcoming year. I’ll give you some of today’s recaps, and then I’ll share some of my goals for the year so you can be praying and encouraging me this year. So first, the recaps…

First things first, I was awakened to the smell of coffee and bacon. Let me say, AMEN!!! I came downstairs to see that my family had turned our dining room into Daddy’s Restaurant. I had a myriad of choices as to what I could have for breakfast. I chose the Omelette with bacon and orange juice. I was given an orange roll for breakfast dessert. Good times. So I was thinking…this is gonna be a pretty cool day. Then my wife told me that I could upgrade my phone for my birthday. So I went and picked up my dad and we went to the AT&T store and I got another iPhone. Welcome to the world of 3G. Why didn’t they do this with the first one? I’ll never understand. Anyway, I spent some time with my dad, a new iPhone owner, helping him learn to use his and setting up my new one. I learned that I don’t like having to set up a new phone. I finally got my first one to look and act like I wanted it to. Now I’m having to start all over again. Not enjoying THAT part. But I guess that’s not that big of a deal.

Next I came back home and realized that there weren’t really any more plans. I got kinda sad and it sort of tapped into some feelings I have about my birthday that I won’t go into right now. But I am trying to get past all that. Then we had dinner (the restaurant was back open), and it was time to eat birthday cake. One of my all time favorite things to do. Well, Brisa decided that she wanted to get it. Against her better judgement, Eva decides to let her bring it in (it’s a small cake). She said, “don’t drop it!” Brisa said, “I won’t!” 4 seconds later…well I’m sure you can guess what happened… So Eva gets up and runs into the kitchen to find a cake on the floor. Btw, I’m only listening at this point. I hear my wife begin to talk to Brisa about dropping the cake. Brisa then blames her mom saying that if she would have helped her like she wanted her to (which she never asked for help) then it would have never dropped. When Eva begins to tell Brisa that she can’t blame other people for what she did wrong, Brisa throws the ’2′ and the ’9′ that was supposed to top the cake. And the ’2′ broke. Now my wife is FURIOUS!!! The cake has been dropped AND the numbers have been broken. Cake disaster. Now, I’m writing my blog on my birthday at 6:32 because this day is pretty much a wrap. And that, my friends, is my 29th birthday.

So here are my goals for this year…

I WILL lose a dramatic amount of weight this year. I’ve decided that I’m gonna be ‘Purrty by 30′. That’s my new motto. I have a personal trainer friend that is going to be my new workout partner starting Tuesday. I’m excited about this opportunity and I see this working really well. I WILL work hard at my music this year. I have a couple concerts coming up this month and I really hope that they turn out well. . Along with that, I plan to GET IN THE STUDIO!!! I’m the biggest reason that I haven’t done it. So that means I need to be the biggest reason that I get in. I also want to take a page from my buddy Jim Barnard and try to do this whole blogging thing everyday. I think it’s something I can start doing and be consistent with.

So there you are…Harry’s birthday update. Take from it what you wish, but that’s what it is. Happy October everyone.

Yesterday I confessed that I haven’t done the best job of spending time with the Father. I also vowed to do a better job starting today. Well, my wife did her job in holding me accountable first thing this morning. I thank her for that, too. I made a decent start this morning and hope to do better over the course of the rest of this week.

Today, I’m a sharing about enriching the community around me. This has been a bittersweet topic for me lately. The basis of community for me is being somewhere consistently where people can pour into your life and you theirs. As many of you know, I’ve been all over the place this summer, many times playing in a different church every Sunday of the month. This has taken a toll of my “community building”. Even with all that, I have been completely blessed to be living in community with some great people. God truly knew what he was doing when he sent me to First Free Church earlier this summer. I thought I was just going to help a friend out. I ended up gaining friends for life. Had it not been for my amazing friends across the alley, I don’t know where I’d be right now.

I can only hope that I am able to enrich their lives as much as they have enriched mine. Are there any people in your lives recently that have totally enriched your life? Tell me about it…

So…August…happened…I’m not sure if I believe it yet. I’m totally amazed at how God has sustained my family. Here are a couple things I learned in the month of August…

1. I am not called to work at Wal-mart. I have applied there and haven’t been called back yet. In extension, I’m also not called to work at Sam’s, a place that I worked for previously.

2. McDonald’s doesn’t think enough of me to hire me either. I’m not sure what it is about me that they don’t like. I’m thinking I don’t have enough tattoos…

3. My mom is not the only person that likes the music that I write. I’m pretty sure that musicians fear that no one will like what they write, and we all know that moms are supposed to like everything that their children do. I took my music to a St. Louis area studio and the producer there liked what he heard. He actually offered to produce a CD for free. I’d say that he likes it.

4. People love my family. God has truly blessed us and some kinda way we had more money come in this past month than we have had in quite a while. God’s definitely working.

5. I love working with music groups. I’ve had so much fun this month working with the ministry groups at MoBap. I hope they have enjoyed working with me because I’m here for awhile.

As for this month, God is already starting to do some MAJOR things in our family. The first day of Chili Dinner ticket sales went rather well. I have people offering to help out with gathering money for the CD project. Actually, our new friends at Waypoint Church helped us greatly yesterday. I feel so loved.

I also want to say a special thanks to our friends at Redeemer Church. They have done so much to help out my family this month. We wouldn’t be where we are right now if it weren’t for them. Thanks SO much, Redeemer!!!

We are still trying to find ways to get funds and musicians together for the CD project. I have a place to go, I just have to put everything together to get there. Again, I’m totally amazed at what God has done during this month of August. No one in the world could have orchestrated what God has done this month. Keep praying for us. Even more than financially (although that is still an issue obviously), pray for direction. God has a plan for this family (Jeremiah 29:11), and my prayer is that we start to figure out some of what that is. Be blessed friends. OH YEAH! Come to the Chili Dinner and Concert on September 18th. If you want more information shoot me an email. Tickets are $9 for adults and $2 for kids 6-12. I have some. Come find me. The end.

I don’t know about you, but I am amazed at how much I need people in my life. I am so tired right now, but it’s because we’ve had such a good weekend so far. Last night, we got to hang out with some great people from our church as we took a field trip to Busch Stadium. We spent the evening with Jeremiah and Steph the Yarn Wizard (I can explain if you need me to…). Let me say this…this couple is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I love these two and having them in our lives is just flat out great!

We got to go see Alisha this afternoon. I was glad to see that she was looking better. I’m so praying for you, sweetie. I just finished before I started writing this. For more on The Wee Couple, AKA the Amazing Barnards, check out my blogroll and click on Jim Barnard.

After that, I had an interesting meeting with a church in South County. I still don’t know what to think about it yet, so I don’t know exactly how to write about it. Check in tomorrow for that one…

We spent the evening with Matt (Cheetah) and Shannon Missey (blogroll Shannon Missey). This is the PERFECT way to end a late summer evening. This couple is straight up amazing. They are that beautiful couple that we should all be jealous of. If Eva and I weren’t so amazing already, we’d be jealous of them, too. HAHAHA Anyway, they had us down to their house in Crystal City and it was a great time with friends.

We are so blessed by the friends that God has placed in our lives during this extremely tough time. God knows what we need even when we don’t know what we need. Never ever forget that friends. God knows you so much better than you know yourself. Even though this was quite a long day that started really early for us, I wouldn’t trade it for anything because we spent this day and this weekend up until now with people that we confidently know love us and we love them as well.

Now I’m going to sleep because I will be leading worship with my friends at Waypoint Church in St. Peters, MO. If you don’t get this before tomorrow morning, come check me out next week as I will be leading out there next Sunday as well. Actually, check out the Upcoming Dates section as I will be updating it with some new things, including a Chili Dinner and Concert September 18th. I’ll have more information about that in the near future. Be blessed and hopefully I can keep up with the plan of a full weekend update tomorrow evening.

This Sunday was week 2 since the decision to choose a church home that had nothing to do with where I was leading worship. I will say this…there are definitely pluses and minuses. Plus, I didn’t have to get up early to get to church for sound checks and stuff like that. I even got to church a little “after” the service started. Haven’t done that in about 15 years! Anyway, being able to sit back and listen to others lead and see that others have a heart for the same thing was good. Great job, Gina. You rocked this morning!

Minus, I REALLY love doing what I do. There’s a part of me that likes to sit back and listen. There’s an even larger part of me that loves to lead and be on stage. It is not because I need to be in front of people, but I know that’s what God has called me to do and I love being able to use that gift. Minus, I haven’t practiced or listened to any music in the past couple weeks. So there is a little bit of both on either side. But I am learning to enjoy where God has placed me right now. I’m still praying that God would lead us to a place to serve Him, but in the mean time we are serving God the best way we know how where we are. Where are we, you ask? Well currently  we are a part of the Quest Service at E-Free.

Something else that has happened this past week that was really cool. I have been given the opportunity to do something really special this year. I was asked to help out at my Alma Mater (which I just got a couple months ago), Missouri Baptist University. Since I started, the number of ministry groups have grown from 3 to 6. The number of ministry group leaders has grown from 2 to 2. Which means they need some help leading these other groups. That’s where I come in. I get to help a couple groups with their instrumental stuff as well as some vocals. I also get the chance to help develop some worship leaders. I am so pumped. For those of you that have been praying, this is not a paying thing right now, but it’s a great opportunity and I’m so excited about it. I will keep you posted on how things work our over the course of the year.

Lastly, I’m going to stop punking out and get back at working on my own music this week. This is my plan for myself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes as well. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. and to my friends that start school tomorrow, good luck and let God bless you as you start this year off right!

This past weekend I celebrated 7 years of marriage with my wife. We were completely blessed to have been given the whole weekend to ourselves. We were able to reconnect and spend time just being us. Once you have kids, you lose a lot of that and it’s harder to make time for it. Anyway, I learned quite a few things about myself this weekend. Some of them were things I actually rediscovered. Here they are…

1. I love reading mystery novels. I love mysteries and thrillers and didn’t remember. We went to Borders a couple times this weekend (see #2) and I starting reading a book that I couldn’t put down so I ordered it at Amazon.com. I’m so excited to get this book and read. I’ll probably write about it when I’m done.

2. I love Borders. I don’t know if there’s a difference between all the bookstores in the world, but Borders has a more inviting feel to me. I love the colors on the inside and I felt compelled to stay and read. Eva and I love reading books and we love spending time together in that way.

3. There is a lot of good music in St. Louis, MO. I love this town. It’s home for me, but as I grow older I’m finding out things that I didn’t know when I was little. There is good music here that isn’t always on the radio. We went to a GREAT concert Friday night (see Concert Review) and I’m sure that I’m missing so much good music here.

4. I have amazing friends. The more time we get to spend with them the more I realize that God has really blessed us with some great people. I can’t wait to see what God does over the next few months as we get to know them better.

5. I must really be growing up. Eva and I went to a couple movies this weekend and one of the movies we saw was profanity laced. It did nothing for me and sort of took away from the story of the movie. There was a time in my life where I didn’t care and would watch anything. That’s not the case anymore.

6. Jim and Jeremiah may quite possibly be the perfect storm of public embarrassment. They may also be the perfect storm of straight fun in many forms as well. There’s not much else to say about that.

7. I will, always have, always will, love ice cream. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

8. I don’t write new music because I’m lazy and can find many things to do besides sitting and writing.
8a. I really want to start a music group. That has been my dream and it won’t go away. I’ve done all I can to turn away from this idea, but it keeps putting itself in my line of vision.

9. I adore my children. I loved having the time away where I could connect with Eva, but I was quite happy when my kids came home last night.

10. I cannot live without my wife. Period.

11. God is amazing! He continues to bless me in ways that I KNOW I don’t deserve. I’m not sure why He keeps it up, but I’m so glad He does. Thanks be to God for everything I learned this weekend. I also pray that I keep learning things. If I stop learning, I’m dead.

Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow, blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name when I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name…”Beth & Matt Redman

I shared this yesterday during the worship gathering at Grace Community Chapel yesterday. I don’t think I had really though about it until then, but this is how I’m feeling right now. This is a trying time for me and my family. We are trying to stay focused on what God has for us, but it seems so far away that we don’t really know what we’re focusing on right now. This has been a really tough road for us. For me, it feels like Sunday mornings that we get to worship with others fall within the streams of abundance and the sun that’s shining down. It’s the rest of the week that feels like the wilderness. That’s when we are at home trying to make a couple dollars stretch to pay tons of bills. And when we are doing all we can to keep the hope and faith that God is going to do what He said.

I would be lying completely if I said that this was not a scary time for the Walls’ family right now. However, I can say that we are trying our best to say Blessed be the name of the Lord in all times. We are SOOOOOOOO grateful for the amazing time we experienced with the GCC family yesterday. God really did some powerful things during that service and touched a lot of people. I was impacted as well by the response that the congregation showed us. So thanks, GCC for sharing your love with me and my family yesterday.

Lastly, I would ask all of you to continue to pray for us. As of right now, we don’t have the line up of churches to play for in the month of August as we did for June and July. We will be leading at First E-Free on August 2nd. After that, I might just start holding worship services and concerts in my living room. Who knows? Have a blessed day and week friends. There are a few things in my head, so you’ll more than likely hear from me again this week…

So I thought I’d report on what’s going on since my last post. Once I decided to stop making excuses, I realized why I had been making excuses LOL! Once you start making plans for things and people get excited with you, then you have to keep moving and going forward because people are ready to go. I started talking to people about helping me make this whole CD project happen and I have gotten great response.  I’m excited. First rehearsal is this week.

Anyway, that’s not what this one is about. Yesterday, I got to spend some time with some dear friends at Timberridge Community Church yesterday. What an amazing time! We were going to have lunch together, and we did. However, the fellowship was so amazing that we ended up having dinner together as well. God really gave us all some rest. We kept talking about how cool it was to actually get some rest because we move so much and never really stop. I am so glad for friends and family and glad that we were able to have that time.

July is starting off fresh and I can’t wait to see what else God is going to do this month. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading…

I can’t even begin to explain how good God is! When God is working, there’s nothing else that you can do but sit back and watch the show. This first month without a permanent job has been so much more than I thought it would be. I was just hoping to get by and do what I had to do. Instead, we met our neighbors and have started a great friendship with them. I met a radio celebrity (she’s probably gonna kill me for that one!), got to sing and lead worship with 2 amazing bands, and build connections that would have never happened otherwise…and that was all at one church! That doesn’t even include my trip to Godfrey at the beginning of the month which was totally awesome. I had such a great time riding with and leading worship with my friend, Erica DeVilbiss. I’ve also met people from a couple of churches who have shown interest in me. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have met any of these people had it not been for God’s working. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for next month.

If you are interested in where we’re going next, the month of July looks sort of like this…

July 5th I’ll be at TimberRidge Community Church. Still not sure if I’m leading there yet, but we’re going for a visit. Love the people down there.

July 12th I’ll be leading worship at Rockwood Baptist Church in Wildwood, MO. This is becoming one of my favorite places to go. There are some really nice people there and they love God. I love leading for churches that love God…

July 19th I will be leading worship with family at West Hills Community Church. There’s not much else to say about this one except for this is family. Pastor Gary and his wife Jenny are lovely people and it’s always good to go home.

So as I was saying, sometimes you have to look back and realize that things are happening in ways that only God can make them happen. OH! Before I forget, my expectations were really blown away this month. I set a goal for myself to have 200 visits to my blogsite here. I thought it would be a stretch, especially since last month netted about 50. Either way, I set my sights and went for it. That meant a lot of writing for me, and also a lot of praying. The last time I checked we were sitting at about 320 visits for this month alone! Thanks friends for continuing to check in a read what I have to say. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading. Have a blessed week. You’ll probably hear from me again.