I made a friendly bet that my picture on the CCM magazine contest would get more votes then Vita. After all, I have over 400 peeps, she has about 50. So with one day left, she has 242 votes and is in a neck and neck race to win the contest, and I am in the top 10, with an amazing 12 votes. You win Vita...I can say you rule the CCM world! :)

Please try to help her win the next 2 days by voting for this picture on www.ccmmagazine.com/  She will then appear in the next CCM magazine as the winner. Thanks!

Hi everyone...I don't have time to tell everyone personally what I've been doing..so here's what I've been up to since my last blog on Kingdom Bound.

Kayla had a great week after our camping week at her girl's camp. We then found about a gymnastics class right down the road from us. Kristi has taken gymnastics in our homeschool co-op, and the teacher's saw she is a natural. Well, a new academy has opened up, with a special day and rate for homeschooler's, and it's taught by a former gold medalist! Maria Filatova, who won gold with Russia in both 1976 and 1980. My wife got to meet her at open house and it looks like an awesome center. Kayla isn't nearly as graceful as Kristi, but she will take it too. She is more into Piano and drawing, but this will be good for her.

Had fun with my brother's family from Chicago..look for my blog about my niece below. We are all concerned about my Mom, who has beginning sign's of Alziemer's..so keep that in prayer. My dad is doing OK with her, but he's getting a lot more frail in his 80's too.

I really like my new mail route..I'm saving about 30 minutes a day, and I'm not so worn out climbing big hills half of the day. My new prescription finally seems OK, the Doctor gave me a horrible one the first time..that's too long a story!

Finally got some new music today...Casting Crowns and BarlowGirl. Maybe I will give a review in near future. Lot's of good concerts in the area in the next few month's...Jeremy Camp, Todd Agnew, Mark Shultz, Newsboys, to name a few. Will keep you updated on which one's I might attend.

I am so happy to be getting Road Runner high speed internet next week. Half the reason I haven't been getting back to you quickly as I'm so fed up with the downloading time. You peeps have awesome profile pages with lots of video's and stuff, but it takes me so long for page to come on. I can't wait to see the video's now!

Homeschooling will start next week..pray for my wife! I'll be praying for all of you in school as well, homeschooler's and otherwise!

Well, that's about all for now...please let me know how you are doing from time to time in my comments underneath or elsewhere..I still love to hear from you, even when I don't get back so quickly!

On December 28th I originally printed this blog, which includes a review of Daughtry's CD. Now that his hit "Home", is in the top 10 in Christian radio, I feel justified in reprinting it, in which I said "Home" could be a Christian song. How about TWO 2006 Idol's having top 10 christian songs at the same time..with Mandisa in there as well. Will we be talking about Christian hits for Chris Sligh, Melinda Doolittle, Phil Stacey or Jordin Sparks at this time next year? Anyway...on to my original blog!

I have now put away the Christmas music and I am enjoying the music I got for Christmas. Do I have eclectic taste or what...Skillet, Randy Travis's "Glory Train", "Second Chance" soundtrack, American Idol's Chris Daughtry, and yesterday picked up Switchfoot. I have listened to each CD at least 3 times. I think they are all great, in fact, my top CD's of the year would have been turned upside down if I were to include them, but  it's too late now for most of them. 2 that will make it for 2007's list will be Switchfoot and Daughtry.

But Jim, you say, how can you include Daughtry in a Christian blog? I don't buy many secular CD's. In fact, the only other one's I have gotten that you couldn't find in a Christian bookstore in the last 3 years are U2's, Creed's, and Carrie Underwood, and they all have Christian connections to one degree or another. What is Daughtry's connection? If you go back to my October blogs, you will see a link to hear Chris lead praise and worship with his old band before a Day of Fire concert. He hasn't been afraid of his faith in interviews, and the first "Thanks" he gives in his liner notes is..."First of all, I'd like to thank God for the gift of music and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for being the greatest example of LOVE  I know."

Right from the start, the album ROCKS. This is the most  satisfying straight forward rock and roll CD I've heard from start to finish in years. What about the lyrics though? Now I will admit no one will be repeating the sinner's prayer after listening, they will be pointed in the direction of having the right priorities, unconditional love, and some songs that you can at least picture it being about God instead of an earthly love. Check these out..."Then I Crashed into you, and I went up in flames, could have been the death of me, but then you breathed your breath into me"...from  "Crashed". From the song "Home" comes these lyrics..""I'm going Home, back to the place where I belong, and where your love has always been enough for me....your love remains true and I don't know why, you always seem to give me another try, I'm going home". If you buy this CD at Wal-Mart you will acoustic versions of these 2 songs that really make you feel like worshiping the Lord more than any song you will hear on the latest Switchfoot or Relient K CD's. Even on songs that tell of failed love, he longs for restoration on songs like "It's not Over" and  "Feels Like Tonight", and "Used To".

Switchfoot is a great album too. The lyrics are much deeper to find the meaning, and rewarding. The hooks are as usual, catchy as all get out! All I'm saying is, if you don't have a problem with a song like "Amateur Lovers", then you won't find a thing offensive in Daughtry's album either..both of these albums are hits!

Have a Happy and God serving 2007 everyone!

Agape...Jimbo

Well, most of you have seen my bulletins and pictures of the festival, here is a more detailed view of what happened!

Got to Darian Lake theme park at 1, and it starts to rain! That wasn't too big a deal because it was smokin' hot, and we planned to spend time in water park at first where it didn't matter.

At 4, it had stopped and I was ready to rock. I headed down to see Fireflight, and their by herself at the booth was singer Dawn Richardson. I got to tell her my last name was Richardson, and she was super nice. Got somebody to snap that cool shot of us. The concert started 4:20, 10 minutes earlier than program, and it was a good thing as rains came hard at 4:50 and stopped the show. :( They were fantastic though. As you see by the pictures, I was right up front for the whole thing. By ending a little early, I got to catch the end of Hello Kelly while searching for my family. They played on in the rain! I had never really heard of them, but they were kind of the buzz band of the festival, and I saw why.

I was afraid Red would get canceled, but it cleared up. I didn't have time to eat with family and make it show by 6. At 5:45, Fireflight was still chillin' with the fans I noticed. They were so cool!

Red comes on and just blew everyone away with their intensity. What a show! They did just about every song on their CD in their 55 minute set. "Breathe into Me" I thought was their perfect closing number, but then they came out and did "Pieces" for an encore, which was even a better way to end the show. My friend Nick was really excited since he was yelling for them to do that song the whole time. I told him they might not slow it down live, but was a gladly wrong. Red stuck around to meet the fans but I didn't have time for that...wish I could have!

So now I have to walk across the entire park to and grab a bite to eat before meeting my family at the main stage for Chris Tomlin. I caught a bit of Everyday Sunday on way there, and they were solid.

Friends saved pretty good seats for Tomlin, but not close enough to bother with pictures. I never feel right about taking pictures during a praise and worship experience anyway. It took a few songs for me to get in a worship mode after Red, then I was caught in the spirit of it. Here was his songs:

Your Grace is Enough, Forever, Let God Arise, Indescribable, Holy Is The Lord, Amazing Grace, How Great is our God, How Great Thou Art. Didn't seem like many songs, but it lasted an hour

By this time my little daughter was out of it! She loves TobyMac but after 30 minutes of booming LOUD excitement, she couldn't take it anymore, so my wife took her back to van. I stayed for another 20 minutes, and caught most of the show. I felt bad staying for anymore. What an awesome concert though. I never saw DC Talk, or Toby, so this concert was a must for my music history. He has such a charisma onstage, and the whole crew with him worked so well together. I didn't write down the song list for him, but highlights for me were: Get The Party Started, Gone, The Slam, Boomin', No Ordinary Love and J Train. The biggest crowd pleaser though, was when they covered "In The Light".

I knew a shortcut back to van, and by the time by daughter went to the bathroom and stuff, they only beat me there by 3 minutes. My other girl was at camp, but for an event like this, I think kids need to be at least 11 or 12 before they can really enjoy everything to be worth the money. We got free tickets, and only payed for one child, so it wasn't too bad for 27 bucks for all 3 of us! If she was an inch taller she would have been 49 bucks, which would have been a real waste. She enjoyed the rides, but for this event the lines are 3 times longer than we just visit the park on a normal day. I'll stick to just individual concerts for them instead of festivals for a few years=)

Peeps, what was the age that you were really able to enjoy festivals like this? I hardly saw any younger than 10 by the time Toby rolled around, and there was a children's section at the rock stage so they could see, and only saw a handful of little one's.

I'm not gonna post any pictures on this blog..just go to my photo section and see a ton of them!

God Bless, and have a great rest of the summer if I don't talk to you individually!..Jimbo

Hi everyone..just came back from a great week at Odosagih Bible Conference and Retreat Center on Lime Lake in Machias, New York. We had a wonderful cottage with the lake on one side, and all the stuff for the kids on the other side like a swimming pool, mini-golf, playground, tennis court and lots more. The speaker for the week, Dale Linebaugh, was fantastic. The singing was old time classic hymns, which was kind of like listening to Alan Jackson's gospel CD..kind of neat for a change!

My wife and 6 year old tried tubing on the speedboat for the first time, and my daughters got to go fishing for the first time and caught 9 fish between them! We also enjoyed Kayaks, Rowboats, Pontoon boat and more. Finally had the time to finish Rachel's Hauck's excellent book.."Lost in NashVegas" It was 90 degrees all week, but it was perfect for the lake and pool, where we spent hours!

I have tons of great pictures, but my wife only wants my picture on my website, so you'll have to settle for one's with me in them in my picture section and below.

My next blog will be about my Christian festival, "Kingdom Bound", that I'm going to next week!