Going and Going and Going...

Wow! I feel like we have been going nonstop. Every weekend we have either been going to Tampa for different reasons (family, etc.), doing church events, or planning youth events and we have barely slowed down to take a breath. Some people have asked how Judah has coped with all of it but I keep telling them, "If all He knows is a busy lifestyle then he won't know any different." Judah has been great. When we get in the car and go...He just rolls with the punches. We are so blessed to have such a good baby boy. Here is our last daddy/son outing to IKEA that we took today. I can't help to take some photos on our trips. Here are some extra photos that we took on our last trip to Tampa. This is in an open field next to an RV dealership off of I-4. They modeled this marketing scheme after the "Cadillac Ranch" in Amarillo, Texas. Here are the photos...

Fun With Fonts!

I use Photoshop quite a bit and I love it when I find great resources for fonts. If you do any kind of graphic design then you know that fonts are a large part of the design process. I found a new font resource this week and I thought I might share it with the readers. It's a site called VTKS.com. He is a free lance designer and he has quite a few FREE font downloads on his site. He is also listed on other font sites such as FONTSPACE.com. Here are some other sites I frequent when looking for the latest and greatest fonts; DAFONT.com & SIMPLYTHEBESTFONTS.com. Happy Downloading. Once you start...It will be hard to stop....

Just a couple of "Design Hints:"

1. Don't get too carried away when using fonts in your work. Limit your designs to 2 fonts each. In rare situations you can use more but if too many different fonts are used then your design work will loose it's impact and will also make your work too busy and difficult to read.

2. Don't load all your fonts at once. If you store all of your fonts all at once you can cause your computer to run slower than usual. Like I said, you can get carried away downloading fonts and if you go too crazy your computer has to load and search through all of those fonts when using your programs, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro Studio, and etc.

Here Are Some Font Design Possibilities:

Back to Blogging

Well it has been a long time since my last post and much has happened; good and bad. To catch you up to speed, here is what has been going on in my life. Lots of my family made their way to Orlando to participate in the dedication of our amazing Judah Avery Johnson. It was a bittersweet moment for my whole family. We were so proud of our baby boy and we were so ecstatic that our family made the trip to join us in his dedication. But after the Sunday service we all went out to eat at Mimi's Cafe and as we were leaving, my Nana Bussell (grandmother) suffered a really severe stroke. In a previous post I wrote about the moments Judah met all of his great grandparents. Well, my Nana Bussell was not in that post because he had not yet met his Great-Nana Bussell. Judah's dedication was only the second time she got to see him. She met him just a couple days before that at our friends wedding shower. My Nana Bussell has been such an inspiration to me in all that she has done. She has been such a shining example of what a marriage relationship looks like and what it should be. She and my grand-daddy were married for so many years until he past and they both raised some of the most amazing girls that I know; including my Momma. We are just asking that everyone continues to keep her in your prayers as she goes down a long road of recovery. We know that God is more than able to heal her body and restore her health.

Well, our son's dedication hasn't been the only celebration we have enjoyed over the past couple of weeks. I also had the amazing privilege of marrying a childhood friend (Robert Noland) in Sarasota, FL this past weekend. It was the second wedding I have ever performed; the first being my other childhood friend, Eric Long. Funny enough, they have both been outside weddings. The first, being on the beach and the second, being under a massive oak tree on a golf course. It was such a beautiful wedding and it was so good to see so many friends and family that I haven't seen in years. Not that they wanted to see me....Judah took the spotlight in all of the conversations. Now that you have been caught up to speed and my life has slowed down a bit maybe I can get back to posting some more blogs. Until then, please help me pray for my Nana, Shirley Bussell's recovery.

Meeting the GREATS!

This past weekend Jules and I traveled to Tampa on short notice to see Judah's great-grandparents. My Papa Johnson has been in the hospital and isn't really doing too good. Please keep him in your prayers. We took Judah to see him for the very first time. What a proud moment for me. My Papa is someone that I have always looked up to and have respected all my life. He, in my eyes, has been such a great role model; as an example of great character, a faithful Christian, and an amazing do-it-all kind of guy. Ya know, a seize the day kind of guy. We have done so many great things in our life, from going fishing on the house boat all night long, to hunting for deer in the freezing cold, to celebrating the Johnson family Christmas in the old country barn. Visiting him this weekend was a proud moment for me because 4 generations of Johnson men sat in the same room; Me, Dad, Papa, and Judah. I was so happy to show Judah off to Papa and Nana Pat and to see him filled with joy while looking at my new son just made me so happy. I hope that I can live up to the standard my Papa set for being a great father and role model.

Not only did Judah get to meet his great grandfather but he made a trip to his spunky great-grandmother, Nana Faulkner. He just fit right at home in her arms. This woman has been such an amazing person in my life. She has been the best cook, the most welcoming and hospitable woman I know, and she has also given me the pleasure of living with her for a couple years. If you don't know her or if you have never met her....I can guarantee that she will make you laugh. She is everyone's grandma; if you know what I mean. That's just how she makes you feel. Even this past weekend....as we were leaving she tried to give me and Julie money for some food on the road. She is always trying to take care of you (like a Nana should) and she is always trying to fill your stomach with some food...lol...Papa and Nana, I just want you both to know how much I love, respect, and appreciate every minute I have with you. I'll love you always. - Justin

David After The Dentist

I know that you probably have seen this video before but our piano player told me to check this clip and I just had to share. I look at my 4 week old son and some of the faces he makes and I just laugh like crazy but if he ever did anything like this I would be struggling to catch my breathe because I would on the floor rolling. Enjoy and tell me what you think...

A Recent Update...

Things have been unbelievably AMAZING in my life lately. The family is doing great and our new addition, Judah seems to be fitting right in. Here is a recent shot of him sleep on the ottoman in our family room. But...WOW....I have just been on such an incredible high with God and I feel as if He is really doing some great things through us, our youth ministry, and our church as a whole. There just seems to be exponential growth taking place, not only in our church growth but also in the spiritual lives of the people that are attending. Once again our Identity Youth service was packed full of teens that are excited about God and excited about coming to youth. Each week, the newcomers from the previous week are back and they are bring their friends too. I just talked with some new teens after this weeks service (Nelson and Alisin) and they said, "We love this place. We are going to make it a point to bring one new friend every week from here on out." Needless to say, I am so excited about that.

This past weekend was a HUGE weekend for our student ministry. Not only did we have an AWESOME opportunity to lead praise and worship at a local youth rally here in Orlando but we had a pretty outstanding Super Bowl fundraiser on Sunday night that helped us raise a ton of money for our youth budget. Maybe we can finally break even from some of this past summers big events. But what was so cool about this weekend was I got to see our youth get outside of the four walls of our church and truly minister to our local community. After we were through leading praise and worship at the Orlando youth rally many other groups were excited to possibly invite us to lead worship at their future events. God just seems to keep opening doors for us to do the extraordinary. I was so proud of our kids this week. It's so cool to see them grow into such outstanding men and women of God.


But God isn't just doing great things in our youth ministry. He is also moving so pure in our Sunday morning services. Just recently we have been moving in a direction of multiple worship leaders leading simultaneously. After about a year and a half of leading worship on Sundays and Wednesdays it has been nice to have some of load lifted. But I have been co-leading on Sundays with a guy named Lester and the worship has just seemed to be heading in such a great direction. God is showing up so evident in our services and the layering of multiple leading voices has been unexpectedly great. God is good and I can't believe that He chooses to have a relationship with me. I love Him so much and I am honored to work for His kingdom.

Another Great Night...

WOW! God is just really blessing my socks off with how He is blessing our Student Ministries at Christ Church of Orlando. The Identity Students have really been grabbing hold of the evangelism concept we preach so much at Identity Youth. Our students are becoming some of the BIGGEST witnesses at our church. For example, just last weekend one of my youth, Morgan, was at the mall and she saw these girls walking down the sidewalk. She just went up to them to start a conversation and found out that they were waiting on the bus to get a ride home and she offered to take them home. While riding home she got to talk with them about God and church and one thing led to another...Well, all 4 of them came to Wednesday night's Identity Youth service and they loved it. They all said they plan on coming back next week. We have had such an influx of newcomers and they aren't just visiting. They are all coming back the following weeks. Last night we had 67 in the service and for a church of around 450 people....I think that is outstanding.

This weeks service was not only jammed packed with students, causing us to add more and more seats, but it was jammed packed with great stuff. We started off the night with a Crowd Control Game called "Road Race" and the kids loved it. It's a voice activated game that is controlled by the loudness of the crowd. It had me on the floor rolling and laughing. Then we moved into a time of worship. Our piano player wasn't there this week and so I was stuck playing keys during half the set but there just seemed to be such an atmosphere of praise to our God during our worship. We started off with "Break Free" (United) and then moved into "I Am Free" (Desperation Band). Then one of our students came to the stage and encouraged our youth to really press into God's presence and man, did they ever. We finished the PW set off with "Oh How He Loves Us" (John Mark McMillan) and "Saviour King" (United). God's presence was so evident. After worship our drama team performed "The Ledge Skit." It's a spoken skit on temptation and peer pressure. Then we continued the 2nd part of our new series on temptation called "Hooks" and used "The Select Fit" video clip from Mosaic Films. I used it to illustrate the dangers of taking scripture out of context to validate our sin.

Our church and youth has really been going through a change of seasons. A few months ago we had a lot of changes take place in our attendance and as a staff and church we all began to fast and pray during the Advent and Christmas Holidays. During that time our senior adults pastor gave a word of knowledge to our pastor. She said, "Pastor, I feel that God is taking us through a pruning process and when He is done pruning it will make way for great growth. It will be a [Healthier] growth that will produce an abundant harvest." I believe we are seeing the fruits of that today. I am so amazed with God. Aren't you?

2 weeks....Come and Gone!

Well, it's been two weeks since Judah has been born and we are still alive. Today was the first Julie and Judah's first day to the church. Everyone couldn't wait to see him and we felt so loved. Our church has been great during this whole transition. Ironically, Judah fits right in at church....He seems to just be so chill when he is there. Another funny fact is.....whenever he is in the car and he starts to get really fussy...all we have to do is turn up some David Crowder really loud and it just seems to put him to sleep. That's my boy! He's just like his daddy. You can't go wrong with some good ole' Crowder.

To mark his 2 weeks on this amazing earth we took some photographs of Judah the other for his birth announcements and I thought I would share them with you. So here they are...Tell us what your vote is for his birth announcement photograph. For more of our photos you can click here.

This Wednesday...

I just thought I would just thank God publicly for the amazing youth service we had last night at Identity Student Ministries. God is really doing something amazing in our church and our youth ministry. He's pruning and growing us at the same time. Our people seem to really want to connect with God and they seem to want to know Him in a deeper and more authentic way. Our students and stepping out into leadership roles and leading others in the direction God is calling us as a whole. I can't wait to see what this year holds for us. 2008 was amazing in itself (see video post below) and we as a church and as a youth ministry did some things that we had never done before but I feel and our Pastor has already challenged us to EXTRAORDINARY things this year. I can't wait to see the fruits of 2009.

Settling for Mediocrity

I thought I would share an experience I had over the Christmas Holidays. Every year Jules and I do our annual Christmas Greeting card and at times we have also given our Grandparents updated photos of us to display in there homes. As usual, once we have taken our photos and collected all the images we would like to print we send them via The Internet to Walgreens and we have them printed. Well, this year I sent the photos to the Walgreens in my parents home town so that I could pick them up when we arrived at their house. As I approached the counter of the photo center the clerk withheld my prints and called for the manager. I asked what the problem was and the clerk replied, "Please wait for the manager to talk with you." As the manager approached he proceeded to tell me that he had the photos printed but would not sell me the prints. Infuriated I asked, "WHY?" He continued to tell me that photos were too professional looking. I insisted that these were my personal images and that they were taken with my camera. I also told him that I would show him the camera that I took the images with and I would also show him the SD card that the images were still on. He still proceeded to tell me that he would not sell me the prints. My response to the manager was, "So what are you telling me? I have to shoot crappy photos in order to get my photos printed? Why is it so hard to believe that someone can take professional quality pictures?" He continued to deny me the purchase of my prints.

It aggravates me when people set a standard of mediocrity. I can understand if I brought pictures in that had a photographers logo on the back of the paper but these were images pulled straight from my SD card that came out of my camera. Needless, to say...we will no longer use Walgreens to print our photos. We now use Wal-Mart Photo Center and we have been VERY pleased with the service and the quality.