Jump David Jump

Bringing the Story to Chicago

It has been incredible to share God's story over the past year. I say this story belongs to God because... well, I never would have written it this way. Seems to me He's writing His own story and was kind enough to invite me in. In the past 12 months, God has been gracious enough to stir up some opportunities for me to share this story at universities, churches, cancer support groups and even an elementary school in the middle of an Ohio cornfield.

I must say I was shocked when Ben Arment wrote me an email and asked me to speak at Story Chicago. The event will be held at Park Community Church on September 23-24. It's such an honor to be sharing with such an amazing group of speakers.

• Dan Allender - best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School
• Charlie Todd - creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City
• Princess Zulu - AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed
• Jason Fried - founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework
• John Sowers - president of Donald Miller's The Mentoring Project
• Shauna Niequist - former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet
• David Hodges - formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter
• Leonard Sweet - futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University
• David McFadzean - creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne
• Richard Walter - accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA
• Sean Gladding - member of Communality, a new monastic community
• Andrew Klavan - author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels
• Gary Dorsey - founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX
• Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker

All of the tickets are sold out, but I would ask that you would pray for me as I "tell the story", because as you can see from those I'll be sharing with... I'm completely out of my league! Feel like I was just called up to the pros! I must admit I feel the pressure to stay 'smart' things, use clever analogies and be funny. That's how I typically deal with this type of stuff. But I must remember that the only thing God has called me to do is be a witness. Just tell the story of what is happening. That is enough.

Check out the legit website for Story Chicago.

Speaking at 'The Woods'

Tomorrow (May 2nd) I will be sharing the Operation 55 Zebra story at The Woods - Church of the Nazarene (just outside of Detroit). I'll be at the Warren Campus for the 9:00, 10:00 & 11:00 services. If you are in the area, I would love to see you there! Come and introduce yourself!

Details:

Warren Campus
14300 Thirteen Mile Rd.
Warren, MI 48088
(586) 771-4821

Leaving New Zealand!

Here's a quick post as I'm leaving Kaukoura, New Zealand and headed toward Christchurch for the flight home. I will be home at about 10:00 on Thursday morning and then hopping on another flight that same day to go to Cedarville University in Ohio. I'll be speaking in their chapel on Friday morning at 10:00. If you are around, I'd love to see you there.

Regarding NZ, I have tons of photos to show and stories to tell. Those will be coming soon!

I am so excited for the new year! I apologize for my lack of posts last month, but I'm coming back with renewed vigor and a journal full of thoughts to share.

Oh! We celebrated Amy's Birthday yesterday (5th) as we are a day ahead, but it's her birthday in the states today. Wish her a Happy Birthday because I promised her she'd get 2 birthdays this year!!

Much Love...

Healing Crisis

Things aren't always as they seem.

Sometimes what we see as a step in the wrong direction is actually evidence that everything is going according to plan. There is actually a term for this; Healing Crisis.

"A 'Healing Crisis', also known as the "Herxheimer Reaction", this reaction occurs when the body tries to eliminate toxins at a faster rate than they can be properly disposed of. The more toxic one's bodily systems are, the more severe the detoxification, or healing crisis. It is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during the cleansing or detox process which may be mild or severe. You may feel worse and therefore conclude that the treatment is not working. But these reactions are instead signs that the treatment is working and that your body is going through the process of cleaning itself of impurities, toxins and imbalances."

I feel my body has been experiencing a healing crisis. When I went to the ER a few weeks ago, the pre-seizure symptoms were telling everyone that my brain was swelling. I knew it, Micah-the-Magician knew it and the Doctors knew it. The evidence for brain swelling was obvious, so the real question was, 'Why? Even though I've been doing everything right, why is there more swelling in my brain?'.

There are two ways to look at the reasoning behind the brain swelling:

1. As predicted by my doctors, the tumor is continuing to slowly grow in size which impacts the surrounding brain matter causing a progression in seizure symptoms. Over time, this will eventually lead to another seizure. The medically response would be to undergo radiation and chemo to reduce the size of the tumor, thus relieving pressure to the surrounding brain matter, and to immediately administer steroids to help curb inflammation and stop immediate seizure symptom progression.
2. Through my changes in diet, supplements, stress levels, emotional healing, etc... my body is healing the cancer by reversing the elements that cause cancer in the first place. One of the signs that the cancer is reversing is that the tumor, a collection of cancerous cells in my brain (a symptom of the cancer within the body) are starting to die. And as the tumor cells die and pile up, the lymphatic system (the clean-up crew of the body) goes into the brain to start clearing everything out which causes swelling. The solution for this issue would be to aid the lymphatic system by helping to clear it out, taking along with it all of the dead cells it has been collecting.

We chose to see this crisis through the lens of view #2. To be honest, I am feeling even better than before. I am taking on some new detoxification practices that I'll detail later each helping my lymph system clear out the dead cells in my body as quick as possible. Many cancer patients don't actually die from cancer but from toxemia, or a build-up of toxins / bacteria in the bloodstream because the bad cells can't be eliminated from the body. So the 1st goal was to kill the cancer, but the 2nd goal is to get rid of the dead cancer cells as soon as possible. And as far as I can tell, after a few weeks, it is working!

Physically, I was having a build-up of toxins in my brain that needed to be released. This crisis, after being addressed, lead to overall healing.

However, emotionally and spiritually, I think I'm in the middle of a healing crisis.

Speaking at Loyola Marymount Univ.

We just finished filming Matthew Sleeth's dialogue for his short film series so I can actually relax for a few minutes...Our time here has been very good. The Dot&Cross team is doing a great job of pulling this all together and I'm feeling really good about this shoot.

(Side-note / Random Fact: The Director of Photographer for our shoot is the same DP who did SNL's 'I'm on a Boat'. If you don't know what I'm talking about... forget I mentioned it.)

So the other night, Rosanna, a friend of mine, was kind enough to pass my name onto a student group at Loyola Marymount University called "Late Night".  It's a group of about 50-70 students from the University who get together at the "Lion's Den" and talk on a weekly basis. They invited me to come tonight and share my story and, as promised, I take any opportunity God puts in front of me to share His story so I said 'yes'. That's the benefit of having God as your booking agent. He knows where I need to be and who I need to talk to so you never have to doubt if He is giving you a bum gig!

If you are in LA and want to drop by... I'd love to meet you. *Disclaimer - I don't know if it's a student-only thing or not. But if they don't let you in, tell them I asked for you to come. You can do that thing they always do in the movies where you point to me and wave. I won't know who you are but I promise to wave back like I'm inviting you in. It'll totally work.