Passport?  Check.  Tickets?  Check.  Suitcase full of bubbles for orphans in Ethiopia?  Check.

Now all I need is to get my hands on my son, Eli.  22 hours from now I will be touching down in the land where my son was born in order to bring him home.

I have had so many people ask me how I feel right now.  Honestly, I feel so at peace.  Will this be a challenging few days?  Yes.  Are there unknowns awaiting me?  Sure.  Could the plane ride home be one of the most challenging 16 1/2 hours I have ever faced?  Absolutely.

But it’s all worth it.  Every bit of it.  The months of paperwork, the resources needed, the vaccinations, the concerned questions, the malaria medication, the long travels, the monkeys at the hotel (yeah, I’ll fill you in later), the exposure to some of the greatest needs in the world and only addressing one of them, it’s all going to be worth it to bring my son home.

Eli, you have been prayed for and adored by more people than we ever could imagine.  You are coming home to a big, loving family.

Obadiah, your excitement for your little brother has brought more joy to our hearts than you can imagine.

Amanda, your willingness to take the last year’s of naptimes to use them to bring another child home rather than just rest from the child you already had shows more of your heart, love, and Christlikeness than you’ll ever know.  I am honored to be your husband.

Family, friends, and church family, thank you for your support.  Your excitement has been so encouraging.

Jesus, I love you.  The last few days, I believe those moments of abrupt laughter of mine has probably been shared by you.  I think about what I am doing and I just being to erupt joyfully in laughter.  Oh, the places that following you has taken me.  I wouldn’t trade it for another thing in this world.  It is always an honor to say yes to you, sir.

I am going to try and update this over the next few days, but dial-up connection in an orphanage where the power goes out repeatedly citywide doesn’t promise too many updates, but check back because I do hope to update you.

Just so you know, when we touch back on American soil, realize that Eli is not my adopted son. Adoption will forever be a part of his history but it is not his identity.  He is my son.  As much as Obadiah is my son, Eli is my son.  He is not a project, a charity, or a noble cause.  He is forever an Agnew.  My boy.  And I am honored to be his dad.

I appreciate your prayers over the next few days.  Pray for safe travels and such, but pray really, really big prayers for Eli.  Pray that God allows him to do so much for his kingdom throughout his life.  Don’t settle for praying for our safety.  Pray big prayers.

Much love.  Peace out.  My boy is coming home.

Today is the day!  ”Coming Home” is available for your listening pleasure.  We are so pleased with how this project came out, and we pray that this CD will be a blessing to you.  We pray that it will call you closer in worship, encourage you to say “yes” to God’s call, and think seriously about your role concerning the 143 million orphans in the world.

The proceeds of this album go to help our adoption fund for bringing Eli home from Ethiopia.  So just by downloading one track, you are a part of him coming home – thanks!

The easiest way for me to release the album is through Bandcamp.  It is a secure site in which you can download one track, an album, or a bunch of albums.

Here’s the rundown:

• Name Your Price - Through Bandcamp, you can name your price for the music.  While there is a minimum of $10 to pay for the CD, you can purchase it for $186,532 if you like to help the cause (you’d be my best friend by the way).
• Complete Previews – You can listen to every song all the way through and not just a snippet to see if you really like it.
• Secure Checkout - It uses Paypal, but if you don’t have it, you can still pay with a debit or credit card.
• iTunes Integration - Upon payment, you can download the music at high quality files, and then drag them into iTunes with the artwork and all the goodies.
• Share the Love – Through Bandcamp’s easy tools, you can post your favorite track on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc. and help get the word out about the album.
• Other Surprises – In addition to this album, I have some extra musical goodies from previous years at some cheap prices.
• Chord Charts – If you want to learn how to play these songs or use them in your church, I now have all the chord charts and info on the songs on my new music page.
• CD?  Amazon?  Etc. – I may post this album on other avenues later, but for right now, this is the easiest and fastest way to get the music out there.  If you want a CD, the best option will be to download the songs and burn them to disc.  If you want in iTunes, download it and drag it into your library.  I hope to have other options one day, but this site makes it so easy and you can upload huge files with massive sound quality unlike other options.

UPDATED:

Album now available on iTunes and Amazon.

I’m filling in for Jeff on Sunday.  It’s always an exciting thing for me to preach, but it’s always a humbling thing to fill the pulpit for someone I respect so much.  I don’t ever want to go about preaching God’s Word in a careless way.

I will be preaching the 2nd week in the “30 Days to Live” series entitled “Be at Peace with God.”

I know the biblical passage from which I will preach.  I know the direction, but I want your input and prayers for the application points.

If you think about it, North Side will be full on Sunday of 3 types of people: 1) at peace with God, 2) not at peace with God, or 3) thinks they are at peace with God.

Your time to help with sermon prep: what keeps people from having true peace with God?

March has been an incredible month for North Side as we have gone through the series, “Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?”

Last night in my C-Group, we got real honest about the successes and the failures that we had experienced over the last month reaching out to people who need Jesus.  While we all had things to share that we could have done better, I was so humbled to hear my guys talk about what they had done.  The Holy Spirit prompted, they responded in obedience.  I can’t imagine a greater group of guys to do life with.

We talked at length about how when we enter into spiritual conversations, God has already been at work long before we speak.  Whether it is someone’s praying grandmother, someone who has sown seed before hand, or the Holy Spirit convicting that person concerning sin, we are not starting with no foundation.  God has been on the move in that person’s life.

Great series on evangelism, but our group committed to each other that this would not just be a fad that passes as we move into another series.  We will be checking in with each other regularly concerning to whom we are reaching out.

Hope you learned a ton too!

I have some pretty exciting news this morning: I am releasing an album in a few weeks.  While the final details are still being worked out, I’ll give you what I got right now.

Back when we accepted the call to adopt, I wrote a song for our coming son.  Without ever seeing his picture or knowing his story, I wrote a lullaby-type song called “Your Father’s Arms.”  The 1st verse was for Obadiah, the 2nd verse was for Eli (even though I didn’t know his name at the time), and the 3rd verse is for all the rest of us.  I sang the part to Amanda one night, we cried, and then I had an idea.  What if I recorded that song, put it up on iTunes, and let the proceeds go to assisting our family in the international adoption process?  Families fundraise all types of ways for adoption, since I write songs, I wondered if that would work.

I went to talk to my good buddy, Anthony Gravley, who has produced the North Side albums, to see if he could fit some time for me in his schedule, and he was more than gracious and willing to be a part of this project.

All the while, I had been writing a bunch of worship songs lately.  I also have some songs that I wanted a project to record them on.  Long story short – we were going to do 1 song, then 3, then 5, and now we have 10 songs with everything recorded except for vocals.  With my departure time approaching, ALL the instruments have been tracked within a few days.  Due to our families’ prayers, I believe the process has gone unusually quick and easy.  I really have sensed God’s presence during those tracking hours.

Anthony and I have played all the instruments on them except for one extra help.  Mark Nemer was gracious enough to play drums on some of the tracks.  Mark lives in Nashville and has recorded or played drums for people such as Chris Tomlin, Cece Winans, Whiteheart, Michael W. Smith, and a bunch of other people.  I came by the studio to find out that the 3 songs he was going to play on turned into 9.

What that means is in the coming weeks I will share with you exactly how I am getting these songs out – iTunes, Amazon, or some in house copies, I am still working all that out.  But if you want a practical way that you can help and pray for our family, you can purchase a copy of “Coming Home” in a few weeks.

It is 10 songs of what God has been teaching our family about salvation, saying yes when God’s call, His presence during those uncertain moments, and what it is like when a son comes home.  Hope it blesses your family as well!  Please pray for us to get it done and available before I am Ethiopia-bound.  Thanks for your support!

In the meantime, you can also get you a copy of my first CD on Amazon or iTunes or Freshman 15 on Amazon.  All proceeds go to the adoption!