The Heath Mullikin Project

Well, after hitting 60 degrees on Monday, the bitter cold is back. It just kinda hits you in the face and leaves you speechless. Lots going on…
1. Never in a million years did I think that Barack Obama would be winning so convincingly over Hillary Clinton. Don’t think that she’s not going to try everything to gain the nomination. It’s not over until the end of the convention no matter how large his victories are.
2. I thought McCain did well in his speech last night. He came out first which is smart so he wouldn’t have to follow Obama’s speech. I thought it was the most energetic and best speech he’s given to date. I thought Obama was a little off last night and didn’t hit a homerun with his speech.
3. Have you ever wondered what happens to the shirts made up for the team that loses the big game? It appears that the NFL has donated these to World Vision.
4. I have worked out the past two days and I am sore! We are eating healthy and trying to get back in shape. I know I’ve said that before…okay, I’ve said that lots of times. This time I am really motivated because I want to see my kids grow up. 40 pounds to go. I’ll be giving you weekly updates to let you chart my progress. My goal is to drop at least 25 lbs by NC East Sr. High Camp in June.
5. Baseball may be the most hypocritical sport in the world. They want to go back and police the 90’s and persecute guys for taking substances that weren’t banned at the time. It’s the owners’ faults for not demanded stricter drug testing much sooner. But, as we all know, home runs sell tickets. So, if they go back and take away Barry Bond’s records then the owners should have to return all the revenue from the tickets sold for games in which he played. Also, ESPN should give back all advertising money to companies that bought ads from them. And those companies should give the consumers back the money from the products bought that were advertised during those games. Yeah, that’ll happen. If fans really cared about steroids then we would have stopped buying tickets a long time ago. Let’s face it, we are paying for the experience when we go to a game. People even buy tickets to Knicks’ games. So, as long as the experience is good the fans don’t really care.
6. Have you seen this yet? That’s a movie I’ve got to see! This is going to be a big movie summer.
Hope you’re all doing well. Hoping to get back on myspace and facebook tomorrow.

Well, everyone is feeling better at the Mullikin house so we won’t be making our normal Monday trip to the doctor. I am seriously exhausted!
1. I don’t know how these guys that preach 3 or 4 times a weekend do it. I only had to preach twice yesterday and I am worn out. It might be because none of us slept well Saturday night and Karen and I started our exercise routine this weekend. Anyway, I was pumped to be sharing the word and know that God used these last two sermons to change my life and thinking. Yesterday, I spoke on “storge” love-the family love. I set up a dinner table on the platform in place of the pulpit. That’s right. I preached without a pulpit on a Sunday morning. I hope that the visual helped get the points across of how we need to interact more and better with our families. Can’t wait till I get to preach next time. We’re going over our Springlife series in staff meeting tomorrow so I will find out them. Springlife is going to be awesome!
2. I am exciting about assuming some new responsibilities with the worship team. I’ll be working with them to pick out new music. Sarah Riddle has given her heart and soul to this recently, but is focusing her energies now on other ministries in the church like “Dim the Lights” and “Refuge.” We just got a Songselect membership which will help our team lead worship more effectively.
3. Did I mention how tired I am?
4. Got to watch the Slam dunk contest Saturday night. It was soooo entertaining. Dwight Howard really help put the fun back into All-Star weekend. Now, the uniforms for the actual game were awful. What were they thinking? It looked like there were four teams on the court.
5. In other NBA news, how about the Hawks picking up Mike Bibby and giving up none of their core players? I thought at first that the Joe Johnson trade was a mistake but he has proven me wrong. Now that he has a point guard that can shoot(me and Timmy watched Tyronn Lue miss at leat 8 open jumpers against the Heat last season in the ATL) he will flourish. It’s also funny that Jason Kidd is back where he started in Dallas.
6. This week is packed with meetings and a youth bowling trip on Friday night. Gonna need a nap between now and then.
7. Let me say this, having your mail forwarded is a nightmare.
8. Found out last night that Tricia and Lynda Pusey went to see Extreme Home Makeover in Wilmington last week. That is my family’s favorite show and it always makes me cry. I can’t believe I missed it! It was only about 5 minutes from our old house. Dang it! Tricia got Paige’s autograph, but there was an ice strom happening so they didn’t get to meet any of the other crew members. It airs in about 6 weeks.
9. Still can’t get on myspace and facebook so show a friend some love and link here from yours.
10. Gotta go plan my South Carolina vacation…have a great day!

Well, I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day. Ours was good at the Mullikin household. Here’s what’s up.
1. Karen and I watched the first movie we ever saw together again…The American President. I’d have to say that Michael Douglas’ speech at the end is one of my top 5 movie scenes. We also had our favorite meal, chicken with homemade texas pete dip and broccoli and cheese. Haven’t had it since we moved up north.
2. We found Remember the Titans on tv Wednesday afternoon and had to watch it. It’s one of those movies that never gets old. This is the type of movie that should win awards which leads me to…
3. The Oscars are next weekend and I don’t know anything about them. The Academy is more concerned with the art than entertainment and are thus out of step with movie going audiences. Occasionally, they get it right, but the past few years has been horrible. I have no interest because I haven’t seen any of the nominees. Neither has anyone else, but that won’t stop them from having their little award show with swipes at the Bush administration included.
4. Drake takes about 1 step a day now. All the kids are on anti-biotics now so keep them in your prayers.
5. Not sure if I’m gonna watch the Daytona 500 or NBA all-star game. Will watch the dunk contest Saturday night though. Watch out for Jamario Moon.
6. I’ll be preaching around a kitchen table in the sanctuary this weekend. And if you want to hear the Eros sermon you can check it out at www.chiunited.org.
Gotta cut this post short due to lots of work to do. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Dude, we had an ice storm here that would’ve shut SC down for a week. Of course, here they get the roads cleared quickly although I was out yesterday when it hit and things got bad before I made it home. I almost hit the church mailbox and then a car on the way home(you know most accidents happen within 2 miles of home and our new place is .2 miles from the church). Anyway, here we go..
1. Because of various situations, some real and some pranked, I freak out when I see a police car. Now, last Friday, I picked up Mike and Bob at the church at 4 am to take them to the airport for the Haiti mission trip. We took a short cut behind Wal-Mart when Mike noted that I was getting pulled over. I saw one set of lights, then two, then three. So, I know my tag is not visible(looong story), but I didn’t even know there were 3 cops on duty in Upper Chichester at 4 am. Anyway, the church’s neighbors had called because the night before someone was snooping behind their house. So, we identified ourselves and all was well. My heart pounded for a good 4 hours. Then, on Monday night our burglar alarm started beeping. I tried to shut it off, but instead(unknowingly) armed it. So, a minute later, it really starts going off and LOUD. I went over and told the landlord and he came over and fixed it and showed me what I had done wrong. 10 minutes later, yep you guessed it, 3 cops arrived at the house. Fortunately, I didn’t know until they were gone. Thanks Greg and Wes, you have scarred me for life.
2. Another cop story…we got caught in traffic one day on the way to Philly. I thought there was a bad wreck ahead because of the number of police cars I saw with lights flashing. As we got closer, I noticed there were about 10 patrol cars, but I couldn’t spot the cars from the accident. People were rubber necking which was causing the traffic delay. What were they looking at? Not a wreck, but the 10 officers were detaining…1 person. There car was pulled over, but there was only one perp. Don’t know what he did, but apparently it took 10 cops to take care of it…3 to watch him, while the other 7 were spread out having various conversations.
3. Think Indiana would like to have Bobby Knight back now?
4. I know I’m a geek but…Jeff Hardy deserves a world title run.
5. Still can’t access Facebook and Myspace.
6. Does anyone else think that Hillary Clinton’s head is going to explode sometime soon? I also think it’s only a matter of time before Chris Matthews asks Barack Obama out on a date.
7. Rudy Guiliani’s next book…”How to blow your shot at being president”
8. I’m glad our politicians have time to investigate steroids in baseball. Good to know they have that national debt thing solved, we’re energy independent, Al-Queda is defunct, the fair tax is enacted, and our border is secure.
9. If you’re in ministry buy the simply strategic series. These books are rocking my world and changing the way I think about how we do church.
10. I’m going 0ut to face the ice…hopefully, it’s not vanilla.

Well, I was pleased with my sermon Sunday on the difficult topic of “Eros”. People responded well to it. This week I’m talking “storge” or family love. I’m almost finished with my prep and excited about some creative stuff I’m going to try. We took all the kids to the doctor yesterday(Monday) and Drake is at the end of his illness while Charis and Milena are both very sick. It’s some sort of virus(kinda like streep throat but not) so they’re both on antibiotics. Karen and I are very tired because it seems we haven’t gotten a full nights sleep since Thanksgiving. Since Charis was coughing most of the night I tried to stay awake too since it’s not fair for me to sleep while my 4 year old is suffering. Eventually, we got her coughing stopped, but here’s what I was thinking before we both drifted off to sleep.
1. Is it just me, or is there a lot of irony in a a singer named Amy Winehouse being released from rehab so she can perform on the Grammys(that’s what I heard but I’m not sure since no one watched the show) and wins an award for her song “Rehab” and gives a shout out to her lover who is in jail? Maybe it’s just me.
2. I had a political epiphany last night. To me, Barack Obama is really the only Presidential candidate offering change because, let’s face it, he has hardly any Washington experience. He is not an insider like McCain and Clinton. I think that’s what a lot of people are attracted to: the hope that things would be different under his administration. Now, I’ve often thought about running for political office and the issues that I would champion. However, it finally hit me last night that the government may be able to influence people’s circumstances(programs, tax breaks, and assistance) but it can’t change people. These politicians are speaking of government being the hope of the people and if so, we are in BIG trouble. In all societies since the beginning of time, true change has never started at the top but rather at the grass roots. That’s where the church comes in. Government programs are just band aids. The church, through Christ, can offer true transformation. The problems our nation faces are ultimately about people and sadly, the poor or greedy choices we make. Yes, it’s a problem when a company cuts employee wages to increase CEO and board pay, but it’s also sad when that employee spends their decreased wages on a plasma TV instead of milk, bread, and diapers. They then spend their time watching crap TV instead of teaching their kids to read or better yet making sure they’re not doing drugs or sleeping around. The people in our communities are in financial, emotional, spiritual, and physical debt and are looking to the government for hope and solutions because the church has been too busy worrying about stuff that only affects the 40-50 people in their congregation. Basically, the church has let the government do our job. We have turned our backs on widows and orphans because they have Medicare and Medicaid. Acts 2 said that when the early church was working right that no one was in need. I shouldn’t need a politician to raise my awareness about poverty. I should be on the front lines fighting it. I think it’s about time the church reclaimed it’s place in culture and society again by dealing relevantly to the issues of the day. If we don’t then in a few generations our churches will be the same as many in Europe…museums.

Someone asked me the other day if I was growing a beard. Frankly, it’s just a by product of me hating to shave. If I can make it through the next few days then I think I’ll keep it for a while. It’s the maintenance that wears me down usually. Yup, it’s a slow day. Here ya go…
1. Now all the kiddies are sick. If only more cowbell cured real fevers. They are sleeping a lot. No appetites though. We’ll make it through.
2. We are doing a 5 week series on love called “the heart of the matter” at our church. Adam had week 1, Mike weeks 2 and 5, and me weeks 3 and 4. I got stuck with the “Eros” sermon. Actually, I may have volunteered. Anyway, I view my preaching opportunities here as a way to push the envelope and be as creative as possible. I am pumped for this message and hope God uses it to expose some things in our lives.
3. I was looking at my summer schedule today…whoa. Out of 12 weeks I have 5 week long events from Kids’ Camp, Penn Jersey Youth Camp, speaking at NC East Sr. High Camp, VBS, and the Yes Ministries Philly trip.
4. Did you notice that the states Mike Huckabee won in the south were “Bible-belt” states, but that distinction wasn’t made about the same Southern States that Barack Obama won? Speaking of Mike Huckabee, here’s a pic of him holding a t-shirt Matt designed that came from my brain. Also includes a pic of a SWU student with Chuck Norris. Amazing!
5. I think I caught up on my sleep last night. Of course, I have to take two friends to the airport at 4 am tomorrow for a missions trip to Haiti. The fun never stops.