The Heath Mullikin Project

Well, we’re getting back into the swing of things here. Posts will return to their usual frequency. Lots to report on so here we go:
1. Sea World-we went on New Year’s Day just before the cold hit Orlando. The girls had a great time. Matt and Deborah Rhodes joined us for the day. Deb was moved by the dolphins, but Shamu was a bit of a disappointment. Also, the shark tunnel is much better when you’re a little kid because they all look like JAWS. Personally, now I think I could take them all. Where was the Hammerhead?
2. SetApart 07 was great. The group from my church had a great time and God moved in many lives. There were no major injuries in the IZONE and it was a hit. I will never forget the pizza boxes, Kevin Myers revving up his Harley and paying the fine, or the mad dash to the Family Force 5 concert. The quality of the services was awesome. Charlie Alcock always puts on a great production. Looking forward to the next Area conventions in 2 short years.
3. A great thing about conventions is seeing people from college and catching up. One person I saw kinda blew me off 2 or 3 times. They blew Karen off too. I think they’re in a ministry clique. This person has changed tremendously since our days at SWU. Now, they’ve grown and matured and are reaching people and meeting their needs through their ministry. Their better half is always friendly to me although I haven’t known them as long or as well. Anyway, I see one of my “children” joining this crowd and I greatly fear the day when they blow me off. Pray for me as I consider how best to broach this subject with them.
4. After years of resistance, I am switching to Itunes. My Creative Zen Touch will not work with Vista and none of the known fixes works for me(thanks to Joey Gilbert for his advice. I gave it a shot.) so I figured it was time to switch. The first night was pretty traumatic, but I am getting the hang of it. Now we just need some Ipods to hook up. Oh well, one step at a time.
My thoughts and prayers are with each of you as you begin this new year. May God’s blessings be upon you and His direction be before you.

Sorry for the delay. Here’s what’s been happening, with pics included.

Thursday, December 13-first hockey game with Atlantic from BBC. Thanks to Chris Horsman(best name ever) for explaining this confusing Canadian invention to me.

Friday, December 14-The Liberty Bell with Atlantic and Concert at Chi United.

Saturday and Sunday-Children’s Christmas Program

Monday-Home in Pendleton! I Am Legend-Scariest Movie EVER(more on that in a later post)

Tuesday-Spending the night at Nana and Papa Cains

Wednesday-Saturday-Hanging with friends and National Treasure 2
Sunday-Christmas program at Lebanon Baptist with family and a visit to Grandma Lessie at the Rehabilitation Hospital


Monday-Christmas Eve at the farm


Tuesday-Christmas at Nana Cain’s
Wednesday-560 miles to Orlando and crash in the Grande Suite(pics to come)
Tomorrow starts the final preparations for SetApart. I am pumped. Hope this post wets your appetite and again…Have a safe and happy Christmas Holiday season.

Home with the kids today since Karen is not feeling well. So, as most you know, I am a Star Wars geek. I love all the movies, have a bunch of stuff, and even gave away Light Sabers to some SC Youth Pastors. One of my favorite scenes is in Star Wars: A New Hope when Obi-Wan pulls the Jedi mind trick on the Stormtroopers. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” I’ve been thinking, what are some situations where Jedi mind tricks would prove useful in life and ministry.
1. When a kid or teen is disruptive,”You want to sit and be quiet now.”
2. When your 4 year old twins don’t want to go to bed,”You want to go to bed and not wake up until 9 am.”
3. When your pet has an accident,”You don’t want to pee on the rug again. You want to pee outside.”
4. To the church treasurer, “You don’t mind if we double the youth budget this year. We need to think about the kids.”
5. To parents of kids in your youth group,”You don’t want your kids to have a computer in their room. You want to keep it out in the open so you always know what they’re doing. Oh, and you don’t mind if the youth pastor takes a day off every week and spends time with his family.”
6. To your varsity or jv coach,”You don’t want to take me out of the game. You don’t care if I shoot every time.”
7. To that cute girl you’ve been waiting to ask out,”You do want to go see Star Wars with me. You do want to tell all your friends that I’m your dream guy.”
8. To that cute boy you’ve been seeing,”You don’t want to think of me as a piece of meat. You want to treat me with respect and dignity and never put me in a compromising situation. You don’t want to take me to see Star Wars. You don’t care if we watch the Notebook again.”
9. To your parents, “You don’t need to see my homework. On second thought, talk to me about my friends, my habits, my faith, the opposite sex, and my homework so I don’t completely screw my life up.”
10. To your wife,”Heroes is your favorite show. You would love to go to the Basketball game with me. You will buy me ringside seats to wrestling at the Wachovia Center on January 28, 2008.”
11. To your husband,”You will turn the tv off and come to bed…for the rest of your life. And how about some flowers every now and then. And diamonds, lots of diamonds. And no more Big Macs for you buddy. You love vegetables.”
12. To the police officer at the window,”This is a church van. You don’t need to see my papers. I’m not the youth pastor you’re looking for. Take Greg and Wes.”

Hey, first of all, when Hulk Hogan showed up on Monday Night Raw to the tune of “Real American” I cheered like a 12 year old kid. Drake enjoyed it as well. Lots of things I want to say. Been thinking about the last 8 months. Much has happened. My life has completely changed. I have now been away from South Carolina longer than at any other point in my life. This whole deal could have gone either way. The fact that our family is intact, strong, and safe is a blessing all it’s own. The fact that we’ve come through so much makes it even sweeter. Sometimes things happen that Satan intends to destroy us. Then God shows up, protects us, and steers us through the debris. Sometimes I think about those people who um, er, eh, well, let’s say they had a different perspective than me. To them I would say, “Thank you. God has used a situation that I wasn’t strong enough for, smart enough for, man enough for, and exposed the areas of my life where He wasn’t Lord. He’s saved my marriage, my ministry, and my Mullikinness.” I will admit that there were times when I said,”If one more thing happens then I don’t think God is with us anymore.” It never did. Things got better. He never let us get to that point. It’s been hard landing on our feet, but even harder worrying about the people I left behind who needed to land on their feet as well. I wish I could have kept in touch with everyone better, told everyone how much I love them better, prayed for them better. So, where does that leave us…me and you? I’m thinking that the past is past, and the present is meant for celebrating. Celebrating friends, love, faith, fat men in Batman suits, 100 degree youth rooms, Tubeamania, gong shows, O Captains, primal yells, the Drake, the Twins, family, the farm, mission trips, in Orlando, Central, Pendleton, Aston, Philly, and Wilmington. So, where’s the party? Wherever, whenever, we take it.

Hey, what’s up everybody? Here’s how God has been blessing our family:
1. A lady at church has been slipping me money every week. She said God told her to do it and she didn’t want to embarress me, and I told her I was humbled to be a part of what God was doing in her life. It’s always come just when we need it.
2. We haven’t had to buy groceries since the week before Thanksgiving. We’ve gotten about 5 boxes of stuff from people at church although a rat ate our sweet potatoes. Oh, he’ll meet his end this week. Friday we got an unexpected HUGE box of Fruit Loops and today we got a gallon of milk.
3. A door is open for us to move into a smaller place for much cheaper. We are praying about it, but our experience at our house hasn’t been the best. The landlord has changed the deal a couple of times so we are praying for wisdom.
4. Basically, the only door God has left open is the one where he takes care of everything. Now, when you ask God to meet your needs that may mean you buy $3 of gas at a time, but you never run out.
5. I am at a point in my journey of thinking deeply about faith and action. I ask and trust God to meet our needs, but what is my part? I don’t want to be lazy, but I also want to be in step with God. I get caught up sometimes in thinking so much about what to do and the next step that I forget to be. Seems to me that’s why God made the Sabbath. I’m pretty sure that’s the commandment Christians break the most. It makes sense that in the moments I am focused on “being” that God will direct my “doing.”
6. A man at church recently got an Archeological Study Bible. I looked at and commented how awesome it was and how I had been researching a lot of Old Testament history. This morning, he gave me the Bible. I was speechless(and now you’re speechless that I could ever be speechless). Think God wants me to study His word more?
7. God has blessed our church financially recently after some lean months.
8. Karen had to get two prescriptions for the kids while in Ohio for Thanksgiving. They were both free with our insurance. God rocks!
9. He has shown me ways we can cut our spending tremendously each month. That, plus the apartment possibility would make it possible for Karen to continue to stay home with the kids.
10. I find it strange that I trust that God healed Karen yet I struggle to trust Him with the daily small things. Maybe it’s just me. If He can take care of Huntington’s disease then knocking out the rent shouldn’t be too hard.
I don’t know where you’re at, what you’re struggling with, what your needs are. I hope this has been an encouragement to you. We serve a great God. He does what He does because He can and He loves us. He doesn’t want us to jump through hoops. He wants us to be aware that it’s not some game of cosmic chance when good things come our way. There’s not a “Secret.” It’s just Him being I AM.

There are few things I wanted to get off my chest before I try to catch another 30 minutes of sleep.
1. If you’ve been keeping up with the Jena 6 case, I bet you haven’t heard this in the reporting.
2. A report was just released that there was a rise in teenage births. Many blame this on President Bush’s insistence on many Abstinence-only programs(just another thing people want to blame on him). Well, statistics show that 100% of teens who practice abstinence and don’t have sex do NOT get pregnant. People really believe that if we taught teens how to USE birth control then the pregnancy rates would go down. As a youth pastor of over 10 years let me clue you in on something(come in a little closer). TEENS ARE GETTING PREGNANT CAUSE THEY AINT USING NO BIRTH CONTROL!! Sorry for my grammar and yelling. It’s not that kids don’t know how to use it, they’re just choosing not to. Maybe they should show the episode of Friends where Rachel tells Ross she’s pregnant and he goes on and on about how he didn’t know condoms weren’t 100% effective. If kids won’t listen to reason then maybe they’ll listen to Ross and Rachel although…
3. They should tell the kids that if they do get pregnant then it will affect their lives a whole lot more than Rachel’s baby. Was that kid ever on the show? Nothing changed for Ross and Rachel after having a baby. The last episode, Rachel is getting on a plane to go to Paris(?). She aint got the baby. Ross aint got the baby. Who’s got the baby?! And how can any of these people afford to live in NYC without steady jobs?
4. I really believe that if you don’t make the decision early in life to wait until marriage to have sex then chances are you won’t wait. Of course, the line has always been blurred about “how far is too far?”. So, since I’m obviously not going back to bed, here are some signs you’ve gone too far…
If you’re touching anything besides their hand…you’ve gone too far.
If the door is closed(or locked)…you’ve gone too far.
If her father isn’t within a mile with a shotgun…you’ve gone too far.
If you have to stop and listen for anything…you’ve gone too far.
If the lights are off and momma aint sitting between you…you’ve gone too far.
If you can’t fit a Gideon Bible between you..you’ve gone too far.
If you have to plan a speech to get her to do anything…you’ve gone too far(unless it involves wrestling tickets).
If you imagine anything about her that doesn’t include Jesus, your wedding DAY, or bright lights…you’ve gone too far.
Drakes awake…gotta go.