Archive for 'Personal'
Why Illuminate was a Success
Posted on 29. Aug, 2011 by Kenny.
On Saturday we knocked out our first Illuminate of the 2011-12 year. It was a huge hit! Not only was it super successful, I learned so many things about hosting a conference, especially in a city where you don’t live. One of the biggest things I learned is that starting a conference in distant location is a lot harder than you would think. The Austin event came together incredibly well with seemingly little effort, but the Birmingham event required a lot more work to get the word out. Like I said though, I learned a lot from this first event which I hope to put to work in future events.
However, this last saturday was almost 100% void of stress. I had an immense amount of peace and I remember walking around at times thinking, “should I be running around or fixing an emergency of some sort?” Let me share with you two reasons why the Birmingham event was so successful (there are several other reasons as well, but these may be the biggest).
Cathy Harwick and Corey Schwarz. Period.
Cathy Harwick and Corey Schwarz work for me at Gateway and are also good friends to me and my family. Having them in Birmingham was strategic since we’ll be putting on a nearly identical conference in Austin in a little more than two months. Most of the work that we were scrambling to get done right before the event last year is already done now that Birmingham is behind up. I’m just so grateful that they were willing to come. There is no way that I would have been able to pull off what I did without their help. Cathy took care of all the details around registration, customer service and speaker care. Corey took care of all the details around the production, audio/video recordings and technical aspects. That left me with little more to do than just walk around, shake hands and welcome people to Illuminate. This is probably why I didn’t experience any stress at Birmingham. I just had fun.
I’m not sure if I’ve said much about these two team members here at Gateway. I hired Cathy Harwick as my McNeil campus Children’s Pastor about 2.5 years ago. After looking for a Children’s Pastor for nearly 9 months, Cathy sought me out. She came to Gateway with incredible experience leading a larger Children’s Ministry at a larger church. I’ve met very few people who have the ability to recruit, lead and care for volunteers like she does. Because of her gifting, I have her operating in two roles. In addition to being the Children’s Pastor at our largest campus, she also oversees the process for recruiting, leading and caring for all volunteers to kids at Gateway.
I hired Corey just a little over two years ago to be the Children’s Pastor over the Children’s
Ministry at our South Campus. He’s a total rock star. For several years he had been the children’s pastor at a smaller church in the area. When he joined our team, he was able to use his gifts as a part of a larger kidmin team, not having to do everything himself. Corey has a big passion for large group ministry, so he also operates in two roles. In addition to being the Children’s Pastor at our South Campus, he oversees production, environments and curriculum for all of the Children’s Ministry at Gateway.
I thought I’d just brag a little on Cathy and Corey. They were significant in Illuminate’s success and they are significant to me, very much like family.
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My Pirate Face is Gone!
Posted on 22. Aug, 2011 by Kenny.
Sorry I’ve not provided an update in two weeks. Things have been really busy for me, probably the reason I got Bell’s Palsy to begin with. However, two weekends ago I had some cousins come in for a visit. Although I didn’t completely take the extended weekend off, I did almost nothing for 4 days. I watched a lot of movies, swam and did a 3 hour float down my favorite river. By the end of the weekend, everyone started noticing that the creepy smile was going away. It took about a week for it to all but disappear. It’s not 100% yet, but no one can notice. I find that I still have trouble blowing up a beach ball or something, but praise God that I’m well again.
Thank you all so much for praying for my Pirate’s Face. This little episode was very sobering. Although this was more of an inconvenience than anything, it’s just so frustrating when your body stops working the way it is supposed to. I know millions deal with this issue in some form or another, but those who don’t have problems probably don’t ever think about that.
I’m also grateful that my bout with Bell’s Palsy was only for 2-3 weeks. I was preparing myself to have to live with it for 6-9 months if that’s what was going to happen. It was a blessing to know that people all over the US and world were praying for my silly malady. Thank you all so much! Much love to each and every one of you!
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Pirate Face… Day 7
Posted on 01. Aug, 2011 by Kenny.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my pirate face. It really is an honor to have people all around the US praying, many of whom I’ve never met in person. You guys are amazing!
So, I figured I’d give regular updates on this little “disorder” I have at the moment.
Well, my condition got worse. Not much, but when I posted last week, it hadn’t gotten as bad as I though it was going to get. By Thursday, I think it bottomed out. You can see from the pictures below the difference between Monday night and now.
However, I’m still grateful that it really is still a slight case. Most people don’t notice it at all. Really, it’s only when I laugh and smile that people can tell. For that I’m very grateful.
Here’s the good news that I’ve learned. It seems like everyone knows someone who has had it and I’ve been able to compare stories. The shortest bout was someone’s uncle that I met today who only had it for 10-15 days. The longest bout was someone who had it for 9 months (although I’ve read that it can last longer… but it’s rare). So, I’m encouraged that this thing is probably going to go away and life will return to normal.
So, here’s the funny thing I’ve learned. Today I taught a baptism class for a group of 15 or so kids and their parents. I learned that I have to be highly focused on annunciation, otherwise I sound a little like Sylvester the Cat. You know, “Thufferin’ Thuccotash!” So, if I didn’t pay close attention to the endings of my words, the weaker side of my mouth wanted to make slight farting noises. Not cool… but for a group of kids… pretty funny.
I am grateful for good friends though. Jonathan Cliff and his family drove through Austin and stayed the night. They brought my 4 year-old son a puzzle, but it was difficult enough, I think that they intended it for me. Maybe they were thinking that doing this puzzle one time a day would be the mental exercise I need to get my brain working correctly again. Thanks a lot Cliffs!
So, that’s my weekly health update. Keep sending prayers when you think of me.
Monday Afternoon
Sunday Evening:
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Pray for my “Pirate” Face!
Posted on 26. Jul, 2011 by Kenny.
Well, yesterday was a bit strange. It all started yesterday morning when I was brushing my teeth. I was rinsing and went to spit and realized that I couldn’t spit straight. Sounds weird, right? It was just strange that I was having difficulty doing something that I do every day of my life. I went to spit and almost spit water all over the counter.
I didn’t think too much of it until later when something was just feeling a little off. I went to a mirror thinking that something was wrong and noticed it when I went to smile. Only half my face was smiling. Really strange. I ended up going to the doctor and was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. Essentially, it’s a condition where half of your face is fully or partially paralyzed. Mine is partial.
The good news is that for the majority of people, this is temporary. Anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months, the nerve in my face should start working correctly again. So until then, I’m stuck with a pirate-like face. Actually, it’s really not that noticeable… except for when I smile… then it looks like I’m smirking. Thankfully I seem to have a light case of Bell’s Palsy. If you think of it, please pray for me.
- Pray that my facial nerve would go back to normal sooner rather than later
- Pray that I’m not one of the select few that end up struggling with this permanently.
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We’re having a _______!
Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by Kenny.
Woo hoo! We’re having a…. well, watch the video!
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The big gender announcement!!!
Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by Kenny.
So, we know what we’re having… but Titus doesn’t. So, we gotta tell him first. We’ll make the announcement at 6:30 PMÂ CST! Stay tuned…
BTW, Grandparents do know. They may take cash bribes. 
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Are we having a boy or girl?
Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by Kenny.
Today is the big day. At 2:30 PM CST, Sara and I are going to our 20 week check-up. We’re going to find out for sure what is growing in Sara’s belly. Now, some of you may know that we had some complications last week. Sara had to leave a day early from summer camp. Sara and our friend Cathy spent the day in a Corpus Christi emergency room. In the end, they got a peak at the baby… a very thorough peak. Although the technician wasn’t allowed to say what it was, she gave Sara and Cathy a pretty big clue. Although I couldn’t be there because I was speaking to the kids at camp, I did get to be on the phone during the sonogram. So, we’ve been carrying around this secret for the past week and today we’re having another sonogram where we’ll get confirmation. So, by 3:00 today, we’ll know what we’re having. Are you excited?
We are?
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New mountains on my horizon!
Posted on 01. Jun, 2011 by Kenny.
The title isn’t figurative, it’s quite literal. Two years ago Sara and I attempted to climb Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs along the Crags route. Only about 700 feet from the summit, we had to turn back due to near white-out conditions, hail and lightning. It was a wild ride. I wrote about the hike here and here and actually wrote about the adventure on my personal blog here.
Well, Sara and I have made plans to visit Colorado Springs again this summer and I’ve got the itch to conquer a 14,000 foot mountain. Because Sara is pregnant, she obviously won’t be hiking with me. Because she’s not hiking, I’m not going to attempt Pikes Peak again, that’s something she really wants to do with me again. However, I’ve set my sights on a new mountain… or should I say mountains.
In mid-July I’ll be attempting to summit both Gray’s Peak and Torrey’s Peak. The two mountains are joined at the waist, so after we summit Gray’s (depending on time, weather and how we feel), we’ll make the traverse over to Torrey’s before descending to the bottom. It’s a slightly longer trek than what we did on Pike’s two years ago, but only because we’ll be hiking up and down. We’ll actually be on the summit much quicker on Gray’s than we would have been on Pikes Peak.
So, two weeks ago I’ve began training. I’m on the treadmill 4-5 days a week for an hour at a time. 4-5 MPH at a 4% incline. Each day I’m either raising the incline a small percent or raising the speed. I’m very excited about being in the hills again this summer and doing everything I can to stand on the top of one. So, there’s my fitness goal for this summer (only 6 weeks away), so if you see me being lazy and getting thirds for desert, you have my permission to punch me in the neck.
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In case you missed the announcement
Posted on 06. May, 2011 by Kenny.
Yesterday afternoon I tweeted that I had a big announcement. Unfortunately, I had many issues with Vimeo and it took about 100 times longer to upload a video, so I ended up just posting a picture of Titus wearing his new shirt. In case you haven’t seen the video, here it is.
So, you probably want to know some details?
Well, we are officially ten weeks pregnant. I’ve posted just once or twice on this before, but Sara and I’ve had difficulty having children. Our only son Titus was our fourth pregnancy and Baby #2 is pregnancy #7. We consider Titus our little miracle baby and it appears that God has blessed us with another miracle.
We’re not officially out of the woods yet, so we covet your prayers. We’ll feel tremendously more comfortable once we get into the second trimester, but I know that with Titus, I didn’t feel completely comfortable until I was holding that little guy.
So, the baby is due on December 3rd. I truly believe that the Conley family is out of balance and needs another girl to help Sara ward off stinky and rambunctious men-folk. Also, other than my dad’s one sister, there have been no female born Conley’s… a Conley girl would truly rule the roost. But, we’ll be forever grateful for a boy or girl. Besides, we have a totally awesome name picked out for a boy and if we had a girl, I think Sara and I would be bummed not to have used it. It’s as bold and fitting as Titus.
Now that the pregnancy is out in the open, expect updates on a regular basis.
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