Chris & Christie Otts Family

am i crazy or just bored

2008-10-23T19:02:00.003-05:00

i had this project for work a few weeks ago to create a survey for all of our stores. we decided to make these surveys a little more than just a sheet of paper with some questions. we wanted our customers to look at them and know that we spent time on this and that we care about what they think. well i said all that to say that i got the opportunity to create the survey. now let me preface by saying it is nothing special and honestly anyone who knows anything about graphic design would probably laugh at it but for me it was a first and it was a blast. to be perfectly honest it was maybe one of the most enjoyable things i have done at my job. it wasn't that i loved the survey but rather that i got to create something. this is strange for me because i never considered myself to be all that creative but now that i look back i never had the chance to be that creative. when i lived with my parents i wasn't self aware enough to know what i wanted to do or what would be enjoyable. so i did like most people do, fit in. and in college i took the route that seemed best which was a business degree and i don't have to tell you that business school is not the place to explore your creative (or artistic) side. i am not blaming anyone or regretting my decisions but now that i have created something i want to do it again. maybe it has just been a boring last few days of looking at contracts but i find myself thinking about how in my job i can create something again.

blogging again and not sure if that is good for anyone but me

2008-10-08T15:42:00.000-05:00

looking at my yard it is obvious that it needs to be mowed. and that is where the problem lies. how do you mow when the mower is broken? the answer is simple, you use the weedeater. which in my situation is perfect because my yard is all weeds and no grass. so if I am abiding by the proper usage of my equipment I should have been using the weedeater all along. if i would have been doing from the beginning that would the mower still be broken? now that is a very deep and serious problem....ok solved it, I will just weedeat it all, that wasn't as hard as I thought.

I decided this past weekend that I wasn't happy with the way the furniture in my office was positioned. I know exactly what you are thinking. he moved it around and then it ended back where he had it from the beginning. well you are wrong, it is all in a new position plus I removed the fake tree from the corner. I think I like the look better now or maybe I don't and I only enjoy it because it is different.

at work I created a survey that will be used for multiple purposes and it needed to be translated to spanish. I don't speak spanish much less read or write it. but I did find this website that translated it for me. but then i had the thought that the website was a hoax and it was going to make me look like a total dbag. so I sent it to one of our spanish speaking/reading/writing employees. he changed a bunch of it up and didn't mention that any of it was off color but merely it just wasn't perfect translation. but now that they are being printed I am hoping this guy likes me and is not trying to hose me. I am so paranoid. really I am not worried about but I didn't have those thoughts.

and finally my parting thoughts. my wife started running a couple months ago and she is so awesome. she had never run before, i mean never and now she is running three miles three times a week easy. her legs are smoking and she looks freaking awesome.

An Update

2008-08-29T15:59:00.000-05:00

I joined Facebook today. Yes I know I am way behind the times and really the only reason I did is because my mom joined and friended me so I knew it was time. But on my Facebook I put that I have a blog so I guess I have to start updating it. That is what I just did.

We're no longer homeless...

2008-02-13T12:10:00.000-06:00

So, we're finally settled in our new home in Waco, TX. We've been terrible about keeping our blog updated recently. We absolutely love our new home and we feel abundantly blessed by the Lord to have such a great home for our family. It was a little bit of a bumpy process up until closing, but it's officially ours! We've loved having people over and getting to share this blessing with others. We pray that the Lord will use our lives and our new home as a way to bring joy and healing to others. Praise the Lord! We're home at last and we're hoping to put down some roots...

Changes

2007-10-24T21:57:00.000-05:00

Friends & Family,
Christie and I wanted to give a update as to what God has been doing in our lives.

Over the past few months we have hit some snags in getting to England. While they have been frustrating we have really sensed that is was the hand of God and that He was simply wanting our attention. So we decided to take the past few weeks to seek God and hear what he was wanting to say. As we began to do that He began to initiate with us about not moving to Sheffield. This came out of no where and was completely unexpected. As we continued to pray he simply confirmed it more and more to us.

Let me be a little more specific about what he was speaking.
-He led us to Jeremiah 29:4-15, as we thought about it we knew God was telling us now was a time to stay where we were and to settle.
-He also asked us to be crucified with him (Galatians 2:20) and our cross to bear is dying to church-planting in Sheffield. As you can imagine this was all very sudden and not at all what we expected.
-As a result of the above, we went to Waco to be a part of a church wide prayer time. During that time we received multiple confirming experiences but one that was clincher for us came from a girl who went with us to Cambodia. She came to us and said God had given her John 19-20 for us and he wanted to tell us that even though we are taking up our cross and dying to something he wanted to remind us that the cross always leads to the resurrection and that a new dream was coming. This was especially important to get such a clear confirmation from God but it was still saying what we didn't want to hear. After talking with other friends and our Antioch leadership, we have decided to officially step off the team and are moving back to Waco.

Now we return to Waco, I will get a job and we will settle into life in Waco. It is going to be really hard but we know this is what God is saying. There is still so much he is needing to do in us and he is revealing that this is the place for it to happen. This is very unexpected for us and we are still in a little bit of shock. We know that God is faithful and that he has life for us here; it is just not what we had pictured.

Please pray for us as we transition back into life in Waco and answer lots of questions from people who do not understand or are confused about why we are here and not Sheffield. And, please, if you have any questions or would like more details please don't hesitate to ask. While this is hard we are pressing into our Heavenly Father to help us through it; so when you see us please do not feel awkward about asking how we are doing or any other questions. We can't 100% promise we won't be emotional but we are really trying to lay it all out before Jesus so we can move forward and not get stuck in the mud. Thank you for loving us so well again and again.

Crocs??

2007-08-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

So...I have always thought that Crocs are weird looking! I mean...they look like gardening clogs, right? But, recently while in Houston we decided to try them on. Now Chris and Micah are proud wearers of Crocs. I never thought I'd see the day. I'm sure I'll be the next to jump on the band wagon. Micah is in love with his and wants to wear them all the time. The holes in the top are shaped like Mickey Mouse. Pretty cute! Oh, well.

I'm a jerk!!

2007-08-29T09:27:00.000-05:00

So this morning I was reading in Matthew 7 and it amazes me how the words that Jesus spoke are just as counter-culture now as they were then. Jesus is talking to us about judging others and focusing more on pursuing holiness for ourselves and not being so focused on making sure people are up to the level of holiness we deem necessary.

See we are all judgmental in some way, I know it hurts to hear it. We all judge people in little ways. I used to judge parents (before I was one), you know when the kid is in Chili's and they are whiny and all over the place. I used to judge those parents and tell people how I would do it different and that my kids would never behave that way. Well Jesus said, you judged buddy now the same is coming back to you. A month or so back we were eating at Johnny Carino's after church. Well we happen to sit down next the entire staff of our church-plant team somewhere in Asia (don't ask where). Of course here it comes...it is one of those days we should have gone home after church and not out to eat. Needless to say the boys did not do well. Now I am not saying my missionary friends were judging us but I was now that parent I used to judge. So all I am saying is we all do it, we judge, so we shouldn't be surprised when we become the people we wrongfully judged.

See I am one of the worst kind of judgmental people. I label me being judgmental as being "cynical"...I know what is the difference. We are in Houston this week and I think Houston is the mega-church capital of the world. There is nothing wrong with large churches, I just prefer something smaller. But I have a major tendency to judge those churches and definitely their leaders. I have pretended I was not judging for a while by hiding behind the title of being a "cynic". Well the Holy Spirit reminded me this morning that being a cynical jerk and a judgmental jerk are the same thing, ouch. So I am laying it out there I am a jerk either way, so if you are a pastor of a large church...I am sorry for how I might have possibly judged you or might potentially judge you as I work through my junk. Namely if Joel Olsteen, Dr. Ed Young, or any staff member of Fellowship of the Woodlands (those are churches I saw ads for in Houston yesterday and then I quickly judged them and ripped them apart in my mind), stumble onto my page I am very sorry for being a jerk to you.

I want to be like my dad in this matter (giving you props pop), He amazes me with his wisdom and wise judgements. He is not an optimist who only sees the good, but he sees the good clearly and is also able to give encouraging insights into flaws. Where I would just be a jerk and tell someone everything they are doing wrong (in my opinion). Way to go dad you are rad.

So my challenge to you and me is to be ruthless in removing the planks from our own eyes so that when we need to lovingly help remove a speck from our brother's eye we can do it correctly. Lord help us be a people who are radical about pursuing personal holiness in a way that causes judgmental hearts to fall to the wayside.

OK to Learn?

2007-08-23T14:38:00.000-05:00

So I have this frustration and maybe nobody else feels it but I seriously doubt that is the case. Well for me I have lots of ideas in my head that I am wrestling through and most of them are about how I think, believe, feel, live, etc. Sometimes I like to throw those ideas out there and have them not be fully formulated so that others can contribute and help shape how those things look. The problem is that in our culture many times you need to have it nailed down or have some sort of certificate before you can comment on something or you are considered "that guy". You know "that guy", the one who always has a comment on something but they don't always make sense. I don't want to be free to be "that guy" but I also want it to be OK to put an unformulated thought out there without the fear of being ripped apart by those with the nice certificate.

So here is what I am going to start doing; I am going to put my dumb, interesting, wrong, confused, etc. thoughts our here on this page and I want YOU to help me find balance to them. See I am all about finding balance. Our world has become so unbalanced that it is frightening and I keep seeing how Jesus came and made things come back into balance. So I may say some things that you think are way off base but before you react, just stop and remember most of the stuff that Jesus said seemed way off base to everyone in his day and yet he was nailing it ( I am not saying I am going to nail it all the time...just saying let things marinate before you rip me apart for saying something off both of our grids). Lets enjoy and find balance...get off the swing, Jesus is the plumb line.

everybody is a missionary

2007-08-20T16:02:00.000-05:00

So here we are preparing to move to England to be missionaries and to be perfectly honest many people don't get why we would go to England. I understand where they are coming from, I mean in England you have running water and no one lives in grass huts. See for most people we have grown up with the idea that if you were a missionary you had to live in some remote and primitive place, and the truth is that for years that was true.

But here is my argument to that....all Christians are missionaries. Over the years we have put values on various people and what they "do" for God. If you were a pastor then you were more special to God and therefore more important. It also meant that pastors and missionaries were the ones who built the church and the rest of us just came to enjoy it. Well the more I read and think about it I see that we as Christians are all missionaries. Paul talks about in 1 Cor. 12 that there are many parts but one body, so there are many different functions but essentially we are all the same thing. We proudly wear the name of Christians and to do that means to be like Christ. So if we all call ourselves Christians then that means we all want to be like Jesus. Jesus was a missionary, so therefore we are all called to be missionaries. Being a missionary or "church-planter" does not mean that you live in a mud hut in the middle of the jungle (although that's great too!), it just means that in your normal life, you keep the Kingdom of God in mind and grow it actively through prayer, evangelism, meditation, and discipleship, all for the purpose of glorifying God by building his Church.

So yes we are moving to another country to be "missionaries" but in reality what we do and what you do is not so different. The people we reach will be in England, and the people you reach will be in the cubicle next to you, your neighbor, your professor, your child's teacher, the waiter at the restaurant, and even the grocery store clerk. So like Jesus said, "...the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand..." lets all go live like it. Go and be a missionary!!!

We're getting in shape...

2007-08-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

So Chris and I are determined to get into shape. We're tired of being tired and we're ready to look like our old selves again. So we were watching an infomercial about this workout program. I know...infomercial...I'm embarrassed to admit it! But, it looked like really great workout videos and it's a 6 week program, so if you commit for 6 weeks you're guaranteed results. So, we figured we could at least work out for the next 6 weeks and see what happens. With two small boys, the gym or working out somewhere besides home every day is next to impossible. So, we started the 6 week program about 2 1/2 weeks ago and we're amazed at how hard it is! My gosh! It's really tough, but we're already seeing results and we still have about 3 1/2 weeks to go. Supposedly you see the most results in the last 3 weeks! So, we'll keep you posted on our progress! We're working out for an hour, 6 days a week and of course eating healthy as well. We'll see what happens! Maybe if we get up the nerve...we will post our before and after photos! Umm....Maybe! I would definitely recommend this program though...it's a lot of fun and Chris and I are having a blast doing it together. Watching him do aerobics is one of the highlights of my day! (I love you, honey!)

I'm a big boy now

2007-07-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

So Gavin is officially a big boy now. He took his first big boy bath this week and did great. This was the first time he got to sit in the tub without any assistance from a mini-tub. He only toppled once and didn't mind the water in his face at all. Our chubby little dude is now 6 months old and is sitting up like a champ, it is probably because his tree trunk legs stabilize him. He is such a stud, love the little bear.

The latest craze

2007-07-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

So I have been noticing on my friends who have kids blogs that the new thing is to blog about how your kids hurt themselves. To be honest at first I thought this was strange and nowadays was running the risk of having the CPS called. I mean according to the CPS if your child falls while learning to walk and gets hurt you must be an unfit parent. Well after the fight Micah had with the entertainment center yesterday I had to join in the hurting child blogness. So now the story....

Micah was dancing in circles watching the Backyardigans. When he got a little too excited, fell down and jacked up his ear. So he fell right into the edge of the entertainment center and hit of all things his ear. I mean the dude nailed it, his ear is bruised and has a line right where he connected with the solid wood piece. But, he wasn't the only one that got hurt, the entertainment center also ended up with a mark. But the little dude didn't back down, yes he cried, only for about 30 seconds, refused to let us ice it and then started right back to his dance moves. I would say we have a clear winner in this battle, the boy's ouchy will go away but the entertainment center is scared for life.

We made it back

2007-06-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

We are back in the States and as far as we know disease free. Our time in Cambodia was amazing and we know that if we would have not gone we would have missed a big part of what God wanted to do in us. From the walk in the rice fields, to the kids in the provinces, to the church being what it was created to be; God is still using the trip to reshape our thinking and the way live out our lives.

During our 2 weeks there we worked with a church that really amazed us in many ways. First of all the church has accomplished what a church-plant should, from my understanding there are around 90 staff members with about 30ish being full-time. Now there were only about 4-5 foreigners on the staff. The rest of the staff our locals who became Christians through a ministry of the church and are now on the staff. That in it self is a pretty unusual and amazing thing to see. We got to see the US church-planters truly trying to work themselves out of a job and turn of the leadership to locals, which is by far the most effective way to reach a people. This was very encouraging and challenging for us to see as we are leaving to go plant a church in England. We are challenged to raise up the locals and see them become the church and not just some Americans living in England trying to be the church with a few English in the mix. This is such a starch contrast to our church culture in America where churches often now looked like a business with leadership being hoarded and being turned over to our kids rather than the next God anointed leader. This biblical model of raising up the anointed leader regardless of age, background, education, etc. is something that is challenging but very exciting to see and hopefully be a part of in England.

Another area God highlight for us on the trip was poverty & the hurting and broken. We have been reading a great book...the Bible and we have been seeing it in a way like never before. We look at Jesus and we are trying to be more like him (trying is a very key word) and a few things are jumping out that I suppose I have chosen not to see. One is that Jesus was homeless (Mt. 8:20 & Lk. 9:58) and he spent a bulk of his time with poor, hurting, broken, socially unpopular people, awkward and down right shady people. So we are wrestling with what that means for us, if we really want to look like Jesus. How do we love people well and give our lives to the sick that Jesus said needed a doctor (Mt. 9:12, Mk. 2:17, Lk. 5:31)? We realize this may mean throwing out or previous theology about how we love and help the poor. But we believe God is in the business of transformation not conversion (2 Cor. 3:18), so how can we see the poor/hurting live transformed lives full of the Holy Spirit? We are on a journey of hearing God and trying to obey how he is telling us to live, pray for us as we journey in this.

OK now to a cool highlight of the trip. Kids are the same no matter where you go. One morning to drove to one of the distant provinces (about 2 hrs. away and all dirt roads) and when we arrived they simply told us to pray for the sick in the village and to play with the children. So before we went to pray I was playing with little boy who was about 3 years old. Boys are boys and we quickly developed a game with a make shift car made of a mud wheel and a piece of metal and plastics bottles that we would knock down. The game ways simple and very similar to something I would do on any given day with my own boys. We lined the bottles up on a chair, held the "car" at the top of the chair, and then let it go and watched as physics took over. We both laughed a lot and hopefully we left my little friend and the group of boys watching a new game to play for years to come.

All in all this trip was great and we will honestly be looking back at it for a while to make sure we learn everything we need to from it. We would have been missing what God had for us if we hadn't gone on this trip even though it came at a difficult and awkward time for us. But we serve a God who is faithful to guide us and teach as we simply obey the next the he says to do. Thanks so much for praying for as we ventured out on this journey, we needed and felt your prayers. Thank you, thank you!!

You are going where...Cambodia

2007-05-30T09:06:00.000-05:00

So we leave Saturday night and will fly for 24 hours and end up in Phnom Pehn the capital city of Cambodia. We are regularly getting the question of why are we taking a mission trip to Cambodia when we are about to move to England long-term. We there is more than one answer to that question. First lets start with this one; about 3 years ago God spoke to us about Cambodia and told us to be ready, well since then nothing has happened but some reading and lots of praying. That was until this fall when our organization Antioch Ministries International developed a relationship with a Cambodian church and began to see the massive need of the people. They asked us to be a part of learning how our organization could be a part of what is already happening in Cambodia and how we can support the local church their. So we were ready and said yes. Second, we as a family have a desire to see God's justice come to those who are being mistreated. Cambodia is one of the hub if not the hub for human trafficking going on in our world. If you are unaware of what I am talking about I paint a brief picture. A poor rural farmers needs money so he sells his daughters into prostitution, neither him or them even realize this is not normal or ok. Children are kidnapped and sold as slaves in neighboring countries such as; Burma, Vietnam, or Thailand; and no one thinks twice about it. Those are real events that are happening everyday in this nation and it breaks the heart of God. So we are going to help the local church in Cambodia by serving them, educating people about the problem, and basically doing whatever they ask. Finally we are going to learn. AMI just had a research team return from Thailand and Cambodia (researching human trafficking) working mainly with NGO's there. Our goal is to now learn what the local church is doing and then help. AMI is looking at how we are help the fight against human trafficking, especially in Cambodia. So we will be getting dirty, seeing the hurting people, asking questions, trying to do some educating, and telling many for the first time that Jesus loves them. This is a really exciting opportunity for us to learn and to see a nation that God has placed on our hearts. We will being leading a team of 10 people and our kids will be staying in Texas with Grammy and Poppa. That right there alone is going to be a killer, but with the nature of the trip and the amount of travelling we have already put and are putting our kids through it was just too much. So let me give you a few things to be praying while we are gone...

Health and Safety - we are taking meds for both Malaria and Typhoid while there
Our Kids - 2 weeks without mommy and daddy is hard & Micah is in a key season, learning how to obey and such...pray we don't lose any ground
the local church in Cambodia - they are very young, pray that they hear the encouragement from heaven to keep going
salvation - we want people to learn how to love Jesus with everything they have and are
A history note - Cambodia suffered a major civil war in the mid to late 70's and it completely destroyed the country and the church. So the church is just beginnings to grow again and is only 10-15 years old, as it was almost completely whipped out during the war. Also nearly everyone in this country was affected by the war and has recent memories of it, so there is tons of hurt from that devastating event

Alright well I might get another post up before we leave, maybe. But if I don't it will likely be a few weeks before I post again as internet is nearly non-existent in Cambodia. Pray for us, we love you....

Laters

New at this

2007-05-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

So my sister set up a blog the other day and informed me that it is super easy to do...so here I go. This purpose of this blog will be to keep you informed on the comings and goings of our lives (i am missing the letter "e" from my keyboard so sorry for any typos). We want you to be able to not only read about what we are doing but to also see it and appearantly this is the coolest way to do it. The word on the streets is that email and snail mail newsletters are way out-dated. And by the way this is going to be a short post because the fact that my "e" button is missing is super annoying. The story behind the missing "e" is Micah and I were playing on the computer, it was some toddler game at the fisher-price website. Well it was the first time he has ever been allowed to touch daddy's laptop (because he doesn't know how to properly use a computer yet) and sure enough he accidently assassinated the letter "e". But no need to worry, Christie and I leave for Cambodia on saturday and will not be taking my computer so we can send it in to get it fixed. I mean the little guy didn't mean to and he has learned to be gentle with the computer. I mean could you stay mad at this guy??? Well I lied, I said this was going to be a quick blog but then I got to looking at some pics and had a few more stories to tell. A couple weeks ago we went to Houston to hang with Nana and G'Daddy. So we went to the Woodlands and they let us in even though I did't have on my Izod shirts and loffers. Well they also had an area where the kids could play in some water so us being the relaxed parents we are we said oops forgot the swimsuit let him go run in the water in what he is wearing and he can ride home naked. He loved it and ruled the play area - the others kid would just wait on his every need, bringing him lemonade and cookies, it was awesome. We I guess I said I had 2 stories but I honestly don't remember the other one, if I don't write things down then I forget them almost immediately. So on that note I will get out of here. I know I only put in pictures and stories of Micah but that is just because we love him more...just kidding. I will make the next entry all about Gavin or me, most likely me because I think I am awesome and I obviously think I am pretty funny as well. So enjoy my blog and subscribe to it, you will get to here awesome stories like the ones you just heard and the other reason is because...why not, what is holding you back and really what would it hurt?