Gotta start somewhere...

I am brand new to the blogging world but I thought now was a perfect time to start. I'm in a new city, at a new job, meeting new people, and God is revealing so much to me about who I am and who He created me to be.

I'll start off the ol' blog by telling the story of how I ended up in Orlando, FL...

About a year and a half ago, my roommate's brother in law (Aaron) won a sweepstakes through Alltel called the "Gridiron Giveaway". It's one of those things you see on tv and think "Nobody actually wins those". Well Aaron, my roommate, myself, and several of our friends were the "nobody" that won! We got to take a private jet to New York City to watch the Cowboys-Giants game. Not only did we get to watch the game in a suite with Barry Sanders, but we also got to tour NYC. We took a limo bus all over the city; walking around Times Square, touring the Empire State Building, and eating at Carnegie Deli. It was an experience that I will never forget.

As you can imagine, a trip like that would require alot of planning and organization to make sure that everything went according to schedule. The company in charge of this planning and organization was ETA Logisitics, based in Orlando, FL (I think you can see where this is going). The Logisitics Specialist assigned to this particular event in NYC was a man named Jeff. I instantly hit it off with Jeff, talking about everything from business to Jesus. Through the process of getting to know Jeff, I found out that he was not just the logisitics specialist assigned to our event, but that he is the President & CEO of the entire company! The person that was originally assigned to our trip was unable to make it and Jeff stepped in at the last minute. Jeff and I kept in contact and I was priviledged enough to get the opportunity to do some contract labor for ETA at a few different events.

Fast forward to a couple months ago...

I took a job in the accounting department at an incredible oil and gas company in Oklahoma City (Chesapeake Energy) in December of 2009 and life was going great. I loved the benefits at the company I worked for, I genuinely enjoyed who I worked with, and I loved where I was at with my family and friends.

Then God decided to throw me a curve ball...

One of the many perks of working at Chesapeake was that you were given free tickets to the OKC Thunder basketball games. I had received 4 tickets so myself and 3 friends loaded up and headed to the game. I ended up having a conversation with my friend Kellye during the game that night that I will remember until the day I die. We simply talked about her passion to do celebrity ministry. This conversation was so amazing because, until this moment, I had never met anyone other than myself who was passionate about ministering to celebrities. This conversation got me thinking and later that night I processed through, with my roommate Kyle, what it would look like to actually have a job that allowed you to do what you were passionate about. It was a great conversation that led to my prayer that night looking like this: "God, as happy as I am with my job, my family, and my friends...if for whatever reason you want me somewhere else, open the door so wide that I fall through it."

14 hours after I prayed that prayer, I got a phone call from Jeff at ETA asking if I'd consider coming on board full time to work with the helicopter portion of the business....14 HOURS!!! Any conscious person could tell you that this was clearly an answer to my prayer from just 14 hours prior, but it was still the most difficult decision I had ever had to make. I wrestled for 3 days about the choice in front of me, and my prayer was consistently a request for peace. An absolute peace as to whether I should go or stay.

3 days after the offer was extended, I spoke with Jeff to get details such as pay, specific job duties, and the general direction of the company. As soon as I hung up the phone, I was instantly overwhelmed with a sense of peace that Orlando was where I was supposed to be. So I said my goodbyes to family and friends, put the house on the market, and on March 5, 2010 I threw my life in the back of a big yellow moving truck and set sail for Orlando.

When I landed in my new home, I fully expected to hit a point where I looked in the mirror and said "What the heck did I just do?!" Thankfully, one month in, I have yet to utter those words. I love my job more than I ever thought I could and God has allowed me to meet some of the Godliest people I've ever laid eyes on.

Now to the million dollar question...What exactly does my job entail?

I get to facilitate and oversee all of the helicopter transportation for the drivers, owners, and celebrities that attend NASCAR races and events. I work with individuals such as Jeff Gordon, Carrot Top, and Coach Joe Gibbs on a weekly basis. I get to travel the nation following the NASCAR circuit, and building relationships with high profile clients. I am getting to operate out of my God given gifts in an effort to effectively minister to the exact type of people for whom I have a strong passion...celebrities.

I honestly think that I'm attracted to the idea of celebrity ministry because I recognize the influence that celebrities carry. What would the world look like if our country's wealthiest and most influential citizens were radical ambassadors for the gospel of Christ? This is a complete shot in the dark, but God could very well choose to influence the influential through me, and that idea excites me in more ways than you could possibly fathom.

With the help of a celebrity's financial resources, we can make a significant impact on the world around us. With the help of a celebrity's influence, we can share the gospel to an audience that would have, otherwise, never listened.

I wanna see the world change, and I think I may just get to see it happen.

Peace, Love, and Dried Mangos,

James