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Dad, I Need to Talk

For my birthday I got this cool home marquee sign so I can put light up signs in my office. I had a message that said, “WELCOME TO THE KIDOLOGY HQ.” My son came down yesterday while I was busy working and asked if I minded if he played with it and changed the message. I said, “Go for it!” and showed him where all the letters were. A few minutes later he says it is ready for viewing. This is what I saw: Wow! Kids have a way of getting our attention. So I sat down, put my arm around him and asked, “Well, what do you want to talk about?” (Wondering if it was serious or something had happened at school.) He answered, “I need to tell you in a note. I’ll be right back!” and he ran upstairs. I thought perhaps he didn’t want to say what was on his mind with house guests around. He soon returned back downstairs with the following note. I was relieved it was nothing serious. (I can post-pone “the Talk” another day!) You are going to have to come with me out frint there is something I want to do with…

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What Words Define You?

Facebook asked me yesterday if I’d like to know what words I use the most when I post to my wall. It seemed like a fun activity. After clicking my approval, some software somewhere read my wall, compiled words, and sorted them by frequency. The result was the word cloud you see here. I was happy to see “kids” front and center and my son’s name as well. It was no surprise to see “church” or “Yosemite” – though my wife teased me that my friend Brett bumped her off the list, which does cast a little doubt on the accuracy, but at least Brent affirmed that I made his list too! Of course, Facebook only provides a glimpse into our lives, and the parts of our lives that we choose to share – but it’s worth some reflection to ask ourselves, What am I about? What drives me? What do I talk about? What do I think about? Life is made up of words and words reflect the heart. (Luke 6:45 and Matthew 15:18 discuss this.) Whether or not you allow Facebook to count your words, consider if God counted our words and made a list of what typically…

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The AMAZE Conference was Amazing!

This past Saturday my local Fellowship of Christian Magicians chapter hosted its first AMAZE Conference. It was a treat for as Barney Kinard, our head Kidology Coach made the trip out (he came early for the Kidology Coaching Summit) as well as my good friend John Mobley. (aka, Johnny Magic!) I’ll be telling you more about Johnny Magic in an upcoming blog post – but this is a guy you want to get to know! Another highlight, was getting to hang out with BOTH Duane and David Laflin on the same day! I challenged them to do a three generational show, and they did, including David’s boys in the grand finale of the conference. We had several workshops, great performances and tips throughout the day that will make everyone who was there better at Amazing their audiences about our Amazing God! Here are a few of the insights I gained or thoughts I had as I sat and listened: Don’t neglect the classics. Just because something is new, doesn’t necessarily make it better. When it comes to magic tricks, if the audience is fooled, it doesn’t matter whether you did it with a simple method or new-fangled hi0tech complicated method.…

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Cool Kidmin Idea: The VIP Couch

This weekend, I got to visit the church of my good friend, Todd McKeever in Des Moines, Iowa. Their children’s ministry is wonderful. I am always on the look out for super creative and original ideas that others may want to learn about. While there were many things I was impressed with, the coolest thing I got to both see and experience was the VIP Couch in their children’s church room. In the front of the room they have a big couch. Guests (as well as the friend who brought them) are invited to sit on the couch for the entire service – but not only that, a child volunteers to serve them yummy snacks throughout the service. They can have as much as they want, with only two rules. They have to eat the snacks while on the couch (no stocking up and taking a bunch home) and they are asked not to eat during worship time. It is a great way to honor guests, to give kids an incentive to invite a friend, and provides a way for another child to serve as they offer snacks throughout the service, any time they notice they are done. I assumed…

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My Magic Video Goes Viral

I just noticed that one of my YouTube videos has passed 200,000 views. O.K., so maybe that isn’t viral, but I think it’s pretty cool – especially since the Gospel is shared. The comments are always interesting once your video gets “out there” – “Jesus freaks are everywhere… even in magic…” “are you a engel from heven to teel good storie about god” “Karl nice job but I think that the show was to preachy and to related to god other than that great magic show “ “I am a Christian and I am a magician. Thank you for this show. I realized that showing tricks can talk about Christ. And it will be understood by children. God bless you.” “You need a kid fence on the edge of the stage or something!” ENJOY! (and feel free to share it!)

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