Travel Archives - Page 6 of 11 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Fargo to MN… then MI, NE and CA

Posted on: 03/2/12 2:42 PM | by Jonathan McKee

In the next two months I’ll be doing four parenting workshops in four different states. It all starts this weekend in the gigantic metropolis… Fergus Falls, MN.

I love small towns. Tomorrow I’ll get a good taste of small town America. I fly into Fargo, ND, then hop in my rental car and drive to Fergus Falls, MN. The youth pastor told me today, “The weather’s going to be great. We’re expecting 10 to 20 degrees!”

These aren’t comforting words to a California boy!

We Californians start panicking when we hear it’s going to freeze overnight. “Oh man! Did you hear it’s gonna be down to 30 degrees tonight? I’ve gotta go outside and cover my hibiscus bushes so they don’t die!”

Truth be told, I really don’t mind the cold. Besides, I’m all excited about speaking to parents this weekend. I preach in the morning services over at Fergus Falls First Church of the Nazarene, and then I teach my Parenting the Texting Generation workshop that night from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. If you’re in driving distance, you should come out and join us!

The weeks to follow I’ll be in several more U.S. states preaching and doing the same workshop:

March 25, 2012 (Wyandotte, MI)
Preach, Parent Workshop, First Baptist Church

April 1, 2012 (Ainsworth, NE)
Preach, Parent Workshop, Ainsworth Evangelical Free Church

April 22, 2012 (Fresno, CA)
Preach, Parent Workshop, First Presbyterian Church of Fresno

CLICK HERE if I’m not coming near you and you’d be interested in booking me for a workshop

Posted in Parenting, Personal, Travel | | Leave A Comment

Westmont

Posted on: 02/22/12 7:51 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This week has been a week of travel with my family. My 16-year-old daughter Alyssa is looking at colleges, and this week we visited the college I attended, Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA.

It was fun visiting the school again, rather nostalgic.The campus is beautiful and the school’s heart for God is very apparent in everything. Even the students we encountered on the campus had an apparent joy about them.

When I went there- over 20 years ago- I didn’t take it very seriously (sadly), so it was interesting looking at the school from a different perspective– the perspective of my daughter who cares about growing spiritually and appreciates the Christian community the school offers. Both of my daughters want to go here… it will be interesting to see what God has in store.

I’m proud of my girls.

Driving back home all day tomorrow… back to work Friday. (And probably time to announce the winner of our little blog “Top 10” contest by then)

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Meet Me in Chicago or Milwaukee This Weekend

Posted on: 02/6/12 5:40 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Wanna connect with me for lunch or hear me speak? This weekend I’ll be traveling through Chicago and into South-Eastern Wisconsin. I’d love to connect with you.

You can connect with me in one of two places:

Chicago Area: Friday, at 11:30, I’ll be eating lunch at a Giordano’s Pizza (because it’s manna from Heaven!) near Chicago O’Hare airport or in one of the suburbs just North of there. If you’re interested in connecting with me for lunch, I’d love to meet any of you who are current readers of my blog or our web resources. I’ve done this in some cities where only a handful of us connect; in other cities it might be 20 or more. Either way it’s fun. It’s simple. Just use the CONTACT US button at the top of my blog and send me a message with the subject line “CHICAGO.” I’ll email you back with details if you email me before this Thursday at noon.

Hartland, Wisconsin: On Sunday, February 12, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. I’ll be teaching my PARENTING THE TEXTING GENERATION workshop at Westbrook Church in this suburb just outside of Milwaukee. Come meet me and enjoy this workshop! Jump on Westbrook’s website for more details, or scroll down to see the flyer below.

WANNA CONNECT WITH ME IN ANOTHER CITY? TWO WAYS TO DO SO:

Make sure you subscribe to my blog and other free email resources. If you are already an email subscriber, scroll down to the very bottom of this email and click where it says “update subscription preferences.” Update that with your most current information, including your full name, which free email resources you want to receive, and then I’ll send you emails as I come to your area. If you aren’t already an email subscriber, click the CONNECT WITH US button anywhere on my blog or websites and sign up!
Jump on my speaking page and scroll down to my speaking calendar to see if I’ll be speaking near you. If not, you can use my “speaking request form” to get more information about booking me in your city.

WISCONSIN PARENTING WORKSHOP

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Parenting the Texting Generation, in SoCal

Posted on: 01/18/12 6:06 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This Weekend I’m driving down to Southern California (SoCal) to preach at NorthPark Community Church and then teach my Parenting the Texting Generation workshop that evening (after the playoff games).

I spend a good chunk of that workshop giving parents a peek into the attitudes and trends of youth culture today. As I was doing some research this last week I fell across some interesting finds. Here’s just a few interesting tidbits from youth culture:

Rihanna’s song We Found Love is still #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. This song has basically dominated the chart since November 6^th of last year, with only a brief hiatus at #2 when Sexy and I Know It hit #1 for a short stint. I’ve written enough about Rihanna’s song before… no need to repeat. But it’s interesting how long it’s hung on.
Sexy and I Know It is still the #1 downloaded video on iTunes, a reign that has lasted since shortly around Halloween of last year. If you haven’t seen this video, you might want to find out what it’s about, because most teenagers have seen it by now.
As ubiquitous as Facebook is, teenagers still love “face to face” time with the people they care about. Funny, connecting with teenagers one-on-one is something so relevant to both youth and parenting ministry (that’s probably why parents and youth workers both buy my book, Connect).
More and more experts are cautioning parents to limit their kids “media diet.”
America still consumes more traditional television than any other media.
Parents aren’t always the best role models for their kids.

I really love doing these parenting workshops and am looking forward to my time with parents this Sunday night. It’s always fun to provide a glimpse into that window of youth culture, and then give parents some tools to connect with their kids and build lasting values.

If you’re in driving distance of Magic Mountain (yeah, the church is right near there), then come and join us 7PM that night. Here are the details.

For the rest of you, I might be in your city soon. Here’s where I’m coming in the next few months:

January 22, 2012 (Valencia, CA)
Preach, Parent Workshop, NorthPark Community Church

February 12, 2012 (Hartland, WI)
Parent Workshop, Westbrook Church

March 4, 2012 (Fergus Falls, MN)
Preach, Parent Workshop, First Church of the Nazarene

March 25, 2012 (Wyandotte, MI)
Preach, Parent Workshop, First Baptist Church

April 1, 2012 (Ainsworth, NE)
Preach, Parent Workshop, Ainsworth Evangelical Free Church

April 22, 2012 (Fresno, CA)
Preach, Parent Workshop, First Presbyterian Church of Fresno

CLICK HERE if I’m not coming near you and you’d be interested in booking me for a workshop

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Parenting, Travel, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Georgia, Maryland, and Free Training…

Posted on: 11/16/11 5:05 PM | by Jonathan McKee

My bags are packed and I’m looking forward to hanging out with a bunch of youth workers this weekend in both Atlanta, GA and Ocean City, MD. For those that can’t attend the workshops I’ll be teaching in these cities… don’t worry… I’ve still got a little free training for ya (more on that in a minute).

The travel will be a little crazy. I leave my house Thursday at 4AM, take the first flight out, arriving in Atlanta that afternoonish for the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention. A couple meetings with youth worker friends that night and the next morning, then teaching two workshops Friday (if you’re going to the convention, be sure to swing by my workshops and say “hi”)… then fly out Friday night, landing in Baltimore at midnight …. breathe… and then drive to Ocean City, MD, arriving about 3AM.

Saturday and Sunday I’ll be teaching three workshops at a big Youth for Christ conference in Ocean City, MD (if you’re going to that conference, come say “hello”), then drive back to Baltimore Sunday afternoon, fly out that night, arriving home midnightish.

For those of you youth workers who aren’t attending these workshops or any of my other workshops this year… no worries… jump on our FREE TRAINING TOOLS page where we have a gold mine of training for both you and your leaders, including a brand new CONNECT ppt training that we just added. All free, of course.

Posted in Travel, Youth Ministry Philosophy | | Leave A Comment

Coming Out of the Bronco Closet

Posted on: 11/3/11 4:17 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I have a confession to make, a truly awkward one for a California resident. I hope this doesn’t upset all my Packer friends in Green Bay and my Steeler friends in Pittsburgh (no one would hesitate to admit that those two fan-bases are a little fanatical…er… loyal to their teams), or even my many close Raiders fans (seeing that the Raiders and the 49ers are the closest teams to my home). But here goes. Ahem…

“I am a Bronco fan.”

There. I said it.

I won’t pretend to be something I’m not. I can’t tell you many of the players names, I don’t even get to see every game… but I’ve always been a Bronco’s fan.

At 5-years-old I got my first Broncos jacket. I asked my dad to find me a pic of me in my little Broncos jacket and he sent me this:This picture reveals three things:

1. Me and Dad’s rockin’ hair-dews!
2. My love for food even as a child
3. My love for the Broncos (back when Craig Morton was #7. Yeah baby!!!)

This weekend I fly to Colorado, preach the morning services at a church in Colorado Springs, break for the Broncos game, and then do my parenting workshop that night from 6-8. We originally were going to do the workshop in the afternoon but then found out that the Broncos were playing that day. Competing with that would be like doing a workshop during the Canucks game when I’m speaking to my friends North of the border!

I love that the Broncos nabbed Tim Tebow. Regardless of your opinion of his football skills, you probably wouldn’t argue that he is a man of integrity, a true role model for young athlete’s today. Pray that he throws long and straight!

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Just Dad and Me

Posted on: 09/16/11 9:57 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This morning I hopped on a plane and flew down to Southern California where I’ll be talking to teenage girls about self esteem and then teaching one of my parenting workshops. But this weekend has an added bonus… I get to hang with Alec, my 18-year-old who just moved down here in Southern California to go to college.

When I was booked to speak at a Riverside church and do my parenting workshop (quite a few of these parenting workshops around the country in the next couple months), I was pumped because I knew I’d get to visit Alec. The McKee house has felt a little empty lately without him. It’s been bizarre setting only four places at the dinner table and passing his empty room every day. (There’s been quite a few tears shed.) So Alec got a pretty big hug when I saw him this afternoon.

I took him to my hotel, we talked, ate some of the free food, and watched a movie. Then I took him to one of his favorite but simple vices– Round Table Pizza and the two of us laughed as we downed a large pizza together.

It’s interesting seeing Alec on his own, making 98% of his choices by himself… being the man. By God’s grace (certainly not by my parenting) Alec has turned out to be a great kid. We’ll get a few hours together tomorrow… then, once again, I’ll do the difficult task of driving away seeing him wave through the back window.

To those parents with your kids still in the house… cherish every moment! Overtime can wait. Go hang with your kids!

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10 Lessons I Learned on My Family Vacation

Posted on: 07/14/11 10:05 AM | by Jonathan McKee

As you know from my previous blog entry, last Sunday morning I loaded up the whole family and headed to Southern California for my son’s registration/orientation for college, and for a short little family vacation.

It was on this trip that I learned a few shreds of wisdom that I’ll pass on to you.

10 LESSONS I LEARNED ON MY FAMILY VACATION:

1. Free hotel breakfasts are often exactly what you would expect for that price. Does anyone actually know what egg supplement is? And how many hours can a piece of sausage really survive in a chafing dish?

2. DVR’s rule! One night, after a fun day at the ocean, our family sat down and clicked on the TV in the hotel. We never watch live TV at home– we always use a DVR so we can forward through commercials. Well, in the hotel we watched about 30 minutes of America’s Got Talent. The show wasn’t bad, but… WOW! Commercials are sooooooooooo lame! How do people watch live TV?

3. There is no such thing as an atheist surfer. Playing in the waves, I was once again amazed at the awesome power of the ocean (and this wasn’t even a storm. These were just normal day to day waves). I went out in the waves at Huntington beach, boogie boarding and body surfing for about 2 hours with my kids. We got literally TOSSED, SLAMMED and DRAGGED by the waves. A couple times I saw one coming in and thought, “I got this!” Then the wave slapped me to the ground and dragged me through the sand like I was a rag doll. Which leads me to lesson number 4…

4. When showering and cleaning up after your ocean experience, you will discover sand in the most bizarre places. Enough said.

5. Family trips catalyst sibling friendships. As Lori and I sat on the side of one of the hotel pools, we watched our three kids actually play together in the pool. With no other friends to hang out with, our three kids leaned on each other, laughing together and playing together. It was really fun to watch as a parent. Sure there were little squabbles throughout the trip, but by enlarge, they really bonded with each other on this trip.

6. Don’t feed your kids a huge nacho platter before a long car ride.

7. Fourteen hours at Disneyland is like running a marathon. I’ve run a couple marathons, and now I’ve spent 14 hours at Disneyland. I’m trying to resolve in my mind which is more tiring. Hmmmmmm…. I’m still thinking!!!

8. ASIMO just points to creation. ASIMO is a robot that Honda is developing- an amazing little robot that can walk up and down stairs, turn, run 4 miles an hour, etc. Pretty cool little multimillion-dollar gadget that they displayed in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. But as we watched the ASIMO demonstration of this “the world’s most advanced humanoid robot,” I just couldn’t help but admire God’s creation. It was such an amazing contrast. Here it is 2011. Humans have had thousands of years to give it a shot and they are pretty excited about this robot that can “walk” and “run.” (Oooooooo, wow!) But my 100 pound dog would barge in the door and knock that robot on its butt in 2 seconds flat. Give scientist another 10 years and they’ll try to fix that too. The more I watched their demonstration, the more I was impressed with God’s design of us!

9. I’m 41, and Space Mountain is still cool!

10. Vacations are fun, but somehow home always feels better.

Back to work…

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If the World Doesn’t End Saturday…

Posted on: 05/18/11 9:27 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I don’t know if you have a billboard in your town, but one of the major highways in my town has one of Harold Camping’s billboards talking about the end of the world being this Saturday.

Sigh.

I guess if you keep predicting Jesus’ return, some day you’ll eventually be right.

Well, if you live in PA and you believe that Friday night is the last time for repentance, then you can come hear me speak at a smalltown youth conference up in Meadville, PA (More about the conference here). I speak to kids Friday night, and then on Saturday, if Jesus doesn’t come by then, I’m doing my all day CONNECT workshop, training youth leaders how to build relationships with young people today.

I’ll be doing the same workshop this fall in Kansas, about an hour west of Wichita (more info on that here).

Oh… and shouldn’t we just live every day as if it was the last day? (just my two cents)

Posted in Personal, Speaking/Training, Travel | | Leave A Comment

Alec’s Pizza Thoughts…

Posted on: 02/10/11 10:43 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Many of you prayed for my 17-year-old son Alec and I this past weekend as we traveled together in Chicago, then Wisconsin, speaking together about Bullying… and eating a lot of Chicago area pizza!

I told you that Alec would be chiming in with his two cents about the best Chicago pizza. You’ve heard my opinion on this tasty subject before. Now it’s the teenager’s turn.

Here it is: Alec’s Chicago Pizza Review:

So a couple of days ago I had the marvelous pleasure of embarking to the wonderful city of Chicago with my Dad on one of his speaking ventures. Because there is not a lot of room on the agenda for eating healthy during travel, Dad and I decided that since we were going to Chicago we should try and decide which restaurant made the best deep-dish Chicago-style stuffed pizza.

My Dad is a Chicago-style pizza veteran and already believes that Giordano’s is the best, but since the subject was foreign to me we decided that this should be my opportunity to decide which pizza place I thought was best. Whenever we present this inquiry to Chicago natives they will usually say that the best Chicago-style pizza is one of three popular pizza places: Gino’s East, Giordano’s, or Lou Malnati’s. So we determined that the best Chicago-style pizza would be one of those three, and planned on eating at each one of these “havens” for pizza-lovers during our weekend in Illinois/Wisconsin.

The first night of our trip we arrived in Chicago and HOLY SNOTBUBBLES IT WAS REALLY STINKING COLD! I think that the only other time I have ever felt that cold was the time that I went hunting on top of a mountain during a snowstorm. That night we planned on going to Gino’s East, but after a short walk through the treacherous tundra of Chicago we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was closed. Sorry Gino’s, you lost points with me before I even tasted your pizza. So we made a quick re-route to Lou Malnati’s, and sat down within the cozy confines of the restaurant to thaw while we waited for our pizza to cook. I’ll admit, at that point I was so cold that I would have eaten a live animal just to get something warm in my stomach. So I was positively ecstatic when the server brought the pizza to our table, and it definitely did not disappoint my lust for something warm, but I think it might have been a stretch to call it Chicago’s best.

Don’t get me wrong, this pizza was better than anything that we have here in Sacramento, but let’s just say that the pizza was so warm because of the heavy grease-bath it must have been soaked in! Grease was literally dripping down my hands by the time I got to the crust, which was a little on the crunchy side by the way. Lou Malnati’s is known for using a “butter-crust” in their pizza, which is basically just bread soaked and then baked in vast amounts of butter. Aside from the greasiness, I don’t know how to articulate why exactly I wasn’t crazy about the taste of this pizza’s crust. The best I can explain it, I perceive Lou Malnati’s like a deep-fried Twinkie; I like a good Twinkie, and I like fried food, but I’m not so desperate to stop my heart that I would dare combine the two. Same goes for pizza and a crust soaked in butter.

It was on the second day of our trip that my Dad took me to his personal favorite, Giordano’s. I had heard plenty of my father’s exclamations about Giordano’s superiority over the other two restaurants, so I think it is fair to say that I went into the restaurant with a small bias. But I can tell you right now that it would not have mattered if I had walked into that restaurant expecting to get dog poop on a plate, because when the server brought us our pizza I fell in love after the first bite. It only got better, the first bite catalyzed a flood of rich sensations in my mouth which was near perfectly complimented by the cheese’s soft yet firm texture, but when I got to the crust I was even further rewarded by a mouth-watering melody between a crispy exterior and a perfectly doughy center. The most significant things that Giordano’s held over Lou Malnati’s was that it just tasted way less…greasy, and it’s crust was a delicious breadstick “puff” rather than some freak kind of crispy “butter-biscotti.”

The verdict on the best Chicago-style pizza became blatantly lucid after Giordano’s, because we skipped Gino’s East and ate at Giordano’s again. Congratulations Giordano’s and “too-bad-so-sad” Gino’s East, you should have been open past ten p.m. when we arrived!

Hmmmm.

I think the kid is a better writer than me!

Posted in Family, Humor, Personal, Travel | | Leave A Comment