Here is to the next 1000

Well this is my 1000th post!  Hard to believe.  I've been spending the last few days thinking about what I would write in this post.  And the best thing I could come up with is to chronicle some history of this blog and the connections that it has helped me make, literally all over the world.  So, here it goes.

Nov 20, 2002 - The very first post.  I had no idea what I was doing.  This was when I was a dteam leader and my guys were in the Fall semester of their senior year. I contemplated using the blog as a means to get info out to them about events, Bible studies, etc.  But I didn't because I didn't really want a lot of people reading it at that point.
Spring, 2003 - Still using it as a personal journal, keeping notes and links there but really for my own purposes and such.
Fall, 2003 - SPACE starts.  I start using the blog as a means to write follow up info and acting like people read it.
Spring, 2004 - Blogger users get gmail accounts.  Everything we hoped it would be and more.
Nov 2004 - I meet a blogger for the first time.  Will and I meet for lunch.  A little strange meeting someone you know a lot about but never met face to face.  But Will is a great guy so it was really cool.  Funny thing, now I would think nothing of meeting a blogger face to face.  (Will used to live in MD but now is in KY going to seminary)

Somewhere in here, there are other very cool connections made:
- PM and I connect from our blogs.
- Dennis and I connect via 'youth group looking' photos on Flickr. 
- Jeremy and I connect from our blogs.
- I somehow find an old friend from a previous church where we used to do ministry together and reconnect with John Mark.
- There are, of course, others.  Nels, Scott, Rodney, Amy, David T(Revolution), David T(Long Beach), Jason, Lon, Pete, Stephen, Emilyg_123 , Marc, Steve, Sivin, Lu, wow what a fun list!
Thanks to all of you that have connected!  (Tell me please if I missed you...)

April 2005 - I comment on Alex's blog.  And he comments a response back to me that speaks life into me.  I can still remember being totally captivated by his response.  First time for a blog comment to speak right into my soul.  (If you want, here is the link.)
Summer 2005 - Fly out to meet for the first time and work with PM.  I have progressed - lunch with a blogger was weird, flying across the country to meet a blogger isn't.  My good friend MM starts a blog.
Summer 2005 - Use the blog for real time updates (especially for parents) for an overseas mission team.
Fall 2005 - Two of my leader team (LB and FZ) from the mission trip set up their own blogs.  I follow college kids ( ELB and KT) as they leave home for the first time.  One of my dteam guys is in China (sort of a blog but no RSS feed).  People from where we visited this summer read and comment on our blogs.  I make my SPACE intern start one and tell her that this will be a primary medium for her and I to interact about her reading assignments (and more.)

So, thats the gist of 1000 posts.  Some really good friends across the globe.  Loads and loads of fun stories.  Connecting in a really cool medium.  And lots of dialogue as we believe the next generation is going to change the world.