2 gas stations, 5 cities, 10 Catalyst Friends, multiple 500mph winds across the plains, and a partridge in pear tree... our day was full and fun! We have some pictures and two videos highlighting our time between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, wow, what a day!

From Oklahoma City we headed to Edmond where Terry Storch from LifeChurch.tv invited us to spend the morning with him and gave us a chance to hear about his role as "Digirati Pastor" and the power of leveraging technology to impact culture. We thought, "great, now the 'Digirati Guru' gets to see us recording our conversation on a bottom of the line Sony Handycam - perfect!" Terry shared about their virtual campus, Second Life, and how they are already seeing impact... check out Second Life and learn more!

Click "read more" to hear about our time in Shawnee, Bristow, and Tulsa. Mark Steele from Steelehouse Media shares great insight about authenticity in our culture today...

From Edmond we traveled to Shawnee where we spent time with Jay Sampson from Heritage Church and Dale Griffin from Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU). Jay came out to Catalyst last year and worked it out so that we could come by and spend a few minutes with him before a late morning meeting. We surprised Dale at his office and had to say hi given the fact that we spent a few minutes with his brother, Ray Griffin, the day before. The brothers connection! Dale is the campus minister at OBU and rallied some of their staff to come check out the Vanagon parked outside. Fresh reactions to the highway highlighter never get old!

Bristow, OK was next on our Thursday Itinerary. How many of you have ever heard of Bristow, OK? As a fan of Catalyst you must know that Bristow is the home of our fearless Catalyst Leader, Mr. Brad Lomenick. We had to meet Brad's parents, Penny & Jerry, and offer tangible evidence to the rumor that their son really does work. :-) Penny and Jerry introduced us to Pastor Tim from the First Church of God Bristow and we had a great time hearing stories about Brad... sorry, these stories will have to stay in the Catalyst family!

We left Bristow and ended our day with two visits in Tulsa, OK. We were able to spend a few minutes with the acting President of Oral Roberts University, Dr. Ralph Fagin. Dr. Fagin took some time to share with us about a leadership principle that has been vital to him as a leader, "As you lead others, seek to meet their needs. The more you look for ways to meet other people's needs the more they will look for ways to help you accomplish your goal and vision." To have even a few moments with Dr. Fagin was a gift and we are so thankful.

Before the day ended we stopped by Steelehouse Media and met with Kevin Anderson and Mark Steele. These guys are a blast and have done a lot of creative work with Catalyst. The video below offers great leadership insight from a man honoring the Lord with his life while serving on the front line of business. "Be who you were meant to be" are his words to leaders... hear more by watching the video below -

We drove north crossing the Texas/Oklahoma border and almost immediately felt "where the wind comes sweeping down the plain!" Seriously, the Vanagon is like a sail on wheels - these Oklahoma winds could very well take us airborn!

The 2008 Catalyst Road Trip welcomes our next honorary Vanagon Vagabond, Chris Capehart from Roov.com - here is a short video introducing Chris as we drive North into Oklahoma. Check out the video and then click the "read more" link to see more pictures about all that happened during our first day in Oklahoma. We spent the evening with a house church from Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City before taking over the guest bedrooms at the home of Ryan & Adriane Smith... we were more than blessed!

Chris Capehart & ROOV.com Video

(pictures below)

Here are several pictures to help recap the day... a full day in the great state of Oklahoma!!!

1 ) Before leaving Dallas, we stopped to see Rob Thomas and the team Igniter Media/Collide Magazine

2) We stopped by The Village Church to see our friends Matt Chandler & Chris Chavez

3) Our first stop in Oklahoma was with GiANT Partners in Oklahoma City - the GiANT story serves as the backdrop for Catalyst!

4) Ray Griffin, Hans Dilbeck, and the team from Quail Springs Baptist Church gave us a warm welcome...

5) Ryan & Adriane Smith invited us to join them at their house church through Bridgeway

We are in Oklahoma City right now and have had an amazing time with Ryan & Adriane Smith tonight... they have been more than kind in opening their home to us. Our hope was to have our blog and video from our time from this past Monday with Pete Briscoe and Bent Tree Bible Fellowship finished by now, but the flu bug took out your friendly Vanagon Vagabonds in a pretty mean way! (what the heck did we ever do to the flu?!) Honestly, the past two days have been pretty rough to say the least.

We are a little delayed in the blog updates... thanks, again, for your continued patience. It's pretty frustrating how great you can feel in one moment and then how quickly it can change. We are going to get some sleep and pace ourselves through the final stages of this ridiculous flu. LV Hanson will share a personal perspective from our time with Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, and then our highlights from today's road trip into Oklahoma will follow shortly.

Thansk again! It's great to be back on the road...

Your Friendly Vanagon Vagabonds