UNKNOWN TEXTER: Hey

UNKNOWN TEXTER: Heyy

ME: Hey

UNKNOWN TEXTER: Heyy wat you doing

ME: Who is this? Thanks.

UNKNOWN TEXTER: Lol why did you say thank. Tiff its jeff ****** member me

ME: Nope, this is D.G. not Tiff. Where would I know you from?

JEFF: Who are you you have her old phone or something. But From autozone we became good friends but i havnt talked to her in a while.

ME: Nope this is D.G. What is Tiffany’s last name? Because I don’t think we know each other. Sorry man.

JEFF: How do you have her phone

ME: This is my number. I guess she has a new phone number.

JEFF: Lol wait is this the tiff that lives in ohio or the one that worked in auto zone. Which ever one we no each other

ME: Nope neither, I live in KY and my wife; Tiffany, is a pastor.

JEFF: Lol wow im lost so idk because this is her number or was her number. The tiff im lookin for is probly 19 or 20 now

ME: Yeah. Again, this is no longer her number. Sorry. I guess you could look for it via Facebook. Good luck, and God bless ya.

JEFF: Do you no her since you some how have her number. And i am so sorry if im buggin you

ME: No worries Jeff. AT&T recycles phone numbers when one person drops their current line and then gives a new customer a recycled phone number. This one just happened to be her old one. Bless ya. Night.

JEFF: O ok well good meetin you lol night

ME: Night.

I also three weeks ago told the Florence UMC (the sponsoring church of Th3 Waters with the KY Conference) that I would no longer be the Cultural Architect of Th3 Waters as of June and will be up for another appointment. So, that most likely means that Tiffany and I will be moving in June. This is sad, but understandable, and we are working though it all transitioning Th3 Waters away from being lead by a full-time pastor. Tons of prayer needed for this.

I am also leaving tomorrow morning for Pasadena California to look into the PhD programs at Fuller Seminary ( School of Theology and School of Intercultural Studies). The more and more we pray about the PhD stuff, I think we would be best not to start a PhD program the same year that we might be getting a brand new baby in the Hollums family! But, I still think that God might be calling me to get a PhD and possibly teach at a Seminary level to encourage young clergy to remember how to dream with God, an area I think the church has forgotten how to do effectively! It would be a huge sacrifice, but if that is what God desires, then if you know me at all, I will go where He leads. period.

We had a great Christmas and New Year even though I was sick most of the time. heh heh…

And lastly, I am mildly addicted to foursquare a unique social media check-in system you can use via phone or computer. It basically brings the idea of Microsoft gamer points of PS3 trophies (a reward system) for visiting real life locations! I am finding that it is a great way to make getting out to meet with other people fun and rewarding. It is a great way to get geeks out into the world and adds a competitive fun aspect of going to places. And I think for Christians it is a great fun way to get out of our comfort zones, try new things, and meet new people….IN REAL LIFE!!! Tons of fun. Try it out.

Well, I guess I will type on here next year….if I’m lucky, heh.. in the mean time, please follow (and feel free to support) our adoption anyway you can by heading over to our adoption website.. It is updated much more often! heh. Thanks for staying with me here on this blog. Bless yall!

And as always, if you get bored, please check out my Flickr website and look at my photography. And remember if you would like a print or a few 100 prints of my photography, that I will print them for you send them to you and I will let you know the cost it will be to ship and print and anything over that amount I will put towards the adoption. So tell your friends and family! Bless yall!

Well, it sure has been a long time since I posted and I’m not sure if I am going to get back in the saddle here on the blog, but I am going through tons of wrestling right now, and while I can’t get into it yet, please know I am doing just fine, but I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers! Thanks for that!

So I’ve got some good news… I made it in the Capture Cincinnati Photography Book! I submitted about 10 photos and 3 of them made the book! I am thrilled. For a link to all of the photos that made the book go here, and for a link to purchase the book go here.

Also, I officially have entered the http://photofocus.com emerging photographer of the year award. I seriously doubt that I will even be considered, but I really do love taking classic Black and White Landscape and Travel photography. I realize that classic Black and White Landscape is not as popular in the world today (most want color), but I love the simplicity and contemplative aspects that it brings. And that brings me to the post that inspired this blog post.

Please visit my flickr photo page and look through my photos, I’d love to have some feedback!

Over at photofocus.com there was a blog post talking about art and spirituality and a few quotes from the Pope. Now, this subject of the arts in faith has been intriguing me as of late and I must say that there is a book in me somewhere to help others to see how art (especially photography) can be used to deepen not only a photographer’s spirituality, but could be used to bring about faith discussions with in communities. Anyway, I just wanted to give yall a sample from the Photofocus blog and since they do not allow comments over there at the blog I invite anyone to leave some here.

Here are a few quotes from the blog post by Scott Bourne:

“Recently, the Pope held a meeting with hundreds of artists. Discussing beauty and art, the Pope said, “Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate mystery, toward God,”….I’ve always believed that the artistic expression available through photography reaches higher than most would immediately think.

The Pope went on to say, “In a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there is an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.”

I think you can substitute any number of words for spirituality that mean something similar. The Pope believes that faith can nourish art. And perhaps it can. It can’t hurt.” -Scott Bourne

And why can’t art nourish faith? – D.G. Hollums (ha ha ha) Bless yall, and KUTPs!!!

Tiffany and I have some amazing friends and they have decided to plan and throw a Adoption fund raising party for us! So, if your interested please follow the following link to find out how you can attend (tickets are free)

OR if you like you can give to the adoption fund at this paypal link:

The PayPal button works now!

Thank you everyone!!! Oh and if you need to think about it then go here.

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OK, on to the main topic I wanted tolet everyone know about. I have teamed up with a local internet start-up called photrade here in Cincy, that allows me to upload my photos, keep them safe (by putting a copyright watermark on them), and they even seel my photos for me!!! any photo that is a part of my photos on the site is available to purchase. And, you can buy just the photos (at practically ANY size!) but you can buy the photo to be on mugs, hats, shirts, etc… even to buy an electronic version of it, as well. Anyway, I just wanted to make evryone aware of the fact that now you can view the photos at very large sizes on my Flickr page as always, but now you can also purchase them for yourself, friends, or family! I just wanted to make everyone aware of the possibility. oh and the website shares the ad revenue from the site, so if your viewing my photo nd then click on the ads, I might get to see a few pennies from your clicking. anyway here is the link to my Photrade site:

Thanks and have a wonderful day! oh and I guess if you want to see a few of my latest photos. Tiffany and I just got back from our 10 year wedding anniversary and we went to Pipestem State Park Resort in West Viginia. I fo course took photos and so, here you go:

Yep there it is. on my right forearm. I know that several people love it and several people hate that I got a tattoo, but I just wanted to share why I did and the reason for where I did. So,

1. The tattoo is of a window in a church that my brother and his wife attend before he passed away. My brother told me he felt called into ministry at his annual conference, and right before he could get started on track to actually be a minister in the UMC he came down with cancer. So, I felt this was a wonderful reminder for me of how much I loved Jay, how much he loved me, and to allow him to be with me as I follow Christ in the ministry.

2.  The window its self is a Trinity Window. It represents the Trinity (Father, son, and Holy Spirit) I have always been a huge Trinity kind of guy, and love the understanding of relationship, and mystery found in the understanding of the Trinity! So, this Tattoo represents God in all the forms that God has chosen to reveal himself to his creation.

3. The Tattoo is on my right arm. In the Old and New Testaments, the right hand has always had the imagery of someone’s actions the “doing” of someone. (hence Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father because he was the ultimate actions of God) And we are to keep the ways of God on our right hands and on our foreheads) to remember that our being/thoughts and actions are to be those of God’s in the world. I desire to be the hands and feet of God in all that I do, so every time I look down an see this tattoo I pray that it reminds me to attempt to live out this passionate desire in my life and in the lives of those around me. I actualy wanted the tattoo to be on my hand, but Craig would not do it because we use our hands so much that it would eventualy just fade away and i would have to get the same tattoo over and over again.

4. When I went to Guatemala on the mission trip one of the things I noticed when we were doing prison ministry to the gang members, was their respect and immediate connection to anyone in our group that had a tattoo. I did not think about this until afterwards, but I also pray that through this Tattoo I may be able to develope relationships with others that I might not have normally been able to by finding some common ground of a Tattoo and possibly being able to have a chance to exaplain the meaning and purpose behind my tattoo and maybe have the honor of finding out about the same meaning and purpose behind thier tattoos.

Well, I am blown away by the responses I am getting from the Tattoo, and surprised that my Father and Mother got over the shock fast. (only 2 small moments of awquard silence over the phone. ha ha ha ha) I am sure that many others will be shocked, and mad over time, but all the more reason to be able to develop relationships and get to love others. If anyone is interested I got my Tatto from a good friend that I went with to Guatemala named Craig. (In Guatemala he was doing tattoo cover ups for gang membersthat wanted out of the gangs and covered up their gang tattoos with Christian art…amazing) Anyway Craig owns two Tattoo shops here in northern KY called:

<–click picture for the link

Craig is now actually going through a 3 year process to go into the ministry as well in his own church, so ministry all the way around, heh.

Here are a picture Tiffany took on her iPhones of the work getting done:

My top 10 short-term life list (for now)

I was sitting down thinking about a few things I would like to get done in and around my life so I decided I would like to share them if yall:

1) Start a garden in my back yard

2) Build a compost bin for my garden

3) (play around with the fish in a barrel idea (here is a website talking about it ) very cool. And the implications for this is huge especially for places like Guatemala for sustainable good quality protien! )

4) Knock out this wall in my house ( link to the picture ) For some reason lots of friends would love to help knock it down, heh.

5)  After the wall is down and the floor fixed I would love to put in a island in the kitchen

6) then a stained glass window above the front door. ( link to picture ) Nothing fancy, just clear and beautiful

7)  Save up enough money to take Tiffany on an anniversay that she deserves to celebrate our 10 years of marriage in Aug.

Start an OG with the people in my neighborhood!

9) Get the air conditioner fixed in my Car

10) Register Tiffany’s car with the county! We have been the owners for close to a month, if she gets pulled over then it will not be a good day.

10.1) I want to hurry up and get my second hurnia surgery done!

Well, for those of you who don’t know I am doing three podcasts now, and loving every single one of them, but one in particular is causing me to do more research and getting to know my bible much better. the podcast is called, “Generally Speaking About The Church” and on the podcast I co-host the show with a new friend Cliff and we speak generally about our faith and Christianity. We join discussions live with people on the chat and the same with emails and voice mails. Well, a lot of the topics we have talked about lately are a few contriversial issues and one that we talked about is this text found in the Bible:

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2 Cor. 5:21-33

21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives and Husbands
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31″For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

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And the more and more I got into the discussion the more and more I realized that I had not really crittically done any exgetical work on this passage, so I sat down and started the process… and here are the top ten thoughts I gleened out of the passge through study and prayer:

The way I see it:

1) this is only for husband and wife, not male and female roles.

2) Christ is the example that qualifies “headship”, and “submission”.

3) this must be read with the first century culture in mind.

4) the submission of the wife to the husband is within the wider submission of everyone to each other in 21.

5) the motive for submission of the wife is within the context of the wife’s relation to the Lord.

6) this submission is regulated by the divine pattern of Christ’s relationship to the church.

7) so, the husband’s authority is regulated by Christ’s example and the principle of love.

NO human or fallible husband could ever live up to the quality of love and sacrifice (and love in the past tense in my mind refers back to an event I.e. the cross ) that Christ has for the church, but even at a much lower level this is the quality or concern, love and sacrifice a husband must have for his wife!

9) the Agape love spoken of is one that is completely selfless in its nature and therefore does not give any right of the husband to hold any hint of selfish authority over his wife, it means she (his wife) must be above any of his own interests, pleasures, and personality for the benefit of his wife.

10) I believe there is many more verses found in the bible especially the New Testament that speak of mutual submission to each other than of husbands and wives. (just like in 21, that this is a value and expression for all believers to each other, and that wives to husbands is within that larger context. So, I choose to emphasize verse 21 of mutual submission to one another over that of husband “over” wife.

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So, what do yall think? I have a few more of these that I will put here as well, like “The Christian response to war”, and “the use of the American flag in worship”. those will come if yall want to read them, but chew on this one for a while and let me know what yall think. Thanks! and blessing on ya!

Well, here comes some hard core truth and to be honest, I feel like I need to put it down in this blog (only in the hopes that others can be blessed by a shared struggle, or hopefully the movement of God in our prayerful decisions). Tiffany and I went to the Infertility Dr. (yeah I know I think they should be called fertility Dr.’s, who wants to go to the infertility Dr… what we want is to be fertile, heh) Anyway, we went there last week and they accepted us into a study that does invetrofertilization at a fraction of the cost (something around $5,000 instead of the normal $20,000.) We got the spill of info the financial talk, and then the “process” talk. We signed the papers, only as a formality because the study had a deadline and we wanted to be on it, but we did not have to make a final decision until 90 days after we signed. So, we left telling them we would pray about the entire thing and get back to them.

The process of invitro is simple. Tiffany takes her shots (just like last time) then they harvest her eggs (around 7-10 eggs) then they take my boys put them in a petri dish and give them some alone time, heh. Then they put them through a wash to make sure that the most hardy ones will survive, then they two two of the fertilized eggs back into Tiffany and we pray that they continue the cell multiplication inside of her and she becomes pregnant. But here is our rub…..

since they only put two eggs back into Tiffany what happens to the other fertilized eggs? The options are as follows:

1. Destroy them (not an option for us)

2. They put them inside Tiffany during a time that Tiffany’s body would not provide a place of growth and they would be destroyed.. just in a different way. (not an option for us)

3. We attempt to birth every single one of those fertilized eggs, with the option of having so many children that we would not probably be able to provide for them all. (not an option for me, but my amazingly beautiful Tiffany would be willing to sacrifice almost any standard of living for them even if we have multiple twins.)

4. We give them to other couples that cannot have babies (just like us) through adoption. (but this would mean that there literally would be a huge potential of little D.G. and Tiffany’s living in this world not in our arms, of a couple we have no idea how much say we would have in the adoption of whom they would be given to)

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Or, of course, we have the other side of the decision……..adoption.

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Now, here is the soul discussion that Tiffany and I had tonight:

At first we both were excited about the Study opportunity. Here is a chance that we can be able to have a child of our own flesh and blood for God and his Kingdom. I could carry on the blood line of my family (I am the only male sibling of the “Hollums” name in West Texas, and in my family) And Tiffany and I could be able to raise our own child birthed by us, which is what we have been fighting for the past 8 years of our marriage, Damitt!!!!

Since our visit to the infertility Dr. we both have been in prayer so deeply with fear, trembling, and hours and hours of blood sweat and tears! And tonight we talked about our talks with our God.

Tiffany asked me if we had twins (through the study), and then we had another child naturally, would we give him/her up for adoption? And she challenged me with what would be the difference between birthing one or two children and then giving the rest of our fertilized eggs up for adoption?

So, all of our wrestling with God came to a head, right then and there in a Starbucks. We came to the very real reality that we would give God our children if he asked for them, but neither of us had received a definite answer to do the study, but every time we talked about adoption both of our hearts leap for joy! We can not find any grey areas when it comes to adoption, but there is and will always be there with the study.

So, we sat in our car and cried for our unborn child of our own blood. We cried for our desires to carry own our family through blood, and cried for our desires to love each other by giving each other and especially God this amazing gift of a child. We sacrificed our unborn child to God and have decided to adopt an amazing wonderful future with an adopted child of our and God’s own. It has been one of the hardest decisions I and we had ever made in our lives and in our marriage, but this is God working in and through us.

We know that life will be just fine and God will continue to embrace us in his arms of love and grace, but it is so hard….it is so hard… LORD, why is it so hard to sacrifice for you? To sacrifice for Tiffany and your kingdom. These tears are of sadness, and are of joy, and peace, but it is so hard.

LORD, you reminded us today of when Nicodemus was so confused about Jesus saying he needed to be born again, and that Nicodemus was so caught up in his thoughts of flesh-and-blood birth to be your people (”Should I go back into my mother’s womb?”), and then there Jesus basically says that it will no longer be about flesh and blood, but it will be God adopting anyone and everyone into his family and Kingdom. And pray that you take this prayer and show others that your Kingdom is coming in our lives and hearts here in our as it is in heaven.

So, God we bring to you this sacrifice upon your alter. Our unborn Issac. You are our God and our King, LORD and Lover of our souls. Our life is yours always and forever. use us how you will, build us up or tear us down. Empower us or make us weak. all we are is yours. give us everything, give us nothing. We are yours, and make this covenant always be fulfilled in us, and through us, and LORD despite us. We live and walk by your loving kindness and grace. Thank you……thank you!

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Wow, OK, I guess I just needed to get one out. Thanks for your prayers, and I pray that in times of your struggle that you can find the peace and joy in the midst of the pain, and of the hope that comes from Christ, who showed us what hope, peace, and joy tastes like in the midst of pain. That is the God that we serve.

For those of you who live this life with me through this blog, Thank you, for your love and grace and care. Thank you!

P.S. Look out world….. The Hollums’ are searching for God’s desired child to be raised and loved by us then unleashed into this world to live out the kingdom in their lives with god’s love and grace for you!!!! The future is limitless! Amen!

The last round of shots did not work. So no pregnancy. Where this leaves us? Sad. It sucks, and it is frustrating like nothing I have ever felt before. It is so hard to ever write this. This was our 10th time to try to have a baby through the help of infertility clinics/Doctors. Tiffany has been poked and prodded, and I have give way too many “samples”. and we are just tired. We tried to take the day off and just spend some time together and that helped, but not near enough. This will be a grieving process just like Jay was those years ago. i still tear up every now and then when I or god brings him to mind, and I have a feeling that the lack of our own baby will be the same way for a few years. We will make it through it. The one thing I wish is that people would know how to talk to us. Everyone and I mean everyone is well meaning, but sometimes they should just love on us without words. Please if you know of someone who is going through this do not try to take care of them by saying:

1. Well my (instert relitative/friend) went through that same thing. just keep trying.

2. Well you know that if you adopt that you will then have a baby.

3. (say anything cheesy)

The fact of the matter is, the best way to love someone while they are going through a loss of a loved one, of the lack of a loved one is probably no words at all, unless they ask for them. But a simple, “sorry” and a hug is all that most people really need (and of course I would add in a ton of prayer, heh heh)

But I must tell you that it is torture going to church or any place else that there are several people that will ask you about it. It is a catch 22, you want tons of people praying for you, but when it does not work out, you do not want to tell them the sad news because you know that one of the three “saying” will occur, and every time you talk about it you tear up and that just makes for a crappy day.

And the real kicker…… Two Sundays from now is Mother’s day. probably the hardest day of the year for both Tiffany and me (because I don’t like seeing my wife’s soul hurt) and it is Pentecost Sunday, and it is Confirmation Sunday! I have a feeling we will be running from the church building as soon as the 2nd service is over, heh.

But, thank you for your prayers, and i want you to know that through the tears we praise God for helping us know a little more direction of where He desires for us to go when it comes to children. Now we get to look forward to what ever God has in store for us in the future! maybe adoption, but we have no idea when or how, but I promise we will be loving God through it.

(oh and you will not be able to leave comments on this post, heh heh)