Three Degrees of Separation from American Idol

Or two degrees of separation from the band OneRepublic; whichever impresses you more. Or haunts you more. Anwyay...

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, just because it's fun, but now I can do it before the American Idol finale tomorrow night, when OneRepublic is scheduled to perform their hit, "Apologize". You may have heard it on the radio (I caught it in Bed, Bath and Beyond the other night). If not, here it is:



So, the lead guitar player, and one of the two founders of the band (Ryan Tedder, the lead vocal and guy at the piano, is the other), is Zach Filkins. Who is Zach Filkins, you ask?

Well, he's the guy second from the right in the pic below:
Which for me is fun and funny, when you know this guy, also second from the right:

That's Doug Filkins, Zach's dad. Zach, I have never met. Doug, I have spent a lot of time with over the past five years. He is a missionary with one of the distance education missions we partner with. Doug and I have spent many an hour together, in work teams and even sometimes just us, locked up in an office or classroom rewriting Bible courses and evaluating training for use around the world. The picture above is from meetings in Germany this past February, during a splendid Sunday out with some of our other terrific mission partners, and a good long sit at a tremendous place in Staufen called Café Decker. I can't even tell you how much you wish you were me in that delicious place.

But, back to my story...

Doug introduced me to the long-lasting power of Tootsie Pops to keep you going over interminable days of pounding your head into a table as you try to rewrite New Testament Survey course objectives to be relevant in countries all the way from Ukraine to Brazil. And I encourage him in a Starbucks habit that he doesn't really want, but he knows I am right ;)

Doug and his family were missionaries in Spain for years, where Doug taught at a seminary. I have loved learning from him (he has an actual post-grad degree in instructional design; I pretend like I know what I am doing). Over the past five years, we have shared about our families and prayed for each other and our loved ones through various up and downs. So, I heard about the starts and stops and almost theres and then not-quite-theres of Zach and the band. And when we met in February, things had finally come together for OneRepublic in the months just prior, and Doug was so excited for them. He's an amazingly humble guy, but it's always a blast to see someone excited when their kid's dream comes true.

So, in all that, I also have really high confidence that Zach is a great guy, too. He and Tedder are both believers, and they met on the soccer field in high school. Nice story.

So, there. I am famous!

Okay; I know famous people.

Alright; I know people who are related to famous people.

Good enough for me :)

And here are more pictures from Café Decker to make you drool...



Yes, I am drooling. Shamelessly.

And here 's a nice shot Doug took of me at the top of this tower above Mülheim where you can see the Alps and France and all kinds of cool things. Have I mentioned my growing fear of heights in the last several years? Um, yeah.