We-Ambassadors: May 2008

Friday, May 30

The Brookside Mountain Mist Inn

Our stay at the Brookside Mountain Mist Inn has been amazing. The Bed and Breakfast is huge at over 6000 sq ft. Our room is very quaint with the softest bed I have ever been in. There are four other rooms each with their own theme. And everything is 20-30 minutes away from here! We got Maggie Valley, Smokey Mountain Parkway, Asheville and more right here around us.
Carol and Dina are the nicest “inn keepers” you will ever see. Dina was a massage therapist and Carol was a chiropractor down in Florida. Their office was actually walking distance form our house in Brandon! I would say it’s a small world but being out of the Tampa area is how we came across them. You see M&C Assemblies (the company I worked for) disassembled a workout center for Carol and Dina. Then when M&C found out that these ladies were NC bound, they offered for me to re-assemble it for them. So our first day here was work, sorta, my tools needed some dusting off anyway!

How nice are they? Well I don’t think they really get the Bed and BREAKFAST thing because these two have been taking care of us all day and night. from homemade snacks to providing medical care for my bum foot! Carol even prescribed some more exercises and care to help heal my heel. They have also made sure we find the best restaurants and “must see’s” around here. This house/inn is nice but these two ladies are an added bonus!

Right now I am sitting in a huge den beside a big fireplace looking out over the mountains through about 30 feet of floor to ceiling windows. There are birds galore, squirrels and even some chipmunks running around out there. Right outside of the windows is a huge deck that goes the length of the inn.

I will leave the dining experience to Sheila’s blog here. But don’t be surprised at how FAT I am when I come back!

We have pictures of the B&B up here so check it out HERE.
So when you need a break PLEASE come up (Florida folks) or come over (Greenville folks) and visit Carol and Dina for a few days of relaxation, hiking or just Sasquatch hunting. We are having a blast and are NEVER coming home. (Sorry Jason & Randy!)

Thursday, May 29

ummm...rest! Day two is up!

Click here!

We had a blast!

Sheila is pushing for another day. I think we can swing it but we have not decided.

Wednesday, May 28

Our trip

Is going great! the ladies at the bed and breakfast are awesome and hooking us up! We had fresh baked cookies in our room last night!!! Anyway, here is a link to where we will post pictures of the trip for you all: LINK Click here!

Monday, May 26

Headed west

Tuesday morning Sheila and I are out of here for a few days. We are headed over to Waynesville NC to chill in a Bed n Breakfast. I am doing a small job for the owner so she is hooking us up with 2.5 nights there. We have a little left on a Bed N Breakfast gift certificate that our wonderful church gave us, so we are using it up on the other .5 of a night.

Pray my foot doesn't hinder us too much because I wanna see a mountain!!!

But I would be fine just sitting in the room with my wife for 3 days also.

The ROCK rocked!

The ROCK is our children's church. I has a blast this weekend! we crammed SOOOO much stuff in that we almost didn't get it all done! God blessed us with about 9 or 10 and a few of them were guest.

Thanks Ben, you did a great job and I can see this going on for awhile. He came in as a guest explorer and showed the kids how important it is to listen to instruction.

Getting ready for staff meeting

We are headed to Brads place to watch the service and see how well we did or didn't do. I think God has blessed us with some great talent and ideas and we give Him all of the credit and glory BUT are we being as faithful with what he has provided for us, are we being good stuarts? I think it would be good to not only review the things we have done but to also plan them a little better on the front end.

I love my job and am amazed by the talent that God has sent to Discovery Church. It is an honor working along side these people.

Thursday, May 22

So I have been thinking:

but I stopped because it hurts.

Anyway, I cannot seem to find any blogs, podcast or websites that are helpful and insightful for children's church ministries. So I need you guys to look and see if you can find anything. I know there are a lot of places that sell stuff but I am looking for ideas and encouragement.

Maybe in all my free time, I will make one! A blog or website or maybe even a podcast...Don't know, What do you think?

We made it just a few minutes late

Registration took no time at all and we still got to hear some of the music.

We are at lunch now and have 4 more speakers to go. So far I have picked up some useful info and will (maybe) blog about it.

we are gonna be a little late

We are stuck in some traffic and not moving very fast. Getting close to launch time.

Sure, they saw the capital

This is what I got to see yesterday!!

Casey fishing and Tanner climbing

This streams dumps into Lake Montclair and is right down the "pipestem" from the Zerkles house.

Yeah, I dont really know what a "pipestem" is?

Here is another shot of Tanner up a tree.

It is a really cool place down there, They got a minnow and turtle out of the lake.

Hey does this count for Church too?

I will no doubt be lookig for where people will be sitting today at Whiteboard.

We are in (or near) DC!

It sounds really cool and I am glad that Discovery Church pushes things like this. I should be a really great event and I plan on blogging about it while were there (if I have internet!)

Last night when we got here, Jason, Lora and Randy went to check out our nations capital. I decided not to tag along and stay at our friends (the Zerkles). Not that we see them much now but they are moving out to Arizona next month and I don't see Jason doing any church growth conferences that far away! So it was really cool to have them to myself most of the night. When the gang returned I was able to retire to bed and let them catch up.

I know that downtown Washington is cool and all but historical stuff brings back bad memories of 9th grade history class...so I will pass, at least until I can bring Sheila and stay for a few days.

So check in every now and then and pray we have WiFi there!!!

Monday, May 19

The ROCK

This week in children's church we talked about fitting in with family. We have moms, dads, brothers, sisters, steps, and halves. It sometime hard to keep up with them all and even harder to be nice to them! But Jesus said we should try. So we crammed all of the kids in a box to show that there is room for others in your life.

Did I mention that I LOVE this JOB! I blows me away how great it is to get paid for doing something you would do for free! (Don't tell jason I said that!)

Youth lunch at Cubbies

Thanks Mark! you guys know how to sling some food. We packed over 30 people in Cubbies restaurant on what is normally a slow day. They even commented on how well our teens acted and how nice they were. Todd Wallace has a job there if he ever needs some work! He pulled drink duty all day and keep-um full! I think I forgot to tip him!!!

So who should we hit next month?

Wife week!

I spent the week taking pics of what matters most to me (this side of eternity!)...yeap, it's my wife, I love her so much. She is SO supportive of me and even lets me buy toys!

Feel the burn!!!

OK, If you have been at church over the last couple of weeks and felt a strange warmth on the back of you neck...We got lights! We need them for the stage. It has been too dark for too long. Being portable, we have to store everything! Todd came over and helped me set up a storage system for our new toys:

I figure we have room on here for 5 or six more lights, so your tan is coming! BTW, Jason will let you know every 15 minutes during preaching so you can turn and get an even tan!

Thanks Todd! Your fresh ideas really help!

Thursday, May 15

Wanna Chat?

If I am online and see you checking out my blog. I can send you a chat request that will look something like:

If I do, and you would like to say hi, just click in the box and we can chat is real time. It would be great to talk to you!

This is just a test!

If this had been a real blog, you would have been informed of what to do.

Wednesday, May 14

Sunday Morning was awesome:

The ROCK was packed, we had a lot of kids in there. I do miss Crosslink tho, We told them to hook their moms up so we canceled youth. We will get an overload this week tho because it's youth lunch day and we are going to pack out Cubbies. Pray for Mark (Cubbies owner) He will love the business but it will be all at once.

Numbers?

We are not talking about that this week!!!!

But Jason did get a good suntan the Sunday!!

Fighting the system!

I refuse to conform. I am not gonna do it. No way, Ain't going to happen. Nope, not me.

What you ask? All of it. Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter...all of them, It's just too much. It is hard enough to keep up with Blogger! So I am not going jump on the social network bandwagon. This is how I will let you know what's going on in my life...Blogger! Sure I have a myspace, I went on it in December I think. Sure I have some cool people on there. But I just can't keep up with them all and as soon as I find a system, there will be a new one.

Now, before you judge me and start defending one or the other of them. Stop, it isn't going to work. I know that ______(insert your fav here) is the best and is really ez to use and all but, um...NO. (ok, maybe if Jason makes staff do it (like blogger)).

There, I have made my stand!

Hey, and I got a blog in the process!

Thursday, May 8

da numbers

Attendance 05/04/08 was 180 and offering was $7937.00

And 10 1st time guest!!!

Attendance 04/27/08 was 185 and offering was $4609.00

Attendance 04/20/08 was 172 and offering was $3695.56

Attendance 04/13/08 was 178 and offering was $3571.89

Attendance 04/6/08 was 190 and offering was $9273.88

Attendance 03/30/08 was 184 and offering was $3891.26

Attendance 03/23/08 was 210 and offering was $5219.00

Attendance 03/16/08 was 163 and offering was $3862.23

Attendance 03/09/08 was 140 and offering was $2694.31

Attendance 03/02/08 was 190 and offering was $7505.75

Attendance 02/24/08 was 199 and offering was $3223.10

Attendance 02/17/08 was 182 and offering was $3452.76

Attendance 02/10/08 was 205 and offering was $2702.00

Attendance 02/03/08 was 190 and offering was $7186.00

Attendance 01/28/08 was 163 and offering was $5461.50

Attendance 01/20/08 was 160 and offering was $2110.88

Attendance 01/13/08 was 206 and offering was $2229.00

Attendance 01/06/08 was 162 and offering was $4096.69

Attendance 12/30/07 was 156 and offering was $5610.70

Attendance 12/23/07 was 145 and offering was $3553.00

Attendance 12/16/07 was 132 and offering was $3213.00

Attendance 12/09/07 was 166 and offering was $3522.00

Attendance 12/02/07 was 153 and offering was $3879.00

Attendance 11/25/07 was 124 and offering was $1215.00

Attendance 11/18/07 was 189 and offering was $3906.00

Attendance 11/11/07 was 169 and offering was $2613.00

Attendance 11/04/07 was 145 and offering was $3459.70

Attendance 10/28/07 was 166 and offering was $2234.00

Attendance 10/21/07 was 126 and offering was $1295.00

Attendance 10/14/07 was 95 and offering was $1015.00

Attendance 10/07/07 was 156 and offering was $4523.07

Attendance 9/30/07 was 140 and offering was $2951.06

Attendance 9/23/07 was 159 and offering was $1612.00

Attendance 9/17/07 was 177 and offering was $4547.73

Attendance 9/09/07 was 163 and offering was $1822.30

Attendance 9/02/07 was 138 and offering was $3394.45

Attendance 8/26/07 was 199 and offering was $4596.00

Attendance 8/19/07 was 127 and offering was $2747.46

Attendance 8/12/07 was 132 and offering was $3945.00

Attendance 8/05/07 was 107 and offering was $2971.71

Attendance 7/29/07 was 132 and offering was $1998.00

Attendance 7/22/07 was 137 and offering was $2557.82

Here is why I am posting at 1:00am!!!

Tonight (or was it last night?) we took the Crosslink teens to Wilson (bout an hour away) to a "True Love Waits" event. I downed two energy drinks for the ride there and back...they just kicked in!!!

We mentioned the event Sunday night and by the time we loaded up the cars there were 26 of us cramming into vehicles. We had a BLAST! We got to see some old friends play in the band (Steven and Jonathan) and the speaker was good. The message was well received by our teens and I think some of them were challenged.

One of our girls got saved (Whaa HOOOOO!!!) and another made her salvation public to all of us! Man, that is what it's all about!

They had a wedding set up with the guy in a white tux and the girl in a white gown. The the speaker pored tomato sauce on them to represent the "baggage" (or cactus!) that our past relations bring into our marriage. It was awesome! Kids couldn't believe he would ruin their clothes! But thats kinda the way it is, just not with clothing.

It was a good time and we had a great turn out. Thanks to all the leaders and drivers that helped us get them al there.

Back to school

Ok, so last Thursday Sheila, Laci and I went to South Central High School to have lunch with some of the youth group kids (Crosslink). WOW, it was fun, these guys introduced us to some of their friends and we ate school food with them. It brought back some memories (some good, some bad!). We will try to get out their one more time before summer break.

I would like to get to know some of the teachers and become a regular face to them. These kids need to know that there are some grown ups on their side!

Friday, May 2

The numbers, cause they ain't in the bulletin!!!

For those just joining my blog, I have been asked to post our weekly numbers so that our PARTners can see how we are doing. I know, "numbers don't matter". Unless of corse you look in the Bible, there is a whole book about them.

We can get an idea of how good or bad we are doing at reaching people that GOD sends us by their return or them inviting friends. So they do matter...to GOD, every single "one" of them.