10 days away

While our trip really wasn't relaxing, it sure was good. We have been in Tampa Fl. For over a week and we have so enjoyed it. We got to see friends and family and spend time with some of our Awana kids.
We will head back to Greenville NC tomorrow around 5am and get home untimely for dinner. Pray for open roads and safe travels.
I am really excited to get back to my Diacovery peeps though. We have a great year planned and will be announcing a few changes real soon.

I will see you real soon.

Marry Christmas

Here is my Marry Christmas to you and a thank you for being a part of our lives

a little randomness waiting for some snow

Which way are we going?

Honey: Not quit so sweet anymore is it!!!!

"Wait, right there, hold that pose, work it, work it!"

on a serious note, Sheila and I (well mostly Sheila) are finishing up on last minute things before our crazy weekend and monday drive to Fl. Here is a look at our schedule:

Friday morn: Go to dads house to drop off gift and wish them a marry Christmas.

Friday afternoon: Go to moms house to drop off gift and wish her a marry Christmas.

Friday evening: breathe!

Saturday morn: set up church

Saturday afternoon: set up party

Saturday evening: dual birthday party (big)

Saturday night: Crosslink youth lock in

Sunday morn: get lock-in'r up & ready for church

Sunday morn: Children's church party

Sunday noon: tear down

Sunday afternoon: breathe!

Sunday night: Crosslink youth Christmas party

Monday dawn: drive south for 12 hours!

next two weeks: BREATHE!!!

I don't hate Christmas

As long as it doesn't show up before Thanksgiving and it ends not later than December 26th!!! Just to prove it, here is a link to some of the best Christmas desktop wallpapers I have see all year.

If you don't know how to change your desktop wallpaper: please call 1-800-WelcomeToEarth for help.

ain't skeered

So since the demise of our minivan we haven't been able to take our truck off the road to fix the slipping transmission. Well we are going to borrow the church van for a few days and get out truck fixed BEFORE Christmas!

So here goes:

I like the guy that the "over charging transmission repair people" hate. They want over $1200 to rebuild your trany and will tell you that it cannot be done at home. Well I beg to differ! This rebuild will cost me about $300 (including the manuel). The biggest thing about transmissions is that people are scared of them. They really are not that bad. You just have to put all of the parts back where they go :)

We have been driving around in second gear for several months now because of this:

The bottom friction should look like the top one! They were worn out and burnt. But It is nice knowing exactly what the problem is. Next step is cleaning and reassembly and then we get our gas milage back.

So Lord willing we will be back on the road in a few days.

Should I or shouldn't I?

The only thing better than a good deal is..

a great deal! So offerings have been a little down and that is pretty much when everything breaks! We lost the bulb in our video projector in Children's church last week. So we ordered a new bulb at the good price of $200. But that didn't do it! Turns out something else was wrong that caused the bulb to burn so I went out on Saturday just looking at prices. So it turns out Best Buy has good prices on them and had sales to boot. After looking at Staples I decided to head back to Best Buy. There wasn't really anyone to help me out and I decided on an unit that was $649 (down from $749!) so I started looking for the box. When digging around the bottom shelf I came across an open box marked down to $359.99! Jason on the phone, googled it and it turns out to be one of the highest resolution model they have and was originally sold for over $1000!!! I love it when God works!

The image looks grate and can even be seen with all of the lights on. The old one was so dim we had to kill all of the lights just to see our presentation.

Our greatest not so small small group!

These guys really showed us how much the appreciate us...by punking us! They called Jason and Myself to come to a small group meeting because they had something to talk to us about. Everyone sounded SOOOO serious and really had us worried. When we got there their fearless leader met us at the door with his eyes all watered up. Then after beating around the bush they handed us both letters with how much they appreciate us as Pastors.

So now we have to figure out just how to appreciate them back!!! Any ideas!

finishing up Jonah

So we just wrapped up a great series on the book of Jonah. I am amazed at how much we can learn from 4 short chapters. I think the kids had a blast and really got the messages! Here are a few pictures from week 4:

you never know what you will find in a giant fish!

Boat load 1

boat load 2

and boat load 3!

We put rockers on the bottom of the boat to make it move. (thanks Todd, for the idea!)

I don't know if we can top this during our Christmas series!

Sometimes I love being me...

But hate having to be me! Do you get that? Let me start by tell you a little story: Over the past few weeks it seems like everything is breaking, little stuff mostly but it was really adding up. This started to really stress me out due to an number of things like: no time to fix stuff, no money to pay to have it fixed and really needing some of these things to work NOW. So I did what anyone else would do...I started fixing other peoples stuff! Yes, other people had stuff break also and I decided that because of my needs and frustrations that I really know how THEY felt, and the frustrations that they are having. Now my things are starting to get done little by little but my stress about them dropped! I am not worrying about a leaky roof (may be fixed) or the door knob that will not open (temp fix) or the dryer that isn’t drying (stuff will dry eventually on their own) and the $1200 air compressor not working ($14.00 fix). I am not worrying because in my giving of my time and talents, God has freed up some time AND some cash for me to fix my stuff. Now I don’t think a time tithe is in the Bible but over the past few weeks God has worked in my life through the giving of my time.

I do not tell you this to boast! I have nothing to boast about! Instead I tell you this to encourage you as the “busy season” approaches. In all of the hustle and bustle that is coming I ask you to slow down the selfish wagon and reach out to others that may be in need. Find the strength to hold fast to your commitments and to honor you vows. December is a time when we really could use a few extra hours in the day and a few extra dollars in the bank. Take this time to use your stress and worries to really help you understand your neighbors stress’ and worries and do something about it. Meet a need, lend a hand or give a dollar. That will be the best Christmas you can give!

Now why my opening statement of “Sometimes I love being me...But hate having to be me!”. Let me tell you: God has place me in situations that allows me to know some things about fixing stuff. I hate that because I would rather never have to get dirty, weld something, rewire, rebuild, build, and repair stuff. I sometimes would just rather have the means to go out an buy a new one. BUT I love it at the same time. There is no better feeling than fixing that thing that you were cursing the day before not to mention just knowing what to look for and how to fix it in the first place. The air compressor that I use to power tools and stuff in the garage stopped working on Monday night in the middle of fixing a friends car. After pulling it apart, testing a few things and googleing some other stuff, I figures what the offending part was and ordered it. So the next day for $14 I had my compressor up and running. That is a lot better that taking it to a repair shop and I don’t charge myself for labor! Same with cars, I would love a brand new car that I never have to work on but I also love being able to fix my clunkers.

Pray that this next car in my garage can be fixed on the cheap and that the repair is a success. I am having to pull the transmission out to find the worse leak ever. So far the car is being a bit stubborn.

So I will close with the same statement in reverse: Sometimes I hate having to be me...But love being me!

fight of the year

too cool

Just when you thought juggling couldn't be done any better or any more creative. This is a great lesson on mediocrity. Just because your talents or skills are "normal" doesn't mean you cannot strive to be better at them. Don't recreate the wheel, just perfect it.

so you mentioned the troops at church on Sunday!

whiphid di do! Words are weak!

Our teens actually went out on Saturday to serve them! Don't get me wrong, it is fine to give some time from the pulpit to honor our troops but it is even better to give up you day off to make them cards, crafts and pack some gift boxes for them. Action people! I am so proud of Crosslink Teens (our youth-group) for coming out with so much enthusiasm to do this. They all want to go back and do some more.

Sometimes there is just too much talking and not enough walking. These kids have never turned down the chance to serve. I learn so much from them.

Crosslink: We love you and thank you for caring.

We as a church were so proud that we paid for some of the cost of the fund raiser shirts for each teen. So they each got a shirt and the "Give To The Troops" got some money to buy more stuff.

Glad to be a part of Discovery! Thanks Kim for organizing this!

working on Jonah week 2

Week one was great! We talked about taking the wrong boat: the "mad mom boat" and not doing what we are asked. We can always find a boat headed in the wrong direction if we look.

Here are some shots of the activities from last week:

They kids had a boat rock'n good time.

Oh Whale!

Line up for the review!

Check our Asa with the attitude!

See you guys should come to Children's church! we have so much more fun!

Our Costumes for the PARTner dinner at church

We decided to go biblical and way back to the beginning:

btw, tonight I may be turing over a new leaf!

Why and I so stoked about:

Jonah? It is our new series at Discovery Church starting this Sunday and running for 4 weeks. One chapter a week. Maybe it's the children's pastor in me excited about a cool Bible story. Or maybe it is just a great lesson on God's love and Justice (which go hand in hand). Either way I am stoked and looking forward to it.

Here are some props to add some visuals to the lesson:

The boat is for Children's Church aka The ROCK. It will have some graphics painted on it to liven it up a tad. I will try to post the finished product for you all to see.

If you are in the Greenville N.C. area and haven't checked us out, you need to stop by and find out about second chances.

impartation part 7

These are my final notes from the IMPART event

Your betrayers will eat your bread! “John 13:30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” Jesus allowed Judas to eat, knowing full well what he was about to do. Let them eat.

Don’t unload on her: Don’t come home from work and dump all of the negative crap on your spouse. I assure you that is not what she has been waiting for all day. Sit in the car and unload. Plan on giving her the goods not the garbage. BTW: she will not tell you to stop! But I just did. Be a blessing (see my honor post)

Are you hanging on to what God has rejected?: “1 Samuel 16:1a The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?” [yeah I know there is not “a” and “b” but then again there was a time when there was no “16” or “1” either, so back off You Pharisee!]

Who do you need to cut? Who is emotion hanging onto that stewardship has let go? Let them leave, what have you lost? Build on what remains. Your destiny is never set by those who leave but only by Jesus Christ.

Well that is my very mixed thoughts on this amazing event from over a week ago. My mind is still trying to unwrap some of this stuff. I hope you can grab a nugget here or there from it. I know I got a whole 10 pack!!!

impartation part 6

These are my notes from the IMPART event

Think inside the box: Thinking outside of it is frustrating. Don’t recreat the wheel when you have perfectly good ones. Work with what you have and what you are good at. Focus on the wins! Don’t play to not lose. Play to win till the end.

If you cannot recruit them for free, you probably will not be able to pay them to do it well. Believe what you are doing and sell it whole heartily.

When you find who you really are, you release what God has in store for you. Stop being “them” and be you. You are already good at it, just give it a try.

We don’t create momentum, we just ride it. Well some of us try to stop it but we should be onboard. It’s a much better ride. Protect it and harness it. It works (get it: it works?) Build your next initiative out of that momentum.

Blessing is God’s department, preparation is mine!

God calls those not wiling to work “lazy”. God calls those not willing to rest “disobedient”. Take a break! Naps rock! Sleep rulez! Rest is best. Hey go out and do something you enjoy, God talks then too.

impartation part 5

These are my notes from the IMPART event

The shortage is in our capacity Not God’s ability. Get more jars!

The Widow’s Oil

"2 Kings 4:1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”

“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”

3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”

But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing."

If you cannot pay them cash, pay them attention! It actually last longer! And you cannot put a price on it! See my post on Honor!

impartation part 4

These are my notes from the IMPART event

If you are not giving to your church, you probably are not giving anywhere. If you are not giving anywhere, you may have an idol problem.

Simplicity: do one thing and do it well. Golden Coral attitude always leads to mediocrity. Sure there is a little bit of everything but nothing really sticks out. Simplicity enables excellence.

Sometimes you need “an Old Yeller anointing”. If it isn’t working: take it out back and shoot it. It may hurt, you may miss it but it will allow things to move forward.

Dress for the wedding: planning for the future may sometimes look out of place until you get there. Like stopping for gas in a tux! After all how do you think Noah looked building a huge boat on dry land when it had NEVER rained before. Prepairing for the future ALWAYS looks stupid to the one’s without vision.

God’s may send you on a detour but that doesn’t mean He changed the destination. It may take longer to get there but there was a reason for it. BTW account for a possible detour when planning the trip in the first place and you will not be upset when you see the road closed and have to turn.

impartation part 3

These are my notes from the IMPART event

Celebrate somebody!: Really find one person every day to celebrate. It is fun and they like it too. Here: Monday=call someone, Tuesday=email someone, Wednesday=send a card, Thursday=text someone, Friday=comment on their facebook page, Saturday=face to face with someone (clerks and waiters are awesome too) and Sunday=hit-um up at church! Monday, start all over. It may seem like work at first but you will grow to like it as much as they do...it’s addicting. I dare you.

Protect your Pastor: “let nobody put their mouth on Him” do not tolerate people speaking poorly of God’s anointed! [get out of the gutter]

You cannot fake your DNA: it is who you are! Be the best you that you can be and stop trying to be _________ (insert name here).

Nobody can go where the leaders are not going: thus leaders get followed, duh moment!

Be willing to smoke what you sell! If it isn’t good enough for you, don’t ask them to do it! (dang does that mean I have to do all of this stuff I am writing?)

Our hearts should be overflowing and others should be getting it.

What if people leave? If they do, What have you lost? Remember: Sometimes the crowd thins.

Daraja Choir coming to town!

Who is the Daraja Choir? you may be asking. Check them out for yourself here. We saw them in 08 at Catalyst Conference then they came to town and we actually got to host them and feed them. So this year they are coming again and will be staying with several Discovery Church Families. I am so excited. We get 3 of the girls here. We don't know which ones but I will try to post Pictures as soon as they arrive on Monday. Hey maybe I can get each of them to post a little something!

They will be doing a concert on Nov 3rd at 7:00pm at the Winterville Boys and Girls Club. I will probably be running sound for them so pray that I don't mess them up! Come on out and say hello. Check the calendar on their website for a show near you.

impartation part 2

These are my notes from the IMPART event

1 Samuel 14:6&7 Jonathan was the best volunteer recruit ever! Read it yourself.

Your vision needs to be so big that it cannot succeed without God. We are small dreamers!

Some of us need the spiritual gift of ignorance: We think things through and limit God’s movement in out lives. If Moses used common sense or even science, he may not have put his staff into the red sea! A moment of ignorance may be all that is separating you from the amazing thing that God has in store for you.

Your limitations are an insult to God.

What are your “I can’ts”: what is keeping you from doing them?

Make every opportunity to make “this day” “That day”. Come on, we all have a “That day” that we tell people about, lets make some more!

Our generation has lost the art of honor: Honor begins with honoring God. Trust is earned but honor is deserved by all. So honor somebody already!

Criticize by creating. Most criticism tears down. If you cannot offer criticism in a way that builds up...DONT offer it! Your house will not be any bigger by tearing down other peoples houses. You ego may though.

impartation part 1

These are my notes from the IMPART event

There is NOTHING to impart apart from Christ!: It all starts, has to do with and ends with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. What He did on the cross sealed the deal! Anything other than that is simply chatter.

If you are offended, it is usually a sign of God shake’n you up: If and when the truth bothers you, it may be time to start following it.

Eat the fish and leave the bone: take what is good and useful and get rid of the rest, it was just going to poke you anyway!

Imitate their faith, not their miracles: You are the best you you can be, don’t copy what they do or did but copy their faith.

Faith is seeing something that isn’t here, then believing it and speaking it till it is here: Plan for what you pray for. If I am sick and you pray for a healing, go get me a “glad your feeling better card” NOW!

IMPART

We just returned from one jam-packed day at Elevation Church for their IMPART event. This was simply: a where we have been and how God has and is working through Elevation. And my short review is WOW. This blog post is my take away on what happened.

First of all, there were only about 110 people in attendance and they had 200 (yes 200) volunteers there to greet, meet and serve us. Yes, thats almost 2 to 1! We each had a person assigned to us all day long. Every time we took a break our personal concierge was standing there with our favorite drink and snack. Mine was named Gail and she and a bunch of others took off work to be there to serve us. Wow, we can’t get some people to serve on their free time much less take a day off work!

For this one day event they redecorated the entire building to theme it out for IMPART. There were banners and signs everywhere. They even had info over the urinals in the bathroom that they changed out between sessions. If you missed a bathroom break, you missed a little info :)

Then came the meat. Pastor Steve Furtick brought it and brought it hard. He layed down Elevations simple vision with so much passion that we felt guilty about not having the same passion about our vision. I can see why people go to this church, he is real and human, he isn’t as perfect as the rest of the pastors out their and will probably tell you something he sucks at ever chance he gets.

I will be posting my notes and comments in days to come. I will call them “impartation part_” so check back over the next, oh 7 days! yeah, it will take me that long to unpack what they shoved down our throats in one day.

darn rubber-neckers!

there is nothing to see here, move on!

So what’s going on with the Cannons?

We have been so busy it is hard to sit down and catch you all up. As you know Discovery took about 12 people to the huge Catalyst Leadership Conference in Atlanta Ga. It was amazing and I gave you a short take home in my last post. I have another big conference called Impart on next Tuesday and a possible one on Thursday. These things give us so much info that our heads are ready to pop. We are constantly being reminded how much we DONT KNOW!

This past Sunday we took Crosslink (our youth) to a corn maze. It was huge and nice. We had a blast. We learned: if you have a map, you can find your way. I had a map but failed to pass out the other 3 that I printed. Our team was the only one to complete the entire maze. When we were done we headed back to the cars to send the kids off and Sheila was wrapping up and managed to slam her finger in the van door. It was pretty nasty and we had to spend the night at the ER. She broke the tip and cut around 3 sides of her pinky. There are pictures up HERE but you need to prepare yourself! She is doing good and has more stitches to add to her list. She has more scares than Rambo!

It seems that our churches cars are under attack. We have so many friends with broke down cars. We have fuel pumps out, leaking radiators, slipping transmissions, blown engines, flooded cars and wrecked cars. I am doing what I can to help as many of them as possible but that takes money and most of us don’t have that much laying around. I could use a Pontiac and Toyota engine and a radiator for a Grand Prix. The fuel pump was Pastor Jason’s and we got that fixed. One by one we will get them fixed. Just pray for us and our cars.

That’s enough for now, consider yourselves updated for now.

ok, the hydrant is closed and I'm soaked!

how do you process so much info crammed into your head in two day? Wow! It hurts! We just got back from the Catalyst Leadership Conference with 12 Discovery church people. We heard from some of the country's best leaders and speakers and I got my socks knocked off.

So I was thinking: How do I grab any of this since there was so much and I decided to Snactch just a thought from each that I could use and apply. So here you go, 2 days, 11 messages in as few words as possible:

Andy Stanly: trust them 1st

Louie Giglio: Seek His Face

Chuck Swindoll: empty hands can be filled

Dave Ramsey: the tortoise wins

Priscilla Shirer: copy God

Fracnis Chan: The Cross!

Matt Chandler: Know the finish before you run.

Rob Bell: Jesus didn’t do popular & Family 1st

Shane Hipps: Guard or Gardner?

Malcolm Gladwell: Overconfidence loses

Andy Stanly: Words are cheap!

I may break these down for you later, but I may not!

Catalyst

Sorry for not giving you all a minute by minute updat of this amazing conference but this is for me and if I get "this" then that will be for you all. We start day two in 7 minutes so I will see y'all soon.

OK ready or not, here we come>

Myself along with 11 other Discovery Church people are at Catalyst Conference in Altanta Ga. for the next two days and...well to put it as simple as possible, to drink from a hydrant! We will be bombarded with truth and challenge by some of the best and most influential speakers know.

My prayer for me is that I would hear exactly what God needs me to hear and be open to what He wants from me.

My prayer for the group is that they would see their potential within the church body.

My prayer for the conference is that Jesus and Him resurrected would be lifted up, the simple truth made know to everyone there.

I will try to provide an update between session but no promises. There will be a lot of info to process.

Love you guys and will see some of you soon.

Weekend breakdown

Wow what a great weekend! We had a blast helping Ignite church with their practice service on Friday night. They are a new church plant here in Greenville. It looked like they had over 100 people attend. It was an honor to be a part of it. They will do well.

For a gloomy weekend it really did turn out well. Discovery set-up went great with a ton of people showing up to bust it out in record time. I enjoyed setting up the sound “my way”. I like to be able to take my time and run the cables a little neater than normal. I had the youngest sound techs ever helping me out (Sarah (5)and Chandler (8)Ebeling). They worked hard and I almost couldn’t keep up with them asking “what next”. At one point I had to stop what I was doing just to keep them with task. They were awesome!

Then Sunday morning was a typical mayhem with Satan trying everything he could to disrupt me. Sorry to disappoint him but we still had a great time in Children's church. We are learning about Esther and Mordecai. We even found a few assassins among the kids. (read about it yourself, it's only 5 chapters)

Closing tear-down went great too. Our tear-down crew is awesome, and faithful. By the time I make it in there they are storing stuff away. Cable winders and curtain folders doing their part to advance the gospel: I love you guys and gals!

Then a great night at youth to close out the weekend. We had 27 teens and 5 leaders. No concussions but we tried. Will and Sasha brought the message and the games and did great. I think the teens had some fun and we even had a guest. Thanks Nick for coming out!

So now we start working on next week which is going to be even better than this weekend!

Did I mention that I LOVE MY WORK?

Pray for Ignite (new church), a friend (mike) who had his car flooded by water this weekend and for this coming up week at DC, that people will connect with God.

October is gonna be more like "ROCtober"

Mom's birth day and some great conferences we are attending.

Pray for the Hulk (our van) making it's first long distance drive

Last week vs this week

Last week I go everything done early and that turned out to be a major blessing since Mr Rogaine crashed his computer and I had to spend Saturday replacing the hard drive. Saturday is the day I Finnish everything that I have been putting off all week! This week though, I am already 2 days behind. I do have the thought process down for this Sunday but it isn't done until I get it all on paper and printed. Still have today and as soon as I am done procrastinating, I am going to get another cup of coffee and start on it! Really, I am!

Date night was great, good movie, great dinner and even better was the lady at my side! I think we will do this again! Though we may spend a little more money next time.

I love my kids and my teens! They make my job amazing. I sure hope I show them.

Can't wait for the Jonah series, anyone have a john boat I can barrow?

for all my paintballers out there

Project day

My mom wanted a sofa table and made one a few years back so I thought I would make her one. This is about 4 hours worth of work and I still have a little more to do.

I will finnish up in the am and then take a huge nap for set-up and ufc fights.

Worship Music

Ok, I am at band practice (no I don't play) and I have to tell you, they sound great! It is so easy to worship during practice. Being in with the children every week, I rarely get to experience worship with the congregation and I miss that. So being here over the last few weeks has given me a chance to experience a part of what you guys get each week.

I have been doing Children's church for close to 15 years and most of that time it has been at single service churches, which means that I don't get to go to "big church". That's right, it has been 15 years since I have been in church! I love being at Discovery because Pastor Jason includes us in the sermon planning so I know what is going on and what is being preached. Other than that, I have to download our sermons and a few other sermons and listen to them. So I do "get my church on" just not the same way you may be used to.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what you have in store for this week at Discovery Church! I can't wait for what you are going to experience!

I'm meatatarian

I have no problem with vegetarians at all but I do have a question:

If they can have veggie-burgers and veggie-dogs, where is our meat-corn and meat-broccoli?

Why would they even want soy and veggies molded in the shape of our meat? I don't get it.

I will make a deal with ya, if you will not make veggies act like meat, I will not make meat act like veggies.

Flame on.

It's monday

It was a great weekend and the service's went well. Big Church talked about Sex! Little Church talked about friendship and we ended the evening with the Lord's Supper. I am guessing we had over 100 people there and our teens almost filled up 3 tables! I love the separated coming together for the Lord's supper. It is an effort as opposed to à la carte at the end of a service where the experience somehow feels weakened. When our PARTners left the house last night, they knew what and where they were going and they made a decision to attend and participate. I feel this is one more way we answer Jesus prayer for us to be united as one, like Him and the Father are one. Look at what Paul tells us here: 1 Corinthians 10:16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. God moved during our meal, our remembrance of Him and what He did for us and through the worship music afterward.

So that was great and now I am on to a new week and about to have "a date" with God and then plan the already too busy week: plan ahead for Children and Youth, a trip to New Bern to see Nicholas Sparks (just kidding Val, that was for you!) really to see my mom and uncle who has been in the hospital, accountability and staff meeting, dinner with friends, presentation for the Boys & Girls club, visit the DMV (pray for that one!), band practice, Plan for Sunday, Set-up and UFC fights Saturday night then onto another awesome worship service at Discovery Church. See, I told you it was busy! But in a good way.

I love my God, my Wife, my church and my work. What else could I ask for?

3 minutes till my date, I have to go now!

If my cat does this:

I am taping it shut and shipping it somewhere!

need I really say more?

Ok so we are two days into the week and I am somehow 3 days behind!

I don't know how this keeps happening. Well I sorta know. We took the youth to a lake and the mall on Monday since they had the day off school. It was way cool and I think everyone had a great time. There were about 10 of us.

In other news, we are down to one vehicle. Our Van gave up the ghost when Sheila bumped into the car in front of her. The front license plate was bent pretty bad and at $3.00 to replace it, we considered the van a total lose. Seriously the damage wasn't that bad but towing, 2 replacement air bags and the new front end would be way more than the 200,000 plus mile van was worth. So we are down to our truck that has no third gear. Hey second is way underused anyway! I will fix it in a week or so.

Church has been real good. I am loving working with the kids and teens more and more these days. I want to be able to do so much more in both ministries, if only we had the funds and the time/help. Please pray for these things for Discovery.

I have neglected my blog (but hey, so has everyone else!) because of Facebook and work but I am trying! We use facebook now as a main connection hub for our youth. They all seem to get it. I am also trying to figure out this whole twitter thing. I hate all this stuff but I guess I don't want to find myself being the last one on the bus again.

Well that is about all for now, thanks for checking in and reading by rants. I love you all and pray for most of you :)

Going to be a great Sunday preaching to ME.

I am excited about this weeks church. You see I preach to children in the morning and to the teens at night. This week during prep for these two messages I have found myself challenged and motivated toward God. I will never understand the absolution of God’s love. No matter how selfish I get, God still moves, loves and works. It is so easy to open, read and study God’s word out of obligation and totally forget that this IS HIS living word, alive and active and sharp! I think for me; I need to approach it with a little more caution. I never want to take God for granted or even carelessly acknowledge Him. He shouldn’t be spoken about in a past tense because He is present tense.

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skillz

Update

Tony my brother who 3 weeks ago had a major heart attack is possibly going home today. He called last night and claims to be feeling great. He still has a trach in his throat but the docs don't think it will be a problem.

He sounds like his is back to his old self (minus a few bad habits). There is no reason for this fast recovery except for GOD! Everyone told us that IF he came out of this, there WOULD be months of rehab. Some much for med school!!! I absolutely love it when our Creator makes fools of us.

As for me, I am finally catching up and getting back into the swing of things. I feel refreshed and ready to move forward. We have been working to better define what God has called us to be doing here in Greenville. We know what and why we are here: we just want a clear way to explain it to people. Why do we(us Churches) feel so compelled to explain, in just a few words, what God is doing when even God needed 66 books to explain?

Until next time: spend time with God.

For those of you at Discovery

If you still haven't converted to dog lover and admitted that dogs rule:

enough said!

http://faildogs.com/ may just be my new fav website!

blahhhh

Gloomy day, it is somehow heavy. How does that even happen. I try to focus but nothing, Things keep going wrong and this little demon puppy is into everything it's not pooping on. Can I get a redo?

But then, as I am typing this, the day turns at 7:58pm with the surprise arrival of a smoothie! All is right with the world again.

Learning to love

"take a look at a rose. Is it possible for the rose to say, "I'll offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people"? Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds it's rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in it's light? It could do that only by ceasing to be a lamp. And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives it's shade to everyone, good and bad, young and old, high and low, to animals and humans and every living creature-even to the one who seeks to cut it down. This is the first quality of compassion-it's indiscriminate character."

Not mine, better than I can say it.