I´m in an internet cafe in Costa Rica. The keyboard is a touch different. But it´s been cool here so far. I mean literally cool. Not hot like I thought it would be. Today was lots of construction. Lots of buckets of wet concrete while standing on a board 4 stories up. Then lots of shoveling dirt and rocks over and over and over. Probably will be quite sore tomorrow.

Had church last night. Seemed kinda charasmatic. Didn´t hear any tongues though I don´t think. Of course they could be speaking in tongues and I´d miss it becaue I´m in a foreign land. But then the little guy (he was a dwarf…honestly) started in on some prosperity theology. Seemed kinda hokey, if you ask me.

Plane ride was okay. Only got about 15 min of sleep at all Tuesday night. So I was on fumes for a while. But all is good now. Will prob be sore tomorrow. But please be in prayer if you happen to read this. Just that we´ll be used by God for His purposes.

I’ve never been out of the country except to Mexico when I was a senior. That was quite a trip in itself. Maybe a Memory Lane post about it sometime.

But in a few days I’ll be leaving to go to Costa Rica for 9 days. Church here has gone the last 5 years. We’ll be building a church and doing some VBS. I’m really looking forward to the trip. And the people going. Get to further some relationships and invest in some new ones as well. But hopefully we’ll be used by God for His ministry down there.

I don’t want to take a mission trip just so I can go on a trip. Or do I? Do I need to really sit and pray and think on that? Even this trip to England I am prob going on next Spring…am I wanting to do it for the Mission aspect or for the “go to England” aspect? I really would like to visit (live) there for a while. So why not do some mission work there as well? Still have a lot of thinking to do on that regard.

But leaving the fam here for over a week will be hard I think. But we’ll be able to talk, US to Costa Rica. And hopefully I’ll be able to take pics and get them on a website quite easily. We’ll see.

Appetizer
What is your middle name? Would you change any of your names if you could? If so, what would you like to be called?
Blake. Nah, I think I like my names. Some are family orriented.

Soup
If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most?
Burlap

Salad
What is your least favorite chore, and why?
Painting. I just hate it.

Main Course
What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life?

Failure….no.

Dessert
Where are you sitting right now? Name 3 things you can see at this moment.
I’m laying down. But I can see my hands, a cell phone, and a window to my back yard.

I’ve always wanted to go to England. I remember as a 6th grader we got pen pals in one of my classes. I wanted one from England. My pen pal was from New Castle on Tyne or something like that. I had just gotten a new typewriter for Christmas so I typed his letter on that. Can’t remember his name. But my teacher read it, suggested some corrections. But for some reason I never sent it. But I’ve always wanted to go.

As a senior I did some yard work for a lady who went to England a lot. She told me she could hook me up with some people to stay with. But I never pursued it. In college I watched Real World-London. Loved it. Furthered my desire to visit.

Since then I’ve found there are other places I really would ike to visit. New Zealand being one of those. It’s something about those funny little accents. The history of the places. Differences in culture, yet I can still speak the language!

I met a guy a few weeks ago. Grew up in Clinton. Just graduated seminary. Leaving in a few weeks to go to pastor 3 churches abroad….in England. Nottingham, England to be exact. That’s right, the land of Robin Hood. He’s going to have a 3 church charge over there for a years time. My wheels got to turning.

MISSION TRIP is the first thing that pops to my mind. So now there’s one in the works. 15 people. 12 days. Let’s see if it happens.

Sometime my wife and I talk about other places we’d like to live. Florida always has been one of the nicer places. Usually warm. Lots of sun. Nice beaches. Low taxes I think. All that good stuff. She especially likes warm weather. But all this hurricane biz seems to put a damper on things, huh?

She actually went to college in Gulfport, MS. She said in her 4 years there she never remembered any ‘Canes hitting. Now it seems like there are a handful every year. My interview for the job here was almost sidetracked because of Ivan last fall. Crazy times, if you ask me. I’d still move to Florida though. I’d move a lot of places that might seem less than ideal.

Of course I’d LOVE to live in Colorado or Oregon or maybe even Washington. I think North Carolina is on that list too. Many places I’d like to check out for more than a tourist feel. And those are only the domestic locations. I could list you a small handful of places I’d love to visit and possibly live outside of the US.

I should be sleeping.

I went to sleep earlier than I ever have since I was a teenager last night, I think. Nine:fifteen. How’s that? Not really tired anymore, but a little stiff. After Driving for what seemed like 18 hours in a 36 hour time span when you consider traffic jams and wrong turns PLUS almost no sleep at all, I was a worn out boy when I got home finally from Destination X. After a Costa Rica meeting, a shower, then supper at The Hat, I went to sleep at 9:15. Probably the earliest I’ve gone to bed in 7 years or so.

Anyhoo…Destination X was a blast. Great travels, good traffic jams, fun times at Six Flags (Speed Pass rocks! Tweaking the Speed Pass system rocks even harder!!), driving around Dallas not knowing where in God’s world you are, …then Group Dynamix. It boasts the country’s largest indoor ropes course. After some warm up games and pizza, we hit the upper levels.

I was a bit surprised at the freedoms they gave us. But most everyone tried something and almost everyone did most things. I have pictures that I’ll put up on here really soon. But this was designed for a lock in, so after a time of worship and a short challenge at 2am, the inflatables were inflated and soccer, basketball, jousting, ping-pong and just about whatever else ensued. Along with movies on mega-giant-humongous beanbags. I think the average ammount of sleep gotten was probably about 2.3 hours. Some got none. Some got more. But everyone’s attitude was still good despite the lack of sleep.

It was a great trip. 39 of us in 2 vehicles. My hope is that we built some more community and will continue to build upon that. God was good to us. No one was hurt except Whit who fell because he made us all late because he wanted one more Six Flags ride.

Ok. I’m hooked.

I remember seeing the previews for the new show LOST back in the summer. Looked like it would be quite an interesting show. But it came on at 7pm on Wednesdays. Right smack in the middle of my church activities. No way around it. And our VCR couldn’t record that channel either. So I resigned myself into seeing if it would be around. I could get back in time for Alias at 8, but I always had to miss the last few min of LOST so as not to ruin the show if I actually ended up watching it later.

I caught the 2nd episode a few weeks back. Was a little lost myself (ouch, bad humor) but got semi hooked. But I’ve found the other episodes on the net now and have been watching most of them. I’m about halfway through the season now. I’m hearing that some of the writers/produces may have taken on some other projects, so I’m not sure if the quality of the plot will be maintained. But I aim to keep up.

There’s crazy stuff on that island.

I’ve been more than absent. But life has been full. But my goal isn’t coming true.

I think everyone who blogs hopes to have some sort of readership. I guess to do that you have to have something worth reading though. I’m not aiming for huge numbers and tons of links back to me. That’d be silly. But just a group of friends who I can share a slice of life (or a small twist of it) with over the internet. Some I may know “in person”, others through the keyboard. But I know that writing consistency is needed for such a thing.

But today is the Fourth Of July. The birthday of our great country. Also the birthday of Alaska and Hawaii. Spent the day at the gym, at the pool, and in the back yard. Might go check out some fireworks in a a few hours. There is a big 4th celebration here in Clinton. Supposed to be well attended by the peeps of the place. We’ll see.

Starting to read Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard. Started it once before but never got moving throught it. It’s one that takes a chewing to get into really well. But has had great reviews of it from Amazon readers (the 2nd link in the title. I hope to be challenged and have some things to share back with.

Still no pics. Sorry. But the camera needs to find its way out of a box. But now we’re home owners. Woo Hoo! It’s really a great house. We looked at tons of houses since last November. And a few looked “right” but the price wasn’t just “right”. We actually made an offer on a house about a month or so ago, but it didn’t work out. Probably good that it didn’t. Now I can throw a rock from my backyard into that house’s backyard. And I don’t have that great of an arm (feels like I injured it w/o having ever done anything to it.)

After closing on Friday, Saturday was spent moving. My dad/stepmom helped a ton. I mean a huge ton. And then after lunch we had a host of Clintonians come by to help out too. Since Saturday night we’ve been figuring out where things go and trying to get them there. Been changing plugs on dryers too (house still hasn’t burned down!) The backyard is HUGE. We could raise some livestock back there. But it’s not the most level of yards. Guess it could make for some interesting football games.

Now we’ve got a garbage disposal again. Missed that in our rental house. We’ve got water pressure! That’s awesome. Huge tub with jacuzzi jets. Garage. Extra parking spaces in the drive. At the end of a cove. Purple room for the girls (when I told Addie we were moving from Amory, I told her she could pick the color of her room. She wanted purple. Sweet! We don’t have to paint that room now!)

Lots of little things about the house that are nice.

Friday morning we closed on the house, then spent the rest of the day getting things ready for the move. My dad got here that night and then the moving began the next morning.

So since then we’ve been w/o internet since Friday night. Lots has happened w/ the move since then. Give me a day and hopefully I’ll have some pics of the new house up and all. Things are starting to get settled. Most boxes have been unpacked.

Til then…