Appetizer
What are your plans for the upcoming weekend?
High school football game. Yard sale. Maybe a movie.

Soup
Who was the last person you talked to on the telephone?
Um, Melinda. An old friend who just happened to move to where we’re moving to soon. So I was getting some real estate info from her.

Salad
Name a hobby that you’ve tried but eventually gave up for some reason.
Skateboarding. Looked cool. But didn’t give it the effort to learn to board.

Main Course
What is the most important personality quality in a mate?
That they love the Lord.

Dessert
Why is the sky blue (be creative with your answer)?
Because God’s favorite color, Maroon, would look a little funny.

You look at your house and see things that you need to do to it. Little things here and there. But not things that are pressing.

Then you need to sell your house, and you think all of those things have to be fixed RIGHT NOW! They’ll get done, but I have to be a little more wise with my time. My wife can get about 3 days worth of stuff done in a day. I can do a days worth of stuff in 3 days. We gotta meet in the middle somewhere.

I’m going to throw together a web page for people to look at our house. The web address will go in the ad we’re putting in the local paper next week. Hopefully it will get a few looks.

But time is now of the essence.

Well…I said we had some big news.

We’re moving.

I’ve been here in this town for all my life. That’s a long time to me. Yes, I’ve been away at college some and working at different camps in the summer. But this place has been home to me for a long while.

But we’re leaving to go to a new church. I’ll be the youth minister there after being here at this church for eight years. It wasn’t an easy decision. It wasn’t something that we decided on a whim. But after a lot of prayer and thought and prayer and wrestleing with it…we think that this is God’s direction for us…and we’re being obedient.

I told my pastors on Thursday. It was a nervous time. It surprised them and caught them a little off guard. But they said it was a good opportunity for me and that I was going to a good church.

We told the kids Sunday night. I had a lesson on God’s call and how He called many different people from where they were to go somewhere else. Then I told them that I was feeling a new call. Told them we were leaving soon and how difficult it was to tell them that. I was met with blank stares. Absent of emotion. But slowly the tears crept in and a little sinffles here and there. We ended in prayer and most came and gave me a hug. Some said words of encouragement, others just cried/hugged and left. It was tough. I mean tough. Hands down the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

We were leaving church and talking to the pastor in the ally that runs between our two buildings. Then some parents found me and talked to me in the ally. Some pretty aggressive. “Why are you doing this? Are you feeling pushed out? Is someone in the church doing this to you?” No. No. No. It’s truly a feeling that this is a move of God. Not everyone always understands that.

Later that night I went to a parent’s house to talk w/ her some more. A handful of kids were over there. One said that it’s not sunk in yet. It really hasn’t to me either. To think of moving after all these years here. And going to a bigger city/church/group/etc is a big step too.

So I ask for your prayers. Baby’s coming. House selling. Home finding/buying. Ministry leaving. All that wrapped up in the next few months.

Back from the ashes…

Appetizer
What sound, other than the normal ringing, would you like your telephone to make?
A voice to say, “Hey, _________ is calling!”

Soup
Describe your usual disposition in meteorological terms (partly cloudy, sunny, stormy, etc.).
Mostly Sunny

Salad
What specific subject do you feel you know better than any other subjects?
My bowel movement schedule.

Main Course
Imagine you were given the ability to remember everything you read for one entire day. What books/magazines/newspapers would you choose to read?
I’d try to read as much of the Bible as I could cram in there in 24 hours. Talk about scripture memory!!!!

Dessert
If a popular candy maker contacted you to create their next candy bar, what would it be like?
It would be like the Whatchamacallit. Is there a better candy bar?

Last night we all went out to eat after I screwed up our house’s electricity. We were supposed to go to a wedding, but couldn’t get ready because I was trying to be Mr. Fix It and replace some old electrical plugs around the house. I ran into an interesting outlet that didn’t look right. I’d been working with white/black wires…but ran into a red one. But I figured I’d better hook it up the same way…and it somehow turned all the electricity off to the whole house. More on that later.

After supper we ran to LifeWay and then to BooksAMillion. We looked at books (duh) around the store. The Kid ended up finding me in the magazine section. I was looking at an XBox magazine on one of the benches. There were two guys on a bench next to me looking at mags as well. The Kid goes over and gets her a Reptile magazine. I figured she’d not have liked it, but she did. She cozies up next to me. Then she exchanges it for a Puppy magazine. Then gets quiet.

I’m reading about Halo2 and other stuff in the XBox mag. Then she says, quite loudly, “Boys don’t wear earings!” I asked her what in the world she was saying. So she said it again, “Boys don’t wear earrings!” I looked to my right and noticed the guy there had his ear pierced.

I wasn’t sure how to handle it, so I just laughed out loud. I think the guy did too. But it’s funny to see her associate earrings with girls only. I guess that’s the general norm here where I live. But I see nothing wrong w/ a guy and a pierced ear. I probably will never do it. But I think it looks cool on some guys. My wife wanted me to get my ear pierced once….way back. Maybe I wasn’t cool enough for her back then or something?

I later asked my daughter if I should get my ear pierced. She just giggled and shook her head.

Lots of stuff been on my mind lately.

Not sure I can post it all right now.

But expect some news soon.

Appetizer
How are you today?
I feel really stressed for some reason, but I couldn’t really tell you why. Pray for me.

Soup
Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.
Survivor, The Complex :: Malibu, ER

Salad
What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?
Weather doesn’t really scrare me. That might not be a great quality though. But probably when I was about 11 or so maybe and got caught in a hugh thunder/lightning storm while in a cove up at Pick Wick. I was in a ski boat. Sail boats were having their masts struck by lightning. And other boats were sinking around me. Even though it was a scary situation, I still wasn’t that bothered. I think at this point in my life, I’d be more concerened about the safety of my family than my own.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?
New Zealand or Australia probably…though England is calling my name too.

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep?
When it’s warm, just boxers. When it’s cold, tshirt and boxers.

I had to leave town yesterday for the day. Thankfully I was able to leave town before it got messy here and return after it cleared up. Seems Ivan spit some nasty rain and wind our way. Lots of limbs and debris down all over the place. But nothing at all in comparison to what hit the AL coast and FL panhandle.

We have vacationed in Gulf Shores where Ivan hit shore. And we went to Destin earlier this summer too. Both of those places were hit very hard. I’ve not seen any Destin pictures, but the pictures of Gulf Shore and neighboring Orange Beach are horrendous. Entire condos smashed. Literally smashed. Trees ripped up. Lumber scattered everywhere. Amazing.

As I said, I was on the road yesterday. I stopped for some gas and Coke/M&M’s once. The lady behind the counter was talking loudly about the storm with a customer. The area I was in had only received a slight drizzle, but the forecast had been uncertain a few days before. This lady was proclaiming, “I knew nothing was going to happen here with this storm to us. I knew the good Lord was going to take care of us. He wasn’t going to let no Hurricane bother us.” And the customer was just nodding and saying, “Right…right.”

But I wonder what the folks who don’t have a home now are saying. Or the people who can’t get to their house to check on it in order to see if it’s even still there. I wonder why people who dodge danger always thank God and seem to boast, “I knew He wouldn’t let nothing happen to us.” But the folks who get hammered just have to cry out for restoration. Of course they prayed for safety before the storm hit.

Did God hear those prayers too? Sure He did. It’s just a mystery to me how everything works out.

Last night I was at church w/ the youth. We played a game then I introduced the topic of the night. While talking a bit, I thought I noticed some flashes out of the window behind me out of the corner of my eye. Popped in the video. It was a pretty good one. Towards the end I noticed the lightning again. Remembered my windows were rolled down.

So I slip out and go roll them back up, come back and the video’s almost over. Turn on the lights and start the discussion. Someone says, “Is that lightning?” I tell them that it is, but it’s barely thundering and no rain at all. So then it starts flashing a lot as we’re trying to have a discussion. Then the lights go out. Everyone pulls out their cell phone to light the room. I think the lights will come on again shortly maybe. But then I see flashlights bobbing down the hall.

Some dads were outside because we were about done for the night and saw the lights go out. They come up and tell us that they’re not coming on anytime soon. So we all go downstairs and look out the front door. It’s raining now….big time! Like sideways rain, and tons of lightning and tons of booming thunder by this time.

Roads are flooding because it can’t drain fast enough. Some parents come get their kids, but the drivers are staying at the church to wait it out a bit. It passes pretty quickly, lights come back on, people slowly leave. But there are limbs down everywhere. People across the street from us had a tree in their roof. We got sticks everywhere. But it came all of a sudden and left all of a sudden.

Strange weather we’re having. More on the way.

I am taking two classes sememster online. Asbury has a pretty cool little setup with it all. But taking two classes is going to be a load for me. I think it’s definatly doable, but I’m going to have to budget my time well to make sure I do better than decent with the classes.

One class sent me a box full of video tapes. I’m supposed to watch all these lectures of our teacher. This will go on for the first half of the class. Thing is, he is very Chinese. He’s not very easy to understand at first, but once you get into his speech rhythm it’s not so bad. But he seems to say a lot of words in order to communicate a shorter idea. Makes me wish I’d chosen someone else for this class. I had the choice of three different teachers, but I knew nothing about any of them.

The other class looks to have lots of reading involved. But some small group stuff set up too with some pretty specific accountability questions to be tackled. At first I was thinking that football season is a bad time to be taking two seminary classes, but seems that I’m not going to have lots to cheer about or obsess about with State. They got spanked by Auburn this weekend. We’ll spank Maine next weekend, then each game after that we’ll have to play really well for a win. I mean really well. Croom’s going to make a winner out of this team, but it’s going to take time. No quick fixes.