Saturday, June 16, 2007

Goin' Home

Chris Daughtry has a great song that was used as the exit for this year's American Idol called "Goin' Home." In the song he states that after a while all these faces and places get old so I'm going home to the place where he belongs. I am up at 3:30 today. We will leave around 9 this morning to go home to Four Corners. I can't wait to be back home in my own... house, bed, chair, fridge, Tivo, etc. But most of all I can't wait to be back at my church. Last night, (Friday) I attended a Vacation Bible School in a great country church. My sister in-law Michele took the kids each night to her church and it is the perfect church for the people who go there. It is about a 30 minute drive down country roads full of chicken farms and abandoned barns. Someone has even marked each turn with John Deere green spray paint on the road. {Pictured above} I took a picture to prove it. However, as great as that church was, as friendly as the people, as sincere as the pastor might have been, it was not home. You need to know that I dream each night and the people that populate my dreams are the people of Cornerstone.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Tubing

Today we tube! In a few hours the family will wake up and we will go down to the river to tube. If you've never tubed down a river, it is a whole lot like sitting on a tire for two hours in the sun. For some reason the kids love it and best of all it is cheap Georgia fun. I do have my fears (The Movie Deliverance and snakes etc.) But I will do my best to get some pictures from Andrew's new camera uploaded later today.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Andrew's Birthday Golf

Andrew got a set of clubs for his birthday. Here we are at the driving range.

6 Years Ago

6 years ago this week God rocked our world. Today is Andrew's birthday and his birth marks a monumental shift for our family. I guess the birth of any child can rock your world, Abigail was born after years of trying and the name Abigail Grace is the combination meaning Father's Joy + Unmerited Favor from God; However Andrew's was different. "Andrew" means warrior, and from the moment of his birth he was a fighter. One of the things I love about my son is that he is a tough kid. Yes he can be whiny sometimes, but he really is a man's man. He and I love to do tough stuff together and I can account that he can give and take a punch. We sat up last night and watched UFC and he told me he wants to grow up to be a police man. He tried to describe a story he heard of a kid who saved everybody from a bad guy on a plane, it was not 9/11 because he said the bad guy wanted them to take him somewhere. But he has a desire to grow up and use his strength to be heroic. I guess there is some of that in all of us. His first battle was for life, as he took his first breath while in the birth canal. As a result he had a hole in his left lung causing it to collapse. The typical birth scenario being altered when suddenly the room is full of Doctors. I still don't remember them being called. In a moment's time the room was full, then they took him away. In the NICU he stood out from the Preemies by his size, but we were only allowed to see him every few hours. I remember that I was reading the prayer of Jabez book at the time. A prayer for God to expand our border meant that we were asking Him to increase our faith. Andrew's difficulties increased our faith a great deal, and one of the results of that is Cornerstone. There is much more to the story, but it will have to wait for a better time. Today, I am going to train my warrior for his biggest opponent in life, himself.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Random thoughts from Vacating Pastor

  • A working vacation - Ministry stops for no man (or woman). I am taking a break with the family, but still getting a few hours in every day. With camp coming next week, I will be out of commission and need this break to get ahead on a few things.
  • Our team is great - Pastor Gabe told me yesterday that they planned the rest of the year out in staff meeting yesterday. I asked him if I was included in any of the plans. It is awesome to know that our leadership team is pumped about ministry and love to dream together.
  • A deer walked into the back yard last night during dinner. Andrew's first question is if he could shoot it with his air soft b-b- gun. He had been hunting for that deer all week long in those woods. Tomorrow is his 6th birthday and I got him a Jr. set of golf clubs. We will see if we can turn him to a more civil hobby than hunting poor innocent garden thieves.
  • Amy and I got caught on I-85 in a hail storm last night. It was the worst I have ever been in and we got hit by some big chunks of Ice. I have heard of golf ball sized hail, but when it is pelting your car it is scary. There were no dents, but it chipped the paint in a few spots.
  • We had dinner at Wades last night. We met my (ToTaLLy RaD ) little sister outside of Ashville at this restaurant. The food was okay, but the really work hard in selling themselves. The weirdest thing is that although they have over 15,000 guests each week, they still do not take credit cards. For someone who lives in touristville, and carries no cash that came as a shock. However they do accept personal checks. you can visit their website at http://www.eatatwades.com/ They have a pretty neat website that did get me to try it out.
  • We got to my brother's house at 11:30 last night. we will spend the morning with him at his new house here in Raleigh. He is awesome, and took time off to spend with us.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Just for Fun

Ever imagined me as a 5 year old, not just acting like one? My sister emailed me this old photo today that I will share. That is me in the groovy pants.

Monday, June 11, 2007

So I am on vacation and...

The Fam and I left after church yesterday for a few days visiting family. I am still trying to decide how much I want to vacate and how much I want to stay connected, so I blog to think. My first thought is that I would not blog anything official, and only post something fun every day. I don't know how things will go. I love what God is doing at Cornerstone, and I love blogging so I may end up blogging about church stuff anyway. Who needs a vacation from such an awesome church!

On a church note, please pray for Silvia Legget as her father passed away on Saturday following complications from heart surgery. She is a dear sweet lady and key team member here at CBC and is in need of our prayers at this time.

Kidnapped at Downtown Disney

FYI for all of you who frequent Downtown Disney. A couple was carjacked, robbed, and pistol whipped by three armed men. You can find the story here. I was reminded yesterday that we do live in a very safe area, but there many crimes that we never even hear about because of our distance from Orlando and Tampa. I struggle with how much news to post on this blog, but if it happens in Four Corners I will try to link to the news article. There was also a very odd attack that happened last week at the construction site on Tri-County Road. (the tall flags along US 27) You can read about it here. I don't want to turn the blog into a news paper, but considering the fact that our weekly papers are mostly ads and spread so thin, I will let you know what I can. In defense of the weeklies It is nigh to impossible to report such news as it is old before it goes to press.