North American Mission Board Commissioning Weekend

What an honor it was to be commissioned as a North American Missionary. It was a very invigorating and humbling experience. We were in Greenville South Carolina from Thursday through Sunday.

Friday morning we started out by being grouped with people who are ministering in the same type setting. Laura and I were grouped with the other Chaplains and spouses that are or will be ministering to our soldiers. I love the way God works. Two of the couples that we met are going to be at basic at the same time that I will be there. One of those families is also going to be based at Ft. Hood, TX with the 1st CAV. Wow, God is so good!

We also met other wonderful couples that are Chaplains to truck drivers, policemen, firemen, politicians and at hospitals. We met missionaries and church planters who work in casinos, on collage campuses, with cowboys, with Harley riders and other lost Americans who may never enter a traditional church.

While in Greenville we were able to be with Dr. Frank Page the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. I loved seeing his heart for his church, for all the missionaries of the SBC and for the SBC as a whole. We also had the opportunity to be in the homes of some of the church members of Taylor's First Baptist Church. What a privilege it was to be invited into their homes and lives. We were hosted by two couples. It was a blessing to meet these wonderful people and be able to share with them the things that God is doing in our lives. It is also wonderful to know that they will be praying for us as we are outside the walls of the church sharing Christ.

Wow, may I just say that God has some good people serving him in capacities that amaze me. I praise God for godly men and women serving Him wherever He leads them. I also praise God for having had the opportunity to meet all the people we did.

Not only was it wonderful to meet and make new friends but it was good to see family and old friends again. My parents and brother were able to make it to the service along with some dear friends who live in GA. We even got to see friends we knew in GA who had moved to SC and happen to be members at Taylor's FBC. What a wonderful time it was to be with new friends and old! (Can you tell that this was a mountaintop experience for me? I left Greenville all fired up; watch out!!)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!

You Know You Are In The South When...

Last week I did the funeral for my maternal grandmother in Georgia. We drove down to Georgia on Wednesday for the Thursday 14:00 funeral.

Thursday morning, we went down for the continental breakfast offered by our hotel. Laura noticed that everyone was greeting us. She told me that they must have really trained their staff well. I told her it was not the training, instead it was that we were in the deep South. That is the way things are done there.

We also went out to eat and experienced another Southern thing. I was ordering my drink, and I asked if they served tea. "Yes!" I asked the waitress what I would get if I ordered tea. "Swwweeeet Teeaa!" That is just the way things are done in the South.

You know you are in the South when...

1. Everyone says hello, even though they do not know you.
2. You order tea and you automatically get sweet tea

It has been too long since we have been back to our old stomping grounds, the deep South.

Latest News

You guessed it; hurry up and wait! I got an email this week informing me that I should have my papers to be sworn in, my orders for basic and my orders for my first duty post by the end of the month. That is exciting! So when my wait is over, I will let you know.

From what I have read and from what others have told me, hurry up and wait is the way of the Army. God is working in my garden, helping me to produce greater fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-23a.

Reality Check

Well, I have a lot of work to do. I went running with a career Army man this week. (In my defense, I had not run in about a month or more and had the wild hair to go for a run with him.) It all started off fine until I reached 500 yards, LOL! Fortunately a hunting dog was in the middle of the that field we were running around and we stopped and walked home to his owners. After our delivery, we were "running" again. I finally limped to our turn around point. Oh my, I still had two more miles to go. When I was running on a regular basis, I would only run two miles. Things are not looking too good for the Chaplain. What was I thinking when I said I wanted to go running with him on a four mile course?

Well, needless to say, it was the slowest run the soldier had ever had. Most of the way back he was pulling me. Man, do I have a lot of work to do! However, he gave me a good piece of advice that I will remember:

"If you let your body tell your mind what to do, you will not make it. If your mind tells your body what to do, your body will follow." Okay!

I must say that it does work. The next day, I went for a run that was about 2.5 miles long, and I was hurting, especially after the run from the day before. My body kept crying for rest, but I had made up my mind, and I was going to "run" the whole way. I did it! I may not have been moving fast, but I was not walking.

It feels really good to do something when your body says you can't, but your mind says you can. Well, I am off for a run. I have to get in better shape before basic.

New Kid On The Block

Hello, all. Happy 2008 to you! Well, the reason for writing is to let you know about a new editor in our midst. No, I am not talking about the member of our church who just became the editor of our local paper; I am talking about my daughter.

The other day my daughter asked me if she could edit my blog. She told me she wished she could correct all the grammatical errors, and I laughed. (Way to make your dad feel good.) Victoria inherited a command of the English language from her mother's side of the family. So, I have said all of this to say that I am going to let her start editing my blog.

I must say that I am excited because this is a wonderful way to embrace the gifts that God has given her. It also allows her to experience a type of profession that may interest her later in life.

I hope you will enjoy our grammar lessons. (I am not sure who will be the teacher and who will be the student. Maybe, we will be both.)

Welcome, I hope you enjoy your assignments!

(If you readers catch errors, it will be because she did not edit the post.)

Great Gift

Laura is good to make me a list of things that she would like for Christmas. This year she wanted the Josh Groban Noel CD. Well, I had not gotten it and it was December 23. She kept going on about it so I knew that I had to get it for her. On the 23 we ventured to Wal-Mart. Laura was off getting a few groceries and Victoria and I were looking for the CD. I thought I was sunk. WE COULD NOT FIND IT!!! OH NO!!!

Finally after about 20 or so minutes of searching Victoria found a copy. PHEW! Now to pay for it and get it out of the store without Laura seeing it. We bought it in the electronics department and then Victoria hid it in her jacket and Laura was none the wiser.

Christmas morning it was the first gift that was opened. We normally listen to Christmas music while unwrapping and so we got started to Josh Groban.

I loved Josh's rendition of the song I'll Be Home For Christmas. It made me think of my friend Chance Mace who is serving God and Country in the Middle East. I was home for Christmas because of the brave women and men like him who willingly serve. Because of their faithful service I got to celebrate Christmas any way I wanted to.

I was home for Christmas because you all were not! I pray that next year you will be home for Christmas.

God Bless our troops! Thanks for all you do; I appreciate it! Thank you for the great Christmas gift!

Our Last

As we have been marching toward the Military Chaplaincy, we have been marking our journey with our last (everything) here. It is such a bitter sweet journey. We are so excited about the certainty of God's call into the Military Chaplaincy, but we understand that we have to leave this place, a place we love, to answer that call.

Sunday morning we had a church wide breakfast and a visit from "Santa!" (Thanks Ralph) Santa hands our gifts to all the little children and the church gives us a gift as well. This year we received a beautiful pewter server and a monetary gift also. All the gifts they have given us in our almost six years here have been wonderful. We use these gifts regularly and will use them for many more years to come. Following our time of food, fellowship and gift giving we had a short Sunday School lesson and were off to get a good seat for worship.

For worship, the children of the church presented their Christmas presentation. They did a FANTASTIC job!!! Just as FANTASTIC was the choir cantata that was the second part of our worship. What a great day of worship, fellowship and food!

Monday we had our last Christmas Eve Service here. Laura sang Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant and I spoke from Isaiah 52:7. I will remember this service for a very long time.

Laura and I thank God for allowing us to be here. We have had many great experiences here and that is why we are marking our journey and enjoying every "last." We realize that our journey leads us away from the warm embrace of those who love us here. This personal journey has made me ponder the reality for Jesus. He left the warm embrace of his Father and all the Heavenly beings to live among people, to love all people and to give himself fully to the call of God.

I am so glad that Jesus was willing to journey from the warm embrace of the Father to the warm embrace of Mary, Joseph, Simeon and all the others who have loved and accepted him.

I pray that God has experienced the warm embrace of your heart. May God bless your journey of faith as you seek to follow God's plan for your life.

I know that wherever we go we will find the warm embrace of others, but we are enjoying a little more time with some good friends. So I leave you with a picture of Victoria, Laura and Me as we were celebrating our last Christmas here.

I'm Thankful

Thanks to all those who left comments on my last post Ring I appreciate your words and well wishes.

While I am very excited about what is ahead, I am just as excited about the things happening at our church. I am so glad that things have worked out where I will be here until the beginning of summer. The extra time allows us the opportunity to get some things off the ground and running and to finish up some things that we have been working on. God has been working in all our lives and it has been wonderful to see. God is so good!

God has brought some good people into our lives. We have made connections with people in the church, at the local community theatre, and within the general community that will not end once we move from this place. What a wonderful blessing. As if God has not been good enough, He is giving us the opportunity to meet even more people who will undoubtedly impact our lives.

So, I say thanks to God for giving us the opportunity to be in a relationship with Him and man kind. I say a special thanks also to Laura and Victoria who make my life so wonderful, and I say thanks to all of you who have walked with us on our journey.

Now you know why I'm thankful.

Financial Hope

I was talking to someone recently and we were discussing my last post My Black Friday Is there hope for those of us who are in the deep red hole (debt)? Yes, there is hope!

My sister-in-law was doing Financial Peace University through her church. She and her children were visiting and she had to do some homework. Part of her homework was to watch one of the video lessons for her class. I happened to be sitting on the couch as she was watching and it peaked my interest. I saw how this course was helping her and I wanted help too. So I bought the course and Laura and I started going through it in April. May was our first month "on the plan".

So what is Dave's plan? The centerpiece is a written budget. Yes, I know the "B" word. I have to confess that I did not like the idea of a budget and was not certain about this zero based budget Dave Ramsey was promoting. Now, I LOVE IT! Basically the written budget is just the plan of action. With the zero based budget you spend every dollar on paper before you ever get it. You make the plan and then work the plan.

For a full explanation of Dave's "plan" you can pickup his books Financial Peace Revisited or The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan For Financial Fitness Both resources will help you no matter what your financial situation may be. For a wealth of resources and helps you can also go to Dave Ramsey's web site

God has blessed Laura and me through Dave's Financial Peace University. I believe God is using him, his life story and his ministry to give hope to all who will listen. Dave gives good sound financial advice based on Biblical understanding.

Can you have hope in the midst of debt? Yes! How? Make a plan and then work it. We personally have about $17,000 more dollars in debt to pay off, but we have a plan and we are working it every day, every week, and every month. You may think that you have too much debt and not enough income. Read Joel Maxwell's Story and you will be encouraged on your journey! There is HOPE!

My Black Friday

It has become a yearly ritual that Laura, Victoria and I go shopping on Black Friday. We live about an hour away from Richmond so we have to get up really early!! This year the alarm clock went off at 3:15 a.m. Of course the early wake up call was worsened by the fact that we did not go to bed until after midnight. We did decide to sleep another hour and then get up. So by 4:30 we were on our way!

Normally there are "have to get" things on our list but not so much this year. Because of upcoming expenses related to our call into the Army, we are having a "small" Christmas. Our shopping plan for Christmas: to buy Victoria one nice gift, three small gifts from Santa, modeled after the gifts the three wise men brought to Jesus (Yes, Victoria knows about "Santa" :-), and stocking stuffers. To buy Laura a few small gifts and stocking stuffers. To buy me stocking stuffers.

Stores on our list to visit while in Richmond: JCPenny, Target, Michael's, Pier One, Circuit City, Kohls, and breakfast at Chick-fil-A. Yummy!!

Here are a couple of differences about this Black Friday.

1. This year we were not standing in line for me. Usually we have to stand in line at Circuit City or Best Buy for something that I wanted. Not this year! It was great; I loved it!

2. I noticed that retailers were getting into the black while others were going into the red. So many people were using credit cards. We spent cash that we had been saving for Christmas. Wow! Cash, what a concept! (Dave Ramsey would be proud!)


Overall, Black Friday was a wonderful day despite the lack of sleep. Blessing to you and yours, and I hope your Black Friday was written in black not red!

Thanksgiving

Since we have Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve services at our church, it makes it hard to go home for the holidays. Since we were going to be in town for Thanksgiving, we were invited to Glenn and Joy Evans' home. We know Glenn and Joy through the Westmoreland Players, our local community theatre. Joy's brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Missie, were also there.

We got to their house about 2:00. They live right on the Potomac River, so their home is in a very picturesque location. We walked along the grounds admiring the flowers, trees, and waterfront. After returning to their home, we sat on the back deck enjoying the beautiful, unseasonaly warm weather, a family of swans, getting to know each other better, and lite appetizers consisting of crackers with a mild bleu cheese spread, hummus, and a garlic and herb spread. Yummy!

After enjoying appetizers and each other's company, we gathered at the dining room table and had our second course, soup. Missie had made Butternut Squash and Cheese Soup. Okay, so maybe it does not sound so good, but it was DELICIOUS!

For our third course, we had a green salad with dried cranberries and walnuts. For those who know me well enough, you know that I do not like cranberries. However, I have to admit that I really liked them on my salad. I used a light cranberry and walnut vinaigrette to add the final touches to my salad. There was also a choice of a poppyseed dressing. Is your mouth watering yet?

Our fourth course was filled with other wonderful dishes. Glenn and Joy had brined the turkey giving it a wonderful flavor and then spread herbs under the skin for even more flavor. It was nice and juicy. We also had sweet potato souffle topped with marshmallows, cranberry fruit salad, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, green bean casserole, dressing made with apples and roasted chestnuts, fresh broccoli out of Missie's garden, and rolls. I hope I am not forgetting anything.

For our fifth and final course, we had a choice between Missie's pumpkin pie or Laura's apple crisp. I chose a little of both. Don't forget the whipped topping on the pumpkin pie!

It may sound as though we stuffed ourselves. We did not. Since we took about 5 hours to do all this eating, we did not leave feeling like we were the stuffed turkey. Yes, I did say 5 hours. Laura and I agreed that we will have Thanksgiving meals like that in the future. We were able to enjoy each course, enjoy the fellowship and not worry about the time. It was a Thanksgiving memory for the books.

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? I am thankful for family, for friends who treat you like family, for good food, for good fellowship, for salvation, for having a life of purpose, for God bringing to mind all that I have to be thankful for. Thank you God for all the blessings you bestow on me and my family!

Victoria's Birthday Dance

So, where do all the years go? It is hard to believe that Victoria is a teenager. She is really making me old. Last year we had her biggest birthday surprise, a trip to Disneyland. Even though we normally take a trip to Disney World in the Fall, we had never been to Disney for her birthday. It was a magical birthday surprise, Disneyland style. She was really surprised, and we were able to make great memories together. This year her birthday was a little more low key. Laura and Victoria are acting in a local production of The Matchmaker so our schedules are worked around the play.

Since we are getting ready for the Army, we said that we were going to get Victoria one nice gift for her birthday and one for Christmas. I have attached a short video of her opening her gift from us. Do you think she likes it?

Yes, Victoria is more technologically advanced than her parents. She now has an iPod. She has been listening to her music practically non-stop. I am glad that she likes it. Was that a hip-hop routine we saw her do?

More Prayer Needed

Thanks for your prayers. When I went before the judge this morning all charges were dropped. Thank you God! God is so awesome!

I was scheduled for court this morning at 9:30, but I thought I was scheduled for 9:00. After getting there, I realized I was super early. So, along with many others, I waited. All the cases that were scheduled for 9:30 were finally let into the courtroom at 10:20. Many of us had been standing in the hallway the whole time. So, I was glad to be able to sit and wait. I thought I would have to wait a while for my case to be called, however, my case was the first on the 9:30 docket. WOW! God is so good! My day was starting off well; what else would this day hold?

How quickly things change, one minute on the mountain top and the next in the valley of shadows. By 10:35, I was on my way to the Medical College of Virginia to check on a young man from our community. Before I got out of downtown Hopewell, I received news that this young man died. He had been fighting for his life since a head on collision on October 13. He had just turned 19 in September.

Will you pray for the family and friends of Joe Beasley? They really need it! Prayer works, and I know your prayers will make a difference as all grieve and mourn the loss of this young man. Thanks!

Good Grief!

I got a call from my insurance company last week. The guy that "I hit" has gotten a lawyer and is suing my insurance company. GOOD GRIEF! It is obvious that this guy is trying to get something for nothing. I am so glad that I have good insurance. I am glad that I do not have to deal with these people directly. I would love to give him something to see the doctor about, but that is not very Christian. It is just so frustrating! I want to make sure that his car is repaired and his visit to the hospital is paid for. I am not trying to shaft him but he is trying to shaft me through my insurance company. I guess we will see where this goes over time.

This coming Thursday, October 25, I go to court about the accident and the ticket. The policeman who covered the accident was so nice, and he told me that he would try to help me out in court. I will take all the pictures of the accident and a written account accident. The officer told me that I may be able to get the charges dropped since I have a clean record. We will see.

Please pray if the Holy Spirit brings me to your mind on Thursday morning, around 9:00. I appreciate it.

The Good, Bad & Ugly

The Good: Paperwork done, again; my face to face interview is done.
The Bad: I had to do most of my Army Application again!
The Ugly: I was in a small accident.
Well that is the summation of my week.

I got a call this week from my recruiter and I had to redo a big portion of my application. The Army application process is in transition. Since I am on the cusp of the changes I had to submit my application under the new format. OOF! Oh Well. I Fed-Exed the paperwork today. So, what now? Hurry up and wait!

Yesterday, I had my interview with a Colonel Chaplain at Fort Lee, VA. I was with Chaplain James Walker (different from my recruiter who is Chaplain Dallas Walker) for about an hour and a half. We talked about things from why I wanted to be an Army Chaplain to what if I am not accepted as a Chaplain. He has been a Chaplain for 22 years and he gave me an opportunity to ask him questions. I asked him his advise for a new Chaplain. He said, "Be true to thyself." He went on to explain how important it is to stick to your beliefs and convictions. He indicated that most ministers are people pleasers and it is important to remember who we are to be pleasing, our Lord. Great interview. I do have something to do while I wait. Colonel James Walker asked me to submit a resume, a mini-bio and a written sermon. I will work on that while I wait.

Once I left the interview I went to the on base Uniform and Sales store to price all the clothing and equipment that I will be needing. I am trying to find some of the stuff on EBay and wanted to know prices before purchasing anything. I was trying on sizes etc. I have found some things on EBay that I will probably end up getting because they are cheaper. Buying it a little at a time is easier than having to buy it all when I get to basic. I hope to have all I need when I arrive at basic and to save a little money along the way. We will see.

Well, no need to prolong the ugly of the day/week. After I left the Uniform and Sales store I went looking for off base sales of Army equipment. Usually around the bases are stores that sell the same things and I wanted to price things there. I pulled through one strip mall and did not find anything. I was going to look at another strip mall, but before I could get there I was in an accident. I had stopped at a stop sign. To my right was an Army bus that was turning into a gas station. I looked and did not see anyone coming so I started through the intersection. Before I knew it there was a truck coming from my right and they hit me. It did little damage to either of the vehicles. It dented the bumper and knocked out the headlight on my car. They were in an old truck and it barely bent the bumper. What was crazy was they were both saying their backs were hurting. Before the police and rescue squad got there they were carrying on like nothing was wrong. As soon as the police and squad got there they said they needed to go to the hospital. GOOD GRIEF!!!! As you can tell from the pictures there was not a lot of damage to either vehicle.

The policeman and EMT's did not believe their little act. You can imagine how I felt about it. I did find out last night that they did not have any injuries and were released from the hospital. I am glad to know they were alright. I also found out that the passenger of the truck had a warrant out for his arrest. The policeman indicated that he was no stranger to the law. Not exactly how I wanted to help the police out, but...

My prayer is that they do not try to take me to court etc. Based on their actions yesterday, I bet that they have already contacted a lawyer. Time will tell.