Thanksgiving

It has been a great week off from work. Got home late Sunday night from 4 days in Atlanta at the YS Youth Worker's Conference. It was great to see many old friends there and to meet some new ones. I love being around youth ministers and leaders and the FUGE team I got to work with is just too cool.

On Monday it was nice to be at home, hang out with my mother-in-law who is with us for a couple of weeks, watch Morgan play ball and just be home. On Tuesday I headed to Memphis to catch up with a good college buddy and watch Memphis and UCA play. Got to spend time with another good friend, Mike Priest who is a buddy of mine from LifeWay who is now pastoring in Bartlett. So fun to see those guys, watch some basketball and just hang out.

Drove home on Weds. and immediately started cleaning gutters, raking leaves and changing out some burned out floodlights on the corner of the house. It was a beautiful day in Nashville and
nice to be outside. Sondra's sister and brother-in-law and their three kids arrived yesterday too and we have a good time with them.

Just finished our Thanksgiving lunch, watching some football and enjoying hanging out. So much to be thankful for. Including a couple of pics from lunch today that I hope you will enjoy. You will notice Natalie in the pic of the four girls. She is a friend of Shelbi's at college and lives in Colorado and spending the weekend with us. So glad she is here too.

Count the White Team Passes

Sometimes I enjoy these kinds of awareness exercises. Makes me wonder if I really pay attention to what people say and do. See if you can count the # of passes the white team makes.

New Implications for Youth Ministry

The company that I work for has developed something new for the XBox. Glad I work with folks who want to get the Word to people in multiple formats and experiences.

Richmond Marathon Report

Flew out of Nashville early on Fri. via Atlanta to Richmond. It was a dreary, rainy day in Richmond on Friday and a little cool. Met up with Kelly Davis and his wife, Sarah their son, Samuel at the Expo at 11a. Picked up all the race stuff, a couple of PowerGels and then headed to a nice little Italian restaurant for pasta. It was a nice meal at a good price and then we headed to theDavis' home. Kelly is a ministry buddy of mine who works for the IMB and had graciously invited me to stay with them on Fri. night.

Pretty much laid around most of the afternoon and then we headed out to PizzaFusion for a little more carbo loading. I dined on the organic 4 cheese, sun-dried tomato pizza w/ wheat crust. It was very good for sure. We headed back to the house in the rain and watched some football and then headed to bed.

Morning came early and I ate a bagel and drank plenty of water and gatorade. Kelly was running the half-marathon and his race started at 730a so we headed out about 615a. Found a place to park just up the street from the finish line and he took off for the start which was about 4-5 blocks over. I hung out in the car for awhile and then headed toward the start a little after 7 looking for a hotel lobby w/ a bathroom. Found a nice Hilton Garden Inn and hung out there until about 745a and then found my way to the start.

The race started promptly at 8a and I settled in w/ the crowd around me and finished w/ a 3:44:22. All in all, a pretty good race. I never pushed myself too hard, enjoyed the beautiful fall scenery and the course runs through beautiful neighborhoods, along the greatly swollen James River, back through town and VCU and out through another couple of nice neighborhoods and then finishes on a big downhill back in town.

A good day with good weather, misty and 50s at the start and a north wind of about 10mph. It did warm up some but about the time it got too warm, we turned back into the north wind and cooled back down.

Blessed to be able to run. Thankful for the ability to get out and exercise. Thankful for my family allowing me to go run these crazy things too. If you are a runner, I would encourage you to train for and run Richmond sometime. Good course, organized well and very scenic.

On a sad running note - just went online to register for Boston and it is closed. Hard to believe it filled 5 months out. Looks like my qualification may go unused again this year. Think of the money I will save however. :-)

Been a Busy Week

Finished up the Biblical Worldview class at NOBTS on Sat. and had a great time with the students. On Sat. afternoon I traveled to Picayune, MS and spoke at FBC, Picayune Sunday morning, KNOWN training in the afternoon and then spoke in the p.m. service. It was a great time with them. FBC has a great staff and beautiful facilities. The parents and members were very receptive and it was a very good day with them.

I flew back to Nashville on Monday and was glad to get out of there before Hurricane Ida/Tropical Storm Ida decided to make landfall. All in all the storm moved east, deluged the Florida Panhandle and is still churning over the mid-Atlantic.

I am to run Richmond Marathon on Sat. and praying the rain moves on out of there. I have run marathons in the rain before and it is not just a whole lot of fun. I fly over early tomorrow, meet up with some ministry friends from IMB and work a little on the Romania Mission trip I lead Dec. 11-20. Pray for that trip and the planning leading up to it please. Lots to get done.

Got a call from a nice young man that Shelbi has been seeing some and he asked for official permission to date Shelbi. I was greatly impressed with his courage, character and honor. I sure can see why he is interested in Shelbi. She is an incredible young lady and we look forward to getting to know Mark better.

Morgan is in the full swing of basketball and their season kicks off next Tuesday night. I look forward to being on the P.A. again for the home games. Good seats and can't beat the price.

Sondra is doing well. I am so incredibly blessed to have the family that I do. I will try to get a report up on Sunday or so about the race this weekend. Looking for a same day finish and anything 4 hours or less will be good, but if it takes longer, I am good with that too.

Also attended the Nashville Veteran's Day Parade yesterday and so very thankful for those who have served and are serving in our Armed Forces. God bless those who have served, are currently serving, and may God continue to bless America!

Mid-Week Update

We enjoyed the Vandy/GA Tech game on Saturday night with our friends Keith and Laurie. We do not get with them enough, but every time we do, it sure is good. Sunday ended up being a fairly busy day with teaching sunday school, worship and then some good yard work. With the rain and wind that we had on Sat. our leaves decided to part ways with the trees and become a new carpet on the ground. I raked for awhile and then mowed the lawn. Sure looked nice for about 30 min. before more leaves decided to fall.

This week has been busy with many meetings at work, but the evenings have been at home. Very nice for sure. I head out tomorrow for New Orleans and am teaching a Worldview class at the seminary. It will be alot of work and alot of fun. Always thankful when I get the opportunity to teach and I get to spend time with my former boss, Dr. Clyde Hall. Clyde sure invested in me a lot and I am always thankful for any time I get with him.

Sondra, Morgan and Shelbi are all doing well. Sondra is subbing all week, Morgan has started basketball practice for school and Shelbi is becoming a professional, intramural athlete and still keeping her grades up. She also has discovered a young man at Union and they seem to be spending some extra time together. We have met him but not spent much time with him. From the father's skeptical eye I am thinking he is "okay". Our motto at the house has been for years, "boys are bad" but I am adding this, "but young men are okay." You dads out there know what I am saying.

The Romania mission team is gearing up and plans are well under way. We will be serving in Braila, Romania from Dec 11-20. There are 18 of us that will be going.

Please be praying for a couple friends of mine; Dwayne Ulmer is a good friend and ministry buddy and his wife, Bev, passed away this a.m. after a long, valiant struggle with cancer. Pray for Dwayne and his three sons. Another friend, Keith Loomis, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer and is consulting with drs. later this week. Wonderful friends who are in some major times of crisis right now.

On a much less serious note, only 9.5 days until the Richmond Marathon. I think I am about ready.