The Way

So, it has been awhile since I have blogged. Not a good reason other than reacclimating to this side of the world took it's sweet time and either the trips are getting harder or I am getting older. Probably the latter. Last week was filled with being in town all week! What a treat. I really like my job but I also like being at home. The girls were home all week so it was good to be able to spend some time with them. It is weird that they come home just long enough to have us get used to them being around and then they are up and gone again. I know they are looking forward to this semester and were ready to get back among their friends. The week went pretty well. We attended a wedding Saturday night at The City Club in Nashville and it was really nice. Those of you who know me, know that weddings are not my favorite events, but this one was an exception. Our friend, Julie Burden, married Jason Crook who is fine young man to say the least. Sort of weird that she exchanged her last ...

Busy is the key word for the last couple of weeks for me. I am convinced that I do not work any harder than any one else does, but these past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Last week I flew to Orlando for Rock the Universe hosted at Universal-Orlando and got to see many youth leaders who God is doing some great things through their lives and ministries. Our friend Todd also got us on the new Harry Potter ride and it was pretty awesome. Along with hearing some great bands like the Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, Toby Mac, Skillet, and others I got to do an interview w/ John Cooper from Skillet . Great guy with lots of energy. That is the two of us in the pic to the right. I got home from Orlando Sunday afternoon in time to start setting up for our LifeWay National Youth Worker's Conference . What a great time to host youth leaders from across the country and even had a young leader from Malawi. How cool is my job that I get to minister to youth ministers and encourage them? Incredib...

Some of you know that Donelson Christian Academy is where our girls graduated from high school and many of you know of the devastating flood that Nashville experienced in early May. DCA experienced much flooding and for the last 2.5 months we have been in restoration phase to get the school back open for the '10-11 school year. An anonymous donor has graciously offered to match up to $500,000 in donations from now until September 1. Please consider giving whatever you can. You can donate here .

It has been a busy week for sure. Last Saturday was Morgan's Banquet/Prom and it was big fun for sure. She looked beautiful (that is a dad speaking, but really, the girl is beautiful and so is her sister) and Ethan looked pretty good too. They enjoyed all the pictures, food, dancing (I am not even sure they danced), bowling, food, and the company of the other DCA students and dates. Sunday morning early I flew to Boston, hit the expo, got the packet, shirt, walked around the expo exhibits, climbed in the car and headed to the hotel. Made contact with Ron Kramer, my BAA friend who takes care of me on race day, and Allyson Clark who was wonderful and provided transportation to the start and took me back to the hotel after the finish. She was a wonderful asset to the whole experience. Now let's talk the race - it is mostly downhill the first 16 miles, a series of 4 hills through mile 21 including the famous Heartbreak Hill, and then more downhill from 21-26. I felt decent at the...

What a great week of missions with the DCA students on the Honduras Mission trip. We partnered with Cristo Salva , a ministry of encouragement to the Honduran people, and ministered in a number of different ways. As usual, I came back more blessed than we were probably able to bless those there. Thirteen students, along with Kristen Folsom, and myself departed last Monday and returned late Friday night. It was a quick trip filled with food distribution, visits to schools, home visits, and services in the evenings. Hondurans meet at the church nightly to worship. The worship experiences were led by DCA students and God did some wonderful things to encourage the Honduran believers. Pastor Ray Marcos and Pat Havender hosted us via Cristo Salva and did a wonderful job of coordinating the many ministry activities we were involved in. I was chief truck driver and all around coordinator of packing and changing the flat tire. Coordinator is the operative word. The male students did a wonderfu...

Yesterday was a page turning day for the Turners. Morgan walked off the basketball court for the last time in her high school career. The DCA Lady Cats played their hearts out this season and especially yesterday in the state semis and came up a little short in the game. The final score was 58-56 and was probably one of the best games I have seen this group of girls play. They have nothing to be ashamed of at all. They left it on the court to use that old cliche'. I was proud, very proud as a fan of the players, coaches and the fans. I reserve my greatest pride for a girl that just happens to look like me, think like me too many times, and who showed me something in her that I thought was there, but have seen it blossom beautifully especially in the last few weeks. Number 21, Sr. Morgan Turner is one of the kids that I am not very objective about. She is ours. She leaves her stuff laying around the house, is notorious for leaving her clean clothes in the clothes basket to live out ...

This past week has been a good one. It has included long runs for marathon training, a trip to Orlando for the Youth Pastor's Summit and a DCA Lady Wildcats basketball win, as well as, a guys loss. A good friend and former boss lost his dad this past week and is burying him today. Pray for Joe and his brother Jerry please. Their daddy was a great guy and has left a great legacy for these two and their families. His daddy lived a long productive life and in many ways pushed on farther than many thought he could go. USA Hockey definitely went farther in the Olympics than many thought they would or even could. The DCA Lady Wildcats have pushed on through a couple of weeks of less than stellar playing but have won because they thought they could. They play in the state semi-finals tomorrow and if they win will play Sat for the state championship. I am proud of all the girls. Regardless of the outcome, they have been exemplary. At the most, Sondra and I will have a girl on the team for ...

Do you ever get caught up in the "doing life as it leads you along" mode to the point that you sort of wake up and say, "what just happened? or what happened to the past few days, months, and years?" I am not really there, but just wondered if you ever found yourself there. This past week has been fast and furious but it has involved no travel. I like that. Home is good. Actually wherever Sondra is with me is really good, but the past few days have been really good. Last weekend it was beautiful here in Nashville. Mid-60s in Feb. after the really cold few weeks we have had was wonderful. I found myself in the gym announcing 8 basketball games since DCA was hosting the DIIA East/Middle Region Tournament. I love ball and love a mic so I was pretty much set but it was a lot in a short amount of time. Saw some pretty good ball and both of our Varsity teams did pretty well. Our girls host a sub-state game this Fri. night and so I will be on the mic again. Our varsity guy...

Of course, if you have heard anything about Nashville in the last week, you know we had snow. Some areas got up to about 8" but my best guess is that we got about 5-6" at our house. I was at SE Conclave in Chattanooga Weds-Fri last week and got to drive home Fri during the snow storm. Saw about 10 wrecks happen and saw remnants of many more. Growing up in MO taught be one thing about driving in snow/ice. Drive slowly and leave plenty of room between cars. The normal 2 hr drive took 3.5 hours but I made it home safely. Fri night was sledding night with the Fullers and it was big fun. We were all like little kids out playing and sledding. No major crashes for any of us. A couple of funny things happened but they will go unsaid in detail here. Saturday was a long run in the snow where I ran and tried to catch a neighbor who was out and about on the greenway. I followed his prints and found him about 5.5 miles in. It was a slow, tough run but a good one. The training for Boston ...

Hard to believe that the first week of the new year has come and almost gone. I rung in the new year in bed early on new year's eve. I was fighting a cold and after a nice dinner at Rose Pepper's with Sondra, Shelbi and Morgan, we came home and just hung out. The weekend was pretty quiet but pretty cold for sure. I ended up doing my Sat. run on the treadmill at the Y. Monday I headed to New Orleans Seminary for Youth Ministry Institute and did a presentation on using social media in ministry. Focused mostly on 2 Tim. 4:1-5 and the importance of staying true to the call and using social media as a tool and not the message. It is easy to get caught up in all the technology and waste time and not fulfill the ministry God has called us to do. I am always challenged and encouraged by my friend Dr. Allen Jackson who has done a great job in training youth ministers at NOBTS for 15 years. I got up on Tuesday and did my run workout which included 9 miles and 5x800s mixed in. It was much...

I just realized that I have been remiss in blogging this past week and can only chock that up to being lazy. No excuses on my part. I have been on vacation and guess that has translated into vacating from blogging. The past week has been very good and Christmas was great for us. We hosted a couple of families who families live out of state for a Christmas Eve meal. Both of the wives were pregnant and could not travel. One of the ladies, Trisha has had her baby since that time and Olivia is doing well and you can catch up with them here . The other lady is due mid-January. We had a great time with them and their little guys who are 2 and 1.5 yrs. Christmas morning was just the Turners and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The girls pretty much knew what they were getting for Christmas because they had picked out "all" of their presents. At least they thought they had picked all of them out. I pulled a little surprise with a North Face backpack each that they had been wanting fo...

It would be nice if that meant it was "slow down time" but in most cases, it means, "turn it up because there is a lot to accomplish." I headed to Orlando last Thurs. for the annual student meeting with NAMB and enjoyed my short time with them Thurs and part of Fri. I love those guys and their heart for God and for students. I really cannot believe God lets me do the stuff I get to do. The weekend was extremely busy with ballgames on Friday night (I love announcing our home games and have a great court-side seat); haircut, neighborhood brunch, SEC championship game on TV with good friends Keith and Laurie D, and the late showing of The Blind Side. What a very good movie and to all the Alabama fans, good win against Florida. I am not a fan of either team but do like Tebow and his stand for Christ. Sunday was filled with Community Cares with Morgan and the student council from DCA. We worshipped at a local methodist church and the Rev. Pat did a great job with the Mi...

The last 9 days have been up and down for me. Morgan's team qualified for the state soccer playoffs and hosted Knox Webb on Sat. You know that I chose not to run Detroit on Sunday since it would mean I would have to miss the game on Saturday. The DCA Lady Wildcats soccer team played one of the best games I have seen them play and fell to the visiting team 1-0. It was a very good game and Morgan played especially well. It was sad for her and us for the team to lose but it was good that she went out leaving all of her best game on the field. Tears were shed but a late lunch/early dinner at Big Bad Wolf helped ease some of the sting. Having done marathon training the past 16 weeks, it was really weird not to run this Sun. and I began to try and find a race I could run that was not to far away or too far away from the race date I had been training for. A search revealed that Richmond and San Antonio ran on a weekend that I did not have an obligation so then it became trying to figure ...

Those of you who know me well or follow me on twitter know that I really enjoy 24 or as it is known at our house, "the Jack Bauer power hour." The season finale is on tonight between 7 and 9 cdt so if you call, more than likely I will not answer. You may notice the title of the blog entry is 24 and one week but that actually refers to my beautiful bride rather than the tv show. We celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary last Monday and are now one week into our 25th year. What a blessed guy I am. Last week was a good one with me being home almost all week. I did drive a fan of 7 folks over to Ridgecrest for FUGE Program Training and had a great time with those leadership teams who will be at numerous locations ministering to about 55,000 students and adults this summer. I am amazed how God brings these folks together and how hard the FUGE office team works to get the right folks in place. We have been asking God for His favor and early indications are that He is honoring tha...