The Way

I am thankful I get to do what I get to do. These past two weeks have been pretty fast and furious. On Father's Day afternoon, after church and lunch, I headed towards Chicago to speak at our World Changers project up there for the week. It was a great week of ministry. The crews that came did all kinds of work in the Chicago suburbs. I enjoyed speaking and getting to know so many. God moved in a pretty big way and there were 7 salvations of those in the area. God is that good. You can see some of the week's highlights here if you are interested. I headed home on Saturday and enjoyed some time with Sondra before she headed out on Monday to go be with her mom in Tulsa. Sondra's mom had back surgery almost 4 weeks ago and she seems to be doing fair, but not great. We are hoping for her to have another MRI to see what is causing the most recent pain. I am enjoying having Morgan home and Jordan is with us this summer. He is a recent Union grad and doing an internship he...

So why does someone with so much going on not stop and blog about it? Laziness and excuses come to mind. Since I last informed you of the Turner happenings - Morgan graduated from Union University w/ honors. She gets her looks and personality from me but thankfully her brains from Sondra.Wilson, her beau, graduated as well and I think we may see alot of him this summer. That's not a bad thing (for the most part). ;-) We moved Morgan home and moved one of her classmates in for a couple of months for an internship here in Nashville. The housing that had been arranged fell through and we have a spare room. Jordan is fun to have around and doesn't eat much. I have made a few trips but can't remember where I went so I guess it has been too much lag time since. Work is busy! World Changer and P2 Missions projects are up and running after 2 weeks of training. It was my first go around with the training part of getting summer staff ready. It is a very involved and focus pro...

Okay, so this was not a banner week for me knee wise but it sure has been a good week ministry wise. I was in the office Monday-Wednesday and then Weds evening through Sat mid-day was in Chattanooga for Southeast Conclave. It is a very well done event for youth leaders across the Southeast US and is a good time to connect with youth leaders. I led a breakout on Discipling Your Own and the thrust of the conference was to encourage youth leaders to minister and take care of their own families. I tried to make it really practical and share some highs and lows of some things we have done as a family. They tried to record the breakout but it messed up and unfortunately did not record. I spent about 45 min after the conference talking with parents and encouraging them. What a privilege and honor to share with them and hear their stories. So many are doing a great job and just need assurance to keep it up. I am home for about a week and a half coming up and I am scheduling an appointment ...

Seasons come and seasons go and I am reminded of Ecclesiastes where there is "a time for everything". The FUGE camp theme this summer is Kairos - meaning "a defining moment" and each day a certain Bible character and character trait are explored, expounded, and never exhausted. This theme has been impactful on me this summer. I am in my 6th week of some part of FUGE camps this summer. Ridgecrest twice, Union University, North Greenville University, and Jenness Park in California. I have seen the same video clips, studied the same Bible study lessons, led pretty much the same leadership training lessons, but have heard different takes on the character/character trait in sermons. All of these have contributed to me "getting it" in a number of ways. From funny illustrations, hard core Biblical sermons, poignant illustrations and stories, God has quickened my heart and mind to really focus on the Kairos. Defining moments in life that God brings our way and w...

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 ...

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...

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...

Sondra and I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary all weekend long. It was nice to catch a couple of movies (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek). We also enjoyed watching Slumdog Millionaire at home too. It was good to just be with one another. Morgan enjoyed her visit to Union for the weekend and had an official college visit there yesterday. Looks like all of my money may end up at Union before it is all over. It is not SBU , but Union is doing a great job and one we can certainly live with. This has been a different work week for me since I am in the office most of the week. Plenty to do but it does seem weird. FUGE has leadership training this week and weekend so most of the office is at Ridgecrest and I head over there with 5 or 6 others on Friday - Sunday. This is a very important part of preparation for the many camps that will be held this summer all over the country and internationally as well. All said, we will minister to almost 60,00...

It was nice to be at home this past weekend and great to have my dad here. He flew in Fri. am and was here until Mon. am. We pretty much stayed out of the rain on Fri. (we have had about 5 inches of rain in the last 4 days) and on Sat. we all (Morgan, Shelbi, Sondra, Dad, and I) drove to Jackson (2 hours) to be with Shelbi at Union. She was playing with a fraternity in benefit volleyball tournament and we needed an excuse to go see her anyway. Dad had never been over to Union so it was a good visit for him as well. It was big fun. Of course it rained pretty much the whole time, but hey, it's water and it was no big deal. On Monday, Sondra flew to her mom's in Bolivar to hang out this week, Dad flew back to KC, and I flew to Orlando to spend a couple of days with FL youth ministers. They are doing some pretty exciting things related to coaching other youth ministers in the state. It is at the beginning of the process but these guys get it and invited me to listen in and offer m...