The Way

As a matter of fact I do. I grew up minding my parents and now I pretty much mind my wife. No dig intended on my sweet Sondra. Those of you who know me, know that my motto is, "Do I want to be right, or do I want to be happy? I choose happy every time." Of course, that is said somewhat jokingly, well . . . at least a little. It was nice to be home this weekend. First one is awhile. Spent Friday afternoon at the pool with Sondra and Sat. am I got up and drove up to Hendersonville to play golf with Sid, Rick and Pat. Three great friends. My golf game was pretty lacking in all categories although I did manage to putt fairly well. After golf we headed to a mex place for lunch and then I met my family at the pool again. It was a long day outdoors, but there was no work involved. Shelbi was home for part of the weekend and brought Andrea, one of her friends from camp staff, and we grilled out and enjoyed the evening together. Sunday was fairly typical. I spoke in our parents of sma...

I usually choose not to bl0g about my political thoughts but feel compelled to make a point of clarification and wanted to post that clarification on my blog as well as other means of communication. When President Obama was elected in Nov. I shared in my blog that I did not vote for him but would support him through prayer. I disagree with many of his ideas and directions, but that does not mean I will not support him in prayer. You can see what I wrote on Nov. 5th here . Recently I have been accused of hating President Obama and nothing could be farther from the truth. I disagree with his ideas and the direction he is leading America in especially in the whole bailout issue, and health care reform. I think a better direction would be in less gov't. control and more focus on changing the insurance structure but do not profess to be an expert in either of those areas. I have many friends that I run with, associate with, etc. that I do not always agree with, but we continue to be fri...

I finished up my week at FUGE camps in Glorieta on Saturday after getting up very early, driving to Albuquerque in time to catch a 6a flight. It was good to be home around noon though. The week at Glorieta was very good. God showed up in a really, BIG way and many students' lives were changed. I also got a horseback ride in on Thurs. through Ruis Canyon. It had been awhile since I had ridden, but it was big fun and we saw a 4 ft. rattlesnake to boot. I was a real cowboy for sure. Also hiked on Fri. and it was good to be with a group of students for that. The weekend was sort of fast and furious but good. Always good to be home. We got to Shelbi for a few minutes on Sun. and she has about two weeks of camp left before she is done. Morgan has sort of an off week this week with no soccer yet, but still having to get her workouts in. Yesterday would have been my mom's 67th birthday. I do miss her but the pain does not seem as strong. God is good for sure and my dad seemed to go thr...

I get asked this alot since I travel quite a bit for work. It is always good to be at home which is where I was all last week. Yes, you heard that right. I was home for a whole week. It was awesome! I was even in the office for 4 days which is a record as of late. I did take last Fri. off to be with Sondra before I headed out again. Since my last blog post, I have participated in a memorial service, spent many hours in the office, hung out at the pool with my wife, ate at Big Bad Wolf BBQ (you have to get there, all i'm saying), and celebrated Shelbi's 19th birthday. Morgan spent last week at FUGE in Panama City Beach and had a great week. It was a different experience for her since she was sort of the lone, older high school student with our group this year, but she loved the camp. I headed out on Sunday afternoon for Glorieta, NM and to participate in FUGE out here as the adult trainer. It has been a very good week so far. Dave Edwards is speaking and DecembeRadio is leadin...

So sorry to go almost two weeks without a blog update. After returning from Denver and the Cherry Hills Church (which was great by the way and good times with old college buddy, Tim Coan and his family), I spent a day in the office and then we headed to SC to spend 9 days away from all things work related. What a great vacation we had. We loaded up, drove to Florence, SC and stayed with our friends, Tom and Georgina Carringer. He is a big muckety muck at data company and we have known them for 20 years. Great folks who were very kind to let us hang at their place Fri-Sun before we headed down to Murrell's Inlet for vacation. Their place is like a resort (pool, wonderful food, and a great worship service on Sunday) and we were treated like royalty. We stayed with them a night on the way back to Nashville at the end of the trip too. Sunday afternoon we headed to the beach and stayed through Friday. We played at the beach, read, rode bikes, ran, ate, saw movies, and just all around ha...

I flew to Denver this morning to meet with some friends from Bear Valley Church where Frank Tillapaugh pastored many years ago. My friend, Jim Walters, is pastoring there now. Tillapaugh wrote Unleashing the Church while he was pastor here at Bear Valley. Later in the day I meet up with my college buddy, Tim Coan and his family and maybe even get to see my old college roommate, Brad Clark who happens to be in Denver right now too. Hope it works out. Tomorrow I am meeting with some of the staff of Cherry Creek Community Church. A great church who is interested in doing a comprehensive strategy of development for people from birth to heaven. Looking forward to my time with them. Enjoying seeing the Rocky Mountains too and love seeing the snow on top. Pretty warm down here below but love seeing those mountains. Should be home again tomorrow night. Yea!

(This was meant to be posted on Sat. but no internet access while in MO) I guess I find myself feeling pretty sentimental today. There are many things sort of colliding today and this weekend especially. Traveling and being gone from home and family for almost two weeks may have a lot to do with it. I love my job. I love being able to listen to, encourage, teach and train adults who work with students in their churches. It is a great joy. I am still overwhelmed that God allows me to do what I get to do in the Kingdom. I can hear my mom saying, “I just can’t get over the fact that a boy that grew up in a small town in Missouri gets to travel the world and encourage believers. I am with her on that one for sure. Today is mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary, only mom is not here to celebrate it. She departed this “old, evil world” (her words not long before she died) in December 2007. Forty-eight and a half years of marriage to the greatest dad who ever lived (my father). I know that t...