thank you, my friend

Thursday the 19th was setting up to be a busy day. Work, attend a Chamber of Commerce function, attend the opening ceremonies for the Moving Wall exhibition, pack my stuff, load up Kristy and the kids and our guests and all the stuff Kristy had spent the day packing, then drive 3 1/2 hours to my parents' house.

On Tuesday, I get a voice mail from my friend, Gabe. He was coming through on - you guessed it - Thursday evening.

I'd been after Gabe to come over to visit for a while. We grew up in the same area, and both our fathers are pastors. Gabe is incredibly creative and talented, qualities which he puts to use these days as a videographer for Morton Buildings. I wanted him to take a look at our current worship space and give me some ideas for adapting it for more effective worship environments.

So Gabe was kind enough to meet me at the opening ceremony, and from there, we went to the Veterans Center, where we hold our weekly Worship Gatherings.

He gave me some great input on the worship space, and he came to the house to catch up with Kristy and see the kids. I enjoyed sharing some of my dreams with him, and I enjoyed talking with him about where our respective faith journeys had taken us.

Thanks, Gabe. I'm happy to call you my friend.

Oh, and next time, stop in when I'm not so busy.

wordling my blog

From the site:

"Wordle is a toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

Feeding the content of this blog produced the following word cloud (click to view at full size on the Wordle site):

It's a fascinating thought exercise, seeing what jumps out, trying to figure out why.

You try it! Let me know in the comments when you do, so I can go check it out.

we will not forget

This evening, before we headed out for the weekend, we had the chance to attend opening ceremonies for the Moving Wall exhibition here in town. The members of Vietnam Veterans of America #295, who are the main tenants of the Veterans Center where our church holds its Worship Gatherings, put on the event.


In the above picture, I'm with Bob Lockett, a member of our church and a Purple Heart recipient from his service in Korea.

Several people from our church made it out in support of the exhibition, including Joshua, Brittany, Kris (all pictured above), Tom, Bob, Janice, and Shanna.


The pictures above are of Steve and Gene, two VVA members who have helped us get settled in at the Veterans Center. In the lower left of each picture are inset photos of them during their service in Vietnam. These were part of a display next to the Wall.

I am thankful for the service of our veterans, and I appreciate the passion of these Vietnam veterans to make sure that the sacrifices and bravery of their fellow soldiers is not forgotten. I'm thankful that our church people came out to show their support.

they're all good dudes

But it's been nearly two weeks since you've posted!, you're saying. What have you been doing with yourself?

I've been connecting with people. Here's proof.


The guy in the middle of the above picture is Sam, the cousin of Will (the one in front) and grandson of Vessie, who attends our church. This picture was taken at Sam's Going-Into-The-Army party. Sam's in South Carolina now, in basic training for a miliatary career working on Blackhawk helicopters.

Sam and Will are good guys. Vessie brought Sam with him to a couple of bowling outings, and they both proceeded to roll several strikes in a row after having not touched a bowling ball in, say, ten years or something. Irritating.

The above picture also led to the following exchange between Vessie and myself:

me: Why am I the only one wearing the foam star? They handed me one at the door and told me to put it on.
Vessie: Mine was in my pocket. (flashes huge smile)


On the evening of Sunday, July 6, Trey came to me, after lots of conversations with Kristy over the past few months, and told me he wanted to ask Jesus to come into his heart and take his sins away. I got to lead my son to Jesus, a moment which rocketed up the charts pretty fast. He's already pestering me to be baptized.


The guy in the middle of the above picture is David. He lives in Joshua's neighborhood, and he came with us to the go-karting activity a few months ago. He had some great questions after our Worship Gathering, and I look forward to having him around.


The handsome guy in the above picture is Mark. When I first met him, he was wearing his work uniform, and I referred to him as "Jiffy." He responded by referring to me as "Pastor Fed" when he saw me in my work uniform.

Mark is uncle to Brittany and Kris, two siblings who have been saved and baptized recently. It is because of their influence and prayers that Mark came, and it's been a blast having him at our gatherings. He also referred to me as "the coolest pastor I've ever had," which makes him a good guy in my book.

- - -

Ah, life. Sweet, sweet life.

for jane

One of the first things I noticed when I first visited Oaklandon Baptist Church was the number of smaller dwellings that surrounded the church facility. As it turns out, all these little dwellings had been part of the same property at one time, and had been sold off.

So the church facility shared a parking lot with a small home being rented by a nice lady and her daughter. I introduced myself to Jane, and we struck up a friendship.

Jane was a godly lady who, for the short time I knew her, was confined to her home due to illness. Active in her church for many years, circumstances had left her without a church family when I met her, and she appreciated us checking on her and helping out with yard work and the like.

She would ask me how things were going at the church, with the knowing look of someone who was asking at a deeper level. On occasion I would share my heart with her, of what God was doing, what He had placed in my heart, and some of the struggles that had come along with chasing that dream. She always listened, always encouraged and supported me, and always prayed for me.

Jane had spent extended time in the hospital, and circumstances forced her and her daughter to move out of the home close to the church facility. So it was with some shock and sadness that I found out today that Jane had passed a few days earlier.

As a follower of Jesus, I understand that Jane is in a better place now, in the presence of God. And I'm happy for her.

All the same, her family grieves their loss, and my prayers are with them. I grieve the loss, too.

Thank you, Jane, for allowing God to use you to help me keep my eyes on Jesus and His mission. I will miss you, until we meet again.