Uncategorized

1. This is my 50th post on blogspot. Hurray!
2. Over the the last few years my dad has received various awards. None are as cool as him being name the South Carolina Angus Association Member of the Year. This is a very prestigious award in the world of farming and my dad has certainly earned the recognition. Very few people can say their father has reached the pinnacle of his profession. What’s so great is that he actually loves what he does more so than 95% of the population. What’s cool as well is that my brother is on the board of the SC Angus Association(that’s him on the website). And you guys thought they were just playing outside all this time.
3. My wife reads my blog! Honey, I love you!
4. 3 days until we move. Pray for my back. Come out at 9 am on Saturday if you want to help. It’s supposed to be sunny!
5. Remember when the NFL would let us show the Super Bowl at church or at SWU. Thanks NFL, for ruining a great event and weekend.
6. Don’t even think that the Giants are going to win this game. If they do, then I will walk to church on Monday. I want to see 19-0 so the 1972 Dolphins will go away forever.
7. Conspiracy theories are fun to explore. However, they can drain you. I put a lot of energy and emotion into figuring one out and proving it. I turned out to be right, but have nothing to show for it. Just be careful where you invest your time and passion. Besides, everyone knew bigfoot existed anyway.
8. I have the awesome opportunity to speak at the North Carolina East Senior High Camp in June this year. Hey, when did they move their camps to June? So, you want to make sure to be there cause it is going to be sweet. God is already working in my heart about the messages and I am getting pumped already!
9. Reality TV used to be good. It used to mean that the show involved non-celebrities. However, once a reality show personality becomes a star, is a show about them still Reality TV? Hmmm.
10. Can’t believe that McCain is pulling ahead. Well, I guess I can because the major networks are all pushing him while conservative talk radio seems to be less supportive. Needless to say, the Republican party is in dissaray. Heard a host say this morning that Romney seems to be missing something and that he doesn’t appear to have “it”. Just a few months ago this was Guiliani’s to lose and now he appears to be out. At this point, all I really know is I am tired of the Clinton’s. I just want them to go enjoy their retirement.
11. Let me get this straight, running a 50 state campaign means quitting after Florida?
12. Every year I pledge to get in shape. This year is no different. I need accountability and my wife is helping me everyday. So, will I be buff by June? We’ll see. Right now, I’m puff and just happy to be alive.

Well, it was good to get away to the Penn-Jersey Pastor-Spouse retreat. It was especially relaxing considering that we are packing and moving this week. The speakers were Dennis and Gwen Jackson from Spring Lake Wesleyan in Michigan. Awesome couple. Here are the highlights:
1. Do certain things to communicate with Karen daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
2. Gwen did some sort of computer learning to retrain her brain waves which helped her with ADD. She didn’t call it that but it sounded a lot like what I have. Checking into it. A guy in their church invented this procedure which has helped NBA player Chris Kaman have a career year. This matters to me because he is on one of my fantasy teams.
3. Karen and I got more sleep this weekend than in a month.
4. We want to develop a prayer partner list. People who would pray daily, weekly, or monthly for our lives, family, and ministry. If interested, please email me at heath@chiunited.org. We want to start a monthly newsletter.
5. Made some new friends. Connected with Todd Seely.
6. Did Barack Obama really beat Hillary Clinton that badly in SC? Wow!
7. Gearing up for the Philly Missions Trip this July. It is going to be awesome! Sign up soon cause space is limited.
8. Hoping to let the cat out of the bag about a summer opportunity this week!(Camp speaking)
9. God is doing some cool things at our church. Pray that he raises the leaders to take charge. Hey, did I mention we got High Speed Internet today! Woohoo!
10. Pray for Drake. He has been a poop factory the last few days and it’s got us concerned. Plus, that’s a lot of diapers.
Well, here’s looking to a week of exciting changes, exciting possibilities, and exciting good days.

Today I cleaned out our garage and moved stuff to storage in preperation of our move next week. I can barely hold my eyes open so here we go.
1. I got the Top Gun Special Edition for $5 at Best Buy. It was phenominal. There is like a 3 hour documentary and it is amazing how this movie turned out. I remember the first time I saw it at Brad Finley’s house. I knew about the “scene” and every time I heard the start of “Take my Breath Away” I asked,”Is this it, is this it?” He was like no, no until it happened. That movie still pumps me up. What great lines! It was in the theaters for almost a year. It was when Tom Cruise was just “the man” and not some crazy Scientologist. Plus Anthony Edwards, Meg Ryan, Tom Skerrit, Val Freaking Kilmer…great cast.
2. Did you hear about the ESPN anchor who got drunk and said some really bad things about Jesus at a roast? Of course not. The media doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
3. Drake getting his one year old molars=no sleep this week
4. Will the media ever be held accountable for inaccurate reporting? Take the recent tragic death of Heath Ledger. Here’s what was initially reported by some outlets:
a. Body found at the foot of the bed-False
b. Pills scattered every where-False
c. Rolled up $20 bill found(hinting drug use)-no evidence of drugs on the bill
Sites like TMZ.com and 24 news only complicate things because everyone is trying to get the scoop…whether it’s right or not.
Can you believe anything that is on TV anymore besides wrestling?
5. No blogs this weekend since we’ll be gone to the Pastor’s retreat.
6. I just figured out some stuff with Windows Calendar. No luck with Windows Mail yet.
7. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
8. Super Bowl pick-Patriots 27-Giants 20

This Blog was originally slated to appear on Tuesday, January 22.

So, the past two days have been very draining. The kids have all been sick. Sunday night Drake only slept about 3 hours, but it wasn’t all at the same time. Last night, neither Drake nor Charis could sleep so Karen and I are walking around like zombies. We’re basically running on sitcom sleep. 30 minutes at a time. Some of its good and some of it is not so good. So, I thought today I would put out the call for prayer for our family while at the same time filling you in on our status. Here we go:

1. Pray for the physical health of our family. Since we moved to Delaware, there has been constant illness. I think it’s the house we’re living in, not like the Amytiville Horror, just old, dusty, cold, and moldy. That leads me to…
2. We will be moving into an apartment across from the church at the first of February. The rent is much cheaper(answer to prayer), it’s off the main road but secluded in the woods(answer to prayer), within walking distance of a park(ATP), and I could walk to work when it get warmer. Much warmer. It is a lot smaller than where we are now, but the landlords go to our church and are great people. With that said, pray for our current landlord, Roy, who is not a believer. We have several disputes with him right now. I have to make sure I deal with him with integrity while not letting him run all over us. While I feel that I wouldn’t want to rent from someone who is not a believer again I don’t want him to think that he wouldn’t rent to a Christian again. It has been oppressive at times, at least that’s how it’s felt so it’s a delicate situation because I have tried to build a relationship with him. For us, we saw the house as an opportunity to impact Roy’s life. We want it to be a positive rather than a negative.
3. Pray for this weekend. Karen and I will be going to the district Pastor-Wives retreat and the girls will be staying with one family while Drake is with another. This will be the longest we’ve been away from Drake so pray for calm, rest, relaxation, and strength. The good news now is that I’m not taking my computer and I’m not using my Blackberry anymore. That means less distractions and more quality time!
4. Since arriving in August, Karen has been looking and applying for various jobs(30-40 total). So far, every door has closed. Things have been tight. Really tight. I have to remind myself that where God calls he provides. It’s frustrating because we haven’t been lazy about stuff. We have been trying to find extra income and are making budget cuts(hey Washington, there’s a great idea!). We want to be in the center of God’s target so he doesn’t have to look for us when he moves.
   

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Tomorrow…Top Gun and some other stuff

Sad to hear of the passing of Heath Ledger, an actor many of my friends and I had a new found interest in because of his portrayal of the Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight. Sometimes we get caught in the circumstances of celebrity tragedies and forget the human element. We’ve seen them on film and in pictures so much that we forget that they breathe and bleed just like us. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

I know this blog can be a bit depressing at times. That’s not the goal. That’s just where I’m at sometimes. I think, no I know, that I’m doing a lot better than I sound on here sometimes. I had prepared a post for today(which is on the lap top at the office) which is some specific prayer requests that our family has right now. Many of you have written encouraging notes(heck, it’s encouraging to know I’m not just talking to myself, no more than usual anyway) which are greatly appreciated. So, have a great day, night, wherever you may be and know that when God gives you the mojo can’t nobody take it from you. Peace

I hope this will be brief because I’ve had a few late nights in a row and Sunday comes early around here.
1. I was thinking about global warming today. Can things like Carbon Dioxide and cow farts really change the climate? Didn’t God know this when He was creating everything? If we all started driving Hybrids tomorrow, could we honestly know how that would affect things 20 years down the road? Isn’t it interesting that on both sides of the argument, people are making a ton of money? I will confess that my family is responsible for a lot of trash. Most of mine lately is Mountain Dew bottles and Big Mac boxes.
2. John McCain is 71 years old. Hillary Clinton is in her 60’s. These are my options? These are my representatives? I’m not anti-old. I’m anti-old president.
3. I had a kinda out of body experience today. I was looking at some camp pictures(Thanks Deb) when I thought to my self,”Who is this guy? He looks like he’s having a lot of fun.” It took me a minute to reconnect with my memories because for a moment it was like I was remembering things from an outside point of view. A few times I thought, did I really do that? Am I capable of these things? What did I say around that camp fire? What words were in the rhyme around the ping pong tables? Do I really cry that much? There’s this thing I call “camp mode.” It’s when the Mountain Dew, ice cream sandwiches, adrenaline, ADD, and the Holy Spirit kick in and anything is possible. Now, you don’t have to be at camp to get into camp mode. I had it for about 10 minutes in the IZone in Orlando. It’s scary cause I don’t know if I know that guy anymore. I used to think I could turn it on at a moment’s notice in the right circumstance(and with a little “encouragement” from Wes), but today I don’t know if I could’ve reached down deep to find it. So, I’m washing dishes thinking, “what if that’s all behind me and I never get to give another camp fire speech again?” What if, at 32, I’ve done everything great in ministry that I’m going to do? What if I never lose my voice on the first night of camp again because I have nothing good to say? It’s weird because I’ve already had the privilege to do most of the things I ever dreamed of doing in ministry…DYP, camp director, camp speaker, convention team, leading mission trips. Maybe I didn’t ask God for enough. Maybe I got satisfied and I didn’t know it. So, here’s where I am. It’s time for Act 2(not to be confused with Acts 2 the old SWU drama team). Now, this is scary. Not roller coaster scary, but everything on the line scary. Stakes are high scary. Rocky 3 speech on the beach scary. Just typing this has got me thinking…there’s gotta be some ice cream sandwiches somewhere in this HiZouse. Stay tuned….