Gastritis and Quote of the Day

According to the doctor, I have a case of Gastritis. Basically, no Mexican or spicy food for until it goes away and no meals after 7 p.m.. It got kicked up after a bad night of eating at Greenville Pickens Speedway chased down by a bag of boiled peanuts at about 10:00 p.m. on Saturday Night. They also said limited caffiene. I will cut back from 14 Cokes a day to about 10. That seems reasonable to me.

I actually ate pretty healthy today with some fruit and rice and healthy crap. I can't tell a difference. I'm probably going to start riding my bike again maybe tomorrow. By next month, I may start riding my bike to the office. I'll see how my discipline to be extra healthy goes. I need some motivation like I talked about in my message on Sunday. Maybe Holder's dad will hook me up with the 10 dollars a mile plan like he did with Bryan and his weight loss.

Here is a great quote that I heard this past week. It can be applied to about any area of life. "Common sense is not quite so common".

Sunday Recap

- Anderson- 9:15 this morning. Mark said I successfully stepped on everyone's toes in the message today. I started with mine when writing the message. This was tough because God really challenged me while writing this to step up my game. Spoke out of Colossians 3 and Luke 21

- Anderson Kid's World coming up July 12th find out details here .

- Powdersville 10:55 a.m.- We may have had more response after the service today than we have ever had. Several people wanting to get plugged in. Exciting stuff. Painting in the next couple of weeks. Kid's area rocked. Keels plays keyboards. Anything this guy doesn't do? Band did great job.

- Lunch at Subway and then home for about an hour before I went back to church to go over my message for tonight in Laurens.

-Evan rode to Laurens with me to meet up with this guy . You'll have to excuse him for not updating his blog in a while, I believe he may be related to this guy based on the fact that they are both blog lazy.

- Spoke at an area wide youth event with about 7 local churches from Laurens participating at the Laurens YMCA. I spoke on Daniel 3.

- Dropped Evan off at church and proceeded to encounter Noah and the flood on my way home. Oh yeah, the top was off of my Jeep. I was soaked and shivering by the time I walked in the door. It was big fat rain.

- Watching a TV preacher and about to turn the channel. Done. Turned it to QVC. Much better.

Turning the Corner

Today was awesome at Stone Bridge. I was really encouraged by the number of people who came up after the service and wanted to get plugged in more in the life of the church. I felt like today we really turned a corner. Yes there are still a lot of people gone each week on vacation but there were new faces at both places. It's an exciting time in the church because many churches cruise through the summer. Our folks have really stepped up this summer and we have taken each ministry of the church to the next level in the last month.

There are several exciting upcoming events that we specifically geared for families with children and youth. Be sure to check out the church website for more details. I'll update more later but I'm off to study another message for an area wide youth event in Laurens tonight.

Random Thought Thursday

1. I'm off tomorrow. Meeting in Greenville in the A.M. and hanging out with the family in the P.M.

2. I just walked in from getting another Go Kart put together for the backyard track. I didn't have on a watch and looked down at my phone and it was midnight.

3. I came inside.

4. I took a break while working on the go cart and for some reason decided to look at my belly button. Mine is pretty deep. I can't see the bottom of it. For all I know I could just stuff food in there and send it direct to my belly. That would help with all that healthy food that I don't eat because it tastes like dook. I could just shove it in my belly and get healthy.

5. Sunday is busy. Anderson Campus at 8. Powdersville at 10:45. Speaking in Laurens at Area Wide Youth Event at 6 P.M.

6.The jeep gave me back sweat today. It was like 95 degrees which means back sweat every time. Your shirt sticks to your back. Evan rode with me to Greenville. He got major back sweat.

7.

Study Day

Yesterday and today have been a ton of study for upcoming messages. Lots of good stuff God has been showing me in the last few weeks. Tons of exciting things coming up in the next two months at Stone Bridge. Be sure to check out the church site here .

One exciting thing that is not on the church site is coming up in a month when we move to the front auditorium in Powdersville. We are going to be doing some painting coming up in about 4 weeks. We will need probably about 10 people to paint and I'll post some times we are going to be painting as it gets closer.

Today I had lunch with Mike from Oak Pointe. It was cool to see some exciting things that are taking place over in South Greenville. They are considering multi site campuses as well. They are less than a year and a half old and are already seeing lives impacted in the Woodmont area and beyond.

Tomorrow is putting the finishing touches on a message for our youth next Wednesday night and making sure everything is set for Sunday. I've got some video and graphics projects we are working on and hope to finish all of that up tomorrow as well.

A/C is so not overrated

There are many things in life that are overrated, like Starbucks Coffee, clean underwear, North Carolina basketball, John Mayer's music, bathing regularly, etc etc..... Air Conditioning is so not overrated. At bed time last night it was still 84 degrees. It did get quite chilly during the night with temps dropping into the low 80's. Today has been better thanks to our friends at Rackley Heating and Air. They had our a/c fixed and running by about 10 a.m. this morning. Talk about service. Some little computer thingy burned up in the unit and they replaced it and I am relaxing in my recliner tonight. Only difference tonight is that I'm not sticking to the leather. Ahhhhhh A/C.

Hot

Yesterday I was talking to Kevin about their move out to San Diego where they will be launching a new church (Elevate San Diego) coming up in January. He was telling me about the area and how they were experiencing record heat with temps in the 90's. Here was the crazy thing, he said a lot of houses out there don't have air conditioning because the temps are usually in the 70's all year. He told me that they didn't have air and I made some kind of comment like yeah I know what you mean. Honestly though, I didn't know what he meant because my a/c was working fine.

Well, today I know what he means. I got to church in Powdersville to discover that our kids area a/c was not working. We got some fans and it was bearable. Then I walk in from church this afternoon and discover that our a/c at our house had went out as well. As I sit here posting this, it is a balmy 85 degrees in my house. So now I feel like I can identify with Kevin and his sufferings in San Diego.

I do find it interesting that today I spoke on becoming all things to all men. To the weak I became like the weak. To those without a/c I became like those without a/c. Remember it's all about engaging people in a way that they can understand.

Yard Sale

Today was our annual family yard sale. This was Isaac's first yard sale where he actually sold his stuff himself. He was funny to see in the negotiating process with people wanting to buy his old toys. He is going to be an awesoem salesman. He sold $96.50 worth of toys today. Per person, he outsold Melissa and I hands down.

Skinny Corn

Do you want skinny corn? I can tell you how to grow it from experience. You may say what is skinny corn. Well, skinny corn happens when you fail to weed your garden. Scott Watson stopped by a few weeks ago and told me I needed to weed around my corn. Either through laziness or apathy, I didn't heed his advice and guess what happened? Skinny corn. I have corn stalks that are about 4 ft tall but they are so skinny that they are beginning to fall over because they aren't healthy. The weeds ate up a lot of their nutrients and prevented my corn from being big fatso corn.

I've discovered the same thing is true in my life and the life of the church. If we neglect to weed, then our lives spiritually and the life of our church will never be as healthy as it could be. For the last few weeks I have been doing some weeding in my life personally and we have been seeing some weeding take place in the life of the church. Sometimes it means changing things up and sometimes it means allowing people to walk away. If there are things or people that are sucking the life out of you personally or as a church then you may need to do some weeding. ----Side note- Sometimes people read this blog and read into this, please know I am speaking in general terms. Right now is an incredibly exciting time in the life of our church, our volunteers have been putting in extra effort and really stepping up over the last few weeks and I believe we are going to see some incredible growth as a result of the weeding taking place right now.

And finally, Dino really hit the nail on the head with leadership in his post and what it should look like.

Taken for Granted

There are so many things that I take for granted from time to time and usually there are practical things that bring me down to earth. Tonight I was sitting in the living room and Isaac came hopping on one leg through the living room. It was hilarious because he has the coordination of me. He looked rather spastic but I was laughing. Then Melissa reminded me of something, this is the first time in his 10 years of life that he has had the leg strength to try and hop on one foot due to his diseases. 10 years old and the normal stuff I did as a kid are a whole new world to him. Man, I take so much for granted.

Our children's ministry leaders are awesome. Today they were in the office painting in the kids area. This isn't something that they get paid to do but something that they do because they truly desire to see the lives of kids changed. Since the early days of Stone Bridge, this is the only area that I haven't had to be hands on with because Erin and Paige have knocked the ball out of the park. They have took off and ran with this area of ministry and made it their own. The same is happening is Anderson with Tracy and Kim. All of our children's people do an awesome job.

Another thing I've learned is that it is good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Since the beginning of Stone Bridge, Scott has been one of those guys for me. It's important to have someone that will shoot straight with you when you seek out advice on decisions. I've got a few of these people that I know will be honest and that sure takes a load off when it's time to make big decisions.

Speaking of big decisions, we have some big stuff coming up and I still ask that you pray that I make wise decisions for the church in the coming months.

Tomatoes

So while the rest of the country is fretting over tainted tomatoes, my upside down hanging tomatoe plants have begun producing tons of tomatoes. I'm thinking of setting up a roadside stand once the price of tomatoes reaches $5. Isaac has been a real team player with the tomatoes. He has given up two out of his threee swings on his swingset so that the tomatoes could hang from there.

What's your Indian name?

So the other day as I sat on the beach at Lover's Key State park, I wondered, what would my Indian name be if I came across a tribe of Indians like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. what would they name me? I just had gotten through reading an article in the State Park about the Calusa Indians that had created some of the small islands in that area and I got to thinking what would my indian name be? I came up with my name based on what I was doing at the time as I was thinking. I was building two sand castles simultaneously while thinking about such a deep and profound thought. My Indian name would be Sammy Two Castles or possibly Sammy Builds with the Sand. I'm interested to hear what yours would be.

Sunday Recap

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. For Father's Day, Isaac gave me a Dale Earnhardt Jr hat. I think it was a little foreshadowing of what the day would bring with Dale Jr. getting his first win in a couple of years.

It was great to be back at Stone Bridge today after an enjoyable and relaxing vacation. Church today was great. Anderson Campus band did an awesome job. Mark, Anna, Randy, Josh, and Will put in a ton of effort each week. Big props for all they do. We're praying about future locations and for doors to open in regards to buildings and the exact place we are to be in Anderson. A door closed this past week but the cool thing is that an even more exciting opportunity may be a possiblility. It's amazing that at times when when we think we have things all figured out on our own, God steps in and says I have a better way.

We arrived at Powdersville about 12 minutes before service was to start. This was a record. There again, the band did a great job with Justin and the guys.

This afternoon I watched the race and then started cutting the grass. It always takes twice as long when you get back from vacation. I didn't finish because it was hot plus I rode down to Piedmont and picked up a load of chairs for our children's area in Powdersville. We're about to change some rooms around in the Powdersville campus to get ready for the fall and a big kids and family emphasis that we're doing at both campuses.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Here are some pics from the week.

Day 7

The way I see it I have saved hundreds of you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. This week I have given you a chance to enjoy a vacation that you didn't even have to go on. You have had the opportunity to enjoy my vacation without even leaving home. So here is the plan, if you have enjoyed my vacation and would like to purchase the full collection of photos and video(this includes the Everglades, Friendly Cuddling Dolphins and More), simply mail me 3 easy payments of $9.99. I offer flex pay that allows you to pay over the course of the next three months. The first one hundred people will get a bonus seashell from Ft Myers Beach.

Day 7 was relaxing on the beach, swimming in the pool and playing putt putt. While playing putt putt we heard skidding and a compact car got even more compact when it slammed into a tractor trailer truck right in front of the putt putt place. I think everyone is ok. They took a couple off in ambulances but I think it was for observation. Isaac shot 40, Melissa 38, and me 34.

This evening has been bad thunderstorms. Sitting inside waiting on the rain to stop and a trip to watch the sunset at Bodwitch Beach.

Day 6

This morning we rented a boat and traveled around the Island and out into the Gulf. The Gulf today was smoother than most coves on Lake Hartwell(That is the ones that have water in them). We went out a couple of miles following a group of dolphins. Isaac's two favorite things were seeing the dolphins and getting to pee off the side of the boat (three times). We saw three different groups of dolphins and we headed in before the afternoon thunderstorms kicked up. Boating on the Gulf is another must do activity. If you have a boat and plan on visiting the Gulf, bring it, there are tons of places to explore.

We came back to the house at about 2:30 p.m. and swam. Afterwards I fished some more. I tried a new technique in fishing but I still caught the stupid catfish. I want to catch a giant Grouper or Mahi Mahi or 14 ft Tiger Shark but instead it's more of the Sea Catfish with the nasty barb on their back. My gloves are working good. I haven't been barbed again since getting them.

For dinner we ate outdoors again at Matanza's on the bay. We try to eat every dinner outdoors on the bay or beach when we're on vacation. Matanzas was nice. We watched shrimp boats and the Key West express come in to harbor. There were two groups of dolphins playing about 50 yards out the whole time we ate. I was tired of steak this week so I went with a burger and it was great.

After dinner we went out on the beach and saw a rainbow over the back bay. This was the first time I have been on the beach and saw a rainbow. We walked until sunset. Sunset was incredible with the clouds. Off to bed, tomorrow beach and pool.

Day 5

I'm sitting poolside right now and it's 10 p.m. It feels great out. Temp is 74 and I'm listening to critters chirp in the water. This screened in pool area thing is great because I can sit here in the dark with my lap top on and be unmolested by insects. Note to self, need one of these covered pool areas. Check that, first I would need a pool then the screen thingy.

Today we went down about 4 miles to Bonita Beach. So far we have tried out the beaches on all of the islands here. We've been to Captiva, Sanibel, Ft Myers, Lover's Key ,and Bonita. Bonita may have been my favorite. We are going to look at renting a house there next time. The beach is mostly homes and only a few condos so it is definately not crowded. This beach had more shells than I've ever seen at one spot before. A pair of manatees came swimming by while we were sitting on the beach, They were probablty 50 feet out. There were some kayakers following them along.

We came in from the beach about 1 p.m. and then it was off to play putt putt. Isaac loves putt putt. Isaac had three consecutive hole in ones with no cheating like Bryan H Chy and Kip when they play golf. They like to move their ball to a better lie and then say their scores are real. I believe they cheat but not Isaac. Anyway, this was the first time in my life I have ever shot under par in putt putt. And I did it twice including a hole in one on number 18 which I have never done. We won three free games for our hole in ones because they came on special holes.

After putt putt, we went to dinner at a place called Junkanoos. It was a great beach front open air place. I had a steak. It was good. The cool thing about this place was that it had a crane game. You know the kind you try to pick up a prize with the crane. The only difference was this one cost $2 and instead of a stuffed animal, you tried to pick up a live lobster. If you got it then they would cook it for you. Isaac hated this and everytime he saw someone go to the machine, he wanted them to lose because he couldn't bear to see the lobster out to death.

After dinner, back to the house and swam and Isaac played with his remote control boat in the pool. I was the storm and tried to make waves to sink the boat. He laughed a lot which was awesome.

Tomorrow we are renting a boat for just the three of us and riding out into the Gulf and exploring the bay and barrier islands. Should be fun. Most places won't let you take rentals into the Gulf but we found a place that would.

Day 4

Slept in this morning until about 9:30 a.m. Hit the beach about 10:30 a.m.. Isaac and I built a sand bridge. Melissa looked for shells. Then Isaac and I joined her looking for shells. Walked back to the house for lunch. I ate my sandwich poolside. We played in the pool for a couple of hours.

I decided to go fishing about 3:00 p.m. I caught 13 Sea Catfish and 1 red looking fish. The sea catfish have some nasty barbs on their backs and one caught me in the hand and it drew blood pretty good. Isaac made me get online and see if it was poisonous.
Apparently, I should only seek medical attention if my hand goes numb and as of right now I am typing still so I guess things are ok. I watched the manatees swim by while I was fishing. Apparently we have 4 of them in our channel. They usually swim together.

Went in the Bass Pro Shops for the second time this week. I was looking for barb proof gloves so that the nasty catfish barbs wouldn't get me. The gloves were $25 so I didn't get them. I went to Target and got some leather work gloves. They were only a couple of bucks.

Tonight after dinner we went back on the beach and Melissa had a sea bird crap on her arm. I'm tired off to watch tv.

Day 3

Today was pretty much awesome. We headed out originally going to head over to the Florida Keys but we got detoured along the way. About halfway there we decided to make a stop in Everglade City Florida and take a ride on an airboat through the Everglades.

We made a stop at Wooten's Airboats. It is about 10 miles past the middle of nowhere. We bought the combo package for airboats and a swamp buggy tour(more on that in a minute). Anyway, we took off through the Everglades and about 10 minutes into the trip of alligator infested waters, our airboat cuts off. The guy goes into the routine of "oh our airboat is broke down." Yeah yeah we're scared, who's going to swim back and get help. Then something weird happened, he didn't ask who was going to swim back and get help. We really were broke down in the middle of the swamp. Isaac picked his feet up high. I kept looking around for gators who might decide to make the two foot jump into our boat. Thankfully they got a new boat over to us in just a couple of minutes and off we went for an hour long ride through the swamp. This might have possibly been the third most awesome thing I've ever done in my life. Number 1 being riding in a Racecar around Charlotte Motor Speedway and number 2 flying in Rick Hendrick's Helicopter a few weeks ago.

Hands down the ride was just dang smooth and fast. There were times he would stop and give Isaac a nature lesson which was cool. We had one gator that got mad enough where our driver stood between us and the gator because he was trying to show us her nest. He pushed away real quick when she started hissing and getting real aggressive. All in all this is a must do if you are ever in South Florida. We definately will be doing this again next time we're here.

The swamp buggy was all hype and no delivery on funness. I wouldn't do this again even if I had a free ticket. It was a big let down after coming off the airboat.

After we left Wooten's, we headed about 10 miles into Everglades City. While there we took a boat out about 14 miles into the Gulf of Mexico and through the Ten Thousand Islands Area. The boat captain let Isaac drive and we got some cool pictures of that. The boat wasn't playing around, it had two 200 hp engines and was fast. We got to watch a group of dolphins mating. I got it on tape and may use it in an upcoming series. LOL.

This will probably make our Upstate SC friends sick but tonight I didn't get in the pool tonight because it was a little chilly this evening. How are the 100 degree temps up there?

Tomorrow we're sleeping late and hanging out on the beach.

Day 2

Awoke this morning and Isaac and Melissa were still asleep. I decided to walk out back to our dock and try to russle up some fish for breakfast. No luck fishing but about 10 minutes into my fishing I noticed a large log floating my way. It was two docks away and it kept getting larger. My first thought was that it was an alligator but then I remembered this was saltwater. Turns out it is a friendly manatee that lives a couple of docks away or at least hangs out under their dock. I think it is because they have a really large dock and this manatee rolls with money. Melissa came outside and got a picture of him.

Today we drove up to Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. Captiva Island has two houses on it that are absolutely the largest houses I have seen in my life. We're talking in the neighborhood of 20,000 sq ft. One of them may have been the one I saw on the real estate channel here and it was listed for 14 million dollars. Crazy big.

We layed out on the beach and picked up shells at Sanibel. We came back here and swam in our pool.(Let me just say this maybe the best thing because their isn't 500 other tourists using the same pool.) About 6 p.m. we all went walking on the beach. We saw 3 stingrays, 4 people, and two dolphins. There seriously isn't anyone here this week.

We came back to the place and as soon as we went out back some dolphins and our manatee friend came swimming up to our dock. They were about 15 feet away. Pretty awesome. Oh well, I'm relaxing and tomorrow we're heading down to the Florida Keys.

Day 1

It's official! We are opening another Stone Bridge campus. And who would have thought it would be Ft. Myers? Seriously, I asked Melissa if we could live here when we retire. Next year. This place is amazing. We're staying in a 2000 sq ft house on the bay channel and right across the street from the beach. We have our own dock that I went fishing from tonight and caught a fish of some sort. I was using a fat bodied crankbait(I really don't know what that means but that is what it said on the package at the Bass Superstore today). It was on sale for $2 so I bought three. I have already lost one at the State Park. I bought my temporary salt water fishing license so I wouldn't be fishing dirty. Oh yeah the fish I caught decided to eat all three hooks so that was a butt getting the hooks out of his mouth.

We went to Lover's Key State park today while we waited on the house to be ready. It is only about a half mile from our house. Let me just say that Lover's key lived up to it's name. It is super secluded, like probably only saw 20 people on the whole beach. Anyway, I went to the far end near the channel to fish and rounded the corner and there lying on the beach were two couples of Horseshoe Crabs mating in the sand. 5 minutes later two dolphins swam right up to where I was standing probably 20 feet out in the water. I'm not sure but they seemed to be getting dolphin frisky if there is such a thing.

Tonight we went up to Times Square on the north end of the beach and ate outside at the Beach Pierside Grill and Blowfish Bar. Atmosphere was great, I had a Ribeye and everything was great. The restuarant is on the beach and we were watching the waves crash and up walks this guy from Europe wearing his speedo while I'm eating my steak. I threw up in my mouth. Thankfully they sat on the other side of the deck.

Everything down here is a ton more laid back than the East Coast. We like the slower pace. If you like the tourist trap stuff of Myrtle Beach then this is not the place for you. If you like laid back, not crowded area then this is it. Summer is their off season and rates are cheap. We rented this house for half of what we would have paid for a condo at Myrtle Beach. We have our own private pool for the house, dock, and huge house. The only draw back is the long drive but we have already decided we will be back next year.

Arrived

We are in Ft Myers after a nice 750 mile drive today. The nicest part came when we got to detour off the interstate at Bradenton because a gas tanker truck had crashed yesterday and burned up a metal and concrete bridge. They said South Bound 75 will be closed for 6 weeks.

We are staying in a Marriott Suites tonight because the house we are renting won't be available until tomorrow afternoon.

Needless to say, I sang a lot today. Evan would have went crazy as my family almost did. Somehow I started out with some Hanson "Penny and Me". I sang it for about an hour. It was reminiscent of Lake Lanier Days. Somehow I had the picture of Adam holding Robbie in his arms while simulating rolling down the window. Aaaah good times. By the end of the trip I found myself singing Richard Marx songs and thinking about every movie the Brat Pack of the mid 80's ever made.

Oh well I'm off to bed. Penny and Me like to roll the window down, turn the radio up put the pedal to the ground........ Now the song is firmly stuck in your head too. At least I didn't give you the words to mmm bop.

Poor Man's Calculator

So today while doing some research on an upcoming message, I discovered that I had a poor man's calculator. I was trying to calculate modern day wealth versus the wealth of King Solomon and I discovered that my calculator wasn't made for extreme financial greatness. It ran out of space to calculate at 9.9999 million. Just curious if this is a specific problem that I only have or are all calculators poor man calculators. Also curious to know if there is a calculator that adds higher than this. Drop me a comment if your calculator adds higher and tell me the brand. That way if I get rich I will buy one of those.

Youth tonight at the Greenville Drive game was a lot of fun. We had 50 youth and volunteers show up to go tonight. Our volunteers have stepped up big time in the last few weeks and I'm excited at what is going to happen in the coming weeks with our new format for youth. Thanks for all that you do. Next Wednesday night starts our new format with small groups. Be sure to check out the church site for more upcoming youth events this summer.

Finally, tomorrow morning we head out for vacation in Ft Myers Beach in Florida. Jason Patterson is speaking this Sunday and he always does an awesome job. The bands are doing my favorite song this Sunday and I hate that I am going to miss it. Not sure about bloggin in the next week or so as I am going to be on the beach most of the time. I'll post details when I get back.

P.S. Tonight at the Greenville Drive game they had random trivia flashing across the screen. Did you know that there is not a word in the English language for the back of the knee. I couldn't stand for this so I decided to name it. The back of the leg is now known as the Scuttle. I am putting it on wikipedia as soon as this post is over. Check it out.

I'll use it in a sentence for you. "Man, did you see those cankles and the scuttle on that person?"

Awards

Today was Isaac's first awards day at school since this was his first time in school. Isaac picked up 5 awards today. He just smiled real big. Melissa and I were proud as we could be. Tonight he had his first class party and we all went and he hung out with his friends from school. Life seemed almost normal for a moment. When we got home as he was getting ready for bed, I called him into the living room and told him that even if he hadn't of received even one reward that I would have been just as proud because he has more courage than anyone I've ever known. I really meant that too. If he never wins another anything, he has already won by his courage under the fire of all he's been through.

Siphoning

Today began with me spitting out foot water into the sink. Let me explain, I was using a hose pipe to siphon the water from the pool we used in our baptism. As soon as I got my first mouth full of water, I remembered Mark saying he had foot fungus and he had been standing in the pool during baptism. I spewed the water out right quick like. I'm pretty sure that I got only the clean water that I put into the hose to start the siphon but only time will tell if I get Athelete's mouth.

The day was busy editing video, meeting with our church accountant, message prep, and preparing for our volunteer meeting tonight.

I normally don't ask for prayers for myself, but I would appreciate prayer for wisdom in all the decisions in the coming months. I feel like our church is going to go to the next level of our ministry in the coming two months with some big things on the way. My prayer is for wisdom in knowing who is ready to with us to that next level. We have some great folks and I want to know who I can lean on in the coming days for help.

Finally keep my friends in your prayers in the coming days. They have some huge steps of faith coming their way.

Sunday Recap

Today was our first baptism at Stone Bridge. The services were great. Music was awesome at both campuses. Video elements fit well with the service. All around it was a great day. People were still standing around fellowshiping 30 minutes after service was over.

Our Anderson Campus joined us in Powdersville for baptism there. We used a portable swimming pool from Wal Mart. You might be a redneck if you were baptized in a pool from Wal Mart. The water was incredibly cold. We had baptism in the auditorium so there was no chance at the sun heating up the water. The only problem I have now is figuring out how to siphon the water out of the auditorium.

I got tongue tied a couple of times today. I think I said scum scholars and people are with you as long as the smelling is good. I meant to say sailing but I guess smelling would fit as well because if you stunk no one would want to be around you either.

I 'm watching the race right now, I'll update more later on.