3 Days Crammed into 1

Today we packed 3 days worth of activities into one. 

This a.m. was church at StoneBridge. I left the house early with small snowflakes falling which was a cool way to start the day. Church was good. The band did a great job and I got to make fun of glamour shots in my message so all was good.

We left church at 1 p.m. and headed for Charlotte grabbing lunch along the way. We had two stops to make before we got there. Isaac has a history project due next week on the Revolutionary War so we made two stops at battlefields. We stopped at Cowpens where General Morgan routed Banistre Tarleton and then stopped at Kings Mountain where the over the mountain men led by Shelby and Sevier routed General Furgeson and the Red Coats.

When we got to Cowpens, much to our surprise this was reenactment weekend. So yes, you guessed it, grown men walking around in knickers that resembled something more like saggy pajamas.  Two things about this. 1. Soldiers wearing knickers did not look that menacing to me. Now give me a soldier wearing a kilt and face paint like William Wallace and I'll show you menancing. 2. These guys are way too involved in their respective roles. Frankly, they scared me a bit with the fervor at which they approached the firing of their smooth bore muskets filled with blanks. 

After Cowpens we stopped at Kings Mountain. Apparently the reenactment in Cowpens had taken away their business and there were only two other visitors there. The rangers were excited to see us and even more appreciative that we agreed to watch their 25 minute movie on the battle. After the movie it was off to Charlotte to meet up with our friends at the go kart party.

The party was hosted by the Hendrick Marrow Foundation and the Jeff Gordon Foundation and as always the event was awesome. It was held at Victory Lane Karting. They had all the karts up and running for the kids and the adults. Of course anyone who knows me knows that my absolute favorite thing to do is ride go karts whether at Frankie's, the back yard track , or wherever. These karts are hands down the fastest I have been on. If you get a chance this is almost as fun as the Petty Driving experience. It is indoors and they are running 9 hp engines which makes for high speeds which is a good thing. Big thanks to everyone at the Hendrick Marrow program and the Jeff Gordon Foundation.

It's been a busy day and I'm off to bed. 

Some Things in the Works

I have slept better the last two nights which is good. Isaac is back in School which is better. Speaking of Isaac, Sunday night we will be in Charlotte riding go karts as a part of the Jeff Gordon Foundation event up there. It is indoors at Victory Lane Karting. We are looking forward to it. Everything we do with the folks at the Hendrick Marrow Foundation and the Jeff Gordon Foundation is always a blast.

There are some things in the works that I would appreciate your prayers about. It is all good and I'm just looking to God to seek guidance and wisdom. Cool stuff ahead but need your prayers.

11

Isaac turned 11 years old today. He had a party today with some of his friends from school. This was only the second time in his life that he has been able to have a party with his friends because 3 years he was in the hospital during his birthday and the rest of the time he couldn't because he was recovering from either his liver transplant or his bone marrow transplant. The kids had a blast. We took them to the slot car track in Pickens and had pizza and ice cream here at the house. This may have been the happiest I think I have ever seen him just being able to play and feel normal. Overall it has been a great Christmas because for really the first time Isaac was able to go to all our Christmas parties without worrying about his immune system. For me that was the best Christmas gift you could give me......  A healthy son.

7 Years

Tomorrow marks seven years since Isaac received his liver transplant. December 9th 2001. It's amazing and overwhelming to think about all he has been through in the last seven years. Isaac is doing good and is in his first full year of public school. We are thankful for what God has shown us through Isaac. We also stop and say a prayer for the family of the 2 year old child that died and in the middle of all their suffering, they chose to give the gift of life. Thank you to all families who make this decision in the midst of your suffering. 

Quick Recap

What has been happening the last few weeks. It's been hectically busy. Got a ton of stuff on my mind. Prayers appreciated there.

Things are progressing on the house front. It seems like we show it a couple of times each week. The other house is coming along. I've been doing some painting and stuff on the weekends to get it ready. 

Isaac's Christmas Project is ready to go. We didn't announce it on the internet this year because we did an extremely scaled down version due to the fact that the house is for sale and we didn't have the space to store all of the tons of toys like the previous two years. Next year we will do a big toy drive once again .This year we are giving toys to the day clinic at Greenville Hospital. This is where a lot of cancer and bone marrow transplant kids receive their treatments on a weekly basis.

 A special thanks to Pam and Courtney with the Hendrick Marrow Foundation for all of the boxes of Nascar items for the kids that Pam dropped off this past week. All of these folks have a special place in their hearts for kids and the things they face going through transplants and illnesses. 

If anyone would like to give, we are in need of probably 15-20 more girls toys. Ages range from 1-15.  We are completely covered with toys for little boys.

Not Sure If You Saw It

I'm not sure if you saw it or not last night but Extreme Home Makeover may have been the best show I have watched in years. Mainly because it brought floods of emotion and memories of all Isaac went through. Watching the 10 year old boy, Job on the show was a reminder of how thankful we are to still have Isaac around because for years the outlook wasn't that good. Things are going great now and we're thankful for that. Melissa and I sat and talked about it for about thirty minutes tonight after Isaac had went to bed. If you never have experienced any thing like this then there is no way to explain how much the kids or the parents go through. Last night as I watched that show for the first time I knew there was someone else who understands.

It is easy to be critical and question others but until you have walked in someone else's shoes then you have no clue what they are facing. Next time you start to be questioning or critical, stop and pray for that person because you may not even have a clue. I have been taking this to heart more lately. I have a friend who I was critical of but yet I had never actually stopped and asked, I wonder what they are facing right now. Once I was able to see what they were up against then a lot of what was happening made perfect sense. Just a random thought. Maybe it helps someone.

Today I swapped my normal day off for today in order to get the house ready to sell. Today I disassembled the train layout and Melissa and I cleaned out the train room. That room is huge once the train layout was removed. I believe this will expedite the sale of the house just with this added space. We have moved a ton of boxes of stuff we have packed up out to the garage.

I have already began selling stuff out of the garage on ebay so that we don't have to move it. Next on my list of sale items is going to be the go karts. I have seven go karts that I am selling. 5 are racing karts and 2 are yard karts. If you know anyone looking tp get into racing I will sell the racing karts for $3500 for all and will throw in tons of extra parts. Just one kart is worth almost $3000.

I Am Inspired

I haven't watched the show yet but I am inspired just by the previews for tonight. What show am I talking about? Extreme Home Makeover tonight features a child who hasn't been home in 6 years because of medical conditions. We were gone a year and a half but I can't imagine 6 years. Kids like this inspire me because of their will to live.

Three Things I'm Praying For

1. Our son- Isaac is doing exceptionally well. My biggest prayer is that he will soon be healthy enough to have his central line removed. For those of you who don't know, he has a double line coming out of his chest for his meds. For his sake, I just want him to feel like he can play like a normal child. He has some limitations with this line and I know it has to weigh on him. He handles it far better than I could but I want him to experience total freedom.

2. Church- Praying for us to impact the area for Christ. Seeing a lot of new faces but still praying that more disconnected people get connected.

3. Our House to Sale.- It's been less than a week on the market and we have two people that have the house on their short list. It would be awesome if one would make an offfer in the next few days that way we could move forward with everything. We've found a house in foreclosure and I'm all about saving money on house payments each month.

Isaac at Jeff Gordon Foundation and Hendrick Marrow Program Dinner

A Tornado

A tornado would best describe my week. Not all bad, but in many ways fast and furious. I haven't felt this much pressure in quite sometime. The good part is usually when the pressure is turned up like this that God is about to do something amazing.

I'm excited about Sunday. I've already heard of several people who are coming to StoneBridge for the first time Sunday on the one year anniversary of our church. I'm jacked up about that.

I can't wait until Wednesday either. Wednesday we are heading up to Charlotte where Isaac is going to meet Jeff Gordon and we are going to be a part of the Jeff Gordon Foundation and Hendrick Marrow Foundation dinner to raise money for the National Marrow Foundation.

Then the next Sunday we are going to do something pretty challenging and very exciting during the service. You must be there to find out.

Keep praying and inviting. Tomorrow is normally my day off but not much of a chance of that happening this week. I am going to sleep late but I still have a couple of more things to get done before Sunday.

The next two weeks

-I need about an extra 10 hours to get finished all of the stuff I need to do this week.

- I figured it out I need to work smarter this week rather than harder so there might be some things that aren't as important that won't get done.

- This week is huge in the life of our church. This week marks the one year anniversary. This is huge because a large percentage of new church starts fail within the first year. So this is the first milestone at StoneBridge. This week's message should be challenging for us all to move ahead rather than to put it in cruise.

- Next week is slam packed. We start a new series " Breaking the Bank". We have some cool stuff taking place during that series. You'll have to be there to find out about it.

- Isaac, Melissa and I will be in Charlotte on Wednesday and Thursday of next week for a banquet hosted by Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick. It is a fund raiser for the National Marrow Foundation and they have asked Isaac to take part in it. Isaac will be wearing a button up shirt and brown shoes for the first time.(He'll wear pants too.) I have to wear a suit. That is ok though because there is a rumor that I will be wearing a suit on October 12th. I'm not confirming or denying it. You'll have to be there to find out.

Day Off

- Tomorrrow is my day off and I'm excited about hanging out with Melissa and Isaac all day.

- This week has been crazy. Meetings and stuff at church every night this week.

- Tonight is relaxing just chillin watching our all time favorite show Survivor.

- This week at StoneBridge will be powerful. I'm doing something I've never done before. It has involved a lot of prayer this week. I'm not jumping from nothing, drinking nothing, or doing nothing crazy just something challenging. Be there early and bring friends.(I know this is bad English but I am not in English class)

- I would appreciate your prayers in regards to some decisions that need to be made. Pray for wisdom.

- Next week is our one year anniversary of the church. It started with 6 people in a living room and it's amazing to think how far we've come. Next week's message is going to be a challenge for all of us. It will be both campuses at one location.

- Our student ministry team continues to impress me. These guys get the big picture that it is not about the lights, stage, or the music but it is relational. It's about connecting with students in order to connect them with Christ. They get that.

Sunday Recap

- Uncensoredpastor.com has been having some technical difficulties due to my internet connection issues at the house. We are working to resolve these. We will be broadcasting from the office live during the week but for the time being we won't bradcast from the house unless we our internet issues are corrected. Thanks for hanging in there and understanding.

- I am truly blessed. I was thinking about that this evening as I sat listening to Isaac sing in the shower. That was just priceless to see how far he has come in the last 3 years.

- Services today were very smooth all around. The flow of everything went awesome. Touched on a subject that I definately need improvement in. I spoke on taming the tongue and the power of our spoken words.

- I performed an illusion in my message and it went off with without a hitch. I had been practicing my Harry Houdini skills for the last week and it worked. It fit perfect with the point I was making and even some of the folks that I knew would figure it out were left wondering how I put the paper back together. I will perform the trick tomorrow on uncensoredpastor.com at around 11:00 a.m. if you would like to see it again.

- Atmosphere was awesome today. Today we had our highest attendance for a non holiday. The only other time we had an attendance higher than today was back on Mother's Day when a ton of our folks brought their parents to church. Awesome job inviting people. Keep it up. The original message I was speaking on this coming week has changed and the new message I am speaking on Sunday should challenge us all.

- Two weeks from today we celebrate our 1 year anniversary. This is an exciting time in the life of StoneBridge. What is keeping you from being a part.

- Invite invite invite.

Relaxed and Refreshed

Today was great. The last few weeks have been hectic with every thing at church. We have done several outreach focused events and they have all been good but it has left me extremely busy. This weekend was good though. Dan spoke in Anderson for me and Jim Thompson spoke for me in Powdersville. I went to church and just went too church. That is relaxing and refreshing to me.

I try to step off the stage and let someone else speak about every 7th week or so. This serves as kind of a speaking sabbath. Being a small staff church right now, this helps me to have time to take care of logistical stuff that needs to be done and it gives our folks a chance to hear different speakers that are better than me. In some churches, when the pastor takes a week off, he will bring in some person that will be horrible so that his "people" will appreciate him more. Me personally, I want the best for our church and anytime I have a chance to get a quality speaker I will always go for that. Nothing makes me feel better than having someone speak that does a great job. Besides, I am going to be sitting in the audience too and I don't want to listen to a bad speaker. Dan and Jim both did a great job.

I slept in today for the first time in a couple of weeks, painted some model cars for Isaac, sat in the garage and just talked with Isaac, worked on some go karts, rode some go karts, and went to a cookout at the Browns.

Last night Melissa and I went with Evan and Erin to hang out at a get together at the Cartwright's House. Tom hooked me up with some pyrotechnics that can't be bought locally. Very cool. These folks help in many ways at StoneBridge besides the pyrotechnics. Thanks guys.

Last but not least, remember to check and tell your friends about uncensoredpastor.com beginning this Sunday.

Huge Day

Man, today has started off just awesome. Isaac started what will be his first full year in public school. Years back I remember when Isaac was diagnosed with his liver disease and the doctor looking across the table and telling us that he probably wouldn't live to make into the first grade. My prayer then was that I would get to see him walk down the aisle at high school graduation and see him live a normal life.

Then I remember 3 years ago sitting across the table with a group of bone marrow doctors and them telling us that Isaac wasn't healthy enough for a bone marrow transplant. Things were really scary but again my prayer was the same that I would see him walk down the aisle at high school graduation.

I remember 2 years ago, 6 months after his bone marrow transplant and the doctors telling us that it looked that the transplant hadn't took and they were starting plasmapheresis. Again, my prayer was that I would see him walk down the aisle at high school graduation.

Today was a huge step in that direction. Isaac still has his central line coming out of his chest which they still use for IV meds and he stills goes to the hospital once a week for his infusions. With his liver transplant and bone marrow transplant behind him, today was another huge step forward.

Coming Down the Pipe

There are some very cool things headed down the pipe in the next few weeks. This week has been crazy busy. We've been getting our video set up and configured for something cool that I'll let you in on the details about next week. Also, remember Monday we are trying out our first live video creativity meeting. You don't have to be there to join in. Also, future Stone Bridgers are welcome to join in as well. I say future because you may not be with us yet but soon enough you'll come on board and we'll be excited to have you. Basically, anyone is welcome to participate via the chat room.

Tomorrow at 8 a.m. is Freshman move in day at Anderson University. Wednesday Night at 7p.m. is Crashing Jericho in concert. Next Saturday August 23rd is Kid's World from 1-3:30 p.m. In the midst of all of this, I will be in Tennessee at a church planters round table on Thursday and Friday.

Tuesday is a huge day in Isaac's life because he will start his first full year in public school. He is going into the fourth grade. This is the first time with all of his transplants that he will be healthy enough. He was in K5 for a few months before being sick and he finished out the 3rd grade in school. The rest of his years, he has been home bound. He is supposed to be in 5th grade but he spent one whole year in the hospital so we didn't really care if he did school work or not. We wanted our son to be well. AWESOMENESS. God has done some huge things in his life.

Reality Check

There is nothing that will quite bring you down to reality than a walk through Children's Hospital. We have gotten accustomed to the check ups in Cincinnati every 4 months. Many times it can seem mundane, that is until you go up to the 5th floor where the BMT unit is and every time it is like reality slaps you in the face. Today, we passed two BMT kids in the hall on the way back from treatment or surgeries. They are easy to tell because they are wearing their protective masks and are missing their hair. As soon as I saw them, immediately I remembered the eight straight months Isaac spent in his room there and our one and a half years up there. We will probably never forget that time and that is a good thing because it serves as a constant reminder of all we have to be thankful for.

P.S. If you would remember a little boy named Jack Huffman in your prayers. He is from this area and currently going through a bone marrow transplant.

Site to check out

This is pretty cool. Check out this post. Turner is quite a bit better writer than her dad and she puts her youth minister B Holda to shame as well.

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.

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.