Talk about a bad day

It wasn't a bad day for us. We made it up to Cincinnati without any major hiccups other than having to sit in traffic for a while.

But the same couldn't be said for this other couple that we saw yesterday. As we were coming through Knoxville, traffic suddenly came to a stop. And when I say came to a stop, I mean I got out of the car and walked around and talked to random people who were also sitting stopped on I-75. After a while, traffic finally got moving again. It seems as though a man was driving a brand new Chevy Silverado pulling a rather nice camper and had lost control and flipped on it's side. Other than some broken glass, both the trailer and the truck were in not too bad of shape. They got both flipped back over and had each hooked up to a wrecker to take them to check them out when "it" happened. It seems as though the tow truck driver forgot to turn the wheels on the truck when he took off right in front of us. The trailer was hooked up to another wrecker about a couple of hundred yards ahead. He got up to about 35- 40 miles an hour before the truck made a turn directly into the rear of the trailer as it sat still on the side of the road. He pretty much ripped the whole back off the trailer and caved in the whole rear of the truck as well. It was funny watching the two Highway Patrolmen look and see it take place. They both took off walking towards the guy to investigate the second accident involving the same vehicle within 200 yards of the first.
The man who had wrecked the truck the first time seemed a bit miffed that they had finished his truck and trailer off. Talk about a bad day.

Probably the Most Awesome Thing

Today we received some of the coolest news ever. Last month I told everyone that we had visited Hendrick Motorsports and Isaac had been given a all access tour. The people that gave us the tour were with the Hendrick Marrow Foundation. A few days after our tour, we got a phone call from Courtney at the Hendrick Marrow Foundation and she asked if Isaac would like to be the Guest of Honor at the Hendrick Marrow Foundation's Charity Dinner and Fund Raising event for the National Marrow Foundation. She said in order for this to happen that Isaac's bone marrow donor would have to agree also to be present as this dinner is expected to raise one million dollars for the National Marrow Foundation. Well, we have been waiting to hear if this would all happen. Today, we received a confirmation call saying that the donor is going to be there and so will we. We will be staying in Charlotte, NC from May 20th-22nd and Isaac will be meeting his donor for the very first time. We are extremely excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. This promises to be the best day ever. I will update more as details come along. We leave for Cincinnati in the morning and hope to be back in few days.

Message and Video is Up

Yesterday, I spoke at Marathon Church in Powdersville. You can view the message along with Isaac's Christmas video at http://marathonchurch.org . Click the link to view this weeks message. Isaac's Christmas video is about 10-15 minutes into the message.

Speaking, Eating, and Flaming Spears

Today was a fun day all around. This morning I had the privilege of speaking at Marathon Church in Powdersville. All three services were full of energy and it was it felt good to be a part of what is going on in the new series. If you weren't there, you can check it our here http://marathonchurch.org. The message will probably be up on the web site in a couple of days. The band did an awesome job with the U2 song. Chase tore it up with his mad video editing skills. Props to him on that. A very special thanks is in order for Bryan "Hasselhof" Holder. That water had to be cold, now if I can only get him to walk on hot coals.

After church I had to jet over to Outback Steakhouse where Gary and his staff held a benefit dinner for Isaac's COTA fund. If you are in Easley, you need to stop by and eat there. These are some of the finest folks you will ever meet. Thanks to Gary and all the staff for making that event possible. Also, I want to say a big thanks to everyone who bought tickets. You guys mean a ton to Isaac, Melissa, and I.

And lastly, tonight we had home group and as always it was a blast. Literally, it was a blast. We have kind of made it a point that we light some type of pyrotechnics and tonight was no exception. I had promised our home group that tonight we would have flaming spears and sure enough we did. We created a new "game" that involved catching flaming spears. The most catches in a row was three. It was all fun and games until Bryan lost his arm and leg hair. Jamie and I couldn't help it that he has no vertical leap when it comes to jumping the fire. Seriously though aside from the pyro frivolity we have been actually going through the book of James. It has been quite insightful and next week we are moving on to the parable of the talents.

That's about all I have for tonight. I am fixing to go to bed after a long day.

Record Day

So today is one of those days that will go down in the annals of Sammy History as a record day. For those of you who know me well, you know how much I hate to sit still. I can get fidgety and this is probably the reason I Have never been much of a fisher person. Well today, Scott and Bryan took me to the secret fishing hole. And today was a record for me. Before today, the most fish I had ever caught at one time was two. They started me out fishing with a plastic worm. I am not good at that because it involved two seperate actions at once. I was supposed to make the line jig at the same time I was reeling it in. That didn't happen too good. Then I had to get used to casting a rod rather than just dropping it over the side with a bobber on it. By the end of the day, one out of every three casts were good. It started out rocky enough with most of my casts going either two feet straight into the water or either onto the bank. Finally they had me using a plastic minnow thingyma bob. I got the hang of this because I didn't have to do anything but cast and reel. Most of the time I had no idea where I had just cast the minnow and my words of the day were " Where'd that go?". But, by the end of the day I had pulled in a record haul of 5 Large Mouth Bass. Davey Hite would have been proud. I also will state for the record that I am not a huge fan of wasps and I figure that Bryan will be posting something to this effect in the coming days.

Hanging out with Student Pastors

Today has seemed like a day of hanging out with youth workers and student pastors from all different walks of life. Last night I was in Greenville speaking at a church there and I had a chance to see what was happening in their church. It was cool to see how many adults that Pendleton Street has involved in it's ministry. Even in the absence of a student pastor, the adults have really stepped up.
Then for lunch I met up with some of the guys from Chasen, Josh Trammel from Tri County Worship, Bryan Holder from Marathon, Jeff Garrison from Piedmont FBC. We ate at Pizza House in Powdersville. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to eat. It was really cool to hear some of the challenges each is facing and hear about the cool things about to take place. Chasen heads to the studio in the next few weeks and will likely be on a big time tour this time next year. Josh is seeing some cool things take place in Seneca at the "Bubble", Bryan in facing a great problem and that is where to put all of the students. Jeff is doing some cool things in Piedmont and he is totally volunteer.
And finally tonight Melissa ate supper with Joel and Kristen from FBC Williamston. I'll be speaking down there in a couple of weeks. They were heading out to a student ministry conference tommorrow. We also ate with the Baileys(Kristen's parents and good friends of ours).
And finally, right now I am about to go back over my message for Sunday morning at Marathon. If you are in the upstate, come on out this Sunday morning. The service times are 9:00 a.m., 10:15 a.m., and 11:30 a.m.. If you can't make it out this week, I think it will be on TV within the next couple of weeks on the WB channel at 9:30 on Sunday Mornings. Hope to see you there.

Busy Week

This week has been crazy but good as well. Today Chase and I edited a video for my message on Sunday at Marathon. He did an awesome job on it. It makes everything flow. Then this afternoon Chase, Bryan, Jeff and I headed out to Anderson to shoot another video for Sunday's message. All I can say is that it will be off the hook. Thanks to Bryan for taking one for the team. Tommorrow I will be at Pendleton Street speaking at their student ministry service. I am jacked up and looking forward to hanging out with their group.

We head back up to Cincinnati at the first of next week. Hopefully this will be a shorter stay. I am tired and going to bed. Good night.