Sorry No Post

Sorry about no posting this week. It has been crazy. Crazy in a busy and good way. We've been moving into another part of the building which means painting, moving stuff, setting up stuff, and stuff like that. Yesterday, I went with the youth to Carowinds. It was hot and humid. I am wiped out right now. Tomorrow is setting up projector stuff and message run through. Some small tidy up projects and then tomorrow night is rest. I will post pics and tell you more next week when I have rested more than 5 hours.

Recap

• Keels, Jon and Clay did a great job with worship in Anderson.
  
• Derrick D. did the teaching duties in Anderson today.
  
• Several first timers in Powdersville today.
• Kevin Campbell spoke for me in Powdersville and did an awesome job.
• Reo was incredible leading worship and will be helping us out more in the coming weeks as Evan heads out on tour.
• Attendance was up despite a large number of our regular folks being out of town on vacations. In a new church start when 8-9 of your core families go on vacation it can be huge. So needless to say I was excited to see attendance up despite such a big group being gone this week.
• Announcement video went over well. I've never heard people laugh so much over announcements.
• I had a request from someone to sing some of my Randy Travis songs. I told the guy that if he came back to church I would sing.
  
• Painting this week at the new auditorium. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday night. If you can paint, basically anytime on those days or nights is cool.
• Got invited to go fishing this afternoon down in Antreville.
• We won. Tripp and I outfished Stan and Scott. 53-49. Tripp caught 35 large mouth bass, I caught 18. Last time I caught 27.
  
• Tripp got ready to push out one of the boats and there was a three foot long snake under the boat. I stood in the back of the truck while Tripp, Stan, and Scott tried to shoot it. I used the excuse that I was looking for a can of Off. Really I was just standing in the boat to not be bitten by a huge snake.
• I learned my fishing style today. It is self proclaimed "Lazy Fishing". It worked. I just cast and let the fluke drop to the bottom and every now and again I reeled and shook the line. I had only caught three before discovering my method. I also learned how to tie the fisherman knot today.
  
• I managed to hook my back with one of those three hook hooks. I told Trip to yank it out. He yanked it and it didn't come out. He grossed out. Scott pulled his boat over and took my razor blade knife and cut it out of my back. While he was cutting it out of my back, I got stung by a bee. Holder would have had to use his Epi Pen. It hurt but I didn't say any cuss words. I can't remember if I thought any or not. Don't worry, Scott was like a Boy Scout with his fancy pants first aid kit complete with antiseptic.
  
• 
  

Anniversary

Today was our 15th year anniversary. I knew that today was a biggie and I knew I better plan something good. 5 years ago on our 10th anniversary I took Melissa on a 10 stop scavenger hunt where I got her gifts for each of the ten years we had been married. I then made an 11th stop where I gave her a new 1 carat diamond ring.

Today was 15 so I knew I needed to step up my game. So this morning we were off on a mystery trip. I happen to know one of the curators at the Biltmore House in Asheville. My friend from school is the number 2 person in charge up there and I was able to get him to hook me up with a huge favor(which he had to get special permission for). Anyway, we arrived at the Biltmore Gate and parked the car. I had it set up to where as soon as we arrived a carriage pulled up. (The timing was crazy. I had to go in the mens restroom at Biltmore McDonalds to let them know we were near the gate without Melissa hearing me. Men using the restroom seemed to stare a lot as I'm asking the dude if the carriage is ready.)

Anyway, the timing was perfect and we made our way onto the carriage for the 20 minute ride up to the Main House. It was awesome, people were stopping and watching as we pulled up the the front of the house. Jay greeted us at the front and escorted us into the restricted area of the Bachelor's wing near the South Tower. It was the personal lounge of George Vanderbilt before his marriage and in fact was the actual room in which he proposed to his wife. Once in the room, there was a food layout that you would not believe. Melissa and I sat alone in George Vanderbilt's personal lounge and ate at the same table he ate at. Next to where we sat was a chair that was owned by Louis 16th. It was incredible. Melissa was speechless. We dined for about an hour and then we were off to our carriage for a ride over to Lion Crest where the horses are kept. We spent the afternoon on private horseback tour of the grounds. The day ended with a carriage ride back to our car and we rode back into reality. And speaking of reality, none of this story was reality. I did take Melissa to the Biltmore House for our anniversary though. It sounded romantic though and it's the thought that counts anyway.

15 Years

Wow! Tomorrow will be 15 years since Melissa and I were married. July 24th 1993. I remember talking to a guy I went to college with who had went back to school later in life, and I remember him telling me that he had been married 15 years. I thought, dang he sure is old. That was back when Melissa and I had been married a couple of months. Now I think 15 years is not that long and I don't feel that old. But crap, that guy I went to school with has been married 30 years now and that is really old. I take solace in knowing Melissa and I are newly weds compared to old people. If you're old, I meant no offense by the old people comment. I'm sorry that you are youthfully challenged.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary. I am still amazed that you landed a catch like me. Just kidding, I know I went way over my head.

P.S. If I think about it I may post our wedding video that has me singing two songs to Melissa in our wedding.

Update

This week has been fairly busy with not much time to blog. I worked on a lot of logistical type stuff yesterday and today. I am a creator and idea type person and don't necessarily enjoy the logistical stuff but there are times where that is what I have to do. It's what I do. Shoot! T peezy will get that or T Pizzy as Evan texted him.

Most of the logistical stuff is getting ready for the move to the new auditorium and moving the Children's area to the old auditoirum area and moving the offices to the old Children's area. So a ton of switching around that will be happening in the next week.

Hopefully, we will be getting the ok from the landlord to begin our transition tomorrow. For those who are going to be helping out with painting, sound set up, and moving stuff, I will have a schedule with times that we will doing work. There is only one small type construction project to be done and that involves taking out about 10 feet of wall. Hopefully it won't be too bad. Other than that there are a hundred small things to be taken care of. Also, we are continuing to look for a more permanent location besides the school in Anderson. Pray that doors will open and we will know the place that we are supposed to be.

Also, just a quick invite to all the readers in blog land. Maybe you've been thinking about visiting StoneBridge. What are you waiting for? We'd love to have you stop by and join us. 9:15 a.m. in Anderson at Whitehall Elementary and 10:55 a.m. in Powdersville behind SunTrust. We finish up our "Man on the Run" series this Sunday and begin our new series "Thirst" next week.

Sunday Recap

- Today was good all around.

- Two of our three worship leaders were off today but the rest of the band members stepped up and we didn't miss a beat. We are starting to develop depth within our Worship area and it is awesome to see all the different people who are playing parts.

- Keels made his debut leading today in Powdersville and did an awesome job.

- Shout out to Dan C for all he does in Anderson. Dan holds it all together and I appreciate all he does.

- Several new faces at both campuses today which was awesome to see.

- Summer can be filled with highs and lows in all areas of the church. Depending on how vacations fall and who's there and who's gone it can vary from week to week. This being our first summer it has been hard to predict but the cool thing is except for one week, we pretty much have remained constant.

- I usually don't talk about money on my blog but today really blew me away. People have asked from time to time what it takes to run a church. For us, our budget is pretty simple considering all that we do. Our monthly budget requirements are around $12,000. That includes rent at two locations, utilities, insurance, office stuff, youth, children, music(never enough music stuff-Just kidding these guys do great with what they have) and salaries. For most churches this doesn't sound like much because most of the churches I have worked at have had $10,000- $20,000 as a weekly budget. Anyway, back to my point. It takes money to reach people. I really believe our people understand this. During the summer it can be tough on churches. The average per person giving across the nation is right around $15 per person. Today our folks really blew me away, our per person giving today was over $50 per person. It was a reminder to me that our folks really get what is happening and really want to see us reach people for Christ. Currently we still have a few thousand dollars to go to retire our debt which will allow us to move forward with more things designed to reach the community for Christ. Thanks for all you folks do and how you hold everything with an open hand allowing God to use you.

- Be sure to check out the church website for upcoming events and opportunities to get involved.

Lost Phone, Day Off, New Watch, New Shirts ,and New Folks

- Lost my phone today in Garden Ridge. Someone picked it up aand turned it in to their office which was nice since I didn't realize it until 3 hours later. We called it and found out where it's new location was and picked it up. Strangers being nice. Really cool.

- I was off today. Hung out with Melissa and Isaac in downtown Greenville just walking around.

- I went in Buckle today and got inspired. They had a watch I wanted but it was $115. No big problem, I went home and made my own that looks better than the one they had for sale. Seeing that one inspired me to make a new white band with blue face watch and the cost was ........free. I used an old watch face, white paint, and an old snake skin belt. That's better than $115.

- I got money for my birthday last week so I bought myself three new shirts at the mall. I hate the mall and only usually make about three pilgrimages a year to it.

- I bought some new folks with the extra money I had left over from my birthday. Just kidding. But I am jacked up about some new folks that are going to be helping out from North Greenville University in the next three weeks or so. This is going to take our youth, media and other areas to the next level. These folks are also going to be heading up the core group for the TR location as we move into the fall.