Soakin' Up Life . . . at a 100 MPH!

Last Friday would have been Karen's 40th birthday. With that in mind, I headed back to D/FW (for those of you not from the great country - oops, I mean state - of Texas (home of the NCAA National Champions, The University of Texas Longhorns - talk amongst yourselves. . . (biting lip) I'm feeling a little verclempt. . .OK, D/FW stand for Dallas/Fort Worth) for some visits and dinner with Karen's family. It was a great trip. Ok, so the time of the first flight wasn't so great - I left Mobile at 6:30 in the morning. That meant Mike, the not-so-early-bird, was leaving the house at 5:00 freakin-am! Caught a plane to Houston , then another to Dallas . Let me tell ya - the feelin' of gettin' off that plane and standing on holy ground is U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E. There's just something about coming home that puts a big ol' smile on your face. Climbed into the rental car and headed for Plano . That was where Karen and I called home. It was where we live...

OK - let's just get this out of the way. YES! I went to Wal-Mart right after church yesterday morning to pick up several things I needed. Mistake? Some think so, but it beat going after church last night. So anyway. I get home from church and feel like a couple of burgers. I break out the ol' George Foreman Grill , thaw out some humburger patties, throw some buns in the broiler - I like my buns toasted (no sly remarks about my buns unless you plan on commenting on how good they look, then you MUST be of the female persuasion!!), and began cutting up the lettuce, tomato, and onion. Then I noticed something. Something that was unpleasant and telling. It was smoke coming from the oven. STINK!! I mean literally it stunk - my buns had burned. Not a little - A LOT! There I was standing with four briquettes in my hand. Do you know how hard it is to get that burned bun odor out fo the house? Thank God for Circle E candles , windows, and a breeze With my burned buns in...

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. At 9:00 am at the church we are starting a new club/ministry - Free Riders Motorcycle Club. Church members, family, and friends are all invited to join us to find out what we can and will do to reach others with an interest in motorcycles. I can't wait! I've been looking forward to this meeting for months. . .weeks. I got this idea from Rick, a friend and co-laborer for the Kingdom, who began a chapter of the Free Riders in his own church . He even emailed me the logo and information they use. Thanks Rick! So. . .tomorrow morning, weather permitting, I'm jumpin' on the Harley, and with a smile on my face, headin' down to meet some more motorcycle enthusiasts to see about starting a motorcycle club. I love times like this! Mike

It's Friday - for me that means I am in the office getting things ready for Sunday. Today's agenda: clean my stinkin' office!! Because of all the stuff I've been involved in lately, stuff has been just piling up and now it's driving me CRAZY ! AND. . .since I'm the Education Pastor is seems that everything associate with adult ministry winds up in my office. There's boxes, cables, extension cords, t-shirts, more boxes, files - you name it it's probably in my office. I did find a gift card to Carpe Diem, a local coffee shop. That's pretty cool, eh? So, in a few minutes, my assistant, Suzanne, and I will be sitting down and going through stuff. Don't have a clue what we'll find, what we will do with what we will find, but I'm sure we'll have fun doing it. Why? IT'S F-R-I-D-A-Y !!! What do you do on Friday? And what's in your office? Have a Great Day! Mike

Ever have one of those days? Not the kind you wish to forget. I've had plenty of those. No. . .I'm speaking of those that you really enjoy having. Nothing out of the ordinary happens and it's not about the stuff you do or don't have to do, but it just feels good to get up and live a day. I'm having one of those days - so far. Didn't really want to get up earlier this morning, but since I got up and about I have really enjoyed the day. I have already got a lot of stuff accomplished and looking forward to accomplishing some more. Have some stuff to do, but the things I need to do are not pressing so as to stress me out. I'm pretty sure I'll get them done. It's great weather here in LA (Lower Alabama). It's peaceful. It's relaxing - and lately I'm all about relaxing. I hear the wind chimes I bought for Karen chiming away on the back porch. The dogs and cats are lounging - ever notice how dogs and cats know how to enjoy the day? S...

This past weekend I took some time just for me. It was kinda wierd. I don' t when the last time I took some time to do only what I wanted to do - not to be dictated to by a schedule, appointments, needs, etc. So. . .on Thursday I had lunch with Chris Lockwood , a fellow blogger and co-laborer in Christ here in Mobile . On Friday, though it was a little chilly, I jumped on the Harley and headed to Pensacola, FL for the day. The Harley shop there is incredible. That night gathered with some men from one of our ABFs for Wild Game Night - consisted of deer meet cooked several different ways, video games and ping-pong. I went home thoroughly pumped. Saturday I found myself hangin' at the ol' casa for the day. Watching movies and reading. Speaking of reading - yeah, I know a lot of you know that I love to read. But I find myself reading on things like leadership, the church, etc. I have to MAKE myself read a book for fun. On Thursday I forced myself to purchase and...

A couple of weeks ago a fellow blogger and former classmate & fellow intern e-introed me to another blogger in the Mobile area. Grant emailed Chris and myself and said "Mike meet Chris, Chris meet Mike." We emailed a couple of times and by Thursday we were sitting across from each other at the local Logan's restaraunt - eating, laughing, and hanging out. In other words, we " e-nected "!! It was great to put a face and a heart to the words I read on the screen of my laptop. Chris has a great heart for ministry and I look forward to seeing and hearing more of it. Thanks Chris for lunch - my treat next time. Thanks Grant to for the e-troduction. Mike

The week after the Ten Towns Tour was completed we hosted our Disciple Now weekend. We called it Warfare Weekend. The point of the weekend was to help equip students for battle on the front lines of life as a student. It was I N C R E D I B L E!!, to say the least. We had over a 100 studentsk, with 150-175 people involved throughout the weekend. Now. . .you must know one very important thing - THIS WAS MY FIRST D-NOW WEEKEND - E V E R! the only that got me through the weekend was the most faithful staff - thanks Whitney, Lor, and Stephen - and a devoted team of volunteers who took up the slack, filled in the gaps, and encouraged me in more ways than they will ever know. I also relied upon one very important passage of Scripture - 1 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Let me tell you about grace. Without God's grace (of which these wonderful people we...

Well. . .by now the Ten Towns Tour has come to an end. It was an incredible weekend. Not only was there incredible worship but Kris Swaitocho, of The Singles Network and our speaker for the weekend, taught and challenged us, as singles, about the importance and the ease of starting connections. Connections are opportunities to get to know people for who they are - waitresses, home owners, parents, sales staff, friends, even family members. In getting to know them we look for opportunities to share the gospel with them. The project that afternoon that each group had to perform was unique in and of itself. Each group, made up of singles from young to senior to single parents, was given one of our 2T2 mugs (borrowed them from the student ministry). A rep from each group drew one of ten communities in and around Mobile. Their group had to go to that community with their mug and try to trade it for something else. In doing so they had to hand them one of my businees cards, explain w...