West Cocoa Chat

Having taught school for over 27 years has giving me some interesting stories and experiences when it comes to my day to day dealings with middle school students. I remember the first time I issued a class set of calculators back in the 80’s. I was pontificating on the “do’s and don’ts” of handling these new fangled calculators to a particular class. Of course being the dramatic guy that I am I was adding in a bit of “Drill Sergeant” routine to my speech or basically threatening to take their first born child if they damaged the calculator. I ended my oratory with the following question:

“Is there anyone who believes they will not be able to follow these rules and “regs” of calculator care as I have brilliantly and eloquently explained them?”

Of course I’m expecting no hands after my thunderous “drill and kill” speech but at the time I didn’t know Harold. Harold was a 7^th grader in my class who was a pre-cursor to “Forest Gump.” Harold with all the honesty of his simple mind raised his hand. When I asked Harold what he wanted he said, “Mr. Walker, don’t give me one of those things because I won’t be able to handle it without breaking it. It’s just too tempting.” You have to love honesty.

Then there was my “Zen student” who I met yesterday. I had just finished explaining the format I wanted assignments done in which included how to head their papers and show their work. My conversation with Susan went something like this:

Susan: “Mr. Walker, do I have to follow that confusing format you just laid out?

Me: “Why wouldn’t you?”

Susan: “’I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be at DeLaura (a middle school in Satellite Beach) Middle School.”

Me: So my Zen student, what you’re telling me is that although you’re here physically, you’re really in a Zen state of mind which puts you approximately 15 miles south of our current location. After carefully considering your request for several seconds the answer is, “No.”

For some reason I had a “Private Benjamin” flashback when “Judy” tells her D.I. that she signed with the Army that had curtains on the windows.

I must go and meditate before I head off to school. Have a good day everyone.

I remember growing up in my 70’s / one phone home. As I entered high school it really bugged me that my parents could listen in on my conversations as the only phone we had was in the kitchen was adjacent to our family-room. The kids that actually had a second phone in their room were the envy of many of us.

Of course there were times when the tables were turned. I can remember being asked to go to my bedroom because one of my parents was carrying on an “adult conversation.” I can remember being indignant over the fact that they could listen to my conversations but I couldn’t listen to theirs. Of course with the advent of “cordless phones” and now cell phones this particular family challenge for the most part has been alleviated. I don’t know if that is necessarily a good thing but nevertheless it is the current status.

But last night God allowed Barb and me to hear an adult conversation. We were sitting at the dinner table when the phone rang for Steven. The following conversation is for “Mature Audience” only:

Steven: Hey Zack.

Zack: What are you doing right now?

Steven: Just finishing diner and getting ready to start some homework.

Zack: Do you mind if I came over for a few minutes? I need to pray.

Steven: No problem. Come over and we’ll pray together.

When I was in High School I called my buddies for many things. Prayer wasn’t one of them. I know there are times when we’ve gone over someone’s home to pray with them but it has been a long time. Perhaps it’s time to start having those “adult conversations” again.

Have a good day family.

Good news – I had no trouble sleeping last night. In fact I must have been in a really good mood while I was asleep. Barb told me this morning that I woke her up in the middle of the night, humming. She said she couldn’t tell what song I was singing but it seemed to be a “happy song.” There you have it “sleep fans,” some people walk or grind their teeth when they sleep but me, I hum. Does that make me a (rim shot please) “hummer?”

I had a good reason to sleep last night, I was tired and I mean physically tired. For the 2^nd day in a row I ran or as my son would say, speed walked 2 and half miles. The route I run is just down by our church along the “River Road” that follows the Indian River. Not only was this physically demanding because I’m old, fat, out of shape, and it was close to 90 degrees. I had to carry on a couple of conversations on my cell phone.

About a mile into my run Steven called on the way home from his guitar lessons. He wanted to know if I would meet him at the Little League Field to throw some BP (batting practice) to him. In between gasps I initially told him, “No.” When I got to my turnaround spot I guess the heat was getting to me so I changed my mind. I called him back (now going uphill and tired) and in between more gasps I told him to meet me at church. I could tell he was happy and I was happy as well because I was tired of talking and running at the same time.

Steven told me he was close to the church so he was going to meet me and run the last little bit with me. As I started to climb the last hill on the road that leads to our church he met me. Lately he has been calling me “Pops” and that was the word he used to “encourage” me as I sprinted towards the tree in our parking lot that marked my finish line. I couldn’t help but think how many times were left in which he and I would run together.

We arrived at our Little League Fields to a light drizzle. I could tell Steven was thinking I was going to back out but I told him, “Come on, I’m wet from sweat and it’s time to face the “West Cocoa Heater.” That comment brought both a smile and a roll of the eyes from him. It has been a long time since I threw BP and with 5 miles on my legs in 2 days it took a half bucket of balls to dial in the strike zone.

There were a group of kids with some coaches on the Major Field across from us. At one point Steven and me both watched as they took some infield. I know he was having a flashback moment as I was as well. We spent a lot of time on that field. We spent another fleeting moment together on the Senior Field and for a few moments, I was his Coach again. When we walked off the field he thanked me for taking the time to throw to him. I told him he was more than welcomed but I really thing I had more “thankfulness” in my (as well as a few tears right now) heart for God had given me one more moment with my son.

You guys have a good weekend.

Its 11:07pm here is beautiful downtown West Cocoa and I’m “sleepless.” I went to bed around 10pm and now I sit at the computer, blogging and sharing with you, the home viewer. This blogging thing has become a strange but important part of my life. You guys are so encouraging and I love reading your comments and your posts. Now that our District Filter is blocking access to my blog from school I feel somewhat removed from all of you for I’m unable to comment on your posts as much as I would like to do so.

But I’m not complaining. It seems that God is putting spiritual people and things in my path and I love it! Greg kind of said in his comment on my previous post. I absolutely get a rush hearing my son talk about spiritual things. Yesterday was another example. It was 6pm and I was getting ready to grill some marinated pork tenderloins Barb bought at BJ’s. My phone rang and it was Steven. He had been following his friend Ryan home from the YMCA (anybody doing the hand motions?) when Ryan ran out of gas about 2 miles from our home.

He asked me if I had some gas and it just so happened I had some in one of my three 5-gallon gas cans that I keep for hurricanes. When I arrived I could tell Ryan was down and it seemed he had more on his mind than just being embarrassed about running out of gas. Steven began to tell me that Ryan’s parents were upset with him quitting football and had told him to get a job. In the meantime they were not going to give him money for gas.

I tried to give Ryan some advice about being obedient to his parents and that they loved him but were probably trying to teach him lesson. Good advice, huh? Then my son says to Ryan, “You need to pray about it Ryan.” I thought to myself, “Who is the elder here?”

Tonight I gave Vaughn a ride home from church. Vaughn is one of the products of our College Ministry. Vaughn attends our local Community College and Vaughn is blind. Yet on the way home Vaughn couldn’t stop talking about how God had blessed him and how he was on fire for the Lord. He asked me if he was boring me with all of his talk about God, blessings, and being used by God. I thought about yesterday’s verse:

Jeremiah 20:9 But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”

God was speaking to me through his Word, this blind kid, and my son. I think I’m getting it God. I’m so proud of the way our church seems to be entering this phase of focusing on spiritual things. I want to join in with all of my heart. Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep tonight. I’m reminded of Paul’s words in Philippians 3:

⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

For the first time in months we went out to a Cracker Barrel restaurant last night. My wife had that “first day in Kindergarten” look on her face so I knew the ringing of the dinner bell would coincide with putting the key in the ignition of our car. Joining us on our trek to CB was one of our missionaries, Phil, who spent the previous year in Siberia. Phil has decided to stay with us and help our College Ministry continue.

As the 4 of us sat around the table I noticed that Phil had brought his Bible. I must say that I’ve never brought my Bible out to dinner but I wish I had. When my son saw Phil’s Bible he was the first to turn the conversation to Scripture. I was so proud (seems to be the theme of the week) of him when he said, “Let me show you my favorite Bible verse.” He turned to Jeremiah 20:

Jeremiah 20:9 But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”

If you consider all Jeremiah had been through at the hands of Pashhur it even becomes a more powerful statement. When I consider the world of teens today and the pressures and temptations they face I have to give my praise to God for being there for my son, encouraging him to live a life of faith.

Have you ever gone out to dinner and spoke of spiritual things? I think it was a first for me and hopefully not the last time. BTW – The chocolate cobbler was outstanding!

Today was a culmination of a journey. This journey has had many parts and players who have been guided by the Holy Spirit to bring our church to where it is at now. As a disclaimer I am in no way attempting to communicate that we have arrived at some fixed point. I hope our church continues down the pilgrim path to strive to be the church God would have us to be here in Cocoa.

For years this journey has been walked alone by a dear brother named Ron. Ron was a voice in the desert for many years, well before I arrived. Ron’s gentle thunder helped to bring our preacher, Don, along the pilgrim pathway of grace. Then through various circumstances I’m convinced orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, many of the “old paths / old guard” left while many unchurched and new members came Central’s way.

2 years ago several of us made a journey to Nashville (no, I didn’t say Jerusalem) to attend the Zoë Conference. That journey of worship renewal culminated in our Praise Team under the direction of Terry, standing before our church for the very first time as they led us in worship.

I am so proud of Terry and his praise team for the many hours of practice and devotion they have put in as they attempt to take our corporate worship to the next level. I am excited by what God is doing at our church.

I know the corporate worship of a church on a Sunday morning shouldn’t be the only thing we focused on during the week as we live a life of worship to God. I just sense that God is doing many mighty and wonderful things in our members’ lives but it seems to flow out of them as we worship together.

Side note – It seems our District filter is not preventing me from accessing any blogs so I may be reduced to commenting in the mornings and evenings. I love you guys.

Barb and I start our 27^th year of teaching tomorrow as well as send a senior to school.

We have an upstairs apartment that we originally built for my Mother. When she passed away God provided a way for us to use it as rental space. Our current renters are Phil and Anthony. Phil and Anthony came to us via the AIM (Adventures in Missions) Program. Their particular AIM team did missionary work in Siberia. Their time ended around the time our week of Camp started and that is were we first met. They along with Pat Pugh had a major impact on our youth group.

Phil and Anthony decided to stay with us and continue our College Ministry. In doing so they needed a place to stay and that is how they ended up upstairs. Phil has enrolled at our local Community College and in doing so he must take an entrance test for placement.

So last night after our mid-week service, our beautiful West Cocoa home became a tutoring center for the wonderful world of Algebra. Phil was a bit foggy on operations with “fractional coefficients” and multiplying and dividing polynomials. O.K., how many of you just went, “Ugh!”

Any way, we spent an hour on the couch passing problems back and forth. Then Phil started talking about Russia and how he wished he was taking a test in Russian. Now I said, “Ugh!” The proverbial table began to be reversed as Phil would write a word in Russian and try to get this southern boy to pronounce them, that is, pronounce them correctly. I don’t know why but for some reason I’m craving some “Borsch” right now.

Anybody up for an Algebra story? Several years ago, I took a group of students to see the play, “The Diary of Ann Frank.” In once act of the play, the boy staying with the Franks asks Mr. Frank for help with his “Algebra homework.” Several of my kids leaned over to me and said, “They had Algebra back then Mr. Walker?” I answered, “Yes and just like you, they had problems with it as well!” Some things never change.

Speaking of “change,” I discovered yesterday that those of you on “Theo-Bloggers” are in coveted category. I guess our District Filter doesn’t recognize you as a threat so for the moment I can comment on your blogs from school. Those of us on Blogger, it will have to be as I said yesterday, in the morning or evenings from home.

Thanks for the kind comments in my previous post by the way. Have a good day family.

You guys are getting blurry. Do I need glasses? Perhaps a filter as in “internet filter?” Yes, I discovered yesterday that our new District Internet Filter allows me to view mine and your blogs but it will not allow me to comment. O.K., I know some of you are pumping a fist in the air saying, “Yes, thank you God. His Random comments were killing me.” God took care of you. Anyway, I’m here and will be here it’s just that comments may not be coming unless it’s early in the morning (like now) or late in the evening.

It kind of reminds me of the time when we asked one of our senior saints who was a former officer in military, to head up our Senior’s Ministry. Ray and I sat down with him to give him a pep talk and all of the reasons why we thought he would do a bang-up job with the seniors.

When he started talking to us it sounded like he was going to give us a “no” so Ray and I immediately jumped in with comments to give him all the “upsides” to saying “yes.” It was at this point he looked at both of us and said, “Boys, boys, I want you both to be quiet and hold your comments until I finish.” Now I will admit that I enjoy being called a “boy” because I know that label has a limit as I get older but it was frustrating not being able to comment.

So I’m sure I’ll be just as frustrated as I read your blogs on my lunch break but unable to comment until I get home. So, I just wanted to let everyone know that I still love you but the computer geeks are limiting me to mornings and evenings to interface with you.

Until this evening, I’ll be holding my comments. Have a great day family.

Well work fans, this old West Cocoa boy is back in the saddle again or at least it's a preview. Today teachers report back to school all over the State of Florida to complete an exercise called "Pre-Planning Week." "PPW" I'm sure was intended for teachers to have a designated time before students reported to the building in which to get their rooms ready and to plan for the coming year. As I start my 27th year it has been my experience that very little of the latter (..."plan for the coming year.") happens.

Yes, in this age of "educational accountability" and "NCLB" (No Child Left Behind) most of PPW are spent in meetings going over test scores, talking about how we're going to improve test scores, and looking at all the latest Federal and State mandates which in up doing what any governmental mandates do, generate mega-amounts of paperwork which take away from planning for actual teaching.

Now, lest I make out PPW to be a total negative experience there are some upsides. Some of those positives include reconnecting with our staff and catching a vision of what I can do for my students to lead them into academic as well as (what I’ll call) “maturing successes.” Do you remember your middle school or Jr. High days? I remember being somewhat concerned about my general safety as well as my potential for social success as I entered what we called then, Jr. High. This little dynamic hasn’t changed for the middle school students of the new millennium have the same fears and concerns. I just pray that beyond test scores that my students can walk away from my Math Classes and if nothing else, can have happy memories about their experience.

BTW – most teachers feel like when there are no kids in the building it still feels somewhat like a vacation. I once had a Principal who said about our brand new facility, “This school is nothing more than a glorified Office Building until students enter the school and then they with teachers transform this Office Building into a school.”

Are not our church buildings somewhat the same? Have you walked inside your church building (or as Greg’s wife Jan would say – the “church house”) when people were not in it? Did you get the sense that your facility was a “church?” Dumb question huh? Just like our schools, our church buildings are nothing more than buildings until you put people in them who have tried to live a life of faith during the week. Like my students the members of our churches come at different points of success on the faith walks. Like my students some come to church for different reasons. Some love being with their church family, others are just starting their journey of faith, and some have been “made” to show up. But just like my school when you take this strange mix and throw it all together in our church buildings for a few moments, the church resides together under one structure.

Have a happy Monday family.

First, enough with the dreams already. I haven’t had a dream in months that I could remember and then last night I woke up at 5am totally exhausted from running from vampires. Where did the vampire thing come from? My dream was a mixture “Omega (anyone remember this 1971 movie with Charleston Heston?) Men” and “Signs.” It seems one needed to be in and barricaded once the sun went down in my dream. Feel free to bring on any “analysis” you desire.

So I am exhausted on Barb’s and mine last day of summer vacation. What is that I hear out there in blog world – people “ahhh-ing” at the start of my personal “Pity Party?” If you are, I deserve it. This has been a wonderful summer and not just because it’s time away from the demands of teaching in this time of “Accountability” and (don’t get me started, wait a minute – I’m the one doing the starting) “No Child Left Behind.”

This is the last summer our family will have in which our son Steven will be heading back to High School. My son will be a senior this year. I think that is why our week of Bible Camp (not to mention the un-inviting / finding a new and better Camp / having Pat Pugh minister to our kids) along with our trip to the Mid-Ohio Valley Work Camp was so special to me. I hope Steven goes back to these 2 events next year but even if he does he will be just weeks away from leaving our family (Lord willing – that sounds kind of mean but I meant that in a nice way.) and hopefully realizing his dream of attending David Lipscomb University in Nashville.

DLU was very much on our minds last night as we went over to the home of our good friends, Ray and Brenda. They had a “going away” party for their daughter Brittany who they are taking to DLU today. I’ve known Brittany since she was a toddler and to see her now as a young woman of faith leaving her home and our church for DLU really got to me last night. I’m sure some of the “getting to” was my transferring this event onto my son in the next year. I think more of it was being in a living room filled with teens from our youth group many of whom I’ve known since their toddler days as well.

Many of the words that Greg has shared with us about Joshua and Jessica are flooding back my way. These teens are walking a walk with Jesus that when I was their age I didn’t even know or think about. They are full of energy and life with most of their lives as the popular Contemporary Christian song (of which I can’t remember the title) written by a Dad about his child, awaiting the outcome of “Heaven’s plans.”

I know I’ve said this before but I think it’s worth repeating; having been involved with Christian Teens for nearly a quarter century I am convinced that this generation is the next “Greatest Generation.” Especially when I think of what they may do spiritually. I think that is why our adversary, the Devil is attacking them in so many different ways. Gone are the days when one had to go to a store to buy pornography. Now porn can be downloaded onto one’s cell phone to which most of our teens have access to and use quite frequently.

But praise be to God for He gives us the ultimate victory in Jesus and I’m so proud of our teens attempting to live in that victory at their early stage of life. They are not perfect for none of us are. Theirs is a walk like all of ours, flawed with bumps and bruises. Our journey family is not one of attempting perfection like the 1972 Miami (I just had to throw in a sports analogy) Dolphins who attained victory and perfection. Ours is a journey of victories, losses, and ties but that’s O.K. For in the end those of us in Christ will be victorious because of what our Lord and Savior did at Calvary.

I know this post has been all over the place but such is the random workings of my mind. God bless you all and have a great weekend.

I wanted to thank all of you who prayed for Kaley. She came through her brain surgery quite well. There was no sign of her tumor praise God. Her permanent shunt was removed and they were able to install an "adjustable" shunt. Kaley woke up for the first time in days without blurred vision or a headache. She is still in some pain from the surgery and the word is still out on her short-term memory but she seems to be in better spirits.

Sidenote - There might be some who would ask if we would be praising God if the results of the surgery had not been so good. Perhaps eventually but who wouldn't cry and lament when a child is in pain. For now, the answer from God seems to be "yes" so we're going to take that and as David did, "dance with all of our might before God."

Thanks again.

I just got off the phone (1:30pm EST) with one of our good friend, Lee. Her 16 year old niece, Kaley Riggle has been rushed to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando. Kaley has a "permanent shunt" in her brain to release pressure due to a brain tumor she developed a couple of years ago. She woke up this morning to blurred vision and a severe headache.

The prognosis isn't good as they may have to remove the permanent shunt and this could leave her in a vegetated state or worse, kill her. Please pray for Kaley and her family.

I read an article earlier this week (http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/06/stories/2007080656271400.htm) that that spoke of a project to drill through the Earth’s Crust, shoot cold water down the well hole onto the super-heated rock, and then used the resulting steam as a nearly “inexhaustible” source of power to drive steam turbines to generate electrical power. Here is a quote from the article:

“Scientists say this geothermal energy, clean, quiet and virtually inexhaustible, could fill the world’s annual needs 2,50,000 times over with nearly zero impact on the climate or the environment.”

How about that blog fans – a virtually “inexhaustible” source of energy. It seems we’ve always been on the search for “inexhaustible” sources. It reminds me of the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus in John 4:13 -14

4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again;
4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

I can flash back to my days of playing basketball on a hot summer day on an outdoor court in the hot Florida sun to know what my response would have been if someone had offered me an “inexhaustible” source of water that would forever quench my thirst. It would have been just like the Samaritan woman’s answer, “I’ll take some of that please.”

But family we know that Jesus wasn’t talking about “wa-wa” kind of water. Proverbs 4:23 says:

4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

The “spring of life” in us is the Holy Spirit, an “inexhaustible” source of spiritual energy. Jesus is calling us to live a victorious life not by following a set of rules and “regs” but by tapping into, drilling if you will into our heart through prayer, study, and worship. Think of it family, when life throws us curveballs (hopefully ones better than the one Nationals Pitcher Mike Bacsik threw to Barry Bonds last night) we’re not on our own when we face them. We can call on an “inexhaustible” source of energy to live victoriously.

Have a great day family.

If you want a powerful and emotional picture of the church being Jesus to one of it’s own, please visit Jordan’s Blog at http://jordansjotsntexas.blogspot.com/

It brought me to tears. God bless Jordan, his sister, his family, and this church.

Most of today’s post comes courtesy of our preacher, Don and his sermon from yesterday. It was one of the best I’ve ever heard.

There’s a set of verses in Matthew 6 that most of us are familiar with:
Matthew 6:19 –

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Now I suppose that all fellowships have their pet issue that they “like” to discuss and debate and there are times in my experience that these issues can be linked to being “Heaven and Hell” issues. I know of a local preacher that would probably say that someone “clapping” in a worship assembly could be condemning their soul to Hell. I think most of us would find that position both silly and unbiblical. I believe that Jesus in the above passage is discussing something that He believes to be in the “Heaven and Hell” category.

Don made a great point yesterday when he said if you want to see where someone’s heart is (as in verse 21) then all you need do is look at their checkbook or bank statement. Many of us including yours truly have done some creative financing to buy something that we truly wanted, our heart’s desire if you will. How many of us have done some of the same kind of creative financing to help a missionary or help fund a ministry. This point really hit me hard. I loved and hated Don’s illustration.

Don spoke of taking his Grand-daughter out for lunch to McDonald’s when she was 4. He bought her a Happy Meal and she was busily enjoying the cheeseburger and fries. Don decided to try one of Ashley’s fries and as he was pulling the fry from the bag Ashley quickly said, “Paw-paw, those are “my” fries! Don said he looked at her and thought for a moment, “Well you little bird – your fries! Do you now know that I could walk over to the counter and buy enough fries to bury you in and then some!”

The point – Does God ever think that about us when we say to him, “These are my things, my blessing, and my money! “I” don’t have enough to give anything back to you!” Now granted, we are all at different points along the “financial continuum” but wherever we are in life there are two things that are perfectly clear:

1. Again from Don – I’ve never seen a Hearst (or whatever vehicle the England Family Mortuary drives to Cemeteries) hauling a U-Haul behind it.

2. Everything we have comes from the Father.

I would not label Don’s fine sermon or this post about giving. Rather, it is about the heart for where I find my treasures, you’ll find my heart.

Have a good day family.

Sorry about the frustration yesterday with my post. I tried several ways to link “Beef’s” email and the files he created for you to listen to my son harmonize but it didn’t happen. BTW – Wouldn’t you like to have a cool nickname like “Beef?” Beef is a great guy who wants to go into ministry starting with youth I believe. There will be a hole in our college ministry when he, Keith who is a graduate of the AIM Program, Mark who is a good friend of Steven’s, and Jodi who attended AIM as well, leave for Oklahoma Christian.

I called Beef to ask permission to link his email to my blog so folks could listen to their recording. He told me Steven had the ability to harmonize and they wanted to do another recording before they all left for college. To be honest I don’t have a clue how to sing harmony or for that matter what it sounds like. I just want everyone around me to be in “harmony” when they hear me sing or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof.

Yesterday was my next to last time to cut grass with “the boys” at our church building as I go back to school a week from this coming Monday. As I’ve said before the “boys” are men older than me although yesterday we were a bit short-handed so the boys were made up of Glenn who heads up the team and is a former “Sergeant Major of the Army,” myself, and Josh who is in his 20’s. My job is to weed-whack.

To give you an idea how much weed-whacking that involves at our church I went through 2 tanks of gas yesterday. But here is the weird part – I actually enjoy it. I would love to get to the point where I can retire and here’s the big one – with health and be able to have the time to do this kind of work for our church and for folks who can’t do it themselves.

I love the camaraderie of hanging out with the boys and then getting something done together. Anybody need their yard weed-whacked?

Well I’m headed out with my fellow elder Curt in about 30 minutes to the Orlando area. He has some business to take care of and he wanted to know if I wanted to ride. Being the road warrior that I am, I’m headed for O-town.

Have a good weekend family.

Hello family. I hope you’re having a “drier” Wednesday than we are here in beautiful West Cocoa. My father-in-law called earlier to say we had received an inch of rain in the last hour.

Last night after church, my son Steven and 3 of his “buddies” did some recording. My son Steven will be a senior in high school this coming year, Sabrina is attending a Christian College in South Florida, Vaughn is a young man attending our local Community College, and “Beef” is headed to Oklahoma Christian in a couple of weeks.

Beef gave me permission to link his AOL Email to my blog so you could listen to their 2 recordings of “Beautiful One” and “God of Wonders” if you desire. Steven is singing harmony with the group. Proud Papa here. Enjoy.

http://webmail.aol.com/29047/aol/en-us/Suite.aspx

Try clicking on the files instead. Thanks.

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Owner/Desktop/Beautiful_One.m4a
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Owner/Desktop/God_Of_Wonders.m4a

Good morning family. I wanted to say thanks again for the input about Wednesday nights. Some where back in time someone(s) came up with the innovation of services on Wednesday nights. This innovation caught on with other churches and then made the move from innovation to tradition and then to dogma. We plan to do something very dangerous in the next few days; we’re going to (prepared for the “s-word”) “survey” our church family as to their feelings and needs for Wednesday nights. It should be interesting.

We spent a drizzly night in Indian Harbor Beach last night at Steven’s first game back since his trip to Pascagoula, Mississippi and John Dobbs Church. The other team had to forfeit due to only having 8 players but the teams and surprisingly the Umps decided to allow them to play a 4-inning practice game.

Having been gone for a week Steven batted at the bottom of the lineup. In his first at-bat he laid down a killer bunt down the first base line that moved the runner from first to 2^nd. That ended up being our first run of the game. He was hit the second time up and he ended up stealing 2^nd.

It drizzled most of the game so Barb and I were a bit damp when we got into our Expo for the ride home. We were talking about how miserable a night it was when I told Steven, “Despite all of that there is no place I’d rather be – watching you play baseball.” His response was in one of those glimpses of an adult voice when he answered, “You don’t know how much that means to me.”

Patrick Mead (http://www.patrickmead.net/) made a comment on his recent post about the theme of “family” in the Bible when he said, “You can’t help but notice how much God thinks of family.” It’s a great post and I highly recommend you read it.

His thoughts and my experience last night made me think of another Biblical concept – “Being there.” In the very beginning we see God understanding that Adam needs someone to be there for him so he creates Eve in Genesis 2.

When Lazarus dies in John 11 Martha says to a “late arriving” Jesus in verse 21, “……..Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus himself understood the importance of folks being there for each other in Matthew 26 when he asked his Disciples to go to Gethsemane with him as he prayed and faced crucifixion. This is probably not the best example of being there for someone. Come to think of it, Greg will probably bust my chops since in the past I’ve fallen asleep (not at church, I think) at his home.

Bottom line family – We need to be there for those around us and I guess try to stay awake in the process. That is the beauty of our blog church in that we are there for each other despite the facts that many of us have never met or we’re separated by many miles.

But we do have those that we live with every day, at our churches, and those we come into contact with that we can be there for when they need us or even when we think it isn’t a big deal but they do. Have a great day family. Make a difference today.