Today is a holiday, so I slept in till 6:00.  This has been a busy week with today being no different.  I have family coming in and a long list of things at the house that need to be caught up on.

I am closing in on my goal weight so I hope that at some point in the next few days we will have a blog party!  hahaha. 

Bethany will be back from Florida and then Andrew leaves on Sunday.  It seems like we have not been together as a full family in weeks.  Life will return to normal before you know it.

This is the message from this Sunday.  -mighty-army-part-3

I am back and better than ever!  Well, maybe not better than ever but definitely better rested.  I arrived back in Cochran from youth camp to a packed out and busy weekend.  First of all, Jean Tomlinson (Neil’s mother) passed away on Friday afternoon.  My associate and right hand man, Danny Joiner, scared me to death when I walked in and saw his eye lid falling down and a crooked smile.  I thought “Lord, He better not be having a stroke”.  After his hospital visit we learned it was Bells Palsey.  We are believing that he will be better in a few more days.  Until then he will be called Long John Silver because of the eye patch.

Sunday was a great day with several people at the altar getting touched by the Lord.  Attendance was 146 with still a lot of regulars out on vacation.  I am wondering where in the world are all these new attenders coming from!  God is good.

I will slowly update everyone on everything else in the coming dates.  I am neck up in work so check back later.

Yesterday started off really well.  When I jumped on the scales I found that my weight loss is now at 50.5 lbs.  That put me in a very good mood to say the least.  I treated myself and the family by going to La Cabana after church.  It was so crowded that we had poor service.  I have never had that happen there before.  I guess the Lord was saying that I should not be eating there.

Now for the service- I was expecting to be very down in attendance because so many had called and said that they would be away or had sickness in their family.  I was blown away in the fact that we had 149 in church.  God has blessed New Life so much and it is hard to fathom that our attendance could increase during the summer.  I am excited to see where we will be come August.

There was a sweet spirit in the service with the music being very good.  I continued the series “A Mighty Army”, with the message “Bone Structure”.  We had two accept Christ as Savior during the service. 

Last night, We had service at New Life at 5:00 and then hurriedly went to My Father’s House to be in service with them at 6:30.  We had almost 40 go with us and we appreciate the invite from Pastor Larry Williams.  Everyone was so friendly there.

I am currently in Tifton, GA getting ready for another youth camp.  I hope to be able to stay in contact on my blog this week with you all.  God Bless!

I was able to spend a little time with someone recently and I developed the saddest feeling while talking to them.  I saw a person with talent, intelligence, and personality say things that I know can lead them down a destructive road.  Please understand that in no way am I passing judgement.  I know that we can change.  The term that jumped into my head was “Shooting Star”.  The shooting star shines bright for only a short time but it soon burns itself out.  It burns out because it is in pieces or broken.

In my profession there are a lot of shooting stars.  The shine bright for a short time and then fizzle out.  I think that one of the primary reasons for this is that they choose achievement over character.  This is a struggle that every person must answer.  The answer will only be found in the private places of your life.  Character in your life and more importantly in your relationship with Christ is the most important step towards long term success.  Achievement can be had without character but it is always short lived. 

Oh, Shooting Star never let bitterness determine who you are.  Let God heal your brokenness.

I have so much to share and so little time.  I was so proud of our team tonight.  You really did show what New Life was all about.  Tomorrow is so busy…… I need another day between Thursday and Friday to get everything done.

Here is the sermon for last week’s service

a-mighty-army

I just want to encourage all New Lifers to come to the softball game tonight.  We are playing My Father’s House.  The game is at 8:00.  Be there!

It is great to be home this week. I am playing a lot of catch up.  I am leaving early this morning for Macon to see Steven and Melissa Bridgers.  The had a baby boy last night.  They named him Landon.  Congratulations.

I weighed in this morning and was very happy to see my weight has continued to go down.  I have now lost 48 lbs.  I am only 6.5 lbs from my goal.  I set August 1st as the deadline.  If I keep working hard, I think I can make it.

See you at the game!

I have been doing a lot of different things today.  Basically, I am playing catch up.  I have made many phone calls, studied the church budget, and made a few home visits. 

I wanted to take a few moments to talk about last week.  I have a deep heart for youth camps.  It made a huge impact on my life, and I feel that the least that I can do is to sow into the next generation as well.  I have been doing team building games for the last few years.  It normally takes a lot of time of set these up and this year was no different.  The last few years I have been blessed with a staff to help me.  I have always had some good workers, but this year I was overly blessed.  Let me be honest, I have never had such a talented, hard working, and dedicated group of people to be around.  We worked hard, but never once did they slack off.  Each one brought different gifts to the table:  Lori was simply amazing in her knowledge and skill of so many different things.  She is the mac daddy on Excel.  She designed a program during the week that we will use for years to come.  Keleigh was a delight.  She won teen talent as the vocal solo for female and didn’t even share it until the end of the week.  She had such a humble spirit that you would never guess that she has the talent of a diva.  Keleigh, Kayli, and Kristen were the hardest working teens that I have ever been blessed with. (I have to put Yuri in this group as well even though now she is married and older)  Daniel Bunce has a great worker in Kayli.  Kristen was so quiet and looked like she was 10, but she loved campers so much that she decided to room with them when she didn’t have too.  I know that this was long -but this group of workers are definitely worth the time and space.

Happy Father’s Day!  I have been blessed with a great family and a wonderful dad.  I am glad that I can call you and say that I love you.  Sarah and the kids gave me wonderful gifts and I wore one of the shirts to church this morning.  She also made me homemade blackberry cobbler—-my, my, my!!!!

So far this summer our attendance has been up.  Today it seemed like summer was here.  We had so many regulars out today.  We still had 123 in service, but it felt empty.  We had several visitors today, so that is good.  I felt like the service was good with a wonderful spirit in our midst.  I spoke on our “Second Wind”.

I have not forgot about clueing everyone in on my youth camp experience.  It will come either late tonight or tomorrow.  Once again, Happy Father’s Day!