Holiday Hangover

Well Christmas is over although the decorations are still up. New Years is only a couple of days away so the Holiday celebrations are not to the end. Please don't get me wrong, and don't mistake the title of the post as an indication of my partying over the holidays. Short of an occasional glass of wine I haven't had anything to drink for many, many years, certainly not enough to give me a buzz much less a hangover. When I say glass of wine that is what I mean, ONE glass of wine occasionally. But I do or am developing a Holiday Hangover of a different kind. Again, don't take this the wrong way because the holidays have been a lot of fun this year even with the economy in the tank the way it is. We have had several dinners with different couples and friends over. My daughter and the grandkids came over for dinner on Christmas eve and we opened presents with the grandkids. Church was great, all was well. But for some reason this just seems to be the holiday that never ends to me. I don't mean to be a Grinch, or unappreciative, and even with the tough times we were able to be a blessing to the kids, but for some reason I just want this season to end today, right now. Be gone, be over, I'm done with it. I led devotions at work this morning and in talking over some scripture I shared I think I discovered part of the reason. It has been such a busy season that I am afraid we have taken time to have fun and fellowship with everyone but God. And I am way tired of running in my strength and not getting a daily uplift from fellowshipping with the Lord every morning before my day begins. So pardon me if I sound more like Scrooge than Santa Claus, but I am really ready for the holidays to be over with so that I can get back to a more normal routine. What about you?

My Monthly Ramblings

Well it has been almost a month since I last posted so maybe this will turn out to be a monthly blog. Who knows. Blogging has never really been one of my passions and time constraints keep me from doing it on a daily basis, but it is good to sit down and let the thoughts sort of free flow for a little while to see where I am even with myself. Of course the holidays are such a busy time but we have also been very busy in daily activities. My wife and I are the Directors of the Deacon ministry at our church and we have a number of deacons who are now at the end of their term and desire to transition off. Therefore we now are interviewing and talking to a number of candidates to fill those positions as well as others to prepare for the growth that has been occurring in our church. I prefer to stay ahead of that game rather than fall behind and I am sure our current deacons do as well.
We have also continued to pray and plan for the launch of our own church in the spring of 2010. That is very time consuming. We are praying about and for prayer team members, board members, ministry name, 501c3 status, and many other facets to the launching of a new church. It is an interesting process and one that I would not have been prepared for just a few years ago. I do believe that the Lord has stretched us to the point where we can now believe Him to help us establish this church and to cause it to be a healthy, growing entity. So life is very busy right now and we wouldn't have it any other way. Speaking of busy, the Lunch Bunch is calling and I have to run out to Little Azio's for lunch with the gang. See ya later.

Ron

Been a while.

Gosh, I can't remember the last time I posted on this blog. A couple of weeks ago I think. I am probably as bad as my friend Michael about posting on a blog. I honestly don't always see the point as I am probably the only person who will ever read this stuff. Maybe if I had a few thousand followers I would feel more inclined to write something down each day for them to think about but when it is just me I would rather meditate on the Lord, read my bible, or listen to some good music.

Lately I have been so busy preparing for ministry that I am jealous of any "free" time I get my hands on. I am very involved in the current church I attend, I have a busy job at The Mission Society, and I am planning to plant a church somewhere in the state of Georgia in less than two years so I have plenty to keep me busy. Two years sounds like a long time away but I know from experience it can sneak up on you and be there before you know it so I can't afford to sit around and let opportunities pass me by when they are available. I recently attended a free 2 hour seminar on Fund Raising with a member of my prayer team and that was very interesting. It made me really think about asking people to contribute to your cause. I will be attending another half day seminar next week that will cover things like "Selecting a prayer team", "Building a Board", "Administration", etc. Sometimes it is hard to sit through those things but they are necessary. When you have a calling that burns inside you just want to go out and "make it happen". God will find a way to get it done. We are anointed and appointed and ready to go out and tear up the world. Unfortunately we all too often overlook the preparation steps and time needed to develop the character and skills to really accomplish what God has called us to do. I have seen too many truly anointed and called people fail and not return to ministry because they refused to cooperate with the preparation period of their ministry. I have always used the "premature baby" idea of ministry to help them see the necessity of prep time. Anything that is born prematurely always needs extra care, extra expenses, extra time, etc, and some don't survive. Ministry is no different. If you get out of Gods incubator too soon you are almost doomed to fail. There is not that much force of personality and none of us are that good. So I am trying to patiently work though the prep time, develop the skills and character I need and learn the necessary steps I need to take to get there. Pray for me when you think of me. Thanks.

Ron

The Election of 2008

Well we are only a few days away from electing the next president of the United States of America and either way it goes it will be historic. We will either have a bi-racial president or a female Vice President. I'll get the big question out of the way early in this post and tell you that I am going to be voting for McCain/Palin. Not necessarily because I think they are the best people to be leading the country but because I fear the socialist government we would have under Barack Obama and a Democratic majority in the House and Senate. Although there are a lot of things I could say that cause me to disagree with Obama the biggest issue for me is money. I believe his record is clear that he means to use the power of the government to take money away from those who have it and give it to those who are too lazy to get it for themselves. Can you say wealth redistribution? I thought you could. Are there legitimate needy people who need some help? Absolutely, but there are also way too many people in this country who could and should be working but who are using my money to pay their bills. And Obama wants to give them more of it. I personally would like to keep more of the money I spend my blood, sweat, and tears on. Obviously there are many more components to this election and to both sets of candidates and I am not a political analyst nor do I want to be one. My conscience tells me that the best vote I can cast this election is for McCain/Palin. I wish there were other choices but Neal Boortz and Shawn Hannity aren't running. Dang.

Outer Banks Vacation

Well we've been here in Duck, NC since this time last week and I have to say it has been a great vacation. We have traveled all the way from up above Corolla all the way to Ocracoke. To get to the are above Corolla you need a 4 wheel drive. We went on one of the wild horse tours of the area and it was well worth the money. I could not believe how many people live in that area past the paved roads. I'm sure many of them are semi-retired folk who don't have to drive it every day, but some of them commute to work from there every day, which means having to drive on the beach for a period of time to get to the paved road access. Some as far as 10/12 miles. Of course that is a much better traffic jam than the ones I have to deal with near Atlanta. And we got to see a lot of wild horse activity while up there so that is a great area. To get to Ocracoke you have to go to the end of Hatteras and take the ferry over. It is about a 40 minute trip then a 13 mile drive into town. I really like Ocracoke and hope they can keep the authentic fishing village feel of the area with all of the big corporations trying to move in and demolish the old homes to build condo's and rental properties. I'm not sure what the total mileage is between Corolla and Ocracoke but there is lots to see between the two and it really is not a one day trip. It can be done in a day but you would miss so much. From Corolla you have the Currituck Lighthouse. Then you pass by the Bodie Island lighthouse on Highway 12 on the way. Coquina Beach is just across the road from the lighthouse and is an interesting beach. You cross the Pea Island bridge and there is an old abandoned life saving station there that is interesting to look at. Then you travel on through Rodanthe and other villages to Hatteras where of course the Hatteras lighthouse is located. Then a ferry ride and a short drive puts you in Ocracoke. That way you could actually see 4 of the 5 lighthouses stationed up and down the barrier islands off the coast of NC. I think I like the Ocracoke one the best but I'm not sure why.

Currituck Lighthouse

Well yesterday we climbed up Currituck Lighthouse in Currituck, NC. I wish I could give you the historical facts but I didn't take time to jot them down. It is an old lighthouse that is on the historical register now I do believe. It is a pretty good climb up to the top. I was here 3 years ago and we would not even attempt it but we have been working on getting in better shape lately and made it with relative ease. I could have done it several times. That was after walking a 5K in the morning so we are in much better shape now than then. Still have a lot of work to do though. The view was phenomenal. You could see for miles out over the ocean and Currituck Sound. This is a beautiful place and if you ever get the chance to come you should do so. I won't post a long one today, the golf course is calling and it will be fishing from the pier tomorrow so it will be short also.

Having fun in the sun.

Ron

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Well we finally arrived in Duck. What a great place to take a vacation. It was really windy last night but this morning it seems to be calmer. It is a little cooler now than I like it but it is nice. I am sitting up on the third floor having my morning coffee and looking at the surf crashing in on the ocean side of the island. There is a high surf warning out so the waves are hitting pretty hard. High tide happens about 12:30 today so I think I'll take a walk out about then and check it out. Then I'll go back afterward to shell hunt. Ah what a vacation. I have a few good books, my bible to read, some things I need to study for a class I taking, and lots to pray about. And I may actually do some of those things at some point in time. But right now it is coffee and the surf. I love the ocean.

Vacation Time

My wife and I have not been on a true vacation for about three years now so we have decided to take one. A group of our family members takes a vacation together on the Outer Banks or NC each year, and we are always invited to that but have not been able to in recent years. So this year we are going. Hallelujah, and it is just 4 days around the corner. The vacation lasts from Saturday to Saturday and is in a small town called Duck, NC. Duck is on the barrier islands off the coast of NC and is a beautiful place to vacation. There are not a lot of neon signs and carnival rides in or near Duck but there are lots of beautiful beaches and lighthouses up and down the coast line there. There is also the Wright Brothers museum in nearby Kitty Hawk to visit. If you haven't been there I recommend it. It is a neat view of some of the history that was made off the coast of NC in years past. The Wright brothers apparently chose that location due to the constant winds that blow. This time of year it is very economical to vacation there. Rental prices drop by two-thirds in some cases making it very affordable. We rent a large house and divide the cost between family members and that really makes it nice. Duck is a great place to relax, read, recharge, and get ready to head back to the real world and work again. There are ferries to some of the other islands and locations nearby if you want to take them over. There are neat towns up and down the island itself that all have history of their own to explore, and I love the lighthouses. But the main thing I plan to do is sit and read. There is a nice little reading area on the third floor of the house we are staying. You can see both coast lines of the island from that viewpoint and there are some comfortable reading chairs there. I plan to read some, look some, examine the inside of my eyeballs some, and generally rest for about 7 days before returning back to the grind. I will post updates and images to my Facebook page during that time but I don't know if I will blog very much at all. Too much sand, surf, food, and fun to be had to be spending too much time on a computer. 4 more days to go. YeeHaw.

Blogging kills me

Well here it is October 10th and I haven't blogged since the 2nd. I am not really against blogging, I just don't know how you find time and material to blog daily unless you are getting paid to do it. Obviously since no one else is reading this material I am not interesting enough for anyone to pay me to do it, so I am not sure why there is such a huge amount of blogging going on. Perhaps I need to read more about blogging before attempting to do one. Or maybe blogging is really just a way to replace the old method of pen and paper journaling. Lot of folks used to keep journals and diaries on a daily basis. I guess a journal differs from a diary in some respects, mostly that a journal is recording things you are probably OK with someone else reading and a diary is a more personal, private means of keeping up with what is going on in your life. You might not be too disturbed if your parents found your journal (depending on what you are keeping up with in it) but you definitely didn't want them to find your diary. Your diary contained all of your secrets that you didn't want anyone to find out about. I wonder if anyone has done a study on why, if you didn't want anyone to find out about it, did you write it down in the first place. It's not like you really weren't intelligent enough to know that anyone who really wanted to could pick that little cheap lock and get in your diary.
Anyway, I am beginning to think that I a failure at blogging since I don't really write anything here everyday. I could make all kinds of excuses as to why. I am very busy doing things in the real world that don't leave me a great deal of time to spend in the cyber world, but that probably sounds cliche' so maybe I won't use that excuse. Maybe it is that there are other things that have priority for my time over blogging. Yeah, that's the ticket, I think I'll use that one. Oops, the real world is calling, gotta get back to it. Can you write more than one post to a blog in a day? Maybe I'll find out later. Seeya.

Ethiopian Food

Last night I went to an Ethiopian restaurant with about 15/20 other folks to have a cross-cultural experience. Basically you sit in groups of 5 or 6 around this small circular table at which your food will be served. It looked like a woven basket type of table. We opted to order from an Ethiopian menu that had no English on it so that we would experience what it was like to be in a foreign country with no help from others. We instructed the waitresses not to speak English to us until after we received our orders. It was quite an experience and we all managed to communicate with clucks, moo's, baaa's, and other noises and hand signs so that none of us ordered goat entrails or the like. (In fairness to the restaurant I don't believe they were a menu item, but we weren't sure as we ordered) When they bring your food out they set a larger circular serving platter on top of the woven basket table and place all the food on it so that you share with your neighbor what you are eating. Oh yeah, one other thing. There were no utensils. No safe knife and fork and spoon to use for eating. They had this really thin, spongy bread that you picked everything up with. It was a great experience and the food was awesome as well. We had beef, chicken, lamb, and salmon at my table and all of it was fantastic. I did get one really hot jalapeno in my beef which lit me up pretty good but that was fine. We also had a genuine Ethiopian coffee ceremony afterwards that was great too. Overall it was a very good experience and I look forward to doing it again with other friends soon. Anybody want to come along? Here is a link to the one we ate at in Atlanta.

http://www.qsheba.com/Welcome.html

Christian Response

I belong to one of the EDG's on Yahoo. (For those of you who might be acronymally challenged that is an Email Discussion Group) I won't say which one it is since my purpose is not to expose or bring them up as a topic, but we had a new member join recently. Let me explain further about this EDG that it is of a religious nature and invites members of a particular denomination to join and discuss usually matters of a theological kind although the occasional football discussion crops up and anything is fodder for the till. Anyway, this new member who joined was an American woman who had married a Muslim man and moved to his country to live but had continued to be a believer in Christ. Her husband seemed to be a Muslim by cultural identity more so than religious identity and she was looking for some fellowship from like minded believers. One of the female members of the EDG, IMO (In My Opinion) attacked her for selling out and "being unequally yoked" to an unbeliever, and questioned her intent for joining the group and sharing her testimony. I personally did not agree with her statements against this individual and thought she was WAAAAYYYY out of line, but wanted to think through that thought line. How should we respond to people who have obviously not followed a certain biblical principle yet are believers by their testimony. To me the Bible does give clear instructions against marrying non believers and perhaps even how we conduct our business dealings with non believers yet it doesn't state that it is a sin, just something that will cause us problems if we do. Shouldn't love be the rule? Not a wink of the eye to the indiscretion but a receiving of a person as they are? I need to talk about this more later but I have to leave to go visit a Hindu temple. Guess I better not share that with the group.

Catching Up - or catching my breath

Well, today is September 30th and I just realized I have not posted since the 24th, so I must be more efficient and timely in posting. It has just been a whirlwind week and to be truthful this has not been a major priority for me. On the 25th I walked in a 5K in downtown Atlanta which was phenomenal, but it took up a big chunk of time and so I skipped that day and apparently it has been downhill since. The weekend hit right behind that and it was a very busy time also. On Saturday we did Street Reach, which is a ministry to the children of the apartment complexes in and around Roswell, GA. We had our grandkids with us then so we had to pick them up then meet their parents to get them back home. It was also my wife's birthday and I had purchased tickets to the Fox Theatre to see Les Miserables (which is a subject for an entire post by the way). Les Mis was awesome, the Fox is incredible, and we plan to go back for a walking tour of it in the near future. So Saturday was a full day. Sunday we had prayer school at 8 am, two services that ended around 1:15 so we got out of church about 1:45, shot over to some friends house for a quick lunch, then back to church for Forever Free from 3 - 5, followed by Leadership from 5 to 6 (actually about 6:20 but that is also a topic for another discussion), then our Deacons Meeting until 7 PM. Then I had to work with some of the Deacons until about 8:30 -9:00, so as you can see Sunday is not a day of rest for me. Then it was back to the grind yesterday, and today I am playing catch up so.... deep breath.... maybe I can stay current this week.

Well, it's 9:58 PM Wednesday night and I am still at work. I was here last night until midnight, but it is way alright. I love my new job and feel like I am accomplishing great things while I am here so if I have to put in a little extra time it's no problem. They do allow for comp time but I may or may not use it. This week we have a group of interns in the house for training and it has been very refreshing to meet such an outstanding group as they are. All too often all you hear about the younger generation are those who are self-centered and spoiled, but these guys are willing to give their lives, at least a part of it, to help someone else. Gotta love that. I am trying to keep this blog current and really try to find something interesting to write about but this week has not allowed me a great deal of free time to give a lot of thought to writing, so it has just been mostly about my day. I am sitting here listening to some good contemporary Christian music while I am working which is quite awesome also. Speaking of music I have such eclectic tastes (at least I think I do). We won't even talk about secular music tonight, but I was just looking at my current iTunes playlist and it is a mix of stuff.
Two Sets of Jones - Big Tent Revival
Believe - Brooks and Dunn
And Now My Lifesong Sings - Casting Crowns
The More I Seek You - Kari Jobe
New Season - Martha Muzini
Holy - Clint Brown
He Reigns - Newsboys
Don't know the song - Salvador
Oops....gotta run.. time to close up shop and get out of Dodge.
More tomorrow.

Counter Strike and loss of sleep

It's early Tuesday morning and I am at work, on hold with Dell Customer Service. I have spoken to three people already, all of who asked me the exact same questions that none of them could answer. The fourth person has now transferred me to another phone number which went straight to voice mail, so I have basically spent the last 30 minutes on the phone on a useless adventure. Let me be quick to say that I have had nothing but great service from their Tech Support staff and their sales staff, but CS is seriously lacking. Oh yeah, those initials remind of the reason I started this post. Instead of Customer Service I wanted to talk about Counter Strike/Half Life. Some friends I worked with introduced me to this little addiction several years ago and I played it compulsively for hours at a time for a while. My home computer did not have the graphics power to support so I played on other computers. When they were no longer available I quit and haven't played for a couple of years. I have a new super fast PC at home now with the graphics to support the game so I reconnected to Steam and downloaded it last night, then promptly spent way too much time playing it again. So I needed coffee today, not green tea.

The Mid-day Tea Break

Well, here I sit with my cup of Green Tea (in attempting to be good and live longer it seems the proper thing to do to cut out a portion of the caffeine I intake on a daily basis). I wonder how many of us depend on that daily "jolt" to get us going, and foolishly think that we are immune to caffeine and its addictive nature? I certainly have fallen into that category. I have often made the boast, and it is true, that I can have several cups of coffee and go to bed and sleep well. I don't think that is necessarily something to be proud of.
One of the biggest downfalls of drinking coffee for me is the problem is causes when I try to fast for any length of time. I recall a time in the not too distant past where my wife and I were on a three day fast. Sometime in the afternoon of the second day we both had begun to feel quite bad with aches and pains in our body akin to those you feel when you have the flu. I was not otherwise sick and was having difficulty understanding the source of the pain. We were traveling to a meeting about 100 miles from home and about midway through the trip a thought hit me out of the blue. Perhaps this is caffeine withdrawal! (In our time of fasting we were only drinking water) To prove my hypothesis (and no other reason) I pulled into a gas station and bought a cup of coffee which my wife and I shared. Within minutes the pain was gone and we felt super. Lately we have been working out some and playing tennis to try to lose a little weight and get in shape, and I am thinking that perhaps a break from the caffeine might be beneficial. Sorry Starbucks, but the Venti Doubleshots with Energy have to go.
On that note do you know that a Venti Doubleshot with Energy has FIVE shots of Espresso plus 5 packages of whatever nifty little energy powder they use? WOW. It works for about the first 2 hours of the all night prayer meeting.
Anyway..gotta run.. this tea is nasty, I wonder if anybody made a fresh pot of joe?

The Wordy Geek

Monday Musings

Good morning cruel world. I have attempted (and failed) at blogging in the past but at the urging of friends (troublemakers perhaps) I am attempting again to do so. I'm not sure why anyone would want to hear what I write but that doesn't seem to be the reason most people blog does it? I would suspect that the large majority of blogs don't get read outside of a small group of friends or family, yet the blogosphere is bloated with the writings of would be Perez Hilton's or Rich Tatum's. So why shouldn't I clog up the drain even more? This will serve to consume more of the precious time that Facebook isnt' already consuming. I'm sure many articles have been written on this entire Social Networking phenomenon. People who have no connection other than an online world can and do become "friends". So maybe I will find that this is a "cool" way for me to interact with the rest of the world. Perhaps I'll find that there are people who really want to know what I have to say, and perhaps I'll find that for the most part they just wish I would shut up. Either way, today the adventure begins. Hang on tight, the ride could get bumpy.

The Wordy Geek