The aforementioned buried car in Rodanthe. I don't know if they ever got it out.

Rodanthe House

This house was in Rodanthe in October when I was there for vacation. It is the house that was used for the outside shots in the movie Nights of Rodanthe with Richard Gere and some other female actor whom I cannot remember right now. This was just after a weekend of storms that caused the ocean to breach the dunes and cover the road with sand. They had to use earth movers to clear the road. I saw one house where the swimming pool was completely buried and another where they did not get the car out in time and the car was buried up to the lower portion of the windows. You can dig out of snow but I'm not sure you can dig out of sand, at least not easily. Anyway I really like vacationing in that part of the state and am looking forward to going back. I may not make it this year though as we have decided to try Hawaii. A free time share and buddy passes for the flight helped to make that decision. We have never been and are looking forward to going. The island we will be staying on is Kauai. Anybody been there done that?

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.