Just an Update

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything so I figured I'd just take a couple of minutes tonight to do a quick update of what's been going on to keep me from making some posts over the past 30 days. My last post mentioned that I was elected to the deacon board and my 3-year term began with the church year that started on Oct 1. Also, last weekend and this the church is putting on a Judgement House which is taking up a lot of my time. Well, those are pretty much the main things that have kept me from making more updates recently. Other than not really much else is happening in my life or has struck me as particularly newsworthy.

Whirlwind Weekend

This was certainly an exciting weekend in the life of our church. Yesterday, a large group of members went out of help other churches in their outreach and evangelism efforts throughout the Charleston area. At the same time as that was happening, several people were helping with the distribution of food that had been purchased through Angel Food Ministries.

Today was High Attendance Day where we were all encouraged to invite someone to church and we had a massive church-wide fellowship following the morning services. We also held deacon elections for which I was one of 12 candidates being considered for 9 positions (5 currently serving deacons are rotating off to take their year sabbatical after serving for 3 years and the membership has grown such that additional deacons were added to lighten service load across the entire deacon board). I was one of the ones that the membership chose to serve.

Well, even after all that, tomorrow's just the start of a normal week for me.

Dating Your Spouse

One thing I am extremely proud of in my relationship with my wife is that, even though we have been married for coming up on 8 years next month, we have never stopped dating. Just last night, we went to the Highway 21 Drive In in Bluffton, one of two remaining drive-in theatres in South Carolina. We had dinner and watched Shrek the Third and Transformers. We had lots of fun and it was well worth the hour drive as there is of no other place where two people can get dinner and two movies for under $32.00! We will definitely be going again when they have two movies on the same screen that we want to see.

A Digital Piano Is NOT an Organ

Earlier this week, I was called and asked to play for a funeral service that was to happen this morning. Both the pastor and the family member that contacted me told me that the funeral home had a organ. So, I prepared my prelude music fully expecting that I would be playing on a organ. However, I got to the funeral home early this morning in order to familiarize myself with their instrument and what they have is a digital piano, NOT an organ ("well, it can sound like an organ," says the gentleman that showed me into the chapel). Now, I don't fault the pastor or the family member for telling me they had a organ because I'm sure that's what their contact had told them. Fortunately, I had come prepared with several piano pieces just in case the "organ" was not what I was expecting. It was a beautiful service.

The Duck and the Devil

I'll tell you something: things happen strangely in my life. For example, Nicole and I will talk about something one day and the very next day, that exact thing that we were talking about will appear somewhere else. Well, after what I wrote yesterday, I happened upon this today:

The Duck & the Devil

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target.

Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck.

Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved!

In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes," but Sally said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen."
Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?" So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, "I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper."

Sally just smiled and said, "Well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help." She whispered again, "Remember the duck?" So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer.

He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.
Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, "Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."

Thought for the day and every day thereafter?
Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done...and the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)... whatever it is... You need to know that God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing. He has seen your whole life. He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven.

He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.

One of the many great things about God is that when you ask for forgiveness, He not only forgives you, but He forgets. It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.

Go ahead and make the difference in someone's life today. Share this with a friend and always remember: God is at the window!

When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you!

Confession: Good for ... ?

People say that confession is good for the soul and the Bible tells us that God will forgive (and forget) our sins if we just confess them to him. Through Sunday morning's sermon, the Lord convicted me of a certain sin in my life that was preventing me from answering the call to a possible opportunity to serve Him and His Kingdom due to the fear of somebody finding out about it should I be chosen for this calling. You would simply not believe the amount of searching that I had done to find "justification" for this particular sin and had myself convinced that it was alright and not really a sin. The devil can be very sneaky in guiding you to any (mis)information that might help you think that a particular sin is right. Now that this sin is confessed and out of my life, I feel at peace with God once again and am free to serve him to the fullest of my ability.

Nicole and I also made a decision this weekend to begin getting into the Word and sincere prayer more often like we should. We have committed ourselves to two 15-minute (or longer) bible studies each day, one together and one individually. We both desire a closer walk with God and want increase our spiritual maturity.

My Weekend Part 3

Ok, I promise this will be the last installment of this story. At this point it's now Saturday morning, I'm at home in West Ashley, and the Mustang is sitting in an industrial park in Mount Pleasant with a flat tire. Here we go...

I call a friend from church that lives near me to see if they will give me a ride back to where my car is so I can call for a tow and get the flat tire replaced. It happens that they are heading that way anyways to help their son and daughter-in-law do some work on their house so it works out perfect and they have no problem giving me a ride. We get there and the person suggests that we try to change the tire as getting a tow is always expensive. Since, if you remember from part two, I don't have a lug wrench, we try the one he has but it's smaller that my nuts and he didn't think to get his 4-way wrench from his house before we left.

It just so happens that there's a group working in a warehouse-type building nearby that we are able to borrow a 4-way wrench from so we can try to change to my spare. I jack the car up and we put the spare on only to find the spare didn't have enough air in it to get me anywhere (if you've been reading this far, you should have know that it wasn't going to end there). So, I jack the car back up, take off the spare, and take it down the road to a gas station to put air in it. The first station we stopped at had an out-of-order air compressor and we got enough air in it at the second station to get me to a tire place. Go back to the car, jack it up, put on the spare, and I'm off to get a new tire to replace the flat one.

I get to the nearest tire place but it's going to be at least a two-hour wait just to get a new tire. So, I go to another place and they have a new tire on and I'm out the door in about 20 minutes.

There my story ends and the rest of the weekend was uneventful (thank goodness!).

My Weekend Part 2

Sorry I had stop in the middle of my story; but, I was getting tired and the story was only about half over. When we left the story, I had just gotten the Mustang back and was glad to be back in my own car. Don't get me wrong, driving the PT Cruiser was nice, but the color was horrific.

So, I've had the Mustang back for a whole day and go to leave the office for the weekend and get out to my car and what else do I find but a flat tire! I check Google Maps with my mobile phone to see if there is a tire place near the office that I could make it to and, according to the map, there is. I head in that direction to where the tire place is supposed to be (note the emphasis). By this time I'm practically riding on the rim as the remaining air has now left the tire. Well, I go to do what any man would do in this situation: put the spare on so I can get to another tire place (this time, one that I know is actually there). Spare tire: check! Jack: check! Lug wrench: NOPE!!

OK, I know that my boss is still at the office, so I call her to come help me out. She happens to have a lug wrench that will fit my lug nuts so I jack the car up to try to change the tire; but, I can't budge the lug nuts. She calls her husband to find a number for a tow truck and we call that place (now, this is a rainy Friday afternoon: not a good time to call for a tow) and they don't have anyone that can help me and they give me the number to another tow service but this one can't have anyone there for at least 45 minutes (translation: an hour and a half, or more). At this point, my boss now offers to take me to pickup my wife and then take us home and I'll take care of the tire in the morning.

Well, the story's almost over but I'm getting tired again. I'll finish the story tomorrow.

My Weekend and Why Cars Suck

Let me start by saying: it sucks to have to own a car! (Of course, it would suck more not to have a car; but, that's not the point of this post, now, is it?)

This weekend was the culmination of almost two weeks of dealing with my car. It all began when it started running rough and was having problem shifting gears when it should. So, I took it in to the shop near my apartment; but, they were so backed up, they wouldn't even get a chance to look at it and they asked me to come back closer to the end of the day so they could at least connect it up to the computer to find out a starting point for the next day. The computer indicated that it was the "mass airflow sensor" gone bad so I took it back to them the next day to get that replaced. I'd really like to say my story ends there and that replacing that sensor fixed the problems; but, alas, I can't.

When the sensor was replaced, they had taken the car for a test drive and the computer was indicating that it was not getting enough power. But, the technician said that might not cause a problem other than the engine revving from time to time so the computer can get more power. I took it home that night but it was running exactly the same and still having trouble shifting. So, I took it back to the the next day obtained a rental car as it was going to take them a couple of days to diagnose and repair exactly what we going on with it. (BTW, the rental car was a periwinkle blue PT Cruiser. Not exactly manly!!)

So, the shop had the Mustang for a couple days and determined that the computer needed to be replaced. That was done but I only had one key for the car and it requires two to reprogram the anti-theft system. So, they had to keep the car another day as it was the end of the day and the nearest dealership would not be able to cut and program another key until the next day.

Well, I finally get the Mustang back (and return that awful blue PT). It's running great, shifting great, and it's great to be back in my own car but the story can't end there!

To be continued...

Infrequent Updates No More

If you actually here reading my site, you'll notice it's been about two months since I last added anything. I guess I just don't feel that I have that much to share with the world. There's just not that much that goes on in my life: I work a full-time office job during the week, participate in the usual church functions on Sunday and Wednesday, and sitting around at home if I'm not at one of those two places. So, I'm going to try to find (or make) something to write about at least once a week. Stay tuned!

Vacation's Over ... Back to Reality

Well, vacations are never as long as you would like. I'm back in Charleston and back at my desk at work. The service yesterday at my home church went well, I thought. Although, I'm certainly not used to the length of the song service that the music minister there does.

On Vacation

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in a public library on vacation in Virginia for a few days. My wife and I took a couple days off to go see some family and get away from Charleston for a while. We've both had a great time and seen just about all of our family that there is to see here. I'm going to be playing the organ for the worship service at the church I grew up in tomorrow morning and my whole family (who don't attend regularly anymore) is going to be there to hear me.

Honing My Vocal Prowess

With the upcoming God and Country presentation that the worship choir will be presenting on July 1, I have been asked to do a solo (or two). While it is not a solo-solo (where I would be the only one singing) since the choir will be backing me up, it will be the first time in many, many years that I have truly sung by myself and not as a part of the larger group.

In addition, I have also dedicated myself to preparing and performing a song at least once a quarter. God has blessed me with the gift of music and by only utilizing my instrumental abilities, I am not using the whole talent I have been given to His fullest glory. The first song I am working on (in addition to the solo mentioned above) is Angels Wish by Steven Curtis Chapman.

Another thing that occurred to me as I am starting to sing again is that in high school chorus, I was a low baritone and made regional chorus two years in a row as a bass. The songs I am doing now are most definitely in the mid to high tenor range and I have very little difficulty, if any, reaching all of the notes without straining (as long as I am able to provide the diaphragmatic support necessary). However, you certainly couldn't tell from my speaking voice that I am able to reach all of the notes that I can.

Orchestra Debuts in the Evening Service

The new instrumental ministry / church orchestra debuted tonight in the evening service. As of now, the group consists of a piano, a synthesizer, a flute, a clarinet, a trumpet, and a violin. We played as the accompaniment for the main song service at the beginning of the service.

I thought it sounded very good and it seemed to be a welcome addition to our worship experience as the congregation was, at time, singing loud enough for me to hear over the trumpet which was less that 3 feet from my ear. I'm looking forward to playing more with this group and seeing it grow as time goes on.

The children's choir also did a presentation of a musical named Sticky Notes and Bible Quotes. Unfortunately, I was unable to catch their performance as I had to step out at that time to pick my wife up from work.

The Choir is Back

This morning was the choir's first Sunday back in the choir loft after our break following our Easter passion play production. We sang Still which is what we sang one of the first weeks after we hired our current music minister last year.

Instrumental Ministry Kick-Off

Last night, we held the first rehearsal of our new instrumental ministry. Other than myself, the group consisted of a flute, a clarinet, a violin, a trumpet, and piano. I played a string reduction part on the synthesizer. The first thing we are working on is to accompany the main song service for an evening worship coming up. The group sounded very good for it being our first time playing together and I have high hopes that this ministry will grow.