Thanksgiving Worship Moment For Me

Reposting from Musicademy on Facebook.

My Chance to Tip Big

Last night was 1/2 price family platter night at Carino’s. On top of that Beth Ann had an email coupon for a free birthday dessert (big enough for the four of us). We has plenty to eat and it was nice we has a sit down restaurant meal for less that McDonald’s.
Our meal was accompanied by rather enthusiastic and thorough service. When the bill came, sure enough the meal was half the price. When I finished signing the receipt the tip was for twice what it should have been.
I’m not trying to brag about what a big tipper I am. I try to live as a grateful person. My life is full even if my pockets are not. I see some coupons as chances to show my gratefulness in a concrete way to someone who has worked to provide me with a service (even if the service is not spectacular, I’m still a grateful person).
I am grateful because I recognize my shortcomings and God’s grace that fills in the gaps. I see it in the way things work out at work and most importantly in the way my wife and children love me despite my unlovable attributes.
I live a grateful and thankful life.

Fall Festival 2011

 

     I wanted to say thank you to everyone who worked so hard on the church’s Fall Festival & Craft Fair. Karen Walsleben headed up the event, spreading the work among several other lay people. Many others helped from set-up to the final part of clean-up. We raised about $900 to go toward the Community Christmas Party.

 

 

Waterpark Rainout

Tonight we had our Back-to-School Waterpark event planned. After breaking records for the most days of 100+ degree weather and no rain it decides to rain & lightning tonight. I even had hail hit the van window as we were waiting to see what the weather was going to do.
The supervising manager has this little gizmo that tells her if lightning strikes within a certain distance. If it goes off everyone has to get out of the water and wait 30 minutes to get back in. About every 5 to 10 minutes it went off. Granted for a while there it was storming pretty good. We kept getting pushed back farther and farther. We called it when we couldn’t get in until 8:15pm. We had not even been able to get in yet. We hated to do it with so many people there, but we did.
We did get rain out of it. I mean how can you get too upset over the situation? We will reschedule another event later to replace this one. I guess we should have scheduled something every weekend so we could have gotten rain.
Check the church website http://park-lake.org for the replacement event. It’ll be free like this one.

Thank You for the Support!

     Since February 12th I have been running for one of the At-Large positions on the Waco ISD school board. I enjoyed the support of many people. It was a good experience despite not winning the seat.

     Election day was yesterday. My father and brother helped me put out signs at polling locations yesterday morning and Beth Ann and the boys helped me pick them up last night. It took about 2.5 hours each time.

     The official count reported I earned 14% of the vote and did not win the seat.

     I want to say a big thank you to those who voted for me and supported my run. I could not have done it without you. Both of my opponents are good men and each time I saw them or faced them in a forum they made me a better candidate. Congratulations, Cary Dupuy!

     This will be my last entry in [my campaign] blog. It is at least three years earlier than I had planned for. The race was worth it. Again, thank you, I’ll see you around Waco.

[posted on my campaign site]

Last Call for Tapatio Springs

     There is still time for Ministers who handle aspects of Christian Education/Spiritual Formation to sign up for the retreat at Tapatio Springs next week.

Register HERE or by calling Elizabeth at 214-828-5285.

     This year we have Jim Denison; the opportunity to speak to Ron Lyles, Chairman of the BGCT Executive Director Search Committee; and the opportunity to get away and be quite with God and your spouse. Look for me at the registration table in the conference room when you arrive on Monday,

Latham Springs Remodel Update

     Kristi Stapp, the office administrator at Latham Springs Camp and Retreat Center, sent me an update with pictures last week. They have working hard trying to convert the dinning hall into a facility that can easily service two camps at once. They are now working on converting the old gift shop into restrooms. The dinning hall will end up taking in everything up all the way to porch where the ping pong tables sit.

Went by the old house

     Beth Ann and I took a wrong turn on the way to Shipley’s Sunday morning and ended up driving by our old house. About 3 and a half years ago we sold it and bought our current house. I had bought the little house from the HUD market. It was not much to see, but over the years I worked on it and made it a nice place to begin a life with Beth Ann and then sold it to buy a bigger home when Beth Ann and I were ready. I tore out the bathroom down to the dirt and rebuilt it, worked on the wiring and plumbing, retextured all the walls and painted, etc.

     It was a good home. It housed me, foster children, two dogs, and my new bride during the time. It was my first house.

2011 Minister of Education Retreat

     We just had a meeting to make sure all assignments are made and progressing for the 2011 Minister of Education Retreat. I won’t repeat everything you can read online, but just a few things that need repeating: Dr. Jim Denison will be our retreat leader with Bruce and Kim Greer providing music.

UPDATED: The Facebook page can be found here.

Southern Fried Feaux Reality

     Beth Ann and I love reality TV shows. In fact the less editing the better. Cut out the boring parts and leave the good parts, just don’t mess with the timeline. Reality shows, unless they are reruns, give a sense of freshness and uniqueness. The Biggest Loser, man what a show. You follow people as they make life-changing commitments and you see them transform right before your eyes. Even though they have no idea who you are, we build bonds with the contestants and we tune in every week to see the drama and say, “Oh no she didn’t!”