My Life

Thanksgiving Worship Moment For Me

Clint Brown — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:40:09 +0000

Reposting from Musicademy on Facebook.

My Chance to Tip Big

Clint Brown — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:29:52 +0000

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

Clint Brown — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:39:32 +0000

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

Clint Brown — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:53:23 +0000

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!

Clint Brown — Mon, 16 May 2011 03:32:47 +0000

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

Clint Brown — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:21:29 +0000

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.

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

Clint Brown — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:10:05 +0000

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.

I have not been real good about blogging about my Latham Springs involvement, but I am honored to be serving on the board. They have done a great job making the camp viable again.

Went by the old house

Clint Brown — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:36:35 +0000

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.

From the street Beth Ann and I saw a paper posted in the empty windows of the house. We commented about it to each other and returned to inspect the notice after church. What we found made our hearts sink. The person we sold it to had let the house go and it is in the process of foreclosure. Looking at tax rolls the deed of the house was transferred to the national bank back in October, so it has been empty for a while. During that time the house has been vandalised and stripped: walls are kicked in and floors are ruined; appliances, including the water heater and outside a/c unit, are missing; lights, switches, recepticles, the thermostate are all stripped.

Now we cut those emotional cords with the house when we sold it, but it hurts to see all I and Beth Ann had done treated like such. Can’t look behind, have to keep moving forward. It is not and will not ever be my home again.

2011 Minister of Education Retreat

Clint Brown — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:25:08 +0000

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.

The website is up and running for the retreat. It has a large header. At first I though the links were not working, but the content is below the artwork which was off my screen. Don’t get frustrated like I did. It is there, scroll down. You can register online there with a credit card or download a registration form if you want to send in a check. Retreat registration ends March 29th. You must make reservations for Tapatio Springs with Tapatio Springs. Registration there ends on March 21st, after that neither the retreat rate nor a room can be guaranteed. If you register on time you can arrive an extra day or stay an extra day for the retreat rate.

It has been an honor to serve on the planning team for the three years. Dickie Dunn, the others at the state offices, and the others on the planning team (past and present) have done a great job over the years creating a place for Ministers and their spouses to rest, encounter God, and leave better equipped.

We are an amiable group. If you need a scholarship or transportation from/to the San Antonio airport (on Monday and Wednesday) let anyone on the planning team know and we might be able to help.

I’ll be at the registration table inside the meeting hall when you get to Tapatio Springs. I look forward to seeing you there.

2011 Minister of Education Retreat
SPIRITUAL RENEWAL/SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
April 4-6, 2011
Tapatio Springs Resort and Conference Center
Boerne, Texas

*Check back in a day or two and I will have a link to the retreat’s Facebook page where you can communicate with all those going.

Southern Fried Feaux Reality

Clint Brown — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:21:47 +0000

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!”

We have found new one on another channel, Southern Fried Stings. Talk about your drama. It’s truTV you even see the camera men and the cameras in the cars. I was devastated (that might be an overstatement) when I found out Southern Fired Stings and its sister program Operation Repo are both “scripted” shows. They may have been real people at one time, but now they are actors on the show. You don’t even know if what they are acting out is really something that happened to them or not.

For the short amount of time I was fooled into believing the shows were real I wondered why the bad guys were all good looking and larger than life. Well, they replaced the real bad guys with bad guys that would garner ratings and altered events to do the same. It works for TV, but it “ain’t” reality.

Sometimes reality is not as exciting as we would like it to be. We create an escape from reality through things or personas. For most of us it works and we can still function productively. It is a form of envy though. Our lives are not good enough or impressive enough for ourselves or to others. God, of course, sees through all of that and desires that we find contentment with our reality.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. -2 Cor 12:9