What a daughter-in-law!

In writing my last blog I left out how wonderful my daughter-in-law Angela is. How thankful I am to her for reminding me of that. We are thankful also to her for loving our son and providing three beautiful grandchildren for us. My whole family loves her. My sisters and mother ask about her and what she is up to on a regular basis. What a daughter-in-law!

She has become another daughter to me in many ways. For example; she always has an something to say about the way I dress. She even gives me shirts she finds at garage sales. She encouraged to stop me parting my hair in the middle. There are comments on the type of undershirts I wear and when I wear them. She likes to tell me what matches and what doesn't. What a daughter-in-law!

She is a planner and organizer. She raises three children and runs her own business from her home. She has encouraged Amanda and Brian to move closer to home so they could share the joy of taking care of us when we get old. That shows that she is preparing to wheel us around , change our clothes, and feed us when that time comes. What a daughter-in-law!

A Shining Light , A Breath of Fresh Air, A Wonderful Mother, A Brilliant Business Woman, and A Loving Wife.

Is this enough to get me out of the dog house?

Surprise,Suprise,Suprise!

I have mentioned that my Little Princess is now in LA seeking her fame and fortune. She's worked in NY, Mass, and VA in the past few years. So far, fortune has passed her by, but she is famous with the 'Sox Clan'. She does have a Jeep Liberty with 130,000 miles and two part time jobs. She is a personal assistant and room organizer! To all of us who have seen her room at home or in college this is surprising!

My oldest son Brian is living his dream of being a video game programmer and is married to Kerri, a wonderful woman that we all adore. He lives in Orlando and has lived in NY and Atlanta. This is a kid that couldn't find his way home from church or the video store. Now he has lived from one end of the east coast to the other! Surprising!

Jason, our middle child, is married to Angela and has three beautiful children. Who, by the way, love their Granddaddy and Grandmommy! He bought a house that was severely neglected and turned it into a wonderful home. He travels all over the USA with his job but still has the time to be a carpenter, painter, plumber, computer engineer, and father; he can do it all. He never showed that talent when he was in our home. He always loved the finer things not broken things! Surprising!

What did Christine and I do to have such talented and adventurous children? Those of you who know us well, know that adventure is not our way of life. Life is suprising isn't it?

Pastors' Camp

For the past few years the pastors at Brushy Creek have taken our church children to camp for three days and two nights. We feel that is a great way to get to know the children in our church and for them to get to know us. The kids are all excited to get away for a couple of days of fun. We thought that they were excited about getting to know their pastors, but I have come to believe that they just like to get away and have fun! It doesn't hurt our egos that they could care less if we are there or not.

One thing we did this year was to take the children to Dairy Queen for an special afternoon experience. I received a text from one of our secretaries while we were there ordering, she asked "how are things going?" I texted back "49 in DQ. How do you think?"

We always look for ways to make the camp experience better each year. Here are some of my suggestions for next year.

We should choose a camp sponsored by Hilton or Marriott. Not having to sleep in a sleeping bag on a plastic covered mattress in a bunk bed could be a positive thing. The 'older' pastors could leave their Ambien and Tylenol PM at home. The chance of having dresser drawers and closets to put your clothes in so the 'old' people wouldn't trip over bags , shoes, socks, and underwear (clean and dirty) on their way to the bathroom during the night, would be a plus. Daily maid service would head off the distinctive smell that comes from 8 little boys in one room for three days and two nights without changing clothes or taking showers.

An indoor pool for those who enjoy not getting sunburned, and an outdoor one for those who enjoy a more 'natural' camp experience.

A lake with fish that bite and paddle boats that are easy to paddle. A mountain to hike that has a jeep at the top for the ride down. The only yellow jackets you see during the camp are the ones you put on when the air conditioner gets the room a little too cool.

Even without these things next year, we will still have a great time getting to know Brushy Creek Kids!

Robots in Church

Believe it or not I have a friend that reads my blog! Randy, you may not get our newsletter so I am publishing an article I wrote in this month's edition that you may enjoy.

Bill gates wrote an article in the Scientific American magazine about the next wave of technology that is happening right now, the development of robots. He pointed out that we already have robots making our cars, helping diffuse roadside bombs, and vacuuming our floors, but these machines can’t sense their environments or see for themselves (like C-3PO) yet. But that is coming.

Where will the church fit into that developing technology? Maybe they will clean our restrooms, cut our grass, change our babies’ diapers, or run our sound for the worship services.

They may even lead in our worship services. Robots could produce the sound of a thousand people or play all the orchestra instruments at one time! (We already have keyboards that produce instrumental and vocal sounds now.)

But until we get those robots, why don’t you get involved in what may soon be the ‘last generation’ of live people leading the music in our worship services? Come join the choir and orchestra and let’s not give in to these illegals.

You've Got A Friend

The Carol King/ James Taylor song 'You've Got A Friend' has never been so true as it is today! I signed up for 'Facebook' a week ago. I was calling it 'Spacebook' until a young choir member, Lindsey, corrected me. I tried for a week to sign up myself but it wouldn't accept me. That was a pretty low feeling not being accepted by a program that connects friends! Finally my secretary Rebecca, our College Minister Angela, and our 'Web Master' Colette, signed me up.

Why would I want to sign up, you ask? A friend from out of town emailed me and asked me to look at some family pictures on 'Facebook' so that is what I tried to do. Since getting signed up I get requests from 10 to 16 people every day asking if I will be their friend! So, if you ever feel that no one cares, or you want to stay on the computer all day answering IM's, go to 'Facebook' and get yourself some friends!

Oh by the way, my out of town friend only had 6 pictures on her site for me to view and to be honest, they weren't worth the effort!