DownshoreDrift

For a serious take on the upcoming IMB Board of Trustees meeting where they will make a final decision on the private prayer language and baptism policies, read this post.

To lighten things up, however, I thought I'd post a few pictures from our weekend with a little commentary. It started with me taking the kids to Birmingham yesterday to fly in a small twin engine plane with an organization called Dreams on Wings. They provided a day of fun for families who have had a sick children by taking them for a flight over north central Alabama. Caelan qualified, so we took advantage of it. It was a blast! Here are some pictures of my kids enjoying the day with a few caption for laughs:

Here's Peyton chasing after bubbles before our flight. All the kids loved going after the bubbles and they spent about 30 minutes doing so. I have decided that for Christmas this year, I am just going to spend $5 on a bubble gun. That and some empty boxes and wrapping paper should satisfy them. Seriously, I think that they would be just as happy.

                            

The kids and I with our pilot, Brandon, just before "blast off" as my three year old called it. Brandon is the cool looking guy on the left. I'm the other not so cool looking guy on the right.

                            

Peyton and Caelan travelling first class. It goes without saying that Caelan did not stay in his seat long and ended up in my lap.

                            

Here's Ashtyn flying the plane. Brandon, our "pilot" fell asleep or something, and Ashtyn had to take us down. It was a bit bumpy, but she did a pretty good job considering it was her first time. She's a rock under pressure, just like her old man!

Kieran is looking quite presidential, no? This picture was taken right before he started freaking out over the question of should he try and pop his ears or just let the pressure build until his head exploded? The picture captured the calm before the storm, so to speak. Popping his ears was quite terrifying to him as he kept saying, "Daddy, I can't hear anything." He was actually yelling it. Soon, he was in tears, afraid he was going deaf. So, I proceeded to stick my finger in his ear to see if that would work. Nothing. I tried to tell him that his fears of a life of deafness were irrational, but he just wouldn't listen. Kids.

Today, we had our annual chuch picnic. Immediately prior to the picnic, we have our AWANA Grand Prix. This is a fun time when the dads, er, kids get to show off their slot cars that they have made and race them. Seriously, this is cutthroat. Bragging rights are on the line for the entire year and unfortunately, my daughter has a father who stinks at anything that has to do with cutting wood into any discernable shape besides a triangular door jam. So, she got her annual door jam car again. I told her that I was sorry that I wasn't very good at this. She put her arm around me and said, "That's o.k. Daddy, winning isn't everything." She then proceeded to tell me that she really wanted a trophy. Riiiight.

Well, our Door Jam on Wheels was pretty fast, even though we didn't place. We kept losing by a nose. I still think the race was rigged, but we'll have to try again next year when I get to make TWO door jams (one for Ashtyn and one for Peyton). Peyton and Kieran just raced Hot Wheels cars because they were too young. They didn't win either. The Cross family did not distinguish themselves today because they have an incomptent for a father. Hey, at least I know how to blog! They can always comfort themselves by telling their friends that their Daddy may not be good at anything, but he DOES have a blog. Sigh. :(

                              

One of the guys that helped with AWANA got a pie in the face. Hey, it's a church picnic! SOMEBODY'S got to get a pie in the face, right? It's a church tradition right behind "Throw the pastor in the pool" at the pool party. I did think this was a cool picture, though.

                           

And of course, the slip-n-slide. Peyton got a good head of steam going, but he was still thrown out at home plate. It was a bad call, but what are you gonna do?

                               

We had a HUGE turnout for the picnic with a few hundred people present - or, was it several thousand? Not that I'm counting or anything. :) Anyway, we rented several inflatables, played volleyball, basketball, and relay races, ate a lot of food, and got to spend time with our church body as well as quite a few people from our community. We also had an international contingent with visitors from Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. They were international officers from the local Air Force base and training school.  I thought that a debate on who really has a right to be in Palestine would have been fun to watch, but I decided against it at the last minute.  On a serious note, I actually got to have some spiritual conversations with them. It was really cool.

We also had a GREAT service today. It was the second largest service (after Easter of this year) in the past several years. We baptized several kids and we got to pray for healing for a child suffering from seizures and a man with cancer at the end of the service. I serve a great church that really loves the Lord and desires to honor Him. I truly am a blessed man.

I thought I'd write a fairly personal post for a change of pace. This has been an eventful week. Emotions have run the gamut of extreme joy to severe pain and sorrow, and everything in between. In a way, this week was nothing unusual. At the same time, it was rather extraordinary, because of the people I met and the things I got to do. God be praised.

• Saturday: travelled back from the Baptist Identity Conference with C.B. Scott and Bob Cleveland. We had some amazing conversation on the way. I enjoyed seeing and spending time with friends and fellow bloggers, Marty Duren, Art Rogers, Ben Cole, Timmy Brister, Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn, Wes Kenney, Tom Ascol, and Dwight McKissic. I have been shaped and challenged by men like these through this incredible blogging experience and it is always good to meet and hang out some with the people behind the blogs that are changing the face of the SBC, in one way or another. Plus, the speakers were great as well. If the tone of the conference is where the SBC is headed, we are going to be alright. It also caused me to see that the depth of the controversy in Baptist life is so great and so complex, that I would be well served to back off from it on my blog so that I can refocus on other things that are more positive and redemptive for the time being. It has been a refreshing decision. I will still write on baptist issues from time to time, but no where near as much as in the past (and everyone said, "Amen!"). But, for a good synopsis of a post that I was going to write in response to the Smith article on Charismatics and Baptists, but never got around to, PLEASE read this by David Rogers, IMB missionary to Spain. I couldn't have said it better in a million years.
• Sunday: What an amazing day! I filled in for a Sunday School class on Job and taught through Job 19-22. Then, I preached on Matthew 8 & 9, about the Authority of Christ. God really seemed to move in a powerful way and we had a significant time of ministry for some folks in our church, as well. In other news, we paid off our mortgage! Around 18 years ago, our church took out a loan to build our current sanctuary. As of January 2006, we still owed $153,000. At our current pace of payment, it would take around 4 years to pay it off. We desperately need more space, so it is time to build again. Well, over the past 3 months, we saw the last $90,000 paid off, with the last $20,000 coming from someone outside our church who just wanted to bless us! We needed about $2,100 on Sunday to finish it, so we took a special offering and brought in that amount and more! Praise God! We are now debt free! God has provided in amazing ways! We have drafted a building team in anticipation of this day, and they have started their work of leading us into building a new building. This will be an adventure. I'll give updates and ask for lots of advice as time goes by!
• Monday: I spent the day with a lady in our church and her daughter as we buried her parents. On Thursday of the previous week, I got a phone call that both of her parents had died tragically in a car wreck. There was much obvious grieving, but I saw God work in their lives as they experienced His presence and faithfully looked to Him. God was so gracious to them to give them strength and help them to grieve while He provided amazing comfort. I was asked to share the gospel at the funeral and it was a really interesting experience. The couple who passed away were in their 70's and 80's and were leaders in the Pentecostal Fire Baptized Holiness Church. So, the funeral was held at one of that denomination's churches, outside, in a camp meeting environment. There were hundreds of people there. I don't think that many of them were particularly crazy about a Baptist preacher speaking, but I faithfully shared the gospel anyway. What a day. Please pray for this family, that God would continue to give them strength and comfort and carry them through this tragedy.

Caelan Update: Caelan continues to do well as he takes his treatments every Monday in Birmingham. He is now 18 months old and, according to the latest scans, the cancer has not returned! Praise God! He is still going in for weekly treatments, but he only has 6 more treatments left. We started this whole thing almost a year ago and were facing 48 treatments, surgery, and a very difficult road. God has been faithful, however, and has brought us through it so far. Caelan is weak, often cranky, doesn't eat or sleep well, and is very small for his age. His color is sometimes bad, and he has lost most of his hair. Chemotherapy stinks. But, God is using it to save his life, and for that, we rejoice. At the same time, he is incredibly fiesty and stubborn. He doesn't take anything off anybody and he's as tough as nails. He'll wrestle his older brothers to the ground and give them a good beating as well. He's one of a kind, that's for sure. What a blessing!

• Tuesday: The day started EARLY with two hospital visits for church members who were experiencing surgery before 7am at different hospitals. I grabbed some breakfast at a local restaurant and studied Scripture. Then, I went into the office to try and catch up on all that I had missed over the last several days. There was a good deal to catch up on. Our church has grown from an average attendance of around 175 last fall, to an average attendance of around 230-240 so far this year. Most of those folks are in their 20's and 30's with lots of kids. So, there is always stuff to do. I had lunch with our elders and we talked about pastoral and leadership issues in the church. Those guys are a pleasure to serve with, no doubt. That evening, I took my son to his Upwards basketball practice where we had a father-son game. He had 10 points and around 12 rebounds. The kids beat the Dads, something like 46-14, but I did dunk it once (on the six foot goal!). Man, those 5 and 6 year olds can play! After that, I went to a meeting at a restaurant with John and Bill to make plans for our upcoming trip to India. We were there until late and I was weary.
• Wednesday: I stayed home in the morning, but met Greg and Glen, the co-chairs of our building team for lunch downtown. We worked on a strategy for how we are to move forward. These guys are amazing, and have already put a lot of work into this. They are top notch professionals in their fields, and they are bringing those abilities to this task as well. I can't wait to see what God is going to do through all of this. I then went back to the office for the afternoon, where I worked on a number of things and prepared for the Wednesday Night Bible Study. We are going through The Mind of Christ by T.W. Hunt. It has been an incredible study and Wednesday night was no different. God is really using it to speak to people in a deep way about their relationship with him. I am co-teaching it with an older, Godly man, who has been blessed with unusual insight into God's ways and character. We are seeing a lot of growth in the lives of the people going through the study. I am growing as well.
• Thursday: Engaged in office work, study, and an elongated staff meeting with our administrative staff, since I will be gone for two weeks. This was the calmest day of my week, and I was able to focus on a few necessary things. That evening, my wife and I met with the folks whose house we have been trying to buy for the past month and watched the deal fall through. The home inspector said that the house needed a new roof, a special roof, because of the low pitch of the roof on the house. A $16,000 roof. Oh well. We'll keep looking.
• Friday:  I'm off on Fridays. My 7 year old daughter, Ashtyn, had a lead role in a school play, where she played a clown fish who felt rejected because she told bad jokes and wasn't really that funny. The play was about all different kinds of fish in the sea, and how they all are unique and learned to be friends, despite their differences. She had a whole bunch of lines and did an awesome job. I am so proud of her. She goes to a magnet school in our city, and we are praying that our son, Peyton, gets in as well. He had his interview on Wednesday of this week, so we are hoping. We spent the rest of the day taking care of different things, and then had dinner with a really awesome family that just started attending our church last month. We hung out with them until way too late and talked about everything under the sun. We had a great time.
• Saturday: Today was a lot of fun. This morning, I took Ashtyn to her ice skating lessons and then, the whole family showed up for Peyton's last basketball game of the year. He played really hard, and I was so proud of him when he went diving head first for a loose ball. I love that! When we returned home, I wrestled with my boys on the floor for a good long while (Kieran, my 3 year old, is a real firecracker - he loves jumping all over me and his older brother, Peyton - It's great!). After that, we were all pretty tired from a hectic week, and rested during the afternoon, before we returned for Peyton's Upwards Basketball Awards ceremony this evening. We saw a woman spin 10 basketballs at one time, and then share the gospel! She was pretty talented. We participated in Upwards at a local megachurch, but folks from our church were all over the place. Three of the teams were coached by people from our little church. It was great to see those guys participating with the larger Christian community in our city.

All in all, it was an eventful week. Of course, I didn't mention the diaper changing, baths given, meals prepared, phone calls, errands run, conversations, and other things. I just scratched the surface. Sometimes, it is good to sit back and reflect on the things that you've been involved with on a daily basis. Overall, my week focused more intensely on my church and family than outside things, mostly because I will be gone to India for the next two weeks. But, this exercise was helpful because it causes me to ask some questions: Where did I see God move? How did I experience His presence? How did I interact with others? What do I need to change? How much time did I spend with the Lord and did it make any difference in my daily life? How much time did I spend with my family? Others? While I ministered to people within my church, I realize that I didn't share the gospel with anyone this week. I was tired a lot. I didn't pray as much as I should have. I was pretty discouraged about some things at times. But, I praise God for His faithfulness and grace. I pray that I will continue to grow in Him and learn to depend upon Him more and more. As I look back, I am grateful for all that happened this week.

Tomorrow we take Communion as a church. I preach about Jesus. In two days, I go to India for almost two weeks. I'll miss my wife and children terribly, but I am excited about what God has in store for us!

Today was my 5 year old son Peyton's first basketball game. He did great! He played really tough defense and was named the Defensive Player of the Game for his team with 5 rebounds and tight defense on his man. It was really fun! After that, I took him and my three year old boy, Kieran, to the park (Shakespeare Festival) for some exploring and picture taking. I'm pretty new at the photography thing (so cut me some slack), but I thought I'd put a few of my favorite ones up. Hope you had a great weekend. It was sunny and in the 70's here!  Really nice day! (Click on the picture for the larger size.)