Christmas and Such

Well I had a great Christmas up here on A-Corn Hill. It was just Denise and I and we spent our first Christmas by ourselves. The night before we were at Jason and Jocelyn's place along with James and Kim. The night went pretty well I thought thought there was something going on with James. Earlier in the week I had lunch with the Camp Macoba Committee including Harold Sellers who is the current Head of the Madison Baptist Association. Everything went extremely well and we made things official by signing documents. Their enthusiasm and mine were both pretty high about this partnership. I really do feel like this is where God would have us right now and the potential that I see here may only be the tip of the iceberg of what He has in mind ! Also we will be serving at Lighthouse for awhile and that may lead to something as well. I love Randy and would do almost everything for him but I do not understand his insistence on wanting to build. The factors are just not present at Lighthouse for this in my estimation. I don't know how you convince the people there is a need when the numbers are like they are and there is not consistent growth pattern being displayed. I shared my heart with Ron about this the other day and he understands completely. They do not have a good foundation laid in their Sunday School which is critical to moving the church forward and especially something like a building program. I would not bring this up with Randy unless he asked me directly. I will pray about this much in the future. I am getting a little antsy about the web page for the ministry. I know Jason is working hard on it and am sure it will be top notch and I appreciate it so much and have told him so but with the Board meeting coming up in a couple of weeks I would really like to be able to show it to them then. Received a game cam for Christmas and already have some pictures. It seems that the deer were around the RV all night long because each picture is time stamped. Tonight I have set it for 10 second shots of video so we will see how that comes out. This week will really be the test on losing weight. I have not eaten any sugar but I missed a couple of days of exercise and increased my eating. So far for 20 weeks in a row I have lost a pound a week. Tomorrow morning will be the test. We stopped at two of the three houses we consider our neighbors and gave them a plate of Christmas cookies Denise had made and spent a little time with them. They seem to be nice. The other house we pulled up and waited for a few minutes but no one came out. We waited int he car because they have two dogs that do not seem to be very nice waiting outside our car. We are using the RV pump along with the campground water to increase our water pressure and it is working our pretty well...especially in the shower...it is almost a normal shower! I have not been as diligent on my quiet time as I want to be and it certainly shows...too many distractions which is no excuse as God as sure blessed me and my family tremendously. Still have not worked out the interview and book process yet but I will. We will finish up the Christmas holidays tonight with a movie (Night At The Theatre 2) and some popcorn.

A-Corn Hill

Well I have decided to give the part of the camp we are staying in a name. A-Corn hill seems quite appropriate as they are knee deep up here. I know that is not how you spell (acorn) but I spelled it how i will be pronouncing it. Today it is Wednesday and around 1:00 in the afternoon. This is the first day so far I have not seen any deer since we have been up here..but the day is not over yet. The rain is supposed to have been gone by now and there is nothing on the radar yet it is raining pretty good as i write this. All this time I had been waiting on the perfect recliner I found and such a great price. It came on Monday and after an hour I had it put together...it was a piece of junk. You get what you pay for and this was an expensive lesson for me. I tossed it in the burn pile..not just because it was not any good but two of the metal straps were either broke or I broke them while wrestling around with it putting it together. If I was sure they were already broke I would have sent the thing back but I may have broke them. I got all excited but did not do my homework correctly. Further observation on the chairs located in the RV at Reeds camper sales revealed that they were not recliners but what is called a euro chair. Oh well enough about that guess it will be awhile before I get one. I need to get a hold of myself and wanting all these material things lately, it has caused me to veer away from some good habits I had been carefully following. I just finished eating some popcorn and made my first glass of sweet tea in many weeks. I made it with the Truvia and it was pretty good actually. Thanksgiving was good and I have such a great family and extended family. James and Jason spent quite awhile talking about the web page and what was going on there but no one mentioned to me where we are on the process. I don't want to put any pressure on Jason, he is got many irons in the fire and he is really helping me out. We were prepared to start looking at churches with the hopes of finding one that needs some help when Roger announced he was leaving Lighthouse for a church in Arkansas. Matter of fact I had already met with the Pastor at New Market Baptist and we had attended there once when this came up. I thought I would ask Randy one more time just to be sure if He could use our help before we left. It looks like at this point there might be something there. He could use some help administratively. I should know something by this Sunday. I sure will be glad when I am somewhere I can put my whole self into it again. The camp has been winterized as well as our RV. I bought an electric heater to try and off set using so much propane. I love propane heat but we are going through a bottle a week! I have so many ideas about this place up here ! I would like to set aside a day a week where I concentrated on nothing but writing. I would work on my book, journal, send out cards, write notes of encouragement, etc. On the trip down to the funeral with dad it was just normal conversation but the way back was a different story. While the preacher was praying at the funeral service I prayed that something the preacher would say would cause dad to ask questions...to make him think. That prayer was quickly answered as 90% of the conversation on our way home was dad asking me questions about God and beliefs and things he did not understand or necessarily agree with. I answered the best I could and where I did not know the answer I just told him so but said that I had faith in the one I placed my faith in so I just trusted in those situations. I think I will get him a bible for Christmas....probably a New American Standard large print. Well it is time to have an afternoon cup of coffee and do some more around the place...then off to church later.

Smoothing Out A Bit...

What a week it has been. Much has been accomplished since the move with still some more to do. While I was prepared for the scale down in stuff, some of the adjustments emotionally both with myself and Denise were and are a little harder. I am sure we will be ok but we will be sharing space much more than before. This will be an adjustment for the both of us. I think last night was the first time since we have been married that we actually watched tv in bed...it was kinda fun. I have gone about the business of trying to winterize the camp before the cold weather sets in. I have pretty much got our hill taken care of and next week Iwill work on the other hill with the Pavillion. The Lord has so blessed us and I am reminded of this every morning when we wake up in Camp Macoba. The thing is I don't really feel attached to any church right now. We visited New Market Baptist last Sunday and it was a fine church. I called Randy Watts and offered some help in administration if he wanted it since Roger and Laura left to take a church in Arkansas. He seemed interested and I expect the next time I see him he will let me know something. I know one thing something is really missing from my life when I am not serving the Lord somewhere. I could use all kind of excuses about transition and other things but the bottom line is I need to pray about this and just do it ! I took my first walk the other day at the Camp and what I really did was walk down the boundary line. I saw two bucks and about four does on this trip. We are having our friends John and Annette (our first ones out to Camp Macoba other than family) over this Monday. Denise made a sugar free pecan pie the other day and it was pretty good...I am sure she will tweek it a bit. I brought down my sugar 12 points with this change of diet and exercise. I will go back again in a few weeks and see if it goes down some more. When it stops I will take this natural supplement I bought and see if it will drop it down some more. I also am still losing a pound a week and dropped to my lowest in 3 years last week....though I still have a good ways to go. Christmas talk has began and lists are beginning to come in. It is my understanding we will be doing Christmas here with the kids before they leave. Sounds like Jocelyn will have a busy December but looking back I am sure she will have some pleasant memories. Speaking of Jocelyn she is becoming a fine young women..though I will always think of her as my girl. I am going to help James next week go get some baby furniture and move it into his house. I am just about ready to get into a routine and back to work on some things I had started, preparing the Ministry for the new year, working on my books, working on Camp Macoba, etc. I order me a recliner for the back room and will probably order one for Denise if she likes it when it comes in which should be last week. James is working on the brochure and I will be asking him about it sometime next week. Dad's brother John died and I will be going down with him for the funeral on Sunday. I will leave the church right after Sunday School and head to his house...Denise has been kind enough to let me use her car for the trip down....she is good like that. :) I probably need to go down to the Association next week and talk with the guys down there. I am sure there are still some details to work out concerning our partnership. I have all kind of ideas about Camp Macoba and am ready to hit the ground running. I am also going to try and get the printer set up in the RV. Not so sure I can do it wirelessly may have to ask Jason to help me with this. Got to go for now.

Turning The Corner

Everything was set and the plan put into motion on Saturday morning. Well some adjustments had to be made as Dwight's truck would not pull the RV up the hill. I had some help as Little Buddy brought out a chain, moved his truck in front of Dwight's. chained them together and he gave us just the boost we needed to get it up the hill. He is a pretty resourceful guy and a great friend. Matter of fact he spent the whole day helping me hook up and vent the washer/dryer, level the RV and install a new TV bracket. Densie and I spent our first night at Macoba on Saturday and it was great. Deer were out early this morning as well as many squirrels. We went to church at New Market Baptist this morning and it was a good service. It was a typical country church...well not sure what exactly that means as we have encounterd many different experiences in little country churches we have been in. Kelby was there and we spoke for awhile....that is another story. Denise spends her first night by herself in the RV tonight...I hope she is able to sleep well. James and Kim went out to visit her this afternoon and everyone had a good time. Jocelyn is coming by tomorrow for dinner. Denise and I are going to be busy collecting some more of the things we need from the house and Lowes tomorrow. I feel that we did as about as well as I could have hoped for with the Merlin situation. He behaved pretty well I thought and so did Bell. Denise was a real trooper and I was really glad about that. I went through a spell of about four or five days right before we made this move of uncertainty and this really did not help things. Maybe this was Satans way of tempting me...I guess I need to explain. Last week or the week before when I went by Bankston Motor Homes to pick up some things we needed for the RV I went over ont he RV lot just to look and see what they had. Well they had one with a floorplan that really caught my eye. So much so that I began to view the one we had as a second choice and I looked on line for possibly getting a different one. Finally the Lord dealt with me a few days before we moved and i am fine now. He told me that this one was the one we were to have and we could modify it how we wanted but to stick with the plan. I am sorry about all this confusion I caused with Denise. I think this week I will talk to Randy at Lighthouse one more time before we begin seriously looking at other churches to see if there is a place for us there. I have lunch scheduled with Randy Blackwood on Tuesday and I may call Mike Ellis later in the week. Oh well I look forward to getting back in some type of routine...not sure how this walking is going to work out yet.

The Beginning

I think this might work out better than the e-mail entitled "windows" that I sent out there for awhile. Lot's of change is upon us. In only 7 days we will be moving into the RV and beginning the next leg of the journey God has in store for us. It is interesting the way God does things, where He will take us if we let Him. My vision of what God wants me to do is very clear though how we get there has taken a turn I would not have predicted....Camp Macoba I mean. I have to say though I am excited about the whole thing and the wheels in my mind have been turning about the possibilities there. Will God give you the desires of your heart? Oh Yeah if we are faithful in our calling. I can remember that Denise was a little disappointed when the first place we had decided on to move was Seebo. It was great and had the campground atmosphere. It did not work out and what did the Lord do but open up a door to an even better place !

I think sometimes fear can be a great motivator. This is what God finally used to bring me to the point I knew I needed to be on my health. I had secretly been praying about how weak I was in this area and I needed something major to happen to me to turn the tide. I did not want to have a heart attack or anything like that but having a couple of sugar readings right on the line of being a diabetic did the trick! I have been virtually sugar free for a month now...no sugar in my tea or coffee which was a big deal. Not only that but six days a week for a month now I have doubled my exercise to 1 hour on the treadmill with 440 calories burned each time. This has caused me to lose 1 pound every week. This does not sound like much but I know that if I stay with this it will be worth it. Not only that but it has led to me feeling much better physically and is building my confidence in myself and the ability to conquer big things. I have interviewed 10 Pastors so far for my book and have slowed down that for now for a couple of reasons. One is the move about to take place and the other is I need to find the way to get these interviews down on paper now before it gets to be too big of a job. As I write this Denise is leading a Beth Moore Bible Study at our house. I think she will do great with this and especially with this group of Ladies who all know that she cares for them. Denise is only just beginning to tap into her potential in her service to the Lord. There are many talents still yet to come out. Our time at Lighthouse is coming to a close I believe as I am being drawn to New Market Baptist. This church is very close to Camp Macoba but not only that I have had lunch with the Pastor there and we might end up helping them...we will see. It has been awhile since actually serving in a church and it is driving me crazy. Though we all have different gifts and God calls people into different ministries the common denominator is that it is all about serving others. A quote I heard in part of my devotion lately that has stuck in my mind is "the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet".

As clear as day last Sunday in the middle of Randy's sermon the Lord revealed to me why we had been a Lighthouse for this short period. I must say it made me sad because I did not step up to the plate. Years ago I had helped work on the Constitution & By-Laws there without much movement. After all this time they had finally made it to the place where it had been worked on and finally brought before the church for discussion and possible amending. I got a copy and commented about some things that needed to be changed to insure better protection and accountability to Denise and even Randy. Without actually saying it I could feel that Randy hoped I would get involved but I could see that he did not want to fight this battle himself. I went to one of the several times it was discussed and bit my tongue. I then stayed away until it was over and decided. I justified it by saying to Denise that we had only been back a little while and we didn't want to cause a stir especially since we don't know how long we would be there. This was a mistake and I was ashamed and told God so. I knew in my heart that speaking up was the right thing to do but I didn't do it. This was a lesson I should not have had to learn.

I canceled our web page on Faith highway today because I know very soon a new great one is coming from my son-in-law Jason. Also I am getting rid of all the old ministry brochures because my son James is going to have us some first rate stuff in the near future. I really would like to have my whole family involved in this ministry. God has been connecting me with different groups of people for awhile now. I recently have made a connection with at group called MLL which stands for Market Leadership Luncheon. The have a web site. It is where a group of business leaders who are also believers meet on Thursdays for lunch each week. There is 30 minutes for lunch and generally two pastors who each speak for 15 minutes apiece and bring a message that applies to the market place. It is always uplifting. A man who got me involved Ed Maples, is someone I really would like to have on Board in some aspect of the ministry and he told me he would !

We have discovered a new way to use the fish I catch courtesy of my dad. Instead of tuna fish salad we use the fish I usually catch. It is great and better than any tuna I have eat. I could go on and on but I think I will end now as I have a few notes of encouragement to write and to set my agenda for tomorrow.