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.