Wilma Aftermath

Well, I must say, Hurricane Wilma is certainly interesting to look at, eh? We held services yesterday at VCC complete with electricity in the building (as of 7PM Friday)! Attendance was the best it has been in a month, with 155 people gathered for worship. As of 3PM Saturday, the last of our members had electricity restored to their homes. Most of us suffered only minor damage, although we do have one church member who had part of his roof peeled back by the winds, so there is significant damage there.

I had several very nice comments following my sermon yesterday morning as we examined 1 Samuel 17, and the difference between viewing things as obstacles or opportunities. My sincere thanks to all who were so kind in their comments following the sermon. Youth and children's groups went off last night with decent attendance, and with kids back in school all up and down the Treasure Coast today, we are slowly getting back to "normal" around here. CIY DVD's are done, and will be distributed this week, so I have one more major project under my belt. Whew! Now, to head to the doc's today for a regular checkup, and to go pick up my pre-ordered copy of the latest Veggie Tales DVD, "Lord of the Beans"!!! I am so excited!

Play Misty For Me

Wilma05
Originally uploaded by blountman.

This is one of 11 Hurricane Wilma pictures posted on my flickr account. I also have uploaded Emily's new school picture, and will have Ian's new school picture as soon as I get it.

It's Friday and while we have power and phones at the house, we still have no electricity at the church building. We may well have a Sunday worship service in fellowship hall just like we did on the Sundays following Frances and Jeanne last year. Woo-hoo!

Post Wilma Post

Well, Wilma has come and gone, and as of this posting, we finally have electric power and phones back at the Fabulous Blount Mansion. Our power came back on yesterday evening, while the phones were out until around noon today. I have spoken with many of the VCC folks and most of them are now back up and running with power and phones, while there are still several who are without and are using generators. Steve Macaluso loaned us their generator Tuesday night after power was restored to their house. What a blessing! It is a big generator that we could run most of the house on (except the stove, A/C, etc.) including judicious use of the hot water tank. Hot showers! A luxury far too often that is taken for granted, let me tell you! We have helped pass that blessing on to the Dyes who are still without power. The church building is still without power, so we may well have worship services in fellowship hall Sunday morning! Ah, another acoustic worship set in fellowship hall. Good times for sure!

Well, I have tons more sermon work to finish up, just wanted to update you on the latest happenings. Praise God for cool weather here (daytime highs have been around 70, and overnight lows in the upper 40's). Much nicer weather to be without power than last year's post Frances and Jeanne sweltering days!

VCC work crew

We cleaned the church property! Spending about 2 1/2 hours picking up debris, raking and sweeping, we got most of the church property looking pretty good. The Work Crew from left to right is: Kyle Aldhizer, Glorida Wojtaszek, Ian Blount, Anne Martinelli, Jillian Martinelli, Lyndsey Wojtaszek, Jessica Martinelli, Peggy Blount, Turtle, and Emily Blount. Great job, gang!

Wilma 10

2 screen sections ripped from the winds. No other damage to the pool enclosure. Peggy "loved" the fact that I was out on the pool deck during the storm. She was afraid that this skinny little boy would blow away in the wind. HA! Wilma was no match for me!

Wilma 09

The palm that leaned during Frances last year & was straightened again didn't like Wilma! This is the closest thing to major damage we got from the Cat 1 winds of Wilma at the house...the church building took on other damage, which I will detail in a later post.

Hunkered Down

Well, it's Sunday night, and the house is boarded up. I am not putting up the plywood on the windows of the house inside the screened-in pool enclosure, but every other window of the house is boarded up in anticipation of the early morning arrival tomorrow of Hurricane Wilma. Since I have put the plywood up, we probably won't get much wind, but that's okay, too. Ian and I put them all up over a three day period. Yesterday, Braxston helped us with some of the windows, and today Turtle helped us with the dining room window, which I saved until the last minute so we wouldn't have the room so dark. It was around five o'clock this evening when we put the plywood up on that puppy. Now, we are just gonna watch some DVD's (including the CIY Summer Conference Trip DVD I have FINALLY finished producing), eat some junk food and "hunker down" while Wilma blows through. Catch ya on the other side of the storm!

Nerd Wanna Be

So, I took the test via Lil Bro's blog. Here are the reults:


I knew I would be a nerd wanna be. I know that I am a nerd wanna be. I have enough nerd in me to get by, but not enough to be a true nerd.

As we keep an eye on Hurricane Wilma (who at the time of this writing is a Cat 5 with 175 mph winds), I am starting some early prep. If Wilma follows the projected forecast path as of this morning, we should feel some pretty strong winds, and get a lot of rain this weekend. Fun times ahead. And we thought we were gonna get through this Hurricane Season virtually untouched. Oops!

Baby, What A Big Surprise

Peggy was wondering why I didn't blog yesterday in light of our surprise visit Sunday afternoon-Monday morning from our long-lest eldest child. Yes, Elliott made our weekend by dropping in to watch some football & baseball (sorry Ed, he was happy about the results of the longest game in MLB plyaoff history) and do some laundry. It is the first time this semester that Elliott has been able to come home. Between his extremely busy school schedule and his new ministry with Mid-Lakes Christian Church, we truly don't expect him to be back in Vero Beach until Thanksgiving. It was such a great surprise! Things are going very well for him with his new ministry, and we enjoy getting the church newsletter so much. This is a church on the move for Jesus, and has a leadership with a vision for moving ahead to the next level of excellence in the name of the Lord.

Elliott and I talked a good part of Monday morning about church-related stuff both Mid-Lakes and VCC, and it was so good to be able to do that with him. In fact, when Elliott pulled out of the driveway to head back to Kissimmee, he said, "I'll call you and we can talk some more." I had barely gotten back in the house when my cellphone rang...it was Elliott. We talked for another hour before I finally told him that I needed to get in the shower and actually go to work! How cool!

Reaching back into the memory banks going to Saturday, the memorial service for Tom Lockwood was a true celebration. Tom's passing is a great loss for our church family, and a great gain for heaven. The packed sanctuary, and overflow crowd into the welcome center was testiment to his impact on lives. I cannot thank Lou Ann and Sue enough for allowing me to play a small role in that service. Without a doubt, that is the best example of how we who do not mourn without hope could express our loss while celebrating Tom's gain. Getting to take Lauren out for some teen stuff afterwards (we were gonna play some football, but didn't have enough to play, so we went to watch some Rec League Football instead), was a privilege in ministry that I was so thankful to be able to do, too!

Continue to remember Danny Dye and his family at the passing of Danny's Mom, Dorothy. Her visitation was Saturday night and funeral on Sunday in Ripley, Ohio. I know this has been one of the most difficult season's of Danny's life, and I pray for the peace of our Lord Jesus to shower upon him, upon Pat and upon Dana. I love them so much, and hurt for them so dearly. Danny called me using the Google Talk feature on his laptop while in the Columbus, OH, airport yesterday to thank Peggy and me for the flowers we sent for his Mom's funeral. That truly touched me, that he would call from the airport to express his thanks...well, it shows the depth of his character.

Then skipping back ahead to last night: our first Elders/Deacons meeting with the new crew went very well. I look forward to Steve Huntsberger's leading of these sessions. The highlights inclulde the approval of audio/visual equipment needed for the move to temporary facilities (and beyond). YAY, Dan! Of course the night was topped off by the California Angels eliminating the Evil Empire from the American League Division Series, thus making it easier to sleep (as the Ambien fought off the prednisone and won).

This morning, we have a staff meeting with Steve Huntsberger to start putting together the moving plan for the office as well as other administrative issues to be worked out. I have a follow up doc's visit from my poison ivy bout (I am much better today thank you very much), and then it is serious study time today.

I am listening to the Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe soundtrack, and I must say IT ROCKS! Hope you have a great day, and hope you will post a comment. Five music trivia points...no make that 5,000 music trivia points (the points are made up and don't matter anyway) to the first person to identify the lead singer of the title song for this post.

Two in one week?

Yeah, I know, don't faint. I am actually blogging again today.

The medicine-induced roller coaster has been interesting to say the least. This week, as I fight the ravages of my poison ivy, I take 20 mg. of prednisone twice a day (at breakfast and at supper). The prednisone makes me shaky (okay shakier than usual), as it hypes my body up. Dr. Fischman warned me that this would happen, that's why he also prescribved me Ambien to help me sleep at night. So, I am either shaking in the hyper state of being, or zombie-ized from the sleeping pill. Pretty interesting existence to say the least.

I have spent a good part of the week working on Christian Ed matters like class plans for our move to the Galaxy 12 Theatres, lesson materials (I edit daily student devos and weekly family devos that we give out to our families here at VCC), and general administrative stuff that way. I also have spent a lot of time working on the Memorial Service for Tom Lockwood which takes place tomorrow. Tom's quiet witness for Christ deserves the best kind of Memorial Service we can give him, and I am confident that his daughter Lou Ann has put together a wonderful service, even if I am involved in it. I put a Power Point cleebration of Tom's Life together, have the Scripture readings, obituary reading, and will sing "I Can Only Imagine" as well as closing out the service. Several folks have been asked to speak in celebration of Tom's life. It will be a very special service.

Yesterday, I got to see my "kid" Whitney Bowe. Whit, now a school teacher in the Fairview School District in Ashland, KY, is one of my former youth group kids who actually does stay in active contact with me over the years. Hint, hint to those who read this blog, yet never or rarely respond.
Whintey and Chris are coming over for dinner tonight. This will be at least the 2nd time they have done that over the past couple of years. hint, hint.

Please remember Danny Dye and his family in prayer after the passing of his Mom, Dorothy, this week. The visitation is Saturday and the funeral service Sunday in Ripley, Ohio.

Now that you are totally caught up on this exciting life of mine, leave me a comment, eh?

Long Time, No Blog

Okay, we are now well into October, the blended worship service deal is in full swing at VCC. There were lots of nice comments about the service and about my sermon on Oct. 2nd and that is all very well and good. The bottom line, however, is that we had the LOWEST attended worship service in four years on Sunday, Oct. 2nd. Just as some of us have tried to warn the powers at be for some time, anytime you reduce the number of services offered, you will reduce the number of people attending worship. I pray that this trend reverses itself this coming Sunday with Florida Christian College's Bill Behrman preaching.
Dan and the praise team did a great job in leading the song service. Much better than I was afraid they would having heard the practice on Wednesday. I am cautiously optimistic that things will slowly swing the way they need to go in doing a true blend of contemporary music with older music. So far the closest thing to a contemporary song in the first two Sunday is a song copyrighted 1989. A sixteen year-old-song is NOT contemporary. I understand the need to go slow, I just hope it doesn't go too slow in bringing in contemporary music to the worship service. Ah well, not my worry, eh?
Yard work Saturday included trimming tree branches from the wooded lot behind our house that were hanging over the fence. I also got my first good dose of poison ivy since moving to Florida. So, yesterday, I got the prednisone shot, and have the full gamut of meds to fight it off, since I am highly allergic to poison ivy!
Well, time to get ready for work, now the that sleeping pill has worn off (yeah, it's part of the poison ivy regimine).