NACC Portrait

NACC Portrait
Originally uploaded by blountman.

Ya know with Peggy and I preparing to celebrate our 25th Anniversary, and with Elliott and Abi preparing to get married this year, I thought this would be a good time to have a "family picture" taken. We had it done during the North American Christian Convention and it just arrived via snail mail today.

I am so blessed to be married to Peggy. We are so blessed to have three children who love Jesus and love people. And yes, we are blessed that Abi will soon "officially" join the family (as you can tell, we already consider her part of the family). We truly are "Together In Christ." (The 2006 NACC Theme).

Most of all, I am so blessed that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. May God receive all the glory through Jesus every day!

Vacation Dreamland

This picture sums it all up. Thanks to Lil Bro for capturing so perfectly our time together in Alabama. Robby and Yo were perfect hosts. Josh and Ben were more than gracious in being uprooted from their rooms while we were there. The home is beautiful. Yes, it is a work in progress, as they are still completing it as they live in it. For more pictures from the week, you must visit my flickr site. Props to Lil Bro for the fantastic gift regarding flickr!

Anyway, as I reflect back on the visit with Robby and Yo, with Aunt Phyl, with Ray, Kelly and their kids, with Jim and the boys and with Dad and Donna, I can only say that as fantastic as C-I-Y was, as phenomenal as the North American Christian Convention was, THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY SUMMER! We are already making plans for a repeat visit next year. After all, we need to see what progress has been made since our last "inspection tour." Ha!

The Life

I stole this picture idea from Ed, but had to share it with you from my caerma phone: Laying on a hammock overlooking Smith Lake. This is the life at Robby & Yo's home. More details & pictures to follow.

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Super 4th of July

11 pounds of ribs on the grill, just waiting to be devoured.












Tyler did his fair share of devouring the ribs!











We enjoyed a time in the pool, and some bodacious ribs off the grill along with baked potatoes, corn on the cob and green beans...all all-American Fourth of July meal if there ever was one...before heading to a 9:55 p.m. showing of "Superman Returns." The 2 1/2 flick was a good one, although I am disappointed in one plot device that is so obvious you will know what it is when you first see it. It makes me sad that we have to take heroes who stand for truth, justice and the American Way, and make them just like the post-modern world in which we live. Otherwise, it was an entertaining movie, with plenty of super-sized action. Getting home at 1:00 a.m. makes me a little bleary eyed this morning, but at least I don't have to drive to Kissimmee and work while also finishing up writing a paper. Ha!

Words Are inadequate

This picture contains the praise teams from Richland Hills and Southside, taken Thursday night, June 29, at the North American Christian Convention. Elliott is in the back on the left side of the picture.

The past two weeks have been filled with some of the most intense, electrifying, heart-wrenching, and satisfying moments of my ministry career.

The Christ In Youth Summer Conference trip was beautiful beyond words. After our "layover" in Palm Coast, FL, the experience was phenomenal. The Scripture text for the week was the book of Ephesians. My favorite Bible College Professor and dear freind, Tom Lawson taught us each morning, not only in the Morning Encounter Time, but also in the Adult Bible Fellowship (nope, I didn't teach a D-Group for any of our students this year). I miss Tom a lot. He is now at Ozark Christian College. Too bad they don't have a Masters' Program there.

The theme for the Summer Conference this year is "Mystery," and our students have been challenged to be bold in their proclamation of the "Mystery of God" (the Gospel). We are praying for each other to be bold in proclaiming this mystery (Eph. 6:19), and I expect that each of our students and sponsors will bring at least one person to Christ in the next year. Yes, we have a goal to double our group in a year.

Our family (along with Braxston Hughes, who went along so we could deliver him to friends from Indiana for a visit up there), went from Summer Conference to Ashland to spend a couple of days resting and doing laundry before heading to the North American Christian Convention. The theme for this year's Convention was "Together In Christ" and featured the praise teams from Richland Hills Church of Christ with the Southside (Orlando) Christian Church. Elliott played bass with the praise band. The Convention also featured prominent preachers from both the a cappella Churches of Christ, and the Independent Christian Churches. The highlight of the week was Thursday night's session where preachers, Bible College Presidents and others exchanged Bibles with folks from the "other side of the keyboard." There wasn't a dry eye in the house as Jeff Walling told us that it is time to stop playing nice, and time to start being family. I couldn't agree more.

Today, we had Elliott and Tyler down from Kissimmee, as well as Turtle over for a ribs munch fest. Oh yeah, I ran out of propane for the grill while fixing the ribs and had to make an emergency run to get another tank. The ribs still turned out more than fine. As I type these words, we are trying to move after stuffing ourselves with ribs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and green beans. We leave for "Superman Returns" shortly for the 9:55 showing. That movie will be our fireworks this year.

God has been so good to me. I have a wonderful family. We are surrounded by good brothers and sisters in Christ. I have a renewed focus as to what God has in store for me here in Vero Beach. I am leaving on Sunday for a week of vacation with the Goggans gang and my Dad. It will be so great to be with my cousins from Mom's side of the family. We never get together, and this is the summer of getting together, so it will be fantastic. Ed is going up with us, and we are going to "kidnap" Dad and make him go with us, like it or not. It will be fun!

Yes, I have used lots of words, but trust me, they can in no way truly reflect the past couple of weeks. Keep checking my flickr site, because I will eventually get some pictures of both C-I-Y and the NACC on there.

Oh yeah, did I mention the new TV we got? There's a picture of Peggy playing "Dr. Mario" while sitting in front of the new "Youth Group TV" we purchased on Sunday. Honga, honga!