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!

2:00 a.m.

That's when we pulled into the Holiday Inn Express this morning. We got up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, and left Vero at 6:00 a.m. After a side trip thanks to a wrong turn by me, we finally made it to South Haven Christian Church to pick up the rest of our C-I-Y gang at 8:30 a.m. We then headed up I-95 for our journey. We almost made it to mile marker 298...St. Augistine...when the church van gave up the ghost. Yes, we were 150 miles from Vero Beach and stranded with 28 of us in three vehicles that could hold 19 people at best. We shuttled folks to Palm Coast, ate at Cracker Barrell and Steak-N-Shake, and sat in a Bealles' parking lot for five hours before Kevin Aldhizer, who had driven up from Vero, pronounced the van officially dead and called for a couple more vehicles to come replace the now deceased church van. It was 6:30 p.m. by the time we drove past the van being loaded on a car hauler to be towed to a local Dodge dealership for an autopsy. With now five vehciles in our caravan, we headed to our first destination on the C-I-Y trip: Spartanburg. The rest of the trip was unremarkable, but I have to say that our students and sponsors exhibited the very best in Christian behavior and attitdue during this very looooooonnnnnnnnggggggg day. Satan doesn't want us at this conference, but we are coming anyway. Time to kick to satan tail!

I'll finish out my cruise journal sometime soon, but this week I will be at the C-I-Y Summer Conference.

Belize and Lobster Tail!

Day 4

Man, am I sleepy this morning.

Tendered to Belize City at about 8:30 a.m. to meet our tour guide, Lizzette (Liz), and driver Sosa, for an hour and a half bus ride across Belize to the Mayan Palaces of Cahal Pech (place of ticks).

The ride across the country, only 9 miles from the Guatemalan border, was interesting, narrow roads, poverty-stricken homes along with beautiful homes & lots of schools. We got a cashew nut/fruit...looked like a red apple having an "accident."

Liz regaled us with "unBelize-able" knowledge of the history & culture of her nation.

The ruins were so cool! We saw an archeological dig in progress on site.
Ballcourts, royal dwellings, Jabba's chair, climbing to the top of the tallest temple, Bastard Tree, "I could go on and on."

Stopped at Caeser's Place for a Belizean snack, and shopping, I got a Belize dollar in change.

Best excursion of the trip by far! It was so cool listening to and watching the reaction of all the students as we traipsed around the Mayan ruins at Cahal Pech. They truly enjoyed themselves. Way cool!

Got back in time for afternoon snack (it is a cruise after all, you are supposed to eat a lot), showered & got ready for DINNER!

Tonight’s dinner was: LOBSTER TAIL, shrimp, mashed potatoes the works. One lobster tail is just not enough on a cruise so I asked for another. Nelish brought me a whole second dinner plate: lobster tail, shrimp, mashed potatoes. I ate the lobster tail and shrimp. Dancing waiters. Got a picture of Edwin who served the tables next to our dancing in Renae’s face. Funny stuff! Crowd Macarena. Best dinner of the cruise. Yeah, baby!

More motion this evening (we just didn’t know that the tropical depression that would turn into “Alberto” was brewing just south of us). The show, "Stop the Rock" wasn't as good as the other night. Dancing under the stars got moved because of the weather - rain bands coming along throughout the evening, & the midnight buffet moved to the Windjammer. While not as spectacular as last night's, it was delicious, nonetheless.

Curfew was midnight. Don't forget to set you clock ahead one hour! Hope the noisy neighbors behave tonight. They did.

Cozumel and Midnight Buffet!

Day 3

I had a restless night thanks to the noisy crew around us. Still thumpin' at 2:00 a.m.

Breakfast omlet had shrimp in it. YUM! Had to hit the Windjammer early since the chorus is singing this morning.

Chorus judging: 8:45 a.m. – warm-ups; 9:15 a.m. - judging. The judge was great with the kids & very complimentary to Mr. Farrah, too. Wants the kids to be more expressive with their faces & body language, but raved about their enunciation & breathing. Was very impressed with our chorus…especially our two basses (Ian & Kevin - the judge said they sang as one voice).

We were docking in Cozumel while the students were singing. Lots of vibrato, ha! I was impressed that the students could stand up with all the shaking that was going on as we docked. I was glad that I was sitting down let me tell you!

Cozumel – our tour guide’s name was Ruben. Toured the oldest Mayan High Priest Temple in all of Mexico; climbed a 1,000 meter rock on a beach on the south side of the island; shopped in San Miguel. I bought a replica Mayan statue after haggling the vendor down to my price. I didn't budge, and he gave in. I probably still paid too much, lol!

Cozumel is still so devastated from Hurricane Wilma's 60-hour visit last year - not one life was lost on Cozumel during that storm. Good time touring & Ruben was funny! He did try to hook us in an eatery in San Miguel that was not a very cool move. I’m pretty sure that Paula will complain to Royal Caribbean about that.

Tiger Shrimp & strawberry bisque for dinner, baby! The My Fair Lady Dining Room is opulent, and Nilesh and Rodolpho continue to impress me. Rodolpho remembered what everyone drank from the night before and brought us our drinks without having to ask what we wanted. WOW! I can’t remember my name, and he can remember my diet coke!

The magic & comedy of Levent was super. "Scissors Girl," 8 track, and view finder! Yeah, if you want to know more, you’ll just have to ask me.

Seas were rough during the evening, I was glad for motion sickness pills. (Little did I know that a tropical depression was forming south of us…more on that parenthetically later).

THE MIDNIGHT BUFFET! SPECTACULAR TO VIEW, AND DELICIOUS TO EAT!

Okay, so we stayed up extra late & we have to meet to go on our excursion in Belize at 7:30 a.m.! At least the noisy neighbors were quiet tonight.

Cruisin' Day 2

Day 2

Slept very well, even with the Midnight Delights in my belly…a key lime tart (okay several of them), chocolate covered bananas, and a shrimp wrap in a green tortilla. Good snack after checking on our students and making sure they were in their staterooms (and taping the doors to make sure that they stay in).

Breakfast at Windjammers was delightful. A buffet with way too much good food.

Disembarked for a morning of sight-seeing/shopping in Key West with Peggy, Llibby, & Shannon after we docked. Weiner hat was funny. I sent that picture to Elliott from my cell phone. We shopped a lot, since Libby and Shannon had bought the $20 shopping coupon books on board the ship. We walked all over the shopping district. We probably should have rented a golf cart for the four of us. We walked all the way to the Southern most point in the U.S., then back towards the ship where we saw Ernest Hemmingway's house among the highlights.

Peggy napped in the cabin, I ate lunch at Windjammers, and watched the most amazing feat ever...the ship turned on a dime when leaving Key West's dock. Got a laugh from the "newbie" loosening ropes & climbing down the ladder the wrong way.

Formal Dinner - had a lobster bisque and roast duck. Yum! Our waiters are wonderful...remembered what we drink without asking.

SUNSET WAS FABULOUS! I have pictures. Just gorgeous. Check out the pictures on our flickr site.

The show was "From the Screen to the Stage." Great singers & dancers.

Everyone in their rooms on time! YAY!

Cruisin' Day 1 Journal

Day 1

“Enchantment of the Seas” - What a beautiful ship!
The stateroom is small, but adequate. Who wants to spend much waking time in the stateroom when you can explore 11 decks of opulence on board the ship?

Dinner was amazing, Crusted Atlantic Cod...the waiters were great, one is from India – Nilesh; the assistant waiter (Rodolpho) is from the Phillipines.

Windjammer Café buffet, baby! Food is excellent and in abundance. I know that I will gain weight on this trip, but as the Cruise Director Carley said, “you dieted last week, you can diet again next week, but this week you are on a cruise, baby!”

The all--day drink deal is the only way to go. For $6 per day for adults, $4 per day for students, you can enjoy all the soda and juice you desire. You even get a souvenir cup with lid. What a sweet deal. I know I drink at least $6 of soda a day, especially at the ship’s prices!

The ship is beautiful. Check out the pictures Ian took of the Centrum area of the ship. You can see from decks 2 through 10, it is complete with a white grand piano, lots of seating, and is the nerve center for guests. The guests relations office is on deck 6 along with the shops, and the Schooner Lounge, Spotlight Lounge, Conference Room and loads of staterooms. Deck five has the Boleros Lounge, the Casino (big whoop), and the balcony section of the My Fair Lady Dining Room as well as the Orphium Theatre (the balcony is on deck 6). Deck four houses the main section of the Dining Room and lots of staterooms including the one Emily is in with two other girls. Peggy and I are on Deck 3 as is Ian. Deck 9 will be the most popular deck with the students: the pools and hot tubs are there, as well as the Windjammer Café.

I cannot tell that we are moving unless I am on a deck and watching us move on the water. Standing on the outside deck at level five gives you a beautiful shot of the ocean. Standing on deck five during the muster drill was like being a sardine in a life jacket though. Talk about sweltering!

Commedian Phil Palisoul made me laugh so much my old knee injury flared up! He was truly funny, if not a little risqué at times.

Have I mentioned that the ship is beautiful?

Cruisin' With My Baby

Cruisin' With My Baby
Originally uploaded by blountman.

We are back and looking over pictures while re-living the past five fabulous days! I promise more detailed postings concerning the cruise in the days to come, and lots more pictures from the trip to be posted on flickr. Suffice it to say for now, that it was wonderful beyond words. The water at Cozumel is the most beautiful I have ever seen, and the trip to Belize was amazing. Climbing around in Mayan ruins with a bunch of enthusiatic teenagers...it just doesn't get any better than that. Unless of course, you start talking about the dinners from heaven on board each night. Everything from Roast Duck to Lobster Tail. Oh yeah, baby, can you say "gained weight"?

Anyway, more is on the way, I know you are waiting with baited breath.

Cruisin'

Well, we leave this morning for our cruise. We are going with the Vero Beach High School Chorus on a competition cruise on the Enchantment of the Seas heading for Cozummel and Belize. I promise to do a detailed blog or two about it when we return. Thanks in advance for the prayers and well wishes.

Nice Racks

Memorial Day grillin' of two racks of pork ribs!

Close up of the ribs. They were delicious!

I bought a new flag today for the front of the house, so I could appropriately remember the meaning of this day. I am so grateful for the men and women who have given their lives so I could live free and grill ribs after swimming in my pool. I am so blessed to live in this country. On this Memorial Day, I salute the members of our armed services, and I am humbled by those who shed their blood for my freedom.

More importantly, I am humbled by the knowledge that Jesus shed His blood to provide my ternal freedom from sin. Today, I am also in a state of mourning for a dear Christian Brother who has been asked to resign from his ministry at a church that is growing numerically and spiritually, but is being "led" by a small group of men who are more interested in their own personal power than seeing the Kingdom expand. Satan is alive and well. He stinks.

Blah, blah, blah

Okay, so it's been two weeks since I last blogged, and most of my recent posts have frankly been pretty boring. Yeah, we got hail in our yard a couple of weeks ago, and I got pictures of it. Wow. It's not that there hasn't been plenty going on in our lives, it is just that I have been less-than-inclined to want to write about it. Motivation has been hard to come by lately.

This weekend, I am in the full blown effects of a sore throat, sinus infection funk. I preach tomorrow. Should be fun. I slept in until nearly 10 this morning, and feel like someone is pounding my head with a sledge hammer. Enough of the whining party.

I have had to do some serious soul seraching over the past several weeks. I have felt betrayed and ambushed. I have felt alone and abandoned. I have brought much of that on myself. In the struggle known as life, I constantly need to be reminded of the love of Christ which should motivate me even when all other motivation seems to have vanished. As Peggy constantly rmeinds me, it is God Whom I serve, and the way I am supposed to serve Him is to serve people. I have a tendancy to isolate myself when I am feeling "down" and that only further complicates matters.

So, as I reassess my life, and as I try to get re-motivated, I will gladly take the prayers of those who love me much more than I deserve. I believe that God has placed me where I am, doing what I am doing, for His purpose. If I believe that, then I must break out of the blah, blah, blah, and get back to what God wants from me: my best every single day.

All Hail Broke Loose

hailflowerbed
Originally uploaded by blountman.

I went out to pick up Emily from work at the Outlet Mall, and missed out on all the fun at the house. We had a fierce thunderstorm blow through today, and in our neighborhood, we got pelted with hail. This photo was taken with my camera phone about 20 minutes after the hail storm had passed. Emily and I experienced heavy rains coming back in from the west, but no hail on us. I have several more pictures of the hail storm on our FLICKR site so check it out.

Ian and the Prom

Ian 016
Originally uploaded by blountman.

This picture, taken at Charles Park in Vero Beach just before the VBHS Prom on April 29th, is Peggy's favorite. Ian and Amber enjoyed their time at the "Red Carpet Romance" after a heartly meal at Bono's with the rest of us 30 Hour Famine folks. I am so proud of Ian for not backing out of the Famine because of the Prom. He continues to grow in Christ, and is always willing to put Jesus first in his life. Yeah, he has his shortfalls, like the rest of us, but he is doing so much better!

Ian & Amber Prom

Ian & Amber Prom
Originally uploaded by blountman.

Ian and Amber pose in our Kitchen because the lighting is better there and this picture was taken with my camera phone. Oh we had "real" pictures taken by a friend, but as of this writing (10:20 p.m. of the night of the prom), I don't have those pictures yet. Don't worry, when they get here, I'll post them on flickr.

After

After
Originally uploaded by blountman.

See? It worked out just right! Ian stopped by the church to let us ooh and ahh at his transformation as he prepared to go to the prom. One of the stipulations he gave to his date, Amber, was that if she wanted to go out to eat with him before the prom, she would have to go wherever the 30 Hour Famine group was going to break our fast. We went to Bonos BBQ, and it was delicious!

Before

Before
Originally uploaded by blountman.

Why should the girls be the only ones to get hair and makeup done before the prom? Ian started his makeover on Friday night during the 30 Hour Famine. He got off to a great start, didn't he?

He was one of about 19 participants in the Famine this year, and he was of course, the most beautiful one of the participants.

Looky!

Looky!
Originally uploaded by blountman.

Oh they didn't want me to take this photo, but I did anyway. Elliott and Abi pose with "the ring." They came down at 2:30 this morning, and then got up to see the sunrise at Humiston Beach. Peggy, Emily and I joined them at the beach after dropping Ian off at work. More photos can be seen on the flickr site. As I type this note, Elliott and Abi are on the way back to Kissimmee, and Elliott will then head for Taveres to work tonight. Me? I'm gonna do some yard work and some calking in the master bathroom. Exciting stuff, eh?