Welcome

Today I start this new blog. This blog will chronicle the life and times of Jeff Gatlin. It may be that you came here for insightful encouragement, for growth or just for entertainment. The latter will be your best bet. I used to keep a journal of all of my studies, struggles and battles but I stopped. Today, for whatever reason God led me to start journalling, and doing it publicly.
There are several different aspects of my life and I am glad to share each of them with you openly. The first is obviously my personal walk with Christ, this is the nearest and dearest of my life callings.
Secondly, you have my public ministry. This takes on several different forms at several different times. I am the Pastor of Freedom Baptist Church, as well as the youth pastor and maintenance man. Each day I go to the church and pray for our membership, pray for the lost who are on our FBC Most Wanted List and pray for our various ministries.
Next, comes my family. My family is my earthly reason for getting out of bed each day. Tara, my wife is currently getting ready for the summer by taking on a variety of jobs at Limited Too at the Outlet Mall as well as Publix on the island. Each to help provide for our needs and bills. Alexa is going to be in second grade next year, Scary I know. Each afternoon Alexa and I have started running together and getting fit together. After we run we play basketball for a while which seems to be our greatest bridge of time together. P.J. is my morning companion. Each morning we get up and she rides to work with me, she watches a movie in my office while I get paper work done. She feeds the squirrels outside and watches them as well. She is definitely our animal lover in the family. Champ, our bassett hound is well, a bassett hound need I say more?
I am also a chaplain for the football team at Pedro Menendez High school and I help coach girls' softball at St. Augustine Highschool.
Then I have my day job. I work as a Community Educator for the Betty Griffin House where I go to the local school campuses and teach young kids about bullying and respect. The older teens I talk with about healthy relationships and power/control issues. This job is great because it affords me the time to do on campus ministry and outreach.
Finally, there's racing. Yes there was a time when this would have been at the top of the list maybe even right after my personal relationship with Christ. It has been "free falling" as Tom Petty would sing it ever since. Our racing endeavors this years have been less than desirable. I won the first points race of the season on March 29th and have not been able to compete competitively since. I have broken 2 motors, a torque converter and a transmission. Dad however is still plugging along having won the second of the points races and he has been competitive through out the season with no breakage whatsoever. I don't know when I will have things back together to race my car again, but I look forward to it.