wwwwwwweeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwwwww!

What an exhausting week, I didn't know how to spell a feeling of exhaustion and a view of relief tomorrow morning so I just went with it. Yesterday I did 6 presentations for 6 different classes all right in a row at Pedro. I got things together at the office at 6:30am then ran to Pedro for the whole day, rushed out to football practice with varsity for a while, then I went to the freshman game. I watched them until halftime, jumped in the truck and drove over to the St. Augustine game to watch Kyle, Phillip and Sid in action. Both teams looked pretty good from what I could see and it will be a good match up when the two rival freshman squads meet up in a few weeks. So it was another of those leave before the sun comes up and get home long after it has gone down yesterday, and today will be much, much longer.
Today I have the same schedule only I will have to travel to Stanton Prep in Jacksonville for our varsity game while Tara and the kids will be at Bartram cheering on Ethan and the Jackets. The good news in all of this is we will converge tomorrow and just relax some in the am, then we'll be off to the races for the night. It sounds like a long day, a late night and a lot of running around but it is actually relaxing for me. Racing is where I go to get away from the pressures and stress of a busy week.
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Here we go!

So in my job at the Betty Griffin House I am paid by a grant. Myself and another lady are the Community Educators and we must do a certain amount of 50 minute presentations for people 4th grade and up. WEll, the grant runs out on October 31st and we will be starting over the new year by their calendar on November the first. We are way behind on our presentations because it has taken so much work to get into the schools to do these presentations. So over the next month and a half I have got to beg, plead and do anything I can to get into schools to do our presentations. OVer the next 2 days I will be at Pedro Menendez High School doing presentations for their health classes. Those classes will be talking about Dating Relatinships and healthy/unhealthy characteristics of such. Next week I am looking for more place to do them, so pray for me as I attempt to fullfil the demands of this grant.
That having been said, I also have 2 freshman football teams to attend. I will be doing the meal and at the PEdro freshman football game, then attempting to switch over to the SAHS freshman game at halftime. In doing so I hope to be there for our boys on both campuses which is something I am not able to do on Friday nights. This will be the second of about 20 nights in a row that i will not be home before 9:00 in teh evening. Life is good, it's busy but good. We are on the run from 7am to 9pm every night until football season is over. Because, I also have several kids on teh basketball team at Sebastian Middle SChool, their games are in the evenings right after football practices. So as you can see it's going to get interesting over the next few months. We will ahve a small break in the action September 20-21 as I will be taking the weekend off to go race in Gaineville(depending on our finances)
So there it is a look into the life of a pastor/youth pastor/ community educator/ father/husband/drag racer!
have a great day and please remember Al and Loraine Maryers in your prayers both of them are having a tough time right now as she has injured her back(she's over 80) and she is trying to take care of her husband Mr. Al who has a grocery list of health problems, they're in good spirits, but noticably worn out. SO pray for them please!

Tuesday, busy day

So you already read yesterday how my day started off a little bit hectic. Well, the rest of the day went completely smoothly.
I was able to get back from my men's group meeting in Mandarin and get the blogs typed up. Then, I had a meeting and it was off to lunch at Murray Middle School. Lunches are more and more productive as our ministries grow and grow. At Murray I was able to sit at about 8 different tables and chat with our kids, meet their friends and really just hang out in their world. Lunch at a school with a lot of our kids is always a highlight for me.
Then, I was off to Crookshank to do a bullying presentation for the Betty Griffin House. In that class were a bunch of 4th graders and the majority remembered me from last year. They remembered my name, the majority of what I had taught them last year and they even remembered an embarassing story I had shared with them.(This is far more than I can ask of the adults who hear me every Sunday, lol) So all was well there, and then I was back to the office for a while.
I got off around 3 and ran over to pick up my buddy Mike McKnight and take him to football practice at Pedro where I hung out for a while with the team while they were stretching and getting ready for practice. After which I drove back to Sebstian where I picked up the Sebastian Middle School Basketball Team and took them all home from practice at 4:30. I helped out at their practice for a little while and then took them home. After that I went to the house, worked out for about 45 minutes changed clothes and ran back out to Pedro for the last half hour of football practice. I prayed with the team, gave them all some Gatorade and then went home for dinner and some quality time with the family.
So as you can see Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually very busy for us, and our ministries. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything else that is for sure!
Have a great day!

and it's a good thing!

I mentioned in my other blog how important it is that God has it all together. I certainly did not today. I was off to a late start, missed my entire morning routine, so I kind of rolled with the punches so to speak.
I was in the living room reading my quiet time when I realized I had a meeting to be at in about 30 minutes and it was in Mandarin. I had to get dressed fast, take care of hygiene(I just checked myself for deodorant) and I was off and running. I got stuck in traffic, missed the turn and got there about 5 mintues late(yes i confess I drove that fast). I sat down to teh meeting fully ready and composed and how, do you ask?
I had read my quiet time, I had put my thoughts together somewhat it just wasn't at the usualy location or in the usual ways. I rode all the way to Mandarin with my radio off, praying(eyes opened ofcourse) and listening to God. The perfect successful preparation for any day, and it came right after my sermon Sunday was on teh fact that God does not dwell in buildings made by man. This morning is a perfect example of me being thankful for that, because I would have never made it to any building to spend time with Him, but He was there in my truck listening and speaking to me.
The mens' group went really well and it actually fit perfectly with the quiet time I read. The quiet time which was originally spoken in 1904, published in 1935 and republished in 1992. All of that now known, it was today that in my life that quiet time was written. That's a lot of preparation, pre-planning and divine knowledge that went into my morning devotion. God is so powerful, wonderful and awesome that we cannot even begin to imagine it and I love it!
Not too much crazy stuff on the homefront yesterday,work, football practice and a little basketball with Alexa and that was it!
Have a great day!

No doubts, it's Monday

Okay so last week I was thrown for a few loops. Starting off the week with Monday off and then Friday night football being moved to Thursday and so on. But there is no doubt in my mind that it is Monday. MOnday is usually the only day that I actually hear the alarm go off. Most mornings I wake before it goes off and lay there, but Monday is much different. I also arrived at the Betty Griffin House office to find that the cleaning people left 4 bags of trash out next to the cans, and some cats had a wild weekend party. There were 4 bags of trash scattered over the entire area, probably about a 20 yard stretch, so again no doubt it is Monday!
This past weekend was a whirlwind to say the least. WHen I got off of work on Friday I drove to Gainesville to pick up a block for our good motor for the race car. I was headed back(and I know this will come as a huge surprise) and I made a wrong turn, ending up on a road I was not familiar with. I just kept on driving towards Starke and ended up right on 301 and saved about 8 miles in doing so. It was one of those accidental shortcuts when you come out smelling roses even though you should smell much worse! But it worked, I got home to find out that Brad my little, big buddy was in the hospital and had to have surgery. They did the surgery and by Saturday morning he was doing great.
On Saturday morning I got up and ran to the hospital to check on Brad then went to the church to do some computer set up for our Power Points and also to do some drywall repairs. I got most of that done in time to jump in the car and drive to Rock the Universe. For those not familiar with it, Rock the Universe is a night of fun in Universal Studios with Christian concerts, speakers and music playing through out the park. We took a good sized group, probably our best group ever as they all stuck together for the majority of the time, even though they didn't have to.
Rock the Universe ran from 4pm to 1am on Saturday. So at about 12:30 we started making our way towards the exits, to the parking lot and we were off. We got to the church around 3:00am, I waited for a parent, and then drove a few guys home off of Vilano beach and went home. Got to bed at a little after 4am and got up at 7:30 to get Sunday started. We picked up the donuts, got the church opened up, air on and lights on. Then, we put the power point together, had Sunday school and a worship service. Followed that up with a Trustees meeting(our best one yet I might add) then I was off to the house. I had some tacos and then hit the sack. Katie entertained the girls while Kyle slept on one couch, Jordon on one and I was back in the bed. What an exciting bunch we must have looked like yesterday afternoon.
Then, we went back to the church for our prayer service which was great. We packed up and headed home for some dinner. On the way home i picked up some color swatches to try to pick out paint schemes for the church building and we still haven't made up our minds. That was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, it's painful and frustrating as you put together a group of colors then find one that works better but not with the other colors, so please be gentle when you see the paint and the colors, it's not as easy as it looks!
I do have one great announcement. Yesterday Stu Stout a close friend of my family was in worship with us. He had stage 3 brain tumor, it wasn't promising and he couldn't even go to work. About 3 weeks ago, his doctor looked over his test results and told him that he could go back to work and life as normal. So I just wanted to share that as many of us have been praying for him, he is doing great and looks like he is back to full strength.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!