I know, I slacked off yesterday!

So I had to be on teh go really early yesterday, I got up a little early and completed my post for the main blog and skipped out on this one. So backtracking to Wednesday night I had a great group, we had right at about 30 with a few of our regulars missing, and a few others with other commitments. We talked about a tough subject because my time with the Betty Griffin House has been taken up quite a bit with suicide. A lot of counsellors are asking what to do, what to say and one school even had me address it with all of their students. I had a revelation that if the schools want students to know about it, it's my job as a pastor to make sure our kids are prepared to help someone with it. So we talked about a tough subject, but we also watched a video that got the point accross. It's called life rewound, where a young kid who made some bad decisions simply because he saw that as the only choice. But, at the end they rewound the whole skit walking through each scene in reverse order, walking backwards all the way to the beginning to show the kid opening the door to Jesus. All it took was for one encounter with Jesus and all of the things that he had done wrong did not happen, I hope our kids took it to heart.
Then, Thursday I had to get up early and head out to Pacetti Bay. I spoke at a health fair about unhealthy relationships, and safety plans for the kids. I mentioned in my other blog the funny thing that happened with the drug dog. I am happy to say that I talked with the officer and Liberty and they let me slide on my drug concealment. So, contrary to what you may think I am not writing this blog from a jail cell in the Pokey, thanks for thinking though!
Yesterday, I got done at the middle school rushed over to pick up McKnight and then pizzas for the football team. We did our Bible study and then we loaded the bus for Atlantic. Atlantic was the scene of our first win with Coach Cromwell at the controls 2 years ago. So I was excited to go there as a totally different team with totally different goals. Just 2 years ago we were hoping to squeak out a victory, and last night we weren't going to be happy with anything that did not resemble a blow-out. A blow out it was, we scored 21 in the first quarter and 35 in the first half before putting teh Junior Varsity in for the second half. We won 42-7 and walked away ready for next Friday. One week from today we take on Clay High SChool for a shot at the playoffs, win and we're in, lose and we are watching from the outside. So pray for our players to focus with a whole new intensity next week.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Tuesday, Tuesday

yesterday was an interestingly calm day for me. I was able to get a lot of paperwork and studying done for work. I snuck away for about an hour and a half and ate lunch at Murray Middle School with several of our students from the church. Then, I went back and got some more stuff done in teh office to start preparing for the end of the month stats for our grant. Tonight is a tough one as I need to do more presentations to fulfill our grant so I am going to talk to the youth group tonight about some issues taht I have been sharing at the schools.
After work I went to the church for prayer and to check the mail and messages. Then, I got my cooler cleaned out and ready for football. Yes, even in 40 degree weather I go through a whole cooler of Gatorade. THose guys don't care that much, they're still thirsty for sure!
It was funny as we got ready to go though, P.J. put on her socks as I had ordered and shoes. It's still a fight to get those two out of flip flops in the cold. So, she grabbed a few things and we were off to football practice. We get there and I move the cooler and cups to the edge of the truck for the team and P.J. has a knights' helmet and axe in her hand. She says she is going to go scare some of the football players. I had to take that stuff off of her, but she still got to wear the helmet. She kept running up and head butting or growling at the players and they all got a big kick out of it. We jump in the truck and I have 2 players to take home, I drop the first one off and then I am driving to take the other one home. Mike McKnight, him and I are talking and P.J. interupts us by saying McKight's name outloud several times. He turns to P.J. and she says, and I quote "I have issues, McKnight!" She could not have been more right on that one. What 5 year old stops conversation in the front seat of a truck to announce that they have issues. The same 5 year old that stops people she knows in the neighborhood in their cars to see if they want to race her on her bike. The same 5 year old that wanted to be an American Gladiator but now wants to be a women's UFC fighter. How many pastors can brag about that, not many I'm sure!
So thanks again for reading and have a fantastic Hump Day!

The bike racer

We have created a little monster in P.J. She is a bike racing machine, wanting to race anyone around even in cars and on skateboards anyone who comes by our house is subject to a challenge from a little blond who has recently mastered the art of stopping and turning on her bike. Training wheels have been off for quite a while, but the fun is ongoing. Even last night as I got ready to run to the grocery store I got asked if she could follow along behind the truck on her bike because she can keep up with traffic. What a fun time this is going to be. She is already attempting to make jumps off the driveway, wants to set the ramps to my car trailer up so she can jump off of them and over things, she's previewing us some of her moves that are screaming "Emergency Room Visit" for sure.
Other than that all is quiet on the homefront. I am still taking my anti-biotics but not the pain meds, I was a little uncomfortable during my workout yesterday afternoon but other than that I am feeling great. Tara had to work tonight and last night at Publix so it's just me and the girls watching lots of tv and wrestling. That's right P.J.'s first love wrestling, she wants to be a UFC girls' figther instead of an American Gladiator now. Not many Pastors can brag about their kid being a UFC fighter, we'll see where that ends up.
Have a great day and thanks for reading!

The weekend

I had a great weekend, somewhat slow for my taste but nice. I got to do the BIble study and meal with the football team at Pedro, I got to see them rally from down 12 points in the first quarter to winning by the score of 24-12. I got to see the coaches make adjustments and the players adjust well to those adjustments. SO we now control our own destiny, if we win this Thursday against Atlantic and again next Friday against Clay we are in teh playoffs. If we lose either of those games we will be at home watching the playoffs. It doesn't take too much talking to motivate the gusy for that plan.
Saturday I got moving alittle bit slow, took the medication and we were off and running. We took the girls to Ancient City Kids Day at Francis Field and let them run around and make things. They made ghosts out of lolipops, masks out of plates and even got to roll around in a huge bubble wrap type of set up. The girls had a blast, then we went home and I got to work on my race car trailer. You know, to avoid the whole ticket situation from happening again. So we got teh lights all re-wired on the trailer and got that done in the afternoon. MEanwhile, P.J. was once again teaching herself to ride a bike. She had mastered riding without training wheels, but not turning or stopping, or starting on her own. Now, she is all over the place riding around the neighborhood uninhibited whatsoever. It's so neat to watch them experience something like that and go from dependent to independent inside of a few hours. As soon as she felt she had it under control it turned into racing all the neighborhood kids and Alexa. What can I say? She's my racer for sure.
We settled in for the night catching some baseball and some football.
Then, Sunday morning I got up ready to face a new day. This Sunday was a little bit different as Bobby Crum from Anastasia Baptist Church had agreed to come and lead worship for us, and what an amazing job he did. Bobby is a very talented individual who has been the major force behind the transformation ANastasia Baptist Church has seen over the past decade. He was actually a youth pastor there about 12 years ago when I started in the ministry. He has climbed up the ranks building a large youth ministry, then college ministry and now COntemporary worship crowd on Saturday nights. God has used him in amazing ways and I was glad to have him come and be a part of our ministries for sure.
SO that's it, we survived the kidney stone scare and we're back to wide open! Thanks for reading and remember to keep Suzanne Squires in your prayers today!