One of the four baptized this past week at my home church 

Four New Births

This week I was home. Since I was not out and about, traveling the country, I decided to offer my services to my home church. Since I am a member of this church, then this is one way that I can help and be a contributor when I am in town. We do not have a musician in our church so it is a nice break to be able to have live music. However, today I was the one who got the blessing...

Today we celebrated the birth of four new babies. What a thrill as we joined around the swimming pool at one of our members house as we observed the baptism of four adults who have discovered a personal relationship with Jesus this past month.

Our people have began to get excited to see God working as they share their faith. In the past four weeks we have seen one individual accept Christ as personal Savior each week. This morning we celebrated with them as they followed in obedience to our Lord's command.

I am excited to see what is in store for us in the future as we build our new building and relocate onto our property (hopefully by the end of October!)

Stay tuned ... I head to Kansas next week! ;-)

Missouri

This past week I was in Camdenton, Lebanon and Branson Missouri. Camdenton and Lebanon were for business and Branson was for some R&R. I was in Branson for two days where I literally did nothing. It was great. I got to my condo about 3:00 PM and finally ventured out around 6:00 PM to grab a bite to eat. Back by 7:30 PM where I stayed for the rest of the night and most of the next day until around 4:00 PM when I ventured out again for another bite to eat.

It started with a trip to Camdenton, MO, my first. Camdenton is a little town in north central Missouri that is known for it water activities. It was a nice trip, but busy. The only bad part about the trip was the fact that I forgot a very important piece of equipment back at home. My LCD projector. I had to rent one in Springfield. Thank God for good friends all over the country who will help you out at the last minute.

Such was the case here. A good friend in Springfield came to my rescue and tracked down a projector that I could rent for the week. The place he rented it from was even closed, but he still managed to work things out to I could get what I needed. I am forever in his debt.

After Camdenton I headed back to Springfield to return the LCD projector, then on to Branson for some R&R. The greatest part of Branson was not the shows, as I didn't take any in. It was sitting on the porch the next mornign, drinking a cup of coffee, listening to the birds sing joyous morning songs and watching the squirrels chase each other through the trees. It was so peaceful.

I chatted with my son via instant message for about 20 minutes, which was a special treat since he is over seas and it will be many months before I get to see him again. No he is not in the military. However he is serving in another army in another country for a glorious leader and a life altering cause. We had a great time "talking."

On Saturday, September 11, 2004 I left Branson and headed to Lebanon. Upon arriving in Lebanon I found that I was staying right across the street from a Case Knife factory and they were having their 10th annual knife show and auction. It was quite fun and I got three knives for Christmas gifts while there.

On Sunday, September 12, 2004 I left Lebanon, MO for home - an 10 hour drive. After stopping for a bite to eat in Dallas I made it home by 2:30 AM on Monday morning. I leave again on Saturday for the Beaumont area.

Since this is my first blog I really don't know what I am doing to I guess that I will just journal for a while and see what happens.