Adrian, MI

I just got back from Adrian, MI where I was with Pastor Greg Burdine at Faith Baptist Church. I arrived at the airport around 7:15pm and waited until about 7:45pm for one of his business men in his church to arrive on another flight.



After meeting up with Mike (my ride from the airport and one of Greg's faithful men) we caught what is called a "Sky Cab" (like the one pictured above) which drove us to Adrian. A sky cab is a fancy word for a nice car ... not as nice as a limo but still Cadillac in quality. The drive was about an hour so we had a great time of fellowship as we drove. This man has a great heart for his pastor and it showed.

Upon arriving at Greg's home I was let in, read the note that Greg left me (since he took his family to Detroit to see a Pro Baseball game - it a good thing I am not a baseball fan or I would have been upset) :-) then took the car that was left for me out to find something to eat. It had been close to 10 hours since I last tasted food so at this point, just about anything would do. Greg and family arrived home around 11:30pm where we made our greetings and then said "good night" and headed to our different bedrooms for a good nights sleep.

I think one of the greatest things about this trip was the Men's Fellowship that I got to speak at on Saturday night. Prior to the speaking part, we got to enjoy several different types of food: Ostrach, bison, deer, chicken, and someone claimed to have put out possum but I was not about to try it and find out.

Anyway ... after the good food, we gathered in another room where I got to speak to they men and their sons about "Fatherhood" since the next day was Father's day. There were about 36 men and their sons present. They were a great group of men and I really had a good time.

On Sunday morning at about 9:45am I got a phone call ... what made this interesting is the fact that I was preaching at the time. I had forgotten to take my phone off my belt and turn it to "Vibrate" so I made a little bit of a scene. As I looked at my phone to see who was calling ... I did this out of habit as do just about everyone else that I know who has a cell phone ... I saw that it was my son Jeremy calling. Jeremy and Jessica are due to be new parents within the next six-weeks so realistically, this could have been "THE CALL" letting us know that Jess is on her way to the hospital ... but alas, (and not meaning to play down the reason for the call at all) it was just a 'Happy Father's Day" call - something I found out later when he called back in the afternoon.

After Jeremy's call, I turned my phone on vibrate and told the crowd, "You don't know how close I came to taking that call." then I proceeded to explain why. I then placed my phone on the pulpit (on vibrate) and went back to preaching. About 3-minutes later, I hear my phone vibrating again - "What this time." This time it was my wife calling, (I could see this without having to pick up my phone). Since I didn't take the call from Jeremy I logically thought, "Maybe Jeremy called mom and told her the good news and she is now trying to get ahold of me?"

Well ... needless to say ... I was having difficulty keeping my concentration for the rest of the Sunday School hour wondering what all the phone calls were about. As soon as I ended in prayer I picked up my phone and check my messages - there was 1 new one - it was from my wife. It said, "I just wanted to wish you a 'Happy Father's Day' and let you know that I love you."

WHAT? Didn't she know that I would be busy at this time? But she forgot about the time change, as did Jeremy, so I got two calls and both were expecting them to be an hour earlier than they actually were.

Anyway, that's about it for Adrian, MI. Oh yea! It was race weekend in MI - the Nascar boys were out on the track in the nearby town of Cambrige Junction at the Michigan International Speedway, just about 22 miles north of Adrian. Nascar is something that is really big in that part of the country.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

This one is similar to the horizontal strikes we saw, only they were not anywhere near a city ... out in the open. (see the full story below) 

Another look at how the lightening strikes were 

Some of the lightening strikes were like these in the photos that I found (I did not take these) 

Brownwood, TX

I know I have not posted much here lately, I could come up with a lot of excuses, but the truth is - I just didn't do it! So here is a post and maybe I will keep up with this a little better in the future ... we will see. :-)

For those of you who know about Brownwood, TX - you know that there is not much to say about it. This post is not so much about Brownwood itself as it is about the trip home from Brownwood. However, before I get into that, let me say that Brownwood is making some much needed improvements. There are new businesses going in like a Holiday Inn, Starbucks and Chili's for starters. There is new construction on the main strip connecting Early and Brownwood that looks like it will attract some much needed business from road weary travelers.

At one time Underwoods Bar-B-Que was one of the better places to eat in Brownwood, but not any more. Understand, I am not knocking Underwoods, I personally like it and have for decades, but the variety is going to be nice as I travel back and forth when Brownwood is in my line of travel.

Now for the reason for this post. Today my wife and I were traveling from the Heart of Texas Baptist Encampment where we were hauling luggage for our church teens back home. This was the last day of summer camp (which BTW, was a successful week with over 35 kids accepting Christ as personal Savior this week). I found one powerful story in a young girl, a graduated senior, who was just given a free ride at a college. However, this week she answered the call of God on her life and felt it God's will to attend a Bible college instead to prepare for whatever it is God will do with her. Keep her in your prayers as she is now going to go home and tell her parent of her plans. This could be a difficult task. (but I digress and will continue with the story at hand).

On the way home from Brownwood we had rain just about all the way. Most of the time it was the kind of rain that keeps the roadway wet and slippery (and not safe enough to use the cruise control.) Then there were other times where it was hard to see out the front window with the wipers on high and us going 45 MPH because the heavens had opened up and poured the excess moisture they had been storing up for the past several months all on the concentrated area that we were driving. This downpour happened two times and then every level of rain in between on the 125 mile trip from Brownwood to Leander.

But the facinating part was the light show. There were times that the lightening would strike within 1/4 mile from the road and literally light up the cab of my truck even though it was broad daylight out. It was spectacular to see the beauty mixed with the power of God's creation. I think the greatest was when three separate lightening bolts streaked horizontally across the sky directly infront of us. They seemed to have no beginning and no ending point, even though they obviously had both.

One thing about traveling as I do, you never know what you are going to encounter when it comes to weather. One minute it can be 75 deg. outside and 1.5 hrs later you can be in a blizzard (as I was a few of years ago upon leaving Denver, CO on my way to Kansas City). I have been in high winds exceeding 80 MHP with tornado warning all around, snow, sleet, ice, rain, hail, and perfectly calm, cloudless skys. I love it all (okay, I don't like the wind or the hail - that is unless the wind is behind me pushing me down the road, that gets me much better gas mileage). :-)

Well, have safe traveling journeys as you go on your way this summer. In your travels, don't forget to stop and smell the roses once in a while and take in the beauty of God creation. It's everywhere ... but sometimes we are in such a hurry we fail to recognize it.