Our Life...since that last post so long ago...

So, what has been going on with us? Here are just a few:

1. We are having a baby. We are due March 29...so, 14.5 weeks now. We are super excited, especially since we have safely made it past 13 weeks this time. God is so good to give us peace when we need it most.

2. Things are getting fun & busy at Mountain Lake. Buck is directing SPIN (our high school environment) and I am working on the team for our brand new middle school environment Amp'd. We have also found an amazing small group, people we are going to enjoy doing life with and growing alongside.

3. Football season is back...Auburn finally looked good and beat Florida..WAR EAGLE! Arkansas has had some tough losses, but we still get to watch the best player in the country everytime they take the field.

4. My brother Daniel moved in with us while he trys to find a job and get settled in here. He has jumped in and is serving in the MLC student ministry as well. It has been fun to have him around.

5. We are planning on heading to Pensacola for Thanksgiving and then Arkansas for Christmas. There are some good things about being back in the south & closer to our families!

COLLEGE FOOTBALL COUNTDOWN...

38 Days 18 Hours 44 Minutes 41 Seconds

COLLEGE FOOTBALL COUNTDOWN BEGINS...45 DAYS!

Post a link to favorite moments of your team! WAR EAGLE!

This year's Heisman Winner!

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INDEPENDENCE DAY...

Happy 4th of July! Have a wonderful day!

Battle at Kruger

It's about 8 min. long, but this is sooo cool.




Who need National Geographic?

You gotta see this

This is a very cool video that I almost missed.

If you watch it watch the whole thing here (it's only 4 min. or so) or you'll miss the point.

It's a little artsy, but worth your time.

Summer Camp...

Well, I am a little sad this week. The middle school students at Mountain Lake left yesterday for summer camp. There is nothing better to do in the summer than take students to camp! I know that is where I am supposed to be. Things are a little different this year b/c I do not have a job that I can just take off. I miss so much the opportunity to just hang out with students for an entire week. I am very close to the five girls I took to camp last summer at Discovery. I am able to spend more hours in that one week than most of the school year! David Isbell even gave me an invite Saturday night, but I just couldn't go...I only get three days off the entire year...doesn't work out too well for camp. Anytime you get a chance to send a student to camp...whether it is your own or you can help your church send students by giving, DO IT! You will be investing more than you know in the life of that student.

Memorial Day...

Memorial Day is a little different for me these days. Yes, I think about my great-grandfather who served and is now buried at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. But, everything seems to hit much closer to home now that my brother Adam is serving in the Air Force. Adam is not overseas or anything; he is still training as a Flight Navigator. But, I am so proud of him. He is completely committed to what he is doing. He is enthusiastic even though he knows the risks involved. He is prepared to die for his country. And, while that scares me, I know he is doing what he was created to do.

The other day Buck & I were watching Behind Enemy Lines (which I have seen before), and it seemed to be a little more intense since Adam is training to be a flight navigator just like Owen Wilson's character. I was more in-tune to to the details of what he did, and rooted for him like never before.

Then one of the pastors at our church, David Putman, got up to speak this weekend & told of his son in Afghanistan. He is so proud of his son serving, but you can hear in his voice how much he misses him. I now know I must begin praying now for my brother, long before he is sent to defend our country.

We spent our day yesterday with Dan & Renee Weber. Dan's sister is in the Navy, so we talked some about how different it is when it is your family. We had a blast there. First, we played a super-long game of Cities & Knights. Buck and I are really excited that we have found people here who enjoy playing games, and they happen to be really cool! Then we just hung out, talked, and ate great food the rest of the evening.

Anyway, Memorial Day is different for me than it used to be. I am so thankful for the freedom I have everyday. I am thankful for the blessings God has poured on my life. And, I am thankful for the men & women who are fighting as I type this to protect this freedom.

Auburn vs Alabama 2006

Just couldn't help remembering good times!

Easter...

We had a wonderful trip to Pensacola to see my family for Easter. Buck was able to meet several of my aunts & uncles he had never met. All of my brothers were there, but most of my cousins were not there. It was a good weekend though; I am glad to be closer to my family!

Thunderstorms...

We are supposed to get thunderstorms through this area later in the day. Besides a few places to eat like Chick-fil-A and Moes, thunderstorms were probably the thing I most missed while living in the Northwest. I think I heard thunder four or five times in the four years I lived there. Thunderstorms are best though when you can be at home cuddled up to people you love.

Yesterday...

Yesterday, my good friend Farah came over to be "my responsible adult" around after surgery b/c Buck had to go to work. I was so glad she came over, and so glad she brought her two wonderful boys. She has been a blessing lately. Their family went through a miscarriage at the same time during the pregnancy (five weeks ago) as we did this last week. The encouragement and comfort their family has offered from the first moment has been beyond anything we could ever deserve, but this is not the first time God has granted me something I did not deserve. From the first moment we new something was wrong they have been there--David picked Buck up from work and had him at the doctor's office so quickly; then he sat with us while we waited for the news...calming us in a way only David could. This week they have delivered meals, Dr. Pepper, and hugs. They found people to make meals for us who don't even know us. By the way, if you need some food let us know...you can come over and eat with us:) They have helped take some of the burden off of Buck...I know he is emotionally drained. He has been so strong and stable (unlike me) over the last few days. He has done all sorts of things that will probably come and go without any thanks. Because of the kindness of others, he has been able to relax a little, and we have been able to spend some quality time together. But, back to the Isbells. Before they came over yesterday, Farah prepped Dax (their very bright 3-year old) about the situation...what shouldn't be said...that soft hugs were okay...things like that. Anyway, he came so close to making it the entire couple of hours...but then it came out at lunch, "Aunt Bether, why did your baby die?"....All I could say was, "That's a great question, Dax." And it is. It is the question I have struggle through. It is the question that has made me mad, the question that has made my faith waiver. I have been asking myself that. I think Dax allowed me to hear the question out loud that I had only heard in my head or in intimate, emotional coversations with my husband. And, I don't know why. Sometimes when you hear something out loud, you are able to better understand it as reality. And, it is much easier to deal with something once you allow it to become reality rather than suppressing it. So, thanks, Dax. And, yes, I am scared to death to try this process again...but, I will b/c I know I am supposed to be a mom. God has some plan, even though I cannot comprehend most of it. Dax ended our coversation by saying, "Your baby is in heaven with our baby". What a load for a three-year old to handle. But, what faith he still has in God's plan...you can see it in everything he does. I am thankful for those moments in life where things go a little differently than mom pictured them going. They help us grow. They help us deal with what is on the inside.

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and thoughtfulness this last week. Thank you for your prayers. We have felt very cared for. We are trying to deal with the different emotions that come with something like this. We are trying to remember the blessing we had for a short while, and still look forward. I really don't know what else to say but "thank you".

The beginning of the end . . .

I honestly believe that if guys like this run the Southern Baptist Convention then it will be dead or severly diminished in 50 years.

Read this article.
Missouri's most powerful Baptist takes on the 'emerging church'

In case you don't want to, here is the last few lines that sum it up for you:


Moran acknowledges that what emerging churches offer is attractive to young people.

"What we've got now is a church where you can drink beer in the bar, you can talk about rock 'n' roll, you can watch R-rated movies on film night," he said.

Moran believes that some in the emerging church may be theologically sound but that its leaders are caught up in the culture that is leading most Americans astray.

"They say they have a passion for reaching people for Christ … and I think that they do," he said. "But I think they cross the line in becoming so much like the world."




So what you're saying is you're so legalistic that even though you think the leaders are theologically sound and have a passion for reaching Christ, YOU don't have the power so you hope the movement dies off?

Give me a break.

My Husband...

Well, yesterday was our second anniversary. It seems as though it has been much longer than two years. I think that is mostly because I have loved these two years so much, and I have such a hard time remembering the dailyness of life before marriage. I know I enjoyed life, but having your best friend with you all the time is like nothing else...even though I know he wishes I were not with him "so much". All I can say is that I care for him and love him more than I ever thought I would be able to. Sometimes I struggle because I know I put too much faith in Him. Sometimes I lose sight of the blessings God pours on my life because I am looking somewhere else. One of the biggest struggles I am facing right now is how to encourage and support him completely. I know his priorities are God, then family, then ministry, but that doesn't make it any easier for me to watch him go to a job every day that he does not love just so that he can support our family. I want him to be having lunch with students, and studying for lessons, and meeting students over coffee to chat. I want students to hang out at our house just for fun. I want there to be time in our lives for ministry, not leaving for work at 6:30am and getting home at 7pm. But, God has a different plan for our family right now. I know somewhere there is a place He is preparing for our service. I pray that we would be faithful in this waiting time, that we would focus on building a loving home for our new child. I pray that our lives would still be missional, that we would constantly be focused on other people in our lives. I pray for Buck, that he would continue to have the courage to lead our family. I pray that I will serve him and love him moment by moment. I am so thankful for these last couple of years with him, and I am looking forward to the rest we share!

A Prayer Request and thank You

First I want to ask you to pray for Jon Fredricks (the pastor of our church in Tacoma). A few days after we left, he was in a pretty serious car accident. He suffered a broken jaw, arm, and leg and has been in the hospital for about a week. Please pray for him and his wife and his 4 children. I'll post the link to his blog in a few days.

Also, I just wanted to post a quick thank you to our Discovery family for their incredible generosity and help in moving. Beth and I felt very loved and appreciated. We miss you and will keep in touch.


We are in Atlanta and will post some more about the trip, but internet is spotty at the moment, so sorry for the delay.

The Top Ten Things Somone Moving to Atlanta Needs to Know to Live the Simple Life

I got this in a an e-mail, this morning from Dash (they publish the cirriculum we use for students). I thought it was funny and wanted to share it with you. It's an article by sturart hall. Here is the link as well

The Top Ten Things Somone Moving to Atlanta Needs to Know to Live the Simple Life

I have recently noticed that seemingly no one that lives in Atlanta is from Atlanta. My neighbor across the street moved here from San Francisco. My next-door neighbor hails from New York. When I asked them what motivated them to move to the Dirty South, one consistent phrase (apart from work) reared its head: They all wanted a more simple life. Not the Paris Hilton simple life, mind you, but one of less stress, more leisure time, and a lot less headaches.

As somewhat of a transplant myself (Alabama), I decided to create a Top Ten Things Someone Moving to Atlanta Needs to Know to Live the Simple Life list to keep at the ready for all the new neighbors. You can substitute these ten things for your fair city. Regardless of where, transitions are hard. Everyone wants to be accepted. And if your goal is simplicity of life and you too are a transplant, then this will help make the transition easy:

10. Never take visiting relatives or friends to the Stone Mountain Laser Show. They will (a) believe that the state of Georgia is considering succeeding from the Union again and (b) realize that some locals don’t realize the first Civil War is over…

9. Never taste test the Coca Cola products from the Middle East at the World of Coke unless you want to hurl…

8. Michael Vick is always hurt and loves bottled water…

7. Chick-Fil-A is the scientific term for “Christian chicken.”

6. GA 400 is a Southern term for “parking lot.”

5. Never say the words “Roll Tide!” very loud in public (substitute your school). Unless your pledge of allegiance includes Dawgs, Yellow Jackets, or War Eagles, you will be received as warmly as Michael Moore at the Republican Convention…

4. Ted Turner owns everything. If he doesn’t, Arthur Blank just bought it…

3. A start by John Smoltz at a Braves game equals game over. An appearance by the Braves in late October means that Satan is ice-skating…

2. If you attend NPCC, you are either an Andy Stanley fan or a Louie Giglio fan. You can’t be both…

1. Life is not that simple.

Life is not simple. Geography and grits will not help you evade unpredictable events and circumstances. The beauty of a fall day in north Atlanta will not quell the storms of life that almost always come. Times of tension will rain and reign for a time. The question for you and me is “What will we do with that tension?”

I used to wish that I could have the foresight to see those times beforehand. I even prayed that way. “God, give me Superman x-ray wisdom to see what is coming. I want to be ready.” I foolishly prayed that way until I realized that I really could not handle what I was asking of God. You and I cannot handle such foresight. For God to reveal that to us would be, in essence, God revealing Himself and all of His glory to us. My finite mind trying to understand the sum of the character and attributes of God is not exactly a promising event.

It is for this reason that men and women in the Old Testament could not look on the face of God. It is the reason why God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock: so He could pass by without Moses seeing His greatness in full. Moses only saw God’s back. Not His face. He could not see Him coming. He definitely saw Him passing.

I am learning to embrace the tension that bubbles to the top of my life. The principles of weight lifting are appropriate: Just because you have a weight bench, weights and work out clothes with a Swoosh on them does not mean you are getting stronger. You only get strong when you embrace the tension and get under the weight. That is where your physical muscle is sculpted. And that is where your faith muscle is sculpted as well.

There is something not so simple coming. Mark it down. And it will come to serve as tension in your life.

I am grateful for the back of God: Revelation in retrospect in the midst of unpredictable events. Sometimes the tension is almost unbearable. But it is making my faith so much stronger and life a lot less complicated.

And my neighbors are watching . . .

Big News!

Ok while most of you may know this, but in case not beth and I have lots of BIG news!

1. We are having a Baby! Beth is due October 10th! Which is both scary and really exciting all at the same time.

2. We are moving to North Atlanta. More specifically the cumming area. We'll leave on the 9th of March, so lots of packing etc. is in store. I will be working as a Route Manager for TrueGreen Chem lawn. Not my end goal as a career choice, but a good job to take care of our expanding family.

More to come on both of those in future posts, but wanted to let you know.

Also, I will be finishing the movie series in the coming weeks (hoping before the end of March).

The Most Dissapointing Movies of 2006

Invincible

Walberg is quickly becoming a must see actor, but this was not one of those movies. I thought the story was so-so, but more then anything it was mis-titled. There is nothing about the lead character in this movie that is invincible. It would have been better titled "Reluctant hero"




The Nativity Story

I didn't even expect this to be great, but it makes the list for two reasons. First, the movie had the wise men at the manger (which go read your bible, they weren't there) and there were 3 of them. This was not only too cliche, but just not acurate. Second the angels were so weak, I mean there was nothing to be afraid of, no reason to think that they were that different then an average person.


Taladega Knights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

"Chet, I'm gonna be all over you like a Spydur Monkey!" Ok, it did have some funny scenes and some funny lines! The family dinner scene cracked me up, but in the end it just wasn't as funny as I hoped it would be and was a little crass. This could have been a case of too high of expectations.


Little Miss Sunshine

Speaking of Crass movies this one was certainly that. It too had it's moments, but I just didn't have any of those laugh out loud moments. The story was really not that compelling, and Greg Kinnear's character just made me tense the whole time. If you didn't see it don't bother.


X-Men: The Last Stand

Brett Ratner, your no Brian Singer. The X-men franchise had been really good at combining action and character development, in the first two movies. But Ratner was not able to maintain the quality of the previous films. For one it was too short, they could have let it breathe a little more. Second they had an entire plot line that was pointless (the angel character). And didn't allow for very meaningful dialog. Overall I really expected this to be a little more fun then it turned out.


Stranger Then Fiction
I thought this might be the movie where Will Ferrel showed that he was more then just a comedian, ala Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show". But it ultimately was just disappointing. The premise was good, a guy who hears the voice of the author who is writing his life.

I was hoping this would be in the same vein as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind", a little quirky, and kind of weird, but ultimately original and satisfying.
While it was original it was not that satisfying. Really the movie failed to capitalize on the one thing it had going for it which was the voice. It didn't and so I'm sad to say it's on this list.

href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343737/">The Good Shepard

This movie directed by Robert Deniro, starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie had a lot of promise! It was one of the movies I was most looking forward to this fall. And wow! Robby stick to your day job. The plot wasn't that bad, but it took soooooo long to get to the end of the movie I just didn't care any more.

Jolie doesn't even make the first hour of the movie and when she is on the screen she has nothing to do. Honestly, I think that she was miss cast as the stay at home house wife. Damon, plays his character rather well, the problem is it's a boring character.

In the end I think they could have cut out about an hour in the film and it would have been a much better production.

2006 Movie Review Pt. 2

#10 The Break –up

If you haven't seen this movie then you need to know that it was probably the most poorly marketed movies of the year. It was billed as a romantic comedy, and while it has some funny parts, I wouldn't call it a comedy, and it's not really that romantic.

The movie, as it's title would suggest, is about a break-up, a Bad break-up. The movie centers around the fact that neither wants to give-up their loft apartment. Vince Vaughn plays his typical role, opposite a decent preformance by Jennifer Aniston.

What I liked about the movie is that is wasn't your typical romantic comedy. It has a some grit to it. Several scenes that were very believable, and emotional. It doesn't let you off the hook just to advance the plot it makes the characters, actually have to work through some issues. It's not perfect but good enough for #10


#9 The Illusionist

Ed Norton and Jessica Beil, did a good job in pulling off this tale of romance and intrigue. However, Paul Giamotti was worth the price of admission. The plot was so, so but the cast made up for it .

#8 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
& A Prairie Home Companion

The tie here is becasue I just had a lot of fun while watching both of these movies. Neither are oscar worthy, both were enjoyable.

This movie I remeber stopping about half way through and say to myself, half these guys are digitally enhanced. They did an incredible job, with the CGI, i haven't seen anything this good since Golum in the Lord of the rings series.

Good summer popcorn flix.

I've been a admirer of Garrison Keeler since i was in college. I love tails from lake Wobegone, and thought this would be an interesting show. It didn't dissapoint! It has a good pace to it and has lots of good individual moments.

The best however are John C. Rielly and Woody Harolson, as the singing cowboys. Funny stuff.





#7 Freedom Writers

This was the biggest suprise of the year to me. I expected a "Dangerous Minds", "Stand and Deliver" type of knock off. But Hillary Swank did a tremendous job of being a real person, and true to her character.

Also the movie doesn't overwhelm you with the cheese that it could. It doesn't make everything ok. What it does do is give you a picture of what could be. What happens when you provide a place where students feel like family, and give them a place to feel safe.

If you work with students in any capacity you have to see this movie!


#6 Mean Girls & Brick
Both of these movies are about high school kids. And they are on completely different ends of the spectrum, but both good shows.

(yeah I know this came out in 2004, but I just saw it)

I saw about 5 minutes of this on TBS and really wanted to rent it. After seeing just how mean girls really can be in middle school, the makers of this movie nailed it!

You have to be able to appreciate the hyperbole, and real nastiness that can occur in this realm of popularity and status. The show also showed what can happen to a person who get's wrapped up in them selves and how they appear. But really what it did best is show just how MEAN girls really can be.

This movie is really gritty. It is a film Noir (detective) set in a High school. It's complete with a murder and a good bit of violence. The lead is the kid from "3rd Rock from the Sun". If you have the stomach for it, it does a good job of capturing the high school mind set and putting a n interesting twist on it.