iCrucified

Archive for the ‘Family Stuff’ Category

I have quite a few photos that I never posted over the Summer… I had stuff going on that was pressing for my attention and never really got around to it. I seem to be finding “holes” in my schedule now (Thank you Jesus) and will try to upload them into galleries for viewing as I get the chance. Here is a gallery from a local Balloon Festival in Dansville, NY. We got up early one morning during this three day event and were treated to some cool sights and colorful balloons.

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Hey icrucified blog readers, sorry that I’ve been neglecting you guys. My “plate” has been really full lately on a different front and I simply haven’t had the creative energy to maintain my responsibilities and regular posting on my blog. I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, so I wanted you to know that semi-regular to regular posting will resume soon enough.

“What have I been up to;” you ask?

• Maintaining my relationship with Jesus
• Being a Husband
• Being a Father
• I’ve been spending time working on development and launch of the fall programming at our church
• In the process of a complete rebuild of our church website (see it in process here)
• Organizing and directing the fall small groups ministries and keeping up with weekly curriculum requirements
• Beginning a new adult Sunday school class (studying and preparing curriculum) – Spiritual Formation: Creating a Personal Rule of Life
• Directing the next steps in our maturing community outreach ministry Master’s Hand. This ministry has grown over the last two years and has needed some attention in the area of policy and procedure oversight. If we are to grow in the direction God is leading us, it is imperative that we implement policy guidelines for this ministry.
• Staying atop of my book review obligations.
• Personal mentoring and discipleship counseling
• Unplanned ministry opportunities… Divine distractions
• Preparing to move to a new apartment (just across the street, but we got to move nonetheless)

So, yeah…my plate is full, but God is awesome in my life. Living a rich and abundant life in the counsel and Presence of the Most High God is the most incredible and fulfilling experience of my life. I love it…and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Praise Him!

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I’ve been “offline” for most of this past week, limiting my social networking to email only. My attentions have been focused on my family (my extended family) located in Louisiana. You probably remember that I was just in Louisiana on vacation, but I returned on somewhat short notice. My grandmother (Mamaw as she is known to most of us) passed on from this physical life and entered eternal life on August 9, 2009. I was asked to officiate the funeral services and her interment.

The past few days have been good; everyone has been kind and gracious with their words…the tension that grief and sadness bring has been noticeable, but kept under control for the most part. By and large, the time of family gathered and memories shared has been overwhelmingly good. I’ve enjoyed my reflections and memories of Mamaw. As I started considering the context of what I would share during the interment services, one word kept coming to my mind; “Legacy.” Perhaps it comes naturally with age, but I have started thinking more and more about family. I miss the close connections with our large extended family that I took for granted as a child. I have read many writings and heard many a documentary lamenting the state of the American family unit. Being in pastoral ministry, I have seen firsthand the results of degradation within the family. I don’t want to take for granted this incredible gift from God to us…the family. I have made a commitment (several years ago) to protect and develop my family, but in recent days I am renewing that commitment and will begin to put measures into place that will be even more intentional for building family…my own immediate family and my extended family. I want to ensure that the Legacy of my God is carried on through my family.

I will probably share additional reflections and thoughts in the coming days about this topic once I return to my home in New York state (returning tomorrow), but for now will conclude my “pondering” with the words I shared yesterday. What follows is the manuscript that I shared from when I spoke at Mamaw’s funeral: Read the rest of this entry »

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Over twenty-two years ago Laurie and I attended a small “revival” meeting in Start, Louisiana. The visiting evangelist was a man named Danny Stevenson. During that evening toward the end of the service, Brother Stevenson came to Laurie and I laying hands on us in prayer. During his prayer he spoke words that reflected a shared (Laurie and I) life in service and ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ. Through trials, turmoil, and many years of my own rebellion and selfishness we arrived today as one…Laurie and Jeff, sharing ministry side-by-side teaching about what marriage looks like in the eyes of the Creator of marriage. While ministry and serving Jesus is a joy to me beyond expression, today a memory was made that will stand as cherished for the remainder of my days.

I am including with the audio file, two .pdf documents:

• Sermon outline and small group study questions
• Sermon transcript

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Day 13: Made It Home…and final vacation 2009 post.

Nothing but travel today…

We hit the Holiday Inn Express Breakfast hard like champions before dominating the highway. Early afternoon we landed at a Long John Silver’s just outside of Cleveland (don’t say anything…LJS isn’t anywhere near my favorite 100 places to eat, but there were other riders that wanted to stop). Still Northeast bound, we arrived in Erie, Pa and I couldn’t help but stop off at the Krispy Kreme for a late afternoon snack. The quick sugar rush was enough to propel us on through our trip to Castile, NY.

Nothing real exciting on the way home; like I said, we were intent on getting back and getting ready for the weekend. Laurie and I will be sharing the pulpit this weekend with a message from God’s word on the topic of marriage. I’m pretty excited about our “co-teaching” this weekend. It will be a first for us and hope there will be other opportunities like this in the future.

One other note of interest, we started an audio book authored by Andy Andrews called “The Lost Choice.” We didn’t get to finish it yet, but it is really good. Maybe I’ll review it when I’m done listening. Heard from the boys out in La-La Land for the X-games tonight and they’re doing well too. That’s all for the vacation posts. Back to our regular blog for awhile.

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Day 12: Homeward Bound and Answers in Genesis

Still making our way North to NY state…much of the drive today was without event. We listened to an audiobook along the way this time, Affabel, by John Bevere. It is an allegory about the Christian life. I thought it was good and could provide some excellent family discussion. It probably would have for us except for the fact that two of our boys are in California and Josh was asleep. Nonetheless, we (Laurie and I) enjoyed it.

We arrived at the intersection of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky and spent the late afternoon at the Creation Museum (Answers in Genesis). I think it was very well done and the quality of the displays and wax figures was excellent. I think, with regard to Creation, that many of the explanations and alternative viewpoints of intelligent design were very well presented and some of them highly plausible. In fact, many of them I do believe. Some, on the other hand, were quite a stretch (in my mind) and hard for me to accept; of course, I’m no scientist and have no basis for what is or is not other than what I can conceive in my own mind. I guess this is where I come to the point of saying at some place in the life of every person as they journey the path of their faith, they will have to come to a point of acceptance of God’s word. You either trust Him with what He has passed down to us or you don’t. Trusting Him does not mean that we have to understand all the details of how things are, or how they came to be… That’s my position. I don’t understand all the details of Creation. I know what God has given us and I just don’t get tripped up on things that I don’t understand.

We had a great time and I wish we’d arrived earlier because we missed some of the displays and the nature hike outside of the museum. Oh well, maybe there will be a next time.

Laurie and Josh are ready for the Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet, so I better roll. We’re on the final leg of our homeward bound journey, so the next update will include our arrival at home and me typing at my familiar dining room table. Peace and Grace be yours this day!

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Day 11: On the Road Again…

We hit the road early today (well, yesterday now), as Stefan and Garrett had a flight they weren’t willing to miss. We dropped them off around 11:00am for the first leg of their West Coast adventure. I tried to chronicle what I could of this day with my best photojournalistic eye, but was shot down by my proof editor refusing to allow my posting of the images without extensive editing.

Did I mention it was/is Joshua’s birthday today…? I granted him executive privileges all through the day reminding him that the preferential treatment he was receiving was because of his birthday. Immediately following this declaration, I quickly reminded him that “today is your birthday; tomorrow is not.” (heheheheheh) – We treated him to a “Smorges”-borden at the Golden Corral for lunch and we dined at his favorite eatery (sigh) Arby’s for supper. (The things we do for love…)

Our journey took us mostly by highway today making for a very quiet and scenic drive…until we landed on the periphery of a tornado warning in Northwestern Alabama for around two hours of our drive. It was exciting if not taxing for that little piece of the drive anyway. About the time we crossed the Tennessee border, the boys called to let us know they arrived in Los Angeles safely and were proceeding to their hotel; we heard from them a little later once they got settled in to their hotel.

We settled in to a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Nashville for the night and plan to hit the Creation Museum in Kentucky tomorrow. I’ll try to do better with my photojournalism….maybe a good night’s rest will help.

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Day 10: Leaving “home” to go home…

Yesterday was a pretty mellow day…trying to get things ready for the journey back north, get the boys ready for their west coast adventure, and saying good-byes. More family pictures were on the agenda (I now have well over 300 “family” photos to edit), but the memories they will rekindle are worth it. I can’t say enough about the joy I have had spending the past week with my immediate and extended family; joy does not convey the delight of my heart. Really.

I’m not entirely sure what our journey home is going to entail, our route and itinerary has not been finalized just yet. I think our first priority is to get our oldest two (Stefan and Garrett) to the airport on time. Once we get that item completed, we’ll concern ourselves with where we’ll end up tonight. We’re trying to decide whether or not to shoot through Atlanta or Nashville (our site seeing choices will dictate that, but we plan to discuss this on our way to the Jackson airport).

I’ll try to update our trip along the way with photos and will share a brief synopsis of what we’re doing and what we decided when we land at a hotel for the evening. I better get running so I can pack up the Trailblazer now…I’m hearing the sounds of Willie Nelson and “On the Road Again” in my head, so I better be off. Ta Ta Till Latah!

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Days 8 & 9: Catching Up…

Sorry for the lack of updates the past couple of days. It has been a very busy and family-filled blur. The weekend was great…meeting all my expectations and then some. I so much enjoyed talking to my relatives and catching up on their lives. I didn’t mislead you with the promise of pictures either; I have well over 200 that I still have yet to go through. The pictures require cropping and editing to bring out the most in them, so it will probably be a little while before I can sit down to do all that. I promise to share them when the editing gets completed though; “cross my heart.”

I picked out a few pictures to include in this post to tie you over until I can put up more for a slideshow. Most of these are cousins, nephews, and a niece with an uncle thrown in for good measure. I look forward to sharing more in the coming days; I’m really pleased about what I was able to capture with my camera, lots of memories.

Well, I think it’s time to get cleaned up. I have been left behind by my family. My dad took the boys out to lunch and a movie; my mom took Laurie, my sister, and my sister-in-law out for a “girl’s afternoon out.” I’m not sure how I got abandoned, but I’m thinking I shouldn’t let this opportunity pass. I’ll go hit up Popeye’s Chicken or a BBQ buffet where no one will keep score on what I get to eat (wink).

We take Stefan and Garrett to Jackson, MS tomorrow for the next leg of their summer adventure (they’re heading out to LAX for the Summer X-Games). I don’t know if I’ll be able to update the blog before now and tomorrow night, but I’ll try to post up something. Until then, Peace!

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Day 7: Uh Oh…a no picture day (from July 24^th)

I was on my own for the most of today. I had planned to spend some time with my brother, Bradley, and that’s pretty much what the majority of this day was all about. I did have a couple of side projects lined up; one project was to replace the low beam headlight in our Chevy Trailblazer. Can you say “most stupid engineering design ever”? I cannot believe the ridiculous way they designed the headlight assembly, at least with regard to how the bulb would be changed. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to figure out how to get to the bulb…can’t believe it was necessary to remove the entire front grill, but it was…necessary. Anyway, mission accomplished; bulb changed.

Met up with an old high school buddy too and enjoyed a brief visit with him. (Nice to see ya, Warren!)

Bradley and I enjoyed tracking (recording) a song I had written…although I have to say that I am not American Idol or America’s got Talent caliber. Nonetheless, the song got recorded. I will share it in a blog post when I get a copy from Brad.

For lunch we hit this really obscure little restaurant for Louisiana style PoBoys; mine was a massive shrimp PoBoy and it hit the spot in an equally massive way. After our belly-busting lunch, we headed over toward Calhoun, Louisiana to take a tour of my brother’s property. Bradley bought some land out in the country a couple of years ago with the plan to build a house some time later in the future. It is a very nice place with almost a hundred peach trees, blueberry bushes, fig trees and a pond stocked with fish. He recently acquired a nice little mobile home that he has been refinishing so he and his family can spend weekends there.

The evening ended with my sister, Tracy, and my cousin, Christina, arriving for our family reunion/mamaw’s 90^th birthday celebration gathering tomorrow-today (Saturday). Speaking of which, it’s time to get myself ready and wake up the rest of the family. I’ll have my camera with me for the reunion, so you can expect a photo slideshow with my next blog post.

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