The Cattail Pull-a-thon was a big success thanks to The Rock’s Youth Group and Seminole Height’s Youth Group. We pulled cattails for 8hrs Saturday. It was hard work, but we made a ton of progress. That was the longest we had ever pulled cattails for, and it showed because that was the most we’ve ever pulled in one day.
This is Pastor Mike giving us the cattail pulling 101 class.
By the way, he’s the guy to get it from…did you see how fast that old man can pull cattails!
Shhh. Don’t tell him I wrote that.
Here’s us at it. Even though you probably can’t make us out unless you zoom in. Oh well.
How many of ya’ll have some killer bites/stings to prove you’re in the picture?
Seriously, really great job you guys. You made me proud with how well you all hung in there!
Don’t forget to sell some tickets for the car wash this Saturday.
Just got back from earning me some more Chick-fil-a, and its a good thing because I was down to my last two cards from the grand opening in January. That means I’ve eaten there 33 times since January 8, or 9, I think 8 though. Thirty three because I gave 17 to Laura, one for each week we are apart this semester. (Speaking of my beautiful fiancee, she is enjoying a mac-daddy vacation in the Virgin Islands right now and I am so jealous I’m not with her and I miss her a ton)
Back to the Chick-fil-a story. It started out a beautiful day, sunny with a high of 75, a little hot at points, but that’s a real nice change around here. Around midnight things went south and it’s still raining as I type this. I got soaked in the tent, but it was well worth it…
My last post was about an assignment for my Spiritual Disciplines class. This post will be no different. Seventy five percent of my grade for this class is to keep a journal this semester. There are a number of requirements for the journal, it’s not just a “journal everyday” or “journal whatever you feel like” thing. It’s journaling….for the purpose of Godliness and the professor requires certain journal entries that he feels will help us in the process of journaling for the purpose of Godliness. As hinted in the titled we have to journal about an evangelistic encounter from that occurred during this semester. Here is my entry…
It’s Thursday 11:59 pm, about forty five seconds from Friday. Last night, Wednesday night, I had an evangelistic encounter with a guy at work. Devon is one of the store managers at my work place, which is Snappy Tomato Pizza. I started working there when I moved up here last August. I think it was September by the time I actually found a job. Anyways Devon started working there shortly after, in November I think. Upon meeting him I could tell he was not a Christian, or at the very least not at all concerned about being one. The first conversation I had with his wife, Jenny, she told me how she despised the Church because of its big buildings and wrong use of funds. Needless to say neither where interested in God, although they said they believed in “God”, I think they meant more like “a god”, because it is definitely not the living God of the Bible. Through talking with Devon over the last couple of months I gathered some information about his life. He went to Church until he was seventeen. He married at nineteen, but already had a kid by someone other than his wife. He stopped going to church because he thought it was bogus and he loves all things about wrestling, hard rock, and using foul language. But I have been praying for Devon, praying that God would allow me to talk to Devon and share the gospel with him. Wednesday night I got that opportunity. I was praying, it was a slow night and we were making dough for the next day, which normally would be a one-man job, but because it was slow and the other driver had left I was helping Devon because, as a driver, I had no other responsibilities. He said something about his sixth anniversary coming up soon and mentioned the church he and Jenny got married in. I saw my door, “what kind of church did you go to back home”. “A Quaker church,” he said. Seeing the door opening further I asked, “do Quakers have any unique beliefs?” It was quite amazing, what followed was genuine interest in my schooling and beliefs about God, the Bible, Jesus, and other God-related stuff. I was able to tell Devon that the Bible was true and the it accounts for people suppressing the truth that God is real and that he made the world and that sin is real and that God must punish sin, and Jesus was sent to save us from our sin. I was able to present the full gospel, and the highlight of the evening was when towards the end of the night he said, “well I’m sure I’ll sit down one of these days and think about all that stuff.” My response was surprisingly bold, but I think given to me by the Holy Spirit. “Well Devon I think when you finally do you’ll know in your heart and mind that what I’ve told you is true.” At the end of the night he was still holding his ground and resisting the Holy Spirit, but I’m praying that God will be gracious to him and allow him to see the gloriousness of His Truth, and the Light of the Gospel.
I’m sharing this with you now, so that you can be in prayer for Devon and his wife Jenny, that they may be saved and turn to Christ. Next I want to invite them to church so you could be praying for that too.
John Michael took it to heart, when in my last blog I said Rayford and JM couldn’t complete the feat….so today he completed the feat. I also ripped my second phonebook in half.
I’m not really sure how we got all these phonebooks in our apartment.
But they were like manna after we saw that Mythbusters episode.
Phonebooks will fear our apartment in the future.
This post is for you JM. Oh and I know I’ve already told you, but happy birthday
Another Fact: I round-house kicked a little boy in the face yesterday.
I felt really bad. Rayford was coming down the slope right at me and in my attempt to avoid/push him he swiped my left leg out from under me. Pivoting around on my right leg, caused my left leg to swing out about hip high, striking a little boy in his right cheek. He, and the girl on the sled both seemed to be about four, crashed shortly further down the slope. I rushed to their side to see if I had killed the little fella’. They were both screaming and crying. I asked if they were okay and if their parents were close by. Mom came rushing down the hill to their aid. I felt really bad, she saw it happen from atop the hill. She knew it was an accident and consoled them by saying, “this kind of stuff happens guys, I’m sorry, but when there’s a lot of people out here this can happen.” I apologized and started back up the hill. I felt really bad. I was, and am, worried that the little guy had/has a concussion. Only he and I know how hard the heal of my boot struck him in the face, and I’m telling you most grown people would have been down for the count. It was hard. I just hope the little dude’s okay.
That was yesterday at Cherokee.
Today was much better.
Oh and just to let you know right after Rayford turned the camera off I found yellow snow right at the base of that bush I grabbed those icicles (i spelled that right the first time) from. Could have been dog pee or beer, either way it made me feel weird.
Total there is about 6” of snow and 3” of ice. The ice has caused 600,000 people to be without power from Oklahoma to New England, most of them being in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Trees and power-lines are buckling under the enormous weight of the ice.
I broke my car free from it’s ice box yesterday and this is what it looked like this morning.
It looks like a winter wonder land here.
It’s pretty and fun, but it comes at a price. Lot’s of fender-benders and no school for the rest of the week, which I do consider a bad start to the semester. They’ve (Southern) canceled classes for the rest of the week because the main campus doesn’t have power. We have a couple friends coming to stay with us as a result.
Despite the cost it has been a fun couple of days, acting like we’re in middle school again and all.
Glenn is the older brother of my roommate John Michael.
I just found out he has a blog.
A blog that he does not tell too many people about, not because he doesn’t want readers, but, I suspect, because he’s just too humble to say, “hey go check out my latest blog at followandlead.blogspot.com,” and because he’s really not into the whole internet community type thing (aka: Facebook or MySpace.)
Glenn is the young adult leader at our church, Bethlehem Baptist, and he is an extremely talented leader, teacher and writer.
If you’re looking for a good word you should follow the link.Oh, and he’ll be on my blog roll from now on.
By the time we left Glenn and Amy’s it was enough to make a twenty minute drive home an hour wait in traffic.
There were wrecked cars everywhere, we probably saw 30-40 cars in ditches or wrecked into freeway walls and rails.
By midnight it was enough for Rayford and I to go to Cherokee Park (the local sledding spot) and test it out.
We made three or four good runs and were tired enough and sore enough to be satisfied with our trip out to Cherokee.
On the way home I had a brilliant idea. I said, “Hey, let’s call John Michael (our roommate who was unwilling to come sledding with us) and tell him we got stuck trying to get out of Cherokee, then when he comes out to his car we’ll ambush him”.
Rayford contemplated and said, “make the call”.
We made about six to eight snowballs each and then I made the call….fifteen minutes later (after JM finished a Call of Duty match) here’s what ensued….
was a great day! Church was really good this morning. The kids put on a play for the whole church and did an awesome job. They really did an awesome job. It was the best kids play ever, and they sang out their little hearts and told the great story of Jesus.
The invitation was cool at the end of the service, Pastor Mike (Dad), invited people to come forward and get Rock Christmas cards to pass out before Christmas. There was a really good response. The Christmas cards were so cool because inside were gifts of hope, which are stories from different people in the congregation of how they came to know Jesus through unlikely circumstance, basically saying, “anyone can be saved out of any situation.” The stories were all very touching and the Christmas card handout is going to “Rock.”
We had open house tonight and a bunch of people came over, including the Hermans. It was great to see them and their kids. Meagan, Emily, and Joshua are getting so big now. There was some awesome fellowship going on at the Jarrett’s, including a little flashflight (click on the link to find out what a flashflight is.)
Kicked back a brew tonight with the future Mrs. Jarrett, Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer is the bomb. It impresses me every time I try it.
Carrie and Adam taught Laura and I how to play spades Saturday night. We played me and Carrie vs. Adam and Laura. But Sunday night Laura and I played Adam and Carrie and Laura and I, on our second night of spades, took them down in a really close match, in which the winning round we won by Laura getting fifty points for her books and me getting a hundred points for going nil (trying to get no books for the entire round.)
Going to pick up Laura’s engagement ring later today (Monday.) It’s getting resized. We are happy to be getting it back.
Ah yes, we were in bad shape that day, and lucky to be alive.
Sleeping on the bus trip to Cedar Point.
Tossing and turning, and oh what’s that on your stomach? That’s a good burn.
I like how in this next series of photos you get progressively worse.
I don’t know if you can tell in this one, but you look pretty shot.
Same here, you and Gabe look done for.
I was looking through my pics and noticed that you looked pretty out of it in several of them, not all of them, mainly just these. Anyways they reminded me of some good times.
Me and the Rayford, Gabe and Travis (Travis V. that is), the Pink and Tim. It was on in my room after dark and after everyone got off work. It started with a little “faction action” (Red Faction 2) and moved to the massively long games of Halo CTF (Capture the Flag, you’re a noob if you didn’t know what CTF was). I miss you Best TV Ever.
I love thursdays, specifically thursday nights. A typical thursday starts off with a 7am class, which is okay, then off to chapel, chapel is great, then over to two more classes from which I get out at 2:15. From there I usually go home and read or rest for a couple of hours or talk to Laura on the phone, but when am I not doing that, honestly. Then thursdays start to get really good. I head back to Southern and play intramural basketball, which is great fun. After that its to the hot tub and the pool. Oh the nights not over. I then head back home and wait for Rayford to get off work, get home, and take a shower. Then it is time to watch the Office and Smallville with all the roommates. Its a thursday tradition we have. We don’t watch them unless everyone is home. Its good hang out time, and . . . we are all on the same page with our TV drama/comedy.
I love Thursdays! They are full and fruitful and great.
Way back in the day, way way back in the day, when I started attending SEU Travis and I were just starting to develop and strong friendship. Going to SEU was part of the reason Travis and I where able to establish a strong relationship outside of the small group setting, because it was really close to his work place. So naturally we started eating lunch together whenever he didn’t have anything to do. One of the first activities we participated in very frequently at first was punch buggy.
It started out with just a random, “punch buggy blue”, whack. “Dude did you really just call a punch buggy”, “yeah, and I punched you too, didn’t I?”.
Being the competitive guys we are, it started an intense rivalry. At least for the first semester, maybe even two, I couldn’t jump in the truck without being on high alert. We became punch buggy pros, well I was. Travis once called a large brown stump, punch buggy orange. It was on and it was escalating. The calls were becoming more and more frequent and the punches were becoming more and more vicious.
At the height of The War, Travis drove by the VW dealership, which I had no idea was coming. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were in Red, Trav’s old Nissan pickup truck, and the dealership snuck up on me. Travis just bursted out calling punch buggy after punch buggy, arms started flailing, I gathered my composure looked over to see some colors and started shouting back, I started retaliating. Arms were going wild and a stray arm hit the gear shifter into neutral. We had just inched out into the intersection so we slowed and were rolling through ever-so-slowly. It had to look like the tasmanian devil was in the cab of Red. We finally exhausted all the color options available and Travis decided to start driving again.
Neither of us were willing to admit it at the time, but I’m sure we both had bruises after that day.
It was an epic battle, the likes which had never been seen up until that point, and still until this very day. . .
John quit. I wrote about John about a week ago. I was excited because John and I had been having some great conversations about God and life in general. I’ll continue to pray for him and hope that the seed I planted will be watered.
But where one door closes another door opens. Another co-worker, manager actually, knows that I am a Christian and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Over the past few weeks she has said a few comments that indicated that she would like to talk about God sometime, but it’s kind of hard while at work. Tonight we had a lull in business so we decided to eat during the down time. Usually at work we eat when we find time in between deliveries or phone calls or making orders, but tonight there were no deliveries, phones calls, or things to be made, at least for forty-five minutes or so. Right when we sat down she said, “Alright, let’s talk about this religion thing”. She went on to ask about church and experiences with God. God opened doors for me to talk about Jesus and sin and the church and the bible. It was a good conversation that happened all in about ten minutes.
Another seed planted. It will be interesting to see where this one ends up. I’m praying that it will end up on soil ground.
People to pray for at work: Paula and Anthony (married), their two kids, Anthony (broken collar bone) and Kierra (wants to go to church), Brandy(i) (not sure how to spell it), Chris, Jeremy (his wife is pregnant and in Germany for military duty), John (not the one that quit, but that just got hired as a driver, is a mailman and picking up extra work for dental bill), George (works Sundays with me), Mike, and Rob.
John’s my manager at work. I like John. We close together often which means we spend a lot of time talking because the last hour or two is usually fairly slow.
I’m amazed at how open and honest he is with me (and I think with people in general). I’ve been praying that God would open doors for me to share Jesus with people at work and the doors have been opening with John. We talk a lot about God and life in general, but I’ve been trying to use every opportunity I get to talk about Jesus specifically.
He doesn’t really think to much about church or religion or the bible, but a conversation we had the other night, I think, really hit home with him. We talked about not just living for ourselves, and I expressed that I think we are here in this world to live for others. God and our neighbor, in that order. John said the idea of not living for one’s self hit home with him, which nothing else up to that point had.
I’m praying, and hoping you will too (if there is anybody reading this), that God will work on John’s heart. So that he may see how loving God is and that he may know the Truth of the gospel, that Jesus came to die for his (our) sins so he (we) may have eternal life.
