Honeywagon

Two Sundays ago, a girl at church gave me a crayon drawing of a rainbow.

That same night, in our David's Team activity, I asked all the kids to draw their favorite Bible story on the concrete in chalk. 4 different kids drew a picture of Noah's Ark and the Flood.

At the time, I didn't realize that this was preparing me for my own flood of sorts.

Usher in the weekend full of heavy showers.
As it turns out, a lot of rainwater plus a septic tank placed too high equals impending doom.
As it's been so eloquently put, our toilet got tired of taking our crap and started giving it back.
Six Hours of mopping, vacuuming, and drying makes for a pretty lousy Saturday afternoon.

I just prayed that the rain would stop.

It did.

So bright and early on Sunday morning, I had another visit from my good buddy Darryl Allen of Darryl and Martha Allen Septic Tank Cleaning.
(I say "another" because he had been out once before...two years ago)

Do you know what a honey wagon is? If not, you should.
There you go, now you know. That's what Darryl does for a living.
(It ain't pretty, but somebody's got to do it)

Throughout it all I'm frustrated, but I keep going back to last sunday.
Noah's Ark and the Flood and the Rainbow Promise....
And now...my own flood.

My conclusion:
No matter what floods and storms come your way,
God remains faithful to His promises in scripture.

• He will never flood the earth again (Genesis 9:16)
• He will supply every need we have (Philippians 4:19)
• His Grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9)
• All things work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28)
• If you believe in Jesus and ask forgiveness from your sins, you will be saved (Mark 16:16 & Acts 2:38)
• He will give you eternal life if you are one of His sheep (John 10:27-28)

After a flood, that's a truth worth hearing.

PS. If you click on Darryl's website, they have a CD that they've made of them singing a song about the honey wagon and something about a goat. I consider them must haves of 2003.

Fantasy Baseball

It's that time of year.
Where players and stats and projections and sleepers and disappointments happen.
It's Fantasy Baseball Season.

One of the things I pride myself in is the creativity of my team name.
As it stands now, I'm in two different leagues.

1. College friends
2. High School friends
   

I don't have a name yet for my college friends league...that will be determined after our draft this weekend. However, in my high school friends league I've already picked out my team name: "Stop...Hameltime"
I did not come up with this name, I heard it somewhere else, so I decided that I needed to put forth the effort to at least be creative and design my own logo.
So, here it is.

Here's the original Hammer:

Here's the original Hamels:

I'm pretty sure my favorite part is how perfect the gold chain fits around Cole's neck.

Living the Dream

I'm in the middle of Swainsboro, GA right now...

Why? Because I'm hanging out with my wife while she is on the road.
In the midst of the all-encompassing extravaganza that is Swainsboro...I found myself...
flipping through the channels.

TBS - Family Guy - "seen that one"
TNT - The Closer - "I really can't stand her southern voice"
FX - XXX: State of the Union - "Vin Diesel is a terrible actor"
ESPN - Women's Basketball - "ugh"
TBN - Christian Television - "I preached on Sunday, so I think I've had my fill"

Wait...was that Darryl Strawberry?
That is. That's ole DS...and he's talking about Jesus on TBN.

That made my night


That...and the fact that Trisha and I split a Supreme Stuffed Crust Pizza from Pizza Hut and ate the entire thing by ourselves....

Just living the dream.

Youth Auction Update

The 6th Annual Spaghetti Supper and Youth Auction was a HUGE success.

From 4:30 until 9:30 pm we had:
140 people eating spaghetti and bidding on items.
22 students working their tails off to serve everyone.
15 adults directing and orchestrating kitchen, cleanup, and auction details.

The Result: We raised over $4K for Summer Missions.
(a 55% increase from last year)

How's that for a bad economy?!

Youth Auction

For the past two summers, I have led a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico with my church. We spend time interacting with children in the Casa MAMi orphanage and building houses in "The Canal" which is essentially the sewage slums of Reynosa.
[Here's a video of what the canal is all about]

The Canal : Reynosa, Mexico from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

Each year we have to raise money to go on the trip with Harvest Evangelism, a ministry based out of Opelika, AL. Tonight (Saturday) is our 6th Annual Youth Auction and Spaghetti Supper, in which yours truly will serve as the auctioneer. This event has turned into one of our biggest fundraising events every year and the kids and church really looks forward to it. We've been working on it for some time now and I pray that it continues to be successful tonight. One of our biggest changes is that we want the whole night to really reflect why we are having the fundraiser in the first place. We'll have a slideshow from last years mission trip, missions updates to inform the people more about what we're doing and the need that's there, and signs everywhere to show them that what they give is going towards Kingdom growth.

It's so crazy how missions can totally alter the mind of a teenager (and adult, for that matter) and help them to see the world a little more clearly. I took 21 the first year and 24 last year on our trip and I've seen these kids' heart grow tremendously for the people of Mexico. They love it. My biggest prayer is that every person that experiences missions truly has their eyes opened to a world that truly needs a Savior.

It Snowed...a lot

We were at church...having a covered dish lunch when the flakes started falling. A sweeping gasp of excitement radiated across the room as the rain turned to snow the size of golf balls.

I didn't make it outside to frolic in the snow at church (I had my good shoes on), but once we got home we suited up and crossed the street to engage in some extreme snowball fights.
It really took me back to the good ole days back in 2004.

That actually might have been the last time I got to where my weather boots.

We did build a snowman, though...which come to find out is a lot harder than I remembered. I mean, I've seen a ton of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons where he pumps those things out in minutes.

It took us a good couple of hours...and then it was more of a snow pillar than it was a snowman in the end.

Nonetheless, we spent a majority of the rest of the evening hanging out, making Snow Ice Cream, and playing cards (Rummy and Rook).