I had the privilege of joining 3 friends of mine for a day of fishing on the Potomac River in front of Mt. Vernon. The weather was fantastic, the company was superb, and the fishing was pretty good too.
Check out the trip report here, and a few pictures here. That’s Ernie’s site, the guy who owns the boat and is gracious enough to take us along. There’s pictures, and a play-by-play report of the day…
Morgan joined the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and took Heather down to Arlington cemetary to place wreaths on the graves for the holidays…
More pictures here.
This was awhile ago, but Rodney (Heather’s father) and I spent a morning fishing on the Potomac last fall…
I admit that I’m just a little behind on keeping you guys up to date. Ok, I’m really behind, but hopefully this will make up for it: Three sets of pictures to keep you guys happy…
First, Heather went to Seattle in May on business, but was able to sneak in a day of tourism.
Full Gallery HERE
Second, here’s a few more pics of Truman for all you dog lovers.
Click HERE for more.
And last, my parents spent a week with us recently, and we really loved having them here. Here are a few pictures of our adventures with them…
Full Gallery HERE.
I want to share some exciting news with you guys… For those of you who haven’t heard yet, as of June 1, 2008 I will be a full time staff member of Christian Fellowship Church where Heather and I worship. My job title will be “Technical Producer” which encompasses all things audio / video / lighting (AVL) in the building complex, which is right up my ally. In addition to that, I’ll still be playing with the band when I can and possibly doing some arrangements, but how extensively will all depend on how much time I have after we get all the AVL issues smoothed out.
This position crept up out of the blue and I’m totally convinced it’s God who created it for me. Without going into a mile long story of all the random stuff I’ve done in my life that has prepared me for this position, let’s just say it fits like a hand in a glove. Heather and I are stepping out on faith here, but we firmly believe in the faithfulness of our God, and we believe He continuously provides for His children. Some people think I’m crazy for leaving my engineering job, but I think I would be crazy if I didn’t follow where God leads…
Go here for the church’s website. There’s also a permanent link in the sidebar to your right…
So The last few weeks have been pretty crazy for Heather and me. We traveled to Texas for a week as many of you know for various reasons and saw most of the major cities while we were there. In addition to visiting my parents and friends in Madisonville / College Station, we buried the ashes of Heather’s grandmother with a small family gathering at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, and finished the week celebrating the marriage of our friends Abby and Justin in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Seeing how we flew into Houston and spent one night in Austin, we almost put 1000 miles on my parents Yukon! (Thanks Mom!) It was amazing how many people we were able to visit in that short amount of time, and it truly reminded us of how blessed we have been in our relationships over the years and how wonderful our friends and family are.
This past weekend we spent Saturday afternoon downtown with some friends of ours with the main attraction being the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin. Unfortunately, a storm rolled through the day before and wiped out the bulk of the blooms from the trees, but we still had a wonderful time. As an added bonus, we stopped in at one of the Art museums and enjoyed a bit of history.
Thanks for all your comments about our dog Truman! He really has become an additional member of the family and is a joy to have around. He definitely qualifies as the most spoiled out of all the dogs I’ve ever owned, lol…
Click here for full gallery.
I’m long overdue for several posts, but I’ll get this out there so you guys have something to look at. Last Saturday Heather and I went with a couple of friends and their daughter to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. It was also the first time I got to test out our new Sigma 70-200mm lens we bought from a friend. With a couple exceptions, the lens did great, but as my friend that sold me the lens said today, “the biggest problem with my pictures originate from about 12 inches behind the camera”. True to that statement, some of the shots aren’t as good as they could be if I had remembered certain things like bringing the ISO back down from 1600 after I leave the dark indoors, but overall I had a great time attempting to be a photographer.
Click here for full gallery.
It has been quite awhile since an update, and for that, I apologize! Thank you to all my faithful viewers that keep coming back to check on me. Heather and I have been staying pretty busy with our jobs lately, and the holidays have kept us running around shopping and hosting friends and neighbors at our house for various occasions. Heather’s parents were in town several weeks ago, and we had a wonderful time getting to spend some time with them. It’s awesome to have two sets of incredible parents!
I’m almost done with the drums, the pictures below show them assembled, but I still need to do some finish sanding and buffing before they really shine. I had the opportunity to play them at a men’s breakfast last month, and they sound great.
It snowed almost 4 inches yesterday, and basically gridlocked the roads. Originally I thought the people up here would be more adept at dealing with the snow and bad weather, but apparently we’re not quite far enough north. It was almost as bad as traffic in Abilene, TX when it rains! Haha.
Another thing that I need a little feedback on: Occasionally, I get a few hits on the forum that I have hosted on my server. Originally, I intended to use it as a communication tool for Pipeline, but it never really caught on, so it has just sat there, with no activity for the last couple months. Would you guys be interested in using it for discussion? If there’s enough interest, I’ll keep it up and start expending more time to it, but it takes more people than me to make it work! Either comment on this post, or send me an email if you care one way or the other.
Last weekend, I attended a men’s retreat with the guys from my church, where I had the opportunity to play in the worship band, and to get to know many people that I had only briefly met before. The weekend was wholesome, relaxed, and a lot of fun. It was held at a resort in northwestern Maryland, if you’re wondering where the pictures are from…
The theme for the weekend was Discipleship. Real Discipleship. A term that the Western church has tamed, watered down, and a concept that is mostly ignored in practice. We talk about it, but we have lost the passion and devotion to carry out perhaps one of the most important commandments Jesus ever gave. The typical church today tends to “bring in” people, make sure they are saved, Baptize them, and then forget about them. Most new Christ followers are left eating baby food, hungering for substance, with no one to feed them.
To grasp the magnitude of the Great Commission, there must be some understanding of what a disciple is. A disciple is so much more than a student. A student just wants to know what the teacher knows. A Talmid, or disciple, wants to be “what the teacher IS“. If a believer in Christ just wants to know what God knows, or just wants to know what Jesus says about certain subjects, he / she is just a student. If that believer says “I want more than anything in the world to be JUST LIKE JESUS“, then he / she is a disciple. (see Ray Vander Laan Downloads for more on this) It is so much more than church on Sunday or a Bible study on Tuesday night; Being a disciple demands a passionate seeking to know everything possible about the life of Jesus, and a radical change of lifestyle where every breath taken is an effort to emulate the Savior.
So where do you stand? Are you a believer? A student? Or a disciple? Are you actively pouring your life into someone else, teaching them what it means to be a disciple of Christ? Do you have someone that’s pouring their life into you?
