One sign Spring is here...

Fired up the grill for the first time in a while tonight. Great weather, great steak, and Joy made a great salad to go with it...who could ask for more?

Question: How Much Does a House Weigh?

Answer: More than a rural two lane bridge.

Question: Now what do we do?
Answer: House for Sale Beautiful view overlooking stream. Good roads to house.

Why do cars hit motorcycles?

I didn't see it the first time. Did you?

via: boortz

Tornado Photo

An absolutely amazing photo of the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta last Friday night. You can see the funnel cloud just to the right of the Bank of America Building on the left hand side of the photo. The area in the middle of the photo is the debris cloud in the area of the Georgia Dome and World Congress Center.

Who All Seen The Leprachaun, Say YEAH!

This is a couple of years old, but absolutely for real...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

SSCC Grand Opening

The other thing Joy and I did this weekend while we were in south Georgia was to drive down to St. Simons for the first services at St. Simons Community Church, my recently completed project. I was amazed at how much work the church has done since we finished our work in December, creating themed environments for the children and youth.

From what I heard from the folks we worked with down there, the crowds on this first Sunday exceeded expectations to the point that there was serious concern between services as to where people were going to park and go. I'm sure that there were a lot of 1-timers visiting just to see the place, but the church was ALIVE! It was great to see the excitement on the faces of people in their new home and to have had just a small part in building it.

But I was especially pleased to hear a repeated theme that these are just buildings, and that the church's focus and purpose is centered not on the buildings but on Jesus Christ. Without Him, the rest is meaningless. This isn't a wealthy church that built a really cool building...it is a church family focused on Jesus Christ and reaching their community with His Gospel. It truly was a privilege to work with such a group of genuinely authentic people.

These are just a few photos that don't do the church justice (click on any of the pictures for the full sized picture)...

From the outside. The ginormous oak trees on this property are incredible, and the building fit into the local architecture beautifully.

This is the Sanctuary, clearing out after the 11:00 AM service that was packed full. In fact, both services were standing room only.

Just one side of the "Wherehouse," which is the room for middle and high school students. The theme in this room is of a city rooftop.

Tiny Town...the preschool area. Around this central gathering room are smaller classrooms, and each classroom had a different theme on the outside like "Noah's Pets," "Samson's Barber Shop," and "Paul's Outdoors." Amazing. Much of this themed work was done by church member volunteers.

This was one of my favorite things...a piggy bank for children to put money into (through the pig's snout). All of the money given to the pig goes to missions.

Fred McKinnon is the worship leader at St. Simons Community Church. His blog post about the first Sunday is here, and he's promised to put up some photos soon. Another SSCC staffer, Chris Moncus, was photographing the activities Sunday, as well, so check these blogs for more (better) photos. And if you find yourself on St. Simons Island one weekend, be sure to visit.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Today is a special day. Yes...it is Joy's birthday.

Twenty-six years ago, God brought Joy into this world. Three-and-half-years ago, He brought her into mine. I wouldn't trade a day of that time for anything.

Happy Birthday, babe. I love you!

Cultural Experience - Claxton-style

In the fall of '06, on a weekend trip to the mountains with our friends the Droddy's, the Platt's and the Houseworth's we came across a true southern cultural experience. We went and saw some North Georgia Wrestling at a local high school, and it was AWESOME. I wasn't sure it could ever get much better than that until this weekend...

So we're sitting around Joy's parents' house in Claxton Saturday evening, having just celebrated our birthdays with the family, when the phone rings. It's a family friend from the church who simply says, "I'm on the way over to pick you up. We're going to the tractor pull." Well...who can say "no" to that?

Fifteen minutes later we (me, Blair and Joy's dad) were literally right across the highway from where they live in the midst of Claxton's Saturday night tractor pull! There were trucks backed up to the track like a Saturday afternoon tailgate, and there must have been at least 500 people there watching the pull.

Apparently there are several "classes" for pulling competitions based on the weight of the vehicle and its street-legality. Most of what we saw were actually trucks of various sizes pulling the sled, but we did get to see a couple of big tractors pull, as well, as the following video will testify...

It may sound like I'm making fun of the tractor pull, but it was actually a lot of fun. It wasn't nearly as redneck as that North Georgia wrestling was. And if we were going to be back down there next Saturday night I'm pretty sure we'd go see the mud bogging that's on the schedule!

Oh yeah...like I said, we celebrated our birthdays this weekend, too. Joy got a simple yellow cake, and I got banana pudding. Mmmmm.....

So...who can top our weekend?