Have I told you I love my church lately?
It’s been a long weekend. I’m sure it will seem even longer tomorrow morning if I don’t head to bed VERY soon.
But no matter how long a weekend, no matter how tired I am tomorrow, no matter how sore or stiff I might be tomorrow, it was all worth it to see the body of Christ truly working as the body of Christ.
A month or so ago our community group had the idea of helping our pastor Brian Treadaway with some weekly duties and such. We didn’t know what that entails but we knew we wanted to help however we could.
That conversation led into how can we help Brian and his wife and his family and thus an entire weekend was planned.
Brian and Heather made a list of “honey-do” projects around their house that they either had not completed or simply needed to get started on.
Some of the items on the list included painting outside trim, cleaning brush in the backyard and laying tile in the living room.
The youth group meets at their house every week and with them and their five kids its no wonder they have a few spills from time to time.
Our group discussed it and before long the project snowballed and people from all over the church were getting involved.
So this weekend was go time.
A number of us showed up around 5:30 on Friday night and worked till near mid-night ripping out the old carpet and then busting tile out of their kitchen and breakfast nook. We decided to carry the tile work into their kitchen so the two areas wouldn’t clash.
Saturday morning we began work by 8:30 and we began to lay tile in the living room and the kitchen.
I’ve never been more impressed with a group of people – especially novice tile layers.
I’ve never actually tiled before and somehow I trained Laurie, Amber and Shari to do it after I watched Josh some on Friday night.
I must tell you — my wife to be is a tile laying fool.
Between her and the other two women, they tiled the entire living room in four or five hours. Laurie and I started in the kitchen before Josh trained a couple youth and another volunteer and they took over.
I’m telling you. It was a sight to see.
Miguel showed up and painted the entire house.
Jose and his dad Rodrigo helped bust tile up on Friday night and came back to work on the backyard fence that they had fixed/repaired/replaced much of earlier this month.
Rodrigo and his wife along with Jose’s wife and mother-in-law cooked up an awesome dinner of fajitas, rice and beans.
Jay took to scraping up the old thin set in the kitchen right away and by the end of the night he was laying, measuring and cutting tile.
Chris showed up and did a lot of scraping and helped Miguel paint.
PJ and Jonathan from the youth group were some mad workers as they scraped old linoleum, thin set and more as well as laying, measuring and cutting tile before it was all said and done.
Dennis cut down trees and brush that needed cleaning.
Beth, Marni, Shalyn and Sarah cleaned bedrooms and bathrooms.
Lon and Tristi came on Sunday to help clean up and lay grout.
Richard sang and danced to New Kids on the Block while he cleaned up brush.
Smiley scraped thin set and helped with the brush and tree trimming.
Brandi climbed trees with a chainsaw between her teeth and I think she probably hung upside down by her feet while she cut tree limbs.
Shane did an AWESOME job rebuilding drawers in the kitchen with the fronts that were on the old drawers.
And I’m sure I’m still missing some folks. We had over 30 people come and go throughout the weekend.
It was truly a great thing to see. I’m glad I was able to be a part of it in a little way.
There are several other things in the works to continue the project but I’ll wait on those for now.
For those who donated food, time, money, elbow grease and more — thanks for being a light for Christ. Thanks for giving of yourself for someone else.
Laurie said she got a lot of great photos which we’ll post soon after Brian and family have a chance to see their house. They’ve been staying with Heather’s parents over the weekend and aren’t expected back to their house until Monday afternoon.
Category: Friends
Aubrey and dad
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Originally uploaded by laturn416.
The amazing six-month old Aubrey stands tall for her dad Ty.
Dealing with humans
Matt Conner writes for Relevant Magazine about a lesson he was taught in the grocery check out line about relationships and dealings with humans.
I mentioned the self-checkout lines, asking when they planned on getting them fixed and that I missed them, as if they were some ex-girlfriend who had left me recently. The guy in front of me shrugged and turned and simply said, “I prefer to deal with humans.”
We all have a trade or vocation. I am a pastor. My currency is relationships. My clientele is humanity. Business is good, so to speak, when I am highly involved with the lives of the people around me. And it was the unkempt, lazy-eyed man in front of me who is better at my job than I am.
E-mail and text messaging are my preferred means of communication. They’re fast, they’re easy and they’re on my time schedule – not anyone else’s. But lately I’ve heard some backlash about text messaging from friends. They get annoyed by prayer requests sent over an electronic cell phone. I don’t think it’s the prayer request themselves – it’s the medium they’re conveyed. They’d rather me or someone else pick up the phone and share them. Why text messages differ from e-mails I’m not sure. But either way I still think there’s a desire to deal with humans than a cell phone, computer or other machine.
We (I) must work harder at building those relationships. We’ve got to get down and get our hands dirty in relationships. Stop and answer a phone call. Stop and visit a friend.
While our society has never been more connected we’ve also never been more disconnected on a personal level.
Gunshots rang out like a bell
“I grabbed my nine all I heard was shells – falling on the concrete real fast…”
Wait – it’s not Vanilla Ice. It’s Dolph Lundgren. He’s shooting a movie in my backyard the last week or so and will likely be shooting it around Waxahachie till May at least.
And when I say shooting in my backyard – that’s about exactly where they are.
And today they had an apparent gun fight on Franklin, less than half a block from my crib in downtown Waxahachie.
Pretty cool. I really think someone may have died. Ha.
So who’s Dolph Lundgren you may ask?
Well…
Lundgren attended the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1982, and the next year was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT. In New York City he met drama coach Warren Robertson and decided to try his luck as an actor in action movies. Lundgren has a second-degree black belt in karate and is aiming for his third-degree black belt.
Dolph’s motion picture debut came in the James Bond feature “A View to a Kill” in 1985. However, it was his performance in “Rocky IV” later that year that definitely got him noticed. After a 9-month audition process among 5,000 hopefuls, he was cast opposite writer-director Sylvester Stallone, as his Russian opponent, Ivan Drago. Following the success of “Rocky IV”, Lundgren moved to Los Angeles and has since starred in more than thirty feature films. Lundgren portrayed the classic action-heroic lead in such films as Gary Goddard’s “Masters of the Universe”, “Showdown in Little Tokyo” co-starring Brandon Lee, and “Blackjack” by Hong-Kong action legend John Woo.
Two of his “great” quotes from Rocky IV: “If he dies, he dies” and “I must break you.”
Matt said he tried to walk over and get a couple pics of Lundgren today but the zoom on his camera wasn’t strong enough.
They rented a car lot from a friend of mine last week and ransacked his office. He said he thinks they shot scenes from a sexual assault in his office.
From Lundgren’s website:
It’s a modern day western set on an Indian Reservation. Instead of horses, we’ve got motor bikes. I play a mysterious stranger who rides into a small town for the funeral of a Native American friend.
The stranger ends up helping an Indian family against the local thugs, who smuggle drugs and runs the small town.
Soon it becomes clear that the stranger is in town for another reason. As in all westerns, it comes down to revenge and redemption at the end of a gun barrel…
Some other folks involved include “local boy” Joe Martin who I’m not sure if he plays a role in the movie or not, but I do believe he’s providing a few bikes at least. I’ve seen his trailer downtown a couple times now. Joe Martin, from Martin Bros. Bikes in Duncanville, has worked on at least a project or two with my buddy Jose from encounter. Although, truth be known, Jose said that his involvement in the project was minimal as he pretty much just sat and watched as Martin did his work.
Sorry I had to be sure and add this from Master of the Universe:
Jonathan & Laurie
Dolly’s posted some photos from mine and Laurie’s Couple Shower last week. Just going to warn you – there are some extreme closeups. Be afraid – be very afraid.
Click here to see them all
More props
Since I’ve been dropping a couple props today I figured I don’t want to leave anyone out.
Here are a couple more things I’m enjoying as of late thanks to great friends and family:
- Two new dress shirts for work (Thanks to Mom, Dad and my grandparents)
- A new bluetooth headset for my cell phone (Also thanks to Mom, Dad and my grandparents)
- A great framed photo of my sister and I from her wedding (Thanks to Kara)
- A four pack of Monster drinks to get me going in the morning (Thanks to Jose and Sally)
I mean seriously I have some great friends and family. And that doesn’t include all the wedding gifts we got on Saturday that are just waiting to be used.