preaching twice in a morning

wasn't too bad. i was blessed with the opportunity to fill in at louisville first church of the nazarene this past sunday.

the pastor was out of town on vacation and i had around 10 days to prepare. somewhat close to what my normal schedule might be someday (preaching weekly, but looking ahead to the next week a bit). they got us a room in town so we wouldn't have to drive in that morning and then a family took us out to lunch afterwards.

they had a video camera / dvd production all set up and i walked out with a copy of the first service (haven't watched it yet) and they're mailing the second service. the audio should be on their website this week and i'll let you know when it is available. the sermon that resulted ended up hitting on quite a few of my major issues that i stump about. grace over works, equality among all people, our caring Lord we serve, and community. i'll just let you hear it sometime. i really liked it and i may send it out to prospective churches whenever that time comes. no news yet...

new mower and yardwork

on saturday, jake's first ever t-ball game was rained out so we'll try again this upcoming saturday. however, L's parents still came up ...

to visit for the day and they brought us their riding lawnmower because they got a new one! hooray!

i was at the new coffeehouse working on sunday's sermon and between the time that L called to let me know they had arrived and the time that i got home (i worked a little bit more, packed up my stuff, but that was about it), my father in law had already mowed almost the entire yard. including the non-sod! that will be a welcome change from the 4 hour mows across a few days.

with the yard done, i went ahead and used the weed-eater all around the house, playset, and some spots in the yard. my arm was killin' me later! after lunch (chinese delivered mmm), L and her dad went and got a scoop of black mulch and a kiddie pool for jake (since they had the truck). the front of the house looks really nice now! however, with the new lawnmower in the garage, i now have to park the corolla outside. alas...

busy times

even though last week was spring break and i still don't have my morning class this week, but things are still crazy busy.

work is crazy and stressful; we're having a status meeting every morning now because of some ... issues (can't really say more obviously). i like meetings, but not where i'm on the spot every morning to divine answers.

i haven't mentioned it yet, but i got a call thursday evening to preach at louisville first church of the naz this sunday. i'm looking forward to finalizing the sermon. the scripture references are here: easter 4a and the general thrust of the sermon is on the Lord being Shepherd both in our lives and through our Christian communities. should be fun!

spring break

so this week has been spring break, or as we call it: reading week.

i was able to do quite a bit of homework this past weekend so i've ended up going to bed around 10 every night and getting some extra sleep. it's hard because each night i have things i know i could do or work on, but i have a window of opportunity to get rested up for the final sprint to the finish. i only have one lecture next week (tuesday evening) so this has ended up more like a two week break. that leaves that final sprint for the 5 weeks of april 14 to may 15. i should be completely done that day even though graduation is not until may 24 (orlando campus graduation is may 17). yeah, mark it down. you're invited to the party afterwards!