Caitlyn is in Kindergarten!

Caitlyn is now in Kindergarten!!! She only had to go for an hour and a half today but it's official! Jill went to class with her for her first day. Jill said she was pretty shy but she'll make some friends soon enough. Here are some pics of her day:



Here she is posing before leaving the house with mama!



Here she is leaving with her new backpack on!



Entering class for the first time! I can see the apprehension on her face!



On the carpet with her new classmates!

She is without a doubt the most beautiful girl in her class! I'm so proud of Daddy's Little Girl! I can't wait to hear her stories of all she is learning each day when she gets home! WOW! We now have 2 in school!

Chloe's first day of 2nd grade

Today Chloe started 2nd Grade! It's so hard to believe she is now 7 and in 2nd Grade! As her proud Daddy I was a big dork and took the camera as I was dropping her off (she didn't mind as she loves posing for the camera). Here are some pics:





Here she is in front of the school sign. She is not only starting a new grade but is at a new school.




Here she is in front of her desk.




Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Gardener.


I'm so proud of Chloe. She is growing into a beautiful young lady! She loves school and through our interaction thus far with her teacher she seems to really love teaching and investing in children so we are excited to see her continued growth this year.

The Joyce's Visit

While in Wake Forest we were blessed to serve in an amazing local Body, North Wake Church. While there we met the Joyce's (Chris, Stephnie, and Madeline). We were in small group together. They have been great friend's and we love them. This weekend they came to visit!

We took them to Jill's favorite restaurant in the world - Sato's! Sato's is a Japanese Steakhouse and we had a blast! They also got to worship with us at Oak Ridge (our Body loved on them well!)! Chris had not heard me preach before and said he loved it (he is always an encourager). Here are some pics of the kids together:



Here are Caleb and Madeline! They made a real "connection" during the visit! He's only 3 and a "ladies man" already and an older lady at that as she will be 5 in January! He even carried out her suitcase when they were leaving (such a gentleman)! We will be keeping an eye on these two the next time we get together!

Here's the posse -Madeline, Caitlyn, and Chloe! They had a great time hanging out together! The girls love Madeline!

VBS 2010

As soon as I returned from camp we had VBS here at Oak Ridge (actually we started the next day). Some say VBS does not work anymore yet that comes from those not in our context. It works quite well and our VBS this year was a great success. Our attendance from those inside and outside the church was awesome! We broke 100 on two different nights - which is amazing! Most importantly we saw two 6th grade boys embrace Christ as Savior! We also have many with which to follow up with.

Our kids had a blast! Caleb and Caitlyn were in Jill's class. Jill is a great teacher and they enjoyed each night. Her class had as many as 18 3 to 5 yr olds so she was busy throughout the week! Here are some pics:



Caleb is getting so big! Each day he was so pumped to go! I pray he embraces Christ and lives passionately for HIM!



Chloe posing as usual, she is so beautiful. She has really grown since we've moved here! She is like a sponge and took in so much of the teaching through the week! May she embrace Christ and shine for HIM!



This pic is not focused that well but it is still easy to see how beautiful Caitlyn has become! She will be starting Kindergarten this year! She learns by participating in activity and she loved all the activities at VBS. She is such a free spirit, may she embrace Christ and HE use this to glorify Himself!



This is a pic of Nikki Gainey. She had her face dunked in baked beans during our Family Night. We collected money throughout the week for a mission project. The winner (either the girls or boys - the girls won) got to vote on who they wanted to see dunked. I thought for sure that it was "rigged" and that I would be the one, which would've been fine, but I got got lucky because Nikki's husband collected the votes and the girls voted for her (they associated her with him and forgot about voting for me!). All the teachers voted for me but the girls out voted them! Nikki was a great sport!



One of the great things about serving here with this Body at Oak Ridge is their heart to serve those in need in our community as a demonstration of the Gospel. This is a pic of the house we worked on for our VBS Mission Project. This pic does not truly do the condition of the home justice. The home was in terrible shape. We cleared numerous overgrown trees and shrubs from around the house. We cleared and cleaned off the porch of old furniture, trash, and other "stuff". We cleaned a ton of trash bags (some of which were decomposing) out of the yard and from around the home itself. At two dfferent times I had a watery, disgusting slime-like substance either spilled on me or squirt in my mouth! (It was kinda funny but nasty at the same time!) Me and my friend Tick Wilson were the designated spider killers, we killed a ton of huge spiders, they were truly huge! When we left the house looked so much better! We did not take the pics, as we were exhausted, to truly do justice for the work done. We will be going back to continue with some painting and with continued follow up with the Gospel.

What a great VBS!

A Wonderful Blessing

Over the past week I have been on a mission to find some Bibles for our church. I contacted two different publishers in my search. I first contacted Crossway publishers who publishes the ESV (English Standard Version) which I preach from. I also contacted B&H publishing, which publishes the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible) which we use in all of our Sunday School materials, who was unable to help.

When I contacted Crossway and was totally blown away! They agreed to send us 40 Bibles for free! I was so blessed that I decided to send a message on facebook to Justin Taylor who is an editor at Crossway and writes a blog "Between Two Worlds" that I read daily. When I contacted him he said he would send another case (24) to us! I have loved reading books published by Crossway for years and love reading and studying from the ESV. I was humbled by the graciousness they showed us.

The gift of these Bibles from Crossway is one that will not be soon forgotten! They will be used in our pews and in follow up as we see people embrace Christ as Savior! I cannot begin to thank them enough for this gift! WOW!

Jr I.A. Camp 2010

Last week I was at Jr I.A. Camp. When I arrived at Oak Ridge they asked if there was anything that I would want to continue to be involved with that I would need to be gone from the church for. I told them about this camp. I have been attending this camp for 5 years. I have served in various capacities and have truly grown to love the kids. My dear friend, Billy Wayne, leads the camp. His ministry, Vision Productions, pays the way for many of the campers to attend the camp. Many of the campers are from very difficult situations and we get the chance to love them with the love of Christ for a week. It is a truly special camp and I hope to be involved with it for years to come.

In years past I served as a counselor/small group leader. Last year I had the privilege to serve as co-Camp Dean (I was the male Camp Dean and my dear friend Mary McClure, who is awesome, served as the female Camp Dean - I got to spend a night in the ER with her after she was bit by a spider on Tuesday evening, we finally got back to camp at 7am and camp kicks off at 7:45am so we rearranged some things for that morning and we each got about 3 hrs sleep and then hit the ground running!). As Camp Dean I deal with "behavior issues" with male campers, resource counselors, and lead the Jr Counsleors. This year was crazy! I was co-Camp Dean, small group leader, and got to drive the ministry's bus! Billy's ministry, Vision Productions, had a church donate a 1983 big yellow school bus and since I was the only one attending the camp with my CDL so I got to drive the beast. I found out about driving the bus 2 days before leaving for camp. I had to go and get my DOT physical the day before leaving (luckily there was no coughing necessary - lol). After driving the bus for a week on narrow, winding country roads and through downtown Gatlinburg I now have a new found respect for my father-in-law who drove a school bus for 30 yrs! The driving was not difficult the 55 screaming campers and lack of air conditioning was.

The camp was amazing. The Jr Counselors did a great job and I was blessed to serve with them. They listened to us and were attentive to the Spirit as He lead. As for my small group they were a pleasure to serve. My Jr Counselor, Lindsay, and I had little to no trouble. The small goups compete in a points competition and we won! That makes 4 out of 4 times as a small group leader that the small group I served won! That really sounded boastful but seeing the kids in the small group pumped after hearing the final score is the best and the camp is truly about them. It was awesome to see how the small group embraced what we were instilling in them by serving others throughout the week (this is what put us over the top) and by the end of the week they were serving without any prompting - so awesome!

As for the week, we had 55 campers and it was amazing to see how God moved! We were able to see 12 campers emabrace Christ as Savior and 15 others rededicate their lives! It is humbling to see Him do what only He can do! I look forward to next year and to hopefully having further involvement with Billy and his minstry here at Oak Ridge.