I must be bored because I decided to film my neighbors ducks and give them a few minutes of fame on the world wide web.? So, without further fan fare I give you Icicle and her ducklings.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Tropical Storm Troy arrives before Ernesto in Duck Ditch
When I woke up this morning I expected tropical storm Ernesto to be the one to take out our electricity sometime today. We figured that with the forecast for today that sometime beween 2pm and 8 pm that the full force of Ernesto would be upon us and we had a good chance of losing our lights. As the day has been progressing we have been getting a lot of rain from the tropical storm as it passes us going up the east coast. The weather forecasters are saying that we dodged this bullet for now and that the storm is going to hit up around Myrtle Beach or Willmington North Carolina.
I think it is pretty cool that we can add images to our blogs. It makes them come to life and gives you something to associate with the words. I am a weather watcher by nature because I absolutely HATE bad thunderstorms. One reason is because they have a tendency to spawn lightning, high winds and tornados. When bad weather events like this happen I am usually tuend in to any type of weather reports I can on whatever type of media be it cable tv, Internet or radio.
Unbeknown to me there was another tropical storm brewing and his name is Troy. I did not know that Tim the toolman has a cousin that is very closely related to him but apparently he does. Tropical storm troy came blowing into our house today and took out our power. As far as I know there was not any lightning or high wind or hail that came along with this storm but it took out the power anyway.
Troy happens to be our landlord and thanks to our main breaker dying a slow painful death this week he tried to get it fixed before Ernesto came into town. Little did Troy know that he would take out the power more efficiently than a thunderstorm. LOL.. I am happy to report that the storm did little damage and was very self healing as he found the correct part and got everything running smoothly in short order. I did have to smooth the feathers on the wifey unit when she came home with groceries and found out that we had an unplanned and unannounced electricity outage thanks to tropical storm Troy. LOL... I assured Katy that if anyone could fix the problem Troy could fix it. After all, Troy is a REAL man. hahahahahahaha There is a LONG story behind
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
In Loving Memory of Carl Hickson
I do not have a lot of time to write this morning however I do want to remember my Uncle Carl who passed away in Terrell Texas yesterday. This was my favorite uncle out of the several that I did have. Uncle Carl was in a nursing home and I do not have many specifics of what happened other than he passed away sometime yesterday. I do know that I have a LOT of fond childhood memories of this uncle. Uncle Carl was the one who had the patience to teach me how to drive as a teenager. I guess I was 15 or 16 years old when I started spending the summer vacations with my Aunt Mickey and Uncle Carl in Terrell Texas. Both my aunt and uncle treated my sister and I just like one of their own kids. My uncle was a contractor who built homes in the Dallas Ft Worth area for many years. I remember that I used to get up with him at 5 am every work day and have biscuits with peanut butter and maple syrup with a cup of coffee. Uncle Carl spent many hours in the sun and I can always remember the deep tan that he developed because of this. I remember how he would take me to a parking lot at the high school in Terrell and let me drive his new Chevy Silerado Pickup truck and teach me how to park and backup and parallel park. Uncle Carl loved to play golf and spent a lot of free time on the weekends on the golf course in Terrell Texas. I am forever grateful to both of my aunt and uncle who are now passed on for the love, affection and care that they extended to me and my sister as teenagers. I lived with them one summer when they took care of my grandmother who had several strokes and required a lot of nursing care at home before she passed away in 1980. I remember how hard that was on them and the family at that time. God bless you Uncle Carl, you are loved and will be missed.
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Sunday in Duck Ditch USA
Quack Quack... I say Duck Ditch USA because we have several ducks that live in our neighborhood at the bottom of the hill. If you are from the south you know who Jeff Foxworthy is. One of his famous lines is "You know you are a redneck if...." One of those is "if instructions to your house includes turn off the paved road". Instructions to my house includes go to the end of county maintenance sign, go around the old oak tree and then drop off the pavement and go to the bottom of the hill. Our doublewide trailer is next the last on the left. When it rains here it takes about 20 minutes but then the bottom of the hill becomes a pond and you have to use a life raft to paddle out to the car. I have noticed that the ducks that live here LOVE the rain and the pond. Just the other day I took a picture of the momma duck and all of the chicks splashing and playing in the muddy water. They could not have been happier and did not give me a moments notice as I sat there watching them.
We had an awesome time at church today. I attempt to sing on the praise team every Sunday morning and I found myself getting choked up during one of the songs. One of our challenges on the praise team is that we are to help the congregation to enter into worship. Over the last two years we have slowly been building our musical talent. Once upon a time all we had was one piano and four singers which happened to be the pastor , his wife and his two daughters. Since that time we have rebuilt our sanctuary and added all new sound equipment. We now have 4 to 6 singers that sing regularly , a piano player (pastors wife), keyboard player (praise and worship leader), bass guitar (pastor), drums, congas, electric guitar and saxaphone. We also have a flute player from time to time. We also have a 48 channel sound board, personal computer, digital projectors, compressor, cd/dvd player and tape deck. We have come a LONG LONG way with regards to technology and what we can do with regards to our church services.
Despite the fact I feel more comfortable back in the sound booth taking care of technology I was recruited onto the praise team to sing. At first I was a bit reluctant to do it because I do not think that I sing well enough to be up there. The worship team leader says differently and needs some more male voices to even out the ladies so I am getting used to it. It is very different to be on the platform singing with everyone being able to watch you vs being all the way in the back not being noticed until something goes amiss with the sound or with the projector. Then everyone knows to turn around and stare at you until the problem if fixed. LOL.
Anyway, back to signing on the stage and leading others in worship. How exactly do you lead others in praise and worship? What IS that exactly? Why do we sing at church? Is it for show? One of the things that I noticed quickly is that for the members on our praise team that have been singing for a long time it seems that their singing is really sort of mechanical. I can see how that would be easy to happen. It would be easy to get caught up in the mechanics of singing the song correctly and being in time with everyone else. One of the things that I have been doing is learning how to sing the songs correctly and to get the timing down. That does not come that easy to me so I have to work at it harder than say some others who have been doing it for years. I also have to close my eyes from time to time and imagine that I am out in the congregation singing right along with them. Then I am able to put my focus on God who I am singing to and for. I am not there to perform or put on a show. We are certainly supposed to have a spirit of excellence and do the best that we can do but it is not a performance to entertain anyone.
Today I got caught up in one of the songs and found myself getting choked up and had tears in my eyes as I identified with a need in my life and felt overwhelmed by how much God does love us. It is easy for us to say we know how much God loves us and how much we love him but do we really live that truth out in our lives on a daily basis? If we really realized how much God loves us and is really in control would we continue to worry and stress out over the little things in our lives? That is what praise and worship is all about. It is making a connection between our minds and hearts through the songs and lyrics to the throne room of God. Once we really engage ourselves like that then God can touch us and heal all of the broken and hurting places.
There is nothing more touching to me than to look out at the congregation watching people as they sing and raise their hands and lift their voices and close their eyes and allow the power of God to fill their hearts with his love. It is good to see them being real with God and connecting with him through the praise and worship time. That alone inspires us to do the very best that we can so that they will not be distracted from the main purpose for our being there which is to praise God in all that we say and do.
I hope you have a very good week in all of your endeavours.
God bless
We had an awesome time at church today. I attempt to sing on the praise team every Sunday morning and I found myself getting choked up during one of the songs. One of our challenges on the praise team is that we are to help the congregation to enter into worship. Over the last two years we have slowly been building our musical talent. Once upon a time all we had was one piano and four singers which happened to be the pastor , his wife and his two daughters. Since that time we have rebuilt our sanctuary and added all new sound equipment. We now have 4 to 6 singers that sing regularly , a piano player (pastors wife), keyboard player (praise and worship leader), bass guitar (pastor), drums, congas, electric guitar and saxaphone. We also have a flute player from time to time. We also have a 48 channel sound board, personal computer, digital projectors, compressor, cd/dvd player and tape deck. We have come a LONG LONG way with regards to technology and what we can do with regards to our church services.
Despite the fact I feel more comfortable back in the sound booth taking care of technology I was recruited onto the praise team to sing. At first I was a bit reluctant to do it because I do not think that I sing well enough to be up there. The worship team leader says differently and needs some more male voices to even out the ladies so I am getting used to it. It is very different to be on the platform singing with everyone being able to watch you vs being all the way in the back not being noticed until something goes amiss with the sound or with the projector. Then everyone knows to turn around and stare at you until the problem if fixed. LOL.
Anyway, back to signing on the stage and leading others in worship. How exactly do you lead others in praise and worship? What IS that exactly? Why do we sing at church? Is it for show? One of the things that I noticed quickly is that for the members on our praise team that have been singing for a long time it seems that their singing is really sort of mechanical. I can see how that would be easy to happen. It would be easy to get caught up in the mechanics of singing the song correctly and being in time with everyone else. One of the things that I have been doing is learning how to sing the songs correctly and to get the timing down. That does not come that easy to me so I have to work at it harder than say some others who have been doing it for years. I also have to close my eyes from time to time and imagine that I am out in the congregation singing right along with them. Then I am able to put my focus on God who I am singing to and for. I am not there to perform or put on a show. We are certainly supposed to have a spirit of excellence and do the best that we can do but it is not a performance to entertain anyone.
Today I got caught up in one of the songs and found myself getting choked up and had tears in my eyes as I identified with a need in my life and felt overwhelmed by how much God does love us. It is easy for us to say we know how much God loves us and how much we love him but do we really live that truth out in our lives on a daily basis? If we really realized how much God loves us and is really in control would we continue to worry and stress out over the little things in our lives? That is what praise and worship is all about. It is making a connection between our minds and hearts through the songs and lyrics to the throne room of God. Once we really engage ourselves like that then God can touch us and heal all of the broken and hurting places.
There is nothing more touching to me than to look out at the congregation watching people as they sing and raise their hands and lift their voices and close their eyes and allow the power of God to fill their hearts with his love. It is good to see them being real with God and connecting with him through the praise and worship time. That alone inspires us to do the very best that we can so that they will not be distracted from the main purpose for our being there which is to praise God in all that we say and do.
I hope you have a very good week in all of your endeavours.
God bless
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
