What is in your hand?

In Exodus Chapter 4 verse 2 it says " Then the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand?" In this chapter we see that God is calling Moses to fulfill His purpose with regards to bringing the children of Israel out of captivity. Moses knew that he was supposed to approach the Pharaoh and represent God and demand that he let His people go. You know the story, we have all read it in Sunday School.

Our pastor is out of town at a Chaplains convention in Chicago IL. Our visiting speaker used the scripture reading out of Exodus Chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 for his sermon topic. The following points were made and I feel that they speak powerfully to our lives if we will only let them.

Sermon points by Doug Dickerson at Grace Fellowship Church September 21, 2003

Moses doubted his ability to do what God asked of him. He doubted because of "doubt and fear" and "low self esteem".


God will help you work out your fear but will NOT work with your fear.

God desires for us to rise above our circumstances and inadequacies so that He can use us to fulfill His purposes.

God is not interested in "what ifs" but rather what is in your hands.

God empowers us through our obedience

Who God IS, is more important than what our circumstances or problems

What is in your hand?

What can God use in your life to touch others?

The very thing that keeps us from using what is in our hand is in our hearts. Doubt, fear, low self esteem, low self confidence etc.....

What is in your hand is the very evidence of God

What is in your hand is an extension of God

God works through His people to accomplish His purposes

In obedience we bring our gifts to God, no matter how big or small, then God takes those gifts and he multiplies them so that he can use us to accomplish his purposes

We can be blessed with the gift God brings us or we can choose to bless others with that gift

What I do not have is not what matters, it is what I do have and what I do with it

What is in your hand is an expression of God. Love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness etc...

God takes our gift , multiplies it, then uses our hands to distribute the blessings to others that need them

If we dont use the talents God gave us we will loose them

God gives us gifts and talents so that they can be used not so that we can horde them and keep them to ourselves and become stagnant.

We need to invest in the lives of other people with these gifts

Examine what is in your hand and ask yourself how long you will keep hanging on to it

We should pray that God will show us how to let our hands be an extension of who He is to the community of people we are in.

Here are a few thoughts of my own as I reflect on what I got out of todays message and challenge.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

When we read the word of God we need to count the cost and realize that God's word is not designed to make us feel comfortable but rather to reveal Gods glory, majesty, holiness, righteousness and purpose for our lives.


Jam 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Jam 1:23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
Jam 1:24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
Jam 1:25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.


The Holy Spirit takes the scriptures and brings relevance to our lives by speaking to our spirit about where we are at and where we have come from. We are admonished to do what is right with regards to our relationship with God and we are encouraged to be all that we can be for the kingdom. We have a choice to either get with the program and become the men and women of God or we can choose to ignore what the Holy Spirit is teaching us about our character and purpose.

I am thankful that in the past I have been blessed to both receive a gift or talent and to use that gift or talent to bless others. Like Moses I too have had to wrestle with fear, doubt and low self esteem. My confidence level was not where I wanted it to be when God has chosen to use me in whatever endeavour that He chose for me at those times in my life. I can remember several occasions where the task at hand was very daunting and I doubted my ability to make the grade. Do you really want to use me Lord? Then after the doubt comes all of the "but what ifs?" What if they perceive me as inadequate Lord?
What if they think thus and so? What about my looks Lord, I am too fat, thin, tall, short etc.?? How many times do we compare ourselves to our neighbors and feel so inadequate next to them?

So, the question that I leave you with is the same one that I was asked today. What IS in your hand? What has God given you? What talent or gift has God given you and are you still holding on to the gift and have not let it go ? Is your talent or gift blessing the life of someone else today? Yes, it is good that I have been blessed in the past and that God has used me back then. Those days are in the history book so I must not revel in what happened in the past and look to the future to see HOW God is going to use me today. How will we invest in the lives of our fellow man and bless them? We have the power of life and death in our tongue. How will we motivate others into love and good deeds?

Heb 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Heb 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Playing the waiting game!

One week ago I interviewed with ADT for a sales position. Thus far the drug screen came back fine and the preliminary background check came back clear. Now we are waiting for the MAIN background check to come back clear. So, the waiting game is in full swing.
Katy received a phone call from MUSC today because they are looking for two full time employees to work there doing what she used to do there before we left. I have not seen Katy get that excited in a long time. We REALLY need the income BADLY. So, we shall see what happens after the interview on Friday. That would be a full time job with benefits. Wow, it is almost too hard to believe that she might get re hired there. I am hopeful that the fact she used to work there and left on good terms might help out on this occasion.

Paul Bunyan and clan are feverishly trying to clear out their lot in lieu of their new home arriving. They are working on a very tight time line but I am sure that he will manage to get it done in time. It looks weird on our front porch with the blue trailer missing. Did I tell you that the blue trailer was moved out last week? Well, if I did not tell you then you now understand what I am talking about. Out with the old blue trailer and in with a new double wide trailer for my friends across the street to move into. I am sure that they can not wait to be in their new home.

I started bowling on the Turbo League at the Marrington Lanes on the Naval Weapons Station two weeks ago. I still need to figure out which ball I am going to use because the way I am bowling I think that I need to find a cinder block to throw. I would probably be just as accurate throwing that down the lane at this point. It is just a matter of time and I will get used to the synthetic lanes. Do you like to bowl? If so, are you bowling on a league? Which one and where? Do they keep your scores online through League Secretary? If so let me know where to look. I hope that they don't keep our scores online with the way I am doing at the moment. My games last night were 107, 125 and 117... Something like that. Nothing to brag about for sure. I think I need to take up knitting or something less demanding on eye hand coordination.

I am on week two of a small group that just started up called The Exemplary Husband.
The course has to do with "husbands" learning how to be "more" Christ like with regards to their marriage covenant with their wives. I am only into week two and I told Katy that if this course tells me I have to give up burping (in the privacy of my own home) or hand over the television remote that I was in deep trouble. Gosh, I guess I should have added giving up computer time and SHARE it with my family as well. GASP.....

I told the group leader via e-mail that I could tell that I will need a large ace bandage by the time this course is over. Knowing scripture and assuming that everything is ok at home can be a recipe for disaster when it comes to marriage. Of course I am talking in the context of both husband and wife being believers in Christ. Katy and I have been married now for almost 14 years. I would like to say that our relationship is very special and that we are very compatible together. They say that the longer you stay with one person you start to look just like them. I hope and pray that does not happen to Katy. Katy deserves better than that. hahahahahahah

The small group will happen here locally and there is a book and study guide to go along with it. This material is not for the faint hearted. It will require prayer, study, more prayer, more study and a commitment on my part to make some changes. Changes that will hopefully benefit my dear wife. I can see some of you guys that might be reading this. You are probably rolling your eyes at the idea of me walking away from the traditional macho image of " my marriage is none of your business and even if it were it is doing just GREAT." Guess what guys. Your marriage is not perfect because you are not perfect. Every one of us guys have room to improve. If you don't think so, get off your duff and go ask your wife IF there are any areas in your marriage that could use some improvement. If you don't have the guts to go ask your wife for this input try this on for size. Sit down in your recliner and rewind your brain to all of the times that your wife has asked you to do something and for whatever reasons you refused to do it. "Good grief, that woman will just not stop whining about this and that." I can hear you guys. Do you think that maybe there is a REASON why your wife is NOT happy about your ENTIRE relationship and the way you treat her or act around the children?? Is your blood pressure elevated now?

I am not talking about the kind of marriage that the world paints for us on television sit coms where the man sits on the couch drinking beer while life happens all around him and make it look cool. I am talking about the type of marriage covenant that the bible speaks about and what the husbands role really is. Oooopsss, I just lost 90% of you. Who wants to hear about that IMPOSSIBLE standard anyway? It is much easier to be a lazy slob and only do what is necessary to keep the honey off your back side.

The bible says that we are to love our wives like Christ loves the church. We are to do much more than expect or demand that our wives be submissive to us. Who wants to be submissive to a lazy slob who drinks and eats non stop and wont give up the remote control or the computer? LOL..... Katy is probably rolling on the floor at this point to keep from crying. I know the Lady in the Shoe is probably looking for oxygen at this point.
No, I don't view myself as a lazy slob that eats non stop and refuses to hand over control to the TV and the computer. I do know however that I do have a problem with being the type of husband that the bible says I am supposed to be. The standard has been set and we (I) have a goal. My goal is to be better, stronger, faster, we can rebuild him.... Sorry, that was the introduction to the Bionic Man. As I was saying, my goal is to become a better, more Christ like husband for my wife. The process will probably involve me doing some kicking and screaming along the way but when the process is over I will at least have a much better understanding of WHO I am supposed to be as a husband and WHAT I need to do to improve my relationship with Katy.

One of the points that this book makes is that in order for us to be the Exemplary Husband that we are supposed to be we first must be disciples of Christ. Here is how it works.

A. you read the bible, listen to a pastor or evangelist preach the word of God
B. the Holy Spirit of God convicts you of your sin
C. the Holy Spirit presents you with the truth of the gospel which states that while you were yet sinners Christ died for you. The gift of Grace is FREE and you can not earn it.
D. the Holy Spirit calls upon your heart and mind for a decision to turn away from your sin and give your heart to Christ and accept the free gift of GRACE.
E. you make the decision to repent (turn away) from your sinful nature and release the controls of your life to Christ and make Him your Lord and Savior OR
F. you choose to rebel against God and the Holy Spirit when he calls you and you stay out of fellowship with God

If you are not a true believer of Jesus Christ in both word and deed then the book will leave you on the first two pages. You are either of this world or you are not. You either serve God or you serve the Devil. Everything in this book builds on a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about what the Bible says about who Jesus Christ is and how you can receive forgiveness of your sins then feel free to write to me at moffittj@bellsouth.net and I can walk you through it. I would be honored to tell you about what Jesus has done for me in my life. As a matter of fact, while I am talking about this you can go to the following link and read my testimony of Who Jesus is to me online. Who Jesus is to me

The gospel of Christ is not a popular message. Christ crucified for the sins of the world past present and future. God become man to reach out to the sick and lost. God pursuing his creation to provide healing, health and eternal life. My message to you in the context of this message may not be popular and you might even be a little angry. I would rather take the chance of offending you now and providing you with the information you need about eternity than to attend your funeral knowing that I might never see you again. We think that life is something we can take for granted when in fact the bible tells us that life is but a vapor. One day we are here living life and the next moment it is gone. So, if you are reading this and you think that you are guaranteed tomorrow morning think again. None of us know when or how but we do know that our day will come. My hope, desire and prayer is that you make the right decision and that you do not wait until it is too late.

Jeremy with Terry High School Band members

Here is a nice picture of Jeremy and his friends at Terry High School.
Jeremy is the good looking boy all the way to the right in the middle.





Jeremy playing his Tuba!

Jeremy Moffitt Terry High School Marching Band

I received an e-mail this evening with some attachments of my son Jeremy in the marching band at a local football game. Jeremy attends Terry High School in Rosenburg Texas which is just outside of Houston Texas. Jeremy is 17 years old and will be graduating High School this year.

Jeremy Moffitt Terry High School Marching Band

You can see Jeremy standing on the 50 yard line with his tuba in this picture.

Blog Speak author requesting help!

Blog Speak author requesting donations

If you click on the above link you will see the e-mail that the author of blogspeak sent out to his subscribers. Here we have a software programmer who is apparently quite talented that does several things. He creates this service called Blog Speak so that folks like you can add comments to online web logs. He also provides the service free of charge to all of us. He states on his website that the service is free but donations are welcome. This software author actually pays an ISP to co host this service on one of their servers for a specific fee which he pays out of his pocket. Now that Blog Speak is becoming more popular and the activity has picked up the ISP has taken notice and either wants this guy to upgrade his subscription for the service or they are going to shut him off.

I had $1.19 in my PayPal account this evening. I have been out of work for 7 months and even though I dont have much I feel that if those people who benefit from this program will donate only 1.00 that he will be able to raise enough money to upgrade his service.
The PayPal e-mail address to send donations to is blogspeak@bighar.com. If you can spare some extra change for this service I am sure that he would appreciate it.

Updated Computer Junkie Links on Moffitt Website

If you are a computer junkie like me here are some of my favorites

I spent some time cleaning up my "Computer Junkie" links on our family website today.
I had a couple of bad links so I deleted those and added several new links of interest. I will list them below.

Gibson Research Corporation If you connect to the Internet with a MS Windows Computer YOU MUST spend some quality time reading the content here and TESTING your computer for security risks. If you do these things FAITHFULLY you will become a responsible Cyber Citizen that we will all love and appreciate. If that does not appeal to you then rest assured that your data will be safe and hackers are us will not be able to control your computer from a remote location. If that does not interest you please turn off your computer, put it back in the box and send it back to where you got it.

Please allow me to digress for a moment. My desire is that you USE your computer for your specific needs whether it be work or play. At the same time I want you to be aware that when you connect your computer to the Internet via your ISP of choice that you are no longer isolated and alone. You have entered into a community of other users world wide. That means that you could be in danger of both virus infection, hackers taking over your computer or someone intentionally deleting your data off your hard drive. Someone could take over your computer and USE it to launch DOS (Denial of Service) attacks on your friends, family or the business network down the street.

It is VERY important that you learn the basics with regards to safe computing both locally in your home environment but also with regards to interacting with others when you are connected on the Internet. Here are some simple guide lines you can follow to make CERTAIN that you and I both are safe.

A. always have Anti Virus software running in the background
B. ALWAYS be suspicious of ANY and ALL attachments.
C. run Windows UPDATE on your MS Windows Computer atleast once per week
D. ALWAYS run Live Update on your Anti Virus Software IF it is not set to run automatically for you.
E. Always be AWARE of ANY Critical Security Update alerts from Microsoft. INSTALL these critical updates without fail. If you are not sure about it ASK someone (like me) IF it is necessary. I can garuntee you if it is listed as Critical or a Security Patch I will probably say YES.
F. Go to http://www.grc.com and TEST your computer for security leaks atleast once per month
G. Back up sensitive data to a different hard drive or removable media on a REGULAR basis. Hard Drives are man made and they WILL fail eventually. What will happen to your data if your hard drive crashes? IT is GONE!!!! Period, end of story. All of those hours that you spent collecting and manipulating data is lost forever. If you have a CD Writer on your computer use it to burn (write) your data to a blank CD. Do that once per month if not more often.


Blogger.com Website
Blogger is one of the most used and popular websites for Web Journaling. There are MANY Web Journaling (blogging) services out there that will allow you to do the same thing. Some are FREE and some are NOT.

W. Bloggar
BloggAr software is a MS Windows application that allows you to input all of your Bloggar Server settings into this app and allows you to write, edit and publish your blogs whether you are online or not. To save some confusion this is how it works.

A. You use a BLOGGING (web journal) Service to publish your content (www.blogger.com)
B. You HOST your Blog (web journal) on a Blogger Type Web Server (yourname.blogspot.com)
C. You use Blogging Software (like w.bloggar) as an application to WRITE your web journal.

If that is not simple enough let me know and I will take a deep breath and try again.

Blog Express
First there was the WWW (world wide web). Then came plain text (ascii) e-mail and then e-mail clients (Outlook and Outlook Express) gave us the ability to send HTML e-mail. Hackers R Us (aka criminal idiots) figured out how to cause millions of dollars of damage by writing viruses (trojans, worms etc) that destroys data or causes Denial of Service attacks on personal computers and company networks. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that has morphed from the need for a way to PUBLISH content but not have to worry about our Hackers R US folks. Blog Express is what Outlook Express is for e-mail and Usenet Newsgroups. If you are familiar with OE then you will LOVE Blog Express.

Happy Birthday Jessica !

I am a member of a Yahoo Community called LOOK. I believe that it stands for LOSS of our kids. There are mostly women on this Yahoo community who share about their grief. If you have never lost a child to cancer or some childhood disease that takes them from you in this world then you will never be able to relate to the pain and anguish that this causes in the lives of those parents that are left behind. I read a message on our Yahoo Community this morning when I woke up and this was my response as I attempted to relate to this mothers grief.
___________________________________________________

Tears are a language that only God understands. Everyone handles grief in their own unique and individual way. Yes, I would say that you are making progress. I know that I have made some progress over the last two years with regards to how I react when I think about Jessica.
Maybe it is different for men than it is for women. I believe that a
Fathers love is a bit different than a mothers love. Perhaps it is much
harder for a mother to deal with grief especially considering the close
bond that a mother has with a child that a father may never fully
understand. It is difficult for me to be able to relate to a mothers
grief since I am not a mom. I do know that as I have watched Katy deal with the grief that she has made some progress. It seems as if the stressors that cause Katy to cry with regards to Jessica are much
stronger and I think that is directly related to the fact that Katy was
Jessica's immediate care giver and she spent much more time interacting with Jessica both when she was a healthy child as well as during her illness. The more you bond with a person the closer and more intimate you become and therefore the grief you experience is probably more intense. I guess that one of the ways that I try to handle my grief and the emotional responses to it is to try and not focus on those things that would make me cry. At church we have a young lady that is in a wheel chair. If I sit there and focus on it I can easily see Jessica sitting there and before long I would be deep in the pits of grief and despair. So, instead of going down that road I choose to recognize the pain that is there and I try not to focus on it for too long. I guess that helps me to manage my emotions. My pastors wife went out to eat lunch with us the other day when we were at her house setting up a DSL network and she was sharing about this young lady that is a special needs child. I thought she was going to make me cry so I had to change the subject.

I believe that as time goes on that the grief will not be as intense.
It does not mean that we love our children less. I think about Jessica
every day of my life. She will always be daddy's little girl. I tell
Jesus to hug my girl every day when I pray. I thank God for her life
and for all the good memories of her life. It is good that we have this
place in our lives where we can think out loud and share our thoughts
with others that are walking down the road of grief with us. Today the
citizens of the USA are remembering the horrible events of Sept 11,
2001. Katy and I remember 9/11/01 for a different reason. Jessica
would have been 11 years old that day. Today Jessica would have been 13 years old. The reality is Jessica is no longer here with us but rather
she has gone on to a much better place. I am looking forward to the day when Jesus takes me from this life and I can be with Jessica and others that have passed on before me. I have so many unanswered questions that only my God will be able to answer. Perhaps I wont have to ask the questions when I get there because we may get all the answers when we transition from this world to the next. Nevertheless Happy Birthday Jessica Ann Moffitt. You are loved and appreciated today and forever more. Say hello to all of the other children that must be there with you in the arms of Jesus.

In loving memory, forever you dad.....

Boggy Creek

It is so wet that even the ducks have gone to higher ground. If I had not been unemployed for the last 7 months I would go buy some gold fish to stock the ponds of water all around us. We moved back to Boggy Creek (aka Duck Ditch) on August 23rd and I think it has rained every single day since then. So, Duck Ditch will be Boggy Creek until the water is absorbed some more and the ducks wander back down to our little commune. If you live in Duck Ditch there has to be ducks right? I cant count the ducks that live at my neighbors house. Those ducks are here whether they like it or not. If they could fly I am sure they WOULD fly away to higher and more dryer land.

I am on vacation until this next Monday. Actually, my 7 month vacation ends then. You either have more time than you have money or you have more money than you have time. I would opt to have the later now that I have experienced 7 months of the former. On Monday I will be employed by ADT in their business sales team. Instead of asking you if you want fries with that hamburger I will ask you if you want motion sensors or more door sensors with that basic security package.
I dont think that I will be able to ask folks if they want to "biggie size" it or not. :) The only time I say that I want to biggie size anything is when I go out and try to find pants for myself. Sigh..... Lets not go there please....

In an effort to reduce the tent size of my waist line I have promised myself that I WILL go out and walk Monday through Friday for exercise. Today is Monday and guess what. I have already blown it. I walked Monday and then went bowling on our winter league for the first night and then my body started to punish me. I never knew that my brain could receive that many signals from the different body parts all at once. Katy told me that I was brain dead to be out walking just for the sake of getting exercise. Maybe she has something there. :) Luckily for me and my desire to loose some weight my new job will be just the ticket. Between 10 am and 4pm Monday through Friday I will be out and about prowling around looking for potential customers which means walking from one business to another trying to make NEW friends. Friends with money to spend and security needs to fulfill. I can make money (hopefully) and loose weight at the same time. What else can I ask for?

I spoke to Katy this morning and it is amazing what has happened in less than 3 weeks. Here is a short list of what God has allowed to happen. I say that because I did not have anything to do with it.

A. Moved us from Travelers Rest to Goose Creek
B. Allowed us to go back to our home church
C. Allowed us to be around people who love us and care
D. We are back in the house we originally moved out of when we left
E. Our friends and landlord is helping us with regards to rent and utilities. (HUGE PTL there)
F. Katy has a dishwasher again (Katy LOVES that)
G. Katy has a washer and dryer that was donated by Cindy (Thanks Cindy)
H. The church loaned us the 25" color TV that we donated to the church until I can buy another one.
I. I have a new job starting Monday
J. The children are enrolled in Public school
k. I have new opportunities for service at Grace Fellowship Church
L. Grace Fellowship Church membership has almost doubled since we left. That means growth, challenges and opportunity

Well anyway, I might have forgotten some of the details but you can see that we have a LOT to be thankful for. We do not believe in circumstance but we do believe that God has his hand in every aspect of our lives. If God is for us WHO can be against us? NO ONE. What can separate us from the Love of God? NOTHING......

Yes, I am doing the happy dance. Thanks for letting me share some POSITIVE & HAPPY stuff with you. Thanks for the prayers and the support. God is GOOD all the time!

The Dallas Cowgirls loose again!!!

Why do I EVER waste my time in watching the Dallas Cowgirls ATTEMPT to play football????

Oh my gosh. The first half seemed as if the cheer leaders were sitting on the bench and they actually had some guys that wanted to play the game with some level of skill. At the half it was Dallas CG 7 and Atlanta Falcons 3. I dont know what happened at the half time but I think that the cheerleaders mugged the team and tied them up in the locker room and came out the play the rest of the game. Ok, I apologize, I should never insult the Dallas Cowgirl cheer leading squad for playing that PATHETIC of a second half.

What happened to the quarter back anyway? He looked as if he had a problem running more than two steps at a time before he collapsed on his own. Once upon the time the Dallas Cowgirls used to be called the Cardiac Cowboys. Those days are long over because now they can be called the Prozac Queens. How sad a commentary on what USED to be my favorite NFL team.

On a positive note the Carolina Panthers came back to win by one point against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Wahoooooo. Perhaps I should support the team of the state I live in. Go Panthers!! Hey, now that I think of it my high school mascot was panthers. Yeah!!!!

Church was good this morning as the State Youth Director , Chucky Chandler gave a good message. He spoke on Judges Chapter 7 verse 15- ???? It had to do with God calling out Gideon to go do a task. Anyway, you probably know the story of Gideon. Everything went off without a hitch up until the point that the electronic gremlin attacked the tape player. The special music was supposed to happen and the tape player decides to play the music at half volume and would not let me adjust it any higher. The song played at half volume and the singer did her best to compensate for that and did a wonderful job.

Katy has been manipulating our home page so I need to take a peek at it to see what changes have happened. Hope you guys and gals have a WONDERFUL week!

Nite Nite

September 4, 2003 week 2 being back home

We are on week two being back in Duck Ditch USA. Quack Quack Quack. You have to be part bird to live here since it rains here almost every afternoon and ..... You get the picture.

As I look around our metal shoebox I see two or three boxes left to unpack. Katy went from 35 or 45 boxes down to THREE in the space of one week. The trash man has been busy folks.... The next step is to put up some pictures and find appropriate places for our stuff.

Our friend and landlord (Paul Bunyon) is getting ready to move out the blue trailer next to us and make room for a brand new double wide trailer that he and his family can move into. The "communal dictator" (aka: lady in a shoe across the street) is contemplating running out of the shoe and over the hill because of all the stuff that she is going to have to move. I can see it now. If you were to fly high over our neighborhood when the move happens it will look like a line of ants moving stuff from one metal shoe box to another. In the end our friends will have a bigger space to live in and eventually the moving madness will be over. I have been forewarned by the communal dictator that I will need to find a new and improved alias for her since she will no longer qualify to be "the lady in the shoe" across the street.
Maybe you can help me with this? I might as well put the comments section to good use here huh? hahahahahahaha

Grace Fellowship Church is desperate for leadership so they named me as the Mens Fellowship Director and the Audio Video Director. I tried to wiggle out of the Mens Fellowship Director but for some reason that did not happen. I figured that there were more capable men at GFC for leading others. Now we have the blind leading the blind. Poor men.... On second thought maybe this is a cool thing for me. Part of fellowship includes eating food with other men once per month. Since I LOVE to eat this part of the "directing" will be easy since I have NO problems finding food.

This weekend Chucky Chandler who is the Youth Director for the Church of God of Prophecy will be preaching in our Sunday service. That is going to be an awesome treat. This guy is very animated and funny to listen to. Not only that , he loves God and has a heart for ministry to the youth here in the state of SC.

I have ten weeks and counting before the unemployment insurance piggy bank runs dry. I went on an interview today for a sales position at ADT in their small business sales department. I am considering making a quantum leap from Information Technology to selling advanced security technology to small business. I had an interesting conversation with the sales manager and it appears that I have a good chance at being offered the job. The sales manager stated he is hiring two more folks and next week he will conduct the second interview and make job offers. I am quickly running out of options. From what I can tell ADT invests a lot of time and money into their sales team and I would be getting a lot of training right up front. They want to equip me to be able to provide the best business security partner for area businesses. In other words it would be way more than walking in, counting doors and windows and just selling contacts and wall monitor stations. They train people to be able to use security technology to save money from all sorts of losses.

I got an application from Home Health Care out of Orangeburg SC today after having mailed them my resume. Orangeburg is approximately 45 minutes from Goose Creek SC. I am thinking that they must be interested in me if they are responding to my resume by mailing me an application.

I spent all day yesterday over at my pastors house helping his wonderful wife getting their DSL Home Network set up. My oh my that was a treat in and of itself. hahahahahah Everything worked right up to the point that one particular computer decided that it would NOT play right with the rest of the children. I told Katy earlier in the morning that it would be a 45 min job at the most and then it turns into a 7 hour ordeal. The important thing is that all three computers are accessing the Bellsouth DSL network and everyone is happy.

I re invited MY PRECIOUS wife to be a contributor to our web log. Katy is not as boisterous as I am when it comes to communicating but maybe we can get her to write down some of her thoughts. I KNOW that I will probably get to see some of her "comments" to my drivel.
Katy... The floor is yours dear.. Love ya!! NO, I dont want to take out the trash or walk the dogs AGAIN...... hahahahahah

Dogs, puppies. The later is the gift that simply keeps on giving. Whew!!

I smell food from mamas kitchen so I must run away for a spell. More drivel later.....

blogging for beginners!

blogging for beginners!

Patty told me just today that she has a friend who is mildly interested in reading my blog (must be bored) and possibly starting one of her own. My oh my, I have started something now. :)

This link will give you an article "blogging for beginners" that has some very good information on it. Please take the time to read through it and if you have any problems or questions send me an e-mail. I personally use Blogger Pro on the hosting side with blogspot.com and I used w.bloggar which is a windows application that allows me to write down my drivel without having to be logged on to the www.blogger.com site. w.bloggar has all of my account settings in a control file and it automagically logs me on and publishes my drivel when I am done. w.bloggar also has a built in spell check and the ability to add graphics.

There are MANY different types of web log applications and services out there. They range from FREE to very little cost. As for me, I am happy with what I use and it gives me the opportunity to bang on the keyboard and share my thoughts with friends like you.

God bless

Blogspeak is now fully installed and operational

Ok, I have done it now. :) You can now "comment" on my "drivel". The old addage says you have not because you ask not. Patty asked and now her request was made reality. Technology is pretty amazing. The only down side to technology is it is driven by our feeble human minds.
That means that sometimes technology is not meant for the task at hand or if it is it might not work when you expect it to. :)

I look forward to your comments. I have the ability to edit your comments and DELETE them if I deem it necessary. In other words please be sure to leave the type of comments that will "encourage" and "motivate" others to love and good deeds. I certainly do not expect everyone on the planet to subscribe to my thought processes or agree with any of the decisions that I have made down the road of life. On the other hand please realize that when you are entering into my Web Log that you are an invited guest and all I ask is for you to mind your manners. :)

Whew, I hate saying stuff like that but you know how it is. Before I know it I will have someone telling me what an idiot I am. I know this because I have been the recipient of this type of "encouragement" both on Fidonet and Usenet Newsgroups in the past. If you have read any of my blogs up to this point you know that I am up front and personal. My life is an open book. I do not mince words and I do not sugar coat anything. I try to be as REAL as I can possibly be. When I do that sometimes I offend people and they take the opportunity to let me know every chance they get.

There is more to come folks since I have not written about the events of this weekend or the last couple of days. Every day is a story. You just have to be willing to put it to words. I will return shortly after my run to town to take care of business this morning.

Have a SPLENDIFOROUS day!!!

Adding the ability to comment on my drivel.....

I received word from a friend this morning in e-mail stating that she would like to be able to leave comments about my drivel. Wow. Way cool Patty. So, I will be attempting to install "Blogspeak" which is a free service that allows others to comment on my writing within our web log. In order to "see" the changes I have to edit my template for our weblog and then republish the WebLog for the changes to appear. That gives me ample opportunity to both drivel about new events as well as test. Way cool aye?



James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
moffittj@bellsouth.net

Labor Day 2003

Labor Day 2003 is almost upon us. Being that I am under employed and over appreciated I suppose I can still celebrate the right to work in the USA. We take our freedoms for granted sometimes. If you have been in America for most or all of your life then you think that it is quite normal that we are able to pursue any type of career that we have a skill to perform and expect more than minimum wage. It is a fact that the unemployment rate is high here in SC and maybe in other states as well. I bet that if you compared our unemployment rate in the U.S. with some third world countries that maybe it would pale in comparison. I have been unemployed for 7 months now (gasp) but I have yet to have had to eat rice or beans out of a bag. I guess that means that even in my unemployment status I am richer than some other folks that dont have access to our system.

What all of that means is that I am desperately trying to remind myself that while unemployment stinks and I am sick and tired of begging employers for a job things could be worse. So, if you are unemployed and getting unemployment insurance be happy. You could be unemployed and NOT getting unemployment insurance. If you are unemployed and not getting unemployment insurance you too can be happy in that you live in America and can certainly find a "job" of any type if you are healthy enough to work. Granted, that job might have to be flipping burgers at McDonalds and cleaning restrooms for minimum wage. That is better than winding up on the street somewhere folks.

One of the things that can hinder our job searching tasks is our perception of what we are worth. When I think of having to get out of bed to work at McDonalds I shudder. That is because my perspective is that of a white collar worker that is "used" to making a LOT of money.
In 11 weeks from now guess what? I will be at ZERO dollars an hour vs 7.50 that I make with unemployment benefits now and flipping burgers at McDonalds might be very tempting at that point. Something vs nothing. It is not hard to do the math on that one folks.

If you have a job and you are reading this realize that the grass is NOT greener on the other side of the unemployment line. The grass is there but I can not afford to fertilize it, cut it, bag it up or whatever. I can barely afford to walk on it much less do anything else. I am so broke I can not pay attention. Of course the reason for that is because I was not able to put LIFE on complete stand still while I search frantically for a JOB so I can pay those pesky bills that come in every month like clock work. Employment may end but I can assure you that debt does not.

If you have a job but dont like it then consider the alternatives. Be thankful for that job every day because that job is what pays the bills and helps you to enjoy those little extras that you like and have grown accustomed to.

Announcing Blogs4god.com

During my foray into the world of RSS yesterday I ran across many new RSS feeds. One of those feeds led me to Blogs for God, a semi definitive listing of Christ centered blogs or journals

I registered our BLOG and RSS feed and I received the e-mail this morning that our(my) blog had been added to their index. Thanks so much for doing this Dean.

Yesterday I managed to break away from Cyberworld long enough to make a trip to the Berkeley County Solid Waste (DUMP) facility to get rid of moving boxes and assorted trash left by the former residents here. I also found a new appreciation for my wife's station wagon's air conditioner. When we moved from Greenville SC back to Duck Ditch USA (Goose Creek) it was painfully obvious to me that it is almost 5 to 10 degrees cooler in the upstate. That must be because we are closer to the mountains there. Maybe the elevation is higher? I do know that the humidity here is stifling compared to there.

This marks day 7 back home. We are still underemployed and over appreciated. Slowly but surely the junk is coming out of the boxes and being put in its appropriate places. This time around we are minus our 32" TV, cable TV , washer and dryer. The TV and cable connection is something we are going to learn to do without. I miss the ability to watch TV when I am eating dinner. I also miss late night TV which was used from time to time to help me to get to sleep on those nights where I was wide awake while everyone in the house was passed out.

The sad thing about cable TV is that everything on it with regards to movies and the like I have already seen. How many waking moments in my life have I wasted watching the stuff that Hollywood has produced for centuries. The answer to that question is too many. God has given each of us minds filled with the desire to acquire knowledge and to be inquisitive about our surroundings and environment. Somehow we have lulled ourselves to sleep mentally with the multitude of entertainment options in our world. Everywhere you turn there is input. Do you remember the movie Short Circuit? Johnny 5 being ALIVE. More input, more input he cried as he devoured hours and hours of TV programming and absorbed all the history and information that provided him.

Is TV sort of like a live LOG of human history perhaps? It certainly reflects human nature and the decline of morality through the centuries.
Johnny 5 (robot in movie) was always afraid of any attempt to DISASSEMBLE. Thinking back on the movie and on how information can be both positive and negative I am wondering if we have been allowing the garbage from Hollywood to slowly disassemble us mentally and spiritually.

For some reason television fills the role of allowing us to open up our minds and let go of the controls to what we allow to enter in. No, I do not feel that TV in and of itself is inherently evil or that it has supernatural abilities to control our minds. I do feel that we has humans have an uncanny desire to be entertained. We need to escape from the realities of this life and so we allow the boob tube to lull us into a false feeling of freedom and fantasy.

No sooner had we settled into our former residence Cable TV reared his ugly head in the shape of shared cable with our neighbor. Was I tempted to take the innocent black cable from my neighbor and run it through the window and attach it to my 13" (cough) black TV with no remote. Heck, I could atleast watch Jay Leno at night as I allowed my body and mind to be lulled into the world of sleepiness. Surprisingly enough for me I managed to remind myself that I would be stealing cable and not sharing it and that I need to be doing more constructive things with my mind than being lulled to a stupor by the television.

The down side of no television is that you are insulated and shielded from all the droning of all those marketing schemes called commercials and all the news broadcasts from around the world. Now that I think of that it is really not that bad. I can now choose to fill my time and my mind and spirit with OTHER things. I can choose to pursue knowledge and wisdom through reading of my bible, bible commentaries and listening to Christian radio.

The problem with time for us humans is that the hour glass that God has running for each of us is doing one thing each day. Time is slowly but surely running out. One day that sand will finally reach the end. The sand that was at the top will have filtered through to the bottom and time we end for us as we know it. Then we will be face to face with the God that created us and our lives will be a story that can be read through eternity. Our lives are but a vapor according to the bible.
In Ecclesisastes we read that everything has its season and God has given man a "season" to live in. It is up to us to do something positive and constructive with our lives during this season. God gave us life and grace because He created us and loves us with a love that is everlasting. We can never earn that grace or love. We can however use what God has given us and give it back to Him with seasons of time in which we pursue our relationship with Him and use what He gives us back to the community of people that He has placed us in.

How many people are prisoners in their own mind ? How many people has Hollywood captured? How many people are drowning in their daily entertainment shielded with a false hope and false security from the world full of dying people all around them? When we choose to substitute God for the things of this world we are short circuiting Gods perfect will and plan for our lives. We are more than just innocent microbes with no purpose other than to eat, drink , sleep and reproduce. We are creatures that are made in His image. We were designed to praise and worship our creator and to love him. We were created to bring pleasure to God Almighty through our devotion and love for Him and appreciation for His gifts to us.

Is it time for you and I to short circuit the controls that this world has on our lives and to refocus what we allow to enter into our minds and spirits? Instead of pursuing to be entertained and living in a fantasy world that gives us temporary relief we should instead be pursuing the truth. The problem with truth is that most of the time it really hurts.
Truth usually clears up all of the cloudy interference in our minds and gives us a clear reflection of who we are. The problem with truth is it always brings us to a point of making a decision. Decisions mean choices. A choice to change directions, attitudes and desires. When we are face to face with truth will we make the right choices? Most of the time when we make the right choice it will not be easy or a popular decision. In the book of Joshua we remember the cry of "choose you this day whom you will serve". What God are we serving anyway? Is God compartementalized in our lives and we only give him a tiny portion of our time, energy and resources?

If we only give God a tiny portion of our minds, hearts, spirit, gifts and talents what does that say about our devotion and love for Him? Do we love God this much as we spread out our arms signifying total surrender or do we have our arms wrapped around ourselves because we love ourselves and the things of this world so much that we can let go? Are we imprisoned by our own inability to let go and let God?

It is time that we short circuit the things in our world that are keeping us from being who God wants us to be. It is time for us to make decisions and choices that will not only redefine who we are but it will also redefine and change who the world is around us. When we learn how to redefine what makes us happy and what is important to us we will then be able to receive the full glory of God in our lives and be the containers of love, truth, mercy and grace that others in our lives will be able to turn to. The Bible says that we are to be separate from this world and not of this world. Be Ye Holy for I am Holy says the Lord God Almighty. Sanctification is a life long process that only God can work out through us. God needs for us to be devoted and sold out to the process though. God will never force us to short circuit those things that keep us from knowing Him fully.

Our Friends in Texas August 2003

I finally have the time to do a blog about our trip to Texas and I can also insert some cool pictures and SHOW you who some of our friends are.



Katy and Paula Bush at Kitchen Table in Garland Texas. Paula and Katy were childhood friends.



Rachel Bush sitting at Computer


Katy meets Melody Morris for the first time in REAL LIFE!!



Katy and Karen Perring in kitchen at Robstown Texas just outside of Corpus Christi Texas. Karen was Katy's High School friend.




After the memorial service for Hal Eads on South Padre Island on Saturday we left on Sunday morning and spent the day in Richmond Texas with Carla Meuth. Carla Meuth is a teacher at Sugurland Middle School who Katy worked with before we left Texas.



We left Richmond Texas on Monday after visiting with Carla Meuth and headed for Picyune Mississippi to visit with Dawn Vaughn who Katy knows through Circle of Friends elist. This picture shows Dawn and her 7 year old daughter Savannah



Our furry family members awaiting us when we arrived back in South Carolina

Coming Home to Grace Fellowship Church


In July of 2000 we found ourselves living in Suburban Lodge off of Ashley Phosphate road in Charleston SC. All five of us lived in a single room with two beds, a bathroom and a tiny kitchenette. We found ourselves there because a decision had been made to utilize the medical services at MUSC for our daughter Jessica who was at that time 9 years old and had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

In August of 2000 we met Troy and Shannon McNear in Goose Creek and we moved into their double wide trailer off of 159 Mapleridge Drive. We spent several months getting settled into our new surroundings and learning what it was like to have a daughter with cancer. Our church home was 2.5 hours away on Hilton Head Island and all the friends that we knew lived either in Texas or on Hilton Head Island or Bluffton SC. We missed the comfort of having people that we knew close to us. The search for a church home was sporadic at best and due to our circumstances we probably spent more time focusing on internal issues to our family vs. looking outside of our family.

In December of 2000 I wound up at the Trident Medical Center with chest pains in the Emergency Room. For the last ten years I have suffered chest pains about once per year and every time I would be examined nothing could be found. When I explained this to the doctors in the Trident Emergency Room they admitted me over night for observation and stress tests the next morning. I remember the pastoral care lady that came by to visit with me just before I was to be released. The first thing this pastoral care lady did was to ask me a direct question and wanted to know exactly how I felt about something. I have no idea what the question was at this time but I remember unloading on her. It is amazing that the lady stayed in the room with me longer than 5 minutes. I guess I had a lot on my mind and she became the recipient of all those thoughts and feelings.

One of the focuses of the conversation was to find out where our family attended church. Of course, at this point we were not attending anywhere. We did not have a church home. The pastoral care representative assured me that she would provide me with a list of local churches and organizations before I was discharged from the hospital. The conversation ended on that note and the lady took leave of my room. I figured that would be the last I would see of anyone in Pastoral Care at Trident Hospital. I also figured that the lady went back to her office to put a big red X on my room on some centralized map of the rooms in the hospital to warn other Pastoral Care employees to steer clear.

Before I knew it Tom Glisson knocks on the door and introduces himself as the Director of Pastoral Counseling at Trident Hospital and wanted to come in to chat for a few moments. I was having flash backs of the days when I would have fun with the local Jehovah's Witnesses. At first I would play stupid and let them present their plan to me. After a while I would start asking pointed questions about things to the point that they figured out that I was not a dummy and that I did in fact know something about my bible. Before I would know it I would have older and wiser representatives showing up at my door. So, here I was facing the "Big Gun" of pastoral care. I did not know if I was in trouble or if he was there to just escort me off the property.


Tom Glisson is very good at what he does and I think that the first thing that he did was to put my mind to ease. He was not there to shoot me with a big tranquilizer gun or to beat me up about what I had said or not said to his Pastoral Care representative. Tom told me that he was a little uneasy with sharing that he was the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church. He was uneasy about it because of ethical policies at the hospital which forbade him to solicit hospital patients for membership to the church he pastors. Tom Glisson offered me a list of local churches and told me if we happened to come by for a visit that we would be welcome.

I will never forget the day that I visited the CHEESY CHURCH located on a DEAD END Street in Goose Creek SC. One rainy Saturday evening in December of 2000 I found Grace Fellowship Church. If it had not been for the Internet and Mapquest I probably would have never found it. I remember calling Katy while sitting in front of the church in the parking lot and commenting how CHEESY the church looked and that it was located in the middle of a subdivision on a dead end street.

At first glance this church did not even come close to meeting anything that was on my check list for a church to visit much less considering our home. I was thinking, "You have got to be kidding me". Who in the world comes here? How can anyone find it? What can I ever hope to find here? What will my family think? Does Pastor Tom Glisson REALLY pastor a church that looks like this? Many thoughts went through my head and now I know that it was a good thing that I did not discount the value of the church because of the way the outside looked and where it was located. I threw the mental check list into the trash and committed to visiting the next day which was Sunday.

Little did I know but Grace Fellowship Church would become our church home for 2.5 years. I thought that I was the ONLY person that was crazy and had problems that most church pastors would shirk from. I even found out that I could scratch behind my ear and say "my doctor said I would be fine, he just never said when" and they actually loved me despite my problems and invited us to keep coming back. Maybe they kept allowing us to come back out of shear love and concern for Katy and the kids.

The year 2000 went into the year 2001 and in August of 2001 our daughter Jessica lost her battle with cancer and went to be with the Lord. Grace Fellowship church may not be the "popular" church in Goose Creek or easy to find. Grace Fellowship has a group of people that could care less about what you wear or what you drive to church or where you live. The church family accepts you for who you are and loves you despite your failures or shortcomings. The road that we walked down between June of 2000 and August of 2001 was not a very pleasant one and it was full of trials and anguish. I can honestly say that I am not sure that we would have survived the experience without the love and presence of Grace Fellowship Church and its members. Grace Fellowship became our church home and Pastor Tom Glisson became our pastor during this time.

In October of 2001 my contract with ACS Government Services was coming to an end at the end of the year and I began to utilize the Internet and recruiters to find a new permanent IT job or contract. Before I knew it I was offered a one year contract working for Ahold USA in Greenville SC. We found a house in Simpsonville SC to rent and shortly thereafter we left to start a new life away from Goose Creek SC and Grace Fellowship church. I can not tell you how tough that was to do. To move away from people that love and care for you. I remember Pastor Tom telling me about how upset he was about our leaving. I also can not remember any other pastor ever telling me that. The awesome part of being a member at Grace Fellowship Church is that you are not part of a huge organization that will swallow you up. You are part of the family and people know when you are there or not there.


In November of 2002 Ahold USA laid off 36 employees and told the contractors that our contracts would be terminated in April of 2003. On Feb 1 of 2003 my contract ended. I have been looking for work since then. Between November of 2002 and January of 2003 our family attended a church on a regular basis. We never joined because I did not know if this contract was going to be stable or not. When the leadership of this church found out that I was laid off but that we had not joined their church body they told us that there was nothing they could do for us because we were not official church members. We were not on their official church roll. I suppose that our attending regularly and tithing had nothing to do with it. It just was not good enough. We had a similar experience with another church and I have to say that those experiences soured me towards church attendance in general.

Recently our church family at Grace Fellowship came through in a BIG way when they helped us to make a trip to Corpus Christi Texas so Katy could attend a memorial service for her brother who had passed away in August of this year. Before we left for Texas we spent the weekend with Pastor Tom and his family and that was when he told me of a plan to approach the church to see about helping us to move back home. I was certainly surprised and overwhelmed by the idea. At this point in my life I was in survival mode making it from one day to the next and one week to the next wondering what in the world was going to happen to us.

I remember asking Pastor Tom why he was willing to approach the church about helping us in such a big way. Pastor Tom just shrugged his shoulders and said, "You are part of our family aren't you?" That is when I was reminded of the fact that even if you are not present in body once you become part of the church family at Grace Fellowship you are always considered family. The whole time we were gone in Simpsonville we kept in contact with Pastor Tom, his family and other church members because we had developed meaningful relationships and we missed all of the fun that we had together.
Grace Fellowship has reminded us and shown us that we are loved and appreciated as the church provided the funds needed to move us and our belongings back to Goose Creek. I am grateful for all of the hard work that was shown on Saturday when Pastor Tom, Tom Welch, Shawn, Troy McNear and many others whose names I can't remember helped us to unload the Uhaul truck and get settled back into our former residence. I am equally thankful to Troy and Shannon McNear for allowing us to move back into the house on 159 Mapleridge as well.

I am hopeful that Pastor Tom will share this story with the church either verbally or by passing this letter out so you can read it for yourself. I want to thank each of you at Grace Fellowship who have played a part in our family and the family life at Grace Fellowship Church. Your willingness to serve our family in both small and large ways has touched us tremendously. We are back HOME and we are glad to be here. Your love and generosity has stirred my faith in God and my spirit to the point that I want you to know that you too are part of our family. If there is anything that we can ever do to serve you or Grace Fellowship all you have to do is contact us and we will do whatever we can to minister to your needs or situation.

Thank you again for being the family of God and for being there for us in our time of need. May God richly bless you and anoint you to continue being who He wants you, the church, to be in this community.

In His Precious name and service
The Moffitt Family

This week is being spent getting things back into shape around the house. We still have multiple boxes sitting around the house begging to be unloaded. The job search is continuing and I have managed to clean up a majority of the jungle that was surrounding us on all sides.
It has been HOT HOT HOT here. Whew, you would think I lived in Afghanistan. Ok, maybe it has not been quite that hot but it has been pretty steamy here.

I went to hear Pastor Bob Gray at Trident Baptist Church on Monday and Tuesday. The key message from Dr. Gray was on soul winning. I have a five page sermon outline for those of you that are interested in digging into what the word of God has to say about that.

We are getting ready to go to Grace Fellowship for the monthly pot luck dinner which will be SO Yummy...

My, how times flies when you are having fun. It seems as if we just got back from our trip to Texas back on last Tuesday. Now it is Saturday afternoon and I am sitting here writing to you about our trip to Goose Creek SC.

Loading the truck only claimed two victims and a couple of scratches for two people. No major injuries and we only damaged two pieces of furniture. The joys of moving a lot is that ultimately things are going to get torn up no matter how hard you try to keep it from happening.

The trip between Travelers Rest and Goose Creek was uneventful and it was not until we landed in Goose Creek around 9pm that things got fun. I took the UHaul truck to the UHaul center to off load the car carrier. There was not enough space in the main parking lot for me to turn the truck around while pulling the car carrier. What to my wandering eyes appeared but a field behind the main parking lot. At first glance things looked dry and I also found several trailers parked in the field. I deducted that it was safe to drive the 26' truck off into the field so I could turn it around. What I should have done was put the truck in park and walked into the field myself to VERIFY that it was indeed safe to do so. For a fleeting moment my brain told me to question my assumption but you know what folks say about assumptions.

It took me approximately 35 seconds to leave the concrete and come to a complete stop while the truck was still in drive and trying to go forward. I tried and tried to rock the truck forward and backward thinking I could disengage it from the soft mud that I encountered. They say that the road to perdition is paved with good intentions but no matter how many good intentions that I may have had the truck was going no where. By this time I had several on lookers who happened to be at the Goose Creek EMS next door. I think that they probably had bets as to how quickly I would get the truck stuck in the mud. I would also believe that they probably have a wall in their garage that has a mark for every time a Uhaul driver has gotten a truck stuck in that very same field.

It is one thing to make a stupid mistake but something entirely different to have to broadcast it to friends or family when you call for help. They always say "You did what? What in the world were you thinking James?" Thanks be unto good manners the laughter was kept to a minimum and my friend , Paul Bunyon, and several EMS workers used a Chevy 4x4 and a chain and pulled the truck out of the mud. I know that you are wondering about who Paul Bunyon is. I want to give him credit for helping me but in order to finish the next paragraph I have to protect his true identity so that I can finish this story. Paul Bunyon , my tree felling friend, is an integral part of this story.

We spent the night at the Pastors house and got some much needed rest for all of the sore and aching body parts. Thanks to the help of about 10 people from church we had the truck unloaded in approximately 1 hour. I am so thankful for the help and assistance that we have received from our friends and church family.

Daniel Boone was a man he was a BIG Man..... Oh, I am sorry, I wandered a bit. I was supposed to tell you about my friend , Paul Bunyon, the great outdoorsman, a REAL man. Paul Bunyon IS a REAL MAN. I am not kidding. This guy can work from sun up to sun down and there is almost NOTHING that this guy can not do with his bare hands. Ok, ok, maybe I am exagerrating a bit. Sometimes he does need to use tools. Can we say power tools? Tim the tool man would be jealous of Paul's prowess with power tools.

Today is no different than most days with regards to my memory of how talented my friend Paul is with regards to his strength, agility and endurance. Not only did he help unload the 26' truck he also hauled all the trash out of our yard into a large burn pile. Paul Bunyon then proceeds to fire up the chain saw and started cutting down trees out of the neighbors yard in preparation for moving out an older trailer and making room for a more new improved and newer LARGER trailer. I KNOW that the lady in the shoe box across the street will be absolutely thrilled but that is a whole different story.

I know, I chase too many rabbits in my writing but I know that it probably keeps you on your toes. Why make writing dull and boring anyway? Lest I digress lets get back to why the power tools and Paul Bunyon are so important to this story. Just as I did not MEAN to bury the truck in mud my friend Paul did not MEAN to cut down the tree and certainly did not expect the tree to take out the power on our entire street. Did you ever wonder how to get all your neighbors out into the street all at the same time? Try killing the power on your street and you will have more friends than you would ever want.

When the power went off I was under my desk amidst all of the different power cords and connectors that have to be plugged in to get all of my computer toys functional again. There are three things that happen first when it comes to getting the household functional after first moving in. Katy works on the kitchen (food) and food making utensils. The computer network and all the essentials for getting online fast. (Must have access) and the stereo equipment comes next. We must have tunes. If we have food, Internet Access and tunes we can survive anything. Well, anything but friends with a hankering to cut down trees in the middle of the day with their power tools.

It appears that when you "change" the settings in your BLOG that you have to POST something NEW before the changes show up. So, here is a little bit of drivel to see if the changes took place.

We landed back in Travelers Rest on Tuesday August 19th fully one day BEFORE we had intended to arrive. When I get the bug to get somewhere I usually do just that. I drag my family kicking and screaming into our automobile , lash them in and put the gas pedal to the floor board. We left Houston Texas at 9 am on Monday and spent the night in Birmingham Alabama. We left Tuesday morning at 8 am and only stopped long enough for breakfast. We dropped out of warp drive at approximately 3 pm when we stopped in our driveway.

There is no rest for the weary (wicked?) so we got a good nights rest in our FAVORITE King sized bed and then the fun began this morning. Our metal shoe box is starting to look like a card board box factory. I will be retrieving the Uhaul truck and car transport Friday morning and then my fun will begin as I transfer our junk from the shoe box to a metal shoe box on wheels. Gosh, you would think that I have a shoe box fetish with as many times as I use that as an allegory to describe where we live. I guess I just hate the sound of trailer or mobile home because I get images of funnel clouds coming out of the sky looking for the nearest "trailer park".

I called Ma Bell today and they are moving our telephone service as of this Friday. I am wondering if those of you who are reading this will KNOW how to find out what our new number is going to be WITHOUT writing me an e-mail and asking me for it. . (That stands for VERY evil Grin). Since MaBell is pushing DSL in our old neighborhood and everything is FREE to try it I said "WHY NOT" we are Happily Addicted to the WEB anyway.... So, by September 4th we should receive our DSL start up package and I will hopefully be able to install the DSL modem and get online with very FEW complications. For those of you on my e-mail distribution list you will get my new e-mail address when it is confirmed.

Oh, yes, I will give you a HINT with regards to finding our new phone number that will be turned on this Friday. Two letters are IM. That is all you will get so happy digging. heheheheheh

I have digital pictures on a digital camera but the serial cable that hooks the camera to my computer is MIA. It does not help that most of our stuff is now in boxes so I guess the picture transfer and www.fototime.com album additions will just have to wait until we get moved an unpacked. I will try to do a blog and add some pictures that we took when we visited with our friends and family.

Ok, enough babbling, hope you have a great day !

I am a subscriber of LOOK Yahoo Group (stands for Loss of our Kids I think). Most of the time I just read but do not participate too much because it seems that mostly the women are doing all of the talking. That could be because we just don't have that many men OR the men that are there are playing the silent game. So, with that in mind I have been posting a little bit more in the hopes of engaging in some conversation about life in general much less our LOOK topics. I wrote the following post just now and thought it was good for me to add it to my blog for a gentle reminder to myself and others that might need to hear it too.
______________________________

Prayers can NEVER hurt any of us. Sometimes those prayers are the only thing that holds us up as we are wallowing in the funk of life. When we are weak that is when HE is strong. When we are full of pride and think that we can handle the issues of life all by our little lonesome then perhaps HE is not so near.

I am thankful for God's sustaining grace and for the extended family of Christ that has reached out to my family in the last two years. One of the things that I have been learning as we walk through the valley of the shadow of unemployment and the continuing instability is that God is still alive and He is more faithful to His word and promises than I am. I am also learning the value of living in the meantime and sharpening my ability to be content no matter what position I find myself.

I am not sure that the word "Happy" is one that truly reflects how I "feel". Thanks to our being busy with the trip to Texas and our impending move I have been able to focus on other things than our situation which still remains bleak. I know that I need to focus on those things that I can change and leave the things I can not change to God. One thing that I can change and I always need to work on is my attitude towards life, family and those around me.

We need a safe journey from Travelers Rest to Goose Creek without any major problems. We need to get settled back in our old house and then Katy and I need to find some type of employment before my next 12 weeks of unemployment runs out. I am sure that being in a familiar town with familiar people and being back at our old church home will make the trials of the weeks to come much easier to deal with.

Traveling to Corpus Christi Texas

Our journey started out this last Wednesday at 2pm after dropping off our hairy family members in Easley SC. (Angel and Sammy the Moffitt mutts for those of you that are wondering what in the world I am talking about).

I drove until midnight Wed night which landed us in Vicksburg Mississippi. I spent 45 min between Clinton MS and Vicksburg trying to find a Motel that would honor the coupons you find in the Traveler Lodge publication that is located at Shoney's and other participating retailers. I found out the hard way that those coupons are useless at 11 pm at night and they use the catch phrase "upon availability" to get out of honoring the coupons. I finally found a Motel 8 that let us stay for 44.00 for the night. That was 10.00 cheaper than most places at that time of the night.

We arrived in Garland Texas at approximately 3pm on Thursday afternoon and spent several hours running between Terrell Texas and Quinlan Texas visiting my aunts and uncles before heading over to Garland Texas where Katy's college room mate lives.

My uncle Carl is in a hospital in Terrell Texas. He was in a car accident several months ago which left him with an internal head injury (trauma) which has scrambled what little brain function he had left. Uncle Carl has fallen several times at home, broke a hip and suffered some pretty bad bruises. When I saw him in the hospital they had him restrained so that he can not get out of bed. From what I can tell he needed to be restraied. It was hard for me to see my uncle at th age of 76 years old being in this type of shape. The last memories I had of him he was getting older and not so physically active but atleast he had his mental capacity left. I guess those days are over.

One of my aunts who is married to Uncle Carl is in her 70's and even though I recognize her voice I had a shock to see her physically. I also have an aunt in Quinlan that is 80 years old and she seems to be getting along better than can be expected considering her age.

We spent the night Thursday night at Jack and Paula Bush's residence in Garland and had a wonderful time swimming in their pool and enjoying all around great hospitality. Katy and Paula had a blast talking about their college dormitory memories. Paula has two girls who are close to the ages of Kristina and Justin so they bonded immediatly and had a blast.

We drove from Garland Texas at 2 pm on Friday and stopped by Pleasanton Texas which is just outside of Corpus Christi (by 90 min) and visited with Melody who is one of Katy's Circle of Friends elist members. We spent 45 minutes there so Katy and Melody could bond and then hit the road again. We arrived in Robstown Tx around 11pm Friday night and spent the night there and went to the memorial service at 10 am at a Methodist church called Isle of the Son on South Padre Island.

The memorial service went well and I was pleased to hear that the service was used not only to celebrate the life of Hal Eads and his accomplishments but it was also a time where Hal's relationship with Christ was highlighted in a very positive way. Hal may be absent in body but because of his relationship with his Lord and Saviour Hal is present with Christ in glory.

The memorial service was nice and a full multimedia presentation with a power point slide and accompanying music helped to focus our minds on our own mortality and our final resting place.

The afternoon was spent on Saturday at Pat and Jackie Mosmeyer's home in Port Aransas Texas which is south of South Padre Island and Corpus Christi Texas. Much food and drink was consumed and stories shared about the life and times of Hal Eads.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we will depart Robstown Texas and head to Houston Texas where I will be visiting with my son Jeremy who is now a Senior in High School in the Richmond Rosenburg area just outside of Houston. It is hard to believe that Jeremy is 17 years old and almost out of high school.

The trip thus far has been relatively uneventful other than the miles and miles of endless highway. Our car has held up pretty good other than having some minor tire issues but that can happen to anyone on such a long trip as this one. Thanks to our church family in Goose Creek we were able to make this trip to begin with.




James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
jcmoffitt@charter.net

First there was Will & Grace, now Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Nip & Tuck. Prime Time Television is being invaded by special interest groups in a big way. I just spent 10 minutes reviewing Nip & Tuck and I have to say that I was absolutely amazed at how blatant the portrayal of sexuality and homosexuality.

It is apparent to me that prime time Television is a MAJOR vehicle for brainwashing unsuspecting Americans into believing that ALL of this is something that we should just tolerate. Why in the world IS IT important for me to TOLERATE sin and embrace it to the point that I invite it into my home and teach it to my family? If I sit in front of the television and passively watch the garbage and I do not make a stand for righteousness by turning away from it then I am embracing and endorsing the content. If I am passive and say nothing and allow my family to view this type of garbage then I am teaching them that it is OK to tolerate sin.

Tolerance and diversity are the catalysts for the diseases of this world that are destroying the moral fabric of our society and damaging the family unit as we know it. Just in case you need a definition for the biblical family unit it exists of hetrosexual MALE and FEMALE united under the laws of nature and Gods word as husband and wife. This type of marriage before God and man is what produces the offspring that we call children.

Two people of the same sex can not have children yet there are same sex partners that insist on the same privileges and protection under our laws. Same sex partners want to adopt children so that they can appear to be the normal family when they are not. When we say things and do things that are the counterfeit of that which is natural or righteous then we are deceiving ourselves and others. The fruit of the spirit does not provide us with examples of deception. Only the fruit of darkness provides us with the counterfeit fruit of sin.

Yes, I am conservative. Yes, I believe that Gods word , written in the bible is truth. No, I do not believe that God approves of SIN. Homosexuality IS SIN just as idolatry, lying, stealing, fornication, adultery and any other sin you can think of is labeled as sin. If we do anything that separates us from a relationship with God that is considered sin. If we love something MORE than we love God that is considered sin. Here is what the book of Galatians has to say about sin.

Gal 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
Gal 5:20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
Gal 5:21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.



I believe that we are to embrace the person and love them just as God would love them. That does NOT mean that I am to embrace , support or encourage sinful habits or addictions.

Gal 6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
Gal 6:2 Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.


We would like to believe that our righteousness and our love for God and His word and the world around us is going to effect permanent change. The problem is that the world is going to hell in a hand basket all around us and it is happening because good men remain silent and passive. When that happens evil prevails. We have to identify sin and the effects of that sin on our people and the world they live in. Then we need to draw a line in the sand and call other men and women to stand up for holiness and Gods word. We need to do everything in our power to effect permanent change in our communities through our actions and not just our lip service. We need to quit fooling ourselves into thinking that the church down the street or the clergy is going to get the job done.

If these words are wooing you into an intellectual comfort zone then please do yourself a favor and bang your head on your desk several times until it hurts. If you are a disciple of Christ then what I am saying here really is old news. I am not the first person to sound the alarm and incite people to action. The question is this. Do we believe what we believe to the point that we are willing to sacrifice those things that make up our comfort zones? Are we willing to give up everything that stands in the way of affecting positive and permanent change in our community?

Do you remember the story about the man that was on top of his house during a major flood? As the story progresses the man exhibits great faith at first and then foolishness. On several occasions while the man was praying for help God sent him a way to be rescued. I don't remember all of the story but I know that a boat came by and then lastly a helicopter. The man rejected the help and told them that he had faith that God was going to save him. The man winds up drowning and asked God why his faith failed him and God did not save him. What about the boat filled with rescuers or the helicopter?

I liken our story to the man on top of the house with the flood waters rising and our having faith that while things look bleak that God is going to provide us with the help we need. This weekend a boat came by and I want to thank the Lord for having enough sense to recognize it for what it was.

We spent the weekend in Goose Creek with our former pastor and his family. We went to Grace Fellowship Church on Sunday. The church not only is assisting us with funds for gas money so we can make the trip to Texas but they also are planning on renting a Uhaul truck and sending some of the men to Travelers Rest at the end of this month to pack us up and move us back. Ok, so maybe it is not a boat bur more a Uhaul Truck. I am not picky in the least. :)

I was pleasantly surprised to hear the pastor tell me of his plans to move us back. I asked Pastor Tom WHY they were willing to help us. He looked at me and said, "You are a part of our family aren't you?" Wow, that is incredible. We are a part of that family and have been for the last 3 years. On several occasions Pastor Tom, his family and Grace Fellowship Church helped our family as we were walking through the trials of Jessica's fight with cancer. Without them our situation would have been much worse.

There were several things that had to happen BEFORE this plan was implemented. The church finance committee had to agree to it and I had to find a place to live. Both of those pieces fell in place this weekend. The funds were approved and I spoke to our former landlord and friend in Goose Creek and it just happens that our old residence at 159 Mapleridge Drive is coming available on August 23rd. Imagine that huh? My former landlord understands our situation and is willing to help us in whatever way that he can. Can you say Praise the Lord?? I am....

Thank you Jesus for working out the details and for friends and a church family that loves us and is willing to reach out and help our family.

I had no idea that the pastor was planning this and thusly it was a very nice surprise. We like Travelers Rest but we do not like the unemployment with no job prospects in sight. I looked at the classifieds this weekend in Charleston and it appears that there are quite a few more options there than here. I also know of several IT positions that are coming available on the AFB there so I am hoping that one of those positions will have my name on it.

Pastor Tom has also approached me about taking lead with regards to the mens ministry at Grace Fellowship. This has also surprised me as well. I am humbled that Pastor Tom would entrust this to me and I am going to look forward to this challenge. Grace Fellowship is a small congregation but I believe that there is a TON of potential there as the congregation grows in size. From what I was told this weekend they now have 18 youth in a very active and growing youth ministry there which is awesome! The church is also undergoing some major building renovations this year and we are hoping that taking out the old and making brand new will help with regards to retaining new members when they come in the doors on Sunday. More importantly though I am hopeful that as people continue to come through the church doors at Grace Fellowship that they will encounter the same love and acceptance that our family experienced and are still being shown.

We are planning to head towards Texas early Thursday morning. We should have just enough gas money and we will be praying that our car does not break down on the trip. It has been 3 years since we have visited friends and family in Texas and Katy wants to make the memorial service in Corpus on Saturday. I miss seeing my 17 year old son Jeremy who lives in Rosenburg which is just outside of Houston so I am hopeful to see him as well.

Thank you, our faithful friends and prayer partners who have lifted us up as a family as we have walked down the road of life in the last two years. Your faithful prayers and support have helped us in ways that you will not understand this side of heaven. We are so grateful for your help. I know that moving AGAIN is going to be a huge hassle but I am looking at this opportunity as a HUGE blessing and a chance to get plugged in to a community of people that we are familiar with and hopefully we will be in a better place to serve God and find full time employment so we can meet financial responsibilities that have had to take a back seat while we have been struggling.

God bless

Good morning folks!

Have you heard of RSS yet? If not, you will be. Maybe this is the first time you have heard of Really Simple Syndication. Thanks to my subscription to Lockergnome I have been learning about it myself.

Do you get published newsletters through e-mail? I get quite a few of them. Thanks to the world of spammers that are filling up our inboxes with a deluge of garbage that we did not ask for ISP's are implementing "filters" that STOP HTML formatted newsletters from being sent through their e-mail servers. The positive aspect of this happening is that it STOPS some SPAM that is in the form of HTML. There are several e-mail formats but one that has become dangerous is the HTML format that allows the e-mail to look and feel like a web page. Advertisers like to use that format because it is pretty and gets our attention with all of the widgets and gizmos that can be coded into the HTML content. The UGLY side to the HTML format is that hackers and virus code writers have found ways to put destructive payloads in the HTML code and therefore use that format to send out viruses.

Lockergnome is beginning to phase out their e-mail newsletter and replace their content with RSS feeds. Here is a link to what I am talking about with regards to Lockergnome.
http://rss.lockergnome.com/

On the right panel you will find links to FREE RSS News Aggregators. If you are familiar with Usenet and the USENET Newsgroups you will find RSS NEWS READERS to be easy to use. Usenet newsreaders allow you to read published usenet newsgroups as well as respond to the posts online. Also on the right panel you will find the new RSS feeds for Lockergnome. Once you have the RSS reader of choice installed on your computer you can click on the RSS feed you are interested in and cut and paste that url into your RSS reader as a NEW FEED that you want to stay updated on. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve here but it is worth it.

I know that some of you are probably rolling your eyes wondering what in the world I am babbling about. :) RSS or Really Simple Syndication provides those that publish content a new and safe environment to do so that is FREE of ISP filters and it provides folks like us an automated way to receive the RSS feeds with the information we DO WANT free of viruses and spam. Does THAT interest you? Who needs or wants more spam? I know I do not.

Using current technology if you do not want to have your inbox polluted with HTML email newletters you opted to go to the website and read at your leisure. If you have multiple newsletters you like to read that could be time consuming. Now , as publishers catch on and start formatting their content in XML and then create RSS feeds you can just plug that content into the RSS reader of choice.

Here is a for instance. Have you been following the Moffitt Web Log or BLOG? There are two ways to get our BLOG.

http://jcmoffitt.blogspot.com ------> web browser reads this content

OR

http://jcmoffitt.blogspot.com/rss/jcmoffitt.xml------> requires RSS Reader

OR

I can e-mail you a copy of each new blog as I am sent the copy every time I post.

When you click on the RSS feed above all you see is xml content which looks like gibberish in your web browser. You have to have a RSS Reader that can interpret xml.
Ok, I have given you enough information to either confuse you or peak your interest. I hope it did the latter. Click through the information on Lockergnome. Chris does a much better job of EXPLAINING how RSS works since he knows a lot more about it. :)

Email me at jcmoffitt@charter.net if you have any specific HOW TO questions and I will help you all I can.

Today Hal Eads passed from this life into eternity to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Hal trusted Christ as his personal saviour and while we will miss Hal we know and trust that we will see him again one day. Hal was one of Katy's older brothers. I believe that he was 48 years old. I only met Hal one or two times in the 13 years that Katy and I have been married but he seemed to be a very quiet and layed back type of person. Hal was very nice towards me and very likeable. On serveral occasions Hal helped our family out when we needed it. I know that Katy misses her brother and we are hoping we can make the trip to Corpus Christi for the memorial service. Hal was born December 19, 1954 and passed on at age 48 August 7, 2003. We love you Hal and miss you!

We spent two hours at the Job fair yesterday at the Palmetto Expo Center in Greenville. According to the evening news there were over 8000 people who attended. We spent several hours standing in one line after the other to hand out our resume, pick up applications and talk to recruiters. There seemed to be several types of employers present. Health Care, Cellular Retailers, Financial Advisor sales , Restaurant Management, Fast food establishments.

It seems as if Charter Communications (Cable provider) is going to be hiring 38 people for their call center soon. After you go through Man Power Temps and work for Charter for 8 to 12 weeks as a temp then they put you on full time as a Charter employee. Katy and I both have applied for these positions and are doing what we can to follow up with them via phone and email. The boys home Katy applied to is having problems with their phone lines so they have not gotten the reference checks done yet. We are hopeful that once that happens Katy will get a job offer.

Today we went back to the envelope method of budgeting. One envelope for rent, one for gas, one for.... You get the picture. For now we are putting our checking account on hold. Thanks to the account being in RED status there is not much we can do other than go to the envelope method of budeting and paying bills.

Our needs are being met. Food, clothing, roof over our heads are taken care of. Sometimes the needs are being met in the last moment but then again our timing is subjective and Gods timing is perfect. One of the lessons we are learning through all of this is that our perception of what a NEED is vs a WANT has become much clearer. We know that compared to the rest of the worlds population we are probably filthy rich. When you make a five and six figure income you are accustomed to THINGS which take the shape of physical objects as well as activities that cost money to do.

We are learning the hard way how to be more frugal. I am hopeful that we will be able to kill the cell phones and keep the Internet connection so that we can stay in touch with our extended family here on line. Nevertheless if it has to go it will be gone. :(

Signing off for now. Stay tuned for more to come!

Today was spent by beginning a new job search which began at the South Carolina Unemployment Commission. I found out about an entry level quality assurance position with a company in Simpsonville. Hey, didn't we just move from Simpsonville? I filled out the application and got set up for an interview on Wed at 9:15 am. Hopefully my resume wont scare them off and hopefully they will offer me a job. I figure that 9.00 per hour is better than 7.50 on unemployment benefits any day of the week.

I also went by the TATE TEMPORARIES in downtown Greenville and filled out an application. They apparently have some clerical work that I might be able to do on a temporary basis. Ya never know.... I found out this weekend that Walmart also has a phone number you can call and apply for a job online.

I also went by Kinkos by Haywood Mall area and got my resume and cover letter copied onto resume quality paper.

Now, I am going to Mauldin SC to bowl in my Monday night league. I think we are in fourth or fifth place and we have one or two more weeks to bowl and then this league will be over.

Do you have a Web Log? I bet you do and I do not know about it. If you do not have one, why not? Maybe you think that I am a little weird by posting my thoughts and daily/weekly/monthly updates for anyone to read. If you think I am a little weird you are probably not too far off base. My doctor says that I will be fine, he just did not say when. :)

Why do I keep this BLOG rolling you wonder? One reason I do this is so that people that are friends and family can keep up to date with our status. Its pretty easy actually. When I get in the mood to drivel I fire up w.blogger v 3.01 on my computer at home and I start banging at the keyboard. Once I am done I can post and publish to my web log with one click of the mouse. The second reason that I do this is because writing helps me to sort out my thoughts and bring order to my life. I guess that writing helps me to reflect on the events of the day or week and helps me to view my attitudes , focus and journey in such a way that I can learn and hopefully share with other people.

Why is it important to share our innermost thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears and dreams with the common Joe? Have you ever felt as if you were not talented or that even though you enjoyed something immensely you did not think that what you did would benefit someone else? That is how I felt about my writing. I have been writing short stories and ministry related articles online for approximately 9 years. One day I told an editor friend that even though I enjoy writing I felt that no one else would want to read it. I did not feel worthy of anyone else getting something out of my writing. I was reminded that people need to see the essence of who I am EVEN if I am a common Joe. I am a real person living in a real world with real problems just like you. How I perceive those problems , address those problems and solve those problems are unique to me and the life of my family. When I share my life journey and that of my family through my writing I am showing other common Joe's that their life is not that much different than mine and that they too can have hope. My desire is to share the HOPE that lives within me. That HOPE is Jesus Christ. Without Christ there is NO HOPE. Without Christ there is what the world offers and that is helplessness, pain, despair and depression. When Christ is at the center of your world there is HOPE, PEACE, LOVE and JOY. No matter how small of a JOE I or YOU might be the world needs to hear about the HOPE that lives within us and gives us the power to overcome the world in a REAL way.

You might be thinking at this point that you need to be a published author in order to do online journaling or blogging. All you need is the desire to put your thoughts and feelings into words and publish them to your own web log or journal. How well you write is not anywhere near as important as the essence of your journey. Yes, in order to be published and to earn money with your writing there will be 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Being a published writer may or may not happen for you but when that time comes you will know it. Until then just practice writing and get better at it. In the mean time you can just focus on telling the world about the Jesus in you.