Seven days and counting before we have to be out of Simpsonville.
We made arrangements to move within 10 minutes of Katy's job and she found out that they let her go yesterday. The excuse for letting her go was that she was afraid of the patients and she was not taking the blood pressure readings to their liking. Katy thinks that she was doing just fine and that one of the certified nursing assistants was talking trash about her to the boss. Maybe the job just was not to be? Atleast we have an almost full paycheck coming out of this fiasco on July 3rd which will help us tremendously.

On the positive side of things we will be living in cheaper accomodations and I will be able to afford them on what I get with unemployment and what I make at the flea market on the weekend.
Things will be extremely tight but that is better than being homeless or living in a motel for weeks on end.

When it rains it pours. I wonder what is in store for us next??

Ten days and counting. That is how long it will be before we are moved out of Simpsonville SC to Travelers Rest SC. We found a single wide trailer with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths to move into. The landlord there was willing to work with us with regards to paying rent by the week and the deposit was low enough so that we could afford it. We were starting to think that we would have to stay in a motel for 4 to 8 weeks while we found something that was affordable. Now we dont have to worry about getting a storage place for our stuff. Wahooooo!

We will be taking Justin and Kristina to Camp Happy Days on Sunday and then picking them back up the following Saturday. We will be moved into our new location by the time we pick them up.
The kids decided that they liked the new digs which is cool.

We have twelve days to move. Our landlord informed us that his soon to be ex wife owns the rental property that we are in and that she needs to move in since they are separated now. We cant really afford the house anyway and knew that we needed to move to something cheaper. This is forcing us to do the move now instead of in October. The search for a place to stay is in full swing. Thus far everyone wants first and last month rent to move in. My money tree is bare so that is not going to work for us.

We are having a moving sale and listing things on Iwanna.com to see if we can generate some extra income and lighten our moving load. In August of 1997 we sold everything we owned and moved to Douglasville Georgia. It took us almost 7 years to reaquire everything we sold. I told Katy that this was the last time I am doing this. No more working to acquire stuff that I am just going to have to sell anyway.

Our home phone is off and the cell phone and Internet connection will go next unless we can find the funds to pay the bills soon. If that happens we should be back online within 4 to 6 weeks. If you are reading this and we have your home phone number we will be in contact during that time to let you know how we are doing.

On the bright side of things Katy does have a job and I do have unemployment coming in until Feb of 2004. Those two things keep us from being totally indigent. PTL for that aye?

I know that we are not alone and that there are other folks that are in a pickle just like us. All we know is that we need a rest from this constant barrage of life changing events. We are weary since everything seems to be happening all at the same time. We need a break.

Come soon Lord Jesus come soon. I think that this family is more than ready....

I am starting to think that we live in a rain forrest and that we skipped summer and went straight into winter. This weekend was spent at the flea market and the temperature was 53 and it rained more than not. If you would have asked me on Saturday morning if I thought we would be able to make enough money to be profitable for the weekend I would have said no. Nevertheless going to the flea market is something we can do for ourselves to better our unemployment blues. We owe we owe so off to work we go is our motto. Some of you work Monday through Friday from 8 until 5 and we work Wed, Saturday and Sunday. We do not necessarily like it but for now it is helping us to stay afloat. My prayer on Saturday morning was two fold. I prayed that the Lord would turn the water spigot off and that he would send people with disposable income. God answered both of my prayers but not necessarily in the order or timing that I would have expected. Saturday morning the water spigot was turned off for about an hour which gave us time to unload our cars and get set up. Then the water was turned back on. We needed to rake together 293.00 to cover a rent check and the light bill that needs to clear our checking account this week. Thanks to our being able to sell Katy's computer we were able to get almost twice that amount which means the immediate emergency is taken care of. Thank you Jesus for providing for us in this way. Did I have the faith that God would provide this weekend? I guess that in some small way that I did because I did go out there even though I thought in my flesh and spirit that there was NO way that people would come to the flea market in the cold and rain.

I did not sell Katy's computer until 2:00 pm on Sunday when this guy walked up and was slightly interested in the deal. This person told me that they had been looking for a long time for a good deal and a good deal he certainly got. I told him that I thought God probably sent him by my table that day and that I was extremely thankful for his purchase. I also found out that this person also sells and works on computers and buys them in bulk which means that I may have made another local contact with someone that could provide me with consignment machines.

If I were to have it my way I would have a full time job making what I am used to make and we would not have to worry about bills and when they get paid. I believe that God has other ideas about providing for our family. Gods word says that we will never beg for bread and that our basic needs will be taken care of. Even though I have been under employed and over appreciated for over 95 days now we have not had to loose anything with regards to utilities and service. We have had to choose to sell off some of the extra STUFF that we have which are not required for every day life. Thusly Katy's computer has a new home. Are we happy about our belongings becoming a savings account for the flea market? No, we are not happy. The important thought here is that our happiness does not necessarily equate to our needs being met. Wants and temporary happiness do add up though. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy or experiencing happiness. What causes us problems though is when we prioritize our lives in such a way that we make decisions based on what makes us happy and fulfilled. We can not live our lives according to our emotional feelings but rather according to those priorities and purpose that God has for us at the moment.

I would rather that my needs be supplied abundantly and in advance so that my faith would not have to be tested on a daily basis. I would rather be happy and not have to experience stress and anxiety because of the bills that are piling up. The million dollar question is this. If everything is taken care of and there are no needs or dependency upon me to trust in Christ how much faith do I have and how much glory is given to Christ? When we are weak He is strong. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
If all of my needs are provided for and I do not have to strain or struggle with regards to hearing God then what will get my attention? When I am happy and everything is going my way will I choose to HEAR God or will I fill my days with the activities of life that will drown Him out? How will others see God working in my life? How will I grow in grace and spiritual maturity if my happiness is continually determined by temporary events and stuff that just clutters up my life?

We are not alone in this struggle. There are a lot of people who are unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. Perhaps we are going through this so that we can learn how to live with less and how to maintain our faith and JOY despite of our external circumstances. Someone reminded me of Job recently. What we are experiencing is a JOKE compared to that. Compared to Job and how HE reacted to what HE experienced I have been reduced into a sniveling clot of whimpering whining. The ouch factor on that is pretty severe but sometimes we need to be yanked out of our pity parties aye?

I am hopeful that out of the whining, wailing and knashing of teeth that I will learn what I am supposed to learn and that I will be able to share what I am learning in such a way as to impact the lives of others and produce spiritual fruit and life and restoration in the way that God would have me to.

Blessings to you our friends. May God bless you and keep you as you walk out your walk of faith this day and week.

In His service
James Moffitt

A friend and co laborer in Christ wrote the following thoughts and questions and I was inspired to write my thoughts below.

I look around me, being me, and I ask, "Why Lord!" And I also ask, "How, Lord! ... How can we do what you've called us to do! ... What you've called me to do!"


I think that one of our problems is that we get so caught up in all of the tiny details of our lives and all our problems and circumstances. Doing this causes us to have tunnel vision and we fail to see the big picture.

God is not finished working on us yet and while He does not expect us to be perfect like Himself He does expect us to work towards an attitude and lifestyle of holiness, spiritual humility and contrition. The process of holiness and being made completely unto His image lasts a life time and sometimes when we see our human fragilities and we become critical of our failures and think to ourselves that we are failures. The liar and deceiver of our souls are always ready to show us our imperfections and tendencies to have wicked and evil thought lives.

What separates us from the love of Christ? The bible says that NOTHING can separate us from His love. His love is perfect, his love is eternal, and his grace is for you and me. Nevertheless we get so caught in our own mental and spiritual and emotional traps that we forget whom we are and whom we belong to. We are then ensnared by our own emotional, spiritual and sometimes physical chains of bondage.

If you take a Christian and put him or her next to an unbeliever what would you say makes us different? What is supposed to make us different? The only thing that separates us from the chaff is that we are saved by Grace and the Holy Spirit of God resides in our hearts. Do we really think that our holiness is purely driven by our own self constraint and self control? No, our ability to be holy because He is Holy is because of His power and mercy and grace that resides within us and shines forth like the noonday sun. The more we die to ourselves and the more we release control of our lives to the Holy Spirit the more HE can change our lives from the inside out and the more we can radiate the love of Christ and the mercy of God to those who are around us.

If we are not radiating the love and mercy and truth of God to others in our communities it is because there is something keeping that from happening. What is keeping the love of God from being radiated from our lives to those that are around us? Are we walking the walk consistently or are we talking the talk? Does our faith walk shine forth with a life full of confidence and integrity or do we compromise our faith when we think it is convenient or profitable to do so?

When will we get beyond the works mentality? We think that if we attend church religiously every time the church doors are open that we have satisfied some sort of requirement. We carry our bibles and note pads to the pews and take notes. We smile and say nice things to people around us and appear to be the people we are supposed to be. Inside we are sick and dying because of all the infirmities and hidden skeletons in our closed up closets. How can we as the living church of God reach our communities when we ourselves need intensive care? Evil will always reside in this fallen world and there will not be peace on earth as long as our enemy is allowed to wander this earth. God's people however can and shall make the difference in the lives of those who are lost and dying and headed to hell. We are the ONLY JESUS that some people will ever see. We have the truth in our hearts because we have been given the truth. We must tell people around us what the bible says about Gods love and His desire to set them free from the bondages of sin and death. We can not do that effectively if we appear to be just as sick and in bondage as the next person. Can we?

We need to figure out how to get past the quest for more and more knowledge and information and get to the point where we can live what we know.
When we can figure out how to encourage one another, love one another, rebuke one another, speak truth into one another's lives then we will be able to have restoration, healing and integrity in our own lives.

I would love to talk about some "real" stuff that keeps us prisoners to sin and defeat. How can we put our faith into action and make a "real" difference?

God loves you so much that He made the ultimate sacrifice. Today He stands ready with open arms to heal us and restore us and give us the power we need to live and lead in a fallen world.

In His Name
James Moffitt

Lets review for a moment on all of the "stuff" that has to be reloaded on your computer "after" you rip out the motherboard and install a new one. Nah, lets skip that list. You would be asleep in no time. I will tell you that I just reinstalled w.blogger that is the windows based tool that allows me to post to my Web Log (blogger) when I get the urge to do so. I guess this means that I have the urge to do so since you are reading this.

Winter bowling leagues are coming to an end. Friday nights are over and Tuesday night league just ended. That means that I can fill those nights with other more important tasks. Dont get me wrong, I love to bowl but too much of a good thing can become a drag. Bowling on four leagues was just a bit too much. This summer I will bowl on Monday night and I think that will be about all. I have a Sunday night league that starts at 8pm that will be ending in the next 2 weeks and then that will be over. We won 3rd place on our Tuesday night spare timers league and I gathered up three patches and one pin for bowling over 200 on several occasions. Now I need a bowling shirt to put those on.

I have two books that I want to read in the month of May and June if I can manage to prioritize my life to do so. The Purpose Driven Life and the Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. Let me give you a glimpse of what the Purpose Driven Life has to offer and how it is changing my life in a positive way. Here is a quote by George Bernard Shaw that just dinged me between the eyes.

"This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish , selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy"


Can you say ouch and double ouch? I have a red spot between my eyeballs when that sucker slammed head first into my noggin. I am continually reminded that life is just not fair and bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Imagine that for a moment? My life perspective is my life perspective so humor me as I go down this road for a second. My perspective is that life has certainly had its fair share of negatives since June of 2000. Between June of 2000 and today I have been in survival mode. I have been enduring life and responding to the circumstances and consequences of things. Doing this has put me in a pretty foul mood to the point of affecting my health , my family and my friends.
Gosh, did I forget to put the most important thing in my life here? More importantly my relationship with God has been affected too.

People that know me and are privy to all of the events that have unfolded since June of 2000 would tell you that we handled our situation very well and that we did not allow our situation to destroy our faith in God. All I can say is that if we did glorify God through all of this mess then I have to give the praise and honor and glory back to God because it was nothing that we did. God brings glory to himself through his children sometimes without them being aware of it and through His divine will and intervention. God also brings glory to himself through a life of brokeness and obedience to His word. There were times when I screamed at God and got angry. Lets just say that God does have a sense of humor and I am happy that I am still alive to write this.

Loosing my job in Feburary has set into motion a chain of events that have ADDED to the stress levels at the Moffitt house. Remember that I said earlier that bad things happen to good people. Loosing my job which was our ONLY source of income to pay bills was a BAD thing. I also have to say that my responses at times to this stress has not necessarily given any glory to God either. I responded to the stress by withdrawing into myself and lashing out at other people who care about me. I responded by trying to do things like bowling that made me happy. The problem with trying to bury bad things and unfortunate circumstances with things that make you happy is that happiness is circumstantial and it only lasts for a brief period of time. When the event is over that makes you happy you find yourself face to face with the problems again.

Survival mode has lasted for long enough. Out with the OLD mindset and in with the new. Instead of being a survivalist in a fallen world and being tossed too and fro through the whirlwinds of emotional chaos I am going to choose to realign my life with the purposes that God has for me and my family. I am going to choose to redefine the things that make me happy and rediscover the Hope that is within me. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The only way that I can cling on to hope is to immerse myself in faith building activities such as prayer, reading the word of God and other resources that will give me what I need for restoration. Does that mean that I will no longer have problems? No, it means that I am going to do what I can to let God redefine how I am going to react to these problems. Is the glass half full or half empty? Will good come out of bad or not? Will I approach life with a positive , humble and contrite spirit or will I try to tackle everything by myself and put my faith and hope in my ability to provide for my family?

I need to learn how to be who God wants me to be despite how others respond to me. In the past I have tried to develop relationships with others and when they did not respond in the correct way I either found fault in them or I would withdraw into myself and blame myself for some type of fault that was keeping people from responding. If people do not respond like I expect them or want them to then I will not be myself anymore. I will just become an introvert and stop reaching out to people. The only problem with that is my attitude towards people and I am short circuiting who I am in Christ because of those attitudes.

I can not let how others respond or not respond define who I am.
I must not continue to keep my eyes on people because as long as I do I will be disappointed. No one is perfect, not one. I must keep my eyes and mind focused on Christ. I need to allow people to be who they are and let the Holy Spirit be the one to convict them of whatever problems they might have within the dimensions of his authority and timing. Only the Holy Spirit can convict people of sin and change them. I can not and should not try to be anyone's Holy Spirit.

If you are reading this and you are not a Christian then you probably do not understand what I am talking about. I would imagine that you probably have not even gotten this far in my writings today. You probably have zipped through some of this and just gone on to other things. For those of you that are my friends and who follow my babbling from time to time I hope that my being brutally honest and real does not scare you away. I hope that my being real will not only be therapeutic to me as an individual but that it in turn will encourage you to know that you are not the only one that struggles with spiritual turmoil. The only way that we can grow in grace is by being real with God and with one another and to encourage one another to reach out to God with a spirit of repentance and humility so that God can restore us into a right relationship with Him and with one another. God is in the restoration business and He is not done with me yet !

May 15th 2003 is upon us. Actually, the day is almost half gone. What have I accomplished? Does mowing the backyard and returning consignment computer equipment to my distributer count?
What have you accomplished today?

Recently I upgraded my Gateway PIII 866 mhz workstation to a 1.1 gigglehertz motherboard and 640 mb of ram. Can you say ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM??

How many people who are supposed computer geeks told me that I would never be able to upgrade my Gateway because it was too proprietary? More of them than not. My Gateway is housed in a typical ATX motherboard with a 300 watt power supply. It was a simple as out with the old and in with the new. The only problem we ran into was with the case and the front USB cabling. To get around the proprietary wiring scheme we just put a USB card into an empty pci slot in the back and now I have four USB ports just like before. The only change is that they are all in the back instead of two in front. No big deal.

I LOVE how fast this new machine is. It boots up 3x as fast and the applications are much zippier. Wahoooo!

When was the last time you ran live update on your Anti Virus software running on your computer? This serves as a reminder to you if you have not. There is a new trojan horse virus on the loose and it could come visiting if you use Kazaa or ICQ.

We spent the last couple of days looking at "cheaper" accomodations. Oh my gosh. The places that I found for 200.00 or 300.00 less than what we are paying are not fit for a dog to live in. Do I live in a mansion now and do I have a pride problem going on here? Absolutely not. I can garuntee you that these places are fully qualified rat traps complete with broken windows, tons of rust and lots of missing pieces. One trailer park owner assured us that he intends to renovate. I told Katy and the kids that the only renovation option left to this guy is to drop a nuclear device in the middle and start over after the radiation kills off all of the garbage that is there now.

Living out of our cars and being homeless are just not an option as you can imagine. I spoke with my landlord today and he told me he would be willing to reduce our rent to 600.00 per month and as long as we paid that amount anytime during that month that he would allow us to remain. Once we find gainful employment and are back on our feet then he will raise the rent back to 750.00. That is the BEST offer that I have gotten to this date. I told him that I certainly appreciated his willingness to help us and that we would be more than able to accomplish this task with what we are receiving in unemployment.

If the cell phones have to be turned off then so be it. If cable has to go then so be it. We will have to do what we have to do to make sure we have a roof over our heads while we are looking for gainful employment. After driving around for the last two days looking at rat traps and the accomodations that others have to live in I feel SUPER blessed and we are MORE than motivated to do what we need to do to stay where we are.

This evening Katy got a call from the manager at a Chucky Cheese. They have several openings and Katy has an interview at 2:30pm on Monday. We got a big kick out of the fact that they have an opening for one of the characters. That would certainly be appropriate for me since I can be a character at times.

On two seperate occasions today I was reminded of the loss of our Jessica and how painful it still is. It seems as if the emotions are right under the surface only to be awakened by the right stimulus. Today I watched a movie and a TV show where a loved one was lost. This rekindled my feelings of loss and that loss is still painful. The pain is just as real today as it was on August 5, 2001 as I watched the funeral home director remove my daughters lifeless body from our home on 159 Mapleridge Dr in Goose Creek SC.

It is still so hard to believe that we will not see our Jessica again this side of eternity. It is still so hard to believe how cancer changed our little girl right before our eyes. I was reminded that I need to light a candle for my "sunshine angel". I had not done that in a very long time. I guess the act of lighting a candle helped me in some way but it also reminded me of the truth of what has happened. Our lives will never be the same and even though Jessica is gone she will always be in our hearts, souls and minds.

We love you Jessica Ann Moffitt , You are our Sunshine!!

To move or not to move, that is the question. Today is April 4 and I am still under employed and over appreciated. How in the world did we get to this point? The economy apparently sucks in the Upstate and we are so happy that we moved here. NOT!!!

We have come to the conclusion that staying at 4 Broken Past Ct is not financially feasible since we do not have the income to support the rent payment. We need to drastically reduce our expenses and the biggie is the rent. Luckily for me the ex wife is being flexible with regards to child support but that cant slide forever. I need a job and I need it now. Katy and I both are looking for work and thus far there is nothing. Katy might be able to find something sooner than me since she has a degree. I would have never thought it would have taken this long for us to find employment.

Katy got up at 5 am and went to Walmart to pick up some boxes. We are surrounded in cardboard boxes now. Wahooooo! Now we have something to occupy our time. Filling boxes with our belongings. We may have to have a moving sale so that we can get rid of some of our stuff. Depending on where we move to we might not have enough room for all of this stuff. The last thing I want to do is sell what we have. In August of 1997 we sold everthing that we owned and put the rest in two vehicles and moved to Douglasville Ga. That was a mistake then and it is a huge mistake now. When you are in survival mode you do what you have to do I suppose. Survival mode on.....

The important thing is that we have one another. We will survive this. We always have and always will. This too shall pass. We just need to suck it up and do what we have to do to survive. One day at a time sweet Jesus, that is all we are asking from you. Just give us the way to do every day what I have to do. Yesterday is gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine.... Familiar words that we have sung over and over through the years but singing is much easier than doing at this point.

Ok, now to look beyond our family and the immediate needs. The biggest thing that seems to be going on now is the war with Iraq. We are on day 15 now. By now I would imagine that our troops are in Baghdad going from house to house and building to building engaging in urban warfare to root out Saddam Hussein's elite guard. It appears that the best that the Iraqi goverment can come up with is sneak suicide attacks in the form of suicide bombers. Several cars have blown up at check points killing everyone inside including coalition troops. Those are the acts of terrorists and not a military response to our invasion. How sad that is.

On the church front it seems that we have found a church that we like and it is called Marathon Community Church. You can visit the church web site at http://www.marathonchurch.org We love the praise and worship, drama team and teaching. This church is following the "purpose driven church" model which is modeled after the church in California called Saddleback church. April 6th has a membership class 101 from 3pm until 5pm and I think that we are going to attend if we can.

It has been FOREVER since I have drivled in here. How long is forever? Maybe I should say it has been a LONG time since I have said anything of worth in here. Perhaps today is the day that I speak up.

I am waiting for breakfast to arrive from Katy's kitchen and for Actifed to kick in to stop the raging allergy symptoms that have taken over this morning. I made the mistake of preparing to mow the yard and all the alergins known to man took over my sinuses. Whew, it was ugly.

It appears that operation Iraqi Freedom is in full affect as Allied forces are approaching the Iraq capital of Bagdad. Some say that this war will cause the economy to flourish and that the jobless folks like me will soon be employed again. Does it really take a war to make the economy flourish? How does that work? We use more bombs, we run out of bombs, we need more bombs, can you make us more bombs and therefore I go to work at a bomb factory even though I do not know squat about how to make a bomb? Hummmmm..... I can see where there would be more need for items that are used in a battlefield. I am not sure if that will create more technology jobs though.

I am on week 8 of unemployment or day 49 with no income other than the paltry 278.00 from SEC. Dont get me wrong, I am appreciative of the fact that we do have unemployment benefits since neither one of us is working. I thought that Katy's degree would help her to find even menial work like at Walmart but apparently there is a huge supply and demand problem. There are jobs but there are hundreds of applications being turned in for one job. I bet the employers love the applicant pool but they probably hate the process of figuring out who to hire and who to toss.

I have two contracts that recruiters have submitted me for. One is for a contractor positon in Washington DC and one is for a contractor in downtown Greenville. If this were a perfect world I would pick door number two. I would LOVE to find employment here locally. Push comes to shove I will go to Washington if I have to.

Thanks to Ebay I am making some suplimental income doing auctions. How sick of Ebay can a person get? On a scale of one to ten I am almost to an 8 with regards to how sick I am. Luckily for me I have a WONDERFUL wife that is willing to kick in some extra effort when I could care less about the whole thing. Thank you Jesus for Katy. :)

Ok, food almost here and I am famished. Talk to you later!

I am on forced vacation starting today thanks to my contract at Ahold ending without a whole lot of warning. I saw the writing on the wall and knew that it was coming but I was hoping that the contract would atleast last until April of 2003. No such luck boys and girls. Now I am back out on the Internet slinging my resume at every job board that can be found. Luckily for me I saw the writing on the wall in November of 2002 and started the madness then. The IT industry basically sucks for now. There are jobs out there to be had but the pay is way down and the employers want certifications and experience out the wazooo. This is an employers market now and they can pick and choose from a wealth of candidates.

I figure that we have about 2 weeks before I need to push the panic button and just take anything I can put my hands on. Katy and I know that if push comes to shove the kids go to public school and she goes back to work. Going back to work for Katy will be tough because she has not had to work outside the home for a long time. The awesome thing is that we are a family and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to survive. Surviving means lights, telephone, rent and food. That does not mean high speed Internet, cable tv or cellular service. All of that is extra stuff that we certainly do not need to survive. Will we miss those things? Yes, those things will be missed but we can learn to do without if need be.

If you think about it life would be so much less complicated without a lot of the things that I just mentioned. I am praying that God will provide and that I wont have to give up our wants or desires. The trick is to have faith and be patient and wait on Gods timing for all of this to come together. I am writing this sort of as a journal so that I can look back and praise God for meeting our needs once again.

While I am on forced vacation I will have the opportunity to hang out with the family and do family things such as bowling practice with the children today. Kristina and Justin are both on a youth bowling league where they are learning how to bowl. We had a blast today and I am thankful for the time to spend with my family. That means more to me than any amount of money that I might be able to put my hands on.
Our children are our investment that we are sending out into the future.

This is a picture of our front yard in January 2003 after the snow storm. We got 4 inches that day.








This is Justin Matthew Moffitt in the front yard of our house in Simpsonville.

Neat stuff, yes it is.....

First we lost the Challenger in 1986 and today we lost Columbia. At approximately 8 am CST NASA in Houston Texas lost telemetry data with Columbia and soon after that they lost audio contact with the astronauts. Debis from the space shuttle wound up scattered across the state of Texas and into Louisiana. We lost another 7 people to the space program. This is a sad day indeed.

Yesterday I lost my job at Ahold USA and once again I am seeking full time employment either as a contractor or a full time employee.
I have two recruiters that want to talk to me next week because I have been putting my resume on job search boards since November of 2002 when Ahold USA laid off 32 full time employees.

We are on the brink of war with Iraq as our military is gearing up for a major offensive half way across the world. Stay tuned, more to follow...

Have you ever had a tooth ache? If someone tells you their tooth hurts please feel sorry for them. Up until this date, January 22, 2003 I have never experienced the pain of a tooth ache. It took me 41 + years for it to happen and now Ambesol and I are very close friends. :)

I wonder how long it has been since I wrote in my blog? I bet it has been atleast 30 days, if not longer. I think that blogging is sort of like having a personal journal. I wonder what the difference is between a blog and a journal? That reminds me. I need to write a biography about myself for www.freelancewriters.com. I joined that site so that I can be listed in a database of freelance writers in the hopes of getting some writing assignments. I am using w.blogger version 3.00 to write this thanks to Chris over at Lockergnome. Chris has a LOT of useful tips and applications that he tells us folks about. So, we shall see what this freeware interface does for the blogging experience.

I have been looking for a full time job or a better contract since Ahold laid off 36 people this last November. Thus far I have not found anything that appeals to me. A position came available for a Network Administrator in Myrtle Beach but they only offer 47k to 49k to start. They are asking for the world for that sort of pay. Gosh, maybe I am just down right spoiled and greedy aye?

Speaking of Myrtle Beach. Katy and I spent last weekend at Ocean Reef Hotel in North Myrtle Beach at our second attendance at renaissance Weekend which was hosted by Happy Days and Special Times. There was a reporter there that was doing a story so hopefully we will get a copy of it through E-mail. That would be cool enough. :) This year was better than the first since we hooked up with Anthony and Gale Keech who are our new found crazies here in the Upstate. :)

Gosh, Ambesol IS my best friend. As long as the pain is subsided I am a happy camper for now. Tomorrow, I make a local Dentist a friend and I plan to contribute part of my budget to him. :)

I feel my blood going hot here. I find myself surrounded by people that are professing Christians who are experts at describing what a problem is but not as adept at finding a solution to the problems that have been infecting our society for centuries.

Our world is being invaded by an infestation on multiple planes and the best that we can all do is complain about it and describe it in all of our fantastic verbiage.

Don't get me wrong folks. We need to IDENTIFY the problem. Now we need to do the next thing, which is to do SOMETHING about it. My question to each of us is simple. WHY is pornography so rampant in our society? Why is SEX such a commodity? Why does the church of the living God stand by quietly while church members are sucked into this evil lifestyle and when they admit they need help it is swept under the rug and they are told that their behaviour is normal. When is the church of the living God going to direct and train their membership to true accountability and restoration?

How many churches in America are modeling the BPM program like that of Central Church in Tenn? Why aren't there more men of God who are taking this program to the streets and the churches of America?

How many of us are spending more time fighting the sexual addiction in our own lives in a topsy turvy roller coaster ride vs finding true victory and helping others to be restored?

We have the knowledge. We have the technology and we have the leadership and the finances. We need to figure out how we can use what God has given us to ERADICATE this garbage from the church of the living God FIRST and then when those folks are fired up and out of the closet and restored then we can form an ARMY of the living God that we are supposed to BE and go crash down the GATES OF HELL.

I am sick of just talking about this. Who amongst us is willing to spend their money, time and talents to actually do more than wallow in sexual sin and mere acknowledgement of the issue?

Yes, Battle Plan Ministries is here. Setting the Captives Free is alive and well. Love in Action is alive and well. How many other PROGRAMS do you know of that are in place and doing their part to put a dent in this problem? My point is simple. God does not need a program. God needs YOU and ME to be willing to stand up for what we believe in and take a REAL STAND in our communities.

I submit to you that the church of the living God is way too passive, complacent and weak to make a dent in most of the problems we see plaguing our society. What about our leadership? Where are our Under Shepherds in all of this? Why IS it that our church members are struggling with alcohol, drugs, sexual addiction, gambling and spousal abuse? Why IS it the church of the living God is not yanking all of this SIN out of the closet and doing something REAL to address the issues and call sin a sin and restore people to either righteousness or casting the garbage out of the church.

The answer to most of those questions should make us physically ill when we face the truth. We are way too happy in our suburban homes with our suburban lifestyles and our stuff. Why is it that only 10% of the church do 100% of the work? The world around us may not embrace a relationship with Christ. That doesn't mean that they are deaf, blind and dumb. They can watch and see how much effort is being put forth within our churches and what type of affect it is having in our lives Monday through Friday. If some of these issues really bothered us then would we not be willing to do something, anything to make a difference?

The sad fact of the matter is this. If the problem is not hitting close enough to home then we take the stance of indifference. We would rather make a fuss about our next door neighbors dog barking in the middle of the night causing us to loose sleep than to get out of our comfort zones and security bubbles to make a difference in real issues that are affecting our very way of life.

I submit to YOU my friends and co laborers in Christ that we are NOT doing enough. There are victims and predators all around us. Through the power of the living God we CAN and SHOULD be making a DIFFERENCE. The million dollar questions are as follows.

A. When will we get sick enough of being sick enough of the issues?
B. When will we pool our resources together and become a REAL church body that does what it takes to MAKE a real difference.

By myself I can not make a difference outside of the scope of my personal life or the life of my family. I can influence the people in the community that God has placed me in. I can move people emotionally and spiritually as I call them into battle. Only when we as brothers and sisters in Christ work together with the church leadership can we actually make a lasting difference in the world around us. Our leadership needs to be motivated to stop sweeping the problems under the rug. Our leadership needs to stop wasting our money on building programs and finding new ways to tickle the ears of the sinner's that are already taking up room in the church. Our leadership needs to be called into action to be the REAL church leaders that they are supposed to be so that they can lead US into the paths of righteousness for HIS NAMESAKE. Only then will the church of the living God make a lasting impression on this world.

What will you do to start this process? Whatever it is that you will do I want to network with you and help you in any way that I can. Together WE can and MUST make the difference. The world around us depends on us to do it whether they realize it or not.

Your servant leader
James Moffitt
Jesus Connect Ministries

On December 4th 2002 at approximately 7:30 pm the lights began to flicker and then finally went out for good. The lights went out because of accumulated ice and freezing rain that had been coming down all day. The power stayed out until that Friday Dec 6th around 4pm. The article directly below this drivel was written because of this event. :)

The cable service went out again after being off for 2.5 days and my mind is wandering aimlessly wondering what to do next. I spent 30 minutes playing Hyper Bowl on my computer and then wandered over to solitaire and quickly became bored. We came home from church after the Christmas play and dinner in hopes of curling up in front of the television to watch another showing of Alias. My wife and I looked at each other and voiced our concern about missing a continuation sequel to last weeks Third Watch program that is shown on Monday evening.

As I catalog and analyze within my mind all the different possibilities that I have for entertaining myself this evening it occurs to me that I am a slave to technology and modern conveniences. It was amazing to me how much I got done in the two and a half days while the cable service was out. During our loss of Cable TV and high speed Internet access I was able to find the time to do some office cleaning and organization that sorely needed to get done. When the modern conveniences are available to lull me into a sense of tranquility and otherwise occupy my mental attention I am able to let other things go in life that perhaps would need my attention.

Life is what we make of it and there is nothing wrong with modern conveniences. We all love electricity which provides us with power for heating, AC, appliances and power for our computers. How much time and energy is being sucked out of our days because of modern conveniences and technology? How much value is being added to our lives because of modern technology and how much is being taken away? Do we even think about what we might be missing because of our aversion to what modern technology makes available to us?

No matter how addicted you may be to modern day conveniences or technology the life cycle never stops. Life marches on and if you are not careful it will pass you by while you are lost in the haze. All around us we see advertisers trying to determine our self worth and our value to society by convincing us that we must have this and we must have that. Marketing firms spend millions trying to convince us that we can look younger, thinner and that clothing, cars, prestige, power and that special house will cause you to be successful. We are aware of the subliminal messages and even though we may not make a conscious effort to pursue the hyped up dreams of the advertisers subconsciously we are making note of what they are saying and if we are not careful we can get sucked into a trap that will cause us to chase our tails in the pursuit of obtaining all that we can get our hands on.

Television, Cable, Satellite TV, Internet, radio, news media in written form and other forms of media that I am probably forgetting capture a large portion of our attention span. Media outlets of all types provide us with one thing and that is information. How we receive the information, how often we consume it and finally what we do with it determines how much value it adds or subtracts to our lives. Information and misinformation is swirling all around us and it is our choice to control what comes into our minds and how we will utilize it.

How can this be you may be asking yourself. How can we allow all of this information which bombards us from every angle to control our lives and consume so much of our time. How can we manage our daily lives more effectively and use the technology as a tool which will add value to our lives? Some of you may even be in denial as you read this and think that you are not wasting any precious time and that there is nothing wrong with being entranced by the endless flow of information that is shoved down our throat on a daily basis. How many of us are just happy about the way things are and have no intention of even considering some of these thoughts?

My challenge to you is simple. Find a piece of paper and a writing instrument and make a list of tasks that need to get done around the house. These tasks could be anything. Tasks that take 5 minutes to accomplish or tasks that could be large enough to be projects that would take hours of your time every day to accomplish. When the task list for around the house is done consider doing a list of things that you need to do that involves your family. If you don't have an immediate family what about your relatives, parents, children etc? Is there anything that has been neglected there because of a lack of time to do it? Think about any area of your life that would require time and attention to get things done. How big is your list getting to be now?

I am as guilty as you are. I love these modern conveniences and technology and flow of information that comes from it all. I believe that when Mother Nature dumps tons of ice and snow on us and causes all of our man made technology to come to a grinding stop because of power failure I believe that it gives us time to stop and consider all of this.
I am not advocating that we throw out our coffee pot, dishwasher and personal computers for the sake of getting back to oneness with our neighborhood or community. What I am advocating is that we take a step back from the daily madness and consider how much time is being utilized for the good of our humanity vs. just wasting our time and being yet another avenue of endless entertainment.

Okie dokie, I just thought about breakfast. :) I will get to that soon enough. I had to go into my blogger settings and update everything and make it current. New email address, postal address , phone numbers etc... I even changed my description.

Enjoy !!

Does anyone ever read this drivel? Do you? If you do please send me a short note at jcmoffitt@charter.net and tell me so. If you do that will encourage me to continue my blathering in cyberspace. :) Is there such a word as blathering? Sigh....

Well, week one at our new place in Simpsonville SC is almost complete. We moved in our new place last Saturday and we are STILL un packing boxes and playing house. :) We have a fireplace, 2 bathrooms, a fenced in yard and a kitchen that Katy just loves. You know what they say. When mom is happy the whole house is happy. Well, Katy is pretty happy about our new digs. So the rest of us are living in pleasantville for now. :)

We really do live out in the country now. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the ONLY 2 stop and robs down the street but other than that it is a 30 min drive into town. Wahoo. We love it!

My new job (contract) is on week number 5. There were some bumps and glitches along the way but I think that things have smoothed out a bit. Praise the Lord for that. Whew. I was starting to wonder what I had gotten into. I went from idle to running at mach 3 with my hair on fire. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Today we will put together a new entertainment unit. Tomorrow we will look for a new church home. Actually, tomorrow just starts that maddening process where we go from church to church hoping and praying that we can find where we are supposed to be. It took us 6 months to do that in Goose Creek and I literally had to wind up in the hospital to meet our new pastor. Geeesh, hope that does not have to happen this time. :)

I think that my tummy is calling me to breakfast and I know that I must obey or I will be severely punished. :)