One Last Post before I say goodbye

I have to admit, saying goodbye is not easy. I didn't think it would be that hard. I mean, how close can you truly get to people in just one short year? Answer: Very.

Sunday night, they had a going away party for Kristen and I. They had youth group junk food and a banana split bar. It was wonderful. A few people got us some gifts, and there was also a small money tree, which was a big surprise for us.

As several people got up and talked about how they would miss us, tears started to flow from my wife's eyes. However, I tried to do the man thing, and hold them all in. It worked until we stood up for a prayer, and I could no longer hold them in.

I'll miss this place. It was a great place for us to be. Granted, there were some things that frustrated the stew out of us, it was still the place God led us.

I'm thankful for Tara Swope, and for her going on the St. Louis trip with us, and hopefully she knows that meant more than anything else she did all year long. I'm thankful Brandon Davis, a guy I admire a whole lot, and I guy who I wish had stayed around all year, for him going on the trip as well.

I'm glad that Abbey Randolph gave me a hug goodbye. I'm also glad her sister Emily did as well. I'm glad Tia was able to be there for our last night as well.

I'll continue this blog when we move to Guntersville, but it will be different. It will be about my life there in Paradise Alabama, not here in Memphis, TN.

God bless you all, and I'll see you all when I get to Guntersville. Give me a few days, and I'll be back up and running! Roll Tide!

Youth Group Trip to St. Louis

So we left on Tuesday afternoon to come to St. Louis. Yesterday on the way up, we stopped in Sikeston, MO and ate at none other than Lamberts, home of the throwed rolls. It was great food and the kids had a blast. Then we continued on to the luxurious hotel we are in at this moment, Econolodge at Six Flags.

Today, we went to Six Flags, and it was awesome. I made the decision to come to during the middle of the week to avoid the crowds, and it worked. We arrived at 10 a.m., and by 12 noon, the group of kids I was hanging out with and I had ridden every ride in the park, including twice on the Boss. It was awesome....until around 7:00 this evening, the biggest storm of the year to hit the St. Louis area struck at the park. The park people called it a phase 6 situation, which means they had to pull everyone inside a structure. The lightning was terrible, and debris was flying all over the place. We made it safely to our two vans after being quarantined in a diner style restaurant for about an hour.

Tonight we will get some rest and go to the St. Louis zoo tomorrow. I'm real excited about that.
I've heard its a tremendous zoo. We'll spend a few hours there, but unfortunately its supposed to be 102 degrees tomorrow (you know, its all that global warming). The heat index is supposed to be 110 degrees.

After we get back from this trip, we have a few short days before we depart Memphis and head to our new job in Guntersville. It will be bittersweet, because we have some tremendous kids in our group, especially the group I hung out with today at the park. All of them were awesome! We are actually officially moving now on July 28th and 29th....so if you were going to come and help us move this weekend, we've postponed it a week. Sunday is still our last day, but we are going on "vacation" next week, It will be a small vacation at home actually, but still it will be relaxing.

God bless you all.

My best trip ever to Honduras

Wednesday night, July 12, we returned home to Memphis real late at night, around 10:30 or so. Around 11 p.m. we walked into our home, full of all the comforts and joys we left behind. It was great to fall asleep in our own, queen size bed once again.

The entire trip was spent working with Mission Lazarus in Choluteca, Honduras. This is a special project begun by a guy named Jarrod Brown. Jarrod and his wife Allie basically are in charge of this project, which has a full board and about 50 employees. The reason I loved this particular group is because their main goal is to enpower the local people who are in Honduras, instead of having a bunch of Americans run the show. They support the local preachers, the local culture, and let the Hondurans run the show as much as they can.

Our trip was excellent! We had 16 people total go on this awesome excursion. We worked on painting some classrooms at the congregation in Limon, a poor city that has about 17,000 people. The congregation is the largest in Honduras, with about 400-500 every Sunday, and about 250 or so of those are children. The kids often wanted to help us do our work, but since we were painting, it wasn't the best idea. We did however let them help us clean the brushes and rollers, help us clean up the rooms, and various other things as well. You go to serve others, but you end up being served. Its a great feeling.


We also had opportunities to pass out food to poor families. We broke up into smaller groups and went with the local preacher to hand the food to people in the congregations of the area that needed help. It was so rewarding to see our teenagers go into these homes and show the love of Christ to them all.

Give me a few days, and I'll have more pictures posted and more things about the trip. Thanks for all your prayers.

Honduras

Wednesday, July 5 we will be leaving to go to Choluteca, Honduras. I'll be travelling with my wife and 15 others. Most of these are teenagers from Ross Road. We meet at the church building that morning before the sun has woken up, and head to Choluteca via Miami and Teguicigalpa.

We'll be gone through the 12th. This will be my 11th or so visit to Honduras. We'll be working with Mission Lazarus, run by Jarrod Brown.

I hope that I'll be able to post while I'm there, but I'm not sure if I will be able. If you would like to be included in the emails we are sending out, send me a request at rroadteam@hotmail.com and I'll include you.

Pray for our safety, our work, and our travel. I'll miss you all, and let you know how it went when we return home.