Pearlington Church

Well, I was a little ambitious in promising three more blogs before the end of the month but here I am with at least one more. This picture is of the church that is being built in Pearlington. It's a neat little log-home building that has been built mostly by good Tennessee folks from Mt. Juliet and Brooks is doing the plumbing. Today I got to be a "plumber's helper" for the first half of the day (i.e. plumber's days start at least by 7am even on Memorial Day) while we "roughed in" the church. This is where Brooks and I have been attending church on Sunday mornings since we've been here. It is a drastic change from our home at Woodmont Hills in Nashville but right now we feel like it's where we're supposed to be, at least initially. It's basically a church plant by the Picayune Church of Christ, which is about 30 minutes away, and has been supported by several churches in the Wilson county area of Tennessee. We were a little hesitant about it at first, because there are already several other churches in the small town of Pearlington and we wondered why they couldn't all get together rather than build a new one just because there's no "church of Christ". (Sidebar - Brooks and I were actually wondering which had more church building square footage per capita, Pearlington or Franklin Road in Nashville? We may have to investigate further...) I still don't know the answer to that but I do see an energy and desire to bring the local people in to experience a fuller life in Christ and Brooks and I both think that it could be a new experience and challenge to our stereotypes of people. Although it's not necessarily the theology that we think is right, the people absolutely have hearts of gold and fully believe that they are doing God's work by ministering to the local community so we are on board. (However, we met some fellow beach volleyball friends who attend a local non-denominational church that they really like and we will likely start going there on Wednesday nights since the new COC doesn't have Wed. night services yet. Shhhh, they have instruments there so we can't let anyone know.) I do apologize if this is boring most of you, or just disgusting you, to hear of the silly games that we play but it's currently the world we live in and so I think that it's the place where we're supposed to figure out how best to imitate Jesus and product His character in us and those around us. That's a pretty crappy answer but I'm still struggling with this one.

Anyways, that's all I got for today - we're off to grill out and play beach volley ball for a Memorial Day celebration. Hopefully, I'll take some pictures and bring them back to post again. Have I mentioned that south Mississippi is completely chock-full of CHARACTERS? Even Brooks says so and anyone who knows him knows that he is a character, indeed. By the way, the other picture here is of my step-dog Spear in the back of Brooks' work-truck. Brooks said I should take a picture of Spear so that I could give the readers of our blog "something cute to look at" - that's a direct quote and I am pretty sure that I should be offended! Have a great holiday and good-bye!

Miserable Blogger

WOW - My last blog was on April 17 - that's over a month. Okay, so I'm new to this whole blogging thing and apparently I haven't made it much of a priority. No promises, but I will try to do better starting today and maybe I'll get in at least five whole blogs during the month of May.

Well, the latest on our adventure is that we moved out of the lush house that we were staying at in Gulfport about 3-4 weeks ago and moved into a condo/townhouse that we're renting in Waveland, MS on May 1. Waveland is right next to Bay Saint Louis in Mississippi and was hit pretty bad by Hurricane Katrina. In fact, there is an interesting article that appeared on msnbc.com (go to http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/2007/05/rentals.html)a few weeks ago about the rental housing situation in Waveland and I can personally attest that it is very true that it is difficult to find anything to rent in this area. I feel so blessed that we found the place that we did, even though it's a little pricier than we had anticipated. It is about a quarter of a mile from Brooks' work's shop and about a mile and a half from the beach. Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, McDonald's and Sonic are within a half-mile and it's fairly bike-friendly so what more could we ask? It is actually a pretty nice place and plenty of room for the two of us. In fact, there is plenty of room for guests - we have a spare bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms and a very spacious kitchen - so if anyone wants to come visit, please do. There's not much to do here (aside from casinos) but New Orleans and Biloxi are each about 45 minutes away and the beach is actually not too bad. It's definitely no Destin but it's still the beach. In case anyone cares, our new address is 509 Gladstone Street, Waveland, MS 39576.

Well, I'm going to call it a blog for today so I can save things to write about later! Here's my thought for the day - Paul says to "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." I have thought for the last few years that I should just have these qualities due to the Spirit's work in me if I was seeking like I should, but this indicates that I have to decide to "wear" them just like I decide to wear a suit or scrubs depending on the day. Maybe that's a "duh" for you guys but it lifted my spirits this week and gave me hope that I can "put on" these characteristics (of course through the help of the Spirit) when I make a point to. Hopefully I will make a point to more than once this week because even when I think about clothing myself in these in the morning, I usually find myself naked (figuratively speaking of course) at the end of the day because I so quickly disrobe of the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience! God bless and good night!