Leaky Pipes

Well, the -55 wind chill or the -30 air temp managed to freeze up the pipes to the remodeled bathroom upstairs.  I was greeted this morning with a fun plumbing adventure as I first shut off the water and then tried to determine if it was just the hot or the cold or both that had sprung a leak directly about our kitchen.  It appears to be both.  So after we have our church folks over Sunday night for fellowship and Super Bowl fun (with our own halftime show of course), we will be tearing out the ceiling in the kitchen next week.  Pray that we will be able to find the culprit areas with minimal collateral damage to the house.  Everything else is going well.  We are seeing a steady increase it seems in attendance at Awana and we have been asked about starting a Good News club in the school here.  They have done it in the past and it has been very effective at sharing the Gospel with the kids.  We are not sure about the time commitment but have decided to go ahead and check things out to see where they take us.  Pray for us about that as well.

More School News

I finally did it.  I applied for seminary with Liberty's DLP program.  I am planning on starting during the summer.  Actually, I am pretty excited about it.  It's funny, but the more writing I do, the more I am beginning to enjoy doing it (which will be a good thing).  Of course, it helps that I am able to do all of my writing at a computer keyboard.  If I had to do this by hand with a pencil or pen, I am not sure I could take it.  I never much cared for writing like that anyway.  

School

There are plenty of things that I don't necessarily like about school.  I get restless sometimes during lectures when the professor keeps saying stuff that I already understand or keeps repeating stuff that I already got.  I don't like busywork, although to be fair the classes I take through the DLP program at Liberty aren't big on busywork type assignments for the most part.  But what I do love is the learning part.  I enjoy seeing things in a new light and gaining new perspective on things that I have maybe known for a long time.  Today my schoolwork prompted me to some thoughts about the foundations of our faith.  I don't feel like trying to reproduce the novel here, but I posted it on my other blog.
On a similar note, for those who may not know, this is my final term to finish my degree at Liberty University.  I am excited about finally completing this after only 15 years.  : P  I am enjoying it so much that I am still considering very strongly going on to get a Masters degree as well.  Please keep me in your prayers as I work through this time.  

Notes from the Freezer : )

I have been meaning to post a couple of times now, but things always seem to come up.  We are doing well.  The kids haven't been able to play outside lately because the temperature and/or wind chill has been below zero for most of the last week or so.  Right now as I am writing it is actually 5 above but it still feels like -12.  It isn't too bad but we don't get out and around as much in this weather.  I go out to run errands or check in on people to say hi and talk or whatever, but that's about it.  We got carpet done at the church recently.  I have some before pictures but no after pictures yet.  I will get some and post them here.  On another front, after speaking at the youth thing a couple of weeks ago, I have been asked to do some music and speak at a Valentine's banquet for another church here in town.  They even offered to provide a babysitter for us so Amelia could come too.  So I will be doing that on Valentine's.  I am looking forward to it.  

Forward Momentum

Well, we are plugging right along in the new year.  I am starting to find a groove as a pastor.  I feel like I am beginning to understand better how to minister as a senior pastor instead of as the "youth guy".  Last night, I was invited to speak and sing at a weekly youth gathering here in town.  It was a lot of fun for me and I think the youth there enjoyed it as well.  I am attempting my first series of sermons on 1 Timothy and I am excited about that as well.  Also, I am starting school again.  This is my last term and I have three classes to finish my bachelor's degree in Religion.  I have been praying and thinking about doing a master's degree when I finish.  Please pray with me on what degree I should pursue if any.  
We are finding out I think what the true meaning of cabin fever is.  It isn't us so much as it is the kids, who can't run around outside in the yard and are not allowed to run inside the house or the church.  They have their moments of behaving really great and then they turn around and you wonder what happened to them.  Here is a picture of them before we left for church Sunday morning

Don't you wish you were here

I guess it is inevitable that a family from the south would love the snow more than most.  After all, I don't ever remember having enough snow to do this.  We are continuing to work on building a snow fort in the backyard.  This is me on my knees behind the wall.  The kids are enjoying the snow.  It was in the low 30s today, so we got a chance to stay out and play for quite a while.