For those of you who follow me on Twitter or have seen my updates on Facebook, you have probably felt my pain in recent weeks as I’ve discovered AT&T’s poor Edge service in Blacksburg. When we moved to a larger city (with more than 25,000 college students), we presumed that our iPhones would not miss [...]

A recent Conan show featured Jerry Seinfeld. Here is the bit about the Blackberry and iPhone. Funny stuff.

Brisinger
by Christopher Paolini
What a love/hate relationship I have when I near the end of a fantastic, epic book. As I finished the next-to-last chapter of Brisingr, it dawned on me like a flash that there was no way Christopher Paolini would be able to finish this tale in one more chapter.
I stole a look [...]

I just moved from a town in which the college campus there didn’t play as huge a roll in the town as it could or should have. It wasn’t the fault of the campus at all. Many times, it felt like the campus was ignored by local residents. The town itself didn’t offer the college [...]

Let me just say it unabashedly. I think I was the first Twitterer in Monticello, Arkansas. Yup. If you can disprove me, then I will sadly relinquish the self-claimed title. However, I join a host of tweeples here in Blacksburg, VA. Yet there are many who have not jumped on the microblogging trend. I’ve written [...]

“I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells.” Psalm 26.8
“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek [...]

We’re baaaaack.
We arrived in Blacksburg last Friday, and it’s been a whirl of activity, unpacking, fellowship and wrong turns since then. The latter I mean literally. I had trouble figuring out which block the post office was on.
A couple of observations about Blacksburg:

My scooter just increased in value. Most speed limits around here are 25 [...]

It’s a really strange feeling to wake up in a hotel and realize that you literally have no home to go to. With all our belongings in transit on an 18-wheeler, all we have at present is what we packed into our vehicle. It’s liberating in a sense.
We woke up a little chilly from the [...]

If you’re a regular reader of Notes, you’ll know what’s up. If you’re not, you stepped in at a significant time of personal transition. My family and I will be meeting movers this Wednesday as we relocate to Blacksburg, Virginia. I will be pastoring Northstar Church there.
The last several weeks have been an unprecedented whirlwind [...]

We arrived back in Monticello at 2 a.m. on Wednesday from our trip to Poland. Fortunately, I drooled on the plane from Charlotte to Little Rock, so I was semi well-rested. Our car was packed with my family, Tracy, Becca Sustaire and Lindsey Randall. Needless to say, it was cozy.

Wednesday a.m. played a cruel trick [...]

One of the most entertaining parts of the trip – at least for me and Tracy – was our daily video updates. We called them Krakow Live, and it didn’t take long for them to become an evening entertainment staple for the team. One of the more popular featurettes was Tracy’s infamous Tuck and Roll [...]

 
Sunday night in many ways was a fulfilling completion to our trip to Krakow, Poland. As we were preparing to worship at Compass International Christian Fellowship with our hosts and their families, it delighted us to see several members of the girls basketball and guys baseball teams in attendance. This was their first time in [...]

Friday
“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” So goes the saying. The reality is that God often throws in cake as well. We awoke Friday to a steady rain. Our plans had been to go to the park for our last day with outreach and softball with kids. His plans were better.
During our week, our [...]

Thursday was another amazingly full day. The members of the UAM Cotton Blossoms who are on the trip with us – Becca Tipton, Kayla Temple, Savannah Morin, Lindsay Randall, Amy Mardis and Becca Sustaire – have been simply incredible. We all knew their team was fantastic, but what we were unprepared for was just how [...]

We had a blast.
We were amazed.
God is good.
When you bring a mission team overseas, you always emphasize the “F” word. That’s flexibility. You just never know what will happen or how your plans will actually turn out. 
Our hope all along for this trip was for the UAM softball gals to be able to conduct a [...]