Speed Blog #4 - Chimney Tops Saturday, October 28, 2006

Saturday was big day. After the race for the cure, Sonya and I went hiking with Renee and Amber in the Smokies. We climbed the Chimney Tops trail and it was incredible. The trail was rediculously strenuous. At times, you had to use your hands to help pull yourself up to the next step. It was worse than climbing the stairs of a skyscraper, but worth every step. Just to be out in such beauty really makes you think about God and how BIG He really is. He created this world for us to enjoy while we are here doing His work...and man, did we enjoy it. Check out some of these pictures...

Speed Blog #3 - Race For The Cure Saturday, October 28, 2006

Sony and I ran in the race for the cure this past Saturday. This was a 5K race in downtown Knoxville, where funds and awareness are raised for breast cancer research. I ran under my goal of 30 minutes and came in at 29:29. Sonya totally schooled me and ran it in 26:35! You should've seen her pushing all of these little kids out of the way at the start. Heheh!! Actually, I never saw her do this, but what I did see was a guy puking his guts out a little before the finish. I almost lost it myself.


There were a bunch of teams at the race that all had their special shirts. The hospital that sonya works at also sponsored a team, which is who we ran with. Here's a picture of Sonya with her friend Renee, from work.

Speed Blog #2 - Men's Gathering Monday, October 23, 2006

I spent this past weekend at Moon Shadow Lodge, in the Smoky Mountains for a men's gathering. At our church, we call them "gatherings" instead of "retreats", since men aren't supposed to retreat. Heheh! Anyways, we had an amazing time and God showed up in a major way. Lives were changed and hearts were turned towards God. The picture above is from the back porch of the lodge and the picture below is just some of the guys eating dinner.

Here's a picture with a few guys before we left on Sunday morning. This was right after Danny (red & black jacket) became my brother in Christ by accepting Jesus into his life. It was an incredible weekend and God had been doing some major work in Danny for the past couple of weeks and he realized his need for Jesus after this weekend. His story was powerful and he was such an encouragement to many of the other guys at the gathering. I also snapped a shot of his baptism at church that morning. Praise God for the hearts that he is turning towards Him and the work that is being done to bring more people into a love relationship with Jesus.

Speed Blog #1 - Greek Fest Thursday, October 12, 2006

Sonya and I met up with some friends from Farragut at Greek Fest in downtown K-town. We ate all sorts of incredible Greek food and tried 5 different kinds of desserts. It was delicious. One of Sonya's co-workers, Vicky, also came with her husband Jimmy. We checked out the inside of the Greek Orthodox church and it was beautiful. Here's a picture of the ceiling, which was a mosaic. Mad props to whomever made this picture of Jesus out of little colored squares.

Zoe Conference Weekend Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Long overdue, is this post. On the first weekend of October Sonya and I went to the ZOE conference in Nashville with a bunch of peeps from Farragut. This has been a highlight of our year for the past three times that we've been. The Conference has 2 parts to it; Leadership and Worship. The worship part of the conference is coordinated and led by The ZOE Group, from the Otter Creek Church. It was an incredible conference and God is doing some incredible things through His church.

Below, is a picture of a painting that was done during one of the speaker's presentations. It depicts the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. In this story, Jacob's name is changed to Israel, because he has fought with God and men and had won. He names the place Peniel, which translates to "Face of God", because he saw the face of God and lived. (*Pictures were taken from the ZOE Group blog as ours were accidentally deleted.)


This sculpture was created by Jack Maxwell, the same artist that painted the above picture. The sculpture is called "Jacob's Dream" and was inspired by the story of the same name from Genesis 28. This is actually only a model of the massive sculpture that was erected this past year. Find out more about the sculpture here.


After the conference, Sony and I traveled to West Nashville to spend the afternoon with our dear friends Elijah and Andrea Manor. They have a beautiful little girl, Abby. This was the first time we had met her and we had a wonderful time. The Manor's were very close friends at Harding and we sort-of lost touch over the years as we moved to Michigan, then Tennessee and they moved from Arkansas to Tennessee. Now, we're only separated by about 3 hours of road and we look forward to seeing more of them. Here's a picture of us on their front porch.

Free Derek Webb Tuesday, October 03, 2006

WARNING...Read This First before you continue.

Alright...so, in case you haven't heard, Derek Webb (singer for Caedmon's Call) has a new CD out.  And guess what...it's FREE!  Oh yeah...you heard me.  Well...it's not totally free.  You see, you have to provide 5 of your friend's Email addresses in order to download it.  Thanks for the heads-up, Curtis!  Click on the album artwork below to visit his site and download the album.

I'm not a big fan of MySpace, but Sara Groves keeps a blog on there that we get updates on.  She had a post a little while back about Derek Web and this album, which is where I first heard of it.  Check out her blog here.  Also, read this to learn why Derek is giving away this album.

Once you download it and give it a serious listening to, let me know what your favorite song is.  I don't want to sway your pick, but my favorite is Rich Young Ruler, which I believe is track #5.