Eastern Carolina Sportsman's Banquet

In April, Grace and I took a group of 6 people from our church to the Eastern Carolina Sportsman's Banquet. It was held in Greenville, NC at the Greenville Convention Center and hosted by People's Baptist Church. People's is a large independent baptist church in the area pastored by Max Barton. The youth pastor's name is Doug Weber and he actually invited our church to attend since he had been organizing the event. Apparently, it is usually held at the church, but this year they decided to open the event up to other churches and rent out the Convention center. It was my first time at the Greenville Convention Center which I thought was really nicely constructed. There were booths set up to peruse through: from car and boat exhibits, to guns, BBQ sauce, and hunting locations. We went over early and had the chance to look over everything. We even bought some Carolina BBQ sauce. It was a make your own mix. All the main BBQ here is pork and not beef. Although I suppose this sauce could be used for either. It is a mix which you combine with a gallon of sweet vinegar. Basically the mix makes one gallon. Since it was only a few bucks it seemed like a good deal.

The evening went well with several hundred people present. The church had a full catered dinner with BBQ and the use of that famous local BBQ sauce we bought. So we did get to try it. YUMMY! It is pretty spicy, but pretty good. We also had green beans, rolls, drinks, and banana pudding for dessert. The main event for the evening consisted of various hunting tips and thoughts by a special speaker by the name of Chad Shearer. He is a Christian man and has a television hunting program on cable. In addition, he is the editor of a hunting magazine. The night went well. Chad Shearer talked about how to do various hunting calls, and various hunting techniques. He gave a power point show and had many pictures and videos to go with his experiences. In addition, he presented the gospel in a very positive way that appealed to hunters at the end of the night with a conclusion of having them respond by filling out a card if they had accepted Christ. This gave People's Baptist the opportunity for follow-up. I thought that was good since about 20 people responded to the call to be saved.

There were many prize giveaways throughout the evening and at the end of the night the main prizes were given away. They consisted of a new large deer stand, an all expense paid hunting trip, a new deer rifle, etc... To wrap it all up,Grace and I both won prizes. She won a new camo hunting ball cap and I won a free heating and air conditioning service call.

Hershey and Gettysburg

On the return trip from Pennsylvania, we took a day to swing by a couple of landmark places. One was the Hershey factory in none other than Hershey, PA. The overall place was called Hershey Chocolate World which contained an amusement park, several shops, a few museums, and of course the Hershey factory. Grace had been when she was a kid, but I had never been. We toured the main Hershey factory museum and gift shop. The tour was pretty cool . You were able to ride a mechanized car around on a track and was shown various aspects of how they made the different candies in the actual factory. And at the end of the ride, we were treated with samples of the new Hershey candy called Hershey Bliss. It was really creamy!!! Grace told me that they had changed the tour since she had been and she also said they they had in the past given out free whole original Hershey candy bars. Missed out on that I suppose, but the new bite size candy was great so we decided to by two bags. We also purchased another bag of the bite size candy with different types of nuts. I think all the nuts made me a little nutty!!!

After this, we decided upon lunch at Fuddruckers one of the best gourmet hamburger places in the world. It is a little more pricey than McDonalds, but they generally have good lunch specials. This time the roles were reversed. I had been to Fuddruckers many times in the past, but Grace had never been. We enjoyed our food and hit the road to another popular tourist spot and local PA attraction: Gettysburg.

Well what is there to say about Gettysburg but awesome. The honor, the commitment, and the heroism that was displayed by both those on the North and the South. When we arrived we went to the main visitor's center and purchased a self contained cd audio tour and guide. The we found out that though it was still in the off season there was one older lady who volunteered throughout the year as a park tour guide and speaker. She was set to give a tour and speech in the National Cemetery directly across the street from the visitor's center. So we went to that and enjoyed the history lesson about Lincoln and the location in the cemetery where he gave his famous Gettysburg Address and other matters.

Then we followed the audio tour along the set route listening to the cd as we went. It was highly enjoyable. There were 17 stops to make if you wanted to see everything. They are in order of our self guided tour: McPherson's Ridge, Eternal Light Peace Memorial, Oak Ridge, North Carolina Memorial, Virginia Memorial, Pitzer Woods, Warfield Ridge, Big Round Top and Little Round Top, Devil's Den, The Wheatfield, The Peach Orchard, Trostle Farm, Father Corby, Pennsylvania Memorial, Spangler's Spring, Culp's Hill, and High Water Mark .

I definitely think that the self tour is the way to go personally for several reasons. One is because the cd provides you explanations from a famous historian of the battle field that you may listen to at your leisure and discretion with the option to rewind or fast forward if needed. Another is so that you may look at the various monuments and memorials at your leisure also instead of waiting or speeding up on a timed bus tour with other tourists. We enjoyed it and the only one downfall was that it was late and growing dark prohibiting us from fully seeing the last few monuments. Oh well there is always next time, especially since we bought the tour instead of the t-shirt!

Beth's Wedding

Grace's sister Beth was the last of the three siblings to tie the knot. Her wedding was on April 5, 2008 in Grove City, PA. Beth and the groom, Chris Berkholtz, met at a Christian camp several years before and they plan on being in youth work and camp ministry in the future. It was a joyous occasion. Grace was the Matron of honor for the ceremony. The rehearsal was the night before and consisted of a catered dinner, gifts, and some extra fun. The actual ceremony was fairly short and to the point. Grace an I sang one of the songs during the wedding and I acted as the videographer. I came cheap: FREE! LOL! But I did get the privilege of sitting in the balcony for the majority of the wedding while the others stood on the platform. All the while I was sipping on a juice box and taping the event. It was relaxing. The event culminated at a local Boy Scout lodge hall for the reception. The bride and groom took a week's honeymoon in Montana and will reside in Connecticut.

Ordination

Well its official! I'm ordained. Of course we baptists believe that ordination is taught in Scripture but that it merits no saving grace or extra element of God's power or even God's calling upon a soul. It is rather a formal recognition by a local church and group of God called preachers that the Lord has already called a man to preach the gospel of the grace of God. Such was the case for me on April 3, 2008. I was ordained under the Biblical authority of Sandy Lake Baptist Church of Sandy Lake, PA.

The list of men involved were as follows:

1. Pastor Tom Henricks- My faither-in-law of Sandy Lake Baptist
2. Pastor David Barnhouse and Asst. Pastor John Milton- Slippery Rock Baptist Church in Slippery Rock, PA
3. Pastor Brian Lott of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Bessemer, PA
4. Brother Troy Carter Director of Hoiser Hills Baptist Camp in Dillsboro, IN.
5. Missionary Rob Willoughby to Estonia
   
   Praise the Lord for his goodness, and his wonderful works to the children of men! (Ps. 107:8, 15 21, 31)