Kinston Indians

On Friday night August 8, 2008 the church held its first main activity since Grace and I arrived. We traveled to Kinston, NC for a minor league baseball game between the Kinston Indians and the Salem Avalanche. One of our men that we recently led to the Lord, Leroy Smith, came out with us, along with Marshall Smith and his family and Pete Gladson. It was Leroy's first time ever to a live baseball game. We had a great time. I had to have my traditional sunflower seeds although Wal-Mart only carried the original and not the BBQ flavored. The Kinston Indians jumped off to an early league in the very first inning with 10 runs. The final score was 12 to 2. There was also a special promotion for the night: fireworks following the game. Grace, Leroy and I were the only ones that stayed. The fireworks were good and overall we all enjoyed the activity. I thought the ballpark was nice and the layout was convenient to drive into, park, and leave. Next,Lord willing, we are going to try our hand at bowling.

Chris and Beth

Chris and Beth Birkholz were actually in the wedding for Nathan and Ruth down in South Carolina. After the wedding, they followed us to our home here in Farmville for a good afternoon of rest. We had a cookout with some hamburgers, etc... after arriving home. I also asked Chris to preach during the Sunday morning service the next day. All four of us had some time to chew the fat so to speak after eating and Grace and I enjoyed having them in to fellowship with us for a day.

On Sunday morning, I taught the Sunday school class and Chris preached. He spoke from the Old Testament on Victory concerning the story about Joshua and Caleb and the other spies. Following the morning service we went out to eat at Pizza Hut in Farmville. It was close which made it easier for Chris and Beth since they were planning on leaving to head back to Connecticut after lunch. Suprisingly, I discovered that it is only about a 10-12 hour drive from NC to Connecticut. However, they had no air conditioning in their car, like Grace and me, so that was still a long ways I'm sure from one perspective. Thankfully the Lord gave them nice weather that day for just such a drive.

Wedding in South Carolina

On Saturday, August 2 Grace and I traveled down to Victory Baptist Church in Darlington, South Carolina for a wedding of some friends. Nathan Ware and Ruth Jones were the bride and groom. They were introduced to each other by my sister in law and her husband, Beth and Chris Birkholz. Chris and Nathan were roommates in Connecticut. Ruth was friends with Beth from Crown College in Powell, TN. In addition, Nathan became good friends with Grace and me more recently. He lived in Wilson, NC for the last six months for a training period of the company he is employed with. Grace called him up and invited him to Friend Day back in March and he came. Afterwards, he started coming regularly when he was not having to travel for his job or prepare for the wedding. He was such a blessing to our church and an encouragement to Grace and me. He came out several times to help in canvassing Farmville with church brochures and even helped to support us with his presence in the service. He took us out to Fuddruckers with him to eat and we had him over for a home cooked meal also. Since where he lived in Wilson was about 40 minutes from us, Grace and I considered it a great honor to have him drive back and forth so much to come to our church.

The wedding went good. It was short, sweet, and to the point lasting only about 30 minutes for the ceremony and then about 1 hour for the reception. They are both really sweet people. I know Ruth was up in Pennsylvania at my in laws quite a bit and so Grace was able to be around her some there. The honeymoon plans were a big secret so I will be anxious to hear all about where they traveled to. Their overall plans are to reside in Connecticut, where the headquarters are for Nathan's job. Obviously they will be active in a local church there once they get settled in. We pray that God blesses their marriage abundantly!!! The final picture below Grace made for them with Photoshop to say congrats. She is doing a great job with her digital photo techniques.

VBS '08 at Anchor Baptist

We held our first ever Vacation Bible School since arriving at Anchor Baptist Church on July 28- 30. Our theme was Mount Up For Christ and was obviously a Western theme. It was a real blessing to see how God worked. We had so many answers to prayer. Let me list a few:

1) Attendance-

• Monday night 32
• Tuesday night 35
• Wednesday night 52

These numbers included a few adults on the property too and the final night includes the parents that we invited for parent night.

2) Help- My in laws, Tom and Lisa Henricks drive all the way from Pennsylvania to be with us and help on on these three days. Bro Tom had an early service on Sunday evening and left to drive all night to be present with us on Monday. Then he and Mrs. H. drove all night on Wednesday to be able to allow Bro Tom to be back at work on Thursday. What an honor to have them think so much of us to sacrifice so much!

In addition, some of our church members volunteered to pick up kids and drop them off each night. Some of our ladies of the church made food each night and prepared for the kids. Some helped with the set up and take down. Others helped to clean the church each night. Some helped to attain and finalize the planning by arranging to pick up items that were needed before the event began. Grace and I couldn't have done it without all the help. We are very appreciative!

3) Games and Activities- We had much donated to us for the week: a saddle to use for display in the auditorium, free square bails of hay (as much as we needed), the Western canvass town scenery, much donated candy and snacks, one man donated his time and airplane to do an airplane candy drop on Monday night, another man along with his son and helper came out on Tuesday evening with two horses to give rides to the kids, a young guy that I met in town brought us two chickens for use in our chicken chase on Wednesday night, and of course the Lord gave us many sweet deals on toys and give aways for prizes for the week.

4) Salvations- We had 7 kids trust Christ as Savior during the half week. This of course is the ultimate goal, not the games or such. Praise God!

For our first time here everything turned out really well and we are extremely grateful for the victory we experienced! Our desire is to do a work for the Lord and this was a great beginning for a future open door and future follow ups concerning having a good children's ministry.

Color Enhancement in Adobe Photoshop

Check out the picture above from Beth's wedding that I added color enhancement to all by my lonesome. Yesterday, I learned how to do color enhancement for photos in Adobe Photoshop without a class on photography no less. I actually thought it would be alot harder than it was. The hardest part is using the lasso tool to outline and cut out the object you want in color. The reason I started playing around with Adobe was because Grace and I were picking out our enlargements from our wedding photographers and I wondered how tough it would be to color enhance some of our photos from that special day. We have the rights to all of our pictures from our wedding which means we have the ability to change anything or to take them and have them printed at a later time. We liked having that as an option so when looking for a photographer we picked someone that gave us that benefit. Of course, it is only a little bit late that we are just now getting our enlargements:)! Nevertheless, our photographers have been patient with us. We are grateful for that!

Grace also took the time to learn too! She has already gotten so into it that she has done more pics than me. She has already sent them out to her friends and family. Maybe we can become a photography team together and go into business. LOL! Digital photgraphy really makes things alot easier and even more cost effective these days making that option available to alot of the little guys. Below you will see some of the pictures that Grace has color enhanced and even added a few extra flares to.

Campmeeting Days!

People's Baptist Church in Greenville, NC is pastored by Max Barton. He has quite a tenure as the pastor of the church as well as a nationally known preacher. He has some good men on staff with him as well as a good reputation in the area. In addition to his church attendance being in the 500's or so, he also has a Christian school. During the whole month of July, the church moved their Wednesday night service to Thursday night. They called this special time campmeeting days and invited in the following 4 different men to preach: Pastor Scott Caudill, Pastor Johnny Pope, Evangelist Raymond Hancock, and Pastor Joe Arthur. Grace and I were able to attend two of the four evenings and had a good time visiting with Scott Caudill. We were able to meet him and buy two of his music cd's he had for sale. In addition, we were able to also visit with Dr. Johnny Pope. I had been to his church previously and knew of him quite well. Grace had the privilege of meeting both men for the first time. My dad used to go to Dr. Pope's church in Houston, TX when he was in business for himself. It was a blessing to get to see him and hear him preach. He always presents a message that is thought provoking and intelligent not to mention animated. I thank the Lord for all three men of God that we were able to talk with and know: Pastor Barton, Pastor Pope, and Pastor Caudill.