Holy Spirit Work Within You...

At Annual Conference tonight, we commissioned & ordained fellow clergy. I was a very meaningful service as some new & long-time friends had their ministries validated & uplifted by our conference. I especially liked that our commissioning is now in the same service as the ordination so that the two events are explicitily linked.

It was also nice to think of two very good friends of mine, Andy Stoddard & Greg Hazelrig, being ordained a conference away. I think the future of the UMC is in very good hands.

Just one more year, 364 days to be exact (right John?), and it will be myself and a great class of ordinands being told to take authority as Elders in the UMC. I pray that this last year will be a blessed one for my fellow Class of 2004 probationers and that we will be all that God has called us to be. Wait, that was way to Army of a saying...How about we "Cross into the Spirit"?

Air Force All the Way!!! HUA!

Good Mistakes

You ever do something by accident that turns out to be gold? Last night I was trying to e-mail all the members of India Flight (the twelve people with whom I worked the closest) from Commissioned Officer's Training (COT)and accidentaly e-mailed everyone I e-mailed during COT. I was trying to get some information from them but sent it to about 5 times as many people who probably went, "Huh?" Luckily though, several people e-mailed me anyway, a few whom I had not talked to in quite a while. So thank God for good mistakes.

Also, we got Price a new puppy yesterday. He is a Lab mix that we have named "PJ". Price absolutely loves him. We decided to get a dog because Price has seemed in ordinately scared of "puppies" and we thought this would help him deal with animals better.

Later.

Good Day!!!

Today was great. The Chapel's Clergy Day went off without a hitch. We had 19 Base area clergy come and join us for informational briefings, lunch and a tour of the base and a C-130. All seemed to enjoy and get a lot out of the event. A lot of good questions were asked and I think we helped them better understand the life of the base and airmen.

On a personal note, it being such a successful event (attended by the Base Commander, Vice Commander, and Chief Master Sargent) that it will look real good on my Officer Performance Report. Also, in talking with the head of Public Affiars I found out that she is going to set me up for a ride-along in one of the new C-130J models. That will be awesome. Can't wait for that.

Well, getting late and its been a long day. See you on the flip side.

A little disappointed...

I am a little disappointed in my fellow clergy in the Little Rock/Jacksonville area. One of my projects at the Air Force Base is coordinating a Clergy Day to bring in area clergy (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, & others) and give them information to help them better minister to the Airmen and families in their congregations. The day will include presentations at the chapel in the morning, lunch on us, and a tour of the base and a C-130 cargo plane.

We mailed nearly 200 letters of invitation and have only gotten responses from about 15 persons or so. Now, I realize that from a marketing perspective that is not a bad percentage but from a pastoral perspective I don't like it. Considering that I will be an active duty chaplain next summer I know that many Airmen don't attend the base chapel but find an off-base church to attend. It disturbs me that so many churches that should have Airmen in their pews are not taking advantage of an opportunity to learn how to better minister to them and their families.

Into the Wild, Blog Yonder

Well, here we go...I will finally be assimilated to the culture of blogging. Don't know really what I will post or wax poetic about. I figure since I needed an account to post to others blogs then I should have one of my own.

Also, you should check out my wife's blog, Manda's Movies, and our family blog, Our Life. Links to both can be found in my links section.