Monday in Vermont ~ Pics

The majority of the pics are us ripping out carpet @ the local public elementary school, Addison Central School.

The pics of little people walking towards the camera was part of our visitation team. The mission team went to approximately 100 houses on visitation this morning.

The bottom are some sights of which my photography skills do not do it justice.
There is Middlebury town square.
The other is a old metal railroad bridge over a creek. This is from the backyard while I was on visitation.
Then you have the one of the American Baptist Church next door to the Addison Town Hall.

More info on Vermont Sun/Mon re-cap.

Sunday Pics

Pastor Kauffman's family on the left.
The mission team on the right.
The church sign.
The rented facilities.
The worship services.
Tina, Sheila and Doug singing a special.
VT gun owners for M.K.

Mission Trip Day 2 ~ Vermont

As you can see we did arrive safely @ Bridport VT.

Today we got a little briefing by Pastor Jeff Kauffman about the Vermont spiritual landscape.
Highly liberal, and very little concern over Biblical spirituality.

An interesting thing he pointed out was the Middlebury College. MC is just a few miles from Bridport in a beautiful town called...Middlebury. Interesting facts are...

*It is the most liberal college in VT.
*It is one of the leading linguistics college in US. Missionaries go there to train.
*If you take Arabic @ MC you sign a document saying that you won't use it to proselytize.
*DL Moody's son was one of the Presidents (in the pre-liberal days).
*There is some kind of Al-Jazeera connection (I hear).

Tomorrow we have worship services. Monday we should be out doing the ministry. It should be interesting.

Mission Trip Day 1.5

The woman on the left is Lori Hale. Yesterday (Friday the 13th appropriately enough) and spilling in to today, Lori became a swirling tornado of anger.

How you might ask? A simple mistake in driving directions.

I will leave the ugly details but suffice it to know that a 20 min driving trip back from the Niagra Falls turned into a 3 hour ordeal.

3 hours was the fateful time for Gilligan and 3 hours was the fateful number for the mission trip.

Without sounding like a gossiping little old lady, Lori threw what can only be described as a Paris Hilton like hissy fit today (Sat the 14th), when we discovered the direction to Vermont was mislabeled by one turn.

I am concerned about her mental well being.

Stay tuned for future episodes of when Lori goes wild!

Mission Blog Day 1 (July 13 2007)

We made it to Buffalo New York!

After about 9 hours on the road, one or two small detours, a couple of rain showers and 4 states we arrived.

I am especially excited because it is my daughter's first mission trip.

Our week will consist of staying in Buffalo tonight, checking out Niagara Falls, and rolling out @ 8am.

We look to arrive in Vermont around 4pm. We'll catch up with Pastor Kauffman of the Hope Community Fellowship and officially begin the mission part of Mission Trip.

Tuesday we will roll out and head to New York City where we will serve Wadsworth Ave Baptist Church and Pastor Josh Blair.

Watch for First Baptist Church in the newspaper!!

Our local paper the Community Press will be doing an article on our 5k with pics (hopefully) and a number of interviews with FBCers.

I'm not sure when this article will be out. The reporter Chris Mayhew recognized the importance of getting it out ASAP.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Random Thoughts

Random Thought #1...I'm reading Augustine's Confessions. I don't know if I'll finish it. But already Augustine poses a great question, "Lord, if you are larger than your creation (Heaven of Heavens cannot contain You) where do You spill over into when you exceed your creation?"

Random Thought #2...Conviction: The need to do much better in leading spiritual development @ home.

Random Thought #3...There is so much overload of good information (online, libraries, etc) the temptation is to skim and not go deep.

Random Thought #4...Great quote from Tim Keller on grace. Keller points out that grace is only properly understood when we see the enormity of our personal sin and the magnitude of the provision of the Cross.

Random Thought # 5...I need to go pray.