See You In 21 Days.

I will be off-line for the next 21 days. My church is doing the Daniel fast again. Therefore, Flashback Friday will be suspended until then. God bless.

Just What Have You Been Doing?

Things have really been busy around her this month. Recently, "The Boy" had the lead role in our church's Christmas musical "In a Galilee Far, Far Away". He was Commander James T. Church of the starship Emmanuel.

Here's the rest of the bridge crew:

Navigator Polo

                                                                      Robot

                                                  Communications Officer Sparky

Information Tech Info (the resident Vulcan)

                                           Security officer Zip (the resident Klingon)

And Chief Engineer Otto (who I must add did a great James Doohan impersonation)

The kids were fantastic. the props were out-of-this-world (no pun intended). "The Girl" got to play one of the animals at the manger scene. At the Sunday morning performance, she tried and wandered from the manger to the friendly lap of her dad, "The Woodsman"

We also had a Middle School band Christmas concert. Here's "The Boy" playing the marimbas:

Once the 6TH grade band finished, "The Girl was finished too. Since she no longer could watch her brother, she found other ways of entertaining herself.

Last night we did our annual Christmas cantata. We've been practicing for months. Our director was a wreck. She kept saying "Christmas has snuck up on me this year." She even cut a song from the list, which we would belt out at different times during lulls in practice. At the end of the cantata, when the thanks yous were being said, we belted it out again. On a related note, my wife watches the directors youngest a couple times a week and once they were watching a Veggie Tales movie with said song in it. Her eyes got big and she exclaimed "That's the song my mommy doesn't like!" ROFL

A Great Honor Was Bestowed Upon Me

Yesterday, We were all abuzz because "The Woodsman" had consented to allow "The Boy" to get baptized. He said when The Boy could explain why he felt he needed to be baptized, he would allow it. In times past, The Boy would freeze up and his mind would go blank. Thanks to Bible Quizzing (which he participated in this year, covering Apostolic doctrine) he was able not only to explain why he needed to be baptized, but he was also able to reference verses to back his argument up.

When the Pastor asked who The Boy wanted to baptize him, since there are many licensed ministers in our church, my wife sent a text to "The Ogre" to find out. The answer came back that he wanted ME to baptize him. I'm not a licensed minister, but Pastor has taught profusely about the man being priest in his household. There have been other men who got to baptize their children, now I was going to get to baptize my grandson.

He had already repented and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, being baptized in Jesus Name would complete his spiritual birth.

Like a Gerbil on an Exercise Wheel

I told you that I'd explain why the "Flashback Friday" post was late this week. It had something to do with being at church every night this week.

On Sunday we had our normal Sunday School in the morning, the Sunday Worship service Sunday night.

Monday through Thursday we had VBS. I had been asked to play the part of gameshow host Wade Winnalot (my wife really liked the fact that I would have to shave every night for this character. Usually I only shave 2-3 times a week). Our theme was "Studio Go" and every night I asked questions about the bible story to three randomly chosen VBS kids and Coach Armstrong & Professor Wordsmart (these were silly, bumbling characters played by two of our other church folk). By the time I got home from VBS, I was whooped (seeing that I also had put in eight hours at the factory beforehand).

Friday, the State Finals for Jr. Bible Quizzing began. I took a vacation day off from work, since quizzing started at Noon, and I don't get off until 3 PM. It helps if the head scorekeeper is present during the quizzes. After going through the first bracket, we all partook in a big cookout. As the cookout was winding down, several games were played with all the quizzers who wished to participate. A candy rain was held shortly thereafter.

As all this was wrapping up, we were ushered inside for a Holy Ghost rally with Br. Wil Rowland. He is hilarious! Here is a Youtube clip of him and his friend "Sunshine".


After the alarm went off at 6:30 AM Saturday morning, my wife & I got ready for more quizzing. We went out for breakfast and were at the church by nine. Although things didn't shake out as we had hoped (the home teams, including the one with "The Boy", were knocked out early. When the dust settled, Toledo once again ruled supreme. However, there were major shake ups in the 2-4 slots. 2nd place went to a first year team, Hilliard. Two of the kids on that team are children of a former assistant Sunday School teacher of mine. 3rd place went to Zanesville, another fairly new team. 4th went to Columbus, which had won a tournament this year and is Nationally known.. Missing from the top teams was Dublin, which also had won one of the tournaments this year.

After all the quizzing was finished, all the officials went out for some food & fellowship. After consuming more than we should have at the local Mexican restaurant, I had to make a run out to the store where $1 will buy anything in the store. I had to get some "Fabulous Prizes" to be given away tomorrow, as our custom at the church, for Father's Day. I've won some of them in the past. I've won a tie, money, and a lock.

I am now thoroughly exhausteded. I'm heading to bed so I'll be ready to go to church again tomorrow.

Gone On Ahead

Frequent readers of the drivel that I post have noticed a lack of frivolity this week. In fact there's been a lack of posting this week too. Today, I called off work and attended the funeral of one of my brothers-in-the-Lord. Since I very rarely mention real names here, Ninja John has a wonderful post about him here.

It says a lot about a person when the funeral (which was held at our church) is standing-room-only. On the way to the grave site committal, the funeral procession stretched out for at least a mile. I counted him as a friend, and will miss the quiet strength and faithfulness that he brought with him everywhere he went.

2 days in a row?

I know what you're thinking,"He wasn't on for 3 weeks, so now he thinks he has to post every day". Wrong. I had full intentions of going to work today. I got up, put out the dog, let him back in, and turned on the radio. I then heard that my company had called off 1st shift operations due to the freezing rain we had here last night. Look at the time I posted, I'm usually at work at that time, and I promise you, I don't blog while at work.

Here are a few pics of the ice:

This picture shows a piece of ice that I got off of my truck. It is over a quarter of an inch thick. I know this because I measured it myself. The folks on the radio said we could have up to a tenth of an inch of ice coating. They were a mite off. How many geeks do you know that have their personal set of verniers to measure silly things like this with?

On an unrelated note, I have one more fast story to tell. On the Saturday of the second week, I got inspired. I had heard from many folks lamenting the things they couldn't have during the fast. Some took it farther than the Pastor called for. Instead of desserts, ALL things sweet were sacrificed. No sugar on cereal, no jelly on PB&J sandwiches, no fun shopping,etc. I took it upon myself to wax poetic about it all in this bit of prose:

Daniel or Lamentations?

Breakfast, no coffee. I think I'll have toast. No bacon, no sausage, no ham.

Lunch, a nice salad, a few celery stalks or a peanut butter sandwich without jam.

Dinner, no chicken, broiler or fried. No Pepsi or Coke for you see,

This Daniel fast that the church is now doing isn't going fast enough for me.

So pass me some carrot sticks. Pour me some juice or a tall glass of milk & that's all.

The place in the room where the TV inhabits is driving me strait up the wall.

I'm thinking of hoagies, tacos and chili, spaghetti and cookies and cake.

And each night I'm dreaming

of chocolate ice creaming.

I'm starving to death when I wake. Oh for goodness sake.

Well, I'm tempted to surf the web for hours on end, but it's something I can't on this fast.

I've not seen a down of the NFL playoffs. I don't know how long that can last.

Still as I drive down the street past McD's, a big Mac pops into my thought.

I know others are feeling the same way that I'm feeling. Unity means a whole lot.

There are time I think this fast is pushing me toward the brink of of inanity.

"Cause now I'm reading a devotional book instead of listening to Rush & Sean Hannity.

So I'm reading my Bible, not Reader's Digest. I'm four weeks ahead on my chart.

And I've met at the church, prayed for 21 minutes. Obedience is a good place to start.

My Facebook hasn't been updated in weeks. My Farmville crop wilts on the vine.

I'm finding myself growing closer to God, and I'll tell you right now that is fine.

And though I am craving some meat every night, I'm determined this fast I'll not break.

But, I tell you, just as soon as it's finished, I'm gonna have me a big juicy steak.

Our associate pastor liked that so much, he had me read it over the pulpit Sunday night. Many of my out of town friends that I showed it to during Quizzing thought it was hilarious. One told me they had done the Daniel fast before, but did each thing only one week (meat 1, desserts& drinks 2, media 3) they were completely aghast that we had done all of them for the whole three weeks.

I'm Back (My wife also used this title)

The 21 day Daniel fast is done.The dietary restriction were difficult, but manageable. I really missed not being on the Internet for 3 weeks. Also, being a big sports fan, I didn't get to see a single down of the NFL playoffs. I listened to the banter at work to figure out who won. I didn't let anyone at work know that I was doing any kind of fast at all. That was really hard when a co-worker offered me a cream filled donut about two weeks into the fast.

Here are a couple of funny stories during the fast. While feeding Sparky The Wonder Dragon, I caught a whiff of his canned food. It smelled really good. I looked at the label. "Sirloin flavor". The dog was eating better than I was. Another time I was really craving a cookie. I ate some Ritz crackers instead. Ritz crackers are poor substitute for cookies. I also wanted a hamburger in the worst way, so I had a veggie burger. It was what I wanted. A hamburger in the worst way.

What did I do during the fast? I read 6 1/2 books from our Christian library at home. No fluff reading here. I counted yesterday and I am 37 days ahead on my Bible reading chart. We also met at the church every night at 7PM to pray for a minimum of 21 minutes (one for each day of the fast). I also agreed to mentor a young man who is moving here from Wooster. Please pray for me in this endeavor.

In checking up on the sites that I frequent, I discovered that I made the front page of the site "Learn From My Fail". I submitted "When moving the stepladder you are working with, always remove the tools on top of it first. Hammers hurt." The story behind that was that I was hanging some new lights in the hall and had to nail some supports into the wall. Seeing that we have 10' high ceilings, they needed to be high up, hence the stepladder. Fortunately the hammer landed on my shoulder and not my head.

While we were away the following things happened (in no particular order): "The Girl" turned 2 and had a grand time playing with the dollhouse that we got her. We met "The Lemons" down at the Newport Aquarium to see the fishies. The 2011 Bible Quizzing season started off with the first tournament being held here locally.

It's good to be back. I will be reading up and commenting on your posts shortly.

See You In 21 Days

Seeing that I am a faithful member of my church, and I do as my Pastor asks, I will be "off the airwaves" for 21 days. Why am I doing this? My Pastor has called a "Daniel Fast".

In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel had a vision but didn't fully understand it. He, for three full weeks, ate no pleasant bread, had flesh or wine in his mouth, nor anointed himself, to get closer to God. At the end of three weeks he is visited by an angel who tells him that his prayers were heard the first day, but was withstood by evil spiritual influences for 21 days. Daniel's fasting gave him the answer he was searching for.

So how does that relate to us? We all use a little more drawing close to God. Our Pastor "tweaked" Daniel's fast for today, so we can concentrate on drawing nigh to God. The pleasant bread will refer to desserts. Flesh, of course, is meat. Since we don't drink wine anyway, it will be replaced with soda pop, coffee & tea (aka no caffeine). The anointing was something pleasant to Daniel, so something pleasant for us must take it's place. For three weeks, there will be no TV, video, MP3, Internet, or other media.

I like my dessert as much as anyone else, sometimes more (are you going to finish that?). This will be rough. I am defiantly not a vegan, so no meat will be tough. I gave up caffeine over a year ago (by doctor's orders), so that's no problem. No Internet, to quote Bugs Bunny, "OOOHHH, I'm dying!". That will be the hardest of all.

Since I'm not going to be here for three weeks, I leave you with some funnies to look at, my "Stuff" page at The Cheezburger Network. These are all the pictures that I have captioned. It should keep you occupied for a while. I'm SirNottaguy-Imadad there too. If you see something, and you find it humorous, please put a vote in for it. The more votes, the better chance I have to making it to the front page. The newest ones come up first.

Sword Of The Spirit

Each month my church recognises a man who has shown Godly leadership. Last month, that award was presented to me. A sword is used as a symbol of the spiritual armor we are to put on in Ephesians 6:10-18.

At the middle of last year, all the men were presented with a ceremonial prayer shawl (lovingly crafted by my wonderful wife). At the beginning of this year, we were also given a covenant to sign. It states:

By the grace of God I will be faithful...

In regular church attendance.

To the Prayer room before service and personal prayer life.

To prayer at the altar after service both personally and for others.

To regular Bible reading and study.

In praise and worship in spirit and truth.

In tithes and offerings.

In the physical upkeep of the church

In the reverence of the house of God.

In leading as the head of my household.

In separation and holiness.

In living and promoting the spirit of unity and cooperation.

In living and promoting fellowship & hospitality.

In sharing my faith by teaching Bible studies and witnessing.

In sharing my faith by teaching my family in leadership through Bible studies.

In finding and fulfilling a personal ministry.

Saturday, we stopped by Jo-Mongous Fabric store and found everything to make an attractive wall mount for it all. Pictured below is the framed covenant, the prayer shawl and the Sword of the Spirit award.

This hangs in our living room, visible to all who enter Castle Nottaguy. My wife (who is quite the Bible scholar) wanted to fashion a hanger for the sword out of a three fold cord (see Ecclesiastes 4:12) of blue, red and gold.

She said that since the sword is symbolic, we might as well go all out with symbolism. The blue represents purity. The red represents the blood of Christ. The gold represents heaven. The sword can also be easily taken down to take to church every month when a new recipient is named.

This award wasn't given because of what was lived in the past. It represents a call to right living and faithfulness. There have been times recently that I felt very undeserving. I cannot change the past. I can change the future. With God's help, I plan to do that.