christmas season thoughts

its been awhile since i just put out a post of what is going on in my life. here's some things that have been going on.

a couple of weeks ago i got the luxury to go to memphis, tn, with my lovely wife. she had to attend a class to help her with the software used in the church office. while she was in class i was out enjoying the sites of memphis and seeing things i had not seen in over 10 years.

over 10 years ago, while i was still in the navy, i got stationed at nattc memphis, millington, tn, twice in a 4 year period. while stationed there i went to highland street church of Christ. highland is an awesome church family harold is guiding. i got to know some of my 'brothers and sisters' like i had never known church family before. it was GREAT!! i hold those times in my heart and ponder them frequently.

while i lived there i got to play softball for the church team, help give out school supplies, help with the mother's day out, etc., etc. that church gave me my first opportunity to minister to my 'neighbors' like never before. i haven't stopped since.

harold shank, the pulpit minister there, taught this awesome class on isaiah that was just great. he taught that the book of isaiah is like a little bible in the bible. the number of chapters = the number of books in the bible. there are two parts of isaiah, just like there are two parts of the bible (the new and old testaments), and guess what ... the number of the books of the old testament = the number of the chapters in part one of isaiah. go figure. things like that are what i remember about memphis.

i also remember eating at the rendezvous with d1. this time we didn't go their, though. we were actually staying at a hotel in germantown, and it would've taken a long while to get there in the traffic after her class. we went instead to a rib place that one of her classmates told her about. the name of this joint was the commissary. those ribs were totally awesome!

the next day while d1 was in class i went and spoke with harold, and basically shared with him how much i appreciated his teachings all those years ago, and that i have a tape of four of his sermons that i have listened to over the years, and i have shared some of his thoughts on this blog. if you have been reading my blog you may remember that (of course that means the two of you that read this blog remember me talking about harold) i have referred to mr. shank in the past. i need to make a cd of them, because sure as the sun rose this morning, the tape will break and i will be crying over it. they are that good guys!

also, on that memphis trip i found kristin's big christmas gift. that gift would be an ipod mini. so hard to find! i had ordered one online, but later got a reply e-mail saying, "sorry we are sold out. here's your refund." ARGH!!! i went to multiple places that you would think had them, but guess where i found it ... go ahead, guess ... nope, not there! it was at the wal-mart, go figure. they didn't even have one at the apple store. that was a shame.

this is going to be a long post if i don't stop here. come back soon and see what else has been going on with me.

i hope you have been enjoying the advent series i have been posting. have you? comment if you want.