CBC meets FOA and RBC

After settling in and meeting the MS critters, we all (I think) got a pretty good night's rest in preparation for all that day 2 had in store...and boy was it a lot.

After morning devotions we headed over to the FOA chapel (Berean Bible Church) for an orientation to the ministry of FOA. We heard about the focus of the ministry and its beginnings. We heard about God's faithfulness overy many years to this ministry in many ways. This year FOA celebrates its 49th anniversary. The focus of this ministry is helping men with drug and alcohol addictions. In contrast to the way the world views drug and alcohol addiction (as a disease), FOA views it as sin. Because of this, they teach these men the Word of God and new life in Jesus Christ as the answer they need to deal with their problem with sin.

The ministry of FOA is supported by church and individual donations. This doesn't just include financial donations, but anything that the ministry could use. Some people just give old stuff or junk to FOA. FOA then in turn cleans it up and sells it at a monthly garage sale at the ministry. As we were going through the metal building with all the garage sale stuff, I found a priceless possession that seems to have just been waiting there for me. So priceless that my dad told me to just take it.

Although it is hard to read, this jar says, "Ashes of Obnoxious Teenagers". I haven't decided yet who will be the first to enter the jar, but there were many people who obviously wanted to try and be the first. I won't name any names.

We continued our tour of the facilities and got acquainted with the grounds the best we could before the rain came in. By the way, the rain was a constant the first part of our trip.

For lunch we decided to head just a mile away from FOA to a place called Catfish Haven. Mississippi is known for farm raised catfish. While not everyone ventured to order the catfish, most everyone gave it a try. Fried catfish, hushpuppies, fried pickles, and sweet tea. Oh yeah, good eatin'.

Everyone's excited about catfish!

Fried Pickles!

3 catfish, small stomach

No catfish, big stomach

After lunch we headed out on the town of Jackson. Jackson is not a huge town, but I thought I would take our group to a few special places to Brit and I. Our first stop was the Sanders land where we used live and I used to work. Both these places are literally in the middle of cow pastures, but we loved it out there. Our friends (and my former boss) Greg and Karen Sanders and their children weren't there, but we did get to see Greg's parents, B.J. and Maxine Sanders. They showed the kids some of the land and then had us over to their house for some wonderful mint tea (one of my favorites) and tea cakes (cookies). It was great. I told everyone that Mrs. Maxine is one of the nicest people on the face of the earth. After meeting her, I think most everyone agreed.

This is Mrs. Maxine and Mr. B.J. (red shirt) on their front porch.
That's me drinking some mint tea!

Brad taming a goat.

At the Sander's house.
Ryan didn't venture to try mint tea,
he stuck with his water.

I parked in the best spot in the pasture.
As soon as I got out, I stepped in the cow pie.
But we got a good picture of man's righteousness - right Warren?

After the good mint tea and the great Southern hospitality, I decided to take our group driving down a portion of the Natchez Trace. The Trace is an old roadway that stretches from southwest MS to Nashville, TN. There are no big trucks on it and it goes through forested area most of the way. The speed limit is only 55mph, but the scenery is nice, and every once in a while you may see some wildlife roaming about.

A portion of the Trace passes the Ross Barnett Reservoir. There is a place called Lookout Point that we stopped at to see the reservoir.

The boys playing football by the reservoir

Tall trees!

Liz took this nice picture of Brit and I
enjoying a peaceful moment.

Jess enjoying her peaceful moment...
WITH A TREE!!

By the way, the reservoir (not Lookout Point but another place) was where I proposed to Brittany!

This picture was taken in the van at some point during this day. I had to include it because this picture is so awesome. When I first saw it, I couldn't believe it. I mean how can you get your face to do that. Kathleen, that is an awesome picture; one for the ages!

After finishing up there we drove over to Riverwood Bible Church to join their youth group for a night of fun and fellowship. After everyone arrived at the church, we headed for CiCi's for some pizza. After we finished eating we came back to the church where we spent some time in the Word of God. We then played some violent games. Let's see: hockey, scatterball, and bombardment. Thankfully, no one got seriously injured, although Harold Sprayberry (RBC's youth pastor) did get his nose cut (by one of his own youth).

Scatterball is the RBC dodgeball game. It is a lot of fun, but our CBC group wanted to challenge RBC to a game of CBC bombardment. So we did...actually 3 games. The result, RBC beat us 2 out of 3 at our own game. We wanted to get a rematch later in the week, but unfortunately that didn't work out. Here are some pics of the night!

The great Harold Sprayberry!
"No autographs, please"

Hockey

Scatterball

Harold's bloody nose

CBC leaders finding a safe spot

Bombardment

CBC

RBC

Let the game begin!

What a good looking group!

After all of this we were wiped out. But it was a great day. Thanks to RBC for being such nice hosts.

2 days down, 7 to go. Man I'm getting tired just thinking about it all.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I !!!!

Ok, I know we have been back for over a week now, but I am just now getting back into the groove of things enough to post about this awesome trip. And due to the length of the trip and number of pictures I have, maybe we should take it only a couple of days at a time.

So in this post I am going to cover Friday and Saturday (July 13th & 14th)

We met at CBC at 3:50 a.m. on Friday and left at 4 a.m.

Considering that it was 4 a.m., this picture is pretty good of most everyone.

Our journey took a total of 14.5 hours so that we arrived at F.O.A. (Friends of Alcoholics) right around 6:20 p.m. if I remember correctly. The ride was definitely interesting in a 15 passenger van with 14 passengers. Between talking, music, and silliness it was a fun ride.

Oh yeah, I forgot about all the digital photos being taken in the van. Some very interesting ones to be shared later. Maybe once I get done posting about the week, I'll have to just post crazy pics, because our group took plenty of them!

I couldn't resist including this silly pic of Ryan playing dress up in the van.

Before we got to F.O.A., we stopped at the wonderful, beautiful, and hospitable MS Welcome Center.

Our last hour of driving involved heavy rains, but when we finally reached our destination, the rain had stopped. And everyone was glad to be out of the van. I mean if I had heard "Hi, I'm Kevin Jonas and I'd like to sell you a caaarrr" one more time, my head may have exploded. So as soon as we got there we let everyone get situated in their living spaces.

Welcome to F.O.A. We'll talk about that white fence in a future post.

This is the FOA sign...I'm sure there are fire ants lurking.

This is the building the boys stayed in, and...

This was the girl's house.

After getting settled we walked around the staff side of the ministry and some of us visited Mamaw who although she didn't say it wanted to "WA PSH" "WA PSH" us with her cane. Ok, maybe I just made that up, but it was still fun to "WA PSH" all week. I actually am doing it out loud now as I type. "WA PSH" So much fun!

Since we were "fixin" to eat "supper", we headed back to the Philemon house (boys dorm and meeting hub) where we had burgers, chips, and "Cokes". After getting used to all the roaches, we met together to discuss some rules and regulations as well as the next days activities, and then dispersed for the evening. Most of the girls went back to their house to settle in and sleep. The boys and Alison and Melinda headed to the living room for a nice game of Risk (which was played all week during free time - not that 1 game but like 3 or 4 games).

However, on this first night the Risk game took an interesting turn. Why you may ask? This is why!

To some, this looks like an ordinary picture. To those who were there, this picture needs no explaining. But for those who were not, brace yourselves for this. In Mississippi there are roaches. At F.O.A. there are many roaches.

This picture hung in the living room where the Risk game was taking place. Someone saw a roach come out from behind it. Then another. So I walked over to the picture, pulled a corner towards me to see behind the picture, and many roaches began coming out from behind the picture. I do not lie when I say there were probably 30 or more roaches behind that one picture. Can I get an "Amen" from someone present.

So little by little I would move the picture and smash a roach or two. Then we found some roach powder, and Mr. Sadler put some of that around the picture frame. But then we decided just to have a roach killing. So Alison got the video camera, and the boys took off their shoes and waited for Ryan to remove the picture. We then quickly smashed the remaining roaches (by this time only about 10-12 were left). What a great memory! Lucky for us, those roaches were just little baby ones. They couldn't have been more than an inch long a piece. Now the 2-3 inchers are the nice ones.

Ok, looks like I'll have to do one day at a time. This post is already long. Well, that is a good start. So next time, I'll cover Saturday. Until then see "y'all" later. "WA PSH!!"

Wet and Cold; Six Flags part 2

Ok, ok, I know I said I would post some more pics of Six Flags soon, but those of you who come to my blog often know that this is soon in comparison to how much I usually blog.

So after lunch we headed back into the park for an afternoon of fun. And not wanting to see our lunch again (gross!), we decided to start the afternoon off with a few slower rides. So we decided to go for the water rides. First things first, some folks decided to change into swimming gear in order to prepare for what the rest of us wanted to deny - that we would get wet.

As you can see, Ryan was making a pretty loud statement with his red and yellow trunks. And I think he was rather happy about it.

After changing (the girls didn't take as long in the bathroom this time), we headed straight to the Roaring Rapids line. It was pretty long, but we waited and got to see others coming down the rapids getting soaked. The roaring rapids consists of a huge inner tube that seats 12 people (we had 13, so we split up) and you go down a river. About halfway through, this guy is in a little tower and as you make the corner he hits the appropriate button and shoots water at you. Then as you are entering the home stretch, people can pay money to push a button and shoot you with water. That is what the people are doing in the background on the picture below as a tube is coming down the rapids.

After this ride, I think the wettest person was probably Kathleen; she got soaked. Everyone got wet though as you can see from the picture below.

Yeah, that is pretty funny. Jakob and Brad got pretty wet. I got wet too, but somehow even though I was sitting next to Brad I didn't get as wet as he did.

After this ride we decided to be gluttons for punishment. So it was on to the logs and boy did we feel water logged (ha, that's funny) after we got done.

This was us waiting in line, well 4 of us. Although I did make it into the picture. Do you see me? What a nice group of young ladies. As you can see of the 4 Kathleen is the wettest (hair) and the fun had only begun.

This picture if of a water logged Mr. M Most of us decided to put 4 people in a log. Well the only bad thing about that is that you are then heavier which causes more water to end up in the log and on you. Obviously Mr. M was in a log with 4 people. The group in my log didn't fair much better.

After this ride, there was only one more wet ride left and it was the wettest of all. However, on the way we stopped at the Eagle to get a quick blow dry. The eagle was very nice with some nice drops.

I can't remember the name of the last ride, but I would call it the super soaker. Basically, you are in this big boat. You get taken up a conveyer belt (not too high) and then you go straight down into water and the water goes everywhere. At the bottom of the drop there is a bridge that some people stand on and get soaked by the water. Going down and hitting the water you think it wasn't that bad, but then all of a sudden the water that went up starts coming down and basically lands right in your lap and you are drenched. By the way, I should mention that not everyone went on this ride. Some folks were tired of getting wet. If I remember correctly the participants of this ride were Rachel, Liz, Jakob, Andrew, Brad, Rick, Ryan, Melinda (that's right, Melinda rode this one) and myself.

As soon as I took this picture, I scrambled to get my camera in my pocket and then braced myself because about 2 seconds later we got drenched. This is the view from the bridge I just mentioned and a few of us held on for dear life and took a shower. Ok, it was more like being blasted with a ginormous fire hose than a shower. In fact the force was so powerful that Jakob's glasses flew off and were never to be seen again (well, for sure Jakob couldn't see them but none of the rest of us could find them either).

At about this point, most of us were ready for a fresh batch of clothes and a towel. The next best thing....ride roller coasters and dry out. So we did. Including the viper and the bull. And that dried us out some.

After all the rides and roller coasters we went on I felt fine. But something about this advertisement at Six Flags made me want to toss my cookies. I think it was the middle picture of the Jonas sisters. By the way, my camera was stolen from me for this picture to be taken. I would never have wasted a good picture on this!

Finally we made it to the end of the day. And despite getting soaked, we had a great time. We packed it in and headed for McDonalds for dinner and then back to the church to get picked up. But not before getting one last picture.

What a nice looking group of folks.

Can't wait until next year!

Bull Riding!!

Well, we went to Six Flags Great America this past Saturday. It didn't look like we were going to get to go when I woke up due to the rain pelting my bedroom window. But after viewing the forecast and dopplar radar in Gurnee (where Six Flags is located - 1.5 hours North), I found out that most of the rain was further South and there was not too much at Six Flags.

So we (Mr. and Mrs. Mulligan, Ryan, Melinda, Brad, Rick, Andrew, Jakob, Liz, Kathleen, Rachel, Elisa, and myself) took off and drove up arriving around 11:00 a.m. And after having to listen to Toby Mac and some other rapper the whole way up, boy was I looking forward to getting onto some roller coasters. Some of our younger group had never ridden the bigger roller coasters before and some had never ridden a roller coaster at all. So we had to break them in the right way.

First we stopped at the restrooms and while the girls waited in the hour long line (funny how there is always a long line to the girls bathroom) Andrew and Ryan got to have their picture taken with Speedy. Andrew is looking a bit suspicious of old speedy if you ask me.

First stop, Batman (after seeing that Superman was an hour long wait). Might as well start out with the big daddy rides first to break them in. That was a very nice first ride although I am not the biggest fan of Batman. Next ride, the Raging Bull; the first of 3 or 4 rides on the bull. Each ride was great. In fact the first ride was so great that as soon as we got off, we got back in line for another ride.

Here are some pics of the BULL.

Mr. and Mrs. M and Rachel and Liz were actually on this coaster going down. You probably can't see them, but they were there. I took this picture while waiting in line.

Here is Andrew, Jakob, Rick and Brad waiting for their turn to tame the bull. Rick is in deep thought. I think we was thinking "Don't puke".

Here is Ryan, Kathleen, and Elisa (and I'm there too, you just can't see me since I was taking the picture). We are heading up the bull for the first huge drop. I think Kathleen must have gotten a bug in her mouth or something.

This is still going up. What can you say, they were preparing for the ride down by raising there hands. This picture reminds me of the old deodorant commercial by the brand Sure. "Raise your hands, Raise your hands if you're Sure". Sorry, just thought I'd share that.

This picture is taken from the peak of the Bull, just before we head straight down. This is about the time we yelled, "Hey I can see Jessicaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" as we plummeted straight down.

This is us plummeting! Yeah, the picture just doesn't do it justice. You feel like you are going to come out of your seet but the seat hold you in place thingy doesn't let you fall.....thankfully.

I think this picture was actually taken while we were riding the bull. I just stuck the camera over my head and took a picture behind us. I was surprised it actually came out. Look at the pure joy on the faces of these boys. Wow!

So that is part 1 of the Six Flags post. Once I get the rest of the pictures (Walgreens gave me a bad disk that I have to get replaced) I'll post more. Let's just say that the afternoon consisted of a lot of water. The words wet, cold, soaked, and tons of fun come to mind.

Overall we had a great time...at least I did. And I think I can speak for everyone else. I'll try to post more soon.

Blast off!

The title of this blog is in response to Kathleen's countdown on the comments section of my last post entitled "Sorry". She was counting down the days until it had been one month since I posted which would have been June 15th. So I decided to post a few days earlier since I had one second and who knows what is going on later this week - so BLAST OFF! Thank you for all your comments about how I should post more often - I'm just glad to know you read my blog and care about what I have to say - maybe!

I could say once again that I am sorry and that once again I have failed to keep the commitment I said I would try to keep in my previous blog - posting more - but you are probably tired of hearing apologies and would rather see results. And I could give you some good excuses why I have not posted, but I won't. But most importantly I am NOT going to make another promise or commitment that I am going to try to post more often because I will probably fail at it. Not that I don't want to post, but I don't always place posting on my blog as the top priority in my week.

You know, I was thinking about this whole situation in the Christian life and I was thinking how many times we desire to follow the Lord and we want to please Him and so we tell God that we will try real hard to do that. And then, we fail and fall flat on our faces once again in our relationship with the Lord. And then we say we are sorry and start the process over again.

But God uses these times in our lives to draw us closer to Him. He is teaching us that while our desire is good, our source of power is bad. Because we are trying to do for God ourselves rather than relying on what Christ has already accomplished for us through his death and resurrection and ascension. By this I am not just talking about salvation but that He has provided everything for us to live our lives each day in a way that brings honor to Him - through His power in us by means of the Holy Spirit.

So, I am not going to say that I am going to try harder to post. I do desire to post and communicate with you guys (gals included in the generic "guys"), but I don't always have the opportunity.

By the way, Six Flags Great America trip is June 23 for the Sr. High from 9:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. Cost is $20 and if you have a Coke can for $20 off bring that too. Just thought I should throw that in there in case I didn't post in the next month!