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Prayer for the Travelers

Some of my favorite guys in the world are headed off to Burkina Faso, Africa tomorrow, and my prayers are with them. It’s an exhausting travel schedule… Fly from Atlanta to Paris, then from Paris to Ouagadougou, BF. Almost 24 hours straight of sitting in airports, on planes, on layover…

Please pray for their safety, their vision (as in their big ideas…not their eyeballs), and ESPECIALLY their families (it seems like weird, crazy things always happen to the families back at home when we go on these kinds of trips).

I had the high honor of being on the first team from West Ridge that traveled to BF 13 months ago. I would suspect that any short-term missions trip has an impact on you. I’ve been on quite a few myself. But there was something different about my trip to Burkina Faso. Over a year later, I can still account for almost everything we did, every place we visited. It was a profound experience for me.

This will be our Lead Pastor Brian’s first trip over… He sent us last year to survey the opportunities and open doors in the country. Now he’ll be in the field seeing it all firsthand, strategizing how our church and some of the churches in our church-planting family can create a movement of bringing hope, medicine, food, and the truth of Jesus Christ to this, one of the poorest nations in the world.

So please pray for Brian, Paul, Tim, John, Steve, and Tadd. They’ll be home in ten days or so.

Oh, yay! Sting ‘em!

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

Just saw this on my Facebook homepage… Ooooooo, now I’m getting excited.

They may not be on the cover of SI, and they may not be all the hype. But they’re mine, dangit. And I love ‘em just the way they are.

Here’s some interesting Stephen trivia… I’ve been a Ga Tech Alum for almost 15 years, and I STILL have not been to a Tech/UGA game. So far, it’s my one regret in life. And I think I’ve already missed the boat for getting tickets this year. Sadness.

I blinked…

My Bou

My Bou

…and then my baby girl turned 1.

Today is Caia Christianne’s 1st birthday. She’s my little “turkey leg.” (I call her that because she was so tiny when she was born that she looked like one of those ‘flavor enhanced’ Fred Flintsstone turkey legs at Disney World.)

Our girls are blessed/cursed with multiple nicknames. We also call her Caiabou (and in turn Bou [pronounced 'boo,' but spelled Bou because it came from Caiabou which came from caribou], Bou Bou), Peanut, Little Squirt, Bou Hinkle, The Small One…

She is a precious creature. It still hurts me that the first few months of her life were so tough for her. But on the other end of it all, she came out the joyful princess we always knew she was.

God, bless this child with courage, grace, confidence, patience, passion, and a heart that is unsatisfied with a mediocre pursuit of You.

Happy birthday, Bou.

Go Bravos! Great way to spend the 4th Eve…

Rome Braves vs Asheville Tourists in Asheville. The T’s are winning after 3.
This is so much cooler than MLB. We’re 4 rows behind the dugout for $10. It’s about 72-degrees…not a cloud in the sky.
Breathe in…that’s true Americana you smell.
Happy 4th.

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What Should I Read on Vacation?

So Annette and I are going off for a few days for our anniversary this Saturday through Monday. Then we take off next Wednesday for a week of camping in North Carolina with my parents. Excitement wouldn’t even begin to describe what we’re feeling about the next couple of weeks. We haven’t truly vacationed in far too long. FAR too long.

So… 10 or 11 days away from the madness… Tell me…What should I read?

Gotta love it when this pops up on your screen.

This image popped up on my screen at 11:45pm. Aaaaahhhh… PTO = day off (paid time off)


Today is Annette’s 33rd birthday. I have a few surprises in store for her, but we’re mostly going to chill. Gotta love it. I played a little prank on her today here.

BTW, she’s STILL older than me.

Happy Memorial Day! Whatcha doing?

Could it be a more perfect Memorial Day in Georgia? Good grief… The temp is perfect. The sun is shining. What an awesome day to sit back and relax while we bask in the freedom that so many men and women have given their lives to protect. Freedom is fragile…and costly.

I’ve cleaned off the back porch and pulled some briars out of the azaleas. Now it’s time to cut the grass. Friends from our journey group will be showing up in a couple of hours to grill some shrimp. Waka waka!

What are you doing to bask in freedom today?

Soooo, Father’s Day is coming up soon…

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This is what I’d like.

Globetrekkers: Iran

Annette and I have become addicted to a PBS show called “Globetrekkers.” The show has quite a few ‘travellers’ who each host their own episodes. They occasionally hit up pretty normal places, but most of the time, they’re taking you to places you normally wouldn’t think about visiting. What I love is how un-polished the show is… It’s not one of those shows that’s really an advertisement for a multitude of brands. The travellers are normally hitchhiking, taking cabs, and staying in local lodging.

This is a great show to watch if you want to authenticate your world view of cultures. Seeing nations from this perspective is a little bit like the perspective you get from going on a short term mission trip.

This week, Ian Wright took us to Iran. Some things we learned…

  • A clean but no-frills hotel is only $10/night.
  • A cross-country flight can cost as little as $11.
  • 25 liters of gas (about 6.6 gallons) cost $1.00. That is NOT a type-o.
  • To be a musician in the palace of Shah Abbas (not sure if it was the 1st or 2nd one), you had to be castrated and blind to be allowed to perform. He also had a very large heram. You do the math.
  • Iran’s second biggest export is caviar. [obviously, oil is the first]
  • A 300-mile cab ride cost only $4.50.
  • The most expensive hotel (which is pretty nice, actually) is $46/night.
  • The dude ate sheeps’ brain from a street vendor for breakfast. I’ll stick to my protein bar, thank you.

Missing Africa [photos]

I’ve been feeling a little homesick the last couple of days. And then it hit me today that seven months ago this week, I was there. If the measure of love for a place is how longingly you dream to return after you’ve left, then I love Burkina Faso, Africa.

I miss the colors…
Missing Africa-18.jpg

I miss the sounds…
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I miss their faces…
Missing Africa-17.jpg Continue Reading…

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