Weekly Update

On the Sports front: LSU won the BCS National Championship. This is the Bayou Bengals 2nd BCS National Championship in 5 years! Geaux Tigers! The Georgia Bulldogs, my second favorite college football team (I was born in Athens and my parents had season tickets until we moved to Baton Rouge.), finished #2 is the nation and is ranked #1 in the preseason rankings for next year.
My NFL Team, the Green Bay Packers, won in the snow on Saturday and will host the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field. The reason I'm a Packer's fan is that Brett Favre and I grew up 20 minutes from each other. Have I mentioned that I struck Brett out in Little League All Stars? It's one of my claims to fame.

On the home front: Jennifer is feeling good but is really tired. She is making a baby after all. Well, God is actually making a baby in her. Our house was under construction this past week as my good friend, Bob Bryan, had his crew working their magic. They turned the sitting room off our master bedroom into a nursery for the new baby. It is painted a "beautiful" coral pink. At least Jennifer and Julia think it is "beautiful" and that is all that counts. Bob's crew is also in the process of finishing a room in our basement for my office. I cannot wait to see the finished product. I am so excited about it that I may have to post a picture next week.

On the *personal front: I am loving the Daily Bible Reading Plan. I have been both perplexed and encouraged by reading about the lives of God's people in the book of Genesis. It seems like every one of them (Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) made huge mistakes and God continued to use and bless their lives. This encourages me because I know that I am not perfect and I screw up every day. And in spite of my shortcomings, God continues to bless my life, my family and my church.

On the church front: Graystone Church continues to grow. In 2008, our Sunday morning attendance is well over 500 people. We, Bob Bryan's crew(...have I mentioned how AWESOME he is?), is building a wall in the Superkids Room this week to create space for the new 4 years olds-Kindergarten Class. Hopefully, this will relieve some of our space issues in the children's area.
We are also praying about starting a 3rd Service on Sundays, but we are not sure when we would have it. We are thinking either 8:30 AM or 5:00 PM? At this point, we do not have a peace about starting a new service. We will have to see. The staff is actually going out of town this week to spend a couple of days in prayer and planning for 2008. Please be in prayer for us.
At the Business Meeting today, the Graystone members approved the 2008 budget and the motion to obtain a 2.5 million dollar construction loan for the new building. Please continue to pray for the building team as we strive to design the "perfect" building to meet the needs of Graystone Church and our community. I cannot wait to break ground in a few months (Lord willing).

On the missions front: The Dominican Republic Mission Team arrived home safe and sound last night. Look for an update post from Heath in the next couple of days when he awakes from his much needed nap.

* Weight Update: 217.5 pounds

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