Update on Ministry Prayer

I want to take the time to thank you all for praying and remembering our family as we consider this ministry decision ahead of us (please see the previous blog entry if you need background info). I had a great meeting with our Pastor on Sunday evening and want to pass on something he reminded me of: (let me prep it by saying sometimes you just cannot see the trees because of the forest) ............ he said that God is not the author of confusion. If we are tossing about so much on this and not sure of what we should do, can we really plunge in and say that God is leading us in this direction?

(pregnant pause is inserted here)

Yeah .... that's what I said as well.

So, while I have not come to an official decision and made any phone calls, I think it is pretty safe to say what direction we are leaning on this. We are still praying of course and wanting to be sure, but I think the decision has already been made for us. I feel if the Lord wanted us to be there it would be clear and without doubt, I just want to be sure that my own emotions are not blocking things so I'm going to take the rest of this week to pray and then decide.

Speaking of this week, I'm getting ready to head to Colorado Springs this afternoon for work. I am really hoping to have a decent travel day and definitely have dinner with an old friend in the ministry this week. I found out yesterday that the hotel I'm staying at is directly across the street from "Focus on the Family", so maybe I will have a chance to go visit and look around a little bit. Well, that's the latest from here. Praying your day goes well today and that you take the opportunity to tell someone that Jesus loves them, because the whole world needs to hear! God bless you.

Who are we afraid of offending?

I'm really confused folks ...

Why do we have two lists to protect the airlines from "this or that" threat? We have a no fly list (Click Here) ... and we have a terror watch list (Click Here)? Why not have one list that says if you are on it, your Visa into the US is automatically denied and you do NOT get onto a plane headed for the United States.

Who are we afraid of offending here? The bad guys? Seriously?

If anyone is on any kind of a watch or terror list, they need to be denied entry into the United States, period. Why is Secretary Napolitano spending her time making excuses for why this latest terror suspect was allowed onto a plane? Why spend time on the news programs (being handled with kid gloves of course) trying to justify your comment that the "system actually worked"? True, you were able to notify those other planes in the air and airports that there was an immediate threat ... but what if that warning didn't have to be made because of a denial of access onto an international Delta flight headed into Detroit?

Come on you fools .... change the precautions from being gentle and simply deny access across the board. Madam secretary, who's team are we playing for here? I fly once a month somewhere in the country and believe me, I won't mind the extra few minutes to remove some knucklehead from the airport because he is on this list and cannot get on the plane. How about we stop playing one move behind the bad guys (being reactive) and actually be proactive in the protection of our nation?

When will we learn????

Another travel week down ....

This past week has been a real challenge as far as being gone again for work, but I have to admit it really was a great trip. I attended the AF Resource Management Conference and during the week we had some very informative briefings regarding the coming fiscal year for the Air Force; as well as discovering some new and improved ways to do business.

However, I must say that the networking opportunities and chance to hang out with some very old (and a few new) friends really made it all worth it. Nashville is a great city to visit, and I have to admit that being a musician for the last 25 years there is a plethora of music to be heard and to see. Of course, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time you can see some great stars as well such as Big and Rich walking around downtown Nashville as well as some friends of mine met Melissa Gilbert ("Laura" from "Little House on the Prairie") in one of the elevators of our hotel.

At any rate, I have to say that while hanging out with friends is always a great time, it is good to be home and sleep in my own bed again. Actually, come to think about it I am home for 10 nights and then I travel again to DC for more meetings the week before Thanksgiving. Ugh. The lesson here is simple: Enjoy my time home this week and make a REAL effort to not work overtime nor add any time to being apart from my family these next few days.

Here's to hoping your weekend is a good one and you too make an effort to spend some time with your family and enjoy the simpler (but more important) things in life.