Week Off!

You be the judge.  A buddy of mine, Sterling, went fishing and caught a good fish, a real good fish.  Who caught the bigger fish????  (To be honest, he did!  His weighed almost twice as much as mine did!)  Oh well, it gives me a reason to get back out and go fishing again.  I'm hoping that Sterling and I will be able to throw a line in the water while I'm speaking in the Georgia area in early July.  Pray for Sterling, he's a pastor and has huge opportunities to impact young folks lives!

O.K., as for the rest of the week it went really well!  Being in church last Sunday and getting to hear my pastor was a huge encouragement.  He preaches the Word and I just love that.  Find a good Bible teaching church, it is so important.

Monday I had the privilege to do a chapel for a local Christian School, Grace Academy.  It was a very good experience.  My son is the administrator for this school.  It is so encouraging to see my son, who loves these young men and women, working so hard to impact their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is so important that we reach this next generation as soon as possible.  Over the last few months with my experiences on the road I've become even more convinced of the importance of this.  I've actually been praying for the Lord, if it is His will, to give me the opportunity to pour into some young folks. 

Please don't misunderstand, traveling around and speaking in so many different venues is fantastic.  I just believe that I've got to find some specific "Timothy's" to pour in to.  Next year my son has asked me to help him teach a class and I am going to do it on my day off!  I'm looking forward to this.

I also had to take my sixth exam for my Systematic Theology course.  I've got one to go and am looking forward to finishing this, you can believe that!

Tuesday was a good day also.  I was able to have two lunches!  That's always a good thing.  My son called and got time off so we went and had a fish sandwich at a local place called Mr. Herbs.  You've got to know where it is to find it.  They have great food!!  We got to talk about the school thing next year and I got even more excited.

After that I got to have lunch with some volunteers at the Creation Museum, the Elgers.  Mr. and Mrs. Elgers live close to Branson MO.  They come out and volunteer on their vacation time!  That is so important, there is no way that we can keep everthing going without folks like this.  Our volunteers truly are invaluable!

Wednesday was a really good day.  It was my day off so I had to do all the yard work.  Mow, trim etc.  I actually enjoy doing this.  The flowers are so beautiful this time of year.

Wednesday night though I had some dear friends from Grand Rapids come into town.  Fourteen to be exact!  Whenever we get together we have a disc golf or laser tag challenge.  Well, this time we had a laser tag challenge.  I also had a buddy in from Atlanta GA and southern California.

I know the pictures bad, it was taken from my cell phone and it was dark.  You can still see some of us though.  The results of the laser tag competition are in and I feel compelled to let you know what happened.  We played 3 games with a total of 23 folks altogether.  The first match I came in 10th because I had a defective gun!  The second game I came in 3rd. 

The last game, which by the way is the only one that counts.  It's like any other sporting event, doesn't matter who won until the very last game.  You could've been the champion, but if you lose your last match you're no longer champion, right!  Well, the last game I came in . . . 1st.  Oh Yeah!  I'm the champ until the next meeting.  I'll give the others the opportunity to respond if they wish.

Thursday was a really good day as well.  We had 13 students come to the museum from Nebraska on their way to the Smitshsonian in Washington DC.  They heard me speak a couple of years ago in Nebraska and got me to speak to them again.  Very encouraging.  It is fantastic that they are teaching these young folks critical thinking skills.  I had the opportunity to go through all of the supposed evolutionary ancestors with them and show them how to look beyond the exhibits that they will see and look for the actual evidence.

In the afternoon I had the privilege of visiting with a special group from all over the country.  It was exciting to see how amazed they were by the museum.

Friday I spoke in the museum and the reponses were huge!  Absolutely huge!  So many people came up and we had some really good conversations.  The same thing is true from the speaking today, Saturday!  I spent a full hour afterwards talking with folks from all over who were encouraged as a result of hearing the talk.  I had two or three folks that I could give a hug and that's always good.

Got some feedback from Ankeny IA ministry that I thought I'd share with you.  You always hope folks understand your heart when you are communicating.  This message lifted my spirits.

"I loved hearing your talks and it was an honor to talk with you.  I just finished a new blog based on one of them on my site.  So thank you!  My wife and daughter came with me on Saturday.  They are not nearly as passionate or excited about the creation stuff as I am (I can't get enought) but they both absolutely loved your talks.  It was amazing to have my 15 year old having so much fun while learning about God!  I am in your debt."

What a privilege.

Lastly, got the results from last weeks Weekly Survey.  The question was "Have you ever visited the Creation Museum?"  Over 82% of the responders said, "yes"!  That 's awesome.  The follow-up question was, "What did you like and dislike about the visit?"  The favorite exhibit, which surprised me, was the section dealing with Noah's Ark!  It edged the Planetarium out by 1 vote.  One friend said:

"Noah's Ark most of all. Fascinated by the size of that floating zoo,
and all the reasons and explanations of how eight people could care for
2 pairs of unclean and birds and 7 pairs of clean animals for a year."

Awesome!  As for the "dislikes" there were two comments:

"Dislike the hours so u can go through in one day"

"I dislike the fact that there is only one in the US. Definitely brings glory to GOD"

Thanks to all who took the survey.  Had a number of folks take me up on the free passes offered for taking the survey as well.  Congratulations!

Take this weeks new Survey and see if you know what animal kills the most humans in a given year.

I get ordained tomorrow, God is good.  Don't forget to go to the Prayer Warrior site and lift those folks up in prayer.  Stay bold and share the love of Christ with someone today.

For those of you that dissed Ultraman, well take this.  You have to be able to see how cool he is from this picture!

No way you can't admit that Ultraman isn't cool!

Hey, hot off of the press!!!!!  Just got this from a friend.

Brother Carl,
I could really use yours and AiG's help this week. A movie we produced summer of Last year, "Letters to God," inspired by a true story of a 9yr. Boy with cancer who writes letters to God as his way of praying and how it impacts those around him - was theatrically released in 900 theaters this past weekend. Praise the Lord We made top 10, but in order to stay in theaters and spread the message of hope we need to make top 5 this week!

As you may know, Theaters make their decision to keep movies on the screen based on box office numbers.  If numbers are low, there is always a possibility that a theater will pull a film off prematurely.  While 10 may seem like a great number  … we need to move up on the list to send a message and keep Letters to God in the theaters.

The movie is produced and Directed by David Nixon (Producer on Facing the Giants and Fireproof)

Thanks in advance for supporting these friends.

ck