Amazing Feedback This Week!

Had a really good week hope you were blessed as well.  Got some emails that really encouraged me and some opportunities that are pretty exciting.  But I digress!  (Love the commercial.  Have you seen it?  It goes like this:  "Who's our best presenter?" "Carl"  And then he takes Carl on the road and he's not a communicator.  My mind works different, I know.)

Anyway, Sunday as I told you I was ordained in my church.  This was a great honor and calling.  I'm excited to see where the Lord is going to lead with this.

Monday - Had a meeting that looks like it will give more opportunites to reach out to the younger generation.  I've definitely got a strong desire to reach out to two groups:  Fathers and Children.  I'd appreciate your prayers on this. I also got a picture from a friend on Facebook.  Take a look at this:

I told Kristen that I almost went to jail over this salt, and that's true.  I told her I'd give her the "rest of the story" in this weeks blog.  Some of you may remember this story but, here goes.  A couple of years ago my wife and I were on our way to Las Vegas.  We were doing ministry, thank you very much.  We didn't even go inside of a casino, it was ministry.  Anyway, our flight went through Salt Lake City where we lived for over 8 years.  Our layover was such that we were told to get off of the plane and the get back on when it was ready to leave.  We thought we'd check out the airport and see how it had changed since we left.  As we walked around my wife went into a store and found this salt.  She called me over and showed it to me saying, "You can use this in your talk!"  "Good idea", I said.  "Go ahead and buy it."  As she tried to check out the cashier tested the $20.00 bill she was paying with.  (By the way, we had a total of $200. with us that my son had just given to us for rent.  He had taken the money out of a ATM in the mall.)  The bill turned out to be a counterfeit!  To make a long story short, the police were called and we almost missed our flight.  The lady was threatening to take me to jail because "passing counterfeit bills is against the law!"  I was a little frustrated and responded with, "Duhh, IF you know you're doing it.  Can you tell that's a counterfeit bill?  I don't have a pen to check my money with!"  Bad move!  By the time she let us go the door to the plane had been shut.  Fortunately the lady opened it back up and let us get on the flight because our bags were on the plane.  Oh well, live and learn.

Tuesday - Got an email from a young man that I had the privilege of meeting while on ministry in the Philippines last year.  His name is Ishmael and he brought his friends to a number of meetings while I was in the Manilla area.  I thought I'd share this with you.  Below is his picture and his email.

  "BTW, do you remember this one time I brought some of my friends to your talk (it's ok if you don't, I understand)?  One of my friends who heard you speak is starting to asked me questions about the Bible.  I've shared teh Gospel to her previously and she didn't seem interested with anything that's even remotely related to my faith, but now whe's starting to think.  She's even asking for a copy of your message "Fossils: Friend or Foe?" (actually I gave her one last Christmas but she said it was stopping in the middle).  I'll give her another copy this week.  I just want to share with you how much God has been using you and your message for the furtherance of the kingdom.  You're truly a big blessing to us here in the Philippines.  Really hope to see you again soon (in Cincy maybe? :p  Oh how I wish to be able to see the Creation Museum)."

  I have to tell you this was VERY encouraging because while in the Philippines I just didn't have any idea on whether the message was connecting or not.  Hearing that some folks got excited, especially younger folks, makes it all worthwhile.  Pray for these young men and women to be bold witnesses.

That night we had our home Bible study and it was awesome.  There are three young ladies who are volunteering at the Museum who heard me speak in their fathers church 10 years ago.  Now they're volunteering at the museum.  I remember that church very well.  It was in West Virginia and it is the only time that I can remember where another church canceled their service and came over to the church I was speaking at and joined their service.  Afterwards we had a potluck and the time of fellowship was some of the sweetest that I've ever experienced in 20 years of ministry.  Really good folks.  They now live in Minnesota.  Please pray for their father, he's started a church plant up there now.

Wednesday - It was my day off so I did all the "honey do's".  Mowed the lawn etc.  After that was finished I then took my son out to the disc golf course and spanked him again.  I'm almost feeling sorry for him.  NOT!  O.k.!  I admit it, I'm too competitive.  It was just a beautiful day and the sun felt soooo good.

Thursday - I wrote the first skit for the youth outreach.  The working title is "You're Joking, Right?"  I'm hoping to have a number of these to use in between sessions at the youth outreach.  I also got two youth events set up in conjunction with my other speaking.  Well, the ball is rolling.  We'll see what the Lord has in mind.  I also got an email from Angel that I thought I'd share with you:

"Hi, I'm Angel, which seems like you know already, cause it says that.  Well, anyway, I watched your talk this past Saturday (April 10th) at the Creation Museum.  You really opened up my eyes and the eyes of the other in my group.  I just wanted to say thank you for what you are doing in the world and that me and my church here in Logan Ohio are praying for you."

Awesome!  Again, you just never know if folks truly are understanding what you're saying.  Seeing another young person get excited is so encouraging. 

Had lunch with Dr. David Menton, I love this guy.  He is a wealth of information.  Our conversations are so exciting to me.  I joke about this but it's true, we've talked for 30 minutes about mucos before.  And he made it FUN!  Good man.

Spoke that afternoon in the museum again.  Great responses.  Had the father of an 8 year old come up to me afterwards and say, "My 8 year old son told me after the talk, "Dad, I understand what he's talking about!", Thank you for reaching my son."  God is good.

Friday - Wrote another skit for the youth outreach.  Brought my suitcase to work to be sent to Georgia with the books.  It's kind of crazy this next few weeks.  I go from Pennsylvania to Las Vegas (Ministry, thank you again!) to Atlanta.  I just can't carry all of the bags so it's going to be interesting.  Spoke in the museum again Friday.  Had a full house and the responses were exciting.  Spent a long time speaking with folks afterwards.  One family came up to me and said how much their children enjoyed the meeting.  Their grandmother was with them and she said, "Children, how about Grandma really enjoyed that talk!"  They were a really fun family. 

Dr. Tommy Mitchell helped me figure out how to use my iPad to control presentations on my laptop computer.  WAY COOL!  This will help immensely for the churches where I can't hook my laptop up at the stage.

Saturday - Leaving for Pennsylvania in an hour.  Trying to get caught up on everything before I go.  Here's the results from last weeks Survey question, "What animal kills more humans every year?"  The options were, bear, snake, mosquito, deer, goose, shark and spider.  80% of you got it right, the deadly . . . deer!  Because of the car accidents they cause deer kill more humans than any other animal.  I thought it would be the mosquito myself because of diseases.  I still think it's the mosquito.  You can take this weeks survey here!

By the way, we're having an amazing family conference in Sevierville, TN in July.  Over 2,000 folks have already signed up.  If you're looking for something that will encourage you in your faith, come on down.  Bill Jack and myself will be working with the young folks.  It'd be a privilege to meet you.

Stay bold, share the love of Christ with someone today and please go to the Prayer Warrior site and lift some folks up in prayer.  God bless!

Carl Kerby

P.S.  I got a phone call from my dear friend Neal.  He felt that I 'kicked him to the curb' by not showing his fishing photo along with Sterling and mine.  He has a valid point.  We've been fishing together for a while and will be fishing together with Sterling in July, Lord willing.  I totally dropped the ball and should have shown a picture of Neal with one of the fish he caught.  Well, here it is.  Love you Neal!