Today is the big party day at our house!!!!! Hillary has invited lots of friends over to celebrate her 10th birthday, and it ought to be a doozy. It even looks like the weather will cooperate for the 10am start…

Hillary’s Grandmother, Poppee, Uncle James Lee, and big sister came down from Arkansas for the big day, and last night witnessed a whirlwind of activity getting things set up. If we survive, I’ll try to offer a full report tomorrow.

In the picture above, you can see the completed birthday “flip-flop” cake to go along with the beach theme to today’s party.

Party time is three hours away. If I’m going to get in my morning jog (and complete two full weeks of jogging!), I’d better get a move on.

One of the things I love about traveling to new areas is learning their neat little claims to fame. This week’s trip to the four-city cluster of Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia in Northwest Alabama uncovered the birthplaces of two extremely famous people from American history: Helen Keller and Jesse Owens.

I just missed the Helen Keller Festival, held each year in June on the weekend closest to her June 27 birthday (though, ironically, I traveled there on June 27).

On my way home yesterday, I decided to stop and visit the Jesse Owens Museum in tiny Oakville, Alabama.

It is ironic at best that there is an Alabama museum to Jesse Owens. There is a replica of the house where he spent his first nine years on the property, a house where his nine siblings slept on the floor in one room while their sharecropping parents slept in the “other” room, which doubled as the family living room. There was no real education for the black sharecropping kids in Alabama, so when Jesse was nine they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in hope of a better life. Life was better for black people in Ohio, and it was there that an observant track coach “discovered” Jesse Owens.

And now, in what the Owens family remembered as a horrible place, there are road signs and travel brochures leading you to a museum built in his honor.

On one hand, it’s sad: a community that oppressed a family trying to make a buck off of them.

On the other hand, it’s appropriate: the sins of oppression have been memorialized – so people can never forget.

I traveled to the northwest corner of Alabama yesterday to speak in the summer series at the Florence Boulevard Church of Christ. This congregation has made multiple trips to Ocean Springs to help in the hurricane recovery process, and it was an honor to visit and say “thank you.”

One of the neat older fellers who has been here before led the opening prayer, and as he prayed for Ocean Springs he thanked God for “Al Sharpton” being there to speak. I nearly laughed out loud right there in the middle of his prayer!!! I, of course, had to make a joke about it when I stood up to speak (you know, deny that I was running for president, etc.). After everything was over, my friend tried to apologize, but I wouldn’t accept it. I absolutely loved it!!!

I did an okay job, I guess. I’ll tell you the truth that I don’t feel very skilled at these one-time jobs where you go and speak to people you don’t know very well and then come home. Now that I’ve been, I think I know how I would (should) have approached it, but it’s too late now. Oh well, I did my best, and that will have to suffice.

The best part came afterward: we stayed for three baptisms from the youth group! Very, very cool…

This morning, I met Ross Hargett and Josh Webster for breakfast at Cracker Barrell, which was especially neat because, though they live in the same community, they had never met. There are a zillion Churches of Christ in the Florence, Alabama, area, so it makes perfect sense that they hadn’t met until today. Ross is an elder at the Killen Church of Christ who has led eight trips to Ocean Springs. Josh is the youth minister at the Florence Boulevard Church of Christ, and he has led three trips to Ocean Springs. It was neat to eat breakfast with these two special people.

Both Ross and Josh really served as pastoral counselors to me this morning for my job, and they may not realize that they served as inspirations, too. Ross talked about the new stepfamily ministry that he is working on, while Josh talked about their new single-parent ministry. Ross talked about a class he’s planning to offer about woodworking, etc., and Josh shared his Monday night mechanic ministry. I started thinking how cool it was that these two men are doing such good work reaching out to real people in their community, especially when you consider that they were the same people who respectively led their churches hundreds of miles away to Ocean Springs when we were in need, too!

In the first days after Hurricane Katrina, I correctly informed my youngest daughter that we were about to meet the coolest people in the universe.

Ross Hargett and Josh Webster are two of them.

I don’t really know Al Sharpton, so I can’t say about him…

I don’t know how many folks from the Ocean Springs Church of Christ read my blog on a regular basis, but for any who do, today’s post will be most interesting!

Bill is one of the neatest people I know, and father of six of the other neatest people I know. He was married to JoNan, another of the neatest people I have ever known, who passed away after a long, hard battle with cancer several years ago now.

Bill is also one of the most private people I know. Some time after JoNan’s passing, he basically disappeared from church. Later, we learned that he had moved to Pensacola to work with his son. He didn’t tell anyone. He didn’t want any fanfare. Here about a year ago, Bill turned up again in Ocean Springs. I thought he was visiting, but instead he said that he was back. No fanfare once again.

A month or two ago now he showed up in my office and asked if he could shut the door. (This always worries me.) When we were safely alone, he asked if I would officiate his wedding ceremony! I think I acted smooth, but you could have knocked me over with a feather. I (nor anyone else in our church family) even knew he was dating anyone! He told me about Beverly from Pensacola, and even showed me a magazine article about her and her neat, artistic house.

I, of course, told him I would be honored. I’ve done big weddings and I’ve done small weddings, but I’ve never did a secret elopement before!

The wedding was yesterday afternoon, and it was beautiful. My Hillary and I were two of the ten people there (counting the bride and groom); Hillary got to hold the cell phone up so that Beverly’s daughter could listen to the ceremony.

And to the best of my knowledge, with the exception of my wife and daughter, and my elder, Gene, and his wife, Eileen, who are gone on an Alaskan cruise (and my secretary and youth minister who were around the building yesterday), absolutely no one in our church family has a clue about this.

Bill and Beverly are coming to the Peak of the Week class tonight, and he said he plans to introduce his new wife then. I would LOVE to be there, but I have another speaking engagement tonight!

Ought to be a memorable night.

Yesterday was a fasting day for me. This is not (I hope) one of those “hey look at me I’m fasting” blogs that Jesus referred to on the Sermon on the Mount. Instead, it was simply my homework assignment for my “Forty-Something Class” at church. I’m looking forward to Sunday to hear the experiences – for many, it will be the first time to try it.

I have fasted a few times in the past, but it has been a LONG time. It is anything but a “discipline” for me. More of a rarity.

It is near impossible to read the Bible and miss the importance of fasting. I think there are two kinds: (1) the fasting that comes at key times in life: big decisions to make, scary mountains to climb, dark valleys to descend… and (2) the regular discipline of fasting, as portrayed by the pious Pharisee (“I fast twice a week…”).

I don’t really do either. But I think I should…

Yesterday wasn’t even hard. I ate cereal and toast at 6am before my morning jog (over a week now!!!), and then I didn’t eat the rest of the day. It may have helped that I was very busy yesterday – in fact, I’m positive it helped. But it amazed me nonetheless. On normal days, like Barney Fife, I get a little snippy if I don’t get food during one of my sinking spells. The mind really is a powerful thing.

Which is what fasting battles: the mind. And on a bunch of levels.

The point of the upcoming class this Sunday, from whence this homework assignment came, has to do with learning to be content with what we have. We aren’t so good at that in this country of ours, and the Church seems to be no different. We want more and more and more – everything bigger and better. Jesus didn’t live like that.

One of the world’s favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4: 13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.” We use this, of course, to remind ourselves that we can accomplish all sorts of things. More and more and more. Bigger and better.

But that’s totally out of context.

Instead, this famous verse is offered as a secret Paul learned – and that secret was how to be content. Have a little? No problem. Have a lot? No problem. It really doesn’t matter: either way Paul had learned the secret of being content, and it was that through Jesus he had the strength to deal with anything.

Even being hungry.

Self-denial. There’s something wonderfully liberating in that term.

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday.

Not long after I moved to Ocean Springs, I had the pleasure of meeting the Reverend Doctor Jesse L. Trotter, Sr. (usually worded in that particular order), pastor of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Ocean Springs. I was pleasantly surprised that many of the preachers in Ocean Springs treated me graciously when I moved here, not as a punk Church of Christ kid, and Dr. Trotter was especially kind.

Dr. Trotter is sort of a local legend. In addition to being the ranking senior pastor in Ocean Springs, he also has the notoriety of being the first black alderman in the city’s history, ending an 89-year drought with his election back in 1981. He pastors a large African-American church next to the poorest section of Ocean Springs, and he has a passion for the causes of peace and justice.

I’ve wanted to include Dr. Trotter in my Ocean Springs photo-project, but I never could catch up with him! But recently, I noticed a celebration scheduled at Macedonia in his honor at 3pm on Sunday, June 24, to honor his 39th anniversary as their pastor. Can you imagine preaching at the same church for 39 years??? I decided I would go…

I felt a bit funny walking in, mostly because my only invitation was the church marquee as well as because I didn’t know anyone outside Dr. Trotter who would be there. But my fears were soon allayed: for one, everyone treated me kindly, but also, I soon saw Greg Gipson, an old friend who came to sit by me. I then saw another friend in Latan Griffin. And when the choir sang, I saw another old friend in Tyndria Hines. I learned that I was there among friends.

The service began at 3pm, and as you might suspect, it was a lively service! To give you a hint how lively, I left at 4:45pm, and they hadn’t made it to the preaching part of the service yet! I actually went and conducted our evening devotional at our place at 5:30pm, stayed after for a couple of lengthy conversations, and when I returned to try again to get a picture of Dr. Trotter at 6:45pm, they were just finishing up dinner! I got a hug from Tyndria, and when I tracked down Dr. Trotter I saw Latan again. After I snapped the picture I wanted, Latan offered to take a picture of me with Dr. Trotter (seen above).

I noticed yesterday that I was one of two white people in an auditorium of several hundred. I thought later that I hope I live long enough not to notice such things.

Maybe a few trips like yesterday will help.

I spent about an hour hanging out with the folks at Coffee Fusion last evening. I emailed Adam (the owner) a couple of weeks ago, and after messages sent back and forth, finally hooked up with him this past week in person. I’ve wanted to add the cool “bubbletea cafe” to my Ocean Springs photo-project, and he suggested I come back last evening when there was live music and the weekend crowd and try to capture some good pics then…

Well, as business life goes, turned out that there wasn’t much of a crowd last night. That was fine, though – I was a bit nervous about being the weird photographer in a crowded room anyway. Plus, I got the chance to visit more with Adam, who is a really gracious dude.

And anyway, I liked the picture (above) I came away with after all.

If you’re ever in Ocean Springs and need a neat place to hang out for a while, outside of my house Coffee Fusion is the place to go.

Jody and I enjoyed the rare opportunity to go to a movie last night, and we took in Ocean’s Thirteen. It was entertaining, though not destined to be one of the all-time classics. I mean, I enjoyed Ocean’s Three a lot back in the day, back when Clubber Lang fought Freddy Krueger, but Hollywood just keeps cranking out the sequels for suckers like me I guess.

One of the new additions to the Ocean series this go around was the addition of Al Pacino as the bad guy. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Pacino or not, but he makes for a really believable bad guy in this movie. A couple more such roles and he might just become a household name.

My favorite part of Ocean’s Thirteen was seeing Super Dave Osborne again. Well, that’s not really true. Instead, my favorite part was recognizing an actor whom my wife didn’t know (since this NEVER happens). His real name is Bob Einstein (and he actually has a website HERE), and he plays Matt Damon’s dad in Ocean’s Thirteen, but I remember his days as a super stuntman (as remembered in the TV Guide pic above). Does anyone else remember Super Dave? Was I the only college student sucked into getting the Showtime/Movie Channel package in the early 1990s?

One other kind of favorite part in the movie. At one point, Andy Garcia’s character faces down Al Pacino’s character (they’re both casino owners, which is important for this favorite part). Garcia says something about trying out a new game in Tunica, Mississippi. Pacino replies, “Mississippi? I thought that’s where games go to die?”

There was a wee bit of tensed silence in the Biloxi movie theater. I think I was the only one who laughed out loud.

One final thing to note: Ocean’s Thirteen is diabolically anti-Christian in my estimation. You fall in love with these endearing crooks, and between Don Cheadle’s thoughtful letters to Elliot Gould and Danny Ocean’s heist leading to $72 million to needy children, you just might think criminal activity can be okay if done for the right reasons. So other than this diabolical anti-Christian message, it’s a fairly entertaining way to spend an evening.

Plus, there’s Super Dave.

Last night involved a three-hour board meeting per my re-involvement with Habitat for Humanity, but it was a good night. I’m new to this particular board, but we appear to have a great collection of people who are at the same time intelligent, diverse, and fun. We also have a brilliant CEO in Chris Monforton, whom I trust immensely. I’ve taken the chair of the Nominating Committee, the group responsible for presenting new board members as well as governing the board, which is a formidable task only in that this healthy board needs to continue…

For those of you unaware, I began the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Jackson County in the spring of 2001. I was term-limited off the board in the spring of 2006, less than a year after Katrina. When I left the board, negotiations were underway with the Harrison County affiliate to merge (under pressure from Habitat for Humanity International in the wake of the devastating storm), which was accomplished in January of 2007. I was added to this “new” affiliate in May, giving me exactly one year away from the action.

We have a new website, but it is really under construction. You can bookmark it HERE if you wish; I’m sure there will be lots of cool stuff on there soon.

Imagine our calling: eliminate poverty housing from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A crazy thought in the first place, but given the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it’s almost laughable.

Just about as crazy as feeding several thousand people with a kid’s lunchable.

Moulton, Alabama, is a little town in northwest Alabama, and I have friends there. Well, now I do. We haven’t had many hurricane relief crews recently. That part of our lives seems to be passing away, yet this week we’ve met around twenty kind folks from the Moulton Church of Christ, about half the group adults, and half the group teenagers.

After our Peak of the Week class last night, several of us stayed afterwards to show them our old slideshow. We then stayed after that and talked and told stories for a good long while. I got home after 10pm from our 7pm class.

I don’t know if the need to tell our stories is therapeutic or just plain needy on our end. I’ve told the same stories bunches of times, but I continually feel the need to tell them when new folks are around. Whatever the case, I told them again last night.

Mr. Key, one of our new friends from Moulton, made the comment that it was surprising how much is still undone in areas they had been to not long after Katrina. It has been 22 months now. So much has been accomplished, and yet some places are still a veritable mess. Just goes to show how unbelievably massive nature of Katrina’s destruction.

I hope to live a nice, long life, and never see something like that happen again.