"Ace"

I only knew one man as a grandfather growing up. My papaw, C.C. Cannon, or "Ace" to his friends and flying buddies sure liked to keep things interesting. I can remember how much fun it would be when he would drive me home from staying at his and Mamaw's house in Greenfield. When Papaw would take me home, we'd sometimes get to go "the fun way". It was a collection of back roads that had more drops and rises than the best roller coaster. He was used to flying airplanes, and he drove just like he was flying. It was a lot of fun. Looking back, there are so many lessons that I can say I learned from this man.
He was a staple around our home church. His handlebar mustache was always present and for many years he served as a deacon. Many in the church respected him as an older man in the faith. I remember spending time at their house and seeing him studying the Bible, intent on teaching a good lesson. Papaw was strict and expected good behavior, but he had a generous heart and an incredible sense of humor. One of my favorite pictures is a computer printout (pretty high tech in the 80s) of Papaw and me from when we went to the county fair together and I got to ride the ferris wheel. They had this little booth where you could get your picture made right there on the spot! (yeah for technology) There are so many other stories to tell about my papaw. But the most important story he would want to tell you would be about his Savior, Jesus Christ. There was never a doubt in my mind how Papaw felt about God and his pride in the fact that I went into the ministry was always apparent and voiced. He taught me to love people and to pray for God to make me love the ones I didn't. He was quite a man.
On Thursday Feb. 21, 2008, my papaw C.C. Cannon went home to live forever with his Lord and Savior. I can't begin to tell you how much I miss him, but the indellible imprint he left on my life will remain until the day I too make my transition to my eternal home. So often, we don't realize the impact that those around us actually have on us. I encourage you to look around you for people who are making a positive impact on your life and are directing you to Jesus. Thank God for them and feel a freedom in telling them what they have meant to you.
We also have the opportunity to be the impact on the lives of those around us. It is my hope for you that you would look around you to those lives that you can impact for Christ and that your heart would burn with a passion to see those lives changed by the One who can really change them: Our Lord Jesus Christ.

May God bless you.

Blogospondence

I started writing this yesterday:

It's been a long couple of days for those of us around the Callison house. I've been sick for about a week and last week the whole family was sick. Javan has been coughing so bad, even after the doctor's appt. that they sent us to the hospital for some chest xrays and bloodwork. Anyone who has ever been with a 4 year old getting bloodwork done knows this is not a great experience. I feel so bad for the little guy. He was up all night again two nights ago coughing and we gave him nebulizer treatments every 2-4 hours or so. I took the 2 am shift and Bethany covered the rest.

Continued today:

It turns out that Javan has a little bit of pnemonia. The new breathing treatments seem to be helping him. We are going to be doing this for a week with treatments every few hours. My medicine makes me feel like throwing up unless I eat something with it. I'm hoping to finish my income taxes tonight. I still need to pick up a couple of w2s.
I had a lot to write about yesterday but not a lot today I guess. Maybe I'll add more later...

Did you ever...

...just feel like the biggest jerk ever to walk the face of the earth?

New Hotness

So, we had a bit of a huge ice storm last weekend/the first part of this week. Schools were out and tree limbs came crashing down all over town. It looked like that movie, "The Day After Tomorrow". I could go into more detail than this but let me just say that a limb hit our car...actually, a few limbs hit our car. Here's one:

It also hit the house which messed up a bit of siding and some of the soffet/shingles. Here's the other one that hit the car:

Needless to say, we're going to meet the deductible on our insurance. Other than that, things have been swimming right along toward Christmas.

Dirty and Left Out

I've been listening to a lot of Dave Ramsey lately. He's a financial genius. His book is on the way to me in the mail. I'm trying to figure out how much sooner we can get our house paid off and all of that. We're still dealing with a lot of medical bills from our ordeal of a couple of years ago as well as stuff that has happened since.

Work is good. The semester is winding down and I'm trying to keep up with the pace of the classes and help the students at the same time.

We've done a little Christmas shopping but still have a lot left to do. We pretty much know what we're getting everyone though.

In March I am going on a mission trip to Belgium so I need to send out fundraising letters this week.

My weight is a bit of a concern for me lately. I haven't been gaining great amounts and I have been doing strength training but I had to go up a size in pants since the massive weight loss. I guess some of that is normal but I refuse to go back where I was.

I'm tired. That's enough for today.

Done

Ok, I finally finished with my plans. I hope I didn't leave anything off... I probably did but I'll have about another month to figure that out and add dollar figures to each point in the plan. For those of you who don't know, our youth ministry is called Voltage. We exist to equip students to Plug In, Charge Up, and Shine Out. Over the next year I will be focusing on hitting the seven checkpoints of youth ministry from the book by Andy Stanley and Stuart Hall. The seven areas we will be focusing on will be:

Authentic Faith
Spiritual Disciplines
Moral Boundaries
Healthy Friendships
Wise Choices
Ultimate Authority
Others First

Of course this could all change. These are the main points for our Sunday evening service. I'm hoping to get small groups going in the near future for Wed nights.

A Prayer for the Future

I'm sitting alone in my room with a large mug of coffee, my laptop, some relaxing music on the stereo and the task of laying out our ministry plans for 2008 ahead of me. We have finance team meeting tonight and they would like everyone to bring their plans for where they feel like we are headed in 08. We don't have to bring dollar amounts yet. They want us to plan for things based on the direction God leads and not based on trying to meet a certain dollar figure. In my opinion,this a fantastic way to do a budget. It makes people in leadership positions focus on where God really wants to take us and doesn't depend on just figuring a little increase from last year and then figuring where to divide that money. This is yet another thing I love about my church. I've been working on this here and there for awhile now but it's time to put it all together. Please pray for me that I would clearly hear God and would have an obedient heart to follow exactly what He tells me to do. Thanks.