Eyes

Last weekend on Good Friday my father and I went turkey hunting at the cabin. Upon our arrival the area had received close to 5 inches of rain in the previous 24 hours and all the creeks, branches and streams were way above normal levels.  Knowing this my wise father recommended we get up extra early to check everything out in case we would have to walk into the woods using an alternative route.

At 5:10 am Dad and I headed to the woods only to be stopped be a raging creek.  At first glance, although the water was moving swift it did not appear to be impassable.  We headed across the roaring water only to come up short the last 3 feet.  The far shore had been eroded away by the water and left about a 3 feet hole, of which we slammed into.  The truck came to a complete halt and I was certain we had broken something! Trying not to panic, Dad without his glasses was trying to put the truck in 4 wheel drive, but could only manage to turn the heat up. Fortunately, his Lasik surgery graduate son was able to locate the 4 wheel drive knob.  With a little gas and some rock flinging we made it out without a scratch.

Now what do we do?  Dad knew of an alternative route we could take that would require a little more walking and would mean we would not have to cross the creek.  Problem solved. Well, like many John Lewis plans there were some important details left out. The most important detail was that even though we did not have to cross the creek we had to pass this “dry branch” that was also gushing with water. So at 5:20 am in the pitch black dark, with nothing by a small head lamp light I sat down and began taking my shoes and socks off to walk across the water. With gun and boots and hand I delicately walked across the branch and trotted to a flat spot to put my socks and boots back on.  Right before I sat down, my head lamp caught a set of eyes about 20 yards in front of me.  My first thought was it is a deer or coyote.  But upon second glance, I notice the eyes were about waist high; so I naturally assumed it must be a deer.  I decided to talk at it to make it move away. Upon saying the traditional “Hey, get out of here!” method I noticed a sincere lack of response from the set of eyes.  No worries, I am standing next to loud water, I am sure it did not hear me…”Hey…Hey….get out of here!” this time the set of eyes slowly turned its head to the left and slowly turned its eyes back to me. OK…I have officially discovered that whatever this is, it is not scared of me.  I began to panic.  Keep in mind, it is pitch black dark…I am barefoot…and dad is in the middle of the creek.  I immediately dropped my boots and pointed my gun at the eyes and continued to ask it to leave.  I took a step forward to see if my light would pick up a silhouette of the animal.  It did! It was a bear!!!! My panic increased. Thankfully Mr. Bear decided he had something better to do and decided to mosey on down the road.  Huge sigh of relief.

Showers and Turkeys

I have not stopped moving for 3 weeks now! We spent the weekend at NWA visiting old work buddies, college roommates, and friends.  We had a great time and the weather was awesome too!

We were fortunate enough to attend the Fryar baby shower on Sat. In case you were wondering, yes...Matt and I were the only males there.  But, the food was awesome.  Specifically the iced coffee bunch Jen made.
I cannot say the same for the sausage balls.  You see...they were made with Jimmy Dean sausage. After pulling the knife out of my back, I politely asked Jen why she made poop balls for a baby shower?  The shower in general was a great education tool for me. As was spending the night with the Fryars and playing with their daughter Katie. I feel like I am getting a peak at the play book for what is coming in my near future. I was designated the picture guy for the shower so below are some of the shots I snapped.

This past weekend I went Turkey hunting with Jonnathan Davis and Marc Yount.  Had a great time at my in laws but was highly ineffective at killing a turkey.  We saw literally every turkey on their property, but could not convince one to get close enough.  I do believe we have created a new turkey hunter out of Jonnathan though, so the weekend was not a total loss.  If you are familiar with the Alpena landscape, you know about the hills in the this part of Arkansas.  My legs are a still sore from climbing hills chasing a gobbling bird! But, it was worth it!

Revival? Awakening? Something's Going on in Little Rock....

[Hi Guys-- It's Tory here.  I know, I never write on the blog.  Seriously, this is the first time.  But I thought I'd use the blog just this one time to share an email that I sent to several people today about what God is doing in Little Rock.]

I think the subject line says it best:  something great is going on in Little Rock, Arkansas.  God is working!  In ways I've never seen him at work before.  Dare I call it revival?  I don't know.  What I do know is the Spirit has stirred something here, and I feel very convicted to share it with each of you. 

 

I have read about the great revivals throughout history.  I've heard pastors speak about revival longingly.  I've prayed for it myself, sometimes eagerly, sometimes fearfully.  But this past week I've seen something I've never seen before:  a mercy drop.  A tiny glimpse of what it looks like, feels like, when the Holy Spirit mercifully reveals himself to a body of believers. 

 

It all started last Sunday-- well, at least, I became aware of it last Sunday--when our pastor, Bill Elliff, gave his final message in a sermon series about the Holy Spirit.  The verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22:  "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all.  Hold on to what is good; reject every kind of evil."  I don't think I was the only one who began to feel convicted about how quick we are to quench the Spirit-- when he tells us to pray, and we don't; when he convicts us of sin, and we don't immediately confess and repent; when we are given opportunities to share the Gospel, we ignore them.  Bill referenced a message from the Welsh Revival that we had heard a couple times before:  Four steps to loosing the Holy Spirit, by Evan Roberts:  (1) confess all known sin; (2) abstain from any doubtful habits; (3) obey the Spirit promptly; and (4) proclaim Christ openly.  

 

Bill couldn't finish his sermon-- about halfway through, he stopped.  As he was closing, someone in the congregation stood up and said, "let's take time to obey the Spirit now-- we can't afford to wait!"  in just a few minutes, people were moving around the room, talking to counselors or other members of the congregation to whom they needed to confess.  The microphone at the front of the room became an open forum for people to share, confess sin, praise God, ask for support, etc.  The Spirit was moving!  Our 11am church service, which usually lasts a little over an hour, did not let out until 3pm that day.  In that time, people flooded the alter for 2 hours, 5 people spontaneously got baptized (jumped into the baptistry with clothes and all!), and a deacon who is currently unemployed gave his unemployment check (which prompted much more giving and a reverse offering where over $5,000 was given and $3500 taken out),

 

On Monday night, over 200 people came back and stayed for three hours praying and confessing and praising God.  On Tuesday, over 300 people came for another 3-hour prayer meeting.  Children laid hands on their parents and prayed for them.  More spontaneous baptisms took place.  (in the last 8 days, our church has seen 38 baptisms.)  Prayer meetings took place at The Summit Church every night last week, lasting 3-4 hours each night.  On Friday night, after the meeting ended at 11pm, college students moved the meeting downtown and prayer walked around downtown Little Rock.  At 4am, they went home, made 100 sandwiches and bought bottled water, and at 10am Saturday morning were back in downtown feeding the homeless and telling them about Jesus. 

 

At the risk of this sounding like a "Summit Church thing," we've also heard about the Spirit moving at other churches in the area.  At Oasis Church last Sunday, 18 people were baptized.  At Mosaic Church on Wednesday, they held a spontaneous prayer meeting.  At Fellowship Bible Church, high school students met on Friday night at 9pm for prayer; when the church had to lock up for the night, the prayer meeting moved to the parking lot.  Things are happening in Little Rock-- it has nothing to do with our church, and everything to do with God's mercy!

 

Which is why I felt compelled to share this with you.  If all that results from what we've seen at The Summit are a few extra baptisms and one week of prayer, then it's not enough.  Sure, the purification of the saints is an important step-- but it's not the end goal.  The end goal is that God is glorified around the world.  I can already see with what has happened this past week how God is preparing us for the next step:  we are being cleansed, confessing sin, and being filled to overflowing.  The next step is that we do overflow-- that we minister to the lost with the kind of tenacity today's church has yet to see, and that the Spirit of God moves freely from one church to the next, and from one city to the next.  We have interceded in prayer this week for churches throughout Arkansas and across the country.  I am praying for your churches, and that the Spirit would give you an even bigger mercy drop than what he has given us this past week.  I pray believing, and cannot wait to hear how God moves in your churches over the coming days and weeks. 

 

If you'd like to know more about what's been going on at The Summit, there are a couple videos, as well as a blog on the church website:  http://thesummitchurch.org/blogs/summit 

 

God bless!

 

BABY!!!!

I have been bursting at the seams for too long!  WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

This is the reason I have not been able to post in a while.  I have been afraid I would blab accidentally in my writing.  Tory and I are very excited! We openly admit to having no clue what we are in for, but that has yet to diminish our excitement.

Tory is just almost 13 weeks along and is just over the first trimester and has been steadily gaining energy back! Tory was fortunately never really sick and to my knowledge never even got close to throwing up! She has been a trooper so far and has made me proud; she will be great mom!

The great thing about having your first baby is everything is new and exciting. The bad part is, not knowing what is coming. As a result, you feel like you are constantly behind the eight ball. We don’t have anything picked out; we don’t even know what to buy!  We just found out yesterday we should be on waiting list for daycare! I begin asking people around the office about daycares and the entire process and one gentleman told me he would send us the spreadsheet his wife put together. I was intrigued. A spreadsheet? About daycares? Well when I opened it, I was amazed at what this woman had put together!  There were over 35 daycares listed with information all the way out to column “T”.  There were miles from home, miles from work, avg price, owner name, years established, what bottles they had approved, and the list went on and on! We have not even had a child yet and I already feel like a bad parent after looking at this sheet! The good news is we have wonderful family and friends who can help us through the process!

We will go back to the Dr. in about 7 weeks for an ultrasound where we found out if it is a boy or a girl! We are planning on finding out!  We are way too big of planners to let this opportunity go by.  We openly refer to the baby as a “he” and are probably both secretly hoping for a boy, but will be excited about either!

Oct 6^th is the due date! Until then we would covet all prayers for our baby and Tory.

MUCH MORE TO COME IN THE WEEKS AHEAD!

I felt like an Idiot!

There is nothing I enjoy more than telling a story about a funny or embarrassing situation that I got into.  Fortunate for me, this happens frequently.  Two weeks ago I was asked by my boss to attend a seminar in Chicago on C-stores.  This is a big initiative for the company and I was excited to go.  Shortly after the request my boss sent me all the information I would need to register for the event.  I eagerly hopped on line registered and called the travel agency to book my flights. Pretty simple stuff, right?

Friday morning came early and I drove the Little Rock National airport to catch my 7:15 am flight.  As I sat in the airport eating my Little Rock Sunrise (bacon, egg, and cheese bagel) I was feeling rather smug about myself and excited about the day of travel that laid ahead.  I took the 90 minute flight and landed in Chicago at 9:00 am.  The meeting started at 11:00, so I decided to catch a cab and head down town to walk around and explore while I waited.  The meeting was held at the Willis Tower (old Sears Tower) and this added to my excitement about the trip. In fact, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to a number of family and co-workers.

In order to go to a meeting in the Willis Tower you have to have your name registered with their security and you need a ticket to go up the elevator. Upon arrival, I went as the instructions indicated to the front desk and told them my name and the purpose of my visit.  The lady politely checked her system and found my name and function to be missing from her list.  I thought this was odd, but easily overlooked it.  She proceeded to call 3-4 people asking questions about the event I was to attend.  No one had a clue.  She granted me passage to the 66^th floor where I could further discuss my issue with the Metropolitan Club (the location of the meeting). I went through security and up the elevator to the 66^th floor. I found the Metropolitan desk and began pleading my case and purpose with the young receptionist.  I pulled out a reservation sheet I had for the course to prove my belonging and rightful passage.  Upon review she could only utter one phrase “Sir, this meeting is next Friday.”

In an instant, my stomach went into my throat and I turned razorback red.  Did I really just travel via plane to Chicago, taxi to down town, elevator ride to the 66^th floor for a meeting that was not going to happen for 7 more days?!?  Well…that is exactly what I did! I felt like and idiot!

How does an adult with a college degree, reasonable intelligence, and is marginally responsible make a mistake like that? I have no idea.  Fortunately, I have a wonderful boss; who once he stopped laughing assured me that I could come back to work on Monday! The only thing worse than calling your boss after a mistake like that is calling your wife.  She graciously told me that I indeed was an idiot and that I would never be allowed to book a family vacation.

So what happened next? I got a cab back to the airport, caught the next flight back to Little Rock and was home by 3:30.

This was the image I sent to everyone about 20 minutes before I discovered my mistake.

Come on Spring

We have been slowly starting to enjoy the warmer weather and it is getting me excited about spring and summer.  I love those days when you can wear shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. Apart from allergies, I love seeing things green up and start to bud in an array of colors.  Bring it on!  Longer days also come with Spring and Summer!  You can actually do something outside when you get home from work!  One of the biggest reasons I can tell Spring is getting close is because my yard is starting to green up. Meaning, weeds are starting to grow.

Last week when I was on google earth I noticed they had updated the picture of our house to one from over the summer.  If you look at our neighbors yards they are plush, green, healthy and full of life. Ours, was dead except for the small section of green weeds by the mailbox! I am afraid I am going to have to bite the bullet and pay for some professional help.  I tried to manage it on my own last year and lost.  I do not have a green thumb.

Since our last post we have been relatively dull people.  Most nights are spent between cleaning, laundry, cooking and other house projects. We have finally become a boring married couple.  It really isn't all that bad!

Hams are continuing to come along.  I hung them to dry last weekend and they will remain there till June when we smoke them.  Arkansas has also released a new law that will enable "further processed" goods to be sold at the local farmers markets, like jams, jellies, baked goods, etc...  Also falling into that category is cured meats!  I have also checked out with my USDA buddies the requirements that I would need to meet to be a participant in the local market.  It appears, given the size of my operation and the potential income to make off my hams that I would qualify for a retail exempt classification and would not have to be inspected! Meaning I could sell at will if my sales stay under 46k/year!  No problem! I will start the application process with the Arkansas Farmer's Market Association soon and then go from there.  This makes me really excited!

Two weeks ago I managed to gather John Schellehase, Matt Henderson, and Grant Rollins for a mini reunion! John has been out of the country for two years with the peace corp and has finally returned.  The four of us exchanged stories and memories that only we could appreciate.  It has been a while since I laughed that hard. There are few men who are blessed to have friends like I do.  I am grateful for their friendship and look forward to sharing life with them.

Mark

New Truck!

After much debate, dealing, shopping, negotiating, pondering and getting asked to leave a dealership...We got a new rig! We (I) are the proud new owners of a 2010 F150!  It is awesome! Way nicer than anything I originally imagined.  Thankfully, year end deals and rebates helped us out a lot. 

Life continues to be hectic. Tory and I have yet to have a free night in the last 7 days! We love it, but it starting to take its toll.  I could use a spring break is the thought I had yesterday.  That we be awesome.


We got hammered with snow last week, and yet this week we have seen high's in the 70's. Welcome to Arkansas. This is good news for the ham business!  Warm temperatures will aid in salt absorption and that means I can go hang my hams this weekend. They should be 100% cured at this point. They have been sitting in the salt since Jan 9th. This weekend I will wash them and hang them up to start the drying process.

Tonight we are having "George of the Jungle" over to the house along with the group I went to Suriname with. George is the Suirmaccan missionary to the tribes along the Suriname River.  he is about 5 feet tall and is the biggest ball of energy you have ever seen.  He is passionate about his ministry and loves God.  He is an absolute joy to be around.

V-Day was sort of a bust at the Lewis house. We basically decided to get each other a truck for V-day! How romantic?  Tory told me she bought my card on the way home! Love was defiantly in the air!  None the less, I love my wife with all my heart and I hope I am able to show it even on non-Valentine occasions!

Hopefully some more exciting news next week!