Sunday wrap up

Yesterday was awesome and crappy at the same time. Here's what I mean; I got the opportunity to throw mini glow balls at a bunch of people in the dark at church....how often do you get to do that??? On the flip side my B- E- A- UTIFUL wife had to leave me for work in Charleston, and won't be back until Wednesday night :-(

Church was good yesterday. Now, if you read my father-in-law's blog you would think that it totally sucked, and it was all his fault...but that's not the case at all. I didn't feel like I brought my "A" game to the worship table and I HATE when that happens! For those of you that go to the Rock you might think that I'm used to singing in front of hundreds of people, but I'm NOT. I still get butterflies before every song I sing....and yesterday they were really bad for some reason. I didn't breathe right during one song and struggled at the end bc of it. I think that God sometimes just likes to let me know that no matter how much I practice or think that I'm ready for something it can always go wrong.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about last night at Katalyst! I rolled in around 6:30 to an upstairs meeting room SLAMMED with kids. The best part was that I didn't even know half of them!!! Last week we challenged the kids to invite more of their friends that don't know Christ, and they stepped up and killed it! Props to you guys. Matt brought the word with some passion....for a min there I thought he was going to run out of air. Best part.....kids were SAVED, and others made a commitment to no longer be lukewarm for Christ!!! I'm telling y'all Katalyst is about to EXPLODE in Conway, SC!

God is GOOD people!!!!

REALLY???

"At least eight killed, others wounded in shooting at N.C. nursing home"

What's the world coming to when someone shoots up a nursing home!

dinner

Last night I had the opportunity to eat some grub with Mr. and soon to be Mrs. Matthew Brown. Let me just first start off by saying that they are two GREAT people, and they both do wonders for our church....not to mention he paid for my food :-).....thanks dude!

As many of you may know that I used to lead the youth group at The Rock (Katalyst). After a couple of years God pretty much told me that being a youth pastor was not my calling in life...I didn't argue with him, and I turned it over to Matt. Soon after my decision I knew it's exactly what God wanted, bc Matt took it in stride and ROCKED it out. He's a great guy, and really does well with the kids.

Now I didn't quit all together on the youth....I'm just more of a mentor now, hanging out, and helping them get through this thing we call life.

It's a pleasure working alongside Matt, and I just know that God is about to BLOW UP this group in a crazy way!!! I'm just glad I get to be a part of it all.

Secretary

I would just like to say that I love my bookkeeper/secretary at my school, Julie. Truth be told she's more like a sister than a coworker. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I needed anything she would help me out no questions asked! I will miss her more than most next year, but I'm sure i'll see her round. Thanks Julie for putting up with me for so long ;-) I appreciate EVERYTHING you've done for me!

best moment of the day

As one of my little girls walked into the door to my room today she looked up at me and then slammed her foot on the ground squashing a bug on the floor sending guts everywhere.......She then looked up, said I hate bugs, smiled, and went on her way! - priceless!

clarification...

Yesterday I posted something to all the Rock haters out there, and would you believe that my Mom told me I was too harsh??? I love my Mom with ALL my heart, but I just had to tell her that sometimes you have to be blunt with people.

Jesus did NOT always talk nice to people...believe that! He wasn't afraid to offend people bc he knew there was a greater cause. When someone was wrong he let them know it.

What some people have to realize is that there is ONE God, but there are many different ways to worship him! For instance, The Rock, our music is loud, our dress is casual (Jesus didn't require a dress code by the way), and we don't meet in a typical sanctuary. Now, we DO Love God, Love people, and we do something about it. It's not about all the other stuff.

If you don't like my church, honestly, I don't care! I'm absolutely sure that you can go somewhere else and find Jesus there too, and I recommend you do that. Everyone needs to be where they can be challenged and grow closer to God, and you can bet your bottom dollar on Sunday mornings at 10:10 I'm holding hands with Christ in a movie theater baby!!!

Mom- if I was too harsh in this area I'm sorry, but it's probably going to happen again and again and again and again. I'm ALL about some Jesus and I have no problem telling anyone about it.

Who are you???

It has come to my attention that some people round the area of Conway don't approve of my church, The Rock. Now I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion about everything in this world, but some of these people are just plain STUPID aka MORONS!

Some of the comments I've heard about The Rock:

- "they don't preach from the bible there!"
- "that's not a real church"
- "I would never go there"
- "They don't believe the bible"

My response:

You're all Idiots, but Jesus loves you and so do I. Come to The Rock one time ( it's OBVIOUS you haven't been!!!), and I promise you will NEVER say these things again. The Rock is ALL about some Jesus...hint hint, that's why we named it "The ROCK".

Now, the only thing you have to do is have the BALLS to get up on Sunday morning and come see for yourself! 10:10 Frank Theaters www.rockc3.com

Some peeves of mine...

Just thought I'd entertain you with some of my pet peeves:

1. When people pull out in front of me and automatically turn.....could you not have waiting another 3 seconds???
2. This one may seem dumb to you, but it drives me nuts. When I walk by the microwave and on the display where I look for the time it flashes "press clear" bc someone took something out early and didn't hit reset.
3. When people leave early during the last song at church.....is lunch really more important that connecting with JESUS!!! Ticks me off!
4. Crying babies during church. For those of you that attend my church and bring in your precious little one that you say will never cry, but seems to lose their mind in the middle of the service SHAME on you for ignoring the rules! I know you think your child is perfect, bc I think mine is, but I'm sorry to tell you the peoples' connection with Christ is WAY more important than you not being away from you child. Suck it up, and take em to the nursery!
5. People knocking stuff in stores and not picking it up.
6. People that are too LAZY to take their shopping cart to the rack, and leave it right in the middle of my parking spot! You should be SHOT!
7. The walk across the road without looking and expect you to stop people. Little advice to you...you're not Superman...cars WILL hurt you!
8. Then there is the stop in the middle of the lane, carry on a conversation while they make you wait people....don't worry about it, I got no where to go!!!!
9. When people are walking down the same isle as you and they expect you to move out of their way instead of moving aside even if you are bigger than them. Words to you peeps....I aint moving next time, and I will knock you down or possibly dislocate your shoulder as I walk by :-)
10. Anal people.....chill out, you don't have to have plans for everything in life.

thoughts from a teacher

I've been a public school teacher for almost four years now, and I've noticed a few things:

1. Your two best friends in the school should always be the janitor and the lunch ladies...I LOVE mine!
2. It's WAY too hard to keep a strict diet at a school....there's always sweets around!
3. ALWAYS expect the unexpected.
4. PE after lunch = clean up
5. Children know WAY more than you think (good and bad!)
6. There's only ONE way to stop the discipline problems in schools today.....it's what most kids don't get enough of at home ;-)

Wednesday thoughts...

-Love starting off my day finding out that my first four classes will be gone on a field trip!
-Hate leaving my little girl every morning :-(
-just heard a little kid crying his eyes out while walking down the hall
-excited about some ROCK church softball starting up (we will NOT suck again this year!)
-Looking for good infielders for softball
-Can't wait to get back up on stage this Sunday and help lead some worship!
-Need more $$$
-Need truck to sell ASAP (check out ad in Horry Independent people)
-Need lawnmower to sell (see above)
-am amazed at how fast my little Gray is growing up!
-Love and am very proud of my smokin hott wife Hannah! For those of you that don't know she's a phenomenal photographer and even better wife and mommy...check her out hannahgray.net
-Have recently noticed that no one comments on my blog which means either no one is reading, or y'all are just LAZY! Come on peeps give me some motivation here!!!
-love my church The Rock( rockc3.com ) and everyone that helps make it happen...you guys ROCK!
-props to my set up and tear down bros....we couldn't do it without you....better days are coming my friends....may God bless your faces off for your efforts!
-looking forward to getting OUT of debt.
-praying hard for my best friend/brother Matthew
-am thankful for my parents...you too sis ;-)
-can't make up my mind on who I want to win American Idol.....there's a lot of talent.
-if the one guy wasn't blind he would have never made it on the show...just sayin
-praying that I past my PLT test this past saturday....join me in prayer PLEASE!
-hate that I'm losing my PE job, but thanking Jesus for placing me in a great new school.
-I'm working on becoming a better leader in ALL areas of my life.
-bummed about my driver cracking, but stoked that Nike is going to send me another for FREE!
-get to play at Shaftesbury today....that's always awesome......love being a golf coach!
-need to start back getting serious in the gym, and on my diet.
-need discipline for the above comment.
-trying to get closer to Jesus everyday, but need to try HARDER!
-ready for some hot weather.
-could go the rest of my life without ever again eating at Arby's.
-I saved the best for last........Panda China is coming back baby!!!!

Have a GREAT Wednesday people!!!

Top Restaurant Picks

I'll put these into two categories; fancy and fast

Fancy top 5:
1. Carrabbas
2.Olive Garden
3.Outback
4.LongHorn
5.Cracklebarrel

Fast top 5:
1.Zaxbys
2.Chick-fil-a
3.Hardees
4.Wendy's
5.Taco Bell

*just so you know Arby's is the worst fast food on the planet!

pray for me

I have to take a test this Saturday...one that i've already failed once......NEED prayers!

quote of the day

"COACH, Carrie hit Ben in the testicles".
-random 4-year old

Weekend Wrap Up

Well back to monday, and I told you that the weekend would be over before you knew it! Although my weekend was pretty much go go go the entire time, I enjoyed it very much.

I will have to say that I might have jinxed my sis in law with all the hype, bc she didn't play up to her ability. But, everyone has bad games and she didn't actually play that bad. We did enjoy seeing her play even if they didn't win.

After the game we all went out to eat at Yamatos in Columbia, and btw I DON'T recommend it at ALL!!!! I almost dried up from dehydration while waiting on a refill, the people tried to cram us into a table where we couldn't move our arms, and the food was average at best. The cook was pretty funny though, I'll give em that.

With a belly full of average japanese food we hit the road back to Conway. We strolled back into town around 11:00 which was actually 12:00 thanks to daylight savings. By the time I got into bed it was close to 1am, then I was off to sleep for a few hours, and back up to be at church at 6am for set up.

Now I don't know if you have a phone like mine, but if you do you have to change the time on it manually which sucks. I knew that my phone didn't automatically reset itself according to daylight savings time, so I changed it before I went to sleep........what I didn't change was the pm to am on my alarm. I woke up to a phone call from one of my set up guys wondering where I was. I jumped in the shower, jumped out, threw clothes on, and was out the door just in time to get there 30 min late.

Church was great! A couple stood at the end of the service to make it known to everyone that they are no longer going to try to run their lives by themselves, but totally surrender to Christ! That NEVER gets old! Music was great, and I got to sing one of my favorite songs, "We Are Hungry".

After church Gray and I went to Big Poppi and Molly's new house for lunch. Gray didn't make it out of the parking lot before she was snoozin in the backseat. It's nice when your kids take naps, bc that means you can sleep TOO! I took advantage of her nap and snoozed myself....at least for a little while.

2:45 came around and I was off to the Peanut Warehouse in downtown Conway to prepare for our 4th birthday party as a church! When I got there and stepped out of the truck the smell of dead pork cooking on a cooker hit me in the face, and I just knew I was in the presence of the Lord.

Party kicked off around 5pm. We worshiped, dunked some people in a hot tub for baptism, and chowed down during one of the largest cookouts of the year! It was AWESOME!!! I will have to give props to the peeps in my MyGroup. They stepped up and brought an RV to the cookout for us to chill in while we hung out. I love those people!

Around 7pm we started packing everything up and headed to the house. After making a pit stop at the Katalyst house to drop off some stuff I was finally going home. Well, I didn't go home. I went back to the inlaw's house to wrap up the day watching Nacho Libre...classic movie.

I will have to say that the best part of the day was when we finally got home....I don't know why but Gray was in silly mode instead of sleepy mode, so we crashed on the bed while she put on a show full of giggles and kisses for mommy and daddy....it doesn't get much better than that!

And that's my weekend......Hello Monday!

Here comes the weekend

Have you ever thought about how fast you weekend will be over before it even starts?....I do that a lot!

Friday is usually over before you know it. Saturday something always comes up to take up your time. Then comes Sunday, and if you're a volunteer at The Rock....check that, a DEDICATED volunteer, your time is spent working hard for Jesus, and before you know it you're back to Monday!

This Saturday I will be traveling with my family to watch my sis-in-law and the rest of the Gamecocks whoop up on the lady Florida Gators in some softball.

I don't usually talk people up unless they are the real deal, and trust me when it comes to fast pitch softball my sisinlaw is the WOMAN!

Within her first two collegiate softball games she had 6 RBIs, 2HR, and the highest slugging percentage on the team! That's gettin it done! Did I mention that her first at bat was a double off the left center wall scoring two runs....this kid's sick.

Not only is she an awesome athlete, she also is a godly woman that is keeping her head on straight in a VERY tough environment. For those of you that played collegiate sports, or even just attended college understand what I'm talking about. Ok, enough about Evan.

Now, on to Sunday. This Sunday is going to be AMAZING! We are celebrating The Rock's 4th birthday as a church, and we are doing it ROCK style! We will be meeting at our normal time at 10:10 Frank Theaters, then we are off to the Peanut Warehouse at 5 in downtown Conway for some jam up worship, pig-pickin, and baptism! I can't wait. EVERYONE's welcome!!!!

Today's the Day!!!

Today's the day that my wife comes home from a two day work trip. I could say that I've missed her, but that just doesn't come close to what I have felt without having her here. My life just doesn't seem right without her by my side. I LOVE coming home to my wife, and the past two days I've had to settle for my black lab instead.

Gray and I both are really looking forward to seeing Mom come home!

Set Up/Tear Down Volunteers NEEDED!!!

For those of you that don't know I'm the set up/tear down coordinator at my church, The Rock here in Conway. First off I just want to thank those of you that give up your time and sleep on Sunday mornings to help us make church happen, you are a true blessing!

I am in the process of putting together two set up and tear down teams. If you're an early bird we would love to see you at 6AM on Sundays for Set Up. Now, if you're one of those people that likes to sleep until the last minute that's fine, but we sure could use you during Tear Down.

Some of the people that are setting up and tearing down haven't had a day off in.......FOREVER!!! Just in case you're wondering, that means they show up at 6AM and leave at 12:30PM EVERY SUNDAY! So, I'm trying to get it where if you come to set up, you can leave right after church without tearing down. Then on the flip side, if you don't set up you can stay after and help tear down.

So, if you're interested in one of these two areas please contact me at klock510@hotmail.com or klockaby@horrycountyschools.net

*As of right now we could really use more tear down peeps.

Girls.....they start way too early!!!

This morning as I was talking to one of my classes I overheard one little girl ask another, "Girl, let me get some of your make-up!".....the girl's response was, "I already let you get some on the bus!". Keep in mind....they are FOUR years old!!!!