This Thanksgiving we decided to do something different and spend some time as family in Kansas City.  We thought (Nate & Sarah & Debbie) it would be fun to go down to Country Club Plaza and watch them turn on the 75 miles of lights with one switch.  And to make it more exciting David Cook, American Idol winner, was flipping the switch.  So we took off from the motel around 4 p.m. and made it down to the plaza.  We parked on a side street and walked to the center of the plaza where it was going to take place.  For some reason 100,000 or more people decided to come and see this lighting display too.  After David and his niece threw the switch they had a very impressive fireworks show to top the evening off.  The weather was good and I have to admit it was a pretty good time.  We also got to make some family memories doing something we have never done before.  The cool thing was after it was over and the hoards of people headed to their cars, we made it out of there in minutes thanks to some back roads, my wife and a GPS.

Debbie and I drove over to our niece Amber’s house to see the new addition to the family.  Ella was born a week ago and Debbie loves holding her.

The family went to Portland, Maine, to see some lighthouses and to hang out on the beach.  It was sunny the first part of the day but cloudy and rainy the second half of the day. This picture was taken in front of Portland Head Light, the oldest lighthouse in America.  It was fun to see it in action and also see the big ships come into the habor using that lighthouse for a guide. 

The drive back to our hotel was about 2 hours, so after a busy day the whole family fell asleep on the way and as the sun was setting I was listening to Sarah’s ipod. The song “Glorious One” by Steve Fee came on.  As it was playing I was looking at the sunset God painted for me and the words just were perfect.  The song talked about the ocean and it reminded me about what we saw that day.   Sarah took these pictures for me and I wanted to share them with you.

Today we drove along the Connecticut River which is on the New Hampshire/Vermont border and saw this cool covered bridge. The scenery has been fantastic and we had a very enjoyable day.  Tomorrow we are going to Maine to see some lighthouses and enjoy the ocean. On our way back to our hotel, Debbie and I were enjoying listening to the hits from the 70’s on the rental car satellite radio. Our kids were just thrilled about listening to the oldies. They kept telling me to turn it down!  Life is sorta funny sometimes.

Thursday we hung out in Boston and walked the Freedom Trail stopping at many important sites of the American Revolution. The weather was perfect.  Later that day we met up with my brother Robert and his family and took a boat cruise around the harbor for about 1½ hours. We watched the sun set and also saw the sailors shoot the cannon of “Old Ironsides” at sundown.  That was super cool to experience–not only all the history but just to hang out with family.

Here is a picture of Josh (my nephew) and Kerrie who got married on Saturday.  This was the reason for the whole trip.  The wedding was very special and the reception was held outside and was just plain fun.  My extended family was in charge of feeding the 325 people so we pulled together and got the job done, even though the kitchen was the size of a average bathroom!  Elease made meatballs and chicken alfredo plus salad and sandwiches.  What a undertaking but they pulled it off without a hitch.  Josh is a youth pastor and just loves ministering to teens.  I am sure these two will do great things for God.

Today is Fathers’ Day celebrating twenty-three years of fun and adventure with 5 great kids and it is also my wedding anniversary celebrating being married to the most wonderful woman in the world!  She is a big part of everything that happens at NewSpring in KidzWorld.  I couldn’t do it without her!  She is a very special lady and so very thankful that she is a part of my life.  Debbie, you are the best!!!

  We went to church today where my brother-in-law is pastor in Uxbridge, MA.  Bob had a wonderful sermon, then all 35 of us went to his house for lunch.  It was 59° at noon today, a big difference from the high 90’s they had at the beginning of the week.  We left Uxbridge this afternoon and drove to Hanover, NH and from there we are going to Vermont and Maine.  Should be fun.

Sarah and I had a wonderful time Sunday morning at North Point Community Church where Andy Stanley is pastor.  We sat in on two services and really enjoyed the worship and message that Andy brought.  We took off around 11:30 a.m. from there and headed toward NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC.  They have 4 services on Sunday and we ended up going to the 5 p.m. service.  We had a blast with their staff. Sarah got to see their control room and thought it would be cool if we could do the same thing here!  Also she saw so many MACs in their video suites that she is now convinced that is what she needs for video editing.  After the service we drove back to Atlanta and went to Stone Mountian to see the world’s largest laser show that was going on this Memorial Day weekend.  It was pretty cool except for half the world’s population was there and of course the other half was at the Atlanta airport!  The show was over around 10 p.m. and we headed for the hotel for a short rest before getting up at 3:45 a.m. to catch our flight home to Kansas.  We did many things in a very short time and I had a awesome time with my older daughter.

Just a heads up for everyone…KidzWorld is going to be up in full force this Sunday and the kids in Rt 252 will be learning about self-control.  We are doing something this month that we haven’t done before so make sure your kids don’t miss it.  Don’t forget Mark will be starting a new series called Packing Heat.  Make plans to attend one of our 3 services this weekend.

I finished my Judgement House meeting and had a few hours before my next meeting at 4:45p.m.  So I asked Sarah what she wanted to do.  Eat! So we ate at Chick-Fil-A which was fantastic and then we thought it would be cool to visit the largest aquarium in the world which just happens to be in Atlanta on the south side of town.  So we got into our car and drove 45 minutes to downtown Atlanta to experience this awesome exhibit.  We paid $10 to park our car, walked down 5 flights of stairs, got to the ticket counter and we found out that it was so busy that they weren’t letting any more people in until 3 p.m.  Well since we had a 45 minute drive back to our meeting we couldn’t go in but we did take a picture outside of it to say we’ve been near it. On our way back to our hotel Sarah was talking to Debbie on the phone and we ended up missing our road and headed toward Chattanooga, TN!  But I caught it and turned the car around and headed for our meeting at Perimeter Church. 

Well we made it to Atlanta around 11:15 p.m. last night and made our way down to the rental car counter.  Now usually when you fly in late in the evening there aren’t a whole lot of people waiting for rental cars…but tonight was very different.  As we were passing the rental car counters I noticed that there were 30-50 people in line with maybe 1or 2 representatives working behind the counter at each major car rental place.  I got to our rental car counter and there were only 21 people in line with 2 joyful, helpful, caring individuals waiting to help each and every customer with a smile on their faces. (Just kidding) I don’t know if these two just got released from prison or their favorite “David” didn’t win American Idol but they were in no mood to be helpful or fast.  After waiting for some time, we finally made it to the shuttle that would take us to get our car.  When we got to the lot there was another long line of people waiting for help to get a car.  By this time I knew something was going on.  So I asked the representative what was up with all the people coming in so late.  He informed me that not only it was Memorial weekend but there was so much severe weather that many flights that were supposed to be in a 7 p.m. had just made it in.  Needless to say we were happy to get our transportation and so I fired up the GPS to help us on our 45 minute drive through Atlanta and handed it off to Sarah to navigate.  We came out of the parking lot took a right and then Sarah said that we should go straight at the next intersection so I did. Then we heard the pleasant sound of “off route”!  So to recap, we travelled in this car for a total of 300 ft and already made a wrong turn!  But we turned around in the middle of the road and everyone around us was waving at us…or at least I thought they were waving at us and headed up to North Atlanta. We made it to our hotel without missing another turn.  Way to go, Sarah!  But this is not the end of the story. 

We got to the motel around 12:30 a.m. and the front door was locked so I pushed the intercom button and waited for several minutes but no one came.  I tried again; no one came.  So I knocked on the glass and still no one was in sight anywhere.  So I began wondering if something happened to the clerk?  Could there a robbery in progress?  Did the clerk have a heart attack?  Should I bust the window and check it out or call the police?  I finally decided to take my keys and bang on the door as loud as I could without breaking it. That did it. A man came from the back office and said he was doing the night audit and evidently the intercom is broken.  He gave me a free bottle of water (which you know that is worth $4 in a motel) and said he was sorry about 10 times.  I told him I wasn’t mad but concerned that maybe something had happened to him and maybe I should have called the police.  He was kind of taken back by that and told me a few days ago the same thing happened but when the customer came in, he verbally attacked the clerk, accused him of sleeping on the job and threatened to call his manager.  He asked what I was doing in town so I told him and I invited him to visit North Point Church any time he is not working.  He thanked me and said he might just do that. 

Sometimes God gives us opportunities to share His love with others in the most unique ways.