Skip to main content

We're going to Tennessee!



This morning the "plan" for Pastor Appreciation was revealed!  Michele Danielson was the board member who spoke this morning and came and said some wonderfully touching words.  She blogged about it here and included exactly what she said today.  After she finished sharing, a slide presentation  came up on the big screen and showed that they are sending Larry and I on a  vacation to Tennessee, just the two of us!  They have rented us this amazing place,  We will have this huge place all to ourselves.  Taking a look at everything that's there I'm more excited every moment just thinking about it.  Mostly I'm just so excited that it will just be him and I.

We have been really busy as usual burning the candle at both ends and last night as we laid in bed I nuzzled up to him and said, "We need to go away soon."  He just tiredly hummed in agreement (exhausted after the wedding).  I said, "I want us to go away where I have you all to myself, and we're turning the cell phone off."  Again he gave me an "mmm hmmm."   And then...we go to church this morning and THIS is what the board of directors came up with to surprise us with!  Now THAT is timely, and definitely God-orchestrated!

We have to get the dates in order to go but I will say it will be sooner rather than later...we are really needing some time together -- without all the distractions -- and will take it asap.  We both had our "Tres Dias weekend" but now it's time for us to have a time away alone where we can just renew and process together all that the Lord is doing in us not just separately but together. 

Thank you, precious Northside (soon to be Celebration) people.  You are loved, and so appreciated by us in return.

Labels:

Comments

LAURIE said…
That is a beautiful area. You will enjoy it.
9:48 AM
Brian Roden said…
The Hispanic church I help out at sent the pastor, his wife, and two toddlers to Branson for 4 nights, and while they were gone, repainted the parsonage living room, hall, and the kids' bedrooms, replaced the sink and tile in the front bathroom, screened in the back porch, and got new bedroom furniture for the kids (3 and 4 years old). One family in the church bought the pastors a sofa, love seat, and end tables to replace their non-matching living room set. And the cool thing is, the neighbors saw all the work going on, and it's opening doors for the pastors to talk with them because they saw love in action.
5:37 PM
Deanna Doss Shrodes said…
Wow Brian, that is an amazing story! Sounds like Extreme Home Makeover Pastoral Edition. :) LOL I love it!
5:53 PM
Anonymous said…
Ooh La La Honeymooners! Rev. A
11:22 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Could Have Ruined Everything... (But It Didn't!)

 No one would ever guess what happened to me this weekend in Jacksonville, Florida...so I'm going to tell you. :) As I was preaching at the Fearless Tour at New Hope Assembly of God this weekend,  I got choked up, literally. For probably 2-3 minutes I coughed profusely and greatly struggled. Then I drank some water and kept preaching. Everyone was gracious to give me a few moments to get my bearings. If you were there, you'll remember it! What no one realized at the time was that I swallowed a bug that flew right in while I was preaching! So disgusting! I said nothing because I was at a point in the sermon where I was really connecting and I knew if I said, "I swallowed a bug," everyone would either laugh profusely or be really concerned, or start feeling sorry for me.  And at that point whey wouldn't be thinking about the message anymore, but the fact that I had just swallowed a bug. They would then imagine what it would be like, and feel grossed out which
Post a Comment
Read more

Relevant Church doing something...

incredibly RELEVANT!

I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are no
29 comments
Read more

Why You Should Never Hijack a Comment Thread
Social media etiquette 101

One surefire way to kill your influence in social media and wear out your welcome fast is to become involved in derailing somebody’s comment thread with your own agenda. Networking and hijacking aren’t the same thing. It’s surprising how many people don’t understand that this is a guarantee for tearing down a platform as quickly as you build it. Passion is good, even necessary. I appreciate people's zeal for their personal core values. What is not appreciated is the attempt at a redirection of a comment thread when the comment has little or nothing to do with an original post or is twisted at best. Social media provides ample opportunity for all of us to share what’s important to us on our own platform. Eliciting others’ responses and developing connections largely depends on our ability to communicate and compel. Some people are open to receiving private communication from others although they aren’t always able to answer personally or at length. But hijacking a comment threa
1 comment
Read more