Gratitude

I am so blessed. But how often do I show my appreciation? I never want to take anything for granted, but unfortunately, I often do. I want to take a moment and acknowledge just a few of things I am grateful for...

• My incredible wife Macy (who recently made the huge sacrifice to go to Israel with me)
• Our home (not so much the house, but the home we have made - I love just hanging out here)
• My church (I love the people of God at McGregor and being a part of their lives)
• HD TV (I know I've probably mentioned this before, but still very grateful)
• My friends (I am blessed in so many ways with awesome friends who love me for me)
• My Espresso Machine (my daily cappuccinos make like a little smoother)
• My Car (a 12 year old Toyota Avalon that just keeps on going and going)
• My Parents (who helped shape my life and my faith)
• Technology (partially for making life easier, but mostly for making life more fun)
• Swiffer Max (amazing invention that helps me keep our wood floors relatively dust free)
• My Sunday morning Bible Study Class (I love the peeps in our class and their hunger for growing in their faith)
• A/C (Southwest Florida without air conditioning...can't even imagine)
  

What are you grateful for today?

I'm Back On

This morning I ran my three miles in under 24 minutes. It's been a while since I have run a sub-24 minute, so it felt real good. The cooler weather I think brought a little motivation along with the fact that I have been back running more consistent the last couple of weeks.

I am planning on running in a 5K next Saturday - the Veteran's Day Midpoint Madness 5K. It will be my first 5K in about 5 months. I'm getting anxious for running in another race.

I also spent several hours today helping my brother-in-law and his family move into their new house. Pretty cool, they will now live 1.5 miles away from us. Hey, I could run to their house and back for my 3 mile run! Just a thought.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow at church. We will be introducing two new staff pastors in our AM services. Cynthia Turner and Arthur Keeley. Arthur is our new Single Adult Pastor. It was so cool to see how God open this door for us to bring on someone who was already at McGregor. He is going to do an awesome job! I am also very excited about Cynthia starting in her role as our Preschool Ministry Director. I have been praying for this position for over a year and a half. Praise God, He brought us someone incredible to fill this critical role at McGregor. God is so good.

Having Fun at Family Fest

I had a blast last night at McGregor's Family Fest!

Our church hosted our annual Family Fest (Halloween alternative) for the community last night. This year, in anticipation of more folks coming, we expanded the size of the event, adding more rides and activities. We partnered with Chik-fil-A in promoting the event to the community. And wow, did the people ever come (in spite of the potential for bad weather). No official count, but there were several thousand people there from all walks of like. It was truly a "community" event. And the cool thing - everyone was having a great time. Moms and dad as well as all the kids were enjoying the activities, the food and the festive atmosphere. It's hard for me to describe in this blog.

What makes an event like this so incredible? Two reasons. First, we had an incredible army of volunteers (several hundred) who gave of their time and talents to make this an awesome evening. McGregor has the best volunteers! Second, we had an incredible leadership team that puts months of planning and preparation into this event. Let me take a moment to recognize two incredible point people on this event. First, Dawn Garner, our Children's Ministry Director. Her vision for Family Fest and her administrative leadership is key in making this a phenomenal event. Second, Ed Harger, Assistant to Preschool Ministry. Ed's ability to make things happen and get more out of less continues to astound me. Way to go to Dawn & Ed!

I can't wait for next year, it will be even better!

Check on some pics from last night below...

Cubicles Video

The first of August we held our annual Leadership Conference at McGregor. Our Ed Team produced a video entitles Cubicles that we opened the conference with. At that time, I blogged I was working on getting the video available online where anyone could watch it (we actually had a lot of requests). Well, it's finally here. So enjoy (video is about 15 minutes long).