Saturday Shout Outs!

It's been a very eventful two weeks since my last shout outs.  The traffic on this blog is at an all-time high, with my post All I'm Saying Is... having received over 350 visits to date.  And yesterday's post, Blessed Are the Riffraff, is approaching those numbers as well.  Will got his drivers permit.  We got our income tax refund.  And as far as I know, there are no new pregnancies to report (see the last Saturday Shout Outs!).  So with that as our starting point, it's time to start shouting!

• It's been exciting to hear from Danny McCorquodale (Springfield Friends Meeting), Todd Willis (FUMC-K) and Hal & Joanne Gastler (Wesley Memorial) that we might get to see them in person over the next few months.  One of the great things about living in the I-4 corridor of central Florida is that eventually everyone comes to you!  :) 
• My new Twitter friends Kevin & Christie Weatherby are preparing to move to the Denver area and begin a new ministry among the cowboys there.  Please pray for God's guidance and blessings for them!
• Tomorrow I will begin doing a daily Lenten devo, The 40 Day Adventure: Sanctuary at my other blog site, http://gracespot-cj.blogspot.com/  I'd love to have you all follow along with our walk towards Easter.  Be sure and visit tomorrow and get an awesome look at what sanctuary really is for a Christian from Quasimodo himself!
• And speaking of that devotional blog, I have enlisted a few friends to write for one day of the Lenten season.  If you are interested in helping, e-mail me at youthguy07@aol.com
• I try not to get too political here, but please keep Debbie Davis (FUMC-K), Lisa Kraus Spires (FUMC-K), Jennifer Gastler (Wesley), Cailtin Esry (FUMC-K), Josh Fry (FUMC-K) and all the rest of our "family" who work in Florida's public schools in your prayers.  The budget cuts being proposed to our education system are criminal, and they will effect real people.  When teachers suffer, education falters.  Pray hard.
• I know this doesn't matter to very many people any more, but I am so psyched that baseball is back!  Spring Training is going on all around me here in Tampa, and I hope to get out to a game sometime this week or next.  "There is no green as green as the grass on a baseball diamond in the spring..." 




Conner at Christmas- BEFORE the haircut!


• Conner the Dog, who is often featured in posts here, will turn 8 on March 15.  That means he will be 56 in human years- the oldest person in our home.  He is now officially in charge of teaching Will to drive...
• Charlie Sheen.  I don't really have anything to say, I just didn't want to be the only blogger not to have mentioned him today. 
• Yesterday's post blew up on Twitter and was retweeted all over the world, which was really cool.  I wanted to share with you 2 responses I received.  One was from a total stranger, and one was from Ann Saunders Hale (Springfield).  Megan Mahaffey retweeted a link to this blog and after I thanked her, she sent me this response:  "As the girl with the nose ring, green hair and tattoos who was loved by a youth minister anyway, I couldn't NOT share it! :)"  That rocked.  When I sent the same thank you to Ann, I got this in return:  "I love that your messages are going global!  How awesome is that?!?  Plus I can say that's MY youth pastor ;-)"   Those are just a couple of examples of some of the love I received yesterday, and I appreciate all of it!
• And finally, Ashley Goad Broadhurst (Springfield) leaves for Haiti again tomorrow, this time for 3 weeks.  She has prayer partners for each day, and tomorrow her partner is me.  I would like to invite all of you to join me as I pray for Ashley and the mission team that will be building wells and providing clean water for the people of Haiti.  I know she will feel the power of our prayers.

That's it for now!  Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Because of Jesus,