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so what does a church planter do?

i have no idea!

but i can tell you what i am doing in the name of church planting … meeting as many people as i possibly can. this means going to kiwanis meetings, going out to uwsp faculty get togethers, eating lunch with people and today it meant joining a bi-weekly pickup basketball game with a group uwsp faculty, alumni, and students. it may not sound like much but my body is telling me that it was a big deal. i haven’t seriously played basketball in years. yes, i play a little bit of basketball every year when we go to nicaragua and do our “basketball clinic” but anyone whose ever seen that knows it involves very little serious play. this group plays a good bit better than the nicaraguans (though the nicaraguans kick serious butt in soccer). it was a lot of fun. of course, i’m in very serious “old age” soreness and pain at this moment. nobody ever told me feeling like this was a part of planting a church.

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cheap & local

the family and i were thrilled sunday when we tried the plover express drive thru. the whole family was fed with good but cheap food for less than $13. that’s hard to beat. even better than being cheap was the fact that it is local. eating at a burger king or heaven forbid a mcdonald’s is okay when you’re traveling but otherwise the terrell family goal is to eat at local fast food joints whenever the fast food craving hits us. we’ve always been able to find local places that were amazing. it’s nice to know that we’ve already found a good local place for filling up on our grease levels.

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cheese head

cheese head

conveniently enough i have been a green bay packers fan since i was in eighth grade and james lofton started playing for them. yet somehow it’s even more fun to watch them play when you’re only an hour a way from lambeau field. GO PACK!

btw, sharron walters made the above cheese head for our gnome (clive) before we left baton rouge for wisconsin.

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autopilot?

this was on lifehacker today and i thought it was interesting. the article is “five signs that your life is on autopilot.” here are the five signs (without description – you’ll have to read the article for them):

1. you know exactly where you will be in 5 years (and it depresses you!).
2. your career is what your parents wanted you to do.
3. you went straight from school to college to work.
4. you did well in school and automatically chose a college course that was the hard to gain acceptance into (eg medicine or law)
5. your interests and/ or hobbies are all the same as from when you were a child.

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wow

goodness gracious the l.s.u. tigers look tough.

and so did the south florida bulls.

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wiggling your butt

this just makes me laugh. it is also why i pray that we will not have any “church people” desire to be a part of tapestry. so here’s what my wife and kids made me listen to and what made me laugh and get upset at the same time (at least the first segment did both … the second one just made me laugh and want to dance). listen to this first (concerned_pastor.mp3) and then listen to this one (concerned_pastor_mix.mp3)

ht winn griffin & my family.

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psuedo-cajun cooking

thanks to jess, josh, meg (alphabetical order here) and parkview i was able to treat the professors within the communicative disorders department of uwsp to a ton of jambalaya. if you remember meg, josh, jess (reverse alphabetical order) and parkview gave me a jambalaya kit as a going away gift. today was my first attempt at making jambalaya by myself (josh showed me how but i’ve never done it by myself). i have to say that though it was a little mild for my taste it still went pretty well. i learned a lot and the jambalaya didn’t turn out half bad. one of the first things i learned was to plan for more time. many of the short cuts that were available in baton rouge are not found in wisconsin. i had to produce my own trinity rather than just buying it. i’m also going to have to look around for a better source of pork sausage and chicken thighs. i think i can figure that out.

for anyone who is interested (and for purposes of arching this information) here’s is the recipe that josh hooked me up with:

ingredients

  • oil
  • sausage (manda or savioe’s mild pork sausage… hot is too hot, garlic is nasty)
  • chicken (boneless skinless thighs work best)
  • vegetables (onion, bell pepper, celery… the pre-cut mix works great)
  • rice (1 pound for every six people… use long grain rice)
  • seasoning (red pepper, black pepper, salt, garlic salt, etc… or Tony’s)
  • kitchen bouquet (to make sure it is the right color)
  • optional: sometimes I throw in a pound of breakfast sausage and a pound of andouille)

ratios

  • 2# meat
  • 1# rice
  • 1# vegetables

instructions

  • heat oil (just enough to cover the bottom of the pot)
  • brown meat
  • brown sausage first, then take it out
  • brown chicken in the sausage drippings, then take it out
  • sauté vegetables until they are wilted and liquidy
  • add water to sautéed vegetables
  • add seasoning to taste (it needs to be too salty, everything else is up to your preference)
  • add kitchen bouquet to darken
  • add browned meat
  • let it simmer for an hour if possible
  • crank the heat up and bring it to a rolling boil
  • add rice and let it boil for 5 minutes (stir just enough to keep it from sticking)
  • lower heat, put lid on, let it sit for 12 minutes (don’t take the lid off)
  • remove lid, pull rice from the sides and let the water run down the inside of the pot… put lid back on and let it sit for 12 minutes
  • remove lid, turn the jambalaya over and let it steam (lid off) for 5 minutes
  • (the 5, 12, 12, 5 timing is key)

of course, the most important part of making jambalaya is having a good “feel” for things and therefore having josh’s recipe is not the same thing as having josh’s skill.

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influenced by a placing of words #2

because of the fact that we do not have a fence into which we can release our bassets and let them do their business, i have to walk our dogs twice a day. this is not a bad thing. in fact, i really enjoy it for two reasons: 1) it’s good excercise for the dogs and i, and 2) i get to listen to my ipod. i’m presently listening to augustine’s “on CHRISTian doctrine” and he is amazing. the thing i like the most about him is that he says things that make such simple and profound sense that other people don’t say because they seem so simple. the quote that has been bouncing around in my head for the past two days is one of his chapter heads:

The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor.

simple huh?

of course, the problem is that it seems to be far to simple to forget that what is most important about scripture is loving GOD and our neighbor. when we remember it is all about loving GOD and our neighbor we have kept true to the end of scripture. i’ve seen people use scripture for some unloving things. i’m sure i have done it myself. when this happens it is because we forget what the real end of fulfillment of scripture is … to love GOD and my neighbor.

augustine goes so far as to say:

And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and who keeps a firm hold upon these, does not need the Scriptures except for the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly, many live without copies of the Scriptures, even in solitude, on the strength of these three graces. So that in their case, I think, the saying is already fulfilled: “Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” 1 Corinthians 13:8

when’s the last time you heard an orthodox follower of CHRIST say if we really lived out the way of JESUS then we wouldn’t need scripture anymore?

if you get a chance you really need to read “on CHRISTian doctrine.”

my run for the day

    distance – 1.0 mile
    time – 10:30
    pace – 10:30/mile
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monthly prayer email

i just sent out the first of hopefully many prayer emails for “tapestry“. if you did not receive it and desire to from now on just email me at robert.terrell [at] gmail.com. otherwise you can view it by CLICKING HERE.

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influenced by a placing of words

i’ve been amazed by a few phrases from the3 books i have recently been reading. here are two quotes which i have found myself particularly caught up in.

as you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.
harper lee, “to kill a mockingbird“

i was talking with my dad the other day and i told him that i thought that statement would be more true today if it was said socio-economically. a person who has the best of education, social life, and resources who takes advantage of someone who has the least of these, “that person is trash.” i have been acquainted with far too many people who have made their living off cheating the poor. now please understand that i don’t mean by this those fine people who provide services in lower socio-economic areas. those people are just trying to make a living. that’s fine and dandy. making a living, a profit, and evening prospering is just fine by me as long as it’s done without regularly and continually cheating “the weakest of these.” for a case in point let me talk about my dad. one of my dad’s hobbies is running what in alabama is known as a “we finance” lot. these lots are used car lots that will finance anybody buying a car. depending upon the lot most of the people who buy cars probably won’t be able to get one through any other means. these leads to two groups of people running these “we finance lots”:

  1. people like my dad who treat their customers fairly (i.e. my dad rarely gets the full amount financed back and doesn’t go after it just because he can – my dad is fair with everyone. he “hobby” makes a decent “living” for him but he by no means abuses the poor.).
  2. people who have found a legal way to be the used car equivalent of “loan sharks.” these people take advantage of the situation that their customers are in to enrich themselves without regard to what will happen to their customers. i’m not talking here about a decent profit (which i find nothing wrong with).

i’ve been acquainted with people who have cheated through poor through various other means (i.e. slum lords, some sub-prime lenders, some check cashers, etc.). though i believe we are all sinners and stand in the need of GOD’s mercy and grace, i am not biggest fan of these guys and girls so my relationship with them usually stays at the “acquaintance” level. thankfully i know more people like my dad (who i am a fan of).

i’m pretty tired right now (after a long day of unpacking, going to the county fair, refusing to pay $8 per person to watch the county fair’s demolition derby, cooking out steaks, and making smores around our fire pitt) and therefore, i will talk about the other quote tomorrow. it may actually be a series of quotes because this book (augustine of hippo’s “on CHRISTian doctrine“) simply kicks butt.