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FARMStrong in Houston-- Texas Annual Conference Updates coming on the London trip now that I am back in abundant wifi land. Pray for me and family-- too long away from home and each other. posted by John David Walt | at 5/28/2007 03:11:00 PM | 2 comments
Sunday, May 20, 2007
FARMStrong in London this Week Please noone take your calendar planning cues from me. After a grueling 11.5 hour drive back home from the beach, I proceeded to hop on an 8 hour plane ride to the U.K. I am here with Tory Baucum and some other friends from the seminary for the International Alpha Week. The Conference is being hosted by the Holy Trinity Brompton the church that launched Alpha some years ago. Alpha, for those of you who don't know, is a movement sweeping the world-- a ten week course designed to help Christians and pre-Christians alike explore the Christian faith in a non-threatening environment. It is presently being offered in 153 countries. I began to get to know Nicky Gumbel and Sandy Millar, the Vicar of HTB and the founders of Alpha a few years back when they came to Asbury to do an Alpha Conference. They have an apostolic appetite, vision and ministry scope.
I'm here primarily to connect with Tim Hughes, a worship leader I have been getting to know both through his music and now personally. Tim is working through HTB to establish Worship Central, a theological and practical training school for worship leaders. As some of you wil remember, one of the projects I worked on in my sabbatical last summer was "Worship Seminary," which is a project to provide theological training for worship leaders. Given teh excruciating year we've been through at Asbury it's not gotten off the runway yet, but I have fresh courage to begin trying to move it forward again. Anyway, Tim and I are going to spend some time this week talking about these things.
I'm also hoping to gain a better understanding of the seminary they are running out of HTB. It's called St. Paul's Theological Centre and is designed to provide serious theological training for lay people. Seminaries in this century are going to have to re-model themselves in order to remain servants of the Church of the 21st century. Though I know little about this model, it looks promising and I hope to learn more. I'm hoping to meet Graham Tomlin who leads that project.
Finally, I'm praying that this week can take on the character of pilgrimage and retreat. I really need it. As we head toward Pentecost Sunday, please remember me and Tiffani in your prayers for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. We wait upon the Lord.
I'll hope to post some pictures of London in the next day or so. posted by John David Walt | at 5/20/2007 05:15:00 PM | 5 comments
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
FARMStrong Family Vacation Update
It's time to break the FARMStrong fast and give the extended FARMStrong Fam a vacation update. It's day 6 already of our second annual trip to Navarre Beach, Florida, beach home of Maxie and Jerry Dunnam (a.k.a. Grandy and Pop).
A few highlights that will seem like deja vu to some of the faithful out there.
One of the big themes since November is how many more 4 children are then 3. Samuel (17 months) is quite the little beach monster. The beach can be many things to many people. For many, it's a relaxing, restful place to read a book and bask in the sun. For others it's an Edenic paradise. But when you have four kids and one of them is a 17 month old beach monster, the beach is nothing less than a total HAZARD! How many books do you think we've read this week??? exactly-- 0. Magazines = 0. Naps on the beach = 0. Sam has revealed our limits in every conceivable way and yet how did we ever live without him. You crazy parents out there know what I'm talking about. Yes for some the beach is a paradise getaway-- for the FARMStrong Fam it's been survival week-- a perpetual 911. We just hope to make it home with everyone!
Anyone out there remember the Nascar Boogie Board? Yes-- it lived to see another SURFIN SAFARI. Our beach days begin about 6am with cartoons. (our kids never do change time zones). After a couple of episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants and a dozen Krispy Kreme do-nuts, it's off to the beach. Yes-- that's 7:30am. . . . . . and already. . . . . . . I'm on a surfin safari. Cold doesn't begin to describe the water temperature. About 8,000 waves later it's 8am and time to build sand castles. By 8:30, Sam has almost drowned in the surf three times and drank a gallon of salt water. Today we actually got off to an 8am start in the POOL. Thank God it's about 3 degrees warmer than the gulf. Anyhow it's pool. . . . beach. . . . surfin safari. . . . . sandcastles. . . . . beach tennis. . . . . . . more surfin safari. . . . . . .shelling. . . . . . .crab hunting . . . more surfin safari. . . . . . . . . reapply 80 proof sunscreen. . . . . . . . and getting sunscreen on four kids is like greasing pigs.
We visited the treasured GULFARIUM again this year. Only this time, we enjoyed the coveted opportunity to SWIM WITH THE DOLPHINS!!! Yes, our Tiffani started working one year ago to the day to get us in on the dolphin swim. It was really amazing as you can see from the pictures. Tiffani, Maxie, David and I all went into the pool for the dolphin fest. Her name was Kiwi. But the most amazing thing about the GULFARIUM is. . . . . you guessed it. . . . . . the GULFARIUM GIFT SHOP. Our kids breezed through the entire exhibit in no time in order to get back to the GULFARIUM GIFT SHOP to purchase a GULFARIUM GIFT SHOP TRINKET with their hard earned savings. Mary Kathryn and Lilly got yet another of what they call SQUISHYS. It's one of these little fluid filled fishes that allows you to squeeze its guts around in your hands. The great sadness of this morning's beach activities is one of Mary Kathryn's new little beach friends (more on that in a minute) threw Mary Kathryn's GULFARIUM GIFT SHOP SQUISHY TRINKET into the Gulf!!! Dads from four umbrellas over rushed to our campsite and we fanned out and searched the gulf to no avail for the sorry little toy. Looks like we'll be making a late afternoon run to the GULFARIUM GIFT SHOP for a replacement SQUISHY.
Speaking of beach friends-- I was formally forbidden from using FARMStrong CAM to capture images of any Baywatch types. But our Tiff has been true to form. She's up to about fourteen new family beach friends. She meets the kids, the parents, the pets, learns the life histories, faith stories, allergies, parenting tips, and I could go on. Our kids have established a nice little community on the beach which will be hard to leave. I almost got a chance to read a little bit of a book this morning. . . . . . but. . . . . Sam decided it would be fun to throw multiple hand-fulls of sand in my eyes. So much for that.
Some other time ask me to tell you the story of the Abu Ghraib SoftShell Crab Prison. And yes-- Tiffani has become a virtual pro at evacuating poop from swimsuits. This year she's mostly done it in the gulf rather than on the beach like last time-- which is quite a hazard for those beach friends who happen to be enjoying the surf a few umbrellas down. uuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhh!!!!! Picture a nice happy beach family bent over searching for shells in the surf when all of a sudden POOOOOOP!!!!! not fun for them. Tiff has failed to note the delicate beach family friend eco-system.
Just now we are having our 30 minutes of mandatory quiet time before we make the afternoon SURFIN SAFARI beach run. For some reason Grandy got the great idea of giving our kids an electric pencil sharpener and from the sounds of it they are sharpening more than pencils already. ;-)
One more day tomorrow and then back on the road for the TWELVE HOUR drive back to Kentucky. posted by John David Walt | at 5/16/2007 03:05:00 PM | 11 comments
Thursday, May 10, 2007
FARMStrong on Vacation this week in sunny Florida. watch for updates but don't get your hopes up. i could use a week of computer-less life. pray for us posted by John David Walt | at 5/10/2007 11:17:00 PM | 5 comments
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Attention Finding Joy
like
chasing squirrels
closer and closer
yet . . . .
fleeting. . . . .
gone. . .
then
another
and on
until
SUDDENLY
you forgot
you were in the park
awakened to a
dream
you once called
HOME.
Labels: poetry
posted by John David Walt | at 5/05/2007 08:45:00 PM | 2 comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Mom's Cook Book Linda’s Baked Chicken Salad
4 cups cooked chicken (diced) (use 2-3 canned)
2 tbsp. lemon juice
¾ cup mayonnaise (hellmans)
1 tsp. salt
2 cups finely chopped celery
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped fine
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tsp. minced onion
1 small jar chopped pimento
1.5 cups crushed potatoe chips
1 cup grated cheese (sharp cheddar)
2/3 cups finely chopped almonds
Combine all ingredients except chips and cheese and nuts. Put in 13 x 9 dish. Let stand overnight in refrigerator. Before baking, top with cheese, chips and nuts which have been mixed together in zip lock bag. Bake at 400 until bubbly. About 35-40 minutes.
Labels: recipes
posted by John David Walt | at 5/03/2007 10:04:00 AM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Something I want to be a part of.....
worth your ten minutes posted by John David Walt | at 5/01/2007 10:01:00 AM | 3 comments
Today...