BST's Blog

Last weekend was so much fun! The carnival ended up being inside Bennett Gym. We all sweated off about 7 lbs each. Maddie and Ella proudly wore their ACU cheerleader uniforms that "Nonnie" had bought for them. In fact, they wore them for about 3 days straight. We had to peel them off.

Saturday morning I ended up going to the Gamma Sig breakfast. I was glad I did. There was no biscuit throwing. The skits were pretty funny. I got to catch up with my old pals Don Heyen and Corey Curtis. Corey lost his dad this year. It was good to talk and find out how their family is doing. I got to see ol' Jay Duty (former Otter Creek intern) and spend a little time talking with Justin (boyfriend to Sarah Woodroof from Otter Creek). It was a good time to visit.

The parade was so much fun. We got to ride in this amazing cherry red classic Chevy convertible. The girls had a blast throwing candy. Ella's aim was a little off. She kept hitting the nice man driving the car in the back of the head.

The car took us on to Chapel. It was so cool--I had coerced the alumni office to ask my best buddy and college roommate, Stephen Bailey, to lead worship (which they were smart to do). He did a great job! AWESOME job! Jonathan Stites spoke. I was sitting there watching them thinking--aren't we here, in school, 20 years old, at chapel, with the whole world ahead of us??!! It was easy not to feel old until Dr. Money got up and talked about how the Young Alumnus award has to go to people under 40. My 34 years were suddenly very present. The cool thing was, I had decided to talk a bit about the song "Had It Not Been the Lord" and the scripture Jonathan picked to speak about fit perfectly. I love it when the Spirit does that. It was a really cool moment.

Afterwards they whisked us away to the Williams Performing Arts Center for the reception. It was so amazing to see friends from so many years past. Some of our relatives showed up too. The Nofsingers were there--my family when I lived in Dallas (and still). Their kids were so old it broke my heart. How does time pass so quickly??

One of the coolest things was that the Fishers and Baileys drove out from the metroplex to spend the day with us. Craig and Stephen were my roommates at ACU and have been my brothers in life. The most fun was watching our kids run and play together and have so much fun.

Maddie and Ella got reacquainted with their kids as well as Colin and Chloe Dickson. It's such a joy to see our kids connect and have a blast with the children of people who mean so much to us.

That night we went to the Homecoming Musical--"Kiss Me Kate". It's not my favorite show. HOWEVER--it was awesome! Maddie got to go for the first act and really loved it. She felt so big getting to be there and watch. She said it was her favorite thing of the weekend. The show was incredible. The dancing was amazing. The theater dept has always been the best of most any place I know. Over the last decade as they have become more and more competitive, it really shows in the quality. I think they are only accepting 12 majors a year. Every role was outstanding. It's cool to know that those kids are being trained to such a degree of professionalism by people who are passionate for Jesus. So rare in that field!

It was wonderful to be at Highland on Sunday. HOME! Mike's sermon was wonderful. My buddy Jan Meyer read scripture and they played the baptism DVD I love so much during Mike's sermon. What a wonderful morning!

It was a wonderful week--restful, encouraging, energizing for the future, and rich in fellowship. There were a few people I didn't get to see as much as I wanted, but it was still wonderful. Jeff Berry and I at least had Starbucks. I got to see Val open his door in his underwear, Kyle and I got to have Mexican ice cream, I got to spend at least 10 minutes with the Lipfords, I got to visit with the Wade twins and the McCalebs at the carnival, I got more time than usual with Wendy Wray Ogren, and got to at least laugh on the phone with Joel Quile after promising each other we'd visit at some point that week. He's a blessed guy--what a beautiful family!

We're home now. I've been buried today trying to dig out. One bright spot was my call from Sam Middlebrook--thanks, Sam! Your prayers are such an encouragement!

Actually, there were many other bright points today. I spent all morning with Mike Cope, Jeff Walling, Randy Gill, GT, Larry Bridgesmith and Phil Harrington talking about ZOE and the future. It was an exciting morning. We're looking ahead to our next conference on the West Coast in January. COME JOIN US!

One other thing I neglected to mention--in the last 2 weeks I completely changed gears on Christmas. I am securing copyrights and we had auditions last night for "Sanders Family Christmas" a wonderful musical comedy...the sequel to "Smoke on the Mountain". We had a great turn out and a wonderful cast as a result. We hit the ground running tomorrow night.

Tomorrow morning I will lead worship at Lipscomb chapel again. Please pray for me so I will know how to encourage them and do something that honors the Lord.

It's good to be home. The hardwood floors in our house are STILL not right after another go around this past week--but that's another blog altogether. Let's just boil it down to some good ol' creamed corn.

This is long already, but after this morning, I keep thinking about the future and what might be on the horizon. I know tomorrow a large group meets in Dallas from the Churches of Christ (Lynn Anderson, Cope, Walling, Rubel, Rick Atchley, and others) with leaders from the Independent Christian Churches. On the census of 1906 we were divided for the first time. We're coming up on the 100th anniversary of that date. Leaders from both groups are looking to bridge a 100 year old gap. I think that's a cool thing. Let's pray for those men and women tomorrow. Whatever the case, we serve a God who is bigger than all of us put together. Today was a day of being reminded of that.