"Weekend Update" with Joe B

This past weekend was our annual Disciple Now weekend and what a great weekend it was. I can not tell you everything we did but I can give you some numbers for the weekend. Keep in mind this is just for my group.

1 Game of Butt. This is where you get into a circle with a group of people and you have to keep a soccer ball in there air without using your hands. If you use your hands, miss the ball when it comes to you or you are hit with the ball you get a letter. B-U-T-T, kind of like horse in basketball. The only thing is if you are the first one to get all four letters you have to stand against a wall with your back towards your buddies and they get one chance to kick the ball at you, in the butt, hense the name. (Look, I do not make up the games, I just play them.) FYI - everyone missed the guy standing against the wall and no it was not me.

1 Tackle football game. I mention this because every year someone in my group gets hurt and it is normally me. I let these guys start off with a tackle football game. I figured if we are going to get hurt let us go ahead and get it over with.

2 Pair of sweaty boxers. The number of boxers that made their way into my pillow case without me knowing about them, at least until I went to bed.

4,537.6 cans of soda. I may be exaggerating a little but I think I am pretty close with this number.

2 Leaders. I was blessed this year; I actually was assigned a co-leader this year. This made my job so much easier. Alex is a new Christian, on fire for God and willing to do just about anything. He did very well even though it was his first time teaching at D-Now.

75 Laps on the go cart slick track at Dixieland Fun Park. I mention this because I feel like I had a target on my go-cart. I am sorer from riding or should I say bumping go-carts than I was from playing football. They kept saying something like, Bumping is racing. After about 45 laps I started getting the picture and put a few people into the wall, only in self defense, I am sure you understand. Let me make one suggestion, never have your keys in your pocket when you are racing on the slick track. Your leg will be sore for days especially when you get slammed from the side and the seat beats the keys into your leg. Not Good!

11 Tenth grade boys. I am a glutton for punishment.

7 Lessons from Gods Word. We did 2 lessons Friday night, 2 Saturday morning. We had one big blow out Saturday night and when we got back to our host home we sat and shared about the evening events. It ended with a final lesson during Sunday school.

7 The place I came in laser tag. If you seen these guys play you would understand why I am proud to have come in seventh place. They were out for blood. 7th place out of 20, not to shabby.

427 The number of times Jimmy (Being Gods) has been put on probation because of D-Now.

0 The number of times Joe B has been put on probation because of D-Now. That is enough said about that one. (This does not include the amount of times I have been on double-secrect probation. Since it was double-secrect, I did not know about it.)

2 Decisions to live a better life with Gods help. This was the best part of the whole weekend. I will not get into it much because the one guy spoke to me in confidence and I told him I would keep it between us and God. But he and his buddy had been doing some things they should not be doing and both of them said they are going to do better with Gods help. This is what the whole weekend was about.

1 warn-out old man who is glad that God would allow him to be used in the shaping of a young persons life.

I hope yall have a great week, I am going to try to catch up on my sleep.

God bless, Joe B

"Weekend Update" with Joe B

This weekend is a big weekend for me. I am a leader for something our youth group does every year. Disciple Now is a weekend where the students are broken down into small groups then we go spend the weekend at someones house. I get to teach about eleven tenth grade guys. We do all kinds of things from pranks to wedgie wars. For the guys it is just a great guy weekend. We do a lot of fun stuff but our main focus is learning more about our Lord. We as leaders teach for our five lessons durning the weekend, we have a big service on Saturday night and it ends with a big Sunday school lesson. I have seen a lot of lives changed over the past years during this weekend. That is why I am so excited!

Anyway last night while I was studing, I prayed to God that He would give me the words to say and He would encourage all of the leaders throughout the whole weekend. Then I got this email from one of my buddies on my church co-ed softball team. It is just a little email letting me know God is with me and that I can find encouragement in even the smallest email.

This is what I got this morning. I hope you enjoy it.

Whispers

The man whispered, "God, speak to me."
And a meadowlark sang.
But, the man did not hear.

So the man yelled, "God, speak to me"
And the thunder rolled across the sky.
But, the man did not listen.

The man looked around and said,
"God let me see you."
And a star shined brightly.
But the man did not see.

And, the man shouted, "God show me a miracle."
And, a life was born.
But, the man did not notice.

So, the man cried out in despair,
"Touch me God, and let me know you are here."
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man.
But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.

I found this to be a great reminder that God is always around us
in the little and simple things that we take for granted ... even in our electronic age. So I would like to add one more:

The man cried,
"God, I need your help!"
And an e-mail arrived reaching out with good news and encouragement.
But, the man deleted it and continued crying.

Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way that you expect. My instructions were to send this to people that I wanted God to bless, and I picked you.

Won't you please pass this to people you want to be blessed?

Expect the unexpected...

Have A Happy Day!

Thanks Dave for the word of encouragement (unlike the man in the story - I do see the blessing, even in an email) and I hope each of you found something in this as well.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend, I know I will.
God bless,
Joe B

It's pool time!

My boys have been on me hard about putting up our pool, so last night I started getting it ready. I wish I had a set-up like the guy in the picture. This guy is a genius, I wish I could come up with stuff like this. It is a little cool in Atlanta right now but not cool enough to do what this guy is doing. I may try to do it this fall, that way we can use the pool all year round. If someone could patent this they could be millionaires. He ought to put something together and go on that show "American Inventors."

Good bless,
Joe B.

It's pool time!

Easter Crosses

The other day while going through one of my email lists I found this, then I saw it over at Not1Jot's blog. Since it is Easter I thought this was just the right time to share it too. It is so cool how God does the little things, things we take for granted.

God bless, and Happy Easter,
Joe B

Easter Crosses

My buddy Rick.

I was going through my emails today when I came across a folder of emails that a friend had sent to me. This friend past away last year and I sure do miss him. So in memory of my good buddy Rick here is one of the emails he sent to me.

John went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded, rural area of Georgia. After spending a great evening chatting the night away, John's grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. However, John noticed a film like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, "Are these plates clean?" His grandfather replied, "They're as clean as cold water can get them. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, Sonny!"

For lunch the old man made hamburgers. Again, John was concerned about the plates as his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, "Are you sure these plates are clean?" Without looking up the old man said, "I told you before, Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don't you fret, I don't want to hear another word about it!"

Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather's dog started to growl, and wouldn't let him pass. John yelled and said, "Grandfather, your dog won't let me get to my car". Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the ! old man shouted ............


>>>> "COLDWATER, GO LAY DOWN!!!!"


Rick always did make me laugh.

God bless, Joe

My buddy Rick.