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Sunday in the Hat

Posted on June 2, 2008 | Filed Under West Rome, What I'm learning

So, after Pamela’s comment on my blog last night, I guess I shouldn’t make the whole thing about food. However, my eating today was not much better than yesterday. But, boy did we have a great day.

First of all, you just have to hear that I love the people of the Hat. As we said our goodbyes tonight, I was simply reminded AGAIN of the friendships that we have built here. We litterally see these people about once a year and they are life long friends. I know without a doubt that Don and Sheila Chartrand would do anything in the world for me if they knew I needed it done. I feel the same way about the Stadolka family. They have the Bed and Breakfast where we stay and we are simply family with them. Tonight we had a great time around the campfire and it was just awesome!

So, for the days activities. We went to the Nazarene church this morning. It is always a blessing to worship with them. Pastor Dave has a HUGE heart for starting new churches and is always very supportive of us and what we are trying to do. He let me lead the prayer to start the service and that was a huge honor. I know he would do whatever he could to see us be successful with a church in the Hat. Then, I got to spend a few more minutes with Josh, the mini-donut man. We seriously speak once a year and are truly great friends. I have been so blessed with these relationships.

We had many more great conversations today in the process of building even more relationships. Jason is starting his Bible Study in his home this Wed night. He has people already planning to be there and that is huge.

Then, around four we started the tear down. It took about an hour and a half. Much quicker than I imagined it would happen. We moved tables, stacked chairs, and cleaned up all the other junk that had to be taken care of. Then we came back to the house and had the cookout.(see above)

So, tomorrow, we are going to leave town pretty early and head up to Banff for the day. This is not really a trip I want to make since I have seen the hotel up there about 4 times now. It has not changed yet. However, I am into eating at a place called Wild Bills which I love. There, I got the food back into the mix.

Then on Tuesday, the group will be headed to Georgia and I will be headed to Texas to see all my girls. I am just rediculously fired up about that. I miss them like crazy and am ready to be back with them.

That’s pretty much the wrap on the Canada trip. I’m sure tomorrow will be crazy and we’ll probably eat too much. I hope you all have as much fun as us.

Peace,

Saturday in the Hat

Posted on June 1, 2008 | Filed Under Pointless Rambling, West Rome, What I'm learning

Wow, I’m tired. We had a great day today. I think this is the most people I’ve ever seen come to the Spectrum Festival. I was reminded today of the great friends I have made over the last 5 years of coming to the Hat. Don and Sheila just get better and better everyday. Don works at Nutters and they are renovating the whole place. I’m hoping for a bigger candy section but I don’t know for sure. I truly love these guys and God has really blessed me with their friendship. The plus is that, for this trip, we’re getting to spend a lot of time with their kids, Lindsey and Jeremy, and Lindsey’s husband. The whole family just rocks and I love them all more and more as I spend more time with them. Josh, the Mini-donut man. He rocks. We had some great conversations today and we just have a real friendship. He’s not even from here. He drives in for the festival too and we have really become good friends. Then you have the people like Jamie, who is in charge of the whole thing, Jason (Jelly roll) who is on the committee and is just freakin’ hilarious, Bob, Danny, and Garth who set up the electrical and can make anything happen at any time, Peter and Duncan who just run their own booths out here but I have really gotten to know them each year, and all the other people that are so important and I STILL can’t remember all of them tonight. And, of course, the Stadolka family. All of their children are home for this trip and it has been great. They are just a real blessing to all of us and we love being around them. Along with all of them, it is good to get to know Jason and Leigh better too. They have a real heart for the Hat and I look forward to seeing all that God has planned for them.

Now, let’s talk about the day: We started with Debi’s famous French Toast and went from there. It was AWESOME!! Then, I followed that up with a donut when we got downtown. Followed that up with a Smore, which I didn’t even know they sold until Don brought me one. Followed that up with some mini-donuts, just because Josh and I are such good friends. Followed that up with two hot dogs, followed by a “steak on a stick” thing with which I was not so impressed. Washed that down with some kind of hung pow u thing that Chris Holland suggested. It was great! Had to move to a different area after that and I’m not real sure if this move included mini-donuts or not. Chances are…
Actually, now I remember, it did! Then, we had to close down the night by purchasing almost all of the donuts that he had left (which is the requirement of a good friend) and then, just as you thought we were ending up the night, had to stop on the way home and have some hot wings and fries. What else could you possibly need to know about this very spectacular day. We had some great talks with some people and just had a blast over all. We did spend too much time discussing bowel movements, but that’s another blog for another time!!!

We’ll go to the Nazerene church in the morning and then be back at the festival by about 12:30. Bring on the donuts, oh and all that other stuff we’re supposed to be doing.

Peace,

Wednesday in The Hat

Posted on May 30, 2008 | Filed Under What I'm learning

Well, today was a pretty crazy day here in The Hat. Basically, we went to work with some friends of ours at 10:00AM. We did one thing about 10:30 and then we basically sat around and waited until about 4:00PM. Then from about 4-5:30 we worked like crazy. We start again tomorrow morning at 8AM.

We did meet some cool new people today and got to see a lot of our friends that we’ve had here for years. It was really awesome to get to spend the day with Don and all of those guys. They are super people and we are blessed to be around them.

Tomorrow should be a much more busy day so I’ll have something exciting to talk about. What I’m really doing now is blogging at 1:00AM because I can’t go to sleep. I’m off to go try that again.

Tomorrow…,

The Canadian Adventure

Posted on May 28, 2008 | Filed Under What I'm learning

The adventure begins. We are off to Medicine Hat, Alberta, to help with the Spectrum Festival with our good friends Don and Sheila Chartrand. We’ll be staying with Glen and Debi Stodolka, two more of the best friends in the world. We’ll also be working with Jason and Leigh Wilks who have moved to the Hat to start a church. For those of you that don’t know, we’ve be coming here for 4-5 years now with the goal of planting a church one day. Well, that day is here. I’m fired up about being able to introduce all my friends to my newest friends, Jason and Leigh. It’s gonna be great to see all that God has planned for the future. And, we get to eat a lot at the Festival.

Day 1 Travel:
Well, I’ll be trying to update the page while I’m in Canada to let you know what’s going on. I have to say, yesterday was not the best day of travel that I’ve ever experienced. We were delayed for a couple of hours in Dallas for weather and it made for a pretty long day. However, it could get worse. Once we hit customs it really took a downward turn. They actually forced us to send one of our people back home. That would be why I’m up typing at 5:30AM. We just had to take him back to the airport and send him back to Rome. I must say I’m having a little trouble understanding God’s big plan in all of this. However, I got an email from Jason Wilks this morning that was very encouraging. He reminded me that what satan meant for evil, God can use for good. Then, God reminded me of the statement that we make at West Rome and XL all the time now. God has a plan for you that is better than your plan for you. You know, that means for your DAY too. Not just your life. That means, that if I’m gonna make that statement so often, I better decide to believe it. The truth is that God does have a plan for my guy that is better than what we had planned. Maybe someone on the plane today needed a testimony and this was the only guy they would ever listen to. Maybe I’ll never get to find out what the reason was, but I better trust that God has a plan, or stop making that statement. Boy, sometimes it hurts to learn stuff, again.

So, there’s the first days story for you. Now, once everyone else wakes up, we’ll be heading on down to The Hat. Pray for us. We soooo need it.

More to come, (I’m sure…)

Jarrod

Be Prayin’

Posted on May 1, 2008 | Filed Under West Rome, What I'm learning, XL

Hey everybody,
God is just doing some crazy huge things right now. Just keep on praying. We have a great Staff Planning time scheduled for next week and a huge day coming up Sunday. God is showing off His power and I am looking forward to seeing what he has planned next.

keep looking »