From the Desk 5/10/2008

I awoke after an extremely restful night of sleep. I think that the mattress on my new bed at the Inn was possibly the most comfortable one I have ever slept on. I got up and showered and then decided to accompany Amy for some mission work. We met several others at the Compassion Coalition warehouse near Cokesbury United Methodist Church for the Saturday morning furniture ministry. The main purpose of the ministry is to pick up donated furniture and then deliver it to families in need that have registered through the Compassion Coalition. We were mainly doing deliveries today. Mark Moreland, Josi Hawkins, Jeff Nelson, Amy, Chris, and I were there for the bulk of the day. While loading the truck we were also joined by four young men from a community service program that were serving some time as payment for their "debt to society". They were nice enough and willing to help lift and load furniture into the trucks for delivery. We loaded the truck up for about 6 delivery stops with everything from a sleeper sofa to living room chairs, to mattresses and even a TV. We left as a caravan from the warehouse and I rode with Jeff Nelson, one of our church's deacons. He was an extremely nice individual as all of the volunteers were. We foll wed Mark and Chris in the big truck while Amy and Josi followed in Amy's car. We made the majority of our deliveries before stopping at a convenience store to refuel with some drinks and snacks. After finishing Amy, Josi, and I returned to the warehouse where Charlotte was holding down the fort. We picked up the CBCB furniture dolly that Mark accidentally left out of the truck, and put it in Amy's truck to return to church tomorrow. It was truly a blessing to take part in this ministry. We were able to pray with each family that we delivered to and the joy on their faces was enough to last a lifetime. It was almost more rewarding for me than the people that received the furniture. It also opened my eyes to how blessed I truly am.

Amy and I stopped off by the Card Mart to pick up a card for Mother's Day. We ran into an old friend...Jubin! He apparently was also in need of a card and so we talked with him for a while and then finally checked out and headed back to Amy's to pick up my car. I returned to my parents' house, showered, changed, and got ready to go film the wedding. I put a note in to maintenance at the hotel to fix the shower in the guest bathroom. I tried to pull the knob up to start the water streaming from the shower head instead of the faucet and I found that it came off in my hand. That made showering difficult so I used the staff bathroom as an emergency solution. I picked Hickey up around 2:45pm and we headed out to New Vision Fellowship Church to film.

We arrived and were hugged and greeted by Brenda, Lisa, and their daughters from One Enchanted Wedding Planning. It was great to see them all again. We always know that when we film with them at the helm we will not only know what is going on, but will have fun doing it. The service was very touching as the pastor got chocked up at some points because the groom was his son. We rushed over to the Knoxville Convention Center to begin filming the reception, and we had a feeling that it was going to be a real party. We were not wrong. There was singin', dancin', and laughin' that lasted from the time the wedding party was announced until when we left 3 hours later. The DJ was Corey, from Music in Motion Mobile Entertainment. We love working with him because he has a great system, he engages the crowd into activities, and does it all without coming across as cheesy or pushy. We left the reception with lots of amazing footage to sift through while editing. We changed clothes and then headed out to Texas Roadhouse in Turkey Creek for some dinner. We ate until we couldn't eat another bite and then went driving around for a while before ending up at the Hickey household where we watched what is probably the 2 worst episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" ever made. When they were finished I went to my room at Le Chateau de Taylor to retire for the evening.

Meditation for the day: Hebrews 13:4 "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."