Where it's at

Jordan Journal Entry 06.19.2011

2011-09-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

06.19.2011

Got to survey today. Found all the control and it all worked! Good job surveyors that came before me. It was very nice surveying in the desert this morning. The weather was great! Good temps, and good breeze. I was able to secure some chap stick as my lips seem to be falling apart. All my lip balm is in Amman. Apparently customs believes the contents of my bags pose a threat to national security. I knew I should have packed different underwear! I think I am tired of doing laundry this way. Jeans are very difficult to wash while wearing in the shower and dry.

I got to spend some time with Jody last night after dinner. He asked how my personal spiritual formation was changing since I came to Johnson. I responded, “I believe it has backed down some. When I was in business I would go to the office and have personal bible study time. These days my Bible study is for academia. When I was in business I participated in a couple small group Bible studies and the likes. We don’t have that here for commuters.” He had heard that scenario takes place there. I did tell him what Courtney said about our move. She stated that we have changed. We are more dependent on God and each other. While we have made some good friends up here, they aren’t Mitch, Tina, C12 or the likes. It has been to short of a period for that type of relationship to form. We gave up our support system to try something new and possibly dangerous and we are better for it.

I hope my socks dry before I

need them. I am so tired of the dust, and it’s only been four days. One should note that I haven’t changed clothes, cleaned my ears or washed my hair with shampoo in five days as I did get to shower the day I left…

The square staking went well today. Phillip Eubanks was a quick learner running the rod. It would be much easier if I had a good field book so my notes weren’t blowing all over the place. But we got it accomplished. I only blew one position. I accidentally grabbed the decimal from the previous dimension and missed my desired position by about 8” (0.67' or 0.2032m). Not too bad. I really struggled early on with the meters thing. It’s coming…

I’m going to try to sleep now. I am not sleeping much at night as there are tons of barking dogs and multiple calls to prayer all night long. Very tired…

I just remembered it’s Father’s Day. I was thinking this morning I wish Ralph could see what I was doing as I was setting up the total station on the primary control point for the site. I think he would say two things. First he would say that it is super cool what I was doing, and then he would say, “Now get back to the office!” I am really enjoying my time here though some times it’s not all that enjoyable. Four down-thirty two to go…

06.17.2011 Jordan Journal

2011-08-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Last night driving to and from the airport, several times, I observed people on the side of the road sitting around small camp fires. It seems they just find a spot along our equivalent of I-75 and have a picnic. Jerry stated that when the weather is nice, that is what they do on a Thursday night. I guess if you had no AC outdoors is the place to be as there is a steady west wind that comes off the Mediterranean Sea which I guess may be better than no breeze at all. When you look at the trees you note they all lean east from aforementioned west wind. If you need to know a cardinal direction, just look at the trees, they are leaning east.

When we got up and out this morning there was no one on the roads, a great traffic day. We went to the storage facility where the gear was kept in the off seasons and loaded it on a truck. We then delivered the gear to another storage facility closer to the dig site which meant unloading… Tomorrow, we will load it up again and take it to the actual dig site. By tomorrow our guard will be there to protect the gear left in the field.

The surveying gear was not in too bad of shape. The Dumpy level needs to be cleaned, and we need a part for one of the tripods, but other than that… Okay, the Dumpy level is probably toasted. I also found a HUGE EDM in the storage facility. I chose to leave it there as we probably couldn’t figure it out if we wanted to.

We arrived to the rest house and unloaded the truck, again… We then went and ate a spectacular lunch. I had lamb and rice. It was great. I am a little concerned about gaining weight as there are lots and lots of carbs on my new diet. Hopefully I will have them worked off soon!

I am rooming with Dr. Jerome Prinston. Our room is awesome. We can see the Dead Sea about 10-15 miles away looking through a pass in the mountains (Wadi Karak). With any luck, I will get to float on it!

As far as my feelings go, I have felt safe the entire time, even when traffic was moving very slow in the market area right after morning prayers were released. It is interesting to hear the calls to prayer everywhere we go. Thus far, the people are very hospitable. We are quite a sight for the locals as we get many looks everywhere we go. I had one gentleman ask if I was an American soldier. I was honored but had to decline as this was not the case. It was at this point Jody said, “I assume you get that a lot.” I certainly don’t want to look like a soldier over here!

I washed my shirts, socks and drawers this evening after dinner. I hope they are dry tomorrow as they are all I have. It’s beginning to get cold and we are supposed to be at breakfast around 0700. That’s enough for now…

June 15 and 16 journal entry in Jordan

2011-08-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

06.15-16.2011

Lay-over in Atlanta caused huge problem. However, I got to see the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean. Way cool. Luggage was left in Paris. I literally sprinted through the airport shortcutting through shops to catch the flight. The airline representative nearly outran me in a skirt and heels trying to deliver me to the plane. When I finally arrived they told me I was too late. However, the rest of my team on the plane was able to convince the crew to open the doors and let me on. The funny thing was that I was carrying all my gear in one of the customs containers as I had no time to stow gear. Once they agreed to let me on the flight, other issues arose. There was a problem with my ticket that had to be cleared up. Once that was resolved, there was a security issue with the doors to the plane. Security could not open them to let me on. It took what seemed like forever but was probably only about 3-4 minutes to get through that hurdle.

Once on board I sat with a young Palestinian woman and her 4 year old son George. George was very talkative. He asked many questions, “What’s my favorite color and can I speak Arabic” or “what’s red with little spots of brown and green on top?” My response was “dark clear, no and strawberries.” This satisfied him for all of 0.0000002 seconds. He was very respectful and minded his mother well. We made it in about 2 hours behind schedule.

At the hotel I was interrupted to make a midnight run back to the airport as our customs contact made himself available. I learned a lot on this trip. First, taxi drivers drive a little faster that Department of Antiquities G-men, an inverted hand with the fingers pulled together at the tips means wait, if you don’t wait you will be physically stopped and Jordanian security guards like to pat me and Jerry down! Anyhow, it turned into a long night of heated discussion between the customs personnel and the gentleman from the Department of Antiquities. While we were there we saw a woman being harassed by security for bringing what appeared to be some high end camera equipment. Jerry told me not to make any eye contact with her as we didn’t want to be associated with her as she may have been our accomplice in the “scheme” customs believed we were running. We finally found ourselves screaming down the roads of Amman Jordan at 1:30AM carrying our surveying equipment. Made it to bed around 2:30AM…

Back from the Middle East

2011-07-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

I have just recently returned home from Jordan. I was not able to discuss this trip in this or any other public forum for the safety of our team as there is much political unrest in the region and Americans make good targets. Perhaps it’s all the buffets that makes us such good targets… Nonetheless, I did not witness any of the protests or demonstrations though I read about them being not to far from where we were staying. While we were in country, one of our team members established a blog to document the project. It was made accessible to our families so they could keep up with us. I am now making it accessible to you here.

I was asked to participate on this project back in February. The name of the project is Karak Resources Project. The project goal is to learn more about the resources available on the Karak plateau during the time period Iron II, approximately 800bc. While I have done some archaeological survey in the past, I had never done so to this scale. I have learned a great deal of the target time period in the region as well as the contemporary peoples. The trip also served as one of my two internships for school. This particular trip met the requirements for my Intercultural Studies degree. Wow, did I get intercultural!

The people of Jordan were great! I met some very nice people there and made some good friends. I was a student of culture as well as the lead surveyor on this team. It was a great experience! I would do it again in a heartbeat! In fact, I want to take Courtney there in the near future as the country is beautiful and the people are great. I can say with experience that the lens we view the Muslim people through is very distorted with regard to the areas I visited. The people I encountered were very hospitable and enjoyed conversation and tea, lots of conversation and lots of tea!

I kept a journal during my time there. I will post excerpts periodically of my experiences while in country along with several photographs thereof. It is so good to be home! I am glad the remainder of our team made it home as well. We have it very good here…

Spring Semester Complete

2011-05-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last update. Shocking as it has been forever since I updated this (Nov 2010). My apologies to all those seeking relief from their insomnia…

Since November we have completed last years garden harvest and began this years garden planting. This was disrupted by a severe hail storm that decimated our garden as well as houses and vehicles. Thus far our insurance company has been very helpful. I hope that continues.

Classes last semester (fall '10) went well. I believe I only received one “B” out of all classes, the remainder "A's". As for the following semester (spring '11), the same holds true. I am really enjoying my studies. Johnson has some great professors and some extraordinary students that will be head turners in their fields.

Courtney has just completed her Masters in nursing. She will soon be a licensed Family Nurse Practioner. I am so proud of her! I believe she will finish with a 4.0 GPA. The girl is a genius and hot!

Molly and Wyatt are finishing school now as well. They are both working, Molly at Chick-Fil-A and Wyatt for our neighbor. They seem to be enjoying TN life much more now than this time last year. I believe we are all adjusting very well at this point.

Now that summer is here things are getting even busier. We have lots of repairs to make to the house from the storm damage. All the windows on the west side of the house need to be replaced as well as the siding. The hail shredded the west side of the house. As for the roof, it, much like Courtney’s car, looks like a golf ball. I am not sure it requires replacement but we will continue to monitor its effectiveness as a good roof. As stated earlier, we have replanted the garden and are seeing significant growth. We are hopeful for a good growing season as we have more than doubled last year’s efforts.

My summer is packed. I will be doing one of the two internships I have to complete for school. There will be more about this at the end of the summer so keep checking back!

As stated in my last post, I will attempt to maintain this a little better, but you know where the road paved with good intentions leads…

Of Late

2010-11-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. I climbed a mountain. Rolled my jeep. Spent 24 hours in a shipping crate to raise money for FAME (you may donate here). Put the jeep back together, I have some of the best people in the world here to help us. And took a Western Philosophy test.

Yes, there was more than that, but those were the highlights. Oh yeah, we also pulled another 40 lbs of beans out of the garden. I think my neighbors are tired of green beans.

Courtney is working at the VA for 2 more weeks, and then she will be leaving there to begin her clinicals to finish her MSN so she can be an FNP as opposed to the RN that she is now. This will be an interesting time for us as we will both officially be unemployed. I would have NEVER in a million years thought I would be in Knoxville, TN home schooling my kids eating out of our own garden, chicken eggs included, and be a student again! It has been a very interesting ride… I am so proud of Courtney. It is so cool watching her develop into a different level of professional. I believe it is definitely official; she is way smarter than me, and way way way better looking!!! The kids seem to be doing great. Molly has found some good friends. She also passed her driving test while driving Courtney’s 5-speed manual transmission. She's outdriving the boys! Wyatt has purchased a guitar, but I’m not sure he is digging on it of late. He has been out with a friend of mine from church this week delivering phone books. They have some great dog chasing stories. Turns out the boy can run, who knew…

That’s all for now. Hope you liked it Lainey! I will keep doing my part to cure your insomnia through this blog...

The Crate

2010-10-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

The CRATE...

2010-10-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Right now I am in a shipping container where I have been since 0900 today. Weare trying to raise $40K for different projects sponsored by FAME. one of the projects is to raise $2500 for scholarships in Ghana, West Africa. Another project is the purchase of an ambulance at a mission in India. Yet another project we are working for is to renovate a clinic in Haiti. And finally, we are raising money to send much needed medical supplies to Honduras. We have been in the Crate for entirely too long now. It has been a lot of fun. Thus far we have raised about $1200. We only need another $1800 to finish us off. You can donate here. Thanks for looking!

It's Been a Year

2010-08-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

It was officially one year as of July 31, 2010 that I left Blackwell & Associates Land Surveyors, Inc. I still struggle sometimes with the rationale of that decision. I can, however, say that we have been very happy here in TN. It hasn’t all been a cake walk, but the people, scenery, and lifestyle have made this adjustment much easier. I do miss interacting with other professionals. Courtney and I went to a neighbor’s party where we met several other neighbors, one of which a land surveyor. It was nice to talk story again and compare methods of practice.

This year also marks a full year of being away from my C12 Group friends. I have missed soaking up all the wisdom that group offered. I have really missed the challenges that were placed in front of me by the group as well as the accountability for my successes and failures. This separation may actually be hindering me now as I feel I am not accomplishing very much, yet we’ve come so far.

I truly love it here. We have visitors all the time from FL. It is like a refreshing glass of cold water in August (apparently this is also true in TN). It has been unseasonably hot here. Locals say that we normally only have a handful of days over 90° F. We have had nearly a month and a half of said days. It’s still not as hot as FL in the swamp with no breeze. I miss the swamp…

My brother is here visiting from CA. He is adjusting to life without television while here.
We have had a good time thus far. I don’t get to see him or talk to him as often as I would like. He is a great guy! I love him dearly. Yesterday we went out to eat at a gas station. He experienced a little culture shock as he is not accustomed to dining in such fine establishments. Nonetheless we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on rocks in the TN River just relaxing. Well, Molly and I relaxed; Corey and Wyatt threw snails at each other. We are headed to Townsend today for some tubing and to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Riverstone Family Restaurant. Home cooking, heck yeah!

We have some big decisions to make in the near future. Courtney is quickly approaching her clinicals to finish her MA in nursing. In order to do such she will need to modify her work schedule. We are not sure how her new federal employer will feel about this course of action. We are a little frightful of what this looks like for us financially. I am sure we will be fine; I just don’t know what “fine” looks like.

School starts for me on the 24th and for the kids on the 17th. We will be homeschooling and I must say the kids seem a little more into this than I expected. I am excited to see the results of this part of our adventure.

I hope I was able to help with your insomnia. Check back again should you find yourself not able to sleep…

Mar-Juneish 2010

2010-07-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

I have been harassed by several people to do a better job maintaining this blog. One person in particular should be noted as the master harasser. She shall remain nameless, though her initials are EE, she lives in Salt Springs and is married to a guy named Gary who was the Camp Manager at NFCSC for many many years. Normally we withhold the names to protect the innocent; Elaine however doesn’t fall in that category so… oops… Thanks Lainey and others for staying on me about this.

So much has happened since February. I was scheduled to do my internship with FA ME in Indianapolis this summer but decided to postpone it to spend our first summer in TN home with Courtney and the kids. Several professors and friends advised me to slow down and enjoy this time. I heeded their advice and signed up for only 15 credit hours in the fall. I will also be homeschooling Molly and Wyatt next year also. This is the most nerve racking thing I have attempted that I can remember. I am very excited to play such a role in their lives. Any and all advice will be welcomed in the comment area below. I am in the process of finishing up Cathy Duffy’s book, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. This has been a great asset to my preparation as I know nothing about this process.

Our summer has been very busy. We planted a 1000 square foot garden back at the end of April. I had never grown anything before that I’m willing to discuss here. That noted, our garden has produced phenomenally. We have squash coming out the wahzoo! We planted corn, beans, squash, okra, watermelon, cantaloupe, jalapeños, banana peppers, green peppers tomatoes and strawberries. So far, all have produced far beyond our expectations. It has been a lot of work but it is paying off now!

Being that Courtney updates her blog less than I do mine I can share some updates on her as well. She is now employed at the VA clinic here in Knoxville. She is really enjoying her job as a care manager. She is in the process of designing care plans to be implemented across the nation to better serve our deserving Veterans. Her work schedule has put her, as she would say, “back among the living.” We really like that part!

Our family recently returned from a week in the Bahamas. We went to celebrate my Aunts 50th birthday. It was a blast! We got to do some diving, snorkeling and a lot of nothing. It was all great, especially the “nothing”. Molly stayed behind in FL at my mom’s house for a couple weeks and Wyatt went with some friend to the Ozarks in MO to do some tubing and goofing. He was able to participate in his first snipe hunt compliments of my buddy Jeff. The video of this event was great! Wyatt and Shawn broke the MO record for open sprint back to a better lit area from what I understand. It is good to have him back, and Molly comes home tomorrow, assuming she wakes up before 1500 today…

We have had several visitors since my last post. Tina came to stay with us for a while, Shayla (ofcourse), Mom, Nancy, the Creggars, Tim Couch, Gary and Elaine, the Humphreys, the Housleys, the Beans, Lynn and Bill. It has been great connecting and sharing with friends and family. It has been nearly a year since we left FL. Hard to believe it’s been that long. It seems like we just got here. We miss you all dearly and look forward to seeing you again soon.

For fear of inducing my readers into a coma I will sign off now. I will make every effort to do a better job maintaining this blog with periodic updates. I hope I was able to assist with your insomnia. Good night…

Feb 2010

2010-02-24T10:03:00.000-08:00

We have a couple days off from classes thanks to homecoming at JBC so I thought I would get caught up on some of my future assignments. Turns out I would do this and work on our house. We have been refinishing floors with polyurethane. This isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds. Nonetheless, it is coming along well.

This semester has proven challenging. On top of my 21.5 credit hour course load, we are restoring the house we bought here in TN. It was built in 1930. We are really enjoying the house. Not so much enjoying the work involved therein. Classes have been very nice. I can truly say I am enjoying them all, even Old Testament Poetry. They have all been very insightful. Acts with Dr. Owens is great. He loves teaching and has great material to work with; this makes for a spectacular combination. This study has offered so much insight into the early church through Luke’s “snapshot.” I find it interesting that Luke didn’t give us a systematic view of what the church should look like. It’s almost as if the church was designed to evolve given the extent of the book’s content. Another interesting point Luke identifies is the need for “unity” in the church. Too often church leaders get this word confused with “uniformity.” The results of this mindset can render a body as ineffective. The last thing YHWH wants is an ineffective church.

I have been doing a ton of reading in my Evangelism and World Missions class. I have read Irresistible Evangelism, Missing in America and Blue Like Jazz. I actually read Blue Like Jazz twice, it was that good. I may do it a third time, who knows. The models of evangelism we are learning seem so productive. It is a model I began encouraging in our YM back at DeLeon Springs many years ago, ”relational evangelism.” It mirrors the model depicted in the NT beautifully. Were I to go back now with what I have learned I would push for “intentional” relational evangelism. We Christians got a bad rap trying to conquer the world for Christ. I don’t believe that was His intention at all. Donald Miller does a spectacular job sharing his thoughts on Christians as he states them “from a non-religious” view (Blue Like Jazz). We need to learn to listen to people so we can meet their needs, not win them, or save them. These terms turn me off to Christianity, and I are one… We need to love them. Did I mention I’m enjoying my classes…

As for my Non-Profit Management classes I have really enjoyed Principles of Organizational Behavior with Dr. Pierce. I can’t wait to go back to see my C12 friends and share with them. I have already experienced most of what we are learning about. Now, however, I can put a name to it. I just finished reading “Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture” by Cameron and Quinn. Spectacular read! I enjoyed this book as it confirmed several of the moves we made at Blackwell, as well as condemn some others. This book offers a clear methodology for doing exactly as the book is titled. This is an owners/managers must read. As I read it I also thought about how effective it could be when used in a church setting. This would be a great tool for church leadership to measure their goals against.

As for my recently lost love of land surveying, I found it. Plant services at JBC needs a master site plan of the campus. They also have some archaic surveying equipment and no one that can use it. I was fortunate enough to go to my Professional Land Surveyors forum on Linkedin established by my friend Eric Colburn to find a manual for their instrument. Thanks Greg! I have been working with them teaching them how to use the equipment to get the information they need to produce their CAD drawing (2009). This has been great as I feel like a duck in water playing land surveyor again.

I don’t want to bore the 3 of you any more than necessary so I will end it here for now. I will be in Florida March 28 preaching at the Christian Church at DeLeon Springs at both am services so come on out if your having trouble sleeping, perhaps I can fix that! Please keep my friend Doug Rice in your prayers. We are praying for and expecting a miracle!

peace

Mid January Happenings w/ the McLeods

2010-01-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

School’s back in and it didn’t start slow for me! I can’t say the same for Molly and Wyatt. The kids haven’t had a full week of school since early December (snow days). I have attended most of my classes and must say I am quite pleased. Homiletics I, Act of the Apostles, World Missions and Evangelism, Old Testament Poetry (I hope the professor can make it cool), Intro to Biblical Languages and Tools and Principles of Organizational Behavior, plus 3 Chapels per week and 4 hours of Student Ministry per week. I don’t think Student Ministry should be considered volunteer work if they make you do it… I’m excited to see what that entails…

The progress on the house has been slower than I would like. Courtney is doing well on her portion, painting. Mine seems to be dragging. I have learned much though. I will have mad tiling skills by the time this project is complete. We still need to sand the floors and get them finished. We’re getting closer…

We had an interesting weekend. Courtney got to see her BFF Tina. Yes, I actually used the term BFF and perhaps properly. She flew into town last Thursday and left this morning. They visited some of the small historic towns here in eastern TN. She said they had fun. I really enjoyed getting to see her also. I know the kids did as well.

Tina wasn’t our only visitor this weekend. We enjoyed the company of some of our favorite Milligan students Abbitha (Abby) and Shayla. Molly really enjoyed hanging out with them. We all played some mean wallyball with Nathan K and generally had a good time. Wyatt fell playing on the ice outside the EAC and bloodied up his elbow; nothing to write home about. I guess that’s not true as I just blogged about it.

Life here has been fairly calm. This is very different from back home. My friend Doug found out he has a late stage cancer. Courtney and I cry every time we discuss his dilemma, but at the same time we are excited to see a miracle happen in Doug’s life. We love his family dearly. We got to know them through teaching the college age class at CCDS and even more so hog/squirrel hunting with Doug and his boys. I look forward to doing that again!!!

That’s the news from TN for mid January. BTW, look for me to be preaching somewhere this semester as it is a requirement for Hom I. Gotta wonder what that’s going to look like…

Until next time, keep praying for Haiti and please donate here. I.D.E.S. is sending 100% of your donations to Haiti.

My 2009 in a very small nutshell...

2009-12-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

The month of January 2009 brought in many new challenges. I was operating as CEO for Blackwell and Associates Land Surveyors, INC, taking a full class load at University of Phoenix to finish up my Business Administration degree and being a husband to Courtney, and father to Molly and Wyatt. What’s different about this January is I had to do it without my partner Ralph. He was always there to say “yes that's a great idea, or no, don’t do that, that’s ridiculous.” His guidance in the operation of the business was most valuable. We now had many decisions to make to stay profitable in the New Year as the economy collapsed around us without him.

February I decided to drop out of school for a while to focus on marketing the business to different industries. This proved to be a valuable move. We began doing workshops for local Realtors to educate th em as to how our industries overlap and to reacquaint them to our firm as we estimated the housing market would begin to slowly come back in 2009. As for other firsts in February, Molly and Wyatt played their first games of high school softball and baseball respectively. This was so much fun going to cheer for our kids! Molly loved being a part of the team, and Wyatt loved demonstrating his skill level out there with the high schoolers, he was in 7th grade then. Courtney had just returned to Florida Hospital, DeLand ICU for employment. Church life also proved to be most interesting. Our Faith Promise rally happens every February. Our goal this year was $100K to go to world missions. In the previous year we sent out nearly $96K to our missionaries. What a spectacular work God provided! 2009 didn’t seem to be starting off as well. We received only $46K in pledges at our main session. This was a HUGE disappointment for our team. After much encouragement we were able to secure a little better than approximately $70K in pledges. Even though our economy was suffering, God’s wasn’t and he has been faithful still today. My contact with the Missions team at CCDS has revealed that pledges have continued to come in throughout the year, yeah God!

March would present us with a whole new set of challenges at work. The firm didn’t have much work coming in as the market had not ‘rebound’ yet. Some of the workshops were producing jobs, but not enough. We needed to cut staff to continue to operate. It also happened to be my turn to present my core business presentation at my C12 meeting. I presented my plan to lay off approximately 20% of staff to help remedy our monthly losses, the same losses being felt all over our industry. However, my C12 group pointed out that my cuts were simply a band-aid on an arterial bleed and that more cuts were necessary. I agreed and one week later we lay off 85% of our staff and I began my 80-90 hour work weeks, again. This lay off, along with several other strategic cuts allowed us to continue to do business and meet our costs.

The month of April offered us no simple times! In the dreaded April 15th week several life changing events occurred. First, taxes…perhaps not so life changing, but on the 17th, I heard God clearly say “you need to go to Bible college.” I finally submitted and shared the news at work and discreetly to those in my inner circle. We planned to move to TN so I could be a Johnson student. You can read more about that day here.

May, June and July would be months of preparation to embark on this journey to TN. I had to train Bob to run the office, find a place to live in TN and be accepted to JBC in 3 months. This would be a most difficult task. We looked at several options for the business with regard to my departure. Find personnel to replace me, sell out to the competition, or attempt to keep the status quo until better times. Bob and Connie chose the latter so we had lots of work to do to educate them on the intricacies of running a land surveying business. This had to be accomplished while we looked for a place to live in TN. Mitch and Bobby Conner and myself took a brief road trip to TN to scope out a house. Mitch and I were educated about EVERY exit along I-75 and why we should steer clear of exit 146. Traveling with Bobby is so much fun! July 31 would be the final day of my 17 year career at B&A. This was a difficult time for my family and our friends. However, there was a huge party at CCDS and I even got to rap, kind of…That night was so much fun. I again apologize to the folks we scared that aren’t used to a Sunday night service of that manner.

August didn’t lighten up much. We made the move to TN with the help of some great friends! From people coming to see us off at the house at all hours of the night, and morning, it was a delightful and difficult time. We truly enjoy our intimate time with loved ones. When we got to TN, Nick and the Aten’s were tremendous helps! It was nice having some familiar faces in this strange place. Poor Nick got sick and spent most of his first night next to the downstairs bathroom of our apartment. Within the first couple of weeks we saw almost 10 bears on different hiking trips. It was amazing interacting with all the nature. Molly would say, “Gross.” We all started school, and Courtney went to work. This was almost identity shock for me. I was now cooking and cleaning and watching ‘my stories’. Well I would if we had television programming.

September seemed to be a leveling out period. We were trying desperately to sell our house in FL all while looking for one up here. Apartment living has proven most difficult for Courtney as she must sleep in the day time hours to work at night. Who knew apartments could be so noisy? School was going well for all of us. The kids seemed to be adjusting well with a few minor instances of severe home sickness. God was blessing us.

October was a spectacular time. I got to watch the leaves change in the Great Smoky Mountains. I had never seen that before. It was awesome! This is also the same month we sold, sorry, paid someone to take our home in FL. We were now out from under that mortgage payment! My mom visited us at peak leaf changing time. We enjoyed her visit very much. It is always nice to see faces from FL. It’s very comforting to know you guys remember us!

November was a great time as well. We found the house we wanted here in TN. We experienced our first TN Thanksgiving. You can read more about that here. I attended the National Missionary Convention in Peoria IL. I got to spend a lot of time with the Nathans as I rode to and from Peoria with one Nathan and stayed at the other Nathan’s house. BTW, his mom can really cook! That's Nathan Winningham, one of the Nathans.

In December, the kids got to see their first snow. This was so much fun! We rode sleds and snowboards. We made snow men, and my friend Brad pointed out that Wyatt’s bike made a snow/bike angel. I think we threw snow at each other all day long and some the next day before church. Speaking of church, we may have found ours. We have been visiting Woodlawn for about a month and really enjoy our Sunday School class. The senior pastor is my Basic Christian Belief professor, Charles Beckett, a great guy! December also marks the month of Courtney’s and my 17 wedding anniversary. I bought her a house this year for her anniversary. We closed the day before, on the 18th. We are still today working very hard on getting the house livable. Anybody who wants to come work or contribute in some fashion, feel free to do so. We hope to be in near the end of January. Looks like I will be learning many skills in this remodel.

The year has been just that, a year. We have suffered some and are better for it. We have enjoyed much and will continue to do so. I have enjoyed this adventure, for the most part. I can definitely see how missionaries experience higher highs, and lower lows than anyone else. I can’t wait to be there. Soon.

Happy New Year!

A final look at Primal

2009-12-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

I have just completed reading Mark Batterson’s latest book, Primal. This work looks at Christ’s view of the greatest commandment to love YHWH with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. What does it look like to live this out personally and eventually corporately? Mark challenges his readers to consider each segment of Christ’s command by way of opening their eyes to the reality that has consumed so many, apathy. Primal is a short but powerful read. However, there were several instances where I was forced to put the book down to consider my successes and more so my failures in meeting this commandment. Primal addresses our generation and challenges us to move forward. But I believe its message can span many generations as we all could probably improve our game on some level. If you’re looking for a book to motivate you to seek ways to love God more, this is the book for you. Make your New Year’s resolution to read this book and discover the Lost Soul of Christianity!

You can purchase this book here.

Primal, Next Couple of Chapters

2009-12-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

These chapters challenged me to see the world for what it is, suffering without YHWH. But beyond being challenged to simply recognize this fact, I need to be motivated by this realization. I found Mark’s big question condemning, “Are you okay with this?” We can’t be filled with YHWH’s spirit and simply be ok. His heart breaks for this world’s suffering, and so should ours. I am ashamed of how many opportunities I pass by everyday, and I am on a Christian College campus. Imagine all the opportunities to act on outside of that realm. Mark offered several examples of people that experienced a ‘sympathy breakthrough’ that began with one simple need being met and resulted in movements that have touched numerous nations and countless lives. All this because someone was not okay with an unmet need.

I appreciated Mark’s examples of great givers, as opposed to great tithers. Too many times we get caught up in our circumstances that we loose sight of what’s important. Perhaps we tithe and feel pretty good about that. But we are called to do so much more that offer 10%. Again, our circumstances dictate our faithfulness and our goal becomes that 10 %. So what does it look like if our faithfulness were to dictate our circumstances?

To often our goal is to impact the world. These are grandiose plans and difficult to embark on. This is where most folks would get hung up and never move forward. The task seems so great; clearly we can not do it all, so why try? That lie snags so many people, me included. Mark’s response is simple, “Don’t let what you can not do keep you from doing what you can.”

Buy this book here.

Primal Early On

2009-12-15T14:55:00.000-08:00

I just cracked open Primal and slammed out the first chapter. I’m not a literary critic so bear with me. I appreciated very much the picture Mark paints with the Oliver Wendell Holmes quote, “I would not give a fig for simplicity on the near side of complexity.” This moves me to consider my experiences in life. Am I living on the near side of complexity? I often times think I know what I believe, but then there are the days I don’t. I think I have experienced some complexity in life. Right now I live as a student supported by his wife; not very complex sounding. As a father that stays home doing household chores, again, not very complex. Consider this, four months ago I was the vice president of one of the largest land surveying firms in our Volusia County, FL. God had other plans though. I walked away from the business I love to go to Bible College. God has called me to do something different. I seek to be on the far side of complexity. I want to listen and act accordingly. When I was initially faced with the concept of walking away I scoffed. “That’s impossible I told God. Look at all the ministry I am doing as a business owner. I have spectacular resources.” I imagine He laughed and said “oh yeah…” So I’m a sophomore at Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, TN. We no longer live the lifestyle of a VP at a respectable firm. We live a lifestyle of a student supported by his wife who is a nurse and works the night shift to make ends meet. When she’s not working she’s studying as she seeks her Masters in Nursing. Our kids have adjusted so well that it is clear God is busy here. They are 13 and 15 years old. Their world has been rocked! Our world has been rocked! I long for simplicity on the far side of complexity. I long to simply know. I just want to see YHWH.

Moving forward; does your heart break for what breaks God’s? Oh I hope so. My understanding of that question says that if we are not motivated to action then we may be a little off. What prevents you from moving? I have said for years that we are not absolutely convinced. This state of being will freeze a person in their tracks. How do we remedy that? How do we rediscover our “lost soul of Christianity?” Maybe I will be able to tell you in a few chapters…

You can find the book here.

The Week Thus Far...

2009-12-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

We had snow on Saturday. That’s the first time the kids ever got to see snow. It was awesome! We threw snowballs at each other for almost 2 days. By Sunday they were ice balls and kind of painful. I got to have my first snowboard session of the season. These kids that live in our complex brought out their old decks and we cruised the slopes of our complex. I kept finding the spots where the snow was thinnest as you could see if Courtney ever posts the videos against my wishes! The picture to the right is at our apartment complex. The picture to the left is the new house.

It looks like we may have solution at the new house. With any luck we may be closing next week. Keep praying about that!

We had a visit from an old friend from FL. Ben Boles stayed with us Monday night. He was meeting with some of the folks at New Thing in Knoxville, a very interesting church planting organization. The downside to him here was that we stayed up entirely too late talking story for him to have to get up stupid early in the morning to get to his meeting. When he was finished he met me at the new house for the nickel tour. He arrived just in time as Mr. Foster, the current owner’s father, and I had just finished unloading 2,400 lbs of concrete for the new wall in the basement. It was nice to reconnect with him after all this time.

I’m trying to slam out some mandatory pleasure reading before the 15th. I’m on chapter 4 in Mark Batterson’s book Primal. I am really enjoying it thus far! I don’t get to read much for pleasure! Stay tuned for my thoughts on his book in a couple of weeks!

Post Thanksgiving and Blog Anniversary

2009-11-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

It’s been 2 years since this Blog’s inception, and about 6 months since its active use. Wow, to think I have bored all 3 of you readers for nearly 6 months now…

Thanksgiving was the most different I have ever witnessed. Even compared to some of Courtney’s mom’s fiascos at the holidays, which I actually enjoyed the Thanksgiving fish chowder…Nonetheless, it was different. When we moved here I was actually looking forward to doing this on our own. No in-laws or even crazies from my side to deal with. The idea was intriguing. The event however was not. Courtney had to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This left me doing all the cooking and keeping the kids from complex chose another place to use the leaf blowers, besides under Courtney’s window. I really thought I was up for the task of cooking it all. I have seen my mom do it for years. Piece of cake right? Well, actually, almost. I fried a turkey, made enough mac & cheese for 11 people, stuffing for the same, massed potatoes and gravy along with green bean casserole. I’m not too sure why I made so much, but I/we (Molly & even Wyatt & eventually Courtney) did. We ate at 1600 EST as Courtney had to go to work at 1730. As we prayed, she started to cry. We were alone. We all knew it. It was nothing like I imagined. The food was great, the company was great, but those feelings were short lived. Courtney would be leaving soon for work and I would be leading the charge to clean the kitchen for the 3rd time that day. Still, we were thankful to have sat with each other as a family on Thanksgiving if only for an hour. Nothing like I pictured in me brain…

Black Friday…Courtney got home from work and slept. I was harassed to take the kids to the mall. So I relented, strapped my Glock 30 to my hip and proceeded to West Towne Mall. WOW, never again. We had to walk nearly a mile just to get into the stupid mall. For those that don’t know me, I may enjoy cooking, but I don’t shop and definitely don’t go to malls, unarmed! Nonetheless, my pain was softened by Cinnabon’s buy one, get the second half price. My logic says that every 3rd purchase is FREE. Too bad I couldn’t afford the 2 I bought. As of this morning, they are nearly gone, dang kids.

I was one of who knows how many selected to receive Mark Batterson’s next book, Primal for free, I simply have to read it and blog about it. I’m not too worried about reading another Batterson book at this point as we have done about as much stretching as we can do. For those who are not aware of whom Mark Batterson is, he wrote the book Wild Goose Chase that moved me to give up a comfortable life as a Land Surveyor and become a Johnson Bible College student. I am looking forward to reading it and sharing it with you all.

Christmas is coming. I was looking forward to it as I was Thanksgiving. However, after our last holiday experience I am not too sure how I feel now. Take my advice; enjoy your time with the crazies. It’s nice to imagine them not there, but it’s another thing to experience it.

What a Weekend; NMC

2009-11-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from the National Missionaries Convention in Peoria, IL. What an encouraging and spectacular event. I got to see people I haven’t seen in years. I also met many new friends as well. Our accommodations were exquisite! I believe the event was a positive and encouraging experience for all those in attendance as well as for those that were specifically prayed for that could not attend. The picture to the right is the sunset we observed our last evening in IL over the vast plains and cornfields.

I was originally asked to drive one of the vans for the college to the convention. The school had arranged for us to stay at a local church near the convention. However, I was offered a better alternative. We stayed at Nathan’s house about 20 minutes away from said convention. Not only did our accommodations include nice warm beds, but home cooked meals as well. The Kelseys were great hosts and provided more for us than we would have ever expected.

As for the convention, it conjured many ideas, feelings and emotions; to meet people that have done so much and to be a person that has done so little. The event instigated in me the thoughts of dropping out of school and just going! Those thoughts were quelled by some good friends that have a more objective view; Rick Wolford… Nonetheless, those feelings existed and still do somewhat this morning.

Some of the people I met that were most interesting included a former fireman. He quit his job as a firefighter a couple of months ago to take his wife and four children to Sudan to serve. Wow, and I thought I was crazy for moving to TN! His name is Josh Beck. They are going over with Train International. I believe he leaves in a few days so please pray for his family as they respond with action to the grace of YHWH.

Another group I met, Engineering Ministries International, John Boldt, caught my attention in a unique way. I was walking through the displays in my standard glazed looking mode when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a couple of words I find very fascinating. In a small corner of this display, which doesn’t advertise their services well, I noticed the word Land Surveying. This clearly warranted my immediate attention. This group, Engineering Ministries International, creates master site plans for construction projects globally for missionaries in country. Needless to say, he got me. By the time I made it home Monday night, he had emailed me a request to prepare a master site plan in Haiti early next year. I contacted Bob Evers at Blackwell & Associates to see if they would like to partner in this project. His response was "most definitely." Several details must be worked out to bring this project to fruition so please pray that this is a fruitful venture for the Kingdom.

Now the depressing news. This convention did not seem to have a massive turnout. This may be in part to the venue and time of year. In the Peoria Convention Center during main sessions there were numerous empty seats. Please don’t get me wrong, there were a ton of people there, but the arena just didn’t look as filled as I would have liked. One thing that was very apparent was the generation gap. There were college age kids, and there were attendees in the late 50’s and up constituting the majority. When this later generation dies there will be a gap as my generation was poorly represented. I am hopeful that there are some out there my age that are willing to step up and do the lob. I can assure you that is this weekend’s numbers represent the future of global evangelism we will be in trouble in 20 years when we start loosing our seniors. We need people to stand in the gap and see that the work continues in these trying times and the times to come. If you are reading this I would like you to start praying for someone to stand up and work for eternal profits. While this was not discussed or preached about at the convention, it is a phenomenon that I readily observed. Please just think of one person and start praying that they will be led into this service. Continue that prayer daily, weekly and even monthly so as to help fill this soon to be vacancy. Who knows, it could be you reading this right now… As a side note, there are over 200 ministry positions needing to be filled on Ozark’s web site…

Off the soap box and on to other business. It is good to be home. I am not sure how many college students we will be entertaining over the Thanksgiving week festivities. There are several students from other countries that can’t afford to go home to see loved ones. We hope to stand in that gap this week for some. I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving holiday! We will be thinking of you all…

Holy smokes has it been that long???

2009-11-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in writing. So much has happened and in such a short time. My mom came up to see the leaves change. It was great. She made it at peak time for the full color effect. That was a blast. You will most likely see her complaining below for posting a pic with her in it. I have been slammed with many papers to write so my normal time to return phone calls has lengthened considerably. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break to getting caught up with you all. Nonetheless, we press on…

I will be going to the 2009 National Missions Conference Thursday Nov 19th -22nd. It’s kind of funny the position I found myself in. I was asked by the school, JBC, if I had any experience driving 15 passenger vans. My response of course was clearly most definitely not, but I have been chauffeured by Susan Myers and found the event to be pleasing. When questioned as to why they would ask me the response was they were looking for, now get this, “mature students.” Do you see the irony? Nonetheless, I was given a better offer from one of my friends you’ve heard me speak of in the past, one of the Nathans. We will stay at his house where there are showers, much unlike the church the rest of the JBC students are staying in without showers. You should be able to recognize that bunch from across the room, wind dependent. Actually, the school secured some hotel showers for the bunch so in theory it shouldn’t be too bad.

I have officially set myself up as a triple major. My course load next semester will be 18.5 hrs. Majors are as follows; Bible, Intercultural Studies and Non-Profit Management. I am very excited about getting finished with school and seeing where we end up!

We are scheduled to close on our new house Nov, 30. This is a very scary and exciting time for us. There will be lots to do to get moved in. I am looking forward to being a farmer, and if you’ve heard anything from Courtney in the last 6 months, she’s looking forward to chickens. The kids also seem very excited to get our own place, but they will miss the friends they've made here at our apartment. Please keep this situation in your prayers.

Something I learned this week; we may only have one second of opportunity to act with great results. Be on the lookout for your second. If you’ve ever heard someone say after a sermon or Bible study, “you almost got me”, that was their second. Sometimes that’s all we’re given is a second. If that’s what YHWH has given you then that’s all you need to do all he wants. You better be ready for it!

It Sucks Leaving...Again

2009-10-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

When we pulled out of our drive way at 0600 August 7, 2009 it was difficult leaving the people we love. The night before we celebrated with the Pizagno’s, Linda & Sarah, and the Aten’s and Stacy, as well as several others. The next morning we were greeted by the Myer’s and the Simms to send us off on our journey. It was tough to leave them all, but we knew we would be back as we had a house to maintain in Florida. Surely it wouldn’t be long before we would get to see them again.

Last weekend I was able to sneak the kids and Shayla, a friend of ours attending Milligan just up the road from us, back into FL. I needed to empty out the house and prep it for a sale. We had a buyer, or should I say, a person we wanted to pay to take our house… This is actually a blessing no matter how much I rail against it… It was a great weekend! The kids were nowhere to be found all weekend as they went goofing with their friends the entire time we were there. This left me to attend to the house. I was able to remedy everything I needed at the house with some help from Mitch. I was able to secure two of my most prized possessions; my grill and my smoker. I did miss them so…

Later that night I went to the Aten’s for one of Tina’s most famous dinners, Marinos Pizza! She prepared it just right as always. I then dropped Molly off at Jeryns and went home. I found myself very depressed in the empty house. I recalled the first time set foot in that house when my friend Kurt owned it. We would practice Kata in the living room as Kurt and Payt didn’t have much furniture then. So I decided that I would, for old time sake, slam through some Kata. It was nice, very relaxing and it returned some of my feelings of joy I had felt in that house. We put so much of ourselves into that structure and now it would no longer be ours. Courtney and I put up the cypress tongue & groove ceiling using two 6’ ladders and two 12’ 2X10’s as scaffolding. A most dangerous experience, both physically and marriagaly (sorry for the jermbonics…). The finished product, to us, was awesome. It is neat to see what we were actually able to accomplish. Courtney looked long and hard for the countertops. We ended up basically stealing the granite for what we paid for it. The company we purchased it from tried several times to buy it back as they realized the same. We put a lot of ourselves into that house.

I slept on the back porch that last night at the house. The temp was about 40°. That didn’t stop the critters from making their critter noises all night which I don’t get much of in our apartment in TN. It was stupid cold, but so nice to just listen in the dark. The next morning I went to church. That was a great experience. I embraced people for what seemed like an eternity. We had only been gone two months but it was long enough and time for a reunion. We had to leave after 1st service as we had a very long journey ahead of us. It was at this point that I realized my depression over walking away from our house that we had invested so much in was paled in comparison to the feeling of walking away from the relationships we had invested so much more in. It was so much more difficult this time as I did not and still do not know when we will return. I found this departure much more difficult than the original. I cried like a girl (sorry girls). We started our long journey home dragging a U-Haul trailer full of goodies. Courtney, as well as myself, would later question the value of the contents of the trailer after assessing the fuel costs associated with dragging that trailer to TN (10 mpg). Not only was the trip an emotional beating, but it later turned out to be a financial one as well. I guess it makes me appreciate my grill and smoker that much more? A lot has happened since then but it will have to wait for next time. Please pray for our housing situation as we have a contract on a house here in TN. It looks like I’m going to be a farmer. We have a pretty good deal we believe but inspections are scheduled for next Monday (11/02/09). This will most likely move the kids to another school so please please please be in prayer for that transition as well. Until next time…

Almost Week 10

2009-10-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I shared with you concerning our adventure. If you have followed us on FB then you most likely noticed somewhat of a rollercoaster of emotion since my last post. For the most part, things seem fairly well here. The family here in TN seems to be adjusting just fine. I am hopeful for the family we left behind to adjust well also.

Courtney and I continue to hike on Mondays. We continue to drag the kids into the mountains for what we call “mandatory nature enjoyment”. They like it occasionally. Courtney seems to be getting along better at work. I believe she may be in a better position today to stand her ground based on the stories she brings home to share with me. God will continue to work in that situation. Molly and Wyatt seem to be growing their friend base. We desire them to have many good relationships, but are weary of some that have formed and as such seek your prayers on our behalf. We want them to experience as much independence as possible but not so much that they hang themselves as we have experienced in the past. For those of you with teens, this is nothing new. It happens in FL, TN, GA, AK & HI. I must admit that I have enjoyed my time home with the kids. I feel like we have formed a much stronger relationship, and at times I actually see glimpses of the goal in their behavior!

That is a rewarding feeling.

What I do miss is working! That being said, there is a Bass Pro Shop 20 minutes from home. I have filled out an application and await their call. Courtney is concerned that my time there will only cost us more $. I have assured her, “not much more.”

As for school, I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it is to study the way we do. It’s been like drinking from a fire hydrant from day one! I was officially addressed as “dad” a couple of weeks ago by the Nathans and Amber. I must say that I admire these folks for doing this as soon as they are. I wish I would have begun sooner. What’s more is that they are very learned in the Word. I’ve met a guy named Max that really impresses me on many levels. These kids challenge me, not only in fishing and racquet ball, but in earnest study, and seeking that knowledge of heart which I feel I desperately lack.

As for some local happenings, it’s supposed to snow this weekend. Wyatt was very very excited, and then disappointed when I told him I wouldn’t let him see it. He was quite upset at my response until I told him we were going to Florida tomorrow. His demeanor changed abruptly. We are sneaking into town to finish up some last minute items at the house as we have a buyer and plan on closing the deal next week. It is not a dream deal by any stretch, but it’s where we are. So if you’re reading this before Sunday 10/18/2009 we’ll see you at early service, then we have to book home. I hope the kids do okay with this trip back. It will be so refreshing to see their friends, but then they have to leave them all over again. Well, what doesn’t kill us, doesn’t kill us…

We also found the skateboard park not too long ago as well as a ski shop for all our snowboarding needs and a hiking shop for, well you get the point. That is very exciting for us. However, we will need to knock over a liquor store to fund any of those adventures, except the skate park as it is free.

Please continue to pray for us as we do the same for you. We have a roof, food, and are in the process of getting warmer clothes and we have the company of each other and the thoughts of you all, all while being held securely by the most trusting and loyal God who will provide all we need to do all He wants us to.

So Who Am I???

2009-09-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I was faced with severing my ties with B&A. I am none too happy about that. I miss it dearly. I loved operating a business, especially in stressful times. It was challenging and I believe I let that role define me. We had many successes and perhaps just as many failures. However, we rarely repeated our failures. I would say that was one of our great successes. That is how Ralph would have responded. He made mistakes, and learned from them. Rarely would he make the same mistake twice. That most likely contributed to his excellent client base and client relationship. However, if you don’t blow it sometimes, you would miss an opportunity to stand in the storm and save the day. I miss the analysis of field notes, and running corrections on data to regenerate for final product. I miss watching a cruddy sketch from the field with a bunch of numbers that just don’t amount to much being transferred into a stack of textual data to create a picture that tells it all. I miss teaching people how to improve their skill-set in our profession. I miss sharing about what a great firm we were and why we could out perform any and all competition. I miss the relationships I created with ‘the competition’. I look back and appreciate making hard decisions. I can see the validity in them from this perspective. While I suffered in them, I always saw opportunity through them.

I enjoyed the challenge of being innovative in this economy. We have so much to offer our clients that we have never even considered. With all the Land Surveying technology, and access to geographical information, how someone can’t get innovative with the tools provided astounds me. We went so far as to look at creating ‘Land Portfolios’ for our biggest clients. Why, to stay in touch, demonstrate our local knowledge of their holdings, and because they have never considered it before.

In 2005 we were forecasting this current economic trend and began to focus on more municipal and major construction projects. This paid dividends. As the housing market cooled, then ultimately froze, we were poised to continue with business as usual. Our revenues flopped from 80% residential to 80% municipal and major construction. That trend also began to cool last year near the end of 2008. Earlier this year we began a marketing campaign targeting local realtors. With all the new incentives for home buyers we felt that market should start moving again. With that in mind we began doing Land Surveying workshops for realtors. This was a great idea as it put us in the realtors’ office to educate them on how our industries overlap. I thoroughly enjoyed this as I was again teaching about the profession I love. This technique also paid off as we picked up several jobs and were able to make connections with some very active realtors.

More recently we began going after large engineering firms to help them cut costs by eliminating their internal surveying overhead and hiring our firm to perform their required surveying services. This was clearly a huge savings on their part. The experiment went fairly well in that we got to meet several firms and planted some seeds. Shortly before I left the firm, some of those engineering firms started calling. I wish I could have seen that fruit.

I hope that being out of that circle I don’t loose my edge or my eye for opportunity. When one surrounds himself with the best business has to offer he can’t help bot to take something away from that. I was truly surrounded by the best. I had a spectacular teacher in Ralph Blackwell. He gave me nearly all I have in surveying. What he himself didn’t give me; he saw to it that I was with the right people so I could get what they had also. I miss dearly my C12 Group. These were some of the greatest business minds I know, and not only business, but theologically geared for business. I hope my business aspect does not grow dull as I move to a new place in life. I miss that adventure.

Today, I have to be even more creative with finances. I have different metrics to observe and adjustments to make. Now I must be innovative with what we have and what we need. This is a different game, with all the same plays. I still hold my position as paterfamilias, as Wyatt would call it. The boy loves ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou’. I still report to my stock holders, Courtney, Molly and Wyatt. This is a different season. I pray I adjust well. I pray we adjust well…

Meigs Creek Trail

2009-09-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

I got to go hiking with Courtney yesterday. It was great! We hiked Meigs Creek Trail. We saw some interesting wildlife.

The Copper Head shown on the right was the first of 2 snakes we encountered. This guy was very mellow. The temperature may have had something to do with that.

We counted 22 stream crossings on the way out. And since it didn't rain while we were there, it is safe to say we encountered 22 on the way in as well. Needless to say, Courtney's feet got wet. I offered to carry her, but she settled for wet feet as opposed to a wet butt from us both falling.

The trail was beautiful. Quite a few flowers in bloom this time of year. What do I know about this time of year here? I enjoyed shooting some macro of the flowers. Courtney thinks I'm goofy for spending so much time getting the macro shots.

Overall, we had a great time together. It seems our schedules just don't jive lately. However, for the next several weeks we both are off on Mondays and we are going to try to do more of this hiking thing. I loaded a lot of the pictures on my Facebook photo album. Let me know what you think!

Week 5?

2009-09-12T20:31:00.001-07:00

What a week! I helped build a habitat house this week. It was super cool. 730 JBC students flooded the streets of Knoxville to serve the community. We had various groups feeding the hungry, cleaning up roads, building houses, and just loving people. I was impressed. This is what it looks like to be externally focused! This is what it’s all about! I got to hear a fellow by the name of Shane Claiborne speak. What a powerful speaker. The things he’s done and the places he’s been, wow… This guy is really living it. I was interested to hear him speak. I had never heard of him before, but there was quite a buzz on campus. Turns out he’s a hippie dude that really wants to meet the needs of people (nice dreads). To learn more about Shane and what he’s doing, you can check him out here: http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/

I took Molly and her friend to Tangers today. Wyatt tagged along as he is grounded and had nothing else to do. Courtney may have been better suited for this trip as Tangers is a shopping outlet mall thing, not my gig, Wyatt’s neither. But, I fulfilled my Great Dad status and killed no one! I wish I could say the same for Wyatt… Courtney has been writing a paper for school all day. She just completed it. 13 hours invested in one paper. I guess they aren’t just handing out these Masters Degrees in nursing… For those of you who don’t know, Courtney is also going to school full time to earn her Masters as noted previously. She also works full time on the Cardiovascular ICU floor at Ft. Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville. She does all this to support her family and to be prepared to operate clinics wherever we end up. That is a very exciting goal. She is awesome!!! With filling these roles, mine have shifted somewhat. Okay, quite drastically. I cook, organize kids to clean and do laundry, which I usually end up doing and other domestic requirements as well as slam out my classes throughout the week. I’ve also taken to hiking. I seem to be the only one who really gets into this. I have been labeled the ‘Hiking Nazi’. I don’t think they mean it in the good sense.

The church in action: I have some pretty cool God sightings this week to share. Molly has outgrown her bed. The girl has outgrown her twin bed by several inches. She requested a new bed the other day. Courtney and I discussed it and determined we couldn’t afford that right now and had that conversation with Molly shortly thereafter. About an hour later I was on the phone with Gary and Elaine Erhart. They were on speaker so Courtney and I could both share in the conversation. Molly had just come downstairs when Gary asked if we knew anyone that needed a queen sized bed. Molly’s jaw dropped and her eyes lit up! Needless to say, I will be driving back to FL to pick up Molly’s new bed. Thanks Gar & Lainey! Another neat event was when I needed books for school. They came to about $70.00. That’s $70.00 we can’t spend right now. Courtney finally just said buy the books, I’m sure God will take care of it somehow. So I said lets see if he can take care of it before we do and posted on FB that I needed this list of books. By the end of the night, I had over half of the books accounted for, whether people had them already or wanted to purchase them for me. It is so neat to watch this adventure unfold.

So what do we need now? Pray for the house to sell in FL. This must happen to buy a house here in TN. Pray for the kids to continue adapting, but not to conform. Pray for Courtney’s endurance and health. Her headaches have been coming back and we don’t have sufficient health insurance to purchase new meds. She must sleep during the day to work at night so pray for quiet around our apartment (this would be a true miracle).

Shane Claiborne left an interesting question in my head. I wonder if we would respond differently were we absolutely convinced. He asked, “What if Jesus really meant what he said?” Think about it…

Week 4

2009-09-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week can do. I realized that all I giving up of late seems a little depressing. Perhaps that because I do this late at night, who knows. Nonetheless, we had a great week. I was able to get out the contact change email that brought many of you to this site. That wasn’t necessarily my intent, but it appears to have opened quite a few doors as I have been contacted and encouraged by many last week. For that I would like to thank you all! You guys ROCK!

The kids seem to be adjusting well this week. Molly has a couple of friends here in the apartment complex that she is running around with. She just found out there are 2 boys here age living next door. Their mother was all too excited to introduce them to her. They are football players at the local HS. They probably will get the proper introduction to me cleaning several firearms all at the same time. Perhaps a couple empty beer bottles laying around may leave the impression I’m shooting for?

Wyatt seemed to have a much better week this week. He attended his first dance with his lady friend. That was a blast on this end. He went on Youtube to learn how to dance. Based on what I’ve seen from Wyatt is that they teach you how to simulate a seizure. Hopefully that wasn’t offensive to you seizure prone folks out there. I would say a much better week for him!

Courtney still doesn’t have a solid work schedule yet. I have heard rumors that we are getting closer on that front. There are apparently lots of classes that must be completed before one can work in the cardiovascular ICU. I love spell check! She got her first paycheck, and wow! Pray that our house sells soon in FL! At this rate I may be bagging groceries much sooner that I thought.

While we’re on the asking for things portion of our show, My friend Rick Wolford is having some testing done at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fl near the end of Sept. Please pray for this man. He is the Executive Director for F.A.M.E. He spoke at CCDS one year for our Faith Promise rally. Rick is a great guy, and I don’t believe that God wants him to suffer so please remember Rick when you’re praying.

I have a weird schedule next week. I will be working with Habitat for Humanity building houses in Knoxville TN on Wed. This is an annual event at JBC called K9. The entire school hits the community and serves in numerous capacities. I chose construction as I have some cool tools. Can’t necessarily use many of them, but I have them.

I hope I was able to help you sleep with this blog. I know it often times puts me to sleep just proof reading it! Thanks for following us on this adventure!

Week 3

2009-08-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

I think Courtney may be out blogging me. I expect that as she is a phenomenal writer. We are at week 3. Last week I began classes and loved them. I am enjoying learning things I have never learned or even considered before. I have found that to be one of the few visible blessings since our arrival. To approach the Bible as I am now is most exciting. One interesting aspect with regard to my classes is that we as students were informed that the class structure and readings were not solely, or even nearly for academic purposes only, but were for deeper spiritual growth and understanding of the scriptures to strengthen our relationship with Christ. I very much am enjoying school.

Saturday Wyatt and I went hiking up to Chimney Tops Trail. The total round trip hike is +/- 3 miles. The vertical ascent is approx 1,300’. I really enjoyed it. Spending time with Wyatt was great. We had many opportunities for breaks as his current Xbox training regimen isn’t preparing him for these outings. We worked very hard to get to the top of that mountain. Approximately 2 ½ hours later we were successful! We sat on the top and ate some crackers and drained a couple of water bottles and just enjoyed the view. I think he appreciated the hard work to get there. We laughed and said there’s no way Molly or Courtney could pull this off! It was a blast!

We had to hurry down as we had a “non-traditional/married students” cookout to attend at my school. I think we made world record time coming down from that mountain, 25 minutes. One other neat blessing was the blackberries were in season along the trail. Apparently at that elevation they grow quite well. However, due to park regulations we were not allowed to harm any plant life…Boy do I like ripe wild blackberries…or, I mean, would I like ripe…

That night at the cookout, Molly had met a couple of friends her age so we didn’t see much of her. As for the rest of us, it was kind of awkward. We stood for a while waiting to see how we would be greeted, and it didn’t take long for a couple of people to come and introduce themselves. We met some people that are in the same boat we are. They live in the same complex we do. He is a student, and she is a nurse. WEIRD… we met a couple more people, but not many. This is a different crowd. I’m sure we will get to meet more soon.

Wyatt stood next to us the entire time. I didn’t realize why he was there as that is where it just seems he should be. I am finding this difficult to put into words as the screen is quite blurry from the tears. Normally in that setting he would be off playing with Brandon, Sean, Jake, Josh, Logan, Kyle, whoever. He doesn’t have friends up here yet and is terribly lonely. I didn’t figure this out until I watched him cry himself to sleep that evening. I identified with him on many levels last night. My son is hurting and I can’t do anything about it. The rest of the family is hurting too, including me. We are very lonely and miss our good friends dearly. This is our first weekend with no visitors. It was tough. It still is…

I don’t know if the kids are adjusting as well as I originally believed. They both exhibit signs of depression a little more frequently of late. This concerns me as I feel helpless to fill the hole I’ve created by taking them away from home. Courtney seems to be adjusting ok. She cried a lot in church this morning. She misses her dad. So do I. I too may be crumbling. I am finding myself very easily angered of late. Yes, more so than usual… This is not who I am or want to be.

Did we make a mistake? I don’t think so, yet. God has provided for us in many ways and continues to do so. It seems we are struggling with believing the lie. Please continue to pray for us as we push ahead. I think this would be much more difficult were we not in a beautiful part of the country. We thank God for that daily.

Some specific prayer requests: Molly and Wyatt find their place here. Our house in DeLand sells. We find a more permanent/affordable place to live up here. For our family and friends we left behind. That we stop falling victims to the lie!

Some stuff that happened today...

2009-08-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

I woke up later than usual as late is becoming usual. Today we completed the final portion of the registration process for the kids. Molly in high school, and Wyatt in middle school. Then I spent the rest of the day with Courtney. We went to her new job to complete some lab work. We then went to the uniform store for some much needed scrubs. That was an hour and a half of my life I will never get back. Then we went and picked up our bed in West Knox. That's quite a drive with a mattress strapped to the back of the truck. While we were out, I got a call from the kids that maintenance attempted entry into the apartment. They were a little freaked out. So I called the manager and complained a bit. We are not used to people randomly wandering into our home. When I requested they contact me before entry she seemed put out. I don't understand the big deal of a little courtesy notice. I think it would benefit the maintenance people to have a prioritized schedule that would allow them to notify tenants before they show up unexpectedly. It all comes down to proper time management.

Tonight for dinner we are eating black eyed peas and rice seasoned with some drippings from some previously smoked pork butts. Sorry for the ADD topic jumping, I can smell the peas cooking.

Tomorrow we are going to head up into the mountains for a little sight seeing. I can't wait to get up there again!

Friday I have a meeting with the financial advisor at Johnson. We've never been in a situation where the funds were so slim. We are enjoying and hating this. It is an experience that will pay huge dividends down the road! Until next time...

The Beauty of the Church!

2009-08-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

I have often found myself complaining about the shortcomings of the Church, and what I see as missed opportunities. I do believe the Church gets stuck looking after itself too often, but then there are times that it is the champion or hero, as it is supposed to be. There are mixed accounts of Church experiences. Some were thrilled as the Church rallied behind them to meet a need, and then there are times when the Church has turned its back, or perhaps a blind eye to needs outside of the norm. This post is titled “Beauty” so that’s how we’ll roll!

Sunday August 2, 2009, several friends of mine from church threw a “We’re getting rid of the McLeods” going away party. It was awesome. So many people came out to support us and wish us well it was spectacular! The people that spoke were great. The band was awesome! I got to crowd surf a little. There were people in the building that weren’t used to having crowd surfing at a Sunday night service, but that didn’t stop us! There was an impromptu opportunity to throw down some rap. I tried it; the lungs just ain’t what they used to be… It was great. The words spoken that evening were deep and encouraging. The words not spoken because they could not be formed were clearly understood and received. My family loved the event! The church raised enough funds to cover the cost of the move and perhaps purchase some necessary equipment in TN. The Church moved powerfully!

DeLeon Springs, we have heard from you and appreciate all you have done for my family. Not just in the last few months, but in the last 16 years. All the relationships, the adventures and challenges have put us where we are today, and I am grateful for them! We love you ALL and will see you soon!

So this is what it looks like...

2009-06-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of moving to TN so I can finish school and go do what we are supposed to be doing. I will miss owning and running our land surveying business. I still find myself looking at ways to improve myself as an owner to help improve the company. However, this new adventure is quite exciting. Courtney will be going up next week to scope out a place to live. She has job interviews scheduled for the following week while we are there for CIY www.ciy.com/move This whole giving it all up to do something else seems a little crazy. We are trying to decide if we should rent, or buy. It seems cheaper to buy right now, but I don't want to be stuck in something I would need to get out of in 3 years. I would love to hear any suggestions on that...I believe we almost have our place ready for the market here in DeLand. Haven't decided if we will sell, and take the hit or rent it out and wait for the market to recover. Either way, it is beautifully landscaped now.

What a day!

2009-05-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this is going out.

If you know me, then you know, but for those who don't, here goes...

I was driving to my office yesterday (Thursday May 22, 2009) from delivering the kids to school listening to my ipod. I purchased the book Wild Goose Chase and was listening to it as i drove. I find that easier than actually reading while I drive and perhaps a bit safer. You can check it out here http://chasethegoose.com/ . I'm a little better than an hour into this book when the events of the last two years began to scream at me and I burst in to tears as I drove down the road. Again, for those that know me, yes, tears. I couldn't speak. My mouth couldn't form words. I was messed up! Two phrases kept echoing in my head. One, from my wife. She said, every second we're here not doing what we're supposed to be doing we are waisting our time". The other was from someone I do not recall, but simply stated that "all evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing." I tried to call Courtney. She was freaking out. All I could say was "we are moving, I don't know exactly when or where, I am having trouble speaking, but I'm okay". Alright, there were two things going on that were weird, I was crying, and having trouble speaking. I found my self verbalizing my realization. God wants me to go to Bible College but I don't want to go. He has even gone so far as to identify which one and I still don't want to go!

As I sit and examine the recent occurrences, I see two years of events culminating yesterday, but I'm sure there are those that would say we see 36 years of events culminating.

I've always said that there were two Bible Colleges I would consider attending. Johnson Bible College in Tn and Cincinnati Bible College in...figure it out. I have never voiced these ideas to anyone. They just lived in the back of my head. In reality I never had much intention to attend a Bible College. I have a fairly successful Land Surveying business http://blackwellsurveying.com/ to run and have really been enjoying the challenge of being profitable in this economy. We are seeing some improvements from last quarter, but are still considerably low in volume in comparison to 2005 figures. Nonetheless, my plan was to be retired at 55 living on a boat in the Caribbean helping my wife doing medical missions. We'll revisit that later...

About a week ago Courtney had an idea to look at Bible Colleges for me, unbeknown st to me. She emailed me a page from Cincinnati that advertised a dual degree in Business and Bible. I didn't give it much thought . The degree looked interesting but didn't fit MY plans.

A couple of weeks ago, perhaps 3, I was asked to chaperon a youth event, CIY http://www.ciy.com/ This was a difficult decision to make. The economy has me very busy at the office. We have so much to do to stay alive these days it's goofy. I said I would discuss it with Courtney and get back to him. I fully expected Courtney to say we were struggling with all my time at the office and a CIY trip just didn't fit our schedule. Well, she didn't exactly say that. I believe her response was something more like, "ok". In reality, my wife is pretty deep so there was probably a little more to it than that . Nonetheless, I had agreed to go on a trip that I had no idea where it was going.

In reality, our family life minister didn't know either. He had scheduled the trip a couple of different times with a couple of different staff to go to a couple of different destinations as they are held in locations across the states. Several events took place that I should be asked to go. Several of the other adult attendees experienced all kinds of circumstances that were very exciting to very scary, from vacation plan changes, kids going to the college they never imagined to some serious health issues with a chaperone's child. These events would all turn out to be just fine as of a couple of days ago, after I agreed to go on the trip.

As for this trip, where were we going...

Turns out I will be spending a week at Johnson Bible College, the other college I figured I would attend were I to do so. I shrugged it off. I did find it a little intriguing though. It wasn't until my ride to the office yesterday that the pieces began to fall into place.

A couple of weeks ago we had a men's retreat at the church. We were discussing vision and the likes. About half way through we were asked to pray out loud for one thing we were thankful for. One of the guys in my group blew me away. He was thankful to be out of his old lifestyle and into the church. One must understand that the guy praying this prayer is a man's man. Construction industry, owned his own stucco business before this economy, very similar background to me so this caught my attention. I don't often find myself thanking God genuinely for where he has placed me. This guy, three years ago, experienced a life changing connection with Christ, and I watched it happen. I thought to myself, "man, people need that!" That experience has been on my mind ever since.

I've always said I want to be where I can do the most good. I believe I was supposed to be a small business owner for a time. The experience I have gained from this has been unbelievable. The struggles of taking care of employees-my most valuable assets & their families, clients, vendors, taxes, insurance, contracts, people. The freedom and restraint of being an owner are quite a roller coaster ride. The sacrifice and the rewards are great. I've heard it said that missionaries experience higher highs and lower lows that most people. I would categorize small business owners in a very similar way.

I know I was supposed to be a C12 http://www.c12group.com/ member. I can't say enough about the power of this group! C12 is a must for any Christian business owner. I received a ton of my on-the-job training from this group. The experience of this panel of business owners, from firms with 3 employees to firms with 100's of employees, is immeasurable. The difference in this consulting group is that they love you and genuinely want what the Lord has planned for you. Words can't describe my feelings for this group.

When I made it to my office that morning, my partner was there doing some research. He looked at me and noticed there may be trouble. I took him in my office and attempted to tell him that I had to leave the business. I said I didn't want to go even as stressful as it can be, I love doing what I do. I had to go to Bible College. I didn't know where and I didn't know when, but I had to go. I really felt like Jonah. I imagine he was thinking, "I have to get this guy out of here if God wants him to go to Nineveh". A few minutes later, my C12 chair showed up as did another friend I was able to text, I struggled to make my mouth work but the fingers were still good. I shared with them my morning and they simply laughed at me. Their response, to me, was a little strange. They asked, what took so long. I HATE it when everybody else figures stuff out before me!

So what does it all mean? It means I'm leaving Florida. I'm going to Bible College. I'm giving my business away. I'm stressing my kids (teenagers) with these thoughts that as of today, I still haven't shared. I'm going to stop looking at me for the next step. Please pray as I get very uncomfortable!

There it is, for now. We'll see what happens tomorrow...

Living with addiction

2009-05-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my sister-in-law cried out for help. She has been estranged from the family for approx 5 years. She left her husband and took their daughters and led them through hell. So when this call came in we were somewhat excited, and very scared as to what would unfold. She called out to her mother who is a very strong willed person (huge understatement). When she gets something in her head, it stays. Her mother, not able to intervene due to an inability to deal with her called my wife to get involved. My wife is a seasoned ICU, PCU & Med/Surge RN. After much prayer we agreed to immerse ourselves in, for a lack of better words, this project. I see her sister-in-law as a powerful tool to help prevent other people from taking the roads she chose and perhaps avoid damaging numerous lives around them. If we could get her clean, and rehabbed, what a story she could tell. The addictions, heroin, cocaine, crack, prescription meds and the lengths to which she went to acquire each. Things were falling into place, we found a house for her to live, cheap, furnished and safe. God set that up as we worked hard for a week and produced nothing. She was admitted to the hospital for a severe infection. Here is where we started losing the battle. She manipulated the doctors into giving her narcotics for pain. It turns out she was stashing them in her clothes, bed & purse. When discovered, they were flushed down the toilet by my wife. She claimed they were worth quite a bit of $ outside the hospital and threw a fit. When she got out we moved her into this house we secured for her to start detox. This was a huge disappointment. She began sneaking around trying to secure a ride to see her pain specialist. In return for the ride to get the scripts, she would barter a portion of the scripts for a ride. These events were easily and obviously uncovered and I suppose somewhat expected. The problem is that she is such a powerful manipulator she convinced her mother that she didn't really overhear the conversations that were taking place in her home. She convinced her to the degree that she completely changed the time and place and even the content of the event from the initial confrontations. Most impressive.

My wife was able to secure an MD colleague to assist in the detox. Again, God was working very obviously in this situation. The problem is that He doesn't FORCE us or them through the door. The appointment was set up to establish the baselines for detox. The MD would assess and treat, we would love and support. We were 5 days waiting for that appointment. A lot happens in 5 days. We caught her several times trying to procure rides to see her pain specialist even after she agreed in writing not to do so. I must say that my friend who gave us the idea to put everything in writing that transpires and have her sign each was brilliant. This forces the truth to be recognized for what it is. This is a powerful tool. After being caught again trying to secure additional meds other than those prescribed by the professionals and several other incidents both observed by my wife, the RN that deals with these folks every day at work, and her mothers reports, that seemed to change as my sister-in-law weaved her web of deception, we decided that she must go to detox and rehab. This would require her to call and secure a place to detox. The initiative must be hers. Several arguments erupted from this declaration. She, sister-in-law, explained to us the difference in a need and a want. She needed the meds to control pain and did not have a problem. This was countered with the list of symptoms identified in DSM IV for drug addiction that mirrored her every action. The next argument was that she does need it but the conditions were deplorable and it wouldn't help her. She made the statement "I would rather die with a needle in my arm that go to one of those places". She then got up and left the room and appeared to begin to pack her bags to leave. This was her only option, detox or she was on her own. She was choosing to be on her own. We left and explained that we were not to be alone with her at any time as she was a master manipulator. This would work great. With nowhere to go she would surely come back and choose detox. Too bad it didn't quite work like that.

By that afternoon she had roped her mother in and convinced her there must be another way. This is perhaps the saddest part of this story. A sane woman with a good head on her shoulders has fallen for the lies of a junkie. She has repeatedly taken sides against my wife, the RN, and myself to try to justify her daughters actions. I fear I may have helped in this portion. Early on in our saga I asked the question, is the risk worth the reward. I still believe the risk is worth the reward. Where the line has been blurred is the definition of reward. The problem is that her mother is risking for the wrong reward. The reward I was speaking of was for someone who wants help. Someone who is broken and wants to be healed. I heard a very wise man say "that hurt people, hurt people, but healed people heal people. The reward I spoke of was healing, not just for this family, but for the families this healed woman could reach. That is a great reward. The problem with her mother's risks is that they bring us no closer to the reward, but further from it. As if that isn't bad enough, the situation has driven a huge wedge in the family. The mother with little to no experience in this field and estranged daughter on one side, and the rest of the family some with rich experience in dealing with these situations on the other.

Things seem very odd now. Her mother insisted that we perform a drug test on her to prove her progress. When asked what was the plan when should she fail said test, there was no response. Where there is no plan, there can be no real success. Surprisingly enough, she failed the test and her mother continues to attempt to justify the results claiming it was trace amounts from the hospital stay or other meds offered to assist in detox which should have ran out a week before. This defense of her substance abusive daughter based on a test that offered no measurement in the results seems a bit irrational. The claim was that the measurement information was not obtainable. She scheduled another test in 2 weeks. One wonders how long this will continue? Perhaps when the $ is gone...

An observation I find quite disturbing is that we were going to bring the lost child home. We wanted to reacquaint her to our family. In the process we realized she wasn't ever looking to come back, but simply for the next ride, and we lost her mother over to this madness.

I would love to hear any tools or insight to duel diagnosis should you have it. I apologize for the length, I left out plenty, but I think my point is clear. We need prayer. We need a miracle. That's the neat things about miracles. You never get one until you need it...

Land Surveying Technology???

2009-04-15T17:26:00.001-07:00

Last June my firm purchased a Topcon GR-3 receiver and FC 2000 data collector. I love the tool when it works, but it rarely works well without considerable effort and collaboration with Topcon tech support.

As for the performance, I love it. We performed a Boundary survey on a 1,200 acre parcel for SJRMD. We took full advantage of the unit and it performed spectacularly with regard to accuracy and precision. Our parcel spanned 6 sections, approximately 9 miles of control. To check the reliability of the unit we ran conventional traverse south to north across 4 positions west to east evenly spaced across the project. When compared to the GPS values, our greatest differential was 2 seconds and 0.06'. From where I sit, those closures where very acceptable. This type of performance had me hooked!

If only the unit could be fired up and run every time without issue. It seems that we require tech support constantly from the dealer we purchased the unit from nearly at every start up. It seems that the network settings change regularly, both on the network side and on the unit itself. I do not believe that we are changing them inadvertently, but they do seem to be changing. So when we call in for support, the parameters are different from previous uses. We document everything we do with the unit in hopes that the directions we were given could be helpful the next time we use the unit. Inevitably, they change. Our dealer has upgraded software versions, changed network settings and even took the unit in to identify issues and could not recreate the problems. We did luck out in that the gentleman that sold us the unit happened to come by while we were out troubleshooting again. He got to experience the problems along with their tech support. Result, they said it's and anomaly. So what does that mean for us? We continue to suffer through these anomalies and tech support continues to suffer with us.

Our latest issue with the unit was the loss of blue tooth today. We had to use the hard wire link to communicate with the collector. Tech support said we could reset the unit, they could talk us through it.

I must say that I sometimes wonder if the cost of the unit along with all its headaches are worth the results. Then I run a full section, all 8 positions in 2 hours and fall in love again...that is, until it looses signal. Stupid anomalies!

I'd love to hear of your experiences with the unit, so fire back.

Thanks!

begining of the 4th day!

2009-03-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

I attended LHVDC this weekend. What an experience. I have so much I want to share but can't as it would diminish someone else's experience. I know that before I left I stated that I would bring back some good info on the event, sorry. I can say this, if someone is willing to sponsor you at one of these events take advantage of their offer. God will definitely put you there. However, Satan will certainly try to keep you from it.

As for work, there was a tremendous amount of catchup to do. When one is taken for the weekend and stripped of their watch and cell phone, there is a certain degree of detox that takes place. I believe I started coming out of it by Sunday afternoon, as I was being delivered home.

As for some of what I walked away with, I need to stop being so critical of leaders in the church, & perhaps others as well... Stop covering them targets for hitting every time they mess up and start covering them with prayer to help curb those alleged mess ups. Stop seeking only knowledge for the head and start seeking knowledge of the heart. I have to thank my new friend Brian for that one.

Check back later, perhaps I'll throw down some Land Surveying knowledge...

It's been almost a week...

2009-03-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

This was the first week after the lay-offs and it has been quite a challenge. I find myself filling may roles that I used to delegate. When I transitioned from the field to the office I attempted to get my hands in every facet of the business. I thought that was what I was supposed to do. This was actually killing me as my schedule was never set and it seemed I was always putting out fires. It took about 2 years for me to get where I could step back and delegate responsibilities to personnel. I found this to be very rewarding at times and somewhat frustrating at others. Taking advantage of the diverse group we had in the office and field brought many innovative successes. Another reason I enjoyed the delegation was it allowed me to schedule myself in a very visible way. I always knew what, when and where I was supposed to be (great secretary). The last 6 days I have been filling so many shoes its just goofy. I am back to when I first came into the office, but this time without the safety net of many qualified personnel. I have heard it is beneficial to cut 10% of personnel annually to keep fresh perspective and maximize profits. Producing 100% with only 90%. We have never tried that as it doesn't fit our corporate culture. As of today, we are attempting to produce 100% with 10%. We are back to our 14-16 hour days.

Good news, I am attending Lighthouse Via De Cristo weekend #34. I don't know much about this, but I am trusting that my friend TB would put me where I need to be. I will be out of touch for 3 days & nights. He has told me that the less I know, the better it will be. If that is true, then this will be a spectacular event. See you on the other side...

Lay-offs last week

2009-03-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had to lay off most of my staff last week. This was one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make as an owner. Our firm has been in business for 30 years. I believe we had similar lay-offs in 1990, however that wasn't under my watch. I think my greatest pain in this decision is that several of these folks worked here before I came on the scene. We have grown into a family. It sucks letting family down. The majority of folks let go this week have already found employment. I believe this lends to their integrity. They have great work ethics and deep concern to fullfill their duties to their families. However, I'm afraid that the folks that are settling for unemployment seem to be waiting for our industry to rebound and come back to work for us. While I appreciate the loyalty, I fear for the well being of them and their families.

There is some opportunity with all these changes. Our firm can rebuild and restructure its departments allowing it to meet the changing needs of our clientelle in an innovative way, and perhaps be profitable again. However, these changes will require a different kind of work from my partner and myself. It will require flexability from each of us and our families to see that our business survives this economy, not only survive, but thrive. I look forward to rebuilding our firm to its earlier glory. I am also excited to see what we look like on the other side of this economy. Better decision makers able to do more with less!

Sorry its been so long. So here goes...

2009-03-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

I am going to give this another attempt. The idea that some one may find what I have to say usefull seems almost preposterous. I intend to use this blog to share my thoughts with regard to my industry, my religion, and my life so stay tuned!

Black Friday & nothing to do!

2007-11-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Thats all I have to say about that.