Tim Hawkins - GPS

Saw this guy last night after we got back from bowling with the youth around 1:30 am. He did a bit with worship songs with different lyrics like instead of Better is One Day it was Better is Hunday and I only eat margarine instead of I can only imagine. I was rolling. Had fun with the youth and bowling with Aaron, PK and Pink.

Mr. Bean

Enough all ready

We were watching TV last night as the season premieres of Criminal Minds and CSI:NY came on and we have been waiting for the new episodes for awhile now. We were missed Criminal Minds but we taped it and will watch it probably tonight but caught CSI:NY and I noticed something, every spot for a new show or for one that is coming up in the next few days all seemed to have the same theme..........sex. Now I know that this has been happening and increasing on tv for quite sometime but last night it just hit me that every commercial for a show had some sort of sexual theme weather it be a scantly clad woman or even the big bold letters used in some of them and I was getting tired of seeing it. It seems that all of the women on television now must also wear the lowest cut top that they can and squeeze into. 5 years ago I probably wouldn't have had an issue with any of this but now its just getting old. I like it when you don't have to monitor what is on when the kids are in the room but those shows are slowly fading away. What happened to the day when all this stuff was taboo and only on the pay movie channels? How far will the envelope be pushed? How long til there is no restriction on what is permisable on tv? Its no wonder why I like to watch sports on tv, preferably racing, football, baseball, and college basketball. Maybe I'm taking too much of a prude attitude towards todays society and what is acceptable but I don't like where this is all heading.

Side note check out Perry Nobles blog from Tuesday and Wednesday if you get a chance.

Song that fits the campaign

There is a new artist out there that some of you might have heard of his name is John Waller. Saturday night we did a song of his that fit the BtB campaign and his first song also falls in that catagory. We really should have learned this song and done it during the services for this campaign. Here it is and I think you will agree that this should be the theme song for Building to Bless.

"The Blessings" by John Waller featuring Mark Hall from Casting Crowns

Let it be said of us, While we walked among the living
Let it be said of us, By the ones we leave behind
Let it be said of us, That we lived to be a blessing for life
Let it be said of us, That we gave to reach the dying
Let it be said of us, By the fruit we leave behind
Let it be said of us that our legacy is blessing for life

This day You set life, you set death right before us
This day every blessing and curse is a choice now
And we will choose to be a blessing for life

Let it be said of us, That our hearts belong to Jesus
Let it be said of us, That we spoke the words of life
Let it be said of us, That our heritage is blessing for life

Chorus again

For Your Kingdom, for our children, for the sake of every nation

Only God

What an incredible weekend at FFC. First the leaders get together to make thier pledges and it is almost $700,000 for just 40+ households, two word- Only God. Then we here of stories of two lives that have been changed here recently at church and once again two words- Only God. Then what a great message with a simple principal, viewing and treating everyone like God sees them--Precious (Just for you PK), I am taking the challenge to view everyone this way, somedays will be harder than others but I'm up for the challenge. Finally last night I went to get Taylor and Tyson from Youth Group and X-Men and hear that there was over 40 kids at Youth Group and two words come to mind- Only God. Only God can use a simple church in a SMALL town to make a BIG impact, isn't it amazing. We are in the midst of something that is going to be huge, the testimonies that are going to be pouring in over the next three years are going to blow us all away and lead us to say......ONLY GOD.

Another solo flight on air

Here is my view on a Friday night at the JOY FM studio in Union City. Not big and fancy as alot of other stations but I think its pretty darn cool. The board is below that controls what is being heard on air and the computer above is where all the music is and is normally what is running every hour except for the Solid Rock Friday show which we use 2 cd players that are to the left of the board as you are facing it. Can you find Sherry in the picture? Sherry is the drawing that they say you are to talk to, she is your audience so you don't get freaked out over how many people are really listening kind of funny I think. It was my second solo flight and I have 2 more lined up as I will be doing every other week with my good pal Dan Conner, he's got next week than me and so on. I appologize for the audio during the football game if you were listening it was rough and hard to hear sometimes. They were broadcasting from the east side of Dayton so the cell phone reception obviously wasn't that great. Here is the song list from tonight....
Flood - Jars of Clay
No More - The Band With No Name (Give you a hint its some people who are local)
The Wait is Over - Disciple
Open Your Eyes - Stryper
I Am the Door - Day of Fire
Mr. Do Wrong - Guardian
Are You Real - KJ 52
Who Am I - Deliverance (I introduced this as a song title people would recognize but a little different)
Resolution - Pillar
Move - Thousand Foot Krutch (Requested by Taylor and Tyson)
Reconnecting - Tait

Fun show even challenged the listeners to A. Get involed in church somehow someway, B. Read their bibles, and C. Share their faith with someone. I have more challenges and other goodies in two weeks. Thanks to those who listened.

Another round of football

Tonight will be another round of high school football and the opportunity to run the board which I might add is alot of fun. After learning how to take care of the board it is funny to listen to a ball game or race or something like that and know the inside of how it is ran. Same goes with just listening to the radio and with the chance that I've been given knowing a little bit of the ins and outs of what it takes to make a station tick. The only bad thing about tonight is that I'm going to miss the Building to Bless leadership campaign kickoff. I know that it is going to be an amazing evening and I wish I could be present for it. I know I am ready for 4:30 pm today as I am walking out of the shop for a full weekend of things to do, places to go, and people to see.

Check this out

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

We got a video email the other night and it was a very powerful and cool one so I thought I'd try and share it. Don't really know what I'm doing but if the above don't work go to Godtube.com and search for Lifehouse Everything Skit. It is pretty cool and I think you will think the same. Let me know what you think.

Pure Volume

I found a cool website a few months ago and have found myself checking it out more and more. It's called pure volume and can be found at http://www.purevolume.com it is a music related site where you can search for a band and they have info on the band as well as songs that you can listen to. They have bands that you know and love and bands that you've never heard of before. When you find something you like you can add it to your very own player if you join up. Its free and if you enjoy music like I do you can find some cool stuff. Right now on my player is 3 new songs from the just released Thousand Foot Krutch cd, and let me tell you it rocks. I also have some Decemberaido, Dizmas, Todd Agnew, downhere, Disciple, Ilia, Project 86 and others. The only bad thing is I wish that I could burn these songs on a cd because it would make for one cool jam cd. I enjoy adding songs to my player but I also enjoy taking songs off of it because that means that I have finally gotten off my lazy behind and went out and bought the cd.

Introducing SPOT

I would like to take this time and introduce to you our pet SPOT. Spot has been hanging around the house now for a few weeks if not months at our front door. We used to take a broom and clean the webs off the porch but the next day they were usually back so we decided to keep Spot. We even turn the light on at night to feed him for a few minutes each night. The kids used to be afraid of the spiders outside even though they were 4 feet above them so we started naming the spiders all Spot. They even got freaked out by flies that make it into the house so we started naming them George and Henrietta even when there are more than 2 flies in the house they are always those two names. I know we are off center but how many other people you know have a pet spider hanging outside on the front porch? So I think that makes us more unique. So stop over sometime and say hey to Spot and George and Henrietta.

Dome of Disciples

Went to the Dome of Disciples meeting last night and talked more about the Building to Bless campaign, I am excited about the opportunity that lies in front of us with this campaign and what an incredible impact this can and will make on our community. I've seen the blueprints for the plan and could see somethings as I looked at the print but last night with the 3D model that Kyle brought just put everything in a whole new light and looked so much more real. Kyle did a great job on that and I also need to give a shout out to Amy Chamberlin for the wonderful job she did on this meeting and on the other two as well. It was very well put together and organized, just top notch stuff. We had settled on a amount a few weeks ago but now we have decided to change that figure and to be challenged and blessed and have our faith stretched to new heights and I challenge all of you to do the same. This is going to be exciting.

I forgot to mention yesterday about the HOT DATE that I had with my wonderful wife. It was refreshing to get out for an evening without the kids and just enjoy each others company. We started off at our growth group at the church which was a blast and we laughed quite a bit during the meeting and just had alot of fun. Then we went to Muncie for our HOT DATE really with no firm plans other than going to the Wal-Mart to get some toliet paper, which was the big topic at our growth group. After that a trip to the video store and a quick bite at KFC it was back to the homestead to watch WILD HOGS which was pretty funny. Tammy dozed off during the special features at the end and I did the old head bob so it was time for bed all before midnight. I remember on our "date nights" of past waking up around 2 or 3 and taking a nice relaxing drive or sometimes even staying up that late but its funny how the older you get its all about how early you can get to bed, or is that just me?

Still get nervous

Every once in a while I still get nervous when playing with the worship team, most of the time it is when either I start a song or have to play at somepoint by myself. I was doing good throughout the first song set then it came. As we are getting ready for the offering song I started getting nervous. I had to start the offering song and allthough it is a pretty easy riff and during practice and while practicing at home it went smooth but to start it off my fingers just didn't want to go and do what they were supposed to do until i either hit the wrong note or didn't hit the note enough to hear it then I settled down and the rest of it went good. Don't know why I still get that way I've only been playing in front of the church for 2 years now you think it would go away at somepoint. Kudos to James again for doing a great job, I know in what he was saying during practice that I think he did a phennomenal job. And big ups to Nate for starting the Come Thou Fount song. Now standing right next to him I could hear him without the mic and I was standing there thinking, the dudes got a good voice which later got me thinking with no offense to anyone why don't we have more than one singer per week. We have 4 very talented individuals who sing well we need to utilize this. Get everyone there everyweek and let Brent sing a song or two and James the same with Nate and David doing one as well or even have 2 or 3 or all 4 of them trade off on a song, I think that would be cool and would give a new view and allow different types of songs. One last thing on songs and once again no offense to anyone but I believe that there are more worship song writers out there than Chris Tomlin and David Crowder. Now while these two are great and write some pretty awesome songs I know that there are plenty more out there. It seems like we are getting in a rut of doing 3,4,5 or more of these guys songs each week for the last few months. I remember when we used to do 6 or 7 songs a week with all of them being by different artists. Maybe this is what is comfortable for the new guys for now and it will change later we will just wait and see. Everyone is doing a great job and I think that the worship portion is going good, we still have a few kinks to work out from week to week but we are getting there. Enough of my rant, enjoy the week and get involved.

Not what I thought but its all good.

We'll last night was not what I thought it was going to be to be quite honest with you. I figured it would be like the first week I went over there for the football with the solo flight after the game but that wasn't the case. Another fellow from the SRF crew showed up around 9:35 to do the last hour so I started it off and let him take over. Thanks to all who listened, I appriciate your support, and at the same time I want to appolgize for not being on there more or misleading anyone. I obviously made more out of it than what it was. I was all ready to rock out but maybe next week. I was asked if I felt comfortable doing the board for the football games by myself and I said yes so I will be doing the game again next week and then we will see about the last hour. The guy who sets up the last hour is not the same guy who sets up who runs the board for the game.

Last night during the game though I was having alot of fun had everything set up for each break, had the halftime music set up and had more than enough set up for the post game which didn't last very long but I was prepared. Big kudos to Dan Franks, general manager of JOY FM, for answering all the questions I had last night and for all the help he gave and the opportunity. The only bad thing was I started the last song of halftime before they called back ready to go so we had to fade out of it and start the game back up. Never knew how to do that but learned quickly and it was pretty easy. We will be ready for next week to do this all again only bad thing is I will have to miss the Buliding To Bless dinner/meeting at the church. I was supposed to hook up with Ryan and Mandy to do some worship but I will have to miss out on that. I was looking forward to sharing the stage with those two again, maybe some other time.

Ready for a HOT DATE with my wonderful wife tonight, it has been long overdue, thanks to the Silvers' for keeping the kids and I am sure we will return the favor sometime.

Are You Ready.........Ready to Rock

I think that 7 o'clock can not get here soon enough, I am ready to get the football game going and do my thing then have Solid Rock Friday start up, don't forget to listen tonight around 10 pm to 88.9 on the FM dial or if you can't get that go online to 889joyfm.com and click the listen live button. I've allready got a few tunes lined up we got some Day of Fire for Tammy, some TobyMac for Taylor, got a Newsboys song for Tyson, some Red for PK and Jeff, some bumpity bump music for Bryan, some Gaithers for Bly. Hold on that is another show for another host. Even got a request from Jamie Rowe who is the lead singer for one of my favorite bands ever Guardian. He is a friend on my facebook account and I dropped him a line telling him what I was doing this evening and he wrote back with a request so we will get that on for him and I got an email out to Chap Stique from Family Force 5 with the same deal. Did I mention that facebook is a cool little thing, the only bad thing is dodging sheep that are tossed around.

No fear just FAITH

We went to a Building To Bless meeting last night and got some great information about the new building and improvements and how they all tie together now and for how they can tie together in the future. Some of this seems like big dreams for such a little town but remember you can't outdream God. If we step out with no fear, just FAITH we will be amazed at what God can do through our church in little old Farmland, IN. We were talking about how the church has allready changed lives here and telling stories about it and I am still amazed when I look around on any given Sunday or Saturday at some of the people there that I went to school with or knew from back then and how God has changed not only them but myself and family as well. If you would have told me years ago that some of the people that go here would be devouted Christ followers I would have said something like "that would be cool but I don't see it", I even probably said that about myself as well. FFC is all about changed lives and our next growing season which is upon us will mean MORE lives being changed, and in a few years there will be more growing and more lives changed. I view it as a snowball rolling down a hill, gaining momentum and growing with each and every roll. This is exciting stuff that we all get to be a part of and I can't wait to see the result when this phase is complete.

On a side note in my daily bible reading, which I have fallen a few days behind but am catching back up, I have finally made it to Isaiah. I have been looking forward to reading this book and to see how alot of what he said came to fruitation when Christ was sent to earth and how alot of the scriptures are repeated in the New Testament. I told Tammy I will be in this book for the rest of the month. You should read as well.

Good news

I am so excited and I just can't hide it, I'm about to lose control and I think I like it. OK I don't know why I used that line from an 80's pop hit that I don't even like but it fits. Yesterday I got an email from the guy who runs JOY FM and he is going to be there with me Friday as I run the board for the high school football game and if all goes well then I will be able to start doing those things "solo" and help out more for the games in the future. I don't think he will hang around for the last hour when its Solid Rock Friday so I'll probably get to handle those duties again solo. I know that God has blessed me with this opportunity and the ability to do the radio thing and for that I give Him all the praise and glory, God is cool. So Friday night if your not doing anything head over to 88.9 on the FM dial at 7:15 for the game and around 10 pm for a little rockin' until the Z Rock Revolution at 11 and if you can't get the station where you live go to 889joyfm.com on line and click the listen live part and listen online. Just a heads up for a certain someone there will be no Gaithers played during that final hour but there will be some Pillar, Red, Kutless, and various others played though.

Last legs

I think our lawnmower is on its last legs. Last night as I was mowing it just died for no reason, I wasn't in tall grass, I wasn't around anything that it could get into it just died. Fired right back up but with about less than a 1/4 of the back yard to do it started sounding like it does when its about to run out of gas. Bad thing is it doesn't even take a full tank to mow our yard plus also I filled it up with the last of the gas we had before starting so I was hoping not to run out before the yard was done. All is well though as I was able to finish before any thing bad happened. Hopefully there won't be very much mowing left this season as I have kind of enjoyed not mowing every week or every 5 or 6 days.

Today is of course the 6th anniversary of 9-11 and I think we can all remember where we were and what we were doing when the word came down of the attacks. I remember sitting watching cartoons with Tyson when Mom called and said we were being attacked and then was glued to the tv for the most part of the day. That was also the day that we went and got the Sable at Bill McCoy Ford and I remember being out in the lot and looking up in the sky and seeing no planes flying over just an eirey feeling. That is something that I hope that we never have to go through anything like that again.

A Look Back

Looking back over the weekend I really didn't get alot accomplished at all but it was still a busy one none the less. Went back over to the radio station to help out with the football broadcast and do the last 45 minutes of the 10 o'clock hour with a little SRF (Solid Rock Friday) and will more than likely be back there this Friday possibly running the whole thing all by myself I'll keep you posted. Saturday was kind of running around like a chicken with its head cut off for awhile, finally got home and the whold family had finally hit the perverbial wall. The last few weeks have taken its toll on all of us and we all crashed in the living room watching tv at various times of the evening. Woke up at 1 in the morning and got everyone to bed then of course was wide awake.

Yesterday was fun, playing was good it was the first time after a few weeks since I've played and was good to be playing again. There was alot of people there yesterday which is always a good thing. I hope it sounded allright because I couldn't hear anything I was playing as each week the leader or leaders keep telling the sound guys to lower the electric and bring up the ...... but it's not about me. Got a cd of next weeks songs and there is a few we've never done before and I believe its gonna be cool. Last night was different as Tammy and I had a whole hour without kids. Went to pick the kids up and was blown away with the number of kids that were at youth group last night, that was cool to see that many kids there.

Now its time to get ready for the week which will probably be as busy as the last few. Good to hear that Bly got to come home from the hospital yesterday. Saturday I bought him a Reds Report newspaper that I had to hide all the way up to the counter and they couldn't put it in a bag fast enough, can't ruin my reputation by being seen with Reds merchandise. ; }

Step back in history

Last night we took a step back in time as we went to Taylor's open house at the high school to meet her teachers and see the classrooms, some of which I have not been in since leaving jr. high myself. It was kinda funny going back to those classrooms as I can remember them from 20 plus years ago with the same funny temporary walls. Going to the new jr. high section was weird as that was a wall of lockers when I was there but it looks really nice. It just seemed all to funny to be in my old school with my daughter who is going there. The last place we went to was the band and choir rooms and she was ready to go the long way there but the old man showed her a shortcut that she never went before. Although I've been out of school for 21 years now it just doesn't seem like its been that long ago that Bly and I and another buddy were pulling into the parking lot and in a dead sprint running to the locker and to our first class, we had to be there at 8:15 but we didn't leave until 8:10 don't know why but thats what we did and for the most part it worked out that we were not late. And one final thought do you remember being in school and how the time and days went so slow and took forever and once your out of school the time and days just fly by, case in point how it is allready September.

A blizzard of paperwork

Finally got back to work yesterday to a desk full of paperwork to catch up on. If a fan would have been on we would have had a good size paper drift on the desk, at least now I can see the desk and not all of the paperwork on it. Still some catching up to do but should be done by this afternoon.

Came out of retirement this weekend as I went to the Winchester Speedway to help out with the Labor Day stock car festival. Saw some people that I haven't seen for awhile and got to talk to some of the drivers that I used to hang out with when I traveled with the CRA Super Series and it was good to watch some good short track racing. I will be going back out there in October to the Winchester 400, my personal favorite short track race, and then we will see where it goes from there. I did the racing thing for 20 years and thought that I'd be all right without it but I can honestly say that the last few months I have missed it, not all the driving but hanging out with the officials from the series and the drivers and crew.

Hopefully I will be back at the radio station this Friday I'll let you know when I find out and you will have to check it out as we rock the house.

First solo flight.

Last night I went back over to JOY FM to learn how to run the board for a high school football game and had a few nerves as I've have never got to do such a thing. I found out that it is actually easier than I thought it would be, just have to listen for the cue to go to break then listen to them to see how long the break needs to be. Naomi Miller who is the afternoon dj got the honors of being my teacher for the day. She started it off running the board and was very helpful in explaining and showing things to look for and do. About halfway through the first quarter she had me take over and I did the rest of the game. Only one mistake we missed a break while checking out jokes on each others cell phones, sorry. When the game was over I got to fly solo for an hour with Solid Rock Friday Night and that was a big blast. Had to make do with the cd's they had at the studio, normally the hosts bring in thier own cd's so I will know to do that the next time I go over there. The radio is a fun thing to work on and hopefully it will be something that I can get more involved in if that is what God wants for me.

Now I need a little help from all of you. I need a cool dj name you know there was Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever and others so I need some ideas. Right now all I got besides my own name is Chieftone. Any ideas?