South Plains Drifter

I've got Chickens!

2010-06-15T00:19:00.003-05:00

"Peeper" - Roughly Two Weeks Ago

So...I have chickens! I have a straight run of 10 barred Plymouth Rocks. Above is a picture of the one which has been dubbed Peeper. It's pretty easy to figure out how Peeper came by its name. On the way home from Ideal Poultry there was one voice which rose out of the box of chicks above the rest. When we got home and were depositing the chicks in the brooder we figured out which one was causing all the noise, and thus Peeper got its name.

I'm excited about the chickens, fresh eggs and meat sound just about fantastic. They're extremely interesting to watch too. I can spend hours watching the chicks do their thing, and I'm sure they're going to be getting quite a bit more interesting as they get older.

"Peeper" - Yesterday

One thing about chickens, they grow like crazy. Two and a half weeks makes all the difference. They're flying out of the brooder now and starting to squabble amongst themselves a little now. It's about time for better housing for them. Enter the chicken coop....

"The Coop" - Work in Progress

So the coop is a work in progress at the moment, I hope the be done as soon as possible because the natives are getting a little restless in their brooder. The coop will give them much more fresh air and room to run around in.

Meet the Beagles

2010-04-26T23:31:00.001-05:00

Picture taken - 12 February 2010

These are our two beagles. The one who wears pink is Bayley and the one in blue is Jake. Here they are sniffing and tracking around after a fairly large snow fall (for our neck of the woods).

The new canoe

2010-04-26T23:18:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of my canoe on Aquilla Lake. I have yet to give her a name...

Iris you were here.

2010-04-13T20:50:00.004-05:00

My grandma gave a few sets of irises to my parents some years ago and eventually my parents ended up with more yellow irises than they could possibly imagine. As the years went by, excess irises which were culled ended up in the compost pile and thrived. As I was developing my own flower beds I dug a few rhizomes from the compost pile at my parent's home and planted them. Last year they were too shocked from the transplant to bloom, but this year is a different story entirely!

What I love about all these yellow irises blooming at my house is that it helps tie me back to the past and those who have been a part of my life...the flowerbeds at home as I was growing up and working in them with my parents, but especially my grandmother who passed when I was eight, and her clusters of yellow irises which grew in her own flower beds.

Man in the Paneling

2010-04-10T00:20:00.004-05:00

Yes...it's a little weird. This is the man in the paneling. My wife and I lived a year and a half with him keeping watch over us at night in our master bedroom. She was the first to notice him, right before we were going to bed one night...needless to say it was kinda creepy. We recently painted all the paneling in our bedroom (goodbye dark cave, hello pleasant hues) but I had to take a picture of him before we covered him up.

Sunset over Aquilla

2010-04-05T16:54:00.004-05:00

photo taken - 28 March 2010 - Lake Aquilla, Hill County, TX

I was testing out my new canoe for the first time and I had only about an hour on water before I had to come back in because of the onset of night. Every second out in creation is fantastic when you get the opportunity to see God's work in all its glory.

Thursday Night Lights

2009-09-26T01:12:00.002-05:00

photo taken - 24 September 2009 - Abbott, TX

JV football game, Abbott vs. Kopperl

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The clouds had just started to clear after the first norther of the new autumn. We see the first blue skies after days of gray and the sun sets, illuminating the trailing clouds to end the day. Football season is upon us, ushering in the beginnings of autumn.

Calling and Steps

2009-08-23T23:27:00.004-05:00

When I opened up my facebook account for the first time in quite a while, there was a message, a call to young clergy to share how they got to where they currently are. So here I am writing a post on a blog I have never posted to; but yet have attempted to start for some months now. So for the moment, my one-post blog is now operational.

I felt my first call to pastoral ministry when I was eight years old. I know that this is young, but when God speaks, God speaks. I was riding shotgun with my Dad in his truck one night down an old farm-to-market road headed back home. The stars were out in all their glory and as I watched them above the dark tree line I felt God move within my soul for the first time in my life. Calling, I feel is different for everybody. God knows us individually and God moves and works in us in ways as unique as each of us are. For me, my calling was as simple, but as powerful as what I can only describe as an instant knowing deep within my being that I was to be a pastor. I turned to my Dad and told him, he replied, "if that is what God wants you to do, then that is what you will do." I thank my Dad to this day for having the grace and understanding to take an eight year old seriously when speaking about matters of faith. Years passed, and needless to say my prior conviction of calling waned. A few days before I was to leave for Texas Tech to study Architecture God came to me once more, this time in a dream. The message was presented differently, but the point was the same; God was calling me into ministry. It took another year and a half, and the wisdom and proverbial boot to the backside from a woman who is now my wife for me to "give in" to my call. I started on the candidacy process, finished my degree, and headed back to the Central Texas area for seminary. I am now 25, a year from finishing seminary, still in the candidacy process, have served at two churches and a campus ministry, and am starting the second year of my first full-time appointment (associate pastor at a United Methodist Church and campus ministry at an ecumenical campus ministry). The years since I began the process toward ordination and my service in ministry have been the most difficult, but also the most blessed of my life and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I do have some advice to those of you who are looking at beginning your ministry; all of which is not original to me, but given to me by people wiser than I which has served me well.

First, KNOW in the depths of your soul that God does in fact know more than you do. I touched on this earlier, but this is the advice my future wife gave me one day as I was hashing over my stubborn desire not to go into ministry. You can rely upon yourself and do well in life. Rely upon God and the standard instantly changes, you will do great things, and it is God who will take you there.

Second, always remember your call. There will be times when you will despair about where you are and what you are doing. You will meet people who you will hold up as the "ultimate" pastor and think that you can never be as good as that, so why even bother. Remember, God has called YOU. Remember God's words to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." There is a reason you have been called, and it isn't of your own doing. Your gifts and graces will be used in ways that only you can use them to help the people of God. You will touch hearts and open eyes for the Lord that no one else will be able to touch or open. That is why you are called; God knows you and has chosen to use you to serve in ways that only you can serve.

Third, never say never. I can't help but think of An American Tail when I say that phrase, but I digress. The Lord works in many ways, and when you say that you will never do something, you are taking away from God a potential way that you may be able to serve. Two years ago if you would have told me I would be a campus minister now, I would have laughed at you, yet here I am. Know your true limits, but let God work in your life and lead it in the direction it needs to go.

Lastly, love the people you serve. I was told this by the first pastor I served under as I was leaving for my current appointment. She told me that I could do almost everything else wrong and if I did this one thing I would be a success as a pastor. She might have been exaggerating a little, but not much. I can not express how important this piece of advice is. Love the people you are serving, and always give them your best.