Great Weekend

This past weekend I spent time with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Kristen and Matt, in Jefferson, just north of Athens. The original intent of the trip was to run in my first xterra race. The race was a half-marathon called Thrill in the Hills and it took place at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, GA.

While planning for this race, I realized that Kristen and Matt lived 10 miles away from the park and since they were needing me to do some computer work for them, I thought it was a good time for a visit. They were happy to have me visit and I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

Friday night we went to the UGA Baptist Student Union dinner theatre. It was a production of Beauty and the Beast and it was great. The food was excellent and the cast did a great job of portraying Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It seems like it wrapped up close to 10 or a little after.

Saturday morning was my race, which I plan on covering in more detail in my next blog. Here is the only pic I took that morning from my warm car. It was about 30 degrees out.

The experience was wonderful and look forward to doing some more xterra races. The rest of the day was spent laying around the house and recovering as my legs were extremely sore.

One of the best parts of my weekend was Sunday morning. We went to sunday school and church (Watkinsville First Baptist) and it was an awesome experience. This was the first time I had been to their sunday school, which is a newly wed class. Their class was quite large and friendly. It was great to see how mission-minded they were with several in the room being involved with missions in some way, including Matt and Kristen. The teacher then spoke on Ephesians 4 and focused on "oneness" in the church. From there we went to church to hear Pastor Sibley. God's presence was palpable and you could feel it when you walked in the door and in all parts of the service. The praise band did a great job, as they have every time I've ever been up to visit and the pastor spoke on the reality of hell and the two sides of the cross. It was very convicting and eye-opening and really drew you out of any sort of tunnel vision you may have on your life and daily interaction with those around you. I could truly feel God's presence that morning and have felt inspired to look deeper in to how I use my spiritual gift for the "building up of the church."

I wrapped up my visit that day by eating lunch with my nephew, Josh, who is a pharmacy student at UGA. It was good to catch up with him and hear what he has going on since he is very active. It's exciting to hear about all of the opportunities that students have these days. You miss out on these things if you are not out there and keeping yourself open for experience.

It was an easy trek home and I used that time to replay the morning's message in my head and relive that experience. I did have to stop a time or two to readjust the roof rack on my car. The wind was blowing so hard on my bike that the roof rack shifted back at some point and made me quite nervous.

Finally, I was glad to be home with my wife and child in time to go to church and take part in the observance of the Lord's Supper. I was glad to be home with them and attempt to put my thoughts in to words (I often have trouble with that) to share with my wife the moving experience I had at church and the great time I had with Kristen and Matt. Family is a good thing!