Tornado Pictures

You need to check this out. Before we left Jackson we took a bunch of pictures, and a couple videos, from the road near the tornado damage (I will post those when I get the time). It's so very hard for me to grasp how close this was and nobody was acting like anything was wrong. Everyone was acting like it was no big deal. When we arrive in Henderson we went straight to the basement. Everyone there thought we were crazy - I think everyone here is crazy! They all talk about us and earthquakes and how they are used to tornados like we are earthquakes. Well forgive me for pointing this out, but if we had a warning that the earthquake was coming we would be taking shelter immediately. These crazy people just went on like nothing was coming! This is crazy to be saying, but I need to get back to California so I can have some sanity back in my life.

Today I was thinking about what a great man Earl Edwards is. I was not able to hear him speak at the lectureship this year but I did take a Master's level course on 1 and 2 Thessalonians by him. I was so blown away by his genuine attention that he paid to everything you said, along with his obvious personal love for God. He is a great man.

Today we visited the Nashville Zoo and the Opryland Mills Mall. There were times when I was not sure which was which. We have to stop going into that Mall because I keep getting poorer and this crazy Tennesseans are getting richer. I still haven't spent a dime at Bass Pro Shop. That is sure to change before we leave.

Tomorrow we are going to worship with the Highland church of Christ in Columbia. They became our semi-home when we were looking for work in Tennessee. Such great people. Too bad things did not work out and we did not end up working with them. Their preacher had said he was leaving but had not left yet when we were here. I preached for him once when he was out of town. There were absolutely no guarantees they would have hired me (probably not), but it's neither here nor there as we had to move back to California before the preacher left. We are looking forward to worshiping with them, and getting caught up. Our time with the Jett's has been fabulous. They are like another set of grandparents to the boys. Reagan and Caleb have done very well on this trip with all things considered. It is going to be nice to be back in a normal routine at home though!

We have been gone a little over a week now and I'm really missing my brethren back home in Ripon. I love them, and the work there, so much it's hard to vacation. I needed the break though. When I return home I'm making a commitment to reenergize and concentrate more on my study, preaching, and evangelism. It's easy to get into "routine" and not stay on the edge and giving it your all. On top of that I need to CLEP 32 hours before June so I can be done with my B.A. from Regions University. Oh man, I have lots of Master's work to do for Bear Valley too. I'm getting depressed just thinking about going home now! Now I want to go home and I don't!

One final thing... I have not been staying in shape while I have been gone. Not once have a I ran. And I'm missing Jiu Jitsu a lot! When I get home I'm going to get whooped up on bad because my cardio won't be there and it always takes a few times to get back to where sweeping from the guard is instinct and not going through a move by move check list as if I'm putting together a plastic model.

Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb

p.s. For those of you who know I was a big Fred Thompson supperter, I formally renounce my prior support for him now that he has endorsed McCain.
p.p.s. R.I.P. The Republican Party

Wednesday Night FHU Madness

OK... probably not madness. After a great meal at Corky's we made our way back to FHU for the evening lecture. We were going to eat at Corky's last night but changed our minds since Logan's had a two complete steak dinners for 14 bucks deal. Glad we did as Corky's was even closer to the tornado that ripped through Jackson (more on this later).

When we got to Freed I found out that Harold Redd was going to be preaching. Up to this point I have never heard of him. He was preaching on the humility of Christ from John 19.

The long and short of it is I’m not sure where he was going or how he got there. The main thing I got was that Jesus was a rejected king. Tonight I was able to pay fairly good attention and I still was unable to really discern where he was going. He never really got with it. He never really showed why what he was saying was relevant. He did not show how it affects me (speaking in the plural application sense).

At this point I have to admit that the keynotes have been sadly disappointing to me. Sure there are good things to grab from each of them like this jewel from tonight, “The Jews wanted the Scriptures without Jesus; Today men want Jesus but they don’t want the Scriptures.” But OVERALL there is no clear purpose, no exposition of the text, no illustration of the text, and no real practical application of that text. One speaker this year boasts on his blog about making “the all-star game” by speaking at Freed this year. Is this how our All-Star preachers perform? If so where do I sign up to bet on the other team (and no I don’t endorse gambling).

After the evening service we stuck around for a few minutes to listen to Pickin’ and a Singin’ because CJ wanted to see the show. That last about one song and he and Reagan Jett changed their minds. On the way back to the hotel we decided to drive up and see where the Tornado hit. It is amazing how close it was to us. I would say an eigth of a mile or less and you see the destruction. Valerie (my wife) pointed out a metal poll that was snapped in half. The entire area was flattened. One crazy thing is that a building on one side of the street had windows blown out of it while a car dealership on the other side looked like nothing had happened. Scientist still can’t tell us how, when, and where a Tornado will hit for sure nor can the stop them, but they know Global warming is real and WE HAVE TO STOP IT. Righttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Good Night and God Bless,
Caleb

Tornados Bring Excitement

I’m in the lower level of an FHU building. What building and where it is in relation to the rest of the school I do not know, but I’m there! We were eating dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse in Jackson when the weather warnings starting going crazy. Tonight we took a friend from California who is in school at FHU to dinner. As we got in the car headed home the tornado sirens started going off. The radio station was saying there was a tornado in our area. So I hit the gas and we took off south on the 45 bypass. As we are going along it gets eerily dead on the road, then lightening hits, the power all around us goes out, and to top it all off the radio station goes dead. Andrea (the friend we took to dinner) gets a text message from a friend saying there is a tornado about 15 miles south of Henderson. So we gun it trying to beat the storm to Henderson. Long story short Henderson never got hit. They never even ended any of the lectureship programs. The bad news is that there is another line of storms coming and we are waiting it. We are waiting it out because the highway is closed and our hotel is not answering their phone. Oh an exciting night in the basement of an FHU building. Hopefully we can get back to our hotel soon. In the mean time I will try to update my open forum blog.

Caleb

UPDATE:

We are still in the basement. The tornado warning is supposed to expire in 15 minutes. The kids are doing surprisingly well considering. They are watching cartoons on the internet. This is definitely a unique experience. OK... that's all for now!

UPDATE:

The warning expired late last night and we made it back to our hotel safely. The only damage we could see was teh door had been ripped off it's hinges at the hotel. All are safe. Union University that is all over the news is about one mile from where we are staying. All is well for now.