North Greenville U. Family Weekend

This past weekend we got to go down to North Greenville to visit with Austin during their "Family Weekend". We had a great time, and Rachael's parents even drive up for the festivities. Friday night was prime dinner followed by worship led by "Joyful Sound" and then some skits by ActII, both are BSU groups on campus. Saturday we had a great parent's session, brunch in the dining hall, visited a gun shop in Greenville that Austin had been wanting to check out, and even stopped by for a visit at the UpCountry History Museum (which was pretty kewl).

After that we went back to the Campus and played some pool in the student center, and then headed over to the stadium for our "Low Country Boil Supper" (shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, chicken, etc) and to watch the Crusaders play Wesley College. Grandpa wore his Methodist hat with his NGU t-shirt, but he behaved and we didn't get tossed out or anything. :-) Sunday morning we worshipped together on Campus and then Sunday dinner in the dining hall. It was a great weekend and very good to see Austin doing so well.

Before we headed back, we made a stop at Campbell's Covered Bridge, just a few miles from the Campus.  This is the only covered bridge left standing in South Carolina.  It was quite nice - cool in the shade and quiet stream flowing.  Nice ending to a nice weekend. 

Austin in the museum

One of several 'ministry' statues on Campus...Christ washing Peter's feet

Beautiful stained glass adorning the main entrance to the football stadium

Heather at the covered bridge

Austin coming to Sunday AM worship

Austin the 'pool shark'

The family after Sunday worship

Smell the roses

Having been here in Kentucky for 5 1/2 years, we have learned to appreciate a lot of new favorite things. It's funny how your perspective and priorities can change so subtly that you aren't aware of it at the time, but in ways that can be quite profound. One of our new "favorites" is our new favorite time of the day.

Regardless of how busy the days are and what important things have to be done, and the myriad of places to go and people to see, one of the things that remains constant...every evening we feed the horses. Yes, we do know that you don't have to feed horses every day, especially in the summer, but it's a great way to "keep 'em comin' to the barn", if you know what I mean. We also give them supplements they need through their feed as well. Anyway, so every day we feed horses. Rain, heat, sunshine, thunderstorm, late at night, snow or ice (yes we do get that), and extreme cold aside, regardless of the weather or how tired we are, we feed horses.

Even though it is a chore in a sense, we find ourselves looking forward to it most days and lingering for a while at the fence after they are fed almost every day. There's just something very special about a 1,500 pound bundle of affection rubbing their nose on you and hanging their neck around your shoulder and leaning closer so you'll scratch the top of their head. They love to be loved on, and we love to do it. Tonight was no exception, but as we were walking away I couldn't help but notice the picture I was seeing. I didn't have a good camera with me, but I did have my phone, so here it is. Hope you enjoy the picture and hope you have moments like this in your life. Not necessarily with horses, but here's to stopping to smell the roses.