The Reynolds
Monday, September 6, 2010
Friends from Alabama
Colorado Rockies
Last week I was privileged beyond measure to be able to go on a elk hunting/camping trip to the Uncompahgre National Forest in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. While I did not buy an elk tag (archery season and my shoulder would not cooperate), I had a great time sitting around the fire, walking the aspen forests, basking in the beauty of God's creation, eating the best "hunting camp cooking" I have ever had, fellowship-ing with old friends and getting to know new ones.
Many thanks to those who made it possible (financially) for me to go and MANY, MANY thanks to Rachael and Heather for "holding down the fort" at home so I could go. I came back refreshed, rejuvenated and with a whole new perspective on life, love and ministry. It was a great week.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friends from home
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Good to be home...
Well, after a 3,000+ mile journey over the course of two weeks, we can say emphatically that "there is no place like home". We always enjoy the travel that comes as a big part of what we do, but the best part of going away is still coming home.
The journey started this time with a trip to Shocco Springs in Talladega, AL for the Baptist Builders Round-table. This was a great opportunity for renewing friendships, making new friends and learning a lot about how to be good stewards of the construction and renovation projects the Lord has given us to do. From there, it was on to the Equestrian Ministry International semi-annual conference, this time hosted by the White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro, SC. Once again, renewing friendships, making new ones, and learning more about opportunities for Equestrian Ministry. Another purpose of this conference was to sense the Lord's direction on someone to come to the Campus to be our Equestrian Ministry Director. Nothing is firm at all, but some great contacts were made and we are praying in earnest that this ministry will soon be able to get off the ground.
After a couple of nights at home, it was time to head to Asheville, NC for Missions Forum 2010. This is an annual event where mission pastors and mission leaders from all over come together to learn from each other and from mission leaders around the world. The focus is on strategic mission planning (like Acts 1:8 strategy) and missions partnership. It was a joy to have our pastor, Brother Mike Caudill, his wife Alice and her mom along with us, along with Josh and Marti Feltner, fellow MSC missionaries from Knott County to attend the conference too! And, as always, what a joy it was to renew friendships and make new ones! Is there a recurring theme here? :-)
After one night at home, it was time for all three of us (Rachael, Heather and I) to pack pack up (just swapped dirty clothes for clean) and head out for Montgomery. This was to be a very quick "down and back" trip, with no real time for visiting much. We left on Thursday afternoon so we could stop off and eat supper with Austin and a couple of his friends (Sean and Tyler) at a local Mexican restaurant. It was great to see Austin and catch up with him, and we also enjoyed visiting with Sean and Tyler. Austin got a haircut that kinda surprised us, but it looked great on him. The next morning we headed for Montgomery.
Rachael's Aunt Marilyn was visiting with her parents, so we stayed with the Pouncey's in Wetumpka this trip. Friday night we went and met Rachael's folks and aunt at Red Lobster (Earl's treat! thanks!) and had a great visit. On Saturday we got to relax a bit with the Pouncey's and Jamie worked on a slide show for Sunday while Rachael made a quick trip in to Montgomery for some shopping. On Sunday morning we had a blast visiting with our home church, Thorington Road Baptist and sharing in the morning worship service. Rachael and Heather treated us to a duet of Casting Crowns' new song "Always Enough" and did a great job. Brother Wade brought a great message from Hosea about the importance of faithfulness in our covenant relationship with God. An awesome Sunday morning!
Sunday afternoon we got a quick nap and then packed up to head home. On Sunday evening we got to visit with our "other" church home at Mountain View Baptist in Wetumpka, and share briefly in the evening services there. It was so good to see so many friends, even some that came just to see us! How very blessed we are! After church, we were "on the road again", headed home. Our intention was to drive as far as we could (all the way if possible), and we actually made it as far as SC before we had "gone as far as we could go". We got a good night's rest and finished our journey home on Monday morning.
We have almost recovered now, and we're certainly glad to be sleeping in our own beds. Max, Rolex and Spices all say to tell you "hey" from KY. It will be nice to not have to "stare through the windshield" for a while, but we hope to head back to AL in April so we can spend more time visiting with friends and family, and I am sure there will be some trips to visit in churches in the next few months. Take care, and may God bless you richly.
The journey started this time with a trip to Shocco Springs in Talladega, AL for the Baptist Builders Round-table. This was a great opportunity for renewing friendships, making new friends and learning a lot about how to be good stewards of the construction and renovation projects the Lord has given us to do. From there, it was on to the Equestrian Ministry International semi-annual conference, this time hosted by the White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro, SC. Once again, renewing friendships, making new ones, and learning more about opportunities for Equestrian Ministry. Another purpose of this conference was to sense the Lord's direction on someone to come to the Campus to be our Equestrian Ministry Director. Nothing is firm at all, but some great contacts were made and we are praying in earnest that this ministry will soon be able to get off the ground.
After a couple of nights at home, it was time to head to Asheville, NC for Missions Forum 2010. This is an annual event where mission pastors and mission leaders from all over come together to learn from each other and from mission leaders around the world. The focus is on strategic mission planning (like Acts 1:8 strategy) and missions partnership. It was a joy to have our pastor, Brother Mike Caudill, his wife Alice and her mom along with us, along with Josh and Marti Feltner, fellow MSC missionaries from Knott County to attend the conference too! And, as always, what a joy it was to renew friendships and make new ones! Is there a recurring theme here? :-)
After one night at home, it was time for all three of us (Rachael, Heather and I) to pack pack up (just swapped dirty clothes for clean) and head out for Montgomery. This was to be a very quick "down and back" trip, with no real time for visiting much. We left on Thursday afternoon so we could stop off and eat supper with Austin and a couple of his friends (Sean and Tyler) at a local Mexican restaurant. It was great to see Austin and catch up with him, and we also enjoyed visiting with Sean and Tyler. Austin got a haircut that kinda surprised us, but it looked great on him. The next morning we headed for Montgomery.
Rachael's Aunt Marilyn was visiting with her parents, so we stayed with the Pouncey's in Wetumpka this trip. Friday night we went and met Rachael's folks and aunt at Red Lobster (Earl's treat! thanks!) and had a great visit. On Saturday we got to relax a bit with the Pouncey's and Jamie worked on a slide show for Sunday while Rachael made a quick trip in to Montgomery for some shopping. On Sunday morning we had a blast visiting with our home church, Thorington Road Baptist and sharing in the morning worship service. Rachael and Heather treated us to a duet of Casting Crowns' new song "Always Enough" and did a great job. Brother Wade brought a great message from Hosea about the importance of faithfulness in our covenant relationship with God. An awesome Sunday morning!
Sunday afternoon we got a quick nap and then packed up to head home. On Sunday evening we got to visit with our "other" church home at Mountain View Baptist in Wetumpka, and share briefly in the evening services there. It was so good to see so many friends, even some that came just to see us! How very blessed we are! After church, we were "on the road again", headed home. Our intention was to drive as far as we could (all the way if possible), and we actually made it as far as SC before we had "gone as far as we could go". We got a good night's rest and finished our journey home on Monday morning.
We have almost recovered now, and we're certainly glad to be sleeping in our own beds. Max, Rolex and Spices all say to tell you "hey" from KY. It will be nice to not have to "stare through the windshield" for a while, but we hope to head back to AL in April so we can spend more time visiting with friends and family, and I am sure there will be some trips to visit in churches in the next few months. Take care, and may God bless you richly.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
"As long as we've no place to go..."
Actually, we did. We were supposed to be headed down to the Greenville, SC area today to speak in a church tomorrow, but the storm kinda changed our plans. While we got about 7 inches of snow here at the Campus, with 4wd that normally would not have kept us home. But with the higher mountain gaps we would have had to have crossed getting between one and two feet, and with the Greenville area getting socked in with ice, there was no point in even trying. We'll reschedule for next weekend and hope the snow that is supposed to come then will not be so bad.
Turns out to be a nice day to sit by the window, drink coffee and watch the snow fall. I mean, as long as we've no place to go...
Turns out to be a nice day to sit by the window, drink coffee and watch the snow fall. I mean, as long as we've no place to go...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Year End Update
The month of December was quite the month for us. Austin finished his exams and made it home from NGU just in time to repack his bags as the Reynolds Family headed out for New York City! You see, two and a half years ago, for Austin's 16th birthday, we decided to let him decide where we should go for our family vacation with our four free plane tickets. He picked Seattle, WA and we had a great time. Well, in December Heather turned 16 and once again, we had enough Delta miles for 4 more free plane tickets. This time it was Heather's turn to pick and she decided we should all go to NYC.
We browsed the internet making our "wish list" of places to go and things to see, and then watched good "training films" like On the Town and White Christmas. You can understand On the Town, but why White Christmas? Well, because we were blessed with tickets to go see it on the night of Heather's birthday - on broadway!! How cool is that? We also went to the top of the Empire State Building, rode the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty at sunset, ate lunch at Mr. Tangs on Mott Street in Chinatown, went to Coney Island and the original Nathan's Hotdogs, toured Carnegie Hall, took a carriage ride through Central Park, and even got pretty good at getting around on the subway and bus!! Of course, we saw and did many other things, but those were some of the highlights. We also attended Sunday morning services at Brooklyn Tabernacle and went back one evening to see their Christmas cantata.
While there we got to spend time with our dear friends, Jimmy and Bernice, and their wonderful kids Janice and Jaime! Jimmy retired from the NYPD the same month I retired in Montgomery, and he was a great tour guide. Bernice is an elementary school principal, so she is a hero in our eyes! Jimmy and Bernice joined us for White Christmas, they all met us at Katz's Deli for pastrami on rye and potato knishes, and then had us over to their house for a wonderful family meal the night before we came home.
Oh, speaking of coming home... wow, what a trip that was! Back in October, we had booked our flight to go from Tri-Cities Airport near Bristol to Atlanta and on to Laguardia in NY, with the return flight going through the same airports. A couple of weeks after we booked, we got an email from Delta saying they had to change our return flight to go through Cincinnati, with a 6 hour layover. Well, beggars can't be choosers they say, so we were still just glad to have the free tickets. We arrived in Cincinnati a little late because our flight leaving NY was delayed, but we still had 5 hours to kill. We went and had a nice leisurely supper, found our gate, and settled in for the wait, no problem.
After a while we got thirsty for some Starbucks (our closest one in KY is 2 hours away) and so I headed back to the concourse where we had seen it. When I got back, I noticed they were no longer scrolling our flight number on the board over the desk. Hmmm... Rachael and the kids said that there had not been any announcements, and there were only a couple of people in line at the counter, so I wasn't overly concerned. I casually walked over, but as I got closer I could tell that the guy at the counter was being given instructions on getting to a hotel and to come back in the morning for "standby". Not a good sign. Sure enough, not only was OUR flight cancelled, but so had just about all flights in and out of anywhere near the eastern KY, eastern TN, western NC area. The issue...? SNOW STORM
I motioned for Rachael and the kids to come over and off they went to try to rent a 4wd vehicle to drive home while I waited my turn to ask for our luggage to be sent to the claim area. By the time I ran to catch up with the family, there was a ton of people in line behind me. Just in time. We were able to rent the last 4wd vehicle they had (thank you, Lord) and we hopped in our Toyota Rav4 and headed south. We made good time on the interstate, but what a mess there was on the parkway! What is normally a 3 1/2 hour drive was a little over 7 hours that night, but the Lord sent us two trucks and then a snow plow to follow and got us home safely. We had no power (for a couple of days), but we were home in our own beds!! I took the rental to the airport in TN the next day, and I lost count after 100 of all the vehicles wrecked, stuck and abandoned in the snow. No doubt in our minds that God's grace and mercy got us home.
That snow storm on December 18th started the coldest, snowiest winter that this area has seen in many years. We are still "in it", so to speak (low of 12 tonight and more snow tomorrow), but by Thursday it is supposed to hit 40!!! HEAT WAVE! We have been blessed thoughout this time to not have any significant problems with the cold and snow and ice, and we are sure that God's mercy is the reason.
After our travels, we were quite ready to stay home for a while, and that's what we did for Christmas. Rachael's folks, Earl and Jan, came up for Christmas this year and it was very good to have them here. I DID notice that they waited until the power came back on before they came. :-) The week after Christmas we were blessed with the Mountain View Baptist Youth Retreat and a trip to the Creation Museum. We also were able to take them to see the elk herd, went horseback riding and toured the Kentucky Coal Museum in Benham. Great week!
As Mountain View pulled out on New Year's Day, Austin was not far behind them. He wasn't headed to school, though, he was headed way down south to attend Passion 2010 in Atlanta with some friends from school. He had a great time and said the conference was great. We were so glad he was able to be a part of this.
Well, it's hard to believe that 2009 is completely in the books now. As our pastor said this morning, this is 2010 and we have never been here before. It's a new day and many opportunities lie ahead. May we all look for opportunities (and take advantage of them!) to be involved in building the Lord's Kingdom even more than ever before. Until the whole world hears...
We browsed the internet making our "wish list" of places to go and things to see, and then watched good "training films" like On the Town and White Christmas. You can understand On the Town, but why White Christmas? Well, because we were blessed with tickets to go see it on the night of Heather's birthday - on broadway!! How cool is that? We also went to the top of the Empire State Building, rode the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty at sunset, ate lunch at Mr. Tangs on Mott Street in Chinatown, went to Coney Island and the original Nathan's Hotdogs, toured Carnegie Hall, took a carriage ride through Central Park, and even got pretty good at getting around on the subway and bus!! Of course, we saw and did many other things, but those were some of the highlights. We also attended Sunday morning services at Brooklyn Tabernacle and went back one evening to see their Christmas cantata.
While there we got to spend time with our dear friends, Jimmy and Bernice, and their wonderful kids Janice and Jaime! Jimmy retired from the NYPD the same month I retired in Montgomery, and he was a great tour guide. Bernice is an elementary school principal, so she is a hero in our eyes! Jimmy and Bernice joined us for White Christmas, they all met us at Katz's Deli for pastrami on rye and potato knishes, and then had us over to their house for a wonderful family meal the night before we came home.
Oh, speaking of coming home... wow, what a trip that was! Back in October, we had booked our flight to go from Tri-Cities Airport near Bristol to Atlanta and on to Laguardia in NY, with the return flight going through the same airports. A couple of weeks after we booked, we got an email from Delta saying they had to change our return flight to go through Cincinnati, with a 6 hour layover. Well, beggars can't be choosers they say, so we were still just glad to have the free tickets. We arrived in Cincinnati a little late because our flight leaving NY was delayed, but we still had 5 hours to kill. We went and had a nice leisurely supper, found our gate, and settled in for the wait, no problem.
After a while we got thirsty for some Starbucks (our closest one in KY is 2 hours away) and so I headed back to the concourse where we had seen it. When I got back, I noticed they were no longer scrolling our flight number on the board over the desk. Hmmm... Rachael and the kids said that there had not been any announcements, and there were only a couple of people in line at the counter, so I wasn't overly concerned. I casually walked over, but as I got closer I could tell that the guy at the counter was being given instructions on getting to a hotel and to come back in the morning for "standby". Not a good sign. Sure enough, not only was OUR flight cancelled, but so had just about all flights in and out of anywhere near the eastern KY, eastern TN, western NC area. The issue...? SNOW STORM
I motioned for Rachael and the kids to come over and off they went to try to rent a 4wd vehicle to drive home while I waited my turn to ask for our luggage to be sent to the claim area. By the time I ran to catch up with the family, there was a ton of people in line behind me. Just in time. We were able to rent the last 4wd vehicle they had (thank you, Lord) and we hopped in our Toyota Rav4 and headed south. We made good time on the interstate, but what a mess there was on the parkway! What is normally a 3 1/2 hour drive was a little over 7 hours that night, but the Lord sent us two trucks and then a snow plow to follow and got us home safely. We had no power (for a couple of days), but we were home in our own beds!! I took the rental to the airport in TN the next day, and I lost count after 100 of all the vehicles wrecked, stuck and abandoned in the snow. No doubt in our minds that God's grace and mercy got us home.
That snow storm on December 18th started the coldest, snowiest winter that this area has seen in many years. We are still "in it", so to speak (low of 12 tonight and more snow tomorrow), but by Thursday it is supposed to hit 40!!! HEAT WAVE! We have been blessed thoughout this time to not have any significant problems with the cold and snow and ice, and we are sure that God's mercy is the reason.
After our travels, we were quite ready to stay home for a while, and that's what we did for Christmas. Rachael's folks, Earl and Jan, came up for Christmas this year and it was very good to have them here. I DID notice that they waited until the power came back on before they came. :-) The week after Christmas we were blessed with the Mountain View Baptist Youth Retreat and a trip to the Creation Museum. We also were able to take them to see the elk herd, went horseback riding and toured the Kentucky Coal Museum in Benham. Great week!
As Mountain View pulled out on New Year's Day, Austin was not far behind them. He wasn't headed to school, though, he was headed way down south to attend Passion 2010 in Atlanta with some friends from school. He had a great time and said the conference was great. We were so glad he was able to be a part of this.
Well, it's hard to believe that 2009 is completely in the books now. As our pastor said this morning, this is 2010 and we have never been here before. It's a new day and many opportunities lie ahead. May we all look for opportunities (and take advantage of them!) to be involved in building the Lord's Kingdom even more than ever before. Until the whole world hears...
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