Sunday, November 30, 2008

The New DVD is Here!!

The new dvd is here and available now. Watch this preview of the intro to the video:

You can purchase it at the store at brockgill.com. Tell all of your friends about it!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Great Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, 11 bags of garbage, two turkeys, and seven pies later, we have finished cleaning up and almost everyone of the 21 guests are gone. Thursday, we had the traditional turkey lunch and dinner. We also took a walk and watched a movie. Some went on the zipline, too. After dinner, we played a couple of games.

Last night was our gumbo night. We also sat out at the bonfire. Tonight, we had a birthday party for our friend, Emily. It was a princess theme. We ate homemade pizza and played a few kid games after that. It was fun!

The only problem with the weekend was that I was rather sick. I knew that if I got more rest and ate better that I would feel much better, but I couldn't do either of those things. Oh well! I still had fun! Pictures to come...

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent yesterday cooking and cleaning. I made something called a pumpkin crisp. It's basically pumpkin pie turned upside down. I also made buttermilk pies. I call them Texas pies here because people who have never heard of buttermilk pie won't try it just because of the name. They say, "I don't like buttermilk." In which I respond, "Nobody likes buttermilk. Just try it." Then, they love it! When these two items came out of the oven, we could not resist trying them out. They were all warm and smelled so good!

Today, I am making dressing, bean bundles, gravy, macaroni and cheese, and bread. People that come today are bringing more sides and desserts. There is no telling how much food we will have!

Many of our friends come from broken homes. None of our friends have families that live here. Therefore, many are stuck here for Thanksgiving. We started the tradition last year to have everyone over here for the weekend. People come and go all weekend long. It's a wonderful time. I think that we will have a dozen or so for lunch today. Then, more are coming tomorrow. I will keep you updated.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A Change of Attitude

I must say that yesterday, as I was making my big grocery store run before Thanksgiving, I was not feeling very thankful. I prayed that the Lord would change my attitude. I simply felt like we were getting bullied by Satan because we were doing exactly what the Lord wants us to do. We've been bullied all year with some financial things and such that I cannot go into. Normally, I'm able to muster enough strength from the Lord to keep on keeping on, but after sleeping in a cold house for a few nights in a row, I was rather weak (read Sunday's blog to find out more about this).

I felt very alone in all of this. I was really drained and spent. That's not a good thing when you have 20 people coming over to your house. Plus, our heat still wasn't fixed. We have people staying with us all weekend. What would we do with no heat?

Finally, the heating guy came yesterday afternoon and said that he was going to fix it today by noon (that would be a miracle). The cost was (OUCH) $1,500. What can you do?

This morning, my Bible study was on the love of the Lord. One verse really stuck out to me. "I led them with the cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them." Hosea 11:4. It's so sweet how He takes care of His people. As I went out the door to run, I received a note from some friends. In it was a check for $1,500. A little later on, the heating guy called Brock and said that the heater was fixed (before noon, I might add). The Lord stepped in and saved the day! His love is great!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

First Snow Sighting

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Splinter

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Joy of Life on the Road

We had shows back to back this weekend. Two on Friday in Kentucky and one on Saturday in Indiana. All of the shows went well, but they really tired us out. It's always very taxing when we have to drive.

So, during the show on Friday night, Brock smashed his hand. It was swelling up as the night went on. I didn't notice anything during the show except I saw one flash of annoyance on Brock's face when he hit his hand. He continued on like nothing had happened. Then, even though his hand was still swollen a little yesterday, he decided to do his card manipulation in the show which requires much hand movement. Right before he went onstage, he got a HUGE splinter under his fingernail. It hurt him badly. The host and I were backstage holding our cell phones up to give him some light. Without tweezers, he couldn't get the splinter out. I had some tweezers out in the truck, but I wouldn't be able to get them in time. Brock just sucked it up and did that whole show with a 1/3 of an inch splinter lodged under his fingernail.

Then, on the way home, we had a flat tire on our trailer. We had a spare tire but no tire iron. For miles, we couldn't find any place that would be open that sold them. We finally spotted a Kmart and Brock slipped in the store at 9:59pm just before they closed. He got the tire iron and changed the flat.

That put us home even later, and we were extra tired. We were so ready to crawl into our bed and simply sleep. More bad news...our heat had broken over the weekend. It was 45 degrees in our house. We turned on a space heater in our bedroom and the electric blanket. It was still a very cold night. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. This is how it goes sometimes. Videos from the weekend to come tomorrow.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Travis's Video

Our friend, Travis, is a talented actor in Hollywood. He just sent us this video that he made. It's funny!



Thursday, November 20, 2008

Fireside

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I sat by this fire all day long yesterday. I caught up on lots of people's blogs. I read and watched a little TV. I heated up some chili for lunch. Brock cooked me a delicious dinner of Chilean seabass, sweet potato fries, and some English peas. For dessert, he had some dark chocolate toffee using pastacio nuts. It was great! He even cleaned up all of the dishes.

Now, I'm ready to go back to work today. We are driving to Louisville, KY this afternoon in time for a meeting there. Then, tomorrow morning, we will perform at a Christian school. Then, we will have a show tomorrow night. On Saturday, we will drive to Indiana in time to do a show at a conference there at 2:30. After that show, we'll drive home. It's going to be a packed couple of days. Pray that all of the shows go well.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Sabbath

"Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." Exodus 20:8. What does this mean? If you read the rest of the commandment, it's mostly about rest. It talks about the Lord creating the Earth in 6 days and resting on the 7th. There are other scriptures talking about why you should take a Sabbath (Hebrews 4:9-11). All of the scriptures talking about the Sabbath talk about not working. It's really a day in which you shouldn't work, but rest.

During the gold rush, everyone wanted to get to California. There were two famous wagon trains that headed that way. One was led by a Christian who felt that it was important to stop every week and rest with a Sabbath day. The other leader just wanted to get there quicker than the others so that he could find all of the gold. Guess which one made it there first? The one who honored the Sabbath day and rested.

The Lord knows us. He created us. He knows that we need rest. I realized that quite often, we are working on Sunday. Therefore, it's not a Sabbath day for me. Recently, I've made a conscious effort to create one every week. Sometimes, I cut out something such as internet or phone just to be a little more still. Sometimes, I stay at home all day instead of getting into the hustle and bustle of the city. Other times, I hang out with friends part of the day. I also pray more. This simply comes naturally by the way. I've even been a little bored at times on these days. Maybe that's a good thing. We need to get bored sometimes. Then, it makes us appreciate going to work the next day. Even if you are able to go to church every Sunday, are you really taking a Sabbath? If you aren't, let me encourage you to be a little more intentional about it. I'm taking mine today.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Rewarding Food

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Well, today is meetings and errands day. I have to do some work today. Plus, I'm running 7 1/2 miles for my marathon training. However, tomorrow, I'm taking my Sabbath...more on that tomorrow.

Have you noticed that we reward ourselves with food? After a long weekend of shows, we usually go to a restaurant that we like or get some chocolate or something (like Pappasitos yesterday). Do you think that this is a bad thing? I've heard that you shouldn't use food as a source of comfort, but what about reward? We're only "rewarding" ourselves once a week on average. Brock is rather strict on eating healthy the other days of the week. What do you think?

Monday, November 17, 2008

Shows in Loganville, GA

We performed here in Georgia Saturday night and last night. Also, Brock spoke at church yesterday morning. They all went really well. There were about 800 people total over the two nights and about 40 people gave their lives to Christ this weekend. That's wonderful! It went so well for me because I had Shannon and Lindsey with us to help. They are great!

Today, we are going to take our time driving home. Right now, Lindsey and Brock are still sleeping. After they wake up, we are going to Ikea. I love that store and never get to go. Also, we are eating lunch at Pappasitos. It sounds like a great day!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Found It

I finally got around to cleaning out our closet. I began replacing the summer clothes with winter clothes in our drawers. Also, I threw out so much stuff. As I was grabbing some of Brock's grubby clothes (they're old clothes that he works outside in or wears around the fire pit) out of a drawer in the closet, I heard a "ding!" I set the clothes down on the floor and looked in the drawer to see what had made that noise. It was Brock's wedding ring. He had "lost" it last Thanksgiving while he was chopping wood out by the fire pit. We'd looked all around the fire pit and just assumed that it was buried in the ground somewhere. Little did we know that it was buried in some clothes in our closet for the last year. I guess it was in one of the pockets or something. That was crazy!

A few days ago, I found a checkbook that I'd "lost" Christmas of 2005. We've since changed banks twice. Does anyone else do this sort of thing, or is it just us?

Today, we go to Atlanta to perform our first show of 3. We have a show tonight and tomorrow night as well as tomorrow morning. It's going to be a full weekend. Pray that the attendance is good and people's lives are changed by the Lord.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Hearing God

A couple of days ago, someone asked me how you know that God is speaking to you and that it's not your own desires that you are putting on God. That's a loaded question. It got me to thinking though. This is what I told her:

In Psalm 37, it says that if you "delight yourself in the Lord He will give you the desires of your heart." I think that the key to this verse is delighting yourself in Him. That way, His desires become your desires. Also, you get to know Him more. In Zephaniah 3:17, it says that "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." (That's my favorite verse by the way.) The deal is, He takes delight in us!!! He loves us so much that He takes delight in us and would love it if we took delight in Him.

When I began to pray, I was very young. I think that helped me a lot. I didn't ask what words to say or what to ask for. I simply talked with the Lord everyday after school. I mostly told Him my dreams. I would read His Word and ask lots of questions. Somehow along the way, I knew His voice. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the Lord. He already loved me more than I could ever imagine and already delighted in me. However, when I was in middle school, I began taking delight in Him. When I pray, I'm just talking with Him. It's a relationship where speaking and listening are key.

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7. This is the hard part. His timing is not always our timing...His will is not always our will. Therefore, we must make sure that we are hearing God correctly. I think this comes with confirmation. If the Lord tells you that He wants you to go to Africa and someone out of the blue invites you to go to Africa, there's your answer. If His answer isn't that obvious, then walk through open doors until He closes one. Lots of my friends who are called to do Christian entertainment can tell you about waiting. They are working at Starbucks while working on their ministries as well. They are simply walking through every open door (opportunity) that comes along. They are waiting patiently (and sometimes not so patiently, because that's the way it is) for the Lord to allow them to quit Starbucks and do their ministry, calling, and everything full-time.

The other thing that you must check when you are searching God's will while making decisions in your life is if it's Biblical. For example, if you thought that the Lord wanted you to do something unethical, that's most likely your own desires that you are placing on the Lord. I would go to an outside source for this question such as your pastor or someone who is knowledgeable in the Scriptures. It's easy to read into scripture and make it mean whatever fits what you are thinking.

I do believe that the Lord speaks to us in some of the same ways, but differently as well. We are all different. Do any of you have anything to add? I'd like to hear how God speaks to you.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Not Your Normal Day

Today was a strange day. It was never just normal. I had a lot to do before we left town tomorrow. I did a lot of work online this morning. Then, I washed 6 loads of laundry. I never did get quite done with that. I went through a mountain of mail that had been piling up. With every progress I made today, it just pointed out how much work I need to do. For example, as I was doing laundry, I realized that I need to put away all of the summer clothes and pull the winter ones out. When I went to put a pot away, I saw how badly I need to clean out my cabinets. We've been so busy that everything at home has been neglected.

Just when I was about to throw my hands in the air and give up, Brock told me that we are leaving Saturday morning instead of tomorrow. Therefore, I went from being completely overwhelmed to feeling excited and calm (if you can experience those at the same time).

Then, later, I found out that a lady from my parent's church died. She was an older lady and had a full life. However, she read my blog faithfully. I used to think about her when I wrote, because I knew that she would read it and would be praying.

It was just one of those days that was up and down...not just even paced like normal.

Soles4Souls



What actually happened was that I needed some shoes with a little more support while I'm working. I'm on my feet all day, and my normal shoes were making my hips hurt after a long day of working. They are fine on a normal day, but I needed some work shoes that are still cool. I found the perfect shoes for 70% off. I found out that they only had one pair left. They happened to be exactly my size. This was such a blessing. Then, I saw the Soles4Souls collection in the mall and knew that giving my other shoes up was the perfect thank you.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Fall

Here are some pictures that I took around our house:

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Monday, November 10, 2008

The Phoenician in Scotsdale, AZ

Here are some pictures I took of the resort we performed at this weekend:
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Sunday, November 09, 2008

Luis Palau

The show Friday night was great! We performed at a banquet for some of the Luis Palau supporters. It was all adults and they loved it! After it was over, some of the people came by and talked with us. It was so encouraging.

Luis is such a sweet man...a people person. We've met two of his sons, Andrew and Kevin. Andrew has been doing some speaking like Luis. He's such a great guy like his dad. Kevin is more on the administrative side of the ministry...he pretty much run things. He doesn't have one ounce of pride and is very sharp. They are all very genuine people, and I'm impressed with them.

Friday, November 07, 2008

The Good and the Bad

Yesterday was a bad day on the road. We didn't sleep well Wednesday night. Then, as we were making our 6 hour drive home, we had a mishap at the gas station. The pump was broken and fuel shot up 8 feet or so and all over our truck and Brock. We also had a car accident. It was only a fender bender and our truck wasn't damamged at all, but it was still rough.

Today has been a great day on the road. We are in Scottsdale, AZ and the weather rocks. Also, our show is at a really nice resort. Too bad we are only staying one night!

This is how life is on the road...unpredictable.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Show in Brandon, MS

We had problem after problem during set up last night. However, the show went great! The place was packed out. They had to bring in 150 extra chairs and about 75 people were standing along the back. Lots of people made decisions for Christ.

We are driving back home right now. Then, we are going to see the comedian Maria Bamford tonight. Tomorrow, we fly out to Arizona to do a show.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The Snake


The snake didn't bite Brock, but it sure tried! Pray for our show tonight in Mississippi.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Pics from our Last Trip

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Brock sleeping on his makeshift bed.

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Brock's going into one of our favorite restaurants.

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The most delicious white chocolate bread pudding ever!

Monday, November 03, 2008

Too Much Luggage

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Shows in Orlando, FL

We've been so busy. We did 3 shows within 15 hours at this conference in Florida. It went really well, though. I love going to Florida.

We took a dip in the pool at our hotel on Halloween! Also, we got to eat at my second favorite restaurant, the Columbia. It's Cuban food, and it's fabulous. They have this yellow rice that's incredible and their dishes have so much flavor. The best part is dessert...white chocolate bread pudding. It's the best bread pudding I've ever had! In fact, it's one of the best desserts I've ever had. We ate at the Columbia on Thursday AND Saturday. I don't know when we'll be back that way.

We are so tired. It's good that we gain an hour today, because we need it! We got home last night at about 11pm which is midnight Eastern Time. We've had many early mornings and late nights. I'm looking forward to resting for the next couple of days.