Hair and Doctor's Appointments

Yesterday I felt like I got a glimpse into some of you moms' worlds. I woke up early and cleaned a little. After I woke up Brock, I headed to town to do a bunch of errands. Then, I met my friend at her work and went with her to get her hair colored. It was only the second time she's ever even had highlights, so she needed a little moral support. After a couple of hours at the salon, I had to rush home and pick Brock up for a doctor's appointment.

Brock has been having trouble getting all the water out of his ears after he performs the water coffin. Usually, it goes away, but it's been a couple of months. A doctor's visit was inevitable. Since we've been married, Brock has not been to a doctor short of a chiropractor. He's been rather healthy. The nurse asked him all kinds of questions. He had never had any kind of diseases, but the list of bones he had broken was extraordinary! He's broken his foot, a couple of toes, 2 bones in his arm, a finger, his leg, nose, and collar bone. They flushed his ears out and there was a lot of junk in there. No wonder he's been turning up the TV so loud! Dispite all of the loud concerts we've attended, his hearing is perfect..."disgustingly good" as the doctor said and better than most 30 year olds. We were at the doctor's office for 3 hours!

Last night, I cooked, cleaned up the kitchen, and got our office people's Christmas gifts ready. Now I know why all of the ladies were stressed Sunday at church!

Feliz Navidad

The other day, we were at a party in which one of our friends, Mark Lee (www.marklee.typepad.com), began playing the guitar and leading us in a few Christmas carols. One of the songs he selected was "Feliz Navidad." It reminded me of something that happened back when I was 16...

My sister and I were singing "Silent Night" at a home for mentally challenged people. My sister, Kay, was 13 years old at the time. We were harmonizing the chorus when one of the patients from the audience jumped out of her seat. She began belting out "Feliz Navidad...Feliz Navidad..." Kay and I looked at each other not knowing what to do. We continued singing for a while although the lady was getting louder and louder. By the time she was singing "I wanna wish you a merry Christmas!," our cousin had quit playing his guitar and we had stopped singing. The rest of the audience seemed to enjoy this lady's song much more than our timid "Silent Night." They had all joined in the singing. Kay and I decided that if you can't beat them, join them. We began singing along and got in on the congo line that was forming. The lady might not have had the best voice, but we could take some lessons from her on the art of entertaining!

Don't forget to set your TiVo or VCR for the TV show called "The Miracles of Jesus" set to be aired at 1pm E.T. on Christmas Eve. Also, watch it live if you can and tell everyone you know to watch it. When you're Christmas shopping, stand in the center of your mall and yell out this info (or just tell your family and friends).

Matthew 6:31-34

"Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

More Stress

Our lives are becoming more and more stressful. As we sat down at a restaurant in the airport the other day, Brock said there was a lady who was pitching a fit about her food. She ended up sitting beside us. We overheard her gripe to her husband about the food for the next 15 minutes. Then, she proceeded to whine about the people on the plane and how they treated her. I thought that she might have a mental breakdown before she even got out of the airport.

I find myself getting tense so easily in the last few years. I don’t know if it’s because of the traveling or getting older or if everyone is getting more stressed these days. I feel myself getting upset over silly things. I nipped the whole road rage a couple of years ago. I decided that if I cannot afford a few extra seconds if I’m forced to wait that long in the car, then my life is too tight. Somebody said that stress is caused by unmet expectations. I think that I expect too much out of myself as well as others. I’m going to try and lighten up when it comes to everyday life.

We are getting more and more busy. It's crazy because we have more modern conveniences but we are just adding more things to our plate to take up the extra time we save. I just now realized that I sound like an old person right now. I definately enjoy modern technology, but how do I balance a modern life and living in peace? What's the answer? I'm trying the old method of counting to 10 in my head to cool off. Sometimes, I try to think about why I'm so easily upset that day (there's usually something making me on edge just under the surface). The crazy thing about it is that my friends say that I'm laid back. I think Americans are too stressed in general. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Prayer Warriors

A couple of weeks ago, I called a few people to pray whenever Brock had his interview with the Associated Press. I wanted to call one lady who is known for being a great prayer warrior. However, I didn't know how to get in touch with her. Brock knows her son very well, but we didn't have his new number. That night, I received an e-mail from her son, Jeff. He had somehow found out and got my e-mail asking people to pray. Guess who he forwarded the e-mail to? His mom, the one that I wanted to get in touch with that day but had not had contact with for years...the one whose name came to me out of the blue that day.

Last week, I had a hard time praying. I was overwhelmed by everything to pray about. We had two press releases coming out, the TV show, and a new website that we were trying to get completely working. One day in particular, I just could not pray. Everytime I tried, I'd get anxious. The next day, I was talking to one of my friends. She said that she was really praying hard for me the day before and as she was praying she felt "overwhelmed."

I know that alot of you guys are praying for us right now and I really appreciate it. I think the Lord is going to do something big. It's all because of your prayers!

Don't forget to tell everyone...e-mail your friends, announce it at church, call your family from out of town, shout it from the rooftops (literally...go on top of your roof and start shouting it to everyone) that the show on Discovery channel airs Christmas Eve!

Life at Home

I'm sitting on our bed writing this as Brock talks very enthusiastically on the phone. He's doing a live radio interview at the time. Our mornings are like this lately. Brock has a couple of phone interviews promoting the TV show. Brock stays in our bedroom because we have company sleeping across the hall. So, I try to stay really quiet as he speaks on the phone. I don't know if you saw that Newlywed's episode (I only watched it on occasion...it's kinda like a car wreck. You don't want to watch, but you cannot help but look) where one of them had a phone interview while they were driving in the car. After the interview was over, everyone in the car began to laugh. That's what it's like. I hold in all of my giggles and such. Yesterday, Brock was speaking with a writer for a magazine, so I thought it was okay to blow dry my hair in the bathroom since it wasn't live. I saw Brock quickly take a turn out of the room...maybe I should wait until the interview is over before I use loud machinery!

Our nights consist mostly of entertaining and hanging out with our friends. Monday, we used our chocolate fountain that we got for Christmas. Everyone at the party enjoyed it. Last night, our friends from the band Alathea came over for dinner. It's been fun!

Don't forget to tell everyone...e-mail your friends, announce it at church, call your family from out of town, shout it from the rooftops (literally...go on top of your roof and start shouting it to everyone) that the show on Discovery channel airs Christmas Eve!

Press Release

This is a copy of a press release that went out last week (not the Associated Press release...keep praying about that. It hasn't gone out yet.):

December 8, 2005- (Nashville, TN) Brock Gill is hosting Discovery Channel’s the “Miracles of Jesus” TV special currently scheduled to air on Christmas Eve (check local listings for times). As the lead investigator in the project, Brock presents an objective look at the miracles Jesus performed and investigates whether they were illusions or reality.

For centuries critics have claimed that Jesus’ miracles never happened or that they were purely illusions. As an illusionist and a Christian, Brock has often had to deal with the claim that Jesus was only a magician.

Traveling throughout the Middle East and Holy Lands, theories of Jesus miracles resonate through his mind as he ventures to find out: Can ancient miracles be re-created using 21st century technology?

“Was He a magician? Was He an illusionist? Was He a hypnotist?” asks Brock, “Was He a paranormalist? Or was he just a master of psychology? What was the deal? Was He a real miracle worker?”

Brock’s questions bring him to three different locations where Jesus performed His miracles. In Nain, Galilee, Brock investigates the widow’s son being raised from the dead. In Golan Heights, the multiplication of loaves and fishes for the feeding of 5,000 people, and to the Sea of Galilee to investigate the miracle that has stumped illusionists from day one: walking on water.

“I’ve always been fascinated by miracles, ever since I was a kid reading the Bible stories. They were so outside of the ordinary,” says Brock. “I always liked the idea of being able to walk across the water.”

Brock is also taking his unique stage show with wit and mind-blowing escapes into households with the new DVD, Hidden Agenda, available now through Vertical Distribution. From the stage to the street to behind the scenes, Hidden Agenda lets you see more of Brock Gill than ever before. The DVD includes nearly two hours of footage with spectacular illusions and escapes, such as The Water Coffin, Blind Ride, Ping Pong Balls, Assistant's Revenge, Puppet Master and much more.

Performing over 150 dates a year, Gill has shared the stage with many well-known speakers, leaders and artists, including: Franklin Graham, Andy Stanley, John Piper, Kirk Cameron, Luis Palau, Christian Hosoi (legendary skateboard champion), Corey Martinez (BMX rider from X Games 1004-5), David Nasser, Casting Crowns, Relient K, Sonic Flood, tobyMac, Audio Adrenaline, Third Day, Pillar, Mercy Me and others. He has performed for such organizations as BigStuf Camps, Student Life, In Quest, and on tours such as Winter Jam, Livin’ It with Stephen Baldwin and Christ in Youth’s Believe tour.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Normally, I don't decorate our house because we're not here for Christmas. However, since we are home this month, I decided to put up a tree. I actually had a Christmas box from college that had a few decorations. I hung some lights with Christmas style paper cups over a few of them and a couple of ribbons around my patio door. I also placed green and red candles around the fireplace and hung stockings from the mantle. My mom let me borrow my favorite nativity scene. The pieces are ceramic and can be moved around. My sister and I used to take turns rearranging the scene.

I had everything I needed to decorate a tree except the tree. Brock said that we could cut one down in the woods by our house. I wasn't so sure. Growing up in the city, I didn't know you could actually cut down your own! So, we set out out front door with a machete and giant clippers in hand (we only wanted a small 3 foot tree). We actually found one very quickly in our front yard. We could have spent some more time and found a prettier one, but it was really cold. It's slightly Charlie Brownish, but we like it. It's got character!

Check out our new website www.brockgill.com and tell me what you think. Don't forget to tell everyone...e-mail your friends, announce it at church, call your family from out of town, shout it from the rooftops (literally...go on top of your roof and start shouting it to everyone) that the show on Discovery channel airs Christmas Eve!

Dinner Party

We had the best time last night! Three couples came over for dinner. Brock cooked a couple of chickens (he's a fabulous cook!) and I prepared potatoes, broccoli, bread, and a fruit salad. It was very healthy. Then, we had a cookie cake! One of the girls had a birthday earlier this month, so another guest made her a cookie cake. It was supposed to be a surprise, but the birthday girl peeked at the cake before we even started dinner. She was still excited! She was singing "Happy Birthday to me..." all night. I don't think she likes surprises anyway.

After dinner, we played Trivial Pursuit. None of us play games very often, but someone made a comment about that game and I realized that we had it back in a closet somewhere. We played two teams...girls against guys. The guys won, but it was a close game! We laughed all night.

It worked out great because I had an incentive to clean my house yesterday. Since it was Saturday, Brock only had a couple of work related phone calls. So, he even cleaned up his office and shop! A couple of the guys from Chaos on Wheels are coming to stay with us this week, so now my house is clean and ready for them!

Hands and Feet Project

Last night, Brock had an appearance at a benefit for the Hands and Feet Project. He promoted the TV show and did one fun trick with one of the girls in the audience. It wasn't much, but it was fun to go. We saw alot of friends...Mark and Will from Audio Adrenaline, Jeff Lava (Audio A's lighting director) and his Australian girlfriend, Simone, the band Fireflight, and others. It was fun to hang out with everyone.

The Hands and Feet Project's goal is to provide a caring and loving environment for orphaned children in Haiti. Mark Stewart's (of Audio Adrenaline) parents are ministering in Haiti. There are alot of orphaned children in there, so the Hands and Feet are trying to build an orphanage. It's a big project. They need your prayers, financial support, and some of you may want to take a group there to help with the building project and ministering face to face with these children. Go to handsandfeetproject.org for more information.

The Air Date for the Discovery Channel

The TV show on the Discovery Channel is scheduled to air Christmas Eve at 1pm E.T./12pm C.T. That is the last we heard and it is on Discovery's website. We are pleased with this date because most people will be off of work (especially since it falls on a Saturday this year), and it's a good time to remember the meaning of Christmas. We don't know if it is going to be called "The Miracles of Jesus." On the website, they call it the Christmas special. So, as you are visiting family, take time for all of you to sit down and watch this program about Jesus. It's 3 hour long shows. If you cannot watch all three hours on that day, TiVo it or record it somehow. Also, make sure you check this blog after it airs to see what we think and to give your opinions of it. Remember that this is totally secular, so it's going to have a different take on Jesus Himself and His miracles. I think it will be interesting to see a film like this on Jesus...to see how the secular world (or at least part of the secular world) views Him. I think you will be pleased with how positively they portray Jesus.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press's article about Brock and the TV show is scheduled to go out either today or tomorrow. As I said in an earlier post, everyone from your local newspaper to USA Today to Letterman and the Today Show get their information from the AP. Now, we must pray that big press comes from this. Pray that the right people ask Brock to be on their show or place the article in their publication. Pray that this show gets big press!

Fasting

Brock and I are fasting this week for the Discovery Channel show and the publicity for it. I've never done more than a one day fast, so this has been a challenge to me. It hasn't been too bad. Lots of doctors actually say it's healthy to fast on occasion (if you're an adult and not pregnant). Your body does a natural cleansing. You must drink lots of water though. This helps the cleansing to take place. In the health books that Brock has read this year, they say to take a 7 to 30 day fast. The scripture has alot of examples of fasting in increments of 7. I think that they call a 40 day fast a supernatural fast. Jesus fasted 40 days at the beginning of his ministry.

I don't know much about fasting except what I've learned through experience. That is that it definately gets God's attention. Prayer is a mystery in some ways. However, fasting as well as having alot of strong believers praying for the same thing seem to get the Lord's attention.

Brock went on a 21 day fast right before he started this ministry in 1997. He prayed alot and heard God alot about the ministry and how it was to work. The Lord also told Brock how to date. He told him not to date that he would marry his best friend. We met just a few days after he fasted (he was skinny!) and became best friends. It was not until at least a year later that we started dating. We didn't even talk about a relationship other than friendship until this point. We realized overnight that we were in love! We talked about marriage on our first date. (I don't normally recommend that to everyone. Our situation was unique.) The Lord let me know in a special way that I would marry Brock too (that's for another post).

Please pray with us about the Discovery Channel show. Pray that it will be big. Pray that lots of people will view it. Pray also that Christians will be encouraged by it, and seekers will actually get saved because of it.

Coming Home Last Night

Last night, we got home at around 8:30. It was freezing, so I ran up to the house before we unloaded everything in order to turn on the heat. When I got to the door, a package was waiting for me. It was a present that I ordered for Brock. I thought, "What luck! I saw this before Brock could get a peek." I placed the box in the closet of the spare bedroom thinking Brock has probably never gone into that closet before and has no reason to go into it now.

When we came inside, we heard a beeping. One of the smoke alarm batteries was going out. We took down the one in the hallway, but it wasn't the one that was beeping. Brock told me to stay in the hall while he looked in the bedrooms for another alarm. I held my breath as he opened the closet door of the spare bedroom. We finally found the smoke alarm in the office.

Brock went into that closet again to find the electric blanket (it was still very cold in the house). Then, we had to go back to that closet to get the cord for the blanket. However, he never noticed the box. Who would have thought that the very closet that I stashed his present in just moments before thinking he would never go into it, is the place he went into 3 times within minutes of our arrival?

Brock, if you read this, I have found a new hiding place for your present. You will never find it! Well, never say never, but I don't think that you will find it.

Flying J

We're at a Flying J in Jackson, MS. Flying J is our favorite truckstop. We have a frequent fueler card with them making it simpler to fuel up. They are usually clean, big, and have everything you would need on the road. The entire parking lot has wireless internet. They have an rv dump, and you can even check out books on cd and return them to any other Flying J. We've been to this particular one in Mississippi more than any other because the place where we get our oil changed in the big truck is right across the street.

One time after leaving the Flying J in Shreveport, people coming beside us in their cars were laughing and pointing. Some people tried to point out something on our truck. After driving about 30 miles and seeing several strange looks from passersby, we finally pulled over to see what was wrong. We had taken a little part of Flying J with us. The fuel pump was still in our tank! It had completely disconnected from its hose and just the handle was sticking out of our truck. I guess we were in a hurry that day!

Family Time

I had a great time with my family yesterday. We had Christmas early. We woke up early and cooked all morning. At around 10am, the chocolate pies came out of the oven. Since Brock likes his chocolate pie hot, we all decided to have a piece while it was hot. It was so fun to eat dessert first! We took some pictures together. We ate lunch, opened presents, and then ate dessert again. It was a great day!

We expect to get back on the road this afternoon and head home. Tonight, we'll stop in Marshall, TX and visit with some friends. We're also planning to see some friends for breakfast in the morning in Shreveport, LA. It will be nice to see them.

Amber's Thanksgiving

Here is my friend Amber's hilarious Thanksgiving story in her own words...

I had a pretty good Thanksgiving except for a few things that went wrong! Link [her husband] is in the middle of an outage at Florida Power so he had to work on Thanksgiving, which also happened to be his birthday this year. That was depressing not being able to spend the day with him. Instead of going to his family's HUGE get together, the kid's and I went to my parents house, along with my older brother, (he's here visiting) my little brother, his wife and son.
I decided to cook the ham this year and what a fiasco that turned out to be!!!

First of all ham's are not that cheap if you haven't checked the prices lately. I spent hours basting and cooking this wonderful ham that I was so excited about! I had to do everything myself since Link was working. I got everyone bathed and dressed and started loading things into the car. I took the ham out, placed it gently on the floorboard and headed back inside for the broccoli casserole. When I got inside Glory [her young daughter] was upstairs screaming something about Eli [her 2 year old son] having white stuff all over him. I ran upstairs completely forgetting about anything but Eli. He had gotten into my expensive face lotion and smeared it all over himself and his nice clean clothes! I cleaned him up as quickly as possible, because we were now running late. I grabbed the broccoli casserole and headed back out to resume where I had left off. When I got to the car I saw two brown furry legs poking out from behind the door. To my ultimate horror while I was inside dealing with Eli, our dog Coda had smelled the delicious ham and decided to make a feast of it!!!!

Needless to say I don't know if I have ever been madder in my life! If there had been a gun handy Coda would be pushing up roses right now!

I refused to throw that expensive ham away, so I cut off the big hunk where Coda had been feasting, flipped it over to the untouched side and baked it for another 30 minutes, just for good measure, (actually to kill any doggy germs)!

Even after all that, my mom still refused to eat it! Everyone who did partake of it cracked jokes about how good the dog slobber basted ham tasted and could I please bring another one next year! I probably won't live that one down for many years to come!

Connection in Prayer

I told you yesterday that I would write about Gin and my connection in prayer. This happened in April of 2003...

It sounded like a shotgun blast and glass scattered everywhere! Time stood still as I debated whether I was dead or alive. We were in Houston, so I immediately assumed this was a drive by shooting. Was I shot? I did not feel any pain. Maybe this was what it is like to be in shock. Then, I hear Brock instruct me to put on the brake and pull to the side of the road.

I inspected my person as well as Brock's and found no evidence of blood, just a lot of tiny glass fragments. The windshield of our big rig had a crater in it the size of a football on the driver's side.

We found out that a few pick-up trucks came by in the oncoming lane and threw cinderblocks at us. One hit the trailer as well and did some damage. Basically since I was driving, if it hit a few inches lower, I would be dead. The police officer confirmed that idea. He kept coming over to me and telling me how lucky I was to be alive.

This really shook me up. I realized how fragile life is and how close I came to death that night. Brock said that just a few minutes before the incident, he felt compelled to pray for our safety.

The next week, I e-mailed the happenings to my friend, Gin. She asked if it occurred on Friday night. I informed her that she was correct in that it was Friday night, but why did she ask? Gin replied that Friday night, she woke up in the middle of the night with me on her mind. She thought this was a little strange because she had not talked with me for a while. She felt the urgency to pray for me right then.

I was so comforted to know that the Lord not only protected me but also woke someone in the night so that she could intercede in prayer on my behalf. Interceding for someone before the Lord is one of the biggest responsibilities as well as privileges we have as believers. Gin is definately gifted and practiced in this area of her Christian walk.

The Interview

Yesterday was a crazy day. Brock performed in Alabama last night, so I took him to the airport at around noon. On our way to the airport, we received the call that Brock had the phone interview with AP that afternoon. From that point on, he was on the phone with our office and publicist until he got on the plane. Then, he landed at around 3 something, had to drive 45 minutes to get to the show and pull over to have his interview all before 6pm.

He did it though. The interview went really well. Brock said that he was nervous (Brock rarely gets nervous.) The interview was supposed to last 15 minutes and ended up being about 45. I think that's a good sign. He asked Brock about 50 questions. Brock said that the guy was really excited about it and seemed to be interested in the show. Therefore, Brock thinks the guy will write a positive story. The way it works is that the Associated Press is at the top. They send out the information that goes to all of the media. For example, the people at the Today Show will see the story. Now, whether they choose to follow up on it or even read it is another story. This is what we need to pray about.

Before I dropped Brock off at the airport, I called one of my best friends that lives in Tyler, TX (about 3 or 4 hours away from my parents' house). She is a prayer warrior, so I definately wanted her to pray. Since I didn't know if she had access to internet lately, I called her. She was in Houston at the time. To my surprise, we were able to eat lunch together. She was having a big day career wise as well. The timing was incredible. We have a neat connection in prayer. I'll post the story tomorrow that will show you how wonderful of a prayer partner she is...

Prayer Alert!!!

Brock has just found out that he has an interview today at 4pm with the Associated Press. These are the big dogs. This story about Brock and the Discovery Channel special could go out to USA Today or any of the other big news publications as well as Entertainment Tonight or the Tonight Show and things like that. Please pray that he answers the questions wisely and that it would be in a way that nobody will twist his words or anything like that. Just pray that Brock will be anointed throughout the interview.

A Broken Down Truck

Yesterday, we were headed to a place where Brock could ride his dirtbike. I was going to run errands as he rode. On our way, we ate lunch with a friend. When we came out of the restaurant, my dad's truck wouldn't crank. The guy that we were with is really good with cars. He began peering under the hood assessing the situation.

As the guys were talking about the truck, I really felt like this was a spiritual encounter. You know when you feel like the Lord is totally in something? That's the way I felt. It was like He was right there in the truck with me.

Brock and our friend went to an auto supply store to get a belt. While they were gone, I was able to pray for the guy very specifically. It was as if the Lord was telling me just what he needed at this time in his life.

The guys came back and replaced a belt in my dad's truck. Dad got his truck fixed for little money and I was able to pray vigorously for someone. Brock ended up being able to spend a couple of hours riding before it got dark. It was a good day!

Air Date for the Discovery Channel Show Changed

We just received news last night that the air date for the show on the Discovery Channel was changed. We don't want to tell you the date yet for fear that they will change it again. However, if they keep this date, our prayers are answered. It's a much better time, and we are happy about it. We will let you know the specific time and date as soon as we are sure that it's official. So, keep checking this blog for an update!

A Conversation in the Dark

Last night, my parents, some friends of ours, Chip and Amanda, and Brock and I were watching something on TV when the electricity went out. At first, we were annoyed. When we finally realized that the electricity might be out for a while, mom got out the flashlights and the candles. We began to talk.

We talked about the Bible and how they chose which books were to be placed in the Bible and which ones were left out. Brock and Chip had read a book by Lee Strobel entitled The Case for Christ that talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls and such. I'm reading a wonderful book called Encounters With Christ by Mark E. Moore. It briefly describes every encounter Jesus has as recorded in the scriptures.

We discussed how they understood things differently back then. For example, I've always wondered why there is only one account of Jesus as a boy. I wanted to hear more. In the book I'm reading, the author explains that when the Greeks wrote about their heroes, they gave one story from the person's youth. It usually was during the boys' puberty age because that's when he was transforming from child to man. They did this to show that the man was unique even when he was a boy. Thus, the story of Jesus as a twelve year old sitting in the temple with the teachers after being separated from his parents for 3 days. This was typical in their writing back then and they understood the significance of the story.

It was a great conversation and one we may not have had if the electricity had not gone out!

FOOD

There were 8 of us at the Gills' this week. In a few days' time, we managed to eat 2 pecan pies, 2 pumpkin pies, a buttermilk pie, a red velvet cake, cream puffs, and oatmeal cookies. That was just dessert! The meals themselves were gigantic. Brock's mom made 2 different kinds of muffins and beef stew. Brock's dad grilled some ribs and sausage. Plus, we had turkey and Brock's mom's famous dressing. I think I ate more this week than I have in a month! I averaged 2 desserts per meal.

Now, we are at my parents' house in Texas. Hopefully, we won't stuff ourselves this week as we did last week. I don't think that I can fit anything more in my belly.

Gifts

Since we are not going to be around here for Christmas, we opened our gifts last night. Brock's mom's gift was the funnest. We made her wait until last to open her present. She opened the wrapping paper to find a movie poster with a huge picture of 50 Cent. Everyone was looking and laughing and confused. We told her that he signed it. The "autograph" read, "Whut up my white girl?? Here go a Happy H-Day from all da peeps. Now bounce to da front porch." By this time, she realized it was Brock's handwriting and she knew something was up. She didn't quite know what "bounce" meant, but she knew something had to do with the front porch. She went out to find a brand new Cracker Barrel rocking chair with a big red bow on it. We bought it back for her in the summer. Recently, her rocking chair broke, so this was perfect!

It seems like every year, we've given one parent something extra special. About four years ago, I gave mom a diamond tennis bracelet that someone gave me at a show. The lady said that she felt like she needed to give it to me because she was too materialistic. It wasn't my style, so I gave it to mom. Mom still prays for that lady to this day when she looks at the bracelet.

A couple of years ago, Brock made his dad a cajun microwave. It is the best cooker out there, but you cannot buy them at your local Walmart. Everyone I've seen is handmade. Brock happens to weld, so he had the resources to fabricate one. The bottom consists of a wooden box. The lid is a metal tray. You build your fire on top and place your meat down in the box. It cooks everything nice and slow and tasty.

Last year, my dad wanted a fish tank. We got a big fish tank for practically free, so we gave to dad for Christmas. I don't know if he intended to start out with a 100 gallon tank, but we gave him one. He now loves it. He knows all about the tank and the fish. It looks beautiful in their living room.

A Message Entitled "Get Off the Milk!"

I ate so much food yesterday that I thought I would explode. The Gills really know how to cook and they cook alot of food! I kept thinking about the message Brock gives on Hebrews 5. He talks about how you should be eating solid food and not milk. He gives the example of Thanksgiving at his family's house. He describes all of the food and how much it is and how great it tastes. Then, he tells the youth about all of the dessert. He says, "What if I were to look at all of this food that my dad had layed out for us and say, 'I think that I'll just have a glass of milk and that's all'?" He goes on to say that spiritually speaking, we do that all of the time. Our Father has a big table of healthy wonderful food for us, yet we settle for milk.

Happy Thanksgiving

I've got so much to be thankful for. Both of our families are so supportive of us no matter what crazy endeavor we set out for. Our friends at home and across the nation are so fun! Brock and I have such a wonderful life together. My Jesus is so giving and loving and patient with me. What are you thankful for this year?

Prayer for the Discovery Show

Now, we just received word that they will air it at 1 in the afternoon on December 12th. They have changed the date on us so much. They have spent more money on this than any other religious documentary ever, yet they aren't going to give it much publicity and they are going to air it in the afternoon. We think that it's spiritual. All throughout the taping and planning of this show, we've seen so much spiritual warfare. This is another one of those hurdles and mountains we must climb. Yet, through faith, we can move mountains. Please pray for this show specifically. Pray that the Discovery Channel will make a big deal about it and that it will air at a good time. Pray that it will impact people's lives in a big way.

Time Off

I slept in until 9:40 yesterday morning. Those of you who know me know how unusual that is. We were so tired from our big extended weekend (Thursday thru Monday). Also, it's easy for us to really relax when we are at either one of our parents' houses. I cannot clean the house or clean out a closet or anything here. When we lived on the road for those two years, we often stayed a while at our parents' houses, so they feel like home to us. We will be here in Louisiana with Brock's family until Sunday. Then, we'll go to my parent's house in Texas for the following week.

We just found out last night that the DISCOVERY CHANNEL SHOW in which Brock is the lead investigator will air DECEMBER 11TH! Look for THE MIRACLES OF JESUS on the DISCOVERY CHANNEL. Tell everyone you know. Tell all of your family when you see them or talk with them on Thanksgiving. I'll tell you more about that next week.

YEC in Louisiana

Today, we performed at a Youth Evangelism Conference in Alexandria, LA. I felt badly for the promotors of the event because they had so many problems. Normally, they hold the event for three days in an arena. However, this year, they have hurricane evacuees in the arena. All of the hotels in the area are booked up with evacuees. Therefore, they had to move it to a much smaller venue for one day only. They crammed over 4,000 people in this smaller venue. Plus, the air conditioner went out as well as a water main broke leaving everyone hot with no place to go to the bathroom. Still, the crowd seemed to be in good spirits and had a good time.

A couple of Brock's cousins, our good friends Brian and Stephanie and their children, and Brock's parents attended to the show. Plus, a group from the tiny town that Brock grew up in were there. It was good to see everyone.

Now, it's about midnight and Brian and Steph just left. We are at Brock's parents' house and I'm about to go to sleep for as long as I can...I'm tired.

The Wedding

We went to a wedding yesterday. Brock and I get really antsy at weddings, so we prefer to have jobs. My job was to take candid pictures. I like taking the pictures that the professional does not get. For example, when the doors of the church open to reveal the bride, all eyes are on her. However, I take a picture of the groom's face when he sees her for the first time at the wedding. Whenever the photographer is taking pictures of the bride and groom cutting the cake or whatever, I take a picture of all of the people watching them cut the cake. It's fun and they can get the pictures developed today if they wanted to. The professional pictures take months to get back. I'm not saying that they don't need a professional photographer. I just think that you should have both professional and candid snapshots.

Brock was the emcee for the reception. He was so funny! There was a chocolate fountain and everyone was gathered around it dipping strawberries and other assortment of fruit and desert. Brock got the mic and said, "Whatever you do, don't eat the chocolate. It's just for decoration." Everyone just stopped for a second. About 30 seconds later, Brock told them to eat the chocolate and he also told them to eat from the buffet which consisted of little finger foods. Brock said, "Go get you some chicken and grits and cornbread!" None of these items were on the buffet.

Later, we knew that the bride and groom were about to make their entrance. Therefore I was standing where they were going to enter waiting to take a picture. Brock welcomed everyone to the Johnson-Dupree wedding. (Their last name was Davis.) He corrected himself and then announced that the bride and groom were in traffic (which didn't exist where we were) and would not be there for another 2 hours. Then, Brock said, "While you're waiting, go get you some chicken!" I was standing near a table of older people. One of them said, "He keeps talking about chicken. There is no chicken up there!" Another lady responded with "He's been getting everything wrong. He called them the Johnsons." One of the older gentlemen said that he thought he was being silly. The first lady replied, "Maybe he is being silly."

Power During the Show Last Night

The guy is introducing us onstage last night, and Stephanie radios us from front of house that she cannot find the power cord for the laptop from which we play all of our music for the show. There was only 4% battery remaining. Of course, this was the one time that we didn't bring our ipod which has all of the show songs backed up. It was really all of our faults. I was the one who took the laptop in the bedroom leaving the power cord plugged into the office wall. Brock picked up just the laptop in the bedroom. So, I should've taken the power supply with me, Brock should've made sure it was in the bag before claiming that he got the laptop, and Stephanie should've checked for it when she was soundchecking.

However, there was no time for placing blame. The guy is still introducing Brock and I'm now at front of house looking at the computer watching as it slips down to 3%. Stephanie ran off to try and find someone who had a Mac power supply. The guy says Brock's name and the crowd begins to applaud. I have to make a split second decision. I played the song for the first trick praying that it would make it thru that one song. Then, I ran up to the stage and yelled to Brock to skip the next trick and go on to the third one. The third trick was a volunteer trick that did not require music. It would buy us more time for Steph to find a cord. During that trick, Stephanie did find a power cord to borrow from some random guy out in the lobby. I ran backstage and told Brock that we were good and to go on to the second trick after he had finished the third trick and then go on to the fourth and so on. We continued the show and the audience was none the wiser.

I was praying that Stephanie would find someone with a power cord on them during the time it took to do the third trick, and I was also praying that the computer would make it thru the first trick. I realized later that Stephanie and I were so distracted that there was nobody in the back manning the laptop to turn it off after that first trick. If it had any battery left, it would have gone on to the next song and been very awkward. Therefore, the laptop shut down exactly after the first song and trick. It was as if the Lord Himself was manning the computer for a second. Brock was praying for power as well as stalling for time onstage being extra witty with the volunteer. Stephanie was awesome! We couldn't have done it without her. She ran around frantically asking anyone and everyone if they had a Mac. Eventually she found power and saved the day!

Generation Y

It's crazy the difference between Brock and me and the girl that travels with us, Stephanie. We are 29 and 30. She is 22. Her whole world is online. She has a blog and a MySpace. She text messages people all day. She text messages people over a hundred times a day sometimes. We had the bmx team guys and Stephanie and her friend over at our house one night. They are all in their early 20's. Brock called me into the living room to look at how this generation communicates. They were all 5 sharing a couch, yet they were not speaking. They had laptops out and were text messaging each other or talking to someone on their cell phones as well as the TV was playing in the background.

The internet went mainstream when I was a senior in college. I remember my best friend and I went to the computer lab to try a "chat room." We ended up chatting to each other. We were sitting right beside each other. I thought it was lame. I entered college with a typewriter. There is only a few years separating Stephy and me yet a world of difference. Chad has an interesting post on this subject www.chadjarnagin.blogspot.com.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We are so busy this weekend. Today, Brock is learning a new illusion with the help of some guys from the conference tour we are apart of. Also, we are involved with a Youth Specialty Conference here in town this weekend. We have a show in Nashville tomorrow night. We're going to the wedding of our dear friends on Saturday and leaving for two weeks on Sunday. It's going to be hectic!

Comments

I'm so sorry that the comments have not been posted for the last week until now. I went into the settings to try and get rid of the advertisement comments and somehow hit a button that made it where I had to approve of every comment. There were lots of comments waiting for me to approve. I fixed it, so please comment!

San Francisco Votes

The city of San Francisco voted to kick out military recruiters from their schools. This proves they don't support our military. The people of San Francisco are fooling themselves if they think they are making the right choice. Even if you don't agree whole heartedly with our government on how they are using the military, you still must support our troops. I think that people along this line of thinking want a utopia. That's not going to happen. The reality is we are fighting a war on terror which will probably last for many years.

Bill O'Reilly suggests that the rest of America should not vacation there to send a sign to this city that we do not agree. This is one city that I haven't been to, so I don't know what I'm missing. What do you think?

Christmas Shopping

Brock and I are going Christmas shopping today. I know that it seems a little early, but we aren't going to be able to go home for Christmas. We have a show in North Carolina on the 26th of December, so we cannot be in Louisianna and Texas on Christmas Day. However, we have a show about an hour from Brock's parents' house Monday. So, we are staying at Brock's family's the week of Thanksgiving and going to my family's for the following week. It will be our first Christmas away from our families and I must admit that I'm disappointed, but that's how it goes sometimes.

We are going to make a day out of it! We are going to go shopping and get hot chocolate. We are meeting people for lunch and dinner. It will be fun! We've never bought all of our Christmas gifts in one day before.

Music

Brock and I tend to like the same music. This year, our favorite cd's were:

-FooFighters---The second cd in the collection is the best.
-Beck---I especially like "Que' Onda Guedo." It's fun!
-Casting Pearls---This guy has an amazing voice! He happens to play guitar for the Newsboys as well as being the lead singer of this band.
-Inhabited---"One More Night" was inspired by a person who came to Sara (the lead singer and composer of this song) for help.
-Pocket Full of Rocks---I always end up worshipping the Lord when I listen to this cd. I'll be in the middle of cleaning the house listening to this cd, and I get distracted by singing to the Lord.
-Collective Soul---I enjoy listening to the album "Youth" when I'm driving.
-Dido---She's great to listen to when you are just chillin.

The 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of rightesousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Psalm 23

A Snake and a Goose

The rest of our trip was basically driving. We did stop by our friends' house that are on the bmx team on the way home. That was fun. There kids (ages 4 and 2) performed a Brock Gill show. They've seen too many of our shows. They remembered details!

It's been good to be home this week. I made the mistake of bringing Brock with me to the grocery store. I had him go get me some eggs or something and he came back with a goose! So, Brock cooked a goose this week. It was really good. It tasted like a mixture of turkey and duck.

The other day, I hear Brock urgently yelling for me. I came out and saw a bright, almost florescent green garden snake. It was very docile. Brock picked it up and played with it some.

The weather has been absolutely perfect. It's been sunny and in the 70's most of the week. The leaves are georgious shades of orange, yellow, and red. There are some trees in our front yard that look peach. One looks almost fuchsia. It's beautiful!

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse gets little media. It is a sculpture that is still being worked on about 20 miles from Mt. Rushmore.


11/2/05

At first, Crazy Horse was not that impressive. We could only see the profile of a face. Then, we learned more about it. A couple of Native Americans asked a famous sculptor to carve a tribute for the indians in the Black Hills. They wanted to show the white men that they have heroes too.

Crazy Horse was a famous Indian who was born on Rapid Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota in about 1842. While at Fort Robinson, NE, under a flag of truce, he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier and died in 1877. The Indian was defending his people and their way of life. He was fighting because the Treaty of 1868 was broken. This treaty, signed by the President of the United Stated, said, in effect:
As long as rivers run and grass grows and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa-the Black Hills of Dakota-will forever be the sacred land of the Sioux Indians.

Crazy Horse, as far as the sculpture is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse-to his people. With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man, "Where are your lands now?" he replied, "My lands are where my dead lie buried."

The sculptor, Korczock Ziolkowski, is of Polish descent, yet he took on this project as his life work. He's never received any money from the government. Therefore, it's a slow process. The determination and vision Korczak had was inspirational. He died in the '80's, but 7 out of his 10 children as well as his wife are still working on it. We saw bulldozers up there working when we visited.

It's nowhere near complete, but I have no doubt that this family will see it to the finish. The head itself is 9 stories high. You can fit all the heads of Mt. rushmore in the one head of Crazy Horse. When done, it will be the largest statue in the world!

The Mountain Goat

We saw the coolest thing of our whole trip while we were on the trail to get a better view of Mt. Rushmore. There, right off the path, was a large mountain goat. At first, I thought it was fake it was so still. Then, it began to move. It was the most awesome wildlife I've ever seen.

As we fumbled for the camera, he came closer and stopped almost as if to pose for the camera. At this point, I got a little nervous. This goat wasn't your average billy goat; it was massive! It looked strong. I pondered what to do if it charged us. I couldn't remember if mountain goats are aggressive animals. I racked my brain trying to conjure up my past science classes. I couldn't remember even stydying about them. I don't know if I've ever even heard of a mountain goat, yet here was one standing only 20 feet away from me.

Just then, he slowly walked up the hill. We stood watching it in awe until it was almost out of sight. It was simply amazing! We were so close to it!

Mt. Rushmore

11/2/05

We finally reached Mt. Rushmore around 2:45pm. It was very impressive! The details of the Presidents' faces were amazing. Borglum, the sculptor, chose to carve George Washington because he was the commander of the Revolutionary army and first U.S. President. Thomas Jefferson was the third President, author of the Declaration of Independence, and mastermind of the Louisiana Purchase. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President whose leadership restored the Union and ended slavery on U.S. soil. Borglum chose Theodore Roosevelt because he was the artists' hero. Roosevelt promoted construction of the Panama Canal and ignited progressive causes such as conservation and economic reform.

The faces actually look different in varying light. They appear to be smiling in the morning light. Whereas, later in the day, they look more pensive and solemn. It trully is a work of art.

I found out that they received alot of opposition when starting the project in 1921. It took the artist eight years before he finally received the funding and the okay to do it. Conservatists claimed that man makes statues, but God made the needles in the mountain. I saw many more needles in the area, but none as impressive as Mt. Rushmore. God made the artist as well as the mountain. Together, they made a wonderful masterpiece.

North and South Dakota

11/2/05

I began driving excitedly ready to explore new terrain. I drove the long, desolate remainder of road in Montana. We went a little out of the way to go to North Dakota. We've never been and don't see an opportunity of getting out that way in the future.

We took a picture of me in front of the North Dakota sign. Everything that I had heard about the state proved to be true. There's not much there. We saw what appeared to be a ghost town. We stopped in a little town called Bowman. When I asked where to eat, they said that the fast food place was closed for the winter. I noticed alot of places were closed for the season in the Dakotas. The temperature gets down to 40 degrees below. That's probably the reason.

We ended up eating at a hole in the wall. I asked if they had any vegetables. The response was "no." I don't think green vegies are readily available up in the Dakotas. We had the special. It was a slice of turkey between two pieces of white bread with mashed potatoes. The entire plate (even the sandwich) was covererd with gravy. It was wierd.

Brock couldn't pass thru Sturgis, home of the huge bike week event, without stopping. I bought him a sock hat at the Harley shop.

As we were driving thru South Dakota, a dark colored eagle flew right in front of our truck. I was afraid we would hit the bird; it was so close. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was just frozen watching it soar outside our window.

The Dakotas are crazy windy. At one point, I couldn't shut the passenger door of the truck because of the wind!

Driving Thru Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana

Here is pieces of my travel journal entries on the first two days of our trip:


10/31/05
Driving thru Oregon on I-84E was breathtakingly beautiful. When we drove this strip before, I think that it was night. We saw rows and rows of Aspen trees. They had bright yellowish-orange leaves and thin, lighter trunks. I snapped a couple of pictures from the truck as we were driving. It rained the entire day. In Idaho, it snowed a little. That's when we decided to pull over for the night. We're in Idaho almost on the Montana line on I-90.


11/1/05
We pulled over for the night just in time because it was beautiful when I looked out the window this morning. The whole drive thru Montana was amazing. We pulled over in a "parking area" as the sign said. By the time I got my camera and jacket on, Brock was already out of sight. I crossed the parking lot and caught a glimpse of the view. It literally took my breath away. There was a valley down below with a body of water. A cliff towered over the water. I heard Brock whistling for me. I looked down, to the right, and to the left. I couldn't find him. Then, I realized the noise was coming from above. Brock was at the very top of the cliff!

We stopped in Deer Lodge, MT to eat lunch. The sign outside of the cafe read "ICE CREAM, EXPRESSO, AND BUFFALO." We shared a buffalo burger. After lunch, we went into some of the little shops. Brock asked the salesclerk in the drug store if they sold ipods. She didn't know what an ipod was.

We pulled over at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. By this time, the weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful day. We actually went swimming in their pools. They piped in water from a natural hot spring. There were only 3 others in the pool...a couple from the area and a guy from Washington on his way to Kansas to work for a couple of months.

We ate Montana steaks at the Oasis in Manhattan, MT. There's another Manhattan in Kansas. They call themselves "the little apple." We actually saw trick or treaters in the small Montana town out on Nov. 1st!

Church

This may sound slightly odd to you if you do not travel doing youth events all the time, but I was worried that I wouldn't want to go to church today. After going to "church services" every other night for the last two months, it gets tiresome. However, we are getting ready to go to our own church (which we haven't been able to go to in weeks), and I'm so excited! There's no place like your home church. I don't have to know the time constantly or check to make sure the props are set up or know when we need to get onstage. We are even taking the motorcycle today because the weather is georgious. I'm going to sing my heart out, catch up with my friends, and soak it all up!

I'm Home!

We got home last night after a very, very, very, too long of a drive. We were in the truck for five days straight. My sister has been posting my pre-written blogs for the last five days. Internet is not exactly readily available in Montana. Next week, I'll post some of my journal entries of my exploration of the Northwest.

I awoke this morning to a beautiful day. A variety of colored leaves cover the ground and pepper the trees. It's unseasonably warm today. I walked out on our deck in shorts and a t-shirt feeling comfortable. The weather is going to be perfect for Brock's dirtbike excursion that he has planned for this afternoon. While he's gone, I'm going to catch up on some laundry and enjoy being home.

E-mail from Springfield, IL

The following is an e-mail from someone at the Freedom Experience in Springfield, IL. It's a great testimony for the FX...


Brock, Auny, Crew, Stunt Bikers, Band…

I feel compelled to write you.

I helped with crowd control all three nights of your FX in Springfield. The first night, I was almost in tears when all those kids stood up and went to the back room to talk to the counselors…

The next night I thought, there is no way it could happen again… the first night all the kids were church goers on the verge of making the commitment anyway…or so I thought. The second night, just as many people started a commitment to Christ.

The third night, the ratio grew to what seemed like more “general public” kids outnumbered the real church goers…

The third night, you blew me away even more. MORE and MORE kids learning about Christ. They were learning that they can step away from the pressures of everyday life and live their lives for Christ. The flood of kids that stood up and went to the back room just blew me away!

I’m divorced and my son has to live with his Mom a little more than he gets to be with his Step Mother and I. We have him about 35 or 40% of the time. He is on the verge of making that commitment and I know if his Mom would have let him come to the show, he would have been one of those kids in the back room talking with someone because of your words. But, his Mom is not a church-go’er, and possibly a complete atheist. I have no doubt that my son will become a great Christian someday.

He doesn’t know that I have this signed DVD yet, but as soon as his homework is done, we are going to watch it.

I just want you to know that when I told you in the “green room” before the show that you were doing something wonderful that I meant it from my heart. I have never seen anything like the shows I saw this week and I will never forget them! We WILL see you again…we’ll travel somewhere so my wife and son can see your show in person!

Marriage Proposals

One of the guys in our office just got engaged. He was very clever in the way that he asked her to marry him. His girlfriend had planned to surprise him by flying to New York while he was there on business last weekend. Unbeknownst to her, he knew about the "surprise." He played surprised when she showed up in NY. As they were taking a carriage ride in Central Park, she began talking about how much it was like a movie. She was talking about how shocked he was to see her in NY. He told her that he had a surprise of his own. He brought out the ring and asked her right then and there on the carriage ride.

Brock proposed to me as we were practicing for an illusion. We knew that we were to be married, so I was learning the role of assistant. We were practicing in an empty church. As I "disappeared," all of our friends slipped into the back of the church. When I "reappeared," I saw everyone sitting in the audience and Brock was holding a diamond ring. He was already on one knee because this was his position at the end of the trick anyway. He would get on one knee in order to help me out of the illusion. It was very sweet.

The best proposal that I've ever heard of was my sister and brother-in-law. She was in England for 5 weeks taking some college classes. Her boyfriend had written her a song and recorded it in order for her to listen to it while she was away. After a little over two weeks into her trip, she was eating at a restaurant in England and received 3 roses from the waiter. She thought that was a little odd. Another waiter came up and gave her 3 more roses and so on until she had 11 roses. Then, she heard the song that her boyfriend wrote being played on the piano in the restaurant. She immediately got up and went to the piano. On the piano was another rose and her boyfriend playing the song.

Discovery Channel TV Show

The expectant date that the "Miracles of Jesus" TV show is to air is either at Christmas or Easter. Now, it's looking good for Christmas. Please begin praying that it will make a huge impact. Pray that Christians will learn more about their Savior and that nonchristians will come to know Christ personally or at least seeking Him because of this program. Pray that Brock will be seen in a great light. Also, pray that Brock's opportunities will increase immensely because of this TV show. Right now, we want to do more Freedom Experiences, but we're having trouble booking them. It's a lot of commitment financially and timewise for communities. Pray that Brock's popularity grows as a result of this show in order to encourage people to actually take the plunge and book FX in their own town.

Satan's Lies

The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone. She is a mother of two small children. She feels very incompetant at times as a parent. There is a young teenage girl in her community whose mother is dying of cancer. She feels supernaturally drawn to this girl. After our conversation, I began to think about something. Why would the Lord entrust such a wonderful young lady into her hands if she is not an excellent mother? It makes more sense that Satan is lying to her and trying to get her to believe that she is not the mother that she needs to be so that she would not follow through on this commitment of mothering this girl after her mom passes away.

I began to think about my dad and how much he hated public speaking. He said that he could do any kind of ministry except one that involved speaking. He’s now a pastor that speaks publicly every week. Moses in the scripture felt like he was not the right person for the job.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lie. I think that I cannot develop relationships with women. I’m too different from them and my lifestyle is not relative to their lifestyle. I feel as if I cannot cultivate relationships with women very well because I travel too much. However, the Lord is using me to minister to young women lately. Even this girl that I wrote about above…the Lord placed her on my mind that day out of the blue. I had not talked to her in years, yet the day I called and told her that I was praying for her was the day that she needed it. She said that she felt so much love from the Lord because He asked me to pray for her at just the right time even though we were miles away from each other.

What lies has Satan been feeding you? Is there something that the Lord is asking of you in which you feel inadequate? The Lord speaks in a still, small voice, but Satan seems to hurl big, fiery, LOUD darts. “In our weakness, He is strong.” Take courage and don’t believe the lies!

Haunted Houses

I enjoy being scared in a controlled environment like a haunted house. Just the thrill of feeling terrified yet knowing you are safe is invigorating! I’ve had some crazy experiences in haunted houses…

One time, my sister and I went to a haunted house when we lived in Ft. Worth. They sent us through by ourselves. I was only 16 years old and Kay was 13 years old. At one point, we had to walk by a man with a chainsaw in order to get thru. I looked at my younger sister and said, “I’m not going that way.” She looked at me and asked what other way I would like to go. That was the only way out. After we ran by the chainsaw guy, we caught up with a couple casually walking thru. I think they were on a date, but that didn’t stop me. I grabbed onto the back of his shirt and hung on for dear life. Kay said that he kept looking back and talking to his girlfriend about some strange girl clutching his shirt.

Another time, some friends of mine were going thru a haunted house. I somehow ended up in the back. It was pitch black and I lost my sandal. When I stopped to find it, my friends deserted me. A “monster” ended up finding my missing flip-flop. He wasn’t quite as scary when he stopped his growling and said in a plain voice, “Here’s your shoe.”

Scenic Route

We must make that long drive home from Vancouver, WA. There are several routes we could take. However, we're choosing a northern way in order to experience some states that we've never seen. Our planned stops include an area that has natural hot springs in Montana and Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Also, we plan to stay in our rig the entire time. I'm rather tired of hotel rooms. Therefore, we will just pull over to sleep when we are tired and keep driving the rest of the time. It will take over 38 hours of just driving time. That's not counting site seeing or fuel and food stops. So, if you work 40 hours a week, we'll be literally driving the entire time you're working this week.

Portland, OR

Portland is very cool. This is my 3rd or 4th time to Portland. I visited the Gorge here. It's beautiful! However, it rains 9 months out of the year. I wouldn't be able to handle that weather. It's cold here now. Therefore, it's cold and wet. This week was the week that I got out my big jacket as opposed to my little hoodie.

I woke up 2 hours early this morning. For some reason, Pacific time is the most difficult time zone for me to adjust to. The others I seem to handle well. Even when we went to Australia, I adapted better than here. Tomorrow, with the daylight savings time I'm going to be all jacked up. One time, we flew from Maryland to Portland, performed that night in Portland, and flew back. That was the longest day of my life!

Chicago Airport

We had a 2 and a half hour layover in Chicago yesterday. The Chicago airport and the Atlanta airport both say that they are the largest airport in the country. I can settle the bet…Atlanta is the largest hands down. Also, Chicago has a lot of people but not a big selection of restaurants. There were people everywhere. You could barely cross over to the other side without getting trampled. There were lines at every food place from McDonalds to Chili’s. If you want to eat, the only option is sandwiches, salads, or pizza. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago itself is a great city, but the airport is not the best for its size.

It was cool being in Chicago the day after the White Sox won the World Series. All of the newspapers sported the word “Champions” really big. There were White Sox signs written in chalk on some of the luggage carriers. A lady at one of the shops was folding new t-shirts fresh out of the box that read “White Sox World Series Champions.”

Fly Show in Illionois

Okay, I have to admit. Right now, after being on the road for 2 solid months this summer and then going directly into this big tour, I'm tired of doing shows. So, last night, I wasn't too into this show. It was a fly show which means Brock does small interactive tricks and I run sound and lights.

During Brock's message, I went backstage because I was simply bored and wanted to read or something. As I was sitting there pondering how frustrating the production was in the show, I started to try and pray. At this point, the Lord told me that I was much more valuable as a prayer warrior than a production manager. I tried to get my act together and focus. I really had a neat time of prayer back there.

God heard mine and Brock's prayers. Out of the 500 people in attendance, about 25% made a decision for Christ! The youth pastor had 120 cards for the ones that were becoming a follower of Christ to fill out. They ran out of cards and had to use the backs.

Also, I was praying some specific things about this church that I felt like the Lord was giving me. After the show, Brock began to tell me his thoughts about this church that he got as he was speaking. As we were eating dinner, the youth pastor began to talk about the spiritual climate of the church. All of our assessments matched. That's when you know that the Lord Himself is telling you what to pray. That's my gift and if I don't use it for even one show even if I'm dog tired or bored, then I've failed the people in that town.

Lunch with the Pimps

We've been at the airport and on a plane all morning. It was really tough for me to shoulder all of the bags in order for Brock to rest his back. He's doing alot better due to the rest, but we're still taking precautions.

By the time we landed at 12:35, I was starving. The local youth pastor picked us up and took us to our hotel. He said there was a restaurant in the hotel. We dropped off our stuff and went to the restaurant. It had just closed at 1pm. I was beginning to shake because I was so hungry. The hotel took us to a Japanese restaurant down the road. We sat at the habachi grill with a few guys. One of them looked just like Dave Chappelle and they were all obviously pimps. Brock began teasing them by asking what they did for a living. Brock said, "Let me guess...you are all school teachers." They began to laugh. Brock asked them if they were on their lunch break or on a day off. They replied with "Day off."

Right now, we are back at the hotel and I'm about to take a nap. I stayed out late last night watching a movie with my sister. We thought that it would be fun to see "In Her Shoes" together since it's about sisters. Anyhow, I'm really feeling the effects of the late night and early morning.

A Weird Week

Last week was a weird one! We had some vandilism on our vehicle. There was some kind of animal crap left on the step of our truck by the passenger door. Someone wrote in magic marker on our trailer.

We sold a pen at our product table for $27 and a $20 gift certificate to Blockbuster. The guys that ran our table were trips and they placed a pen on the table with a $100 price tag. Some kids actually ended up paying the cash and gift certificate for a PEN! It was funny!

Stephanie heard someone scratching on her hotel window. Whenever she turned on the light, the noise would stop. When she turned the light out, it happened again. So, she flipped back on the light and it stopped. Needless to say, she didn't get much sleep that night.

We found our missing prop. It was left at the venue in Georgia where we performed a month ago. The promotor is going to mail it back to us.

A Positive Update

I haven't had access to internet for a couple of days, but here is the update. We are staying in Ft. Worth, TX with Brock's sister and brother-in-law for a few days. My sister and brother-in-law live here as well, so we get to see them too. Thanks to Josh, one of the guys on the conference tour, we're able to stay here and rest until Wednesday. Josh is driving our truck to Oregon for us. On Wednesday, we will fly to Illinois to perform Wednesday night and then to Portland on Thursday in order to be there for our shows this weekend.

It's amazing how much better Brock's back is now that he's been able to really rest. He's found that sitting in a vehicle increases the pain. Therefore, a 45 hour drive would not have been a good idea. Yesterday, we found a cool, ornate cane for only $6. So, we bought it for him. He uses it when he gets out of a car. Tonight, he's going to get a massage. Pray that he is completely healed by Wednesday. If not, the airplane ride is going to be murder!

I rented a car and am enjoying running around town. I feel alot of freedom and a bit of normalcy while driving a regular car. I ate lunch with my sister today and we'll be going over to her house tonight for dinner. Brock's sister's birthday is tomorrow, so we will be here to celebrate it with her! I think the Lord knew that we needed a break. Thanks for your prayers.

Road Problems

We broke down on the side of the road in Lebanon, MO at 5pm yesterday. We finally got it towed at 7:30. However, the mechanics said that it would be Saturday afternoon at the earliest before they had it done. We were to be in Dallas in order to perform by tonight and tomorrow. Our show is over Saturday afternoon. We spent the two and a half hours on the side of the road racking our brains as how to get to Dallas for the show. I called my mom so that she could get people to pray. Stephanie called her dad to get people to pray. We were praying for a miracle that we could make our show in Dallas.

At around 7pm, Brock called our friend, Brad Bennett who lives in Springfield, Mo which was about 45 miles from where we were just to see if he could help. He said that he had a friend who lived in Lebanon who was a CPA and worked with trucks in some capacity. He called that friend, Doug. Doug showed up, paid for the towing cost, and lent us his brand new dully pick-up truck to haul our trailer as well as us to Dallas. He is incredible...an angel. We got our miracle and we're now in Dallas about to perform.

However, it has still been a rough day. Brock's back is still bad. He had to try and stretch out in the back of the pick-up truck. That's difficult for a 6'4" guy. He was worse when we got out of the truck a couple of hours ago. I had to drive the entire way. I'm not very comfortable driving somebody else's vehicle especially with a 36' trailer attached. Pray for us. We have to perform all day tonight and tomorrow (with Brock's bad back), drive the 8 hours to Missouri by tomorrow night, pick up the truck, and leave Sunday morning to drive to Portland, OR by Tuesday night.

Last Night

Last night was amazing! Brock was slightly disappointed when we were praying before we started because they said that about 400 people were here. Brock said that he wanted to see 1,400 here. We prayed and in the end, there were 1,343 people in attendance. It was great. The venue was very tough because there were no chairs. Everyone stood up the entire night. When it came time for the invitation, it was difficult to get everyone quiet and listening. Despite all of the distractions, 157 people gave their lives to Jesus last night. Sometimes, it seems as if more people respond to an invitation on the night that they don't seem to be attentive.

Brock was able to see a chiropractor yesterday. The doctor said that he has a strained muscle in his back. He was able to loosen up Brock alot. That was good, because he was having trouble walking yesterday morning let alone doing a show. However, a strained muscle just takes time to heal. I could tell that the water coffin was painful for Brock last night. The chiropractor said that sitting is the worst thing he can do. Therefore, it looks as if I'm going to be doing the bulk of the driving to Dallas today. My sinuses are so much better though.

Taking FX Up a Notch

Last night, we did again. It was incredible! The crowd was mesmerized with anticipation. They let out a huge scream when Brock was victorious. Everybody is talking about it. There was a write-up in the newspaper about it. We've only done this particular stunt once before. It went really well. This stunt really took Freedom Experience up a notch. More about this later...

FX in Springfield, IL

So far, this has been a typical Freedom Experience. The band's van gave out while they were in Florida. Therefore, we got a new band as of 11pm Sunday night. They drove in from Georgia yesterday in time to play last night. Freshman 15 saved the day and did a great job performing. We also had props break in the show last night and one illusion was missing. I don't know if it was stolen or what. Our mic seems to be broken. One of the bmx riders' bike broke. The fire code is apparently really strict in this town. Our curtains were not allowed to be touching the ground at all. So, I spent over an hour pinning up the curtains. Also, Brock messed up his back during the straight jacket illusion and I'm still having major sinus problems.

However, lots of people were saved. Two fifteen year old girls were saved last night. They were on drugs and alcohol. One of the girls pulled up her sleeve to show the week old wounds from slitting her wrists. The other girl had scars indicating that she is a self mutilator. Now, they have Christ in their lives to help them battle through recovery. Pray that these girls get the help that they need to come clean. Neither one of them really have parents and they both have younger brothers that they are "raising."

Homemaking Skills

I was feeling very confident about my homemaking skills because I made some cookies for the staff of the conference. They loved them! I made so many of them that I thought they would be able to take some back with them on the bus. They didn't even last until Saturday!

Well, pride goeth before the fall. Yesterday, I woke up early to get everything ready to go. We left town yesterday and will not be back until November 5th. Therefore, I had a lot to do. I didn't have any dishwashing detergent left. I didn't have time to go to the store and buy some, nor to wash every dish by hand. So, I put just a little Palmolive dish soap in the dishwasher. DON'T EVER EVER EVER EVER DO THAT! Suds were going all over the kitchen about the time I woke Brock up. Brock spent the whole morning cleaning up soap in the kitchen. Needless to say, we got a late start!

Encouraged

After I wrote that last post, I was feeling rough. My sinuses were bad and I just wanted to go home. However, we had already made some plans with a couple here. I'm so glad that we went. Being with them really lifted my spirits and made me feel alot better.

This last book that I read, Captivating, did not really resonate with me. It was good, but it didn't hit me hard at this time in my life. However, the whole time I was reading it, I thought of my friend. I knew that I needed to give her that book. In fact, I hurried through it this week so that I could give it to her last night.

I offhandedly gave it to her. She said that it was not a coincidence that I gave her that book. She felt like the Lord wanted her to read a book. She is not a consistent reader so she didn't really know where to start. She was thinking about it a couple of days ago and that was the day that I posted the entry about books. After reading my blog that day, it only affirmed it in her mind that she needed to read a book. She was about to ask me last night what book to read but before she could, I handed her the book. I told her that for some reason, God wants her to read that book.

It was a special time. The Lord not only drew us together, but He showed us how much He loves us. We were both so encouraged by how the Lord pays attention to the details of our life.

Grouchy

I've got to admit that I'm grouchy right now. We're doing one of our shows on the conference tour in Nashville. It's difficult to do a show in your hometown. We've had friends come to the show and go to dinner and lunch with us. However, it's sorta like when you are in school and it's the day before some kind of break. You don't want to do any work.

Also, my sinuses have been acting up everyday for the last two weeks. They're not getting better. I don't know what to do. I've been taking medicine, trying to eat right, getting as much sleep as I can. It doesn't seem to be working. My right eye waters constantly and I feel like I'm on the brink of a sneeze every few seconds.

We are just plain tired. For the last nine days, we've been driving or onstage. I'm emotionally and spiritually and physically drained. I don't know if I can make for 15 more days just like the last nine.

I know that this is very negative. Just pray that we'll be able to make it through the next few weeks. We leave tomorrow morning to do a Freedom Experience in Springfield, IL. Then, we drive to Dallas to do another weekend on the tour. We then drive to Portland, OR, get on a plane, and fly to Rock Island, IL to do a show. Then, we fly back to Portland for another tour date. The next day, we drive to Vancouver, WA to perform. On the 31st, we start to drive back home to Nashville...Ugh!

Books

I just finished two books this week...three actually because we listened to one on CD. I feel so good when I complete a book. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something. I always read two books at a time. One that is fiction for pure entertainment and one that is nonfiction that helps me get closer to the Lord in some way. (As you might have guessed from my last few posts, sometimes I have alot of time on my hands on the road.) I recently read Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge and Redemption by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley.

My favorite books are:
Gone With the Wind by Margeret Mitchell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers
Prayer: The Key to Revival by Paul Cho
Six Hours One Friday by Max Lucado

Tell me some of your favorite books. I'm always looking for something new to read.

Last Show in Quincy, IL

It was a good night last night. Toward the end of the service, Brock led the students in a special prayer time. He says that the church today puts too much emphasis on the paid ministers. We are the church. He told the youth that you don't have to have a degree in ministry or a microphone to minister. "If you are a Christian, you are a minister," Brock told them. "He said you might say 'I'm only 14 years old.' Exactly, you are 14 years old and the Lord wants to use you."

He had people that were going through some tough times raise their hands. Then, he had students gather around each hurting person and pray for them. It was great watching youth pray for each other.

Cruising Around in the Church Van

During the days here in Quincy, IL, we have absolutely nothing to do. Brock rode his dirt bike with one of the leaders yesterday. So, Stephanie and I just had to find something to do. Our only transportation is our big semi. Therefore, the church let us use their church van. It's funny just me and Steph cruising around town in a church van. People would honk and wave at us. I'm sure that they probably attend the church and think that they know us.

We went downtown to a place to eat lunch. For a second, I thought I was going to have to parallel park that thing! That just wasn't going to happen. I had trouble parallel parking our little beetle. Luckily, we found a parking spot where we were able to pull in.

The place that we went to for lunch ended up being a tea room. It was packed with nothing but women. (I'm glad that Brock wasn't with us.) They also had all of these knickknacks that you could buy. It was a little odd.

After lunch, we went to a coffee shop. We sipped on coffee and hot chocolate and read our books until it closed at 3pm. Today, we plan on seeing a tree on which its trunk has a place that looks like Jesus holding a lamb. There is also a chopper shop here in this small town that Brock wants to look at. Hey, you do what you have to do when all you have is a church van and the nearest city is 100 miles away.

A Vision From Six Years Ago

We are performing three nights in Quincy, IL. Last night was the first night. I sat in a closet right off of the stage. Therefore, I could not see what was going except when I came out onstage to bring Brock something or perform an illusion. It reminded me of another time I sat in a closet backstage over six years ago...

It was my first summer out with Brock. We were at Pineywoods Campground. It actually might have been my first camp with Brock. I sat in that closet and prayed my heart out during Brock's message. The Lord gave me a vision. I saw a mist or cloud type form that gently hovered over and thru the crowd. Then, all of the cloud was wisped up into Brock's mouth. I think that the Lord was showing me how the Holy Spirit goes across the crowd and then gives Brock the words to say to those people.

Last night, I was praying about that same thing. After the show, Brock came backstage to the closet and asked if I had been praying. I told him yes. Brock said that he could tell because he didn't give the message that he usually gives. It was as if the Lord was giving him each word to say. I reminded Brock of the vision and told him that I was praying about that. He said that happened again last night. Brock could feel it.

Lots of people were saved and the Holy Spirit was thick in the room. I could even feel His presence in the closet on the side of the stage!

Lucille Ball Moments

I had what my sister calls a "Lucille Ball" moment this weekend. She uses this term when someone does something unintentional in everyday life that becomes comical. My incident involved a meatball. I ordered a meatball sandwich for lunch. We were sitting at higher tables in this restaurant. When I picked up the sandwich, the bread was soggy on the bottom and somehow one meatball broke away from the sandwich. It fell onto my lap and down to the floor. Because of the height of the table, it continued to roll all the way into the aisle. (Isn't there a song about that? "On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed...") At sometime during the meal, a waiter must have cleaned it up because it was gone before we left.

The most expensive "Lucille Ball" moment that I know of was when a friend of mine was using an airplane bathroom. He had a brand new ipod just as they came out on the market. At the precise moment that he flushed, the ipod slipped and fell into the toilet and into the abyss. He talked with the flight attendant, but there was nothing that could be done.

The funniest "Lucille Ball" moment was an incident when I was in college. My two friends and I would leave singing messages on our friends' answering machines. One of my friends really liked this guy and knew that he enjoyed the singing messages. After we had sung our song, she began to playfully talk about how much he would love the song and think of her and want to marry her, etc. I looked over and the light on the phone was still lit up. The phone was still on and her profession of love was now recorded on his answering machine. We had to get a friend of ours who was this guy's suitemate to sneak in and erase the message. That was a close one!

Believe Conference in Iowa

Everything went really well in Iowa. The crowd was awesome. We are really getting the hang of this tour. At the end of the whole weekend, we have a "Saturday Night Live" ending. It's where the whole cast comes up onstage and sort of dances around while the band plays and sings a crazy song. During this time, Brock crawled under the stage. There are a few different levels to the stage and right in front, there's a small gap in the staging. Brock got in that gap and kept popping his head out from under the stage where only the cast could see him. He had that goofy "Forrest Gump" smile when he came out. I laughed as each one of the cast members noticed him. Some were almost startled. Others leaned down to egg him on. Everyone was laughing.

We had a relaxing night last night. We went to a locally owned bistro for dinner. The owner and cook showed us the main courses for dinner. He was so passionate about his food. He greeted everyone who came in the door. "Happy Anniversary," he said to one couple who came in. "Have fun at the symphony," he said to some people who were on their way out all dressed up. The food was great! Then, we went to a local coffee shop where I sipped on hot chocolate and played online. It was fun.

Ode to Iowa

What would we do without Iowa?

There'd be no corn,
no corn on the cob,
no corn fritters,
no corn muffins,
no creamed corn,
no corn casserole,
no corn chowder,
no grilled corn,
no corn pudding,
no corn bread,
no corn flakes.

Also, we wouldn't have the color brown.

And most importantly, we wouldn't have our friends from the bmx stunt team Chaos on Wheels.

Does anyone know of any other way to cook corn that wasn't named above?


by Brock Gill

Davenport, IA

We are in Davenport, IA this weekend. It's a big dissapointment after being in Denver last weekend. There is not much here. On the way here, all we saw were corn fields. We are staying in downtown Davenport, but that's not saying much. Maybe it will surprise me and be a fun place!

It is freezing here! I feel like we skipped fall and went right to winter in Iowa. All that I packed us was a couple of hoodies. Yesterday, we were wearing shorts and now we need heavy coats. I'm not ready for winter. I want to experience fall.

Walking

Brock is reading a book about how to be healthy. One of the things that the book talks about is walking. Other countries walk 10 to 100 times more than Americans in a day. They walk to work and to the store or restaurants. We drive everywhere. Some of that is because everything is so spread out in the U.S. If you go to European countries, you can walk to wherever you need to go.

I began to think about it, and realized that we try to get a good parking spot at the gym. It doesn't make much sense. So, we've made a few changes. Brock now parks at the back of any parking lot in order to walk further. Also, we try to walk for an hour a day outside. Luckily, the weather has been good so far.

You wouldn't believe how much better it makes you feel just to be walking out in the fresh air! Even if you are walking around a city, it feels good. While doing these conference tours, we are getting our walking in. We walk to and from the convention center and to restaurants. We walk around in the convention center alot. My favorite walks are the intentional ones. Usually, we choose a pretty area. We've discovered so many walking trails in Tennessee. It's beautiful and relaxing. It's a time to spend with each other and our Creator.

Some Results from FX

Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the towns in which we put on an FX after we leave. This is an e-mail that we received from the promotor of our last FX in Harlan, KY:

Wow! I was just talking to an attorney from Harlan today about the drug problem and the problem with the break up of so many families in our area and told him the answer is to reach them with the truth of God and he told me about a lady that works in his office. This lady and her husband were going through a divorce when the FX came to town. Their children both wanted to go to the FX and so they worked it out and decided they would both take them to the event. As a result while they were there, God began to speak and to move in their lives and now they are back together as a family and stopped the divorce. The man that told me this did not know I had anything to do with the FX. Wow!! Talk
about being blown away!! I am still hearing about the results.

Denver, CO

Denver was a great city. They had a modern area downtown with blocks of streets lined with shops and restaurants. It was fun to walk around. The mountains in the background made it very beautiful. While we were there, we visited with some friends that live in the area. Tyler Newberry (tylernewberry.com) and his lovely wife Leslianne came to the show. We stayed with Doug Herman (purerevolution.com) and his family Saturday night. They have a great house and were very hospitable. Denver has been my favorite city on this tour so far. I'm rating each city and this one received 5 stars in my book!

As we drove home yesterday, the price of deisel increased by the hour. It's now up to $3.59 in Tennessee. We budgeted for the fuel prices to increase to as much as $2.00 for this tour when we booked it 2 years ago. We never imagined it to be over $2 much less over $3.50! Please pray that the prices will go down or the Lord will provide the extra money to cover the raising prices of fuel. In our big truck, we only get 7 miles to the gallon.

Kansas

We have been driving thru Kansas for what seems like forever! Kansas is so boring. It's flat and brown. Sorry to those of you who live there...I'm really sorry. If you want to see pictures of Kansas, go to xanga.com/stephydepp. It always seems to be cold here as well. Everytime we come to Kansas no matter what time of year, it's cold. On the way to Colorado, I was wearing a tank top because it was so hot. The moment we reached Kansas, it was freezing! Then, it was perfect weather in Colorado. I don't get it. Is it eternally cold in Kansas?

The coldest I've ever been was in Kansas a few years ago. It was 2 degrees but the windchill made it feel well below zero. I had just taken a shower so my hair was still damp. I ran across the small parking lot, maybe 15 yards. In that amount of time, my hair completely froze!

Last time we pulled over and slept on the side of the road in Kansas, I heard some running next to our truck. It sounded as if people were just running around in the back of a truck. We found out that there was a truck with cows in it that pulled up next to us. This time while we were pulled over on the side of the road in Kansas, I woke up and heard cows mooing. There was another truck of cows next to us! What is it with cows and cold in Kansas?

Brock's Plea

The following is straight from the heart of Brock:

Hurricane Rita hit close to home. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has barely set in when Rita hit. As many of you know, I am from Louisiana (now living in Nashville). Let me tell you, the devastation is incomprehensible. As I write this, my home town is without water, power, and almost no communication. My family is all safe. My parents evacuated to Texas and my extended family stayed to ride it out. Rita hit them dead on. There is damage to my parents' house and trees down. The neighbors weren't so lucky. They had trees in their house. Some of my friends had to evacuate from the Sabine pass area in Texas. They can't go home yet. They aren't sure if it is okay or not.

If you saw the news, you might have seen a water tower with the words "Holly Beach" written on it. If you noticed, there was nothing else near it. That area was completely lost and wiped off the map. I have some good friends who lived in Holly Beach. They had a ministry they operated from their house right there on the beach. They have ministered to thousands of people over the years. As the storm approached they packed up and left. They decided to stay with a family from my father's church (my father is a pastor). That night, they heard a crashing sound and woke up to find a tree laying near the bed they were in. They were almost killed. The next morning, they found the trailer with all of their belongings crushed by another tree. They lost everything. Their house was gone and now all of their stuff. They only escaped with their lives. These people are devastated. They are good people who have devoted their lives to helping others. Now, they are the ones in need.

The depth of this storm will be enormous and long term. What I want to do is show you how you can help. What many people don't think about is how days lost cripple the local economy in such difficult ways. For example, think of a young business who needs everyday of business to make enough to pay the bills, or think of a young and small church who depends on every Sunday taking up the tithes and offerings. If the power is out for two or three weeks, then services are cancelled and the budget takes a blow. When they do return to normal services, many people have lost income and have no extra money to give. If a family gets paid less than usual, then their tithe is less. The domino effect is substantial.

I have talked to some pastors who have been effected by Hurricane Rita and they are in a long term mess with no light at the end of the tunnel. My father is a pastor in southwest Louisiana where the hurricane hit the hardest. His entire parish is without power. No one knows when they will get it. The devastation is everywhere. No one is running to their rescue. The media is not covering more than just a few areas. What about all of the rural areas that have experienced total losses? There aren't celebrities there getting their picture taken as they pass out water. It is almost as if these areas are ignored.

I am calling for you, my friends, every person who reads this to help me as we help those people in need, specifically pastors. Those who give the most sometimes need help themselves. I am asking you to give money. Make checks payable to Unity Baptist Church, (memo line Rita) we will be making donations to pastors who are in need. Send the checks to:
Unity Baptist Church/Rita Relief
PO Box 1342
DeRidder, LA 70634.
100% of the money will go straight to those in need. We need you to respond quickly to this. As we speak, there are pastors that we know who are spending their own money to buy ice, gas, and supplies for those in their communities who are in need. The government can't fix this. The churches should step up to the plate so God gets the glory. I am calling on you to act now.

Also if you know of a church who needs a pastor or youth pastor contact us. We will connect pastors from the LA and TX regions to churches who need staff. If your church wants to send volunteers to help with the clean up and rebuilding process contact us. Thank you for the prayer and support. Lets serve God by serving people. Lets help pastors now.