"Amen, brother!"

I was invited by three friends to attend a three day convention in the Smoky Mountains called "Praise Fest." It is a pretty much continuous slate of gospel music singing, Christian comedy, and preaching. We go for three hours in the morning and then break for the afternoon, and then three hours in the evening.

Last night Dr. Charles Stanley of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, also known as "America's Pastor" spoke to us about being active in service ministry all the days of our lives, the same message was delivered by Pastor and comedian Ken Davis. Dr. Stanley said, 'when you stand before God being judged and He asks you what you have been doing the last twenty years, are you going to tell him, 'er, I retired from serving You and have been coasting?'' I sure want to be able to say that I worked hard for Him and what a joyous moment if He replies, "Well done good and faithful servant"!!

The music is rousing southern gospel, moving and cheerful. The preaching is insightful, Scriptural, and inspiring. All in all, it's 2,000 evangelical Christians in an auditorium saying, "Amen, brother!"



Above, The Specks singing southern gospel to a crowd of about 2,000.

At the laudromat

At Danielsville laundromat, I park next to Papa and his boiled peanut and fried pork skin vendor cart, and enter past a bulletin board advertising the annual chitlin dinner at Watson Mill Fish House. Inside is a women in a brown tee shirt advertising Bubba's Taxidermy.

Above, Papa attending to a customer, wearing his trademark white cowboy hat, matching his white, flowing hair.

I watch my delicates spin, and my interior chortles on the typical southern markers fade as I chat with a woman who owns a washing machine, but there's no water at her house because her well ran dry...so she's here at the laundro. Her well gave up the ghost, and the drought doesn't seem to be easing anytime soon. "I wonder how long it'll be till they tell us we can't use this place," she said morosely.

She runs a farm and has to haul water for all the animals. She heats the water for dishwashing in the microwave. She takes a shower at her friends' house. One load of laundry takes 60 gallons..."I know. I've hauled them," she said.

As I pack to leave, I wish the the no-water dry well woman good luck. She brightens, saying "Nice chatting with you!"

Children are the heartbeat of God

I volunteer at a Bible study club conducted after school in a local elementary school. There are about 45 kids in it, from K to 5th grade. Yesterday was the sweetest day, everything ran smoothly and there was real connection and there was laughter. I love those little souls!

We're in a drought

A really, really bad 100-year drought. No need to waste precious water on our cars...for vanity purposes

Photo album, road trip to the Falls!

Our trip to Tallulah Falls last weekend.

Watch the WHOLE thing

it builds. Lifehouse Everything skit, 3,488,743 views on GodTube.com and 1,873,523 views on Youtube.com

My current crisis

I ate some popcorn last night while watching a Bette Davis movie and a kernel husk got stuck halfway down my throat. And it's not budging. I categorize this as a "minor annoyance."

So I look at nice photos to take my mind off it. :) This is at Lake Louise, northeast Georgia

A slow day at the gumlog

Do you believe in angels?

I do. I believe I have a guardian angel who is around me. I can feel him sometimes. His name is Aniel.

So the Gallery is hosting an "Angelic" Exhibition beginning in late November and running through Christmas. I have a few pieces that might be considered ready, there's one that Tina really likes. It's below. The deadline is quickly approaching and I have to get the photo developed, matted and framed... But I do love the idea of a whole exhibition dedicated to God's messengers!

This is from my deck. Evolution of a potential entry:


I cropped it to focus on the angel & scripture, and away from the dead leaves and negative space:

Next, fool around in Photoshop to make it look otherworldly:


I snapped this one a couple of years ago at my apartment in Maine. My landlord had an angel holding a globe on her deck, so I took a photo of it.


When I developed the photo I noticed an entire world inside the globe, and in focusing on just the globe it looks like the angel is holding my world... and me. So then I extracted the extras away from the photo and left just the angel and globe. For the 'Angelic' show I am thinking of doing something with this, but I don't know yet.

Kindness works

Did anyone ever perpetrate a random act of kindness on you? When that happens, it feels so good in its unexpectedness. Someone unknown to me called yesterday and the purpose of his call was to express a kindness. The effect of kindness cannot be underestimated! It refreshes the heart.