Welcome to Our World

Flower Beds and Gardening

2010-04-17T18:15:00.004-04:00

We recently decided to fix up the front flower bed. Here is the before:

and the after:

Pretty big change huh? We added some stone boarder pieces (.82 cents each), 5 inpatients between the green things that flower (?), and mulch. We finally realized that the flowers we were planting in this area were nice looking, but needed full sun. This area is pretty much shaded all day. Here is a follow up picture a few weeks later:

We decided to plant a garden in the back. Here are some progression shots of building the garden and planting. Notice the detail in cutting the timbers at 45 degree angles...

We layed the garden far enough away from the fence to ensure the lawn mower could fit between. However, as you can see, the grass seems to be taking a cue from the hair on my (Brian's) head.

We planted some marigolds (to deter things with their smell...that is our theory, and it seems to work), tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, green onions, and cucumbers. Here is a more recent shot, all we have left to do now is put a layer of top soil over the gardern.

January Update

2010-01-20T10:33:00.003-05:00

As you may have noticed, our blog has lacked the quantity of content you, our readers, are used to. Melanie and I have both found ourselves very busy over the past month. Melanie stays busy with as the Director of the After School Program at her school. Now that Christmas and New Years are behind us, we are setting our sites on Spring and Summer.

You may have seen on the news that Florida was experiencing record setting low temperatures a few weeks back. We held up in our house with the heat cranked for two strait weekends! It felt like we were back in Kentucky. Of course, our house is much nicer to be stuck in than our 385 square foot apartment in Wilmore. We are happy to announce the temperatures are back to normal for this time of year, which is between 70 and 80 for the high. Over the MLK holiday weekend, Melanie and I went to Cocoa Beach for the day. The water is still chilly (about 62 degrees), so we just layed out. As you may remember, I took surfing lessons last October. My sister (and parents) gave me her longboard (7'9") for Christmas. She does not use it much anymore. I had hoped to do some surfing last weekend, but realized I would still need a wet suit. I officially sold my snowboard, and it seemed rather pointless since the only mountain with "snow" in Florida is at Animal Kingdom. If you think I am snowboarding on a mountain which regularly reports Yeti sighting, you are crazy! Melanie and I are hoping to make it to the beach more often this year, as our new house is about 15-20 minutes closer to Cocoa Beach, than the Ronald McDonald House.

I will be starting Spring classes in a few more weeks. I will share a blog about my classes at that time. Melanie and I are very excited about the end of seminary coming soon. Who knows what the next chapter of our life together will hold.

Love Breaks In

2009-12-21T13:36:00.002-05:00

I, Brian, had the opportunity this past weekend to preach at Aloma UMC in Winter Park. I was following a Christmas/Advent theme, and my topic was the “Gift of Love.” I worked from Matthew 1:18-25. I blogged the sermon on my other blog, read it here. (Don't tell my other blog, but this one is still my favorite :)

We will be heading to Virginia soon for Christmas to spend time with my parents and sister. Wish I could wrap up Orlando weather and gift it to Virginia Beach. Looks like snow!

Merry Christmas!

I'm a Certified Candidate!!

2009-10-23T10:17:00.001-04:00

It’s official, I (Brian) just left the District Committee Board of Ordained Ministry (United Methodist) and I am officially a certified candidate. You cannot even begin to imagine how exciting this if for me! For those of you familiar with the UM process you understand how much blood, sweat, and tears have brought me this far! Literally, I have experienced all three in the process. The blood was given in a health physical. For those not as familiar with “the process”, allow me to share.

The process to ordination as a UM pastor is quite long and tedious. The UM church takes seriously those whom will be placed as pastors in their congregations. I am thankful for the process and its many hurdles because it has reaffirmed my calling to ministry, and connected me with a group who really cares about God’s work in my life. Over the past year I have spent a good deal of time working with a mentor, reading and reflecting on ordained ministry, taking psychological tests, and more. All this is on top of my work in seminary. By reaching this level, the board recognized my call and gifts (from God) while setting me on a track to continue to grow. The next steps are to begin working on my paperwork for the state level ordination, which will come after graduation. This will basically be a thesis, as the total page count should be in the 90s.

I still have a ways to go, but feel very affirmed in the journey. I was worried the committee would be a bunch of grouchy old preachers who were looking to trip me up on theology and question my intentions. But I knew the people of the Florida Conference would not be this way. I found a group of warm individuals who wanted to see me succeed. They were grace-filled, encouraging, and loved me enough to share some perceived areas for continued growth over the next year.

The Methodist church may not be perfect, but they are solid in the process of ordaining their ministers and pastors. I have some many people to thank for their help and work in my life to walk with me to this point. However, I have to mention my wife, Melanie. She has been a constant support when it would have been easier to walk away from the frustrations of the process. God has, and is still, using her in many ways to speak His truth, encouragement, and guidance into my life. God sure made a good match here. :)

October News

2009-10-18T20:23:00.004-04:00

With another Preview Weekend behind me I feel I can now re-focus on this semester and focus in the next couple weeks. First, I (Brian) felt compelled to blog.

Surfing Lesson: If you remember back to a blog around May, Melanie purchased me surfing lessons at Ron Jon in Cocoa Beach. We had not had a chance to use them until we carved our some time last weekend. The weather could not have been more perfect. Flordia was in a heat wave so it was just like summer again. I had surfed a few times in Virginia Beach, but never taken any formal classes. I was given a surfboard by a friend several years a ago. It was a 5'3" stunt board. The instructor said it was the worst possible board to learn on. We used an 8' longboard to start with. Much easier to get up on and balance. I was able to catch several waves in the hour. If you want a great workout, try surfing, my arms were burning for days! I hope to pick up surfing as a hobby. Melanie loves to lay out on the beach, and I enjoyed riding the waves.
Current Courses: I am taking three classes (8 hours) this semester. I tricked myself. You see, Asbury considers 9 hours to be a full time load. I know I cannot do full time work and school. So I said, 8 hours is still part time. Well, turns out my Mentored Ministry class is only 2 hours, but workload is considered 3 hours. Despite the heavy workload, I am really enjoying all my classes. The Mentored Ministry class has me interning with our church, Aloma UMC and mentoring with our pastor, Dr. Wayne Williams. The class works like the labs we used to have to do in science. I have spent the last several years doing a lot of theory, now I get to "mix some chemicals" in the church. My mentor has been especially helpful and encouraging. I am also taking Basic Christian Doctrine with Thomas Buchan. It's a systematic theology class which touches on a broad spectrum of concepts. My last class is Foundations of Campus Ministry. My call to ministry has always danced around the idea of Campus Ministry. However, I just assumed it would fade in time. The problem, is the desire to work with young adults keeps growing stronger. 18-25ish seems to be the dark ages in development. Lots of work on children and adolescents, and a good deal of information on adulthood. However, we seem content to send our adolescents to college and hope they return to the church when have a kid or get married. This is not good enough. There is no need to be afraid of the "age of exploration." I don't intend to quell the inquisitiveness of college students, but be a voice interested in their spiritual formation through these years. I am excited to see what shakes out come graduation.
JohnsonBrian.com: I started this blog more for myself than anything else. I am experimenting this semester with a form of notetaking/journaling. It will consist of quotes, short blogs, interesting tidbits, and more. I also think this will free up this site (melaniebrian.com) to be our regular life and adventure blog. So please, if your interested, bookmark both sites.

I have uploaded several recent photo albums. Click over to see them.

September Updates

2009-10-02T09:48:00.004-04:00

Wow! So much has happened since we last bogged back in August! The picture above is Brian and I celebrating my 28th Birthday last month. We went out with some friends to the Japaneses Steak House I really like. The week before that (Labor Day) we moved into our new house, and only two weeks before that I started my new job at Pershing Elementary School as the Director for ASP, Inc.
This past weekend we spent in Savannah with all of my family for Lucinda's wedding! She and Chip finally tied the knot. We had a great time with everyone and enjoyed hanging out and dancing together. It was a fast weekend, yet very relaxing and enjoyable. There will be more pictures to come of the wedding and our new house.
It is hard to believe it is already October. Brian is ridiculously busy with school and recruiting. He is taking a full load, plus doing his mentored ministry. He just finished his paperwork for candiacy and now we wait until the end of October when he goes before the board. Keep him in your prayers as I am sure his nerves will kick in. We just pray that everything works out as it should.
We won't be having an official house warming party, but instead will have a few people over for a Halloween party.... I am hoping I will finish and have everything set up in the house by then. We have come along ways!
Check back for pictures in the next couple of days. I should have some posted soon!

Writing a New Psalm

2009-08-25T18:13:00.004-04:00

Have you ever noticed the vast difference from one psalm to the next? The writers go from up to down, and everywhere in between. From shouts of praise to cries of abandonment. I always accepted the order without further thought. However, there is a great truth in this seemingly unstructured group.

Recently, Melanie and I have grown increasingly frustrated with situations in life. We felt a call to locate to Orlando from Wilmore, KY sometime around the new year of 2008. We prayed, consulted with friends and family, and finally made the move last summer. We understood certain elements of the move. We would live and work at the RM House, I would attend classes at the Orlando campus of Asbury, and Melanie could pursue a career in a more fertile job market. We never expected God to make everything work out perfect, but we did expect Him to continue to work in our lives. Fast forward a year later, summer 09. We are extremely frustrated with a range of circumstance in our lives which are just not right. I would rather not go into all the details, except to say we felt let down by God and alone in our struggles. Specially, we felt trapped spiritually and unable to connect with other Christians through church or small groups. Believe me, we tried! Sunday, a few weeks ago, after another in a series of letdowns, I was finally done. I was done trying to pretend by putting on a happy face when inside I was hurting. What followed was a 20-minute rant about everything that was going wrong. I really felt God had opened doors for us to come to Orlando, and when we got here, things just started falling apart. We were acting as faithfully as we knew how. Was He just not living up to his end of the deal? I felt relieved after I vented all my frustration with God. I guess I expected God might be offended, hurt, or just be done with me too. Most people would be done with me after my little “expression of emotion.”

The successive days unfolded a little different that I anticipated. For some reason I actually felt closer to God. I shared this confusing experience with my small group. They pointed out God was not upset with me at all. In fact, He liked that I finally stopped pretending everything in life was fine, when it really was not. My venting was an honest expression of how I was really feeling. God saw our hurt I was trying to cover over. One of the guys said my story sounded a lot like the psalms. The interesting thing about the collection is how a psalm of praise can exist next to a psalm that says, “God where are you when I need you?” The beauty of the psalms is they express raw human emotion. Emotion, which at times, is upset with God. But, God is not offended or pushed off by our frustration. The book would be quite different if all we ever heard was moaning and complaining. But, for every psalm of frustration, there is a psalm of response. As the writers pour out their hearts to God, He turns around and writes a psalm back to his people. An example:

Honest Prayer: Psalm 13:1-2
Long enough, God— you've ignored me long enough.
I've looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough
I've carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.

In Light of God’s Response: Psalm 30:1-3
I give you all the credit, GOD—
you got me out of that mess, you didn't let my foes gloat.
GOD, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together.
GOD, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out.

Psalm 30 pictures God as one acting on the behalf of those who cry out to Him. I am not implying God always makes things perfect in this life. But we look to Him to redeem, bring something good out of, the worst of situations. Situations, which may not seem bad to outsiders, but are quite overwhelming to us. It seems God is fine with our deepest emotions. He already knows we how we feel, why not be honest with ourselves?

Pour our your heart to the Lord, honest and raw.
Listen for His psalm of response.

*All scriptures are from The Message Bible

One Seminary in Multiple Locations

2009-08-13T09:47:00.003-04:00

I was asked to write a few paragraphs around the topic of Asbury as one seminary in multiple locations. These are my thoughts and observations on the subject and not necessarily an official statement. Enjoy:

One Seminary in Multiple Locations:
A Trinitarian View

As a recruiter for Asbury, I am often asked to speak about the differences and similarities of Asbury’s three campuses. In wrestling with this question I found the concept of God as Trinity to be an effective analogy. Three unique and distinct persons represent our God. Yet, with great mystery, we affirm the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be one, God Almighty. Though each person has and does express themselves differently, they are not divided. Dr. Steve Seamands authored a very helpful book, “Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service” which I find indispensable. He explains the Trinity is in a constant relationship of mutual submission to each other. No one member is greater than the others. The Father, Son, and Spirit each defer to the other as an expression of their equally extravagant love and fellowship.

Asbury Theological Seminary is one entity. Yet we have three expressions; Kentucky, Virtual, and Florida. Each campus holds certain truths, beliefs, and practices which define Asbury overall. We are a seminary in the Wesleyan-Armenian tradition with a shared statement of faith and education mission. However, that commonality is expressed in three unique and distinct ways. Each campus has a personality. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and yet they are all God. Kentucky is not Virtual, and Virtual is not Florida, and yet they are each Asbury.

The necessity of a Trinitarian model means one needs to elaborate on each person to accurately reflect the whole. What I share of each campus will come from personal experience as a student and staff member. I began my Master of Divinity on the Wilmore campus in Feb 2007. After 6 full-time, residential, semesters in Wilmore, my wife and I felt a growing call to Orlando. I transferred to the Orlando campus in the Summer of 2008. I am currently taking classes primarily on the Orlando campus with one to two classes per semester on the Virtual Campus. I truly have an “Asbury Experience” which has been influenced in wonderful ways on each Asbury campus.

The “Kentucky Expression” of Asbury boasts a wealth of resources, tradition, and opportunity for students. My “Asbury Experience” in Wilmore was shaped by professors, chapel, fellow students, and the city itself. My wife and I enjoyed the retreat type setting and the small-town feel. My time in Wilmore allowed me to be shaped by God in all areas of life.

The “Virtual Expression” of Asbury is quite an experience. One serendipity of the campus is the ability to have longer, more in-depth conversations with fellow students. This semester I am taking “John Wesley’s Theology for Today,” and the extensive and informed conversations around the course lecture and readings are simply not possible in the limited class time on campus.

The “Florida Expression” of Asbury allows for classical theological education in a global city. Asbury in Orlando allows students from a wide variety of backgrounds to pursue theological training. I am constantly amazed at the rich diversity of gender, ethnicity, age, and experience present on campus and in the classroom. The campus is truly coming to reflect the world as our parish. There is no doubt that my experience as a student in Orlando is different than my time in Wilmore and the Virtual campus. There is a different feel due to the spectrum of students. It is hard to believe, but I have found close-knit, authentic, community can exist on a commuter campus. Students bond during class, break times, and chapel. The unique aspect of Orlando is at the end of the day, we each return to our life and ministry ready to practice what we have studied. Though my “Asbury Experience” in Orlando is different than Wilmore, I feel Orlando and Virtual to be valid expressions of Asbury Seminary. In no way is the educational component less than what I experienced in Wilmore or Online. My hope as both a student and staff member is for Florida to reach its full potential locally and globally. Asbury’s location in a major metropolitan city presents the opportunity to serve our 2+ million neighbors and an estimated 52 million annual tourists through leadership initiatives, lay-education, social-justice, and conferences. I envision a campus which not only allows the traditional residential/local student to attend seminary, but establishes a hub for people from all over to receive theological education while maintaining their work and ministry in distant locations.

Peter experienced the person of Jesus, Moses the person of the Father, and Phillip, the person of the Spirit in Acts 8:39. And yet we rightly say they each “Experienced God!” The well-known “Asbury Experience” is not a thing located in one expression of Asbury. Instead, students experience Asbury in similar, and different, ways depending on their campus. The experience a student has will vary based on their campus of choice. Studying on all three campuses has only reinforced my belief that there are certain core elements of Asbury Seminary that can and are shared no matter my geophysical location.

A Sadness Descends

2009-08-03T18:58:00.005-04:00

I am quite sure you, our faithful blog readers, have really come to enjoy the copious amounts of Disney photos Melanie and I have posted over the past year. No doubt you all swooned with excitement each time you saw Melanie and I with some character in some park. We enjoyed making everyone jealous. The truth is Disney World will always hold a special place for us. Not only was it one of the most exciting jobs we have held, (sorry Asbury). But, Disney is where our friendship and relationship began about 8 years ago. We were able to trade in some 7-day park hopper tickets my parents bought for us when we moved to Orlando for Annual Passes. Disney even had to give us some money back (When was the last time they did that??)! But all good things must come to an end. This past weekend out annual passes finally expired. Unfortunately, we could not renew due to the outrageous costs which amounts to rent for a month. We made the most of it and hit all four parks one more time over a two weekend period. It was a little sad to as we clicked through the exit turnstiles at EPCOT last Saturday, unsure of when we might enter again. sigh....

So, for all those who enjoyed our never ending blog of Micky Mouse photos (pun intended), here is one more for the road. This is us in our first trip last year (around April) and our last visit last weekend.

-Looking for new things to do in Orlando,
Brian and Melanie

Our 100th Post: Recent Photos

2009-07-18T22:22:00.002-04:00

Some photos from our 3rd Anniversary (June 3), travels to Kentucky, July 4th, and a day trip to Wikiwa Springs, Fl.

Time Flies!!!!!!!

2009-07-14T15:05:00.006-04:00

Wow! So it has been May since either of us have last posted anything!

Within that time we have ...celebrated our 3rd Anniversary, spent a week in KY, directed two summer Theatre camps/two shows, Brian has been in TX for a week, Melanie in Dublin, GA for a few days, celebrated the 4th of July for a few nights in Windemere, FL, had a baby, gave the baby back, and much, much more! A fun yet fast summer that is coming to a close way too quickly! And we still haven't made it back to the beach yet!

So your probably wondering about the baby and baby pictures. Brian was recruiting at the Smart Marriage conference here in Orlando and I have been searching for a day job. While on Craig's list I found a lady that needed childcare for three days for her baby, while she attended the same conference Brian was working. So we got to play parents for a few days. It was so fun to watch Brian with Jordan, I am proud to say that this is the most comfortable I have ever seen him with a baby, and he did not hold the 4 month old like a bag of potatoes! Jordan played with us for three days and all I have to say is ...I better get some bigger muscles before we have babies! That four month old was a whopping 18 pounds!!! And when you carried him around in his car seat he felt like 50! These pictures are from this past weekend with Jordan. Believe it or not, everyone thought he was ours, and he had the best personality that attracted so much attention.

I will quickly try to fill you in on the last couple of months, and then let you know what the rest of our summer holds.

-We had a great Anniversary together, I had off work that night so we celebrated at the Melting Pot. Of course, we went to Disney earlier in the week.

- Theatre Camp was awesome! It went by way too fast! We had 34 very well behaved kids. Though our elementary group presented some challenges we have never had to work with before, still it was a good camp. The audience was huge! We ran out of seats 20 minutes before the show started and were running around trying to find anyway we could to make more room in the audience. Brian did an awesome with set construction. We make such a great team!

-It was so awesome to be in KY. I ran into a few of my high school students while we were there. I was excited to learn they were both heading off to college! One imparticular had decided to stay around Nicholasville and wait for his girlfriend the year before and I did every thing I could to talk him out of that plan. Something must have stuck as he is away at school getting his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre! I must say it made me proud!

-We got to hang out with our good friends Kate & Adam and just be silly together!

-Brian's week in Texas went really well. I only wish I could have been with him.

-My Dad was surprised to see me pull up in the driveway on Father's Day, as he had no idea I was coming to Dublin. It was nice to be home and relax by the pool with my parents and sister.

-We house sat for some friends over the 4th of July week. It was great with a nice pool and hot tub! We watched fireworks from the front yard and had a few of our own.

-Yesterday I celebrated my one-year Anniversary as the Resident Manager here at the Ronald McDonald House. Hard to believe a whole year has gone by!! My boss and co-worker got me a one year old balloon, it was super cute, with one of those obnoxious singing cards that plays "The Best" by Mark Chapman. I have built some really good relationships with my operations team, which make the job that much more fun!

Now what's upcoming?

-I have received a couple job offers, though nothing has been very secure or promising, so I have turned them down.

-I have an interview tomorrow for a high school drama teacher, please pray for me!

-This coming up week Brian is on "vacation", he will be at school every day taking one of the intensive classes. I know he will be swamped with homework this weekend and the one to come.

-Brian leaves again for KY the last week of July for his staff meeting. Once he returns our summer will pretty much come to a close as Brian will return to school and work.

3rd Anniversary Ideas

2009-05-29T12:50:00.005-04:00

As you may already know, Melanie and I will be celebrating three years next week, June 3rd. I googled "third anniversary gifts" to find the traditional and modern gifts for this year. I clicked the first result from about.com. I was a little surprised as I read the entry. It seems by year three, some couples may be looking for a different kind of "gift." I copied the page below...

Two options for an easy divorce or a phone tap. Needless to say, I think I will stick with the traditional gifts. :)

In other news:

Melanie's theatre camp is coming along quite well. We still plan being in Wilmore June 15-19th.
I am enjoying the tough decision of which books I want to read for fun this summer. One more week till summer classes start.

Another Semester...In the Books

2009-05-21T18:46:00.005-04:00

Today marks the end of another semester at Asbury. I (Brian) am officially half way done with my Master's. Which throws into sharp contrast the half still remaing. I tried classes full-time and work full-time. In the end, my life kicked into over-time, and left me outta-time. ...It has been a long semester. In the Fall I will go back to part time class. In the meantime, I am registered to take two classes in the summer, which will be a nice change of pace. The summers at the seminary are a little more relaxed, allowing me to focus on my studies.

Next week I will be host an Open House for our new Doctor of Ministry degree in Orlando. To promote the event and degree we are running several radio spots on local stations, and using Facebook ads. I have never wrote a promotional piece, but tried my hand on the advertisements. It's amazing how much writing, thinking, rewriting, and more thinking goes into a 150 word, 60-second commercial. One of our professors collaborated on the spot. I really enjoy working outside the classroom with the professors.

I have some exciting recruiting trips planned for the summer so far. In early June I will be working the United Methodist, Florida Annual Conference in Daytona Beach, FL. The next week Melanie and I will be back in the Holy City, Wilmore, for her summer theater camp. I will work out of the admissions office up there. Really excited about spending time with the team in person. Then, Melanie drives back to Orlando, and I fly to San Antonino for the Renovare conference. The conference centers around spiritual formation. I am looking forward to the sessions, as I have read many of the speakers books.

In other news, I became a published author today! Okay, so it was just a blog post. GoingtoSeminary.com is the top blog site for students considering seminary. They published a blog I wrote about "Creative Seminary Financing." If all goes well I will continue writing for them a few times a month. This highlights the best part of my work in admissions recruiting, developing new opportunities. My boss, Janelle, gives me the freedom to pursue new avenues to connect with potential students. Its a blessing to work with people who encourage you to be creative. When I joined the staff last summer, I never imagined I would enjoy my work this much.

Leave a comment, and thanks for reading!

Brian's Birthday

2009-05-10T18:45:00.001-04:00

27. It seems closer to 30 than 25. This was only further emphasized by a church Melanie and I visited this past weekend. We are outside the age range of the young adult group. It only ran through 25. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful birthday. Thanks to all the birthday wishes on Facebook, phone calls and cards from family and friends, and the numerous birthday cakes. I ended up with 4 birthday cakes. First, Melanie surprised me at the seminary as I was getting out of class. She showed up with a cookie cake (Cake #1). And not just any cookie cake, a double layer cake with frosting in the middle. Some of the people at work also "decorated" my office for me. They graciously emptied the contents of my shredder and strung toilet paper everywhere. We had several admissions visitors to the seminary so I tagged along as we took them for lunch. Eric, one of the guys I work with told the waiter at Macaroni Grill it was my birthday. In addition to the Cake #2, he sang Happy Birthday to me in Italian. I assume it was happy birthday, he could have sang anything, I would have had no idea. to After work, Melanie surprised me by taking the Explorer for a full detail. They washed, waxed, and fully cleaned the interior. It felt like a brand new car. We do not have a good place to hand wash our cars, so we settle for gas station car washes. This was much better. The daytime staff and some volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House went in to buy me a cake(Cake #3). You can see this one in the pictures. I told Melanie I wanted a cake with lots of flowers on top. Why? You get the highest icing to cake ratio that way! Then we headed down to Disney World to take advantage of their "Get in free on your Birthday promo." Since we already have an annual pass, they gave us a gift card for the price of a one ticket admission. This is one time I was excited about their high ticket prices. The gift card was for $75! Thanks Walt! Melanie took me to Lonestar Steakhouse for dinner. She is not a fan of steak so we do not frequent many steakhouses. I, of course, love steak. I enjoyed a nice 10oz. ribeye...with plenty of A1 sauce of course. The waiter offered me cake #4 for the day. I declined, and opted for 2 slices of Key Lime Pie. Score! We headed back home, full to the brim with food. Melanie gave me some awesome presents. One is a surfing lesson at Ron Jon surf shop in Cocoa Beach. Since moving from VA, I have not had a chance to snowboard as much as I used too. I decided I would sell my board and switch hobbies to surfing. It just makes more sense in Florida. I am pretty excited about getting to the beach more often, and no more frozen snot. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes and gifts. I still have leftover cake if anybody is interested.

Crazy Day in April

2009-04-28T21:08:00.007-04:00

Crazy day in April... so Brian and I have both been going non-stop since late March. We had family visits from both sides. We enjoyed spending time with them all! Brian's on going joke was "Daily Tours leaving our house." We did lots of theme parking in two weeks. After that it was crunch time, as Brian had to prep for a huge Hebrew test and his Spring Preview Weekend. This past weekend we spent in Lakeland, FL at a conference. Brian had recruiting to do and we both got to go and see several Asbury students get ordained into the ministry.
This week we felt as if are schedules were finally getting back to normal. Brian has been working and going to class. And I have been working on Theatre Camp and working at the house.
This morning I had a follow up dentist appointment after a regular cleaning last week. Last week I was told I am an over aggressive brusher, go figure, right? Well apparently I am so aggressive that my gum's have receded to the point where my roots are sticking out in the back teeth. Today they had to do some major repairs. After the shot in my mouth, I could not feel any pain. Nor could I make any facial expression, drink from a straw, chew, or talk normally. Brian got a kick out of my expressionless face and any time I said any words with P's or F's he died laughing! Nice husband, right!?!
The crazier part of the day, was when he called me on my way to the appointment. Just when the week was feeling "normal again". Apparently the previous recruiter had preregistered for a conference that started today in Atlanta, and runs until this Friday, though somehow it never got passed on. Someone called him from the conference this morning to make sure he knew where he was going and had everything he needed, that's when he found out about it. So he had been on conference calls all morning trying to figure out if he needed to rush up there or if they were going to send someone from Wilmore. They had a $600 deposit riding on the lines and someone had to go. An hour later I was helping him pack up his display table, sort through clothes, and pick up a rental car. Now it is shortly after 9pm and he just called saying he is driving through Valdosta! He plans on making it to Macon tonight, staying at a hotel and then getting up early in the morning to make it to the conference in Atlanta. Unfortunately, I couldn't go with him because it was so last minute and I have to work the rest of the week. He won't be back until either late Friday night or the wee hours of the morning Saturday... and he is missing all his classes tomorrow, including another Hebrew test! I feel bad for the guy!
So when I try to think of what a "normal" week looks like, I realize that they don't exist in our life anymore. Instead we must bend so that we don't break and just go with the flow!

Last Supper

2009-04-09T18:00:00.000-04:00

Today is the day in tradition Jesus would have sat down for one final meal with his closest friends. Judas would give him up to the authorities soon, and the other disciples would also abandon him. Jesus, knowing the weakness of his followers still calls them to supper. He still shares the bread and the wine with them. Still treats them as beloved followers. Though we reject Him, He still accepts us and even calls us friends.

From Palms to Passion

2009-04-07T17:29:00.007-04:00

The crowd shouts "God save us, Help us, we need you!" Then, days later the same group of people murderously cries, "Kill Him!"

I had the opportunity to preach at our church this past weekend, Palm Sunday. Its the day in the church calender we celebrate Jesus' triumphant ride into Jerusalem. I enjoyed spending time in the story and reading the different eyewitness perspectives in each of the four gospels. Each author adds their own take of the day's events. But, one thing stands out. No mater which account you read somehow the crowd goes from supportive and excited to hostile and deadly in a matter of days. While I am not duplicating the whole sermon here, I want to share the highlights.

As I read from Mark 11 through 15 what became disturbingly apparent was how Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem as a coming King with excitement and fanfare, but a few days later, was pushed out of Jerusalem carrying a cross with shouts of ridicule and mockery. In Mark 11:1-11, Jesus is welcome with triumph. His rides in on a donkey with people waving palm branches and laying their coats down as a path. There was no mistaking the symbolism in the donkey-ride to the capital city. We know today that when a motorcade of limos arrives at the white house, with the red carpet rolled out, and hundreds of thousands of supporters cheering, a new president is taking the reigns. The crowd knew what they were doing. These were the actions of a supportive people.

So it is a surprise in Mark 15 when the crowd turns of Jesus. The triumph turns to mockery as Jesus is crowned with thorns, a fake robe, and ridiculed with shouts of "hail, the king of the Jews!" The soldiers beat him, spit on him, and pretended to bow to him. The crowd who flocked, abandoned Him. The people who supported denied Him. Even his closet friends and followers, the disciples, were no where to be found. Peter even denies three separate time any affiliation with Jesus. The shouts of "Hosanna" turned to "Crucify Him." The same crowd uttered both. The coming king, the ruler of Israel, was condemned as a prisoner and criminal.

It is easy to let the Bible and its stories live in the past. To look back from Palm Sunday 2009 to Palm Sunday 33 and shake our heads at the lack of faith. But I could not help but ask as I read, "Lord, am I the crowds?" and know immediately, I am. Their story is our story. One day we praise God from the highest of heights. We rush to meet with Jesus in prayer and devotion. We roll out the carpet to welcome Him. We can raise our hands and shout "Hosanna!" "Praise God!" We follow, and allow him to lead. But the next day, we find other things more important. We welcome others into out lives, but leave God outside. We decided to follow our own path. I have never actually shouted "Crucify Him!," but I know, my actions have. Seems we do fit in with the crowd in Jerusalem.

It was safe to follow Jesus on Palm Sunday. One could get caught up in the Hosanna crowd and have no fear. However, the crucifixion was not a safe time. Typically, if the leader is being put to death, you can bet they will be looking to his followers next. But, Mark mentions another group at Jesus' death. "There were also women looking on from a distance: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome." As Jesus was being crucified, they stayed close. They could not stop the process, but they did not abandon Him. These women provide the response of discipleship. They are not like the two-faced crowd, and they are not fair-weather friends. At some point they decided despite tough times, despair, or death, they would stay near to Jesus. Where else could they go? He was their hope.

It seems like such a simple lesson: We are called to follow Jesus in the good and bad. But we know how hard it is to practice. Bad things happen seemingly most often to good people. We live in a fallen world. Sin has corrupted creation. But! Jesus rode into Jerusalem to show his followers He would ride victoriously into heaven, to be seated on the throne as King of all. This is the source of our hope.

Let's follow the example of the women at the cross. Whether the world praises God or condemns Him. Whether we live in a country where we are safe to worship, or if we find ourselves in jail for believing, as those in China do. Whether things are going our way, or not. We choose to follow Jesus with our lives, no matter the cost. Believing in Jesus is not about us having an easy carefree life. It is about recognizing God to be who He says He is, and growing in a relationship with Him. Life still has ups and downs. The difference is being close to the One who can offer comfort, hope, and healing in those times, and awaiting Jesus' return to set the world right.

"Hosanna!" Our King is on the throne!

Spring Break

2009-03-27T22:35:00.001-04:00

I do not think Melanie and I have been so excited about a spring break/reading week in a long time. We have both been going pretty strong for some time now. The Ronald McDonald house has been very busy lately. Which is good we can help, but sad that babies and kids are ill. She has also been working on some creative elements for an upcoming volunteer appreciation dinner. Mt work and school have both ramped up in the past few weeks. I am really feeling the crunch of full time school and full time work. Fortunately, I really enjoy seminary, and I really enjoy my job. I have been given more freedom to develop the web-marketing opportunities for the school. But, we need to get away! We are headed over to Clearwater Beach on Florida's gulf coast for FOUR days. The big plans are to lay out in the sun, swim in the ocean, swim in the pool, find some local eateries, and catch up with each other...(rinse and repeat, for four days). I am reminded the "real world" does not allow for spring breaks. But it is essential to our health to get away to recollect ourselves.

Hard to believe, but we are also trying to plan our summer. Some exciting plans in the works. Also, both our families will be coming to Orlando soon. Melanie's parents and sister, and maybe her brother Joey at some point will be coming in two weekends. Then, my parents and sister Michelle will be there the following week of Easter.

With all the business in our lives, we still really enjoy living in Orlando. We spend a lot of weekend at a lake/park in downtown, Lake Eola. They have a Farmer's Market and craft fair weekly. We usually bring picnic lunch on Sunday and read or people watch.

Note: Update your Bookmarks:
If you have not noticed already our blog, website, and photo album have combined their powers in the form of www.melaniebrian.com For those of you using feed readers to view our blog, you can simply input the above address into the subscription/rss feed portion. I am still tweaking the layout and colors, so the look may keep changing.

Last weekend of Feb!

2009-03-01T22:44:00.003-05:00

So Feb is coming to an end... which makes me happy for so many reasons.
1.) It is the hardest month in the world to spell. If you had to study my spelling words with me when I was a kid then you would understand.
2.) It means March is here and it is practically spring.
3.)It is actually starting to feel like summer, Brian and I both have sunburns to prove it.
4.)Spring Break!
Brian has been SUPER busy! He just did two conferences back to back. One was here in Orlando and all College age students. It was great! I got to go with him and be a part of it too and we love college students. J.D. Walt was the guest speaker, he is the Dean of the Chapel for Asbury Seminary on the Wilmore campus. So it was fun getting to see some Wilmore faces. Brian and I spent the weekend at a Conference Center just across from Universal Studious talking to College Students and networking with people who will be in our conference soon. It was an encouraging weekend for me and got me excited about being in the FL conference, with some very supportive people. We also got to spend an afternoon at Islands of Adventure, though it just doesn't have the magic of Disney.

Sunday we had to pack up early from the conference so that we could take Brian to the airport for an afternoon flight to Arkansas. He was in Little Rock from Sunday through Thursday doing more recruiting at several different colleges. It was a quick week for both of us and I was so happy to have him back on Friday.

We had beautiful weather this weekend! Friday and Saturday it was in the 80's so we got a couple of pool days in and enjoyed walking around Caribbean beach. Sunday was a little less lovely, the weather was much cooler with an early day storm and lots of wind. We are suppose to have cooler weather until Thursday, then it should warm up again. At any rate we took advantage of our weekend and thought we would share some pictures with you all.

Brian leaves me again on Tuesday to go Flagler College in St.Augustina, though this will be a quick one day trip. He feels a little overwhelmed right now with work, school, and his candidacy process. But I know he can do it!

I am enjoying my job. We have some really good house guest right now, that I have taken time to get to know in the evenings. There situations never cease to amaze me, but I do what I can to be a sensitive ear. For now that's all our new news! We are thinking over plans for Spring Break, though Brian only has two days off... so whatever we do it will be a quick trip! Love to you all!

-Melanie

Valentine's Weekend 2009

2009-03-01T22:30:00.002-05:00

So Brian and I had a great Valentine's weekend. My college roommate from the Walt Disney College Program came down vacationing with her husband and three children. Brian and I were able to meet up with them for dinner after not seeing her for eight years! It is hard to believe eight years has gone by since then. We enjoyed dinner at Beaches and Cream and her three children are the cutest prettiest children I believe I have ever seen!

Saturday, V-Day was full of lots of surprises. Brian had been busy planning and scheming. After a late night at the movie theatre, we slept in and then headed to Orlando's famous Lake Eola there we enjoyed a picnic lunch. After lunch we went to The Spa for a couple's massage then had a great dinner at Mimi's Cafe. One of our new favorite restaurants! That night he had made reservations for SAK Comedy Lab. Which was hilarious! They are a small improv theatre that was very entertaining if anyone comes to visit it is a must see kind of a place! We have posted pictures from the weekend. We will keep you posted!

Another Semester Begins

2009-02-10T14:27:00.003-05:00

This week marks the beginning of my third year of seminary. Which makes me wonder where time has gone, and at the same time, to think of the great memories made over the past two years. This semester also marks my halfway point (gulp) based on credits earned and still needed. Looks like two more years in the books. Its been a crazy ride so far. Melanie and I NEVER thought we would live in Kentucky. Once in Kentucky, we did not plan to move to Florida mid-degree. But here we are. I've had the unique experience of going to seminary in a small town of 95% students and seminary affiliated people. Then, I got to switch to the mega-city of Orlando. The two campuses under the Asbury umbrella have each shared their uniqueness with me. Melanie and I love the excitement of the big city, but occasionally miss the quiet, small town feel. We have no idea what this means for where in FL we will live, and really, we are not too worried right now. God has always brought us to amazing places and opportunities.

This semester I am taking 3 classes. Which not only makes me a full time student again, but also makes me crazy. Full time class, Full time work, Full time husband. I have my work cut out for me. I will be learning Hebrew this semester, which I think will be interesting. If my blogs start reading right to left in a few months, I apologize. I will also be taking Church History 1, which goes from the time of Jesus up to about 1500. I took Church History 2 a few summers back, it was rather dry. Based on the readings thus far, I will really enjoy digging into some of the key formation times of the church. Finally, I am taking Philosophy of Religion. I honestly have no idea what this class is about. Looks like some good classes and professors. One thing I have learned in my seminary career, professors can make or break the class. Fortunately, more classes have been made than broke.

As for Melanie and I, we just finished our 6 month anniversary at the Ronald McDonald House. What an experience! Some amazingly strong families have passed our way. Melanie gets the chance to meet most people, as I am usually in the apartment doing homework. If you have never been to a Ronald McDonald House to volunteer, I would suggest you do. Grab a group of friends, co-workers, church group, etc. and volunteer to provide a meal. You will not regret the opportunity. Here is a link to the house finder on their main site.

MLK Weekend

2009-01-20T11:26:00.004-05:00

My brother Joey came to town for the weekend. Disney is doing this great deal for military, a free five day park hopper pass. So we went to Disney, of course. We spent Saturday at Hollywood Studious and Magic Kingdom. We were pooped on Sunday so we took the day off from Disney. Then on Monday we headed to Turkey Lake Park on Hiawassee for Brian and my first game of Disc Golf. Joey taught us how to play and we did 18 holes. It was a bit chilly for Orlando. Though it is hard for me to justify complaining about the weather as my friends in KY are all in snow right now, I am ready for the cold spell to end!
Joey headed home yesterday afternoon. Now Brian and I are looking forward to the short work week, so we can get back to our weekend!

Christmas and New Year's Pics

2009-01-13T21:55:00.002-05:00

New Year's in St. Augustine, FL

Gatorland

Christmas

Our 2009 has begun with a bang!

2009-01-13T10:37:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! We have now entered 2009... and Brian and I kicked off the week with lots of activities. New Year's Eve we went camping in St.Augustine. While we were there we took a Trolley Tour in downtown, watched the firework's New Year's Eve on the beach, toured the oldest Fort Castillo de San Marcos, window shopped, and ate some fabulous fudge. We returned home and the fun didn't stop. We went to Gatorland here in Orlando the following Saturday, saw some crazy gator wrestling and animal shows, we petted the largest tortoises I have ever seen, and enjoyed walking through the swamp. The following day we headed down to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. There we had our first pool day of the year, yep in January! Gotta love Orlando. We enjoyed laying out in the sun and the swimming in the pool.

All this of course was after a great trip to Dublin, where we spent Christmas with my family. All of us went home this year. It was very nice in GA we spent a couple evenings outside around the campfire enjoying s'mores and catching up with one another. And of course we must have played a trillion board games. We went bowling together after Christmas and had a great time. And we ate way too much! It was a great Christmas and a fun getaway to be with family!

We are now back to a schedule. Brian is actually on "vacation" this week. Though while he is on "vacation" from his job he is busy taking an intensive class. The class is from 9am-5pm everyday, so it is pretty much like he is at work. I am back to working at the Ronald McDonald House evenings, and searching for a day job during the days. This just doesn't seem to be a good time to find a job.

Overall, things are pretty much back to normal for us. We did have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and will be posting pictures very soon! Hope you all also enjoyed your holidays!

Christmas Plans

2008-12-23T09:44:00.003-05:00

Melanie and I are planning to leave sunny Orlando for Dublin, GA tomorrow (Wednesday). We will be spending Christmas with her family, the Gryzenia's. All Melanie's brothers and sisters will be there which is very exciting. We realized that we had not been to Dublin since we moved to Kentucky for seminary in Feb. 07. Wow! Its been too long. Melanie and I plan on leaving Sunday morning as she will need to be back in Orlando to work that night. I am off from work till Jan 5th, gotta love working an educational job! Melanie also has off through New Years. We plan on heading to a beach somewhere for a day or so. Maybe St. Augustine? I hear there is a lot we can do there. Believe it or not, we will not be at Disney World for the New Year's ;)

Melanie and I were talking about how much we enjoy living in Florida. This past weekend was in the 80's (which was a heat wave for this time of year), but we realized that in just a few more months it would be warm enough to swim again. We love to be at the pool! Some people in Orlando come to miss the seasons, and maybe we will too. But right now, we can't get enough of the mild climate and sunshine.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2010!

The Backwards Kingdom

2008-12-17T08:00:00.003-05:00

My small group was talking about "surrender" the other night. The discussion question asked, "Why we have such a hard time surrendering control to God? and, Why is self control so hard?" One guy was confused, after all, isn't self-control listed as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23)? We all stared at the table a while. We always understood self-control to be a good thing. There are so many times in life when you are in a rough situation, you want to act or respond one way, but know that God would you respond different. You bear down, "white-knuckle" it, and push forward with your own strength. It was at this point we realized the problem and was reminded of the solution.

It seems everything in the Kingdom of God is backwards.

In order to win the battle, we are called to first surrender. Now, what sense does that make? If the North surrendered in the Civil War, the South would automatically have won. If the Gators are ahead by 7 and surrender in the fourth quarter, they still lose. We realized it makes no sense to us to give up, as a means of winning. But then we remembered that this is exactly what Jesus did. He surrendered his desire to not be killed, to the will of His Father. In loosing His life, we were saved. The world says you win in life one way, Jesus shows us we win life a different way. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. But we decided there are two types. There is self-control, emphasis on self doing the work. Then there is what we called Spirit-control. Now I haven't looked at the original greek here (and I don't plan on it, this semester had enough greek!) This is a type of control over our lives that does not try to fight our way on our own. Spirit self-control means we surrender in the midst of the battle. We give up our way, and seek God's way. We all agreed that is tough. As guys we want to show our strength. But what is real strength in the Kingdom of God? Is it the person who tries to do everything theirself, or the one who admits he/she is powerless and deeply in need of God's strength?

Voices of Christmas

2008-12-14T21:12:00.001-05:00

Some photos from the Christmas Drama/Musical Melanie directed at our church, Trinity United Methodist, in Orlando. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

We have become illiterate...and I love it!

2008-12-10T09:18:00.009-05:00

I was driving home from the library last night about 9:30pm. I was reminded of an article I read and blogged about back in June 2007. "In the 1790's, a book was equivalent to one month's salary, so people didn't have books. And they didn't have literature in their homes. So pamphlets and tracts were the cutting edge hardware of the 18th century. Literally, a book is one month's salary." This is from Leonard Sweet in a Relevant online artical. He recommend that we take the concept into the current century by standing on street corners handing out free palm pilots. Presumably preloaded with some content. Perhaps an electronic Bible, sermons, teachings, etc. My thoughts came back to this last night on the 408 Expressway. Would people in our generation even take time to read the things loaded into the "free palm pilots?" I don't think so (and I don't see myself pouring over a 3.5 inch screen for hours either). That's when I realized that we seem to be shifting back to ancient forms of information gathering. While I don't know much about ancient people and societies, I do know most people were illiterate and relied on speakers, teachers, and others to instruct, entertain, and inform. Is there much difference today? Sure, the majority of the U.S. is literate. However, we (myself included) often give up on reading for audio and visual inputs. Some examples:

Newspaper and magazine readership dwindles in favor of televised "talking heads" telling the news (which, if you live in Orlando, is all bad, all the time!)
More people are subscribing instead to podcasts (audio messages) and videocasts that can be downloaded and watched.
Even the web is shifting. Melanie came across a site last night that was primarily text. We remarked how old it looked. The new strategy for web-marketing is heavy images with little text. The messages online are to be conveyed through images. My own seminary has recently published a new webpage. In the discussions of the "look," I remember hearing that we needed less text and more images of student life. Not many people go to web-pages to read blocks of text anymore.

It seems that we are shifting from a printed society to an audio visual society. I am not saying this is bad. I think if anything, it forces people to be more creative. It is one thing to write a 1,000 word summary on something. Its quite another to create or capture an image that portrays all 1,000 words. I think that we still use text, but it has to be be concise and direct.

Of course, since I am interested in the Church and its interaction with society, I want to consider the implications of the above post. One thing I look forward to in ministry work is allowing mine and others creativity to influence how we do things in the church. Here are some of my thoughts:

I think that a well-thought out drama performance can speak more than a hour-long sermon at times.
Podcasts (audio and video) are easy and free ways to share a message with people at times other than the 11:00 hour on Sunday. I listen to several podcasts during the work week on a variety of subjects. I especially enjoy the dialogue that can be created. What if instead of a weekly newsletter that is mailed out (which can be pricey), they produced a 15-30 minute podcast that covered the usual bulletin material and maybe even included an interview, devotion, and/or teaching? I would listen to that in my car ride to work one day each week!
My friend Troy recently filmed a series of videos in Israel and surrounding areas. Instead of writing yet another book about the holy land, Troy takes his audience to the places of the Bible and elaborates about the stories, events, etc. that took place. Personally, I would purchase the videos quicker than the book. (No offense Troy if you do write a book about your travels!) I am guessing this is part of the rational of the film project.
One way I find to keep my own creative pastoral juices flowing is to visit other churches to see how they are doing church in different or unique manners.
What about the Bible? You can't not read it! That is true, I think there are two parts to this. First, we must present scripture in effective creative ways in all we do. (Many are doing this already). Second, we can't escapse the ability of scripture to transform us as we read it. So keep reading :)

One final thought. I don't get real excited about churches who broadcast their services and televangelists (and I worked for one in college! Though it was in the maintenance department in my defense). My main hangup is the failure to engage the audience watching from home. Effective communication must engage the audience in a meaningful way. I think TV news programs do this better. You are not just looking down on something happening in a church far away. Instead, newscasters are focused on you, the viewer, even if they are not sure who "you" are. There are a handful of Christian shows that make an effort to engage the TV audience. Kudos to them! As a pastor wanna-be I hope to keep this in mind. I don't want to spend every Sunday presenting a lecture to a somewhat captive audience. I would like to have dialogue, feedback, talkback, from time to time. In preaching, I beleive we are presenting a message from God to His people. My questions becomes, how can I present the message to really connect us to God?

What are your thoughts or ideas? What do you do that is creative to present the message of Jesus? Do you agree that we are literate, but choose not to read in favor of other communication inputs? Do you think I am way off base and should focus on driving rather than contemplating current culture on the expressway at 9:30?

Discuss in the comments sections.

Summer in December!

2008-12-09T13:44:00.002-05:00

I often have to stop and remind myself what time of year it is. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing ever so softly, and it is 80 perfect degrees outside. Tomorrow it will be a high of 85. This past Saturday Brian and I actually got a sunburn while watching the TV filming of the Disney Christmas parade at the Magic Kingdom.

I just came back from the gym, which I walk to and with no distractions of Christmas decorations, I completely lost sight of the fact that it is December. Reality of course hit once I entered the house and saw the Christmas tree.I love Florida! I can't understand why anyone would ever want to live anywhere else. No snow shoveling, no waiting for your car to heat up, no ice scraping off the windshield, and no bundling up with layer after layer. Have I mentioned that I haven't had so much as a cold or sinus infection since we moved here six months ago! (Other than the brief one I got well visiting KY in September, go figure.)Sinus infections, runny noses, and being sick went along monthly with the cold weather for me! I guess I am just a Florida girl, born here and one day will die here. I am so lucky to have married a guy that loves it and the warm weather so much too! Hope all you Northerners are enjoying your weather, and when you get tired of all the disadvantages of the cold, move on down to FL! We would love to see you...

Christmas Decorations

2008-12-05T23:47:00.002-05:00

Click the Slideshow to see the pictures bigger.

Thanksgiving Pics

2008-12-05T23:02:00.004-05:00

My Aunt Donna and Uncle Bill rented a house at Sandbridge in Virginia Beach, VA. Melanie and I joined my parents, Michelle, my 2 uncles, and my great Aunt Mickey.
Click the Slideshow to see the pictures bigger.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

2008-11-30T20:16:00.002-05:00

Well hello everyone.... I hope you all have survived the big turkey dinner and are thankful for yet another year coming to an end. Brian and I had a wonderful time. We spent it in VA Beach with his whole extended Johnson Family. I haven't been with the whole Johnson Crew since our wedding two and a half years ago! It was quite the event. Brian's Mom usually does the Thanksgiving meal, but this year his Aunt had the honors. She had flown in for the week from CA and rented a huge Beach house where we had dinner and played for the weekend. It included a hot tub, canoe on the river in the backyard, beach bikes, and of course the ocean! His Aunt Donna cooked all day in the limited kitchen and we all got to hang out and catch up. Of course, it will be a Thanksgiving to remember! As dinner was nearing Brian's Mom leaned over to stir gravy and noticed in the oven"Oh there's a fire" very calmly. Next we knew they pulled all of the food out of the oven and were attempting to put it out. Poor Aunt Donna cried and we all just tried not to laugh. (not at her of course, but at the situation) It was a moment to remember as the beach house filled with smoke and the noise of the fire alarm. After discussing our options of putting out the fire and saving the food Brian's Uncle threw some baking soda on the fire and it wasn't more than ten minutes before it was out! In despite of it all the food was still great and all 19 of the Johnson's were throughly happy!
We arrived back to FL today and are headed back to work for the week and concentraitng on all the events that come along with the Christmas season, that is in full session here. The church Christmas production I am directing, work Christmas parties, visits from friends on break, and then Christmas Eve we will head to Dublin, GA to be with my family of 9. I hope you all, too are enjoying your holidays to come.... May you be truly blessed and not rushed as you enjoy the day to day moments of life during this season! God Bless!
-Melanie

Redecorating...

2008-11-23T20:33:00.002-05:00

So Brian and I got creative this week. We have been wanting to paint our apartment for a little while now. Even done some small redecorating here and their, mostly in the bedroom. This weekend we decided that if we were going to paint the living room we needed to do it before Christmas, as once decorations went up there would be too much to work around. In no time at all Brian and I found something we are both very bad at...painting! We choose melting butter aka light yellow, to open up the room. He started on the trim work & I started on the rolling and we kept waiting for it to look right. Nope it just looked like someone was trying to melt better in the microwave and it exploded all over the walls of the microwave! Streaky, speckled, and just down right awful. We called the Dad (Johnson) and asked for advice. 5 hours and 37 minutes later we are still at it. Actually I went to work and Brian stayed at it, he just ran out of paint with only one small corner left and is headed to Home Depot. What a mess! The conclusion we came to was that we were rolling it on way too thin. I am use to the High School drama club paint budget and was trying to stretch it to .... needless to say we got a mixture of yellow butter popcorn. Once he finished tonight, the furniture will go back and we won't touch it until after Christmas. Crazy paint whim!

If Melanie and I had a Baby

2008-11-18T23:12:00.002-05:00

According to VW's Routan BabyMaker3000. All the bundle of joy, without the strech marks!

Instead of words...PICTURES!

2008-10-27T22:52:00.005-04:00

My Call to Ministry

2008-09-24T18:52:00.002-04:00

I was asked to prepare this brief two page statement to group who is supervising my process for ordination with the United Methodist Church. (PS: Also check out the new post just after this one).

I find it helpful at the beginning to describe my understanding of a “call to ministry.” First, I am called to God. The truth that I am to be a child of God before all else enables me to prioritize my life according to His desire and purpose. I discern that God is calling me to work the area of pastoral ministry. I am still in the process of understanding the specifics of this particular call. However, I have a passion for college ministry and pastoral ministry in the context of the local church.
I was an acquaintance of the church as a child and teen, but never connected to anything that was preached. It was not until I was in my final semester of high school that I truly understood what Jesus Christ really did on the cross. I was searching for acceptance from others by doing whatever would make me stand out. I never seemed to find contentment until a friend showed me who Christ is and His total acceptance of me as I am. That was the year that I realized the extent of my sin, and the measure of His grace. My walk with God stumbled along my first year in Christ. It was hard enough adjusting to college life, much less the Christian life. But God was faithful to bring me around other Christians. Here I began to discover the divine connection between personal growth and a community of
believers. In hindsight, I see that my call emerged within this community of fellow students at my university’s Baptist Campus Ministry. The ministry was a testing ground of sorts for me. I was given the opportunity to serve in several different areas. I preached at worship services and local churches, developed leadership skills, taught small groups, and learned the deep ministry of friendship. Over the span of three years my campus minister began to see possible areas of God’s work in me. I found that I really enjoyed studying scripture and organizing it in a manner that made sense for my audience and challenged them to deeper faith. It was helpful to me to have the encouragement of close friends and the spiritual guidance of my campus minister. Truly, my call was influenced by the community God had brought me to. I thought it best to finish college and pursue seminary work. However, upon
graduation I heard the call to make a living louder than the call to continue education. A year and several months passed and I settled into the working life. However, my wife and I took some time to reconnect with a pastor friend in Florida. Our conversations about the world’s brokenness that weekend reminded me of my call. In the weeks that followed my wife and I discussed the possibility of going to seminary to prepare for pastoral ministry. Upon her graduation from college, I began taking classes at Asbury Seminary. My seminary experience has only further convinced me that God does desire me to serve as a pastor. I am constantly learning what it means to be a child of God called to be a pastor.
I chose to pursue ordination in the United Methodist Church because it seems to be the best place I can fully follow God’s call. I find that my understanding of God, scripture, and life are well articulated in Wesleyan Theology and its everyday practice. I appreciate the concept of the “call system” that annually seeks to match God’s ministers and His people. I feel blessed that I will be able to come before the Lord annually and see where He desires me vocationally. One of my primary goals in preaching is to encourage the audience to live in a discipleship relationship with God and the body of Christ. For this reason, I am encouraged that I will be accountable not only to God and the people, but also to my district superintendent and bishop. My faith journey and ministry call have taught me that the Christian life is a life shared with others. I believe that I can best serve the kingdom, and be true to my call, through the communion of the United Methodist Church. I trust that God will continue to pursue his desire in my life as I walk through this process to ordination.

Some Blog Business

2008-09-24T18:33:00.003-04:00

I have had numerous ideas running in my head about blog topics. Recently, I am consumed with work. I am loving my job recruiting, but this is the busy semester also. No wonder all my collegues suggested I be a part time student this semster. Man, I am glad I listened, I cannot imagine fitting another class in right now. I feel like Paul writing in Acts. I can list a pretty good travel log myself. Last week I recruited at an annual conference for the Christian Church of Florida. Monday, I was in Lakeland, FL at the campus of Florida Southern College. What a beautiful campus, right on a lake! Next week I will be flying to Birmingham, AL to visit Birmingham-Southern and Samford University. I have heard the city is really cool. All that to say that you can expect some blogging from me. I am excited about the next blog I will post which is my own call to ministry. Secondly, I am thinking through a multi-part series that is growing out of my class on Pastoral Care. I want to present some ideas that have shaken up my own practice and understanding of ministry.

In the mean time, here is a question to ponder... What is your definition of ministry?
Please, feel free to post yours in the comments section below, I will start with mine. Be annonmous if you need to :)

Melanie's 27th Birthday! 9-12-2008

2008-09-12T23:35:00.002-04:00

Here's some recent photo's of our trip to Wilmore and Melanie's Birthday!

September 11, 2008

2008-09-11T14:31:00.002-04:00

So today is 911 and you can't turn on a radio or the TV without being reminded of what happened seven years ago today. Most anyone you ask can tell you exactly what they were doing when they received word 7 years ago of the first tower being hit by the plane. I remember doing sets at Disney's Hollywood Studios, not realizing exactly what the big deal was. Only an hour later we cast received word that Disney World would be closing for the remainder of the day. It wasn't until that moment we realized how serious the situation was. As Disney never closes... once arriving home we all planted ourselves in front of the TV watching the unbelievable scene of the towers coming down over and over. Let us always remember in prayer those who lost their lives that horrific day.

On a lighter note, Brian and I just returned from KY. I flew back on Monday, and he returned just yesterday. We had a fabulous time hanging out with old friends and going to the Shane & Shane concert. And of course whenever we get together with our good friends Kate & Adam Vodicka, and Kelli & Brandon Dasinger there has to be at least one unexpected adventure! Saturday night they threw me a surprise princess themed Birthday party. It was lots of fun!! And Kate made and decorated a fabulous cookie cake! I adore the movie "Enchanted" and so they themed it after the movie. The excitement didn't stop there, as Sunday night Adam locked his keys in their second floor apartment. He had to beg his neighbors to let him climb out on the roof through their window. They weren't too excited! Of course, this was all after we had scaled all sides of the building trying to find a way to climb up a pipe. Our friend Dan brought a ladder, but it was a 6 foot A frame, not nearly tall enough. So as we all stood outside staring up at the roof, Adam & Brandon managed breaking through the window... and yes, they literally had to break some glass! Oops... wait till the landlord finds out! It was all and all a great trip. And just long enough for Brian and I to get away and get refreshed!

We even went by good old Broadhurst Manor, our old apartment. Which now looks like a deserted old building, with overgrown grass. It was kind of sad to see it so dead, when only a few months ago it was so full of life! We will be posting pictures soon. Hope all is doing well wherever you may be. I am excited as we will be seeing family very soon for the holidays! Love to all!

-Melanie

Wordle

2008-08-14T21:56:00.003-04:00

This is from Wordle.net You can put in a paper, blog, or webage and the make a "word cloud" using the most common words from whatever you use. This is a word cloud of our blog page. The most common words. Pretty neat!

Working in Orlando!

2008-08-10T17:21:00.002-04:00

Brian and I just finished our first full month here in Orlando. It is hard to believe we have already been here that long. It is also hard to believe that if we were still in Wilmore, tomorrow would be my first day back to work/school! Thank goodness we're here and not there!
The Ronald McDonald House has been going well. It is not exactly as "picture perfect" as we had hoped, but it has its rewards.
Brian is really enjoying his job as the Admission Recruiter for Asbury Orlando campus. He has some new found excitement and passion for recruiting students. He is really doing a good job with it so far, and has already had two students enroll.
This weekend was the first weeeknd it started to feel like home. Brian and I taught the youth Sunday school class this morning. It was quite interesting as I had them make a commercial for me and we video taped. Of course, it went along with the lesson and for the most part the four boys seemed engaged. Afterwards we did our routine of grocery shopping, but rather than heading off to a touristy destination as we have done previous weekends, we went for a bike ride. We rode our bikes down aways into Orlando and across to Delaney Park. We found some really neat neigborhoods, and of course it ended with Brian stopping at 7-11 to get a slurpee. It was hot alright, but I do love the heat! We then washed our cars out in the parking lot. Brian even waxed my little Mazda and it sure sparkles. These are all things we would have normally done back home, so it helps to make this feel like our new home. Thanks to all who have kept us in your prayers! We will keep you posted!-Melanie

Orlando... we've made it!

2008-07-26T10:34:00.002-04:00

We have made it to Orlando! In fact, we are ending our second week here right now. Some days it feels like we never really left 7 years ago and other days we feel like we are really just only on vacation. Our first week here Brian's parents and sister Michelle were with us. Brian's Dad helped Brian build a new bathroom cabinet. His Mom and Dad made the move with us from KY to FL, a nearly 15 hour drive. We made it in two days. Then they helped us get all the boxes & furniture moved in. We were even able to spend a day with them at Disney World. We went to Epcot and Hollywood Studious and rode the new ride Everest Expedition it was great!

Two days after they left Brian and I started our first day of work here at the Ronald McDonald house. In no time we were oriented as we received several on call "calls". One including a guest with some abdominal pains, who called 911. It was nearly midnight and I was downstairs in the house letting 8 firemen and 2 EMT's in to administer care. Needless to say it wasn't a quiet night and Brian and I now feel completely initiated!

My Mom & sister, Julia came into town this past Monday. They were great help! While we were at work they cleaned our kitchen and re-organized the dishes, rearranged our entire living room to make better use of the space, and went grocery shopping and filled our fridge. It was quite a nice surprise to come home to. It was so good to see them too, as it has been since Thanksgiving that we saw them last! We hope to make the 6 hour trip to see them in GA sometime in the next three months.

Brian begins his new job at the Seminary on Monday. He is both excited & nervous. They are having a big welcome lunch for him and then he will begin his duties. I am sure he will blog more about his position as he gets started with work there.

Yesterday we enjoyed a poolside day, as we spent the afternoon at Disney Resort Caribbean Beach pool. We packed a picnic lunch and swam for a few hours. Then walked around downtown Disney, before heading back to our place. Today we plan on going to Wet-n-Wild, there are some extra tickets lying around the house that need to be used. The perks of our job! We often get theme park tickets donated and they have to be used before they expire, most guest don't have time to take advantage of them. That's were we come in!

As for now I am going to focus my attention on the position here at the Ronald McDonald House. However, I am staying up to date on both Disney & Universal auditions. A part time job at one of the theme parks would be a lot of fun!

Thanks again to all of our Wilmore friends who helped us make the move and pack up! We had so much help that it only took 30 minutes to get the whole apartment packed. We miss you all! Those that are still there, don't forget to take advantage of our tomato plants. When we left they were full of green tomatoes, my guess is that they are probably ripe by now. It's hard to believe that the next time we get up there our whole building may be gone!

I hope you all summers are going just as well. We will continue to keep you posted! God bless!

-Melanie

New Photos

2008-07-06T10:32:00.002-04:00

July 4th 2008

Once you see the photos, Read on below...

4th or July and...The Final Countdown

2008-07-05T17:53:00.006-04:00

My day yesterday began with the vocal selections of Melanie singing "I'm proud to be an American," while trying to rouse me out of bed. Needless to say that Melanie enjoys singing me awake in the morning. Which I will agree is much nicer that the beep beep beep of an alarm clock. I was excited to get up, as I realized that today was the Wilmore parade. I have been very excited the past few weeks about the Annual Wilmore Lawnmower Parade. Here is a video below. Now the only downside was that it was raining. But the faithful lawnmower brigade would not be stopped.

Later in the day we got together with our friends Adam and Kate Vodicka and Brandon and Kelli Dasinger for some 1/3 pound hamburgers. They were huge! We wandered over to see the fireworks shot of by local railroad tycoon RJ Coreman. We were a good distance from the fireworks so we could not hear them well but still had a great view. Though this display is still rather tame compared to the fireworks at our new home (Disney World).

Things are really coming together for our move to Orlando. I interviewed for and was offered a position with the Seminary. I (Brian) will be the Admissions Recruiter at the Florida campus. I am really looking forward to the job. I will get to talk to prospective students who come by the campus interested in pursuing God's call in their lives. I will also be traveling to various conventions, conferences, and Wesley Foundations talking about Asbury. I think this will be a great experience. I really think highly of Asbury, our degrees, faculty, staff, etc. When I do travel it should be in the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama territory primarily. Even better is that Melanie is welcome to accompany me. We are looking forward to some financial stability that will allow Melanie to go after her entertainment opportunities while allowing us to continue to pay off debt and save. More updates on the job as the come.

Melanie has here 2nd Theatre Camp this coming week. She will have the middle and high school kids. Right now she is working though potential scripts for the show on Friday. We hope to be able to come back in the summers to Wilmore to do theatre camps. Its funny because most people go to Florida for summer vacations. We hope to head north. Ha! we are so weird.

So, as of today we have 9 days in Wilmore. We are excited by somewhat sad. Melanie and I realized that Broadhusrt has been our primary residence since we were married (1.5 years). We only lived married in Valdosta for 7 months. Believe it or not we will actually miss our 476 square foot "efficiency" apartment. We are excited about moving into the Ronald McDonald House with a washer/dryer (free) and dishwasher. Broadhusrt has been a great time. We were able to meet some great people and make some great friends in the process. This will certainly be hard to do in Florida. It is hard to match the community feel of a small town. But, next Saturday we pack the Peneske. Then, Monday we will head out. My (Brian) parents will be flying in to help us get to Florida. And so, the caravan goes south again...

Will we ever settle? We sure hope so, one day!

"Theatre Camp Draws Solid Reviews"

2008-07-04T13:57:00.003-04:00

Click here to link to the artical on Melanie in the Jessamine Journal paper. One of the reporters came out to the camp and wrote a great story on Melanie, Sasha, and the kids. Enjoy!!

Photo by: Hannah Ferguson

Ichthus Festival

2008-06-15T18:36:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was the legendary Ichthus . We heard about it last summer, but didn't get the chance to check it out. Ichthus (which means "Jesus" in Greek) is a three day festival with 4 stages and probably 100+ bands and performers. It is geared primarily to youth groups. They camp out on the Ichthus farm. The tickets are a little pricey but Melanie and I found that we could volunteer a couple hours (9) and get in free. We had an awesome time and got to see some of our favorite bands. We signed up to be Altar Ministers and had the privilege to pray with youth if they responded to the alter call.

On the second day we were walking in the main gate. I could here the music from one of the stages. I thought the lyrics sounded familiar. Then got Melanie to listen and we realized it was none other then Heath McNease. He did VSU theatre with Melanie and graduated about the same time. We had no idea that he would be at the concert. It was great to get to hear him and catch up quickly.

I posted the pictures on our Picasa Album. You can see them if you click the slide show to the right of this blog.

We are exactly one month away from moving to Florida. Melanie and I packed our storage unit and closet up last weekend. This week we will focus on boxing up more stuff. Melanie will kick-off her first theatre camp the week of June 23rd. Then one week off, one more theatre camp, and we skip town for Orlando! Before we know it our little caravan will be traveling south again.

Encouragment from Scripture

2008-05-31T10:29:00.002-04:00

"God's a safe-house for the battered,
a sanctuary during bad times.
The moment you arrive, you relax;
you're never sorry you knocked"

-Psalm 9:9-10 (Message)

As Wilmore comes to a Close.

2008-05-30T08:20:00.003-04:00

It was a surreal feeling as I turned in my Old Testament final to my professor and left the room. My last full semester class on the Wilmore campus. I really did not expect to leave hear after a year and half. Of course, I would have never seen myself in Kentucky for this long anyways. It is just not my cup of tea. I feel landlocked here. Even though I don't sail the ocean, I like to have water around me. (or at least a short drive away). I hope to come back in the summer or in January for intensive class sessions.

I guess my title is misleading, Wilmore is not closing. But, the time for Melanie and I is counting down. As of today, we have 45 days left in Wilmore. But we plan on going out big. Here are some of our plans and happenings for this last horah.

1. Melanie will be finishing school next week. She is signing up lots of kids for her two Summer Theatre Camps.

2. I will be working at the local Soda Fountain and the Switchboard at nights.

3. We will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary on June 3. Five days away.

4. Wilmore 4th of July Parade: We will be at the parade this year. Last year we missed the Lawnmower Brigade and their dance. Click here for the You Tube Clip.

5. Ichthus Festival Alter Ministers - June 12-14: Melanie and I signed up to be there for people who want to pray at the music festival. We are pretty excited about this. Not to mention that we get free admission to the concerts. Looking forward to some great artists. David Crowder, Casting Crowns, MXPX, Disciple.

6. Watching our Apartment Building being closed down. Its not official yet, but the school will be closing Broadhurst Apartments and demoing it. It was built in 65'. I think the time has come. They may even find Francis Asbury buried underneath!

Those are the highlights, I am sure there will be more.

By the way, I saw Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the other week. I highly recommend the film. There are not many movies like the Indiana Jones series nowadays. A true adventure comedy. I am not a fan of the new horror films that just seek to top each other in how sick and twisted they can be. I think it is poor taste and poor movie making and I will fight you over this! Romantic comedies are good, but how many times can Matthew McConaughey play out the same role and story? I will give a quick plug for Enchanted. I know I will be laughed at by the guys, but that was good movie. And if you don't think so, Melanie will fight you over that one. Indiana Jones was entertaining, action filled, rather humorous and left me humming the song and dreaming of archeology. Some have criticized the film for some of its exaggerated events. I agree that at least three major things that happened in the movie will probably never happen. However, that is what makes the series great. Indy is a respected, well-studied, realistic scholar in Archeology. This is contrasted by his outrageous and almost impossible situations. Think about it, he finds the Arc of the Covenant! That is pretty out there. (Note: I am not suggesting it is not real, just the idea that he would find it in the manner shown in the movie). This contrast is what makes the movies great. I applaud this newest (maybe more?) instalment of the series. Not to mention the kid in the movie from Even Stevans does a pretty good job as "young Indy." So go see it.

Oh! We also bought Wii Fit. It is a new "game" for the Nintendo Wii. I used quotes around game because it is not a sit-in-front-of-the-TV type thing. Wii Fit has a balance board that looks like a large floor scale. The interactive games does Yoga, Strength Training, Balance, and Aerobics. You will actually break a sweat on this thing! Melanie and I have been "working out" quite often. The neat thing is that it tracks you weight, BMI, and helps you to work on areas were you are week. For example, it can tell that my posture is not up to par. So it offers exercises and training for my core muscles to help me. Amazing what technology can do!

Well those are my rants for now. Stay tuned to the Johnson Channel!

More Pictures from Brian's Birthday

2008-05-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

Melanie and Kate threw Adam and I a shared birthday party. Since our birthdays were days apart. Click below to see the pictures. They themed it Western. Also, Melanie posted a new blog just below this post, check it out!

"Lemonade for Sale"....Changes!

2008-05-16T20:06:00.007-04:00

I have finished yet another show with East Jessamine High School. It looks like this truly is the last one, though my kids still don't know. "Lemonade for Sale" is a children's play I wrote based off of the book by Stuart J. Murphy. It went very well. We had two shows and performed for a little over 900 students and 100 staff & faculty. The beauty of it, is that it was the first time I actually got to pull my two schools together. The high school and the elementary school. My little kids were so impressed and my big kids couldn't believe how little my little kids are. The principle of my elementary school gave me rave revues and said, "Well we will never have to higher the professional theatre company again!". She was referring to the very good Lexington Children's Theatre who came and performed "Too Many Frogs" only last month. While that is a wonderful complement, what they don't know is I will be turning in my letter of resignation next week. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. Only 3 of my co-workers currently know, one of which is the music teacher, she turned in her resignation last month. Another is the gym teacher who is full of encouragement, she came up to me after the last show and said, "This is so sad, as I know this will be the last time this ever happens. You and Lauren will both be gone and things will be different."

Change isn't something I deal with well. I feel like God has had Brian and I on this roller coaster ride since we moved to Wilmore last February. I got what seemed to be the perfect job as the Director of the Bluegrass Performing & Visual Arts Association. Then two paychecks bounced and I was forced to confront my boss and quit on the spot. Then I substitute taught for two days as the middle school drama teacher. Didn't care for middle school and summer was beginning so sub jobs weren't possible. Then came Sonny's BBQ, which felt a little degrading as I had my degree and waiting tables was a job I had to get me through college, not a future career. Finally something with some potential the Wilmore Parks & Recreation Department sponsored us to Direct Summer Theatre Camps, Fall Drama Workshops, and a Children's Christmas show.

A position with Jessamine Early Learning Village opened up as a teacher's assistant in pre-k, with benefits, a no brianer I couldn't turn down. And then God opened the door last August for me to be hired as the EJHS Drama Coach. This all happened in 15 months!!! I learned a lot at the elementary school, tons I will take with me and use again. But after Christmas break something changed there. I didn't feel fulfilled by it or needed any longer, it had its okay days and the really difficult ones. My excitement came when I got to go over to the high school in the afternoons and be with my big kids. However, it has basically been like having two jobs, most weeks working over 60 hours. Brian right along my side through it all. And we thought this move was going to be all about him.

I have had an enormous response to the Summer Theatre camps that are still to come in June & July. In fact, I hear about it everywhere I go. Brian and I were having dinner at the new local BBQ restaurant and I over heard the owners behind the counter say my name. I of course was covered in paint, dirty, & quite rough looking as Brian and I had been painting the set all day. I tuned in and sure enough they were talking about the camp & my work at the high school. I asked Brian if I should let them know it was me they were talking about. We listened for another few minutes and then told them who I was. It was quite funny actually. The camps will be fun, but hard as they too may be my last.

I do know that after the year I've had of being physically sick we can't stay. Unless God picks up the state of KY and moves it south we have no choice but to move. I saw the allergist specialist and I am allergic to lots of things that dwell here in KY. The cool weather doesn't help either. It has been in the 50's all week and rainy!

I say all this to say I am scarred. Scarred of moving, scarred of staying, scarred of not knowing what will be the next step for us. Will I direct again? perform again? still be sick? go back to school? go back to Disney? I mean come on I am almost 27 and I am the most clueless 27 year old I have ever met! By the time I figure out what I want to do when I grow up, I will be 80 and have wasted my entire life trying to figure it out. Ahhhh.... deep breath! I know I'll no in proper time. Until then I must realize that this is real life for me. I can't keep waiting for it to happen. Go with the flow. If you need something to pray about, you can pray for my contentment, and that God would take away my fears! For now, I will enjoy my last three weeks of school, enjoy my summer, and shed some tears as I leave it all behind.

Happy 26th Birthday Brian!

2008-05-07T21:48:00.004-04:00

Today is Brian's 26th Birthday! While I had to work and he had class we still took some time this evening to hang out and have fun. We went to his favorite burger place, Red Robin... then came home for cake and presents! Click on the link below to see pictures.

This past Saturday we had a big party for him. He and his friend Adam have Birthday's the same week. So Adam's wife (Kate) and I got together to throw a small party. Wait until you see the crazy pictures and our bizarre theme. Brian will post those later with his own blog!

Going Green...and to Orlando...Again

2008-05-04T11:50:00.004-04:00

In honor of Earth Week last week Melanie and I bought a Toyota Yaris Hybrid...

The truth is that we rented the hybrid for a road trip to Orlando. It was really by accident. The Hertz people only had two compact cars, a PT Cruiser (no thanks) and a hybrid. It was almost too easy. The short story on the car is that we averaged 45-48 miles per gallon and the hybrid really work as well as advertised. We saved right at $100 on the cost of gas over our already gas friendly Mazda Protege. We were very impressed.

But the question you may be asking, "Why did we go to Orlando again? Wern't we just there a few weeks ago?" Well, yes. Since as early as January of this year we have been kicking around possibilities for next school semester. Melanie is wanting to find opportunities for theatre performance/management and I would like to be able to work during the week since I have the time. Both of these are hard to do in Wilmore. She will really miss working at the high school, as she could really put her degree to practice. But she found it difficult to work full time at the elementary school and then go to the high school. I am really enjoying Seminary still but I am having trouble finding a job that will work with my crazy class schedule. The classes here are spread out a very random times during the day.

Our tour of the Asbury's campus in Orlando last month really impressed us. (Asbury offers the same degree programs on another physical campus in Orlando). As we mentioned in previous blogs, we are members of the Florida Conference now and planned on moving there post-graduation. After returning to Wilmore a few weeks ago, Melanie and I considered more seriously transferring to Asbury Orlando. Here are the big reasons in no particular order...

More opportunity for "career" jobs. Mel in entertainment, me in church work.
Closer to family. Gryzenia's 6 hours away, Johnson's 2-3 hours by plane.
I can do my ordination process locally, as opposed to driving from KY to FL every 2 months.
Moving there eventually in 2 years
Commuter type schedule for Brian at Asbury, I can take all my classes one day a week! :)
Closing opportunities in Wilmore
7-11 is on every corner again. Slurpees daily!

Now there are things we will miss here in Wilmore. Primarily our friends who we keep getting closer and closer to. I will also miss being able to walk everywhere. I have enjoyed walking Melanie to school in the mornings. We will not miss the allergies.

So it is official. The drive this past weekend to Orlando was to solidify a job opportunity for Melanie and I. That was a big answer to prayer, as we really needed a job before moving. We will be the Resident Mangers at the Ronald McDonald House in Orlando starting mid-July. Here is a picture of the house...
We have an apartment in the house that the Manager called small, but he never saw where we live now! It has a dishwasher, so were are pretty excited. Our job is to run the check-in desk from 5-9pm Sunday thru Thursday and to be on call those nights. Both of us do not have to work at the same time, we can alternate. We not only have free rent and get paid, but will have the opportunity to meet a lot of different people. The house is located on the campus of Orlando Regional Hospital and serves the Arnold Palmer and Winnie Palmer hospitals. Basically, if a family has a child or infant in the hospital and no place to stay, they can stay at the house. The cost to them is $15 per night. We are told that many families will stay somewhere between 12 days to a month. We are very excited about this opportunity. We (and the mangers) consider it a ministry opportunity, except that we don't talk much, just listen to people. I agree, I think they will want our ears more than our mouths!

We negotiated to move down to Orlando July 14-15. This will give Melanie a chance to do her Summer Theatre Camps again. She will put on two, one for elementary and the other for middle and high school. She really loves the camps and is excited to have another go at them. In the mean time, I will finish classes in three weeks. I do not plan on taking Summer classes at this time. Instead, I will be working the Seminary Switchboard several nights a week. In the day I have a job waiting tables (and the counter) at an old-fashioned soda-fountain here in Wilmore. It has been a blast so far. I make shakes, malts, old fashioned soda (with ice-cream, syrup, and soda water), and smoothies. Someone has to sample new flavors!

Phew. That's a lot. The times they are a changin' for the Johnsons. We are very excited about the new direction and feel the Lord leading and providing for us!

New Photos!!

2008-04-05T22:21:00.002-04:00

We have a new way to share our photos. We had some readers mention that the links on our web page photo section were not working. Honestly, the format we have been posting them in is pretty frustrating for me. So we will have our photos link below with Google's Picasa. This will also allow YOUR feedback. Just click on the album below, and flip through the pictures. You can also leave comments on them. We welcome you thought and comments. Enjoy!

Just in case you didn't know we had a web page, here it is. We keep it stocked with current photos and info about us.

Back in KY...

2008-04-04T17:31:00.006-04:00

Well we arrived back to Wilmore last night around 10pm. Today we spent unpacking and indoors as it is 59 and rainy. Looks like that is the conditions we can expect for the next week. It was hard to leave sunny Orlando behind! We did bring with us some weird sunburns, as the sunscreen we used on the first day of our vacation by the pool had expired. I didn't know sunscreen could go bad.

The Pirate and Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom was lots of fun! We spent 8 hours there walking on one ride after the next without any lines! It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. They actually have a real Tinkerbell face character now, and that was pretty cool! Plus we got to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and he was incredible. The similarities between him and Johnny Depp where unreal. Only Disney magic can provide that kind of an experience!

Brian's interviews and meetings went very well. We even took sometime to look over the Orlando campus, the whole one building! While it was small, transferring there would provide some opportunities for both he and I. We even went an looked at an apartment in the downtown Orlando area, to get an idea of the cost of living. It didn't take much for me to fall in love with the apartment. Washer/dryer hook-ups, a dishwasher, a real dining room, breakfast bar, and walk in closets! Not to mention the great clubhouse and pool!

We are officially members of the Florida conference now! The church we are members of has a lot of potential for growth. It is in a great location and has a diverse congregation. It is nice to feel like we belong somewhere again. The possibilities of moving down to Orlando sooner, rather than later have once again increased. For now we are seeking discernment and are in a lot of prayer about our near future. Only God knows where we will be come August!

Dublin, Georgia

2008-04-02T23:22:00.002-04:00

Here we are in Dublin Georgia at Melanie's parents house. Our Spring Break travels are coming to a close. We head back to big city Wilmore tommrow. One of us will blog about the trip itself soon. There are some great photos and stories to be told. So check back with us in a few days. See you real soon!

The end of "A Day in the Moonlight"!

2008-03-20T15:44:00.003-04:00

The show officially closed last Saturday. This past Monday we tore down the set... it took just over three hours. Amazing how quickly it takes to destroy something that took almost a month to build!

We received rave reviews from the superintendent and the school board members that attended. The principle was very pleased and asked, "Melanie, how do you know how to do all this stuff?" I just answered back, "Nearly six years of school." The good news is my degree is not going to waste.

My students were amazing! They learned so much in six weeks and came so far. In the beginning, there were days when it was hard not to lose hope. They pulled off a great show and we have been asked to due a traveling children's show at the end of April. My students are already bugging me about the next auditions!

And then there is Brian! The amazing, incredible, surprisingly dependable guy I get to call my husband. The weekend before the show opened I got sick. (Go figure!) I could tell it was bad, so I didn't hesitate to go to the doctor. Sure enough I had picked up strep throat from one of my pre-K students. It put me out of commission until dress rehearsal. I was forced to rely on Brian to do almost everything. Pick up costumes, finish detail work on the sets, pick up the t-shirts, the programs, head shots, you name it. Everything that the director has to finish up right before a big open. The added stress of my situation made me sicker...and did I mention I was in the process of also designing and building a set for my elementary kids?? Yep, a miniature Dr.Seuss world set! Lying in bed completely helpless and making myself sicker with the insane amount of things I had to do running through my head, I realized my hands were tied and there was nothing I could do. I made a to do list, as to stop my worrying and then let it sit on my bedside until I could get back on my feet. Much to my amazement when I was back up on my feet (the night of dress rehearsal) Brian had completed my list! He had also gone to the high school the day before and directed the rehearsal, so the kids could still rehearse without me. For those of you who know Brian, he knows nothing about theatre or acting...until now! I was shocked and amazed, he had done everything he could to keep things flowing for my kids and the show! All well taking care of his sick wife and having to sleep on the couch, due to my tossing, turing and getting up through the night! He was great! It brought our relationship to a whole knew level of depending on one another and trust! I could not have been more blessed with an amazing husband!

OK, so your probably tired of hearing the sappy stuff. The weather is finally warming up here, we actually made it to the high 50'2 last week. We have gone a whole week without a snow day! Though we are now going to school until June 6th. I am once again sick, though this time it is a mild cold. And Brian has been able to focus back on school again.

Next weekend we will be headed to sunny Orlando! We will spend a few days there, for Brian's interviews and of course DISNEY WORLD! We are going to the Pirates & Princess Party. So much fun to be had! We will post pictures when we get back! Go have a look at our pictures... there are lots of new pictures from the show, and of our set! Enjoy and let us hear from you, it has been so long, we would love to catch up with everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T10:25:00.004-05:00

Melanie and I celebrated our fifth Valentine's as a couple yesterday. It's our second as a married couple. I picked Melanie up from the house and we went to her favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. We thought we would try and beat the rush since they were not taking reservations. We got there a few minutes before 5pm and the wait was 30-35 minutes, with a packed out lobby. We also noticed that we were not waiting with other "young adults." That's right, the Johnson dine with the 50+ crowd. (We have noticed this to be a growing trend that we like to eat dinner early.) We were fine with the others in the lobby. They 50+ crowd is a very friendly bunch acutally. As we were leaving the lobby was double the size of when we arrived. I guess most people had to wait till they got off work.

We exchanged gifts when we got home. Melanie has been pretty excited about my gift. She had to hide it at our friends apartment. I thought that was strange, since I could hide mine in ours. I thought, "maybe she thinks that I will search for it since I do work at home all day." However, it turns out that the gift needed food and water! So we welcome the newest addition to the Johnson family..."Jack" the Hermit Crab. (I thought about calling him Dora, since he likes to explore his surroudings, but you cant be called Dora and have a pirate "tatto") Ever since I saw the hermit crab display at the mall I

have wanted to bring one home. Apparently Melanie remember this. And of course, she got me the one with the pirate on the back. Since we are not allowed to have animals in Seminary housing, we decided that Jack would be easly hid if maintenance come by. He is a pretty active guy. We put him on the carpet last night and he was happy to just "crab walk" circles for an hour. Melanie won't touch him, I'm not sure if she thinks its gross or it will pinch her. Probily both. I hope to find him a bigger shell as the guy at the mall said they can get pretty big.

I like easy-low hassle pets. Basically fish. But since we had to leave Pierre the Beta in Georgia, its nice to have someone else around the house during the day.

Another Snowy Monday!!

2008-02-11T18:23:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was our first work day for our set for "A Day in the Moonlight". My amazing husband created and built an awesome S shapes bench for the set. And a 2nd straight bench... While he was busy playing the role of Ty Pennigton. I was busy with my kids cutting 100's of "stones" out of cardborad. I have blisters to prove it. All day I felt a little under the weather. And sure enough Sunday morning brought about a fever and sickness for me. I spent all of Sunday & today in bed. This is the first time this semester I have been sick, so I guess I am doing pretty good compared to my record for fall semester.

This afternoon I was feeling pretty good, so rather than canceling a rehersal I knew we couldn't make up... I headed to the high school. It was bitter cold out, but no sign of snow. About an hour into rehersal the vice prinicple came in the theatre... and while we were completly unaware. (no windows in the theatre) Much to our suprise the ground was covered in a little over an inch of snow.

My 15 minute drive home took 30. The truck in front of me lost control of his vechile several times. I was drvining Brian's explorer and slid back and forth whenever I applied the breaks. It was very scary. So now we are awaiting word to see if school will be cancelled. We are suppose to get another 4 inches before the night is over. Will see, they never seem to be able to predict it quite right! If we have another snow day, are last day of school won't be until June 4th! Crazy, huh!?!

"A Day in the Moonlight"

2008-01-22T16:01:00.000-05:00

"A Day in the Moonlight" EJHS style!

Well last week concluded for me an intense audition.... I had eleven girls auditioning for two main roles. I am pleased with the turn out for my High School Drama Club's audition, but had to face the reality that I was going to disappoint a lot of people! I had the principle do the dirty work for me and she post my cast list of 12. Tomorrow is our read through and then next week we are off with the show!

I have a bit of an advantage with this show. Last semester when I directed "Break" I had never seen it performed before. And there were no pictures of previous sets for me to get ideas from. I went in blind! It made it extra exciting, but lots of work. My advantage with "A Day in the Moonlight", well it was the first show I was cast in in college. I dug through all my old stuff and found some pictures of the set and even a photo or two of me. Above is my friend Andi and I. We called ourselves the old maids as we would sit around backstage and play cards between are sets.

I am very excited to see where this show will take us It will be premiering in New York in the fall, so we are kind of performing it for the last amateur show for awhile. Today was a snow day (yes, another one looks like we will be going to school in June!) so I spent time working on blocking. Hopefully, if we don't get anymore snow I will be headed back to school tomorrow. I had a long four day weekend... and know I am ready to go! I will keep you posted on the show!
-Melanie

Brrrrr....

2008-01-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

...It has been a little cold here in Kentucky. This was the temperature reading when Melanie and I got up for church this morning (at 9:30).

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

Some people think that New Year's resolutions are silly, or pointless since they are usually broken and forgotten come February. I had a pastor who used to sell memberships to a large gym. New Year's was great because he received his largest commission checks then. Everyone wanted to hit the gym, drop some pounds, or build some muscle. But the were usually gone in about 2 to 3 months. Its true, I would say that 75% of resolutions are dropped withen 2 months.

But I say, why not try something new? Why not work on picking up a good habit (or dropping and bad one), learning a new hobby or skill? What's so bad about at least trying to live more fully? Nothing. For this reason, I like New Year's Resolutions. So maybe they don't stick, but what if they do!? I like that once a year I am conscious of trying something different in my life to be a better person, husband, friend, and follower of Jesus. With that in mind, I (Brian) thought it might be fun to share some of my resolutions/commitments for 2008.

1. Learn Spanish (Again) One would think that with three years in high school and 4 semesters in college, I would at least be able to order my favorite dish at the Mexican Restaurant. But I can't. I have two reasons here to re-learn Spanish. First, I would like to know another language fluently. (Greek and Hebrew are great, but not really good for conversation outside of Seminary, so they don't count). Second, there is a growing Hispanic population in the US. Not to mention that if I serve in Florida for any amount of time, I would hate to neglect a large portion of the community! Therefore...Me llamo Brian, ?Como estas?

2. Read the Bible over the course of a year Now this is not a new one. I have done this once before. However, I thought it would be interesting to try a different version. My usual version is New Revised Standard. The NRSV is great as it comes very close to mirroring the original Greek. But this year, I have picked up a copy of The Message. It's a modern paraphrase. It presents the Bible in everyday language. What happens is a very readable version that is great for those new to reading the Bible and those who have read it all their life. I am only a few days into it, but familiar passages are popping off the page like brand new! It's like having dinner with and old friend you haven't seen in years. :) For example...

Matthew 5:4
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (NRSV)
"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you." (Message)

Titus 2:13
"While we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (NRSV)
"This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ appears." (Message)

3. These guns won't load themselves! I plan to hit the Gym at least 2 times a week. Melanie and I are doing this one together. Asvury does not have a Bally's or Gold's Gym quality(or even YMCA) but its not bad. We are playing racquetball, basketball, and using the weight room. I don't think I will come out looking like Mark or Joey (Melanie's Brothers), but I could stand to be in better shape than I am now.

4. Gotta Go Fishin' I plan on eating 2 boxes of Goldfish per week. Not really, but I do plan on sitting out at some local holes. Right now they are probably frozen. I think in early March I should be able to head out. I figure this will be a good escape from the mental pressure of class, studying, and reading. I am really looking forward to this. I just need to get over the gutting the fish part. Which apparently Melanie doesn't mind, well see how that works out.

There they are. A sampler platter, if you will, of some of the resolutions I will be working on this year. I am aware that it might not work out to learn Spanish, or I loose momentum going to the gym mid summer. But something is better than nothing. And who knows. Maybe I will get bigger than Mark and Joey. I may even catch a state record fish!

So don't be ashamed to make some resolutions. Its not too late. And if you want, why not share some here! Just click the white "comment" link below and leave your comments. You can even leave them anonymously! We just want to hear what's happening with you.

I feel as though I should end with a catchy rhyming phrase, so here we go....

Dont WAIT! Do Something GREAT in 2000 and EIGHT!

Freakishly Warm Weather!

2008-01-08T17:33:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we have had some freakishly warm weather since last I blogged, which was last week. After our mini snow storm and a couple of barely bearable days... warm! Yesterday was a record high of 73! Today it was high 60's all day, and Friday there is a chance of snow. Yep, you heard me right, from snow to warmth to snow!?! Welcome to KY.

Brian started his J-term today and is finally free of his world of boredom. Will see how he feels after a week of heavy homework. I have enjoyed my work this week, so far my little kids have been pretty good. And I have certainly enjoying my relaxed afternoons of getting off at 3:30pm and coming home to hang out with Brian. We have picked up our racquet's once again. Though racquetball racquet's rather than tennis racquet's... still a little windy for outdoor games. Yesterday we even took a bike ride, the first one since like early October. Only problem was I forgot my bike lock code and it took Brian like 20 minutes to saw through the heavy duty chain. Ooops! Good thing he got those tools for Christmas!

This afternoon a new couple moved in to our apartment complex, same Penske truck we had, say car tow dolly. Hard to believe it was only a year ago (give or take a few weeks) and we were the new couple. Only we pulled up our Penske in a few inches of snow! I don't love transitions, but I do like taking those new steps in life! Only two more years to go!

Hope you all are having a wonderful week too. Enjoy the blessings and transitions in your life. I think change keeps us on our toes. You just never know where or what God may have you doing next... we just got to keep waiting and listening to Him. Love you all,
Melanie

Happy New Year!! And here we go Spring semester....

2008-01-02T13:33:00.000-05:00

Happy New year everyone! Brian and I have returned from Christmas vacation with the Johnson family in VA Beach and are now geared up and ready to begin another semester of work/school. In fact, today was suppose to be the first day back to school, but last night we had a mini snow storm and all the schools closed for the day.

Now normally schools closing would be a good thing. But I was ready to get back to work, guess I was getting a little bored around the house. When it is frigid ice cold outside (with the wind factor today we are at -5 degrees) you don't want to go anywhere. Plus we have gotten in a really bad habit over break of staying up late and sleeping until 10 or 11am, that is going to hurt when I have to set my alarm for 6:15am. The real world, geez!

Brian will begin J-term next week, taking a class about the Book of Acts. It should be pretty interesting. After four intense weeks of it, he will begin his Spring semester, which looks like it may be tough. He is taking a very heavy load. I will let him tell you more about that later.

I will be holding auditions in a few weeks for my spring show. I am doing another audition workshop and they will be auditioning for two shows. I have picked out "Exit the Body" and "A Day in the Moonlight" one has a small cast and the other a large one. I will only direct one, but I can leave my options open until after the auditions to see what kind of talent turns out.

Just before Christmas break my drama club and I hosted a Variety Show. It actually turned out really well. We brought in a good deal of money and I have a nice little cushion to put towards the spring production. I also directed a Christmas show with Wilmore Parks and Recreation Dept. We had a sold out audience! It was a kids show and they were terrific. After only a month of rehearsal I was very pleased to see the continued talent here in Wilmore and the interest of the city in Theatre. We used the huge Asbury College theatre for the performance. Brian and I of course put in several late nights to paint and build the set. We have posted some pictures on our website, but unfortunately we didn't take any during the performance. I was the narrator so I couldn't take any and Brian ended up being my sound and light guy. Brian has been so great! Knowing nothing about theatre only a few years ago, he gets roped into everything. And says he has begun to enjoy it!

More exciting news my older sister Lucinda announced her engagement to Chip Mulaney. They are planning an October 2009 wedding in Savannah, GA. It will be very exciting as another sibling is getting married! She and Chip are currently living in Seattle, WA.

Brian and I will be headed down south for spring break, the first week of April. We are trying to plan a mini-vacation/business trip. As he has to start making some connections in the Orlando area. There is a good chance that is the direction we will be headed once we leave here. I can't wait for the warm sunny weather again!

We pray and hope you all, had a blessed Christmas. And that your New Year is headed off to a good start! Check out all of our new pictures! We miss and love you all!
-Melanie

Our First Chrsitmas Card

2007-11-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

Melanie and I recieved our first Christmas card the other day. It came from our good frind Alicia in Dublin, Georgia. We thought the front was pretty funny, so I decided to post it here.

Merry Christmas!

What a Week/Weeks!

2007-11-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

November has flown by for Melanie and I. However, it has been a great month!

Melanie's uncle and aunt (Dan and Barb) are currently traveling the lower 48 in an RV. The were coming from Virginia toward Tennessee and decided to make a stop in Lexington to see us. Unfortunately we did not give them very good directions to get to our little city and they ended up on a one lane, no turn around, country road. Somehow, Dan managed to turn that big RV around. We are still not sure how. The were here for two days before beginning their trek back south toward West Palm.

In the meantime Melanie was coming down to the wire on her drama production "Break" at the high school. Melanie rushed from her school over to the high school daily to work with the students at rehearsal. I spent most of my free time building the life size subway car. It turned out awesome I must say. My dad worked up the blueprints and was our go-to guy when we were confused on how to build. Melanie and I both learned a lot through the building process. We spent a few hours in Lowe's one night in a heated debate about how much spacing we needed between the studs in the platforms. That was a long night, but we finally found some common ground...or common dimensions. Putting the subway car together was no easy task. I know that without the help of my dad's drawings, Melanie's deadline, the students, and another dad at the last minute, I would have been overwhelmed. Melanie found a way to pull the whole production together. Opening night was a big success and the students got every line just right. The show ran a total of three nights. This was just what the school and students needed. The drama program had been struggling for a few years since they lost their director. This show helped to rebirth the program and build excitement in the school and community. Melanie is going to start gearing up for here Spring show in a few weeks. Meanwhile, we have to tear down the old set. I'm pretty sad about that since we put so much work into it. But, the show must go on. (or so they tell me.)

My (Brian) parents came in town the day Melanie's show opened. I had an unexpected death in the family just last Sunday. My grandmother, who just turned 89, passed away early that morning. It was a sad time for the family, but good in a way. She had been struggling for a long time with Dementia, but now she is at peace and rest. I flew to Virginia for the funeral before driving back to KY with my parents. It was nice to spend time remembering my Nana. My grandfather came to America from Scotland in search of work. My Nana came over once he found work. They had my mom and her sister here. Nana worked for the Virginia Beach School System as a bus driver for special education children. One memory I have is the little wooden school bus plaque that was given to her. The had painted her as the driver and it had here name on it. For some reason I thought it was really neat. I was able to remember the times we (my sister and I) would play in her basement, and climb at tree/bush in the front yard. Part of my flight took me over Cleavland. I was able to see the amazing colors of the changing leaves from a couple thousand feet. The leaves were dying, but that process made for such vibrant yellows, oranges, and fire reds. I realized that there is a certain beauty in dying. Green trees are nice, but when the leaves begin to die and fall, that is when the are most beautiful.

We had a great time with my family. They went to all three of Melanie's shows. Melanie had to work and manage rehearsals, so I was my parents guide to Wilmore. I took them to Shaker's Village. We saw a rooster, hens, some turkeys, petted horses, and feed cows. We had a good time wandering around. The turkeys took a liking to my mom and followed her closely. My dad mentioned that they should not be so friendly, considering the next holiday! I took them on some country roads, to the berry farm, and across a river. We also went into Lexington to get a pizza at Pazzo's. The service there is so-so (college kids) but the pizza is amazing! It was great to get to show my parents around the school and the city.

Coming up...Melanie's parents and Julia will be arriving later this week for thanksgiving. We bought our turkey (11 pounds) last night. I am going to post our latest pictures on our web page later today or tomorrow, so be on the lookout for those. http://melaniebrian.googlepages.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T07:55:00.001-04:00

Melanie had to work today, and I have class all day. But we still managed to find costumes. Melanie dressed up as a teacher today! She has a Halloween shirt (thanks Alicia) and vampire socks. The socks we had to buy one day when we went bowling. She forgot to bring a pair so we had to go to the dollar store.

I plan on dressing like a seminary student. This will consist of a shirt and pants. Probably a jacket also. Of course I will have a backpack.

We are not sure if we will have any trick or treaters tonight since there are no kids in our apartment complex. But we did buy some candy just in case. So if you live in Wilmore, come by and get some candy! You don't have to dress up, just say "trick or treat!"

First Frost

2007-10-29T09:41:00.001-04:00

It's official. I went out to my car this morning and found the window frozen. Fortunately I still had my ice scrapper in the car. Winter is quickly approaching the little city of Wilmore. While, I am not very excited about this, it does mean that the next season is spring. And spring leads to summer. Of course, on the downside is that winter will probably last until late April. I guess this means that I can take my air conditioner out of the window.

We are both keeping very busy. I (Brian) just finished up a 3 day intensive class in Christian Ethics. As the name suggests, it was intensive, but really interesting. We looked at issues like family, gender, race, ethnicity, just war and pacifism, marriage, and the environment to name a few. It was real eye opening and interesting. The professor teaches a class on bioethics which I may take later. I am just over the halfway mark for the semester. I plan on taking classes in January and full load in the spring. I am kicking around the idea of doing my mentored ministry (like a practicum) this summer, but somewhere besides Kentucky. But those details are still coming together.

In other news. Melanie is working hard to bring her drama production "Break" together. (I think right now she could use a "Break.") I have enjoyed helping her to build the set. We have some great pictures of the process. Once the show is over we will post a set of pictures from the show on our webpage.

It looks like both our families will be visiting us in Wilmore around Thanksgiving. There will be more blogs to come soon. I am working on another post as we speak...well as we read.

One show, after the other!

2007-10-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

So I made it to Fall Break! This week I have spent directing a Fall Drama Workshop K-5th grade through the Parks and Rec Dept. I had to put aside my High School show for the week and concentrate on Jack and the Beanstalk & Three Billy Goat Gruffs. It was fun, but I am not sad it is over, a 3 day workshop just wasn't enough time to really work with the kids.

Now Sasha and I (my co-director) our in the midst of creating a Christmas production for 4 year old to 8th graders. Auditions for it will begin the day after my High School production closes. We are hoping for a cast of 30 and are currently looking at the script "The Little Town of Christmas". It is a cute comedy, that we can add our own scenes to and make work with a large cast.

My father-in-law has been awesome in helping me construct the set (a 24 by 8 foot subway car) for my High School show. And as he is 10 hours away that is quite an accomplishment. Brian finally understands why every Christmas I ask for a circular saw, as he has been pulled in to interpret and carry out my father-in law's blueprints. I am getting ready to spend over $100 in roof flashing to cover the interior of my subway. I imagine it will take quite a few hours to nail it all in. Brian is wonderful, he has become my own personnel Ty Pennington!

Holiday plans are beginning to unfold, for all of you who are interested in our whereabouts. It looks like we will be spending Thanksgiving here in KY. Brian and I will be hosting it for my family... well at least part of them. My parents and little sister will head this way, so somehow I have to figure out how to fit a Turkey in our little oven!

For Christmas we will be headed to VA. We will go up either the Saturday or Sunday before and stay for a few days. After Christmas we may have to head down to FL so Brian can meet with some people and do some networking. My hope is that we will get a chance to stay in Orlando for a day or two.

I am not sure about New Year's yet, but my guess is we will be back in KY by then.

That's all for now... I must get on with the show!
God bless!
-Melanie

Young Adults No More!

2007-10-07T16:20:00.000-04:00

Melanie pointed out a grim fact this morning in church. We visited a church in Wilmore this morning. Like most they had the little visitor card in the bulletin to fill out. She starting filling in our information and nudged me to look at the card.

She pointed out that we are straddling the age range. I (Brian) still fit in the 18-25 range for 8 months and Melanie is now in the 26-40!! Yikes, how did we get so OLD so quick. (No offense to those who are older than 26). When we got home I told her that we are at that age when the "young adult" classes might start pushing us out because we are hard to relate to. We are too old to be young adults, but not really ready to be adults in our minds. However, we also realized that we both have started to get up before 8am, even on weekends, and worse, we enjoy it! Now Melanie does have to be to work early, but I have no excuse. My first class is not until 9:30 and that is only two days a week! I find that I really enjoy starting the day early. We both get really tired around 9:45 and we try to be in bed between 10 and 10:30.

I guess age happens to the best of us.

Seen on Campus

2007-10-05T11:46:00.001-04:00

John Wesley got a makeover, complete with gold chain. I didnt do it, I just saw it walking home from the library for lunch.

October already???

2007-09-30T16:17:00.000-04:00

Brian and I in Virginia Beach for Mitzi's wedding

Today is the last day of September and the weather is beginning to make that evident! It was 58 this morning... that is more like our low in the middle of winter back in Valodsta. :) I have spent the last month being sick. Our neighbor jokes with Brian saying, "Looks like it is time to trade Melanie in for a new model." I got a "cold" the end of August that got better and then worse. After putting off going to the doctor for a month, Brian made me go. He was tired of neither one of us being able to sleep. Those of you that know me, know I have a low immune system and once my stress tolerance level has been reached my body gives way. Sure enough I had Bronchitis, and was given a couple of antibiotics as well as over the counter medicines. A week later I was feeling much better! Then this past week I came down with a stomach virus, pretty irritating as I had to stay close to a toilet, if you get my gist.

During my first illness we made our trip to VA. And for those of you who don 't know flying while your sick is not a good idea. We stayed with our family (Johnson side) and they did a good job of taking car of me and letting me sleep when we arrived. We attended Brian's cousins wedding on the 15Th and had a great time. Mitzi and her now husband Lance were quite entertaining! Lance is a good old GA boy and while Mitzi was born and raised in VA, has definitely fit into GA quite well. She and I laughed about how "you gotta go to GA to find a good spouse".

The past month has been a busy one. I cast my High School production of "Break". To summarize it is a cast of 6 with a similar story line as the "Breakfast Club". Only the action takes place on a subway car that breaks down. My students have a lot of work to do to get ready and not a lot of time, as we open Nov 8Th. They all are hard working and dedicated and I feel they can do it. This week they are off book. In addition to daily rehearsals from 4-6pm, we are doing several fundraisers and regular officers meetings. Last Weds and Thursday I didn't get home until 9:30pm, as I had one drama meeting after the next. My set/lighting designer and I are trying to reconstruct a full size subway onto our stage. The building of it will officially begin on Saturday... so there goes my Saturdays! I love what I do, but it is very tiring. And I do wish I could see Brian more!

As I am sure you have read in his early blog, he is staying busy too. Don't read too much into the sarcasm of his words as he loves all of his classes :) That's my big nerd! That's it for now! God bless you all!
-Melanie

"3 Weeks Down, 11 To Go" or "Brian Goes Back to School"

2007-09-24T12:48:00.000-04:00

After a month off, I am heading back to classes for the Fall semester. It's hard to beleive that Fall is here already. Leaves are changing on trees, football is on TV, and stores are putting out their christmas merchandise. Which is a surprise because stores usually wait AT LEAST till Halloween is over to ramp up for Christmas (note sarcasm). With that said...I am signed up for a full load of four classes this semester. I'll give a quick play-by-play.

1. Concise Greek: I thought that after three years in high school and 2 years in college of spanish, I had left languages behind me. HAH! Fortunatly, Greek is a rather interesting language and the school only requires one semester. So far I have learned that "School House Rocks" is still very helpful for learning grammer. You know you are getting a well-rounded education when you watch "The Tale of Mr. Morton," when the professor is talking about subjects and predicates. You should be able to find the clip on YouTube, its worth watching again.

2. Vocation of Ministry: This is one of the "general" classes that everyone at the Seminary must take in the beginning of their degree. The good thing about this one is that there are five of us who live in the same student housing apartments. According to the catalog, it is supposed to help us understand more about ministry as a career and how it is sustained throughout life.

3. Communication as Christian Rehtoric: I was worried about this class because it is a night class. We meet from 6:15 to 9pm on Wednesdays. But the Prof. who teaches it the course is very good at making class interesting and practical. I have learned first hand this semester that that speaking is one of things that gets rusty without regular use. I have not spoken in front of a group in about 2 years and afterwards, and it showed. I used a good deal of "um" "yea", and my favorite, "thats all I got." The good news is I can only get better. :)

4. Christian Ethics: There is ALOT of reading for this class, I think I will just read some and say I read it all. Haha, just kidding. Actually this class looks promising. It only meets for a few days in October, but we have reading and assignments to work on throughou the semester. Which challenges me to stay on top of the work each week. We are reading christian ethics works from ancient and contemporary sources to understand the scope of ethics in history. I think this is an often neglected area for Christian study and I look forward to jumping into the topic.

Well, thats the schedule. Aside from school, I am still working at the schools phone switchboard. Its a cake job, I can do homework, watch movies, eat dinner with Melanie and still get paid! There are not many calls at night when I work. Melanie and I are looking forward to the upcoming holdiays. We plan to decorate our apartment for halloween and we are trying to figure our a way to go trick-or-treating. Hope all is well with our readers.

PS: As many of you may have observed, we have not posted many pictures in a while. Our camara was off for a warrenty tune-up. But is back as of today so expect to see pictures again on the website. http://melaniebrian.googlepages.com

September Is Here!

2007-09-04T19:44:00.001-04:00

OK so September is here and while I do love the month... because it contains my birthday, it is also sad knowing that fall is right around the corner! I am a summer/spring girl. Cold weather brings runny noses and lots of layers of clothes, pale skin, and no more playing outside. While May seems like so long ago, it is still hard to believe that summer has come to an end. It was a fun jam packed one, with lots of new memories to add to the book!

It has been almost a month since I started my job at Jessamine Early Learning Village. For those of you who don't know I am an instructional assistant for a pre-k class. Each day I have come home with some very humours stories, kids say & do the darndest things! From our classroom fish tank being pulled off the top shelf toppling over and busting wide open, on top of a curious student, to new names my students create for me... Mrs.Meloney, Mrs.Mellory, you name it I get it! The kids are great and even though I am not suppose to have favorites, there is one little girl that has the biggest blue eyes and wears pigtails everyday! She is too adorable and simply shrugs her cute shoulders and winks at me across the room. It makes my heart melt! Her parents most be the luckiest ones in the world!

I have also begun work with my high school students. At 3:30 I take off from the elementary school and drive across town to the high school. So far they are great kids and have a lot of excitement. We are currently working on a variety show for fundraising purposes. And I am in the midst of reading scripts for our fall production in November. It will either be a one or two act production, six weeks of rehearsals, three weekends of building a set, and a three night run. In spring I will direct a full length show, but for now I am concentrating on this months rehearsal schedule. They have not had an organized drama club in years, so I am implementing a drama club with officers, end of the year banquet, and possibly make it an official part of the National Thespian Society. There is so much to do and had I known for sure I landed the job, I would have begun my work months ago. I am very excited about the opportunity and feel blessed to have been given the position. I will keep you updated on it and post pictures as events occur.

The Wilmore Parks & Rec Dept has also asked me to direct a few theatre workshops. Specifically a week long event during fall break. They are currently looking for a place to hold the events. Until something has been secured, I will stay focused on the high school kids!

Brian went back to school today! He was very excited and I was sad that I was off at work when he left. I felt like I should have been home to take a first day of school picture. I suppose he is a little old for that. He is very excited about the semester and is doing his best to stay ahead of the class and manage his time well. He also has been picking up extra shifts at the switch board where he works. It has been a great job for him!

So I suppose that it the latest in the Johnson family! We just keep trucking along. We are both missing family, so if anyone wants to come visit give us a call!! We will be heading to VA the weekend of Sept 15 for our cousins wedding, but it will be a quick trip, as we both have work and school. We hope all our readers are doing well!! We miss and love you all!
-Love, Melanie

Take the Poll

2007-08-28T13:32:00.000-04:00

Look to the right of the blog page...I found this new feature where i can post polls. I plan to keep these going all the time. They run for 6 days at a time. So vote! This week is the every difficuly debate about what to call carbonated drinks. I will post the results when the poll closes.

I also posted a new blog below. Enjoy -Brian

On Christian Community

2007-08-28T11:07:00.000-04:00

I have been reading some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work this summer. He was a pastor in Germany while the Nazi's were in power. He was an outspoken opponent of Hitler and the Reich, to the point that it cost him his life. For a little more depth about him see the wikipedia article or this short biography.

I have been reading his book Life Together. He deals with how Christians interact with each other through life and ministry. The whole book has been very eye-opening and challenging. However, Bonhoeffer makes a statement in the last chapter that I wanted to share with the blog community.

"'Confess your faults one to another' (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone in our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!" (p.110)

That was just the teaser. If you want the rest of his thoughts you will need to read the book. Bonhoeffer pretty much cuts to the chase with this statement, leaving me little room to add. I will say that I cannot help but agree with this. So many Christians, Christian communities, and even churches seem to operate on the mindset that all Christians are perfect (present tense), and anyone who does not follow Christ should become perfect first. Paul the Apostle said of himself that he was a sinner. In fact he thought he was the worst! (1 timothy 1:15).

I wonder, how did Christianity go from loving the sinner to hiding the sin? (Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section..) I think that we are afraid to be seen as imperfect in a structure (the church) that has come to be built on perfection. We believe that people think we have it all together. I don't think we are fooling anyone but ourselves. The world can clearly see the hypocrisy and masks that we put on. Jesus did not say, "once you choose to follow me you will become sinless." He did say, "You shall be perfect." (future tense, referencing heaven) (Matthew 5:48). I think that the world would listen to what we have to say if we really showed and acted like we don't have everything together. If we Christians (myself included) all sat down and confessed our sins one to another, we may find that we are very similar in that each of us struggles sin on some level daily. No need to name a list of sins here, deep down we all know our imperfect areas and thought they may vary, they are there. So lets take our cue from the world on this one, because the truth is that they are more authentic in their struggles and hardships that we the church.

Final Thought: We are called to follow the perfect One. In this life, we are not the perfect ones.

-Brian

Wassup!!

2007-08-07T19:50:00.000-04:00

I found this video on a friends blog (Josh Doughty). Its a pretty good spoof of the Bud Wassup commericals. The best part is that it is Asbury professors doing it! In order of apperance they are...Dr. Kalas (current president), Dr. Joseph Wang (retired), Dr. Charles Killian (retired), Dr. David Thompson (current), and Dr. Maxie Dunnam (past president)...Enjoy! Just so you know, "Ale-8" is a popular drink that is bottled near Wilmore. It's a pretty deal around here. It's ginger ale.

I just discovered Wii !!!!

2007-07-25T16:19:00.000-04:00

OK, so I didn't just discover it, Brian has been talking about it since it came out. Our neighbors downstairs have it and he has done all he can to try and convince me to come play. I have been boycotting it for quite sometime. In fact all video games, I believe they just add to our generation of obese kids... and encourage sitting indoors on your butt starring at a TV screen. When I grew up we had no video games. In fact, the majority of my childhood we had no cable. We rarely stayed in doors. We got home from school and were outside until dinner time. Then outside again until are parents forced us back in to do our homework. Swimming, biking, building forts, attempting to roller blade, twirling baton, you name it we did it outside. Now it seems kids can't see past their i-pods, computers, cellphones, and video games.

Well a few nights ago some of our friends had us over. Their little brother was in town visiting them and had brought along his Wii. I agreed to play and was instantly hooked. Might I add I was not just sitting and starring at a TV screen. I was up jumping, moving, playing tennis, hitting softballs, bowling, and sweating! Some ingenious person created a video game that is secretly a workout video. Oh and the Mini Games... well lets just say I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Our friend who is a manly guy and high school basketball coach cracked me up as he hula hooped as fast as his hips could go! Then the race running as fast as you can with your arms to get away from the gorilla, Brian looked like a nut. My favorite was the doubles tennis match, I was into it so much I smacked Brian, my opponent, pretty hard with my hand (by accident of course) I was paying attention to where he was on the screen not in the room.

If your against video games... I understand, and can agree, but give the Wii a chance. I loved it and really want a Wii!!!

You ever feel like you just go and go and go?!?

2007-07-19T14:43:00.000-04:00

Well hello everyone! It has been a long time since I have been on here, so Brian felt like it was my turn to update. Our vacation was great, though it already seems like it was so long ago. We had a wonderful time in Dublin hanging out with my Dad and some of the best friends a person can have. Alicia, Meghan, good old Tim Allen. Yes, that's right I said Tim Allen and no he isn't the actor. We spent a couple days just relaxing by my parents pool... and of course we had to stop in at the best lunch spot in the country, Brian's Sub Shop! (and no that's not my Brian) You can get the best cheese steak in the world there and wash it down with a nice cool root beer. If there is one thing I could change I would make Brian's Sub Shop a chain... so I can enjoy it wherever. I guess the delight in that little shop too, happens when you walk in and see almost the entire city of Dublin at noon. People I haven't talked to in years!

We left the city of Dublin on the 4th of July and headed to Dear ole'Gramma's in West Palm Beach. There we met up with my Mom, sisters, brother, & several cousins and relatives. We spent the evening enjoying hamburgers and playing with sparklers... oh and getting attached by those little blast bomb things. The rest of the week was spent there in West Palm, going to the beach, by our old house, bowling, and my cousins wedding. Which was very nice.
I met her three children (my cousin's, the bride), two of them for the first time. All of them were adorable. Her one year old daughter was too cute for words! Made me want to start popping babies out! (Don't worry I am not going to.) There are pictures of the kids under our photos... they don't do the kids justice though.

After we left West Palm we headed to Sarasota, just the two of us. For some good old R&R! And believe me a week with my family and you need it! (I love yo guys, but you know it's true!) Brian and I went to Lido Beach and stayed at Lido Beach Resort, three days and two nights. It was heavenly! We almost felt as if we were on our Honeymoon all over again... but less crying because I didn't forget my passport or birth certificate. (hehe!) We found the most delightful little fudge shop! (Lucinda you would have loved it!) They made fabulous fudge and chocolate treats right in front of your eyes!!! Brian's not as much into sweets as I am, but if Lucinda had been there we could have undoubtly eaten the shop clean!

Our good days at the beach soon came to an end and we headed back to GA. We stayed one short night in Valdosta with our friend Meghan. Enjoyed dinner with her and a short visitor with our pastor's wife Celeste the following day. Then it was off to Stone Mountain!

Stone Mountain was not an easy place on the map to find, but we made it. We set up camp, our site was right next on the water. We then took the water taxi over to enjoy they laser show that night. So now we can finally say... Brian has seen Stone Mountain!!! The next day concluded our trip, we packed up our camp and headed north.... our journey was coming to an end.

Now here we are back in Wilmore... Brian is finishing up a week of very concentrated classes. And I am buried in Theatre curriculum. My mid-high/high camp starts next week, and I have 14 kids coming so far. I am not sure I completely knew what I was getting myself into when I took this whole thing on. But I am very excited!

I just feel like we have been on the go all week. Brian and I see each other for about an hour a day. I think I have begun to forget what he looks like! Before we know it our whole summer will be gone and it will be back to a regular schedule... whatever that is!

Keep us in your prayers! God has opened some more possibilities for me... and Brian is trying to deiced on the candidacy process and a church. We look forward to see just what God is going to do!!! We hope and pray all of you are enjoying your last weeks of summer too!

1550 Miles Down, 500 to go.

2007-07-12T12:33:00.001-04:00

Quick Update: We are traveling through Georgia today and stoping tonight at Stone Moutain to camp. I really hope it does not rain, and that it is not crazy hot. (Like usual in this state) We have had a blast so far! We have some great pictures to share with you all, but you will have to wait till we get back. You may not recognize us though, as we have some pretty good tans. Goodbye for now. - Brian

ROAD TRIP!!

2007-06-30T23:34:00.001-04:00

Well we leave tomorrow, Sunday to embark on this summer's road quest. This is by far our biggest trip. We have been to farther parts of the country. However, this will be the longest total miles and most stops. I thought it might be fun for our faithful readers to know where we will be for the next two weeks. The letters below will correspond to the map above. (I feel like i am back on the Oregon Trail...hopefully without Indian attacks!) Sorry I could not make it bigger. Here we go...

A. (shown as F.) We will leave Wilmore bright and early heading south on 75.
B. Arriving in Melanie's home town, Dublin GA for about two days. Hoping for some good swim time in the pool. Here we gain a traveler, Melanie's dad will be riding with us to our next stop.
C. The main event. The wedding in West Palm Beach Florida. All of Melanie's family will be there.
D. We will be heading to Sarasota on the Gulf Coast for our "summer vacation." We hope to spend two days on the beach just enjoying the sun and surf. Just Melanie and I.
E. Heading back north and stopping at Stone Mountain, GA for the night, just outside Atlanta. We plan to camp and rest for two days before embarking on the last leg of the trip.
F. Back in Wilmore! Phew, that's a long way.

Total Miles to Travel: 2193.7
Total Hours Driving: 34 hours, 37 minutes.
Fun Level: 10+

Please pray for safe travel and a great time for us. Also, that our Mazda will make it. Thanks for your prayers ahead of time. We should have some great pictures when we get back. And hay, give us a call to talk, after all we have plenty of time in the car. And we're off!!!

For your reading pleasure

2007-06-22T09:18:00.000-04:00

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=581

Here's a great interview from Leonard Sweet with Relevant Magazine...and some quotes below.

[RM:] I think it's hard for the church to hear that. I think it's hard for the church to embrace impermanence.
[LS:] But that's the mark of every living thing. When we stop changing, we die. The medical definition of death is a body that doesn't change. So, the very definition of impermanence is the definition of life.

[LS:] I mean, in the men's room they put tracts on the urinals. And this is evangelism?! Who's gonna pick it up? It's the wussification of the church's mind and mission, and it's embarrassing. Let's do for our day what our ancestors did for their day — is that too much to ask? (referring to the need to be bold in talking about Jesus)

[LS:] The whole Great Commission is not about "come and see," it's "go and be." We're all trying to figure out how to bring more people into the church and it shouldn't be about coming to church. It should be about coming to Christ. And then when those people come to Christ, the church's job is to send them out.

Enjoy.

Success

2007-06-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

How do you measure success?

I am taking a summer class right now in Church History (from about 1500 AD till present). We are at the First Great Awakening in the course. We are looking more at the key figures than a typical time line focus. I have really benefited a lot from this course, but one thing has stuck out so far. The most successful people in church history have been those who were viewed as the least in their time. For example Martin Luther was a Catholic Priest who was excommunicated from the church because of his revolutionary ideas about structuring the church using scripture. He was opposed by many in his time; his church, his fellow priests, other professors, and many common people. Today we celebrate him as a great reformer of the Catholic Church and the initiator of the protestant church

A study of church history (though the ages) shows the greatest, most successful (long term) and most effective (long term) were those that the church persecuted, kicked out, and/or killed. We do not study and look up to those who did not "shake the boat." Though I was somewhat surprised by this idea, I should not be. This is the example seen in Jesus. His church (synagogue)kicked him out, his friends abandoned him in difficult times, and his people had him killed. And yet we seek to live like Jesus, and not the "religious leaders" of his time. I bet the religious leaders did not expect that!

So then I ask, who are the people today who are hated, despised, and persecuted, for their unorthodox, unconventional, and "forward" thinking? History shows that it is these people who tend to make the biggest mark of Christianity.

With that said. Who do you, the faithful readers, think will make such a mark in today's Christianity? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments sections.

Slip and Slide Pictures! WHOOO

2007-06-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

Brandon (Top Pic), Me (Bottom Pic). Kelli and Melanie were there too, but they were taking the pictures. Melanie sliped and slided too. We were all pretty sore afterwards. Apparently the courtyard has pretty tought soil.

Camping

2007-06-16T10:33:00.000-04:00

We just got back from Virginia. Josh and Ashley tied the knot this past weekend and are cruising in the Caribbean. On the way back to Kentucky we stooped and camped two nights in West Virginia. The campground had a "resort" attached to it. Now it was no Disney World resort, but we still had fun. They had a small lake/river for canoeing, kayaking, and paddle boats. They also had a pool and a big water slide. The lifeguards (who we were pretty sure were not certified in any way) would let you go down the slide however we wanted. Melanie and I would go down together and got some serious speed. Which is great till you hit the water! The campground was for both RVs and Tents. We decided that we would use a fire to cook instead of a grill. I think we decided that because we don't have a small grill or camp stove. The first night was rough making a fire. The camp store closed early so we could not buy any wood. Not to mention there was not much wood around the camp. However, we scavenged some bigger logs from old fires and managed to gather enough small stuff to get a fire going. I think most of the RV people thought we were crazy! I guess one RV couple thought we were having trouble getting the fire going, so they offered us a tub of their old cooking grease. They said that would get it going. Just to be nice we accepted the grease, even poured some on the edge of the fire to make them happy (since they were watching), and of course it did nothing but melt into a slimy goo. We made sure it had burned off before we cooked hot dogs on sticks and made smores. We had good success making our meals over the fire, and really enjoyed the process. The next night some really bad weather moved in, just after dark severe thundershowers started. The tent moved alot in the wind but we didn't get wet. The next morning a few of the RV people came by and said they were so worried about us in our tent during the rain. One asked, "Did you guys get wet last night?" (I thought, no, tents are still waterproof) We told her we were fine. Then she said how her and her husband "started out in tents, but every time they went it would rain, so now they use an RV." Based on the stares and comments that we got I think the RV people at the camp looked at us (and the other two tent camping families) like cute little children who will one day grow up and move out of little tent, in the grown up RV. Nevertheless, we had a blast camping, swimming, and paddle boating. (No offenses to our RV readers! In fact we have talked of buying a pop up one day, but we will always remember our roots! ha ha)

I have found a series of books that list the tent camping sites in each state. Melanie and I both grew up camping. We both had families that liked to camp and both were in scouts. Melanie has her Silver Award, and I am an Eagle Scout. When we travel, I think both of us would rather camp than stay in a hotel. However, there are not many true camping places left. Most are devoted to RVers, so usually we see more RVs than trees. We are hoping to camp at Stone Mountain in Georgia in a few weeks when we head to Melanie's cousin's wedding in West Palm Beach.

A final story for this post. So Melanie missed the wedding that we drove all the way to Virginia for. Melanie and Tori were in Shawn's truck stooped at a light, and were hit from behind by a guy in a work truck. They said he was going 30 mph and was not paying attending to where he was going. They got pretty bad whiplash and minor concussions. Tori is a nurse which is fortunate because no one from 911 showed up for an hour and a half after they called! Appartenly the police could not find the scene. I find it hard to believe, they were at a major crossroads, right by a large bridge in the city. In fact Shawn's mom and dad made it to the scene a long time before the police showed up. So the girls kept each other from going to sleep (due to the concussion) and made it to the reception. The next day we went to the 24 hour doctor to have x-rays. He said there was nothing wrong. Her neck still hurts a little, but she seems OK.

So that's the news for now! We are back in Wilmore for a few weeks. Melanie is working on summer theatre camp stuff and has a teaching conference this week. I will be starting my first summer class this week. Hope all our faithful readers are doing well and enjoying summer!

Our First Anniversary

2007-06-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

one year, 365 days, 8,760 hours, or 525,600 minutes of marriage. June 3rd was Melanie and I first anniversary. We decided to celebrate our wedding/honeymoon so we took off for 5 wonderful days in the Bahamas. Well, not quite. We actually spent the day in downtown Lexington. I was able to get a great deal on a nice hotel (Thanks to the fact that I have steam-cleaned their carpets.) We checked in just after church and spent the afternoon wandering the downtown area. There was not a lot open but we always find a way to have a good time. We will put some pictures up on the webpage soon. Before dinner we swam in the pool and soaked in the hot tub. We get pretty excited about pools since there are no real pools here in Wilmore. I think there is one at the college, but we have never made it over there. We have realized that our future house will need to have some kind of pool. Plus then we can live in swimsuits all summer (and hopefully spring and early fall too). I had made reservations at P.F. Chang's for us. Neither of us had ever eaten there before. I think we were unsure what "classy" Chinese food would taste like. But it was amazing. We started off with the Crab Wontons with spicy plum sauce. Melanie ordered their new special, shrimp, honeydew melons, and candied walnuts in some amazing sauce. Her's was the best. I ordered the spiced lamb. It was good, but seemed a little burned. Later that night we ate our wedding cake again. It wasn't too bad considering that it is a year old! Monday we drove out Shaker Village (a restored Shaker town) and enjoyed a nice lunch and a ferryboat ride on the Kentucky River. The weather could not have been more perfect. It rained just long enough to keep the pollen down. All in all, we had a great first anniversary and looking back, a wonderful first year. Year number 2, here we come!

My First Day of Teaching!!!

2007-05-24T12:27:00.000-04:00

Well so far teaching hasn't been what it is all cracked up to be. I mean since when did 8th graders get so mean?? I know I wasn't like that in 8th grade... at least I hope I wasn't! Today I taught at East Jessamine Middle School, Theatre classes. The problem is, it is a required class here and so 99% of the students don't want to be in it. I had no idea so many people had such little interest in Theatre. I mean it's great, right? OK so maybe people don't care about it, but wouldn't any kid rather be acting out a scene or doing a character analysis than sitting in Math class?? It seems like an easy A to me! So as I am going around helping these noisy 8th graders with their analysis I find them asking me questions like, "What is a character flaw?, or "What does moral beliefs mean?" As they ask me these questions they also give me an answer and ask me if it is right. For example, I had several different students ask me if moral belief meant Christian. One girl who was analysing the character of Alice in Wonderland, decided, "Sure Alice is a Christian." I then had to explain to her that moral beliefs expanded beyond what religion we claim. I tried using descriptive words like trustworthy, honest, or sneaky. I think they finally got the gist.
Whether or not teaching is for me, I am still not sure. It just seems like it is so hard in the classroom setting. At least as a sub you don't get to build a real relationship with them. Sasha, there regular teacher, told me she use to go home crying all the time because they were so horrible! Though I can no longer postpone getting a "real" job. And I must make a decision.
I will be applying for a couple different teaching positions over at the Elementary School. I am hoping to set up an interview for next week. Also the Drama Coach position at the High School opened up. I guess that means Ben is moving on. (The former drama teacher.) Though it is not full time and I think they are hoping another full time teacher will pick it up as an extra activity. I will keep you posted on how that goes! (Oh and I am not sure I will ever get use to being called Mrs. Johnson by the students, I forget that's me sometimes.)
Today makes 10 days until my one year Anniversary! Then we can no longer be officially called newlyweds. And 13 days until we head back to VA for Josh and Ashley's wedding. I look forward to spending more time with friends. Our trip up there last week made me miss having a close gang of friends to hang out with all the time. But no doubt there will be more hanging out time with them to come! (Tori you and Shawn better make time for a Pizza Hut Mom's Night Out!)
Alright, I shall finish my day here at the school. Then it's back to the house for some major cleaning. Brian's allergies are killing him and we must get rid of any dust! Take care for now!
-Melanie

Whats Up?

2007-05-21T09:10:00.000-04:00

(Written by: Brian) This week I finished my first semester of Seminary. It has really been everything I hoped for, and a little more. I am very happy with my choice in schools. I was surprised mostly by the professors. In undergrad, you always felt like you were bothering or interrupting a professor when you came to their office (In general). However, I have found professors who really care about students. They have welcomed students into their office and even had us over for lunch! Also, and probably most importantly to me, is that I feel challenged. I wanted to go to a school that would offer me the opportunity to really think about and look at Christianity. There is an atmosphere of openness in which I know I can express my ideas (weather right or wrong) and know that I will not be looked down at and brushed off. The faculty seems to think we learn best though experience and working through theological issues together. I guess I am trying to say... Its more like a hiking through a forest with a guide who knows the area well. They want us to become competent guides also, so instead of telling us every which way to turn, they allow us to make decisions and work through consequences. OK, that's enough school for now.

Melanie and I are in Virginia right now, well, she is in dream world right now, but I was done sleeping. We came down this week for two of our closet friends wedding. Shawn and Tori. It was very exciting to see two people that we have known for so long become one in marriage. I remember when all of us were just starting college. We new that we would find ourselves here. Congrats to Shawn and Tori, who are probably on the beach in Jamaica right now enjoying the sun and crystal clear water! Yall earned it, have a blast (like they will really read our blog while there ha ha). I got make some new friends and we both caught up with old BSU people. We got to spend time with family also, and had perfect weather. I have never been in someones wedding while I have been married. I was reminded of the vows and commitments that I took with Melanie in our own wedding. We were reminded that love is not best defined by "falling in love" or "head over heels," but by these less romantic words; commitment and sacrifice. If I have learned anything in our past year of marriage, it is that I pledged to love in a way that puts my wife's needs before any of my own. I have also learned that God chooses to teach and build me most though my interaction with my wife. It seems that marriage and living with someone brings out all of your good and bad.

Today we are going to try and plan our summer vacation/anniversary before heading back to big city Wilmore. We are hoping to spend some time on the beach in Florida to celebrate the big 1 year. We are taking our time driving back and would like to stop at the Natural Bridge along the way.

Toasting David & Brian's Birthday

2007-05-08T16:33:00.000-04:00

Well this past weekend was an especially busy time here in the Johnson household. The Alfred Hitchcock show "Toasting David" better known as "The Rope", opened this past Thursday. I would say all in all the play was a success. I enjoyed portraying my character Janet Walker. In a somewhat serious murder mystery you could say I was the comic relief. Flirty and boisterous I fluttered across the stage with my not so funny jokes. We received great comments and feedback. I also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know more people on campus. While I am sad the performances are over, I know I will be happy to have that time free once again! The show closed Saturday and I awoke Sunday morning with a sore throat, congestion, and 100 degree temperature. I praise the Lord that it didn't come a day earlier!

So as you can imagine, other than moving from the bed to the couch on Sunday it was a lazy day of drinking about 8 bottles of water. Brian was able to get much of his homework done, as I could hardly speak and was not a distraction to him.

Yesterday was Brian's 25th Birthday! And as my Dad would say he has finally reached the age where his car insurance goes down. I am not so sure what is magical about the age 25, but apparently you magically become a better driver! Better driver or not, I still think the world of him! He was blessed with many gifts this year. My older sister Lucinda and her boyfriend Chip came through KY and treated us both to lunch. Our neighbors decorated our window with balloons and a birthday sign, and he got the manly grill he has been wanting for a long time. The grill was from my parents and I. And his parents sent him some money that he purchased a bike with... no he has no excuses for being late to class anymore.

We also got to spend some fun time with our neighbors last night. They all came over to share some cake and ice cream and sing Happy Birthday. Oh and of course.... play Bingo! A Boger family must! Brian enjoyed himself and even though I was still feeling a little groggy, I had a good time too!

Next week begins the first of our many trips for the summer. Brian's last final is next Tuesday and then Wednesday we will be heading to VA Beach for our friends wedding. We plan on taking off for almost a week, making time to spend with his parents while we are there. Then we will come back to KY for a few more weeks, before we head off again!

So that is it our latest and greatest! I am busy working this week to make some extra bucks for our travel, and Brian's nose will be stuck in his books. Keep us in your prayers, this tends to be a stressful time of the year! We should have pictures posted from the show and Brian's birthday by this evening. We love you all and miss you!

-Melanie

Faces in Trees

2007-04-26T12:40:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been staring at something and out of nowhere seen a face, animal, or something? I remember as a kid looking for shapes in clouds, that was hard cause if you ever saw one, by the time to pointed it out to your friends the cloud changed and they missed it. I never saw faces in trees, I titled this blog this because I read a comment this week about how this author thought it silly that people see faces in trees. They thought it was peoples way of trying to see something that was not really there. I was slightly upset about their comment, but understand that not everyone gets excited about the things I get excited about. Therefore, this tree face is dedicated to those who think it ridiculous to see things in trees.

Like I said I never saw faces in trees. I saw them in carpet. Its true. If i sit long enough starring at a rug some kind of face will usually emerge. I must admit the best undisturbed time to stare at a rug is when you are in the bathroom. People leave you alone there for the most part. I would encourage you to try this next time you find yourself idle before carpet. Though some practical advice here can be helpful: Thicker, more plush rugs, are the best medium. That "high traffic" stuff is simply no good. The fact that I see things in carpet should not lead any to think that I am sliding of my rocker. I just never knew until this week that others saw this too. I feel like one among many now. I must say that I do not know what this means. Maybe you know. I like to think I'm creative. I feel like there is something more to this, but then again, maybe I am just seeing faces in carpet...

Feel free to post your thoughts, opinions, and concerns. I would love to hear what you think, or see yourself!

Beautiful Sunny Weather!!!

2007-04-23T19:54:00.000-04:00

Well things are looking brighter and brighter here in Kentucky! This past weekend the sun was out and the grass is green. Several of us in our apartment complex got out our green thumbs yesterday. Brian and I planted a small garden and some of the other couples planted their own little gardens too. Brian and I planted two tomato plants, two yellow squash plants, and some marigolds, imitations, and purple annuals (I forget the name of them). It was so sunny that Brian actually got a little sunburn on his neck.

After are gardening excursion we took our five loads of laundry off of the clothes line, and played badminton in our courtyard. At least we attempted to hit the little birdie over the net. It was so great just being outside and enjoying the sunshine!!

My job situation is looking brighter too! I had a meeting last week with the Middle School Theatre teacher and our director of the Parks and Recreation department. We have worked out the Summer Theatre camps!!! Together she and I will be co-directing three weeks of Theatre camp and the news doesn't stop there! Due to the interest we are going to make the theatre group a year round event. We will be calling ourselves the Jessamine County Players. Sasha (the Middle school teacher) and I will be doing year round theatre workshops and teach acting, and doing some directing. Sasha will also be meeting with the High School principle within the next few weeks to work on getting a grant for me to direct two high school shows next year and possibly teach theatre part time in the school! The amount of support we are getting from the community has been great. And while this will probably only be a part time position it is something I can look forward to in the fall. Thank you all for the many prayers concerning my job. God has been so good, and I look forward to see just where all of this goes.

For now I am waiting tables at Sonny's BBQ. Between me waiting tables and Brian's two day a week job, we are hoping to make enough to save up for the summer so we can do the traveling we have planned. Four weddings in three months and hopefully some family time too. Of course we have scheduled the summer theatre camp around our travel time. It should be a great summer and we both look forward to it!
We just keep praising the Lord for these bright sunny days!!!

A Hint of Things to Come - Brian

2007-04-21T22:51:00.000-04:00

Well it has been quite a while since I have blogged. Fear not, I have not given up. Its crunch time for me in class right now. Here are some things that are running around in my head that will hopefully make it online soon.

-Is the church to much like Starbucks? Do people feel like outsiders if they dont speak the required lingo? Can someone not on the inside of the church order coffee with light cream and sugar or does it have to be a Costa Rica Tarrazú Grande Non Fat whatever? (This idea is the result of a converstion at work with a friend)

-Also, I would like to do a series of messages around U2 songs! Just recently got into them (i know behind the curve). But there are some fun things burried within.

-Our lattest pizza updates: This is one that Melanie made for us (pepperoni for me, mushroom and olives for her). The dough is hand made. We learned how fickle yeast is, but also how good homemade pizza can be!

-Also we are hoping to finalize our summer plans (school, travel, weddings). We will post our plans when we know.

Middle of April and still cold!

2007-04-17T10:49:00.000-04:00

I realized how long it has been since either Brian or I had blogged and figured I would take a quick minute to put something up!
The weather here is still very cold, we got snow the weekend of Easter, which made the Water Slip & Slide and volleyball set we got less exciting. With it being overcast and the high speed of the wind, it makes it somewhat unpleasant to go outside. Much less play volleyball! We know the warm weather will get to us though eventually. We will cherish everyday of it with no complaints!
I started training for waiting tables last week. I have one day left. Then this Friday morning I will take my server test and be on the floor by myself. Brian has been working hard on Mondays & Tuesdays with a small carpet cleaning business. He works anywhere from 4 to 12 hours a day! So far he has manged to get his homework done on the weekends and his part time job hasn't interfered with his school work.
We just keep coasting along, waiting to see what the next thing God has for us! I have my resume in at a few different places and am hoping to hear something back by the beginning of May, until then we remain content with where we are.
My show opens in less than three weeks. I am off book of course and we are focusing on our characters. We have not yet had a rehearsal to run completely smooth, but that is theatre for you. I am still enjoying it very much. I know that it will be sad once it is all over, but then I will have more time on my hands too! If anyone is going to be out this way come see it... we open May 3rd.
Well that's all for now folks! We have more pictures from Easter and our endeavors with Pizza dough making. They will be up soon! Sorry again for the delay in postings.
-Melanie

Chicago

2007-04-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

Trip to Chicago!

2007-04-03T22:36:00.000-04:00

So we returned from the Windy City yesterday! We had a wonderful time filled with many adventures... We traveled with our neighbors Laura and John, and stayed with my older sister Lucinda. She and her boyfriend Chip gave us the grand tour! We explored down town including going up into the big law offices in the Sears Tower where Lucinda works. At the Navy Pier we went to the same fudge shop that I ate at nearly 8 years ago. Lucinda and I single handedly devoured a pound and a half of Oreo and turtle fudge, and every bite was delicious! We got to see two shows, while one was not at all my taste, too perverted, and somewhat lame, the other was a fabulous murder mystery! We also explored new cuisines including real deep dish Chicago pizza and a real Ukrainian meal with all kinds of food I can't pronounce. But it was all very good! We were taken to one of the best homemade ice cream shops I have ever been to and devoured a Terraine Ice Cream Sundae! On Sunday afternoon we went to a great museum and got to encounter the real German U-Boat 505 that was captured during World War II. That evening we went back to the museum and went through the famous Body World II exhibit. It was crazy we saw actual human bodies that had been put through a process known as plastination. This type of preserving of the body allows the artist and anatomist to position the body in specific positions, such as a baseball player hitting the ball. The skin of the body is removed and we are able to see the muscles and organs in the position of the pose. It was quite intriguing!

Now that we are home and back in the real world, we are busy trying to organize our next few months. I was offered a job at Academy of Little Learners, but after much thought and prayer Brian and I felt it wasn't the best thing for me. It is a 10am-6pm job that only pays $8.00 an hour and would leave me no room to try and get a job to use my degree. So I have applied to wait tables once again, this should give us a modest income for a little while and allow me to purse a real job in theatre. God willing I will be able to get into the school system so that I can teach theatre eventually! Who knew I would ever want to teach?!? We are also trying to work out our summer schedule, including Brian's summer classes and traveling to three different weddings. It looks like we have a plan, so hopefully it will work out.

Well I suppose that is it for now. Do check out all of our pictures! We have new ones up on our webpage from the Chicago trip and from our camp out two weeks ago!

-Melanie

The Twist and Turns In my Job!

2007-03-21T13:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I work in the world of theatre and art, and well things are suppose to be a little dramatic right??? How dramatic can they be? Below is an email I typed up and sent to my all time best friend back in GA... and rather than tying it all again and trying to relay all the dramatic details of today and yesterday. I thought I could just copy and paste! And so I did:

Please pray for me today, as yesterday I received a letter from the bank with my paycheck in it saying Insuff funds. This was my first paycheck from my employer and had been deposited way back in Feb... it bounced. This morning I went to his bank to try and cash both it and the 2nd paycheck I recevied from him (which I had not gotten around to depositiong yet) only to find out that his account was apparetnly way over drawn. I asked them about his banking history and they could only say this was not the first time that this has happened and they highly recommended I find a new employer. In addition to that, they recommended I press charges... both checks where well over $500 and it is a felony in the state of KY to write a check for over $300 and not cover the funds. So basically to make a long story short. I have worked there for over a month and not made a single penny! And due to his check being bad it has made Brian and my checking account bounce. The bank tried to call us as soon as they saw the problem, but were unable to reach us do to our new phone numbers. A $620 check I wrote to cover Doctor bill payments from when I lived in Valodsta bounced and was just returned to the DR. How embarrassing!!!
I am more sad than angry. And I have so much disbelief that this could actually happen. I feel I have been made a fool of. After spending this mornig at the banks and county attorney's office, I finally confronted my boss. (Of course with Brian at my side.) He acted ignorant of the whole thing was apologetic and said "I will see what I can do." I am giving him until 3pm this afternoon to pay me the $1200 he owes me. If I hear nothing from him I will be taking legal action. Besdies the money he owes me we have received several bank fees, over $70.00 worth and our savings account was closed down.
In this I praise God, as I have been praying for an answer about this job and whether I should stay or go. Funny how God answers prayers, right??? I am unsure of what the future holds, particulary in the area of employment, but I know we will be taken care of. I just pray that all of this mess gets straighted out, we get the money that is ours and it be over and done with.
I must say I am sad that I might not get to pursue the theatre oppotunites here such as directing the shows, theatre camp, and working with the youth. But I know God has continously taught me not to find my self worth and fullfillment in a job. I never seem to get the lessson! And hey I was just telling Alicia (my best friend) that I wanted to be a housewife, in the words of the Genie, "You're wish has been fulfilled!". So why is it you never really want what you get, once you have it!!!! Oh how exciting my life is! Never a dull moment!

So now I start job searching.... again! I would love for something to just fall in my lap, but I am smart enough to no better. Keep us in your prayers!

Barn Fire!

2007-03-19T15:21:00.000-04:00

So here it is another Monday! While they are not my most beloved day of the week... this one just proved to be another adventure! On the way to work this morning, driving the same windy route as usual, over the hills, and through the woods, to the Music Stand I went (Music Stand is were I work). As I suddenly rounded a corner a huge blazing barn stood before me, and only a few yards away a house was up in flames too. Apparently that is Kentucky demolistion, JUST BURN IT! It was an old big black tobacco barn on the famous RJ Corman lot, and they were done with it. I was excited to see so much fire, quickly I did a U turn to join the crowd that was standing out in the cold. I called Brian and he met me at the location. The closer you stood to it, the more you could feel the intense heat rise off of the building. It was by far the biggest fire I have ever seen in my whole life! The tin roof seemed to just melt and bend inward at the heat of the flames and in less than 15 minutes the whole thing collapsed. It made me realize just how quickly a home could go up in smoke... kind of scary! So the adventures here never end!

This is a big weekend coming up for the local schools theatre world. Both Crucible and Once Upon A Mattress open this Thursday. One at the high school and one at the middle school. I will be busy running between the two shows, doing whatever I can to help out. I am in charge of coordinating the cast and crew party for Once Upon, at the Music Stand. We are expecting about 30 kids, it should be fun! Right now the crisis is that we can not get a hold of enough lapel mics. It's theatre there always has to be some kind of drama!

Next weekend Brian and I will be headed to Chicago for a four day trip so that he can enjoy some time off during his Spring Break. Though I can't help but giggle as the Seminary refers to it as Reading Week, I suppose that is more spiritual than Spring Break! Hehehe! I look forward to updating everyone after that trip and getting some pictures up from Chicago! Until then, so long, enjoy your week... and remember to turn off your curling irons, unplug your toasters... we don't want to see your house in the news looking like this poor innocent barn!
Love you all!
-Melanie

Finally A Relaxing Sunday!

2007-03-11T18:48:00.000-04:00

Well here it is over a full week into March and finally day light savings time!!! My first show behind me, "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" and my first ever Whose Line Is It Anyway behind me (and might I add it was a great success and my kids were hilarious!) Not to mention the laundry is done and put away! Well all except the clothing still hanging on the line. Yes, Brian and I have fully experienced the Kentucky Dryer... clean fresh air and a little bit of sunshine. When you do four loads of laundry at a dollar a piece to wash and 75 cents to dry you do what you have to, to save the silver. So now finally after being here over a month, we can take a normal Sunday afternoon and just relax! (That is before it starts all over again tomorrow...)

Brian will be busy studying for his midterms and reading all those "way over my head theological books" (apparently over his head too). Brian's best way to describe the books, "the author uses 15 words to say what he is trying to say, that could have taken two." I just giggle and thank God that I am done with school!

My next big goal... other then planning a few evening events including another "Whose Line" for the middle schoolers, booking a couple of bands, and an open mic night, I will be working on theatre curriculum for the four weeks of summer theatre camp I will be directing. I also have to start reading through scripts for a Mystery Dinner Theatre show that I will be directing late August. Enough to keep me busy for awhile!

I can say there are a few things I am missing. Mostly the warm Valodsta weather. Everyone down South is enjoying 80 degrees, flip flops, and already thinking about spring break beach trips. I can't complain too much though as it got up to 61 today. And of course we have made some great friends, but no one could replace my best girl friend, who is busy with tax season (she's an accountant) and way too far away!

Though this time has been a great period of growth between Brian and I. We have had lots of time to laugh together and play! We have also had the chance to see each others gifts come out, as we are both doing what we really want to do. We are learning together too, we are in a Crown Financial Ministry class together, learning how to get out of debt, stay out of debt, and make a budget for ourselves... something I hope we figure out now while we are young rather than later. We have had our ups and downs too, but with every down comes a new lesson and we continue to grow and learn about one another. It is hard to believe that we have almost been married for a whole year!

So things are good here in our little bubble of the world. Wondering and waiting to see where each new day takes us. But in the mean time we're finally enjoying a relaxing Sunday!

-Melanie

Tomb of Jesus Found!

2007-03-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well that is what the archaeologists claim anyways. It seems like the only people who believe that this is the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family is the people making the 'documentary.' It seems like everyone else; experts, general public, and surprisingly the media, see this as a publicity stunt with exaggerated 'facts' just in time to monoplize Easter. My professor has much more knowledge than I about Israeli archeology so I will defer to him... http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/ He has some real good historical evidence with very little bias. Plus he knows the people doing the film! Its a real neat inside scoop to the whole issue. Check it out at the link above. I plan on watching the 'documentary' on the Discovery channel with an open mind. After all, "A faith unchallenged is no faith at all." But I have my money (the little I have as a student...ha ha) on the resurrected Jesus Christ. I find plenty of history (both from the Bible and from non-Christian experts) to support that Jesus was not in the tomb on Easter Sunday, but risen from the dead. Here is a challenging verse in light of the topic at hand..."For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." -1 Corinthians 15:16-18

I'll end my rant on this thought. There are really only two positions in this debate. Either Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, or he was not. Each position is not to be considered lightly, for each has their own implications for life. The line is in the sand....Where are you?

-Brian

Fear

2007-02-19T21:24:00.000-05:00

I heard on the radio the other day that doctors believe that we are only born with two fears. One is the fear of falling, and the other is load noises. If this research is correct, that means that everything else we are afraid of is learned. That means that our other fears are learned. People are afraid of many things here are a few..

Anglophobia: The Fear of England and its Culture
Electrogeniphobia: The Fear of urinating during an electrical storm.
Bogyphobia: The Fear of the Boogeyman
Hellenologophobia: The Fear of Complex Scientific Terms and Greek Terminology
Soceraphobia: The Fear of Parents-in-Law

But everyone, myself included, do have real fears that do affect the way we live our life. What if you were not worried what people would think of you? What would you do if you were not afraid of regret? What if you were not afraid of hurt, and were free to truly love someone? Think of how you would live if you were not afraid of death? How often do we let fear drive our life?

I know that as a follower of Jesus Christ I should not allow fear to be a controlling factor in my life. As I think back, its sobering to see how fear sneaks in and holds me captive. Times when I should share my faith, should have said an encouraging word to someone.

But if we can learn to be afraid. Can't we UNLEARN too? I think so. Here's a verse that I think speaks to the problem of fear. Its from "The Message" translation of 2 Corthians 10: 3-6

"The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity."

-Brian

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

2007-02-18T22:16:00.000-05:00

Melanie and I have recently accepted the fact that we have an addiction. We now see and accept that we love pizza. We both have always enjoyed the versatile pie. However, we have recently moved from mere "fans" to "pizza connoisseurs." This is a large step mind you. We can no longer now just order a pizza and mindlessly scarf it down in front of a movie. Every brand and diffence must be anaylzed. This was really brought home this past Friday at a local pizza place here in Wilmore. To protect the below average pizza, we will not name names. Now this place claimed to have great specialty pizza in part because they used a brick oven. We found the crust greasy, the toppings un-fresh, and sauce overdone. The cheese was okay. At that point it hit us. The are lots of pizzas, but the BEST must have a great crust, the freshest toppings, and an exact recipe for sauce. It was that little pizza shop in Wilmore (and the Moutain Dew tasted off also) that we realized it...we need to open a Pizza place. Don't expect to see it tommrow or even any time soon, this may be a retirement dream indeed. For now, I am going to hit the drawing boards and work on the perfect pizza. I think I will start with the crust. After all it is the building block of a good pizza. We don't have any family recipeis to work from that I know of. So this endevor will be a Brian & Melanie orginal.