Union University Love Offering

I received a letter from Dr. David Dockery, President of Union University. You may recall this campus was hit by an EF4 tornado February 5, 2008 on their Jackson campus. While the lives of the students were spared, there was devastating damge done to the campus facilities.

As many of you who visit this blog know, this one is a bit personal for me. Brittany, our youngest daughter, is a freshman at Union. We were very blessed not to have lost anything in the storm. But I did visit the campus the morning of February 6. It was a scene that will never be erased from my memory.

However, the letter I received from Dr. Dockery did not come to me as a parent of a student, but as a Pastor of a Tennessee Baptist Church. Dr. Frank Page, current President of the Southern Baptist Convention has issued a call for a love offering for Union. In order to rebuild, Union will need as much as $20 million in addition to what was covered by insurance. The leaders of our national convention, as well as the leaders of the Tennessee Baptist Convention have asked that we receive this money April 6 as well as have a special time of prayer for this University.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Dockery's letter:

While we need your financial support, the most important thing you can do for us is to pray for us. Our institutional needs after the insurance settlement, including the cost of the extensive rebuilding of the residence life facilities and the need to make up huge revenue losses brought on by the storm, could well reach $20 million. Union University has never faced a financial challenge of this size. We want you to know that if your congregation has not already made a gift, we will be ever grateful for your support for us at this time in response to the appeal from our TBC [Tennessee Baptist Convention] leaders, who have established April 6 as the official day for this special offering. We will be so very grateful for your help.

We will not "pass the plate" twice in the service. If you wish to give to this special offering, please just indicate on your envelope the amount you wish to go to Union. If you give online, please indicate in the appropriate comment area how much you wish to go toward Union. You may also mail your gift to ClearView clearly marked that it is a gift for Union. The address is 537 Franklin Road, Franklin, TN 37069.

Belize Update 2

My last update was that only one person had gotten sick on the trip. Ooops! Actually, before it was all said and done, we had 6 or 7 of our 24 team members that caught some kind of stomach bug. Hard to tell whether it was something being passed around the team or something they ate. All seem to be doing well now. We all flew into Nashville between 11:00 pm and 12:00am last night on two different flights (one from Dallas and one from Miami). Only two pieces of luggage missing that I am aware of ... one for Jim Lackey and one for me.

The final two days went well. We hosted a men's dinner in San Juan Wednesday night with approximately 45 local men attending. That is a great turnout in that part of the world. I spoke from Ephesians (I know some of you are shocked) chapter 5 about the role of men and how they are to behave toward their wives. This is a great need in Belize. (It is also a great need in America come to think of it).

We spent the last night (Thursday night) in San Ignacio in a hotel (don't think Hilton here, but the shower had hot water!! ... something we had not had for a week). We had a final evening together with a great meal and a good night's sleep. The final evening after the meal was a time of sharing. Too much detail to go into here, but hearing each person share their one take-away was a blessing indeed.

I sensed God giving me a vision for ClearView missions' future while on this trip. We will have short term mission trips on all continents in a calendar year, every year. We will have someone from ClearView on short term missions 52 Sundays every year. This vision will be a reality within 5 years. More on this as God fleshes this out in our minds and hearts. We must take the gospel to the nations.

See you tomorrow ... it's Easter!

Pictures still to come ...

Belize Update

If you will look on the map to the right ... follow the east coast line south to Palencia ... look just a little left of Palencia and see Bear Creek ... we are located just a few miles north of Big Creek (also known as Independence).


It is Wednesday morning about 9:30. Eleven of the team are working on the construction site building a place that thousands of future mission teams from the US will be using to feed their teams. It is a 30' x 50' building with a kitchen and cook's quarters on one end and the eating area on the other end. Mark Baird is the man! He is the point man on the construction project. He has several capable helpers ... and then a few like Jim Lackey and myself (the day I worked construction) that just do what we are told (most of the time). A couple of the local pastors and a handful of lay people have also pitched in. I have always been amazed how much mission construction crews can get done in a short period of time. The building is really taking shape.

Thirteen of us are in the village of San Juan several miles from the construction site. Each morning there are 160+ younger childrean that attend school taught by our team. They are reviewing math and english. Sometimes the leaders from ClearView speak english and sometimes they speak through an interpreter. Fun to watch as we try to communicate.

In the afternoons in San Juan another 80+ older children attend the same school. Crazy thing is, this is the first week of a two week break from regular school for these children. They are voluntarily showing up to learn more during a break!! Imagine that in good old USA. Not gonna happen.

Vacation Bible School and worship services are held by the team each evening. Last night was the last night of VBS. I'm not sure how many children were attending, but well over 100 is a good conservative number. We have had probably as high as 30 adults attend worship. The most encouraging thing is that we have seen an increase of men attending each evening. Not something normal here. Through one on one conversations we have seen several locals pray to receive Christ. I don't know the total, but probably about 10 at this point. The school groups will present the gospel to all those attending today.

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to lead a time of training for some local pastors that are a part of the Belize Baptist Association. Many of the wives also attending. We had about 20 or so total attending. We simply looked at God's Word related to the call, character, and competencies of pastors.

Everyone on the team has really done well. As always on these trips, patience and flexibility are at the top of the list of requirements. There are always little surprises (good and challenging). But the "challenging" have really been very few and only minor. Judy Barnett has done a great job of planning and team preparation. We have only had one get a little sick. Melvin Mitchell (Judy's dad) had picked up a little bug or something. He is doing a little better today.

I hope to have some pictures to upload on a link soon. I don't have my camera and will be relying on others to provide the photography. But there are plenty of cameras among the team. So pictures will be forthcoming.




Can't wait to celebrate Easter with those of you at ClearView this coming Sunday!

Belize

This will most likely be my last blog before leaving with a group from ClearView for Belize. We are leaving Saturday morning (March 15) for 6 days on a mission trip. If I can find the right technology, I will be blogging while in Belize. However, if I cannot find my way onto the internet, I will catch you up when I return to Franklin.

In the mean time:

1. Pray for those on this trip. Pray for their safety and health.

2. Pray for the people to whom we will be ministering and sharing the gospel.

3. Pray for Easter services.

Bracketology

OK, most of the blogs on here have been a bit heavy. So let's try something a little lighter. March Madness, Bracketology, and Final Four are prominent words in our vocabularies these days. This has been a great year for college basketball in the state of Tennessee. OK, so I'm not a raving fan of UT or Vandy or Memphis, but it's been fun to live in Middle TN as a basketball fan.

Actually, Austin Peay was my first love (basketball). But that has been so long ago, I can hardly remember it. For those of you that have been around Middle Tennessee basketball for a long time, it was in the days of "Fly" Williams. I saw him play at the old Austin Peay gym (The Little Red Barn). That place would actually shake when the fans would crank it up! That is where my love for basket ball began. But I digress.

With my Georgia Bulldogs not even sniffing the tournament, that leaves me free to play the field. I suppose I could pull for Western Kentucky since I have a bit of a financial investment with my oldest daughter attending there. Congrats to the Hilltoppers for winning their conference, but I'm afraid the first round will be the end of the line. Yes, I know they haven't set the brackets yet, but I still believe the will make a quick exit.

Or maybe I could pull for Belmont. Geographically, they are located closest of all the teams in teh tournament to the church I pastor and my wife did attend there, but again, it's futile. The Bruins will make a hasty exit as well.

What about Vandy or UT or Memphis? As much as I like Shan Foster,

I don't think Vandy is strong enough defensively to go all the way.

That leaves UT and Memphis. Either of those two certainly stand a chance.

I would give Memphis the edge in any rematch.

So who would I pick? UNC. Sorry, but Roy Williams is just the man! King of the Hill will be the Tar Hills when the tournament ends. There. I made my prediction.

Early? Yes. "But the brackets aren't even set yet." I know.

So what's your prediction?