A Great Sunday

I had a wonderful Sunday today. I am still on a business trip to New Jersey and I was a little homesick and missing my family. So, I thought I would make the best of it and drive a couple of hours south to join Adam and Kim Feldman and worship with them in their new church plant Metanoia in Ellicott City, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. It was an anointed time and just what I needed. The music was passionate and the message was inspired. And the children playing were beautiful. They have created a great sense of community within the Metanoia family and in the local community. It was exactly what I needed this morning. Keep up the good work and God bless you both.

I took a long detour back to New Jersey and stopped by my family's old home in Dover, Delaware to take some pictures. Marilyn, Matthew, Bethany, and I lived there from 1991 through 1995. Matthew and Bethany were both born in Dover, and we loved living there for what seemed like a very short 4 years. We feel at home now in the St Louis area after living here for 11 years, but it took a long time to feel that way because we had a deep attachment to Dover as home. The last 11 years has been kind to Dover as the town has grown substantially, but it still has a small town feel and looks wonderful. We really miss the Easter egg hunts, 4th of July fireworks, and Christmas caroling at the Governor's House, the great beaches, and the warm people.

I still miss my own family terribly, but meeting the family at Metanoia and seeing our old town looking so good makes me feel a little bit better. Hopefully I'll make it back on Thanksgiving Eve and get to spend a long weekend at home.

Game of the Century, Part II?

Well, the Ohio State/Michigan football game was almost as good as the hype. It may have been the game of the year, but it is still too early in the century to bill it as the "Game of the Century". Time will tell.

Game of the Century?

I'm sitting in my hotel room waiting for the Ohio State/Michigan football game and I am tired of all the hype. All week we have heard a bout how this will be the game of the century, but I am tired of hearing about it. First of all wait until the game is over to see how good of a game it was. Second, wait until a little later in the century to label this one the game of the century. Ohio State and Michigan are good teams, but they play in a weak conference (Aside from Ohio State and Michigan the Big 10 is a flop this year) which helps them pad their stats. This year, just like all the others, screams for a playoff system to determine the national championship. I have believed for many years that Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Miami have been the recipients of an East Coast media bias that makes them sound better than they are. A playoff is the only way to determine the true national champion.

Saying all this, I will watch the game and if I have to eat my words I will. But, I don't see this as the game of the century. I see it as a game between two better than average teams that live in a weak conference.

2 Weeks in New Jersey

I spent the last week at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey attending the Expeditinary Site Survey Process Course in the Air Mobility Warfare Center. The electronic mapping portion of the course is part of the program I manage at Air Mobility Command. I'll be here one more week helping to re-write the course syllabus and curriculum to make it more realistic, and to update the curriculum to incorporate changes in the way we do business today. I have wanted to take the course for the last couple of years and it is good to finally get here. I hope I can help with the re-write next week.

I always enjoy coming to central New Jersey. Growing up on the West Coast I thought New Jersey was just suburbs for New York and Philadelphia, but this part of central New Jersey, the area around Wrightstown, is very rural and beautiful. We drove down to southern New Jersey on Thursday for our course practicum (surveying the municipal airport in Millville), and it was beautiful and very rural also. I could retire here and be happy.

Tomorrow I plan to drive to Baltimore to attend Metanoia, Adam Feldman's new church plant. I met Adam through blogging, but haven't met him in person yet. I am very excited to finally have an opportunity to meet him and worship with him and his new church. From Metanoia I then plan to go on down across the Chesapeake Bay to Dover, Delaware to see all the changes that have happened since we moved to Illinois from there in 1995. We loved living in Dover and really hated to move. I have heard that I won't even recognize Dover any longer because it is growing so fast. So, I can hardly wait to poke around and re-explore my old stomping grounds.

It should be a fun week, although I don't look forward to the mad rush to get back home on Thanksgiving eve. I have a 4:05pm departure out of Philly on the busiest travel day in America. It will be a pain of a day to fly, but I will be happy to get home and be with my family for the holiday.