We're playing catch-up again today, so I'm going back two weeks to the week of April 7th. On that Monday I put out an ad to sell our 1994 Chevy Caprice (more on that later). Holly and Austin and I went downtown on Tues (4/8) to see Andrew (the boy who fell out of the tree). We weren't able to see him, but we talked with his Dad and other family. He was still in pretty serious condition, but it didn't appear life-threatening. He went through surgery to repair two vertabrae in his neck, was put on a C-pap machine which helped him breathe (not as invasive as being intubated), and had surgery on both broken arms in that first week. They also got him to move both arms, but were not seeing much movement in his legs until the following week; and then it was only movement in both big toes.
Andrew was moved to a rehab place on Thurs 4/17 which was a pretty big deal and now begins the long road of occupational and physical therapy. No one has really said what the prognosis is for walking or not walking again. The church set up that website to update people and we had 15,000 hits to the site in just the first few days (that doesn't necessarily mean 15,000 people, but a BUNCH of people checking and re-checking the progress). If we, as church staff have learned anything through this, it is that people will use technology (our website) to not only get updates on situations like this, but they will leave messages for the family, which has been a huge comfort for them.
Weds, April 9th was a pretty typical day: Staff meeting in the morning, lunch with the staff guys and then I had to clear some of our stage to make room for choir risers because the school district conducted an Elementary Choir Contest on Thursday. I spent most of the day Thurs helping with that Choir Contest. It was fun and we had some amazing choirs come through and sing. It's nice to be able to use our facilities for the community. Holly had an open house at the school on Thurs evening, so the boys and I decided to have a boys night out. I had made arrangements to meet with a guy who wanted to look at the Chevy Caprice and so we took care of that first. This guy pulled up in a really nice, tricked-out, customized Buick LeSabre and looked over my car and decided he wanted to buy it, so we made plans to meet on Friday. When the boys and I were eating our buffalo wings later, I just really started to feel uneasy about this guy, but dismissed it. Even the boys thought they looked like "gangsters."
On Friday (4/11) I did my usual hospital visits and wrapped up details for the service on Sunday. Later in the afternoon I called the guy about meeting up to sell the car and he ended up having to work late and couldn't meet.
On Saturday we had to get up really early for the garage sale at Holly's school. We had to leave there at 10am for the first soccer game with the boys. They are on the same team AND they have three of their friends (2 brothers & a sister) on the team, so they pretty much rule the field. We had to go back to the garage sale after the game to help clean up and then headed home. We had a Men's Ministry Cookout at 3pm, so I had to clean up and head right back out for that, but Tyler went with me. We had invited this man who trains Labrador Retrievers and ties in illustrations of that with our obedience to the Lord. It was really neat and you can see this guy in action at kingdomdog.com.
After the cookout I called the guy about the car and his "boss" answered his phone and said that he was working on a car and couldn't talk, but could I bring the car down to his place of business in Houston. It was 6:30pm and I didn't feel good about going into Houston that late, so I told him we would try again on Monday (still feeling uneasy about this whole thing).
Sunday (4/13) was a good day. We baptized probably 10 people that morning and so our services were very exciting. One lady found out we were baptizing that day and told one of our staff guys that she had put it off long enough and wanted to be baptized. She didn't even have clothes to change into, but she wanted to do it anyway. She sat in the church service after being baptized in one of the dry baptismal robes. It was pretty moving.
Monday (4/14) I was determined to get this car sold (needed the $$ to pay the IRS on Tues!) so I called the guy and he was ready to pick it up, but was working and said his "brother" would pick it up. I asked if he had cash and he said yes. A little later another guy called me and said he would be picking up the car. I said "Are you Terry's brother?" and he said "No, I'm a friend." We set it up to meet at 4pm and I asked our Children's Minister Jesse (strong, muscular guy) to follow me to meet this guy and bring me back. We met at a gas station in a busy intersection in NW Houston. He was about 45 min. late, but finally pulled up in a black, tricked-out, customized Suburban with really dark tinted windows. He got out, we shook hands and he wanted to start my car up, so I gave him the keys. He started the engine, got out of my car, but left it running and he had a friend with him too who stood near my car while he and I conducted business at the back of Jesse's car. I was signing over the title and other stuff when he asked me to get in his car to count out the money. Well that totally freaked me out and I just didn't answer, but kept signing papers. Of course, my mind was racing: Was he going to bonk me over the head in his car? Was his friend going to drive away in my car without me getting paid? I was just praying that the Lord would protect me. He didn't press the issue of getting in his car, so I just handed him the title while he handed me the cash. I counted it, shook his hand and jumped in Jesse's car and said "Get outta here!" I didn't settle down for about an hour.
After Jesse dropped me off at my car, I saw a friend who I had told about my uneasiness with this whole transaction after the initial meeting with the guy. He then told me that he had heard on the news the day after I told him, that there were 2 guys in Houston who were robbing people of their cars in pretty much the same way I had told him.
On Weds (4/16) we had a pretty exciting day. At about 1:00pm Gatlin Elms (18 year old who has recorded a CD and has a band) called me and asked if Austin could play percussion for him at a concert at a church in Round Rock (near Austin). Needless to say Austin was very excited about this possibility. Austin has played drums with Gatlin a number of times on Weds nights for the youth group. Austin left with the band about 3pm and we had planned to follow them in our car, but didn't get to leave until almost 6pm. We actually arrived at the church in Round Rock before the guys did (had to pick up another guy in College Station and had some minor issues with their van). They played and did a great job and the kids at the church loved them. (the picture at the top is of Gatlin and the band. Austin is sitting behind Gatlin playing a drum) We all drove back together, but didn't get home until after 2:00am. Holly let the boys skip school on Thursday, so I stayed home with them while she went to school and I worked on a video that we showed in church on Sunday.
On Saturday Holly and the boys drove to Burleson to celebrate her grandmother's 90th birthday. I had a Deacon's & Widow's Banquet to attend Saturday afternoon, but had a quiet evening at home. We had a good day on Sunday and showed this video testimony of a lady who was headed into the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 at about 8:55am. She decided at the last minute not to go in and drove on to work. At 9:02am a bomb exploded decimating that building and killing 168 people. Hope found out later that her Mom had felt strongly drawn by the Lord to pray for her safety that very morning. It was a really moving video (you can see it here).
Sunday afternoon at worship team rehearsal I introduced a few worship songs I had written to our band (at their request). They really liked one song in particular and we worked on it for about 30 minutes and got really excited about playing it for the church very soon. I am planning to record a demo version of it and submit it to something called "Song Discovery" which sends out a CD of worship songs (written by worship leaders all over) every couple months. I'm excited to see if it might make it onto that CD someday. We'll see.
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