This One's for Sergey

This is my friend Sergey. He lives in Ukraine. I met his this summer at camp Radooga. He told me recently he can now look at this blog so this is a shout out for him. He is a fish collector. He has many kinds of fish from all over the world. At camp this summer he gave his heart to Jesus. What a great day that was. He continues to walk with Jesus. When you read this today say a prayer for Sergey.

tags: God Radooga Ukraine

Air Continued

Psalm 144:4 says,
For we are like a breath of air;
our days are like a passing shadow.

How much time do we have to waste on insignificant things?


tags: God

Fresh Air

O.K. so last week in a leader's meeting everyone got a good laugh at my expense. Actually it wasn't at my expense it was at Eugene Peterson's. We were reading a Psalm from the Message translation and there were some pretty far out translations. Not necessarily inaccurate just kind of out their in their linguistic form. So to redeem the Message here's a great quote from Psalm 34:2, "I live and breathe God". What else needs to be said. Remember, David said it, not me. I don't live and breathe God. I wish I did. But I am easily distracted and easily moved by a lot other than God. So, David has set a great standard for us. Think you've arrived...not until you can truthfully say, "I live and breathe God".

tags: God The Message Eugene Peterson Bible

One Crazy Night

It began with the largest viewing I have ever been to in my life. There were hundreds of people crammed into Bevis funeral home last night. When it comes time for my viewing I'm sure they'll have it in some back room somewhere. This one consumed the whole building. Here's the funny part. A lady I didn't know came up to me and grabbed my hand and said, 'I'm glad you're here. I don't know anybody.' I thought...mamn I don't think I'm the exception to that.' So anyway, it was neat to see so much love being poured out from so many different people.

So after leaving the viewing I went to meet Laurie at Smoky Bones. That was great. Smoky Bones has the best ribs. Drew is a big fan of the garlic bread but I'm more of a rib man myself. Laurie usually goes chicken. So as we are preparing to pay the bill Laurie's phone rings. Apparently, Josh, who was at Bob's (name has been changed to protect the innocent)house for Bible Study was in some sort of accident. Without knowing any details I left Laurie to pay the bill and I rushed over to the scene. When I arrived I expected to hear that Josh had been skate boarding and fell or some other exciting story. Actually he was just walking and slipped. He landed on the ditch culvert and opened a pretty good gash in his leg. So we ended up in the emergency room to get it stitched up. Josh handled this one a lot better than he did last time. Last time he got stitches I had to physically hold him down. He was two at the time so I'm grateful he's gotten a little better at these things. So another day another six stitches.

For those into gore you check out the wound here...

Gory Wound Not for the queasy

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

tags: MLB Yankees Red Sox

Yankees on Top

For the past few months all I've heard is how the Yankees stink and how they won't even make the playoffs even with their $230,000,000 payroll. Well for all the naysayers enjoy this...




tags: Yankees MLB

'Wherever you are, be all there'

Jim Elliot said, 'Wherever you are, be all there'.

Spending time with the Olegs yesterday reminded me of that idea. Oleg has a hugeous vision for Ukraine. And he shares it with passion in a way that will inspire you. You can't walk away from hearing him speak of his vision for Ukraine without believing that God is going to use Radooga Ministries to transform the Country. His life is in Ukraine and he is all there. That is where his heart is and so his life will play a part in transforming that Country. The formula seems to be... (1) He loves God and knows what people need is God (2) He loves his country (3) He believes the God he loves is going to transform the Country he loves.

and yet...you never walk away from a conversation with Oleg wondering if he even knew you were present. He is fully where he is. His focus is on people not some abstract vision that's way out there in the future somewhere.

I think that way of life has become contagious in our ministry. For some, like Lori, that meant moving to Ukraine so she could 'be all there' since her heart was already there. For others, like Calyn, I believe it means that although they know that being 'there' may be in their future they are not treading water where God has them. They are living out His plan, 'fully' where they are until God moves them somewhere else. So, 'wherever you are, be all there'. God may be preparing you to be somewhere else someday...but until then...be all there in the place he has you. Otherwise God isn't using you 'here' or 'there'.

tags: God Ukraine Jim Elliot Radooga

Bloggless

I've written about three blogs over the last 10 minutes. And erased them all. I'm just drawing blanks. I could wine and tell you how tired I am but that would be a stupid thing to say when just west of here there are people who have no beds to sleep in. I could tell you about watching my son roll off the school bus yesterday but that might embarress him (though I doubt it) so I won't do that either. I could write some about Drew's excitment about his birthday party tomorrow and how I miss the excitement of childhood but that would be way too dorky. I could even let you know how stoked I am that the Yankees are only a game and a half out but you don't'really care about the Yankees. So sorry nothing to write about today so here's a little picture that if you were a Yankees fan wold know is Cano celebrating a grand slam against the Rays yesterday to get them within striking distance of the Sox.

Wanna Buy a Vacuum?

Long story short...if someone offers you a free porch matt for your opinion what they really want to do is sell you a tristar vacuum. And when they say they'll give you the short version they mean 2 hours of your time is going down the drain. And when they are funny, nice, friendly and really kind to your kids what they mean is they are going to turn into Satan as soon as you tell them you don't want to spend $2,700 on their dust sucker.

P.S. I pity all of you non-baseball fans because it's really getting good. Yanks 2.5 games out with 20 games left (3 against the first place Sox). Good luck to the Sox in the wild card (again!)



tags: tristar Yankees MLB

Max Q

On Sunday nights we've been discussing the concept of Max Q. I'm not a very good communicator so in case you didn't get it here is a much simpler explanation.

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During the launch of most space vehicles, the launch crew can be heard talking about "passing max q." To explain what this means, we must first define the meaning of "q" or "Q." Let's start by looking at one of the most fundamental equations of fluid mechanics, Bernoulli's equation:

As you can see, Bernoulli's equation relates the static pressure (p) and velocity (V) of a fluid at point 1 to the pressure and velocity of a fluid at point 2. Static pressure is simply the ambient pressure of the atmosphere resulting from the collisions between all the individual particles making up the atmosphere. The velocity is the speed of the body, such as an airplane or rocket, through the air. Note that the air density, (denoted by the Greek letter rho, r) is constant, which means that this equation is only good for incompressible flow. We can usually only assume that air is incompressible at speeds below the speed of sound. This assumption does not hold in the case of space vehicle launches, but that won't matter in a few minutes... Now if we were to examine a flow where the velocity at one point were zero, then we would get a form of Bernoulli's equation that looks like this:

In this equation, p0 is called the total pressure, which is another useful term in aerodynamics. The total pressure is defined as the pressure that would exist if the flow were slowed down isentropically to zero velocity. What does this mean? For an incompressible flow, this equation tells us that the total pressure is constant through the flow! In other words, no matter where you are in the flow, the static pressure plus the term ½rV2 is always the same!

What does this have to do with the Shuttle and "max q"? Nothing necessarily, except that the quantity ½rV2 is important enough that it has been defined as its own quantity called the dynamic pressure, or q.

It is easiest to think of this term as the pressure measured due to the physical movement of the air flow as it speeds past a body in motion. For example, think of sticking your hand out of a car window while you are driving down the highway. The faster you go, the more pressure you feel pushing against your hand. The keen observer will note the similarity of q to the definition for kinetic energy (KE):
In fact, q is simply the kinetic energy of a unit mass of air.

Okay, back to the Shuttle. Maximum q is usually a factor in all space launches, but we will consider the Shuttle for this example. As the Shuttle ascends during launch, it accelerates quickly. The dynamic pressure q is dependent on the square of the speed, so it must be increasing rapidly as well. Like any vehicle, the structure of the Shuttle can only withstand a certain level of dynamic pressure before it suffers damage. We will call this damaging value of q the "critical q." Before the critical q is reached, the engines of the Shuttle are throttled down to about 65%.

However, while the Shuttle climbs in altitude, not only does the velocity increase rapidly, but the air density decreases rapidly. At some point about one minute after launch and at an altitude of about 35,000 ft (10,675 m), conditions are such that the dynamic pressure has reached "maximum q." After this point, the density begins to drop rapidly enough that the Shuttle can be throttled to full power without fear of structural damage, and the dynamic pressure drops to zero by about 2 minutes after launch.


tags: Max Q NASA Space Shuttle

Faye Rescued

Thanks for your prayers for Faye. She and her family were rescued from their home in Mississippi and are nowing staying with family in Ft. Lauderdale.

tags: Katrina Rescue

Called His Bluff

Well apparently Mr. Poker was bluffing. He was hoping to put together a poker party last night instead of going to the boys night out at the movies. What he failed to realize is his poker playing friend was out of town. So he had to come crawling back. Unfortunatley it's that time of year when there's not much good to see. But that didn't stop us.

Poker is Out of Hand

It was one thing when ESPN starting showing Poker games on Tuesday nights instead of baseball. Now it has reached a whole new level...a personal one. For the past year or so we've had men's night out at the movies on Wednesday night after church. I was told today it cancelled indefinitely. Why? Replaced with poker. I've been replaced by cards & chips.

tags: Poker

Miami Vs. Florida State Hi-lites

Watching Florida State vs. Miami always brings up memories of missed field goals. Back in the eighties Bobby Bowden even made a guest appearance on a sit-com that made fun of him for missing field goals. Bowden played himself going to visit a high school boy who may want to go to FSU. Before he arrived everyone was instructed, 'whatever you do when the coach arrives don't say field goal'. So with that in mind here's a few of my favorite missed field goals over the last three years of the Miami-FSU series.

#3 all time favorite missed field goal

#2 all time favorite missed field goal


#1 all time missed field goal (drum roll please)

Brent Musburger makes the prediction of a lifetime...


You have to love instant replay...actually you don't!



Who says Bowden doesn't still have keen insight into running an offense? He knew as soon as the game even ended what the offensive problems were...


Oh, and why not? Brent Musburger didn't get the politically correct handbook...



tags: football Florida State Miami Seminoles Canes

Winning Ugly Beats Losing Every Time

I was sitting next to an Auburn fan at the game last night when one of the dumbest things I've ever heard came out of his mouth, "I'd rather lose like Auburn did on Saturday than win looking like this". He may have lost sight of the goal. The goal of football is not looking pretty. It is not even creating excitement. Football has one goal...score more points than the other team. Period. Who cares how you do that? Style gets no points.

By the way...it's easy to slip into that same stupid mentality in ministry. I've been there. It's easy to think, 'We're doing some good stuff. It all looks so good and there are so many activities going on.' But are any lives being changed? Give me a sloppy messy ministry that produces life change over a well run machine where everybody comes and goes away happy...but not changed...anyday!

tags: Ministry Youth_Ministry football Seminoles Canes

Friday Night Lights @ North Florida Christian

You never know who'll you run into at an NFC football game. Following are some videos and pictures from my night out at the 'ole ball field...


Drew and Brittany Enjoy a Snack


Kevin & Ed Bradberry love football...not photography

Bryce Clayton Kicks Off for the Eagles

Brcye Puts It Through the Uprights

Haley Baldwin Bangs on the Drum

The Baldwins Sell the Grub - Yes that's Ed!

Aaron Bradberry on kickoff - He's 2nd from left


Aaron Plays Middle Linebacker

Aaron @ Middle Linebacker (#31)


Aaron Waits for the Play from the Sideline (#31)


Aaron's In Ready Position - 3rd from Left


Ashley Holon Makes an Apperance


Ethan, Josh & Trevor Are All Smiles...o.k. just Trevor

Marcus Simms Bust a Long One for Six

Pray for Faye

Last night was different. Godby played Gainesville High. Typically before the game there are several players who like to have prayer before they step onto the field. Usually it has something to do with the game. 'Pray for me to focus.' 'Pray for me to remember my assignments.' 'Pray for me to not get injured.' Things that would obviously be on the mind of a football player before he plays a game.

Like I said, last night was different. Kendall is a guy who always likes to pray before the games. He's a great guy and a good friend. He's a senior so I've known him for four years. Last night he didn't want to pray about football. He said, 'Pray for my sister, Faye. She's lost somewhere in the part of Mississippi that is flooded.' Wow. Seeing masses of people that are now homeless is heart breaking and moves all of us. When you are talking to someone who doesn't know if his sister and her family are dead or alive it brings it a little closer to home. I'm not sure how you play football when in your mind you are seeing pictures of your sister on a roof somewhere desperately hoping someone arrives to rescue you and your family. So, if you don't mind join me and let's pray for Faye.

P.S. Not that it even really matters but Kendall had the game of his life last night.

Related blogs: Katrina Prayer Hurricane flood Mississippi