Monday, March 31, 2008

Too much rain


We had about 6 inches of rain this afternoon in Wagoner. This picture is at Emily's school. The driver (who attends my church) says she was swept off the city street and into the ditch by fast moving water on the street. The police had arrived and had closed the street for nearly 6 blocks because most of it was underwater and you couldn't see the ditches. It was a real mess picking the kids up from school. Audrey's school parking lot was under about 8 inches of water.

Singing Sally


Here's Sally singing "Why?" at church last night.

Sing a Song (or two)


Last night at church, we had our "Fifth Sunday Sing". Each month that has 5 Sundays is designated to make the evening service a song service where anyone who feels led can sing a song, play an instrument, give a testimony, etc. Audrey and Emily and two friends sang "Shout to the Lord". They did a fine job!

I Am the Way


Here is Emily singing "I Am the Way" at our 5th Sunday Sing last night at church.

Tom Elliff


Tom Elliff spoke at the Impact2008 Conference on how the small church can be actively involved with international missions. Tom is the former pastor of First Southern, Del City, OK, and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Matthew Smith


Matthew Smith provided the worship songs for Impact2008. He is a talented musician with a heart for glorifying God. His wife and small child were also at the conference with us. I bought 3 of his CD's, so you know that must mean I thought he was good.

Friends


Micah Fries, Rick Boyne, Kevin Bussey taken by my new friend, Quinn Hooks at Impact2008.

Glad to be home

After a whirl-wind trip to North Carolina, it is good to be home. I enjoyed the Impact2008 conference and was greatly encouraged by it. I was afforded a "full scholarship" to attend this conference which included round-trip airfare, lodging, and a rental car. I was given a 2008 Hyundai (can't remember the model) and I must say: since the last time I have been in a Hyundai (198?), boy! they've come a long way! It was really nice. It had XM radio and a sunroof!

The conference was held at Lewisville Baptist Church. The folks there were exceedingly genuinely nice. They provided all meals except for lunch on Saturday.

I am grateful to Les Puryear, the pastor, and the whole church for making my stay so wonderful. We serve a Great God!

Surprise from Chiang Mai


Our friends, Phil & Valerie, (otherwise known as Bill and Celery) paid us a surprise visit yesterday afternoon! It is so good to see them. We knew them when we lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Les Puryear


Les Puryear coordinated the Impact2008 conference. He gave us each a booklet he wrote called "The Beauty of the Small Church". I am so impressed with the genuine-ness of his church. What wonderful folks!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Great Time in No. Carolina!

Today was a really great day in Lewisville, NC!


We heard from Dr. Frank Page, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, who spoke on the function of the small church in the SBC


and from Micah Fries on technology in the small church.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

In North Carolina

I'm sitting in the Super 8 Motel in Clemmons, NC. I am participating in Impact2008 Small Church Conference hosted by Lewisville Baptist Church.

My blog friend, Les Puryear, was inspired to conduct the conference after realizing that over 80% of SBC churches are 200 and less members. There has never been a conference like this before.

I have been able to see my friend Micah Fries, with whom I served in West Africa, and I have been able to meet another blog friend, Kevin Bussey.

Tonight, we heard from Brad Waggoner, VP of Broadman Holman and Alvin Reid, professor of evangelism at SEBTS.

Music & worship is being provided by Matthew Smith. He sings that new version of "Come Thou Fount" that you hear on Christian radio.

It is a really, really cool conference and I am glad I came. I can't wait til tomorrow.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Bradford Pears


Here's how the Bradford Pear Trees look over at the church.

First Day of Spring!

Ahhh! The first day of spring!


Flowers blooming!


And within one minute of the mower starting, I was sneezing!

Missy


Here's our "brain damaged" cat, Missy, playing with a twisty-tie in the kitchen.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Happy Birthday, Randy!


Randy Kluver & Rick Boyne in Thailand, 2004.

Today is my friend's, Randy Kluver, birthday. He is one of the very first persons that I met at OU. He is one of the most significant people in my life and has always challenged me to walk with God and to think. We have been through lots of fun stuff together, including road trips and elephant rides. I love him as a brother.

Unfortunately, God has called him into a barren wilderness of evil. He now lives in College Station.

Happy Birthday, Bro!

Getting behind

Well, I haven't felt great for the past couple of days and have missed out posting some significant things. I have posted them below.

35 years ago


My sister, Pam, and me in about 1973.

March 18, 1973. They day my eternity changed forever. The day I invited Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior. My life (and eternity) was never the same.

If you have never asked Jesus into your heart, it is as easy as A - B - C.

A - Acknowledge your sin. Tell God that you know you are a sinner and your sins separate you from Him. (Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God)

B - Believe on Jesus. Believe that He is the Son of God and that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. (John 3:16 For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.)

C - Call upon Jesus to save you. Ask Jesus to come in to your heart and to forgive you of your sins. (Romans 10:13 He who calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved)

Happy Birthday, Martin!


Martin Whipple, Lacey Whipple, Rick Boyne 2007

March 17th was my best friend, Martin Whipple's, birthday. He is OLD.

We went to kindergarten together in 1969 and were best men in each other's weddings. Martin is going to lead the music in our church's revival in April.

I love him like a brother.

Happy Birthday, Martin.

(you're ugly and your wife dresses you funny)

One Year!

As of March 16, we have been back in the US for one year! What a year it has been! It has been a good year, but a hard one, in many respects. It has been fun to be with family, but really hard to leave our friends overseas.

I love being a pastor; I never thought I would. I miss being a missionary, well, at least a career overseas missionary. All believers are missionaries. That is one of my main goals as pastor; to help my congregation realize that and then live that out.

I love being in Oklahoma. I really, really miss Chiang Mai. We lived there for three years. We miss our friends and our kids miss their school. We miss mango and sticky rice. We miss Hong Kong, but not to the same degree. We were only there less than a year and it was a hard year at that. We certainly do miss our friends there, however.

Lately, we have been waxing nostalgic for Africa. Of all the places we have lived, we loved Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the most. We are still sorry that the civil war came and we couldn't go back to say goodbye.

Well, now I'm starting to get melancholy and I can't have that! Praise the Lord for a good year, and for all the good years ahead!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Almost Spring!


While we were in Tulsa yesterday, we noticed that there were many Bradford Pear Trees that have already bloomed out. We have four here in Wagoner, on the grounds of our home and church, but they aren't quite that far along. It will be beautiful when they do finally explode in their blooms. The above pic shows what they are like now.

Audrey Home Safe!


Last night, we went to Tulsa to meet Audrey at the airport. She arrived safely from Washington, DC, via DFW. She looked good, but was very tired. We were all so happy to see her! Her sister had a bouquet of flowers for her.

We stopped at El Chico's to celebrate her homecoming. When we got home, she found that her mom had decorated the house with baloons and banners. She presented us with gifts; a civil war era (replica) rag doll from Harper's Ferry for Emily, a silver bell with the US Capitol Building on top for Mom; and a cool coffee mug with scenes from DC for Dad.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Emily & the cat


That is one "accomodating" cat!

Audrey at Airport (TUL)


Here is a picture of Audrey right before she was about to board the plane to Washington BY HERSELF!

Audrey in Washington, DC


Here's Audrey in front of the US Capitol Building yesterday.

Audrey with the Washington Monument and Smithsonian Castle in the background.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Audrey at Harpers Ferry

Here are a couple of pics of Audrey at Harpers Ferry in Maryland taken today:

There she is in the red jacket to the right.

Hammin' it up in Maryland.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Big Steps

This morning, Sally, Emily & I took Audrey to Tulsa International Airport. She went by herself (unaccompanied minor) to Baltimore, MD, via DFW.

She has been selected to participate in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference. Approximately 250 other outstanding middle school students from across the nation will attend this conference in Washington, DC.

It was a big step. Not only for her, but for her parents, as we let her go!

A few months ago, I asked her if she thought she would be all right in the airports by herself. She asked, "well, do I need to fill out any customs forms or anything like that?" (She has had LOTS of international traveling experience). I told her that travel within the US doesn't require that sort of documentation. She then asked, "well, do they speak English in the airports?" I said that everything is done in English.

She then replied, "well, what's the problem, then?"

Now there's a kid who has been around!

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Dinner with Friends


We had a delightful surprise tonight! My mom arranged for us to meet them in Ft. Gibson for supper. We thought it was because Audrey is about to go to Washington DC and it was like a goodbye dinner thing.

However, shortly after arriving, our friends Don and Nancy show up! Mom and Nancy's friend are neighbors and they somehow found out about us all knowing each other and my mom and her neighbor planned this surprise for us!

It was so good to see them and get caught up on things.

What a blessing! Way to go, Mom!

Nearly a CAT-astrophe!

(Long post - but worth the read!)

Well, the kids finally named the cat - Missy....

Tuesday evening, we noticed that Missy wasn't coming around anywhere in the house. We looked all over for her and couldn't find her. We told the kids to not worry, as cats will often find a nice quiet place and take a nap.

Well, during supper, Missy never showed up. I noticed that the dogs across the street kept barking and wouldn't calm down. "Just for fun" I looked out to make sure they weren't barking at Missy. We looked for Missy again and couldn't find her.

I went outside with a flashlight and looked all around the house and the yard, and called out "Here, Kitty, Kitty" (as if she recognized my voice the second day). Since we couldn't find her in the house, I told my fears to Sally, that I thought that one of the girls had accidentally let the cat out of the house.

We sat down to watch American Idol and I heard the dogs barking next door even more, so I went outside again with the flashlight. (It's been to Africa and back!) I walked across the street (jumping a ditch filled with rainwater) and shined it all around the neighbor's yard, hoping they wouldn't call the police on me. I didn't see anything and was back on my porch when I took one last look across the street.

That's when I saw her. Like a flash of black lightening, the terrified cat dashed from the neighbor's yard towards the South and down the block.

I took off after her calling "Here, Kitty, Kitty" (as if she recognized by voice). She actually did stop and waited for me to get to her before she took off again back to the neighbor's yard. I finally caught up with her in the neighbor's yard and that poor little kitty-cat was definitely traumatized; you see, she has never been out of the house before!

Her fur was all standing straight up and her eyes were dilated wide open. She had lost her collar. She had clearly been overwhelmed by her first outdoor experience.

As I picked her up, I saw the fear in her eyes. She hissed and scratched and tried to get away. I tried to calm her by talking softly and rubbing her ears and face. She did seem to calm a little bit. By the time that I made it back to our house, she was in a tolerable state.

However, I began to have some doubts... Is this the right cat? What happened to her collar? Why is her tail so fluffy?

What nonsense! How many little black kitty-cats can there be in our neighborhood? Well, I brought her in the house and everyone said that they didn't think it was Missy, because her tail was too fluffy. I took her back outside and let her go. She ran under my car. I went in, but came right back out, knowing full well, that the tail was big because she was scared silly.

She came out from under the car and came on to the porch, where I had sat down. She sat there by my while I stroked her fur. Finally, I decided it was our cat and took her in the house. The kids were crying and when I told them I thought it was her, everyone rejoiced.

We put her down and left her alone for a little while. She went into the office and hid behind the desk. I went in and sat down. She came out to me a couple of times to let me pet her. Finally, her eyes began to get yellow again and her fur began to lay down. She was calming down.

I decided she had calmed down enough that I could leave her alone so I went to hang up my coat. As I did, Missy followed me down the hall and went straight to Emily. Her tail was all the way back down to little-bitty and we discovered that she hadn't lost her collar after all; it must have been the fluffy fur simply hiding it.

Then I had a thought.

I walked back down the hall and looked into the office. Behind the desk was a little back kitty cat that clearly didn't belong to us! What was clear was that Missy had never left the house and had found a really, really quiet place to take a very long nap!

My goodness.....



As a follow up to the story, I let the other cat out and she showed up last night at our front door, meowing, wanting some more of that good Boyne lovin'!

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

No Snow in Wagoner

Well, not at least to write about. With all the hoopla yesterday about 4-10 inches of snow, we missed the bullet. There was a band of snow all around our area, but we were left with only a trace. Just 15 miles to the west of us in Coweta, they had to cancel school because they got about 8 inches!

This has been a very strange weather pattern, anyway. Last Sunday night, our county was under a Wind Advisory, Flood Watch, Tornado Watch, Thunderstorm Watch, and a Winter Storm Watch ALL AT THE SAME TIME! It was 75 or so Saturday afternoon and 20 this morning.

Gotta love Oklahoma!

New Cat




Yes, we have a new cat. It has already had three different names, so I'm not divulging the name just yet, in case there are further modifications. It is a 5 month old female that we got for free from one of Audrey's classmates. It is housebroken and seems to be very lovable.

The girls are all excited about her. She is completely black with yellow eyes.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Spring on its way? Maybe?


I can't believe the daffodils are blooming!


This one is full of buds!

Could it be? Could Spring really be around the corner? It is hard to imagine with a forcast of 4-10 inches of snow today!

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Cartwheel City


Here's what happens when you mix 70 degree weather in February, a big front yard, and an 8 year old!