Video of Jackson---the drummer?

Sorry it has been a while. He got another double ear infection last Saturday, but this one is not as bad as the last one. We spent the night last Saturday night with our friends in Sumter, and things have been super busy. We really enjoy living on the Northeast side of Columbia, there is so much good shopping. I am able to do Curves out here... Enjoy the video!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Anchor Holds

The Anchor Holds

Words and music by Lawrence Chewning and Ray Boltz

I have journeyed
Through the long, dark night
Out on the open sea
By faith alone
Sight unknown
And yet His eyes were watching me

CHORUS:
The anchor holds
Though the ship is battered
The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn
I have fallen on my knees
As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds
In spite of the storm

Ive had visions
Ive had dreams
Ive even held them in my hand
But I never knew
They would slip right through
Like they were only grains of sand

CHORUS

I have been young
But I am older now
And there has been beauty
That these eyes have seen
But it was in the night
Through the storms of my life
Oh, thats where God proved
His love to me

I always love when Seth Buckley sings this song at my home church First Baptist Spartanburg. This song came to mind when I saw the anchor in Jackson's room. God has been so good to us, and our church has given us a wonderfully generous love offering. God just keeps on giving us so many blessings. It is overwhelming His love for us and His protection over us. Whenever you go through something hard, you are just so much more thankful for every little thing God gives you. I think that is the key to some people's joy in Christ, true thankfulness for all what He has done for us.

Update

Things are going well since we have gotten some rest. Looks like we will be out of our house for about 3 months. They are putting a smoke detector in Jackson's room after they totally gut his room. God ultimately saved our lives, but he used the smoke detectors as a wonderful tool to save our lives. Two pictures are of Jackson trying some baby finger food for the first time. Enjoy! Jackson turned 9 months last Tuesday....time has flown!

Update

Things are doing a lot better than last week

Praise:

1. All of our articles of clothing are now out of our house (the longer they were in the house the worst they got) I had to really communicate a lot with State Farm for that to happen
2. We have a State Farm field rep who comes to the house
3. All of the rest of our belonging will be out of the house tomorrow thanks to Serve Pro
4. All of our stuff will be cleaned and then put in storage
5. We think we will be living with Charlie’s parents for the next 2 months at least and Charlie will commute daily and the church will pay for that (they only live about 45 minutes to 1 hour away)
6. Any time I get frustrated, I thank God that none of us are hurt
7. I am a lot more thankful for the little things in life, like finding a shirt quickly
8. God is so good, and has really blessed us in so many ways

Pray for:

1. Our relationship with our Savior, that we will have the time to be with Him admits everything

2. That one person will come to know Jesus as the Savior through our fire experience

3. That we will get rest and not sick

4. That we will draw close to our wonderful God and King

5. That Jackson will get quickly adjusted to everything

Psalm 62:5-8

"Help my soul find rest in You alone; my hope comes from You. You alone are my rock and my salvation; You are my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depends on You; You, God are my mighty rock and my refuge."

We are all Alive and Well, praise God the Giver of All!

God gets all the glory for saving Jackson, Charlie, me and Millie Boo's life. I am still too emotional right now to write about the fire so I cut and pasted what Charlie wrote on http://sbcwitness.com/. Write now I am in the process of moving all our clothes out of the house with the dry cleaner man, and we are out of our house for at least 3 months. My parents have Jackson, and I have not since him since Tuesday---I miss him so much I can hardly stand it. My wonderful patient sister has my dog. Everyone is calling so it would be wonderful if you could just leave a message here on the blog until things settle down with the insurance company. Thanks so much! Please pray that we will have time to be in God's Word. If one person comes to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior through this, then it is so worth it. Ultimately, God is in control of everything, and let this fire happen for his glory and our good...

I do not believe that Satan's demons are always after you (we live in a fallen world), but when we are preaching Christ all week this week at VBS to children that have never heard the Gospel, you have to wonder...

I have pictures but I just do not know if I will ever be able to post them. Jackson room is going to have to be gutted and that is hard when I worked all last summer on it, and lots of things were gifts...

Here is Charlie's post:

Hell, Fire, and Brimstone

Tuesday morning, at about 5:45 am, I awoke to the sound of loud beeping that was coming from our smoke alarm. As I opened my eyes, I saw smoke slowly rolling into our bedroom. Half-asleep, I immediately shot up and ran just a few feet away into our 9-month old son's bedroom, where the fire was burning. I was shocked to see a fire about the size of what you would see burning in a fireplace. Fortunately, I remembered that my son was in our bed because he woke up a few hours earlier.

My wife quickly called 911 and I ushered our sleeping baby boy out of our room (which is located adjacent to his room) and into his mother's arms. I then grabbed the fire extinguisher, cut the safety cord, and ran back into the baby's room. In the 1 minute it took from the first time that I saw the fire, as well as the last, the flames were now reaching the ceiling.

As one is spraying the contents of a fire extinguisher into a room that is engulfed by flames, he doesn't anticipate the volume of smoke that is inhaled and blocking his sight. You often hear of the effects of fire, but not of smoke. I sprayed as much as I could in about 5 seconds before I couldn't breathe or see. I could literally feel smoke burning the inside of my nostrils.

I ran out of the house and approx. 2 minutes later the fire department came to the rescue. After breaking the front door down, they then shot about 90 gallons of water into our baby's room and ended the threat.

Upon walking back into the house, my wife and I saw how soot covered the entirety of our home. As we entered into the baby's room it was evident that had our son not been in our bed he would have suffered at least from smoke inhalation.

In God's divine mercy and providence, our baby boy Jackson, woke up at 3:30 am and we laid him in the bed with us. 99% of the time I usually wait for him to fall asleep and then gently place him back in his crib.

However, that night, as I waited for him to fall asleep I had a strange peaceful feeling and decided that I wanted my son to sleep with his parents that night.

All I can say is that $40,000 in structural damage as well as thousands of dollars in property damage/repair/cleaning later, the entire family is safe. The baby has been checked by a doctor and is fine.

However, the real eye-opening part of the entire experience is that I got a slight taste of Hell Tuesday morning.

Fire is hot. Smoke is hot. And the damage they can do together is breathtaking.

Our church has baptized 7 adults over 18 years of age in the past 2 months. We are in the middle of VBS this week and Jesus is being preached. Over the past few weeks we've noticed how little attacks have been going on in the church that haven't before.

I am confident that Satan's demons are attacking our church. A fire during VBS - which happens to be the most important week of the year for my job description?

Make no mistake about it, brothers, if you preach Christ unapologetically Satan and his demons will attack you in some way, shape, or form. It may be disasters, it may be through gossip, it may be through unruly selfish church members. Whatever it is, the Devil has no dealings with a lukewarm church. If you are preaching Christ, hold on.

I had a taste of Hell on Tuesday morning. Hell is real. It is a place of pain. It is a place of suffering. It is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And a lot of people are going to spend eternity there and God has called every believer to do what he can to preach Christ.

Hell is real. People are going. Preach Christ and hold on.

He Took His First Step!

Well, today, June 3rd Jackson took his first step. Yes, I was in total shock! He started letting go when he would stand up, and tonight while Charlie was there to catch him, he put his right foot forward and then he left foot...then he feel down. It definitely seems very fast, him standing and now he has great balance all of the sudden. Mrs Caroline (a nurse of 30 years) said today at church that this was a little early to be doing this, he is not even 9 months old yet! We had a good weekend, we stayed with Mimi and Doc because Charlie had a wedding to do in Columbia.