Alpha

Ironically, I am entitling my second NaBloPoMo entry "Alpha." It's ironical because alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. That is one of the few things I remember from the three quarters of Greek that I took during my sophomore year of college. Yea I know, who takes Greek? After that one year, not me. But my future wife was in that class too -- although that's not why I took it. Frankly, I don't recall why I signed up for that class. Fritchman was in that class too. But none of us were in there after that first year. I moved on to French, and Jen took Spanish. Not sure what Mark did about the foreign language requirement.

But I digress.

A few years ago, our church started offering a program called the Alpha course. The course was written by Nicky Gumbel who is the Vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton in London. Gumbel is a former barrister, so I identified with him right off the bat. Depending on how you run the course, Alpha is a 10-week course that includes a 30-45-minute message each week presented by Gumbel. The course offers people a chance to explore the Christian faith regardless of their religious background or relative inexperience with or hostility towards the Christian church. The course progresses through a series of topics designed to explore the meaning of life and learn more about the Christian faith. We offer dinner, dessert and childcare for the participants. The evening usually progresses as follows: welcome, dinner, music, video, dessert and discussion.

The first time that our church offered the course, I signed up as a small group leader. The SGL is tasked with facilitating discussion about the week's video. And by "facilitating discussion" I don't mean correcting what I might think are people's misconceptions about God or Christianity. I encouraged people to be completely honest about where they were. If they thought Christianity was irrelevant in today's world, I wanted them to shout it from the rooftops. If they were mad at God, admit it. God can handle that. If they'd been hurt by a church leader in the past, I apologized for that but encouraged them to take a fresh look at things now that they were in a different place in their lives. The great thing is that when you give people the freedom to unpack their thoughts and feelings about the church or Christianity in a place where they are safe from judgment, they'll dig in and really explore. I always considered it a privilege to get a front row seat to watch people walk this journey for the 10 or so weeks I met with them. Some made serious changes in their lives in that short span of time. Others simply started on the journey again. But both were affected. And I enjoyed being a part of it all. If you get the chance to be a part of an Alpha course, I would strongly encourage you to participate or lead a table.

But one request: if you have been an active member of a church for a long time and maybe even took part in an evangelism training course like Evangelism Explosion or something similar, please leave whatever you learned there at home when participating in the Alpha course. Alpha is not designed or intended to be a place where believers can have a captive audience of unbelievers or new believers and commence firing the proverbial fish in the barrel. I cannot tell you how many times tables at Alpha have been short-circuited because one or two participants think this is the opportunity to share the Four Spiritual Laws with all the non-believers at the table or to quote Scripture or talk about the God-shaped hole they had before they met the Lord. All of that breaks down the atmosphere of trust that the SGLs are trying to develop around the tables. When a participant shares his or her doubts about God, Jesus or the Bible and is immediately met with a barrage of memorized verses or a diatribe about the inerrancy of the Bible, you've lost that participant. At best, you've set the table back because the table moves forward only as fast as the slowest member. As I see it, the Alpha course is about fostering an opportunity for seeking. Most importantly for individuals to explore for themselves and come to their own conclusions. If you don't think you can submit to those general rules, please don't participate. (Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion! I am not a spokesperson for my or any other church or the Alpha course itself. If you have a beef with the preceding paragraph, you have a beef with me; not my church or the Alpha course. I'm just saying.)

Funny story about the current Alpha course that our church is offering. (Not funny "ha ha." More like "funny how you averted that potential disaster.") About six or seven weeks into the course, we offer a weekend get-together. In the past, we've reserved cabins at a nearby park and had an Alpha Weekend Away where we offer a few of the Alpha messages in a day and a half and play and fellowship and eat. This year, we decided to hold the Alpha Weekend at the church. It gave us a chance to offer childcare which we couldn't offer at the cabins. On Saturday, we decided as part of the weekend that we would have a huge tailgate in the church parking lot. Each table had a theme for the weekend, and their tailgates were extensions of that. People set up all sorts of tailgates. The best tailgate -- as voted on by an esteemed panel of the Alpha leadership -- was a table that brought out a couch, a dinette set and a big screen TV among other things. At lunchtime, the parking lot was awash in the aromas of grilling burgers, dogs and brats.

Towards the end of the morning video on Saturday, I see a guy in the parking lot. He's with our group. He appeared to be setting up some of his table's tailgate stuff. I couldn't see exactly what he was doing because he was obstructed by a truck in between me and him. About 15-20 minutes later, after the video is done and the tables have split off around the church building to pray in groups, I was talking to Caroline and looking out the window, noticed a flame peeking up over that truck bed that had been obstructing my earlier view. I may have blinked twice. In that span, the flame shot up about 15 feet -- as tall as the tree that was next to the truck. And then billowing thick black smoke shot up as well. I ran outside to see what exactly was on fire. Turns out the guy had decided to start up his deep fryer and then left it unattended and went back inside. When I turned the corner of the truck, the fryer was fully engulfed. Did I mention it was attached to a propane tank? And there was a back-up tank sitting about 3 feet away. The black smoke? That was the rear tire in flame. The back end of the truck above the tire was aflame as well. The fire was on the side of the truck where the owner inserts the hose at the gas station, so my immediate concerns were not only exploding propane tanks but an exploding full-size pick-up. So I ran inside to call 911 and three guys grabbed some extinguishers. The three volunteer firefighters successfully put out the flames. I didn't think they had a chance frankly. Just as they put out the flames, the rear tire blew. From where I was standing, I thought it was the propane tank. I relayed that info to the 911 operator. The concussion knocked back one of the guys with the extinguishers; he also had some trouble hearing out of the ear on that side of his head. When the tire blew, it knocked over the deep fryer and the pot of grease. Thankfully, the fire was out, so it wasn't a flaming pot of grease like some medieval weapon. About 10 minutes after I called 911, and well after the fire was out, the fire department showed up to survey the damage.

At the final session later in the afternoon, one of our pastors, JM's Dad, introduced the last video. Welcoming everyone back, he said that he'd talked to the prayer team and asked them when they pray for the Lord to bring His fire that they be more specific next time. Bellowing laughter ensued. I couldn't see the truck owner to gauge his reaction.

National Blog Posting Month

And so it begins. I have signed on to write every day this month. I have no idea what I am going to say every day. Or any day for that matter. I have not been stockpiling ideas for the last couple of weeks that I've known about this month-long venture. I can assure you that you will not be reading 30 days of the most profound material you have ever read. Some days I will try to be funny -- emphasis there on the word "try." Some days I will be serious. Some days I will be stupid -- emphasis there on the words "will be." If I insert a video clip or pictures on any particular day, I intend to supplement that with a written post as well. I don't want to take short-cuts to maintain my eligibility for the "prizes" that are being randomly distributed to NaBloPoMo participants.

One word of caution. If you visit the NaBloPoMo site, they have a feature that allows you to click on the "randomizer" button and view the blogs that are registered to participate this month. They come up randomly -- hence the title. Please know that while many blogs post pictures on their sites, some post pictures that are not suitable for everyone's eyes. I got an eyeful -- so to speak -- when I clicked on the randomizer last week and landed on a site that features unclothed XY-chromosomed humans. I was "lucky" enough to land on a day that featured very old unclothed heterogametics -- emphasis there on the words "VERY OLD." I could not click the red X to close the window fast enough. The moral of this story is that if you choose to randomize, keep your finger on the left click in case you need to avert your eyes rapidly.

In other news, we took Keegan out trick-or-treating last night. Superman took home a lot of candy. More on that later when I can supplement the post with some pics of the K-Man of Steel. Of course, my dog neighbors used the occasion to remind me of last Saturday's debacle in Jacksonville. I believe my initial thoughts were something to the effect of "just shut up and give my kid a snack-size Snickers before I kick your jack-o-lantern off your front porch." But I'm not bitter or anything.

Happy Halloween!

Apparently, I am a monster.

Halloween Monster Name Your Halloween Monster Name is Bill the Bloody Web Footed Attorney Get Your Halloween Monster Name at Quizopolis.com

Four letter word!!!!

Four letter word!!! Four letter word!!! Four letter word!!!

Hats off to the team from Clarke County. That was the most fire I've seen in a Richt-coached team. Ever. Richt is a guy who exudes milktoast. While I liked the idea of taking the 15-yard team celebration after the first TD, I thought that it might create a situation that the players could not handle and all of the subsequent penalties seemed to confirm that. What I saw tonight was what I saw when I was in Gainesville in early September to watch the Troy game. UF's secondary can't cover. And UF's safeties can't tackle. I've seen 9-year-olds take better angles.

I'm not going to make excuses about injured Gators costing us this game because on offense, I still think we have enough weapons to win just about any game. And I think we had enough to win this game. I knew the game was lost after 2 plays. A drop by Cornelius Ingram in the second half (on the first ball thrown to him) and a catch by a Georgia TE on a key 4th quarter drive. Over the last 18 years -- especially in the 2000s -- this game has been epitomized by Georgia WRs and TEs dropping the easiest of passes. Not tonight. They even caught somewhat difficult passes.

And yet again, I witnessed UF's in ability to run a hurry up offense. In this game, I got the opportunity to watch it twice -- at the end of both halves. Lucky me! I don't like it when the check at the line occurs at the sideline. I cannot tell you how many times I have screamed at the TV or into a throw pillow when Tebow and Co. turn -- in unison -- to look at the sideline for the new play. You can't run a hurry up offense when the team looks to the sideline for the audible.
And what coach, not named Mumme, thinks an inside reverse is the best play for a 4th and 2 call late in the game? The answer to that question is Mullen -- Dan Mullen, UF's offensive coordinator. Brain fart is too kind.

15 of 18 is no relief on this evening -- even if it is true. If there is anything good that could come from this result -- and that's a big IF -- it's that it may quiet all the chatter from the Bulldogs about how this game shouldn't be played in Jacksonville. Fairly certain that's not the topic of conversation as the red and black fans celebrate at The Landing tonight.

Seniors Only

I needed to put something funny on the blog. Enough of the death and dying.

And yes, I identify with this comic. Although I was never hip.

Moses 1998-2007

Well that was not easy, but we did the right thing.

I had a moment at home with Moses before we left for the vet. He's been such a good dog even though he was a complete nut. Never wanted to do anything but hang out with us or play with us. It was hard to know that and know that he was not going to be around in another hour.

Jen had spent the day with Moses and Murphy. Took them down to Piedmont Park to walk and play. Moses started strong -- looking like the excitable one that he'd always been -- but his strength gave out fairly quickly. They went to Chastain Park to walk around there too, but Moses didn't have much more strength for that.

Keegan spent the day and night with some friends so we could devote our attention and energy to the task at hand. That was a great gesture on their part to help us with that.

At the vet was tough too. We went in, and they had a room set up for us. They laid out some blankets on the floor and a pillow. Jen and I went in with him; Murphy stayed out in the lobby with another friend of ours. We took Moses off the leash and let him walk the room a little. He enjoyed the smells on the blankets and in the room. We gave him a treat -- couldn't hurt anything at this point, right? The vet came in and just checked him out again. He could feel where one of the tumors felt bigger than just the day before. He said there were sounds in his lungs that sounded like it was spreading into there as well. It was just confirming our decision. He'd lost 6 pounds in the last three weeks. He'd lost muscle tone in his shoulders, his hind quarters, down his spine. You could put your fist through his collar he'd lost so much muscle in the neck and shoulders. Things were going south for him in a hurry, and he was the type of dog who would suffer quietly with it. We couldn't let that happen.

So first they started with a sedative -- Ketamine (or Special K as the kids like to call it) -- the drug that addicts steal out of vet offices all the time. We didn't break out any glow sticks though. It took about 10-15 seconds for Moses to feel the effects of that. He was completely calm. One of the few times we could ever say that about him! He was slowly licking the blanket and then completely relaxed and left his tongue just hanging out of his mouth. He got the vet's pant leg all wet. Then the vet tried to find a vein on his front leg but couldn't find one (another effect he thought of the advancing cancer). He moved to the back legs where there are larger veins. Even that took a couple of pokes to find one (Moses was feeling nothing when he poked him each time thankfully). Then he gave him the injection. Jen was holding his face. It was peaceful but it was gut-wrenching all at once. To know that this was the moment he was leaving us. The vet was pretty broken up too because he'd been seeing Moses now for at least 5 years, and he worked with Jen when she worked there. The vet tech made a paw print for us on a card which was very nice. Then they left us alone with him again. I lost it a bit at this point as I rubbed his side and head and face. It was good though. We always knew that it was the right thing to do for him, so that was a constant comfort even while the waterworks were flowing.

Then we let Murphy come in. She sniffed his butt and then wanted nothing more to do with him. (That's right Eli, I said "butt.") She wouldn't look him in the eyes at all (which were still open by the way -- dogs eyes don't close when they're under anesthesia or when they die. I guess they're constantly on watch like the loyal friends they are.). She just paced around the room. Then we met the guy who was there from the cremation service. I signed a consent form. He handed us some information. And we left with Murphy. We decided not to watch the guy put Moses in the van. We had said our goodbyes. The service took him last night and will call us Monday to pick up the box o' Moses that they will have for us. (Pardon the gallows humor.)

It was a hard night, but it was good. It was hard to write this, but it's good to get it down to get the experience on paper so to speak and to get more closure on it. Jen said when she let Murphy out this morning, she left the door open after Murphy came in out of habit waiting for Moses to trail in after. I suspect that will happen a couple more times.

Thanks for thinking about us last night. We've appreciated all the thoughts and prayers from everyone.

Our wonderful, crazy dog Moses

As some of you know, Moses has been having some health issues this summer and fall. Over the last couple of weeks we had narrowed it down to what we thought to be cancer. After a seizure this morning, he was diagnosed with one of two kinds of cancer. Chemotherapy isn't an option for us because of his advanced age and how hard it would be on him. Cortizone was an option, and he did have one shot of that this morning, but as the day has gone on Jen has felt that buying more time with the cortizone is just for us . . . for us to have more time with him. We've already had the very best times with him and feel that keeping him here longer would just be selfish. Even though it shatters our hearts over and over, we are going to have him euthanized tomorrow night around 7:30 p.m. A friend will be keeping Keegan, and Jen and I will be there together to say goodbye to him, along with Murphy. We appreciate all of your prayers. As the realization begins to set in, every fiber in our being fights against it. We know it's the very best final gift we can give to such a wonderful dog who has given us so much over the last nine years. Thanks for your love and prayers.

Moses and Murphy on our old couch.

Murphy and Moses guarding the porch on Halloween 2004.