DLmail 3/25/2009 chasing chickens

I had to take a week off from DLmail last week. Just feeling overwhelmed and couldn't get everything done. I realize that I likely ruined the week for most, if not all of you, by not publishing one, and for that I am sorry. But hopefully I will redeem myself with this potentially award winning post. Fasten your seatbelts for this ride.

Discoveryland has seemed crazy lately. But amazing things have happened. The month of learning about Hope has been great. The kids have responded, most notably in 3rd grade last weekend after the lesson regarding heaven. Three changed and committed young lives. Awesome. In the 4th/5th Factory, Heather teamed with Nathan Rychener and rounded out our month by again involving the kids in the teaching, much the same as Rick Rogy did with the combined large group the week before. Look for more and more kid/teaching involvement in the future, it is a great method. Kevin and Monica were gone last weekend and they enlisted veteran Factory volunteers Brian and Karen Cooper. They are welcome back any time. Actually every time. All the time. I don't care. Zach was also in the house Saturday and rounded out our team very nicely. This coming weekend it will be the Stewarts, Tim and myself. It would sound better if I wrote the Stewarts, Coopers, Tim and myself. There is no small group info for you this weekend. We are going to be doing something totally different as the entire evening will find us moving from room to room for different activities. Should be interesting for adults and kids the same.

If you have been missing the mainstage series Cal has been doing titled Storm Shelter, you are missing some fantastic and basic truths of our faith. Check them out here.

On March 14th I dashed from Discoveryland to get to the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce annual awards dinner. My dad (business of the year) and Stephanie Farris (Civic Achievement Award) were both being honored. They are shining examples of Christian business leaders. My dad, unprepared and surprised, kept it fittingly short (unless you think Steph is 6' 2"). Humble and gracious. Stephanie was asked to prepare a speech to finish off the evening and she hit it out of the park. Scriptures flowed as the honor was deflected to all those in the room. It was quite a night. For me, I don't know if honoring my dad, being humbled by Stephanie's kind words or winning a door prize (a basket of farm fresh brown eggs, compliments of Three Sisters Park) was the biggest moment. But those eggs took on special meaning to me this morning.

I sell insurance. I sit at a desk all day. Let me highlight my nutty surroundings. As I look at my desk I see highlighters. I have a bag of nuts (almonds) close by. There are some balls with Travelers written on them (I guess they are actually hacky sacks). Stacks of files containing client's private information. You get my drift, those are the most exciting things around me right now. Discovery Channel is unlikely to send a camera crew to film me at work. It just might not captivate audiences. Because my days are mostly mundane, boring, etc. I take advantage of the rare moments when excitement comes my way. So this morning when Jeff came into the office and said "I hear you have a chicken problem" I perked up (even though I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about). On Monday I had noticed a chicken pecking the ground just down the block from my office. She was a beauty, big and brown. I am fairly used to unusual animals popping up in town. Last year Josh and I chased a fox around our neighborhood with a video camera. Two years ago the kids and I caught a beautiful parrot in my parents yard. I can't count how many possums/raccoons we have caught and relocated. Three years ago a deer ran into me while I was mowing the lawn (that was weird). Also three years ago I tried to catch a rooster in the backyard of my office. Gee, the casual observer would guess I lived in Arkansas. So...

Jeff is in charge of the chickens that produced my doorprize eggs at Three Sisters Park. Someone had called to complain about this chicken (not one of his) hanging around my office. Word got to him and he figured he could add it to his collection at the farm. Catching a chicken isn't all that easy. I knew that going in. So I got out my phone and took a video. Then, I accidentally took a second video (normal for me). It took us about 10 minutes of chasing, mostly around a vacant firetrap of a house. In the end, we made the capture. I received a call just a little while ago from my perplexed wife. "What does chasing chickens mean?" she asked. That caught me off guard. I said it means to chase a chicken. Next question, "Were you chasing an actual chicken down Rt. 29 this morning?" Uh, yes, who (or how many people) saw me? Pam was at the health club walking with friends when a guy mentioned to Pam that he saw me chasing a chicken down the road. Pam and her friends figured that had to be code for some other activity. It was actually non-code for that actual activity. There is something wrong with me. See for yourselves. (oh, and I just noticed that my phone video is rather creepy when transferred to this blog...need to be sure to have my regular camera next time I chase chickens)