Grandfather Mountain and Bears!

Last week, Claire and I went up to Grandfather Mountain along with some of our Boone friends for the BGEA/SP yearly picnic.  There was a big tent set up with food (yummy Woodlands BBQ - if you come visit us, we will take you to this restaurant!) for all the staff and families at the bottom of the mountain.

We were also able drive up to the top of the mountain for the view and activities up there. We went up there and walked across the swinging bridge (Claire got scared so we rushed across it). We also went to little zoo thing they have up there. There are only a few animals, but it was fun to see. Claire was a little scared of the bears, too, but she did conclude that they were "kind of cute".

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New OCC Videos

Hey all,

My team here at OCC has been working with the SP Broadcast team to come up with some 'edgier' videos that more media-driven churches as well as colleges and youth groups can use. I thought they turned out pretty cool.

Here is the result:
















And here is the new OCC Project Video:

'Pray!' Followup

Hey all,

I wanted to followup on the last brief post. I sent that from my phone right after the ambulance left with the injured motorcyclist. I posted a prayer requests on the Samaritan's Purse prayer board in Outlook that pretty much sums everything up - hopefully removing some... intense details.

"I will try to give you an understanding of what happened without giving the unnecessary and sad details. But it is still a very sad and awful story, which is why I want to share it because his family needs so much prayer.

As a colleague and I were driving in Virginia in route to Lynchburg this morning to exhibit for OCC at a conference, a motorcycle spun out in front of us. The man slid away from his bike and went into a guard rail – the bike was 40-50 yards further down the road from where he was stopped. Both of us from OCC stopped to help.

When I reached the man he was unresponsive and had no pulse. Other signs (that I will spare you) showed that he had internal bleeding and had likely passed upon impact. I and another did CPR, to allow any shred of hope that he may be saved at the hospital, for about twenty minutes until the ambulance arrived.

We will likely never know for sure the outcome of this, but without a miracle I think that this man has passed. Please pray for his family and friends. He may have been on a motorcycle trip to do some site-seeing – he had a camera on his waist and his passport in his shirt pocket. He was an older clean cut gentleman (65-70) and wasn’t doing anything weird on the bike, just going straight on the interstate. Someone said his front wheel did something funny, causing the accident.

Another prayer need related to this… the other lady who was doing CPR with me was doing the mouth-to-mouth portion. Please pray for her as she did not have a protective mouth shield and some of the man’s blood got into her mouth. Pray for her safety from diseases that can easily be transferred this way. This lady was with her husband and kids and they were also from Boone. They told us that they do OCC shoe boxes every year (my colleague had an OCC shirt on) and they are just getting their kids into it as they are getting old enough.

I guess the best thing to pray for in all of this is for God to be all over the situation and all over those involved with His immense love and compassion.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for sending up a prayer."

Pray!

Please pray for a man who was just in a motorcycle accident. I am on
my way to a conference in Virginia. I saw the accident and stopped and
gave CPR. He was unrespinsive the whole time and blood was coming from
his mouth and nose.

He is now on his way to the hospital. Please pray!

Sent from my mobile device.

Puppy Sitting!

This little ball of cute is going to be with us the rest of the week!
We will be sure to include a few more pictures as we get some good
ones but we wanted to get this one out real quick. His name is Connor
and he is Claire's co-worker's dog.

A pretty cool video from BGEA

I wouldn't say that BGEA is known for its video making - at least not in reaching an 'edgier' crowd - but I found this video to be pretty decent so I thought I'd share it with you real quick.

By the way, there's some pretty cool Operation Christmas Child videos that I helped 'inspire' in the Broadcast Department here. When they are up on the website, I will link them here.

Let's Catch Up

Forgive us for being off the radar for so long - life in Boone has been good n' busy! Here are some highlights from the past 2 fun-filled summer months.

1. First things first. Our dog is so darn cute (and so is the 3-inch thick layer of yellow hair that now covers every surface in our home). We've had a blast taking her on hikes, swims, and car rides through mountain country. I think we appreciate her even more that we might have if we'd never had the cancer scare - thank God she's healthy!

Making friends....

2. Speaking of doggy car rides, it didn't take long for us to figure out that Baby + my lovely 2006 RAV4 would soon = smelly, hairy, low resale value RAV4. Sooooooo, much to Rob's dismay (sarcasm alert), we traded in good ole' Stan the sedan for a '96 4Runner that Baby can filth-ify to her heart's content. Rob is THRILLED to have a rugged ride once again. We've dubbed him "Maximus", or Max for short.






3. We found a church! Banner Elk Christian Fellowship...I'd give you the website, but there isn't one... It's a great place, and it's been a long hunt, so we're excited!

4. Over 4th of July weekend, we were lucky enough to get a visit from Mom and Sis Williams and the delightful Christian Ann. Here are some pics from their time here:

This is Boone's 4th of July Parade

While visiting some of Karen's good friends, tea on the lawn turned into a T-storm on the lawn.

Rob's mom brought us a bunch of his stuff. We got a little distracted while unloading.

5. I still LOVE my job. Love it love it love it.

6. Rob and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary last Saturday! Instead of staying home and working on wedding thank you notes (I know, I KNOW!), we went for a little hike, then a picnic in the park, then to an art festival, then out for ice cream, then over to Laura and Adam's house for hamburgers and badminton! Fun day. And fun 6 months. Best 6 months ever.

7. And finally, here are some pics of Boone and our home!

Downtown Boone.

The house we're renting

The view from our house