Fulfilling my scholastic duty today and driving for a field trip to a musical in Modesto.

I’ll be so close to the Guitar Center and yet so very far away.

Now If I was in charge of the field trip . . .

We had some special guests at church yesterday.

Friends of M who have been coming quite regularly now – one of whom brought the rest of her family.

It was her birthday yesterday and she told her family that for her birthday she wanted them to come to church.

Pretty cool.

Our # 1 son said our Praise Band last night was one of our best.

Something good is happening to prompt such a comment.

I had to agree with him – seems we are working well together and the addition of our new keyboard player has been a good fit.

We do not subscribe to the local paper.

Quite a few of our church members do.

Imagine our surprise when 4 of our members showed up to church this past Sunday with the local sports section which contained the print form of this photo and this article.

The boy received two awards at school yesterday.

The first award was for student of the quarter.

The second award was for Administrator’s Honor Roll.

He finished the quarter with a perfect 4.0

His teacher also informed us that our boy would graduate from the 8th grade (schools here are K-8) as the Valedictorian.

This news made his parents proud but has brought fear into the young man’s heart.

The Valedictorian, you see, must stand up in front of people and give a speech.

Whereas he may have received his smarts from his mother, he did not inherit his father’s “up front” gifts.

I’m going to offer him $10 bucks if he works in either a quote from that famous Catholic theologian Ignacio “Nacho” Libre or the infamous (that means more than famous) Napoleon Dynamite.

Making our way to Antioch today for the funeral service of Rick Johnson.

Your thoughts and prayers for the family are greatly appreciated.

Our hearts are heavy as we struggle to comprehend and process the news we received Saturday regarding the passing of Rick Johnson.

Rick (Reflecting West in my blog buddies list) served the Eastside Church of Christ in Antioch, CA alongside my brother-in-law Brice.

We think of his family and can only cry and pray.

A visit with one of our church families reminded me again that not all people of maturing age fear or loathe change.

Just like not all young people welcome and embrace change.

It’s a heart attitude – a mental state – not the number of years that makes the difference.

I pray that grow into that picture of acceptance and continue to embrace the reality that things change.

I want to be part of whatever change it takes to reach the next generation (even though I probably won’t like it!)

I was also reminded how voices of reason and acceptance always seem to be smothered by angry people.

Careerbuilder.com released a list of the 30 “in demand” jobs for the next decade.

1. Registered nurses
2. Home health aides
3. Customer service representatives
4. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
5. Personal and home care aides
6. Retail salespeople
7. Office clerks, general
8. Accountants and auditors
9. Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants
10. Post-secondary teachers
11. Construction laborers
12. Elementary school teachers, except special education
13. Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer
14. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers
15. Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks
16. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants
17. Management analysts
18. Computer applications software engineers
19. Receptionists and information clerks
20. Carpenters
21. Medical assistants
22. First-line supervisors/managers of office and administrative support workers
23. Network systems and data communications analysts
24. Licensed practical and vocational nurses
25. Security guards
26. Waiters and waitresses
27. Maintenance and repair workers
28. Physicians and surgeons
29. Child-care workers
30. Teacher assistants

Curiously absent from this list . . .

• Minister
• Funeral Director

Well, I guess there’s always fast food!

I received a statement of account from the billing and receivables department of ACU yesterday.

To my delight and surprise the statement showed I had &5,423.71 in credit on my student account.

My delight, of course, was having almost $5,500 in credit – cut a check baby, cut a check!

My surprise, of course, was having graduated in 1987.

Had a left unaware with a credit that accumulated interest for lo this many years?

Had an anonymous donor benefacted my account posthumously?

(yes I made up a word and used a word incorrectly but it was a cool sounding sentence)

Alas, no, the tuition payment plan computer deposited the amount in the wrong account.

I called in explained the situation and was thanked for my honesty.

Greg commented on my wheel blog if I would have the same moral fortitude if I had received a Taylor T5 in error.

With this accounting incident, it seems the ante is being raised each week.

Came across this quote by Bill Hybels:

Wouldn’t it be great if every Christian got it that serving others is normal, and if every church became the greatest servant organization in its community?