MLK Day for the Layers

We went to Knoxville for the day to have some fun and get out of town. The kids and I had off. We went to the mall. These are pictures from the day.


In the mall a pottery store had opened and the kids did pottery pieces. They also had these large walls to draw on. It was a lot of fun.




Mommy made a print of Pierson's hand like we have for all the other kids.



The other kids did a vase, a mug, and a ceramic tile.

Memphis Revisited

These are few pictures from the Estonia weekend. Taavi Holman, District Superintendent from the UNited Methodists churches in Estonia came from his visits to East Tennessee to share with them about the ministry in Estonia.

Dr. Eddie Fox, president of World Methodist Evangelism, was there. He is such a great leader. He reminded me of John Ed Matheson at Frazier Memorial. Very winsome, caring, fun to be around.
We worshipped last Friday night with Maxie Dunnam, Chancellor of Asbury Seminary. This picture doesn't do this justice.

Emmauel UMC hosted this event. They did a good job promoting and highlighting things at this church. This is the church in Estonia that they sponsor.

These are the Estonian Pastors or represenatives who came all the way over from Estonia to be here for this gathering. That is quite a commitment in terms of financial and physical space to navigate to share what is going on.

I am personally looking forward to going to Estonia in July. It looks that now we will do a survey of the capital Tallin, spend some time with our connecting congregation in Aseri and hopefullly do a VBS type of program for their kids and the kids of the community. We also are looking at spending 3-4 days at Camp Gideon, a UMC church camp that continually needs updating.

Ellen Fisher Day

Our church Wednesday night had a retirement celebration for Ellen Fisher, former Associate Minister of First UMC. She just retired from ministry at Christmas time and we had quite a shindig. About 225 people came, more than double our usual Wednesday crowd. Former ministers and youth ministers came to speak as well as testimonials from the crowd of what Ellen has meant to them. On top of that, there was a video tribute remembering all the ministry she had over the years. The county mayor, a member of our church, presented her with a commentation and declaration that January 23rd was Ellen Fisher Day throughout the county. Then the church presented her with a love offering of $3000! WOW. How generous. She was blown away. It was a great evening for Ellen. Below are some pictures from the night.


Lora from Church made two great cakes, one the Methodist Cross and Flame and another for Duke, her alma mater.

Some of our kids sang a song for Ellen.

My Time with Joel Osteen

Matt, one of my Beeson Colleagues from last year found this video on a blog and I pass it on to you for your enjoyment. It was from our visit to Lakewood Church in Houston last January. Enjoy!

http://gregwythesvideos.ning.com/index.php/main/video/show?id=13695411

Memphis Day Two

Last night was a dinner for all connecting congregations that sponsor Estonian Congregations. There were about 5 estonian folks here for this gathering and about 15 churches represented. Of course we had bbq. It was good. It was neat to meet people and begin some networking and hearing what congregations are doing. In particular, I met one man who has gone to Estonia for years and is planning on going the week we had hoped to from our church in Late July. Today is the main session of hearing what is going on in ministry in Estonia and we have a worship service tonight.

On a personal note, I had almost the whole day yesterday to myself so I used the time to read, write my sermon, pray and do some thinking. I was kind of like a retreat day for myself. It made me think how I need to schedule some time to read and think into my weekly schedule.

See you later...

Memphis Day One

Just got to Memphis last night after a 7 hour drive from Morristown. Went with Harry Turner, from Kingsport who has gone to Estonia many times and who brought me up to speed on the ministry in Estonia. I learned that my friend Kaupo Kant who is a pastor there has had two church plants come out of his church in Voru in the past 5 years. This is a small congregation that is looking to launch additional groups and I applaud them for that. This should challenge us in the States with what we are doing in terms of reaching out.

A pastor from Severville is here for the gathering and He and a member of his church and I went to

They are famous for their ribs. I must say they were good but not the best I ever had. In fact, I think I liked the ribs place a mile from my house a little better but it was a fun experience.

Today, I am working from the hotel before our dinner tonight with other Connecting Congregations from around the country. I will report more later in the next couple days. Pray for kate and she is with her mom for several days till I come home. Nancy graciously came to help with the kids. The kids our out of school for a snow day today. Too bad I missed it.

friends of estonia

Tomorrow morning I leave for Memphis Tennessee for the National Friends of Estonia Gathering. Since our church sponsors the Aseri Church, I am going to represent our church and connect with other people to see how they are assisting the ministry in Estonia. At first, I was not looking forward to the 400 mile trip and the 4 days away from my family but now I am looking forward to connecting with folks and getting the bigger picture of what is going on in estonia. I also get most of Thursday to kill so I am looking forward to doing some reading and thinking without the busyness of being here.

Gotta go. Pierson is crying.

My First Post of the New Year

Something is wrong in life when my first post of the year is January 12th. Right now I have 2 sick kids and a sick wife but all is well since they are alseep and I am watching the New England Jackson ville game. I would like NE to loose because I don't like their coach and cocky attitude but it is looking unlikely that will happen. They just scored again. ouch.

Tomorrow I get another Sunday when I don't have to preach. Last week's service was led by our youth and this week's service is a missions sunday led by the Hispanic Church which began just a year ago and now has about 60-80 people in attendance, most by profession of faith or rededication. I am looking forward to it since it will be led by their praise band. We also have the District Superintendent From Estonia (Rev. Taavi Holman) coming to preach for us Sunday night. It should be a great day. I got to go get some rest.