August Update

Well…I have still been busy as ever.  Actually more busy than ever.  We have over 600 kids laying sports this fall!  Incredible!  24 hours ago I needed 17 soccer coaches for our Upward Soccer league.  24 hours later I have them.  But it sure took a lot of phone calling etc.  I hope this season as as good as the seasons past.

Yesterday I took David to football and took him off of the team.  I was reminded yesterday just how important my family is.  I also realized how important my role as father and leader for my family is.  I was in a meeting and someone made a comment about how the church needs to be careful about occupying too much family time and that getting folks wrapped up in being busy can actually rob them of family joy and peace.  I realized that David is not really enjoying football and that I am sacrificing precious family time for David to go to football practice.  I realized that our family time was too high a price.  Now if David was just loving football, I would break my back to keep him involved.  But with Molly and I working so much right now, its just not worth it.  For the past month we have not seen each other very much at all.  I think its the right choice.  I also don’t want David to totally hate football in the future.

Church stuff is going pretty well.  The WestLake campus launches this coming Sunday.  Its exciting!  There has been a TON of work to do to get ready.

David and Joshua like their teachers and their classes.  I hope we have a good school year this year.

Well thats all for now…

Where did the summer go??

WOW!!! The summer is almost over. I can’t believe it. It seems like it just flew by. Molly has been working full time lately at TVA and I feel like I have been working 2 full time jobs. The recreation ministry is going strong! Plus I am the administrative coordinator for our new WestLake campus. Its been a real ride this summer. So I thought I would give you a few bullet points and update you about what we have been up to…

• I went to Spain for the fourth time this summer. I went with 16 others to Madrid to conduct an Upward Basketball Camp for kids there in the Alcobendas area. We went the week of July 13. It was great! We had something like 120 kids register. Last year we had something like 70. It was phenomenal. I had the privilege each day to share the Gospel with each camper. It was great. The are really is a mixture of the world. We had Spanish kids, Moroccan kids, North African kids and more. Many of them asked questions about God. Sharing with the kids this year was more exciting than it has ever been. Many of them were very much listening. I pray for the seeds that we cast that week that they will land on fertile soil.
• While in Spain, I went to Toledo on my free day. Toledo was really cool. Its kn own around the world for sword making. COOL!
• David is my oldest son. He turns 8 August 4.
• David is playing tackle football with the FBC Warriors. Its interesting! Check out the Warriors website here.
• First Baptist Concord did vote to begin a new venue at the former WestLake church campus.  It will be known as First Baptist Concord - WestLake.  I think it will be a huge success.
• We are having Flag Football this fall for the first time.  We will have teams for 5/6 year olds and 7/8 year olds.
• We had Davids birthday today Saturday Aug 2.  We played laser tag!  I came in first in the first game and fourth in the second game.  But is there something wrong with me winning against a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds?
• Molly and I saw the Dark Knight last night.  It was good.  Not great.  Ledger did a great job with the Joker.  He should win the academy.  But the movie was too long….
• I am going to cook a beef brisket soon like I used to when I was in seminary.  It will be a traditional Texas style brisket.  Yummy!
• Well…my bridge across the creek left us the other night.  Many of you know that I built a bridge in the Spring to get across the creek in our back yard.  I was so proud of my bridge.  Last week we had a couple of days of really heavy rain.  The first rain brought the creek over the bridge…but she held!!  I was proud!  But before the creek could go back to normal level, we had another really heavy rain that must have really roared down the creek.  The next morning I looked out the window and noticed the bridge was gone.  I looked a little way down “river” and noticed my bridge washed up over turned in the neighbors yard.  I have since gotten the bridge back into my yard but have not re set it.  I will soon and with steps to make it higher so the water will be sure to pass under it in the future.

Been Really Busy Lately…

Things have been crazy here for the past few months. Our VBS called ConcordQuest was the second week of June. We had nearly 2500 folks attend! 125 children prayed to receive Christ. Our program this year was one of the best yet. It was entitled Secret of the Ancient Armor. It was about the armor of God. It was set in the times of kings and castles and knights ans dragons and stuff. It was really cool.

First Baptist Concord is developing a new venue or satellite. Years ago we started a church nearby in West Knoxville. It has struggled over the past 5 years or so and it has come to a point where we are going to re assume responsibilities on that campus. It is an exciting opportunity for us to continue to reach our community and our city for Christ. Our pastor has asked me to help spear head the administrative side of things for this new campus. Needless to say this had filled much of my time over the past several weeks. But it has been fun.

We went on vacation to Gulf Shores June 20 thru 25. It was really nice. This was the vacation that Molly won from my entering her on RAYCOM Sports in a contest. Her name was drawn and we won the trip! It was really nice to get away for a few days. My mom was able to go with us too. I was glad she could go and spend time with us but especially with David and Joshua.

I am getting ready to go to Madrid Spain again next week July 12 thru 20. We will be conducting basketball and English as a second language camps there. This is my 4th time to go to Spain. Its fun but I am so busy I feel a little stressed about going. I am sure God will bless as He always seems to do. Pray for us as we go. We will work with about 100 children at the camp. We will also have many other opportunities that the missionary and his family create for us. Our goal is to go and assist the missionary we are working with. We hope to improve existing relationships and create new ones for the missionary.

Our construction campaign at the church is getting crazy. One building is almost finished. Part of an existing building has been demolished to make way for 2 more new buildings. So in all of this process the Family Life Center has been closed for 6 weeks. My office and my staffs offices have all been moved. Actually I don’t have an office right now. Its crazy! But it is exciting to see all of the new opportunities that are being created with the new buildings. We have needed more space for so long.

The family is doing good. We went to the fourth of july parade the other day. It was fun! We went to the smokies game and saw the post game fireworks. I took David and Joshua to the fireworks store. I have never seen so many people at the fireworks store. We bought about $50 of fireworks and shot them off qith friends over Saturday night July 5th. Also over the weekend I steamed off wall paper in a guest room and a bathroom in our house. Then I painted the bathroom. It was a busy but rewarding weekend.

Take Care for now! Drop me a comment if you like. I would love to hear from any readers.

Its been a while…

I know its been a while since I have written anything.  I am not sure how many readers there are anyway.  So here goes…a bullet point OGLE update…

• We bought a boat!  Its nothing fancy.  Its a 1984 Glastron with a mercury 115.  It is in great condition!  We’ll have lots of Ogle Family fun on the lake this summer.
• We won another contest.  I know, I know…what can I say?  When you have the touch, youve got it.  I was at home on Saturday afternoon watching some basketball on RAYCOM SPORTS.  They advertised their contest page on their website duringa  time out.  I picked up my laptop and entered.  I entered myself to win their “Be one of the Crew” contests.  While I was at the site I entered Molly in the Alabama Tip Off Tee Off contest.  The next Monday they called her and told her she had been selected as the winner!  We won a vacation at Gulf Shores this summer for 4 days.  The vacation includes golf, some meals and some area attraction admissions.  COOL!
• Joshua is playing TBALL.  He is on the Marlins again this year with coach Jon.  Its fun!
• I am so glad the LADY VOLS won the National Championship last night.  The Lady Vols really have an amazing history.  Pat Summitt is amazing!
• I guess after 12 years of living in Tennessee, I am now a UT Sports fan.
• Pat Summitt attended a basketball game at our Family Life Center a few years ago.  She illegally parked her Mercedes on the curb outside….I didn’t say anything to her about it though.  She was here watching her son play a game while he attended Webb.
• I am rethinking my Super Star Sports idea.  I am thinking of changing the name to something else that is a little bit farther away from any Upward likeness.  I still want to do it though.
• I stunk it up in the NCAA March Madness for fun bracket that I had.  I came in second to last place just ahead of Corey.
• I mowed the grass Monday.  Man our yard is so big and hilly.  Its scary mowing especially on the hills.  I have to shift my weight from side to side so the lawn mower won’t tip over and roll down the hill.
• I built a bridge over the creek.
• I am building a clubhouse for the boys on their island in the creek.  The island is about 10 feet wide and about 20 feet long.  It will be cool when I am done.  If I can just find the time to get done.
• Molly is working a lot lately.  He part time job turned into a full time job pretty much from day one.  It ads a different dynamic to the family.  Thankfully my schedule is flexible enough that I can bring the boys to school and pick them up.  Plus they can hang out with me at the FLC.
• Joshua went to the Doctor a week or so ago.  It was his regular check up.  He had Strep throat!!  Poor guy.  He also got 4 SHOTS.  2 in each leg.  They were his regular shots.  But boy did he cry.  I felt so bad for him.  Plus he got 2 finger pokes for blood tests.  Needless to say I rewarded him for being so brave and bought him a snake webkinz animal.
• Webkinz are COOL!  Molly and I are even hooked on the games.  We can play games and earn David and Joshua Webkinz Cash so they can buy virtual stuff for their pets.  Its a kids virtual world!
• We are going to Peter Pan this weekend at Cumberland Playhouse.
• I am thinking of signing David up to play football!
• The buildings at First Baptist are going well.  I am excited to see them progrssing.  There is still A LOT of work to be done.

Well thats all for now.  Thanks for reading!  Hopefully I will do a better job of posting.

COLD!!!

Man it is cold outside today.  The coldest its been in a while I think.  Molly brought the boys over to the FLC just because the house is not warming up real good.  When its this cold outside (wind chill is 5), the heater runs all the time at home.  Heating a 3000+ square foot house is EXPENSIVE!  Anyway, we are staying warm in in Knoxville.

A New Years Resolution…

I have been thinking about and praying about beginning a sports ministry for kids.  I have been thinking about it for a few years now.  I have just been afraid of getting out of my comfort zone and getting it up and running.  I have all the components in my head, I just need to get them out.  What I envision will be like Upward Sports but slightly different…simpler and will give the local church more autonomy than Upward.  I have been encouraged by some good friends of mine in ministry to get this thing off of the ground.

My goal for 2008 is to get Super Star Sports started.

Pray for me to get this thing going.

Stay tuned…

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone has a great 2008.  We had fun on New Years Eve shooting off fireworks outside in the driveway.  David and Joshua were excited!  We didn’t do any big fireworks, just sparklers and other small stuff.  We invited the next door neighbor kids over to do some sparklers with us and watch some of the other things I had.  Everyone had a great time.

Earlier around the dinner table we all shared new years resolutions.  It was neat hearing David and Joshua share some resolutions.  Molly and I shared them too.  We are all hoping and praying that 2008 will be filled with fun for our family and lots of heavenly blessings.

Merry Christmas!

Well the kids are in bed. Molly and I just got everything done that we needed to do for the big day. Its gonna be fun! We got home tonite from visiting family in Birmingham for the past few days. It was nice but theres no place like home. I am so glad we started coming home on Christmas eve so we could establish our own family traditions of getting up on Christmas morning and coming in to see the gifts. But the coolest thing was the discussion we had tonite in the boys room about Christmas beeing about Jesus and not just gifts. David my oldest is really starting to get it a little bit. He really understands a lot about Jesus. He just about quoted verses from Luke that speak of Christs birth. I was impressed. I love my family. My New Years Resolution is going to be to try to let my hope and faith in Jesus Christ show more through my actions and reactions. I was really challenged through a sermon by Buddy Champion at First Baptist Trussville Sunday morning. He preached about Simeon the elderly man in the temple courts that saw the baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. He preached about how faithful Simeon was and how his faith showed. Simeons faith was the real deal. We live in a society that is looking for a bargain…a quick fix. We do this in our faith too. People attend church thinking they can do enough to just get by. It challenged me to not have a bargain type of Christianity. True faith may cost a little more but in the end it works every time. True faith takes commitment to real bible study and prayer and devotional life. Sometimes the bargains that we fall for work for a while but eventually break down or let us down. Too many people are walking around today carrying some bargain type of Christianity. Anyway…I hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Huckabee for President!

The more I read and hear, the more I like…

ELF yourself! We got elfed!

My family and I got ELFED!!! Its fun and Funny! Check it out here. You can do one for yourself and friends and family…spread the cheer!