Must See Ministry! Healing Hands of HPC

I just wanted to encourage everyone to check out Dr. Cheri Leblanc's blog about HPC's Healing Hands Ministry.

Healing Hands Ministry is the Healthcare Ministry at HPC. HPC's Core Vision is to be a "Healing Place for a Hurting World." This ministry is probably the most practical way, outside of weekend services, that we fulfill that vision.

Dr. Cheri Leblanc, our family physician, is a medical doctor in the Baton Rouge area and has her own private practice on O'Neal Lane. Since we've known her and her husband Joseph, they have always had the heart to serve the local church. They both use their gifts and talents to serve their calling of helping those who are hurting.

Recently, they were able to acquire the mobile medical clinic (pictured above) which enables Healing Hands to go to the poorest areas of South Louisiana, including many FEMA trailer parks and provide FREE medical care to those in need.

Some of the orginzations that support the Mobile Medical Clinic are: Healing Place Church, Seacoast Church, Northwest Medical, PRC Compassion, and others. Dr. Cheri has created a post listing all the contributors HERE.

It's really amazing the response she has gotten and the diversity of assistance is very telling of how more and more churches are breaking down walls, putting aside egos and differences to take care of the real needs. It's amazing what you can do for the Kingdom of God when nobody cares who gets the credit. The only reason I feel its appropriate to name these organizations is to honor them for what they are doing and encourage others to do their part.

For more details on the origination and other partners who were able to make this mobile medical clinic possible, check out her blog.

If anyone has any medical training or a heart to serve and can give some portion of their time, talent or treasure to help this ministry, Dr. Cheri and her team would love to have you on their team.

Dan Ohlerking posted an inverview on his blog with Dr. Cheri. Great stuff!

Check it out.

Hurricane Preparedness Part II

Here's a shot just after the first half dropped.








Here's a shot of the second half in flight.










TIMBER!!! Great shot by Brandi! See the dust still flying?











Ugh - ugh! King of the mountain. A little Tim the Toolman Taylor moment here.









Colateral Damage: That's our driveway under the saw dust! Oh well. We'll take a hole in the concrete over a hole in the roof anyday.





So now we are ready for hurricane season or at least a little more at ease. We hated to lose that tree. I'm gonna look in our house building scrapbook and post when we cleared the lot so ya'll can see how beautiful that tree was. But, our bad, we should have looked into the details before building so close and disturbing the root system. Next time, we'll know.

Hurricane Preparedness

This is the tree we built our house around back in 2000. It used to be a vibrant, shade providing tree. Unfortunately, we didn't understand how important it was to not disturb the ground below the canopy of the tree, so 5 years later, no leaves this Spring. It started shedding limbs last year during the Hurricanes. This year, it's completely dead and we (and our neighbors) thought it'd be a good idea to bring her down.

We started with the limbs first. As you can see, we are experts and we dropped this limb exactly where we wanted to drop it... 2ft from the front door!

The guys cutting our tree is John Thompson. He works with me at Shell and cuts down trees for fun on his off days. He did a great job. It gives me chills to think I was gonna try to do this by myself.

It's hard to see with this pic, but I'm on the other end of a rope tied to John's Chevy pickup. The tree is leaning in this pic and is about to go down. About this time, I'm smoking the tires on John's Chevy pickup, making sure this half of the tree lands in the yard and not in our living room.

More pics to come. Gotta go to work.

Good Job Senator Amedee

Just wanted to quickly recognize my State Senator Jody Amedee for his NO vote for the Health Insurance Bill.

Advocate Article

I don't get into politics too much, but this is one of the times I looked and liked what I saw.

Good Job Senator Amedee.

Marriage

An interesting conversation at work got me thinking about marriage and how much work is involved in building and maintaining a good marriage.

It's amazing, when you think about it, the dynamics of a marriage, the sacred union of a man and a woman. A great read is "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" by John Gray to help understand the differences betweem men and women. Anything by Dr. Gary Chapman and Family Life are also helpful resources.

I suppose alot of people are shocked early in marriage and maybe even later in marriage how the differences between themselves and their spouses provide possibilities for conflict. Then, alot of times, especially early in marriage, we are not equipped in resolving conflict. So, a little problem, unresolved, makes other problems much bigger and this creats a "snowball effect."

I don't think we should be expected to be alike as men and women, nor should we expect all men and women to be alike. Afterall, our Creator is not a cookie cutter God. On top of that, we are all exposed to different environment growing up. So, one person's life experiences are not the same as another person's life experiences. These life experiences shape our perspective of all life situations and create different expectations and reaction to everyday life.

The key is to understand there is a difference and have a true desire to learn our differences in order to understand why we do the things we do and react the way we react and help us understand why our spouses or potential spouses see thing the way they do. Very hard work, but very satisfying and productive.

Unfortunately, whether in church or out, our society has not created a good environment where couples can admit there are problems and seek help. Couples who have problems feel like they have failed instead of realizing ALL COUPLES have conflicts to work through. They become isolated because they think they are the only ones having problems.

I know Brandi and I during mentoring situations make it clear that in 13 years, we've had some issues and that's normal. They key is to learn how to effectively work through issues. We don't want newlyweds to be naive when the honeymoon wears off and real life slaps them in the face. I think if more married couples were open about conflicts, other couples would be less likely to feel abnormal and more likely to seek help.

So, go out today and tell someone how much you and your spouse argue with each other!

Company Softball

Someone at the plant started a softball league. I don't know exactly what it's for, maybe just something to do during off hours. I like it. There are four teams made up of different departments in the plant. We are 2-0. I think we play 8 games, each on Tuesday afternoons.

It's funny to see 30 - 55 year old men out there trying to convince ourselves we are still teens. This game, we had two guys go out with hamstring pulls. I was battling through serious pain in my quads (top of thigh?). The first game, I felt a little pull in my upper hamstring during batting practice!

Here's some pics:

That's me way in the back heading to Left Field

I'm not sure if this was my triple, double or one of my two pop outs...

Some of the gang. Me and my #1 fan in the background.

Off for the Summer and Fall

I'm just realizing I took my Spring Finals about a month ago. It sure doesn't seem like I've been out of school for a month.

Brandi & I have decided that since we are going to China to get Jada in the beginning of September for 2 weeks and we want both of us to be at home as much as possible for our first child, I will sit out the Fall semester.

But I am taking 2 Independant Study Courses this summer. After that, I only need 24 hours to get my BA! My GI Bill runs out April 27, 2007, but we are debt free except the house, so we can cash flow it.

It's good to get a break from schoo and work. I'm enjoying it.

Speaking of debt free, Brandi and I have firmed up plans to go to Nashville, TN to get certified as Financial Counselors by Dave Ramsey. We'll be able to provide FREE financial counseling at HPC. She also gets to earn some continuing education credits to maintain her CPA.

Adoption Update

You can get updates on our adoption by clicking HERE.

Or click the link on the right side of the page.

My service in the U.S. Navy

I read an article tonight on the web that reminded me of my former career. The summer between my Jr. and Sr. year in highschool the armed forces recruiters got a hold of me. Somehow, I did very well on some ASVAB scores and the Navy convinced me (by offering MUCH more money than the Marines) that I could operate a nuclear reactor! So, I signed up.

So, tired of school and reading books and stuff, I thought it would be cool to join the Navy. Well, guess what? The schooling was just beginning! The first 2 years of my Navy career was SCHOOL!! Not just any school, NAVY NUCLEAR POWER SCHOOL! Eight hours a day, then 35 hours per week MANDATORY STUDY hours. Oh, the information we studied was TOP SECRET, so we had to study in school, no take home books or notes.

Now, I've forgotten more stuff than most people know about nuclear reactors. For example I used to know how to calculate how much power increase would result from raising the Hafnium control rods 1 inch. I also used to be able to calculate how much power was contributed to a shutdown reactor due to the Xenon Flux. I was also able to derived the Neutron Flux absorption rate of a Pressurized Water Reactor operating steady state at 75% power.

Here's a pic of the submarine I served on. It was built in 1963 and we laid it to rest in 1995. We cut it up into pieces, shipped the Reactor Compartment to Idaho in some Nuclear Land fill and they gave me a neat little statue of a small submarine made out of the brass from the missile tubes. They also included a block of HY-80, which is what the 2 inch thick hull was made out of.



I just thought it was neat to remember all I have forgot about that 7 year part of my life. It was fun, but none of my kids will join the armed forces, I hope...

P.S. In the sub pic, those two pins at the bottom will probably be my next tats. Brandi and I have been wanting to get inked again. I got to get some manly ink to offset my Winnie the Pooh tat on my leg.