Alabama

Year of First Visit – 1998
Point of Entry – I-59 near Livingston

My first time in Alabama was a trip through the middle of Alabama. Most of my memories there, though, are from trips to the Orange Beach area.

We had a couple of different training retreats for work in that area. The church rented a neighboring beach houses in the off season so we flew into Pensacola and drove over.

That’s where I got to drive Linda Costello’s Porsche. More importantly, I was able to establish and build relationships with people who became important connections for me.



We also visited this area when visiting friends (Peavys, Carnahans) in the Pensacola area. On all our Gulf Coast trips we went up to Foley to have rolls “throwed” at us for dinner.

The church doesn’t rent the beach houses any more. (I don’t know if they survived the hurricanes that hit them directly.) The friends who lived there have moved on in life.

With all the reasons I went to Alabama having moved on, Alabama may only be visited by me in memories from this point forward.

Redirecting

So, clearly my initial blogging plans have changed direction and this particular blog has gone cold for a while.

As many of you know, I've been off of work for while I get healed up from an illness. To keep my writing skills from total atrophy, I started a little project on the side. It's simply a memoir of the different states I've been in. I've gotten quite a few done though clearly not all of them.

For your entertainment pleasure, I'm going to start posting the ones I have done here on Fridays for a while. I'll be posting basically alphabetically. I've been in 45 states so far so if you see a state skipped that means either I haven't been there yet or I haven't figured out what to say.

At any rate, enjoy the memories with me.

Thanks for reading.

SPECTACULAR

We're trying to send some kids from inner-city Baltimore for a week in Iowa on the campus of Graceland University. The program is called SPECTACULAR and lives up to its name.

We've already secured scholarships for the fees and now need to buy plane tickets and ground transportation. Several kids who have attended in the past have come home with academic and athletic scholarships which allowed them to be the first in their families to attend college.

Please consider helping make this happen for more kids from our church this year.

Day 39 (February 20, 2011)

I just have to say that I don't think it's rocket science to distinguish between cutting employee pay & benefits and cutting people's rights to organize. One is tough to deal with. The other is worth camping out at the capitol and standing up for your rights. Though I've never been employed as a union member, my hat is off to the protesters in Wisconsin (and the legislators who have gone to Illinois) who are helping protect the rights of Americans to organize.

Day 38 (November 7, 2010)

Today I learned how to embed videos from Vimeo. Perhaps there's hope for me after all.

Love the video. Love the cause.

There's an Easier Way To Give a Goat - outreachshop.org from Outreach International on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

Day 37 (September 27, 2010)

This video was made during the Story conference I attended in Chicago last week. It hits close to my heart and reminds me of my experiences in Texas.

We Are Not Invisible from Good World Creative on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/15267303

Thanks for watching,

Jeff

Day 36 (September 2, 2010)

My new favorite prayer:

Lord, please grant me patients, for if you grant me strength, people will be hospitalized.