Farewell to Tom and Joyce Alsbury

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day at NRN. We also expressed appreciation to Dr. Tom and Joyce Alsbury for their distinguished service to North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene.

The letter of appreciation I presented to Tom and Joyce was the following:

This award is to express our deep appreciation to you for your distinguished acts of service and labor of love to the Lord through your ministry at North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene.

Joyce – we appreciate the hundreds of selfless hours as you served as our church treasurer. You have served behind the scenes in many capacities, as a member of our church board and even serving as a sound technician. Thank you for your service to the Lord!

Tom – Over the past few years God has used you in a mighty way as you have served as our worship leader. You have used your gifts from the Lord to serve Him and your ministry has been a blessing. Thank you for your leadership, serving on our church board in the past and directing our worship in recent significant worship experiences. Words cannot adequately express our appreciation for all you have done. You have been so faithful to provide financial sacrifice for the purchase of equipment to enhance our worship ministry. The many hours behind the scenes in the early Sunday mornings have not gone unnoticed. Thank you for your ministry.

We are so excited about the call of God upon your life to step into a unique ministry position. As you begin your service at Seattle Pacific University, we feel you will be a part of a great mission to “engage the culture and change the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Be reminded often of our love for you and our prayers on your behalf.

Tom and Joyce will depart this week and begin their move back to the sate of Washington. We will miss them very much however, celebrate the call of God upon their lives to begin their ministry at Seattle Pacific University.

The last song Tom presented to the church family at NRN was powerful:




Tom and Joyce - you have been church members of my dream. I will miss you....

I now pronounce you - husband and wife

Today Sharron and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement on Facebook. Sharron and I feel extremely blessed as we take a moment to reflect over the years together. We are spending the evening at the Lifeway Conference Center in Ridgecrest, NC.

Over the past two Saturdays I have had the privilege to stand before a couple and pronounce them husband and wife. I pray that their marriages will be as blessed as ours. Here is the trustworthy saying I reserved for today:

"Find a good spouse, you find a good life— and even more: the favor of God!" Proverbs 18:22

I am so thankful for my wife Sharron!

Sharron just read this post and then she asked me to post this clip since we are staying tonight at a Baptist Retreat Center. This is one of our favorites: ENJOY!

A serious case of writers block

You may have noticed that I have not blogged for a long - long time. There are several reasons for this. I was in the process of posting devotionals for the Lenten season preparing for Easter 2011. One morning as I went to prepare my post for the day my computer stopped working.

My computer "died" and I did not have computer access at home for several weeks. As I worked through this difficult time - my cell phone began to give me trouble and then - it "died".

Now I have a new computer at home and I am now the owner of a new Verizon Samsung Fascinate Phone.



I think my season of a writer's block is soon coming to a close. Over the new few weeks I plan to prepare a few retro postings - refreshing some of the events I failed to share - I also begin to bring new and fresh blog postings. I am battling with writers block - but this is a first step and I plan to be back soon.