Starting today, my team at work is participating in a business continuity simulation. The scenario is that the big earthquake hit Bloomington and we are unable to get to our desks to work. Instead of a team of 40 people sitting together and working together, we are now scattered across the building and even across the city. As a manager this is a challenge for me.  This is out of the comfort zone for a lot of people.  l We have to be creative and think out of the box. We as a group have to really utilize the technology that we have been given and keep one of the largest storage infrastructures in the world up and running.  Topping that off for me is the fact that the baby could be coming at any moment, I am in a training class this afternoon and tomorrow and we have KidStuf this week…

It is definitely going to take God to help me juggle all of this…It is going to be interesting…

We just got back to the hotel after the first night of Orange.  Reggie Joiner was the keynote speaker and I think he hit a home run.  I am not going to get into too much detail, because his point was so clear it doesn’t need it. 

Reggie talked about the story of the prodigal son.  He said that we have two choice with the prodigal generation, we can treat them like the father or we can treat them like the older brother.  What is your attitude towards sinners??  Do we love them with open arms or do we snub our noses at them because they aren’t like us??  

Not to many years ago, I was a prodigal…I thank God that I had someone treat me as the father did and not as the older brother did. If that person didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have ever met Christine and our awesome baby boy wouldn’t be two weeks away…

Who is the prodigal in your life?? 

Over the weekend, we had a 3D/4D ultrasound done so we could get a little better look at the baby. It was totally cool.  While I thought the other ultrasounds were awesome and inspiring, this one was just amazing because you could see his features.  Sadly, the boy looks like me as a baby and not his mother…but it looks like he has more hair than me… :-)  We also very clearly saw that he is a boy and at least on one hand and one foot all fingers and toes are there.

Here is one of the video clips they gave us. He obviously has some monkey in him as he is scratching an itch on his face with his foot. I can’t even bend over and touch my toes and my son can scratch his face with his foot..amazing..

In any case..this was awesome and got me even more excited about him being born.  I can’t wait for the next few weeks to be over and be able to finally hold him…

Ok, so about a week ago, I latched on to something that really seems to be taking off…it is called Twitter. It is kind of like text messaging and kind of like blogging. Basically, you can go out and update what you are doing or what is on your mind in 147 characters or less, which really works for me, since I don’t think or write in complete sentences anyway. The mindless drivel from my head can usually be easily stated in 147 characters, so this is awesome for me…you can also follow what other folks are doing. Here are some entertaining Twitterers: Jim Henry,   Tony Morgan ,  Carlos Whitaker, and Kem Meyer

You can join the Twitter revolution and follow my Twittering here: http://twitter.com/shepgolfer

Besides any information you gain, it is fun to say Twitter

We finished our lamaze classes last night…that means the baby is getting close..probably only about 7 or 8 weeks now. We are both getting very excited…but the fact that he is getting close got me thinking..what am I going to say to this kid??  What do I want him to know (besides Clemson rules ) ??  Am I going to be a good dad??

 Well, as I was driving to work this morning, this song came on my iPod…I think it sums up exactly what I want him to know.  I am not very eloquent so this says it much better than I ever could…it brings a tear to my eye everytime I hear it and think of Colton…

 In case you are wondering, this is a band called Connersvine  they are a great acoustic band. The lead singer is the punter for the Indianapolis Colts. Besides playing football, he is also a worship leader at his church…check them out, the CD is great…

Who is that fine looking group of people you might ask?? Well that is the group of people that I started my first job out of college with at Dow Chemical. We were part of the Commerical Development Program and we were called CDPs for short.  I have to say you couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to start working with. We were from all over the country and were all transplanted smack dab in the middle of no where at Dow Chemical’s headquarters in Midland, MI.  We had a blast even though we were there for work. They put us all in one apartment complex and had us in training there for 9 months. There were some great parties and a lot of awesome memories. It was kind of like college, but we got paid for it.. :-) 

 Well, that was almost 18 years ago and many of those people have gone off to be very successful. We have several vice presidents of companies and at least one venture capitalist in the group…most of them have long since left Dow, but there are at least a few of them still there..I am not very good at keeping in touch and while I may have talked to a few of them for a couple of years after leaving Dow, I had lost touch with everyone in the group….that is until last week..

 Last week when I had a few minutes, I was browsing this business networking site and started looking for some of my old friends…I didn’t find a lot, but then Googled a few names and got a hit on one of the people I was closest too in Midland. I searched her married name on the networking site and got a hit.  I sent the generic “remember me” email through the site and got a reply back from my friend Leslyn. In the picture below she is the one with the blonde kid of big hair (at least by today’s standards it’s big, within the Virginia (where she is from) debutant community of the 80’s,  that would be a buzz cut) sitting behind the very handsome guy with a very full head of curly hair (where did all of that hair go and how did the remaining turn grey??)

 Well, Monday of this week Leslyn and I got a chance to catch up on the phone.  It was so awesome to get a chance to talk with her after about 13 or 14 years.  She is married, has two great kids and is very successful at her job (she is one of the VPs) and is back in Virginia.  Unfortunately, she still pulls for University of Virginia, but at least they have the right colors. 

 It was interesting as we talked that, even though we were catching up on the past 13 years and it was a short call, it was like we had not really lost touch..it was very cool…it’s funny how things like that work..

 Well, in any case, I hope we do a better job keeping in touch from this point foward and maybe we can get down their way to watch one of the Clemson beat downs of Virginia (still the only ACC stadium I haven’t seen a game in) in football and hang out..just like we did in 1990 as we watched them play…

I was just taking a look at Andrea’s blog and a thought occurred to me..4 years ago last Wednesday, March 12, 2004, I was getting off of a plane to meet the woman I will spend the rest of my life with for the first time face to face. Many people who read this know that I met Christine on eHarmony and had talked for a couple of months before we met face to face the first time. As the plane was descending, I was so nervous. I wanted to yell out for the pilot to turn the plane around. Even though I knew she was special from talking to her, little did I know what God had in store for us and that 4 years later we would be expecting a little baby boy..

Everything happens in God’s timing. Never would I have imagined that I would meet the person I would spend my life with when I was 37 years old. You always picture things in your head; how life is going to turn out, where will I be, what will I be doing..my picture certainly wasn’t what it has turned out to be. The cool part is, God knows when we are ready for things…he knows when the perfect time is for us to meet that perfect person. If Christine and I had met 2 years earlier, who knows if things would have turned out the same..but God knew when we should meet and it is something I am thankful for every day…

So Sunday was a big day in the life of my ministry..it was the last day the Christine was going to be serving with me in Kingdom Kids. With our baby coming and Lou Ann’s need for some help in the pre-school area, Christine has decided to take a look at serving in the there. When Lou Ann presented this idea, I thought what a great chance for Christine to showcase her skills in a new ministry. Well, it hit me Sunday morning…Christine wasn’t going to be in there with me any more. As I was announcing it to the kids, I had this lump in my throat..it was almost surreal…what seemed so small at one point, now was huge to me. Half of “me” was going to be misssing from that room…it was really strange. For a guy, who for years prided himself on self-sufficiency…I was now feeling what it was like to be dependant on another person..

As I have thought about it, I know why God has found my perfect match. She is so different than me, but she compliments me in so many ways, she is strong in places where I am weak and she lifts me up when I can’t lift myself up…And yes, she will still be there for bouncing ideas off of, for venting when I need to, for cheering me up on a bad day…but I won’t have her smiling face to look down at from the stage and that will seem strange to me…

It has been absolutely amazing serving alongside the most amazing wife that I could have ever imagined…the soon to be mother of my son. She was a gift from God that I so do not deserve…the song we dance to at our wedding was “Miracle to Me” by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. And she is truly that to me. God brought her into my life from 3,000 miles away as proof that there are still miracles occuring today…I was reading in Mark today about how the disciples continually doubted Jesus ability to provide fixes for hungry or needy people, yet they had seen him do it time and time again..how often did they need reminding as to what he can do. I know that I often forget how wonderful he can be…as I thought about this, I realized that I have my reminder each day when I wake up and look at her and see that baby growing in her stomach..I don’t need any further proof of miracles…

Last night, my mighty Clemson Tigers had to travel to College Park, MD to battle the University of Maryland fighting turtles.. :-)  Things didn’t look good for the Tigers for 29 minutes…we were turning the ball over, missing shots, and basically looking out of synch. With 11 minutes left the Tigers trailed the turtles 59-39 and things were bleak.  Then is was if a light switch turned on and the Tigers made their run. The started working hard and finally the shots started to fall.  Maryland helped by looking a little tentative, but I think it was mostly due to the Tigers improved play.  They started to nibble away, never quitting and continuning to play very hard even when it appeared they didn’t have a chance…when James Mays capped off a 31 to 11 run with a steal and a dunk the game was tied at 70.  The good guys got the ball back with about 14 seconds left and here is what happened:

That was a huge victory for the Tigers and probably sealed a big to the NCAA tournament…something we haven’t done in a long time.  If the Tigers would would have quit when things were looking bad, this would have never happened.  They showed a lot of heart and toughness…they made all of us in the Clemson nation very proud!! 

So earlier this week, we were watching TV and The Moment of Truth comes on.  For those who haven’t seen the commercials, this is a show where you go on national tv and have to answer very personal questions in front of the world. The catch is that they have previously hooked you up to a polygraph and determined what the true answers are.  I tell you what, this is like watching two trains from afar heading straight at each other…nothing good can come from it.  All you have to do is answer 21 questions truthfully and you win $500,000.  They start fairly painless and get harder as you go…Sounds pretty easy doesn’ t it??  Hmm, not so fast my friend…they ask personal and embarrasing questions…OH!! and your spouse  and friends have to sit there and watch you answer them.  Example: the first contestant was an ex-NFL player…2nd question (easy one); “When you were playing football, did you look at other guy’s private parts in the shower?”…he did say yes… A little harder question: “if your wife got a flabby stomach would you encourage her to get liposuction?” again he answered yes..now getting a little harder “Have you delayed having children because you don’t believe your wife is your long term partner?”  He was squirming, his wife was definitely uncomfortable…well maybe more than uncomfortable…his answer Yes…and you could see the marriage starting to crumble..his wife wasn’t happy…hey, but that is worth a few bucks right??

 Seriously, has money become so important that you would risk the important stuff to gain it?? Neither of the contestants got past the easy questions, I can’t even begin to understand what the hard ones will be, but my guess is there will be more than a few friendships lost or marriages ruined over this show. Is that really worth $500,000??