Driskill Mountain Adventure

Yes, Louisiana has a Mountain (well sort of). Caleb and Ethan were begging for an adventure the other day so we decided to head to the highest point of Louisiana.

View Larger Map

We had a great time exploring and climbing. We met a few people that this will be their 32nd Highest point they have been to. We found deer tracks, dog tracks, a big leaf, and we got to use some great walking sticks. Caleb wanted to venture off the trail, so from pretty close to the top we went down the steep side barreling through the woods. It was great fun. We will have to take Mommy next time.

Murphy Family Christmas

Christmas morning was wonderful.

Jill and I woke up early so we could see the kids reaction when they got up.
Caleb was up first (around 5:30am) so we woke Ethan (way too early for him).

I was confused on the season and got Jill a couple of swim suits. While Jill on the other hand got me a some great winter bicycling gear. Biking gloves, long sleeve jersey and a cycling Gortex windbreaker.

The remote control car, bikes and bike ramp were a hit.

Then we ended up at Nanna and Pops house where Caleb got his long awaited mp3 player. He had been opening every smaller box first all morning hunting for it. Ethan was in love with his new art kit. Then we went outside to try out Ethan's "pitching machine". They were hitting "homeruns" left and right.

This has been a great morning opening gifts, singing Christmas songs in the car and hanging out with family.

It has been a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Reflection

This year I was able to participate in a wonderful new tradition(at least I hope it becomes a tradition) at our Church. Trinity UMC adopted Ruston Elementary school for Christmas. We as a church purchased books and Sweatshirts for everystudent.  Small groups, Sunday school classes and other groups connected with the church adopted individual classes and were supposed to throw a party for the class.  Our small group got to work with Mrs. Garner's 5th grade class.

I was able to go meet the teacher and the students in late Novemeber. I took pictures of the students and found out that they are a group of kids that likes to read. I told them how we wanted to make Ruston a better place and that we couldn't think of a better way than for us to make a difference in the youth of our community. Since they are the future of Ruston.  We made a prayer sheet of the class so our small group could pray for the students. 

It was exciting discussing with our small group what we were going to do for the party and what else did we want to get for the students besides books and a sweatshirt.  So we opted to get a bunch of school supply refills that Mrs. Garner mentioned, and we also ordered a 100 books from Sch0lastic Books so each kid got 5 books. There were some grammer board games Mrs. Garner mentioned that we got for her too.  

The party was fun.  We had 3 stations set up. One for decorating and eating cupcakes. Another for playing a Christmas Bingo game, and the last one for decorating an ornament with their picture on it.   We told stories and then handed out the gifts.  I got to over hear one of the students saying how impressed she was.  She thought it was going to be some kind of cheap gifts. She really appreciated the nice sweatshirt.

I kept the prayer sheet on my desk in my office and would pray for them as we approached the day of the party. I had hoped that I would remember a few of the kids names at the party (no such luck). The thing that may seem really simple, but made a big impression on me was while we were gathering in the hallway outside the office to prepare the party.  A bunch of the students that I had met from Mrs. Garner's class weeks before recognized me and remembered my name.  It was amazing to me that such a little investment of time and they were able to remember me.  I hope that more than them remembering me that they know that the creator of the universe cares for them much more than I was able to show them in these few short visits.

Also the other thing that left a big impression on me was that all 450 students in each class at the entire school was having a similar experience as we were having in Mrs. Garner's class.  It was special to watch my friends care for these students in Mrs. Garner's class and knowing the same was going on all over the school was awesome. There were so many people at Ruston Elementary school serving and loving on the students that parking was a problem. They were constantly announcing over the intercom for someone to move their vehicle.  It was an amazing experience to participate in.

I wasn't a leader in making this outreach happen, but for whatever reason I felt very connected to what happened. Maybe it was that I got to do the interviews for a video to promote this project, maybe it was that I was able to meet the students and Mrs. Garner one extra time, or maybe it was the prayer sheet with all the kids faces.  Whatever it was, this will be one part of Christmas I hope to remember.

Here is the video I produced to promote this outreach.

Lego League in the paper

http://www.latech.edu/technews/viewnews.cgi?category=1&id=1229548116

This article about the Lego league stuff Caleb and I participated in apeared also in the Ruston Daily Leader.

Lego Robot competition

The Lightning Pups in action at the La Lego League Tournament.

Caleb and Conner



Nathan and Peter

Lightning Pups - Climate News Rap

This is Caleb and the team's presentation they did on Climate.

LA Lego League Tournament

AE Phillips Rookie Team: Lightning Pups

Well, it was amazing. We went to New Orleans this weekend to compete in a Lego League Tournament.  Yes, I said "Lego Tournament".  Some people think the kids sit around a table and build stuff with Lego's and the biggest tower wins, but that is now what this is about.  Check out the First Lego League website.  

Caleb and his teammates had to build a Lego robot to complete a number of challenges.  The kids also had to do a research on this years topic of Climate and do a presentation.  They did a Climate News Rap.  They did a great job. The team brainstormed the idea, wrote the lines and did all the work themselves.  They had to also do a team work challenge.  This was a fun challenge they walked into a room, the judges read the description of the task and they had to start.  The team was judged on how well they performed as a team.  This is one of the parts I was the most proud about.  They did an incredible job of sharing, encouraging and working together.  I was so proud! The last of the four challenges was the design challenge.  They had to go into a room alone with the judges with their robot and answer questions about their design.  

We had a great time.  The kids did wonderful.  Here are some pictures(video to be uploaded soon).

I had a great time with the kids.  It was hard to be the coach sometimes because I wanted to play with the robot instead of letting the boys do all the work.  It was great fun and the kids did so well.  Especially for going as a rookie team. 

Also for fun here are some pictures Caleb took with his camera while we were in New Orleans:

CalebPOV

Ethan's Thanksgiving school pics

Or click here to see the album online.

Justice Struggle

For some time now I have been wrestling with what does a Christian supposed to "look" like and what is the church supposed to "look" like. Don't get me wrong I love the church, but I started questioning the way we do things. Now, I don't want to be the guy full of hot air complaining about the church, but these questions kept coming.

Here is where my struggle began. When I took a second job at Super 1 to pay off my school loans I saw things that I didn't expect. I was working the late shift from about 5-11pm about 4 or 5 days a week. I have been working as the Media Director for Trinity UMC for a number of years by this point. At night at Super 1 I saw a whole new slice of the community of Ruston that I didn't know existed. At Trinity most everyone looked and talked like me. At Super 1 I saw more Hispanic, Asian, African Americans come through my check out line than come through the doors of Trinity. I saw person after person come though using food stamps or on the WIC program to get milk and cheese and other basic needs. Here were people in my community that were in need that I had no idea they were hurting. It was a difficult contrast to come back to church each Sunday and see who we were and then during the week see those in need and wonder if we in the church were even aware of these other people.

Well now I am reading this book called: "Justice In The Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live" by Will Samson, Lisa Samson. Things that I was feeling and struggling with that I wasn't sure how to articulate, now have words. It has been interesting there are things in the book that I have already struggled with and I could relate to it clearly because I have been there. There are things that I have been in the middle of processing that my life seems to be paralleling what was described in the book. Then of course the things that were way ahead of my challenging me to a knew way of thinking.

It is a great, well written book. Each chapter has 3 components: 1. a fictional narrative of two people going to church and living in suburbia and being challenged by seeing the need for justice surrounding them. It follows this family as they step into the journey of living a life of justice. 2. Non fiction teaching and thinking section. 3. Then each chapter closes with a devotional reflection by a "popular" author or thinker reflecting on the chapter.

So now I am processing everything from why doesn't my family recycle to us being more responsible for not wasting water in my home. Then to look at my neighborhood make sure I just don't come home from work and shut the garage door and isolate myself from others. To seeing that there are hungry and needy in my community and cooperating with God in the things he is doing to meet those needs.

I am finding it hard to articulate what is happening. Jill has always had a heart for missions and I have felt like I was the one slow to catch that passion. I guess my thinking was: "I work in a church, I'm in a great small group, we serve doing stuff every now and then." Now I see mission all around me and I feel restless, but a good kind of restless. I am seeing the world different. I want to be joining deeper in what God is at work doing.

So I stopped shaving in the shower because it wastes too much water. I am growing my hair out again to donate it. When we finish editing the latest video we have made with the kids in the neighborhood we will turn our garage into a little movie theater(see other videos here). We are going to invite the whole neighborhood over put on name tags and serve hot chocolate. I want us to get to know our neighbors. We are thinking of teaching our kids about what Teen Challenge is. One of the ways that they support the ministry of putting people through the program is they collect old clothes of which they get paid by the pound for. We are going to borrow the idea from the boy scouts and pass out trash bags and letters and tell our neighbors about Teen Challenge and tell them we will come by the next day and collect their old clothes and deliver it to Teen Challenge.

I feel like I have started a journey and it feels like I'm on the right path, but I can't tell you besides maybe a couple of steps out where we are going or what it looks like.

Halloween 08

Well this year was a bunch of fun. Ethan was Superman (very fitting since he likes to jump off of everything). Caleb spiked his hair - COOL! Temple Baptism puts on this great carnival the night before Halloween every year and this year was great. Ethan won a stuffed animal by selecting the duck with the star on the bottom. Caleb and his buddies did the hay maze over and over. The hay maze was awesome!

Well the next night was Halloween. The boys did a tour of the neighborhood. We had to convince Ethan that people will come to our door and we will give them candy. We don't have to take a full bag of candy and distribute it to all the neighbors.

Then Sunday night it was the parents turn. Our small group had to dress up like we did when we were in Jr. High and we went out to a friends house. We ate chili dogs and danced the night away to the songs of the 80s. It was great fun. There was quite a bit of laughter. We saw dance moves that no one thought possible.

I.O.U.S.A. The Movie

I went to Shreveport to watch this documentary called I.O.U.S.A. about the America's Debt this past Tuesday. They just released a short version of it for the internet. I knew things were bad, and the financial bail outs that we have recently seen are just symptoms, but this film really opens your eyes. I am praying that the leaders of our country become willing to sacrifice themselves to make right choices in regards to the future of our country. Watch for yourself. The full version I saw in the theater was even better so if you get a chance to see it on a screen somewhere go for it. Here is the site to find out more. http://www.iousathemovie.com/

Pumpkin Carving

We also got around the table with MawMaw and PawPaw to carve up a couple of pumpkins.



We had a great day with MawMaw and PawPaw visiting.

From MawMawPawPaw & some boys

From MawMawPawPaw & some boys

Fishing With PawPaw

PawPaw brought up the boat to so we could have a Murphy boy adventure. Well an adventure we got! We stopped to get worms and crickets on the way to Lake D'arbonne and a guy asked us where we were going. He then informed us they are draining D'arbonne and said "good luck putting that boat in." We headed for D'arbonne and sure enough the one landing that was still usable had every parking spot full and parking along the road of trucks with their boat trailer.

So off to Lake Claiborne. We pulled out the map and Caleb was showing off his navigator skills using the map and helping us go a way that none of us had been before. It was exciting with Caleb in the back understanding which road we should cross next or figuring out how far we had left. He was also pointing out a route to go home. Very proud moment.




Here are some more pictures too

Now come the fishing. We found a spot out in the middle and went to fishing. Caleb caught a 2 lbs catfish. All we all caught a ton of Brim and other small fish. Caleb insisted we cook his one catfish. So we made PawPaw clean the catfish and a brim (of course all I head was a decent steak knife). We filleted them both. I made blacked Catfish for Caleb and fried the brim for Ethan.

Caleb was proud. He was even talking about how we could save money by him going fishing and cooking the fish instead of going to the store. It was a great day.

Caleb Ethan and Rachel - Hot air Balloon ride

NINJA SPIES

The latest movie release from Zephyr Films (Caleb, Ethan and the kids from the neighborhood!). Check it out today! If you want to get caught up on any of the other short films written by, acted by, filmed by the kids who live on Zephyr Lane... just check out the website: http://zephyrfilms.blogspot.com/

Book: Knowing God - by J.I. Packer

This was a slow read, not because of the book, but because of life. This was an incredible book to read. The author really draws a picture of how BIG our GOD is. Some of the things I found very interesting were how one of the significant things of the New Testament is that we can call God "Father". That we are adopted. It made me reflect on how I pray. I don't think I necesarrily am praying "wrong" because I typically pray talking to Jesus, but it challenged me to broaden my thinking to consider praying like Jesus to his Father. The chapters dealing with us as sons of God I think became really significant after drawing a very big picture of how great and mighty God is. It was powerful to think of Jesus as brother, not out of something I have done, but as a creature of his creation brother is the place I have been raised up to. Here are some excerpts that I thought were worth reading.

From KnowingGodscans

From KnowingGodscans

From KnowingGodscans

From KnowingGodscans

Ethan's first day of School

Ethan went back to school today. Ethan is now the big boy in his class so he will have some responsability being one of the leaders for the younger ones. He went right to work like he hadn't missed a thing. He seemed very glad to be back.

Lego Robotics

Caleb is on his schools Lego League team and I am the coach. My Friend Hisham is the coach for the older group and he has done this for a couple of years. I am probably more excited about this than anyone. Here are some pictures from our first meeting we had both teams together sorting out the legos and building the elements of the missions that we will have to do.

This years mission theme is Climate Connections. The kids have to build a robot that can do several missions relating to climate, and they have to do a bunch of research and do a presentation on a climate related topic. The state Lego competition is December 6th. In the world we are one of over 4000 teams.

Check out some of the websites telling all about the competion and the fun.
First Lego League
Louisiana First Lego League

Beat The Heat 5k

This was my 3rd 5k to run, and Jill has run a couple more than I have. Well, that was on August 9th. I finally just checked the results to see how we did. I couldn't resist posting and bragging on my wife. She came in 3rd in her age division! I am so poud. Check out all the results here.
Here are Jill's results:
Place in age division 30-34: 3rd
Overall place:86
Time: 30:47

My Family Just Got Bigger

My Cousin Shannon Hollier and his wife Ashley just had their first baby. Jacques Michael Hollier. Check out their blog with more pictures here: http://chez-hollier.blogspot.com/

Jill the Sharp Shooter!

Jim Palmer took Jill and I shooting in Monroe. Richard Raue was there also with his new gun. This was Jill's first time to shoot at a range and she did AWESOME. All the guys were impressed with her first round of shooting, but Jill's remark was of course: "well it's got a scope!"




To watch the shooting go here and here

Murphy Fishing Trip

PawPaw came over and we had a boy day. He brought his boat and we went to D'arbonne. After catching a bunch of fun little fish(catfish, strip bass, and brim) we let Caleb and Ethan try out their boat driving skills. It was definately a great day with PawPaw... thanks for coming up.

Ethan's 5th Birthday

A bunch of Ethan's friends came over. We made cars from boxes. We had races. Played with cars on Ethan's new Hot Wheels track. We also had Hot Wheels races on a loop-d-loop track. We ate ice cream cake that Jill made from ice cream sandwiches. Ethan's party was "Awesome!" as only Ethan can say at the top of his lungs.

The Belated Vacation post

We had such a great vacation this year. Here are some more collections of pictures bragging on our good time.

First we had Georgia Nanny's 90th Birthday Celebration at a fun restaurant in Atlanta.


Then there was my first ever Professional Baseball game. Braves Vs. Astros. It was great. I was a big Astros fan in middle and high school. My favorite part may just be after we climbed all the steps to get to the nose bleed section stepping out to where you can see the field and Ethan seeing how grand everything is he Yelled "THIS IS AWESOME!" in his biggest Ethan voice as he was struck with amazement. We got ripped off by a person peddling tickets and parking passes on the way, which was just more fun to add to our memories of this trip.

We climbed Stone Mountain, which was fun. I was impressed with Pops' climbing skills. It was some great exercise climbing to the top.


Then there was Stone Mountain Park. I Loved all the climbing stuff. Also the 4D movie and seeing this lady blow glass. It was pretty cool.



We also had a little Hynson Family get together. The cousins had a great time together.

Vacation 08 More North Carolina Fun

The kids had a great time playing with their cousins: Finnigan, Bess and Crawford.


We went to the movies and then we did a quick walk through of a mall. I got to hang with the boys by a cool water fountain and we took some fun pictures.
At the movie (Wall-E was a good movie - I enjoyed it) Crawford sat in Jill's lap for most of the movie, well atleast until Aunt Jill ran out of popcorn.


We also got to do one of my favorite things... THE SCIENCE MUSEUM. This one was really cool. We shot air cannons, controled mini sail boats, touched turtles, tried to dock the shuttle to the space station in orbit. The last picture of this set will give you a clue how much fun we had.


We also went on this great hike along a beautiful creek. We tried catching crawfish and saw a snake.


Thanks Holmes family for helping us have such a great vacation!

Vacation 08 Swimming

One of the great things we did was our boys got to swim with their cousins at this great pool that had a real water slide! Check out the pictures

Ethan is really getting brave and his swimming skills are improving. Caleb was adventuresome as ever playing and having fun with Finnegan.

Vacation 08 - The Review

We journeyed to North Carolina to stay with Jill's sister Amy for part of our vacation. It was great. The drive was incredible. We decided to go through Tennessee where we stayed the night in Chattanooga. Driving through the mountains I discovered what I am calling "mountain lust". I wanted to abort the rest of our vacation and just go explore and play in the mountains instead of just driving through. Here is the route we took:

View Larger Map We spent a number of days in North Carolina. Amy and Parker were an excellent hosts making sure there was plenty to do to entertain us. We did everything from swimming, hiking, the science museum, went on walks, saw a movie. It was great fun.

Then we headed down for Atlanta for Jill's Grandmother's 90th birthday party. We stopped to get some peaches for Nanny. Also in Atlanta we went to a Braves game, climbed Stone Mountain, did the Sky Hike at Stone Mountain Park (among other things), went to a Hynson family hang out at Steve and Bonnie Powell's house.

We drove back on Tuesday, relaxed and caught up on house stuff on Wednesday. It was a great vacation. Pictures and details will be provided in further posts.

May Review

Well, May was great. Busy, but Great! We had our second Home Stay person with us for the month. This time his name was Ricardo. He was from Brazil.


Then the Granderson visit!


Which included camping with Alan Johnson, Brad Granderson and Me, and this of course included riding the trail at Lincoln Parish Park. (Caleb joined us and did awesome!!!)


Kids are out for summer. Caleb and Ethan had a great year!

We have built our own mountain bike trail in the woods at the front of the neighborhood.

I got to make a video in honor of Rev. Fred Wideman who has been the Senior pastor of Trinity for 13 years and has just been appointed to Broadmoor UMC in Baton Rouge. It was fun editing and listening to the 50+ interviews we had done where people got to answer the question: "How has Jesus used Fred Wideman to impact your life?" It has been an interesting emotional time going through this change at our church.

I got to make a fool out of myself "singing" a silly song with our church staff at an all church banquet in honor of Fred.

We had our first "Thai Night" (Which I hope will become a monthly thing) Where our new friends from Thailand come over. They cooked us dinner and it was great! It is our turn to cook something "American" next month (I'll take any suggestions - what is an American meal?).

There is much more that happened this month. But that is enough for the review. If you just want one more piece of evidence of all the fun stuff we have been doing here is one more picture:

Bird Feeder

Well, Ethan and I built a bird feeder... ...but I think the squirrels might like it even more.

Ethan - T-Ball Star!

Well, here are some pictures from Ethan's first T-Ball game. He had fun. It is going to be tough. He was pretty tired when we came home and this game started at 6pm. He has some 7pm games coming up. (He is usually in bed by 7:30)
It is going to be a fun year. It was hilarious watching the majority of the team chase the ball and pile up on it on every hit.

Camping - April 08

Our small group checked out the weather, ignored the potential rain and went camping. So far every time our group has gone camping we have been rained on so why should this time be different. (if you would rather just look at all the pictures just go here :) http://picasaweb.google.com/stevemurp/Camping08SmallGroup

This time we went to Lake D'Arbonne and it was a pretty nice place. Since we are all into "ruffing" it we made sure all the campsites had water and electricity.

So here is the quick review of the great time we had.

We brought bikes, but didn't really use them (well the kids did - I wanted to hit the trails!)

From Camping 08 sm...

We thought this tarp would keep us dry from the rain.

From Camping 08 sm...

We need a much bigger tarp. Or as many tarps as Flecher had on his tent. Because that night it rained and we got wet. After dinner (Chicken was great!) it rained and we all ended up in our own tents and went to sleep.

Then we had pancakes for breakfast thanks to the paperplate spatula master!

From Camping 08 sm...

Then my parents came up (most of the pictures came from them :) ) They brought meat for lunch and a boat.
Before lunch we had a giant nerf dart tag battle extravaganza

From Camping 08 sm...

Dad got to take a bunch of the kids on a little boat ride around the lake. Fletch got a work out paddling his Pirough around the lake. Then it started to rain again.

Then it stopped raining and a couple of us went fishing.

From Camping 08 sm...

We went hiking and went in circles. It was pretty funny.

We had a great time. I can't tell you how thankful I am for this group of friends and my family. I do feel very blessed.

Allergies

Today we went to see an allergist for a second opinion on what we need
to do for Ethan. There is good and bad news.

Good news: The doctor said to let Ethan eat what ever he wants to for
10 days. He wants to see him back May 5th to see if food is really a
big issue. So tonight he got to choose what he wanted for dinner and
he ate his weight in french fries! Tomorrow I plan on making a "real"
cake and for breakfast we went all out and got Cheerios and Pop Tarts.
:) Time will tell whether or not this is a big mistake.

Bad news: The doctor did environmental tests on Ethan and Caleb and
they are both allergic to EVERY kind of grass, many types of trees,
cats, rag weed, house dust, dust mites etc..... Their backs were soo
swollen from the "prick" test. The doctor said they are very allergic
to many things. He wants to do allergy shots. This in a way is good
because in theory in about 3 to 5 years they could be allergy free.
Its bad because they have to have shots twice a week for several
months. Then the shots tapper down to once a week.

We are suppose to make our house as dust free as possible. He said to
get rid of the carpet, stuffed animals, put allergen covers on the
pillows and mattresses, the list goes on and on and on. If you think
about us, pray for us. Although these are minor irritations in our
lives, and I should be very thankful that none of this is life
threatening, it still feels like an insurmountable task to take care
of.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - Reflection chapter 8

Chapter 8 has been talking about the majesty of God.

He ends the chapter with 3 thoughts that have made me think... so I share with you.

1. Isaiah 40:25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

This question rebukes wrong thoughts about God.

"Your thoughts of God are too human," said Luther to Erasmus...
We need to learn to acknowledge the full majesty of our incomparable God and Savior.

2. Isaiah 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?

This question rebukes wrong thoughts about ourselves. God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ ever lose track of his sheep. If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonors our great God and Savior.

3. Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

This question rebukes our slowness to believe in God's majesty.

The rebuke is well deserved by many of us. How slow we are to believe in God as God, sovereign, all-seeing and almighty! How little we make of the majesty of our Lord and Savior Christ! The need for us is to "wait upon the Lord" in meditations on his majesty, till we find our strength renewed through the writing of these things upon our hearts.

I think I get stuck with question one. I get stuck limiting my understanding of who God is and what God is capable of to what I am capable of and limited to. I keep wanting to push my understanding. Like when I read and study about the stars and see how "high the heavens are" I think to myself. God breathed this all into existence. And with the universe so big that he would even acknowlegde the existance of this tiny little speck of matter in this big universe is amazing... Let alone the thought of His acknowledging me. But I don't think I live acknowledging daily the power and majesty of God in my life.

Pictures - Pictures - Pictures

Ethan goes to a pool party

Rock Solid Musical

Angela's House	cuddly
Caleb Soccer 2008

THE CUT

Well, it only took 1 year and 2 months. I had to get to 8 inches to donate my hair to be made into a wig for someone who lost their hair because of cancer. I went with Pantene's wig program called Beautiful Lengths. Mainly because their requirements were only for 8 inches.

Here are some pictures(Ethan took most of them):

This experience was much harder than I would have ever thought. I never realized hair was such a big deal. Ever since my hair started getting significantly longer than I had ever grown it before. I began having conversations literally every single day about hair. Never in my life would I have ever talked this much about hair. I would have women that I hardly knew that go to church with me. Come up and touch my hair and tell me how beautiful it is. Asking me questions I never thought I would have to answer: "what do you do to have such good hair? How do you take care of it? Is it naturally curly or do you curl it?..." I never realized the significance of hair until I grew it out. It really means a lot to people. While I am very glad to have cut it off. I was tired of the head bands and everything else I can now sympathize with women with long hair. I am realizing that the hair I am donating will hopefully give some woman a sense of peace and confidence in a time of trouble in her life. Because after every conversation I have had over the last year... I now realize: hair is important.

What is funny is my hair has been trained over the last year to be pulled back in a head band. Now that it is short... it wants to stick up and out all crazy.

Well, one of the things that I was praying when I first started all this was that I wanted this to be a reminder to myself of how I wanted my life to be a living sacrifice. I don't know how much that actually happened. It certainly started feeling like a sacrifice, because I was so tired of the long hair. I don't know that I will ever do that again, but I look back at this year and I hope that God has used me to make a difference in his world. And it wasn't just the hair...

Rock Solid - Caleb was in a musical!

Where Have You Seen God Lately?

This question was asked of me recently, and in light of my lack of updating this blog I thought what a good question to respond to. *and if you are brave enough after reading all this, you are invited to answer the question yourself.

I have seen the Holy Spirit at work through our small group.

Angela's House

Through a connection to a woman in Ruston to Fletch Hyacinth in our small group. The short version of the story is Fletch saw the condition of the house she and her kids were living in and he felt that after seeing what he saw he couldn't not do anything about it. Our small group after hearing the story decides to join Fletch in helping out. We raised around $3000 mostly just from our group and have built on a 20x16 room on the back of the house. We started on Easter weekend and are now about to put flooring in this weekend. It has been amazing to see the changes and the sense of hope Mrs. Angela has been showing. She has cleaned up her house and is trying to clean up the yard. It is just another step of her trying to clean up and take control of her life. I was there last night listening her tell her story to a neighbor. She was just talking about how God has brought her from the low place she was in to where she is now. It was fun to know that we are apart of that story (we may be the tail end of her story so far, but we are there). I hope that this is a bit of a catalyst for our small group trying to live deeper and richer lives that looks more and more like the life that Christ really intends for us.

I have seen Jesus in the establishment of new relationships. Because of Jill and her desire to see and help the world. We have opened our home to students to stay as a part of the English language program. Jinnapang(see earlier post) is from Thailand and it was a complete joy to have her stay a couple of months with us. Through her Jill and I have made many new Thai friends. People that I would have never ever met that are apart of our life now. I am so thankful that my wife found out about and made this opportunity happen. On the spiritual side it has been pretty challenging for me to have discussions with someone that not only comes from a country on the other side of the planet and English being a second language, but also doesn't have a Christian background. Most everyone I have ever talked with whether Christian or not has at the least a similar understanding of how the world works and of God whether they believe or not. So it has challenged me to 1. try and explain what I believe. 2. It has made me really think "what do I really believe?" It has been a joy to discuss similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity with these new friends. These new friends have been coming to our small group, have helped out at Mrs. Angela's house and come over for dinner. I hope they have experienced the love of Jesus through just seeing how we love each other and take care of each other.

I have seen God at work in the lives of the people taking Financial Peace University that I am teaching right now. We have split the class into two nights. My brother Chuck and Michael Brewton are helping lead on Sunday nights, and I am leading the Wednesday night class with Mark Graham. The course is 13 weeks long. We just finished week 10. At the beginning of the course I asked everyone to write down on a note card how much debt they had (not including house mortgage!), when we added up the two classes total debt my heart sunk. It hurt so bad to see that between 30 family units (some single and some married) we had a total of $1,005,000 in credit card, car, student loan, and medical debt. These are just the average people in our community and at Trinity UMC that are just in slavery to this debt. So where have I seen Christ in this? In just 10 weeks these families have worked very hard on changing their behavior. They have doing crazy things, like trying to live on a budget with a plan, doing the 'baby steps', like doing the debt snowball (sample form), they have sold things, they are trying to take control of their life and they are starting to see the fruit of that. Last night I asked them to write down on a note card how much of that debt they have paid off just since the start of the class. And this is only from the Wednesday night class (and not everyone was there last night) they have paid off a total of $61,000 in just 10 weeks. This is the power of applying God's principles in stewardship to your life at work! I am seeing these peoples lives change.

So where have you seen God lately?

SNOW SNOW SNOW

Well, mark this day in history. God dropped a bunch of snow on Ruston. School let out early and the kids got to really enjoy it. I didn't get to build that snow man in the backyard because when I got back home the kids were really tired and the snow was melting. It was great seeing the smiles on everyones faces; my kids, my wife, Jinnapang, teachers and well everyone was just filled with excitement about the snow. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Soccer - Caleb

Here are some pictures of Caleb's last soccer game. He has really enjoyed playing soccer. We are really glad he wanted to go out for this. His flat feet are hurting him a little bit, but we haven't been doing those exercises to help him. Here are some pictures of Caleb in Action.

And here you can keep up with his scores and the team schedule. He is on the Comets team.

HAIR - the one year update

It has officially been one year since I started growing my hair out. I have been weighed, measured and found wanting... My hair is only six inches long. I have four inches to go.
Check out these before and after (proof that my hair has grown - which is reassuring to me that this won't last forever) pictures.
March 2007 (After 1 month of growth)



1 year of growth(that looks like 6 inches to me).

Pops Bday Wii (and some pictures)

Everyone chipped in and got Jill's Dad a Wii. It was great to watch Jill's parents getting a little competitive playing golf. I hope it turns out to be a great source of fun for everyone.

Also Here are some pictures that we have collected recently.
Caleb's New Camera Pics
The Hockey Game
Caleb Is nine
Ethan too cool
Ethan and Dad Painting

Jinnapang, Ethan and Caleb's first hockey game

We had a great time (we stayed up too late for the boys) watching the Shreveport Mudbugs play Hockey. We won 9-0 and Caleb and Ethan got a kick out of the crowd throwing plastic crawfish on the ice every time we scored. They also loved getting to see the mascot run around. It was a great night.

Caleb's starts his last year in the single digits.

Caleb Murphy is officially 9 years old today. One at the beginning of the month we had a party for him. It was more of a guys night out with his buddies in Shreveport. We picked up his longtime friend Alexander in Bossier. First we hit the McDonald's and they ran around on the play place stuff. Then we went to the boardwalk with the plan of going bowling. The bowling alley was closed. Then we thought about doing a movie. Hannah Montana was the only thing playing. The boys didn't want to admit they wanted to see it(besides it was sold out). So I let them just run around on the boardwalk playing chase while I watched them and the river. I brought homemade doozie cookies and some candles. So we sang happy birthday on the riverwalk. Later that night we went to one of those fun places. The boys played arcade games and they did go carts. They got to race a bunch of 6th grade girls and they won. You know they were proud. After returning all his friends, I took Caleb out for hot chocolate just to say we stayed up past midnight.
Then today we just did a family thing with cake and some presents. It was a good day. I am so very proud of my boy. He is shaping into a fine man!

Our New Guest

Well, we are excited. We have our new guest staying here at the house. Her name is Jinnapang Rayubkul, she is from Thailand. She is staying with us as apart of a English as a second language program. She will be living with us for a month. It is pretty exciting learning all about Thailand and how different we are. It is like looking in the mirror when you have someone stay with you, suddenly you become aware of all your own idiosyncrasies. Especially when contrasted with someone from the other side of the planet. It is really been a joy to have her here. I hope she really enjoys our stay with us and she learns a lot. I will be putting up pictures soon.

Royalty Free Music

Check out http://www.twistedtracks.com it is a royalty free music and sound effects website that I have used a couple of times. They offered me a free music track if I did a little grassroots promoting by putting this link on my blog. Well, I am working on another short "Zephyr Film" and I know I could easily find the music I need on twistedtracks.com so here is the link. So for any of my friends that do short film making stuff for churches here is a good resource for you. Enjoy

Check out Steve's New Look

Look what Wess Foreman can do! My artist buddy did this cool picture of me since I am now a contributor on his blog Popularblur. You should also see his online art Gallery, he does some really cool stuff. Jill and I used to be one of his top art collectors, but I think we have been surpassed.
Also if you are into sci-fi reading. Check out his Robot Graveyard online episodic story. It was a lot of fun being apart of the brainstorming for some of these.

Thanks Wess for making me look so cool. Actually I keep laughing everytime I look at this picture. Not sure why :)

FPU #2

Well, I am about start coordinating my second Financial Peace University class. If you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey check it out. Last year was such an incredible experience. Here are some of last years stats. Of the 33 families that took the course the average amount of debt paid off per family was $4969.00 during the 13 weeks. The class as a whole saved about $31,000 dollars total. We even collected all those credit card and loan offers we all got in the mail and added up how much credit was marketed to our class during the 13 weeks. It was 3.3 million dollars. So we avoided 3.3 million dollars worth of debt.
I am hoping that we have a great turn out for this years classes. I have put up fliers all over the church, and passed them out around town. Actually did an interview with my friend Richard Raue who went through the class last year. Be sure and watch his story.
Richard has paid off $22,000 of debt since starting the class last January. He only has about $3,000 to go and he will be debt free!
It is exciting to be apart of so many people lives and making a difference. Pray for us. It is my dream that the community of Ruston, Louisiana would be free from debt and becoming good wise managers of all that God has provided. So they will be able to live life not in bondage to money, but free to use it to God's glory. I get excited to think of what would be possible if every Christian family in Ruston were debt free and living on a budget. We could use our freed up resources and energy to impact Ruston in amazing ways!

Back in the saddle again

Well, after going with MawMaw and PawPaw up Farmerville Hwy heading to D'Arbonne to picnic and fish. It got me reminiscent of all my bike training I did going up and down Farmerville hwy. So I got on my bike today to take a ride by myself. Well, here is the evidence.




I was feeling all confident while riding. Feeling like I was really cranking it up those hills, and really flying on those downhills. I knew it was a short ride, but I was going for speed. Well, the numbers brought me down to earth. I feel out of shape. My legs are all wobbly feeling and I only averaged 15mph. BUT it was great to get on the bike and really ride. I love riding with my family it is fun and relaxing (even with towing Ethan in the Trailer), but it is not the same workout. I am hoping to start keeping this up again.

Murphy Picnic

Well, the weather wasn't perfect, we caught no fish.... BUT we had a great time!!! Cooking out at D'Arbonne state Park. Thanks MawMaw and PawPaw for coming up!!! It was a great day!

Click here to go to the Web Photo Album

Book #1 For The Life of the World

Well one of my goals was to read 4 "spiritually challenging" books this next year. One down and 3 to go.
Here is my Book Report.(of sorts)

Here is a thought from the 1st chapter: "The fall is not that he preferred world to God, distorted the balance between the spiritual and material, but that he made the world material, whereas he was to have transformed it into "life in God," filled with meaning and spirit."

Ch2 "For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy" - thus begins the Gospel, and its end is: "And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." (Lk. 2:10, 24:52). And we must recover the meaning of this great joy.
Then he goes into experiencing that great joy by describing the beautiful liturgy of the Eucharist. This was really cool.

All things must be transformed to glorify Christ. And the first gift he says we have been given is Time. So along with all things material we also must take time and give it real meaning - redeem it.

Flipping through these pages again... he talks alot about JOY.

Then he goes on to talk about Baptism and the use of water(not talking about how much is needed to make baptism work) then marriage,

My 2nd favorite chapter was on Death. How we have done everything to remove ourselves from the reality of death. We make Funeral homes look so lovely and do everything we can to remove ourselves from the images of death. instead of looking in the face and acknowledging Christ's defeating death. And even Christianity has "adjusted" its thinking in how it deals with death. If Christ came that we might have abundant joy, why do we at a funeral so ofter hear the thoughts of death being a release from a life that is all valleys, pain and suffering. "To comfort people and reconcile them with death by making this world a meaningless scene of an individual preparation for death is".... a tragedy
FOR CHRIST DIED FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD, AND NOT FOR AN"ETERNAL REST" FROM IT.

Then he talks about missions... "Christian mission is not to preach Christ, but to be Christians in life.

Then to close- "... to live in the world seeing everything in it as a revelation of God, a sign of His presence, the joy of His coming, the call to communion with Him, the hope for fulfillment in Him. Since the day of Pentecost there is a seal, a ray, a sign of the Holy Spirit on everything for those who believe in Christ and know that He is the life of the world - and that in Him the world in its totality has become again a liturgy, a communion, an ascension."

"A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him, And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world's return to Him who is the LIFE OF THE WORLD."

This was a great book(and this was a late night quickie review I hope it made some sense) - and now on to "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer
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