This song was dedicated to me by some of my coworkers and friends.  The sad thing is, it’s true.  For those of you non-nerds out there who don’t aspire to be a gangsta, you’ll have a hard time keeping up with this song.  My favorite part is Donnie Osmond dancing in the background… hilarious!!!

See, yesterday I was just trying to be funny, and in the back of my mind I knew something happened on the 21st of February.  It was our great friend, Meredith’s birthday!  See, I knew it was special for some reason!  Happy Birthday Meredith!  We love you and I hope your week ends up more special than it has been!  You are one of the sweetest people on the planet and it is our pleasure to get call you our friend.

What?? You don’t know what happened on February 21st???  What kind of American are you?  Ok, nothing, to my knowledge happened on the twenty-first day of February, but I’m sure it’s someone’s birthday out there or an anniversary, or someone famous died… for those people, HAPPY WHATEVER… or, my deepest condolences whatever the case may be.

16 days until we leave for Vietnam.  If I wasn’t so sick right now I’d be excited.  As far as money goes, I ended up $865 short of my $3000 that enabled me to go.  However, several of the other guys exceeded their amounts and donated to my cause, or so I’ve been told.  So I’m good.  I know two guys who exceeded their amounts by well over $1500.  What happens in that case is the money gets put into a special account marked for their future church plant.  It’s not like they can just go get that money and pay the rent.  They have to have their 501(c)3 status and have a legitimate (according to the IRS) expense in order to use that money.  I won’t have to worry about all that.  But I would like to again say a very public Thank You to all who donated.  I have sent thank you cards with a personal note for each of you who have donated, but I can’t say it enough.  Your generosity has been more than I could have ever hoped or asked for.  Every one of you is very special, but there is one who I want to mention right here by name.  Paul Steele, I have never met you in person, we have never spoken a word to one another, and other than each others photo’s on our websites, we don’t even know what we each look like.  But you were generous beyond measure and sent money to me, a complete stranger in order for God to work in my life through this trip to Vietnam.  I will continue to lift you and your church up in prayer and ask for blessings beyond measure.  Thank you, my brother in Christ.  If we never meet on this side of Heaven I look forward to the day when we can sit on a beach and tell stories of God’s great mercy and grace.

Ok, Whowuddathunkit?  This is amazing…

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Today is Byce’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, baby girl.  Last night Bryce invited 9 of her friends to come over and spend the night… next time we’re going to limit it to two… and we get to pick which two.  But, she had a blast and the other girls did too.  They did glamour shots and then made their own picture frames for them, the had a kerioke (however you spell that) machine and danced (don’t tell the seminary), they played games and stayed up until 2 in the morning.  They woke up at 7… wide awake. 

I went out with Donnie last night with the twins.  His parents took us to Cozymel’s then we went back to his parents house and rocked out on Guitar Hero II!  That game is probably the MOST addictive game I’ve EVER played!  Who would’a thought that a tiny plastic guitar and different colored buttons on a screen could be such a blast!  Bob, if you’re reading this, you need to buy a Playstation 2 and buy guitar hero, of everyone I know, I think you’d love it the most.

I just had lunch with a couple who are part of a leadership/vision development team of a church that is close-to if not 100 years old.  At one time they were thriving, but now are only running 15 to 20 people.  They are just looking for suggestions on how to re-plant a church.  I went into the difficulties of revitalization and the hardships they are going to face, but I also gave them hope.  Because when they first sat down they thought they had no resources and were up against a wall.  After listening to them, I found out that they have a tremendous amount of resources that most church planters would kill to have!  When they left, I don’t know who was more jazzed about their future, them or me!

We had a blast last night!  Donnie, Meredith, Rennee and myself made reservations at the very-hard-to-get-into-and-always-exclusive Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for dinner.  Now, before you laugh histerically, it was pretty good!  The service was a bit slow, but that allowed time for us to sit around and talk… okay, okay, so we sat around and made fun of the "Baptist Boys" sitting around us and made rude comments about the piano player playing old hymns (trying very hard to play them romantically, though).  We had fun. 
Our reservations were at 7:15, we received our food around 8:30 or so, left the seminary around 10, and got home just before midnight.  After taking our babysitters home and going through the nightly routines (PJ’s and toothbrushing), it was just after midnight before we got to bed.  But I was still so full from dinner that my stomach hurt and I couldn’t go to sleep.  It must have been close to 1AM before I finally drifted off.  Then, at 3:45AM Emma wakes up (poor Rennee).  This causes my brain to go, "HOLY CRAP!  I HAVE A PAPER DUE TODAY!"  So, here it is, 7:30 in the morning, paper written, but the website is down so I can’t turn it in… that’s just how this day is going to go I guess.  If I make it through my first two classes this morning it’ll be a miracle.

Donnie B. Featherston – a.k.a. grylz 

I have added two new pages to the site!  There is a new archive for my previous journal entries and a new page where you can write us an email straight from this site (I’m all about keeping it easy).

 Blogging Education Part 2

On the right-hand side of this page you will see something that says "Journal RSS".  If you are using Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox as your browser, you can click on that, then subscribe to my journal, and you will see in your favorites (or bookmarks for firefox users) when I change my journal.  Life is easier than you think.  So is the web.