New Blog Old Blog This Blog that Blog

I used to blog on a regular basis. I'm not sure why I stopped. Just other things were taking my time I suppose - because I always have something to say. lol.

I have a new blog that I'd like for you to check out. It's about the beautiful city of Porto through the eyes of photographers in the USA. You can find it here Porto - from our point of view

I took photographers to Porto. Our purpose was to use photography as a means to share the Gospel. Our IMB friends, Andy and Michelle Milam, were thrilled with all that we could do together. As you click on that blog link you drive up traffic numbers with Google. That in turn makes that web site show up higher on Google searches. (and here's a secret - It's more than a photography blog. It's another way to spread the Gospel. There are links there like Peace with God from the Billy Graham association and many of our photography posts will have Bible verses posted with the pictures.

The other link I'd like for you to check out is an older one that is also a way of sharing the Gospel with the Portuguese. Rezounding Praize It's a blog that our HS handbell choir made when we went to Portugal. It has a lot of nice handbell music (arranged by yours truly) and some scripture and Gospel links, etc.

So...... Check out my old and my new blog. I'm sure that you will enjoy them.

Perhaps I'll start blogging more regularly now....... We'll see.

Wow! Big Number of Hits

I just looked at my hit counter and we are just 80 hits away from 45,000 hits! Cool! I suppose I should have a prize for the 45,000th hit, hmm would you call that person the hittER? or hittEE? or something else?

So someone - a non-blogger type person - the other day asked me what the point was of blogging. I thought that was a valid question. So I thought about it a little and came up with a list of things that I hope are accomplished by this blog.

1. Entertainment - I'm at least entertaining myself with some of the things I write about.

2. Inspiration - It's my prayer that through the words/messages posted here that you and other readers will - at least a few times a month - be inspired to join a choir, read your Bible, join others in worship this week, etc.

3. Education - Now and then  readers of my blogs should learn a little something - perhaps a spiritual truth you hadn't thought of before, what an alto clef looks like, when our next performance is... those kinds of things.

So... it looks like we're all winners when we read Hilldale's Worship Blog. (Does that mean I don't have to have a prize for hit 45,000?)

Congratulations Brenda!

Many years ago I lived in the rolling hills of Northeast Oklahoma in the great city of Tulsa. My dad was the Minister of Music at Eastwood Baptist Church. It was back in the day of huge youth groups and even bigger youth choirs. There were hundreds - and I mean that literally - in our youth choir. We made lots of friends and went on singing/mission tours and had small ensembles that traveled around singing at revivals... It was great.

When you are active in your youth group you make life-long friends. It has been so much fun being on Facebook and reconnecting with people I haven't seen in twenty years. But somehow - I don't remember right now - before Facebook took off, I had already found some old friends. One of them is Brenda. Cheryl and I moved away from Tulsa when our children were little, but before that I have pictures of Brenda and Richard and Mary and David and Tom and Debbie and so many others at ensemble rehearsals and concerts and holding our babies. It was a really great time in our lives.

Then, when we lived in Denver one of our friends from Tulsa ended up marrying the brother of one of our Denver choir members. (I'm not going with the old cliche "It's a small world" but you can hum it in the background if you want.)

Well... all of that to introduce our winner. If you have been reading along, you know that the person to get to hit 40,000 on the counter down there at the bottom of the page would be our winner. I got a message on Facebook and here on the blog from Brenda H. One of our old friends from Tulsa who later was my dad's secretary and a great choir/ensemble member and friend and she's the one that married the guy who's brother was in Denver. I'm glad she won. She's been a faithful reader of our worship blog for a year or so.

I hope all of this is making sense because I still have a lot of drugs trying to kill off the acute bronchitis and I'm trying real hard to not fall asleep while I type this.

I have an early Christmas present for our 40,000th hit. A little Christmas stained-glass panel. It has pretty swirled green glass and an etched bevel in the middle. (Brenda, I'll get your address on Facebook.)

A New Blog

"My goodness!", you may be thinking, "How could that boy have any more to say. He has a worship blog, an art blog and a grandbaby blog. Now what?"

I'm glad you asked. I'm putting my house up for sale. As much as I love Bear Hollow, it's time to sell and move to Clarksville. So my new blog is to help me sell my house. If you know someone wanting to move closer to Nashville (just 20 minutes to downtown) but would like to live in a country setting, send them my way.

Since I have adopted grandchildren and since you can put all the pieces of who they are and where I live together, I've deleted the link to my house blog. If you want to keep up with new pictures on that blog and you didn't save the link, send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you.