Epic

Awaiting Rain

I can smell it faintly in the distance.  The leaves are beginning to dance.  My skin tingles with the cool, refreshing air arriving from somewhere unseen.  I am awaiting rain!

Top 10 Things I Dislike About My Blog

10.  I have used it primarily as a forum for the airing of grievances.

9.  It has been a forum of judgement rather than an environment of grace.

8.  It has been man-centered, rather than Spirit-inspired.

7.  I have been more interested in blog traffic than quality writing.

6.  It has been a showcase for widgets, rather than a prophetic voice.

5.  It has been a pedestal for me, rather than a means of bringing glory to Jesus Christ.

4.  I never made a custom design.

3.  I've let it become a source of distraction from my wife, my work, and my ministry.

2.  It is cluttered with too much irrelevant content.

1.  It no longer reflects what God is doing in my heart and mind

All of that to say, watch for something new coming to the blogosphere; something that will honor Christ, inspire you, and uphold the values of simplicity, beauty, and kindness.  An announcement will be made in the next post.

Humanitas

Welcome to Humanitas!

Global

What an amazing time we are living in, wherein we can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a worldwide audience without leaving our living room.  Can't wait to share with you some new ideas that I have.  You'll find out more soon.

Blog visitors since July.  Click to enlarge.

Our Adoption Blog

Hello!  I want to introduce you to a new blogging project called Viaje a Casa, which is spanish for "Journey Home." This blog  is dedicated to the adoption journey which we are about to embark upon.

Most of you already know us and will come to the blog via our invitation.  But for those who stumble upon us by chance, I'll offer a brief introduction.

We are Bill and Lynn Huffhine.  Married since 1990 and originally from Illinois, we are now living in Columbus, GA.  We are both born again Christians and I (Bill) am an ordained elder with the Free Methodist Church of North America serving on the pastoral staff at Christ Community Church.

After three miscarriages over the course of fifteen years of trying to begin a family, God has moved in our hearts to welcome into our home one of the world's fifty-million plus children who do not have families of their own.

Each year since 2002 Bill has spent time in South America on short-term mission trips working with children in Bolivia and Ecuador.  Lynn has also worked a great deal with Latino children in the public school system here in the states.  God has awakened in both of our hearts a love for children from this part of the world.

In January, 2007 we will begin taking the first concrete steps toward adopting a child from Latin or South America.  At this point we are feeling that we will focus on either El Salvador or Guatemala.

What is the purpose for this blog?  First, it is a way for us to share this journey with our family and the many friends we have in different parts of the country.  This is a road that is best traveled with many companions who can pray with us during the high points and inevitable low points that we'll experience on the journey.  I publish this blog also with the hope that others who we don't know and are on the adoption journey will draw strength, encouragement, and friendship from reading how God is walking with us on ours.  We would love to make many new friends across the country who are also in the process of adopting.

We will make regular posts to the blog chronicling this journey for you, beginning today and ending with photos of our child coming home a year or so from now.  With discretion, we'll share with you both the joys and the struggles we face along the way.

Over the course of the next 12 to 18 months we will be working to raise about $18,000 if we end up adopting from El Salvador or about $35,000 if we end up adopting from Guatemala.  Though we are trusting God to provide the resources in His time and way, we also recognize that some of our friends and family may wish to join with us financially.  On the top of the right sidebar you'll notice a box called "Adoption Partnership" which uses a third party fund-raising tool called "Chip In."  If you would like to contribute to our adoption fund, this is a safe and easy way for you to do so.  Your contributions will be safely given with your credit card or debit card and then forwarded to us at the end of our "Chip In" event which is scheduled to end on December 15, 2007.

The greatest gift you can give us is your prayer for us.  This will not be an easy journey, but it will be one that will bring a child into our home to know the love of a family and be introduced to our Lord Jesus Christ.  We look forward to sharing this journey with you.  Please add this link to your favorites and stop by the blog often.

Whatever Happened To...

I love watching these shows on stations like VH1.  They ask the question, "What ever happened to..." and then they fill in the blank with the name of a one-hit-wonder band from the 80's or a kid from television years ago who has long since been forgotten.  At least one person, my friend Bob from Missouri, has wondered the same about me.  It's been nearly a month since my last blog post which is unusual for me in that for most of the past year I have posted 3 or more times per week.

Well Bob (and anyone else who may be interested), I'm here in Columbus, GA and all is well.  Here is a brief update:

Since my last post in late November we have signed a lease on a home here, moved here, and closed the sale on our home in North Augusta.  This past weekend was the big move.  We crammed all of our stuff into a moving pod that was 4-feet too short, piled the remainder of our stuff onto the back of my pickup truck which I drove Jed Clampett style for four hours from Augusta to Columbus, and with an overwhelming showing of people from our church unloaded all of the stuff into the new house.

Tuesday we drove back to Augusta to get our dog out of jail (boarding), sign the closing paperwork on the house, and then we drove back that night.  It's been a crazy week, but we're finally all here together and ready to get back into a normal rythmn of life...whatever that looks like.

Work is going well.  I have a good team of people working for me here and all indications are that we'll meet our goals and have a strong year in 2007. 

My pastor and I have had really good conversations about me stepping back into an expanded version of the leadership role I held here at this church in the early...um...00's.  We'll begin stepping back into that role after the first of the year.

This will probably be my final post until after the holidays.  Lynn and I will be spending the Christmas weekend with our families in Illinois.  After returning I'll be taking some time to catch up on my Christian Writer's Guild assignments and then I hope to get back into a regular routine of in-depth, profound, and though-provoking blogging.

Merry Christmas everyone.  Remember...it's all about Jesus.

Blog Nap

In a few hours I'll be leaving for the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  Can't wait!  High energy worship, great teaching, amazing speakers, and thousands of cool people who could possibly teach me how to be cool.

In the meantime, the blog will take a short nap.  I won't have my computer with me, so I'll catch up with you all later in the weekend.

If you're heading to the conference, look me up. 

Poll Results

Okay, the results are in.  Of the visitors to my blog,

84.2% are Christians

10.5% are atheists

5.3% are undecided and searching

Thanks for participating everyone.  Please watch for the new poll and let me know your thoughts.

Blogging Slump

Okay, I know.  You can stop all of the hate mail, the threatening late-night phone calls, the letters to the editor in the local newspaper.  I know, I know...my blog has grown a bit dull lately.  I've been in a bit of a slump.  I was going to keep the blog more active during my vacation but I quickly remembered that quality time with my wife away from the computer is much more important and enjoyable.

Not only that, but I've found myself with simply not much to say lately.  Sunday morning, as I sat through another hour of entertainment at a mega-church in Charleston with my mind wandering, a movie scene came to mind.  Remember that scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean where the governors daughter has been taken captive and is having dinner with the evil captain (can't remember his name)?  There's a moment of dialogue in there where he talks to her about the curse and how he feels absolutely nothing.  He isn't really living, but he can't really die.  In the scene later on when the curse is broken and he has been shot he looks down at blood streaming from his chest and says, "I.....feel..."

I've kind of felt like him.  I feel nothing.  I have been emotionless and without passion.  Lynn has expressed some of the same, but she states it this way:  "I just feel like we're in neutral."  The engine is running but we're going nowhere.  The heart is beating, the lungs are breathing, the brain is waving...but...that's about it.  So, I just haven't had a whole lot to say.

But I am going to bring the blog back to life.  I'm going to add two new photo albums; one with pictures from our vacation, and one of drawings by my nephew Nathaniel who promised to scan and e-mail his masterpieces to me.  I'm going to change out the poll.  And I have a few blog posts in mind that I've been thinking about lately having to do with theology, church, and reality.

See ya soon.

Top Cities

I love watching the number of visits to the Epic blog grow.  Call it techno-narcissism or simply a desire to connect with the global community.  But every morning I look forward to checking the stats on who's visited. 

Here are the top American cities from which visitors have come since mid-July and the number of visits from that city.

Augusta, GA - 48

Minneapolis, MN - 27

Places in US my tracker can't identify - 24

DeWitt, IL - 15

Mulkeytown, IL - 15

Evans, GA - 10

Redmond, WA - 9

Salem, OR - 7

Cedar Park, TX - 6

Carbondale, IL - 6

Hephzibah, GA - 6

LaCrosse, WI - 5

Austin, TX - 5

DeSoto, IL - 4

Chicago, IL - 4

Thomson, GA - 4

So far Epic has been visited by folks in:

168 cities

36 states

21 countries

What a cool way to have a world-wide ministry without leaving my recliner!