Church Rejects Donation from Lottery Winner

ORANGE PARK, FL — After Robert Powell hit the Florida Lottery jackpot last month and took home more than $6 million, he thought of his church.

And he offered to drop his tithe, around $600,000, in the collection plate of First Baptist Orange Park.

But the church and Pastor David Tarkington politely declined and told Powell they will not accept the lottery winnings.

Many churches do not approve of the lottery and gambling but on the other hand Pastor Dr. Lorenzo Hall of the El-Beth-El Divine Holiness Church says $600,000 can do a lot of good.

“I’m against the lottery, but if one of my members won the lottery, I wish and I hope he would give 10% to the church, we could do a lot of things with that money,” says Hall.

As a Holiness minister, Dr. Hall says he does not ask where members get the money they decide to donate.

He said he would welcome Powell’s donation to his inner city church anytime.

Full Article

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Bag of Randomness

  • Some of you were kind enough to inform me that BON was loading extremely slow.  Turns out that the Statisfy code I was using was causing the slowness.  Since I’ve removed the code, BON appears to be loading much faster.
  • Yup, you heard correctly, that was my letter that they read on the air Friday morning on The Ticket.
  • I care way too much of what other people think.
  • Friday after work I decided to visit my father’s grave at the Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery.  I remember when we first had my father moved out there when it opened back in 2000 and how few graves were actually out there – after all, it was a new cemetery.  An old veteran who volunteered out there that helped me with some paperwork told me that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the beauty of that cemetery until I’m a senior when it starts to look a bit more filled up.  Well, on Friday I noticed at the visitor center that there were a total of 15 funerals that day, and there are now over 23,000 internments.  It was also sad to see a headstone that had a DOB of 1986.
  • Friday morning I made sure to watch our mens basketball team take on those jerks from Spain.  I was hoping the Spaniards would get a couple of black eyes to be honest with you.  Oh, and it looks like the Spanish Tennis team is also participating.
  • I’ve been watching the Road to Redemption series on this basketball team and find it very inspiring.  Coach K is amazing, I think I would like to read one of his books.
  • I find it interesting how as Americans we feel that basketball is our sport and we should win the gold everytime but we don’t really care what goes on with baseball which is considered our national pastime.
  • WifeGeeding and I actually attended a party on Saturday afternoon thrown by one of my coworkers.  We hardly ever go to parties.   We are working on not being social introverts.
  • I can’t believe she drives from Allen to Love Field everyday.
  • At the party we were talking with some of my coworkers and their spouses that are from India about their babies.  They said they never cut the baby’s hair until 11 months, then the head is shaved and the clippings are given to their local temple.  This was the first I heard of such a thing.  I felt a bit more cultured and enlightened.
  • On Saturday night I watched the Cowboys preseason game and played Madden at a friend’s house.  I stayed there until about 1:30 AM.  I don’t think I’ve done something like that in about six years.  Of course on the way home I had to stop at Whataburger for some taquitos.  The person that took my order was the happiest person on this planet.  I asked how he was doing, and he told me with a ginormous smile that was doing very well, that we are only given one life, and he’s going to make the best of it.  It’s amazing how I can find so much to gripe about everyday and here is a man working at Whataburger during the graveyard shift but was full of joy.
  • Southlake has given me another reason to dislike their perfect little upscale community, they now serve sushi at football games.
  • On Sunday WifeGeeding and I ate at a new sandwich place.  A mother and her two young teenage daughters walked in wearing shirts with this picture on front and the back saying “Phelps Phan.”  It just seemed a bit weird.
  • Isn’t amazing how certain people like Phelps has found their nitch in life?  What if as a child he was addicted to video games, or just loved reading or making model cars, or decided to play volleyball or basketball instead of swimming everyday?
  • I was getting a little Phelps burn-out, but he has certainly earned my respect (not that he needed to) by those close finishes.  He certainly earned all those gold medals.  Here’s a great frame-by-frame photo finish from Sports Illustrated.  Below are just two of the eight pictures.  Pulitzer prize?
  • It was cool that the Baltimore Ravens put his last meet on the jumbo-tron at the stadium during their preseason football game, well, it was actually after the game, but still pretty cool.  It was also pretty cool to see the crowd cheer their hometown boy.
  • It appears the more smack that is talked about Phelps and the more he hears about it, the more he does to overcome the opposition.  I hope Osama Bin Laden starts to trash talk Phelps.
  • The Bob Costas interview with Phelps on Sunday night was interesting, as we got to see Phelps’ reaction to the first time he saw the races on tape.  It was great to see his natural reaction when he saw the pictures above for the very first time.
  • Costas later brought in Phelps’ mother, who was starting to get on my nerves, but when I found out she’s a principal and heading back on a plane to be there for her school, my opinion about her changed.
  • Phelps also talked that he was checking his FaceBook while in Beijing and found it funny that some of the guys that were bullying him back in the day are dropping him a line.
  • I was a little surprised at the 100 meter dash.  Bolt not only broke his own world record, but did it with one of his shoes untied and celebrating before he finished his race.  You would think he could wait another second longer to celebrate in order to get a better world record.
  • I love watching the marathon at the Olympics.  First of all, you get to see the beauty of the host city.  And then I just try to imagine what it must be like to run such a long distance, see the Olympic stadium, run into the stadium onto the track in front of over 90,000 fans cheering you on as you finish either the longest or shortest 400 meters of your life.  Amazing.
  • This Calvin and Hobbs cartoon made me sad.
  • I wasn’t aware the King James Version of the Bible mentions a unicorn.
  • It annoys me when I hear a sports team name followed by the word “nation.”
  • I’m wearing a mustache right now just to annoy my wife.  Just call me Magnum.
  • Grace.
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments

Three Years of Bringing You A Whole Bag Of Nothing

Three years sure do fly by.  My first post was really just a test post, and I think ‘regular’ blogging started two days later.  I only had about four dedicated readers at the time, but I think I may have picked up a few more along the way.

Today also happens to be my mother’s birthday.  She would have turned 60 today.  In honor of her, I’m going to take the day off from posting and focus on reading just like I did last year to honor her.  Mom loved to read, she really was a voracious reader.  I encourage you to pick up a nice little read today as well, even if only it’s an article or a chapter.

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WifeGeeding Book Report Part 3

The Sacred Echo

Chapter 2: Sing it Again
Being a Kindergarten teacher I read a lot of books to my students. There is one book that comes to mind about a honey bear that has a hand puppet inside the book. When I read this book I use a lot of inflection and the children love it! As soon as I close the book they all shout out, “Read it again! Read it again!” God wants our prayers to be like that. Although God already knows what we are going to say even before we say it He wants to hear our voice. He wants to “keep company” with us. I feel sometimes that my prayers are very repetitive, but I’ve learned from reading this chapter that that is ok. God delights in hearing my voice whether it be in praise or requests. “Not only do I need to hear God’s voice, but also he wants to hear mine.”

Chapter 3: How Long?
For those of you who know my husband know he loves the band U2. All I could think about as I read this chapter was the song U2 sings, 40.

Waiting is hard to do. We are a society that when we want something we just go out and get it. However, there are some things that we have to wait for like marriage, going off to college, starting a new job, having children, etc. There is an “in between” period that goes along with waiting that Margaret Feinberg talks about in her book. “You aren’t fully here and you aren’t fully there.” God loves what that in between time does to us—“the humility it creates within our hearts. The prayers that emerge from our spirits. The childlike cries from our innermost beings that acknowledge utmost dependence.” Although waiting is no fun and can sometimes take years or sometimes not even turn out how we want, you learn more about yourself and grow closer to God. “Not only does God listen to our heart’s cries as we wait, but he blesses us, strengthens us, and renews us in the process.” Do you believe good things come to those who wait? I certainly do!

WifeGeeding

Posted in Personal, Spiritual, U2 | 1 Comment