a quick video diversion

howdy all. I know I owe you more Scotland pics but I have been busy... Just wanted to share a video of my new fave worship song.. blows me away everytime i hear it..



God bless and have a blessed week.

Peace
Tony

Mission Trip to Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland Part 2

Howdy folks.. I think I will try and tell the basic tale thru pictures.. This blog post will be about the work we did at the church.. a future blog will focus on the fun stuff.

So, here is the cast of characters.. Pastor Patrick, Mike, Silva, Abraham, Corey, Harry (aka Murray) and myself, Tony.

We flew out of Logan on Aer Lingus to Shannon, Ireland continuing on to Dublin, Ireland and then landing in our destination, Glasgow, Scotland. Pastor Paul and his wife Heine picked us up. We had no hassles with customs and everything was going smoothly. The only worthwhile thing about the flight was some dude threw up landing into Shannon..

We then went and checked out the church for the first time and go over the worklist for the week. Demolition of two side rooms in the main sanctuary hall, demolition of the front entryway, build a sound desk in the balcony for laptops, projector and soundboard, paint lower sanctuary, paint all columns in the church even in the balcony, box in water pipes that connect the radiators, and added onto the list was Abraham and Tito the plumber installing seven new radiators in the upper two floors of the church.

This was our second home for the entire trip. We spent alot of hours in the confines of this building. It was a beautiful 200 year old church. The workmanship was just awesome. It was a pleasure to help restore this beauty.

Here are some pictures of us working at the different jobs

On average we worked 9 in the morning till 9 at night. Wednesday, May 6th we took the day off to visit Edinburgh Castle and shop the Royal Mile. But mostly it was working and getting these jobs done to bless this church. A few of the Bridgeton guys helped out, Frank did a heck of a job plastering the whole sanctuary making it ready for us to paint, Stephen helped out with various jobs, Jimmie the electrician came almost all week and did some amazing wiring while working with live 220 amp wire. Jimmie was helping out Pastor Paul and he goes to another church across town. He was a character and a great guy. Harry and I worked with him a few days. Tito was a guy who Pastor Paul hired to come in a do some plumbing work and also put in the seven new radiators with Abraham. Matt, the Worship Leader came in and set up his soundboard desk when we were finished building it, Clayton came in and did some tile work. Pastor Paul grabbed a paint brush and helped paint and also did about 750 runs to their Home Depot type store named B&Q. It was an amazing all around effort.

I feel blessed to have been a part of this trip and to be able to work with such amazing, talented and gifted men.

Next entry will have some pictures of the fun side:the place where we stayed, the Castle field trip, the van Pastor crashed.. lots of good stuff. Stay tuned.

God bless

Tony

Missions Trip to Bridgeton,Glasgow, Scotland Part 1

Howdy all. It has been awhile. I had mentioned in the past that seven guys from my church were going on a missions trip to Bridgeton Life Church in Glasgow, Scotland. Well, I just returned home from my first ever missions trip. We flew out of Boston on April 30th and came home Monday, May 11th. It was a life changing experience for me and all the men involved. Lots of projects got completed, lives were blessed, people were encouraged. It was an amazing 12 days.

I can say first off that it was so great to go, but I missed my kids and wife so much and it was just so wonderful to come back home to them. If I ever go on another missions trip, they will be coming with me.

Ok, this is the first installment. Here are some videos of a few of the guys at the church. In future installments, I will post pics and some stories. God is good!

This is Stephen. He was so passionate about God and he just truly loves the Lord. He was just amazing to work with, pray with and just be around. a true encourager!

This is Frank. Frank was the bass player in the worship band and also helped plastering the church on his days off. He was just an amazing musician, worker and supporter of us over there.

And this is Matt. Matt is the Worship Leader at Bridgeton Life Church. Matt is just an awesome musician and singer and he was a real friend over there. And, he is one heck of a snooker player.

I love these guys and all the other wonderful peopel we met in Scotland. Take care and God bless. Peace

Tony

Irish Night tonight...

Tonight, my church is hosting an Irish Night. Should be way fun. The entertainment is me and my bro, the Brother of Through. Lots of people ask where we got our band name. Well, Hamilton is a Scottish name originating from Hamulton, which means Through. So we are the Brothers of Hamilton, translating to the Brothers of Through.

We will be doing our little celtic music thing. jam on some Work of the Weavers and such. My pastor is from Ireland and he will be doing MC duties. we have chosen all good, clean, non drinking, non pub songs. Yes, they do exist. All in all, it should be a blast.

All money raised tonight will be going directly to our Scotland Missions trip. I really feel God is going to bless this night since the money we make is going directly to doing His work.

so..

Go mbeannaí Dia dhuit (thats Gaelic for May God bless you)

Peace

Tony

Confirmation from the Lord...

The Lord speaks in many ways and just today an amazing thing has been revealed.

Last go back to last Sunday. Our head usher was sharing with me about the amazing time of worship he had at the District Youth Leader convention Friday night. He said the Lord gave him a word to share with the congregation. he got up Sunday morning before worship and shared a little and then said that the Lord told him 2 words for our church, "Its Time". Wow, very cool.. It is time. Time for us to start walking the walk and stop just talking the talk. Lets get out and start working in our gifts and doing the work the Lord has called us to do.

Then during worship, one of the men from our church blew the Shofar, which is a horn made from a Ram's horn. This was very cool and the timing of when he did in worship was just amazing.

Then, my beautiful wife called me to today to share something that she was reading out of Leviticus. Leviticus 25:8-12 (The Year of Jubilee)

8 " 'Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

So, Its time, the trumpet has sounded and I leave in 51 days back to the land of my ancestors, Scotland. This is a jubilee year. Maybe not technically, since I do not know if this is a fiftieth year. But in my life, I feel this is a year to celebrate the Lord's favor. I really do feel amazing things are going to happen at our church and in our community. Let us claim liberty and freedom in the name of Jesus throughout this land. Jesus has set us free, He has given us liberty from our sins by paying the price on the cross. We have eternal life by believing in Him and accepting the free gift he has given us by dying on that cross. To pay for all of our sins, blood needed to be shed and Jesus was the only perfect and holy sacrifice that could do it.

The time is now. This just really struck me today and I just wanted to share.

God bless

Tony

time sure flies....

howdy all.. sorry about not posting for awhile.. life has been.. well, life. Not much time to blog. but just wanted to say that very soon I will be doing a countdown till our missions trip to Scotland. Seven men from my church will be going on our first ever missions trip to help a church in Glasgow, Scotland. We will be doing construction work and also some evangelism. I will be leading 2 worship services while I am over there. I can't believe it. I am so excitied. It will be major fun. So, I will start the countdown in a few days and fill you in on more details.

Until then God bless all of you.

Peace

Tony

Happy New Year

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe New Years Eve.

2009 is going to be an amazing year...

God bless and see ya on the flip side...

Peace

Tony

one week to go.. oh boy oh boy

7 days till Christmas.. just wanted to drop a note saying i am still alive and rolling on. Survived the ice storm last week and now we have snow in the forecast for tomorrow thru the weekend and even next week. Snow on Christmas. I love snow if i don't have to drive in it. Get those sleds READY!!!!

God bless. And remember to keep Christ in Christmas!!!!!

Peace

Tony

Happy Birthday to my best friend!!!

Happy Birthday Dianna.. my wife and my best friend. I hope your day is amazing.

We had to celebrate last night since we are going to be out tonight, but Di got nachos for dinner and a chocolate cake made by yours truly.. and she got some cool gifts from the kids, a poem and a story. I made her a rock nativity. I found some cool rocks and painted them up. She dug it. I love birthdays.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season. Last night we watched Christmas Vacation and then after that some of the 1979 John Denver and the Muppets A Christmas Together. What a corny Christmas special. Brought back memories tho. John Denver should never have been allowed to tap dance.. yikes. hahahahaha. Let the season roll on.

God bless

Tony

why you been gone so long..

Well, here i am.. its been awhile, but as always life is busy busy.. Thanksgiving was wonderful!!! Now the focus is on Christmas. Christmas is coming and Tony's getting fat.. hahahaha.. thats just cuz of Thanksgiving last week and Dianna's amazing pies.. mmm, pecan pie! So, there's lots to do.. Dianna and I are done our shopping so my focus will be on getting the Christmas Eve service ready, wrapping, Christmas cards, decorating, getting the tree up. Good stuff. I love Christmas. Our savior was born. What a great birthday to celebrate. I hope you can take a minute and remember that. We give gifts in remembrance of Jesus' birth. The focus should be on Him firstly. We can all get crazy with shopping and running around, but why are we celebrating Christmas... CHRIST! Thanks for reading and hopefully with the countdown to Christmas coming, i can make a few posts between now and then.. If not, you know I will be enjoying the Christmas season to the fullest..

God bless

Peace

Tony