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CUMC Team Leaves From Atlanta for Buloba Uganda Africa

October 1, 2008 – 6:03 am · Popularity: 30%

Tomorrow the team from Cornerstone (see commissioning below) will continue the story of lives coming together from a small church here in Auburn to a small church in Buloba, Uganda. The last trip, made in June ( see Welcome Home from the Mission Field in Buloba Uganda Africa) of this year, was a working team trip, and one that delivered some incredible news about funds raised for the drilling of a much needed well for the church (see THE WELL and Creative Chaos 14 // Allowing God to Work in Your Church) in Buloba Uganda. On a side note: I was once one who was somewhat skeptical of the overall good that could be done in mission trips that (I thought) were short, sort of hit and run type of mission vacation things, but I would say to anyone who has similar thoughts or questions, just dig a little deeper, get involved, and really find out what is going on before you come to any conclusions. It may be there is more to the story, and it may be changing lives in a significant way, as is the case here.

The incredible story about missions and CUMC is the extent to which this particular congregation goes in its willingness to support missions. This is made very apparent by the statement on the church finance blog that says:

Cornerstone UMC is a tithing church. We take 10% of everything given each week and designate it for missions. Therefore, operating income/expenses are based on the 90% we use to support our staff and other ministries.

In my past experiences and (probably misconstrued) understanding of mission trips growing up, it has been a once a year trip, for one week, then the church moves on to another location or mission, many times with little real impact made on the visited community, town, or church (this of course is not always the case, just some of my past experiences). The impact that working with one church, in one community (Buloba in this case), with multiple visits throughout the year can have is very obvious when you look at the results these two churches have been able to achieve in Buloba. An entire church building is being built, a well is being drilled that will deliver fresh, clean drinking water (something unseen so far), and most importantly, lives are being changed.

Cornerstone has made several trips over the past 18 months to this small town and the team members and congregation in both churches have been able to get to know the people in both churches, formed relationships with them, and each church continues to grow and is blessed by the other.

This particular trip will last about one week and is mainly to continue forming the bonds between the two churches, to see the progress made on the construction of the new church building and the drilling of the well, and to speak with members of the community in Buloba. The team leader, Andi, will be updating the mission blog (looks like Andi already has something up her sleeve at And then it blew up…) starting on Friday with photos and stories from team members on the trip, so jump over there to see the updates. The photo gallery has been started with the image above on flickr. To see more photos as they are loaded just go to the Buloba Uganda Oct 08 gallery. Good luck to everyone, can’t wait to hear the stories and see the photos when you get back.

Posted in Faith | Tagged africa, buloba, commission, cumc, missions, uganda | Comments (0)

Cindy Wall Honored with Auburn Flying Eagle in Memory at Football Game vs Tennessee

September 27, 2008 – 5:29 am · Popularity: 31%

It seems that every day since Cindy Wall [AU press release] died I have found out more and more about what a great person she was and how much she meant to so many people. Yesterday there was a beautiful memorial service for Cindy at Cornerstone United Methodist Church in Auburn where many people shared what an impact she had with the Auburn Athletics department and the Auburn students in general.

Today during the Auburn vs Tennessee football game, Auburn University has said they are going to fly the traditional pre-game flight of either Nova or Spirit (sorry, don’t know which it is today), one of the eagles in the Auburn Raptor Center, in honor and memory of Cindy.

I don’t actually recall Auburn doing anything like this before but I am sure they have. Either way, it is a great show of how much Cindy meant to so many people at the Auburn Athletics department. Below is an image from her celebration service at CUMC. I will be at the game today and will post the images of the game later tonight (hopefully). Let’s hope the Tigers fare better against Tennessee than they did against LSU last week.

[Update] The game yesterday was hot and loud but fun… the pregame did have a special memorial to Cindy Wall and the photo is posted below. The stadium announcer did say the Auburn University eagle (Nova) was flying in her honor that day, and I took a quick photo of the AUHD sign as Nova flew.

Posted in Faith | Tagged auburn, cumc, eagle, football, memorial, service | Comments (1)

Creative Chaos 28 // Dear Eliot Video, 99 Balloons, and Brave Parents

September 25, 2008 – 10:00 am · Popularity: 34%

This is my post for Creative Chaos // 28 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week (which isn’t published quite yet over there but will be soon). If you haven’t participated in Creative Chaos yet there is always time to jump in. It is a great tool to learn some of the new and innovative ways other churches and groups are being creative in their faith. Even if you don’t post, just reading through a few of them is a real eye opener of what is done around the country and world in worship.

I am a little late for this video, it has been going around the Internet as of late, but I thought there might be a few of my readers that hadn’t actually seen it yet. I watched it again for about the fourth time as it was shown to the students at Auburn for Encounter last night. It hit me again when talking to a friend of mine at Encounter before the music started when he asked me if I had a son? How old is he, where does he live, what does he do. Thanks for asking Matt, I do, his name is Bryan, and his son’s name is William and he just turned three years old a few days ago (HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM).

99 Balloons // Dear Eliot Video

The first time I watched 99 balloons was with my good friend b/ in the middle of a busy day when Jack posted about it on his blog. I couldn’t really comprehend it’s worth at the time (although it did bring b/ to tears). It has been that kind of week this week and this video really goes right along with the testimony of our friend Cindy Wall but told by a 3 month old baby born with a condition called Trisomy 18 called Eliot Hartman Mooney. The name of the video is called 99 Balloons and is narrated by a father who marks off each day as it begins on video with “Dear Eliot”.

I am using it for my creative chaos post because the parents of Eliot chose to show the world how much they love their son, in the most creative way, with a really cool video and some photos. It reminded me of my son Bryan with his son William (shown above) who just turned three a few days ago. William is the coolest three year old in the world and I know if you ask his daddy he would tell you the same thing.

There is much joy in this video, especially shown through the parents, because the Lord was part of the parents life in a very meaningful way… but today, it is my creative chaos post.

Posted in Faith | Tagged baby, bryan, family, life, prayer, sara, video, william | Comments (3)

Cindy Wall, Called to be with the Lord Today

September 24, 2008 – 6:57 pm · Popularity: 44%

I am writing this blog post right now because I am not really sure what else to do. Today I got the shocking news that Cindy Wall (of Auburn Alabama) had passed away and is now with our Lord. This is the same person that I wrote about in my last blog post, (called Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in South Bend to Auburn) who had blessed all of us so much through her baptism. [To see the full slideshow of photos from the baptism, click Cindy Wall Skype Baptism gallery.]

$Cindy Wall\'s Baptism$

This truly had to be God’s will and timing. Something so hard to explain and so hard to comprehend could be nothing else than God’s raw will expressed through her life, shown as a witness to us all, that there is never a good time to put off God’s work. At this point it is so hard to process the information and put into words the flood of thoughts that come to mind.

Over the past several months I have written many blog posts (like my mother-in-law Georgia Christal, musician Matthew Butler, and others like Steven Curtis Chapman, Prayers for His Family, Family Testimony, Bronner Burgess Drowns in Pool) about individuals that have come into my life in one form or another and then died, and I am then again reminded that we are NOT in charge of this world, God is. After the last few posts about Matthew Butler and after hearing from his mother and his widowed wife, I wrote Is it Really Important to Ask God Why Anymore?, and that is a little how I feel right now. Why bother asking why, it isn’t up to us, no matter how hard we try to make the world conform to our life, instead of us conforming to God’s will for our life.

Thank You Cindy for the Time You Spent With Me

I spoke with Cindy on Sunday morning about the baptism and I told her how much it really meant to the people involved, and me personally. The conversation we had was something I meant to tell her on Friday after the baptism, but I am so glad I did on Sunday.

Now, her actions to follow Jesus in baptism on Friday was something so huge, so important, that none of us could have possibly comprehended at the time. Any one person could have said no, could have decided it was to much trouble, our pastor could have said he didn’t have time (after all, he was in another state), and any number of other things could have kept the baptism from happening. Yet, the people involved, in another state, said yes, we will follow the Lord.

Much of my conversation with Cindy before the baptism was about our preconceived notions of “church” and “a baptism”, and why it doesn’t always have to be like the traditions of history. Her baptism was to be a party. She wanted her baptism to be a celebration, which meant, a party. In the same sentence, she told me she wanted her baptism to be a party, just like her funeral. Of course when you are talking to a young person, about to be baptized, the second part just flew by my ears without much notice.

She took the time to talk to me, tell me about her experiences, and invite me into one of the most exciting times in her life and to that, all I can say is thank you.

If the Lord is Pressing You to Do Something, Don’t Wait

There is no greater example of a life in submission to the Lord than this. If He is doing the same to you, don’t wait, our time here is short. It puts into perspective some of the people I interact with each day, some of the projects I am involved with, and what importance each has in my life. It does makes me think about the things I did today… what did you do? I spent several hours working with b/ this morning, and then spent the rest of the day with my wife. Not every day goes like today, but It was time well spent.

Tonight I felt compelled to spend some time and write something about Cindy’s story and the witness of faith her life now represents. Tomorrow, when I re-read this, it may not make any sense to me at all, but her life was special to many, and it was to me as well, thanks Cindy.

Posted in Faith | Tagged baptism, cumc, memorial, prayer, the walk | Comments (9)

Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in South Bend to Auburn

September 23, 2008 – 7:47 pm · Popularity: 53%

Late last week I posted about one of the most incredible baptisms I have ever seen (see Creative Chaos 27 // Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in Indiana), a video conference baptism. Most of the staff of our church went to the Innvate08 Conference in South Bend Indiana, while a requested baptism had to take place on that Friday, when they were all gone. In comes Skype Video. With the staff in South Bend, and all of us down here in Auburn hooked up the required links and away everything went.

To see the full slideshow of photos from the baptism, click Cindy Wall Skype Baptism gallery.

What was really amazing to me about this baptism, and what made it so special, had nothing to do with the technology at all. The personalized value of this baptism, the people it affected, and the time that our Pastor was able to devote to an individual single baptism made it one of the most special baptisms I have seen. It was a celebration, as it should be, something that was not rushed through, and a baptism that was reflective upon the meaning of our dying to self. Instead of having to deal with time constraints of a Sunday morning worship hour, everyone was able to slow down and take a little more time. Rusty read the following scripture was read:

2 Corinthians 5:14-19 // 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

After the actual baptism took place, we hung up with the staff in Indiana (see other posts wow and the baptism) and we were all able to share a meal together. Later I talked with Cindy and told her that I understood this baptism was special to her, but what she did by doing this, was allow so many other people to participate in a great blessing. There were perhaps 25-30 other people that made this event special, and I know that everyone that participated was greatly blessed by the whole thing.

What else could anyone ask for in a baptism. It certainly was special. If you would like to see the video (from the South Bend, Indiana end) you can view it below.

Posted in Faith | Tagged alabama, auburn, baptism, indiana, south bend, video | Comments (3)

Creative Chaos 27 // Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in Indiana

September 18, 2008 – 10:04 am · Popularity: 23%

This is my post for Creative Chaos // 27 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week (which isn’t published quite yet over there but will be soon). If you haven’t participated in Creative Chaos yet there is always time to jump in. It is a great tool to learn some of the new and innovative ways other churches and groups are being creative in their faith. Even if you don’t post, just reading through a few of them is a real eye opener of what is done around the country and world in worship.

I have skipped a few weeks for this post but wanted to pick it back up again, there are always so many great ways people worship, and this week, we have a unique opportunity to combine our faith with technology of Skpye. As much of a techno person as I am, this was my first experience using Skype.

As a full time eBay seller for many many years (a few years ago now) once eBay had purchased Skype, they started pushing it on their larger sellers (us being one of them) and at that point we were not interested in the slightest bit. I had put it off for as long as I possibly could, and the video baptism from Innovate08 pulled me into Skype. It has turned out to be a great tool and can be used for many different things, but this week we are using it for a baptism.

Skype Video Baptism from Innovate08 in Indiana

This week almost our entire church staff went to the Innovate08 conference in South Bend Indiana near Granger Community Church, leaving us lay people (gotroot and myself) back here to help with a baptism that, by necessity, had to take place this Friday while the staff was in Indiana. The church decided that we were going to do the Baptism anyway, and do it through a video conference method using Skype. We looked at doing the setup with Mogulus so we could capture the live video on both ends as it was happening but just couldn’t pull it off this time. So, Skype Video, here we go.

The Baptism will take place this Friday afternoon with a community group around the person being baptized and our head pastor, Rusty Hutson, will be on the big screen doing all the officiating from up in South Bend. This is certainly the first video baptism we have performed at this church, but somewhere, someone has had to have done this before. If so, we would love to hear from you and to learn from your experiences. If we ever do this again we would like to have some way to record the video exchange on both ends so we can later, at a minimum, publish it in house.

What’s Happening on Skype and Twitter This Weekend

Now that I am officially on skype I am sure I will find some other great uses for the service, but for today, it is Creative Chaos 27.

To follow the happenings at Innovate08 on Twitter just see a few of the headliners like @shawnwood, @timastevens, @innovate08 to name a few. Of course you can always follow me on Twitter as well at @scottfillmer. I will not be in South Bend this weekend but will post to twitter live from Jordan-Hare stadium for the Auburn vs LSU football game and of course ESPN GameDay (see ESPN College GameDay Comes to Auburn for Tigers vs LSU for details).

Posted in Faith | Tagged baptism, creative chaos, innovate, skype, video | Comments (3)

The Matthew Butler Memorial Fund and Zion Gate Records

September 5, 2008 – 9:41 am · Popularity: 5%

This is an update to a previous post about the tragic murder of Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan in Garland Texas back in June of this year. If you are unfamiliar with the story please see my previous post Matthew Butler Killed at Zion Gate in Garland Texas about Matthew’s life and his wonderful testimony. Back in June I came across this story while watching the news and was touched by what happened because, according to the news story and Matthew’s wife Jamie, Matthew was a strong Christian Believer, a musician, and a business owner of Zion Gates Records. Those thing struck a nerve with me as I am all but a musician, but a big lover of music in general.

The post on my blog grew legs and soon many of Matthew’s friends and family, including Jamie and his mom Theresa had commented on the post. This morning I received an email from Matthew’s mom, Theresa that I wanted to share with you about his memorial fund for his children. Normally (I would guess) once a story hits national news you can a huge nation wide outpouring of support for the family, especially when the widow has small children as the Butler’s do, but the news story was so short lived that it never really had a chance to build any steam on a large national scale, so the Butler family held a charity golf tournament, are having a large rummage sale, and have setup a memorial fund at the bank in Texas.

All I wanted to do by this blog post is bring a little attention to their situation and possibly reach someone who might be able and willing to help their family in some way. Below is the email from Theresa about the Matthew Butler Memorial Fund, I know his wife and kids appreciate any and all help they have and will receive.

The Matthew Butler Memorial Fund

The community support for Jamie and the kids has been amazing. Matthew is gone from this earth but safe in his heavenly father’s loving arms. Now, we must help raise up these babies, take care of Jamie and help her to continue the dream that Matthew had when he opened the doors to Zion Gate Records almost three years ago. Many of you have said, “We will not let this dream that Matthew had turn into a nightmare. We will not give the enemy that satisfaction!”

The golf tournament raised over $20k for the children. Friends, family and even total strangers have also donated their money and time to help Jamie get the studio up and running. A very sweet young lady from Matthew’s high school, Tammie, got together with some of her friends to have a garage sale to benefit Jamie and the kids. Over the past few weeks, as people heard about it and wanted to donate their items, it’s grown into this huge RUMMAGE SALE which will be held at the Albertson’s parking lot on Lavon Highway in Garland (near 190). If you would like to help, please bring your items to the sale on Saturday morning, September 20th before 7:00am. Here is the link with map: http://www.yellowbot.com/albertsons-food-pharmacy-garland-tx-2.html

There is also a memorial fund at Washington Mutual Bank - Matthew Butler Memorial Fund. Donations may be made at any location.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers, love and support. In His Grip, Theresa Butler

Posted in Media | Tagged memorial, news, texas | Comments (0)

Sarah Palin Undergoing Internet Smear Campaign Like No Other

September 2, 2008 – 10:16 am · Popularity: 4%

Sarah Palin is currently undergoing a smear campaign on the Internet like I have never seen before. It is really just incredible to see how sharp the attacks on Palin are and how baseless these smears are in real facts. Is there a good reason for this? Is the left, far left, democrats, independents, people in general really that scared of this woman?

I will have to agree with a recent blog post I read (see Politics and… by Fluidity) that this all shows our divisions, but they can’t be expected to just go away with someone like Palin, she stands for something, she isn’t luke-warm. I just hope Palin doesn’t read blogs like bloggers do.

Still, I have not seen any of the hatred being spewed out over Joe Biden, no one is just killing themselves to be the first to get nude photos of Obama or McCain only Palin of course since she is a woman. Are these people disappointed that she is not some homely looking feminist woman that only wears a pants suit while telling everyone to just get along? To these bloggers I say, you really don’t get it. This is what middle America wants. A smart woman that can buck the system, raise her children, have a moral basis, doesn’t look like some butch tree hugger, and can relate to the “regular” person who deals with life’s problems just like she does. And while we may not all be a part of middle America, it encompasses a lot of people in this country.

Find the dirt, the naked photos, the illegitimate children, the affair, the miserable part of Palin’s life if it exists. You know what, maybe it actually doesn’t? People today are so quick at trying to pull out all the skeletons from the other person’s closet, who cares about the ones piled up in their own house.

A total and complete denial, disregard, ignorance of Matthew 7:2-4 when dealing with those in public view and even those who are not. Yes, she should be ready for this, this is politics in America in 2008, but how much defamation of character, libel, slander, and vilification should one person expect to be able to handle?

Matthew7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

At least Obama yesterday came out and said to back off, that her family should be off limits as is the case with most candidates. Blogs today can give any nut job a voice, which actually is great, that just means that I have the same freedom to post whatever I want on my own blog (of course I may be one of those nut jobs too). I at least make an attempt to post verified facts, and if it is an opinion, I try to say so, or at least make it obvious. The bloggers are on an all out smear campaign of Palin based in totally false statements and no basis of fact. I hope people who read these “news” stories or blog posts realize that and try to look at her candidacy objectively for what it is, a down to earth person who is now knee deep in the dirt of politics, at least that is how I see it here on this blog.

The real funny thing to me is that all these people that keep posting all these terrible things about Sarah Palin are really just helping her cause and ultimately her campaign. The graph from Google Trends above is just the start (look at the bottom graph, flat line to a straight line up). “They” are all talking about her. Blogs, news, radio, tv, commercials, the coffee house, the water cooler, they are talking about her as the possible VP, and this just empowers her in today’s media.

Not totally the same thing but I can’t imagine people doing this to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis? I understand she was not running for VP, but she was a woman in politics? What about the two democratic woman that came before Palin? I have respect for them just the same, but it doesn’t seem to go both ways on the Internet today. So if you want to empower her in the media, just keep talking about Palin. I don’t see it helping Biden? What do you think, how much slander should one politician have to handle? All of it I guess.

Posted in Media | Tagged lies, news, palin, politics, slander | Comments (6)

Is Your Favorite Faith Based Blog on This List?

September 2, 2008 – 8:43 am · Popularity: 3%

What are your favorite faith based blogs you read? I have a few different categories in my mind of blogs I read. I have a total list, which includes some of my friends blogs and some of my favorite faith based blogs, and more I just flip through on a daily or weekly basis. I have a few blogs I read (this would be across all categories) that are really bad, but for some reason I have some fascination with what they will post next because the blog is so bad (poor design, format, sentence or grammar structure and so on). I call these train wreck blogs because I can’t help but read them for some reason.

I won’t mention any of my personal favorite train wreck blogs but there is one blog I have been reading quite a bit called TonyMorganLive.com which has a lot of fresh, well written content, plus his job listings are interestingg reading to me. I have to give my blogroll award to Brody Harper who has one of the best blogrolls on the side of his blog and he always has something interesting going on over there (see his latest Positive Post Tuesday-Outdoor Encounter). Below you will find my current faith based blogroll for today, Tuesday, September 2, 2008. This list below is static, but my list changes daily. For the most current and up to date list, see Faith Blogroll. Is your blog on this list? No? Well post it in the comments so we can all take a look and add it to our feed readers.

The list above is obviously in alphabetical order, but it is a list of blogs I frequent. There are so many that I have not come across yet, but to those above, thanks so much for putting so much effort into your blogs, I really enjoy reading them. Keep in mind, even if you never receive a single comment, there are people who read your blog, so write your posts with that in mind.

Posted in Media | Tagged feed, google, reader, rss | Comments (14)

A Little Mixed Up, Again, For the First Time

August 28, 2008 – 5:10 am · Popularity: 3%

It has been a mixed up kind of week for us here. With the tropical storm Fay, and now Gustov on its way, we can see two more tropical disturbances also looking for a new home, so we headed down to the coast to check out our sailboat. We have been trying to sell our sailboat for a while now but it needed a little extra attention during this time so along with everything else going on, we took one day to see the coast before the next storm.

If we look at the calendar there is another holiday coming up, the first Auburn football game this Saturday… I can almost feel the lighter, cooler air that’s on its way (in maybe three more months). As I was flipping through some of my collected quotes and poems from my mother-in-law I came across this one and it sounded appropriate for the week. You may have heard it before, but it is still cute.

A Little Mixed Up

Just a line to say I’m living
That I’m not among the dead,
Tho’ I’m getting more forgetful
And more mixed up in the head.

For sometimes I can’t remember,
Where I stand at the foot of the stair
If I must go up for something
Or - if I’ve just come down from there

And, before the frig’ - so often
My poor mind is filled with doubt.
Have I just put the food away, or
Have I come to take some out?

And, then there’s times when it is dark out,
With my night cap on my head
I don’t know if I’m retiring —
Or - just getting out of bed.

So, if it’s my turn to write you
There’s no need in getting sore,
I may think that I have already written
And don’t want to be a bore.

So - remember that I do love you,
And - I wish that you were here.
And - now it’s nearly mail-time
So - I must say, “Good-bye m’dear”.

There I stood beside the mail-box
With a face so very red.
Instead of mailing you my letter
I had opened it - instead!!

—author unknown

Posted in Sidenotes | Tagged author unknown, poem | Comments (0)

Scott Fillmer

Author Archives: damascus

CUMC Team Leaves From Atlanta for Buloba Uganda Africa

Cindy Wall Honored with Auburn Flying Eagle in Memory at Football Game vs Tennessee