greggandcyndi

Happy Halloween!

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Anderson Farms Pumpkin Patch

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Our Trip Home

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New Pics of the Boys 10/12

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Labor Day Weekend w/ The Vickers

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Our 1st Trip to the Braselton Park

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New Pics of the Boys 9/25

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William Noble

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About

and everything is burning

you gotta check out kate's most recent post...it's a good one.  it's making me think of my own stories.  i've actually been thinking about them a lot lately.  the things i did when i was a kid, and that includes the kid i was up until a few years ago.  who am i kidding...in a lot of ways i'm still a kid.  but it also has me thinking of stories from the last couple of years...

kate said she is going to start a series of stories of people she meets in madison...i thought i would share a few.

cyndi and i went to seattle for our honeymoon and we made a concious decision to talk and spend time with the homeless we would encounter there.  i remember meeting this guy on a street corner, he was clean shaven and probably late 30's or early 40's.

he started talking to me on the corner and wasn't one to just ask for money.  he wanted me to know that he wanted to work, that he had been in Seattle for a few years, slept under an overpass, and tried to shave and wash as often as possible.  i told him we were on our way somewhere but he would walk with us, so he did and we chatted...after a few more minutes, i asked if he like cheesecake.  he said, "it's my favorite!"  i told him that we were on our way to the cheesecake factory to get a piece and asked if he would like a piece.  of course he said of course.

this is where the story had an impact for me.  as the three of us walked through the doors of the cheesecake factory, this guy is just looking around, all around, and up at the high ceiling...i asked him, and he told me, that he had never been in there before.  we took our cheesecake out on the patio, sat down and ate our cake together and parted ways.

what impacted me was that he had been in Seattle for three years and he said cheesecake was his favorite, yet he had never been in the cheesecake factory. 

i think about this story and at least 3 or 4 others from our trip to Seattle and other times like these here in the quad cities...and i think about how long it's been since i've had a new story like this.  and not to just have a story, but to know that God used me to show someone what He is really like.  i wish i could say this is an every day occurance for me, but it isn't.  it has become less and less.  where has/had this compasssion gone.  but i think it is still there somewhere...

because, the other day i met a guy named mike at st. guiseppe's pizza.  he noticed i had a guitar in my car and asked if played...i was there to study, so my first inclination was to answer his questions in as few words as possible, but he kept asking questions, so i felt like i needed to ask him questions...eventually i brought my guitar inside the store and played a few songs for him and he returned the favor.

mike is probably in his late 40's and has struggled with mental illness and drugs most of his life.  one of the songs he sang was one he wrote about the "progress place" that is now called the "drop-in" and it was so good.  it wasn't something i could ever write or even pull off covering.  his voice was a mix of johnny cash and i can't put my finger on it.  his songs were so much like johnny, but he didn't seem to know that when i mentioned it. 

a couple of months ago, a very good friend of mine gave me a guitar he felt prompted to give me by God, and that was the guitar i had at st. guiseppe's that day, and i felt like mike was supposed to have it, so i gave it to him.  mike came to church last week.  it happened to be the week i was preaching and today i'm going to lunch with him.

i like the way kate put it in her post, about the kingdom coming down, the fire of heaven, and everything is burning.  i take that to mean that you either look around and see nothing, a fallen world, or everything burning in the redempitive work of heaven's fire.  i want fire reflecting in my eyes.

June 30, 2006 in Friends, Jesus, Spiritual formation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

gone to madison

this is the last pic we took with kate (taken by a lawn mowing boy on the corner), before she left for madison.  we will miss her much.  we are very excited about her future, what she will do at epic, but more so about what she is becoming and will become.  good luck kate.
Dscf18102we made her a "kate's madison mix tape" and since we didn't give her a print out of what was on it, because it's more fun that way, i thought we could post the list of what was on it here, cause i know she'll be here soon, so here you are.


  1. skies interlude-david crowder band-illuminate
  2. this is the last time-keane-hopes and fears
  3. beautiful love-the afters-i wish we all could win
  4. back in the u.s.s.r.-the beatles-white album
  5. still fighting it-ben folds-rockin' the suburbs
  6. float on-modest mouse-good news for people who love bad news
  7. spies-coldplay-parachutes
  8. omaha-counting crows-august and everything after
  9. the rebels-the cranberries-the the faithful departed
  10. maybe there's a loving God-sarah groves    all right here
  11. grey street-dave matthews band-busted stuff
  12. knocked out-bleach-again for the first time
  13. all the while having fun-the elms-truth, soul, rock & roll
  14. get rhythm-johnny cash-the collection
  15. lithium-nirvana-nevermind
  16. wouldn't it be nice-the beach boys-pet sounds
  17. fly from heaven-toad the wet sprocket-dulcinea
  18. wonder why-pfr-great lengths
  19. george-peter nevland-acoustic spoken groove
  20. stay-alison krauss-live (disc 1)
  21. calling out your name-rich mullins-songs

June 02, 2006 in Friends | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

the age-old debate debunked

Cokevspepsi2i have this friend that owns a pizza place...today i was there with another friend that was drinking a "pepsi", at least that's what it said on the plastic cup he drank from.  the reality is that the owner had run out of pepsi, and got a box of coke syrup from a friend of his and hooked it up.  he has done this before, and no one has ever caught on, so i think this settles the argument.  you can't really tell...

October 21, 2005 in Daily life, Friends, Funny | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

blogspotting

a friend of ours has entered the blog world...it is at a "blogspot", not on typepad, but we'll forgive her...check it out here.

September 25, 2005 in Friends | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

guest post: eric vanwinkle

PappyatweddingPosted by Gregg, for Eric VanWinkle, in honor of Victor Gene VanWinkle (picture taken on the day of my wedding.  My Granfather is on the far left).

Not too long ago I was at my dad's house.  He asked me if I had taken a moment of silence the day before.  I was confused.  Then he pointed at the urn that my grandfather's ashes are in.  It had been a whole year. It was amazing to me how fast a year went by and how life moved along just the same without him. 

His name is Victor Gene VanWinkle.  Many people knew him as "Geno".  We called him "Pappy".  Pappy could often be found drinking coffee at the Milan Hy-vee.  Even still when I drive by that Hy-vee my first thought is "maybe Pappy is in there" and then I am hit the reality that he his not
(By the way, if you have never taken the time to sit back and listen to a bunch of old men sit around and drink coffee, you need to.  You may actually learn somthing about life.).

Pappy didn't have much to do in his older days so he would drive around town and just pop in on the people that he knew.  For me it usually seemed to be at an inconvenient time.  Only because I was (still am) always busy (and of coarse he was not). The dialoge always went like this.  "Hey Pappy what's going on?" and (guaranteed) with a smile on his face he would say "I came all the way over here just to see You."

Today I would love to be incovenienced and to hear "I came all the way over here just to see You."

August 11, 2005 in Friends | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

white sauce

this is a shout out to jeff d.  i had a great time hanging last night playing eucher (spck) and partaking of your home made fruit punch!  i have to hear the story some times of how you got that nick name.

later

July 03, 2005 in Friends, Shout out! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

John Deere Jr. High School

there is this very cool person at my new church, and she teaches jr. acheivement classes at John Deere Jr. High School...anyway, her guest speaker fell through, so she asked me to fill in for twenty minutes, so i did.  let me tell you, i haven't felt that lost in a while.  i enjoyed it, but i'm so used to talking about the Jesus, and being intentionally spiritual, it took me about ten minutes to get to a point that i was comfortable and felt like i could hear the spirit telling me how to communicate to them something that was of actual value.  so in the end, i felt like something had been said that was good for them, in a motivational way, and i'm glad i got the opportunity, even if it was last minute...

May 19, 2005 in Daily life, Friends, Ministry, Spiritual formation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"victorious"-sam reynolds

Losersam is the champion my friends.  we arrived at taco bell for the bout at 5pm and by 5.15 the contest had begun.  we decided on 3 to 4 ratio...or handicap.  for every 3 tacos that sam ate, i would have to eat 4.  it's harder, and more than it sounds.  we also put a 15 minute time limit on the contest.  at the end of it all, sam had eaten 5 tacos (6 2/3 with the ratio) to my 6 1/3 tacos.  congratulations sam...you're the winner!  check out all the pics and the story line...

April 28, 2005 in Daily life, Food and Drink, Friends | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

breakfast with john

Breakfastwithjohn_1this is john (not john the writer).  john and me have been friends now for about three years.  he was the sound guy at riverside umc when i was there.  we got along pretty well, and got to do some cool stuff in ministry together.  anyway...part way through being at riverside, john was sent to iraq and was in baghdad for almost a year.  it has been awesome to see how his faith has grown, how he came home from iraq with his faith intact, and how he wants to go deeper still...hence "breakfast with john".  we are going through "out of the question...into the mystery" and so far it has been pretty good...plus we get to go fishing and disc golfing afterward.

April 28, 2005 in Daily life, Friends, Spiritual formation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Boy’s red boat (for Anthony)

i have a friend named John and he is an aspiring writer and rather talented.  he is one of my favorite people on the planet.  recently he found out that one of his dear friends has cancer and is in treatment for it, so john wrote this... Download boy1.doc .  it's beautiful john.  you're a good friend.

April 27, 2005 in Friends, Short story | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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