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So here is my question. If you are not married and you want to get married, but can't afford it - would you get married if it was free? (Well mostly free, you have to pay for your marriage license.) Now I am talking a free church wedding, minister, decorations, florist, cake, wedding bands - etc. So what is the catch? No catch. 1. You will need a valid State of Florida marriage license. 2. Agree to honor the wedding schedule. 3. Attend and participate 2 premarital mentoring sessions. One is a group session and the other will feature personal time for each couple with the minister. (You have to agree, this is a good idea and remember, it's still FREE!) So what are your thoughts. Comment below or email me. I'm serious. FREE WEDDINGS!!

Betty's mom, niece, boyfriend and her 2 girls are flying in tonight. I have to say, Betty did a great job decorating the house and getting it ready for them. They will be here for a week and then back to Indiana. Anneka can't wait to see her cousins. They have a blast every time. Plans are for Lion Country Safari, Miami Zoo, Miami Seaquarium and celebrating the 4th of July together. This ought to be fun.

As I sat in my office today, my wife calls me on the phone. Tim is sitting across from my desk and then all of a sudden I hold the phone away from my ear while Betty screams, "OH MY GOODNESS!" "OH MY GOODNESS!" "THEY ARE PUTTING A 5 GUYS, BURGERS AND FRIES IN STUART!!!"' "WHOO HOOO!" To which Tim, who could hear it all from across my office, says, "You guys eat out to much!" Yes Tim, we do. But it beats starving. (FYI: for people who don't know my wife, she can't cook."

So the idea was to give away newspapers to people going to work last Thursday. No strings attached, we just want to bless them. After an hour of holding signs, jumping up and down, waving newspapers at them, waving at them - all but laying down in the middle of the street to stop traffic (and I don't think that would have worked) We had successfully given away 5 newspapers in one hour. Hmmm! This isn't working. I thought. Are people that cynical, distrusting and afraid? Apparently so. Nothing is life is free right? Well the newspapers were last Thursday and that wasn't enough. So what were we going to do? We took our 95 newspapers and loaded them up and started to drive around. We stopped at ever breakfast restaurant in town and first of all looked for a newspaper stand. If there was none then we went inside and asked them if they sold newspapers. The answer was no so we said, "Here, we would like to give you these newspapers for free - seriously." A

For most pastors and churches summer is defined by one word. SLUMP People are on vacation. Offerings are down. The relatives are visiting from all over the world (it seems like). And it's HOT!! So why do I love summer? First of all it's HOT! No I'm not weird, that's why I don't live in the part of the country where it snows! (Ooo I just got a chill thinking about it.) Secondly you can do things as a church family that you cannot necessarily do during the rest of the year. Like, stay out late at the local ice cream parlor. Crash Tim's house for a all church BBQ. (That was fun!) Preach in blue jeans on Sunday. (That was comfortable.) And a host of other things. But the best thing about summer is that you have a chance to reconnect and reenergize relationships. School isn't in session, 3 day weekends are happening. Backyards are ready to welcome the neighbors over and the BBQ grills are primed to cook. Don't let the mosquitoes run you off a