You should be aware that the apostle Paul wrote to his protege’ Timothy and instructed him, “Stop drinking only water, but use a little wine for your stomach because of your frequent illnesses.” It was pretty cool of Paul to not only give us permission but to also write it in English so we can all understand.

Right up the road from the Island is a wonderful Texas winery called Flat Creek. Each time we come to the Island we usually make the drive (at least) once to taste what’s new and see how things are going. When we lived in Texas we were part of their club, but they do not ship to Louisiana. If we want wine from them now we have to buy it and tote it home.

The tastings here are a terrific experience, and there is also an excellent restaurant on the premises. If you ever have the opportunity to visit you should do it. You can tell them I sent you, but they have no idea who I am.

It is a great way to spend an afternoon. And it leads to a great way to spend an evening. And it’s what God wants you to do. Paul said so.

This place is just awesome.

Every time we come we kind of forget how great it is. You walk down to the pool with the incredible views of the lake and the cliffs on the other side and you can actually feel the stress begin to leave your body. There are no restaurants on the island, so you either need to plan to cook or leave for meals. If not for that we would probably never get dressed for anything other than the water…

Today is chill day. We hung out at the pool until we got hungry, then we went to a very unique restaurant in Point Venture. The restaurant has had at least three names in the years we have been visiting, and is currently known as the Gnarly Gar. It floats on a barge in the lake. When the lake is low it is quite a hike from the parking lot to get to where the restaurant is floating, but it is always worth it.

You sit outside and eat in the breeze. The food is good and the drinks are cold, and most of the people who arrive are still in swim attire. It is appropriate as many of them arrive by boat and dock at the pier (which is one of the former names of the restaurant, by the way).

If you stay until evening there is frequently live music, but we try to be back to the Island before sunset. It’s kind of a ritual for us here.

I may or may not post something tomorrow. Chill, you know…

Peggy and I drove from Baton Rouge to Texas City, Texas, this weekend to sing with friends and celebrate Mother’s Day. Texas City is a little north of Galveston and is the heart of refinery country in Southeast Texas. Let’s just say it is probably not somewhere we would travel except for…friends.

When you’re young the concept of friends is pretty simple — you grow up together, you go to school together, live near each other, whatever. Somehow it gets more complicated when you get older, but it’s really the same idea.

We met John and Marcy when John became the Minister of Music at our church in Katy, Texas. We immediately hit it off for all the reasons friends become friends. For ten years we helped raise each other’s kids and quite literally traveled all over the world singing and worshipping together.

Life happens, but friends are friends and support each other when the junk occurs.

We had a blast this weekend. We attended a concert on Saturday where a friend of ours, a young girl who is bravely battling cancer, had the opportunity to sing with the symphony. Then we led worship with our friends in their church for Mother’s Day on Sunday morning. And we went out to lunch to celebrate with them before we left for the lake.

This much I know — the people you can count on when stuff knocks you down are the only real friends you have. I am lucky to count these folks as real friends.

And it doesn’t hurt that we laugh a lot…

Peggy’s mother died a little over a month ago. Peggy and I had been attending a small church close to the house, mostly so we would be close to Peggy’s mother if something happened and we needed to get to her quickly. I had become quite involved singing with the music team on Sunday mornings, and Peggy had plugged into some of the women’s group activities in the church.

When Peggy’s Mom died, it became apparent that we had not knitted ourselves into the fabric of the church well enough. Peggy grew up Baptist and I grew up in a small town — one thing you can count on either way is an outpouring of love. And food. We didn’t see either one.

When we returned from Dallas after Mary’s funeral, Peggy asked me if we could re-open our search for a home church. It was Easter Sunday, so I took her to the largest Baptist church on our side of town.

It was like watching a fish that has been out of the water when it gets put back into the stream. We attended the early service, and when it was over we stayed for the music portion of the late service. We went outside to the information center and got every piece of information available. I’m sure there are other things you have to be a member to receive, but we got everything else.

We found out when choir practice is held. The lady who was helping us happened to be the pastor’s secretary, so she was a wealth of information. She even told us about the Sunday School class she and her husband attend and invited us to check it out the following Sunday.

We went to choir practice on Wednesday. In the rehearsal they mentioned that there would be no church in a couple of weeks due to an event called “Go 225”. The church closes its doors one Sunday every year for the congregation to go out into the community and work. Each organization in the church finds a group to whom it wants to donate its time and effort, and then the church uses the budget for that week to finance all of the projects. The choir was planning to work at a homeless shelter cleaning up and putting fresh paint on the building. Peggy signed us up on the spot.

Today was the day for Go 225, and it was quite an experience. It was a great day to get to know other choir members while accomplishing something meaningful. There is an old saying that “Many hands make light work.” And it doesn’t hurt that you feel like you’re getting away with something by not being in church on a Sunday!

Most importantly, Peggy feels at home. I like it, too, but making Mama happy is more important. Go 225!