Tommy and Martha Garrett are frequent listeners and friends of our podcast. Back in episode 25 we approached our listeners and requested that they visit the Room2Bloom contest on the website of the Courier Press in Evansville, IN (their hometown). During the next few weeks our community, as you will hear in the video, played a big role in helping the Garretts win the grand prize! Check out the video below to hear from them, as well as a look at the before and after footage of their newly landscaped area. Thanks to you listeners, including the Garretts for allowing technology to meet eternity…….praise the Lord!

I’m a little ways into the book, “The Journey Towards Relevance”, by Kary Oberbrunner. Kary and I got to sit down a few days ago and share the passions God has given us. I won’t spoil the riches found in his book here, but the view God’s given him on life as a Christ-follower is one I’d recommend to anyone. There are a few books that I’ve picked up that I can say I thoroughly enjoy and will read again sometime, and this is one of those. Kary and I actually were in college at the same time, but never really had the chance to sit down and just chat. Turns out our wives actually hung out over at some other college…..oh wait, it’s a university now. Maybe our kids have met before and we just aren’t aware of it? Enough insanity – go grab Kary’s book!

Just thought I would let you all know that Marla, my wife, has now entered the blogging world – you can visit her blog at http://www.marlataviano.com.

Nina Gabriel, our third daughter, should be arriving any day now. There are more details over on Marla’s blog if you want to check them out.

On a lesser note, my Xbox 360 that I purchased on November 22nd has been overheating and the system just freezes up. Luckily this happened within 90 days and Microsoft sent a prepaid overnight box to me this morning and is taking care of the issue. Who knows what the deal is.

Congrats to the Jewetts (http://www.xanga.com/ajaxyomama – due later in July) and the Mayers (http://amandablogging.blogspot.com – due in September) on the news of both pregnancies! The owner of http://www.buzzplant.com (the company I subcontract with) also just found out over Christmas break that he and his wife are expecting another child. When all of their kids are in school they will have one entering college, one entering middle school, and one entering kindergarten. Much prayer requested of course!

Sometime I fail to realize just how much God’s gifted me with the people He has surrounded me with. I’m not their best buddy of course, but we’ve been given the chance to get to know each other only with a specific purpose from God’s plan. This past month has been trying while going through a time of death, disease, birth, and issues……but through all of that there was always someone to come along side us and offer just the right word. Or maybe when my grandmother realizes death is a few months away and says “If my time on earth is going to consist of being tired and disease…….then I’m ready to see Jesus!” There’s nothing more valuable in this world than receiving knowledge from a devout follower of Christ. It probably won’t be a pastor, but someone who knows what you’re going through and is more of a friend than an authority. All that does is force me to want to do nothing else than to come along side of the friends God’s given me, not force my opinion on them, but be there to be nothing but an example of what God is doing in my life. Whether or not that relates to them is not the focus. The focus is that I will answer for myself in the end, and they’ve helped me become more “confident” with who I really am in this journey. Only God knows what I’ve accomplished with my faith in Him.

We had the privilege of getting to know the White family these past four years, and admire a great family God gave us to follow as examples for each of us. We had the opportunity to spend the night at their home just three months ago and God really used that time for them to impact our lives yet again. After being one of the greatest football players of all time, Reggie was now focused primarily on maturing his relationship with God as much as possible. That happened through his family, through his friends, and through much time spent studying the Hebrew language (an original language of the Bible). When he was on the field you could see the desire to compete at his highest level in his eyes. You could sense that same passion from him recently, but it was at a higher level and towards a higher goal. We are intensely saddened to hear that God has called the “Minister of Defense” home and many prayers are going out for Sara (his wife) and two children (Jeremy and Jecolia). His greater legacy is very apparent in the lives of those three individuals. God obviously made Reggie the example he is by putting him in the family he did. Words can’t express the amount of thankfulness we have towards their unselfishness. Knowing you are listening, we thank you, Reggie, for the example you have given us. This Christmas my brother went the extra mile and got in touch with Reggie. On Christmas morning, the day before Reggie went to be with the Lord, they both gave me a present I will remember for a lifetime……..a personal-autographed Green Bay Packers jersey from Reggie – possibly his last autograph. Thanks so much to both of you!