Back from Israel and Turkey

Well Betsy and I made it back from our adventure in one piece. I don't even know where to start on how amazing this trip was for both of us. I have been telling everyone that it was like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant - you get some in your mouth, but most of it ends up all over you. Ray blew our minds with all the information he threw at us.

Most people think it was neat to go over and walk in the footsteps of Paul, John and Jesus and it was. The amazing part was listening to RVL take God's word to a whole other level when you learn the culture and how it related to the text.

We will post pictures and little faith lessons from our notes we took - and we took plenty. Here is our logo book:
Gone - 16 days
Countries - 2
Cities - over 15
Hiked - 120 miles
Hours - 200 hours (hiking, learning, getting to spots)
High Temp - 120 degrees
Low Temp - 50 degrees (cold wind and rain)

Student Ministry Quote

If you don't know who Shane Claiborne is....you will soon. He is a Tony Campolo student who lives an extreme life in Philly. They live in an abandon building making their own clothes, and taking care of homeless folks. He is starting a movement in college students and twentysomethings that could change the entire way we look at life.

Here is a quote from Shane Claiborne’s book "Irresistible Revolution"

“In my youth group days, I had seen all too many would-be Jesus radicals fall by the wayside because they had never been trusted with the adventure of revolutionary living. When I was a youth leader, one of the high school kids who had ‘given his life to Jesus’ got busted only a few weeks later for having acid in school. I remember asking in disappointment, ‘What happened, bro? What went wrong?’ He just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I got bored.’ Bored? God forgive us for all those we have lost because we made the gospel boring [or tried to entertain instead of offering God, purely]. I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them. It’s because we make the gospel too easy, not because we make it too difficult. Kids want to do something heroic with their lives….”

The Countdown Begins

Friday Morning we set off for a once in a lifetime adventure. Betsy and I will be heading to Israel and Turkey for 16 days! We have lots to do...we will keep you updated throughout this week to see how we prepare.
Today lets take a look at our luggage. Can you figure out whose is whose. I have a feeling I will be be carrying three pieces of luggage - probably not the small one.

Watch out South Carolina

Betsy found out on Friday that she passed the South Carolina Bar Exam!!! No more huge exams for her! Besides some paperwork and being sworn in, Betsy will now be able to practice law in SC. Woo Hoo!!!

Random Pics

Betsy and roomates from Furman. Chilling at the Hayes home in Blackville.


Me and Bets at Healing Springs in Blackville, SC. Crazy story of Indians who found two Revolutionary soldiers who were dying and brought them to the springs and they were healed. The water is so clean the residents of Blackville come here to get water instead of the city water. Blackville is a very interesting place!


Jenny and John Kelly with some goofy dude on "Fly Beach!"


Betsy and Jenny hanging out on the Kelly's new boat! Sweet Ride. Shout out to Jenny who says she reads our blog! That leaves only 3 other people who are readers of the Tanner blog - not really.


Here is our driveway lined with azaleas a couple weeks ago. Pretty ain't they!

Catching up with the Tanners

Its been a while since we have posted. So we thought we would get everyone updated on how things are going with us.

* Betsy is still waiting to hear back on the SC Bar.
* Walt forgot to tell you that his half marathon had to be put on hold. He realized that it was the weekend RIGHT before we head to Turkey and Israel. Too much going on to drive to Nashville and almost kill oneself.
* We are getting really really close to our trip with Ray Vander Laan. Click here to check out his website: www.followtherabbi.com. We are super excited about following the travels of Paul. We will be gone from May 5-May 20!
* It was a rough week with our new workout program: P90X. Not only are we waking up at 6:00am every morning and working out for 1 hour. We are also changing everything we EAT! We did before pics and everything. Maybe after first month we will post pics. Doubt it!
* We have figured out why poor people are overweight. It is WAY expensive to eat healthy. We are having to increase our food budge by a ton! A lot easier to pic up some KFC than roast asparagus and cook wild rice.
* Check out Laura Owings blog to see Walt be a guest on the Hot Seat.

"I Pity Da Fool..."

This past Sunday I preached at TrueNorth. The sermon title handed to me by the creative team was called "I pity da fool!" The reason was because it was April's Fool day - makes sense. So I took it from the point of Christ saying: "I pity da fool who..."

And before the picture of Buddy Christ is spread across CNN for sacreligious images - one of the points was to explain that using the word "fool" will not send you to hell...Matthew 5:22 says "Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

So the picture was a point of the different images of Jesus we have Buddy Christ, Rock Star Jesus, Judgemental Jesus - who would send you to hell for saying "fool".
There was discussion of the graphic being too controversial - but I put that fire out on stage!

So here are some of my "I pity da fool who...." that I believe Jesus would say:

..believes diet is better than regular
…doesn’t take care of the widows and orphans
…thinks I was just some Jewish dude who wore Birkenstocks.
…doesn’t understand why I came from Heaven to Earth
…thinks the designated hitter is good for baseball
…doesn’t believe we drink sweet tea in heaven
…has never felt my love
…doubts my miracles
…really thinks the BCS system is better than a playoff in College Football.
… doesn’t know me.

The main point of the day was this fool statement: "I pity da fool who believes you must work to get into heaven." From there is all about Grace.

My prayer is always that God would be glorified even though I am the goober delivering the message. And I feel good that when I walked off the stage - His message was delivered and He was glorified by it...corny jokes and all!

Starfield Pics from TNC Live

Our friend Mike Adams did awesome job with his awesome camera snapping a few shots with at the Starfield concert. SWEET!

TNC Update

This past weekend at TrueNorth Church was awesome. We had our Dunk'd service Sunday morning (FYI: this is our baptism service). Instead of just sticking it in the beginging of the service so the pastor has time to change out of his wadders and get behind the pulpit by the second stanza of "Just as I am" - we made this very special event into that an unforgetable EVENT! We said EVERYONE into one service (huge change in set up of the gym). We did amazing videos spread out through the service with people's story on how God had changed their lives. And in the end over 30 people got Dunk'd in one day - yeah God!

That night we had one of the best concert bands around in the NAHS gym - Starfield. I had seen these guys before twice and loved both concerts! They do a great job of crowd interaction, taking you high, bringing you into reflective worship, and then ending on a huge engery bubble that bust when they walk off the stage. I told our TNC family they would ROCK the house....and I don't think anyone can call me a liar.
www.starfieldonline.com

I also realized I never gave the now 4 people who read this blog an outcome of our 180 weekend (D-Now). We ended up with over 80 students taking part in the weekend. The deal for them was if they got 100 students there I would shave my head - well they got 80. So I went with a mohawk! Shout out to Dustin Willis for the great job on the hair and the weekend. I kept it for 1 week and got rid of it - to the students dismay.
The really God thing was that we had 13 students either accept Christ or pray to MAJOR changes in their lives. 5 of them were dunk'd this past Sunday. That is why we do what we do at Element Student Ministry - to keep making heaven bigger.

"Not to us oh Lord, not to us - but to your name be the glory
because of your love and faithfulness."
Psalm 115:1

Basketball News

The Final Four is now set. My bracket didn't do as well I has I hoped. I was pulling for Wisconsin to up set Florida and Kansas to win the Championship. But I do still have two teams in the Final Four....Georgetown and Ohio State.

One observation - most of the big boys shouldn't still be in this thing. Several of them were down to double digit leads to the lesser team. But because they can go deeper and longer they come out with the W. In the end they pull it out.

Would of been nice for one Cinderella to show up to the dance, maybe next year.

And in case anyone had missed the OTHER Tournament - Clemson has made it to the Semifinals of the NIT. Haven't been there since 1999. New York City here come. We have the chance to keep the title in South Carolina. USC has won the last two years. Go TIGERS!

March Maddness

* The first round of games lacked a Cinderilla and excitement. Other than Duke losing - which wasn't that big of a surprise - nothing GREAT happened.
OH I forgot the Wisconin game...that was pretty intense.


* Betsy missed 6 games in the first round. Walt missed 6 games.

* The round of 32 got much more exciting.
- Ohio State almost loses...great OT (picked Ohio State)
- Vanderbilt takes it to Washington State in 2OTs (picked WSU)
- Pittsburg goes into OT with VCU (picked Pitt)
- And the night is still young

* Currently I am in 5 place in the TNC office pool.
- Gene (UNC)
- Jess (Ohio State)
- Kevin (Ohio State)
- Steve (Kansas)
BUT my picks look good going into the Sweet Sixteen!

* My Final Four look like: Flordia/Kansas and Georgetown/Ohio State. With Kansas beating Ohio State in the final.

* Betsy's Final Four: Flordia/Virgina Tech and UNC/Virgina. With UNC beating VA Tech. I am not sure her reasoning on those picks!

Unleashed Conference

This past Thursday we heading to NewSpring to check out their Unleashed Conference. Kevin and Laura, who has the been blog in the bloging sphere, have already posted on this event - but I too will add my two cents.

* NewSpring has an army of volunteers who were there to serve. Great job guys. Some even took a day off at work to come and serve other people. Above and beyond the call of duty.

* It is funny to listen to Perry Noble with someone who has never heard him speak. They look at me and go "Did he really just say that?" Perry is what we call a no hold bars preacher. It can be offensive to some - funny to others. I will give him props, the dude brings the Word. And people come to KNOW JESUS!

* Cool seeing and catching up with people from Clemson and NewSpring. I am telling you that Clemson puts more people into ministry than many seminaries.

* Student breakout session was good - not so much new information. Just enforcing the main idea I took (and Laura) away from the conference - ENPOWER. They have several assistance and paid staff in their student ministry....but they were all at once ENPOWERED volunteers. So now it is my job to pray, seek, and enpower those around Element to continue to grow the kingdom of God.

Quick Update

Blogging hasn't been high on the priority list around the Tanner House - we have been busy bees.
* Betsy took the SC Bar Exam last week - Praise The Lord (3 day exam)
* We moved this past weekend. Everything has been moved, but not unpacked.
* This past weekend was also Betsy's 26th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I bought her a house.
* This coming weekend is our big 180 Weekend (AKA:D-Now) with Element. Busy Busy week and weekend for Walter.
*Needless to say we haven't been around much or able to enjoy our new home. We look forward to chillin' next week with a clear schedule.

That's your quick update for the 2 people who read this blog! Go Tigers.

PS: USC's Garcia was arrested AGAIN for keying a professor's car. He will not be taking part in spring practice.

This is our Middle School Crew we took skiing last weekend. It snowed all day! The slopes were packed, but BEAUTIFUL skiing!

And Walt was right...

A month ago I posted about USC's highly recruited class. I mentioned that USC always seems to get great athelets, but they just "don't act right." I also said they will do alright if they can keep them out of jail. Well looks like Spurrier didn't listen and let his highly recruit quarterback get arrested Saturday Night down at Five Points. The ol' ball coach knows how to pick em'!

Word on the street was that 19 year old Steven Garcia got wasted, then got into a fight behind a bar, and then bowed up at police officer. Steven was one of the most sought out QBs in the nation. Apparently not the sharpest tool in the tool shed! Maybe we will get a showdown this year between the freshmen Garia(USC)and Korn (CU).

PS: If he ends up killing us over the next four years. I am sure I will hear about it from the USC dogs! I will just claim he needs to be in JAIL!

Chicks Gone WILD!!

This is Betsy again. I am in a blogging mode tonight (probably proscrastinating from studying). This weekend was our chicks' retreat, "Chicks Gone Wild." I would love to write all about it, but I have been told that "what happens at a chicks retreat stays at the chicks retreat." I will say that our speaker, Lisa Harper, was excellent. I was reminded that God takes great pleasure in seeing his children do what they are passionate about. It does not matter how much recognition or success we get on this earth, God smiles when his chicks (and the guys too) live for him. Jill and Andy Phillips led worship through music, which was beautiful. We laughed, cried, created, and thoroughly enjoyed real community! There are some really wild chicks at TrueNorth Church, and I love it!!!

Super Size Me

Walt and I just watched "Super Size Me" (this is Betsy by the way). That is the documentary where a guy named Morgan went on a McDonald's diet for 30 days. All he ate for 30 days straight was Micky D's. He ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at McDonald's and if they ever asked him if he wanted to supersize it, he had to say yes. He gained 25 pounds, his cholesterol went from approx 165 to 240, and his liver turned to fat. His doctors were telling him he was extremely sick, but he finishd his "experiment."

What was the point? Fastfood damages your body. A couple of teenage girls sued McDonald's because they were obese and the judge threw out the lawsuit because they could not prove that eating fast food was the cause of their injuries. Well, fast food does cause extreme injury (in case you didn't know that).

A great documentary--everyone should watch it. I am not eating McDonald's again for a LONG time and I think I will stay clear of all fast food for a while (except for Chick-fil-A, which I love). I guess I will think more about what I put in my body.

Random Thoughts

* I got out of Jury Duty because they settled all the cases. And I was getting pumped about putting someone in Jail.
* We went skiing a couple weeks ago with the High School kids. I chose to ski for the first time in a couple years, instead of snowboarding. Watching some of these other people snowboards made me realize I am NOT that bad of a snowboarder.
* Getting a Loan has more hoops than a hoola hoop factory!
* The Jack Bauer power hour is putting me to sleep. For heaven sakes Jack save the cheerleader, save the world - WAIT wrong show.
* If you aren't watching Studio 60 (NBC Monday - 10pm) you are missing the most creative, best writing on TV. "I have the animal kingdom axis of evil under my stage - a viper, a ferret, and a coyote."
* Oh dear heavens, I messed up my neck this week working out. Don't over estimate the importance of your spine. It's valuable.
* Finally made it to August in my reading through the bible.
* We just finished our flag football season. My team went 1-3-1 for the year. It was a blast. I am sure the Ben Gay stock shot up around the Augusta area.

College Football Signing Day

Signing Day has come and gone. The Tigers didn't do as well as we did last year. But I think we got a good class of guys. We had the 22nd best signing day. Everyone above of us is a good football school and there aren't that many surprises, except two. One is UNC and their new coach Butch Davis bringing in the 15th ranked class. Not too bad for a Bball school. The second was Illinois (21st). Ron Zook is not a great coach, but he is a great recruiter! We are soon to forget that it is his recruits who just won the national title - that will make Steve smile!

NOW it is hard to swallow that USC had the 7th best in the country. Spurrier is too a great recruiter, but so was Lou Holtz. USC can bring them in, but often they "don't act right." Many of their great players get in trouble, have acamedic issues, or steal pictures of them selves and get caught. I will give credit to Tommy and the Clemson staff. They at least get guys who can act right. They aren't the smartest sometimes, but we do have one of the highest graduation rates in the country.

I am also pumped about new running back/special teams coach Andre' Powell. He comes from UNC and has coach the likes of Tiki Barber and Willie Parker. This will be great for the Duo in the Clemson backfield - Davis and Spiller.

Go Tigers!

Super Bowl XLI

Finally Payton has gotten the monkey off his back. The strange thing is that I believe (could be wrong) didn't Steve Young remove his monkey from his back down in Miami? I have rooted for the Colts since my Clemson days of watching NFL with da boys. Many years I have heard the Colts will choke. They can't finish and come up short on the big games. NOT THIS YEAR BABY.

Another thing. I don't know of a classier team. Dungy. Payton. Harrison. These guys are the model atheletes. I would take these guys on my team anyday.

Sorry to Da Bears fans and nation. This includes my brother, Justin, who lives in Chicago and is a huge fan. Sexy Rexy (PTI reference) couldn't pull it off.

NOW OFF to Jury Duty in the morning.