July 5, 2014
Bible Verse from Daily Devotional
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
Personal and Bike Shop News
It has been over a week since I blogged, and it has been a really busy week. June 29th I left the house about 5:30 to drive to Marietta Georgia. I would get to the hotel about 9:30 PM and meet my roommate. I had met him in Valdosta for a few seconds when I did my last interview with Daniel.
Monday morning I wanted to get in a workout, and I did sort of. The big problem is the Hotel's fitness center is 2 treadmills, 1 stepper and 1 recumbent stationary bike, and I really wanted to do some resistance training, but anything is better than nothing so I spent about 10 minutes on each machine, then went to breakfast.
The hotel furnishes a Free Continental Breakfast, which actually is pretty good. They have biscuits and gravy each day, plenty of Apple and Orange Juice, House blend coffee and Decaf. Cereal, eggs, milk bagels, muffins, bacon and sausage and a pancake machine, so everyone is able to find something to fill up on.
On Monday morning Bobby ( my roommate) and I drove over to the training center. Training started promptly at 10 Am and I think it ended about 6 PM. The trainer really knows his stuff, he has been in the industry for many years and is very professional. We got our tools, PPE, uniforms etc. and set through a bunch of training videos and got to do a little hands on training.
Lunch was at a Blimpies' right down the street. The company furnishes each of us 36.00 on a debit card for our food while we are in training. Each day the card starts out with 36.00 and is cleared each night, then reloaded the next day.
Bobby said he was in the mood for steak and shrimp so we asked the very nice young lady at the front desk about where we could find that and she told us the Marietta Diner and gave me directions. We missed the turn and ended up at Fuddruckers. Had Buffalo Burgers and then went to Schlotkys for desert. When we had took 75 south coming back from the training center there was what appeared to be an accident on 75 North so we did not want to get back on 75 North and the young lady at Schlotzkys told us how to get back to the hotel without going on 75, which was helpful.
Tuesday morning we started class at 0730, more videos, and more videos, but also a lot of hands on training, we built satellite dishes and we did some other stuff, it was a vey full day and we again got back to the hotel close to 1830. Bobby had a friend near there and he went to meet her, I went to Cracker Barrel, they give you quite a bit of food for the money and it is acceptable quality, about what I have found in every Cracker Barrel where I have eaten. Service there is pretty slow, so glad I was not in a hurry.
Wednesday 0730 back in class, more videos, and a lot more hands on, building dishes, doing installs, and even learning the correct ways to go up and down ladders and carry ladders, it was a really a busy day but a very good learning experience. Got off even a little later than the days before but not that much. Bobby and I drove to Applebees where Bobby and his friend had went the night before, he had gotten his steak and shrimp finally.
Our week of training was cut short one day due to the 4th of July Holiday. We still had to get all the training that a class would get in the full 5 days. That can be a 2 edged sword since we were also what I understand is a fairly large class. 11 students as opposed to a normal sized class of 6-8.
After eating at Applebees I still needed to get clothes cleaned, I had one long sleeve uniform shirt clean and one pair of uniform shorts. I really did not want to wear a long sleeve shirt with shorts on Thursday and I also did not want to take a whole lot of dirty clothes back for Ruth to have to wash, so I went to the hotel "laundry" and washed clothes. The washer took about an hour to wash the clothes, I then put them in the dryer and waited another 45 minutes and when I took then out of the dryer many of the clothes were still damp, so I left them lie out over a chair while I got some sleep and the next morning I had enough dry to wear to class. I still ended up bringing Ruth a bunch to dry.
Thursday Morning class again started at 0730 and we did a bunch of stuff, mostly hands on and a few more videos on driving the van, various company policies etc. It was a pretty full day but we were able to leave about 2:00 PM and I got back to Moultrie at about 6:PM. Funny on the way back just about 20 miles south of Perry. One of my bike shop customers called saying he was having trouble with a chainsaw and wanting me to take a look at it. I told him to leave it at the store and I would take a look at it when I got back. I did get to check it and get his problem taken care of after I ate supper with the family.
Friday and Saturday the Bike Shop and the Book store were both closed. Both will reopen Monday July 7 at 10 AM. I spent those days with the family, Friday night we went to Albany to watch the fireworks. Saturday we all went swimming in the backyard pool, dug a bunch of junk out from under the house and just enjoyed the day. If everything works out as planned we will go to church in the morning, possibly have a little picnic tomorrow afternoon and maybe get a bike ride in. After the last week, just need a couple days of R & R.
Monday and Tuesday I expect to be in the bike shop quite a bit. then Wednesday I am heading to Valdosta Georgia to work with a trainer on the van. I will be working with someone that has done this for years and is trained to train others, I am so looking forward to this aspect of training. My understanding is that each week builds on the past week, so the trainer will be working with me to improve my skills and efficiency at many of the things we learned in class, like pointing and peaking, using the inclinometer, and doing installs.
Nick will be at the Bike shop everyday except Thursday. I will be in Valdosta Thursday, so you can still get tubes, bikes and anything in stock, but you will not be able to speak to one of the mechanics on Thursday. That will likely be from now on, as Nick goes to the VA each Thursday, I will be working most Thursdays from now on.
Don't forget that the shop has new phone number 229-891-3010 which rings directly into the shop. At this point there is no message machine or voice mail attached to that line, but I will hopefully get that done soon. If Nick or I are there we will answer that number, If there is no answer then we are very likely not there. Of course there is the possibility that we were not able to get to the phone, but if you let it ring maybe 6 or 7 times and we don't answer then we are probably not there. If you have an "emergency" you can call me on my personal cell phone at 229-921-0072. You should leave a message there if I don't answer because when I am in training I am not able to answer the phone until after I sign out or when I am off the clock.
Special Request;
Last Sunday morning our preacher who is a person that I respect very much. I would do absolutely anything that ZI possibly could for this man. He just about had a complete breakdown when he tried to preach. It has been a rough few weeks for him and for the church as a whole. Each week for the past few weeks there had been some very special events especially some weddings, and each week there had also been funerals, 4 year old dying of Cancer, a member of the church that had been a mainstay in many church functions also passed away, 3 deaths in less than 3 weeks that he had the dubious honor of doing the funeral.
I thought to myself that our preacher really right now needs us to pray for him. I want to ask everyone that is reading this to pray for your preacher. I can't imagine the stress most preachers are under. I don't think many people can.
When I returned from my training my wife showed me an article in the paper, a 14 year old young man from the church we attend had committed suicide and our preacher would be doing the funeral services, so really 4 deaths in 4 weeks and 2 of them children. I don't know about others but I do know that would be a very difficult emotional problem for me. I think anyone with even the slightest amount of compassion would have a great deal of emotional strife having to officiate 4 funerals in a month especially when 2 of these are children, and one is a dear friend.
So please pray for your pastor and ours, I know there are plenty of other pastors that need our prayers also, and that most people never really think about praying for their pastor.
Marketing:
I have not given up on marketing or setting up the sporting goods website or any of that stuff. I have really put everything like that on the back burner so I can concentrate 100% of my efforts on the new position. Tonight I started recopying the notes I got from the last week over to a word document. I was trying so hard to keep up that there are a number of places where I can't even read my own writing, so I am often have to go back to the printed material we were given to make sense of the notes.
I hope to have everything copied over to the word document before I go to Valdosta on Wednesday.
If all works out as planned I should have a really nice well organized space inside my 10X16 portable building for the supplies I will need as a remote installer FSS1 for the company before I get my van. which should be somewhere close to August 1st.
Everyone Please do pray for your Pastor
Have a great day
Jerry "The Bicycle Nut" Goodwin
BMG Cycles Plus
1612 1st Ave. SE
Moultrie, GA 31768
229-891-3010
