Tim Boyd's Blog

We are submitting our finalized paperwork to the Embassy today.  It is scheduled to arrive by the end of this week.  (Thank you FedEx!)  Hopefully, we will be heading to Uganda soon to get Silas! So, if you were planning on helping me with my quest to bring books to Pastor Ivan of the church connected to our orphanage, you need to act soon.  I have 9 books lying here on my shelf.  They are very good books.  I am excited to get them to Ivan.  However, I would be far more excited if I were bringing a whole suitcase full of books. I have not been able to raise any money for logos software, but that might be more of a long term goal.  If you were wanting to help you can still send books to me: PO Box 159 Cowden, IL 62422 or money to buy books - paypal - kg4mvptb@gmail.com Thank you very much for your help.

I recently saw this sign at a business that I went to.  Okay, to be honest it was in the bathroom and I'm a little embarrassed that I took a picture in a public bathroom.  I had the door locked so I don't think I broke any state or federal laws.  I'm glad my phone has a camera because I took a picture of it because it is now one of my favorite signs.  (Yes I have favorite signs and no I am not planning on sharing any more in the future.) Here's what the sign says to me:  "Our only desire is to have a very clean bathroom, therefore, if our bathroom is very clean we are succeeding in business."  If that were 100% true they would hire someone full-time to monitor the cleanliness of the bathroom.  If I were paying to use their bathroom and I had the choice of many bathrooms to use then their business model would work well.  Unfortunately many businesses offer free use of their bathrooms.  This place happens to sell tires and fix cars.  I would rather their SO

I watch the stats of my blog pretty close.  Here are some trends I have identified. -I have found out that writing about our international adoption spikes the traffic to the blog. -If it weren't for Facebook and my friends on Facebook, this blog wouldn't get very much traffic at all. -Other than Facebook, people searching for "breastplate of righteousness" on google account for most of the other traffic that my blog gets. So I have to assess why I write this blog, right?  Do I write it in order to get people to think about me?  Do I write it to become famous?  Do I write the blog to see my traffic increase?  Although that is tempting, that's not why I write the blog.  I write this blog for the same main reason that I am a Pastor.  I believe by the grace of God I have found the best way to be alive.  Seriously, the best way to be alive.  (Notice I didn't say easiest, happiest, most fun, richest, or any other word.  I chose best on purpose). I want to

I went to a Leadership Conference at Lincoln Christian University this past Saturday with two guys from our church board.  We had a good trip and the main speakers did a great job.  We left with a few ideas for the way our leadership functions at the church.  We left encouraged.  By far the best thing that I heard, and maybe the best thing that I've learned in 2012 is what Dr. James Estep said in his lunch session. "Education is the process of changing someone's default settings." I have never heard someone wrap up something so large as education in such a concise manner.  Just plain genius as far as I am concerned.  That sounds a lot like discipleship.  It sounds like following Jesus.  As Christians we are supposed to continually be formed into the image of Christ.  We are to grow to be like Christ.  It is not something that changes quickly. As we apply this to the Kingdom of Heaven, the metaphor could be a team, an adoption into a family, a marriage, going t

What comes after John 3:16?  Does it even matter?  And why doesn't it get any press at sports events and concerts? Have I piqued your interest yet? “I did not come to condemn, but to save.” Did you know that Jesus said those words to a guy who came to see him at night (any guesses on his name?).  The man didn’t want to come during the day and cause a commotion or become an object of gossip.  That same man witnessed a woman dragged out of a bed, by his friends and companions in broad daylight, in front of many people.  They were not interested in saving her.  They wanted to condemn her for her guilt.  In reality, they were right to do so because she was wrong and she did sin and she knew the penalty for that was death. They asked Jesus what to do.  Jesus told them to go ahead and stone her...well, the person who has not sinned has the right to kill her....so whoever hasn’t sinned can throw the first stone. They all left. “Woman where are your accusers?” “They all left.” “Neither

Me and Ivan Well I can't quit thinking about Uganda.  I have updated the pictures on my computer, my iPad and my iPhone.  I am still reading the local newspaper The New Vision every morning.  Mindy has been working with our good friends trying to figure out how to get everything done for the adoption.  God has answered so many prayers for us that it's hard to keep them all straight.  But this is not a blog about us... When we were in Uganda we were picked up by Ivan the Pastor of the church associated with the orphanage that we are working with.  He let me preach.  So we instantly became friends!  I have a lot of respect for Ivan.  He asked me if there were old books that my friends would have that would be good for him and his pastor friends to use for study while they preach and teach the Bible. I think we can do better than that.  This is a call to all of my friends.  I would like to load a suitcase up with some of the best study guides and study books that we have.  

So, we are adopting a little boy from Uganda.  We were matched with him almost exactly a year ago.  If you don’t know the language, apparently “matching” means that a child has been selected for you to adopt.  We received a picture of him.  Not a very good picture.  It was hard to make him out.  So we got pretty excited and told people that we are expecting to be flying to Uganda soon and to bring him home quickly.  We didn’t enroll the kids in the Upwards sports league and we talked to their teachers to make sure that they could miss time at school and not suffer being held back a grade.  We began to purchase clothes and lots of other items for our trip.  We were ready to fly to Uganda in the middle of February.  Well we had a very hard time getting a court date so we didn’t end up going until August. We flew out right after Vacation Bible School in the summer of 2011.  All 5 Boyd’s flew 24 hours to get to Uganda.  We spend 4 weeks in Uganda and we lost a lot of weight.  All of us got